Mordor's hordes are no match for Boromir's forearms.
Gandalf just can't sit still. He won't just sit down and talk to Frodo; ...instead he paces around meaninglessly, gesturing like a rabid stork. He raises both hands into the air, squeezes his fists and lowers his hands whenever he wants to make a point... Eventually Bag End becomes too confining for all these gestures, and so Gandalf and Frodo must go and walk in the night air where they can move around more.
Among drama students,
Milking The Giant Cow is a term that refers to the practice of holding your hands skyward (or merely gesticulating wildly) to show emotion. May be accompanied by a
Skyward Scream.
If they fall to their knees while doing so, they are contractually obligated to raise their hands to the heavens, grasp the invisible teats, and pull down a few times, as if milking an oversized bovine.
This also occurs when a character just can't sit still. A character may pump his hands up and down theatrically while speaking... "for emphasis". If played for laughs, he will be holding a beverage (or some sort of blunt object) — which will of course go flying everywhere.
An artifact of stage acting (
with the intent that granny in the back row could see what was going on), generally
deprecated amongst modern actors.
If it is done in order to
Feed Me, it may be
necessary to Milk The Cow.
Not to be confused with
Ham And Cheese. Unless the actor chooses to milk
while ordering
Ham And Cheese.
See also
Big No,
Skyward Scream,
Large Ham. In a
World Of Ham,
everyone does this.
Examples:
- Trope Codifier: Boromir in the animated LOTR, thanks to this infamous review
originally posted on alt.fan.tolkien, from which the page quote is taken. Gandalf also does a lot of milking the cow too but not as much as Boromir.
- The Youtube fan dub of Bakshi's animated Lord Of The Rings was inspired by the Boromir example, mentioned above:
- Stampa med Leroy, at 3:23.
- Leslie Nielsen perfected the "wildly gesticulating while holding a drink" version.
- Rather Dashing does this in the Peasant's Quest movie trailer.
- Gackt must have a clause in his contract that requires him to do this at least once per music video and stage performance.
- Stan the Salesman parodies this by flailing his arms wildly no matter what he's saying. It also serves to draw attention to his Unmoving Plaid, making it even more amusing.
- John Moore's humorous fantasy novel Heroics for Beginners specifically cites this term:
He stood in the center of the room, his head thrown back in silent laughter, his arms raised above his head, his fists clenched in that famous, overly dramatic gesture known to theatre students everywhere as "milking the giant cow." Yes, it was hokey and cliched, and
Voltmeter knew it, but he loved doing that gesture anyway, the quintessential stance of a man mad with power.
- The video for Disturbed's Indestructible uses this several times.
- Hell, every Disturbed video contains a little of this, as do the live shows. The singer is one great big ham.
- Jafar milks the giant cow quite a few times in Aladdin. Even on the cover art!
- Rudolf. Klein. Rogge.
- The Venture Brothers resident cow-milker is Dr. Orpheus; he'll gesture wildly even if saying rather mundane things.
- In Ape Escape 3, Specter and Dr. Tomoki have a tendency to do this in cutscenes, making them look like mad puppets.
- The director for the Music Video to Elton John's song I Want Love accused Robert Downey Jr of doing just this. Her solution? Taping his hands in his pockets to remind him that understatement worked more for this concept (the idea was just Downey walking and lip-synching to the song in a cold 'institutional' building). Works, too.
- In the crossover episode of Captain N and The Legend Of Zelda Cartoon, everyone celebrates by lifitng their arms up and down. The Nostalgia Critic gleefully points this out.
- Microsoft 3D Movie Maker: Because of the fairly cartoonish style, many of the actions are Milking The Giant Cow.
