Something Else Also Rises

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Schwing!

"Oh, Bevis... are you actually going to do anything, or are you just going to show me films all night?"

"We kissed, you and me, all Gone With the Wind with the rising music and the rising... music."

A type of Parental Bonus, Something Else Also Rises is a visual shorthand euphemism for an orgasm, an erection, or ejaculation. One can't come right out and say it—no pun intended—so there's a visual placed into the scene as an intentional Does This Remind You of Anything?. This trope is a holdover from when it was still considered risque to show a man and a woman in the same bed (even if they were married!). Filmmakers and animators found a way to get around the Moral Guardians, and still use it to this day.

There is a female variation of this trope, too, although much rarer than the male version outside of explicit shows like Drawn Together. While the male version is most frequently Played for Laughs, the female version is usually either not as explicit and heavily veiled in metaphors (like flowers opening etc), or the opposite: the scene is a lot more obviously sexually charged although no actual sex is shown.

The Funny Animal version of the trope has ears and/or tails standing straight up instead.

See also Raging Stiffie, Nosebleed, Freud Was Right, and Late to the Punchline, as a lot of the Parental Bonus doesn't make sense until one has a few more years. Contrast The Loins Sleep Tonight.

The sneakier sibling to Sexy Discretion Shot.

No real life examples, please; we don't care, because it doesn't matter from a storytelling point of view.

Examples of Something Else Also Rises include:

Advertising

  • KY Yours and Mine have two commercials (possibly just online), one of which, using a circus trampoline B&W footage. The other is completely awkward with different schikt
  • There's a commercial for Arby's. A man is in bed, and his girlfriend offscreen tells him she's only doing this for him because it's his birthday. He assures her he knows and is duly grateful. The bow-chicka-wow-wow music begins playing. The girlfriend enters, doing the Sexy Walk. But she's dressed up as an Arby's employee, carrying him an Arby's sandwich meal to him on a tray. He breathes, "Wow." There's a sound effect BOI-OI-OING! as the Arby's tall hat logo appears over his head for the tagline: "I'm thinkin' Arby's." He gives a lecherous grin and says, "Meeeeeeee likey."
  • Those creepy, disturbing "Smilin' Bob" commercials, like this one.
  • A commercial for Impulse Body Spray had a male model posing nude for an art class when he gets a whiff of the product in question. Cut to the minute hand of a clock moving upwards, a paintbrush being held at a certain angle, a feather rising into the air...you get the idea.
  • A commercial for Mitsubishi showed a young boy getting into the car and asking his father where he came from. The father proceeds to explain, but rather than hearing his explanation we see visual metaphors such as a boom rising, the car driving into a tunnel, a fountain shooting a jet of water and fireworks. At the end the boy tells his father that that's cool, because Jimmy Johnson only comes from Scotland.
  • Herbal Essences shampoo commercials (YouTube link but slightly NSFW) featuring women mimicking various states of sexual arousal including orgasm when washing their hair with the shampoo. And yes, opening-petals imagery is abundant. It's a totally organic experience!
  • Vintage print ad for a "rising tie."
  • Orangina has an advertisement of an incredibly muscular almost-nude anthro-puma who has his legs wrapped around a giant phallic bottle. Then he starts drumming the bottom of the bottle faster and faster until he makes a sort of O-face and a fountain of soda bursts out of the other end.
  • An Axe hair product commercial ends with a woman playing with a man's hair at the beach. The man has a very pleased expression on his face and in the background, a wave crashes against a rock and splashes high in the air at the level of his crotch.

Anime and Manga

  • The Machine Robo image shown at the top of this page is actually an aversion, despite what it looks like. Unless, of course, the Crane Robo has a Fetish for construction materials.
  • In the Ayashi no Ceres anime, a short and seemingly innocuous scene seems to linger overlong over a very mundane activity: Tooya coming home to Aya. The shot lingers on him sticking his house key into the lock on the doorknob, turning it, and entering his home. We cut to a brief shot of waves crashing on the beach down on the shore near their home. The rest of the episode deals with other unrelated stuff. Then, an episode or two later, Aya is brooding over being pregnant and wanting to keep the baby despite being in a very dangerous situation. Of course, we all know just how and when she got that baby in the first place, don't we?
  • FLCL is a (rather incoherent) Coming of Age Story. There is a horn that grows at the protagonists head after he gets (violently) touched by a woman('s guitar) there. If that sounds strange, well, so is puberty.
  • From Shaman King: Wooden Sword Ryu's pompadour shoots up rigid whenever it would be thought that he'd get an erection. (Induced, at one point, by an 11-year-old girl...)
  • Mahou Sensei Negima
  • Yu-Gi-Oh

Duke: I summon the extremely phallic space ship. But since it belongs to me it grows to twice its usual size. Duke Devlin always rises to the occasion, baby!

    • Appears and is lampshaded in another episode. After Joey's erotic dream about Kaiba, water is shown dripping from the end of a leaf in an extremely suggestive manner. How this was supposed to be interpreted in the original is anyone's guess.
  • Woo, from Gun X Sword, in a scene when, for no good reason, he's seated naked in a throne, holding a collapsible rapier in one hand, talking about his mother...and then the sword expands.
  • In Midori no Hibi, there's a scene where the protagonist awakens from a nap with a female classmate straddling him (long story, but both were fully clothed)...and, being a guy who has just woken up, there's a glorious picture of a banana in the background.[1] She doesn't react well.
  • The leg-raising version (see below) is used in an episode of Darker than Black, in a scene where comical detective Kurosawa receives an Ear Cleaning from an attractive widow. Taken a step further in the dub, by having her use the word going in a sentence, and him shout out "I'm going!"
  • Boa Hancock from One Piece. The first time we see her in action, she says, "Your guilty hearts, entranced by my beauty...will turn your bodies stiff as rock...!!" As all the men are entranced by her, they turn into stone.
  • In the first To LOVE-Ru OVA, when Riko (Rito changed to a girl) is in the bath with other girls, her breasts grow. (S)he touches one of the other girls breasts, the tub explodes and next thing you know (s)he's flat. Then they start growing again.
  • Kiss×Sis: Turtle pokes his head out of his shell.
  • Change 123: after the bra snapping scene (see the manga's page for explanation of this), the protagonist picks up Motoko's bra and then...well, check the lower left panels of this and especially this page for what happens to his Idiot Hair.
  • Done frequently in an early episode of Bakemonogatari with Koyomi's Idiot Hair. In all fairness, it's pretty obvious Hitagi is doing it on purpose.
  • In Nyan Koi, after Kousaka's encounter with Sumiyoshi at the festival, Akari asks him about what happened, he stands up suddenly, and she smirks.
  • Black Butler: "Mr. Agni, the water's boiling."
  • Hunter X Hunter
    • This trope is associated with Hisoka to varying degrees. Probably the most blatant example would be when the protagonists find him bathing in a lake, a well placed speech bubble obscuring anything. When he comments on how well the two boys have developed, the speech bubble moves up to right below his navel. Hisoka really likes fighting.
    • Also when Hisoka's getting ready to fight one of the protagonists during a tourney. Again, a convenient speech bubble keeps things wholesome, but the visual effect of his aura charging happens to be concentrating...there.
  • In the indescribably bizarre commentary track for the original Evangelion Death and Rebirth DVD, there's this gem from Amanda Wynn Lee (the voice of Rei!) as Shinji watches the Tokyo-3 skyscrapers reappear from underground...

Shinji: It's awesome! The buildings are growing!
Amanda: (on the track) Just like the little man in my pants...!

  • In IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix during the final hookup scene where Liz and Takeshi kiss, Takeshi's signature hair curl perks up a little.
  • A female version in Azumanga Daioh, when Kaorin sees she'll dance with Sakaki. Or as the Internet puts it: "She came rainbows".
  • Very delicately done in Kaze to Ki no Uta, one of the first Boys Love titles, where you have to be rather savvy, or a guttermind, to get what the two fresh young roses gently brushing each other stand for.
  • Pokémon: Grovyle is injured, and wakes up out of a concussion to a Meganium that he instantly crushes on. He flushes red and the twig in his mouth pops into a flower. That's about as close as the show is likely to get to a salute, if you know what I mean.
    • That's not the end of the metaphors in that episode. When Grovyle gets rejected by Meganium in favor of his love rival, the flower instantly wilts. Which also happened to Grovyle's teammate Corphish earlier in the series, under the same circumstances.
    • In order to keep a Pokémon Center running during a blackout, Brock is trying to power up a generator using a bicycle. Twice, he gets too exhausted, until Nurse Joy urges him to do his best (and he imagines her in Love Bubbles, no less!). The camera focuses its attention on the generator as its energy gauge goes sky-high.
    • While speaking of Brock, in an early episode, he falls in love with a Pokémon breeder.[2] When she talks to him, he stands in attention, with his fists to his side. His whole body becomes a phallic metaphor.
    • And another time when he was complimented on his cooking. Brock's hair explodes into an afro for a brief second!
  • In Japan, it's acceptable to show a flower falling off its stem or branch as a metaphor for a woman being deflowered. This Hetalia fancomic where China gets turned into a girl and then has sex with Japan, for example. Translation is here.
  • Nagasarete Airantou: Ikuto's Running Gag of uncontrollable Nosebleeds sometimes goes into High-Pressure Blood territory. Especially, in one chapter, when Ikuto becomes Suzu's servant (it's a longer story than you think) and she orders him to bathe with her in a special hotsprings spot. A nude Suzu presses herself against Ikuto, causing his nosebleed to go into an arc.
  • In the Grand Finale of Eureka Seven, Renton and Eureka's kiss is immediately followed by the supercharged Nirvash firing an energy beam that carves Sweetie Graffiti on the surface of the moon.
  • In the sleeping incense arc of Ranma ½, Akane has a dream where Ranma is a lecherous bastard, surrounded by a harem of girls. You know how he has an expressive ponytail? Well, while the girls are rubbing themselves all over him, his ponytail is straight up, just like a boner.
    • This also happens in Ranma's introduction scene in the anime, when Soun Tendo embraces "her" and has an surprise, and "her" pigtail very conspicuously rises.
  • The alarm clock in Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo flips its arms straight up when pressed between Ureshiko's thighs.
  • In Daily Life with Monster Girl when one of the girls gets... stimulated... some inanimate object is shown moving, like a flower loosing its pedals or a doll falling.

Comic Books

  • In Watchmen, the flamethrower on Nite Owl II's air ship goes off at just the right moments...
  • Bone has a great scene when Fone Bone first sees Thorn soaking her legs in a hot spring. His hat bursts into flame. Later on, she takes him back to take a bath, and comments (off-panel) how he ate all the soap.
  • The absurd Belgian children's comic Biebel generally contains a lot of "extra" jokes. Sexual arousal is usually represented by having the characters get very hot, having facial features pop off of their heads, or having them fall over in astonishment. However, on one occasion, when a leading female character transforms into a blonde bombshell, the trope is utterly ignored and the main character is actually shown with rather obviously stretched pants. This somehow made it past the censors.
  • Male and female combined in Empowered when Thugboy (accidentally) feels up Ninjette. The chapter's titled, "Elephants, Cups and Canoes".
  • A dangerous variation occurs in Superman Secret Origin. Clark's heat vision goes off for the first time when he has his first kiss with Lana Lang, setting the school banner on fire in the process. Needless to say, when Martha Kent asked him what triggered his heat vision, Clark was a little too embarrassed to tell her.
  • In one Archie Comics story set in the Prehistoric Ages, Veronica was pleased with Archie making her as a model for his mud statue, and kisses him. You can see a volcano in the background shoot a boulder out of its mouth.
  • In an issue of Ultimate X-Men, Colossus is surprised when a cute guy asks if he's single. He instantly hardens...into his organic steel form.

Fan Works

  • In the Neon Genesis Evangelion doujinshi RE-TAKE, there is an instance of a male orgasm represented by a shot from the Ramiel battle—namely, Unit 01 firing the positron cannon. That's gotta be some orgasm...
  • At least one Touhou fancomic has toyed with this by having Utsuho freak out over her "Third Leg" control rod going limp.
  • Many video portrayals of My Immortal do something like this when illustrating the line "He put his thingy in my you-know-what". Here are several examples.
  • In A Very Potter Sequel Hermione wishes Ron good luck by hugging him, causing the broomstick in his hand to rise up. He then tries to get on the broom, only for it to hurt.
  • Another fan work for Touhou has a scene with Remilia feeling rather uneasy, because her ""body pillow"" to sleep with, which get's her in the mood, just thinking about wanting to sleep him the male protagonist, to the point that her wings start beating rapidly. [1]

Film

  • Happens in Toy Story 2 with Buzz's wings, after Action Girl Jessie does an acrobatic loop-de-loop to open a door.
    • Parodied in the Out Takes, where Woody scribbled "This Space for Rent" on his wings at some point before the scene.
  • The Twitterpated sequence in Bambi certainly qualifies. That's right. First Flower the skunk becomes red and stiff as a board upon his encounter with a lady skunk; as he falls over the sound effects are certainly wooden. And then there's Thumper, whose romantic encounter leads to stiff ears, a stiff body, repeatedly appearing/retracting claws, and a madly thumping foot. Disney cartoons feature strong romantic takes like this a lot, stiffness or no, but the Twitterpated scene certainly stands out.
  • Melody Time. When Pecos Bill gets kissed, his guns fly off the holsters and fire into the air. The animator intended it only as an outtake, not to be used in the final cut. Imagine his surprise when it was actually approved!
  • Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. Piella puts her hand on Wallace's knee, cut to a shot of bread rising in the oven. Specifically chosen for being an "Old-School" style, according to an interview with the creators.
  • L.A. Story used a scene where a male character is approaching a climax, and the camera cuts to a view of an ornamental fountain suddenly squirting a jet of water.
  • There's a sequence in Howard the Duck wherein Beverly snuggles up and kisses Howard. Viewers see them silhouetted as she snuggles up toward him. Several feathers on his head stand up straight.
  • One of the gags in the 2003 The Cat in the Hat movie was the cat suddenly turning the kids' mother's picture into a centerfold, and his iconic hat going, as Beavis and Butthead would say, "BOI-OI-OI-OING!". Then The Cat turns the page and exclaims, "Wow, who is THAT?" as his hat BOIOIOIONGS. The boy answers. The hat and the Cat's expression go limp as the cat mumbles, "...Awkward."
  • The moonlight serenade in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. (It's actually Robin's sword.)
  • A female example happens in The Matrix Reloaded when the woman eats the chocolate dessert that The Merovingian coded specially to evoke an orgasm. The viewer gets to see Matrix code: digital representations of her legs, and then a brilliant explosion between them.
  • A female example in Pleasantville: when a female character attends to her personal needs for the first time, a tree spontaneously ignites. Not out of place though, as the story takes place in the world of a television show where people's strong emotions and unconventional actions can affect reality in many ways. There were no fires in Pleasantville (because it was a sexless 1950's stereotype) until the characters began to evolve beyond being sexless 1950's stereotypes.
  • Austin Powers
    • In the first movie, there's a scene where a male character in a movie was filling a rubber balloon with air, for making balloon animals perhaps, and when a female walked by, the balloon in his hand (which was narrow but very long) expanded vertically upwards from his hand while he stared. She blows up a balloon as he describes his salacious first impression of her, then it deflates as she admits she did not reciprocate: "actually, I couldn't stop staring at your teeth."
    • In the first sequel, The Spy Who Shagged Me, Austin is holding a bottle of lotion when Felicity Shagwell shows her sexy back and he squeezes the bottle a little too hard.
    • Austin holds a beer bottle rather suggestively when Fook Mi and Fook Yu flirt on his both sides, and the bottle cap explodes in foam. "I am sorry, this has never happened to me before"
  • Some Like It Hot
    • Tony Curtis' leg when he was making out with Marilyn Monroe.
    • This also happens when Mr. Osgood when he falls in love with "Daphne." They get in an elevator, and as it goes up, the camera focuses on a shot of an arrow over the door rising to point at the floor number. It quickly comes back down, however, and "she" storms out of the elevator with a cry of "What kind of girl do you think I am?"
  • The elevator floor indicator is used with Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve.
  • Johnny Dangerously used the "trains in tunnels" and "fireworks" variation to signify Johnny's consummating with his girlfriend. Immediately lampshaded when Johnny's coworkers see the fireworks outside and deduce that he must be getting laid.
  • Alfred Hitchcock used the train-in-tunnel image in North by Northwest.
  • To Catch a Thief (also Hitchcock) shows a couple kissing, then cuts to fireworks.
  • The Girl Can't Help It has a sequence of men reacting to Jayne Mansfield's character walking down the street. A milkman is holding a bottle of milk that pops its top and bubbles over.
  • Dude, Where's My Car?: In what might be a PG-13 Shout-Out to The Girl Can't Help It (44 years later), Kristy Swanson strolls past a construction worker in the street...causing his jackhammer to go haywire. And as if that weren't blatant enough, one of the main characters mentions that Swanson's character's last name is "Boner."
  • Used in Superman II, twice:
  • There's a scene in The Naked Gun 2 1/2. It goes on for about five minutes of trains going into tunnels, prospectors finding oil, et cetera...
  • In Blankman, when Blankman gets kissed, he goes into a spastic "blankdance" which Damon Wayans said was a clever way of Getting Crap Past the Radar; kids would just see a silly reaction to a kiss, while adults would have a totally different take.
  • Played with on one of the posters for What Planet Are You From?. The tagline was "To save his planet, an alien must find a woman on Earth to have his baby. There's just one problem." The problem was that the flower in the character's hand was drooping...
  • Played to terrifying effect in The Night of the Hunter where misogynistic serial killer preacher Harry Powell's switchblade pokes through his pocket while watching a burlesque dancer. This is an early indication of the substitution of murderous violence for sex in his brain.
  • James Bond
    • In The Living Daylights, James Bond begins making out with Kara Milvoy in a stalled Ferris wheel. They cut to a lingering shot of the long, flesh-colored, slightly-upwards-curving...trunk of the stuffed elephant he won for her earlier. Subtle.
    • In The Spy Who Loved Me, when they transfer to the submarine, when the Captain discovers that Major Amasova is a woman, he makes some rather lame innuendo. The scene then cuts to an exterior shot of the submarine nosing up.
  • In Silent Movie, when the board of Engulf & Devour is shown a photograph of the woman they plan to send to seduce Mel Funn, the table they're sitting at rises several inches.
  • In Alice in Wonderland, when the Hatter sees Alice for the first time, his tie goes from rather limp and grey and sad-looking to colourful and...umm...erect.
  • Maverick. During the final hand of the tournament the Commodore thinks he has an unbeatable hand and his cigar points upward from his mouth. When he realizes another player has him beat his cigar sags downward.
  • Lestat and Louis in Interview with the Vampire, rising into the air as Lestat feeds on Louis. Then Louis says no, and splash. Happy time's over.
  • There's a part in the first Twilight movie, possibly unintentional, where Bella first sits next to Edward in class and the page in the middle of his open book sticks up.
  • The toothpaste squirting out of the tube in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.
  • In the Film of the Book for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when the characters are depressed and playing Quidditch badly, they slump over their broomsticks which point downward. When they're confident and playing well, the broomsticks are long, sticking out rather suggestively, and the characters sit mightily upon them.
  • In the film The Little Rascals, Darla flattens Alfalfa's hair point and then gives him a kiss, causing his hair to spring right back up again.
  • The very first scene in the 1983 period comedy Screwballs (it's set in The Sixties) is of a young female hot-dog vendor putting up a billboard advertising her hot-dog stand. The ad also includes a giant plastic frankfurter that swings back and forth, and it keeps poking the girl in the butt as she works.

Literature

  • Warrior Cats: When cats are in a good mood, their tails tend to raise up (this is true of cats of both genders in real life, and is an expression of pride and happiness). Male (and ONLY male) character's tails have "shot straight up" when faced with the object of their affection.
  • Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. The protagonist suffers from a vaguely described wartime injury that leads to sexual dysfunction; the book is filled with Freud Was Right imagery and oblique references to his sexual frustration.
  • David Sosnowski's Vamped lampshades this: the novel is written in first person and the narrator and the vampire Martin avoids describing his, ehm, encounter by explaining that it would be rather awkward to detail in first person, come across as bragging, and reminds the reader of the movies that cut to fireworks. Martin then says something along the lines of "Insert fireworks here."
  • The novelization of Assassin's Creed II has Ezio meeting Rosa at one point. As they hug one another, Rosa tells him to put his sword back in its sheath. Ezio replies by saying that she has it.
  • In The Amber Spyglass, when Mary is telling Lyra and Will about love, Lyra experiences a...curious sensation. This description is used to indicate her oncoming puberty and incipient sexuality, as well as shameless Getting Crap Past the Radar.

"As Mary said that, Lyra felt something strange happen to her body. She found a stirring at the roots of her hair: she found herself breathing faster. She had never been on a roller-coaster, or anything like one, but if she had, she would have recognized the sensations in her breast: they were exciting and frightening at the same time, and she had not the slightest idea why. The sensation continued, and deepened, and changed, as more parts of her body found themselves affected too. She felt as if she had been handed the key to a great house she hadn't known was there, a house that was somehow inside her, and as she turned the key, deep in the darkness of the building she felt other doors opening too, and lights coming on. She sat trembling, hugging her knees, hardly daring to breathe, as Mary went on:"

Live-Action TV

  • Monty Python's Flying Circus has a whole skit based on this. We see a couple go to bed and are then shows clips of Stock Footage consisting only of this, such as the train-into-a-tunnel, a chimney being blown up playing in reverse (as if it were rising), champagne bottles blowing open and so on (even a clip featuring Richard Nixon). The twist is that they are also watching these clips. After they are over they are sitting in the bed, the man with a projector and the girl asking "Are you going to show me films all night, or are we doing to do something?"
  • Happens in Hannah Montana, of all places. Miley's fake boyfriend, Willis, introduces her to his 12-year old friend (who is older than Willis). He has been bragging to his friend about how hot Miley is, and his friend, while holding some sort of fun spray thing, says "Hubba hubba!" and sprays some white stuff all over her, with a shocked Miley gasping.
  • Friends: Chandler and Joey are about to let Joey's stalker (who they've never seen) into the apartment. Joey has armed himself with a Frying Pan of Doom (yes, Chandler makes the "she's not a cartoon" joke) and Chandler grabs a bottle of dish soap. In walks the stunning (but still crazy) stalker. Joey is speechless, but Chan unconsciously squeezes his detergent bottle to make suds spray out the top.
  • Seinfeld: Jerry leans over to tell George something his girlfriend said to him in bed (something we never get to hear), and George squeezes the ketchup bottle in his hands, spraying ketchup 20 feet across the coffee shop.
  • In an episode of Frasier, Daphne is flirting with a coffee shop waiter near Frasier and Niles's table. When she says she likes a coffee that "keeps its body on her tongue", Niles spills cream all over the table.
    • In another Niles/Daphne example, Daphne takes refuge from Martin's girlfriend at Niles' apartment. When she asks to "get out of these sweaty clothes," Niles accidentally...opens the CD player.
      • In the same episode, when a fan blows Daphne's robe open slightly, Niles pops a champagne cork and it overflows. Come to think of it, Niles/Daphne scenes loved this trope.
    • In a Valentine's Day scene, Niles does something to get a rash; Daphne is angry saying that now she'll have to spend the evening rubbing lotion all over him. They both perk, then head to her room. Immediately afterwards, fireworks begin outside.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • Xander turns around to offer Anya (whom he only knows as a weird ex-demon girl who makes a lousy prom date) a juice box, when Anya walks into Xander's room and drops her dress. Xander reacts by squeezing the open juice box he's currently holding. This one made it to the theme song.
    • In the Musical Episode, the final verse of Tara's love song to Willow takes place in bed. At the very end, Tara is levitated into the air. All while singing some very suggestive lyrics. (With the last line at the climax of the song being "you make me coooooooomepleeeete!") The scene was described on Wikipedia as "metaphoric oral sex".
    • Willow goes all out to try and seduce Oz. She gets a bit worried when he stands up and she thinks he's going to leave, so says she's ready to sleep with him. Oz quickly thinks he needs to sit back down.
  • Similarly, in Buffy's spin-off Angel, there is an episode where the main bulk of the gang lose their memories and set off to find out where they are. Fred theorises that it might be the government and she vocally imagines herself lying naked on an examination table, being probed and prodded, completely at their mercy. Wesley's spring-loaded stake spontaneously pops out of his sleeve.

Wesley: Let's not give up probe! ...hope! Give up hope!

    • In the same episode, Fred touches Wesley and his long range stake doo-dad suddenly releases, and flies through the air. In the commentary Joss says; "You could almost say squirts."
  • Spoofed in an episode of Andy Richter Controls the Universe. The train going through the tunnel goes in and out repeatedly. Andy explains that it's not a metaphor, the train really did do that.
  • Happens quite often in Coupling. The most amusing is early in the first series when Steve and Susan first knock boots. We are treated to a scene of Angus Deayton and Mariella Frostrup happening across one another in the halls of The BBC. He's holding a can of generic fizzy pop (this being The BBC, no Product Placement here) which spurts everywhere as he opens it mid-conversation. He apologises and stammers about how that's never happened before. She tells him that "It's OK, it happens to a lot of guys."
    • This is a callback to Jeff's belief that celebrity marriages result from two people fantasising about celebrities during sex, and those celebrities happening to meet at the same time. During the episode it's mentioned that Mariella Frostrup is Steve's preferred fantasy, while Angus Deayton is Susan's.
  • Referenced in an episode of Mad About You: to keep himself aroused, Paul watches a video of petroleum prospection (a probe entering the hole about three times, then a tower spilling oil).
  • In an episode of Allo Allo, a couple of British secret agents disguised as police officers are sent to Café Réné to retrieve the Enigma Machine. Their "secret sign"? "Signaling" with their batons. To which Réné responds with a baguette. For extra comedy, the "police officers" speak the same broken "French" as Officer Crabtree, making the "signal" completely unnecessary.
  • Lois and Clark had to establish the Unresolved Sexual Tension right away, so it has a Sexy Silhouette of Lois, causing Clark to pop his cork...of champagne, and then he got a Sexy Silhouette, causing her to wet the carpet...with spilled champagne. Subtle.
    • In the pilot, Clark sees Lois cleans up nicely, making a big entrance at formal dress society do, and floats six or seven inches off the ground as he gazes at her in awe. In the commentary track the show's creator says it means exactly what you think it means.
  • In the Torchwood episode "They Keep Killing Suzie", Ianto Jones raises his flashlight when his lover Jack approaches. It's also a pun, because in the UK a flashlight is called a torch, and he's holding it on level with his crotch (Torch "wood").
  • Sharing a bathtub with Gabrielle, Xena: Warrior Princess gropes around in the water for a moment, then stops with her arm...suspiciously...angled back toward the woman behind her and asks, "Are you sitting on the soap?"
  • Alfafa's antenna in The Little Rascals, every time he gets kissed.
  • In the Gilligans Island episode "Music Hath Charm", Mary Ann is dismayed because she's the only one without an instrument to play in Mrs. Howell's orchestra. Gilligan makes up an instrument for Mary Ann by using a stick to hit a bent saw-blade. When Mary Ann thanks Gilligan with a kiss on the cheek, the saw-blade (which was in front of Gilligan's waist) makes the same sound as when it was hit with the stick. Except neither of them visibly hit the saw-blade.
  • Saturday Night Live made fun of this trope in a fake erectile dysfunction medication commercial called "Sproingo" where the man taking the medication knows it's working (for lack of a better term) by the cartoony "Sproing" sound effect.
    • A Weekend Update segment on a Christmas episode from 1989 had Victoria Jackson in a Sexy Santa Dress playing a love-starved Mrs. Claus who takes out her sexual aggression on Weekend Update anchor Dennis Miller while singing "Santa, Please Skip Christmas This Year." Miller's response after the performance: "Suddenly, I'm sitting here with a candy cane."
  • A mishap with sun lotion became a creatively-edited pre-commercial sting for Big Brother, during the series with all the one-way Unresolved Sexual Tension between a homosexual male housemate and straight male housemate.
  • In the second-season Chuck episode "Chuck versus the Broken Heart", there is a rather blatant and repeated application of this trope in one scene; in order, we see Agent Forrest removing the silencer from her pistol with a delicate twisting motion, Casey and Forrest both repeatedly making use of gun cleaning rods, (here is perhaps the most explicit example) Casey reassembling his M4, and finally Forrest blowing the dust out her silencer. All of this is made far, far more explicit by the facial expressions and camera angles used throughout. All of this is done to the tune of "Bite Hard", by Franz Ferdinand. It is do laden with subtext that one begins to wonder if the appellation "sub" is still valid.
  • The opening credits of Dynasty. 'Nuff said.
  • Discussed on Top Gear with respect to Danish engineering.

Clarkson: Have you been in the new Audis? The new Audis have Bang & Olufsen speakers that rise out of the dashboard when you turn the stereo on.
Hammond: I should think you're rising up along...
Clarkson: I am!

  • Done in an episode of Married... with Children, the one with the Credit Card Plot in season 2. Peggy and Al are relaxing in a pool, and Al has a cigar hanging from his mouth. Then he sees a hottie, and the cigar...raises.
  • In Noah's Arc, When Eddie sees Chance in the speedo he wore when they first met, the champagne bottle in his hands pops.
  • How I Met Your Mother has a scene with a stripper, Barney, and a smoke machine. Barney is clearly enjoying the show.
    • Inverted in the episode The Bro Mitzah, when a clowns balloon held in a suggestive position deflates.
  • Smallville repeatedly used Clark's emerging Heat Vision power for this purpose. Talk about your eyes burning holes through a girl's clothes...
  • My Family did it with a camera with a telescopic zoom lens.
  • Crusade, a short-lived spin-off of Babylon 5, had a scene where two characters were about to have sex, and then the scene switched to a ship docking in a space station.
  • In the Firefly episode "War Stories". When Inara and her female client kiss as she leaves the ship, Jayne is standing by with the sleaziest look on his face, while Book does bench presses in the background. Jayne's arousal is alluded to by Book grunting with the weights and raising his knees.

Music

  • The entire lyrics of the X Japan song Orgasm are about sex (obviously) but the end sound effect of a rocket launch IS this trope, especially since it's a self-reference by Yoshiki. It's even better when performed live, since the band members embody this trope using fire extinguishers, balloons, bottles of water...
  • The Sting song "Brand New Day" has a series of euphemisms along these lines. Example: "I'm the plow and you're the land / You're the glove and I'm the hand / I'm the train and you're the station / I'm a flagpole to your nation."
  • The lyrics to Rammstein's song "Rein Raus" (In, Out), including the title, are entirely euphemistic references to sex, for example "Ich bin der Reiter/ Du bist das Ross/ Ich hab' den Schlüssel/ Du hast das Schloss" (I am the rider/ you are the steed/ I have the key/ you have the lock).
  • The song Vad har du i fickan, Jan? ("What's That In Your Pocket, Jan?") by Hasse Alfredson and Tage Danielsson. It's about...the potential effects of tango dancing.
  • Andy Partridge of XTC packed "The Wheel and the Maypole" with euphemisms (arguably starting with the title): "I've got the plow if you've got the furrow/I've got the rabbit if you've his burrow home/I've got the pen if you've got the paper...I've got the seed if you've got the valley/I've got the big stick if you've Aunt Sally's head[3]/I've got the time if you've got the motion."
  • Many, many, many old-time blues songs utilize this trope.
  • At least one song (usually more) on every ACDC album will have lyrics of this sort.
  • Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Free":

Well, my telephone rang it would not stop
It's President Kennedy callin' me up
He said, "My friend Bob, what do we need to make the country grow?"
I said, "My friend John, Brigitte Bardot! Anita Ekberg! Sophia Loren!
...Country'll grow!"

The little girl you dangled on your knee without mishap
Stirs something in your memory and something in your lap.

  • In the music video for the Fountains of Wayne song "Stacey's Mom," the young teen with a crush on Stacey's mom opens a bottle of cherry soda and not only does the motion he is using to open the cap resemble masturbation, the cherry soda, when finally opened, practically explodes in a fizzy fountain one minute into the video.
  • The music video for Belle And Sebastian's "Step Into My Office, Baby" contains various visual metaphors for sex.
  • The music video for Gunther's "Ding Ding Dong" contains another champagne bottle example.
  • In The Offspring's Want You Bad, this is made obvious with the use of cans of soda. They're shaken up by the entire party crowd until they burst, spraying white foam everywhere. In the end the entire party is knee deep in white foam, and the main guy, who has a girl doing some very soft core porn-ish things to him in a hallway, ends up literally exploding when she takes a can and shakes it up rapidly, her entire head becoming covered in the white foam.
  • Hot Action Cop's Fever for the Flava is made up almost entirely of these—until they decide to stop being subtle about it. It really is rather staggering.
  • The music video for Airbourne's "Blonde, Bad and Beautiful" plays with this using a spritzing Champagne bottle. It was not meant to be subtle.
  • All over Queens of the Stone Age's "Go with the Flow" video.
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video for "Amish Paradise" has a blink-and-you-miss-it scene where the singer is churning butter between his legs. When a girl walks by he starts churning faster.

Newspaper Comics

  • Dilbert's tie is always curling up...except the one time when went on a successful date, the next day it was straight.
    • Scott Adams had previously sent out a poll asking his fans whether Dilbert should get lucky. He said in the poll that he'd draw Dilbert's tie straight if he did.
    • Also, when Sally composed an erotic e-mail to her boyfriend, and accidentally sent it to everyone in her company, Dilbert came by her cubicle with his tie sticking straight out.
    • Subverted Trope with Antina, the non-stereotypical woman. Dilbert's tie drops flat on first sight, with obvious implications.
  • There's one Garfield strip in which Garfield is standing behind Odie and decides to have a little fun with the dog. He extends one finger and scratches Odie's butt (okay, maybe it was supposed to be Odie's leg or thigh, but it sure looked like his butt), causing the dog to "turn Japanese" and compulsively thump his foot on the floor. Garfield, inspired, simply scratches Odie harder. By the last panel, Garfield is scratching up a storm and Odie is hopping up and down in ecstatic excitement as a very offended and annoyed Jon looks on. Given the convulsive, throbbing, almost percussive movements that the human body enacts during orgasm, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to think: "Hey, Garfield is molesting Odie - and Odie likes it!"

Professional Wrestling

  • Val Venis, the wrestling pornstar formerly in WWE, has an entrance video (not explicit, but still likely NSFW) that's just full of this trope. It's nothing but a montage of all sorts of suggestive imagery.
  • During D Generation X's reunion during the late 2000's, they held a cook-out outside of an episode of Raw. While Triple H and one of the WWE are getting a little under the table assistance from a couple of female party-goers, Triple H grabs a bottle of ketchup and squeezes it, just to drive home what was happening.

Theatre

  • In Me And My Girl, Sally mentions how a girl "gets her dander up". Her fiance, Bill, replies with "I know what you mean, she got mine up as well...how's my girl?"
  • In the book Henry V: War Criminal? John Sutherland described an amateur production of A Midsummer Nights Dream where Bottom (who's been turned into a donkey, fittingly) raises his ears to suggest sexual arousal.
  • Some actors playing Melchior in the musical of Spring Awakening (such as Jake Epstein and his understudies in the US Tour) will suggestively tip the book sitting in their lap when they mention Moritz being "up reading all through the night."
  • In The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee when Chip gets to the...climax of the song "My Unfortunate Erection" he pops a bag (or bags?) he's holding.

Video Games

  • At the beginning of The Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush has escaped from LeChuck's hold wearing an inflatable seahorse floaty around his waist, and proposes to Elaine by giving her a diamond ring he's just found. Wally sees it and says that it looks a lot like the diamond ring LeChuck put a "ghastly voodoo curse" on. Elaine shoots an angry glance at Guybrush and the seahorse immediately deflates.
  • The Sims 2 has this occur with the plumbob whenever cinematic woohoo takes place.
  • When Metal watches a porn tape in Snatcher, his portrait rises up almost to the top of the screen.
  • Snake's Psyche bar shoots up very rapidly when he sees something sexy in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. So does Ocelot's, when he kisses Snake.
  • In No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, when Sylvia tempts Travis into climbing the UAA Rankings again, she places his beam katana near his crotch and kisses it, and it turns on. Of course, what with beam katanas being synonymous with a certain male body part...
    • In a cut scene, Sylvia tells Travis that for him, killing is just like getting off. With every hit you land, a gauge called the ecstasy gauge fills, shown as a tiger that is lying down and then rises up and starts roaring. Also, the beam katana called the Peony lengthens as the ecstasy gauge fills.
  • The end of Leisure Suit Larry 6 is a montage of these. It's one huge visual metaphor for an off-screen sex scene, possibly inspired by the similar scene in Naked Gun 2. Also, there's Larry's elephant bathing suit in Love For Sail, especially when it begins trumpetting.
  • The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks has this in a cutscene, where Zelda joyfully hugs Link, which causes the tip of his hat to randomly rises up into the air. Yes, the Zel-Link factor was pretty high up in that game.
  • EVE Online had a somewhat suggestive special login screen for Valentine's Day in 2007.
  • In Mega Man Zero 3, a female La Résistance member gives Zero what awfully sounds like a kiss (*SMOOCH*) as thank you for rescuing her in the previous games. Zero's E-crystal count goes up (complete with a suspicious sound). Made worse by her finishing remark:

Don't tell Ciel about that, OK? Human girls get angry over little things like that.

Web Animation

Web Comics

Wanda: Guards! Attention!
Bogroll: I was already standing at attention, m'Lady.
Mung: Parts of me were. Now all of me is.
Wanda: Shut up.

Web Original

  • A running gag on The Nostalgia Critic, where he will raise one index finger while a "sproing" sound is heard.
    • One of the reviews went from a sexy something (finger up) to a squicky something (finger down) to something for which he had mixed feelings, which merited a wavering finger (up? down? up? down? mid?) and finally a conceded: finger up.
    • In his Tank Girl review, his hat flies off, with a 'Boing!' sound effect.

Nostalgia Critic: Okay, this movie just went up a notch! Or... at least... something went up a notch.

    • In a review with Catherine Zeta Jones, he couldn't walk offscreen at the end of the episode because of this.
    • Likewise, CR does this when learning Lindsey Neagle (his crush) is a sexual predator. Though not on screen.
    • This happens in his review of Full House, when Becky mentions that she did the play Romeo and Juliet in school, but that it wasn't very fun because she went to an all-girls school.
    • In the Critic's Top 11 Hottest Animated Women list, his closing line for number 6 is, "If she doesn't make your sword grow, nothing will."
  • Done in the most horrifying way possible in The Winter Stalker. (The shot is around 0:53.)
  • This picture which is featured in an episode of The Guild.

Western Animation

  • Any kind of lupine or canine character, upon being aroused, will stamp a foot and howl.
  • Tex Avery might just have been the king of this trope with MGM cartoons like Red Hot Riding Hood and Swing Shift Cinderella (to name but two).
    • In his cartoon Uncle Tom's Cabana when the villain Simon Greed spots Red his head spins and the cash register he stole pops out from under his coat, spewing money out in the process.
  • Old cartoons like Looney Tunes used this frequently. Whenever an attractive woman walked by (or Bugs Bunny dressing up as one anyway), characters would stiffen up, hats would straighten up, tails would stretch out, and all sorts of other things (once Elmer's gun goes off after he gets a kiss from "lady"-Bugs).
    • Perhaps the most graphic is in I Got Plenty of Mutton, when a ram's horns uncurl and turn red.
    • The 2003 Foghorn Leghorn cartoon Cock-A-Doodle-Duel has the hens laying eggs when they were impressed by Foghorn and lots of eggs when they were impressed by the new rooster. Which...barely counts as a metaphor, really. It got increasingly bizarre when the Stupid Sexy Flanders moment resulted in Foghorn laying an egg.
    • This sounds a lot like the WWII-era "Swooner Crooner" when the hens at Porky's egg farm react to rooster versions of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Gets a bit more bizarre when Porky lays eggs!
  • Unsurprisingly, two in Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law.
    • Harvey's wings stiffen up when...something else starts stiffening up
    • Apache Chief's power to grow in size is directly related to the other thing that grows in size, and can be involuntarily activated like that. In fact, when hot coffee was spilled on his crotch, he lost the power to grow larger altogether for a while. And he got his power back when he got "excited" by an attractive lady.
  • Drawn Together could probably supply an example from every episode:
    • Erect nipples were a unisex sign of sexual arousal. In one episode Captain Hero and Spanky are sitting in the pool and see Clara's gorgeous and mentally retarded cousin approaching. Captain's Hero's nipples get hard and...engorged...then the "punchline" follows as Spanky's nipples also get erect—except since he is a pig, he has six of them all down his belly.
    • Also, the first time Toot sees Xandir, her eyes bug out, then the pupils pop up like nipples.
    • And let's not forget the memorable scene where we see Captain Hero and Xandir sharing a seemingly romantic moment, then cut to footage of a train trying to get through a small tunnel. Complete with a trickle of what looks like blood coming from the "Tunnel". Except of course we then pull back and see that they're just watching stock footage of the train on TV
    • In another episode, Ling-Ling, the Asian battle monster, becomes aroused...his tail springs upright and then becomes engorged and veiny, just to make the...uh...point
  • The Simpsons
    • Hot dogs rolling down a conveyor belt, a rocket taking off, etc. Subverted Trope when it cuts away to Bart and Lisa at the movie theatre watching a Stock Footage marathon, and wondering why their parents have suddenly sent them to the cinema.
    • In another episode, Grandpa's Viagra kicking in is represented by a spike of his combed-back hair springing free.
    • And in yet another episode, when several promiscuous women come out of a petrol station to attend to the guy's car, his car bonnet pops open, as well as having one of the women shoving the nozzle of the petrol pump into the car's tank in a rather..."interesting" fashion. After all this however...it turns out to be an advert for the Catholic Church.
    • On Season 11's "Saddlesore Galactica" (regarded as the most insane, derivative episode of the series by fans and critics alike), there was a scene where Moe (the bartender) is on the ground, searching for discarded tickets at a racetrack. He finds one, but not before someone else finds it first. That "someone" is a beautiful blond woman. Moe is completely enamored with her...and then the moment is ruined when his heart literally beats out of his chest a la those old Tex Avery/WB cartoon shorts (which, according to Moe, is a serious medical condition).
    • The season 21 Simpsons episode, "Once Upon a Time in Springfield" (the one where Krusty is given a female sidekick in a bid to get female viewers), Krusty's trick boutonniere flower squirted after Princess Penelope (the female sidekick) confesses her love for him.
    • In "Flaming Moe" when the substitute teacher accepts Principal Skinner's offer for a date the cheese volcano behind him erupts.
    • In "The Ned-liest Catch", Edna Krabappel and Ned Flanders are about to make out when we cut to scenes of cheese being made, with cream being squeezed out of syringes, curds syphoned through hoses, bars of cheese on a conveyor belt going into a tunnel... then it turns out they were just watching a Ken Burns documentary on cheesemaking.
  • Futurama: Bender's antenna on numerous occasions.
    • One episode does this with his extending eyes: when he and three robots from his fraternity are on a ladder outside the window of a girls' dormitory, Bender's eyes extend, pushing against the window and causing the ladder to fall over backward. This scene is a parody of one from National Lampoon's Animal House.
    • The very next episode, Bender's eyes are apparently given the task of television cameras as per the plot. Fry calls for camera one, cut to a shoulder and head shot of Bender extending one eye. Camera two, the other eye. Camera three, cut to bender again with the same shot, and the same whir of something extending. Nothing visible in the shot moves.
    • Zoidberg's fin, anyone? He even lampshades it in Bender's Game. ("I'm getting aroused!")
  • There is a Chip and Dale cartoon where both of the chipmunks are trying to woo an attractive female chipmunk named Clarice. After they try to get her attention with some music, she kisses them both. When Dale is kissed, his bass violin spins around and breaks a string. Okay, that was subtle...And when Chip is kissed, all of the piano keys stand up erect. Yikes.
  • Animaniacs
    • Whenever Yakko and Wakko saw an attractive woman like Hello, Nurse!, their normally bent ears and tails would stiffen and shoot up.
    • A rare female variant with Minerva Mink herself. When she spots an attractive man, among other reactions, she melts. Think about this.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures
    • Babs has also been known to literally melt in a romantic situation. But it gets stranger when she gets kissed by Buster in the Christmas Episode: her legs shoot up, one by one, stiff as boards and even making wooden/springy sounds. Because the stiffness visual cue is usually reserved for aroused male cartoons, it's a little unusual.
    • There's also an occasion where Babs kisses Buster and he melts. Babs points out he can see up her skirt from his current vantage as well.
  • An episode of Duckman has the title detective getting aroused listening to a story, and so the viewer sees the "train into the tunnel" variety. Until the final twist hits, and it's so chilling that the "train" crashes in a horrible wreck, and then a jumbo jet falls on it.
  • A bit of affection from Black Cuervo causes the white tufts of hair on either side of El Tigre's head to puff out.
  • Rocko's Modern Life, being the unquestioned king of Getting Crap Past the Radar, got away with this at least twice.
    • The most memorable and most disturbing one was when Spunky begins having a fantasy FOR A MOP. Spliced in with this fantasy are two scenes of a train going into a tunnel and mayo being spread on a slice of bread. Is your innocence gone yet?
    • There is another episode where Rocko was on a dating game show, and each female contestant made him more aroused. He was given a thought-bubble with a jack-hammer in it. The jack-hammer was used as a euphemism throughout the series for masturbation.
  • In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, when Nigel Planter spots his love interest walk by his pupils turn into hearts and he just happens to be sitting on his broom and the handle goes upwards with a "sproing" sound; one wonders how they got this past the radar.
  • The Raccoons: Bert Raccoon's usually bent nose stiffened when he was around Lisa in the episode "Spring Fever!".
  • Clone High: Mr Butlertron's antenna straightens out when Joan of Arc hugs him.
  • Family Guy
    • In "Lil Griffins", the characters appear as kids bearing a resemblance to The Little Rascals. When Lois is introduced to the class, Quagmire (Alfalfa)'s spike of hair shoots up.
    • In a Cutaway Gag based on The Snorks, Allstar sees Casey's panties, and the snorkel on his head straightens, not like "SPROING!" but slow, like the real thing. (Interestingly, Allstar and Casey did seem to have a relationship on the actual show.)
    • In "And I'm Joyce Kinney", a porn video from Lois' past is shown, and as she begins to have sex, Brian's eyes go wide, he pants, and we see something red emerging from...a tube of lipstick.
    • Herbert's lightsaber does this when he sees Chris in Family Guy Presentslaugh It Up Fuzzball.
  • In the Duck Dodgers episode "The Wrath of Canasta", Dodgers and the Cadet are drinking a rootbeer with straws. When the sexy owner of the bar comes into view, the Cadet's straw jumps upwards between his lips.
  • Hey Arnold! has a variant: Arnold's Country Cousin Arnie's propeller-hat spins when Lila first expresses interest in him. It happens again later when he decides he likes Helga instead.
  • The Ren and Stimpy Show "Powdered Toast Man" cartoon ends with the title hero, newly installed as President, getting a fire going in the fireplace with the Constitution and Bill of Rights (the scene of which was cut in reruns due to censor complaints) -- as he and his lovely assistant exchange loving gazes, he roasts a hot dog, she roasts a marshmallow.
  • In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the episode "Over a Barrel" has Rainbow Dash's previously-folded wings sticking out during a reaction shot...in this case, it seems she was reacting to Pinkie Pie dressed up like a showgirl. Probably an Accidental Innuendo stemming from an animation error, but the adult fandom nonetheless immediately pounced on the concept of the "wingboner".
  • The Powerpuff Girls episode "Members Only." 'Nuff said.
    • There's also the girls' second encounter with the Rowdyruff Boys, when the boys grew when the girls kissed them and shrank when their masculinity was threatened.
  • In Wakfu season 1 episode 12, Jay the Iop has his hair standing straight up when around Evangelyne. Twice.
  • The Kim Possible episode, "Emotion Sickness", marks the first time Kim properly kisses Ron Stoppable. After pulling away, Ron, in a love-struck daze, collapses on the floor, his entire body having gone completely stiff. Kim is able to prop him back up to standing position with her foot like a garden rake.
  • Similar to the above, Skeeter freezes upon meeting the new student Loretta LaQuigley in "Doug and the Little Liar". Skeeter becomes solid like a statue with Doug saying that Skeeter had fallen for the new girl-hard.
  1. chapter 33
  2. 1) What else is new? 2) No, breed doesn't mean what you'd think it would in the anime.
  3. "Aunt Sally" refers to a British fairground game that involves trying to hit a target with a thrown stick