History Main / CoughSnarkCough

* ''BringItOn'' has a hero mercilessly skewer a "loser sneezer" for their employment of such a tired joke.
** There's a hero in that movie?
*** Of course, the bully gets the better of him anyway, by responding to the merciless skewer with another loser sneeze. Hi fives abound. This trooper felt that it was the only moment of truth in television in the entire film.

* [[{{Empowered}} Major Havoc]]: * koff* Bitch.

* Inverted in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Whenever a guest to the factory says something that Willy Wonka doesn't want to hear, he accuses them of mumbling, even though they are speaking clearly.
* * In ''RobinHoodMenInTights'', when Prince John tries to blame all his misdeeds on the Sheriff, the entire audience at the wedding coughs "Bullshit!" in unison.

--->'''Barney''': *cough* Lesbian.\\
'''Robin''': The cough is supposed to cover the "lesbian."\\
'''Barney''': Nah, I'm trying to start a thing where the cough is separate.
* ''VeronicaMars'' specifically references the trope in the episode "Like A Virgin". After someone took a false purity test for Meg Manning (she "got" a 48, which for someone who hadn't even gone to second base with her boyfriend of years was delightful to the gossip hounds), she notes the many ways she's been teased, including "slut sneezing". Veronica, for some reason, doesn't get the reference, and Meg has to demonstrate by sneezing and saying "slut" as she does so. She seems embarrassed even by this, but does it again as if to reinforce how lame it is, and shrugs.
* ''TheOffice'' (American Version) has Andy and Dwight get into a coughing conversation after their first day of work together.

-->'''Eric:''' * cough* Slut!

-->'''Shawn:'''* cough* Loser!
-->'''Mr. Turner (the teacher present at the time):''' * cough* Detention!
-->'''Shawn:''' * cough* Sorry!
* Happens once on ''{{Reba}}'' when Van says "* cough* baloney!" But because it's aimed at his wife, an argument ensues.

-->Also, in the episode A Prom Story:

* Someone once won (the original, UK version of) ''WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' with the help of a friend in the audience feeding him answers through coded coughs. Although these just took the form of ''numbers'' for the options, invariably for the many parodies this spawned he was shown to be using this trope.

* In this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D8lj3dg5-o&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjayivey.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fblame-it-on-e-e-e-e-economy.html&feature=player_embedded parody of "Blame It" by Jamie Foxx]], BarackObama says "Repubs blamin' me! * cough* [[BillOReilly O'Reilly]]."
* One ''Half-Life 2'' machinima, Combine Nation, has a [[DeadpanSnarker Vortigaunt]] [[OutOfCharacterMoment using this trick]] to call a [[GasmaskMooks metrocop]] an asshole. When the cop asks what was that, the Vort denies that he said anything.

* ''TheSimpsons'': In "Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade", the third grade teacher remarks that Bart came from [[ReallyGetsAround Krabappel]]'s class (coughSLUTcough).

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* ''TheSimpsons'': In "Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade", the third grade teacher remarks that Bart came from Krabappel's class (coughSLUTcough).
** Also, in "She Used to Be My Girl", one-shot character Chloe remarks that she's slept with numerous famous people, including coughCLINTONcough.

---> "You know who else had anti-smoking laws? Who was it... oh, yeah -- Hitler!"
---> "coughNazi!cough"

-->'''Leonard:''' *Pretending to sneeze*''Twenty-five cats!''

* Izzie Stevens of "[[GreysAnatomy Grey's Anatomy]]" says ''"sexual harassment!'' in a sneeze when [[HandsomeLech Mark Sloan]] refers to her as a "hot blonde."

* {{PPC}}: A MarySue dramatically clutched a pink rose at the beginning of a really nauseating sex scene on one mission, at which Agent Laburnum "uttered a sequence of odd coughing noises which sounded rather like the words 'humourous metaphor'."

** And from the season after ''that'', we get this exchange between:
-->'''Halfrek:''' Oh, [punishing men who wronged women] was just Anya's little raison d'etre. Most of try to be a little more well-rounded.

-->-- John Green, Brotherhood 2.0

* One ''Half-Life 2'' machinima (can't remember the name) has a [[DeadpanSnarker Vortigaunt]] [[OutOfCharacterMoment using this trick]] to call a [[GasmaskMooks metrocop]] an asshole. When the cop asks what was that, the Vort denies that he said anything.

* One ''Half-Life 2'' machinima (can't remember the name) has a [[DeadpanSnarker Vortigaunt]] using this trick to call a [[GasMaskMook metrocop]] an asshole. When the cop asks what was that, the Vort denies that he said anything.

** In a later episode, Buffy is tearing into the Watcher's Council about their actions. While she is on the topic of getting Giles re-instated as a Watcher, Giles throws out a * cough* retroactive when his salary is mentioned.

-->'''Leonard:''' *Cough*''Twenty-five cats''.

* In one episode of ''HowIMetYourMother'', Marshall coughs out an entire sentence.

--->'''Barney''': * cough* Lesbian.\\

* {{Lupin III}}: The English dub of the second series has Zenigata (yes, THAT one!) pulling this twice in a row towards the chief commissioner of the French police department after he turned down his order to put a team together to catch Lupin because he is regarded sort of a national icon towards France. [[spoiler:Though the chief commissioner was Lupin in disguise.]]

When someone needs some... uh... (coughHELPcough) help coming up with an, er... what's the word... (coughIDEAcough) an idea, someone else may be particularly unsubtle about giving the answer. Or an insult or snide comment is made, but is not intended to be heard by someone standing nearby (coughJACKASScough).

Other things that can be hidden between coughs or sneezes are names, as in, "I'm not going to name names but there one person in this group who's a real pain coughALICEcough," or even entire sentences. Occasionally subverted by repeating the hidden words for clarification, implying the insult was garbled by a genuine cough and the cougher really just has no respect for the person in question. This is TruthInTelevision, too, but any real life examples go to [[TroperTales/CoughSnarkCough Troper Tales]].

May also be subverted if everyone near the cougher, including the audience, can clearly tell what is being said, while the recipient of snark is oblivious. It follows that the victim of the snarking is either really quite dense, or else entirely unwilling to believe that someone is snarking at him.

* In ''RobinHoodMenInTights'', when Prince John tries to blame all his misdeeds on the Sheriff, the entire audience at the wedding begins coughing "Bullshit!"

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* In Disney's BrotherBear, one of the moose brothers coughs his opinion of recently-turned-bear Kenai, who is trying to convince them that he is actually a human.

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* {{TheSimpsons}}: In "Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade", the third grade teacher remarks that Bart came from Krabappel's class (coughSLUTcough).

* ''{{The Suite Life of Zack and Cody}}'': When Cody was creating a lazer for the science fair, Arwin "innocently" told him how to build it correctly. He wasn't supposed to tell him.