...to describe this fast-breaking topic! These are tropes about how someone or something can end up get...
"Excuse me."
Not now! I'm busy explaining that these are tropes about how someone or something ends up getting interr...
"Oh, sorry, carry on."
INTERRUPTED!
Tropes:
- Almost Kiss: Two characters are interrupted right when they're about to kiss.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: Interrupted words still manage to form a coherent sentence.
- Battle-Interrupting Shout: Somehow, someone manages to shout loudly enough over the noise of battle to interrupt it.
- Big Damn Heroes: A heroic rescue interrupts the villain.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: A tense scene can be interrupted by a short, random scene.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Someone interrupts by shouting "SHUT UP!" or some other variant.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Someone's birthday celebration is interrupted by an adventure or a catastrophe.
- Breaking News Interruption: Real-life occurrences of the We Interrupt This Program trope.
- Catchphrase Interruptus: Irritated by the catchphrase, someone interrupts it.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Masturbation is interrupted by another character's entrance.
- Chandler's Law: Author's trick of invoking *Click* Hello to interrupt a boring part of the story.
- *Click* Hello: Someone interrupts the onscreen action with a Dramatic Gun Cock.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: A couple is in the midst of the act, but another person interrupts. You'd expect the couple to stop having sex, but they don't.
- Collapsed Mid-Speech: A public speaker is interrupted by their own health crisis, which may or may not be fatal.
- Combo Breaker: A well-timed move or dedicated game mechanic that lets you interrupt an opponent's attack string in a fighting game.
- Comically Interrupted Count: A count sequence gets cut-off before finishing.
- Conjunction Interruption: Someone is interrupted right as they are saying a conjunction.
- Conveniently Interrupted Document: A Fictional Document which gets interrupted (either via damage or by the character reading it stopping partway through it) in a way which is convenient for the plot.
- Crashing the Coronation: A coronation is interrupted.
- Curse Cut Short: A profane word is interrupted.
- Deadly Deferred Conversation: A temporary interruption in a conversation is rendered permanent by the death of an involved converser.
- Disconnected by Death: A phone call is interrupted by the death of one of the conversers.
- Dramatic TV Shut-Off: A TV or radio is switched off, for dramatic effect.
- Dynamic Entry: Someone's arrival is fast, surprising and violent.
- Exposition Already Covered: A character is about to explain something but another character beats them to it, much to their frustration.
- Extremely Rude Awakening: Interrupting someone's sleep with the most obnoxious method possible.
- Finishing the Interrupted Sentence: A character finishes their sentence after being interrupted.
- Halted Slap: A character stops a slapping attempt by another character.
- Hijacked Musical Number: A singer's thunder gets stolen by another singer.
- His Name Is...: A character dies/is killed just before revealing critical information.
- I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: Someone is not happy that their dream was interrupted.
- Impeded Messenger: An interrupted messenger can't deliver a plot-important message on time.
- Inconvenient Summons: A summoned character is teleported onto the scene, along with the paraphernalia of whatever activity was interrupted by the summons.
- Intermission: A deliberate interruption to allow the audience time to resolve their Potty Emergency.
- Interrupted Bath: A character's bathing ritual is interrupted.
- Interrupted by the End: The characters are about to do something, but are interrupted by the end of the episode, often in the form of a "The End" card.
- Interrupted Cooldown Hug: A peaceful resolution is interrupted by some Trigger-Happy Leeroy Jenkins.
- Interrupted Declaration of Love: Someone is interrupted while trying to confess their feelings.
- Interrupted Intimacy: A couple is about to have sex, or are in the midst of the act, but another person interrupts somehow. They have to stop to deal with the interruption.
- Interrupted Suicide: Someone interrupts someone else's suicide.
- Interrupter Attack: An attack that stops the enemy's next attack.
- Interrupting Meme: An interruption turns into a meme.
- Interruptus Musicus Continuous: A music number gets interrupted… but then it finishes anyway.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Someone is interrupted by their own death.
- Kinda Busy Here: A call on a cell phone interrupts an action scene.
- Lag Cancel: When the player can interrupt a video game character's action animation by doing something else.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: The music is interrupted and slowly winds down to a halt.
- Mamet Speak: A kind of dialogue where characters speak in quick succession, frequently cutting each other off, finishing each other's sentences, and repeating themselves whilst the other speaks.
- Mid-Battle Tea Break: Characters take a break in the middle of a fight. Doing something silly in midst of the break is optional.
- Moment Killer: Something happens to break up a romantic moment.
- Musicalis Interruptus: Someone interrupts a musical number.
- Not Now, Kiddo: A child is interrupted by the adults before he can say much of anything.
- Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: Parents interrupt their children, catching them in a suggestive scene that might or might not be what it looks like.
- Percussive Prevention: Someone thwarts a Leeroy Jenkins with an interrupting knockout.
- Plot-Based Photograph Obfuscation: Something prevents a viewer from seeing a plot important detail in a photograph.
- Pre-Violence Laughter: Someone invokes Mood Whiplash by interrupting the laughter they initiated with a sudden act of violence.
- Primal Scene: Parents having sex are interrupted by their kids.
- Pulled from Your Day Off: A character's vacation is interrupted by their work calling them to cancel and come back to deal with an urgent situation.
- Rapid-Fire Interrupting: Someone is repeatedly interrupted while trying to get a word in edgewise.
- Record Needle Scratch: An interruption is punctuated by the sound of a record needle scratch.
- Ringing in the Catastrophe: The moment is interrupted by several simultaneous phone calls bringing news of an ongoing disaster.
- "Shut Up!" Gunshot: Someone interrupts a yelling mob by firing a bullet into the air.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Hero interrupts the villain by attacking them during their monologue.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Same as Shut Up, Hannibal!, but it's the villain interrupting the hero.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Someone interrupts someone else with a kiss.
- Sleep Deprivation Punishment: Deliberate repeated malicious interruptions of the victim's attempts to sleep.
- Sneeze Interruption: A plot device or gag about someone being interrupted by a sneeze.
- So You Were Saying...?: Character about to confess something decides not to after getting interrupted.
- Sorry to Interrupt: Someone opens a door, interrupts something unexpected, and does an about face.
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Now is your last chance to interrupt the wedding with an objection.
- Speech-Bubbles Interruption: Visually representing an interruption by having the interrupted speech bubble partially obscured.
- Taking the Fight Outside: A fight, or the buildup to it, is interrupted by a request to settle the score outside.
- Talk to the Fist: Someone's speech is interrupted by a fist to their mouth.
- Third Party Stops Attack: A third party physically interrupts the attacker before the attack can land on the victim.
- Thwarted Coup de Grâce: Someone stops the villain from making the killing blow.
- Tranquilized Mid-Sentence: A character gets tranquilized before finishing their statement.
- A Truce While We Gawk: Something so astonishing happens, it interrupts a fight as the fighters turn to gawk at it.
- *Twang* Hello: An arrow, throwing knife, or any other throwing implement thrown or shot from offscreen interrupts the onscreen action.
- Walk-In Chime-In: A person enters a conversation he hasn't overheard with a completely appropriate response to what was just said.
- We Interrupt This Program: A TV show is interrupted to deliver a (usually) shocking announcement.
- Wedding Smashers: Someone or a group interrupts a wedding concession/ceremony.
- Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: It's bad enough that your sleep was interrupted, but something about this particular timing makes it especially irksome.
- World in Standby: Sometimes, it uses the interruption of common actions to show that movement has ceased.
- Writus Interruptus: A character writing is interrupted in some manner, ruining their work.
- You Just Ruined the Shot: Someone mistakes a performance for an actual emergency and interrupts the actors.
Hey! I wasn't done listing yet!