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Different people have different standards. Some people are rather complacent while others are rather picky. This holds true in fiction as well. Various characters will be impressed or surprised by stuff in various degrees. But generally, the average character's standards will likely be close to the audience's as authors will try not to make their characters seem notably wowed by something unless they're pretty sure the audience will be impressed as well. With good reason too, as the audience can easily get annoyed if characters keep gushing at things the viewer isn't all too impressed by. It can even strain Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
But then you have these characters. These characters seem to be so Easily Impressed that if you were able to get a spinning coin to stop while standing, they'd be BLOWN AWAY. Simply put, characters who are Easily Impressed are ones who seem to have so low standards that they regularly get dazzled by things both the other characters and the audience don't find too amazing. To the point that it can become a notable trait of theirs. This trope is normally used for comic relief or to establish a character as whimsically naive.
Character archetypes that frequently display this include The Ditz, Idiot Hero, Kid Hero, The Fool, Sidekick, Nice Guy, Genki Girl, All-Loving Hero, Sheltered Aristocrat, Wide-Eyed Idealist, Plucky Comic Relief, Butt-Monkey, Funny Foreigner, Amusing Alien, Dork Knight, Endearingly Dorky, The Pollyanna, Mooks, Muggles, Cheerful Child, and the Cloudcuckoolander. Intrigued by Humanity also tends to lead into this as a character may end up going bonkers over anything that has to do with human customs.
Character archetypes that (almost) never display this include the Anti-Hero, The Snark Knight, The Stoic, The Cynic, Deadpan Snarker, Stepford Snarker, The Napoleon, Jerkass, Smug Snake, characters with the A God Am I complex, Know-Nothing Know-It-All, Insufferable Genius, The Eeyore, and Abusive Parents. If a bunch of characters or people are fawning over something suspicious or absurd, expect there to be an Only Sane Man to try to talk some sense into them. A character that's Obfuscating Stupidity may include this in their act. It's hilarious if a Jerk with a Heart of Gold tries to suppress this.
Things can get quite interesting if the characters exhibiting this are fawning over a Humble Hero or characters who want people to Stop Worshipping Me or hate Unwanted False Faith. A Glory Seeker, on the other hand, LOVES these characters.
Compare with Mundane Object Amazement when this happens because the person who's Easily Impressed doesn't realize that the thing they are gushing over isn't exceptional by the native's standards. Contrast with Worthless Yellow Rocks for when the opposite happens. When it's invoked, that's This Is My Boomstick.
Also compare with Values Dissonance, Super Gullible, Mundane Luxury, Mundane Made Awesome, and Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball: Goku as a child. Because he lived most of his life alone in the mountains for an untold number of years, by the time Bulma found him he knows nothing of the outside world. A house coming out of a capsule shocks him (it's a common thing in this world) and he is bewildered by the lights and the television.
- Kirby: Right Back at Ya!:
- The title character Kirby himself. It isn't difficult to capture his imagination: he's a baby totally unfamiliar to the world.
- The Cappies, the resident Muggles of Dream Land. Over the course of the show, it becomes clear that Cappy Town is behind the curve when it comes to technology and advances in the universe. It doesn't matter how many times King Dedede is able to fool them into advancing his latest diabolical scheme. They just can't help but be fascinated by each of the king's latest gimmicks or advances from TV to sushi bars to collectible figurines. Much to dismay of Tiff and Meta Knight.
- Discussed in My Hero Academia. The students of Class 1A are in awe of Mirio's skills (which are genuinely impressive), especially when he manages to take on the entire class at the same time. Amajiki privately thinks that they don't understand how much effort Miro has put into improving himself, likening them to amateurs who are impressed by a pro while not understanding what the pro in question does.
- Naruto:
- Tobi, a member of the Akatsuki, obsesses over everything in a moronic manner with an obnoxious voice to boot. And despite annoying Deidara a lot, he still gushes over all of Deidara's clay techniques. Later on though we soon see that he was merely Obfuscating Stupidity to avoid drawing attention to himself at first and turns out to be the true Big Bad!
- Naruto plays it more straight though. Especially when he's training with Jiraiya. Konohamaru is also this to Naruto, especially in Part 1.
- Nichijou: Yuuko, a ditzy Butt-Monkey Genki Girl is dazzled out of her wits when she learns that Nano is actually a robot and becomes enraptured by everything Professor makes her do as if she were a little kid. Even the simple act of pouring a cup of tea out of Nano's removable wrist.
- One Piece: As pictured, Luffy from One Piece has this in spades. Despite living in a world where eating fruit can give magic powers and sea monsters bigger than the Titanic are aplenty, Luffy (along with Chopper and Usopp) often gets wowed by the silliest things. Namely, Franky's goofy gadgets. A great example of this is when the crew is fighting Hordy's army. Franky decides to bust out the Franky Shogun, a battle bot, against the pirates. Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp are wowed out of their minds by the boxy bot, while Nami and Robin are rather unimpressed. Luffy actually becomes so enthralled by it that he stops fighting just to gaze at it, much to Zoro's annoyance. A simultaneous Running Gag is that as amazed as the trio of boys are, Nami and Robin will stare blankly at his robots. Oda believes that robots aren't a girl thing.
- Pokémon: The Series: Ash Ketchum. Even though he's been traveling across the Pokemon world for almost 26 years, he still gets blown away by even the simplest of Pokémon facts and things. This is especially noticeable in Best Wishes where he goes gaga over the Starter Pokémon (namely Oshawott) and does a huge victory dance over catching a Pidove. Iris even comments on how odd it is for someone to make a huge deal of such a capture.
- Yo-kai Watch: Komajiro is a Double Subversion. He starts off playing this straight as he's stunned by all the things in the city, coming from the country himself. However, he later becomes savvy to the city, even more so than his brother. But just as he seems about to grow out of this, Komasan is able to show him a shooting star that leaves him amazed out of his wits.
- Zatch Bell!: A lot of the mamodo children display this trope since they've been sent to Earth to decide the new king with the last tournament being 1000 years ago. The mamodo find themselves stunned by earthly things like TV, video games, and music radios. The tiny mamodo Kido is a notable example as no matter how many times he falls for it, he still gets blown away by his book owner, Dr. Riddles, obviously exaggerated stories only to get devastated when the Dr. Riddles reveals he was just kidding. The protagonist Zatch himself also has this in spades. Early on, Kiyo is able to capture the little kid's imagination with Vulcan, a figure made a noodle box and chopsticks that can fire turbo-plux missiles! Later on, he even takes Kido's place as the "shockee" from Dr. Riddles tall tales after Kido's book gets burned.
Comic Books
- Bat-Mite from Batman. Despite being an all-powerful,omnipotent Reality Warper from the 5th dimension, Bat-mite is crazily obsessed with Batman and every aspect of his life. This leads to a lot of chaos for the poor Caped Crusader, as the combination of Batmite's obsession and his powers leads to many crazy situations. So much so that he sometimes intentionally creates trouble for Batman just to see him fight crime. This carries on over the TV Series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold. On one occasion, Batman actually (temporarily) entices him to leave by giving him a mere Batarang with his autograph.
Fan Works
- Shard: Even in the face of all of Remnant's technological advancements, Aero is highly amused by an ordinary swivel chair, gleefully spinning on it and declaring it, "[...] the greatest thing of all time." To be fair, he does admit that such things as air conditioning and indoor plumbing are more impressive.
Films — Animation
- Kung Fu Panda: Having spent most of his life as a wishful nerd, Po is obsessed with kung-fu masters like the Furious Five and gawks at everything they do, even their more mundane activities. This is amped up in the TV series, where he becomes a veritable Dork Knight.
- The Land Before Time: Petrie, the Cloudcuckoolander straight-up admits that he'll believe anything and is the only one in the Great Valley who allows himself to be constantly captivated by his uncle Pterono's false tales of adventure.
- Ratatouille: Remy says word for word that his brother is this to him in regards to his ability to smell ingredients. He says the opposite for his dad.
Live-Action TV
- Making History (2017): Dan, a 2016 guy, impresses everyone in 1775 by quoting movies from the future and woos a woman by claiming to have written her songs (including "My Heart with Go On" by Céline Dion).
- Chris Traeger of Parks and Recreation is so relentlessly positive about everything, that he believes "Literally" everyone is interesting, amazing, and perfect. Leave him alone with a new group of people for a few minutes and by the end, he will have declared that he wants to be lifelong friends with all of them.
- Star Trek: Enterprise. A Jerkass Vulcan captain uses this trope as a Stealth Insult to Captain Archer when Archer praises some aspect of Vulcan technology. "Your species is easily impressed."
- Victorious: Cat Valentine, a nice, Brainless Beauty, Genki Girl, would act this way at times.
Music
- The song "Human Statue
" by the Irish comedy band Dead Cat Bounce, as told from the perspective of a living statue street performer, recounts how small children are often mind-boggled at the idea of a statue coming to life.
I'm a human statue, coming right at you, so realistic that I'll probably catch you off-guard when I change positions, every time I get a donation that I deem sufficient in my hat, usually from a little girl who is in fact so mind-blown, she's gone and asked her parents for cash to prove men made of stone can move; all she once held as truth suddenly swept to one side, by a man to whom the laws of nature don't seem to apply. - The narrator of "Weird Al" Yankovic's "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" considers the title tourist attraction to be the best place in the world he's ever visited (having already seen Elvis-A-Rama, the Tupperware Museum, the Boll Weevil Monument, etc.). Nothing in his description makes it out to be more than just a huge ball of twine under a pagoda, but the awe of seeing it makes him burst into tears.
Video Games
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers: Guild Leader Wigglytuff who proves to be an Eccentric Mentor and Cloudcuckoolander. Despite having many years of experience in exploration and being famed as a leader, Wigglytuff treats the whole world with whimsy as he's absolutely fantasized about things both great and mundane like his perfect apples.
- In The Sims 3, Sims with the Easily Impressed trait will never get bored of another Sim boasting.
- In Undertale, if you flirt with Papyrus, he'll tell you he's "a skeleton with very high standards". You can then either tell him you can make spaghetti, or you have zero redeeming qualities. The first option impresses him because it's his Trademark Favorite Food, the second because he takes it as humility. Either way, his response is "Oh no! You're meeting all my standards!".
Web Original
- SCP Foundation: SCP-3740 is a powerful entity who might genuinely be a Physical God, and who only deigns to listen to fellow gods and heroes. Fortunately for the Foundation, he's an Almighty Idiot whose God Test criteria are very, very low.
SCP-3740: Show him the breadth of your strength, Ulmar!
[Dr. Barrett hesitantly draws his elbow to his mouth and licks it.]
SCP-3740: [Gasps audibly] Revel in this majesty with me, Suen! - Highcraft: In "AETHER HIGHGRAFT", Boywucci doesn't understand the machine Cooper is making whatsoever, but is impressed nonetheless.
Boywucci: Cooper, how's your thing coming?
Cooper: I think I have an idea, I'll try to explain it.
Boywucci: Alright, I won't comprehend but I love to hear your voice! - Stupid Kids: The judges in the Talent Contest are amazed by the titular trio's repetitive and amateur singing and turn them into celebs in És mind nekem tapsol (And they all clap for me).
Western Animation
- Ben 10: Omniverse: In the episode "Third Time's a Charm", Ben and the gang find themselves investigating Friedkin University in search of Gwen. While investigating, the gang encounter Bezel, the school janitor. When the gang asks if he knows anything about what's going on, he responds that he himself, like Gwen, is actually a pro with magic. The gang is naturally skeptical, so to prove it, Bezel performs... a card trick. Everyone is rather unimpressed... except for Idiot Hero Ben Tennyson, who is absolutely astonished. When questioned why he of all people would be impressed by such simple slight-of-hand trick when he's been witness to far more incredible feats of actual magic for half his life, Ben's response amounts to "just because". Ironically, Bezel later reveals himself to be the most powerful wizard ever.
- Lazlo, the Wide-Eyed Idealist monkey from Camp Lazlo certainly qualifies. He'll regularly express optimism and amazement over things his fellow campers meet with disdain and cynicism. Edward, The Napoleon and Foil to Lazlo, regularly makes fun of him for it though he rarely seems to mind.
- The titular character of Clarence is an all loving Big Fun, Cheerful Child who will find fascination in anything no matter how simple or normal it is. Even the unappealing activity of trash collectors on trash day.
- In the Dinosaur Train episode "Back in Time", Dion Dimetrodon is amazed by everything from the Mesozoic, from the existence of flying vertebrates to the tastes of lizards.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: Between all the kids in the cul-de-sac, Ed, Rolf, and Jonny are definitely the easiest to enrapture. In the cases of Rolf and Jonny, this makes them particularly easy to rope into a scam.
- Hero: 108 has an exaggerated example. In the episode "Shark Castle", Lin Chung, the normally stoic Supporting Leader of First Squad finds himself in a creative rut as he's unable to think of anything cool to paint. While he's pondering, he accidentally gives one of the mission turtles a cool paint job and the other turtles get in on it. Before he realizes what's happened, all his teammates and Ape Trully are praising him for his Accidental Art, much to his frustration. This kicks up over the course of the episode, as later he greatly impresses the Shark King by sneezing paint onto his white surfboard. After that, Shark King challenges him to a surfing contest to decide whether he'll join Big Green or not while Lin loses the actual contest, he ends up crashing into several boulders, turning them into beautiful tikis. This obvious accident impresses Shark King even more, to the point that he joins Big Green. Then as the cherry on top, when Lin Chung futilely tries to explain to his cohorts that they're gawking over complete accidents, he pounds the floor in anger, and the cracks form a neat picture. The gang praises him for his Accidental Art again, and Lin Chung screams out the heavens in frustration.
- Kaeloo: Kaeloo is impressed by anything and everything. Anything. And this is despite the fact that she lives on a planet that runs on magic and has the power of Hulking Out when she gets angry, and on a daily basis deals with weird stuff like aliens, ghosts, and interdimensional travel.
- Phineas and Ferb: The titular duo are known for their impossibly gifted building skills, able to make just about anything they can imagine in less than a day. Yet they always seem the most impressed at the most mundane accessories, such as cupholders, that they install into their inventions. They were genuinely impressed when Thaddeus and Thor, a pair of one-shot rivals, included a licorice dispenser into their fort, compared to their own that was the size of a skyscraper.
- Regular Show: The two main protagonists, Mordecai and Rigby, are slacking Vitriolic Best Buds that ooze of Totally Radical. They are often stupefied by hilariously mundane things like video games with graphics that wouldn't be out of place on an Nintendo Entertainment System or when Ribgy is awestruck by Techmo's (a who happens to be a high-tech, cyber warrior) built-in pizza pouch warmer. What makes this particularly hilarious is that they are able to be amazed by such trivial and/or outdated stuff despite living in what basically amounts to a World of Chaos.
- The Simpsons: Homer Simpson is easily impressed by many things. Such as in Season Ten's 'Monty Can't Buy Me Love' where he tells Mr. Burns he isn't easily impressed, Only to be instantly wowed by a passing blue car.
- Spongebob Squarepants: The titular character and his best friend Patrick act quite childishly and cheer over everything obnoxiously. This especially gets on Squidward and Plankton's nerves when Spongebob constantly fawns over them when they want to be left alone.
- The eponymous Star Butterfly from Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a Badass Adorable Genki Girl from the Magical Land of Mewni who wields a powerful Magic Wand and is utterly enthralled by the many mundane things of Earth, from football games to light switches.
- Work It Out Wombats!: In "Cafe chaos," Zeke receives claps for not spilling water while rollerskating. Mr. E lampshades this, snarking that there's nothing impressive about not spilling water.
Real Life
- Truth in Television: Because there's a wide spectrum in the opinions and values of different people, what one person finds mediocre or uninteresting, others will find awesome or impressive. This can be quite apparent in Internet comment sections where some people can feel unimpressed or indifferent while others seem to have been blown out of their minds, all within the same comment section. Often leads to arguments, unfortunately.
- Kids are naturally easy to impress because of their naïveté and lack of experience.
- People who travel to countries and places they've never been to or heard of will often be amazed by things locals are used to or see as tradition.
