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"YOU REAP WHAT YOU SEW-SO-SO...GREETINGS CHEESE POPSICLE. THE NUMBER YOU HAVE DIALED IS OUT OF PORK CHIPS..."
"Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?"
A character has suffered an amusing injury, usually a blunt force to the head… Dazed, he will say something really random and non sequitur, usually either before going out like a light or after being awakened. Two common phrases used are " How many fingers am I holding up?" (helpful bystander) and "Somebody get the license number of that truck?" (victim)
A subtrope of Parting From Consciousness Words, which also includes the cases where the parting words actually make sense.
Overlaps with Lemon Wacky Hello when caused by drugs or alcohol.
Examples:
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Anime
- Ranma 1/2: After hitting his head at the end of an episode, a cross-eyed Ranma says "Say, did anyone catch the number of that truck? Which way did he go? I'm Ranma!"
- In one case, Dr. Tofu mutters "shrimps are good with rice" after watching Kasumi enter the room.
- Bleach: Orihime in Episode 2, while eating dinner with Tatsuki, suddenly and bizarrely starts daydreaming that she is in some sort of wrestling grudge match.
- The manga shows her daydream and she's trying to outrun a marathon super-athlete. It's still funny either way.
- In the Digimon Adventure 02 episode "Guardian Angel", Andromon hits Pegasusmon, causing the latter to de-digivolve and land in TK's arms. When he lands, Patamon says "I'll have two cheeseburgers and a large order of fries".
- In Yu-Gi-Oh The Movie: The Pyramid of Light, after Yugi wakes up from some kind of magical attack-induced Mushroom Samba, he asks Téa to "read me the story about the bunny".
- In episode 23 of Keroro Gunsou, Keroro sneaks into Fuyuki's room at night in order to steal the Kero Ball out of its hiding place in Fuyuki's desk drawer. He panics when he hears Fuyuki shout "Sergeant, don't do that!", but it turns out Fuyuki is just talking in his sleep. He follows it up with "The sponge cake comes first, then the telephone..." and goes back to sleep.
Comic Books
- In one issue of Donald Duck comics, Donald's nephews cut him loose from a hanging vine that had entangled his leg. Don ends up landing head first on a rock, and as Huey, Dewey, and Louie check on him, he babbles "Yes, Mr. President, I got the license number of that broccoli... it wasn't armed..."
- Don Rosa's "Incident at Mcduck Tower" had Donald fall in a very cartoonish manner from a building, finally landing in a display in a grocery store. As a clerk helps him out he asks "St. Peter... why is heaven full of parsley?"
- Impulse of Young Justice was once conked during a fight, and since Robin was the first thing he saw upon waking up, he concluded that he was Batman. Or at least the Silver Age version of Batman, as he calls Robin "Old chum" and refers to the bad guys they are fighting as "Those fiends!"
- This trope was subverted and parodied in an issue of Impulse's own series. A special effects artist gets bonked and declares that he is a superhero, and that Impulse is his sidekick "Snacky the Boy Comet". After an entire issue of chasing this guy around and keeping him from getting hurt, it turns out that he's fine. He's just an eccentric who occasionally does things like this.
- In an issue of the Harley And Ivy miniseries, the two infiltrate the set of a movie based on their capers. Harley is unimpressed by the actor playing the Joker, and pummels him. He is then seen babbling "Yoda?...Dagobah system?". This is a Mythology Gag, as in the DCAU the Joker is played by Mark Hamill.
- In the old Super Mario Bros comic story Mutiny on the Fungi, after getting klonged on the head by an irate former Mook, Bowser stammers "I'll get a job in the morning, Mommy."
- A running gag in DC's 'Mazing Man comics was that whenever the titular character got conked on the head (including one instance when he was stuffed into a Goodwill box) he'd start singing Simon & Garfunkel's greatest hits.
Film
- In the football movie Little Giants, a kid gets tackled, and mumbles "Did I pass the spelling test?" before losing consciousness.
- In Space Jam, after getting knocked for a loop during the Big Game, Daffy Duck clings to one of the Monstars and babbles "But Mommy, I don't want to go to school today! I want to stay home and bake cookies with you."
- Also, earlier in the film, Bugs and Daffy are in "3-D Land" getting Michael's lucky basketball shorts, when Daffy makes a wrong turn while tunneling in Looney Toons fashion toward the Jordan house, resulting in a nasty confrontation with the family dog. A few seconds later, Daffy rings the front doorbell. When Bugs answers it from the inside, Daffy says (not sings) "Twinkle, twinkle, little star!" before passing out.
- Near the end of Son of the Pink Panther, one of the bad guys is hit in the head by a falling statue, exclaims "That's it! No more Mr. Nice Guy!"... and promptly falls unconscious.
- Hot Shots! features Jon Cryer slamming headfirst into an ambulance door. When he's congratulated for showing up, he says, "Thank you, Andre. I'll have the veal piccata." Splat. Similarly, in the sequel, Charlie Sheen gets one: "That's right, Lindsay, it's 20 minutes past the hour, and now here's the Buckinghams with 'Kind of a Drag'." Thud.
- A rare non-comedic example occurs in Walk the Line. As he loses consciousness after collapsing onstage, Johnny mutters, "Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an occasion" (an old Foghorn Leghorn line).
- Also used non-comedically (or not) in The Happening—the people affected by the neurotoxin do this right before they kill themselves.
- Arguably the entire premise of Signs is how one of these turns out to be sequitur after all.
- Used in Finding Nemo when Dory is asleep in the sea goggles.
Dory: The sea monkeys have my money... yes, I'm a natural blue...
- Star Trek IV featured a sort of inverse Non Sequitur Thud - as they're bringing Chekov out of unconsciousness, Bones asks him his name and rank to see if he's all there. Slightly unfocused, he gives them "Pavel Chekov" as his name, then gets a big grin on his face and says, "Rank: Admiral..."
- According to a fair number of the (non-canon) books, Pavel Chekov does indeed go on to the rank of Admiral, and even Commander-in-Chief, Starfleet.
- Dark Helmet from Spaceballs does this after the ship comes out of ludicrous speed, and Helmet - who was not restrained in any capacity - gets catapulted forward and smashes his giant helmet-covered head into a computer terminal, smashing it, his helmet, and his glasses. When asked for orders after he got up, he goes, "Well, why don't we take a five minute break? Smoke if you got 'em!" and collapses.
- Point in fact, though, is that this was actually a subversion, since what he was saying made perfect sense, even after the head trauma.
- Well, except for the last part, "Smoke if you got 'em", but that's the beauty of this trope.
- In Ferngully, Batty (the PTSD bat played by Robin Williams) is ranting against humans when Zack touches his brain implant. He gets a jolt of electricity and says "Price check on prune juice, Bob — price check on prune juice." Then he's out. In fact, this is a runningGag in the movie. It becomes a plot point, during the Final Boss Battle, he statrts to get basic cable, and Zack flicks through untill he gets Hamburger Hill.
- A Kid In King Arthurs Court:
Calvin: "Sir Kane! How many fingers am I holding up?"
Sir Kane: "Just a little off the top. Keep the sideburns."
- In Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, Bob and Mr. Asparagus utter these after their van hits a rock and the air bags deploy in their faces:
Bob: Is this... Heaven?
Mr. Asparagus: Smells like... Wisconsin!
- The "outtakes"
 include alternate versions of this scene with even-more-random lines.
- In the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban film, Ron Weasley wakes up one night and mumbles to Harry, somewhat distressed—and a few seconds later, promptly falls asleep again.
Ron:... Spiders...they want me to tapdance! I don't want to tapdance!
Harry: You tell those spiders, Ron.
- Monsters Vs Aliens
Dr. Cockroach: Whatever...mad scientist made you...he really went all out!
- Bananas - as Woody Allen is roused after being knocked out, he's moaning "...no more Polish women!"
- "That rug... really... tied the room together."
Literature
- Happens in a chapter of one of Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small books, appropriately titled 'Tilt Silly.' Kel received a massive blow while tilting and said 'I like being a girl' and giggled to her extremely stern, former training master.
- In nearly every one of the Encyclopedia Brown childrens' books, the tale of Encyclopedia's sidekick, Sally Kimball, pounding some sense into bully Bugs Meany, leaving him muttering "deal the cards." However, Encyclopedia Brown Lends A Hand has it that she left him "muttering about the price of yo-yos in China."
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire features this type of behavior from a Muggle as a side-effect of an unusually large amount of magical memory modification: when the main characters are checking out of a campground in August he waves them off with a "Merry Christmas."
- In the seventh book, Captain Underpants unknowingly has his superpowers taken by Melvin, jumps out of a window and lands on his head. When Harold and George rush to his side to see if he's okay, he mutters "Mommy, my train went swimming in the piano."
- Tobias smacks into a window during a mission in one Animorphs book. The rest of the mission is interspersed with his random comments about Clue.
Tobias: "Miss Scarlet? Was it Miss Scarlet with the plum in the professor?"
- In the Star Trek New Frontier novel "Martyr", Commander Shelby had just been badly injured in a planetside attack, but she's well enough to take over command in a fight. After a crazy (but ingenious) plan to use the local star as a deadly weapon, she congratulates everyone, then stops and yells "Oh look! The colors!" before passing out again.
Live Action TV
- In one episode of Police Squad, "The Champ" gets knocked out during a boxing match, and when his manager asks him "How many fingers am I holding up?", The Champ answers "Thursday" and passes out.
- In Veronica Mars, Sheriff Lamb murmurs "I smell bread" just before he passes out after a suspect has hit him with a baseball bat. This example gives the trope a more dramatic and poignant spin: Lamb, a regular series antagonist, is lying in a pool of blood when he mutters the phrase, and later in the episode we find out he has died from his injuries.
- In Doctor Who, physical trauma (especially post-regenerative stress) often causes the Doctor to get mixed up and refer to former companions and adventures.
The brontosaurus is large and placid... and stupid!
- After his regeneration into the 10th doctor:
I've got something to say...something I have to tell you...something important, what was it? No hold on, hold on, hold on...Oh! I know! Merry Christmas! *thud*
- Lester in Beakmans World, far to many times to count. Sometimes he even initiates the amusing injury that leads to the thud. For example, hitting himself with a gavel, then yelling "Sustained!" Thud!
- In the Married... With Children episode Cheese, Cues and Blood, Al sells all of his blood to 9 blood banks in order to pay a man because Kelly has started working at the bar, shooting pool. Al spouted much nonsense throughout the rest of the episode, and at one point, Jefferson mentions that the former air-guitared to It's a Small World.
"This pig will self-destruct in 5 seconds!"
- The android Kryten from Red Dwarf has suffered a couple of these. In "White Hole", after being used as a battering ram, he responds "I'm fine thank you, Susan" when Lister asks if he's all right. Later, in Quarantine, he gets a fire-axe embedded in his back, causing him to spout gibberish and ram his head into a convenient pillar in order to fix it:
Kryten: (gibberish) Two and one-half badgers, please — (gibberish) ...No, that's all right, I'll eat them here. — (gibberish, bangs his head on the pillar) ...Ah, that's better. Now I can win self-determination for the South Maldivian people!! (additional spluttering and gibberish, bangs his head on the post again)
- In The X Files episode "Bad Blood," a drugged Mulder briefly regains consciousness and sings a fragment of the theme from Shaft. At least, that's what Scully claims.
- Alan Partridge usually says something odd when waking up from his...well, just watch the show. My personal favorite was the random utterance of "...fight you!"
- In an early episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow has been sleeping over an open book and suddenly bolts upright, crying, "Don't warn the tadpoles!" When Giles expresses surprise, she sheepishly admits, "I... I have a frog fear."
- Another example of this variant: Buffy wakes up Spike and he mutters, "I'm drowning in shoes!"
- In an early episode of The A Team, Face takes one to the... well, face. When Hannibal asks how many fingers he's holding up, the bleary commando volunteers "Gargh... Blue... TREE!"
- During the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, correspondents at The Daily Show were working around the clock to keep up with what was going on. Stephen Colbert, caught napping at the desk: "If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers!"
- Effy in Skins, immediately upon being shot up with an overdose of (probably) heroin:
"Sometimes I think I was born backwards, you know, came out my mum the wrong way... I hear words go past me backwards. The people I should love, I hate, and the people I hate —" *falls over*
- A non-cranial injury version of this trope occurred during the Babylon 5 episode "Parliament of Dreams", in which Londo Mollari spouts a bunch of nonsense and collapses, being utterly smashed. The scene is also an epic Feed Me moment for the Centauri ambassador.
Londo: *To Delenn* Have I ever told you, that you are very cute for a Minbari? *To Garibaldi* And you are cute too, in an annoying sort of way. Everybody's cute. Everybody's cute! Even me... But in purple, I am stunning! *Thud*
Vir: Ah! He has become one with his inner self!
Garibaldi: He's passed out.
Vir: That too.
- Doubles as foreshadowing: purple is a color traditionally associated with Emperors, although the Centauri emperor wears white.
- Consciously used by the titular ME in Crossing Jordan. Trying to ignore that she'd been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Jordan eventually suffers a seizure at work. When she comes around, Doctor Macy checks her mental status with the 'how many fingers?' test, and Jordan pranks him by slurring "Friiiday!"
- Played straight in the second season of Sea Patrol. During the course of her duties, the XO of HMAS Hammersley was surreptitiously dosed with Rohypnol by a fisherman/murderer. After Hammersley saves the day, the Captain came down to her cabin to check on her condition; she didn't wake up when he arrived, and he was greeted with "I don't believe in pre-marital soy sauce!"
- On Home Improvement, Tim Taylor often said "We'll be right back after these messages from Binford" (or some mangling thereof) right before passing out or when awakened, even when not on the set of Tool Time.
- On Space Cases, the android Thelma has been sent over to retrieve a data crystal from another ship with automated defenses, which have fired at her. When the crew expresses the desire to examine it...
Thelma: Excellent idea, Pierre. The corn muffins look scrumptious today! *falls the the floor*
- A scene-long one occurs on Stargate Atlantis when Rodney returns to Atlantis hopped up on the Wraith enzyme. His rant is long and confusing, especially for Weir, who doesn't know any of the context. This quickly turns into a Funny Aneurysm Moment when it's later revealed that he's in serious danger.
- A running gag on Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured a riffer shouting "Football practice!" when someone wakes up abruptly.
- Neglecting a Firefly reference? On my TV Tropes? For shame.
Jayne: Now we're finishing this deal, and then maybe, maybe we'll come back for those morons... got themselves caught... and you can't change that by getting all... bendy...
Wash: All what?
Jayne: You got the light, from the console to keep you... lifting you up... they shine like... [starts grabbing at the air] little angels... *THUD*
Professional Wrestling
- Pro Wrestler Ric Flair will often take a few steps and act completely normal, maybe even letting out a "Woooo!" before suddenly collapsing face first after receiving an especially strong hit. Known as the Flair Flop.
- Another funny example came from Perry Saturn. After being clocked in the head with a frying pan in a back-stage vignette, he screamed out, "YAHTZEE! You're welcome!" and went out cold.
Video Games
- In Sam and Max: Culture Shock, a trio of hypnotized former child stars, the "Soda Poppers", are causing havoc in Sam and Max's neighborhood, and our heroes have to knock the Soda Poppers unconscious to snap them out of their hypnosis. As each of the Soda Poppers gets KOed, he mumbles his catch phrase from their old show before falling over.
- A recurring line when people are knocked out in the first Discworld video game is "Did anyone get the number of that donkey cart?" This actually plays into a puzzle, as later on in the game you get a donkey arrested by giving a recently KOed assassin its registration
- In the third Sly Cooper game, after Carmelita shoots Muggshot repeatedly with her Stun Gun, he mumbles, "Mudda, is that you? I'm sorry... I didn't know they were yours.." before toppling unconscious.
- In the first Monkey Island game, Guybrush gets shot out of a cannon by the Fabulous Flying Fettuccini Brothers, and promptly flies into a circus tent pole. He slides down upside-down, and the brothers run over to make sure he's okay. Both options for response appear upside down - one is simply him asking where the pot he was using as a helmet went, but other has him randomly ask "I'm Bobbin. Are you my mother?" which is a non sequitur in game but is a reference to Loom, a previous Lucas Arts game.
- The "Exploding piano" minigame in the Duck Amuck Looney Tunes game has Daffy say a different Non Sequitur Thud every time the piano explodes, including "No more for me thanks, I'm driving" from Rabbit Seasoning above. Others include "And I say he does have to shoot me now" (from the Duck Season Rabbit Season sequence in the same cartoon); "There are four lights" (a Shout Out to Star Trek The Next Generation) and the ever popular "Check Please".
- In Psychonauts, the Un Funny Sasha Nein has the misfortune of being clonked on the head by one of his own Censors, who believe him to be a dangerous thought. He mumbles dazedly every time he gets clobbered, saying things like "My name is Yan Yensen I live in Wisconsin I work in the lumberyard there..."
- The truly amazing example at the top of the page is from Mother 3, just before a (rather unnaturally terrifying) maid robot explodes in a small mushroom cloud. The gibberish it spouts in full:
YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW SO SEW SO-SO / GREETINGS CHEESE POPSICLE / THE NUMBER YOU HAVE DIALED IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PORK CHOPS / FROM EAST TO WEST IT GOES GOES / BROKEN BROKEN / OH SO SEW BROKEN / *whir* *clank* *clunk*
- In Marathon Infinity when you deactivate Durandal in the level Hang Brain there are some mighty gibberish when you read one of the computer terminals. Go here and scroll down to "Hang Brain (Terminal 1: 1st Message)" to read it.
- Metal Gear Solid 2 gives us the malfunctioning Robo-Colonel and the infamous line "I need scissors, 61!"
- The full line is one of the weirdest things I've ever heard.
I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!
- A few of the psychopaths in Dead Rising give Non Sequiturs before they die. Notably, Steven Chapman, manager of the foodstore, slumps over the counter and yells "CLEAN UP, REGISTER SIX!" before expiring.
- Not that weird. He died at Register six. One can only assume he wanted somebody to remove the body.
- After being short-circuited by Villainous Harlequin Dimentio, malfuntioning mechanical dragon Fracktail from Super Paper Mario tries to reboot his system. It doesn't work out so well:
“BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. I AM ERROR. PRESS ANY KEY TO RESTART. ...SYSTEM NOT FOUND. INSERT INSTALL DISC. DISC NOT FOUND. PLEASE CONFIRM DISC COVER IS CLOSED. READ ERROR. INSERT BOOT DISC AND PRESS ENTER. NO RESPONSE. SYSTEM MAY BE BUSY OR MELTING INTO SLAG. APPLICATION ERROR. SAVE YOUR WORK AND QUIT. YOU LOST EVERYTHING. WAY TO GO, GENIUS. WAITING FOR PROCESSORS. "404 computer hamsters not found." THREAT LEVEL UPGRADED TO JELLY ROLL 1. DETONATION IMMINENT. BEEBLEBLIP! C:/ run query identification C:/ run insult generator C:/ results: go away yeti-lip! CTRL ALT DEL!”
- It also appears to be a rather beautiful Take That aimed at Nintendo's competitor Microsoft
Web Animation
- On Homestar Runner, in the Strong Bad email "car", after Strong Bad punches Homestar in the face with his "tricked-out fist", Homestar is seen half-conscious, babbling about pies and pie people. In "Halloween Potion-Ma-Jig", Homestar awakens a half-buried, unconscious Strong Sad, who mumbles "mineral water... wha?" as he awakens. Similiarly, whenever Strong Bad is awoken from sleep (usually by Strong Sad), he will mutter the names of video games.
Web Comics
- Haley sings "I'm Henry the 8th, I am, I am..." after receiving a stunning kick in this Order Of The Stick.
- In another strip, V's Disintegrate spell isn't powerful enough to produce its usual effect when cast on a dragon, at least the first time; instead it's stunned and singing "the wheels on the bus go round and round".
- There's an example of the after-waking-up version in OOTS too. When Redcloak hits Hinjo with Disintegrate, it's enough to knock him out but not kill him. When he's healed, he wakes up mumbling, "I'm sorry, Uncle, I'll never take a drink from your private stash again..."
- This Erf World strip has an extreme example, when the character is more than simply knocked out.
- It takes a rather dark turn when Lord Manpower's Uncroaked corpse still mutters about "pie..."
- In these three strips from Girl Genius, Agatha tells her entire life story after being drugged with a truth serum in her wine. She ends the tale with, "And this is simply a lovely torte," and faceplants in her dessert.
- This one has a rather long one that doesn't actually include the thud yet, but at least we see him trending in a downwards direction. The kicker: It's caused by a Mushroom Samba wearing off.
- It's actually a dose of Bottled Heroic Resolve, and it doesn't actually involve a thud so much as an easing to the ground and a period of dragging the Reliable Traitor to a conveniently located medical lab (that is actually a Maximum Fun Chamber).
- Gil also spends some time thinking he's in Paris after being shot and throwing a giant robot. In that order.
- "I AM THE PRETTIEST FROG IN THE POND" - said by a guy delirious from a fantastic disease.
- Some pretty hilarious ones in The Last Days Of Foxhound, such as Mantis' in this comic.
- After everything bad that could happen seems to happen to Dominic Deegan, the Non Sequitur Thud in this strip forms the bridge between his Freak Out and Heroic BSOD.
- In Looking For Group, Richard spouts the following after getting an axe in his head:
Richard: Good was shot a that. Toast. HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!
- In a subversion in Eight Bit Theater, Fighter, resident idiot, gets stabbed in the head and starts talking about stuff that actually has plot relevance. Until he gets stabbed again. (Played straight plenty of other times, though).
- Given a slight twist in another comic, where Fighter has a knife in his head. Black Mage flicks it one direction, and Fighter starts singing the theme song to the old Captain America cartoon. BM comments to Thief that if you move it the other way, he does the Spider Man theme.
- In Ctrl Alt Del, half of the strips featuring Chef Brian feature this.
- And the other half is just plain deranged.
- Eddie from Emergency Exit talks like this all the time...and it's eventually revealed that it's because he has a portal in his head. Because he forced it through his own skull to keep the villain from getting it.
- "Jes, get your damn oatmeal off me!"
- An absolutely epic one occurs in No Need For Bushido when Ken attempts to fight the Wu Tang brothers. After being disarmed, Ken gets the crap kicked out of him by the kung-fu brothers, but keeps coming back for more. At first it looks like he's still going to be powered by Unstoppable Rage after getting knocked through two buildings by the brothers, but it turns out he's finally had enough.
Ken: All right! I was just gonna hold back being as you're Cho's friends an' all, but you've seriously pushed the extent of my cheese doodle naturally when I see I'm forgiven, and then you'll see it this time!
Brother Tang: ... Excuse me?
Ken: Don't you asking of meaning of the words I said. You already knew because kick ass of course not, damnit! *Falling*
Web Original
- Im A Marvel And Im ADC. After a few too many drinks Iron Man says "Thank you Andre; I'll have the veal picatta," then passes out, falling forward onto his face. And then through the floor; Spider-Man was surprised to discover that Stan's Place has a basement. Presumably this was a Shout Out to Hot Shots, above.
- ''Englishman: After accidentally getting out of his car while it was doing 70 mph on a motorway, Englishman adds: "So I notice, Mr Prime Minister. On behalf of centipedes everywhere I graciously accept this award for services to government corruption" before falling over.
Western Animation
Real Life
- Some people have been known to talk in their sleep; their statements are typically of this sort. See the Troper Tales page for examples. This only happens whenever dreams ocurr outside of an REM phase (Yes that is possible), as during those phases the body is paralyzed.
- Case in point, upon prodding awake a friend of mine one day when he fell asleep in the delivery van we were driving, he announced, in a "whiny three year old" like voice "I don't wanna be a chicken mcnugget!"... he never could figure out what he was dreaming of to generate that particular response.
- This troper, while a kid, shared a bedroom with his brother and once heard him speaking quite clearly, apparently to a friend: "What's that, Jamie? ...French cats? ...French cats eating ice cream?" - this troper then wailed "WAKE UP!!!"
- This troper's mother scared the You-Know-What out of her when, upon waking from a doze she - the mother - asked me to call Longwood Elementary and tell them she wouldn't be in monday. Only problem, she didn't work for Longwood Elementary but for a certain state university that shall remain nameless. Turned out she'd not only forgotten that but the last four or so months of her life. But I wasn't to worry...
- This troper was sleeping at a friend's house when she awoke in the middle of the night, quite alarmed, because aforementioned friend was almost sobbing 'I'm sorry I forgot the grapes, dad!' The next time she slept at my house, she yelled 'FUCK MY LIFE,' waking up this troper's sister in the process.
- This troper's father has done some brilliant sleep-talking in his time; 'I'm bouncing around, give me a sandwich', 'Leave it alone, it's only a hat' and 'He's stealing my cellotape!'
- This troper's roommate talks in his sleep from time to time. Usually it's just incoherent muttering, and sometimes it's in Thai, but from time to time he says something really funny in English. Most memorably, I walked into the room late one night to be greeted with 'Stay clean, stay dry...la li le li lo...'
- An example of this actually appeared in the first season of the Australian Big Brother: in the middle of the night, housemate Ben said, "Where's the chicken?" When his fellow housemates responded with "Huh?" he elaborated, "The last chicken?" Upon their further confusion, he insisted, "Chicken! You know..." and started making chicken noises. That's when they realised he was sleep-talking.
- Sleep Talkin' Man is a little archive of these, collected by the man's wife.
- In medicine, doctors or EM Ts will assess a patient's mental status by asking four questions: Who are you, where are you, what day is it, and what were you doing. If they answer all four questions appropriately, the patient is alert and oriented times four (A&Ox4). If they answer any of the questions inappropriately, then they have to start looking at reasons for the patient to have an altered mental status (head trauma, shock, blood sugar, drug intoxication, etc).
- Gangster Dutch Schultz was famously perforated many times by gunfire, especially in the kidneys. When he was laid up in the hospital and dying of his injuries, the cops stopped by to get a statement... and ended up getting what may no doubt be the strangest Famous Last Words in history.
- Extremely dark real life case: in 1919 a boxing match took place between Jack Dempsey and champion Jess Willard. Some people though it was a mismatch, as Willard towered over Dempsey and looked twice the size of Dempsey. (Willard stood close to 6'7 and 250 pounds, Dempsey about 6'1 and 185.) And it was a mismatch, but not the way people expected. From the opening bell Dempsey swarmed Willard and delivered the single most vicious, brutal, and ruthless beatdown in boxing history. Willard was knocked down 7 times in the first round alone. (The fight went 3 rounds before being stopped.) Willard's list of injuries read more like the injuries from a car accident: nose completely smashed, jaw broken in 7 places, broken ribs, 4 teeth knocked out, etc. As Willard was carried from the ring to the hospital, those carrying him heard Willard mutter to himself over and over "I have a farm in Iowa and $100,000 in the bank. I have a farm in Iowa and $100,000 in the bank. I have a farm in Iowa..."
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