"If I could make my eye make that sound when I wink, I'd be like, winking all the time! They'd call me Wink Martindale."
When a character winks, there's an audible "DING" sound, like that of a metal triangle, to accompany it. It's mostly done in North American cartoons, but it's been seen in anime and even live-action.
This is often used to bring extra attention to the wink, hence its common usage when a character is trying and failing to be secretive. Nobody outside of the viewer will ever be able to hear the ding, though.
Wink dings are also so inherently cheesy that they are very often used in a parodic manner. Expect to hear them whenever a character winks at the camera, especially during a theme song or character introduction. Extremely attractive characters will often wink with a ding sound to show their outer sparkle, usually towards the main character or other hopelessly-lovestruck bystanders. The gesture is also common when closing out episodes, especially in kids' cartoons, and usually accompanied by an Aside Glance and Iris Out. Especially cheesy examples will be accompanied by a visible twinkle. Note that they are almost always Played for Laughs; serious characters only wink silently. Examples in anime (and animesque works) tend to have a star shooting out of the eye,
and are often an indicator of cutesiness in a character.
Subtrope of Audible Gleam. Related to Squeaky Eyes and Eyelash Fluttering when sound effects are added; see also Twinkle Smile.
Not to be confused with Wing Ding Eyes.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Done by Patrick Colasour in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 to a girl he was making out with.
- One Piece:
- When Boa Hancock wishes Luffy luck in his voyage to Fishman Island, she winks and a star comes out. When the okamas Sanji was stuck with do the same and the star breaks.
- Emporio Ivankov weaponizes this trope, who can wink so powerfully that it creates shockwaves that send everyone in the room flying and maim anyone not particularly strong. Ivankov calls it "Death Wink" or "Hell Wink" depending on the intended intensity.
Comic Books
- Wonder Woman: Black and Gold: After Wonder Woman brings Badra a surprise gift she tells her to open it with gloves with a wink over her shoulder that produces a star flung from the lashes.
Films — Animation
- Heard at the end of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (and the shorts that it was compiled from) when the stuffed Pooh doll winks.
- Happens in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, when Gromit presses a pedal to make the puppet lady-were-rabbit wink.
- In Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, a ding sound is heard when the Kraken winks at the camera after singing the song "It's Party Time."
- Moana: During the song "You're Welcome," right after Maui sings "You're face to face with greatness and it's strange," his Animated Tattoo of himself gives a wink to Moana, and the "ding" sound synchronizes with the music.
- In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Lumalee gives a wink with an audible "ding" after he starts playing the saxophone after his talk about the movie being over and there being only "you and an endless void".
Films — Live-Action
- In the opening scene of Barbie (2023), Barbie beckons to a group of little girls with a wink, and a loud "ding" noise is heard.
- In the trailers for Birds of Prey (2020), Harley winks at the viewer with a "ding!" sound. The "Ding!" sound is absent from the movie however.
- In DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, when a young Patches O'Houlihan (Hank Azaria) is introduced in the instructional video, he gives a wink to the camera with a loud ding.
- In the Title Sequence of Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, the title character gets an animated Twinkle in the Eye and Wink "Ding!" as the Bragging Theme Tune commences.
- At the very end of Elf, a ding noise is heard when Leon winks at the camera right before the Iris Out.
- Done by Freddy at the end of Freddy vs. Jason.
- There's a hilarious version of this in the film Hot Fuzz. Timothy Dalton gives a wink, and a cha-ching sound plays. It's partly the fact that his character is a grocery store manager, but it's mostly a joke by the filmmakers about how he's one of the big stars, as well as to draw attention to the fact that he looked right at the camera.
- In the opening number of In the Heights, a tourist asks Usnavi for directions, and he begins with "Well, you must take the A train..." as a quick little reference to Duke Ellington's song "Take the A Train." To acknowledge this, Usnavi throws a wink to the camera with a "ding" that blends with the music.
- Done by Uma Thurman at the end of the second set of closing credits of Kill Bill Vol. 2
Live-Action TV
- Done by Dexter at the end of the opening credits.
- Barney in the How I Met Your Mother episode "The Playbook", at the end of each scenario from said playbook.
- There's one by Brandon in the Fringe episode "Brown Betty".
- Used on, of all things, the nature program Mutant Planet, when a male honey possum briefly closed one eye as the narrator explained the evolutionary advantage conferred by this mouse-sized marsupial's (very!) large set of testicles.
- Every time Dokko Jin winks in the Korean Series Best Love
- Dean has one in the Supernatural episode "Monster Movie".
- The Todd in this Scrubs clip.
- Doctor Who:
- A very subtle one occurs when the Eleventh Doctor winks at Osgood in "Day of the Doctor".
- In "The Giggle," the Toymaker gives a wink to the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna, and a "ding" is heard. It's perfectly in character with his campy and flamboyant nature.
- This happens to be a trademark of Barney (the dinosaur). He winks with a twinkle in his eye after he turns back into a stuffed animal at the end of each episode.
Theme Parks
- Can be heard at the end of The Cat in the Hat ride at Universal's Islands of Adventure when the Cat appears in front of a window and winks at the riders.
Video Games
- Celes gives one of these in Final Fantasy VI after being captured by Setzer, presumably to remind the player that things are going exactly as planned. Characters wink several times in the game, but this may be the only audible one.
- Done multiple times in Bayonetta, always during a flashback showing how a character (or characters) pulled off an awesome escape from what looked like certain death. Gets ridiculous in one scene, where it looks like Jeanne killed Luka and Cereza... But Luka swung them to safety. Mid-swing, Luka does another Wink "Ding!", another from Cereza... Then another from Chesire, Cereza's kitty doll.
- Promotional videos for Fallout 4 explaining the SPECIAL stats system end with the picture of Vault Boy on the Vault-Tec pamphlet giving a thumbs-up and a wink to the viewer with a "ding" sound.
- Additionally, in the "Charisma" video, Vault Boy tames a bear with a wink. This time, the "ding" syncs with the background music.
- In a case where it's not done for hilarity, Mr. Sandman does an audible eye wink that precedes a fast and powerful uppercut during his Title Defense rematch in Punch-Out!! for Wii; he spams this attack when he's almost defeated, forcing the player to dodge efficiently to avoid being defeated in turn. Mike Tyson (and, by extension, Mr. Dream) has this type of attack in the NES game as well, but the winks don't emit any sound.
- During the Boss Bonanza with King Dice in Cuphead, when you parry his pink dice and the token moves to one of the bosses in his King's Court, he gives out an evil chuckle and a Wink "Ding!" at you before sending you to a battle via Eat the Camera.
- If you open the drawer in Undyne's house in Undertale, the Annoying Dog will be revealed to be inside. It winks with a ding before closing the drawer.
- Tsuki Adventure: In the diary entry "Three Musketeers", Tsuki is winking at the camera with a star shooting out from his other eye.
- In Tomodachi Life, when a female Mii has the Superhero dream, she will wink at the end with an audible ding.
Web Original
- Happens on occasion in Homestar Runner. In one instance, Homestar says the ding out loud first before producing the sound.
- Happens when Itachi winks in Acedemy Sugoi Seiun.
- Happens in the RWBY episode "Black and White" when Sun winks at Blake.
- Metompsychosis Union: When Larry gets a look at Tilo he grins and gives a flirtatious wink, accompanied by a little star.
Western Animation
- At the end of a Punky Brewster cartoon "How The Midwest was Won," Punky and Allen wink at each other, accompanied by a xylophone "clink" sound.
- An especially silly one in the Spongebob Squarepants episode that debuted Mermaidman and Barnacleboy.
SpongeBob: Wow... Mermaidman and Barnacleboy.
Patrick: It's too bad they're old.
SpongeBob: What do you mean, Patrick? Old people are the greatest! They're full of wisdom and experience...
(cut to a live-action old man played by a Nick security guard, who winks and gives a thumbs-up)- At the end of the same episode, SpongeBob himself gives the camera a thumbs-up and winks; a Written Sound Effect ensues.
- At the ends of numerous episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and most of the Sonic Sez segments, Sonic makes an audible wink to the camera.
- In an episode of Johnny Bravo where Johnny meets the cast of Scooby-Doo. Later, as the heroes are being chased by a ghostly gardener, Daphne jumps out of the way and into Fred's arms, causing him to give the viewers one!
- Grandpa on The Simpsons showed at the DMV that his right eye is his "winkin' eye". Cue perfectly executed wink.
Patty: I'll give you your license if you promise to never do that again.
- Happened several times on The Ren & Stimpy Show.
- Happens in the Woody Woodpecker cartoon A Fine Feathered Frenzy. Gorgeous Gal traps Woody Woodpecker in a dungeon room that is a part of her mansion. With her beautiful voice, she calls out to her "Baaaabyyyy!" The crow who is much larger and older than the Woodpecker is wearing a white wedding dress. There is a priest on hand waiting to marry them. Gorgeous Gal completes her marriage proposal by giving the horrified Woodpecker a lingering wink with her right eye and a ding is heard.
- Happens in a few episodes of Code Lyoko, usually with Aelita. Only one time did Aelita wink and a ding was not heard.
- The Powerpuff Girls: When Blossom winks to Bubbles in "Octi Gone," a "ding" is heard.
- In Scooby Doo! Pirates Ahoy!, Velma and Scooby, who rescue Fred's parents with remote-controlled kit planes, wink to each other, accompanied by xylophone "clink" sounds."
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch was known for this on The Archie Show in 1969 and her own show (Sabrina and The Groovie Goolies), winking to the viewers.
- Gravity Falls: In "The Inconveniencing", Dipper is forced to appease a pair of elderly ghosts by performing the cutesy "Lamby Dance". He punctuates his performance with an audible wink.
- On Ready Jet Go!, this happens almost every time a character winks. For example, a ding can be heard when Jet winks in the theme song.
- Happens every time a character winks in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power; has been done with Adora, Catra, Bow, Glimmer, Entrapta and Wrong Hordak.
- The Cuphead Show!: In the episode "In Charm's Way," Ms. Chalice charms a variety of strangers. Each time, she winks and a ding is heard while a little star shoots out of her eye. Later, she sings a song on how to charm and mentions not to forget "the little gleam in your eye" as she winks again with the same fanfare.
- Molly of Denali: In one of Tooey's dreams in "The Qyah Ice Classic," a talking salmon tells him to cast his prediction for when the ice will break as the date May 2, then winks with a ding sound effect.
- Many episodes of Horrid Henry end with an Iris Out and Henry winking to the viewer with a "ding."
