Hello...
Hello, is there anybody in there? (
Just nod if you can hear me...)
Yes, hello, the standard English greeting that brings on a whole other meaning when you're standing in the dark and you've just heard a sound in the woods. The viewers all know say shouting hello will bring nothing but death or a chase scene and yet, they can't help it.
Fun fact: "Hello" (or "hallo") used to be an expression of surprise or questioning (as in "Hallo, what's this?") until
around the turn of the 20th century when it became the standard expression for answering the telephone. (This would have been the rather nautical "Ahoy-hoy!" if Alexander Graham Bell had his way.
Mr. Burns would approve.) From there it went on to become the catch-all greeting it is today. In French, "Bonjour", "Salut" & "Allo". In Japan, they say "Konnichiwa" or "Moshi moshi" (which has a similar quirky origin story). However, lots of countries do include some variant of "Hello" or "Allo" even if only for answering the phone.
Related tropes include
Crash Into Hello,
Hello Nurse,
Stealth Hi Bye,
Click Hello,
Incoming Ham, and numerous others.
Examples:
- Hello, is anyone there?
- Oh, Hey! You're the lady from the test! Hi!
- Day of the Dead, the group regularly fly out on a helicopter, set down and shout HELLO through a megaphone. Seems to be their whole search method for survivors.
- That and calling on the radio, but the ones they have are in poor condition and don't have the range.
- In 28 Days Later Jim wandered through the deserted London shouting hello and would say it whenever he entered a building, searching for survivors. It became his catchphrase as this situation became more apparent and his naiveté began to evaporate, fast. At the end of the film the word 'hello' is incorporated into their signal to the outside world, spelled out on the grass on an idyllic Ghibli Hill, and (implicitly) is what caught the notice of their rescuers.
- The Three Stooges would answer the phone as if they were a barbershop quartet.
- Of course, used in The Princess Bride:
- Basically, the primary reason this page exists is to make that phrase all blue.
- Catch Phrase of Clyde Gilmour, late host of the CBC classical radio show Gilmour's Albums - a warm, avuncular "Hello!" at the beginning of each broadcast. A parody show portrayed him singing The Beatles' "Hello Goodbye."
- Hello.jpg was the name of the infamous image from the Shock Site goatse.cx.
- When Eddy reluctantly lets Cloudcuckoolander Ed advertise En-O-Gee drinks in Ed Edd N Eddy, the following occurs:
Eddy: (monotone) Ladies and gentlemen...
Eddy: ...come buy a delicious...
Ed: COME BUY A DECIDUOUS!
Eddy: ...En-O-Gee Drink.
Ed: HELLO!
- In a later episode of Ed Edd N Eddy Rolf is showing off with a soccer ball while repeatedly saying, "Hello, goodbye."
- Repeatedly used in almost every show that uses the English language.
- The ever-popular "Hello, World!" program, often considered a newbie's introduction to serious scripting.
- According to Look Around You's "Maths" episode, the numeral 3 equals "hello" in the "language of numbers." Also, on the show's periodic table, "Hello" (atomic symbol "Hi") can be found in place of selenium.
- Hello. Zuko here. Even cuter version
◊.
- Real Life Aversion: there are actually people out there who shun the word "Hello" because of the "Hell" part, and say "Heaveno" instead.
- Some alternative alternatives:
- "Hello, is it me you're looking for?"
- "Hello, Ma Baby," the ragtime telephone song. Most people nowadays know this as the song of a dancing frog and/or a ChestBurster.
- In Bells Are Ringing, Ella starts introducing New York Subway riders to each other, and the Crowd Song "Hello, Hello There" ensues.
- Inverted, averted, and lampshaded in an episode of The Fairly Oddparents: Timmy and Chester hang up the phone, leaving AJ on the line. AJ wonders: "doesn't anybody say goodbye anymore?"
