"Ok, this is the most common thing I write. I've said it 34 times in my notes. Nothing else. Just that single word, followed by a lack of any punctuation. Not a question or an exclamation, just a statement of utter disbelief."
"What."
A Stock Phrase when it comes to reactions, but a simple one. Although it is just one word, the way in which it is pronounced can speak volumes about how absurd (or mundane) the situation can be, simply by how and where the inflection in a speaker's voice (if any) is used. In written speech, it's supplemented by the punctuation following it. For example:
"What?" Standard reaction, used in everyday speech; slightly rising inflection (clarify what someone said, being asked a favor, etc.)
"What?!" Sharper inflection indicating a level of surprise (disturbing news, something you may need to sit down for, etc.)
"What!?" An accusatory or intimidating statement; "I'm in your face, what are you going to do about it!?", or in defense against accusatory stares if the speaker believes that whatever earned them those glares was normal
"WHAT?!" "WHAAAAAT?!?!?!" et al; New levels of absurdity have been hit (Variations on the length of the word and (ab)use of ? and ! as needed; this is the one most often used for comic effect)
None of the above are examples of this trope. That's below.
And that's exactly how it's written, too: "what" with a period at the end. Some people cut this down even farther, going with "wha", "wat", "wut?" or similar. Sometimes appears on forums and image boards as the memes "what is this i don't even" and "i am 12 and what is this" (no punctuation whatsoever and the i not capitalized) and the immortal LOL WUT (all caps, spelling of the second word, and no punctuation whatsoever)— more complex, but still indicating that the speaker is too gobsmacked to be capable of a coherent sentence.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: "What", in this context, is an interjection. Sentences consisting only of an interjection require an exclamation point. Interjections need to end with either an exclamation point or a comma (a dash or ellipse would also work), and (obviously) you can't end a sentence with a comma. "What!" is grammatical, as is "What?" (an interrogative), but "What." is not. However, "What." is how this trope is written, and "What." is how it shall remain. Just because it's not grammatical, doesn't mean it's not expressive. Dialogue is not required to be grammatically correct.
Unless it is being listed as a trope, DO NOTPotholethis trope on other pages.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
One of the best parts of the dubbed Pokémon episode "Electric Shock Showdown!" was Lt. Surge's Flat What after Pikachu nullifies his Raichu's Thunderbolt by grounding its tail.
Kyon pulls one after Haruhi announces the SOS brigade will be hosting a movie screening at the culture fest in ep20 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
And when Yuki tells him she's an alien. And when Asakura tells him she's going to kill him. He seems pretty fond of this and the Face Palm.
Seitokai no Ichizon has a knocked-out Sugisaki Ken trying to cross the river of Hell to reach his "harem". Jigoku Shoujo, who happens to be passing by on her ferry, responds to this bizarre scene with a flat "Oi..." after he passes her.
Kisenian: Fiore, go! Kill him! He's shitfaced; it'll be easy.
Fiore: But... he's my lover.
Kisenian: ... What.
Greedling of Fullmetal Alchemist seems to pull a Type 1 quite often in the Japanese dub of Brotherhood, though it's more of a blatant "Huh?"
In Toradora, Ami, Kitamura, and Minorin do a flat what after Ryuuji tells them that he and Taiga are going to run away and get married.
In Yankee-kun to Megane-chan (Flunk Punk Rumble in the American release), Izumi reacts this way after the student council finds a necklace that claims to grant three wishes... and Chiba immediately suggests wishing that 5th-period PE get cancelled.
In the last episode of Ladies Versus Butlers!, after Sernia and Tomomi have had one of their biggest battles ever over a ticket to the amusement park Try Aqualand for a date with Akiharu (won by Sernia), the guy is so Oblivious to Love that he completely misunderstands their enthusiasm, and gives the other ticket to Tomomi as a "sort of consolation prize". Cue absolutely deadpan Flat What from Tomomi, followed by some verbal abuse from most of the named cast, and topped with an earth-shaking double Armor-Piercing Slap from BOTH Tomomi and Sernia.
Honestly, Akiharu's an idiot.
This is Nozomu Itoshiki's standard reaction to whatever KafukaFuura's most recent, outlandish explanation was.
Russia mixes one of these with a creepy, intense stare when Stalin informs him that the White Sea-Baltic Canal he spent a year breaking his back digging is totally useless.
In Corsair, in the midst of discussing Aura's wish to marry Canale, Ayace decides to bluntly let everyone know that Canale is his lover. While the others' reactions vary from awkwardness to surprise, Aura simply says "...what."
Dartz: Here's what we're gunnah do, mayn. We're gonna find Yuu-gay Mowtoe, and we're gunnah take his d?ck.
Rafael: What.
Uryuu Minene aka the 9th, a terrorist of some repute, of Mirai Nikki does this when the police officer Nishijima proposes to her. While they were on the run from other police officers. He even has a ring.
Comic Books
This is Doctor Nemesis's reaction to an unexpected teleport in the X-Men one-shot Blind Science.
In Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, Kitty leaves Emma Frost trapped in a cave beneath the Mansion. She then confronts the hooded leader of the new Hellfire club, who lifts the hood to reveal that she's...Emma Frost! She even declares that defeating her, the White Queen (Emma Frost's nom de guerre), won't be as easy as defeating Emma Frost. Kitty's reaction? "Yeahbuwha?"
A particularly amusing example from The Invisibles. A Mexican god of death tells to a very young Lord Fanny that she has to give her body/soul to a passage to the next level of her ritual to become a witch. She doesn't want to... so she offers the god a joke. A god of death answering with a flat what its just priceless (mostly because a lot of readers were asking themselves the same).
In the Order of the Stick snips story where the characters all make up stories (read: Take famous stories from Real Life and parody them in a 3.5 context), Roy's retelling of Hamlet has Hamlet (played by Roy) utter this when the play he set up to make Claudius (played by Xykon) admit to his father's murder gets... Slightly derailed (The leader of the troupe was played by Elan, and re-wrote itaccordingly).
Though in all honesty that should be the reader's reaction to the doujin in general.
Given the frequency of positively bizarre crap that happens in the Pokémon fic Brave New World, one can hardly blame Pikachu for reacting this way often. You know it's approaching critical mass when Leo does it though.
Happens fairly often in the Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic Skin, more often than not followed by a Big "WHAT?!" when the weirdness factor hits critical mass.
In the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha fanfic Proper Equipment, Yuuno gives one in response to hearing that his new device Raising Heart is designed for long-range offensive magic. Apparently Mazda, the Scrya clan matriarch who gave it to him, didn't realize that he specialized in defensive and support magic, or that he was actually a boy.
Waking to a situation that's already taxing her mind, Keleria is further confused by Ayuri saying she's taken a courier job leading to Stranglethorn Vale.
Keleria blinked, feeling about as intelligent as a suffocating fish, "what."
Draco Malfoy has this reaction in Methods of Rationality when told that Harry needed a bit of cash, after using the money he'd stolen from his own Gringotts vault to buy a gift for Hermione Granger. Exactly which part of that the Flat What is in response to is left to the reader.
Harry also ends the first chapter with one.
In Dragon Age: the Crown of Thorns, people occasionally exhibit this reaction when the protagonist issues some strange command, like telling Branka to make golem-sized pickaxes.
The Fifth Element: Zorg's response when he learns one of his lackeys failed to take Korben Dallas' spot on the plane.
Trinity says this to Neo in The Matrix when he says that Morpheus thinks he's something he's not.
In National Treasure, Ben responds with this when his dad tells him he doesn't have the Silence Dogood letters.
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids - this is Diane's initial reaction when Wayne tells her that his shrinking machine zapped their kids. It becomes a sharper "What?!" as she realizes the implications.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The first evil-ex "boss battle" is already beyond absurd to everyone present in the scene, from Matthew Patel's crashing-in appearance to Scott surprisingly fending him off in fantastical fashion, but when Patel breaks out into a Bollywood-esque number (with demon hipster chicks) in the middle of the fight, a disbelieving Stacy Pilgrim can only manage a "what."
And let's not forget Gideon Gordon Graves' response to Scott and Knives after they witness him smacking Ramona Flowers around during the final Climactic Battle.
Toward the end of Super 8 after Joe is speaking with the Alien, and the Alien sets Joe down very nicely and starts to leave Cary delivers an extremely confounded Flat What.
In Full Metal Jacket, an officious The Neidermeyer type Colonel confronts Pvt. Joker about his peace sign necklace and helmet which reads "Born to Kill"
Joker: I'm trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir!
Colonel: What.
In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Aragorn does this when Gimli asks him to toss him to the stone bridge leading to the gate of Helm's Deep, claiming that he "cannot jump the distance".
This is also Gollum's reaction when Sméagol tells him to "Leave now and never come back!"
In The Zigzag Kid, Nono says "What is this" instead of asking, because he's too shocked to "wrinkle his voice at the end to make a question" when he finds out his friend the Con Man is also his grandfather.
Harry Dresden occasionally punctuates "what" without a question mark.
Live Action TV
This was Alex P. Keaton's response to Mallory and Nick's decision to get married.
His first use of it may have been in "Army of Ghosts", when the Cyber-Leader reveals the Cybus Cybermen didn't build the Void ship that broke the barrier between universes.
Used exquisitely in both "Last of the Time Lords" and the mini-episode "Time Crash" (which reuse the same scene). The hull of an antiquated ship smashes through to the interior of the TARDIS and the Doctor, as any sane man would, responds in surprise. And then repeats himself for emphasis. Finally, upon discovering that the ship is, in fact, the Titanic, he finishes off in a perfectly flat "What."
Also used in his first encounter with Donna Noble (at the end of series 2's final episode "Doomsday" and again, when the same scene is replayed at the start of the Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride"), when she suddenly, inexplicably appears out of thin air inside the flying TARDIS and starts berating him.
The Eleventh Doctor, too. And Amy.
The Fourth Doctor was very fond of saying "what", too.
Martha does one in "Gridlock", when she learns that a ten-mile trip on "the motorway" in New New York will take six years.
Also young Pond when the Doctor tells her his blue box is a time machine.
Neal: Oh, you mean these? (Raises arms and straps fall to the floor) What.
Sam the American Eagle looses a fine one on learning that his requested concerto would be played by The Electric Mayhem.
Sam is rather famous for these. He has a particularly beautiful one while reading "The Ant and the Grasshopper"; he reads the traditional Aesop's fable until he reaches the last line:
"And so it was, dear listeners...that the Grasshopper drove his sports car to Florida, and the Ant got stepped on."
Cameron Mitchell of SG-1 says "what" with varying inflections so often that he's been accused of using it as his Catch Phrase. Obviously, at least one Flat What has come up.
In Skins, Emily launches one when Katie tells her she does have to ask her who she sleeps with.
Both forms are running gags on Titus; the flat what is often used by Ken Titus, usually toward an unseen observer of his behavior.
Community, right after Jeff telling off Abed's father for trying to control Abed vaguely backfires:
Abed's Dad: Fine! You want to raise him? You raise him! I'm out! Jeff: What.
In Power Rangers Mystic Force, this was Koragg's reaction when Nick rode in to battle on Koragg's own Cool Horse, Catastros. Previously, Koragg had been the only one able to tame and ride Catastros.
Frequently, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on their respective shows in response to stupid world events. Mostly American. Mainly caused by their Politicans/Mediamen.
Barbara Walters interviewed Herman Cain as one of her most fascinating people of 2011 and gave this when he answered a question about theoretical cabinet positions with he would like to be Secretary of Defense. This from a man who admitted (and demonstrated) he didn't know squat about foreign affairs.
Third Watch: After a bad night, Doc does the math on how much they make on each run. Faith's response to the $13.85 is a Flat What.
David Letterman tends to quickly bolt out one if he hears something over the course of his show that's weird or otherwise catches him off-guard.
Life's Captain Tidwell inverts this amazingly, using the Flat What as his go-to response to other people's reactions to his odd comments.
In Torchwood: Miracle Day, at the very end of the last episode when the team finds out that because of the blood transfusion, Rex is as immortal as Jack, Jack, Gwen and Rex let out three Flat Whats in a row. Doubles a Call Back to the Doctor Who examples above.
In The Booth At The End The Man, normally unflappable, has this reaction to learning that Willem kidnapped and is keeping prisoner the girl he agreed to protect so he could "be the hero."
Music
Bryan Adams and his producer both had this reaction when informed for his next song, what it was they wished for him to come up with. A song about a male stripper. Cue Bryan's "What."
In Recettear, a very flat "What." is spouted by Tear in a pub conversation where a very drunk Charme says, unflinchingly, that she became a thief out of necessity, but eventually grew to like the whole "being a murderous thug" thing..
In Touhou 10.5: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Alice pulls one after being defeated by Remilia in the latter's story.
Remilia Scarlet: To make rain fall, you... control dolls... Alice Margatroid: What. Remilia Scarlet: Hey, Sakuya, that makes no sense! Bring up the next!
BlazBlue's Hazama delivers one of these when Ragna uses the Idea Engine to regain control of his Azure Grimoire.
Ragna: Releasing Restriction number 666! Hazama: Come on, we went through this! Are you stupid or what!? Ragna: Deploying dimensional interference forcefield. Now engaging the Idea Engine!! Hazama:What.
A very flat what appears in the intro to WCW vs NWO, when a truck driver notices that Sting has lit a bunch of barrels on fire in the middle of the road for no apparent reason. Dodgy voice acting may be to blame.
Kenji: "That blind broad is up to no good; I can feel it in my spleen, man. Her presence is like a dark shadow that's in the way of my great vision. As expected of blind people."
8-Bit Theater uses this a lot, mostly by Black Mage and Sarda (the latter involving an incident that almost completely broke his brain).
It's important to note that Sarda (Barring Chaos. Who he turns into.) is the most powerful character in the comic and downright omnipotent, and just had his mind broke by a character who managed to Dual Wield bows twice, resulting in wielding four bows, each with three arrows apiece loaded.
The Lich reacts this way after Black Mage pulls a Not Now, Kiddo on him (discussing killing his son, Vilbert, right in front of him, on his own property, without even bothering to turn around to address Lich.)
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: Part of a Running Gag is that whenever something on TV mentions him in some fashion (the infamous "McNinja Burgers" from McDonald's, mayor Goodrich fingering him as the partner in the town's zombie defense system), the titular doctor will spend one brief panel staring at the TV in surprise and saying "What." in the next.
Also, this is how Dan McNinja opens his tirade against the pirates in the bar he's hiding in, declaring his intention to burn the place down on the way out.
A sort of extended variation of this trope is used for the doctor reacting to how Dan McNinja wound up on fire. "You. Lit. Yourself. On fire. Why did you light yourself on fire." Punctuated as it was in the comic.
In the Army of One storyline, Doc's reaction to Franz Rainer defending himself against the McNinja clone horde, taking full advantage of the Inverse Ninja Law.
And then there was that time the Doctor was shocked by his own improbable motorbiking skills. This time with no punctuation whatsoever.
In Hark! A Vagrant, Sucre elicits one of these from Bolivar after suggesting that maybe they shouldn't be fighting for freedom all the time. Which, of course, is a completely incomprehensible idea to Bolivar.
Mort the ghost from Gunnerkrigg Court does this one when Annie has her other undead friends scare the bejeebers out of him (as a roundabout way of apologizing) in this strip. (This one is the setup for it.)
Liquid: Say, huh... Why don't you levitate yourself up here? You can do that. Psycho Mantis: Couple of reasons. First, it takes a lot of concentration, and getting blown up sort of threw me off a little. Second, there's a stalactite the size of a goddamned baseball bat lodged in my chest. Vulcan Raven:Stalagmite. Psycho Mantis: What.
Many webcomic artists attribute this to Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics.
Pretty much the primary catchphrase of the Goosebumps series review blog, Blogger Beware.
Uttered by Ironyuppie in AH Dot Com The Series "Casino Imperiale", after she finds out that Landshark beat her nemesis before she could.
The RPGNet Hive Mind is fond of "man what" (no punctuation) as a response to any completely brain-spraining statement.
Notably inspired by and associated with (by those in the know) a certain photograph of Bob Marley in a state of absolute man what
The hive mind seems to have determined it actually came as a response to someone discussing the Inferi from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince... to the tune of "The Happy Wanderer" (the "Valderie, Valdera" song). "In-fer-iiiii... in-fer-aaaaaaa..." The first post after that was a prematurely-launched post consisting entirely of "man what"
NOTE: The absence of a period at the end of the previous entry is entirely deliberate and proper. The phrase expresses such a profound and utter state of confusion that it eradicates any and all punctuation and grammar within a radius of one post.
Then there's the Critic's reaction to the plot twist of The Secret of NIMH 2...
Obscurus Lupa gave one in her review of "Fatal Deviation", when out of nowhere, with no bearing to the plot, there's a naked man in a cowboy hat taking a bath outside.
Used as a tag on the imagesite Danbooru for those images that make no sense whatsoever. A user was quoted as saying, "Does it make your brain shut down for a second when you see it? Then it's a 'what' picture."
In this review of Eversion one reviewer has already written the game off as a generic Super Mario Bros. clone, when the second reviewer casually mentions 'and then there's your power to warp reality to your whims'. The first reviewer's response is of course 'What.'
Very good one in The Fine Bros.' Kids React to Nyan Cat, at 3:01.
Vixen used this to describe a scene from Revolutionary Girl Utena. The scene in question has Utena jump down from a balcony, tear off her own dress to reveal her uniform, take a table cloth from a nearby table, then form a dress to cover her heterosexual life partner Anthy's Wardrobe Malfunction.
From A Very Potter Musical, Snape's reaction to Cedric's reaction to Snape's House roll call:
Snape: Hufflepuff...
Cedric: FIND!
Snape: What.
Buzznet gives us Mark Reads Twilight, a truly insightful blog not for Twilight fans. Mark uses these frequently, blown away by the Idiot Plot.
In the Let's Play Archive page for Ultima VI, by Nakar, specifically the canonical ending, (typo intentional) Draxinusom utters the Gargish version of this:
In Charlie The Unicorn 2, Charlie reacts this way when he and his two... um... friends encounter a giant letter Z.
Blue: ˇEl hombre con el sombrero nos envió! Pink: ˇÉl nos cuenta muchas historias asombrosas! Z: (makes pinging noises) Blue and Pink: Hohohoho! Charlie: ...what.
On various image-sharing sites, "what" is used as a tag for bizarre, shocking, or absurd images, usually involving physical or anatomical impossibilities. Most Nearly all examples will be NSFW at the least, so seek them out at your own risk.
In Freeman's Mind, he says this when he is confronted with an elevator that finally goes up, but is blocked by boxes of explosives.
Adrian Shephard in Shephard's Mind does this twelve times in response to unleashing a swarm of snarks.And again:
Jon: I'd be down with a cool black star like that. Emile: Actually, it's official name is Ztar. Jon: ...What.
During the production of ASMT on the talkhaus forums, this was Raocow's reaction upon discovering that Rule 34 had been made of Demo (the main character of ASMT and Raocow's own creation; a female demon alien minion with no arms, blue hair, and a face composed of a single giant eye).
Dragon Ball Abridged gave us a great one: Piccolo and Krillin use the Multi-Form technique to attack Nappa, but Nappa is still able to dodge their attacks. Piccolo ponders what kind of training Nappa had gone through to be so powerful, but Nappa is simply singing Patty-Cake in time to his attacks. Afterwards we get this:
Nappa: Good effort, but I'm still the patty-cake champion!
Piccolo: What.
Another one in Episode 16:
Yamcha: What the hell? I waxed off everything! I waxed off your car, I waxed off your house, I even waxed off your monkey!
Piccolo: Okay, I just started paying attention - what.
Aaaand Episode 15:
Vegeta: Look at you, Dodoria. You're always so damn proud. And now here you are, crying like a woman!
Nail: Learn your place earthling! you have some nerve demanding-
Guru: Here take it.
Nail: I..what.
Here's another one from their Bardock Special:
Zarbon: Mm, too bad. And that Bardock was such a dashing rogue.
Dodoria: What.
This was also Shenron's reaction in the Christmas Tree of Might Christmas Special when the group summons him and go on about the forest being devastated by fire. Naturally Shenron thinks they want him to restore life to the forest, but Krillin's response that nah, Krillin just wants a great Christmas tree first makes Shenron do a Flat What, then marks his breaking point from being a Benevolent Genie into a Jackass Genie.
Western Animation
Lisa Simpson is fond of this expression. Notably, the episode "Bart's Inner Child" and motivational speaker Brad Goodman:
Brad Goodman: Young man, what made you yell out that remark? Bart: I dunno... Brad Goodman: You just wanted to... express yourself, yes? Bart: I do what I feel like. Brad Goodman: Why, that's marvelous! 'I do what I feel like'. Ladies and gentlemen... this little boy here is the inner child that I've been talking about. (Cuts to Lisa, who is wearing an expression of tranquil fury.) Lisa: What.
In the second season premičre of The Venture Bros., this is the reaction of The Monarch to escaping from prison through the sewers, grasping the arm of what he believes to be one of his henchmen, and finding that it is instead the arm of Doctor Venture (and that the rest of the doctor is elsewhere, due to a teleportation accident.)
The Teen Titans episode "Troq". Cyborg and Starfire (well, Cyborg's doing the talking) inform Robin that "Troq" is a very offensive anti-Tamaranian slur (they had been assuming it was just a nickname, as they had all been given one). His Flat What is one of the few times it's not intended to be funny.
Robin also gets a Flat What of the second variety in "Apprentice, Part One", as Slade is revealing his We Can Rule Together ploy. Like the first example, it's not very funny.
In "Every Dog Has Its Day" when the Titans decide that what they really need to catch the alien dog-thing they're chasing (which has been constantly jumping on Raven and enthusiastically licking her every time it sees her) is "some bait". Raven gives the flattest "...what." you will EVER hear.
In The Batman's fourth season premiere, "The Batman/Superman Story", Lex Luthor can only manage a strained "Whaaat" when it becomes clear his plans have been foiled and Superman is hovering just outside of his Humongous Mecha.
Kim Possible does this occasionally, such as when she finds out Monique is a huge wrestling fan.
In Avatar The Last Airbender, the gang is talking about some strange creature, and Aang simply gives a perfect flat "What."
In the later seasons of South Park, the boys' Functional Genre Savvy (especially Stan) has reduced many of their reactions (to ever-increasingly improbable events) to "what."
In a "Dial M for Monkey' cartoon on Dexter's Laboratory, the Justice Friends say this after Rasslor's big melodramatic speech.
In Total Drama World Tour Noah gives out one of these after watching the Japanese Total Drama Action promo.
The Powerpuff Girls give a flat "say what?" in "Him Diddle Riddle" when they find that they have gone through white heat solving Him's riddles or else the Professor will pay...full price for a pancake breakfast.
Adventures of the Gummi Bears pulled one or two. Gusto Gummi had carved a wooden statue of a Gummi Bear that artistically parodied the Statue of Liberty, then it promptly got devoured by a super termite. Cue "What."
