Quotes Fit for a Trailer

Jet: You know, I have to say something really cool here to close out the dub trailer.
Sonic: Okay, I'll say something cool, too.

— Real-Time Fandub, Sonic Riders

Let's say at some point in a show, a character said "I have to collect them all!" Or midway through a film, the Plucky Comic Relief exclaims "You have to see this!"

Well, the producers and editors responsible for promotion have noticed that moments like these can be used in a trailer in a way that Breaks The Fourth Wall. A comment about the value of the Mineral MacGuffin can be repurposed to plug The Complete First Season; a cry along the lines of "The World Is Just Awesome" can, in a promotional context, sound like "The Box Set Of The Trilogy Is Just Awesome".

This may combine with a "Say My Name" Trailer. And like a "Say My Name" Trailer, this is rarely done only once in an advertisement - expect to hear the narrator say something, followed by a character's "reaction", followed by the narrator saying something else, etc.

This is distinct from trailers with wholly original material that includes the characters explicitly telling you to buy the DVD or go to the theater. This trope is about the editors finding clips which were originally filmed as part of a show... but also seem to kinda work for selling the show.

A variant/inversion is the Review Ironic Echo, in which the out-of-context, now-itself-referential quoting is done by a reviewer.

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Examples:

Advertising

• A 2010 Pull-Ups commercial tying in with the theatrical release of Toy Story 3 used two scenes from that film - the "This is no time to be hysterical" scene, and the Sunnyside toys cheering when Andy's toys arrive at the daycare - to accentuate a real boy saying he has to use the bathroom and saying "I did it!" after he does use the bathroom, respectively.
• Tri-Cities, Washington CBS affiliate KEPR has aired a promo during their syndicated reruns of The Simpsons announcing sponsorship from McDonald's, in which a clip from "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" of Homer saying "This is good stuff!" while trying to give advice to Bart is recontextualized to make it appear he's praising the company's products.

Film - Animation

• The Aristocats: Ads for the 1996 video release did this with the clip of Roquefort briefly putting a stop to the climactic fight so he can open a combination lock.
  Narrator: But most of all, it's...
  Roquefort: QUIET!!
  Narrator: (whispering) It's delightful Disney fun.
• Cinderella: An ad for the 1987 reissue was guilty of this:
  Narrator: Walt Disney's animated spectacular is back for the holidays!
  King: What could be more natural?
  Narrator: And now is the time to see it...
  Lady Tremaine: We haven't a moment to lose!
  Narrator: ...only at a theater near you.
  Cinderella: That means I can go, too!
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame: A trailer for the film's video release had the narrator quoting positive reviews for the film, followed by a clip of Victor saying "Works for me!"
• The Jungle Book: Ads for the 1991 video release featured a clip of Bagheera saying "Go on, go on", as if urging viewers to go out and buy the cassette, when he was actually goading Mowgli to follow the girl into the man-village near the end.
  • Other trailers take advantage of Baloo's line "That's what I call swingin' party."
• The Lion King: A few weeks into its initial run, newspaper ads for the film quoted characters as if they were reviewers praising the film, e.g.:
  "It's to die for!" —Scar
  "Ooh, do it again!" —Shenzi
• The Little Mermaid: A trailer for the 1997 reissue featured Scuttle saying "I wouldn't miss it!", which was originally about the wedding.
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The 1967 reissue trailer took the scene where Snow White meets the dwarfs for the first time and had the narrator's voice briefly replace hers.
  Happy: And this is Dopey. He's don't talk none.
  Narrator: You mean he can't?
  Happy: He don't know. He never tried!
• Toy Story: One commercial did this when the announcer's mention of Potato Head was followed by a clip of him saying "That's Mister Potato Head to you...!"

Film - Live-Action

• The TV trailers for the 1990 film Marked for Death concluded with the narrator declaring, "Steven Seagal is...Marked for Death!" This was immediately followed by a clip from the film of Seagal rhetorically asking, "Is that right?"
• The commercials for the 1995 re-release of Pulp Fiction make it a point to emphasize all the Oscars it was nominated for; when it proclaims it's nominated for Best Picture of the Year, cut to Vincent saying "That's a bold statement", then Jules saying "Aw, man, that's it, I'm going".
• A scene from the first Transformers movie has Sam say the line "I'd like you to meet my good friend... Optimus Prime," before panning to Optimus transforming from his truck mode to robot mode. The scene was in the movie, but, as Optimus had already been introduced to the audience by that point, it seems the scene exists mostly to introduce him in a suitably dramatic fashion in a promotional clip (where it was used frequently).
• A 1988 trailer for Who Framed Roger Rabbit had the narrator announcing that a new cartoon character was about to appear on the scene. This is then followed by R.K. Maroon dismissively saying "It's just Dumbo!", which is then followed by the narrator going: "No, it's Roger."
• One trailer for an ITV broadcast of You Only Live Twice ended with Blofeld's line "You can see it all on television."

Literature

• Roger Ebert observed in Eberts Glossary Of Movie Terms that this is apparently the only reason a character ever exclaims, "This just keeps getting better and better!"

Live-Action TV

• Played with by one BBC trailer, when the evening's scheduled programmes included an episode of Open All Hours and a showing of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. From the former, it took footage of Arkwright's beaten-up wreck of a van, and married it with Sulu's awed "She's supposed to be fitted with transwarp drive".
• The Big Bang Theory used individual words out of context to say say "New night, new time, same Theory. This fall, only CBS."
• An ad for a DVD of The Brady Bunch did this.
• Doctor Who:
  • The "Next Time" trailer for "Forest of the Dead" featured several quotes arranged in a fashion practically designed to taunt the audience:
    The Doctor: What is it? What is CAL?
    River Song: [playfully] Spoilers.
    The Doctor: [serious] Spoilers.
    The Girl: No! Don't tell! You mustn't tell!
  • The trailer for the second half of series 6 featured a voiceover of Madame Kovarian describing the Impossible Astronaut killing the Doctor ... followed by the Doctor turning to the camera and saying "Haven't you figured that one out yet?" This is a scene from "Let's Kill Hitler", and he's talking to Amy about how River finds him.
  • The trailer for the sixtieth anniversary specials ends with Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor, who has just been revealed to not be the Fourteenth, but the Fifteenth after David Tennant's temporary return, demanding "Could someone tell me what the hell is going on here?"
• The Jim Henson Hour trailer for the original Dog City special:
  • At the start:
    The Announcer: From the creators of Platypus Junction, Cow World and Village of Fish comes an action film only one word can describe...
    Bugsy Them: Senseless!
  • And the end:
    Bugsy: I love it! It makes no sense whatsoever!
• A commercial for ABC's Wednesday Comedy Lineup used a line from The Middle, with someone saying "Let's do this every Wednesday night!".
• There used to be a Polish TV channel Minimax, which showed a lot of shows aimed at children and teenagers, and regularly has trailer-like teasers for its own programs in between ad breaks. These always ended with a line from somewhere in the show repurposed like this; for instance, the one for Doug ended with a line "Very funny" grabbed out of one of the episodes.
• An ad for the ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Secret of Chimneys had the announcer suggest that the audience could try solving the mystery before Miss Marple, followed by a clip of one of the characters snorting in disbelief.
• NBC did a similar thing to The Big Bang Theory for their Thursday night block, only with the sentence "Comedy night done right. All night on NBC."
• A Saturday Night Live parody of Disney's Sequelitis and its Dark Secrets began with, by all appearances, a genuine trailer for Bambi II which used a line from that film: "Better hurry!"
• Star Trek
  • In one of his Star Trek Nitpicker's Guides, Phil Farrand described his delight when, after the local channel on which he watched Star Trek had acquired Next Generation, they ran a promotional spot for the newer show that unexpectedly ended with the following stinger (from "Plato's Stepchildren"):
    Kirk: I guess we weren't sufficiently entertaining.
  • The same gag was used in the commercial for the franchise on VHS, which used a lot of repurposed clips (including following a montage of Kirk and Girls of the Week with Spock saying "I've never seen him look so happy" — a line from "Journey to Babel" where he's talking about McCoy).

Web Original

• Parodied in Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie:
  Nerd (in both the trailer and the movie): "A nerd's work is never done."
  Cooper (in the actual movie, as a reaction to the previous line): "That's a stupid thing to say."
  Nerd: "I only said it for the trailer!"
• Parodied in The Nostalgia Critic's review of Scooby-Doo.
  Shaggy: Scooby-Doo, where are you?!
  Critic-as-Shaggy: There, I did my one line for the trailer, now let's get out of here!
• Mercilessly parodied in the premiere episode of Red vs. Blue's eleventh season:
  Sarge: As many great 21st century movie trailers once said, 'This is only the beginning'. And then text would appear on the screen. And the music would CUT OUT ABRUPTLY! Then they'd say one final line of dialogue, to leave the audience with the ULTIMATE SENSE OF EXCITEMENT!
  Grif: ...Like what?
  Sarge: ...I don't know.

Western Animation

• Advertisements for Adventure Time's DVD releases have used this trope frequently. One particular instance is a moment in the commercial for the It Came From the Nightosphere DVD where a clip of Finn exclaiming "Mathematical!" from "Slumber Party Panic" is made to punctuate it having 16 creator-chosen episodes; funnily enough, while coming from the era of the show in which Finn often used math-related terms as general exclamations, the original context of the clip actually did involve math.
• A promo for the Simpsons episode "Dangers on a Train" has a character (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) say "Finally, a reason to watch TV on Sundays." He was really speaking to Marge about a Downton Abbey parody they both watch.
• Canadian channel YTV has this trope mastered, most of the time combining it with Lemony Narrator. They still use such trailers to this day.

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