History Main / EekAMouse

A staple of early domestic comedies in both film and television. The mere sight of a mouse (or sometimes another animal who is the subject of [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes a common phobia]]) will drive a {{housewife}} up onto a chair or a table, where she stands shrieking, stomping her feet, and clutching the hem of her skirt until the rodent is captured or driven away. This is largely a DeadHorseTrope today, with old examples rooted in a very specific and sexist image of women that [[ValuesDissonance dates back to the early part of the 20th Century]], but it is still occasionally visible in cartoons and in the odd [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl ironic reference]]. In some media, this is a unisex trope and involves a MouseHole or a SwarmOfRats for scare factor.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'': Madam Medusa freaks out when she sees Bernard and Bianca in her boat and jumps onto a chair. She quickly realizes she's SurroundedByIdiots (Snoops' attempts to squash the mice with a broom results in a broken chair and two concussed alligators) and pulls a shotgun on them.

--->''Eek! A mouse! A mouse! Oh, ''that'' is something to be frightened of! Eeeeeeeek!''

--->''A mouse?! Eeeeeeee!''

* ''Series/CuriosityShop'': One of the residents of the Animal Wall is actually named Eek A. Mouse, who often distressed Nostalgia Elephant.

* ''Series/FraggleRock'': This is how Ma Gorg reacts to Fraggles. Fraggles are considered pests by the Gorgs, as they often steal radishes from the garden and, to a Gorg, a Fraggle is about the size a large mouse would be to human.

* ''Series/TheNoddyShop'' turns this into a running gag for Aunt Agatha, with her thinking the goblins are rodents. One episode, "The Fish Story", has her dress up as a cat to scare away mice that she believes stole a ring belonging to Kate's mother.
* ''Series/OdiseaBurbujas'': Mimoso Raton (a baby mouse) is shown entering a room during his theme song. A woman jumps up onto a chair because she is afraid of him- and presumably of mice in general.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'':
** In an early 1970s sketch, Prairie Dawn and an Anything Muppet boy [[https://youtu.be/YCH5OLWSdM4 visit a "haunted" house]], where the boy is repeatedly frightened by various sights and sounds, each of which Prairie explains and says there is nothing to be frightened of. Finally, the boy finds a little white mouse, at which point their roles reverse and Prairie reacts with this trope, right down to the titular exclamation:
--->''Eek! A mouse! A mouse! Oh, ''that'' is something to be frightened of! Eeeeeeeek!''
** In another sketch from the same decade, "[[https://youtu.be/Aew2-MOK2oc?si=mWpSBUMFa1mSl9bI What's My Letter?]]", Guy Smiley challenges Prairie Dawn to name the letter that comes after D. Despite Guy's hints, Prairie struggles until he prematurely shows her the prize:
--->''A mouse?! Eeeeeeee!''

* In ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E10EnvironmentalScience Environmental Science]] Troy freaks out when a lab rat accidentally escapes.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKLyHTcZqOs This]] Samsung Infuse commercial, only with the image of a large spider.

* The beginning of [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ws5IVVtAna0 this]] ''Series/BananasInPyjamas'' toy commercial has a mother freaking out over her kids playing with a rat...which turns out to be a Rat In A Hat toy.

'''Miss Murchison:''' No. In [[TheGayNineties your days]] I suppose all women were afraid of mice.\\

* A subplot in the very first episode of ''Series/{{Victoria}} has the rats of Buckingham Palace being displaced from the 'downstairs' part of the building (where the servants live and work) to the 'upstairs' part (where the Royal Family lives and works) because of technicians installing gas for lighting, heating, and cooking. This culminates in some rats [[BirthdayPartyGoesWrong crashing Queen Victoria's 19th birthday party]], and Victoria having a FreakOut when she sees them sitting on her birthday cake.

[[quoteright:232:[[ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eek_a_mouse.png]]]]
[-[[caption-width-right:232:[[FurryConfusion Hey, you might freak out too if you saw a tiny human running across your floor.]]]]-]

[[quoteright:232:[[ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eek_a_mouse.jpg]]]]

See also CowerPower and WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes. May overlap with ScreamsLikeALittleGirl. See also AMischiefOfMice, YouDirtyRat and SpidersAreScary. Contrast NiceMice and ResourcefulRodent. In Japanese media, frogs are often used instead. Supertrope to ElephantsAreScaredOfMice.

* In ''Radio/TheUnbelievableTruth'', Season 22 Episode 1, Richard Osman gives a lecture on mice, after which Creator/DavidMitchell explains that the symptoms of muraphobia include "[[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry standing on a chair shouting 'Thomas!' in a slightly racist voice]]".

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'': Done many times.