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The Gilligan Cut is a classic staple of comedy. A character protests vehemently, "What, you expect me to wear a grass skirt, stand up on top of Empire State Building and belt out the chorus of 'New York, New York'? Well, I'm not gonna... I'm just not gonna..." Whip Pan over to the character wearing a grass skirt on the 102nd floor, singing "I want to be a part of it, New York, New York!"
The Gilligan Cut. Comedy ain't pretty.
See also Ironic Echo Cut. Another way of Tempting Fate. Contrast I Know What We Can Do Cut.
Examples:
- The trope namer, Gilligan's Island, had a number of these. To cite one of many examples: in one episode, a group of natives visit the island searching for a "White Goddess" to take back to their island, which presumably has contact with civilisation. Rather than putting one of the women in danger, the men decide that one of them dress up in drag to be the White Goddess. When it becomes apparent that the task will fall to Gilligan, he immediately protests, "You can't make me! You can't make me!", upon which the scene immediately cuts to Gilligan dressed as a woman (and still saying "You can't make me!").
- Men Behaving Badly writer Simon Nye has declared his hatred for this trope, considering it a sitcom cliché, and managed to get away with only using it once in the entire run of MBB (Ken has taken over the pub; Gary declares that he and Tony will not set foot in there again until Les is restored as barman - Gilligan Cut to him and Tony convivially sharing a drink with Ken inside the pub).
- The Lion King used a Gilligan Cut just before Simba & Co.'s battle with Scar and his hyena minions.
Timon: " A diversion? What do you want us to do, dress in drag and do the hula?"
Cut to Timon dressed in drag and doing the hula.
- As you can see here
 , Hey Arnold! Loves This Trope:
Oscar: Don't worry, Arnold, I can't lose. ... I can't believe I lost. ("Arnold As Cupid," S1)
Helga: I am NOT taking the subway. ... I can't believe I'm taking the subway. ("Das Subway," S1)
Gerald: There's no way we're fishing in a swan boat. ... I can't believe we're fishing in a swan boat. ("Big Caesar," S2)
Arnold: We are not calling our go-cart the Mauve Avenger. ... I cannot believe we called our go-cart the Mauve Avenger. ("Grand Prix," S3)
Helga: Look, I am not gonna go back in there, tell them the truth, and wind up washing dishes. ... I can't believe I told them the truth, and I wound up washing dishes. ("Dinner for Four," S3)
- Double Subversion in the Family Guy episode "Death is a Bitch". Death asks Peter to take over for him by crashing a plane full of people, and Peter absolutely refuses.
Peter: Forget it, Death, I’m not gonna do your dirty work! There’s no way I’m getting on that plane! Absolutely no way, and that’s final.
[Cut to Peter, still standing in place.]
Peter: See, I'm still here and there's nothing you can say that'll change my mind.
Death: If you don't do it, I'll kill you.
[Cut to Peter on the plane].
- The second Ranma One Half movie has this, and plays with it at the same time. The women of the group are being abducted by unknown shadowy creatures one by one. Currently Akane is the only one they can use as bait, except everyone's looking at male Ranma. Cut to female Ranma struggling against the pole she's been tied to. Of course, there's a kettle on the top of the pole, it's clearly a trap, and Ranma was only acting like s/he was tied up.
- Subverted, Lampshade Hung, and Wiki article practically written by Freakazoid, in the Candle J--erm, episode 2. The titular C.J. is a campfire story villain who kidnaps you if you say his name. Of course, in the telling, the whole camp has said his name, so it's up to Freakazoid…
Freakazoid: Well, if it isn't— Kidnapped kids: Noooo! Freakazoid: What, I was just gonna say— Kidnapped kids: Noooo! Dr. Gunther Hunterhanker (also kidnapped): Don't say it! Freakazoid: Don't say what? Stef: Don't say his name! Freakazoid: You mean, don't say " Candle Jack?" (Zip Pan to Freakazoid, now tied up with the rest) Stef (exasperated): Freakazoid, why did you say his name? Freakazoid: 'Cause I, I wanted to do one of those funny things like in, y'ever watch F Troop where Agarn says, "There's no way I'm wearing a dress! Absolutely not! No dress!" and Forrest Tucker's like, "Yeah, you're wearing that dress, you're gonna wear that dress," and they they wipe (waves fingers) bloodledoodledoodledoodledoop, and Agarn's wearing a dress. (Zip Pan to actual clip of F Troop) Agarn (in a dress): Yoo hoo! Loco brothers! Look who's here for you! (laugh track) (Zip Pan back to Freakazoid) You-Know-Who: Oh...I love that bit.
- And that wasn't the last time we'd see a subversion:
Freakazoid: No! A big "N" followed by a little "o"! I am never going down into the sewers after Cobra Queen, never ever, ever, I really mean it, NO!
- F Troop. I mean, the clip had to come from somewhere, ri
- Subverted in The Mighty Boosh when Howard refuses to dress as a panda, saying no man should ever be forced to do that. Cut to Vince dressed as a panda.
- Neds Declassified School Survival Guide: After dodging his crazy vice-principal, Ned is stuck wearing a Wild Boy t-shirt and grass skirt from the museum gift shop.
Ned: I'm supposed to meet Suzy for lunch! What am I gonna tell her? "I saw the Wild Boy skirt and I just had to have it"?
cut to him and Suzy
Ned: Then I saw the Wild Boy skirt, and I said, "I just have to have it!"
- In a segment of Beakmans World on magic, Phoebe complains how they're gonna make her the bubble-brained assistant just because she's a girl. Beak says, "If anyone around here is going to be humiliated, it certainly won't be you." Everyone agrees, including Lester...until he realizes what that means. A half second later, Whip Pan to the stage, and Lester as the bubble-brained assistant, complete with costume.
- Variation both in the original series and The Movie of The Beverly Hillbillies: Granny loudly declares her opposition to leaving, stating that they won't get her out of her rockin' chair. The next scene shows the truck packed and loaded, including Granny's rocker. Granny's still in it.
- In the Futurama episode "Time Keeps On Slippin'", despite time-skips setting up natural Gilligan Cuts, only one of these actually occurs.
Leela(on Fry loving her): I appreciate it, but nothing you can do will ever, ever make me...
Time-skip
Preacherbot: ...Husband and wife!
- Chef! did this all the time.
- A rare drama Gilligan Cut occurs in the My So Called Life episode "Life of Brian":
Brian (V.O.): I vow to never again show up at Angela's door with some lame excuse!
Cut to Brian at Angela's door talking to her dad about something he supposedly borrowed from her
- The Living Daylights, when Bond and Kara Milovy, a cellist need to get out of Bratislava really fast:
Kara Milovy: I must get my cello.
Cut to them picking up the cello.
James Bond: Why couldn't you have learned the violin?!
- In The Land Before Time, the main characters have to get rid of the Allosaurus (which they call a "sharptooth") that's been hounding them throughout the movie. They plan to lure it to a very deep pool of water, then push a heavy boulder onto it. But first, they need bait, so Ducky is chosen as the bait.
Ducky: Me? No, no, no, no, no...
Cut to Ducky sneaking up on the sharptooth trying to get its attention.
- Video Game example: The Starcraft custom campaign, The Shifters. The pre-mission briefing for Chapter 3, between space-pirate Yvonne and his girlfriend/XO went thusly:
XO: Please tell me you have a plan. We're not just going to walk in the front entrance, are we?''
Yvonne: Of course not! I may not have a plan, but I assure you, we won't be walking in the front entrance.
[Briefing ends and the mission begins. On-screen text pops up:] Kel-Morian Sanctity December 2nd Front Entrance
- In The Rescuers Down Under, Bernard attempts to recruit Wilbur to sit on Marahute's eggs to keep them warm.
Wilbur: Oh no. Ohhhh no. I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong! I... don't look at me like that! You're getting 'no' from me! I am never going to have to sit on those eggs!
Cut to Wilbur now sitting on the eggs
Wilbur: Aww, nuts!
- Happens twice in a row in the KateModern episode "Spiders":
Gavin: I've got a plan B.
Tariq: What? We pay in gardening?
Cut to Tariq digging in the garden.
Tariq: I was only joking!
Gavin: Oh, come on! You missed - you missed a bit there. It's not forever! And just think about what we're getting for it.
Cut to a dusty old garage full of cardboard boxes.
Tariq: I thought you said it was perfect!
- South Park, "Woodland Critter Christmas":
Narrator: So he [Stan] picked up the cubs and down the mountain he stormed, and took them to where abortions are performed."
Stan: No, he didn't.
Narrator: Yes, he did.
Stan: No, he didn't!
Narrator: Yes, he did.
Stan: No, he didn't!
Stan: Aw, God damn it!
- Drawn Together had one episode where Foxxy Love was vehemently protesting she would not run a suicide hotline, only to have her agree to it after the cut. She lampshades it by muttering "Goddamnit!".
- Played with in Courage The Cowardly Dog. Muriel decides to take Eustace and Courage on vacation, but Eustace insists that he's not getting out of his chair. Cut to a view of the boat sailing off. Then cut to Eustace sitting in the same chair on the deck of the boat. "Nope. Not getting out of this chair."
- From one episode of Home And Away:
Cassie: I am not getting in Brad's car with you!...How did you convince me to get into Brad's car with you?
- The Batman provides a bit of an odd example in "Artifacts"
Mr. Freeze: "The cryo-chamber. Cold enough to put me on ice until someone wakes me up and puts me back together."
Gray: (Who is thousands of years in the future) " Still can't believe some fool woke Frost up and put him back together."
- Smallville has an unique approach to these in that the cut is never made but anyone familiar with Superman would see the irony of the statement. Such examples include Clark (on working for the military) stating "I can't see myself putting on a uniform and flying around the world to help people" or (after looking at battle armor with an S shape on the chest) "I could never see myself putting on something like that and charging into battle." This was a gag that faded away in the latter seasons, but Lois still got one in the recent season when, after a break up with an office co-worker, swears off dating people she works with.
Lois: I don't do too well with fortune tellers. The last one I went to see told me I was destined to fall for a guy who flies a lot and likes to wear tights. So I'm just waiting for my cross-dressing pilot to make his landing.
- Iron Man the film:
Rhodes: Now what am I supposed to tell the press?
Stark: "Training accident", isn't that the usual B.S.?
Rhodes: It's not that simple.
cut to press conference
Rhodes: An unfortunate training accident involving an F-22 Raptor occurred yesterday...
- Earlier in the film, an angry Rhodes lectures Tony on responsibility while rejecting his offer of alcohol during their flight to Afghanistan. One Gilligan Cut later, they're both drunk, and the flight attendants are dancing around a retractable stripper pole.
- Another videogame example: Flight of the Amazon Queen. Joe King escapes from the hotel room he was locked up in, but is caught by two goons at the hotel entrance.
Eddy: I don't know how you got out of your room, King, but this time I'm going to make it difficult for you to leave the building!
King: Oh yeah? What are you going to do? Take my clothes from me?
Cut to Joe King back in his room, in underwear.
King: Me and my big mouth...
- In the Wings episode "Death Becomes Him", Joe and Brian accidentally fly the wrong corpse in for a funeral. Brian suggests that Joe masquerade as the dead man until they have time to switch the bodies.
Brian: Get in the box, Joe.
Joe: No! There is no way I am getting in that box.
cut to Joe in the casket at the funeral
Joe: (thinking) I can't believe I got in the box!
- Subverted in the episode "I've Got a Secret". Alex confides to Helen and Antonio that she once posed in Playboy. When Joe and Brian discover that Antonio knows a secret about Alex, they begin to badger him.
Joe: Come on. Tell us what you know.
Antonio: I can't. I won't. There is no way you're ever getting this out of me.
cut to Lowell walking into the office later that day with a large stack of magazines
Lowell Okay, this is the last of them. Every Playboy from '85 to '89.
- However, the cut ends up being deceptive, as it was not Antonio who blabbed, but Helen.
- From the movie Tootsie:
Michael: Where will I say I got the money? What am I going to do? Tell [Sandy] somebody died and left it to me?
cut to Sandy's apartment
Sandy: My God! When did she die?
- From the move The Girl Next Door: Matthew sees the titular girl next door from the window, undressing. He winds up alone in a car with her a short time later. In order to make up for it, she wants him to expose himself to her.
(paraphrased)
Matthew: I'm not stripping for you.
Cut to him standing in front of the car, wearing only his underwear.
- George Shrinks- Becky asks George if anyone will mind the fact he's taken a numebr of parts from household objects to build his ghost catching machine. George says that they won't even miss them. Cut to Junior finding the wheels off his toy car gone, Mom noticing the vacuum cleaner has had parts ripped from it and Dad finding his tape deck has vanished.
- Used to an extremely rare dramatic effect in the HBO Miniseries Generation Kill. The Marines of First Recon is stopped in the middle of the night at the edge of the Euphrates River, preparing to launch an assault into Nasiriya.
Lt. Nathaniel Fick: I promise you, we will move out under cover of darkness.
Cut to a nervous-looking Cpl. Harold James Trombley as 2nd Platoon's Humvees drive over the bridge into Nasiriya in broad daylight.
- Happens in This Is Spinal Tap: "We're not going to do a free-form jazz exploration for a festival crowd." Guess what happened next.
- Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis did something like this without a cut at all. Martin was trying to convince Lewis to be a ventriloquist's dummy, Lewis kept refusing until the guy they were trying to convince walked in the door—and Lewis instantly flopped over like an oversized dummy. Hilarity Ensues
- Buffy and Angel made frequent use of these.
- "Welcome To The Hellmouth":
Buffy: Oh please! This is Sunnydale! How bad an evil can there be here?
Cut to the Master's lair, located directly beneath the high school.
- "School Hard":
Spike: So, how about this Slayer? Is she tough?
Cut to Buffy saying "Ow" as she brushes her hair.
- "Bad Eggs":
Willow: Maybe you could get Angel to help you find the Gorches.
Giles: Good idea. Strength in numbers.
Xander: Oh yeah. I see a lot of hunting getting done in that scenario.
Buffy: Please. Like Angel and I are just helpless slaves to passion. Grow up!
Cut to Buffy and Angel making out in the cemetery.
- "I Will Always Remember You":
Doyle: You don't know what Buffy and Angel are doing down there.
Cordelia: They've got the forbidden love of all time. They've been apart for months. Now he's suddenly human. I'm sure they're down there just having tea and crackers.
Cut to Angel pouring himself some tea while Buffy munches on some crackers.
- Plus there's the scene that references the title of the episode. Buffy is in tears, and swear she will never forget that day. Then the Elders press the Reset Button, and Buffy (along with everybody else except Angel) has forgotten everything that happened that day.
- Obligatory Zim example in the episode "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy." Professor Membrane explains that any attempt to travel back in time and change history is likely to create a future that is worse for the traveler (or cause, say, a giant fish in a bear suit to attack Tokyo). The Professor finishes, "Anyone who would want to build a space-time object replacement device is a complete moron!" Of course, the next thing we see is Zim saying "Gir, the space-time object replacement device is ready!"
- In Babylon 5 Londo and G'Kar are on Centauri Prime just when yet another conflict between the Centauri and the Narns starts, and a Centauri official demands G'Kar to be imprisoned as a security liability until the crisis is over. Londo responds "Where he goes, I go", and turns to G'Kar to comment that even one as arrogant wouldn't dare to imprison his own Prime Minister. Scene cut, and they're both standing in a cell, and Londo shouts "Shut up!" to G'Kar before he can say anything.
- Subverted temporarily in SpongeBob SquarePants episode Born Again Krabs. Mr. Krabs prepares to take a bite out of an old, filthy, tainted patty . Just as he is about to bite down on it, the shot cuts to an ambulance, implying that Krabs was now being rushed to the hospital. As it turns out, the ambulance was only passing by the Krusty Krab. Krabs comments on it, then takes a bite out of the patty, and the cut is played straight afterwards.
- Sistah Spooky gets one of these during her Back Story in Empowered. A rather plain black girl in a school full of Blonde Bimbos, she summons a demon to take revenge... only to be told that he can't act against other clients. He then offers her the chance to enroll in the same program to sell her soul for beauty, which she emphaticly rejects. The next page has her admiring her new body, and receiving a phonecall from Hell saying that there was a minor problem with the spell, making her a Vain Sorceress on top of things.
- MST 3 K loves to put this trope in the mouths of the victim-movie's characters.
- Happens once in Starfighters of Adumar. Red Squadron steals four sets of women's clothing, Hobbie asks Wedge to tell them that they're not going to wear it...
Hobbie: "You lied to me."
Wedge: "You knew, when I said we needed four sets of women's clothing, that we were going to end up in them. You knew. So any hopes you had to the contrary were just self-delusion."
Hobbie: "I understand that. But I'd rather blame you than me."
- And there's the scene in Clear and Present Danger where Harrison Ford and the CIA man are in Columbia and Ford wants to meet the drug cartel boss. The CIA man goes, "What are you going to do, walk up and knock on his door?" Cue Ford knocking on the wooden gate of the boss's hacienda.
- In Top Gear (Series 5 - Episode 2), there are two in rapid succession.
James May: All you have to do [to enter the competition] is answer this very, very tricky automotive question: "Which Italian super car maker features a prancing horse on its logo?"
Cut across the studio to Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond.
Jeremy Clarkson: I have absolutely no idea...
*Pause*
Jeremy Clarkson: Uh, anyway... Ferrari! A couple of years ago, they introduced this amazing new hyper car called the F60, and we've been trying ever since to get hold of one.
Assorted talk about the trouble they had about getting their hands on one to drive
Jeremy Clarkson: And then out of the blue, Nick Mason, who's the drummer with Pink Floyd telephoned to say that he's got an F60 which we could borrow, if we promised to plug his new book. Well, we aren't really allowed to plug stuff on Top Gear, but I said to him, "Look, if we can have your F60, I'll slide a couple of references in, and I don't think any of the bigwigs'll notice...
Cut to segment backed by the Pink Floyd track "Astronomy Domine"
- It should be noted the rest of the segment was packed full of Pink Floyd tracks, as well as numerous "The only thing as awesome as this car is this book I've been reading" lines.
- Another example, from the Vietnam episode:
Hammond and May are sitting comfortably in a bar, drinking.
Hammond: Do you think he's enjoying his first biking experience?
Cut to Clarkson, riding a beat-up Vespa, decked out with a plethora of mirrors, most of which are reflecting the headlight directly into his eyes.
Clarkson: I AM THE MOST MISERABLE HUMAN BEING ALIVE!!
- And from the same episode:
Clarkson: [voiceover] Still, at least I'd been assured it wouldn't rain.
[Fast cut to Clarkson, Hammond, and May riding their motorbikes in a teeming Vietnamese monsoon]
Clarkson: Name an upside to this, mate! Name ONE upside!
May: Well, you're not hot anymore, are you?
- In one commentary on Father Ted, Graham Linehan called this trope the 'bicycle joke', giving an example that begins with the line "You'll never catch me riding a bicycle".
- Race For The Yankee Zephyr (1981). George Peppard has just threatened something nasty will happen to Donald Pleasence if he doesn't lead him directly to the Yankee Zephyr, a crashed WW 2 airplane holding a fortune in gold.
Donald Pleasence: "Well it's a bit tricky. You see, the first time I saw the Yankee Zephyr I was suspended arse-over-elbow underneath a Mixmaster."
George Peppard: "That can be arranged." (Cut to Donald Pleasance tied up in a deer net beneath the villain's helicopter)
- In Heathers, Veronica is coerced into going on a date with someone other than JD and agrees: "Okay, just as long as it's not one of those nights when they get shit-faced and take us to a pasture to tip cows." You can guess what happens next.
- Empowered: There's no way Thug Boy's going to wear his old Sparta-esque "Centurion 3000" minion costume with the breastplate nipples and short skirt. No way in hell. Nuh-uh.
Empowered: Put it on,please.
(cut to him wearing the costume)
- A variant played for incredibly dark comedy appears in Mark Waid and Alex Ross's {{Kingdom Come.}} Superman prevents a group of Darker And Edgier heroes from letting a bystander get killed, then gives them a genuinely moving Superman-style lecture about the value of human life. The next panel is Vandal Savage breaking a woman's neck because she put the wrong amount of sugar in his coffee.
- Also happens to the chaplan in Von Ryan's Express, the variant where he is clueless as to what the others are planning for him to do.
- Episode 4 of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight has Maya tell her friend she will not get coffee for anyone. The next scene has her getting coffee for the woman she is working with.
- Reversed on Myth Busters, in an episode where they tested a bulletproof plexiglass, because Jamie said it was bulletproof. Jamie: "I never said it was bulletproof". Cut to an older episode, with Jamie gesturing to the substance and saying "It'll stop a bullet". Repeated for comic effect.
TROPICAL HISTORIC SITE:
This was the very first entry created on this Wiki when it was created in 2004.
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