Seven Minute Lull - Television Tropes & Idioms

It is widely claimed that at any party, there will naturally be a lull in the conversation every seven minutes.

On TV, this will always happen just when someone raises their voice to be heard by exactly one person in spite of the crowd or background noise, when they say something private. Hilarity Ensues.

Examples:

In one episode of Cheers, Norm is forced to shout over construction noises, but the audience still can't hear what he's saying until the construction pauses just as he shouts, "The world's biggest ass!"
Likewise, in an episode of Will And Grace, the conversation lulls at a gallery opening on cue every time someone says "I'm out," prompting applause from the audience at the unintentional Double Entendre.
- This troper remembers that as a scene from Caroline In The City.
Movie example: In the 2005 film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, during the flashback to the party where Arthur and Trillian met, Arthur is criticizing the other party-goers for not recognizing her costume (Charles Darwin), and ends up blurting out "They're all idiots!" during the Seven Minute Lull.
Father Ted: "Chirpy Burpy Cheep Sheep" - Ted makes a dramatic entrance to the King of the Sheep tournament. As he announces to all assembled the identity of the saboteurs, the audience mutter among themselves; as they finish, a man is clearly heard to say "Fuckin' hell!" (swearing, apart from "feck" and "bollocks", never otherwise appeared in Father Ted)
Futurama, "The Farnsworth Parabox": While massive rumbling occurs in the background, Leela tries to turn Fry down for a date: "I can't go out tonight because..." (rumbling stops) "I have sweaty boot rash!"
South Park, "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub": During the Seven Minute Lull, Stan's dad Randy accidentally confesses he and Kyle's dad Gerald watched each other masturbate in the hot tub.
A variant: The other person doesn't hear or pretends not to, so that the speaker tries again louder and louder until he/she ends up shouting in public and looking like a lunatic. Webcomics: used in Ozy And Millie ("You have a red tray today!"), topped by The Wotch ("Why are you a girl?!")
In How I Met Your Mother, Ted is on a blind date at an unbearably loud dance club. After realising that his date is just nodding along politely and can't really hear a thing he's saying, he starts saying random silly things for the fun of it — then the music cuts out just in time for him to yell "I'm wetting my pants!" in her face.
- Later during the same episode, the club plays a different song with enough space during each beat that Barney and Marshall can talk during each lullette.
In Porterhouse Blue, an undergraduate university student goes to see a certain professor whom he has been assured is an experienced counselor for personal problems. The professor claims to be having hearing problems and hands the student a bullhorn, then encourages him to explain his situation in full. The student does so, unaware that his anguished confession of sexual obsession with his big breasted middle-aged bedder is echoing throughout the quad. From the amused reaction of the older students, it is implied that the professor isn't really deaf, he just enjoys getting students to humiliate themselves this way.
In the long running mexican Sit Com El Chavo Del Ocho this happen very often, with everybody arguing until Profesor Girafales or some authority figure makes everybody shut up, and only the naive Chavo still talks, always saying something insulting for the authority person. Subverted in an episode, when after a chain of similar situation the last of those ends with El Chavo saying "And now I'm not sayin' anything".
Frasier: "The Doctor Is Out". Frasier and Niles have walked into a gay bar looking for someone they believe is gay. Loud music is playing, and Niles feels more and more uncomfortable. He wishes to go home, and begs with Frasier to leave - and just as the music stops, he yells, "I’m begging you, please take me home!".
In the webcomic Free Fall, it is revealed in a flashback that Florence (a genetically engineered humanoid wolf) did this at her first job all the time... she would yell at the top of her lungs constantly, unaware that the deafening machinery noises drowning everyone out were too high-pitched for any of the other (human) workers to even hear.
In a late episode of Friends, Make Hannigan takes Phoebe to a hockey game for their one-year anniversary. Straining to get her voice heard by Mike over the roar of the crowd, Phoebe yells out "You're so smart, and generous, and you're AMAZING in bed!" Guess at what point the crowd died down.
Happens twice to Janis of the Muppets; once in The Great Muppet Caper, and once in The Muppets Take Manhattan. Both times discussing nudity.
George Carlin, quite rightly, says that these are one of those moments that seems to last forever. "Right! So what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna get my TESTICLES LAMINATED!"
In 10 things I hate about you, Patrick says during a loud song at a club:
Patrick: I was watching you out there, before. I've (music stops) never seen you look so sexy.
An example of Truth In Television as this troper can attest; freshman year I was having a conversation about girly suff with one friend in a very loud classroom that was misinterpreted by another friend, leading to the following comment: "Periods? I thought you guys were talking about SEX!" just as the room went dead quiet. Reaction of our classmates was in fact quite like the reactions of people on TV when this happens...
- This Troper and his friends time the lulls when we get bored and use it to maximum effect. Doesn't stop it from happening by accident every physics class though.
- Another tropes is wary of these happening and makes sure to stop talking just as the lull begins. Then finishes whatever inappropriate idea he was conveying once the lull is over.
Happens in one of the unaired episodes of the Clerks animated series-Dante and Randall flash back to a party at an art gallery and the lull comes just as Randall says, "Rectum? Damn near herpes!" Everyone stays dead silent. Thinking their silence is an indication they didn't hear the punchline, Randall repeats himself, and as he does so the view pulls out to reveal that he and the pair he's talking to are standing next to a piece consisting of a microphone and a number of stadium bullhorns, which have been broadcasting his every word to the entire gallery anyway. Then he realizes he botched the punchline.
Lewis Black once overheard the statement "...If it wasn't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college." He has no idea what it means and warns you not to think about it too much.
The Eminem song "Just Lose It" includes the lines: "And it's cool if you let one go/ Nobody's gonna know, who'd hear it?/ Give a little "poot poot", it's OK! [Music Stops - Fart Sound plays]/ Oops my CD just skipped/ And everyone just heard you let one rip"
[[Truth in Television]] - This troper once picked the perfect moment to shout "ANAL SEX!", the one moment that everyone else was quiet.

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