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I will always miss you, Elvis
Alice And Bob are having a conversation. During the conversation, Bob says or does something that you'd think would set Alice off; however, she goes right on with the conversation as if it never happened. Until 30 seconds or so later...
Alice just had a Delayed Reaction. Basically, her brain somehow took longer to make a connection that the audience makes right away. Doesn't always have to be something designed to anger people, though those work best. Bonus points if the character walks off-screen, then yells something said out loud and races back.
Compare I Take Offense To That Last One and Swiss Moment. Often follows a Beat.
Examples:
- This happens in one scene in the movie "House Party" (Note that there are scripts of this movie online, but the dialogue in the actual movie seems to be adlibbed somewhat. This is from the movie, not the script):
Thug 2(saying this while being handed a baseball bat) Alright cool...Finally, a program l'm with. Whatever this is, l'm with it. (While thug 1 picks up a can of gasoline) Oh I hear that, I hear that. We gonna bust their ass as they come runnin out of the burning house.
Thug 2 and 3 (in unison): Burnin house?
Thug 1: Burnin house...
Thug 3: Damn Stab, Stab (Thug 1) hold up for a second. l was talking about kicking some fuckin ass...not burning people up.
Thug 2: Yeah now you're going too far.
- From an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, featuring Troi, her mother, Worf, and his son. After hearing that Worf and the boy are "having trouble [drafting a] contract", Mrs. Troi goes doting on the boy:
Mrs. Troi: Why of course he's unreasonable, he's a child! And such a child! You know, making children reasonable only gives them pimples!
Troi: Alexander, this is my mother.
Mrs. Troi: Alexander? What a wonderful name! I used to know a warrior named Alexander, he utterly adored me. And we went everywhere, simply everywhere together! Have you ever been anywhere, my little — CONTRACT, WHAT CONTRACT??
- Also from TNG, Star Trek Generations has Data first use his emotion chip, which sets off the galaxy's biggest delayed reaction ever as he finally understands a joke Geordi made seven years earlier!
- From the dead-tree comic Broom-Hilda, the titular witch is in a rage, complete with moons, stars, swirls, pound signs, and everything else used to cover up what she's really saying. Another character chides her, saying that "swearing is a childish way to assert one's masculinity". It doesn't occur to her until the next panel what the word "masculinity" means.
- From the Sesame Street movie Big Bird in China, Big Bird needs to find a camel. That's all he knows. Naturally, there are no camels in China, so he goes sightseeing in a sculpture garden...
Big Bird: "Oh, look, there's an elephant. And there's a camel. And there's an orangutan. My these sculptures are pretty..." He walks off-screen, then... "A CAMEL?!?"
- One U.S. Acres segment from Garfield And Friends dedicated to discussing animation tropes had the ultimate example of this. Laidback sheep Bo walks past a friend of his, who declares that the farm is being invaded by aliens resembling dishwashing liquid. He does not react, instead heading into his pen and sleeping away the entire winter. Three months later, he steps outside, stretches... and then shouts "Dishwashing liquid?! Head for the hills!" and runs away.
- Appears in a Monty Pythons Flying Circus sketch involving a series of police inspectors with strange names. When one introduces himself as "Lookout, of the Yard," one of the other characters asks "What will we see?" The inspector starts laughing about 30 seconds later, as he finally gets the joke, when he's in the middle of talking about the murder case.
- Seen in this
 Arthur, King of Time and Space strip. No, sorry, this one.
- In the comic book Groo The Wanderer, this is used as a Running Gag to comment on Groo's lack of intelligence. Someone will say to Groo something like "You can't understand this, because you are slow of mind". Pages later, Groo will say "What did he mean by 'slow of mind'?"
- Played with in The Simpsons where it appears that time is passing normally for the audience, whilst it is revealed that Homer's brain is actually working at the speed of dumb. "Something said, not good."
- Also, Homer's workmates call him "a little slow" on poker night in one episode. By the time Homer responds "Who are you calling 'slow'?", it's hours later, and Lenny's asking Homer to go home already.
- In two consecutive strips of Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin remarks that he's "Not playing with a full deck [of cards]" and that he's "Lost his marbles [and hopes someone finds them]," to which Hobbes replies, "Everyone suspected as much." It is at night, in bed, when Calvin starts up and yells "HEY!"
- Happens a lot when Calvin claims to be a genius. In one strip, he loudly declares his ridiculously high intelligence, and Hobbes immediately asks him how he walked to the bus stop with both legs in one pant leg. Calvin replies that he fell down a lot, then a panel later, asks what Hobbes is implying.
- Real life example: This troper remembers detecting a "free trial" which you had to pay money for a few years ago; I ran straight to my dad, who said, "Yes, you're smart. S-T-U-P-I-D, smart." I then said "Thanks," and walked out of the room. About 25 seconds later, "HEY!"
- The short-lived sitcom "Oliver Beene" had an interesting take on this one. In the middle of a game of charades featuring Oliver's parents, the Dad explodes in fury at his wife, and calls her stupid. She calmly smiles, and offers her guests dessert. The narrator (Oliver) states that for his mother, her anger was like a giant casserole. It's made, and then baked in the oven for an uncertain amount of time. Two scenes later... "Remember that giant casserole of anger? It's done...right...about...now." *DING*
- Futurama
Dr. Zoidberg: Fry. I challenge you to "clawplach".
Fry: English, please?
Dr. Zoidberg: A fight to the death.
Edna: And if you survive, we'll make sweet love.
Fry thinks it over for a second, then makes a bloodcurdling scream of terror.
- "THOSE WOMEN WERE IN THE NIP!!!"
- “HE DID KICK ME UP THE ARSE‼”
- In the Russian film Father Frost, there's a group of girls picking giant mushrooms in a forest. They see a bear, but it takes them almost 20 seconds to run away. Mike Nelson refers to it as "Delayed reaction syndrome".
- In The West Wing when Leo offers a job to Ainsley Hayes. (wording stolen from imdb)
Ainsley: I'll ask again: for what purpose was I brought here today?
Leo: So I could offer you a job.
Ainsley: I'm asking because I do not think that it is fair to be expected to play the role fo the mouse to the White House's cat in the game of...you know the game.
Leo: Cat and Mouse?
Ainsley: Yes. And it's not like I'm not, you know. The fact that I may not look like some of the other Republicans who cross your path does not mean that I'm any less inclined toward...
Leo: Here it comes.
Ainsley: Did you say offer me a job?
- The Pokemon Slowpoke. As described in the Pokedex, "It takes 5 seconds for it to feel pain when under attack."
- Which generally translates into a larger than is typical amount of HP. Yes, the incredibly slow reaction speed has an in-game benefit.
- The Guinness Book of World Records lists the man with the slowest reaction speed ever recorded: 20 seconds. He demonstrated on TV by being punched in the face. Twenty seconds later, he felt the pain and reacted accordingly.
- I don't know if this counts, but at the beginning of the first Mega Man Battle Network game Yai has one when Dex calls her a shrimp. (The dialogue is as follows)
Dex: Aww stuff it! You sure got a big mouth for such a shrimp! We're not bothering anyone are we Lan?
Yai: Well, I guess... Shrimp! That's no way to talk to a lady!
- One Piece recently did this with a character's connection to Luffy's father. Luffy remarks "Oh... you mean my dad?" and the person he's speaking to goes through an entire speech before jumping back in shock, yelling "YOUR FATHER?!"
- This Troper's middle school performed a Trope-stuffed comedy called Register Here which involved Rhett, the deaf and dumb butler, find a dead body on the porch. Thus began a game of charades to determine what he means. After they finally discover it, "Dead man on porch! How could we be so stupid?" beat "Dead man on porch?!"
- George Of The Jungle - more than once, George would suddenly laugh at a joke he'd heard minutes, maybe hours, before.
- Referenced in a Discworld story when Nanny Ogg tells Casanunda that she "nearly fell off her broom from laughing" when she saw a burial mound from the air. Said burial mound is two circular mounds connected to one end of a long barrow mound,so...
- In Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyoushou OAV episode "Omoi no Arika", Akane, Tenma and Shimon discover a letter — the audience is aware that it's from Kotengu, who wants to challenge Yasuaki to a duel. Apparently, Kotengu's handwriting is too fancy for them to understand, so they have one of the locals, Tomomasa, read said letter to them aloud. After he finishes, Akane and Shimon are amazed by the fact Tomomasa could read that, saying they are so glad they know now what the letter says, as they could never imagine that it's a challenge... Cue a short pause, with a still shot of the two smiling happily and a dot-by-dot Visible Silence above them... after which both yell in horror: "A challenge?!"
- Ron tries tries to rush Kim Possible and her temporarily-good nemesis to a movie:
Kim: Tempting, but I promised Shego we're go get our eyebrows waxed. Ron: Okay, but we're going to have to — [ beat] You wax your eyebrows? What's that about? Kim: Forget I mentioned it. Ron: Done!
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