Occurs in a
Reaction Shot. The character reacting to the outrageous whatever says nothing, but their eyes widen in a "these people are crazy" kind of way.
Compare
Aside Glance when directed at the fourth wall,
Fascinating Eyebrow when directed at the characters in question and
Eye Pop for surprised cartoon character's eyes. May make use of
Eyedscreen.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
Film
- Elijah Wood seems to have made a career out of this, especially in Lord Of The Rings.
- Similarly, Peter Capaldi seems to have Feed Me of the eyes, most notably in In The Loop. The film features a very long Eye Take with Malcolm Tucker as he figures out a way to avert his impending Villainous Breakdown.
- Withnail And I has a positively heart-wrenching Eye Take, showing the precise moment where Withnail and Marwood's friendship breaks down forever:
"Congratulations..."
Live Action Television
- Often demonstrated by Dave Foley's character on NewsRadio.
- Gillian Anderson's eyebrows also got a regular workout on The X Files.
- Jim Halpert (as played by John Krasinski) has elevated this into an art form on the U.S. version of The Office.
- As did his U.K. counterpart, Tim Canterbury.
- Hugh Laurie could be king of this trope:
- Watch any episode of Jeeves And Wooster. Bertie is basically this trope incarnate.
- Doctors are meant to be unshockable, but House MD still finds plenty of excuses to be at the centre of an Eye Take. Hell, Hugh Laurie could be another sufferer of ocular Feed Me.
- Battlestar Galactica's Saul Tigh does this an awful lot, especially after losing one of his eyes in the third season.
- Eddie
.Cantor. Rumor has it that he used stunt eyes.
- Nick and Margaret from The Apprentice (UK) make fantastic use of Eye Takes, along with Aside Glances, Fascinating Eyebrows and Deadpan Snarks, to punctuate the more... questionable antics of the contestants.
- The X Factor is punctuated with Eye Takes. Most of Simon Cowell's expressions say more than words ever could. In this clip Simon didn't even need to describe "the worst guitar solo I have ever heard in my life" as his eyes did it for him.
- Nathan Barley was known for its liberal use of reaction shots.
- In one hilarious scene on LOST, this is Ben's only reaction when Hurley attacks him... with a hot pocket.
- Cam Saroyan does this a lot. It's all a part of being the Only Sane Employee...
Web Comics
Western Animation
