When they say, "don't get too comfortable," that's because apathy is an immunity.
"Okay look. You can't just jump up like a goof yelling 'raa'. That's so boring."
— Wren, Pebble and Wren
(Beat)
What, why is everything quiet? You didn't let out a high-pitched scream! You must be a tough one. Not everybody has your Nerves of Steel. Or perhaps you got used to other monsters doing the same trick over and over again. Nice job, mate. As a small reward for your cold blood, I'll describe this trope for you.
Not all monsters manage to successfully perform one of their most basic skills: jump scaring. When this happens, they may utter an out-of-character line or, as in our case, compliment their victim for keeping calm. Or they will just attack them straight. Beware of these guys.
As far as we know, people like you may have Nerves of Steel, got accustomed to horror on a regular basis or being a Cloud Cuckoo Lander and possibly The Ditz. By experience, I know the latter two guys may have a Delayed Reaction, but in most cases, they'll just stare at me unsurprised as if I made a fool of myself. Of course, this is definitely something a Nervous Wreck would never achieve (much to my glee).
Sub-Trope of Failed Attempt at Scaring.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu: During the "What Do They Fear?" Episode, the former Child Soldier Sōsuke proves completely impervious to jumpscares, simply remarking that he's glad it's not a booby trap.
- In Pokémon: The Original Series in Johto featuring Duplica, she had ditto transform into Totodile, it attempting Scary Face on Totodile which acts as ditto attempting to Jump Scare Totodile results in Totodile staring blankly at ditto, then pointing and laughing in ditto's face. The reaction quickly went memetic.
- Urusei Yatsura: Lum and Ataru going on a scary ride at the fair and are unimpressed with the many attempts to scare them. They later find out that the ride hadn't started for the day, so what they saw in the tunnel were not performers, but actual spirits. These spirits also had their feelings hurt because Ataru and Lum weren't afraid of them.
Films — Animation
- Open Season: The first film opens with Boog sneaking out of his owner Beth's garage, creeping up behind her, and letting out a Mighty Roar. Beth doesn't show any signs of fear or startling. Instead, she just smirks, turns around, and roars back at Boog, to show him how to do it correctly.
- Shrek: Not even a minute after meeting Donkey for the first time, Shrek attempts to scare him away by roaring right in his face. Donkey isn't fazed by the ogre's grimace and complains only about his unpleasant breath.
- Played for Laughs in Tarzan. The titular character as a child would scare Kala, his adoptive gorilla mother, by sneaking behind her and making a loud elephant trumpet. By the time he aged to an adult, Kala had become so unfazed by the prank that she could sense right when he was about to Jump Scare her from behind.
- Toy Story: Early in the film, Rex, a toy dinosaur, tries to scare Woody by suddenly roaring into his face. It doesn't bother him one bit.
Rex: Were you scared? Tell me honestly.
Woody: I was close to being scared that time.
Rex: Oh, I'm trying to go for fearsome here, but I just don't feel it! I think I'm just coming off as annoying.
Films — Live-Action
- Van Helsing: Mr. Hyde tries to scare the title character by welcoming him with a jump scare from the ceiling. Despite being a ruthless murderer, he praises his pursuer's tranquility and remarks with intrigue he'll be "hard to digest".
Literature
- Subverted in The Famous Five book Five go to Smuggler's Top. Dick drops a plate behind the supposedly deaf manservant Block, making a big noise, but Block does not flinch at all; Dick takes this as confirmation that Block is indeed completely deaf. However, later it is revealed that Block is not deaf at all, and must be very skilled at not reacting to sudden noises around him.
Live-Action TV
- An episode of Scrubs has Dr. Cox take over leading the interns on rounds for a day instead of Dr. Kelso; the interns are usually terrified of missing an answer to one of Kelso's questions, but Cox assures them that not knowing an answer is fine, since doctors usually have to search for answers anyway. When Kelso takes over again, to his consternation, the interns no longer fear him, even when he attempts to jumpscare one of them with a sudden "OOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" right in their face.
Video Games
- Five Nights at Freddy's World: Most Foxy variants have the Jumpscare attack, which temporarily stuns all enemies. All bosses are immune to this attack.
Web Comics
- Erma; Erma's new babysitter Felicia is a horror movie junkie, so Erma's attempts at scaring her on her first night on the job end up falling flat.
- Pebble and Wren: In one early strip, Pebble the monster pops out from under Wren's bed and yells, "Raa!", but Wren doesn't even bat an eye.
Wren: "You can't just jump up like a goof yelling 'raa'! That's so boring."
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Enforced in the episode "The Siege of the North Part 1". During a brief respite as the Fire Nation lays siege to the Northern Water Tribe, Avatar Aang mediates into the Spirit World to seek out the Moon and Ocean Spirits for aid in defending the Northern Water Tribe. His search has him cross paths with Koh the Face-Stealer, the only spirit old enough to know where the Moon and Ocean Spirits disappeared to. Koh attempts to elicit a reaction out of Aang throughout the entirety of their conversation, as his ability to steal the face relies on his victims making an expression of any kind, and in his first try, he simply leaps out of the darkness above Aang and only stops mere inches away from Aang's face. It's somewhat alleviated by Aang's bored look (as he knew what Koh was trying to do) and Koh just greeting him with a simple "Welcome!", but Koh's intentions in that brief moment are still made explicitly clear.
- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: In "To Catch a Deathstalker", while Wolf teaches Kipo how to stay calm to avoid the heartbeat-detecting Deathstalkers, she repeatedly jumpscares her to catch her off guard. After Kipo has spent some time meditating and using the techniques she's learned, though, she becomes completely unfazed by Wolf's jumpscares.
- Smiling Friends: When Charlie ends up in Hell, his only form of entertainment is Jeremy, a noodly demon that jumps in his face and screams. Charlie says if he does that again, he's gonna punch him. When Jeremy pops out of nowhere later on, Charlie's only reaction is punching him in the stomach.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In the episode "Ghost Host" (04x17), the Flying Dutchman attempts to frighten Spongebob periodically. It eventually gets to the point where he's grown numb to his scare tactics. This has also become a meme on its own
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- In The Simpsons episode "Day of the Jackanapes", Sideshow Bob comes up from behind Bart and menacingly gives his "Hello, Bart" catchphrase, but Bart simply gives a simple "How are you doing?" in reply instead of his and Lisa's usual "AHHH! SIDESHOW BOB!" Phrase Catcher, citing his numerous victories over Bob at this point as his reason for doing so.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
(Beat)
That's enough! I'm done with you!
