But Wait, There's More! - Television Tropes & Idioms

But wait! There's more! There's... there's not really more... um...

—Doctor Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb

(When reading this entry, please instruct the voice in your head to use a tone of rapid, breathless excitement to properly convey the importance and amazement involved.)

A common phrase often heard in infomercials that resemble a high pressure sales pitch! After demonstrating why the product is the best thing ever, how it lets people who don't know how to use a strainer drain pasta without burning themselves and does your taxes for you! A price is set! But wait! There's more! In addition to the product, you can get more of them, in a handy travel size, along with this other product that helps you sort your drawers and store food, and costs far more than a couple of mason jars or some of those Glad disposable tupperware things!

All this for only 69.99, or Four Equal Payments of 49.99! Operators Are Standing By! But only if you act now! Don't think, it's a great deal! Buy now! Offer Void In Nebraska.

(Your mental voice may calm down now, if it wants to.)

A stock phrase uttered by infomercial hosts after telling you all about the great product they're hawking. They proceed to sweeten the deal by adding a few more things, or refills, or another product that's not selling so well on its own, or "double your order" when that's how much they intended to sell for the price in the first place. But only if you act now! Now! Now!

It's nice to know that ads still use this phrase, because that means even the commercial knew you were about to change the channel.

The phrase has become so associated with infomercials that it's hard to believe that it's Older Than Steam, but it's one of the oldest tricks in the book. The only reason that we can't date it back before the 1400s is that we simply don't know a lot about common life before the Renaissance - until then, nobody wrote down what the average person said or did (or if they did we don't know it). Suffice it to say that archaeologists wouldn't be at all surprised to find the Latin equivalent of "But wait! There's more!" scrawled on the wall of a Pompeii shop.

Examples:

Advertising

Ron Popeil wasn't the Trope Maker, but he certainly popularized it in 20th century America.
- In Australia, Tim Shaw was notorious for this to the point where he introduced an award at the Logies with this trope which included steak knives.
- This is also associated with the late Billy Mays.
Notably parodied in a Volkswagen commercial, where even the breathlessly excited voice wearied of revealing the car's features.

Music

The Tom Waits song "Step Right Up" parodies this Stock Phrase and the associated commercial banter by endlessly cataloging all possible amenties into a single pitch. Waits was very upset when Frito lay used a soundalike for a Cheetos ad.
"Weird Al" Yankovic's early song "Mr. Popeil" is an homage to Ron Popeil's commercials, in the musical style of the B-52s.

Film

Scary Movie parodies this trend when the killer is explaining his actions.

Real Life

In a rather unorthodox example, there was a speech given on the floor of the Canadian House of Commons by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in around 2007 during which another Conservative MP sitting behind him would shout, "But wait, there's more! There's more!" after every spending promise.

Video Games

Spoken by LeChuck in Tales Of Monkey Island Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, when, after confessing to the court that he was the one who spread the Pox of LeChuck, he has something else (i.e., the Voodoo Lady's diary) to show to the court.

Western Animation

The plot of a Pinky and the Brain episode.
On Phineas and Ferb, Doofenshmirtz creates the scorch-inator to destroy the towers that broadcast infomercials, because he has an addiction to them and it's taking time away from his evil plans. His speech to Perry the Platypus is in the form of an infomercial, and at the end he says: "But wait! There's more!" It is then revealed he doesn't actually have anything more to say.

Web Original

Jedite does this occasionally in Sailor Moon Abridged.
From Banana-nana-Ninja!:
Sudoku (in his pitch for the Omni-Functional Kitchen Gadget): "It slices! It dices! It sautees! It purees! It frappes! It even does the dishes! But wait - that's not all! Act now and you'll also get this Ridiculously Complicated Cheese Grater, absolutely free!"
Clea: "But doesn't the Omni Gadget grate cheese for you?"
Sudoku (demonstrating the OFKG's cheese grating capability): "Of course it does!"
The Nostalgia Critic is in the habit of saying this in his strained, pained ironic way when the stupidity of a particular scene just keeps coming.
The Pythia in Greek Ninja says this to Sasha after she's dropped the bomb on her that she's the reincarnation of Eli of Thrace.

And Ninety Nine Cents

Advertising Tropes

Four Equal Payments of

But He Sounds Handsome

Self-Demonstrating Article

Caligula's Horse

troperville

tools

toys

Examples: