History Main / RibbonCuttingCeremony

* In the USA, the First Transcontinental Railroad was ceremonially completed on May 10, 1869, at the famous "golden spike" event at Promontory Summit, Utah. Despite TV and movie portrayals, ''written'' historical records indicate that when the first strike was made, it missed. "Someone cried out, 'he missed it, huzzah!' he tried again, 'he still missed it!'" Apparently the third try was successful. The spike and hammer were wired to a telegraph, so that the hammer connecting with the spike would signal the exact moment the railroad was completed. An impatient telegraph operator went ahead and sent a message announcing the completion after the first or second miss.

* Franchise/{{Superman}} in a [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] comic book story about the opening of the Superman Pavilion (''Action Comics'' issue 500) uses his [[EyeBeams heat vision]] to cut through a steel ribbon at its entrance.

* Ride/UniversalStudios: Universal's Islands of Adventure, when it hosted ''Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights'' for the first time (HHN XII, "Islands of Fear"), had a vaudeville-style SlasherMovie mascot for its advertisements that sported the giant ribbon-cutting scissors.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' has Scrooge christening a ship with a bottle of champagne. Mid-swing, he checks with Duckworth that the bottle has ''cheap'' champagne. "The cheapest, sir!"

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' [[BookEnds opens and ends]] with these. The film starts (after [[EvilGenius Megamind]]'s [[SuperheroOrigin Origin Story]]) with Metro Man cutting the ribbon to his museum with EyeBeams. The ceremony gets interrupted by Megamind. At the end, the museum has been re-dedicated to the [[HeelFaceTurn reformed]] Megamind, who cuts the ribbon with a LightningGun.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' [[BookEnds opens and ends]] with these. The film starts (after [[EvilGenius Megamind]]'s OriginStory) with Metro Man cutting the ribbon to his museum with EyeBeams. The ceremony gets interrupted by Megamind. At the end, the museum has been re-dedicated to the [[HeelFaceTurn reformed]] Megamind, who cuts the ribbon with a LightningGun.

'''Professor Farnsworth:''' All right, [[RunsWithScissors but don't run with them]].

* ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' shows a bottle-breaking for the launch of ''Enterprise''-B; the bottle is shown careering through empty space before abruptly shattering against the ship's hull.

** The original ''Enterprise'' in the first ''Film/{{Star Trek|The Motion Picture}}'' movie also had a champagne bottle ceremony.

* ''Series/TopGear'': When Jeremy Clarkson was asked to open a swimming pool, he felt that the obvious method was to use a Rolls-Royce to cut the ribbon. Coincidentally, since the pool was directly behind the ribbon, HilarityEnsues.

* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Ride/UniversalStudios: Universal Islands of Adventure, when it featured ''Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights'' for the first time (HHN XII, "Islands of Fear"), had a vaudeville-style SlasherMovie mascot for its advertisements that sported the giant ribbon-cutting scissors.

** Episode "Timeless" has the bottle-breaking ceremony take place with the unveiling of the ship's new quantum slipstream drive; DramaticIrony is involved, as the audience already knows most of the crew will be killed as a result. Also a meta-example, [[MilestoneExample as this was the show's 100th episode, and they were celebrating that with this scene]].

** Episode "Timeless" has the bottle-breaking ceremony take place with the unveiling of the ship's new quantum slipstream drive; DramaticIrony is involved, as the audience already knows most of the crew will be killed as a result.

* In Polish TV show "Ranch", there's an opening for Country Club there's a common joke with how scissors don't want to cut the ribbon. A [Fanservice bar girl] Wioletka tries to help with holding the ribbon with her [GagBoobs chest]. She says to Paweł kozioł Mayor to be careful to not cut her bra, to which Mayor responds "well we would have not one, but two grand openings".

* ''Series/CallTheMidwife: Violet Buckle can be counted to do these about once per series ever since being elected to the Tower Hamlets Borough Council in Series 9 (1964). She even has designated ribbon-cutting shears--though this is a wink to her trade as a haberdasher (in which she uses shears to cut rather more mundane ribbons for dresses and little girls' hair) as much as it is a funny local-politician thing.

'''Professor Farnsworth:''' All right, [[RunningWithScissors but don't run with them]].

'''Professor Farnsworth:''' All right, but don't run with them.