Spit-take

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A spit-take is a comedic technique in which someone spits a beverage out of his or her mouth when he or she reacts to a statement during a take. In a spit-take, the reaction is usually one of surprise. Danny Thomas is sometimes credited with popularizing its use in comedy.

Contents 1 In film and television 2 In Radio 3 On Stage 4 In Print Media

[edit] In film and television

• On Saturday Night Live, Julia Louis-Dreyfus was featured in a recurring skit named "The Spit-Take Show", which was a parody talk show in which Julia's character was continually shocked by something a guest would say, resulting in her performing a spit-take into the guest's face.
• In the 2007 movie Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg performs a spit-take when Nick Frost informs him that the character of Eve Draper had been engaged in sexual activity with someone he knows.
• Jon Stewart often performs spit-takes in The Daily Show, to emphasise stupid or unexpected behaviour in a news clip just played. He does this so often, that he sometimes performs varietions of a spit-take, such as going to spit, then realising he has not had a drink, then taking a sip, then spitting.
• Gene Wilder performs 2 different types of spit-takes in Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles.
• Another popular spit-take can be seen in the Alan Arkin and Peter Falk film Big Trouble.
• George Clooney executes a Danny Thomas spit take in Intolerable Cruelty.
• Full Tilt Boogie, a film about the making of From Dusk Till Dawn, features spit-takes, 'swallow takes' and a discussion on the technique from Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney.
• In the Futurama episode "Fry and the Slurm Factory", when Fry finds out what the popular soft-drink Slurm is made out of, he spit-takes, then continues to drink only to spit-take again twice. Bender also has a spit-take in the episode "Bender Gets Made" in which, after he sees that his gangster co-workers have intentions of hijacking the Planet Express ship, has an enormous "oil" spit take which goes on for a very long period of time, the view shifting between Bender himself and the Planet Express ship repeatedly as a constant stream of the oil he was drinking continues to fly from his mouth.
• On many instances on the television series Beavis and Butthead, Beavis executes spit-takes, usually in the direction of Butthead. These commonly occur to show sudden disgust with a music video (usually involving a cut to a short shot of Beavis immediately and painfully spitting cola on the side of Butthead's face).
• In The Simpsons episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes", when Homer sees the price of a computer he plans to buy is $5,000, he stops, takes a sip of his coffee, looks at the pricetag again, and spit-takes.
• In The Rescuers Down Under, Wilbur takes a sip of soda before Miss Bianca tells him that she and Bernard have to leave for Australia tonight, and he responds by spit-taking on Bernard.
• A double spit-take can be seen in Serving Sara and is performed by Matthew Perry.
• In the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip episode "B-12", some of the comedy actors of the show-within-a-show are shown engaged in a spit-take contest backstage, which later inspires Matt, (also played by Matthew Perry), to write a last-minute spit-take sketch to fill in for one which had to be cut.
• Michael J. Fox spit-takes whiskey all over the steering wheel of his car in Back to the Future when he sees his future mother lighting up a cigarette. This scene was also included as an outtake in the special edition DVD when stagehands substituted actual whiskey in the prop flask, causing Fox to spit-take for real.
• Spit-takes with coffee was a running gag in The Fairly OddParents episode "Pipe Down!". (Whenever a meteor was mentioned, Chet Ubetcha, the scientist, and/or Cosmo took a sip of coffee and spit it out at the nearest thing, or person.)
• In an Our Gang Short, Lucky Corner, Buckwheat has mistakenly brought a bag of starch instead of sugar to sweeten the lemonade. Leonard, the mean kid down the street, has stolen the lemonade, and at least one of Leonard's customers does a spit-take when tasting the ill-prepared drink.
• On his first appearance on Inside the Actors Studio, Nathan Lane asks for a glass of water while discussing anger in comedy and talking about Napoleon. He then executes a spit-take on the word "ELBA?!" and asks if he's the first to do a "Danny Thomas spit-take" on the show.

[edit] In Radio

• DJ's Mark and Lard frequently used Spits-takes as part of their BBC Radio show. Accompanied with the catchphrase "I was having a drink then".

[edit] On Stage

• In Bob Martin's musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone, a piece of business between Mrs. Tottendale (Georgia Engel) and her butler Underling (Edward Hibbert) involving "ice water" as a codeword for vodka results in Mrs. Tottendale asking for ice water and repeatedly being served the vodka. Each time Engel spit-takes the drink right at Hibbert's face, with the line, "That was pure vodka, you poop!"

[edit] In Print Media

• In an Archie comic, Reggie schemes to get Archie in trouble with Moose by paying Jughead to put a picture of Archie in Midge's house, on her piano. Jughead complains that Reggie's payment isn't enough; anyway, Reggie greets Moose in the Chok'lit Shoppe and says, "I hear Midge isn't your girlfdiend anymore!" Moose reacts with a violent spit-take. (As it turns out, Jughead used Reggie's picture instead, and Moose sees it; one can guess what happens next.)
• In a Jack Chick tract, a teenage kid has been converted by a Chick evangelist who met him at a bench in a park, and later that day attends a party he'd been invited to beforehand. When one of his friends exclaims "[curse words omitted] This is a great party!", the kid says, "I wish you wouldn't use the name of my Lord that way! It's sacrilegious!", another kid at the table does a loud spit-take.