Hiccup Hijinks - Television Tropes & Idioms

Black Bolt, you ask? That'd be a problem.

"I think most hiccup cures were really invented for the amusement of the patient's friends."
—Hobbes, Calvin and Hobbes

"Hiccups have left the building, Eddy!"
—Ed, Ed, Edd 'n Eddy

The hiccups. Everyone gets them, and everyone has a hare-brained cure for them. So you can expect a television show to have an episode or segment where a character gets the hiccups. The other characters will all have their own cure, from the mundane (drink some water) to the mildly unpleasant (drinking pickle juice) to the outright bizarre (pinch your ear lobe and breathe normally). They'll try everything except the one consistently proven successful cure in real life of having an orgasm (like the censors will ever let that happen!)—although simply breathing shallowly in a slow, controlled fashion also often helps.

After every remedy, the character will pause dramatically, then emit a "hic". Invariably, someone will finally suggest scaring them out of the sufferer. The next half of the episode will consist of all the other characters finding ways to freak the bejesus out of the character. At the end of the episode the sufferer will usually be cured, but suddenly another character starts to hiccup. Here We Go Again!

This trope has nothing to do with How to Train Your Dragon, although Hiccup certainly has his fair share of hijinks.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Azumanga Daioh: Osaka gets the hiccups. Tomo, Chiyo and Yomi try remedy after remedy, including stuff like drinking water from a cup held with chopsticks in it. Sakaki proposes a number of esoteric cures, including one they don't try because it involved drinking water with boiled persimmons. Finally, she passes them to Chiyo. At which point they begin to do the same things to Chiyo, despite her protests. This also contains the famous "what causes hiccups anyway" part, leading to a display of gratuitous violence by Kagura (although in the anime this is relegated to Tomo).
In one anime adaptation episode of Kochikame, officer Kankichi Ryotsu spends the entire episode with hiccups. Every curing technique fails and goes so far as trying to kill Ryotsu with military weapons to scare him.
In the manga version of Tenchi Muyo!, Sasami develops her first case of the hiccups. Thanks to Mihoshi believing an old wives' tale, everyone believes she'll die if she reaches 100 hiccups. It turns into a heartwarming moment with how they "cure" her Tenchi admits that he loves her, the only time he's admitted that to any of the five!
In Basilisk Oboro gets hiccups and worries about her upcoming meeting with the ninja clan leader Gennosuke.
In Honey and Clover both Hagu and Rika get hiccups in an episode.
Natsumi gets the hiccups in an episode of Keroro Gunsou.
Mayo Chiki!: Kanade's admits hiccups are her major weakness in episode 11.
In Eerie Queerie the main characters gets the hiccups and is told about the legend that if you hiccup a hundred times you die. After getting hiccups every night and having a ghostly voice count them, he eventually gets up to one hundred but is saved by his best friend/eventual boyfriend kissing him. It's revealed that this was all a prank from a ghost.

Comic Books

In the album La frousse aux trousses (Fear On The tail), Spirou and Fantasio goes on an expedition to a war-torn Central Asian country, and reluctantly bring along a bunch of rich guys who are suffering from chronic hiccups. The idea is that the dangers they must face on this mission will eventually scare the hiccups out of them. It works, but only when they think Spirou and Fantasio have been killed.
The Astérix album "Asterix and the Normans" mentions that among the Vikings, hiccups are incurable. (Because the usual cure is scaring someone, and Vikings are afraid of nothing...) Well, except for Cacofonix's singing.
Marvel Universe has this trope spoofed in issue 34 of their "What If?" series, with Black Bolt. Yeah. Black Bolt with hiccups.

Film

The first "Prince Herbert" sequence in Monty Python and the Holy Grail has a guard hiccuping in the background all the way through, until the King angrily tells him to go get a drink of water — at which point his hiccups apparently stop.
In Pappa ante portas by German comedian Loriot, this happens to a famous author during a reading from his poems. The protagonist manages to distract him (by asking about his lunch) and solves the problem. When the poet begins to read, the protagonist is struck by hiccup instead.

Literature

The entire plot of the picture book Hanna Hippo's Horrible Hiccups, part of the Animal Antics A to Z series.

Live Action TV

Hey Dude
The 70s Sitcom Alice featured the lead character about to go off on a career on stage, but she can't get rid of the hiccups. Turned out they were psychosomatic — she was too nervous about leaving her life behind.
There's an episode of ER where Dr. Weaver has the hiccoughs.
In an episode of Frasier, no thanks to the spiciness of the beef jerky Martin bought, Frasier hiccups when he's about to say he and Martin are going to pay for Daphne's wedding flowers, which leads her to believe that they're going to pay for the whole wedding. Frasier describes his predicament thus:
Donny: Hmm, fillet mignon jerky. How much did this set you back?
Frasier (remorsefully): You have no idea.
- Frasier also had to deal with a case of the hiccups in an episode of Cheers
This plot appeared on the Australian kids' show Swap Shop. This is an odd example, because in this case it dealt with an adult who was part-owner of the titular establishment.
The Andy Griffith Show: Barney is up for a periodic sherriff's department health review, which includes a weigh-in. He finds he's just underweight when he suddenly gets a horrible case of the hiccups and can't eat for days. He passes the weigh-in after Andy gives him his dog-tags on a huge iron chain.
In an episode of How I Met Your Mother, Marshall's fantasy of sleeping with a hot delivery girl has to involve a prerequisite fantasy of Lily first dying from some incurable hiccup-related illness. Alyson Hannigan hiccuping to death is tragic, yet funny.
An episode of Imagination Movers centers around finding Knit Knots a cure for his hiccups (they’re “much too exciting” for him). In the end, all he had to do was to get his mind off them!
One animated segment from Sesame Street involves an opera singer getting the hiccups during a big performance. So naturally, she used it as part of the performance.
Bull on Night Court
Cody gets a bad case on an episode of Step by Step, and all attempts to cure him (water, scaring, and hypnosis) fail. Eventually, it's revealed that time is the only true remedy.

Newspaper Comics

Calvin and Hobbes. After Calvin attempts to drink a glass of water upside-down from the far side of the glass, an amused Hobbes makes the above quote. And when Calvin suddenly stops having hiccups, Hobbes scares him, causing him to start hiccuping ''again'' .
"Sturm Truppen". A Running Gag was a SS officer and his fucilation squad trying to kill a Jewish prisoner and failing to do so. An arc revolved around said officer's hiccup, which prevented him to order 'Fire!', and the attempts on the squad and the Jewish's part to heal him. How did they stop the hiccups? The Führer ordered him to.

Video Games

The Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na spinoff Moonlight Cradle has one extra scene in which Mia gets the hiccups. Sayaka, Tatsuya, Mai, and Feena all attempt to cure her, but without success. Jin cures her by causing Mia and Feena to faint by showing them a bug, and Mai gets the hiccups...
In Planescape: Torment, The Nameless one can be afflicted with a magical curse of ETERNAL HICCUPS. However, it is possible to reverse the spell by threatening the one responsible with a MUCH nastier curse.

Web Animation

Homestar Runner did it in "Halloween Fairstival", where The Cheat got hiccups on Halloween night and he, Strong Bad, and Strong Mad spent the cartoon trying to cure them. He only stops after being bribed into doing so.

Webcomics

Penny Arcade: Gabe's cure for Tycho's hiccups was to cut off his right hand, leading to High Pressure Blood spurting out as Tycho screams "AAAAHhicAAAAAH..."
In Dumbing Of Age, Joyce is so surprised that Dorothy is an atheist that she gives herself hiccups. When Dorothy tries to talk to Walky about this, he is so lovestruck with her that he can't speak. With Joyce hiccuping in the background, Dorothy says "I have to get out of this place. It's full of—I can't say it." Helpfully, the comic is titled Hicks.

Western Animation

Rugrats had an episode dealing with the fearless Tommy having the hiccups, and Angelica doing her best to scare them out of him. The comic book also had a story like this, but with fraidy-cat Chuckie as the patient, and in a piece of irony, the gang's attempts to scare him only made him laugh. Luckily for Angelica, she was more successful scaring the hiccups out of him than Tommy.
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends did this in the episode "Hiccy Burp". They then subverted it when Mac and Bloo decided to incorporate Bloo's case of hiccups into their act for an upcoming talent show, only for them to go away on the night of the show, with the result that Mac and Bloo desperately tried to get them back.
The Johnny Bravo episode "As I Lay Hiccuping". Johnny gets the hiccups after eating his cereal too fast, which his mama warned him not to. He then goes to the doctor's office, and the doctor he sees is a hot lady. Johnny spends the entire episode losing the hiccups and getting them back. Once he does get them back, he sees the doctor, only for her to actually be a male doctor wearing a costume, which scared Johnny pretty good.
In The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh episode "To Catch a Hiccup", Piglet gets the hiccups and Pooh misunderstands, thinking he offended Piglet. Rabbit, Tigger, and Owl try different ways to cure Piglet while Pooh tries to get honey for Piglet as an apology gift. When Piglet finally gets cured and clears things up with Pooh, Rabbit, Tigger, and Owl get the hiccups.
Phineas and Ferb spent the episode "One Good Scare Ought to Do It!" setting up a haunted house so they could cure Isabella of her hiccups, but to no avail. She eventually does becomes scared enough to lose her hiccups when Phineas's life is put in danger.
Eddy's flashback in the Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "The Good Ol' Ed" was of Edd getting a bad case of the hiccups. Edd tries drinking water, but keeps hiccuping so hard he only ends up spilling it, and at one point Ed tries to scare Edd's hiccups away by shouting "I am a zombie, and I will malice you with a shoehorn!" into Edd's mouth. However, Eddy is the only one who remembers this incident
In The Simpsons, Kent Brockman presents a man who has had the hiccups for 45 years.
Man: Kill me. Kill me. Kill me...
- This is Truth in Television. There really was a man who had hiccups for 63 years.
- Based on what it says above about the orgasm cure, this brings another trope to mind...
There was a Camp Lazlo short between commercials in which Clam got the hiccups, and Lumpus suggested Lazlo scare him. Lazlo spent the next 5 minutes feeding him to bears and pushing him off cliffs, scaring nobody but Raj. By the end, Raj is so horrified at what Lazlo is doing to Clam that the ending where Raj gets the hiccups is actually funny.
The Random Cartoons short "Ivan The Unbearable" involved a clumsy viking getting hiccups... from a box of cursed cookies. Which meant every time he hiccuped, something broke or something fell out of nowhere and hit somebody nearby.
In one episode of Shaun the Sheep, Shirley (the big one) suffers from hiccups. Shaun and Bitzer try the usual remedies, but Shirley is cured when the Farmer bends over in the bathroom while naked and turned away from the window. Which also causes hiccups to the rest of the flock.
The Jimmy Two-Shoes episode "There's Always a Hiccup" took it to its logical extreme. Heloise had hiccups for so long she hadn't slept for days. She was cured thanks to an Accidental Kiss with Beezy... at which point he got the hiccups.
A Tom and Jerry short called "Hic-cup Pup" in which Spike the bulldog's adorable little son keeps getting the hiccups when Tom startles him while chasing Jerry. Spike is not pleased.
A Kipper the Dog episode called "Hiccups" in which Kipper gets the hiccups and tries all kinds of remedies from his friends to cure it.
In the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode "Donald's Hiccups" Donald Duck and the gang get the hiccups which they try to cure.
In the Maryoku Yummy episode "Hiccles," hiccups are an actual disease with no known cure. As yummy after yummy is quarantined, Dr. Zuno has each one try something different in her search for a cure, from holding their breath to jumping while waving their arms. In the end, the cure is a certain food that Ooka, the only one unaffected, was snacking on.
Done with Skeebo in "Hiccup Helpers" on the Playhouse Disney stop-motion animated JoJo's Circus.
Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps has the titular character in "Angelina's Hiccups".
Arthur: DW gets hiccups and worries that she'll never get rid of them; an Imagine Spot shows her about to win the world record for longest time with hiccups (69 years) and then finally stopping a few seconds short. In the end Arthur accidentally scares her hiccups away.
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Invoked in "Griffon the Brush-Off" where Rainbow Dash startles Spike with a thundercloud. This causes Spike to hiccup fire and teleport dozens of the scrolls he dropped to Celestia as he's trying to pick them up.
Happened in one episode of Deputy Dawg.