A Reaction Shot where a character emits a clearly audible *Gulp!* Sometimes accompanied by a visibly-bobbing Adam's apple. Usually happens in an Oh, Crap! situation.
This happens because fear releases stress hormones that stimulate the body and keep it alert. Cortisol, a panic hormone, has a "side effect" of drying your mouth when it's elevated. The gulp spreads any leftover saliva around and helps lubricate your dry throat and mouth.
Very popular in animated works, graphic novels, and Newspaper Comics.
Also see Spit Take and Saying Sound Effects Out Loud. Not to be confused with Gigantic Gulp, nor is it related to a character loudly gulping as a result of actually swallowing something. Contrast Ahem.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Full Metal Panic!, Sōsuke visibly gulping can only mean one thing: Kaname is PISSED.
- In Naruto, Sakura did a loud gulp when they enter a classroom full of thugs. All of which, stared at her team.
- The Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) episode "The Tale of Teacher" has Izumi do this when she finds out she must survive one month alone in the Briggs Mountains in order to earn an apprenticeship.
- Bakemonogatari:
- In "Kizumonogatari II: Nekketsu", Araragi does this while preparing to fight Guillotinecutter and while talking to Hanekawa.
- Happens in episodes 1 and 2 of "Nekomonogatari", such as when Araragi approaches Heart-Under-Blade.
- In the first segment of M78 Love and Peace, right before the domino race starts as the camera pans across a quiet stadium filled with Ultras and kaiju, one of the kaiju, Gamekujira, can be heard gulping amidst the silence.
Comic Books
- Used to be a standard Written Sound Effect in Golden Age and Silver Age Comic Books: <Gulp!>, <Sob!>, <Sigh!>, <Choke!>, etc.
Comic Strips
- A cheating student in Zits does this when her teacher suspects her of using a (fictional) cheating website, www.bootleg.com, in order to get better grades in school.
Fan Works
- In one Dares With Newton episode, Newton does this on after his dad get angry at him.
- Newton: AH! THERE'S A SPIDER ON YOUR FACE!!!(Newton punches his dad in the face)(Later, Newton watched in terror as his father gets really angry at him)Newton: (gulps nervously)(Newton runs away from his dad as he screams his head off)
- Phoenix Wright in Turnabout Storm reacts with this after hearing that dragons exist in Equestria and Twilight Sparkle's (the one responsible for him being dragged there) assistant Spike happens to be one.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità
: Let's just say if you tried playing a Drinking Game while reading this story in which you take a drink every time the words "gulp", you would be knocked out cold.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles: Naruto does this right before he asks Hinata if she wants to go on a date with him for the first time.
Films — Animation
- Appears in Spirited Away when Chihiro has to pick out which of the pigs are her parents
- Bambi: Thumper gulps when he meets Miss Bunny, a sign that he's been twitterpated.
- In Toy Story, Woody gulps loudly when he sees Buzz Lightyear for the first time.
- In Chicken Run, all the chickens gulp in unison after Ginger tells them that the food they've been eating was to fatten them up for slaughter.
- In Happy Feet, Noah gulps when he sees a helicopter for the first time.
- In Lilo & Stitch, Pleakley gives a very visible gulp after dodging a door-piercing Improvised Weapon thrown by Jumba (who was aiming at Stitch, but missed).
- In The Road to El Dorado, Miguel and Tulio both do it when they have to play a ball game they've never played before against fifteen of the best players in the city, and are expected to win since they are gods.
- In The Lion King, there's a group hyena gulp during the Simba/Scar confrontation at the end.
Scar: Simba? Simba! Oh, I'm a little surprised to see you...alive? [glares at the hyenas]
Hyenas: (Gulp!) - In Monsters, Inc., Randall does this when Boo defeats him and Sully tells him "Looks like you're out of the job."
- The Were-Rabbit from The Curse Of The Wererabbit emits a Loud Gulp as Victor Quartermaine takes aim at him during the final fight scene.
- Roger Rabbit does this in the opening cartoon "Somethin's Cookin". After a bunch of knives pin him against the wall one final knife, a meat cleaver, hits the wall in between his legs just barely missing his crotch. His eyes bug out and dart to the cleaver as he gulps loudly.
- Olaf's Frozen Adventure: Elsa audibly gulps as she resists the urge to vomit at the sight of Kristoff's holiday tradition (licking the forehead of a mud statue of a moss troll and making a wish).
- In Turning Red, Jin gulps when Ming nods to him to bring out the final test for Mei.
- In Wind In The Willows, this is Toad's reaction when he's being sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Films — Live-Action
- In Death Proof, Lee actually says "Gulp" when she realizes her friends have left her with mister Redneck Rapist.
- In Fright Night (1985), Peter Vincent does one after finding out Evil Ed has become a vampire, thanks to Jerry Dandrige.
- Episode 1 of Star Wars has the entire Gungan army do this when they see the droid army deploying their infantry. Captain Tarpals then tells Jar Jar "Ouch time."
- After Ricky's crazy-button has been pressed in Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, his girlfriend lets out one as she realizes that Ricky is going to kill her next.
- Scott Pilgrim does this in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World when he's about to be beat up by Lucas Lee's stunt doubles.
- In Problem Child 2, Ben Healy Jr. (John Ritter) gulps audibly when asking nurse Amy Young (Amy Yasbeck) out on a date out of nervousness.
- In Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Pee-Wee, when he learns that Large Marge is a ghost.
- Gatsby does one in The Great Gatsby (2013) during tea time with Daisy and Nick, probably due to nervousness.
- Done by Oscar's dog in ThanksKilling after it stumbles across the killer turkey.
- Topper Harley emits one in Hot Shots! after some of Ramada's flirting, and a similar one in Hot Shots! Part Deux when she describes what would happen if she stayed with him.
Literature
- Goosebumps:
- Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns: Lee lets one out when the "burglars" tell him that his parents aren't around at the party, however it is part of an act.
- The Headless Ghost:
- Stephanie makes one when she thinks she invaded a ghost's quarters.
- Duane himself lets out a big gulp while hearing Seth's tale about him sneaking around Hill House.
- More Tales to Give You Goosebumps: Jenny lets out one while Tyler is telling her about the spirit of the harvest moon.
- Go to Sleep (A Jeff the Killer Rewrite): Jeff gulps a huge lump that forms in his throat when a senior student compares Randy to a young Michael Myers to say how infamous he is. Although Jeff is skeptical of the rumors, he can't help being fearful of encountering Randy again.
Live-Action TV
- Warehouse 13:
- Claudia has an epic one when she offhandedly mentions a few major recent incidents at the Warehouse, and Mrs. Fredericks asks her to "debrief" her on them.
- Claudia also has an absolutely adorable Double Gulp at the end of "Age Before Beauty", when her crush Todd makes a surprise appearance at the episode's end.
- Done several times by Don Ramón in El Chavo del ocho, always while looking at the camera.
- iZombie: Liv does this after Ravi catches her eating brains and ramen.
- Several times throughout The Wonder Years, whenever Kevin had an Oh, Crap! moment, the narrator would simply say, "Gulp!"
- On Sesame Street, Kermit the Frog does this at the prospect of eating a fly.
- Sneaky version in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: While discussing the newly-found scythe in Season 7, they stumble upon an ancient name for it: "M question-mark." Giles points out that the "question mark" (ʔ) is actually a glottal stop in the International Phonetic Alphabet. What does "mʔ" sound like? The English word would be "gulp."
- Several times on Even Stevens; usually by Ren, like when she loses a princess in "The King Sloppy"
Pro Wrestling
- Vince McMahon, WWE owner, has turned this into an art.
Video Games
- Newton from LittleBigPlanet 3 has one of these when he gets scold by his dad.
- In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity during the mission Urbosa, the Gerudo Chief, Master Kohga did it twice. The first was in the Battle Log and the other was during the cutscene Slippery as a Banana Peel! after defeated by Urbosa and the rest.
- Happens in Brain Dead 13 when Lance is fighting the ghosts.
- Quite a few in Tales of Monkey Island, actually:
- In Chapter 2, Guybrush does this when he tries showing Morgan the Pyrite Parrot, and she says that since the parrot is cute, she'll take it as a souvenir after she kills Guybrush.
- In Chapter 4, when Stan asks, "No hard feelings over all those various civil and criminal charges?" Guybrush replies, "Water under the bridge!" before raising his hook and continuing, "A bridge with a fast-talking shyster-slash-salesman dangling from it," causing Stan to gulp in fear.
- Zero in Mega Man Zero emits one when he's riding Omega's missile and realizing he's about to get hit by an ICBM.
- In the Subspace Emissary campaign of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Ice Climbers do this just as Meta Knight prepares to battle Lucario in a cutscene.
- Happened in Sly 2: Band of Thieves when Bentley had to drive the Cooper Van which had a stick shift.
Web Animation
- Done a number of times on Homestar Runner:
- Fightgar of the Cheat Commandos does this in the short "Shopping For Danger" when Gunhaver orders him to go undercover.
- In the intro movie for stage 5 of Stinkoman 20X6, 1-Up does this when Stinkoman refuses to help and tells him he's on his own looking for Pan Pan.
- In "Date Nite", Homestar makes this remark when he learns Marzipan is going out with The Cheat.
Homestar: So what are you saying? That you... gulp... want his bod?!
- Homestar gulps nervously in "A Death-Defying Decemberween" when Bubs gives him a new sled that doubles as a tombstone if he doesn't survive his trip down the Steep Deep.
- Gunhaver, Silent Rip and Crackotage all gulp collectively when they meet with the Topplegangers in Part 2 of "2 Part Episode".
- The 2019 Halloween Episode "The Homestar Runner Enters the Spooky Woods" makes a Running Gag out of The Homestar Runner loudly gulping in fear.
- Tamagotchi: Kuchipatchi's father makes one in a Sorette, Kuchipatchi. short where he's scared to try Kuchipatchi's disgusting-looking food.
Web Comics
- Pixie and Brutus: Randal lets out an audible gulp after hearing the threat Brutus makes upon learning that he threatened Pixie.
Web Original
- Parodied in this College Humor video.
- Used in Bin Banter 4 when Unicron finds out he might get eaten.
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball: Gumball does this in "The Curse".
- Disney has two stock sound effects of this that often appear in either the Classic Disney Shorts, or their classic animated films up to at least the late 1970s. In fact, this is Donald Duck's standard Oh, Crap! Reaction Shot. Goofy does it fairly often too.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983): In "Diamond Ray of Disappearance", Teela is confronted by the villain and does a very deep gulp.
- Looney Tunes gives us "Hopalong Casualty." When the coyote reads the fine print on the Earthquake Pills label ("Caution: not effective on road runners"), this is his reaction.
- Happens in every episode of Moral Orel, just before Orel's father beats him as punishment for whatever he did wrong that day. Character Development ensues when he stops reacting with this trope and starts to respond with a deadpan response.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Rainbow Dash does this in "Sonic Rainboom" three times as she grows increasingly nervous about her upcoming performance all the way up to the biggest part of her act.
- In "Boast Busters", Twilight Sparkle does this when she realizes she has to fight an angry bear about a hundred times her size. She then defeats the giant bear quite handily.
- Rainbow Dash manages to get a flamingo to do this during a Drill Sergeant Nasty routine in "May the Best Pet Win!"
- In "A Royal Problem", after switching Princesses Luna and Celestia's cutie marks, and thus their roles for a day, Starlight Glimmer says "There! Now you'll know exactly what it's like to... be each other." Followed by a loud, pained gulp.
- Early, extreme example in the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon The Fowl Ball (1930). As nervous Oswald loudly gulps, his Adam's apple bobs in his throat—and it's shaped like a real apple, complete with stem.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
- All three Girls do this in "Reeking Havoc" when the Professor suggests they try eating his chili.
- Buttercup in "The Boys Are Back In Town".
- Bubbles (whilst disguised as Boomer) in "Bubble Boy" after being dared to eat a roach by Brick.
- Sabrina does this in Sabrina: The Animated Series in "Fish Schtick" where she has to jump off the high board to prove that she's the most talented.
- Shaggy and Scooby do this in Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery when they see that their opponent is Kane.
- Bart gets this in The Simpsons episode "Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk" when Marge orders him to get Homer from Moe's right after he plays one of his prank phone calls on Moe.
- He also does it in "Principal Charming" when Skinner screams his name over the intercom for writing his name on the playground with sodium tetrasulfide.
- She also does it twice in "Witchitis" where she's afraid to get a shot.
- Happens very frequently in Tom and Jerry cartoons, with either Tom or Jerry in an Oh, Crap! situation.
- Total Drama:
- Tyler does one in "Dodgebrawl" after Duncan threatens to kill the entire team if they wake him.
- The contestants are sent out to go camping in "The Sucky Outdoors" and Izzy is inspired to give a detailed account of a bear encounter she once had. Once she's done, she encourages the Screaming Gophers onwards. Lindsay, who is taken aback by Izzy's story, gulps.
- Cameron does one after being told he has to steal the go-karts from Chef in "Grand Chef Auto".
- Work It Out Wombats!: Zeke gulps loudly when Malik tries to take him zip lining in "Brother Day."
- X-Men: Evolution this was Evan Daniels' reaction to being caught by the police in his school after Quicksilver vandalizes the school.
