Expressive Uvula - TV Tropes
- ️Wed Apr 20 2022
Time to groove...ula.
A trope predominately occurring in animation, a character might be screaming, shocked, or making a goofy facial expression that causes their mouth to be wide open. It's entirely possible that their uvula (the dangly thing at the back of the mouth) might be making the same facial expression.
Alternatively, the uvula might have a mind of its own.
Often accompanied by either a Mouthscreen or Eat the Camera. Compare Eyes Do Not Belong There.
Examples:
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Advertising
- This PSA
has a man's uvula scolding him for lying to a police officer after driving under the influence.
Anime & Manga
- In the first episode of Battle Athletes Daiundoukai ReSTART!, Kanata's uvula adopts her facial expression while she's running in one scene.
- Bocchi the Rock!: When Kita begs Bocchi to teach her the guitar, the camera briefly shows her uvula with the same anxious expression Bocchi is making.
- Cells at Work!: In the first episode of the anime, Red Blood Cell AE3803 encounters a pneumococcus in one of the alveoli. She opened the door to that alveolus intending to ask for directions—she's lost. After seeing the bacterium, she quietly closes the door. When the pneumococcus burst out of the alveolus' wall yelling "Don't pretend nothing happened!", she screams in fear. Such is her terror that her uvula and the uvula produce faces out of nothing and scream alongside her.
- At the beginning of the Kill la Kill episode "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", Barazo's uvula screams with him as he takes a look inside one of the COVERS.
- Naruto: In the OVA "Hidden Leaf Village Grand Sports Festival!"note , Naruto has to use the bathroom so badly that it motivates him to win a race and he yells, "I gotta go!" as there are several Eat the Camera shots of his uvula that has a screaming face on it.
- Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon: One episode has Ash's uvula scream alongside him.
- In Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie, after Usagi makes cookies, she laughs after they turn out great. Her uvula laughs right alongside her.
Films — Live-Action
- Forbidden Zone: After getting captured by Squeezit, the princess of the Sixth Dimension is being held hostage by the Devil and The Mystic Knights of the Ooingo Boingo. She screams as the camera zooms into her mouth, showing her uvula has the face of the devil on it.
Video Games
- Cuphead: The final phase of the Captain Brineybeard boss fight involves his ship opening its mouth, sending the captain flying. While the whole ship is sentient, it's his uvula that you've got to attack, who's seemingly his own being, as he's got a perpetually angry expression and can either spit fire, or scream out a laser beam for you to dodge.
- In Wandering Hamster, the last obstacle in Bob's escape from Jormungandling is the giant snake's own uvula, which has a toothy maw of its own.
- Dark Lord Hum Gree from WarioWare Gold has a rather bulbous uvula that has a smiley face on it. This is, in fact, his true face.
Western Animation
- Animaniacs: A variant: In “The Big Candy Store”, a nun asks Mr. Flaxseed if he’d be willing to donate some candy to her orphanage. He laughs so uproariously, the camera moves into his mouth, past his uvula to show his tonsils -—with matching hairpieces!—- laughing at her. He then snaps "No!" and literally kicks her out of his candy store.
- The second intro to the Beetlejuice cartoon has the eponymous character rising out of the grave, laughing maniacally as the screen zooms in on his face. For a brief moment, his uvula dons a face before panning back to his face, saying his catchphrase, "It's Showtime!!!"
- In the The Cuphead Show! episode "Ghost Ain't Real", the trio of ghost scare Cuphead and Mugman which causes the latter to scream their heads off only for the camera to zoom-in showing screaming faces on their uvulas.
- Dead End: Paranormal Park: During the "Put Me in the Driver Seat" musical number in the episode "The Phantom of the Theme Park", the camera zooms into Pugsley's uvula, showing a face on it while he's singing.
- In The Doodle Bops Animated Adaptation theme song, the camera zooms in on Deedee's uvula to show that it's singing too. It happens when she sings "AND YOU KNOW IIIIIIIIIIIII"
- Madballs: "Escape from Orb" at one point has Aargh yell at Slobulus for being a bit slow on the uptake in regards to finding a piece they need to finish the spaceship they're working on, during which Aargh's mouth opens to reveal that he has a mouth on his uvula.
- Mickey Mouse (2013): During Mickey's yodeling, the camera zooms to his uvula. The thing suddenly gains sentience and grabs its own guitar and cowboy hat to sing.
- Rocko's Modern Life: In "Cabin Fever", at the end of Ed Bighead's hallucination, zooms down his throat. At that point, his uvula dons Heffer's face and asks him if he's okay.
- Rugrats: in "Family Reunion", Angelica lies to Tommy, stating that people in a family reunion will want to take you home with them away from your real family. From then on, he's haunted by Angelica's words which come in the form of her head in place of the adult's uvula repeating those same words. Even Angelica herself interprets her own lie this way when she ends up in the same boat.
Angelica: And you'll never see your mom or your dad or your dumb-old dog ever again!!! (laughs maniacally)
- Scary Godmother: At the film's climax, when Katie takes Mr. Pettibone's hand and he falls to pieces, all four of the older kids scream (as the 3 older boys scream at the camera with bugged-out eyes), but it zooms in on Katie's uvula to show ''it'' screaming, too.
- Timon & Pumbaa: In "Maine-Iacs", a beaver gets trapped in his boss office by Timon, and then a rocket gets in. Moments later the beaver flies out on the rocket screaming, with his mouth quickly covering most of the screen and showing his uvula also screaming.
- Zig & Sharko:
- In the episode "Song of the Siren" Marina angrily sings back at a siren to disrupt her voice from seducing Sharko. The camera cuts to a closeup of her shaking uvula that grows a mouth and screams into a mini megaphone held by Marina's tongue to help combat the siren.
- In "Disco in the Dark", Zig discovers a "disco dimension" accessible via a mysterious button he finds on a tree. What ensues is a Disney Acid Sequence, where one of the many crazy things that happen is Zig's uvula growing a face and limbs just so it could dance to the tune before detaching itself shortly after.