Line #51 Main/WalkingOutOnTheShow


1	->''No more song about cebu.\
2	Need another verse or two.\
3	Audience is standing and leaving,\
4	byebyemoomoo, byebyemoomoo,\
5	byebyemoomoo byebyemoomoomoomoo.''
6	-->--"Song of the Cebu", ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales''
7
8	Sometimes a show isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes it's too boring to stand, too stupid to stand, or it's just plain awful. Sometimes the subject matter isn't to your taste, or something happened during the show that has you wanting to bang your head against the nearest wall. Maybe the band's playing at that concert is just atrocious, or maybe that game is going so badly for your home team that it's no use watching them anymore. Whatever the case, sometimes the show is such that you can't sit through another minute of it and you're wanting back the money that you spent to see it. It's time to walk out.
9
10	Walking out of a show is a universal sign that the production being viewed is of poor quality. This is usually a very extreme reaction, as the typical response to seeing a bad show is to just sit and wait it out, as sitting is usually easier than standing and walking, and people usually don't have any other place to go and paid too much money on tickets to not wait and see if the show improves. Walk-outs, thus, usually only occur when the show is so bad that it's painful or disturbing, especially if the walk-outs occur ''en masse''. This was actually {{Invoked}} in {{Vaudeville}} to keep ticket sales up, as people expected to see as many acts as they wanted when they bought a ticket.
11
12	In media, walking out is often used to showcase a character's bad acting or other performing ability, or a bad performance in general (such as a poorly put-together SchoolPlay). Sometimes everyone walks out except for a few people (usually the protagonists) who truly, honestly enjoy the thing.
13
14	When this happens in RealLife, it is very much an AudienceReaction (and thus no RealLife examples should be added).
15	[[noreallife]]
16
17	A subtrope of LeavingAudience. See also ScrewThisImOuttaHere and EightDeadlyWords.
18	----
19	!!Examples:
20
21	[[foldercontrol]]
22
23	[[folder:Comedy]]
24	* Paula Poundstone had a one-liner (paraphrased here):
25	-->'''Paula:''' Last night I did an hour and a half set. It could have gone longer, but the club had lousy security, and the audience left before I finished.
26	* Old joke: "[Film X] was so bad, even people watching it on airplanes walked out."
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	%%This folder has been commented out because the links in these examples are broken, and the examples have no explanation beyond the links. Do not uncomment them without expanding the examples to provide context that is not contingent on being able to click on the links; Administrivia/WeblinksAreNotExamples.
30	%%[[folder:Newspaper Comic Strips]]
31	%%* In [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1985/09/13/ this]] ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' strip, Garfield walks out of a theater because he is out of popcorn.
32	%%** ''Garfield'' [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1987/09/04/ also]] [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1988/05/23/ uses]] [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1988/08/04/ the]] [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1989/09/04/ TV]] [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1991/02/12/ variation]] [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1994/09/06/ quite]] [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1994/12/01/ often]].
33	%%[[/folder]]
34	%%
35
36	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
37	* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', everyone walks out of the Terrance and Phillip movie, ''Asses of Fire,'' during the "Uncle Fucker" song. The only ones still in the theater are the protagonists, who enjoy the song immensely.
38	* In ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', bugs start flying out during the circus performance, so a desperate P.T. Flea resorts to their most dangerous routine, Flaming Death.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
42	* ''Film/DeathBecomesHer'' opens with a performance of ''Songbird!'', TheMusical of ''Theatre/SweetBirdOfYouth'' that Madeline Ashton (Creator/MerylStreep) is starring in. The musical is waist-deep in StylisticSuck, and the audience members are leaving in droves (some are only staying because they have fallen asleep). Ernest Menville (Creator/BruceWillis) is the only one who sits enraptured.
43	* A few people walk out of ''Springtime for Hitler'' in ''Film/TheProducers'', before the rest think it's a comedy.
44	* In ''Film/TheGoodbyeGirl'', by the time Richmond is being hailed as King Henry VII of England at the end of a disastrous production of ''Theatre/RichardIII'' in which male lead Elliot Garfield has been told to play Richard as part LargeHam, part CampGay, nearly a third of the audience have given up and walked out. Elliot's roommate Paula and her daughter Lucy only stay as a show of support for him.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
48	* In ''Series/TheITCrowd'', Roy and Moss try to walk out of ''Gay! The Gay Musical''.
49	* ''Series/SesameStreet'' had a musical routine where Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats play a song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dFYsrGw5eI "Exit"]]. The song essentially describes the meaning of Exit, i.e. how to get out. As he sings the nightclub guests up and leave (through the Exit door, of course). Even the backup vocalists split before the song is done. By the end of the song, Little Chrissy notices he is all alone, and tries to leave... but he apparently wasn't paying attention to his own song, as he has no idea ''how'' to leave.
50	* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', "[[Recap/AngelS01E17Eternity Eternity]]", Angel and Wesley wanted to walk out of a production of ''Theatre/ADollsHouse'' because Cordelia was doing a horrible job as Nora, but couldn't/didn't because they knew Cordelia would be upset if they did.
51	* In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Barney puts on an [[StylisticSuck intentionally awful]] play, to refute Lily's assertion that friends have to support each other no matter what. Before it's even halfway over his audience has dwindled down to only the main cast, and even Lily finally cracks and tells him to just stop it already. [[spoiler: But they stay anyway because he's their friend. Though Marshall eventually uses one of his slaps to end the play.]]
52	* It was extremely rare, but very occasionally one or the other of the eponymous duo of Series/SiskelAndEbert would find a movie so awful that they would walk out of it, unable to continue watching.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
56	* Has happened on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' several times. One notable example is the Nancy Walker episode, when Fozzie is guest hosting while Kermit is sick.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Web Animation]]
60	* In ''WebAnimation/MrPlastimime'', most of Graeme's very small audience walks out during his show. Only Betsy stays to see the ending.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Western Animation]]
64	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
65	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E22KrustyGetsKancelled Krusty Gets Kancelled]]", Krusty falls victim to this when his show loses the rights to "Itchy and Scratchy" and he ends up showing a [[StylisticSuck badly-animated Soviet Bloc knock-off]] called "Worker and Parasite".
66	** The stands are full for a Springfield Isotopes (minor league baseball) game because Music/CyndiLauper [[JustHereForGodzilla is singing the National Anthem]]. After she finishes practically everyone gets up to leave, until the play-by-play announcer reminds them that there's also a game today. Most people sit back down.
67	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E14TheSevenBeerSnitch The Seven-Beer Snitch]]", the collected audience sits down for the Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and then files out after the first few notes ("We already heard the ''da-da-da-daaa!''"). Marge's protests for them to stay involve telling them that the next thing is "an atonal melody" by Music/PhilipGlass, which pushes them to all, rather than depart with disinterest, ''flee from'' the building (with the ''orchestra itself'' running after them).
68	* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Baton Bunny": WesternAnimation/BugsBunny is conducting an orchestra when he's distracted by a fly and thrashes the pit trying to swat it. After he's done he turns to the audience to find that everyone has gone. The only accolades he gets are from the fly he was trying to kill.
69	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' Fred becomes a teen idol. Wilma and Betty sabotage the performance by convincing the teens that Fred is old news, and they all leave during his song.
70	* On one of ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' cartoons, Pink takes over an orchestra to perform his theme music. When he turns around the house is empty, except for one person: Music/HenryMancini.
71	* In the (originally final) episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E18TheDevilsHandsAreIdlePlaythings The Devil's Hands are Idol Playthings]]", Fry loses the robotic hands he won from the Robot Devil, and everyone walks out of the end of his holophone opera in disgust (since he can no longer play) [[spoiler: except for Leela]].
72	* In the 1935 WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse film "WesternAnimation/TheBandConcert", the entire audience leaves. Subverted in that they don't hate the performance, they're ''fleeing for their lives'' from an approaching tornado.
73	* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "[[Recap/PhineasAndFerbLightsCandaceAction Lights, Candace, Action!]]", a bunch of teenagers are going in the theater to see the boys' movie. But Doofenshmirtz' Age Accelerator-inator hits them and a bunch of cranky old people walk out of the theater.
74	* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Out of the Past", Bruce Wayne walks out of a campy musical depiction of his days as Batman.
75	* In ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse on the Orient Express,'' DM and Penfold discovered that the train's engineer is missing but they find a note:
76	-->'''DM:''' (''reading note'') "My fireman and I refuse to demean ourselves by participating in this farcical low-class production. Got off at last stop."\
77	'''Penfold:''' (''nonplussed '') Well!\
78	'''DM:''' Well indeed! Wish I'd thought of it.
79	[[/folder]]

Context Main / WalkingOutOnTheShow