History Main / ChairReveal

** Parodied in ''HighAnxiety'', when they spin around his chair to reveal the poor doctor slumped over horribly with his eyes and mouth hanging open? But he wakes up when they scream.

* The Helmet of Fate was revealed this way in DCComics' ''[[FiftyTwo 52]]'', except that no turning was involved - the detectives approach the person sitting in the chair and he suddenly collapses, revealing himself to be dead.

* Janitor does it in the middle of a crowded corridor, petting an "invisible" half-kitten, half-monkey in ''{{Scrubs}}'', while revealing his plan to [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome spoil the outcome of a basketball match]] to Dr. Cox.

* In ''StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'', Kirk is transported to a Klingon ship after being nearly killed, and is introduced to the person who just saved his life. The chair swivels round to reveal Spock.

* The initial reveal of the female Romulan commander in ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' "The Enterprise Incident".

* On ''SesameStreet,'' in the "Alphabet Chat" sketches, Mr. Chatterley slowly turns his chair to face the audience during the theme music.

* Done by [[spoiler:The Soda Poppers]] in the second season finale of Telltale's ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' games. On the DVD are loads and loads of fake alternate endings with different characters revealed to be in the chair, including [[spoiler:Future Sam, a bottle of Banang (which gets a round of applause and an "encore"), HomestarRunner, Sybil and Abe (on an old black-and-white film backed with NightmareFuel), the C.O.P.S, a "Will Return" clock, Mr. Featherly and Hugh Bliss]].

* In a memorable Muppet sketch on ''SesameStreet'', Grover wanted to surprise Ernie, but it was actually [[spoiler:Herry Monster]], disguised as Ernie, in the chair.

* The dead body thing was in ''{{Psycho}}''. It's a very creepy scene, despite the fact that a light tap on the shoulder shouldn't be enough to swivel the chair completely around.

* Brutally parodied in ''{{Employee of the Month}}''.

* The end of ''{{The Adventures of Pluto Nash}}'' reveals that the villain has in fact been [[spoiler: clone of the hero]] in this fashion.

** Also used in TheMovie, ''{{Batman Mask of the Phantasm}}'', when [[spoiler:Phantasm invades the home of Sal Valestra... and finds that Joker got there first]].

* It's not the first time the ''audience'' sees him, but when Luke is brought before the Emperor in ''{{Return of the Jedi}}'', the Emperor is [[ContemplativeBoss facing out of the observation window]] before turning his chair to face him.

* The dead body version was spoofed in an episode of ''TheEmperorsNewSchool''.

-- ''TheVentureBrothers'', "The Lepidopterists"

** The end of the ''BatmanBeyond'' pilot has Terry not waiting for the reveal and kicking the chair the moment he gets on the ship. Unfortunately the villain was also pretty smart and was waiting for Terry to approach the chair.
* Eric Cartman pulled one of these on Stan (while sitting in a Blofeld style egg-shaped chair) in the ''SouthPark'' episode "My Future Self 'n' Me".

* Walter Donovan does this to Indiana when he shows up again in ''[[IndianaJones Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]'', except it was an ordinary non-swiveling chair, and Donovan revealed himself by standing up and turning around.

-->'''''Gus''''':Well that was an exhibition. All it needed was a gift shop.
-->'''''Mickey''''':I get that he resents me...But this is kinda disturbing.
-->'''''Oswald''''':Ya think? *Chair Reveal*

* The ''{{House on Haunted Hill}}'' remake had the dead body version.

* Parodied on an episode of ''SaturdayNightLive'' with Alec Baldwin demonstrating what a [[LargeHam handsome actor]] should do, along with GlassesPull.

* In the final book of TadWilliams' ''[=~Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn~=]'' trilogy, Simon discovers (the unfortunately very alive) King Elias via this trope, while he's prowling around in Pryrates' tower.

* In ''{{Canaan}}'' woman [[spoiler:that can hurt and kill just by speaking]] talks all way to chair, only to see completely different person tied to it...

* ''{{Mai-HiME}}'' also uses one with Mashiro, but it turns out [[spoiler:what's in the chair is a doll, the real Mashiro already escaped]].

* Literary example: Voldemort did this in ''HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', shortly before killing Frank Bryce.

* Near the start of ''{{Hydrophobia}}'' Kate comes across a security guard sat in a chair. When going up and reaching out to him he falls back revealing that's he's dead.

** Namely that [[spoiler: he killed his foster-sister/lover and made a chair out of her remains just to serve as a distraction to her brother, the opposing general in a civil war, just as the final battle of the war began. While the reveal of the chair DOES drive the enemy general to suicide in his HQ, the battle is still lost]]

* ''{{Monk}}'' used the dead body version recently, in what may have been a homage to ''Psycho''.
* ''ArrestedDevelopment'' parodies this trope. Certain members of the Bluth family have a penchant for dramatically swiveling to reveal their presence... in chairs that aren't supposed to swivel.

* ''AngelTheSeries'' got one of these in "Smile Time" when the chair contains.. still Angel. But now he's a puppet.
** So did ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' in "Beauty and the Beasts".

* Not an actual example of the trope but, in UseOfWeapons, there is a rather important reveal OF a chair (which also serves as the lead up to a larger reveal about the Chair-maker)

* {{Chuck}} attempts to use this on Captain Awesome. He does not fare well.

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* Done by [[spoiler:The Soda Poppers]] in the second season finale of Telltale's ''Game/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' games. On the DVD are loads and loads of fake alternate endings with different characters revealed to be in the chair, including [[spoiler:Future Sam, a bottle of Banang (which gets a round of applause and an "encore"), HomestarRunner, Sybil and Abe (on an old black-and-white film backed with NightmareFuel), the C.O.P.S, a "Will Return" clock, Mr. Featherly and Hugh Bliss]].

--->'''''Gus''''':Well that was an exhibition. All it needed was a gift shop.
--->'''''Mickey''''':I get that he resents me...But this is kinda disturbing.
--->'''''Oswald''''':Ya think? *Chair Reveal*

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''{{Farscape}}'' did this in Revenging Angel. D'argo thinks he's going to turn the chair around to find Crichton but instead finds a dummy stuffed with dynamite.