History Main / EekAMouse

** Sure enough, this happens in "Chip's School Trip" after Chip is forced to leave behind Potato in a dollhouse in a museum. To the point that there's a scream and a [[ExaggeratedTrope man comes on a loudspeaker telling everyone to make their way to the exit.]] Then, when Howie opens up Chip's lunch bag, he spots Potato in her mouse form, screams, and tosses the bag and sends everyone else into a panic.

* ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'': Played with as, in an AmazonBrigade full of girly-girls, the one with the paralyzing phobia of mice is the [[MightyGlacier powerful]] and [[BoobsOfSteel intimidating]], [[RareGuns Rare Gun]]-collecting, ultra-violent {{Bifauxnen}} Forte. Though in her case it's justified because she's allergic to the animal.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998': Taken to ridiculous lengths in an episode where a rivaling villain reanimates a mammoth (which appears as comically large as any city-destroying monster) to cause destruction in Townsville. To stop it, Mojo Jojo instructs the girls to leave a large hunk of cheese to attract the town's mice and scare the mammoth off. And you know what? It works!

* ''Series/Thunderbirds'': The subject of a subplot on the episode "The Mighty Atom". YellowPeril terrorist for hire the Hood steals an autonomous camera disguised as a small brown mouse and sends it into Thunderbird 2 to gather information on the technology inside. Unfortunately, it's programmed to focus on faces, the idea being to take pictures of operators at control panels to see which parts merit the most attention. And since Lady Penelope is the only one inside, and she's simply '' terrified'' of mice, all it gets are photos of her looking frightened, causing the Hood to smash the camera in a rage.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': Several old shorts utilize this trope, usually starring Sylvester the cat. ''Lighthouse Mouse'' is one example.

** With each of these shorts involving a black and white cat, this is used twice: Once in ''Pied Piper Porky'' and the other in ''We, The Animals Squeak''. Difference is the unnamed cat from the first short is male, the other from the latter short, named Kansas City Kitty, who is female, featured this moment as a recycled animation. The first has Porky ordering the male cat to get rid of the mouse, but the feline is easily frightened by it. The second has Porky giving a present to Kansas City Kitty, which is revealed to be a mouse and Kansas City Kitty is frightened by it after what she had been through with some other mice.

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 [[ValuesDissonance dating back to the early part of the 20th Century]], but it is still visible in old WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes 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.

Cartoons will sometimes [[PlayingWithATrope play with this trope]] by crossing it with the old myth (deemed plausible by the Series/MythBusters) about [[ElephantsAreScaredOfMice mice frightening elephants]], which results in elephants that shriek and leap up onto some (possibly insufficiently-strong) object upon sighting a mouse. Other common ways to subvert this trope involve showing the wife standing unmoved while her ''husband'' shrieks and leaps to safety.

This trope is arguably justified by evolution. For the vast majority of human existence, the animals commonly associated with this trope -- rodents, snakes, spiders, etc. -- were potentially venomous or [[PlagueMaster carrying disease]], and a human's fear of it could be an evolved self-preserving instinct.

Cartoons will sometimes [[PlayingWithATrope play with this trope]] by crossing it with the old myth (deemed plausible by the Series/MythBusters) about [[ElephantsAreScaredOfMice mice frightening elephants]], resulting in elephants that shriek and leap up onto some (possibly insufficiently-strong) object upon sighting a mouse. Other (common) ways to subvert this trope involve showing the wife standing unmoved while her ''husband'' shrieks and leaps to safety.

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 [[ValuesDissonance dating back to the early part of the 20th Century]], but it is still visible in old WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes 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.

* ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'':

* ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'': Joe jumps into Amelia's arms after mistaking a burnt piece of paper Amelia's dog was holding for a mouse.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'': When Aire meets Torte the mouse sage, she screams in fear and disgust. He, too, screams -- because Aire is presently a ''[[BalefulPolymorph cat]]'' and he doesn't want to be eaten. (They team up after calming down.)

* ''Series/Thunderbirds'': The subject of a subplot on the episode "The Mighty Atom". YellowPeril terrorist for hire the Hood steals an autonomous camera disguised as a
small brown mouse and sends it into Thunderbird 2 to gather information on the technology inside. Unfortunately, it's programmed to focus on faces, the idea being to take pictures of operators at control panels to see which parts merit the most attention. And since Lady Penelope is the only one inside, and she's simply '' terrified'' of mice, all it gets are photos of her looking frightened, causing the Hood to smash the camera in a rage.

* In the nonfiction book ''Retail Hell: How I Sold My Soul to the Store'', this happened in the "Big Fancy" store when someone returned a product to the handbag department that had a ''huge'' Cockroach in it. Naturally; this trope ensues and Freeman is told to kill it as the ''sole'' male working the department.
* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXU4ntb2fFI Soldiers vs Camel Spider]]", a hilarious Youtube video where a pair of grown male American soldiers are standing on their beds ([[ShirtlessScene in their underwear]]) and hunting down a camel spider in their room... WITH RIFLES.
* It's been suggested that the viral sensation of cats hilariously overreacting to seeing cucumbers on the floor behind them is an instinctual reaction to [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes snakes]].

* In the ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'' anime, Forte of all people freaks out when she encounters a space mouse/hamster. Though unusually for this trope it's not out of fear or disgust, but because [[JustifiedTrope she's allergic to it]].

* ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngel'': Played with as, in an AmazonBrigade full of girly-girls, the one with the paralyzing phobia of mice is the [[MightyGlacier powerful]] and [[BoobsOfSteel intimidating]], [[RareGuns Rare Gun]]-collecting, ultra-violent {{Bifauxnen}} Forte.

* ''Franchise/DocSavage'': There is an odd OutOfCharacterMoment in ''Land of Long Juju'' (not one of the better books in the series) where ActionGirl Pat Savage has to restrain herself from flinching when several field rats scamper out of the jungle.

* Music/TheWhiteStripes: In the CD booklet for ''Music/{{Elephant}}'', [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meg_white_barefoot.jpg one of the photos]] is a close-up of drummer Meg White's [[DoesNotLikeShoes bare feet]] as she stands on a chair, recoiling from a mouse on the floor.

* Invoked by Becky in the Alfonso Cuaron version of ''Film/ALittlePrincess''. As the students are stealing Sarah's locket from Miss Minchin's office, Becky screams to distract Minchin and eventually stammers that she thought she saw a mouse.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' plays this trope straight too.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls': Taken to ridiculous lengths in an episode where a rivaling villain reanimates a mammoth (which appears as comically large as any city-destroying monster) to cause destruction in Townsville. To stop it, Mojo Jojo instructs the girls to leave a large hunk of cheese to attract the town's mice and scare the mammoth off. And you know what? It works!

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'', during the Wizards' Duel, Mad Madam Mim turns into an elephant to get the upper hand (or rather, trunk) on Merlin, who has turned into a walrus. But Merlin then turns himself into a mouse, which scares off Elephant!Mim, but only briefly as she then retaliates by turning into a tiger and chasing after Merlin.

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

-->'''Grant:''' ''[upon realizing he lost track of the mice]'' [[OhCrap Where did you go? WHERE DID YOU GO?]}

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 [[ValuesDissonance dating back to the early part of the 20th Century]], but it is still visible in old WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoons and in the odd [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl ironic reference]]. In some media, this is an unisex trope and involves a MouseHole or a SwarmOfRats for scare factor.