History Main / UnPaused

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Near the end of ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic'', Rincewind and Twoflower's current captor uses a spell to freeze in midair a bottle hurled towards him, arresting its momentum. Eight hours later, when the spell wears off, he happens to be standing in the same spot... (Note that in ''TCOM'' this is ''intentional''; the deity that the protagonists are speaking with specifically manipulates the laws of chance so that the bottle just happens to be in the exact place and time to hit the guard and allow them to escape.)

** In "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]", the Fourth Doctor attempts to talk Noah into shutting down the stack before the creature feeding off its energy is strong enough to break out, causing Noah to blast him unconscious with a stun pistol ("If you'd been down there with me, Noah, y--"). After several minutes of plot has elapsed, Sarah wakes him and he announces, "--ou wouldn't find it so amusing." He then complains he was "cut off mid-sentence! I could have been saying something important.... I ''was'' saying something important."
** Played for laughs when the Doctor [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang
has to leave Rory]] to take TheSlowPath guarding the Pandorica. The Doctor warns Rory about various perils, concluding with "and however bored you get, stay out of--" before he's abruptly transported away. Rory must have spent almost 2000 years wondering what the Doctor was warning him about. However the last word was only "trouble", which the audience hears when the Doctor arrives at his destination in the present day.

** In "The Ark in Space", the Fourth Doctor attempts to talk Noah into shutting down the stack before the creature feeding off its energy is strong enough to break out, causing Noah to blast him unconscious with a stun pistol ("If you'd been down there with me, Noah, y--"). After several minutes of plot has elapsed, Sarah wakes him and he announces, "--ou wouldn't find it so amusing." He then complains he was "cut off mid-sentence! I could have been saying something important.... I ''was'' saying something important."
** Played for laughs when the Doctor has to leave Rory to take TheSlowPath guarding the Pandorica. The Doctor warns Rory about various perils, concluding with "and however bored you get, stay out of--" before he's abruptly transported away. Rory must have spent almost 2000 years wondering what the Doctor was warning him about. However the last word was only "trouble", which the audience hears when the Doctor arrives at his destination in the present day.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* In ''Film/TheMask'' the title superhero responds to a order to "Freeze!" by doing exactly that -- stopping dead in midair, covered in icicles. When told by the exasperated cop to "Unfreeze" (because otherwise he can't obey a further order to put his hands up), he finishes his leap and gets tackled by the cops.

* In ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'' episode "My Husband is Not a Drunk" Buddy is in the middle of explaining that he can't be hypnotized, then gets hypnotized. When he gets snapped out he continues his sentence about being [[BuffySpeak unhypnotizable]]. {{Subverted}} though, in that Buddy was only pretending to be hypnotized.

** The "Time Stop" spell stops time within a limited area. When it ends, the creatures inside have no idea any time has passed and continue acting as they were before.

* One of the buttons on ''Series/TheUpsideDownShow'''s UniversalRemoteControl is the Pause Button, which freezes whatever it's used on. It's one of the most commonly used buttons, both in the intro segment and the main story, and Shane, especially in the intro segments, [[Main/ButtMonkey usually ends up its target]].

* It is said (but not true) that when the BBC started broadcasting again after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it picked up from the same place in a cartoon where it had stopped... The TV transmitter was shut down in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon. The television service ''did'' resume with the same cartoon after the war ended, but from the start.

-->'''C-3PO:''' I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. No, please don't get up. Stormtroopers? Here? We're in danger. I must tell the others. Oh, no! I've been shot!

* Urban legend holds that a professor in a Central European university was interrupted in the middle of a lecture by the onset of World War 2. Years later, after the war ended, the professor returned to the university and began his first lecture with "As I was saying...".

* ''Series/TheBennyHillShow'': In one sketch Benny is lurking outside a woman's bedroom window when a policeman grabs him by the shoulder and says "You are under arrest for being a Peeping...". Then the woman starts undressing and both men can just [[DistractedByTheSexy stare at her in wonder]]. After the woman finally closes the blinds the policeman grabs Benny's shoulder again and completes the arrest by saying "... Tom!"

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' supplement ''Acute Paranoia'', adventure "Me and My Shadow Mark IV". Markie (the Mark IV warbot) is talking to the [[PlayerCharacter PC's]] when a piece falls off of him, sending him into a catatonic state. [[spoiler:(It's a barometer. It just messed with his superiority complex.)]] When the piece is re-attached, Markie continues talking right where he left off. If they call him on it, he makes up a story about cosmic rays or something. If they keep pushing the issue, he blows them away with a tacnuke.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' supplement ''Acute Paranoia'', adventure "Me and My Shadow Mark IV". Markie (the Mark IV warbot) is talking to the [[PlayerCharacter PC's]] when a piece falls off of him, sending him into a catatonic state. [[spoiler:(It's a barometer. It just messed with his superiority complex.)]] When the piece is re-attached, Markie continues talking right where he left off. If they call him on it, he makes up a story about cosmic rays or something. [[TooDumbToLive If they keep pushing the issue]], [[BerserkButton he blows them away]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill with a tacnuke]].

* The episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' entitled "A Kind of a Stopwatch" has this in it, until [[spoiler:[[KarmicTwistEnding the stopwatch breaks]]]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'', Elaine is gearing up to punch Guybrush right before she is turned into a statue. Once revived, she floors him. (Granted, he had it coming).

** When Hancock first appeared, she used her powers to turn a bunch of marines [[TakenForGraniteto stone]] as they were calling her name. A few episodes later she turned them back, resulting in them calling out "-cock-sama".

* A variation occurs in ''Manga/OnePiece'' with Foxy's Slow-Slow Beam, which allows him to slow down people/objects for 30 seconds. While slowed down, the target will appear to be doing the same thing, even if, say, a huge, powerful fist flies right into their face.

[[quoteright:350:[[WebAnimation/HazbinHotel https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alastorunpaused.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"May I speak now?"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"May I speak now?".]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Alastor picks up right where he left off.]]

* In ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'''s fourth DLC, the claptrapped version of [[spoiler:Commandant Steele]], who died at the end of the main game, finishes [[spoiler: the speech she was giving before being impaled by the GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere FinalBoss.]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' opens with the villain apparently destroying time and space, banishing Sonic into a white limbo, kidnapping most of the extended cast, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking blasting a chili-dog out of Sonic's hand]]. Upon restoring the world, Sonic's first action? Catch the falling chili-dog.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Catch and Release", Peridot is [[KilledMidSentence Poofed Mid-Sentence]] ("Wait! You need me! I'm the only one who knows about--") and taken back to the Crystal Gems' temple. When Steven frees her to find out why she's suddenly so desperate to escape back to Homeworld, she finishes her exclamation ("--the Cluster, you insufferable half-formed traitor mega-clods!") before realizing the change of locale.

[[quoteright:350:[[[[WebAnimation/HazbinHotel https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alastorunpaused.png]]]]