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Barging into a subject like that while he's drinking? Really, Zii should know better.

[spits out water] "Why is it that I'm always drinking when a scene like that happens?!"
The Critic (reviewing Milk Money), The Nostalgia Critic

A variant of The Take to an unexpected event that involves spraying food or, more commonly, drink from a character's mouth. In some cases, the character sprays their drink out of their nose instead of their mouth. It can be Truth in Television, as many people can attest, though in real life, unexpected laughter is more likely than shock to induce such a reaction. The non-eating version is generally a "pfft".

Why surprising news or the punchline of a joke is so often delivered when a character has a full mouth can only be ascribed to Rule of Funny. May also be part of an I Ate WHAT?! reaction to the efforts of a Lethal Chef or Cordon Bleugh Chef.

A common Lampshade Hanging for this trope is when a character pauses to take a drink just so he has something to spit out in reaction.

See also: Double Take, Dramatic Drop, Discreet Drink Disposal, and Stopped Dead in Their Tracks. Not to be confused with Spit Shake. Compare Spraying Drink from Nose, which is usually caused by laughter instead of surprise. Unrelated to Spit Shine.


Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • In a Burger King commercial for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends toys, a little girl tells Bloo, who is drinking a glass of milk, that her older brother doesn't believe in imaginary friends. Bloo spits his milk out on the girl's older brother upon hearing this, and he says, "Okay, I believe!".
  • Happens at some point at the official trailer for EA's FIFA 2018.
  • In a GEICO ad featuring some gossiping meerkats in an office setting, one of the small creatures does a small-scale version by the water cooler when informed that Craig and Sheila broke up.
  • A 2011 commercial for the Hyundai Sonata had a deer doing this when seeing the (off-screen) car drive past.
    • An earlier Australian car ad had a car drop out of the sky and land safely in the front yard just as a bloke raised a can of beer to his lips.
  • In a late 90s Jack in the Box ad for their Ultimate Cheeseburger, a marketer presents the new burger to a focus group of men. The guys tell her it sounds great, but it would be even better if they got rid of the bun. The marketer spits out her coffee when she hears this, and Jack watching from the adjacent room spits out his coffee too.
  • A web banner ad for the game Rift shows a panda spitting out some soda after hearing the game is free-to-play.

    Animation 
  • In one episode of Happy Heroes, Starshadow does a spit take all over Moondance when he realizes how close Careful S. is to their secret base.
  • Infinity Nado: In Season 3 episode 2, Eli is surprised to hear Chase mentioning going to find Cecilia, a well-respected Infinity Nado battler he likes, and spits the water he was drinking onto Dawn.
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: In Flying Island: The Sky Adventure episode 19, Paddi sees a rainbow acting weird and spits his drink all over Weslie's head. Then Weslie sees what's happening and does the same thing, making Paddi's head all wet.

    Comedy 
  • In the album Big Funny (repeated in The Blue Collar Comedy Tour), Jeff Foxworthy relates an anecdote from when the family women were trying on swimsuits.
    Jeff's daughter: "Gamma, you shouldn't draw on your legs with a blue magic marker."
    Jeff: Needless to say, I had to mop up the milk I had been drinking... [audience laughs] ... 'cause it was on the other side of the room... [more laughter] ... which is pretty good distance through your nose! [yet more laughter]

    Comic Books 
  • Asterix: In The Laurel Wreath, Asterix spits out his food when chief Vitalstatitix announces that they're going to cook a stew with Caesar's laurel wreath as ingredient.
  • Birds of Prey: Huntress can't hold her beer when she hears Lady Blackhawk, a time-displaced WWII pilot, complain that no one will honor her AARP discount.
  • Champions: In Champions (2016) #8, after Amadeus mentions he wants to talk to Viv, the latter bluntly asks if this is about the time they made out earlier in the comic. As Amadeus was in the middle of drinking soda at the moment, this ends up with him spraying the beverage out of his nose and mouth.
    Amadeus Cho: ... if you think nothing hurts a Hulk... watch him cough soda through his nose...
  • The Life Story of the Flash: Iris recounts how, on one date, she told Barry how sexy she thought his analytical nature was; Barry's reaction was to cough an entire lemonade through his nose.
  • She-Hulk: In She-Hulk (2004), the news of the marriage of She-Hulk and John Jameson causes a dozen characters to do a spit-take. Every one of them has a different drink that they're spitting out.
  • Stature responding to Reed Richards claiming to know more about Pym Particles than Hank Pym does. (Pym's response, on the other hand, went "It's on, bitch.")
  • Superman:
    • Lois Lane when Cir-El appears and calls her "mommy" because she believes to be Clark and Lois's daughter from the future.
    • The Killers of Krypton: When Krypto comes to Supergirl's help by bursting through a bar's ceiling, one of the patrons is so shocked and frightened that he spits his drink out.
    • Supergirl (2005): In the arc Girl Power, the villain Calculator is spying on Supergirl. He spits his coffee out when she looks straight at the camera and he knows intuitively that she has spotted him.
  • X-Factor (2006) has a double example in #14. Madrox and Rictor are having a drink and catching up, and Rictor makes Madrox spit out his drink when he jokes about sleeping with Quicksilver; Madrox gets his revenge by mentioning that Shatterstar would be jealous.
  • The Smurfs: In "The Jewel Smurfer", Ganelon does this when he watches a play put on by the Smurfs and sees one of the Smurfs impersonating him, possibly revealing him to be a traitor to the duke of Abelagot.
  • Star Wars Expanded Universe:
    • Star Wars Tales: "Force Fiction", in #7, has Yoda doing a spit-take when he learns that Mace Windu plans on giving Qui-Gon's lightsaber to Anakin Skywalker.
    • X-Wing Rogue Squadron: The arc "In the Empire's Service" has Wes Janson do one of these when he hears that they're flying against the 181st Imperial Fighter Group, led by Ace Pilot Baron Soontir Fel.
  • Tintin: In The Castafiore Emerald, Captain Haddock does a spit-take when Tintin announces to him that Bianca Castafiore is coming to Marlinspike... today.
  • XXXenophile has the "squirt through the nose" version when a sexy but innocent girl without social experience asks the main character out of the blue when they will have sex.
  • Y: The Last Man: At one point, Yorick hears some surprising news and wishes he had a mouthful of liquid so he could do a spit-take.

    Comic Strips 
  • Baby Blues: Darryl MacPherson once did a spit-take when he learned that Zoe, after paying the coffee vendor the money, allowed the same vendor to keep the change as a tip.
  • Bloom County:
    • When Mike Binkley tries to wean his father Tom off cigarettes, he first serves him breakfast in bed, then sets up a large poster and narrates: "Here, of course, is a life-size photograph of a cancerous lung. In color." His dad's breakfast ends up all over the blanket.
    • Steve Dallas does this upon learning about Milo's Parking Payback wrecking Steve's car.
  • Curtis: The title character does a spit-take when he learns that his mom is leaving for a parent-teacher conference involving his teacher.
  • FoxTrot: Jason's throwing a birthday party for Quincy, his iguana, and talks his mother into baking a cake. When Roger comments that he didn't know iguanas even ate cake, she tells him that she threw some mealworms into the batter, just as Roger's sneaking a taste of it. She gets a face full of batter before she can tell him she was joking.
  • Garfield:
    • Garfield and Jon are eating at the diner in one strip when Irma tells them something very unpleasant about what they're eating. Garfield looks at Jon: "Spit take on three..."
    • One was caused by Jon's love life (though the spitting isn't shown).
    • Also happens in this strip, when Jon wears a shirt with Snoopy on it.
  • Weird Pete does one — spraying his beer into Stevil's face — after learning that his character had been drinking owl bear urine in Knights of the Dinner Table.
  • Liō read a book titled Perfecting Your Professional Spit-Take. And demonstrated success.
  • Mafalda: The title character proves to Miguelito that a newspaper article had nothing to do with chess by asking her mom about it and watching the ensuing spit-take.
  • Pooch Café: In the strip for November 2nd 2013, Poncho paints "Garbacge Truck" on the side of the family car and fills it with garbage. He tells Carmen that he always dreamed of doing so and tells her that Chazz (his master, her husband) always told him to follow his dreams. She goes into the kitchen and yells "You told him to follow his dreams???" behind Chazz, causing him to spit out what he was drinking.
  • U.S. Acres: Roy places his feet in Orson's slop, prompting the latter to do a spit take on him.

    Fan Works 
  • Advice and Trust: In chapter 4 Asuka does this when Rei tells that she already has a bond with Shinji.
  • A Brane of Extraordinary Women -- Cross Purposes 3: Alexan is new to Britain and a little uncertain about their traditional foods, so George Weasley deliberately waits until she has a mouthful of buttered peas before asking, "Did mum tell you we're having spotted dick for dessert?" Hermione waits until Alexan has finished her coughing fit (after almost spraying the table) before explaining.
  • In All You Need Is Love, Naomi sprays her coffee, repeatedly, when her son Duck is asking about his parentage... and suggests that he really wanted Ryuk to be his father.
  • While Derpy and Starlight are staking out a casino in The Amulet Job, "Think Tanks for the Intellectual Criminal", Derpy takes note of a beaten-down griffon guard and wonders if he's the one their group is going to seduce into helping out. Starlight's response is to spit the muffin she was eating clear across the street. A minute later, after Derpy wonders if she could do it herself:
    "Fortunately for the other side of the street, Starlight didn't have any more muffin to spit."
  • And the Giant Awoke: When Dellyne is explaining his backstory to Tyrion, he deliberately waits until Tyrion is taking a drink before mentioning the bit about sleeping with both of his father's mistresses, provoking this response.
  • In The Berserkers Bride, everyone in Berk's great hall does this when Dagur casually slips Hiccup's pregnancy.
  • A Running Gag in Bridge to Terabithia 2: The Last Time, an LDD-fanfic written by ElleFred.
    • ElleFred really likes this trope, using it in the dinner scene when Maybelle jokes about if her big sister Ellie is pregnant (she is) and a scene when Leslie found out her friend, Amelia, tried to convince Jess into having sex with her, innocently unaware that Leslie still have feelings for Jess.
    • In the Distant Epilogue more than twenty years later, Jess spat out his drink after finding out his daughter had a crush on the son of Scott Hoager, his former childhood bully. His wife Leslie on the other hand only raises an eyebrow.
  • Bring Me All Your Elderly!: Zuko sprays his tea twice in the first chapter.
    Toph: But then again, we're characters in a cartoon.
    Zuko: [spits out his tea] We're WHAT?
    [a few lines later...]
    Sokka: Clearly we are all stuck in some fanfic parody with no real logical basis to it at all.
    Zuko: [spits out his tea] We're in a WHAT?
  • Children of an Elder God: Shinji very nearly spat out his drink when he read a newspaper was spreading rumours that Rei and he were dating. In chapter 4:
    With the last of breakfast done, he took a seat at the table, took a sip of water, unfolded the morning paper, then nearly spat his drink out.
  • Child of the Storm has Steve performing a Spit Take straight into Tony's face becoming a Running Gag. The first time was accidental. The second time, on the other hand, was thanks to a very carefully timed remark.
  • In Cold Blood Dean does it when Viktor mentions having been sent used underwear and indecent proposals by female fans.
  • In The Curious Case of Romulus Lestrange Arthur does it twice, once when he spots Romulus' resemblance to Bellatrix and again when Sirius reveals that Romulus is the birth identity of a formerly glamour-charmed Harry.
  • Date A Live: Altered Timeline: Mana has this reaction when she sees Shinji walking past Danny's, while she and her friends are eating there, with Tohka.
  • In Dating a Team Magma Grunt, the Team Aqua Grunt has this reaction when she witnesses the Team Magma Grunt trip and face-check the Pokémon Contest stage platform before her round even begins.
  • Twilight attempts to defy this in The Demesne Of The Reluctant Twilight Sparkle when she learns that her new assistant Golden Retriever technically works for Spike as well. Then she sees the cheque Luna sent for her royal funds. She makes sure to aim away from the paperwork.
  • Happens several times in Diaries of a Madman. Cadance seems to be a particular target.
  • Earning Her Stripes: When Director Piggot starts work, she's savvy enough to put down her coffee before reading the summary of the past 12 hours, so that she doesn't have to potentially clean her keyboard and computer screen. Upon reading about Shadow Stalker going code purple and nearly killing several people, she's very glad of the habit.
  • In Fates Collide, when Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos talk about Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon, weapon fanatic Ruby Rose spits her milk into Jaune's face.
  • For the Glory of Irk: Invoked in Chapter 51. When Zim says that he can be subtle, Therron goes out of his way to grab a drink and swallow a mouthful before allowing himself to burst out laughing at the notion, spitting the liquid all over everyone nearby.
  • In Founders Heir Dumbledore does it when he reads a Daily Prophet article stating that all of his spells on Harry, Snape and Voldemort were removed in a goblin cleansing ceremony.
  • Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters:
    • Sephiria, who has an unrequited crush on Caleb, chokes on her wine when Drake refers to Cornelia as the girl Caleb loves.
    • Jade starts choking on her soda when Irma teasingly asks if there's any boys she likes.
  • In Harry Breaks Free Ron does it when Harry announces that he's scheduled the Final Battle on the day before his birthday.
  • In Harry Potter and the Four Heirs Neville does it when Harry wonders whether he can convince the Queen to give Madame Bones and Neville's grandmother a knighthood.
  • Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality:
    • Comed-tea comes with a guarantee that before you're finished drinking it, you'll encounter something surprising enough to make you spill it on yourself. Harry buys some because Reality Warper soft drinks are too valuable to pass up, and is bothered for a month trying to figure out how it works. It turns out that the soda isn't exactly making things happen; rather, it predicts the future and gives you an urge to drink it when something surprising is about to happen. The one time he deliberately ignores the urge to drink it, he inhales his own saliva and has a coughing fit at Dumbledore unexpectedly drawing everyone's attention to him for his views on Quidditch.
    • Harry also gets a coughing fit — twice — while trying to drink water when Professor Quirrell guesses he's a Parselmouth.
  • In Harry Potter and the Rune Stone Path Snape spits out his tea when he sees a newspaper article about Lily Potter's unexpected revival.
  • Here Comes The New Boss:
    • When Taylor ambushes a group of Merchants sharing a joint, the shock causes the current user to inhale the whole thing, leaving him gasping and leaking smoke. Firecracker finds it utterly hilarious, but Taylor ensures that the victim gets specific medical attention once she's subdued them all.
    • Taylor inhales in shock when Amy slams a lunch tray down at her table — right after she took a big bite of her sloppy joe, at Nemean's insistence. After she pounds on her own back enough times to clear her airway, Quarrel complains about almost choking to death twice.
    • Assault starts coughing and thumping himself on the chest upon hearing Elpis mention that she knows the Protectorate doesn't take in villains.
      Assault: Sorry. Choked on some spit.
  • In The Hill of Swords, when Shirou mentions his arsenal includes several hundred Noble Phantasms, both Louise and Derflinger do this, which is remarkable in that Derflinger is a sword and couldn't even drink.
  • I Dub Thee: Invoked by Fu Dog. When he hears the Dragon Council is offering a knighting trial, he says "if I was drinking something right now, I would’ve sprayed it everywhere in astonishment!".
  • Infinity Crisis: In Tomorrow's Guardians, Snart nearly chokes on his drink when he learns that his Earth-2 counterpart was the Commissioner of the Central City Police Department.
  • Chapter 3 of Looping Back to the Beginning has an inverted case as half a granola bar gets on the fast track to Katsuki's lungs when Izuku reveals that he's figured out Class 1-A's secret.
  • In The Lost Cause, Jin Guangyao spits out his drink when Nie Huaisang drunkenly suggests that he's got a praise kink.
  • Naru-Hina Chronicles:
    • Shikamaru did this when his mother asked him if he and Temari had sex yet.
    • In one of the Mini-sodes, during a dinner at the Hyuga residence, there's a silent moment and Naruto decides to say something to Hiashi to break the silence. The Uzumaki then says that Hinata has a great body and that it's amazing how all Hyuga women are so sexy. Hinata spits her meal upon hearing that and naturally expects her father to have a negative reaction. However, much to her shock, Hiashi smiles and says that, despite Naruto's statement being rather crude, he accepts the compliment on behalf of the clan.
  • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Izuku barely keeps himself from spewing his tea all over the table when All Might tells him that he couldn't find anything on Izuku's spaceship even with his connections. After the U.A. Entrance Exam, Izuku has a full one after All Might reveals that U.A. already knows Izuku's identity as an alien.
    Izuku: Oh, wait, this stuff and the other stuff reminds me: do all the teachers know about your injury?
    All Might: They know the basics of my Quirk and injury, but only the principal and Recovery Girl know the specifics of One for All and my fight from six years ago. Naturally, they also don’t know that we have any sort of pre-existing relationship.
    Izuku: I guess that makes sense. [takes a sip of tea]
    All Might: Also naturally, they know about you being an alien.
    Izuku: [spews his tea across the table] Th-Th-They what?!
  • The New Adventures of Invader Zim:
    • In Episode 10, when Norlock tells the Tallest about the crashed Meekrob ship, Purple chokes on a mouthful of fries and Red spits out his soda.
    • In Episode 17, when Zim reveals that he has the whole Meekrob crystal, Red chokes on a doughnut.
  • Nightmare Night and Nyx: When Twilight finds out that Celestia set her and Ink Spot up, she gets even by trolling Celestia into thinking that Ink Spot's gotten her pregnant, saying it just as Celestia is taking a drink of champagne. Celestia spit takes so hard that the cup actually vaporizes.
  • TD's sister Kristen does one of these in The Non-Bronyverse fic TD's Little Rarity once he tells her he spent two months in Equestria.
  • Once More with Feeling: Misato spat her coffee, nearly ruining the equipment around her, when Shinji did a double entendre.
    You're three for three Shinji; you really have some nice moves, you know" Akagi spoke up from behind her glasses, looking down her clipboard as she studied raw columns of numbers that were utter gibberish to anyone but her and her staff...
    "Yeah that's what she said last night" Shinji smiled back with a jerk of his head towards Misato.
    The poor Captain damn near sent the coffee she had been sipping back out over the very expensive equipment around her; an expression of shock and utter stunned amazement crashing onto her face as Shinji's casually offered comment echoed across the room.
  • In a One Tree Hill fanfic, Brooke Davis does this when she overhears Julian say he wishes she were dead.
  • In Only a Boy, Snape spits out his pumpkin juice when he finds out the rumor floating around Hogwarts is that he and the new student Merlin are father and son.
  • Oversaturated World: Rutaceae: Rainbow Dash does one.
    "Rainbow's hot-coffee spit take"
  • In Chapter 22 of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Misty has one when Iris asks her about her relationship with Ash.
  • In Ranma's Sudden Wedding, Ranma does one when Nabiki (or rather the doll possessing Nabiki's body) cuddles up to him.
  • In Riddle and the Ancient Contract Minister Fudge does it when he spots a Daily Prophet headline stating PENSIEVE MEMORY PROVES YOU-KNOW-WHO IS ALIVE.
  • The Rigel Black Chronicles: You'd think that a millennia-old sentient magical artefact would have Seen It All, but Harry gets Dom to choke on his (illusory mental construct) tea by telling him about the advertised prize for winning the Triwizard Tournament.
    Dom: The Rod of Zuriel? They're giving that hunk of self-important rock to the winner? Why not simply kill them and enslave their will in the spectral plane right off? It would certainly involve less oration.
  • Roller Brawl: The Mega Cyborg: When Roller Brawl sees that Dr. Light's opponent in a debate about artificial intelligence is his old friend Dr. Lalinde, Roller Brawl spits out her drink, and Dr. Lalinde's creation Quake Woman lampshades the use of this trope.
    Hmmm. An effective way to convey the emotion known as surprise.
  • Parodied by Eda in The Silver Raven. When Lilith confirms to her that she is a mother and the kid that she had just been talking to was her nephew, she reaches into her hood, pulls out a flask, takes a swig from it, and then spits it out, either accidentally or purposefully hitting a random bystander.
  • In The Snitch Effect, Harry does it when the barman at the Leaky Cauldron mentions that Snape was a Death Eater.
  • This human AU of Steven Universe has White Diamond spitting out her coffee when Pink Diamond asks her how she got inside of her mother's belly.
  • In Talk the Talk Sirius does it when Harry asks Tom to teach him dark magic.
  • Ryo in the Tamers Forever Series does a truly epic one when he finds out that Takato kissed Rika. Bonus points for the fact that he wasn't actually drinking anything at the time!!
    Ryo: How are you still alive!?!??!?!!?!!
  • A Taste of Magic: Lavender and Harry are having a sweet moment, where he makes her an egg on toast to cheer her up, while she tells him about her family's financial struggles and how she never knew her birth mother. Harry commiserates, telling her that he was left on his aunt's doorstep — and then he mentions growing up in a cupboard, and she inhales her toast and goes into a coughing fit.
    Lavender: Wait, what?
  • In The Devil of UA Izuku and Tsuyu both do this when they are mistaken for a couple at a cafe
  • Happens a number of times in This Bites!:
    • In Chapter 24, Yasopp spits out his grog when he hears on the SBS that Usopp has joined Luffy's crew.
    • In Chapter 31, Robin spits out the jerky she's chewing on when she realizes it came from Nami kissing her, who got it from kissing Cross.
    • In Chapter 32, Sanji chokes on his cigarette when Cross tells him he's glad he's part secret agent.
      • And he does it again in Chapter 43 when Cross talks about sibling relationships.
    • In Chapter 38,
      • The entirety of the Red-Haired Pirates do this (Shanks twice) when Cross succeeds in starting the SBS, recognizing from the previous times he did that that what happens next is likely to be fraught with trouble.
      • Ace also gets this reaction when he learns that the Straw Hats just broke down the gates of Enies Lobby.
    • In Chapter 41, Cross does this when Vivi says she unlocked a version of Conqueror's Haki.
    • In Chapter 43, Robin does a full one (with drink this time) when Cross tells her just what he would've done to save Merry. Photographed for posterity, too.
  • In Trunks' New Look, he spits out his beer when Goku, ChiChi and Gohan walk in while he's dressed as a Playboy Bunny. Shame that it caused him to waste a perfectly good gulp of beer.
  • In Veela heart Draco does it when Ron mentions that Harry could have been sorted into Slytherin.
  • In Wait, What? Harry does it when his name comes out of the Goblet of Fire.
  • Subtly invoked in What You Knead (Naruto). After the Hokage asks him what plans he has while he's retired, Kakashi simply smiles and deliberately waits for Hiruzen to take a pull on his pipe before revealing his intention to start a bakery, making him choke from the shock.
    "I can't let you retire," the Sandaime held up a hand, forestalling Kakashi's protest, "but I can take you off active duty and make you part of the reserves. You'll be expected to keep up with your training, and in the event of a serious threat to the village, you will be reactivated. Otherwise, for all intents and purposes, you will be a civilian unless you choose to return to active duty."
    Kakashi bowed deeply, relief loosening the tightness in his chest.
    "Thank you, Hokage-sama."
    The Sandaime picked up his pipe and sucked in a deep lungful of tobacco.
    "So do you have a plan for what you're going to do next?" he asked after blowing out a cloud of blue smoke.
    Kakashi smiled, the most honest, relaxed expression he’d managed since Rin’s death, and waited for the Sandaime to take another pull on his pipe before answering.
    "Well, a friend of mine keeps suggesting I open a bakery, so I thought I'd do that."
    There was something vaguely satisfying about watching the God of Shinobi nearly choke to death on his own pipe.
  • The Wrong Reflection has Eleya lose a mouthful of springwine when her father out of nowhere asks when she and Gaarra are getting married.

    Film — Animation 
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire:
    Sweet: Now I'm gonna need you to fill these [two beakers] up.
    Milo: [spits out his thermometer] With what?!
  • Balto: In the first movie: "I'm not watching the race, I'm running it." [Boris spits out the soap flake he accidentally ate] "You say what?!"
  • Batman: Mask of the Phantasm: This is Patrolman Bullock's reaction to his first sighting of the Masked Vigilante in action. Bonus points for spitting the coffee all over his windshield.
  • Brave:
    • Fergus pulls one of these at the dinner table, when his wife firmly tells him he has "something to discuss" (her incoming betrothal) with Merida.
    • Justified when Bear Elinor spits out worm-infested water upon being informed about the worms.
  • Brother Bear: While the moose Rutt and Tuke were grazing, they spot Kenai's brother Denahi, who has believed that Kenai was the bear that he thought killed him, and Rutt spits out his grass.
  • Cars: When Lightning discovers Doc Hudson is a retired racer, he tries to tell the other residents of Radiator Springs that they're a famous racer who "won three Piston Cups". Mater mishears Lightning, as he spits out the oil he was drinking and shouts "He did what in his cups?!"
  • The Emperor's New Groove: Pacha ends up choking on his literal grub when he overheard Yzma and Kronk discussing their plot to kill Kuzco.
  • Flushed Away: As Roddy is angrily drinking from a bottle, Sid tells him to go easy else he'll miss halftime on the soccer game, which makes Roddy spits out his whole drink reaching the television as he realizes the full extent of The Toad's plan.
  • A Goofy Movie: Pete pulls one when he sees Max and Goofy at the concert that he's watching on TV.
  • The Great Mouse Detective: When drunk henchman Bartholomew calls his boss Ratigan a rat.
    Ratigan: What did you call me?!
  • In Hotel Transylvania 2, Dracula spits his drink (which looks like blood) in shock all over Linda when he hears that Mavis invited his father Vlad to Dennis's fifth birthday.
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Frollo spits his wine when Quasimodo unwittingly says "festival" for the letter F while reviewing his alphabet.
  • Inside Out: When the dog in Riley's dream (actually Joy and Sadness in a Pantomime Animal costume) appears to split in half, Fear spits his drink out in shock after being unusually-unflappable up to this point.
  • Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus: Purple has an epic one when Zim first calls the Tallest after his long absence and reveals he's alive. He spits a stream of soda into Red's face, pauses to eat a doughnut, and then spits another stream of soda into a service drone's face and keeps going until it pushes them off the platform they're on. And he didn't have a single sip of drink before or during the epic spit take; the soda just seems to come out of nowhere.
  • The LEGO Batman Movie: Deliberately invoked by Bruce Wayne where, after hearing from Barbara Gordon that she wants to get rid of Batman. He calmly asks a waiter for a glass of water so he can dramatically do a spit-take. Happens again in the background when she elaborates on it:
    Bruce Wayne: Waiter!
  • Played for Drama in Luca, where Luca accidentally spits water all over Alberto, which causes Alberto to turn back into a sea monster. Luca then has to dry him off before anyone notices.
  • Madagascar:
    • Alex, Gloria and Melman sing a birthday song to Marty with the line "You look like a monkey, and you smell like one too". Mason, a monkey, takes offense to this.
      Mason: [spits out tea] I say!
      [Phil, his friend, sniffs his armpit and faints from the smell]
    • Invoked in a later scene. While on the island, Marty serves a drink to Alex, but he spits it out when it turns out it's sea water; Marty tell him that he wasn't supposed to drink it, just spit it out. (it's just temporary until the plumbing comes in). At the end, everyone has a Spit Take-fest.
  • Monsters vs. Aliens: Gallaxar spits out his tea because it's too hot. Thing is, he drank it through his ear.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
    • Equestria Girls: Applejack spits out fizzy apple juice upon hearing that Twilight will be competing against Sunset for princess of the Fall Formal.
    • Sunset's Backstage Pass: Fluttershy spits orange juice when Applejack makes a joke about a chicken coop, since it had animals in it. Unfortunately for Applejack, she's right in front of Fluttershy when this happens.
  • Pinocchio: When Pinocchio tells Stromboli that he will come back in the morning after he goes home to his father, Stromboli is drinking a bottle of wine and spits it out when he hears this and starts laughing because of how ridiculous it sounds.
  • The Polar Express: An example that doesn't need any spoken preamble — when the nameless hero boy first encounters the mysterious ghost hobo, the hobo offers him "a nice hot cup of Joe" from the pot above his fireplace. The boy already reluctantly accepts the offering, but it's not after he's drinking it that the hobo pulls his dirty socks from out of the pot that he nopes out.
  • Ratatouille: Defied by Anton Ego: after nearly spitting out his mouthful of wine, he pauses to check the label on the bottle and apparently decides it's too good to waste, forcing himself to swallow. Zooming in on the label reveals that it is indeed a real wine (a very rare one at that), and way too good (and expensive) to spit out.
  • Robots: When Bigweld enters his company after a long absence, two robots by the water cooler spit-take — as well as the water cooler itself.
  • Shrek 2: When Lilian mentions Shrek and Fiona's future children, Harold spits out his water and Shrek chokes on his spoon.
  • The Simpsons Movie: Lisa gets the citizens of Springfield to clean up the polluted lake by spiking their drinks with water from the lake, and everyone does this when she tells them.
    Moe: See, this is why we should hate kids!
  • Sleeping Beauty: King Hubert pulls onej after King Stephan ends up implying that Phillip and Aurora's arranged marriage might not end well.
  • The Sword in the Stone: Sir Ector does this when Sir Pellinore tells him that the winner of the New Year's events wins the throne of England.
  • Tangled: During the "I've Got a Dream" song, Big Nose Thug (singing about his notoriously ugly appearance and how he'd wish people would see past that) sings "Though my face leaves people screaming..." And during this line another thug, who's drinking out of a mug of beer, violently spits the beer out of his mouth (or if you interpret it worse, vomits up his stomach contents) in reaction to Big Noses face's proximity to him — just to spell it out how harshly people react to Big Nose's appearance...
  • In Turning Red, Abby does one when she sees Miriam chewing gum with her mouth open and getting it stuck in her braces.
  • Wreck-It Ralph:
    • Whilst attending the Bad-Anon meeting, Ralph mentions he doesn't want to be a bad guy, causing all of the other members to go into shock, and Bowser to spit fire.
    • In the sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Surge Protector spits out his coffee when Sgt. Calhoun offers to adopt all of the displaced Sugar Rush racers, who immediately start wreaking havoc on her and Felix's house.
  • Zootopia: An elephant customer at the ice cream shop spits out his ice cream when Judy asks the vendor about the snot and mucus in the food (one of the workers is seen serving ice cream with the trunk).

    Film — Live-Action 
  • (500) Days of Summer: "They used to call me anal girl." Cue spit-take from Tom. (For the record, she was really neat and organised.)
  • Used several times in Airplane!:
    • Hilariously when Elaine is visiting Ted in the hospital Flashback sequence.
    • In Airplane II: The Sequel, Ted does it when the psychiatrist tells him that Elaine is getting married.
  • In American Beauty, Lester Burnham spews his drink after his daughter announces her hot friend that he's fantasizing about is sleeping over.
  • American Pie: "This one time, at band camp, I stuck a flute in my pussy."
  • A variation in The American President: President Shepherd is playing pool with A.J. and is lining up for a shot when A.J. tells him Sydney Ellen Wade (the lobbyist he's gotten a crush on) called. President Shepherd ends up almost completely missing the cue ball, which A.J. can't help but notice.
  • Done off-screen in Ant-Man, when Scott — an ex-convict — turns up uninvited at his ex-wife's house for their daughter Cassie's birthday party.
  • Tom Canboro (Gary Busey) does this in the Apocalypse film series movie Tribulation, when he tries to drink bad coffee in the hospital.
  • A spit-take is surprisingly (or disgustingly) avoided in the second Austin Powers movie, where the agency (?) Austin works for has taken some of Fat Bastard's... err... stool for analysis. Austin spots a pot of what looks like coffee and pours himself a cup. After a bit of conversation...
    Austin: Cor! This coffee smells like shit.
    [Basil looks at the "pot" Austin got it from, noticing it is labeled Fat Bastard Stool Sample]
    Basil: It is shit, Austin.
    Austin: Oh, good then it's not just me. [takes a drink, then smacks his lips] It's a bit nutty.
In the TV version, Austin spits the stool sample after realizing what's in his cup. For some reason, the stool sample and the coffee pot were right next to each other.
  • Back to the Future (Part I) has the scene with Marty sitting in a parked car with Lorraine, his future mom. She pulls out a bottle of liquor and takes a drink (both she and Marty are underage at this point), and Marty confiscates it, saying she shouldn't drink, because she might regret it later in life (she's an alcoholic in Marty's present). She calls him a square. He shrugs and takes a swig himself — just as she lights up a cigarette... A much more powerful spit-take happened during an outtake as Michael J. Fox was unaware that the prop drink contained real alcohol, and subsequently spilled it all over himself, then burst out laughing. The "outtake" might not have been an actual outtake, but might have actually been used, with the cut occurring just before Fox went off character.
  • Stephen, from the supernatural-horror movie Bewitched (1981), was unfortunate enough to be the victim of a curse from a Thai voodoo charm he picked up. After witnessing a bunch of supernatural events in the day, Stephen returns home that night, and tries calming his frazzled nerves by drinking tea. But then the Thai voodoo amulet shows up in the bottom of his teacup, right when he's least expecting it.
  • The Big Lebowski: When the Dude learns he's been used as a sperm donor for Maude, he manages to do a double spit take. Somehow.
  • Blazing Saddles: The Waco Kid, after Sheriff Bart reads the note from Lili Von Shtupp inviting Bart to her "dwessing woom".
  • In Cockneys vs. Zombies, Davey starts drinking bottled water as his associates speculate about where all the zombies came from. Then he spits the whole thing out when the suggestion is made that it's "something in the water".
  • In Coming to America, Arsenio Hall's character Semmi does one after being hit on in a bar by a Creepy Crossdresser... that wasn't supposed to be a crossdresser. "She" was played by Arsenio Hall, hitting on himself.
  • Dad's Army (1971): When Private Pike mentions that Sergeant Wilson's bed hardly looked slept in last night, Sergeant Wilson spits the tea he was drinking back into his cup, worried that Private Pike may catch on to the fact that he is having an affair with his mother.
  • Death Proof: After being shot by one of the girls he tried running off the road, Stuntman Mike sterilizes the wound with some liquor, screaming as he does so. Then he drinks from the bottle to calm his nerves. Cue spit take when he sees the girls in their car speeding up in his rearview mirror, intent on revenge.
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The "Rodrick Rules" film version has Greg, Rodrick, and their grandpa playing a game of Gutbusters at Leisure Towers. Greg reads the joke card during the game, resulting in Rodrick to spit milk all over him.
  • In Dragon Blade, after fighting Cold Moon, Huo An (Jackie Chan) brings her back her veil, which he ripped off accidentally during the fight. Whet he doesn't expect, though, is that her tribe seems to follow Best Her to Bed Her and she now considers herself his wife. As he takes a swig of alcohol, by the time he turns back she has already stripped naked. Huo An spit-takes into a brasero, promptly putting the spirit on fire.
  • Dumb and Dumber: Right when an endangered owl was killed by a shooting champagne cork.
  • In Eddie the Eagle, Bronson sprays his beer everywhere when Eddie announces, live on TV, that he'll be competing in the 90 meter jump.
  • In Fast & Furious 6, Tej sprays his drink when Hobbs arrives at a barbecue and answers Roman's "[We] better hide the baby oil!" with a deadpan "You better hide that big-ass forehead". Dwayne Johnson ad-libbed Hobbs' line, so the spit take was a genuine reaction that the directors decided to keep.
  • Frida: Diego draws a pistol when Siqueiros insults him, so Frida defuses the Testosterone Poisoning by saying she'll dance with the man who takes the biggest swig from a bottle. Diego looks like winning until Siqueiros makes funny insult, causing Diego to spit out the drink and start laughing.
  • In God's Gun, Johnny sneaks a glass of communion wine while Father John isn't looking, only to spit out as soon as the taste hits him.
  • Happens in Godzilla: Final Wars, when one of the guys stationed at Godzilla's Antarctic prison hears of Captain Gordon's plan to release Godzilla.
  • The Hairy Bird: Frosty spits out his Coke when Verena asks him if he wants to go up to her dorm room, as he thought boys weren't allowed in the dorms at her all-girls school.
  • In Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold does this after Freakshow's wife asks if they're going to fuck her.
  • In Hocus Pocus, Max does this in the Yabbos Scene, when his little sister Dani attributes to him the term "Yabbos."
  • Happens in Hot Fuzz when Danny describes to Nicholas Eve Draper's sexual history.
  • House Shark: When someone in a diner sees the headline for an article in his newspaper about Frank thinking he has a shark in his house, he spits his coffee right onto the paper.
  • A thug does this in Ichi the Killer when Karen tells him that she once strangled her neighbor's dog.
  • In Kangaroo Jack, when Charlie wakes up with a goose egg on his forehead, Jessie (who punched him) gives him a concoction:
    Jessie: Drink this, it'll reduce the swelling.
    Charlie: Okay. [drinks, grimaces]
    Jessie:' It'll also make your testicles fall off.
    Charlie: [vigorous spit-take]
    Jessie: I was kidding!
    Charlie: Oh, okay. [drinks, grimaces again]
    Jessie: It won't reduce the swelling.
    Charlie: [even more vigorous spit-take]
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang has a cute example when Harry and Harmony are in a bar and poking fun at the wannabe movie stars around them. He gets in a good one and she promptly sprays beer right in his face; he just casually dabs it off and keeps talking while she struggles to get her laughter under control.
  • This is at least as old as Silent Films, making this trope Older Than Television. Fatty Arbuckle does this in The Knockout (1914), when Fatty, playing an amateur boxer, sees the tough professional he has to fight.
  • In Liar Liar, Fletcher begins nervously drinking water while the court hears an audio recording of Mrs. Cole having sex with the poolboy. He gets frustrated listening to the recording since it ruins his case and finally snaps "Oh, come on!!", spitting out his water in the process.
  • A very hilarious (and much-anticipated) take occurs during lunchtime in Little Monsters. Brian had watched what Maurice had done last night, so he knew that wasn't apple juice in the bully's bottle.
  • Looney Tunes: Back in Action: Chief scientist Mother starts drinking a bluish fluid from a chemistry flask when DJ Drake asks her about the Blue Monkey. Mother spits out the fluid in Drake's face, flummoxed that he knows about this secret item.
  • Speaking of coffee, this scene from Look Who's Talking. James steals some of the milk from Mikey's bottle for his coffee.
    James: Ah, coffee regular... [drinks coffee]
    Mollie: You know, that's breast milk.
    [cue spit-take]
  • In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, after securing Minas Tirith at heavy cost Aragorn and company debate how best to aid Frodo's quest with their battered forces. Aragorn suddenly suggests marching directly on the Black Gate of Mordor (where they'll be outnumbered more than 10 to 1), causing Gimli to cough up and choke on the smoke from his pipe.
  • In A Man with a Maid, Jack is taking tea with Alice when he sees Samson and Fanny romping naked behind her back, resulting in him spraying a mouthful of tea over Alice.
  • Happens to John Anderton (Tom Cruise) in Minority Report. After getting (very) amateur eyeball replacement surgery, he is left in the "doctor"'s house to recover; seated on the couch, one length of rope leads to the bathroom, the other to the fridge in the kitchen, where he was told a sandwich and some milk awaited him if he got hungry. He finds his way to the kitchen... only to find out there's another sandwich/milk combo in there, and they are disgustingly spoiled. Guess which one he gets his hands on...
  • In The Monster Squad, Sean needs to find a virgin to complete a spell that will seal away the bad guys. So, he asks local cool kid Rudy if he knows any virgins, prompting a spit-take from Rudy. Not much later in the film, Rudy does another spit-take after finding a naked photo of Patrick's sister among the photos on the Monster Squad's camera.
  • A not-that disgusting example, but in Moon Warriors Princess Moon enjoys a barbecue roast provided by Fei, a fisherman who lives in the wilderness. When she compliments his food, Fei responds that he's cooking an anteater leading to the Princess spitting her food out.
  • The Mummy:
    • Jonathan is getting drunk in the camp battle; Beni runs up and takes a heavy swig of the Glenlivet, and then spit-takes it onto Jonathan as Ardeth Bay rides up behind them.
    • All the characters in the bar do spit-takes when they realize the water has turned to blood.
  • Mystery Team: "You're the guy who likes squirting milk up his butt!"
  • The Night They Knocked: A conversation the girls have over one of their friends having a Pregnancy Scare to assure Jess that hers is probably nothing leads to this when asked about the results of that particular story.
    "She had triplets."
    [spits back into the mug she was drinking out of]
  • No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Scott's dinner date with his Vietnamese fiancee, Sulin, had him realizing the dishes to be her father's favorites: fried crickets, roasted lizards, boiled cicadas, animal testicles and a whole lot of Foreign Queasine. Trying to maintain a straight face, Scott takes a mouthful of what he assumes to be Chinese beancurd stew.
    Scott: Wow, beancurd! I love these! I have these in Chinese restaurants all the time... [takes a mouthful]
    Sulin: Actually, those are stewed monkey brains. [cue Scott spitting out his food with a horrified look on him]
  • Ode to Gallantry has a scene where Grandmaster Ding questions the film's protagonist of his name, only for the protagonist freely admitting that his name is "Bastard". Cue the Grandmaster spitting his tea.
  • One Night at McCool's: Randy does one of these after he's just offered the sultry Jewel some water, and she reveals that her favorite thing in the world is sex.
  • In The Phantom Menace, Jar-Jar Binks, out of curiosity, attempts to eat a Gorg. Gragra then informed him that the meal costs seven wupiupi if he's going to eat it. Jar-Jar then ends up spitting it out in shock at the cost. This only gets him into further trouble than before, as the Gorg he spat out lands in Sebulba's soup, ruining it, and thus results in a very angry Sebulba attacking Jar-Jar in retaliation before Anakin breaks the fight up.
  • Gibbs ends up spitting his rum back into the mug he's drinking from in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl when Jack tells him he's going after the Black Pearl.
  • The Professional: It's a frequent Running Gag for Leon to spit out milk (his favorite drink).
  • In Quest for Fire (La Guerre du feu, 1981), the protagonists come upon an abandoned camp from another tribe. Starving, one of the Cro-Magnon finds some leftover bones in the campfire and began eating the scraps of meat clinging to it. Until one of his companion find a human skull amongst the ash, revealing that this was a camp of cannibals. Cue the disgusted caveman spitting out as much as possible.
  • This happens at the end of Saving Face when Wil's middle-aged and pregnant mother inquires when Wil and her girlfriend Vivian will be begin planning to have kids of their own, right in the middle of Wil having a drink of champagne, resulting in Wil spitting the champagne from her mouth in surprise.
  • In Shampoo, a very drunk Jackie (Julie Christie) is at a party with her ex-boyfriend George (Warren Beatty), and they're sitting next to each other at a table. The other person sitting next to her offers to give Jackie anything she wants, and she tells him, "I want to suck (George's) cock." George immediately spits his drink all over himself.
  • The Nickelodeon movie Snow Day uses this slightly differently when the Principal of the school is brushing his teeth over the morning radio announcements of weather-related closings. Everything except the schools are closed, and he laughs smugly... but apparently the radio host has "missed one" and announces that all schools are closed for a snow day — cue toothpaste running down the Principal's chin in shock, anger, and disbelief.
  • Spaceballs has Dark Helmet do this in the Mr. Coffee/Mr. Radar scene, although in this case it's not a surprise that causes it but the fact that the coffee is too hot.
    Dark Helmet: Hot... too hot! [his mask falls down just at he is spitting, so the coffee winds up all over the inside of the mask]
  • Tightrope (1984): Clint Eastwood's character is driving his daughters to school when the youngest asks out of the blue: "Dad, what's a hard-on?" Cue Clint and his eldest daughter spewing their soft drinks onto the windscreen.
  • Ultra Series
    • Ultraman Cosmos 2: The Blue Planet: When Shau, an alien from another planet, tastes champagne for the first time in her life. Being unused to the taste of alcohol, this is her immediate reaction.
    • Ultraman Saga: A recovering Taiga spat out his drink when hearing that Ultraman Zero is using his body as a vessel.
  • Vault of Horror: In "Midnight Mess", Harold spits a mouthful of soup across the table when the waiter tells him he is drinking blood.
    Cassie: [cheerfully] Mommy's so happy you're here, she choked on her drink!

    Literature 
  • In 1635: The Dreeson Incident, Chad Jenkins, politically relatively conservative in the up-time US sense, winds up spewing his coffee clear across the table he was sitting at when he finds out that the town he represents will essentially be the "hippie district" in the State of Thuringia-Franconia's Senate, with the state capital moving from Grantville to Bamberg, but leaving behind most of the education and technology centers.
  • In Amelia Bedelia Unleashed, Amelia Bedelia's mother does this after Amelia Bedelia suggests that she could have twins.
  • Lori does one of these when Jinks the jester vaults over her garden wall to introduce himself in Aunt Dimity Slays the Dragon.
  • In Belgarath the Sorcerer, Belgarath describes the sight of seeing a bird suddenly turn into Beldinnote ... while he was drinking, leading to an extended coughing fit.
  • Beware of Chicken:
    • Meihua gets Meiling shortly after they've first met Jin, and when Meiling has just had a sip of tea.
      Meihua: So, when is Jin marrying you?
      Meiling: Wha-Uh? Not- Maybe-Nev— Meihua!
    • Yun Ren times his strike carefully, waiting for Hong Xiao to question Meiling about her visit to Jin, tease her about the liberties she took with him, and then get himself a cup of water while she splutters.
      Yun Ren: Also, Jin's chicken killed Sun Ken, and we met the Young Mistress of the Verdant Blade Sect.
      The water went down the wrong way.
    • Yun Ren himself later almost chokes when the Shrouded Mountain sect serves a rare delicacy of Gold Grade rice — which Yun knows full well came from Jin. The rice goes down the wrong way as he tries to stop himself from laughing.
    • Defied, with difficulty, by the Magistrate, when he hears that Tigu won second place in the Dueling Peaks Tournament. He does manage to make himself swallow his tea, but it's a near thing, with every muscle in his body clenching.
  • In A Civil Campaign, specifically during that dinner party, an idle comment about Aral Vorkosigan's adopted son taking Clement "Kou" Koudelka's youngest daughter to the Betan tourist attraction called the Orb of Unearthly Delightsnote  is made while Kou is having a glass of wine. The narration refers to an aerosol arc shortly after.
  • The Day Santa Stopped Believing In Harold: When Harold's dad sees Santa, he spits out coffee.
  • In the Dirty Bertie story "Boast", Bertie spits out mash after hearing he will be in a concert after his mother lies that he can play the trumpet.
  • Discworld:
    • In Feet of Clay, Nobby gets told by a cadre of nobles that they want him to become king.Explanation Since he's gulping down brandy, smoking a cigar, and sitting in a chair with wheels at the time, the result is a rocket-powered spit-take.
    • Near the end of Snuff, Commander Vimes gets a much-needed cup of coffee, only to spit it all out when he's told by a Quirmian guard the goblin slaves from the Wonderful Fanny have been put on a boat to Howondaland.
      Never in the field of coffee-making had so much of the stuff been sprayed so far and over so many.
    • Invoked in Moving Pictures, when Gaspode suggests that Victor ask Dibbler for a percentage of the gross of the film they're making when the time is right... specifically when Dibbler has a mouthful of food.
  • Goblins in the Castle: During breakfast, the morning after the goblins are freed, William finds they've filled the sugar bowl with salt, but doesn't realize it until after he's spooned some into his coffee, which he ends up spitting across the table.
  • Harry Potter:
  • In The Impossible Virgin, a Modesty Blaise novel, Modesty and Willie are discussing what to do about the villain over a glass of wine. Their friend Giles (an amiable fellow without a mean or fighting bone in his body) casually offers to help dispose of the body just as Willie takes a sip, causing a spray of wine and an impressive display of choking from Willie.
  • The Mer is an underwater example. When Shona tells Val that she became a mer hundreds of years ago, Val is so startled that she chokes on ocean water and sprays it back out.
  • A Piece in the Game of Gods: When a new level of power is unveiled in Part 38:
    Lauren nearly spat out her coffee while Cassandra gasped, "What the fuck does that mean?"
  • Seven Stars: In the chapter "The Mummy's Heart", Charles discusses his case with a colleague over a friendly glass of brandy. When he mentions the involvement of the notorious sorcerer Declan Mountmain, he prompts a spit-take from his colleague.
  • In the Sword of the Stars novella The Deacon's Tale, this is Kliggerman's reaction to seeing a Morrigi Colony Trap in action.

    Memes 

    Music 
  • In "And Then I Noticed That She Was a Gargoyle" by Nanowar of Steel, this happens to the guy at a bar the main character is talking/singing to when he's describing his first date with someone from online... and then he sings the title sentence.
  • Happens at the beginning of Weird Al's Eat It music video.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • Triple H always spits out the contents of his water bottle during his entrance, so he often spit-takes onscreen.
    • When he was named to switch brands in the WWE's 2004 draft, he immediately spit out the water he was drinking.
    • When DX were questioned over running down "Stone Cold" Steve Austin Road Dogg gave his real name as Dees Nuts, causing Trips to spray out his water as he laughed.
    • During the 2009 Bragging Rights DX promo where they bashed Smackdown's team. Triple H once again spits his water out when Shawn whispers to him, he blurts out what he says right after: "He's banging Vickie Guerrero?!"
  • Then there was "One Night Stand 2005", where Paul Heyman namedrops Matt Hardy in front of Edge — who had recently yoinked Matt's girlfriend Lita (in real life, not kayfabe) — and Edge spits out the beer he's drinking.
  • When Mick Foley was the commissioner he once told Al Snow that he was giving him a title match. Al responded with "I have a match against The Rock for the WWF Title?!" Cue spit-take from Foley, who proceeded to explain that he was talking about the Hardcore title.
  • This was how Santino Marella won a match against Jack Swagger. Beaker came down to the ring and gave him a potion which supposedly gave speed, power and agility to those who drank it... only for Santino to promptly be surprised by Swagger and spit it in his face.
  • David Otunga actually managed two of these in one night.
    • First was when he was told that he would be facing a returning Great Khali. This spit take went straight into the face of one Natalya Neidhart.
    • When Otunga went on to mock Natalya, she promptly proceeded to slap Otunga across the face, making him spit more coffee all over a VERY unamused Teddy Long.
  • This tends to happen to those on the business end of a Stone Cold Stunner while drinking some beer (usually provided by Austin in the first place).

    Radio 
  • The Goon Show: In The Fear of Wages, this is done with loose change (Grytpype and Moriarty are Stealing from the Till at their job in the Army pay corps, and Moriarty has the money hidden in his mouth).
  • This is the entire premise of Innuendo Bingo on Radio 1, where guests fill their mouths with water before listening to Double Entendre-laden clips sent in by listeners.
  • Our Miss Brooks: Mr. Boynton does one with chili in "Weekend at Crystal Lake".

    Theatre 
  • The Play Within a Play in The Drowsy Chaperone has one scene that consists of nothing but Spit Takes. This is because, according to the Man in the Chair, plays and musicals would have smaller, often meaningless scenes that could allow the crew to ready the stage for the next musical number. His reasoning is that in musicals - like in pornography - the plot takes a backseat to the "production numbers", and so an utterly meaningless scene consisting of only spit takes is placed to bridge two musical numbers.
    • Later, in the number Love is Always Lovely (In the End), Underling (who was the recipient of the spit-takes of the above scene) got to give one to Tottendale (who was doing the spitting) when she confesses her love for him. The Man in the Chair notes that the song's title always reminded him of anal sex (love in the end - as in rear end, get it?), leading the audience to wonder why he associates sex and spitting.
  • The Reduced Shakespeare Company covers Hamlet in their performance, where Ophelia's death scene is some screaming followed by a spit-take in reverse. As a result, when they do the whole play backwards at the end, the spit-take is executed normally - and to hilarious effect.
  • Happens the first time one of the cast takes a swig of white spirit instead of whiskey (and multiple times thereafter) in The Play That Goes Wrong.

    Video Games 
  • Crash of the Titans: Dr. N. Cortex overdoes it (spit-take, followed by throwing the cup, followed by a second spit-take) and Dr. N. Gin hangs a lampshade on it ("Aw, c'mon! He didn't even have a cup!").
  • In Delicious 7: Emily's True Love the title character does one when her best friend Francois mentions that her sister's husband-to-be "volunteered" her cooking skills and restaurant for the wedding reception.
  • Disgaea 5: Seraphina's tea break turns into this upon hearing her Prinnies got stomped fighting The Lost.
  • In Halo 2, when the crew of the In Amber Clad finds a second Halo installation, Sergeant Johnson does the same as above with his cigar.
  • The Armor Games' Web Game In3structotank! during the introductory sequence. A Red Alert goes off while Dirk Danger is drinking coffee and he spits it out.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has a variation: Solid Snake is about to smoke his cigarette after asking why Liquid wants the original when a duplicate would work just fine (referring to Solid and Liquid's DNA) in regards to hacking the system. When he hears from Naomi that it's because they aren't identical to Big Boss, he then chokes on his cigarette smoke.
  • This is Octogeddon's reaction to the theater play making fun of octopi. Immediately followed by a Roaring Rampage of Revenge upon the Sydney Opera House.
  • In Office Jerk, the Jerk spews coffee if he takes a drink after you've landed something in his mug.
  • Used to hilarious effect in Persona 4, to illustrate just how mind-bendingly awful a particular batch of curry is, when immediately followed by keeling over sideways onto a picnic bench. Zero to horizontal in .1 seconds.
    "Sure enough, one strike."
  • In Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Dr. Nefarious spits out his drink after finding out his dimensional counterpart plans on conquering his and Ratchet's world.
  • Sam & Max: Freelance Police: Episode 204: Chariots of the Dogs actually requires Sam and Max to get another character to perform a spit-take, so they can use the DNA from his spit. To be fair, that particular character's spit turns out to be a red herring. The spit Sam and Max really need is taken from an envelope.
    • Sam later mentions that he wants to do one when he learns that Brady Culture likes being in Hell, but his mouth is too parched, so he settles on a Big "WHAT?!".
  • In this trailer for Street Fighter X Tekken, Zangief has two massive spit-takes.
  • Them's Fightin' Herds: In the first chapter, Velvet does this (right in Arizona's face) after she was served a pumpkin spice latte.
  • Toontown Online has this as one of the many "Squirt Gag" weapons.
  • At the end of the Legion expansion of World of Warcraft, Saurfang and Baine are pondering over Trade Prince Gallywix's latest scheme. When Baine mentions Gallywix is sending his goblin teams to Silithus, Saurfang chokes on his mug of beer, growling out that nothing good has ever come out of Silithus (best known as the prison of the Old God C'thun).

    Visual Novels 
  • Elcia from Area X does this in the Middle Ages when Pedoe tells her he wants her to be his 44th wife.
  • Gian from Lucky Dog 1 does this multiple times when he meets Rosalia in Ivan's route. First when she reveals she's a high ranking mafia member's granddaughter, second when she says Ivan is invited to lunch with the mafia member and third when she reveals she's Ivan's fiancée.
  • Hisao in Katawa Shoujo gets a few: once when Kenji describes books as "the medium our ancestors used to view porn" (ruining a library book in the process, to his horror), and another when Lilly's sister Akira casually reminds Lilly to use contraceptives... right in front of Hisao.
  • Godot does this often in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations whenever Phoenix discredits one of his witnesses' testimony. Parodied in some cases where Godot will actually go through the motions of receiving his coffee, sniffing it, guzzling it down, and then spitting it out. In one instance Godot took two drinks. It's usually "symbolic" to the progress you've made, too, since Godot will only ever have 17 cups of coffee in one case, meaning if he's just spitting out coffee, he's coming to an end. Or if he's chugging them down, he's coming to an end for his benefit. To emphasize the whole parody he does in the game, it should be pointed out that he was Going Through the Motions in the very first instance of this trope in the game ever. Even further lampshaded by Maya at one point.
    Godot: I've been made to eat my words once again!
    Maya: Actually you've been made to do a spit-take... with a cup of coffee.

    Web Animation 
  • A Buck to the Face: The review of "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" has Brawny Buck drinking water from a bottle (despite the usual Limited Animation) just so that he can do a spit-take upon seeing the body pillow of Daring Do all tied up.
  • Used and inverted in this short from The Cyanide & Happiness Show.
  • A Day in Dracula's Life: "This had better be important, because I am trying to enjoy my TEA."
    Werewolf: Th-th-there's a Belmont in the castle!
    Dracula: [spit-take] A BELMONT IN THE CASTLE?!
  • A Combine does this in Half-Life: Full Life Consequences: Free Man.
    "STOP THE HUMEN!"
  • Happy Tree Friends: In "Eyes Cold Lemonade", Giggles gets her face ripped off by a falling sign. When Petunia sees this, she spits her lemonade right into Giggles's open wounds.
  • Happens on occasion in Helluva Boss:
    • In "Loo Loo Land," a sexually explicit comment from Stolas gets both Blitzo (over the phone with him) and Octavia (in the same room as him) to Spit Take at the same time, and say the same thing right after.
    • In "Oops," one of the incubi working at Ozzie's spits out coffee at the sight of Asmodeus openly expressing his secret romantic relationship with Fizzarolli.
  • hololive:
    • Watame does this in Subaru's face in holo no graffiti after consuming coffee. Surprisingly enough, she likes it.
    • Mio also does this after learning about a bikini-wearing sausage in Sausage Legends during the August 22 edition of AsaMio. Unlike Subaru's example above, this was done with water.
  • On the Moon #20: "*PFFFFFTT* FIVE MILLION POUNDS!??!!"
  • Superhero Intern: Tyler spits out his coffee due to that it was filtered through Preston's underpants.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • It's a Running Gag at Fark that posting something sufficiently funny will induce this reaction in whoever sees it, resulting in a drink spit all over the keyboard, ruining it.
  • Also common in Usenet newsgroups. Some have standard abbreviations to warn readers that a post might lead to keyboard/monitor endangerment.
  • A Running Gag on Twitter as of 2017 was to refer to a particularly surprising or bizarre news story with a formation like "Well I've just [done something that they wouldn't have done if they knew about it], now to take a large sip of water and check the news."
  • This is a pretty common phenomenon on many Webcomic forums. One reader said that he took to sipping Windex so he could clean his monitor while reading. That forum has had numerous claims of ruined keyboards.

    Web Videos 
  • In one Achievement Hunter gameplay video in Trouble in Terrorist Town, Gavin the Phantom is killed and resurrected multiple times. After the third time he's resurrected, he's killed again by Fiona. Jack was drinking from his water bottle and witnesses the exchange, and proceeds to spit out a massive amount of water all over himself.
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd:
    • The Nerd has a spit-take when Bugs Bunny first appears into his house. The rest is history.
    • He also does this again in "Schwarzenegger Games", when first seeing the Predator game's "Big Mode".
  • Behzinga and Miniminter of the Sidemen held a Try Not to Laugh Challenge where they hold water in their mouths trying not to laugh at fellow Sideman Zerkaa's chosen funny videos. The result is a stream of spit takes.
    • TwoSetViolin did the same but with viola jokes (it's a classical music thing)...
  • Belkinus Necrohunt: Kara makes one early in Session 15, when the party tells her about Pierce Bloodstride, as she knew him by a different, and completely unimpressive, name of Lazlo Pierce Dungbite.
  • Flander's Company:
    • Caleb spits his coffee after adding to it what he thought was sugar, but is in fact vampire ashes.
    • Hippolyte spits his water with aspirin, right in Déborah's face, when surprised by the first return of Kevin in Season 2. She calls hims a "little spitting llama" afterward.
  • In the fifth season of The Guild, Bladezz's reaction when he spots Codex and Tink's Fake-Out Make-Out.
  • JonTron: While reviewing one of the many Phantom Menace games, Jon has a spit-take when hears the objective of Gungan Frontier is to create a new home for species on their moon.
  • Lazy Game Reviews: While trying out some Software Evolution shareware discs. Clint made the mistake of taking a sip of coffee right as the intro for True Blood started playing.note  He almost ended up choking on it.
  • One of Magicalgiraffe's videos, Stealing in Animal Crossing, includes a scenario where Magicalgiraffe is talking to Maya, one of her friends. The animation shows Magicalgiraffe drinking a coffee from the Roost, and when Maya tells Magicalgiraffe that someone stole from her, her reaction is to do this, followed by a declaration for revenge, having been stolen from many times in the past herself.
  • In Mirai Nikki The Abridged Series, Yuki has this reaction to Hinata telling him she wants to be his friend in episode 8.
    Hinata: Hey, Yuki.
    Yuki: Huh?
    Hinata: From now on, we're friends.
    Yuki: [spit-take] WE ARE?
    Hinata: Yup.
    Yuki: Yay!
  • The Fine Brothers original YouTube series MyMusic has this as something of a running gag. The first time the group learns that Metal has a 15-year-old daughter, Indie spit takes before the news is even revealed. Once the news is actually revealed, everyone in the group spit-takes simultaneously.
    Indie: Sorry, sorry. I anticipated you were going to reveal something surprising, and I jumped the gun.
  • In Josh Scorcher and The Mysterious Mr. Enter's collab review of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Putting Your Hoof Down", Josh says that he isn't bothered by the infamous scene of Fluttershy viciously ridiculing Rarity and Pinkie Pie. This causes Mr. Enter to spit out some water because he despises that moment.
  • The Nostalgia Critic:
    • The Critic has TWO spit-takes in the same episode reviewing Tom and Jerry: The Movie. Particularly about how the duo are suddenly talking. A LOT. The first time, it's just water, but the second time, while he's in denial of hearing them talk...
      Critic: No. No, no, no, it's gotta be a mistake, I gotta be hearing things. I'm gonna just go ahead and eat my customary three-pound watermelon and drink my traditional pitcher of Sangria at the same time, while I confirm how wrong I was about this ridiculous misunderstanding.
    • He does it again in his review of The Room (2003), in response to Johnny's "Anyway, how is your sex life?" line.
    • And again in the Commercial Special during the innuendo-filled Wet Banana ad.
    • And again in his review of Milk Money when a kid asks, "Was Mom a virgin when you married her?" The page quote is the Critic lampshading this trope.
    • Subverted in his review of Star Trek: The Motion Picture where he nearly spit takes but manages to keep it down. Double subverted a few seconds later thanks to The Room (2003) again.
    • Doug and Rob did a genuine spit take simultaneously in the Brad Tries... crossover, "Brad Tries Pizza Beer".
    • In "Dawn of the Commercials", he demonstrates step-by-step how a spoonful of KIX is less and less enjoyable. The first bite is tasty and nice, the second is less pleasant, the third gives a "Oh God, what have I done?" feeling, and the fourth one is just plain spitting the cereal out.
    • Subverted in his review of the pilot for DuckTales (2017):
      Critic: I will now celebrate this perfectly serviceable ending by drinking out of my favorite and most expensive champagne glass, with my favorite and most expensive champagne inside, as I will do now!
      [cut to Dewey examining a painting in the attic. "Mom?"]
      [Beat]
      Critic: [still holding the glass, full and unbroken] Do you realize how close I came to dropping that?
    • As a Call-Back to The Room (2003), in his review of Best F(r)iends (2017), Greg Sestero, disguised as Tommy Wiseau, makes the Critic spit-take after the former said the "sex life" line. Even when the latter wasn't seen drinking anything.
  • The opening of this Olde English sketch. No fewer than three takes from one drink.
  • In Phelous's review of Janis the Little Pig from Dingo Pictures, this is his reaction to Janis suckling from the male-sounding cow's udder. And with a Ghostbusters holiday mug.
  • PJTV's Trifecta episode regarding Madonna's flashing a boob during a performance at Turkey had Bill Whittle and Stephen Green spitting their coffee out after showing the titular clip.
  • In Professor Juice's Um Jammer Lammy review, Rosie spits out her water when she thinks she hears the words "what the fuck" in the song "Fire Fire!!"note .
  • Scott The Woz:
    • Often lampshaded whenever it happens. An example from the episode "Physical vs. Digital Games":
      Scott: Now if you'll excuse me, before I reenact what checking the prices of PlayStation Now was like back in 2015, I need to take a hearty gulp out of my hourly bottle of water.
      [Scott notices the price of rent for Final Fantasy XIII-2 and spits out the water]
      Scott: God, that's such tart water! And what gross prices!
    • It's also made into a Running Gag in "Cloud Gaming", in which Scott spits out some water whenever Google Stadia's name is mentioned, until he can't do it anymore because he "ran out of fluids".
  • In the first half of the Khnum and Thoth mini-arc of Vaguely Recalling JoJo, Joseph does one with the poisoned tea upon spotting Iggy in Midler's soup.
  • A Vodka Movie by Zach Galifianakis, Tim, and Eric (Part 2) has a ten-second dual spit-take when Zach reveals why he has body image issues.
  • The Warp Zone video "Captain America's Life After Endgame": Steve Rogers explains in details to Peggy Carter that he can't tell her anything about the future, least it create new alternate timeline. Then, as she's reading the newspaper she offhandedly comments "Oh, JFK is coming to Dallas over the weekend..." (it's 1963). Steve, who is drinking a glass of water, spit-takes and coughs.
    Steve Rogers: [coughs] Well, I'm sure that will be a very uneventful weekend. [sniffs]
  • In his After Dark review of Bayonetta 2, the Wiiviewer spits out the bottled Coke that he drank from the wine glass, saying that it must be moldy.

    Real Life 
  • We have all gagged on our food/drink at least once in our lifetimes because someone told us something outrageous/funny (possibly deliberately) while our mouths were full.
  • "Spit take" is a popular improv comedy game with some troupes. All you need are several players, more bottles of water, and a scene that provides plenty of "surprises". Hilarity Ensues, as well as a pause to clean the stage afterwards.
  • BBC radio station Radio 1 came up with a game called "innuendo bingo" which is basically seeing who can avoid spit-taking faced with some rather out-of-context audio clips. They filmed it and there are several episodes on YouTube
  • This YouTube video has a glorious spit take from an I Ate WHAT?! moment

Top

A Long, Slow Sip of Coffee

Sheriff Blubs is so confident that Dipper and Mabel didn't solve the case, he takes a long, slow sip of his coffee… and is dutifully shocked when Dipper says they did.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (6 votes)

Example of:

Main / SpitTake

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