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Screams Like a Little Girl

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No, it didn't come from the TV...
Rose: They're rats! Dozens of rats, vacuum-packed rats.
The Doctor: And you decided to scream.
Mickey: It took me by surprise!
The Doctor: Like a little girl?
Mickey: It was dark, I was covered in rats!
The Doctor: Nine, maybe ten years old. I'm seeing pigtails, frilly skirt...

As a tough masculine fighter, you never cry, never wince at a hit, and talk in a manly baritone. But it's amazing how a Groin Attack, little needle, or garter snake can make your voice rise four octaves into a three-year-old's scream. It seems inherently funny to see this grown man emit a girly scream. This trope is usually Played for Laughs, as it is hard to take the image of a man who Screams Like A Little Girl seriously. This is sometimes associated with a Camp Gay or Non-Action Guy.

Comedy-based logic dictates that the more butch the guy is, or the more he runs his mouth about being tough, or the lesser the actual danger is, the funnier it is when he screams like a girl.

See Also: Gendered Insult, The Scream, Screaming Woman, Screaming at Squick. May overlap with Eek, a Mouse!! and Cower Power.


Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • This commercial for Capital One's "No Hassle Rewards" program. After being told "no" one too many times by an operator played by David Spade when trying to redeem his credit card miles, a guy says that he's "coming to find" him. Turns out he's on a cell phone and is arriving in the office as the conversation is happening, so the operator played by Spade replies "Ooh, I'm shaking in my bright yellow shirt," making the guy think that he's some other timid guy in the office who just happens to have stepped out of his cubicle for a stretch at the moment. At that, the annoyed customer rushes the timid guy, who gives the most ridiculous girly scream.
    Customer: You! Yer goin' down!
    Yellow-Shirt Guy: [running away] Ahhhh-ah-ah-ah! ... ... I should have worked at Capital One! [whispers] What's in your wallet? [spots customer] Mommy!
  • In an Snickers commercial from the late '90s/early 2000s, a Dallas Cowboys fan makes the mistake of taunting then-New York Giants defensive lineman Michael Strahan alone in the parking lot of Meadowlands Stadium. After the Cowboys fan finishes his taunt, he gives off a high pitched scream as Strahan charges him.
  • One commercial for psyllium fiber has a man seeing it advertised on his breakfast cereal and letting out an ear-piercing shriek.
  • In a Macy's commercial promoting a Black Friday sale, a few grown men scream like girls when they encounter Justin Bieber.
  • An ad for Poopourri (an essential oil spray used to reduce or eliminate "bathroom odor") features a man on a first date who is overcome by the urge to poop. The audience has him light a match, but he drops the match, lights his date's bathroom on fire and screams loudly before ending up dying on the toilet from smoke inhalation.
  • A number of ads for Gorilla Glue feature one or several character letting out a high-pitched shriek upon stumbling upon the Gorilla

    Animation 
  • BoBoiBoy: Papa Zola screams like a little girl when he's in danger. Played for Laughs since he's a superhero Refugee from TV Land.
  • Lamput: In "Diet Doc", Slim Doc's reaction to seeing a muscular Fat Doc is to let out a high-pitched girl shriek and faint.

    Comic Books 
  • Used in Deadpool's series to humorous effect (what did you expect?)
    Sabretooth: Scream for me.
    Deadpool: Scream? Well, if you insist. AAAAAHHH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AAAAAHHH AAAAAHHH!!
    Sabretooth: Enough, Wilson.
    Deadpool: No, wait — now I'll do it like a little girl. eeek! eeek! eeek!
  • Sue Storm calls herself on this in the first arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four, to the confusion of her teammates. "I screamed like a girl! That's so disappointing."
  • Empire State gives us this bit of dialogue:
    Jimmy: Sara, I was so scared I wanted to scream like a girl.
    Sara: What did you do?
    Jimmy: I screamed like a girl.
  • During DC Comics' Battle For Bludhaven miniseries, Major Force taunts Major Victory with this after ripping off his arm.
    Major Force: You scream like a girl... a one-armed girl!
  • Loki, according to their ex-girlfriend Lorelei in Loki: Agent of Asgard. In Loki's defense, they thought they were about to slam face-first into the ground after they'd jumped off a plane.
  • In one of the latest pages of Mini Monsters we have this hilarious exchange after realizing they're screwed.
    Gus: V-Victor, can we scream l-like little girls now?
    Victor: [running away] YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!

    Comic Strips 
  • In one "Spider swatting arc" in Garfield, the title cat's means of disposing of the daily spider leaves behind a mark that makes Jon go "YEEEK!" 3 times.
  • In one Zits strip, a half-asleep Jeremy accidentally walks in on his mom taking a shower, scaring the hell out of both of them, a moment punctuated with the sound effect "SHRIEK!" Turns out the shriek was Jeremy's.

    Fan Works 
  • Anger Management: Lynn tells Lincoln that he has a girly scream and that she finds it funny.
  • Cheating Death: Those That Lived:
    • After the bloodbath for the 48th Hunger Games, the girls Neon has sexually harassed team up to castrate and kill him. Neon runs for it while screaming "like a little kid who had just inhaled helium."
    • Dirty Coward Logger Barlow emits "the most high pitched scream in the past eight years of the Games" while fleeing from the bloodbath.
  • Code Prime: Bulkhead and Tamaki do this, in response to Scraplets (Bulkhead) and Spiders (Tamaki).
  • Contraptionology!: Applejack's narration is very specific on the fact that she most certainly did not scream like a little filly while shooting around on Rainbow's cloud scooter. It was the Doppler effect distorting the pitch of her voice, thank you very much.
  • A Diplomatic Visit: In chapter 12 of the sequel A Diplomat at Large, one of the yaks, a skinnier one, does this when hearing that Discord is back. The other yaks are not amused.
  • Jonathan Joestar, The First JoJo: Joseph and Caesar, upon first entering Mr. President's room.
  • My Huntsman Academia: Izuku's screams of surprise and fear are often called girlish by the narration and he yelps or squeaks when he's nervous. On one occasion, he's so shocked and embarrassed that his voice sounds like the death rattles of a baby seal.
  • Teen Titans: Race to the Start: Damian makes one snide remark too many to Lian, and she retaliates with a double purple nurple. His screams of pain, described as sounding like "a boiling kettle crossed with a cat getting gutted alive," are mistaken for Lian's and everyone rushes to "save" her from Damian.

    Music Videos 

    Podcasts 
  • In 4Player Podcast, expect a lot of screaming when the crew are playing a Survival Horror game. Brad is especially prone to screaming like this.
  • In the Cool Kids Table game Creepy Town, Oliver's high-pitched scream matches Veronica's.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • Norman Smiley of WCW — so much so, in fact, that it became part of his gimmick, as a baby face jobber no less.
  • Long time Chikara rudo tag team El Hijo del Ice Cream and Ice Cream Junior tend to degenerate into girlish screaming when they lose confidence.
  • Chuck Taylor, the very serious wrestler and supposed leader of FIST, tends to scream when his hair is pulled or otherwise messed with.
  • Carlito screamed like a girl when Teddy Long forced him to find The Undertaker or lose his job. He was searching the backstage area when the lights flickered out and all we hear is a hilarious high-pitched scream.
  • Thumbtack Jack memorably screamed like a little girl at CZW Tournament of Death 8.5 Rewind, though this was because his cheeks were being impaled by MASADA.
  • Wrestling Super Villain and cult leader UltraMantis Black doesn't take "knife edged chops" too well, usually screaming high pitched in response.
  • Santino Marella. See for yourself.
  • ACH at Chilanga Mask 3. Aniversario when Ricky Marvin broke out of a pin cover by grabbing his nose.

    Puppet Shows 
  • In one early episode of Sesame Street, one sketch with Bert and Ernie shows Ernie unable to sleep, so Bert tells him to count sheep, but Ernie finds it dull and tries to count something else, finally deciding on balloons. An imaginary balloon appears and grows to a huge size before finally exploding and rocking the room, startling Bert awake, screaming.

    Tabletop Games 

    Theatre 
  • In Holy Musical B@man!, Superman confronts Batman and reveals that he's going to place him under arrest by the US Government. When Superman declares "It ends tonight, Batman. Or should I say 'Butthead'.", Bats lets out this scream before going face to face with the Man of Steel and starting their duet.

    Web Animation 
  • Three instances occur in the Cartoon Hooligans episode "What if Superman Got Sick?!":
    • Superman screams like this twice, first when Darkseid blasts him with his Omega Beams, and then when Green Lantern's energy fist knocks him down while he's peeking into the women's locker room of the JLA headquarters.
    • J'onn also screams like this when Superman strips him naked (except for his underwear).
  • A Running Gag in Red vs. Blue is that Donut screams like a woman. Ironically, the actual girls don't. Done to the point that at least one of the Red Team's plans includes the following:
    Sarge: Donut!
    Donut: Yes, sarge?
    Sarge: Scream like a woman!
    Donut: Can do, sarge! [does so]
  • A short animated piece, Oktapodi: the delivery man screams like this at one point. Or it might have been the octopi. It's hard to tell. It Makes Sense in Context. Really.
  • In RWBY, Jaune and one of his teammates (a girl named Pyrrha) get attacked by a giant scorpion in a cave. Cut to somewhere else where we hear a girly scream and people assume that some girl's in trouble. Then, cut back to the cave's opening. The screams continue while Pyrrha runs out of the cave, clearly not screaming.
  • Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse sometimes shows Ken and/or Ryan giving high-pitched screams. Teresa admits that she thinks Ryan's scream sounds even higher-pitched than Barbie's.
  • In Happy Tree Friends, Lumpy, Disco Bear and Splendid scream like this whenever they're in pain (and in one episode, when Splendid's secret identity is discovered).
  • Rock N Roll Dad: Michael Jackson screams like a girl as he gets mauled by a dog off-screen.
  • Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers has SMG4 do this in "Who let the chomp out?" before throwing a Star at the Chain Chomp, turning it into Pac-Man.
  • David from Camp Camp is often prone to doing this. Max also screams shrilly upon witnessing the horrors of a dungeon orgy.
  • To no one's surprise, Mystery Skulls Animated's Lovable Coward Arthur has an incredibly high pitched scream of abject terror, as evidenced in "The Future". Notably, Vivi is also in the scene but isn't shrieking like a girl.
  • SXR 123's videos often feature a Tyrannosaurus rex named "Rex" who screams like this whenever he is intimidated or scared; sometimes even for other reasons.
  • Inverted with Calliope Mori of hololive, who has a distinctly lower and heartier voice than most of her fellow idols, and consequently has screams that are often compared to howls coming out of a grown man (the most frequent comparison among fans is to Tom of Tom and Jerry).

    Real Life 
  • One of the unfortunate realities of having an adrenaline rush is that it tightens all of your muscles — including your vocal cords. This means that even people who are perfectly brave can wind up screaming like a girl — so long as they are flooded with adrenaline. But if you choose to fight, it's Hell Is That Noise for the recipient. So if someone screams like a girl as they run away from you, go ahead and laugh, but if someone screams like a girl and runs towards you, try to run away even faster.
  • Vocal cords can be tightened as well as the result of a sudden reaction to pain. Some animals with gravely sounds can suddenly utter high-pitched squeals because of this.
  • This 19-year-old guy while running away from an unexpected attack by a pissed off/rabid otter (hilarity starts at 1:12).
  • Then we have this guy in an electric taser demonstration at 8 seconds in.
  • Generally speaking, little girls scream like little girls. So do little boys, for that matter, as children tend to have similar voices regardless of gender; it's not until puberty that males' voices deepen and become distinct from their female counterparts.
  • In 2015 in Sydney, Australia, police were called to a domestic disturbance with screaming, death threats, and the crash of furniture being thrown around the apartment, only to find that it was a man trying to kill a spider.
    Police: What about the woman screaming?
    Man: Yeah sorry that was me, I really, really hate spiders.
  • Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas Sinclair in Stranger Things.
  • Oscar Pistorius' lawyer tried to claim this about his client while defending him on charges of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, claiming that the screams that the neighbors assumed were Reeva's were actually Oscar's screams of horror at realizing what he'd done (his defense was that he had shot her accidentally, thinking that she was a burglar). This was angrily denied by an ex-girlfriend during her testimony.
  • In a rare case where this was due to joy, Cleveland Browns running back Kareem Hunt let out a few high-pitched shrieks as he watched his team score a defensive touchdown on the first play of their 2020 Wild Card playoff game (it's worth noting that Hunt was not only a Browns player but also a lifelong fan of the team, and was therefore extremely aware that there was heightened emotion around the game, as it was the first playoff game for the team in 18 years). Hunt even invoked this trope himself, telling his teammates afterwards that he "sound[ed] like a little girl".

Alternative Title(s): Girly Scream

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Not so loud, Mike!

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