Spit-Take: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A [[Reaction Shot]] to an unexpected event that involves spraying food or, more commonly, drink from a character's mouth. In some cases, the character sprays their drink out of their nose instead of their mouth. It can be [[Truth in Television]], as many people can attest. Why surprising news or the punchline of a joke is so often delivered when a character has a full mouth can only be ascribed to [[Rule of Funny]]. May also be a reaction to the efforts of a [[Lethal Chef]].

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Bleach]]''

** Rukia does one in an early episode when asked about her relationship with Ichigo.

* Nisekoi gets a lot of mileage of this trope. It's almost surprising when someone does manage to swallow!

* In ''[[K-On!]]'', Ritsu tells her brother Satoshi not to interrupt her training session with Mio for the school play. Satoshi then asks what her role is, while chugging a soda bottle. He was not prepared for Ritsu's embarrassing response.

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[XXXenophile]]'' has the "squirt through the nose" version when a sexy but innocent girl [[No Social Skills|without social experience]] asks the main character out of the blue when they will have sex.

* In ''[[Birds of Prey]]'', Huntress can't hold her beer when she hears Lady Blackhawk, a [[Fish Out of Temporal Water|time-displaced WWII pilot]] who looks like [[wikipedia:File:Ladyblackhawk.PNG|this]], complain that no one will honor her senior citizen's discount.

 

== Fan Works ==

** Comed-tea is designed so that if there is any near you, you will be drinking it when something shocking or funny happens, causing a spit-take. Harry is bothered for a month trying to figure out how it works.

** Harry also gets a coughing fit—twice—while trying to drink water when Prof. Quirrel guess he's a Parselmouth.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* In ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'', Frollo spits his wine when Quasimodo unwittingly says "festival" for the letter F while reviewing his alphabet.

* ''[[Cars]]'': "He did ''what'' in his cup?!"

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* ''[[Mystery Team]]'': "You're the guy who likes squirting {{spoiler|milk}} up his butt!"

* In ''[[Quest for Fire]]'' (''La Guerre du feu'', 1981), the protagonists come upon an abandonned camp from another tribe. Starving, one of the Cro-Magnon finds some leftover bones in the campfire and began eating the scraps of meat clinging to it. Until one of his companion find a human skull amongst the ash, revealing that this was a camp of cannibals. Cue the disgusted caveman spitting out as much as possible.

 

== Literature ==

* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld/Feet of Clay|Feet of Clay]]'', Nobby gets told by a cadre of nobles that they want him to become king. Since he's gulping down brandy, smoking a cigar, and sitting in a chair with wheels at the time, the result is a [[Booze Flamethrower|rocket-powered spit-take]].

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]''

** Very non-comedic example in ''Prisoner of Azkaban''—Harry spits out some of his butterbeer when Lupin explains [[Fate Worse Than Death|the Dementor's Kiss]] to him.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* On one occasion in ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'', Ned borrows a cup of water from a kid passing by in the hall, thanks him, drinks the ''entire'' cup, lets out a loud "Aaahhh...", ''then'' does a spit-take.

* During the ''[[Castle]]'' episode "Nikki Heat", Beckett sprays her coffee when {{spoiler|Natalie asks her "Is Castle Gay?"}}

** In one episode, Rose says, "Guess what I did!" Dorothy guesses, "A Danny Thomas spit-take?" When Rose answers in a surprising manner what she really did, Sophia actually ''does'' a Danny Thomas spit-take.

** Another episode had Blanche doing this all over a '''''Russian emmissary'''''. He quiped that back home he has to stand in line for two hours to get half as much.

** One episode features the audience suggestion drawn from a hat: "Things that will cause a Drew Carey spit-take." Drew poised expectantly with his mug, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie marched onto stage and kissed, Drew spat.

** A more unexpected example can be found [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMtpoeEdAtg here] after a great Colin Mochrie one-liner.

* Another [[Korean Series]], ''[[Oh My Lady]]'': Gae Hwa does this with wine when Ming Woo makes a suggestive comment. Luckily it gave us an excuse for a [[Shirtless Scene]] with the leading man.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot956b75T34 This clip] from ''[[The Soup]]''.

* An episode of ''[[Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip]]'' sees the characters doing spit-takes collectively—and contracting colds as a result.

* Lisa does one on ''[[Saved by the Bell]]'', when Kelly reveals that she has a thing for Screech.

** The "Torgo's Pizza" sketch from the ''Manos'' episode has a spit-take from the characters when they consider that the pizza, despite being delivered two hours late, is still warm.

** One Joel sketch was devoted to demonstrating the many forms of the take, from thin streams to sputtered clouds, each with an appropriately shocking line.

* In ''[[Mock the Week]]'', when the contestants where commenting on how Dara has lost weight: "He's only lost weight because he was on the Irish version of ''[[Big Brother]]'' set during the potato famine." Cue Dara to take a gulp of water, a [[Double Take]] and then spit to the side.

* Doubled up in ''[[Skins]]'' during a [[Two Scenes, One Dialogue]] bit.

** Also common in Usenet newsgroups. Some have standard abbreviations to warn readers that a post might lead to keyboard/monitor endangerment.

* In ''[https://fiction.live/stories/Vigor-Mortis/MNAj8qQMB8b9asLLn/home Vigor Mortis]'' Rowan spat on Vita when Vita called his soul cute. Then he spat on her again when she said the Mistwatcher (the thing people worship) ate part of her soul.

 

== Pro Wrestling ==

* Then there was "One Night Stand 2005", where Paul Heyman namedrops Matt Hardy in front of Edge—who had recently yoinked Matt's girlfriend Lita (in real life, not kayfabe) -- and Edge spits out the beer he's drinking.

* When Mick Foley was the commissioner he once told Al Snow that he was giving him a title match. Al responded with "I have a match against The Rock for the WWF Title?!" Cue spit-take from Foley, who proceeded to explain that he was talking about the Hardcore title.

 

== Theater ==

* ''[[The Drowsy Chaperone]]'' has one scene that consists of nothing ''but'' Spit Takes. This is due to the framing device is that a Man In A Chair is listening to the soundtrack of his favorite show, and rewinds and plays back that spit take multiple times.

* The ''[[Reduced Shakespeare Company]]'' covers ''[[Hamlet]]'' in their performance, where {{spoiler|Ophelia's death scene}} is some screaming followed by a spit-take in reverse. {{spoiler|As a result, when they do the whole play backwards at the end, the spit-take is executed normally - and to hilarious effect.}}

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'' has a variation: Solid Snake is about to smoke his cigarette after asking why Liquid wants the original when a duplicate would work just fine (referring to Solid and Liquid's DNA) in regards to hacking the system. When he hears from Naomi that its because they ''aren't'' identical to Big Boss, he then chokes on his cigarette smoke.

* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64DNpYiqlEc this trailer] for ''[[Street Fighter]] X [[Tekken]]'', Zangief has ''two'' massive spit-takes.

 

== Visual Novels ==

* Godot does this often in ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney|Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney]]: Trials and Tribulations'' whenever Phoenix discredits one of his witnesses' testimony. Parodied in some cases where Godot will actually [[Going Through the Motions|go through the motions]] of receiving his coffee, sniffing it, guzzling it down, and ''then'' spitting it out. In one instance Godot took ''two'' drinks. It's usually "symbolic" to the progress you've made, too, since Godot will only ever have 17 cups of coffee in one case, meaning if he's just spitting out coffee, he's coming to an end. Or if he's chugging them down, he's coming to an end for his benefit. To emphasize the whole parody he does in the game, it should be pointed out that he was [[Going Through the Motions]] in the ''very first'' instance of this trope in the game ever.

 

== Web Animation ==

{{quote|'''"STOP THE HUMEN!"'''}}

* ''On the Moon'' #20: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSxgZ3fwbZs "*PFFFFFTT* FIVE MILLION POUNDS!??!!"]

 

== Web Comics ==

* Taken to absurd extremes in [http://ravenperez.com/edobs/?p=201 this comic].

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' had Mr. Raven [http://egscomics.com/?date=2011-11-28 perform] (Warning: '''Major spoilers''' ahoy) [[Crowning Moment of Funny|hilarious one]]. Made even funnier because Raven is [[The Stoic]]. And tried to resist it.

* In ''[[Greg (webcomic)|Greg]]'', Ted, dressed as a burly cheerleader causes [http://gregcomic.com/2011/10/12/back-to-campus-part-15/ this] to happen to a campus cop.

* Dawn of ''[[Dawn of Time]]'' [http://dawnoftimecomics.com/index.php?id=136 gets one] when her adoptive mother seems to think she brought back a "handsome gentleman" with her.

 

== Web Original ==

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EQcvKCFFW4 A Vodka Movie by Zach Galifianakis, Tim, and Eric (Part 2)] has a ten-second dual spit-take when Zach reveals why he has body image issues.

* ''[[A Day in Dracula's Life]]'': "This had better be important, because I am trying to enjoy my TEA."

 

== Western Animation ==

* In the ''[[Veggie Tales]]''' version of David and Goliath, one character performs a rather impressive one when David declares he wants to fight Goliath.

* In an episode of ''[[Home Movies]]'', Brendon's mother reacts this way to Brendon asking to go to the library—multiple times. The first time she does it is out of legitimate shock, but then she keeps doing it, seemingly just to annoy Brendon.

* ''[[Wakfu]]''

** Done by Ruel in episode 10, all over his friend Calben, from Amalia's yell surprising him.

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', "[[Avatar: The Last Airbender/Recap/Book 3/09 Nightmares and Daydreams|Nightmares and Daydreams]]", Aang yells at Toph to stop drinking water and she immediatly spit-takes in surprise, all over Katara (who subsequently waterbends to dry herself). When asked why, Aang explains he just had a dream where they all died because of Toph's [[Potty Emergency]], and thus it's important that she avoids drinking in the future....

* ''[[The Legend of Korra]]''" "[[The Legend of Korra/Recap/B1/E02 A Leaf in the Wind|A Leaf in the Wind]]." A White Lotus guard does this right into the face of another when the pro-bending announcer on the radio reveals that Korra is playing in a match.

* Alfe in ''[[The Problem Solverz]]'' does this a lot, mainly when attacking. He also does it after trying the "slightly off" root beer and pizza pancakes in "Fauxboro".

* In the ''[[Fanboy and Chum Chum]]'' episode "Fangboy", Dr. Acula does this when Fanboy tells him he's a vampire.

* ''[[Superfriends]]'' 1973/74 episode "The Androids". Dr. Rebos and his assistant Loco are in their laboratory toasting their mission to stop the U.S. space program. Dr. Rebos spits out what he's drinking as he looks up and sees the Super Friends, who have just entered the room.

* [[Tiny Toon Adventures|Acme Looniversity]] actually offers a Spit Take class.

 

== Real Life ==

* "Spit take" is a popular improv comedy game with some troupes. All you need are several players, more bottles of water, and a scene that provides plenty of "surprises". [[Hilarity Ensues]], as well as a pause to clean the stage afterwards.

 

{{reflist}}