You!

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"That is all I get? One pronoun?"
—The Sorrow, The Last Days of Foxhound

You!

This is the classic expression of surprise and/or anger upon sighting another character, usually a nemesis.

As several of these examples are clearly aware, this is kind of pointless for any reason besides the fact that the extreme emotion the sight evokes needs some word to give it form, and as it is directed towards that character, the second-person pronoun is the only obvious choice.

Sometimes, the person being addressed will respond with "Yes, me," or some variation.

A typical use of this exclamation is to demonstrate that the two characters know and don't like each other, but the audience doesn't yet know why. Sometimes the audience doesn't find out who the "You!" is until later.

In Anime, it can get more complicated: many words directly translate to "you," and depending on the word used, "you!" can connote anything from "hey, there" to "You Killed My Father, Prepare to Die," to anything in between. Pragmatic dubbers tend to use the connotation instead of the literal translation.

When both parties have this reaction to seeing each other, it's "You?" Squared. Also compare Say My Name. See also No, You.

You! Read These Examples!

Comic Books

Saint Of Killers: "Me."

  • Also, in Scott Pilgrim when Ramona comes back to life, Gideon exclaims this.

Film

Agent: You!
Smith: Yes, me.
[jabs his hand into the agent and starts turning him into another Smith]
Smith: Me, me, me...
[The agent is now another Smith]
Other Smith: Me too.
[they exchange ghastly little smiles]

  • Biff in Back to the Future Part II, upon seeing Marty - after being punched out by George.
  • In Xanadu, the lead character has been painting an album cover featuring Olivia Newton-John's character. Later, when he sees her on the street, he yells out "You!" (and she answers "Me!")
  • In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, accompanied by a whopping Scare Chord, when Sweeney Todd suddenly reappears in his shop to confront the Beggar Woman for the last time.
  • The beginning of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves has Robin's father ride out of his castle to confront a gang of bad guys in masks. The leader takes his mask off, and Lord Loxley delivers the line. Later it's revealed that the leader is the Sheriff of Nottingham.
  • At the end of Rent, Roger and Mimi have this exchange: "You!" "Me." "Mimi..."
    • Probably an echo of that bit in-between La Vie Boheme A and I Should Tell You. "You [have HIV]?" "Me. You [too]?" "Mimi..."
  • In HomeAlone4TakingBackTheHouse, Marv slides downstairs soaked with water right to Kevin's feet, stares for a minute while attempting to regain his vision, and, seeing Kevin, shouts, "YOU!"
  • In A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors, Freddy and Nancy come face to face for the first time since she defeated him, and all he says is an angry "you".
  • Ghost Rider uses this quite a bit.
  • Pale Rider. When killer-for-hire Stockburn is first told of The Nameless preacher played by Clint Eastwood, it reminds him of someone "but that man is now dead." Earlier we saw the Preacher taking a bath, revealing multiple bullet scars. When Stockburn finally comes face to face with the Preacher, he just emits a shocked "You!" before drawing his gun, whereupon the Preacher kills him.
  • In the first Conan the Barbarian movie, one of Thulsa Doom's henchmen exclaims that after seeing that Conan is Not Quite Dead.
  • In The Mummy 1999, there's a You! when Rick and Evy go to the library to find out what to do about Imhotep and find Ardeth Bey there.
  • In The Mummy Returns, this is Imhotep's reaction to Rick after Rick confronts him with guns blazing, just after his re-awakening.
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Brad does one of these when Frank seduces him.
  • In The Road Warrior, Wez does this at one point with Max: "YOU! You can run, but you can't hide!" ..although it's a more a parting shot than a greeting.
  • During the climax of X-Men 1, when Magneto traps the heroes in the Statue Of Liberty, he greets them with "ah, my brothers!"... then casts a glare at Wolverine and snarls "...and you."

Literature

  • The Duumvirate says this near the end.
  • One of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books has Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect bump into each other unexpectedly after a long separation. Arthur says "You!" Ford just sighs and prepares to assume his usual role. "What do you need to have explained this time?"
  • Harry Potter exclaims this upon seeing that the character after the Philosopher's Stone is not at all whom he expected.
    • He also does it upon meeting Andromeda Tonks, mistaking her for her sister, Bellatrix Lestrange.
  • Asmodean's last words, apart from "No!" The identity of his killer was not revealed for eight further books (it was Graendal).
  • Near the end of the third book of The Dark Tower by Stephen King, bad guy Gasher does it to Roland when the Gunslinger comes to rescue Jake.

Gasher looked up. "You," he snarled.
"Me," Roland agreed. He fired once, and the left side of Gasher's head disintegrated.

Live Action TV

  • In one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Worf yells "You!" at Quark to complain about tampering with the Defiant's replicator.
  • Rexor says this upon seeing the title character in the big fight in the orgy chamber in Conan the Barbarian.
  • Jack says this upon finding Desmond inside the hatch on Lost.
    • As does Richard when he realizes the true identity of the impostor Locke.
  • From Heroes:

Future Hiro: "You."
Hiro: "Me?"

Miscellaneous

  • The finale of Bizet's opera Carmen begins with Carmen's shocked exclamation "C'est toi!" as she notices Don José (who replies "C'est moi").

Music

Professional Wrestling

Toys

Video Games

Web Comics

Western Animation

  • In the Chaotic episode where Kaz and Peyton try to prove that he is the best chaotic player to the other one. There is a scene where Kaz goes into Ulmar's lab to scan a weapon for their battle. He bumps a cart with the door causing Ulmar to say this befor throwing a fireball in Kaz's direction.
  • Spoofed in the Garfield and Friends episode "Video Airlines", in a scene from Kung Fu Creatures on the Rampage 2 that Jon and Garfield keep coming across:

You! You're not Sylvia! You're one of the Kung Fu creatures on the Rampage! Two!

  • In Animaniacs, when the Warners try to sell Albert Einstein cookies, he kicks them out because he's busy. When they return again, Einstein says "You!" and Yakko promptly pulls out a ewe and says "No, this is a ewe."
  • SpongeBob SquarePants has a short called "The Reefblower" in which this is the sole line of dialogue, spoken by SpongeBob, and even then it's not audible; it's subtitled.
  • In Aladdin, when he finally realizes Aladdin is back in the palace, Jafar addresses him with a You!, then follows up with "How many times do I have to kill you, boy?!"
    • In the third movie, the head guard does this when Aladdin helps his father escape from prison.
  • The titular Corpse Bride gives two of these to Lord Barkis after he crashes the wedding. Well, more like a "You?" and then a "You!", but it's the same thing.
  • In Toy Story, after he and Buzz are accidentally left at a petrol-station by Andy, Woody briefly rushes at Buzz with a You!. In this case, its not a sign of recognition - rather Woody finally being pushed over the edge by all the trouble Buzz has inadvertently caused him.
  • In An American Tail Warren says this when he notices Fievel spying on him through his mirror.
  • In the last part of the Five Episode Pilot of Pirates of Dark Water, after Ioz pins Bloth down with arrows:

Bloth: You!
Ioz: Yes, me. But enough small talk. Hand the Compass over or you're Dagron bait.

  • In The Little Mermaid II Louis the chef runs across Sebastian (who caused him a lot of trouble in the first film) and screams "You!!", causing a terrified Sebastion to squeak out "you!". Hilarity Ensues.
  • In the episode "Accomplices" of The Spectacular Spider-Man, Rhino delivers one to Spidey after he tosses a traffic cone onto his horn.

Spider-Man: Whoa, I got the thing on the thing! What do I win?
Rhino: YOU!
Spider-Man: I win me?! That makes no sense.

You!

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/You!?oldid=1740523"