Parrot Expowhat

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Like Parrot Exposition, but the expositor can't even finish the word. Even if it is easy to remember. Also used when someone says a big word, like Palaeo-whatsit. Sometimes used out of spite, and sometimes used out of disbelief. Often used in Advertising. Sister Trope to Gesundheit, where the speaker finds the word so unpronounceable he thinks it must have been a sneeze.

Examples of Parrot Expowhat include:


Advertising

Lindsay: Milk-a-whaaat?!

  • Used in a commercial for Maximum Testosterol, apparently by picking which syllable to 'miss' out of a hat. A character asks incredulously, when first told the name, "Maximum whatstosterol?"

Fan Works

  • When Dan receives his Shikigami in Thawing Permafrost, he can't get the name right. Upon first hearing it, his reaction is "Shiki-whatnow?".

Film

King Julien: Welcome to Madagascar!
Gloria: Mada-who-ha?
King Julien: No, not who-ha. As-car.

    • Counts as a Brick Joke thanks to the first exchange between Marty and the penguins:

Skipper: We're fleeing this place for Antarctica!
Marty: Aunt-who-tica?

Mouse Doctor: Bring me the Epidermal Tissue Disruptor!
Wilbur: The epidermal what?!

Princess: That was the dart of the Wachutu shaman!
Ace: The what-nee what-en?

  • In The Rocketeer, when Cliff reveals his secret identity to his girlfriend Jenny:

Cliff: Jenny, prepare yourself for a shock. I'm the Rocketeer.
Jenny: (confused) The Rocket-who?

Radar technician: I'm having trouble with the radar, sir.
Dark Helmet: What's wrong with it?
Radar technician: I lost the bleeps, I lost the sweeps, and I lost the creeps.
Dark Helmet: The what?
Colonel Sandurz: The what?
Dark Helmet: And the what?

Fergus, the ostler: "Im Fergus, the ostler!"
Hawkins: Wh-Whogus the whatsler?"

Jane: Mary Poppins taught us the most wonderful word!
Michael: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Mr. Banks: What on earth are you talking about, supercal-- super-- or whatever the infernal thing is?
Jane: It's something to say when you don't know what to say.
Mr. Banks: Yes, well, I always know what to say.

Live Action TV

Anya: Buffy's got some kind of job there helping junior deviants, Spike's insane in the basement, Xander's there doing construction on the new gym-—
Willow: Wait, Spike's what in the what-ment?
Anya: Insane, base.

    • When Buffy's friends confront her about her having sex with Spike (the one they saw was actually a robot), she responds, "The who whatting how with huh?"
    • Buffy does this a lot. From "Lie To Me":

Ford: [walks up behind Buffy, who has just slain a vamp] What's going on?
Buffy: Um, uh... there was a-a cat. A cat here. And um, uh, then there was a-another cat. And they fought. The cats. And... then they left.
Ford: Oh. I thought you were just slaying a vampire.
Buffy: What? What-ing a what?

Extrapo-what-ilated?

    • This is infixation.
      • Infixa-what?
  • Firefly, "Shindig":

"Any of these gentlemen can lend you use of a sword."
"Use of a swwhat?"

Observer: Don't touch that, that's a wormhole!
Pearl: A worm-what?
Observer: A wormhole.
Pearl: A what-hole?
Observer: A wormhole. Wormhole!

Video Games

Strong Bad: Please tell me you've got my Snake Boxer 5 manual...
Bubs: Snake what now?
Strong Bad: Auuuugh! Aaaagh!
Bubs: Oh, Snake Boxer 5! Here ya go.

King Bee: I didn't even get to tell you about the big-breasted babe...
Conker: The-- the big what?

Web Original

Yusei: I synchro-summon Junk Gardna, in defense mode.
Yami: Synchro what?
Yusei: Synchro summon.
Yami: What summon?
Yusei: Synchro summon.
Yami: What what?
Yusei: Synchro. Summon.
Yami: Oh. What's that?
Yusei: It's when you summon a monster by--
Yami: Oh wait, I seem to have stopped caring.

  • Homestar Runner, "Hremail 7" is a faux-flashback episode which features Homestar trying to introduce Strong Bad to the concept of e-mails and the Internet:

Strong Bad: A what-mail on the Inter-what?

Western Animation

Burns: Listen here...I want to join your team.
Homer: You want to join my what?
Smithers: You want to what his team?

    • And from "Who Shot Mr Burns, Part 2"

Jasper: You shot who in the what now?

    • From "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo", on the Japanese game show:

Wink: Now, our game shows a little different from yours. You reward knowledge. We punish ignorance.
Homer: Ignor-what? (fire shoots out of Homer's microphone)

  • Spoofed on Futurama, in the episode "I, Roommate":

Fry: Where's your bathroom?
Bender: Bath-what?
Fry: Bathroom!
Bender: What-room?
Fry: Bathroom!
Bender: What-what?
Fry: Eh, never mind.

Gigglepies: Yugo-po-what-i-whats?

Jack: It's the Ecto-Exodus Alarm!
Danny, Sam and Jazz: The Ecto-whaty-what?

Stu:: Presenting the Bonkomatic Baby Bumper!
Didi: The Bonka-whosit Baby-what?

Fluttershy: There's a cockatrice on the loose!
Apple Bloom: A cocka-what-now?

    • In "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", Pinkie Pie's reaction to the Flim-Flam brothers introducing themselves as "traveling sales-ponies nonpareil" is "Nonpa-what?"
  • In one episode of Sheep in The Big City, a plot twist (both Sheep and General Specific lose the mayoral election to a talking ham sandwich) leads to a long chain of characters going "Hubba-whah?"
  • King of the Hill:

Student: We're learning about transubstantiation.
Peggy: What?
Student: Transubstantiation.
Peggy: Trans what now?