Why Are You Looking At Me Like That?
Alice and Bob are planning an Undercover Mission. They need someone who knows about fine art and looks good in a bikini. Or perhaps they need someone to be The Bait. They reach the conclusion, but don't say it out loud, that Dorothy is the person for this. The audience knows this.
At this point, Dorothy enters the room. Alice and Bob look at her.
The next phrase out of Dorothy's lips:
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Often followed by a Gilligan Cut.
Comic Books
- In The DCU, the heroes are battling a villain who happens to be a teenage boy. They decide they need a distraction. Among the heroes is Power Girl, and the heroes all look at her pointedly before she realizes what they mean.
- In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, C-3PO enters a room just after a technician mentions that there's a bunch of combat shuttles down there, but they can't use them without a translation droid...
Film
- Dog Soldiers example: The main characters need a distraction to divert the werewolves.
 |
Cooper: We need a diversion. Something fast and loud. |
 |
- In Sneakers, the team want to set their victim up with a blind date to steal his identity, and they're trying to figure out which of the women they know would be appropriate. Liz says, based on his trash, that he's looking for someone "meticulous; refined; anal", and everyone looks at her.
- In the movie Tremors, the characters are trying to figure out a way to get out of town now that the only road is blocked. "Who's best on a horse?" Heroes Val and Earl glumly realize everyone's looking at them.
Live Action Television
- The Bill: DCI Jack Meadows, who knows about antiques.
- Firefly: Subverted in "The Train Job". The crew mention they need to send someone respectable, and everyone looks at Simon, who seems nervous about it...cut to Inara, the ambassador of the ship, putting the plan into action.
- The Wire: The cops need a decoy to infiltrate a brothel. Enter McNulty. "Send a whore to catch a whore."
- On an episode of Taxi, Alex and Louie have a bet going on who can make the most money in a night of cabbing. Louie brings in more money, but Alex makes enough in tips to make slightly more than Louie. The question of the winner comes down to whether the tips Alex has collected count towards the total. They decide to let a person who didn't bet make the decision, but only one person in the entire garage didn't do so. Cue everyone staring at Latka as he eats a bucket of chicken. Oblivious, he looks up and says, "Would anyone like a bite?"
- In the Red Dwarf episode "White Hole", the ship has shut down and the crew need to get through all the sealed doors:
|
Lister: Look, they're only interior doors. They're only a light alloy. Maybe we could get through them if we use a battering ram. All we need is something, say, I dunno, six foot long, fairly sturdy, with a flat top. |
|
- In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode The Magic Voyage of Sinbad Sinbad and his crew are being tossed in a storm and decide the only way they can appease Poseidon (whom Sinbad has angered) is with a sacrifice.
|
Servo: (as Sinbad) "Why's everyone looking at me?" |
|
- In the Legend of the Seeker episode "Princess", the gang needs to rescue Kahlan. Through a complicated series of events, they need to complete their disguise with a princess (or someone posing as one). Subverted slightly because most of the main characters in the show think before talking on at least a semi-regular basis, so the "why are you looking at me" bit is implied.
|
Richard All we need is a princess! |
|
- To fully understand this, remember Cara is a Mord-Sith. The Mord-Sith are the warrior-protector-women that serve the Lord Rahl. They're his (magically imbued) bodyguards, expert (and magical) torturers, consorts if the Lord Rahl asks of them, and feared throughout D'Hara and the Midlands. They wear blood-red, skintight leather so that the blood won't stain their similar brown or white leather outfits. They have been known to kill squads of enemies on their own, are fanatically loyal, and frighteningly resourceful. Richard and Zedd are asking her to put on a dress.
Video Games
- Dragon Age II - snarky-Hawke, during Sebastian's personal quest.
Web Comics
- In Dominic Deegan, Spark gets one of these moments when the orcs around him realize he might be useful as a magical link to Dominic. Comic, here.
Web Original
- In Red vs. Blue when the Blues need one of them to distract Sheila the Tank.
|
Church: If only we knew someone who Sheila trusted... and it would have to someone kind of dumb.. so that we could fool them into betraying that trust for our purposes... |
|
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender has at least two:
- In "The Drill" aimed at Sokka, because he's the idea guy.
- In the series finale aimed at Zuko, because he's the expert for tracking Aang.
- In the Futurama movie The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender suggests that an unmanned probe be sent to the transdimensional rupture. All eyes then turn to Bender, who goes, "What?"
- Also the episode "A Tale of Two Santas":
|
Bender: Santa's right. We need some sort of robot! ... Oh, crap! I'm some sort of robot! |
|
- James and the Giant Peach, film version:
|
James: And we'll need bait: bird bait. |
|
- Prince Naveen in The Princess and the Frog causes this to happen to a redneck that captures Tiana. He places himself on the guy's head, and lets the other two rednecks in the canoe see him. As the two raise their clubs...
|
Pa: What choo two gawkin' at? |
|
- Bumblebee tends to play the bait a lot, and eventually comes out with this:
|
Bumblebee: Why's everyone looking at me?...Why's everyone always looking at me? |
|
- Averted on Young Justice—the team concludes that Batman would have tried every logical means to find T.O. Morrow, so they need to think outside the box with an idea stupid enough to give them a lead. Everyone turns to Wally. He doesn't seem surprised.
|
"Well, as a matter of fact..." |
|
- The Jimmy Neutron episode "Jimmy For President" has a Double Subversion. When Ms. Fowl announces that one kid hasn't voted yet (who turns out to be Carl), nobody looks at anybody. However, when Carl says "Why is everybody looking at me?", the students immediately turn their heads at Carl.
- The Simpsons - Having secretly released Mr Burns's canary scapegoat (yes, really), Homer tells him the plant is undergoing a surprise inspection. Burns starts wracking his brains for a suitable patsy, with Homer repeatedly popping up in front of him and going "Hello!"
|
Burns: This moon-faced simpleton is continually interrupting my search for a patsy, why do.... Hello! |
|