Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Difference between revisions

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Wayne's World|Wayne's World 2]]'': When the boys give an interview to a local radio DJ, they discover he's more interested in loading tapes than actually listening...so they start calling him names, and he's completely oblivious to their joking around.

* ''The Shaggy Dog'' [2006] has a scene where Doug's wife Rebecca is trying to point out to him that he's turning into the present-in-body-only form of [[Disappeared Dad]]. She points out the kids got into an argument and took the dog's side. Doug nods. Then, to test if he's listening, she tells him that a neighbor asked her something and she told the neighbor the family had converted to cannibalism. Doug replies, "OK, great. I'd have said the same thing." In an odd twist, he does not pick up the absurdity, and Rebecca is forced to drop a pile of heavy law books on his desk to get his full attention.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Discworld]]:

** Later in the same book, Sybil mentions that she's going to have a baby, and the narrative records that Vimes' brain hastily paints this in ten-foot-high letters across his subconscious to prevent him answering absently with something unwise such as "Choose any colour you like" or "I'll have a man in to take care of it".

{{quote|"Do ''tell'' me about yourself!!"

"I'm from somewhere up in the mountains you've probably never heard of..."

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* From ''[[Babylon 5]]'':

** In "Infection", an old mentor of Stephen Franklin's comes back with some alien artifacts that look like they're organic technology. Stephen gets so absorbed in the research that his friend tries to draw him out with the statement, "[[War of the Worlds|There's a Martian war machine parked outside; they'd like a word with you about the common cold.]]"

 

== Music ==

* The chorus of the song 'circle of shame' by 'the All New Rosie and Rachel show' is a series of minimal responses a woman uses to give the impression that she's listening. Listen to it here: [https://web.archive.org/web/20160423154151/http://invocal.bandcamp.com/track/circle-of-shame]

** Except for one verse, which is about [[Intercourse with You|something else entirely...]]

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* One ''[[FoxTrot]]'' strip had Paige make all sorts of strange statements, which Roger basically ignores giving the "yeah", "uh-huh", and "that's nice", responses because he's reading the paper... right up until she says she's staying an hour past curfew, and he promptly shoots down her request. She comments that one day she's going to get past his "Dad Radar". Meanwhile, Peter or Jason is telling him his intent to change his name to "Moonbuggy", with the same initial responses.

* Calvin of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' tried a similar trick on his mother by announcing that he planned to become a radical terrorist when he grew up and that he was going to inhale a pesticide, to both of which his mother responded with a distracted "Mm hmm". But when he declared that he was going to stay up all night and watch television, she shot him down, leading him to observe "You can never tell if they're listening or not" (paraphrase).

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* On [[SHIMMER]] volume 26, LuFisto earned herself a title shot by asking the inattentive champion MsChif a long series of inane questions - ending in a request for a title match.

 

== Video Games ==

* In [[Jade Empire]], a man sends you to search the marshes for Fen, whom slavers have captured. You find a woman, but she isn't pleased to find out that you've been sent to find her husband's ox. When they leave the marshes together:

{{quote| '''Woman''': "Do I have to slaughter that thing to get your attention?"

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[A Miracle of Science]]''.

{{quote| "...Burmese tiger traps are fun and recommended for ages six and up."

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'': Dr. Horrible is in the middle of conducting a heist via remote control when his crush, Penny, asks him to sign a petition for a homeless shelter. He tries to keep up a conversation with her while working the remote, and she picks up on his distraction:

{{quote| '''Penny:''' We would be able to provide 250 new beds, get people off the streets and into job training so they could... buy rocket packs and go to the moon and become florists... You're not really interested in the homeless, are you?}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'':

** A sequence from the episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" may or may not have been intended this way:

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]

[[Category:Alice and Bob]]

[[Category:This Index Asked You a Question]]