A gag which calls attention to the fact that a show has a large cast. In response to some summons, event, or strange series of coincidences, the show's entire cast winds up in a single shot, often cramped into an enclosed space. Phonebooths were an early version, followed by elevators, but most modern shows put their own spin on this. The humorous absurdity of such a situation is augmented by the viewer's sudden realization that he recognizes everyone, or the characters trying to fit everyone into a small, small, SMALL setting.
Compare Group Picture Ending.
Examples:
- The ad campaign for WWE's '08 Royal Rumble involved the more prominent members of its roster rioting in a subway car.
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: The series title is not an exaggeration in that there are more than 25 girlfriends by the 150th chapter. As such, mass reaction shots become increasingly common the longer the series goes on. A frequent recurring example is whenever Rentarou introduces a new girlfriend into the Rentarou Family, there's a single panel with a chibified headshot of every prior girlfriend as Rentarou is asking permission to include her into the family.
- Back in an earlier theatrical short for Anpanman, there was a shot at the end credits showing off every character that had appeared in show since then. However, the cast has expanded to so many characters (and now holds the world record for most named characters in an animated series!), that the amount seems tiny compared to now.
- Dragon Ball did this several times. One of the most notable in the last issue of Z which features all the heroes giving their thanks to the reader.
- The season two opener of Gintama has basically every major character make their way into the Odd Jobs' apartment.
- The cover of Volume 31
◊ of GTO: The Early Years has nearly every named character on it, even ones who only appeared in one chapter hundreds of chapters ago.
- In Infinite Ryvius, the penultimate shot of the opening credits zooms out from Yuki to reveal a massive crowd of kids before zooming back in on Kouji and most of the other regular characters.
- Episode 17 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has a scene where Fujiwara is leading the student assembly in singing the school anthem. While most of the students are random extras, just about every character who has appeared up to that point in the series can be picked out of the crowd (all properly arranged by their grade and class), and there's even a few Early-Bird Cameos.
- An early episode of Maison Ikkoku has the cast spending most of an episode trapped in the bottom of a dried-up well. Why don't they help each other out, you wonder? The nosy neighbors are just fine partying in the bottom of a well, and the rival suitors don't want to be the first to leave. After all, the other one would immediately start hitting on Kyoko, right?
- A Naruto Omake from around the time of the "Search for Tsunade" Arc has nearly every character introduced in the series thus far packed into two scenes: The opening ceremony for a kind of Ninja Olypmics, and a really long line for the restroom that a diarrhea-stricken Naruto needs to use.
- This
overcrowded chapter cover image of nearly every Marine in One Piece together with the Straw Hats, including some that have not been shown yet.
- Sailor Moon:
- Played with in where as a part of a plot relevant episode every superpowered girl introduced at this point shows up; the monster is immediately fed up with what's likely a one-sided fight. The same episode lampshades how small the average Japanese house is, as none of the characters can even engage in a fight without tripping over each other.
- One of the actual lines from the Cloverway dub.
Eudial: Hold them off!Daimon: "Hold them off?!" THERE'S TWENTY OF THEM!
- A later episode has Sailor Moon, The Inner Senshi (Including an Untransformed Minako), Uranus and Neptune, all 3 Sailor Starlights, the Monster/victim of the day, and 2 villains, Sailors Lead Crow and Aluminum Sirein, all in Usagi's kitchen. That's 13 people. The only regulars not there are ChibiUsa and Tuxedo Mask (Both Put on a Bus this season) and Pluto and Saturn. (The former is presumably at home watching the latter.) Their methods of arrival there are all coincidental as well. Seiya came to visit Usagi to make sure she was alright with her parents and brother away (Calling himself her "Bodyguard", their being Senshi still unknown to each other). The Inner Senshi also decided to stop by to check on her. Uranus and Neptune's car broke down right outside Usagi's house, while Taiki and Yaten came to get Seiya when a TV crew came by doing door to door dinner interviews (forcing everyone except Minako to hide, particularly the Starlights due to them being idols) when the cameraman was attacked by the Villains and turned into a monster.
- Sgt. Frog:
- Several events in later episodes routinely reunite at least one member of each alien race shown in the series up to that point, although most only return as background cameos.
- Episode 296 is the biggest example in this series. The first half features piles of letters and cards sent by old minor characters. In the second half, there is a competition involving one member of every alien race shown in the series up to that point.
- Two of such happen in Zatch Bell!. One in which Zatch celebrates with all the defeated Mamodos after Clear Note is defeated. And again when Zatch sends a letter to Kiyo from the Mamado world with a picture of him and the others after he's crowned the new Mamado king.
- In the first issue of Forever Evil (2013), the Crime Syndicate gathers an audience of over eighty super-villains. Readers familiar with the DC Universe can probably recognize all of them.
- Justice League International started with this trope. (At the time it was titled simply Justice League). This also happened for spin-offs and re-titles. It was quite crowded on the covers of the re-titled Justice League International #24, and the spin-off, Justice League Quarterly #1; in the latter case Batman is completely obscured by the title logo, and Ice is peeking out over the bar code.
- Wonder Woman (1987):
- The two page spread at the end of issue 174 contains 53 super heroes, plus enough of the cape and leg of two more to identify them.
- One page manages to have a shot of all the major Olympians (plus Hades) in addition to their Roman iterations alongside Diana, and while this grouping easily passes 26 characters each with enough detail to be clearly picked out of the crowd it doesn't come close to containing the entire supporting cast.
- Coco ends with the whole Rivera family — living and dead — gathering around Miguel as he performs for them.
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut ends with hundreds of characters from every episode of the show up to the movie singing the reprise of Mountain Town.
- The Simpsons Movie: When it's revealed that the toxic silo that led Springfield to be enclosed in the bubble belongs to Homer, an angry mob marches to the Simpson home, comprised of countless Simpsons characters, including various one-shot characters.
- At the end of Storks, the entire cast shows up to encourage Tulip to meet her biological family.
- M*A*S*H used this once, with Hawkeye setting the new record for "Most People Crammed Into An Automobile".
- Seinfeld includes most of its memorable minor and recurring characters in the finale.
- Done on The Daily Show 2008 election special and on Jon Stewart's final episode when every available current correspondent crowded into one shot to cover the 2015 Republican debate which then kicked off many, many correspondents returning to honor Jon.
- The surreal short film Too Many Cooks keeps trying to end on a shot of the family and lead cast while the figure of how many people get piled into the cast escalates.
- The original video
for the song We Are the World had 44 people (including the choir) singing, including songwriters Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. The number of singers increased in version 25 for Haiti
.
- This is used as a special attack in Skies of Arcadia. The captain shouts to attack, and the entire active crew shows up, each using their own abilities to help out.
- At the way way end of Viewtiful Joe's ending, there is a majestically drawn frame of every main character, every boss, and almost of all of the game's baddies, with Joe and Silvia celebrating up front. Also, the cover of Red Hot Rumble has all the playable characters scrambling around, looking toward the sky in a high, wide-angle shot.
- The opening of Mega Man: The Wily Wars features a cast shot of all of the characters in the first three games of the series (and a Met). Considering that there are 28 characters in the shotnote , it's a tight fit.
- In the final cutscene of Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal ("Agent Clank's Next Mission"), there's a shot
of essentially every living noteworthy character from the first three games (the 2002 original, Going Commando, and Up Your Arsenal itself) in a theater watching the latest Secret Agent Clank film. From the top row, left to right:
- The top row has several Galactic Ranger bots from UYA, the sapient Mutant Crab from Smolg in GC, and the Robot Lieutenant from the first game.
- Below that is the Resort Owner from Pokitaru in the first game, Wendell Lumos (originally called the Gadgetron CEO) from Kalebo III in the first game, Moby (the guy who appears on a screen when using the vendor in the original game), the Shady Salesman from Rilgar in the first game and Joba in GC, Angela Cross (in her Unknown Thief disguise) from GC, and the Help Matron from Barlow in GC.
- The upper-middle row has the Commando and Deserter from Batalia in the first game, the Miner from Hoven in the first game, the Inspector Bot from Maktar Resort and Todano in GC, Sam the Scrap Merchant from Oltanis in the first game, the Director from Holostar Studios in UYA, and Qwark's bouncer from Rilgar in the first game.
- The middle row has the mom and daughter robot from the Todano coordinates telescreen ("Welcome to the Megacorp Weapons Facility") in GC, the Mathematician from Dobbo in GC, the Megacorp Scientist who sold Ratchet the Tractor Beam on Oozla in GC, the Resort Owner again, and Abercrombie Fizzwidget from GC.
- The lower-middle row has Agnogg Buckwash (formerly known as the Novalis Chairman) from said planet in RAC1, President Phyronix from UYA, the two Megacorp scientists from GC who worked on the Protopet and appeared in the Hrugis Cloud coordinates telescreen ("If you are watching this, you're fired..."), Joe from the Nature's Mysteries telescreen in UYA, HelpDesk Girl from the first game, and the Plumber.
- The next row has Helga, Edwina from Hoven in RAC1, Big Al, Bob from Pokitaru in RAC1, the Mystic from Tabora and Grelbin in GC, Stuart Zurgo (aka "Fan Boy" or "Armory Employee") from Todano in GC, and Captain Qwark.
- Finally, the front row has Billy and his Protopet from the Boldan coordinates telescreen ("Why is Billy Sad?") in GC, Don Wonderstar from the original game (formerly "Skid's Agent") next to Skidd McMarx himself, Sasha Phyronix from UYA, Ratchet and Clank, Skrunch, Starlene (formerly "Hoverboard Girl") from Rilgar in RAC1, one of the three worker bots from the Notak chemical factory in GC, and the Hypnotist and his sock puppet from Damosel in GC.
- Although not in the game itself, the end of the "We are Overwatch" short shows all the game's 21 playable characters available at launch (as of May 2018, 6 more have been added, with 3 being added per year on a steady schedule).
- Super Smash Bros. had these for a few promos. The largest thus far for Ultimate which features every playable character who showed up in the series up to that point. "Everyone is Here" indeed.
- Life is Strange: A dramatic example occurs in the final episode. In Max's nightmare sequence, she enters the Two Whales diner, where almost the entire cast of named and unnamed characters of Arcadia Bay are gathered, frozen in position, their voices variously pleading with Max to save them and the town, expressing disbelief that she would let them die, or praising her and trusting her to do the right thing. Outside the windows are hundreds more silhouettes, representing the whole population of the town.
- The "SpongeBob Band Geeks Reanimated Collab
" includes a screencap of various SpongeBob characters (none of the ones currently performing on stage) in the Bubble Bowl's audience.
- Homestar Runner used to sell a poster of what was, at the time, the entire cast standing in front of Strong Badia. Including the casts of all the alternate universes and spinoffs. There's just barely enough room behind the crowd to see the fence, and about two square feet of ground.
- 8-Bit Theater crams 3 quartets of warriors in the same room
. And then Warmech wanders in
.
- Least I Could Do spends two or three strips having a bunch of recurring/one-off characters poking their heads in - to note that not one of them minds if John uses the Valentine's Day contest for some petty revenge against Rayne.
- The 1000th comic strip of the Grand Blues! Gag Series of Granblue Fantasy features a wallpaper of almost the entire cast (in their chibi appearances)
◊, which coincides well with the 4th Anniversary of the game.
- Ennui GO!
- The strip "Tetrapods Reign Eternal" is a splash page with 83 unique characters in attendance at Izzy, Darcy, and Tanya's wedding (discounting the brides themselves).
- "Village" is a splash page that has every person that Max has ever befriended or helped over the past 3 1/2 volumes (26 if you don't count Max himself) show up to help him give Min a body of her own.
- Bob's Burgers: The season 6 finale/100th episode "Glued, Where's My Bob?" ends with Bob and Louise singing a reprise of "Bad Stuff Happens In the Bathroom", which ends with them getting joined in by the rest of the family, then dozens of supporting characters and extras standing in the street outside the restaurant.
- One of the earlier running gags in The Simpsons, beginning with most of the town being crammed into Ned Flanders fallout shelter, until the world became fleshed out enough that nearly every potential person was a bystander.
- In Taz-Mania's Christmas episode, Taz's father narrates the closing of the story mentioning the heartwarming arrival of "all our friends who were sadly cut for screentime" before they arrive en masse for a "heartwarming cast shot."
- On several occasions in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Phil Ken Sebben would call everyone in via the PA system, and they would all be there after the cut. (Plus a few random characters who have nothing to do with anything, like a bear.)
- In X-Men: Evolution, the Professor's study and the control room of the Danger Room (where most the exposition takes place for the show) get progressively more crowded as the show goes on.
- The The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episode "Duck!", in which everyone ends up in the same jail cell because of an evil ghost duck, including Hector Con Carne, who protests "I'm not even on this stupid show anymore!"
- In one episode of Fanboy and Chum Chum, every single character that's been in the show (and even some that haven't appeared yet) are in one car at once. The roof has magical stretchiness to accommodate.
- The final song "Carpe Diem" in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Roller Coaster: The Musical" has every single character which had appeared in the show so far. Incidentally, this highlighted just how weird a cartoon with giant floating baby heads, animal secret agents, and alien bounty hunts is.
- This
promotional poster for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic made for Comic Con 2011 features not only all the main characters, but a huge selection of well-known side and background characters. They threw in everypony from the Shadowbolts to Lyra and Bon-Bon to Pinkie Pie's Companion Cube party guests from "Party Of One"!
- Later one-upped by this
◊ official poster featuring several season 2 cast members.
- A more modest one was added to the opening of season 4, with Spike and several secondary characters added to the shot of the Mane Six that closes out the intro.
- The season 5 finale ends with a Crowded Cast Shot showing many (but not by any means all) of the many, many named characters from the show.
- The season 9 climax ends with a Big Damn Heroes moment which some fans have dubbed the Army of Friendship. This included a huge number of minor characters, former antagonists, and every royal ally Twilight had befriended over the past series.
- Later one-upped by this
- Done in the last stand-alone Futurama movie, Into the Wild Green Yonder, which at the time stood a good chance of being the last Futurama work. Near the end, a large crowd is gathered to watch the opening of Leo Wong's huge minigolf park that spans half the galaxy. Each of the hundreds of characters in the bleachers is recognizable from previous episodes.
- The South Park theme song in later seasons ends on a crowd shot of several characters
, some of whom only appeared in a single episode. The end shot gets updated with different characters every five or so seasons.
- The final shot of The Owl House is most of the cast waving goodbye to the Collector (though it's deliberately framed in a way to make it look like it's directed at the viewer).

