Jake's dad: I'm the new janitor.
Jake: What?
Mark: [loudly] HE SAID HE'S THE NEW JANITOR!
Jake: [stares at Mark with an annoyed Death Glare] I heard him.
Jake: What?
Mark: [loudly] HE SAID HE'S THE NEW JANITOR!
Jake: [stares at Mark with an annoyed Death Glare] I heard him.
—Mark, California Dreams
Alice says something Betty finds shocking. "What?!" Betty asks indignantly. Alice, The Ditz, repeats word for word what she just said, mistaking the indignance for not having heard. If they're particularly unlucky, this might continue for some time.
Compare Rhetorical Question Blunder (a question that didn't need an answer gets one anyway). Contrast I Can't Hear You (a gag involving one character not being able to hear another). Might overlap with CAPS LOCK (someone speaks in uppercase only) and Suddenly Shouting (someone starts speaking in a normal voice, but finishes yelling).
Examples:
open/close all folders
Fan Works
Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: In "Crowd Atlas", Kaiba instructs Obelisk to attack Yami Yugi, who doesn't exclaim "What?" back at Kiba but whose response makes Obelisk halt in its tracks. Kaiba then repeats his order at a louder volume and in a Punctuated! For! Emphasis! manner.
Films — Animation
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: Where the show would normally use a Lame Rhyme Dodge, the movie has Cartman repeat his "How would you like to suck my balls?" retort with the aid of a megaphone after Mr. Garrison threatens him with going to the principal's office.
- Turning Red: When Mei's family, and Mei herself start chanting to revert Ming Lee's red panda form back to human, both Mr. Gao and Jin note that the red panda is so entrenched and humongous that it's not working. The former directs them to "Sing from the heart! Louder!", while the latter exclaims "Louder! The circle isn't working!". The Lee women comply but it's only when Mei's friends and, eventually, 4*TOWN as well join them in the singing that the circle lits properly. Not only more people mean a greater volume but they also have mics to amp the output.
- Zootopia: Nick's response to Chief Bogo when he tries to take Judy's badge. Zig-Zagged because Nick knows exactly what he's doing and draws out his second response to show his contempt for Chief Bogo's unfair attempt to cut short Judy's 48-hour deadline.
Films — Live-Action
- Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me: Austin is giving a massage to a girl, who upon being asked how it feels, requests Austin to move his hands further down along her back. Austin misinterprets and asks the same question but with a deeper voice.
Live-Action TV
- California Dreams: This happens when Jake reacts in shock to his father telling him that he's the new school janitor early in the episode "Mop N' Pop". Mark is the one cluelessly repeating Jake's father's statement in a louder volume.
- Friends: Phoebe Buffay is socially oblivious enough to repeat her—or other people's—offensive/insensitive statements in a louder tone when people answer her with an indignant what the first time. On one such occasion, Rachel reveals that Ross and Monica's mother told her Phoebe is like the daughter she never had. Monica is flabbergasted and her instinctual response only causes Phoebe to repeat Rachel's previous assertion in a loud voice.
- The Golden Girls: Rose Nylund's specialty is to yell a repetition of any shocking or weird assertion other characters make due to thinking people's "What!?" exclamations mean they haven't heard the speaker the first time. In "The Audit", a situation like this devolves after Stan reveals the characters are being audited.
- Have I Got News for You: Paul Merton constantly mistakes people ordering to tune his voice volume with them asking him to tune his pitch. "Lower" (when guessing at a number) makes him use a deeper voice, "nearer" makes him lean in, etc. When he comes close to giving the correct answer but not close enough, the then host, Angus Deayton, says "More precisely?" Paul Merton repeated exactly what he had just said but slower and with much more careful diction. In one episode, the host asks him to speculate what would happen to the UK without its power stations. Paul adds an Evil Laugh to his response after the host prompts him for a more sinister answer.
- Lab Rats: In 'Bionic Showdown', Adam repeats Chase's accusation of Donald's orders not always being right back to Donald because he thought Donald didn't hear Chase the first time.
- Night Court: It was used multiple times in one episode and always at Christine. Oh, and the last one came from a radio broadcast.
- Life On Mars: Inverted by Gene because it's his flummoxed "How?" that gets repeated in a yell instead of Sam's assertion of them being able to lure the kidnappers out.
- Taxi: In one episode, Cloud Cuckoo Lander Reverend Jim takes the test to get a driver's license. He asks Bobby, his examiner, what yellow lights mean. The answer is, of course, that the driver ought to slow down their vehicle. However, Jim thinks Bobby is requesting him to repeat his question more slowly. They quickly get trapped in a cycle.
- The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: When Tommy accuses Dick of being their mom's favorite son, the latter orders the former to lower his voice. Tommy complies and repeats his accusation in a ridiculously low monotone.
Video Games
- Army Men: Sarge's Heroes: On being informed that Colonel Grimm and Sarge have successfully escaped, captured a blue intel officer, and found one of their portals, General Plastro is understandably shocked. The subordinate giving him the Sit Rep thinks his General is hard of hearing, so he starts repeating his report. Plastro angrily clarifies that his "What!?" interjection was rhetorical.
- Cyberpunk 2077: Talking gun Skippy lacks concepts of rhetorical questions. When V retorts a deadpan "Seriously?" to him for naming himself Skippy, Skippy answers by repeating "Name: Skippy" and increasing his volume by 66%.
Visual Novels
- Pizza Game: During Kiane's pizza date with Mr. Arimnaes, the latter adds "hold the bitching" to his ordering of a pepperoni pizza. Kiane, offended at his rude assumption of her constantly whining, asks a rhetorical "What did you just say to me?". Mr. Arimnaes gladly repeats it louder to her.
Web Animation
- Mastermind: Subverted. When the Mastermind screams "WHAT?!", it is not because he is angry at someone, but because he wants them to repeat what they said.
Mastermind: No, seriously, I didn't hear you the first time. No, I'm not being funny. I didn't hear a word you said. It was like I was in my own zone, blanked out and never came back.
- RWBY: During their field trip to the ruins of Mountain Glenn, Oobleck sometimes confuses Team RWBY with his idiosyncratic style of speech. When he instantly corrects his estimation for how long it will take them to find a lone Beowolf's pack due to the pack appearing in front of him, Weiss asks "What?" in confusion. When he adds the warning that the Grimm have spotted them, she exclaims "What?!" in alarm. However, Oobleck misunderstands her reaction and repeats his warning at top volume straight into her ear.
Western Animation
- Flying Rhino Junior High: This dynamic is used as a Running Gag between The Phantom and Raticus. The former would react with an indignant or shocked "What did you just say?" to someone else's dialogue. Raticus, misinterpreting it as The Phantom not having clearly heard the speaker, starts saying "[the character] said that..." only to be interrupted by The Phantom yelling "I heard them!".
- The Loud House: In "Tripped!", just before the Louds perform "Road Trippin' Blues" at an open mic event, a waiter announces them as the "Load" family. Lola tries to correct him by saying, "Loud!", but he instead repeats, "The Load family!" in a louder tone.
- Mega Man (Ruby-Spears): ProtoMan's response to Dr. Wily rhetorically asking "What do you mean, he escaped?" is to provide synonyms for the word escaped, such as departed, vamoosed, and beat feet. Dr. Wily angrily retorts that he knows what the term means.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: At the start of the theme song:
Painty the Pirate: Are you ready, kids?!
Kids: Aye-aye, captain!
Painty: I can't hear you!
Kids: AYE-AYE, CAPTAIN!
[Cue theme song] - Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Storm Over Ryloth", after being informed that scans reveal Anakin is the only lifeform aboard the Defender Tuuk gives a disbelieving "What?" that causes the droid to start repeating its report verbatim before Tuuk cuts it off as he realizes it's a trap.
