"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"The simple dog made the noise all through the night and was still going strong the next morning. When we were loading the dogs into the car, the constant, high-pitched sound emanating from the simple dog finally broke the helper dog. The helper dog wailed in anguish, which alarmed the simple dog. In her surprise, the simple dog let out a yelp, which further upset the helper dog. And so it continued in a wretched positive-feedback loop of completely unnecessary noise."
Somebody is startled by another — and screams. The surprise from being screamed at makes the other person scream (usually even louder than the originator), which leads to the first person continuing to scream, which makes the other scream even more.
If more than two people are involved it can end up with a room filled with people screaming in surprise to no end, with no one really knowing why. The Only Sane Man may have to step in and restore order somehow. Rule of Funny prevails—don't expect this to end simply because one or more characters, say, have to take a breath.
Sometimes, this trope is used whenever a character is about to crash into another.
Compare Vomit Chain Reaction and Overly Long Scream. Contrast Mass "Oh, Crap!" where multiple characters have a screaming reaction to an event at the same time.
Contrast "Everybody Laughs" Ending, Contagious Laughter, and Everybody Cries.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Advertising
- Fast food chain Burger King has this ad for the Jimmy Neutron
and Dexter's Laboratory toy lines, as part of the Burger King Big Kids Meals. The commercial has a genius girl presenting a hydro extracting machine to her family, where she places a picture of a Burger King employee holding up a Big Kids Meal. The machine then makes a small blue capsule, which the girl then places the capsule in a cup. She pours water into the cup, where the capsule turns into the Big Kids Meal. However, because the employee was also in the picture, a copy of that employee appears in the kitchen, thus scaring the family into screaming. The Burger King employee also screams with them.
- A variant used in this 2008 Super Bowl commercial for Bridgestone combined with Mass "Oh, Crap!", with several shots of forest animals panicking over a squirrel about to be run over, along with a woman on the passenger seat. The unamused driver on the other hand just calmly avoids the squirrel safely, immediately bringing an end to the chaos.
- Another variant was used in a legendary Super Bowl commercial, except a Reactive Continuous "WHASSAAAAAAAAP?" replaced the scream.
- This advert for the IHOP Fall Combo meal ends with a pumpkin with a realistic face (who was explaining the breakfast products) and a mailman screaming at each other, possibly because the pumpkin realized that humans were the ones who made the pancakes.
- This advert for the Old Navy Festi-Fleece has a family of mannequins and a snowman screaming at each other, with the family freaking out over the talking snowman and the snowman himself freaking out over the family, realizing them as talking mannequins. While the family continues screaming, the snowman stops to tell himself to "go to his happy place".
- This advert for the Snickers Ice Cream bar contains a Sensory Abuse-laden variation with a man, a woman with a son, a bodybuilder with a somehow-sentient tattoo, a married couple, a painting, and even a crab.
- This happens in the Paramount+ promotional video Cave Painting. Dora, Aang, Peppa Pig, Nate, Blue, Chase, and Skye are exploring a cave full of painting of various cartoon characters when Peppa happens to stumble across Painty the Pirate, who unexpectedly starts talking and says his trademark line "Are you ready, kids?!" This causes Peppa and the rest of the gang to freak out, with Painty joining in (though considering the tone and his line in the final scene: "I always do this..." it seems to be more of a frustrated one), before running right out of the cave.
- In the Microsoft Office XP ad "Clippy Goes Undercover", Clippy (the Microsoft paperclip), disguised as a woman's hat, blows his cover by taking a compliment for the woman about her "hat". The woman and her coworker freak out and start screaming and then Clippy joins in.
- A Toys R' Us ad has an Optimus Prime toy learning from a Baby Alive that there's more than one of him. He looks to his left... cue a screaming match between him and his duplicate... followed by a horde of Optimus figurines screaming.
Anime & Manga
- Hitomi-chan Is Shy with Strangers: During the School Festival, one of the classrooms gets turned into a Haunted House. Hitomi is reluctantly convinced to go inside, where a girl dressed as a ghost jumps out to scare her. However, Hitomi's Face of a Thug while screaming freaks out the "ghost" girl as well, causing the latter to scream. They both rush out of the room in a panic.
- In the Dressrosa arc of One Piece, it even serves as a plot point: When Sugar has Usopp at her mercy, she attempts to kill him by feeding him the ultra-spicy grape that was intended to knock her out, which she mistook for poison. It's so freaking spicy that it causes him to scream his lungs out while making one hell of a Wild Take. The sight of it caused Sugar to scream her own lungs out and faint, this accomplishing the goal that the grape was intended for in the first place, and the entire situation cause everyone present to scream their own lungs out in surprise.
- Persona 5: The Animation: Done in one episode when Makato encounters Futaba. She was so terrified that she emits a blood-curdling scream. That scream from Makato causes Futaba to scream along with her. And it causes the other Phantom Thieves to join in the mass chorus.
- In Soul Eater, Eruka and Asura do this when he wakes up for the first time in... eight hundred years.
- Yotsuba&!: Yotsuba initiates a three-way scream that goes on for half a chapter; while showing a live frog she caught to her friend Ena, her other friend Miura shows up in an scarecrow outfit, causing Yotsuba to scream. Ena uses the frog to scare Miura, who screams and backs into Yotsuba, who renews her own screaming, and reflexively starts hitting her with Ena's favorite teddy bear, causing Ena to start screaming...
Comic Strips
- Done during the introduction of Lanolin and Bo in U.S. Acres.
Fan Works
- From Ask Fluffle Puff, the short "Bubbles" has Derpy blowing soap bubbles, one of them popping in Fluffle Puff's eye. She starts screaming in pain, making Derpy scream in turn. It goes on and on until the episode ends.
- A Very Potter Sequel: When Ron pulls out his rat Scabbers, Harry starts screaming, only for Ron to join in.
- In Welcome to Ponyville, if you let DJ Pon-3 sleep with you, your character wakes up screaming from a nightmare. DJ Pon-3 starts screaming as well.
You: AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
DJ Pon-3: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
You: Huh? Why were you screaming?
DJ Pon-3: I don't know, you were doing it, and it looked fun! - Happens in What Makes Me Scream, the second entry in They Live in a Castle Shorts, after Green Toad reveals that he screams when slapped in the face and Red Toad reveals that he screams when other people scream.
Red Toad: Oh no, there's a fly in your face! [slaps Green Toad]
Green Toad: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—
Red Toad: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH— - One Night of Insanity has Bon-Bon, who has just been placed in the room with the withered animatronics, scream at the sight of Withered Foxy, who screams right back, just as shocked. This goes on for a couple seconds before the other animatronics quietly wake up from the commotion, which at that point Foxy shuts up and joins with said animatronics to get Bon-Bon.
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
- In episode 27, Vegeta, Krillin and Gohan start screaming during their fight with Freeza.
Vegeta: Healer's down!
Krillin: Need a res!
Gohan: Out of mana!
[Vegeta starts screaming and they all follow suit] - In "Cell vs Ken and Ryu", when Ryu loses it and activates his Superpowered Evil Side, he starts screaming. Cell starts screaming as well, and then Ryu tries to perform the Shun Goku Satsu, only for Cell to turn it around and KO Ryu with it. Afterward Cell shouts "What just happened!?"
- In episode 27, Vegeta, Krillin and Gohan start screaming during their fight with Freeza.
- In Wings of Rebellion, when Akechi and the Thieves are going through the Haunted House presentation at the Culture Festival, Akira senses one of the students coming after her and rips her mask, making her scream. That scream leads to everybody screaming.
Akira: I'll unmask you!
[everyone screams]
Ryuji: The hell, Akira? What are you doing?!
Akira: Uh, sorry! - In this Hazbin Hotel fancomic by fastf00dgarbage, Angel Dust accidentally walks in on Vaggie — who is expecting Charlie — lying in bed Ready for Lovemaking with her crotch bared, and the two start screaming their heads off. Then Charlie walks in and all three scream back and forth until Angel Dust flees the room.
[Angel Dust screams]
[Vaggie screams]
Charlie: [entering] Oh Vaggie… Are you ready for—
[Angel Dust screams]
[Charlie screams]
[Angel Dust screams]
[Vaggie screams]
Angel Dust: [fleeing] MY EYES!! - Insomnia (Undertale): Sans and Papyrus didn't even know Sans could scream, but that didn't stop these incedents from happening.
- The first time, Papyrus heard Sans falling off his bed because of a nightmare and went to his room to check up on him. Sans startles awake, starts screaming, then Papyrus startles and starts screaming, then Sans keeps screaming because Papyrus is screaming, and we're treated to a large speech bubble that's AAAAAAA with each A switching between fonts. Then Sans realizes that there's nothing scary going on.
- The second time Sans accidentally sneaks up on Papyrus while the latter is absorbed on his wiki search. Cue another round of screaming from Papyrus which scares Sans so much not only he starts screaming, but he accidentally switches fonts for a bit.
Sans: buddy, we can't keep doing that-
- Our Week Off Together!:
- On her first night in The Owl House, Amity finds Hooty in the bathroom drinking from the toilet and they both scream.
- When Amity sees Ribs in the kitchen, she lets out a scream and so does Ribs, though in a much higher pitch then her.
Films — Animation
- Done in Barbie Fairytopia: Mermadia when Elina scares a Sea Butterfly and Bibble ends up screaming with her. Fairy Dandelion even joins in.
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: "Hair un-balder!" Now, what it does to Flint's dad... anyway, after that, BOTH of them are shown screaming for what is implied to be a long while until Flint's next invention is displayed.
- Not to mention when they encounter a strawberry in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. Once that happens, Flint screams at Barry and Barry screams along with him and it causes Sam, Earl and the others (sans Manny, who only lets out a little "hmm") to join in the chorus.
- The Emperor's New Groove:
Pacha: [referring to Kuzco] AHHHH! Demon llama!
Kuzco: [unaware he is a llama] Demon llama?! Where?! [looks around and finds himself face-to-face with Pacha's llama Misty] AHHHHH!
Misty: AHHHHH! - Used repeatedly in DreamWorks/Aardman's Flushed Away, between pampered house-rat Roddy and the Greek Chorus of sewer slugs.
Roddy: [breathing deeply] All right, Roddy, old man. You can get yourself out of here, and you will. Never forget, The blood of the courageous James Clan flows through your veins.
[He turns to see dozens of slugs staring at him]
Roddy: AAAAAHHHHH!!!
Slugs: AAAAHHHHHHH!!! - In The Lion King 1 ½, when Timon and Pumbaa meet for the first time.
AAAAAGGGHHHHH!!
[the movie freeze frames on their hilarious screaming faces]
Pumbaa: You know, first impressions are very important.
Timon: Oh, I thought you were a scream. - Open Season, This is how Boog the bear meets Elliot the mule deer. Boog hears mumbling and turns to see a mule deer tied to the hood of a truck. He sniffs and exclaims "that's nasty" and picks up a stick and pokes the deer with it...and the deer's eye pops open! Boog lets out a yell of shock and disgust and Elliot screams back, Boog yelping again as Elliot panics more for about 10 seconds.
- In Shark Tale, Oscar does this with Ernie and Bernie, in which they end up doing it twice in a row.
- Tom and Jerry: The Movie:
- Downplayed in the film itself, where Robin is startled by Captain Kiddie's parrot puppet Squawk waking up, leading to a brief exchange of small shrieks before Captain Kiddie properly introduces himself.
- In the rare Teaser, Tom scares Jerry saying "Boo!", leading the both of them to scream as the camera zooms into Tom's mouth. As you can tell, this gives no significance to what happens in the actual movie, and there's no scene in the film itself.
- How does Woody learn about Bo's broken arm in Toy Story 4? He accidentally pulls it off, causing both of them to scream in fear... only for it to turn out that Bo was just screwing with Woody as her scream quickly devolves into laughter.
- In Turning Red, when Mei's friends go to her house and see her in panda form for the first time, they let out a collective scream of shock, which prompts Mei to let out a shriek herself, realizing she just unwittingly exposed her form in front of them.
Films — Live-Action
- Afterlife of the Party: Lisa's reaction to Cassie becoming visible to her is to scream, causing Cassie to scream back, repeating several times.
- In the original trailer for Clue there's a short instance where Mr. Green is screaming. Col. Mustard slaps him and yells, "WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING!!?" "Because I'm frightened!" "OF WHAT!!?" "Screaming!!"
- In Dr. Dolittle, Dr. Dolittle's daughter Maya sneaks her guinea pig Rodney into the big Calnet meeting. He sneaks away into a bathroom and gets up on a toilet and starts sniffing around the rim, only for a woman that Dolittle treated earlier for a shellfish allergy to come in trying to sneak another snack. She sits down on him. Hearing his squeaking, she sees him and he sees her and they do this (with Rodney going "Aaahh yourself!"). She flushes the toilet and leaves, and he shouts "Somebody get the license plate number! I have just been violated!"
- In Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Renfield is sent into Lucy's room to remove the garlic protecting her. He sees the sleeping girl and lifts up her bedspread to peep at her. Lucy awakens and screams, causing Renfield to emit an even higher pitched scream.
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: When Gertie walks into the bedroom and first sees E.T., the continuous screaming starts — especially funny given the sound of ET's scream and his expression.
- Forklift Driver Klaus: Seeing each other impaled on Klaus's forklift, workers Rudi and Paul scream continuously as the forklift eventually exits the factory and drives off into the sunset.
- Gooby: When Willy sees Gooby for the first time, he screams due to thinking it was a monster. This causes Gooby to scream, and then they keep screaming until Willy realizes just who he's seeing.
- The first day on Hacksaw Ridge, the American unit's cover is blown when a "corpse" sits up and screams, causing the soldier facing him to scream as well. This goes on for a couple of seconds until the first soldier is shot from the back, causing his blood to be blasted onto the other soldier seconds before gunfire kills him too.
- Idiocracy: When Dr. Lexus realizes that Joe is an "unscannable", while Joe is freaking out about realizing how long he's been frozen.
- Malibu's Most Wanted featured one near the climax by everyone involved in the movie up to that point.
- Wallace and Lori do this in The Man Who Knew Too Little upon discovering a dead body.
- The Parent Trap (1998): When Hallie pierces Annie's ears, naturally Annie screams in pain. The scream drives Hallie into screaming too.
- Prom Night (2008): Donna opens the door and is startled by Claire who was about to open it from the other side. She screams, which causes Claire to scream.
- Gale and Evelle's escape from prison in Raising Arizona.
- In Scary Movie 3, George tells Sue that her teacher Miss Brenda is dead, and then that her dog is dead and that everyone around her is dying, resulting in this, which goes on forever.
Sue: My dog's dead?
George: I JUST RAN HIM OVER WITH THE CAR WHEN I DROVE IN! EVERYONE YOU LOVE AROUND YOU IS DYING!
Sue: AAAHHHH!!
George: AAAHHHH!!
Sue: AAAHHHH!!
George: AAAHHHH!! - Happens in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) when Sonic first meets Tom.
Sonic: Uh... meow?
[Tom screams in horror, Sonic screams back, Tom tranqs Sonic] - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) had this happen when April wakes up in the Turtles' den and sees them for the first time. She starts screaming and a few of the turtles follow suit.
- In the Underdog movie, when Shoeshine starts talking to Jack, the dog is just as surprised and freaked out as Jack is.
Jack: Did you hear something?
Shoeshine: Nope! Did you?
Jack: Did you just talk?
Shoeshine: Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! You can understand me?
Both: AAAAAAAH!
Literature
- A projective telepath in The Ear, the Eye and the Arm accidentally causes a psionic version of this when he thinks of a train and it scares a baby, whose fear scares him in turn. It's treated seriously, as part of how he's Blessed with Suck: if he hadn't interrupted the reaction in time, they could have both gone insane.
- Happens in the Discworld book Maskerade, between Mr. Bucket and one of the ballet girls.
Live-Action TV
- In the aptly-named Lizzie McGuire episode "Lizzie's Nightmare", Lizzie screams when she finds out her little brother Matt has wound up at her school (where he's been impressing everyone, including her crush Ethan, with what she knows to be Blatant Lies), and when Matt spots Lizzie nearby, he screams too.
- The Previously on… recap for The Aquabats! Super Show! episode "Haunted Battletram!" is a montage of freaking out.
- This happens in a Halloween episode of Dark Angel, where Joshua opens the door to a group of trick-or-treaters with predictable results.
- Home Improvement: Researching alien encounters, Tim falls asleep at Randy's computer and dreams of having an encounter himself. Screaming in his sleep wakes Randy up, and Randy screaming wakes Tim up and causes him to scream again.
- In the Kenan & Kel Christmas episode between Kenan and a woman whose house he's trespassing in.
- Moon Knight (2022): At the end of episode 4, Marc and Steven open a door at the end of a hallway, and are greeted by the Egyptian goddess Tawaret. This startles Marc and Steven, and causes both of them to scream — at the beginning of episode 5, Tawaret briefly starts screaming with them as well.
- My Name Is Earl:
- Happens in a flashback where Earl tried to rob a wealthy family only to get trapped in the son's room. Afraid of the boogeyman, the kid looked under his bed only to find Earl. They both start screaming.
- Happens again in another episode, where Earl and Joy are escaping a bounty hunter and decide to hide out at an old trailer in the woods. They discover a homeless man has taken up residence there, prompting this reaction when they find him under the bed covers.
- Done in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Revenge of the Creature", when the SoL crew meet Professor Bobo for the first time, with the interesting twist of cutting to a commercial in the middle of it — they're still doing it when we get back, and Tom continues screaming at intervals after everyone else has stopped.
"AAAAAAHHHHH!"
"AAAAAAHHHHH!"
"AAAAAAHHHHH!"
"AAAAAAHHHHH!"
"We'll be right back! AAAAAHHHHH!" - This trope is how Phineas is introduced in at least half the episodes of Power Rangers Mystic Force. Usually he's hanging from a tree branch or somehow falling into shot.
- Occurs rapid fire in an episode of Scrubs when JD attempts to assert authority when dealing with his interns by screaming at Lonnie the intern at the end of a pep talk, only to be terrified by the responding scream from his intern. His interns losing respect for him even averts the trope later in the episode.
- Seinfeld: In season 9 episode "The Blood", Jerry finds out that he was transfused with Kramer's blood. Kramer, initially enthusiastic, starts screaming back in response to Jerry's panic. Later, it happens again, this time with the additional donation and eventual screaming of Newman.
- Done repeatedly in The Sketch Show, in one sketch with a support group for people with phobias — Lee had a fear of screaming, Jim had a fear of apologies, Karen had a fear of repetition and Ronni a fear of awkward silences, while Tim shows up because of a compulsion to bark at people's phobias. It culminates in this:
Lee: Okay, Jim, would you like to tell the group how this problem started?
Jim: Yes, well it all began when I first tried on my grandmother's stockings.
[long Beat]
Ronni: Aagh!
Lee: Aagh!
Karen: Aagh!
Lee: Aagh!
Tim: Woof!
Jim: Sorry. Aagh!
Lee: Aagh!
Karen: Aagh!
Lee: Aagh!
Tim: Woof! - Happens in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody several times.
- Happens at the end of an episode of the sitcom Taxi when Louie answers a knock, expecting it to be Death. But it's really a Girl Scout selling cookies, and when Louie screams, she screams as well, dropping her cookies and fleeing.
"Did you see it, Reiger?! It was hideous!!"
Music
- Done three times at the end of the video for OK Go's version of The Muppet Show theme. First Damian Kulash wakes screaming from discovering it's All Just a Dream. When he discovers he's in bed with the Electric Mayhem, he sceams again, which sets the Electric Mayhem off. Then the same gag is done in reverse, with Dr Teeth waking up to find he's in bed with OK-Go, with the same result. Then Tim Nordwind wakes up to find he's in bed with a bunch of real and Muppet dogs, including Rowlf, and they all just start screaming.
Puppet Shows
- In "A Winter's Nap" from Bear in the Big Blue House, Pip and Pop shout Bear's name to wake him up from his nap. He wakes up screaming and then they both scream several times before he asks what's going on.
Roleplay
- Happens in Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues. Jenna starts to scream upon realising she's naked, causing Vivian to scream as she throws some clothes over, which Jenna responds to with another scream of thanks. Then Crispin wakes up, sees Jenna, starts screaming, causing Vivian to scream again, which startles Crispin and makes him scream some more...
Tabletop Games
- Occurs in a series of promotional cards for the Pokémon Trading Card Game, created as part of a museum exhibit and acting as deliberate "The Scream" Parody. First Ghost Pokemon Gengar and Haunter scare a Psyduck who screams. Then the Psyduck's shadowy figure scares an Eevee into screaming, implied to be caused by the Psyduck's own scream. Then the Eevee scares a Pikachu, who's scream scares a Mimikyu, who finally scares a Rowlet.
Video Games
- In theNew Neighbears DLC of Cozy Grove, the rare joyous occasion can occur between the player and Beatrice Mellifera, the collecting superfan. Beatrice has a tendency to scream when excited, and the player is also given the option to scream with her if they want to. This is especially true at the beginning of her first quest, where she meets the player and shrieks because she's so pleased to meet them. If optional, the player can scream too, which will allow Beatrice to scream right back. If not, the player can choose to go right ahead to "Nice to meet you, too!"
- Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls has many optional cutscenes in which Toko and Komaru talk to each other about their lives, often resulting in the former mulling out loud about how awful her life is/was. During one of these particular cutscenes, the trope is Played for Laughs: For seemingly no reason, Komaru reacts to Toko's self-loathing by quietly walking up behind her and suddenly shrieking. This terrifies Toko, causing her scream in terror, and then Komaru shrieks yet again, even louder. Naturally, Toko asks what the hell is going on. Komaru then meekly explains that she was trying to lighten the mood by delivering a lighthearted scare, but that Toko's reaction then terrified her right back.
- House Of Rules: When the girl enters the Guest A's door, Colon jumps up startling her along with the reaction.
- Done in one Dress Story of I=MGCM when Marianne teleports herself by accident and encounters her modern self, plus both are them are surprised and then the screaming chain reaction infinites only to last for an extremely long time.
- In Outer Wilds, the protagonist is experiencing a 22-minute time loop. Performing a specific action causes your double to appear on future loops unless you break causality. This trope is one of the dialogue options.
- In Pokémon Sapphire, Whismur's Pokédex entry claims that it can inflict this trope on itself:
"Whismur is very timid. If it starts to cry loudly, it becomes startled by its own crying and cries even harder. When it finally stops crying, the Pokémon goes to sleep, all tired out."
- The opening for Rayman Origins has a moment with Ray realizing he's holding a skull. This scares him and he screams. Not a second later, everyone else does too, even said skull.
- In The Quarry, if both are still alive and not captured, then Emma and Jacob will have one when they run into each other at the start of Chapter 6.
Web Animation
- This happens in one of the movies of the asdfmovie series.
- At the beginning of The LeBrons episode "Gloria", this happens between Gloria and a grasshopper.
- Happens early on in the Scoutellite animation "The spoy's ultimate attack".
- Baman Piderman: Everyone participates in one at the end of "Guess da Number" when Baman and Piderman find Dese Guys carving Pumkin.
- Murder Drones has this happen after Uzi Doorman gets knocked out of being possessed by the Absolute Solver. The whole thing starts when Solver!Uzi is about to eat her believed-to-be-deceased mother Nori (who is just a Drone Core now), and N — Uzi's Love Interest — distracts the Solver by writing on the ground with his oil that he and Uzi... "hang out", which is akin to a Love Confession on his part. Incensed by this revelation, Nori slaps Uzi so hard she slams into the ground for dating the things that "killed" her. Knocked out of her possession, a pissed Uzi kicks Nori down a hole leading to the planet's core, unaware that the tiny creature was her mom. Then this exchange...
N: UZI!Uzi (rounding on N, stomping towards him): WHAT?!! We did not discuss being gross, and... URAAAAAAAAGH!N: THAT WAS YOUR MOM!Uzi: What?!?N (suddenly remembering he wasn't supposed to tell her that because Nori said so): Wait, no! AAAAAAAAAAAAAH...!Uzi (along with N): AAAAAAAAAAAAAH...!(Cue Mood Whiplash as N pulls Uzi into a big hug, with Uzi hugging back as she tears up.)
- ''RWBY": In "A Place of Peculiar Concern", Ruby is lost in a strange place, and separated from her team. After helping a mouse get some food, Ruby remarks, "Now, if only you can help me..." When the mouse responds, "I can try." Ruby shrieks in shock, and the mouse shrieks with her.
Mouse: Why are you yelling?!
Web Comics
- Pacem and Viktor in Lucid Spring once Pacem realizes that Viktor has just shot her in the chest.
- Slightly Damned has such a moment between Rhea and Death. Rhea spots Death and starts pointing and screaming. Death responds in turn, partially due to being startled, and partially because no one is supposed to be able to see him.
- In Twilight's First Day part 9, Twilight accidentally stows away on a Royal Guard airship and startles a cadet. When Thunderhead barges onto the scene demanding to know what the racket is about, both Twilight and the cadet scream variously at him, at each other and at how much trouble they're both in.
Web Videos
- One particular sketch of AMV Hell III shows re-dubs a scream from Bleach into a reactive continuous scream, with all the other characters looking on in shock and confusion.
- Rosanna Pansino in season 3 of Escape the Night does this. A lot.
- In Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?:
- On Final Fight, Anthony walks in on Ashly and begins to scream, then Ash follows and then their friends walked in and started to scream as well. One of them screamed so hard that his nose started to bleed (which was real and not scripted...).
- Another one has Anthony waking up finding and X on his back and screams once he sees Ash is carrying a knife. Ash also screams while explaining that she's imitating Shadow of the Colossus.
- In episode five of None Piece Usopp falls off a cliff, starts bleeding out of his forehead and screams. Zoro starts screaming and bleeding out of his forehead. Luffy starts screaming and bleeding purple paint out of his forehead.
- The beginning The Nostalgia Critic's review of The Nutcracker in 3D has a rare example where it's done in joy when Critic discovers Rachel Tietz showing up. Malcolm and Tamara join in, and so do a reluctant Walter, Heather, and Aiyanna. When Critic tells the other three who Rachel is, they try again with more enthusiasm, but...
- Tamara: The moment is passed.
- In the third episode of True Naruto Style, Ibiki removes his bandana and reveals the scars on his head, prompting one of these from the whole class before it circles back to him, except he's laughing instead of screaming.
Naruto: AAAAAA—
Kiba: AAAAAA—
Dosu: AIIIIEEEEE--
Ibiki: Ahhhhh, ha ha ha ha ha... ooh, I love that one.
Western Animation
- When Stan turns into a woman in an episode of American Dad! from taking an experimental drug, he and Francine have one of these that a fadeout shot of the their clock shows went on for 65 minutes before they got too tired of it to continue.
- Amphibia:
- The rare joyous variation occurs in "Anne of the Year", when Sasha has finally found and reunited with Anne.
- In "The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers", after falling down the stairs into the basement, Marcy is startled by a moth and screams, which causes Anne to scream, which causes Sprig and Polly to scream, which causes Anne to yell "Okay, that's enough!" and shut everyone else up.
- Captain Flamingo: In "Alien Avalanche", when Max runs away from the "alien" (who is really just Avi with his head stuck in a fish tank), he accidentally bumps into him, causing him scream, which then causes the "alien" to scream back. It happens again after the "alien" arrives at Max's house.
Lizbeth: Wow, if the alien got that upset over one Max scream, imagine what he'd do if he ever saw Max again!
- Centaurworld: In "Hello Rainbow Road", when Horse meets Durpleton, her reaction is to scream in panic. Durpleton screams back, which makes Horse scream more, and it keeps on going from there.
Durpleton: ...Hello.
Horse: AAAAAAH!
Durpleton: AAAAAAH!
Horse: AAAAAAH!
Durpleton: AAAAAAH!
Horse: What is happening?!
Durpleton: I... don't... know! - Family Guy:
- "Into Harmony's Way" has an interesting variation of the two-person scream: Peter and Quagmire get freaked out by a bee and both start screaming, which results in them finding out their voices make great harmony, setting the stage for the episode.
- In "Quagmire's Dad", following Brian's discovery regarding the titular person he slept with, Stewie and Brian have a three-second moment of shouting at each other in the midst of the panic.
- Gravity Falls: In "The Golf War", Dipper and Mabel open a panel on the windmill at the Royal Discount Putt Hut to encounter the Lilliputtians, tiny people with golf balls for heads. They scream back and forth in shock at each other for a bit, then once both sides have gotten it out of their system one of the Lilliputtians ask "Are we good? We're good?"
- Kim Possible: In the beginning of Ill Suited after Ron suffers a horrifying nightmare where Kim changes into a Synthodrome, Ron screams awake in horror back in his bed, waking up Rufus due to Ron’s scream, which causes him to scream as well as they both screamed one at a time momentarily.
- During the bar fight in Korgoth of Barbaria, Korgoth unleashes a brutal series injuries on the Giant Mook who challenges him one on one. All of the other mooks/victims, (virtually all of whom have also already been injured horribly by Korgoth) react by screaming in horror at each bit of brutality. Watch until the end and see for yourself.
- Shows up in The Legend of Vox Machina when Keyleth manages to heal Cassandra de Rolo's slashed throat and she wakes screaming in a pool of blood. Keyleth, easily startled and not sure if the healing was going to work, screams right back before hugging her and rushing back to the fight.
- Doctor Rockso from Metalocalypse has one such moment, played entirely for laughs:
Rockso: [whispers] I do cocaine.
Murderface: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Rockso: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! - Shows up in the second act of the Mr. Bogus episode "Beach Blanket Bogus", where a woman screams when she sees Bogus in her slushie cup, which also prompts Bogus to scream right back.
- Noggin: Moose and Zee's interpretation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears in the Story Time interstitial has her and the bears screaming at each other in fear once she's discovered sleeping in Baby Bear's bed.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- In "One Good Scare Oughta Do It!" Candace screams in terror from seeing Buford dressed as Little Susie Johnson, as prior to the scene, the actual Susie had been torturing Candace. This causes him and Baljeet to scream in terror right back at her.
- In "Comet Kermillian", after Little Suzy brings a squirrel out from behind her back, Candace and said squirrel both scream at each other in fear.
- The rare joyous variation occurs in "Journey to the Center of Candace", where Candace, Stacy, and Jenny exchange excited shrieks on-phone due to Candace's soon-to-be-date with Jeremy.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
- "Boogie Frights" has a variant that's played straight regarding Blossom and Bubbles, but downplayed with the Professor's half. When Buttercup scares her about the Boogie Man, Bubbles lets out a scream that gets the Professor to open the door, but as he's in shadow Blossom and Bubbles assume him to be the Boogie Man and both scream, startling him into letting out a small yelp in return before Bubbles starts crying.
- Mojo Jojo has a screaming match with Julie Bean in "Slumbering with the Enemy" to scare her back into her house and take her Slumber Party invitation.
- In the Regular Show episode "Brain Eraser", when Mordecai walks in on Pops after the latter takes a shower, and Mordecai shrieks in shock at the sight, prompting Pops to yell right back. This goes on for a while until the two run off. The moment kick starts the plot of the whole episode.
- In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Teed Off", during the "piano war" sequence, when Heffer's flying lawnmower gets hit, he is about to crash into the Head Groundskeeper's headquarters, who screams, followed by Heffer screaming, then the other groundskeepers, then Mr. Noaway, then the announcers, then a couple of squirrels, and finally Rocko, who hadn't appeared in this episode until now.
- Rugrats: In "The Ransom of Cynthia", when Angelica pretends that Cynthia, her doll, has been kidnapped for ransom, she screams, which causes the other babies to scream.
- In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Goons on the Moon", Squidward and Rodger Bumpass both shriek in terror at each other after the former ends up in the studio working on the show while trying to deliver a Krabby Patty to SpongeBob on the moon.
- The Backyardigans: In the episode "The Snow Fort", the mounties (Pablo and Tyrone) and the ski patrollers (Uniqua and Tasha) have this reaction when they accidentally come face-to-face with each other on the second floor of the snow fort, just a few seconds before the mounties fall off the ladder and land headfirst in a pile of snow.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): As a reference to the live-action movie, in Attack of the Mousers, when April wakes up in the Turtles' lair and sees them for the first time, she starts screaming and Mike screams back.
Mike: Please don't do that. I almost jumped out of my shell!
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): In the episode "A Foot Too Big", the Bigfoot the turtles have befriended finds Ice-Cream Kitty in the freezer. Ice-Cream Kitty screams, and Bigfoot screams right back, only ending when Bigfoot chucks the whole fridge out of the house.
- Teen Titans Go!: In "Parasite", Starfire celebrates one of her holidays, Feast Day, by serving everyone mouthworms. When Robin tries taking a bite of his, the mouthworm starts screaming in shock which prompts Robin to scream right back, ending with him disappearing via smoke bomb.
- In an episode of Total Drama Island, Cody wakes up to Noah sleep-kissing his ear. This results in about three seconds of them screaming at each other.
- Done in the Muppet Babies (2018) episode "Sir Kermit the Brave" when Kermit encounters Dot the Dragon and starts screaming at the sight of her, only for Dot, however, to scream along with him. After a back-and-forth, she finally asks why he's yelling at her, Kermit realizing she's not a vicious beast, but actually scared.
- Xiaolin Showdown: In the episode "Panda Town" we have a roar-screaming match with Wuya and Jack from the former getting angry over the latter selling the Shen Gong Wu, Wuya getting increasingly exasperated as Jack lets out shorter and more pathetic sounding screams.
- In the Wonder Pets! episode "Save the Visitor", Ming-Ming gets a Delayed Reaction when she meets the visitor. Cue her and the visitor screaming at each other.
- Jelly Jamm: In "Lost Dodo", Rita gets lost in the forest while looking for a lost baby dodo. Suddenly, she trips over a rock and accidentally comes face to face with the baby dodo she was looking for. This results in about a few seconds of them screaming at each other.