Stock Phrase used when introducing a scene which is meant as an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at something. Typically, the setup of the scene has the camera pan over to an actor in a dressing room or on a soundstage, either out of costume or in some other way indicating that they are currently out of character. The actor will look momentarily surprised, then say something like "Oh, hi there. As you can see, I'm on the set, getting ready to film the next big scene in
Avatar and the Air-Bending Fellowship of Vampire Hunters. We work really hard here to make sure that all the
Wire Fu you see here looks absolutely convincing. Hey, why don't I show you around the set and you can see for yourself just how we do some of those amazing scenes."
The setup is intended to give the sense that the viewer has caught the actor unprepared, and therefore this excusive look into his world is going to be entirely candid and not fiction in the slightest. Because this camera crew just showed up uninvited and the actor in question did not notice them coming.
Perhaps a
Dead Unicorn Trope, as this sort of Behind-The-Scenes featurette was not tremendously common prior to the advent of DVD. While it is still used, even used straight, it is always with at least a bit of a wink and a nod if not outright
Lampshade Hanging (such as the actor delivering the line in a way that implies he is reading it from a cue card).
This setup was sometimes used for commercials for unrelated products, here to give the impression that, while you know that the celebrity endorsing the product is an actor, in the profession of telling you things convincingly even when they are fictional, right
now, you're hearing him when he's off-duty and is therefore telling you the real truth.
A sign that
Viewers Are Morons. Also common in kids'
Edutainment Shows, where it's perhaps a bit more understandable.
Examples:
- Used by numerous DVD bonus features on the Stargate SG-1 box set
- Seth McFarlane used this opening for a commercial advertising Family Guy on Adult Swim. On the show proper, Stewie uses it at the start of his one-man show, before being heckled off by a drunken Elroy Jetson.
- Stephen Colbert often uses the line on The Colbert Report on returning from a commercial, especially when he's delivering The Tag from his fireside set. For example, "Oh, Hi there. I was just standing here pretending not to notice you."
- This is a carryover from his segments on The Daily Show. One of them, "So You're Living in a Police State," began with a grainy, greenish image of a bathroom from the ceiling. He came in and stood at a urinal peeing, then suddenly looked straight into the camera and said, "Oh, hi! I didn't see you there in the sprinkler head!"
- And sometimes the camera starts rolling before he 'notices' and we see him rehearsing different deliveries of his "Oh, hi there!" line.
- Parodied on the Simpsons with the Mr Sparkle commercial, the actor in was in a hot tub and basically said "don't believe me watch this commercial".
- Also, when Marge sets up a pretzels outlet, the introductory tape she received from the franchiser shows him hastily setting up the camera, before rushing back to his desk, pretending to look through some papers there, and looking over to the camera to deliver the line.
- Used particularly awkwardly in an TV ad for Colonial Penn life insurance, with said camera crew approaching an elderly woman as she's exiting a car with her family. She talks to this random camera crew about how she wishes life worked like the parking meter she was feeding. "I could keep putting quarters in, and live forever", even as a child calls out "C'mon, grandma!" And this is all played completely straight.
- Each episode of Ask That Guy With The Glasses begins with this greeting in a different language.
- The Mitchell and Webb Situation had a sketch parodying this, where the man being featured on a reality show is bewildered by the whole charade. The sketch starts with the host ringing his doorbell and greeting him as if it's the first time they've met. "What do you mean? You've been here over an hour. You've only just gone outside again. I'm miked up." "So where's the kitchen?" "It's where you set up all those lights."
- There's a hilarious video on You Tube of Gary Busey angrily instructing the interviewer for a Hunter S. Thomson documentary how to conduct it. Busey tells him to call his name as he's looking out into the ocean drinking a cup of coffee so Busey can turn around and be surprised to see someone there to ask him questions.
