History Main / EekAMouse

* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}''. The Thomson twins are startled by mice used for experiments in "Recap/TintinDestinationMoon".

* Invoked by Becky in the Alfonso Cuaron version of ''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.

* In ''TheWitches'' Bruno's mother flips into hysterics when the [[spoiler: witches start turning into mice thanks to drinking their own potion]]. She literally climbs over her husband screaming about them climbing up her skirt. Although in this case it's completely understandable since there are over a '''hundred''' of them running around.

* Played with and justified in the last Hawk & Fisher story, where a crime lord keeps a bunch of naked Amazons as bodyguards. Rather than fight them, Hawk and Fisher turn a sackful of ravenous sewer rats loose in the crime lord's lair, and the bodyguards start climbing the furniture in a panic when the starving rodents swarm them to bite their bare toes.

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

** Also referenced (and inverted) in ''Punky Business'' when a mouse trying to assure Tim that he is ugly tells him that when he walks into a room all the mice jump onto a chair.

* The late 80s sitcom ''Kate And Allie'' spent an entire episode dealing with a mouse, complete with jumping on chairs and tables in fright(Allie's son Chip was taking care of his classroom's pet mouse and it got out of its cage). Subverted in that 1) they realized that they were [[GenreSavvy behaving like 60s sitcom housewives]], 2) Kate and Allie were running a catering business at the time and were justifiably concerned about mice on the premises, and 3) Allie's sportscaster boyfriend also turned out to be deathly afraid of mice.

* In a ''SexAndTheCity'' episode, Charlotte dates a CampStraight man and they both react to a mouse in a similar way.

* In the 1990's Australian mini-series ''Phoenix'', the [[TheSquadette only female member]] of the Major Crimes Division is mocked by her sergeant when she has a fender-bender accident after a spider drops out of the sun visor in front of her. At the end of the episode, he hands her a can of bug spray and declares he's not going near that car until "that horrible monster" has been killed.

* Several old ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts utilize this trope, usually starring SylvesterTheCat. ''Lighthous Mouse'' is one example.

* The Dog's reaction to rats in ''WesternAnimation/FootRotFlats''. The cat, Horse, has the opposite reaction.

* The premise of many of the WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry and WesternAnimation/HermanAndKatnip shorts, only with the mouse as the hero of the story.
* Taken to ridiculous lengths in an episode of ThePowerpuffGirls 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!

* When Captain Fanzone winds up on Cybertron in ''TransformersAnimated'', this is basically the Transformers' response.

* Employed and then subverted in ProducingParker when Parker shrieks at the sight of a mouse in Dee's office. Dee, who has been turned into a human/reptile hybrid by experimental snake venom-based drugs, promptly [[{{Squick}} claps her jaws shut on the little critter and gulps it down]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', in the scene with the wax cylinder gramophone.

** If a mouse is ''brought close and shown'' to an elephant, however, it's generally not alarmed in the slightest, and may even lift the rodent in its trunk for a better view. The reality may be that elephants are wary of '''any''' small moving critter on the ground, just in case it turns out to be something a lot nastier than a mouse (e.g. a scorpion or coiled-up cobra).

* Referenced in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Eek, A Penis!" where a mouse frightened women with a genetically engineered human penis growing on its back. Actually they were frightened by the penis. But the trope still stands.

* In the ''Anime/GundamSEED'' VisualNovel ''Tomo to Kimi to Senjou de'', Athrun decides to make a robot pet for his crush Cagalli. He ends up giving it a hamster design, but when she first sees it she has this reaction and smashes it. Kira steps in and explains, and Cagalli is both very touched by the gesture and very apologetic for destroying it.

* Freya from ''KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' is, among other things, a BadAss LadyOfWar ActionGirl and has apparently eschewed femininity. However, she still freaks out when she sees [[SexyMentor Shigure's]] pet mouse.
* Used for a second in the last episode of ''GakuenAlice'', where Hotaru uses a gang of robot mice to keep two GirlyGirl classmates at bay.

* ''{{Kekkaishi}}'' had [[LadyOfWar Tokine]] perform this trope, right after fighting a much bigger rodent ''that could breathe fire''. She and her grandmother also have a similarly disproportionate fear of cockroaches.

* In the ''GundamSEED'' VisualNovel ''Tomo to Kimi to Senjou de'', Athrun decides to make a robot pet for his crush Cagalli. He ends up giving it a hamster design, but when she first sees it she has this reaction and smashes it. Kira steps in and explains, and Cagalli is both very touched by the gesture and very apologetic for destroying it.

* Elh from ''{{Solatorobo}}'' absolutely ''hates'' bugs and insists that Red kill them as quickly as possible when you come upon them (which is a good idea, since the bugs attack you [[EverythingTryingToKillYou like most everything else in video games]]). There are also ''two'' {{Protection Mission}}s in which the goal is just "don't let the bugs get near Elh" (this includes if you accidentally throw a bug across the line, because apparently even a dead bug is creepy).

* In ''Sid & Al's Incredible Toons'', when Eunice Elephant sees Sid E. Mouse, she freaks out and turns the other way.

* [[{{Monk}} Adrian Monk]] frequently [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl reacts this way]] to a variety of analogous situations.
** Justified in the episode when it was a ''venomous snake'' that was loose in the room.
* Played with on HopeAndFaith: when the two title characters get office jobs together, the ever-immature Faith dangles her computer mouse into Hope's cubicle and yells this trope name.
* ''TheGoldenGirls'' had one, revealing why Dorothy's nickname is Pussycat. Instead of catching it as the other girls expect her to, Dorothy talks the mouse into escaping.

* On ''ImaginationMovers'', Knit Knots wasn't scared by Warehouse Mouse to the point of panic, but did urge the Movers to keep the "woodland creature" away from him. An episode of the show also focused on the Movers helping a TV repairman to get over his fear of mice, so that he could stick around to fix their TV and not be afraid of Warehouse Mouse.
* An amusing variant happened on ''XenaWarriorPrincess.'' Gabrielle (not ''quite'' an ActionGirl yet) was hiding from some bad guys when she noticed a rat crawling about. She had to remain perfectly still and silent lest she blew her cover, and HilarityEnsues as she stares at it with wide eyes and covers her mouth before a whimper comes out.
* Double-subverted on an episode of ''UnhappilyEverAfter''. Ryan, who believes the old legend that the Earth would spin out of its orbit if all the Chinese people in the world jumped off their chairs at the same time, panics when he spies a group of Chinese exchange students standing on their chairs in the school cafeteria. One of the students explains that they had just seen a mouse, causing Ryan to calm down. Once Ryan is gone, though, the student gets angry and mutters: "Curses! They're onto us!"

* The ''MyWifeAndKids'' episode "Of Mice and Men".
* On a late 1960s episode of ''TheTonightShow'', Johnny Carson freaks and jumps into Ed [=McMahon=]'s arms after a cheetah cub hisses at him.
* Jane on ''TheMentalist'' once escaped from jail by scaring a rodent-phobic guard with a live mouse he'd caught.
* Exploited in ''TheWorstWitch'' when Helibore and Rowan-Webb have a wizard duel (no not [[Franchise/HarryPotter like that one]]). Helibore turns Ethel into a goose girl and Rowan-Webb counters by turning himself into a mouse to scare her.

* Happens with Alice on ''TheBradyBunch'' when a pet mouse gets loose. Although, it's averted another time-she hands it to the boys and isn't scared.

* ''DangerUXB''. A sapper screams when he encounters a rat, just when Lieutenant Ash is about to defuse a bomb designed to blow up at the slightest touch. [[{{Understatement}} He's not impressed.]]

* AkiraToriyama, creator of ''DrSlump'' and ''Manga/DragonBall'', has an intense fear of mice, such that his work suffered when his workplace had an infestation, since he was too scared to step inside.

* This troper has dealt with a lifelong aversion to cockroaches bordering on phobia. This was induced by his mother who has always freaked out and screamed whenever seeing one, and thus the fear was learned from an early age. Though knowing it's irrational and the creature is harmless, it has been a struggle to overcome. Perhaps partially justified by the fact that in the troper's home state of Louisiana there are very large cockroaches up to two inches in length, some of which fly and can even bite. Harmless perhaps, but freaky and squick-inducing nonetheless.

* ''Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey'': In "Rumpole a la Carte". Admittedly, a plate in a three-Michelin-star restaurant is the last place you would expect to find a live mouse, but do you ''really'' have to stand on your chair and shriek?

[[folder:Film]]
* There is a scene in ''Film/ConanTheDestroyer'' where Grace Jones' character, who up until now has been afraid of nothing, taking on whole villages and men much larger than her in combat fearlessly, jumps and screams at the sight of a mouse. When all of her party look back she looks sheepish.
* The 1959 movie ''Literature/TheMouseThatRoared'' opens with the Columbia Studios girl-with-torch logo suddenly hiking up her gown and fleeing from a mouse at her feet. (The title is a metaphor for a tiny, innocuous nation that ends up holding the fate of the world in its hands.)
* The 1934 film ''Hollywood Party'' has a whole roomful of women doing this when one of them sees a mouse. It turns out to be [[ClassicDisneyShorts Mickey Mouse]].
* In ''ShesTheMan'', Duke and Viola scream and leap on the bed, hugging each other, when a big spider enters their dorm room.
* The two female leads in ''EightHeadsInADuffelBag'' take this kind of behavior UpToEleven when they find a disembodied head in their luggage during a family vacation. ("Eek, A Head!"?) One shuts herself up in a closet and refuses to come out (until the protagonist jokingly suggests that the dead guy's body might be in there), while the other ''attacks the protagonist with a fork''. The latter is especially hilarious because what causes her to snap is the protagonist innocently asking, "Would you like an enchilada?"
* Disney's ''BedknobsAndBroomsticks'' has the "mouse frightening an elephant" version. During the animal soccer game on the Island of Naboombu, an alligator uses a mouse to scare the elephant goalkeeper of the opposing team.

* ''JourneyBackToOz'' has the returned Dorothy scaring off Witch Mombi's elephant army with a herd of magical white mice.
* ''MoscowCassiopeia'' has a rare male example. Lob tears through the entire ship and ends up [[spoiler: accidentally causing it to [[FTLTravel travel faster than light]]]] all because of a mouse. May be justified, as the window was blown up and made tiny Pacnuty seem like a giant monster.
* In one scene in ''Film/{{Willow}}'', a woman shrieks at the sight of mouse-sized humanoid creatures called brownies.
* Invoked by Becky in the Alfonso Cuaron version of ''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.
* Lt. Alexis in ''Film/TheWildcat'' is TheCasanova to an absurd extreme. When it's time for him to leave for his next duty station on the frontier, literally hundreds of women throng the streets, obstructing his car. The other soldiers finally get the crowd of ladies to disperse by dumping a barrel of mice.
* ''Film/TheNameOfTheRose''. The monks hear a shriek, then laugh at a CampGay monk on top of a stool with a mouse below. They quickly shut up when an elder friar starts shouting at them. [[spoiler:This turns out to be a ChekhovsGun re the motive of the killer, who hates laughter.]]

* Also played with in the ''RenAndStimpy'' short "The Boy Who Cried Rat", in which Ren impersonates a rodent so Stimpy can earn his keep by catching him.
* The Dog's reaction to rats in ''FootRotFlats''. The cat, Horse, has the opposite reaction.
* In the premier episode of CourageTheCowardlyDog, Courage was afraid of a mouse in the beginning. Muriel plucks the little rodent and sets it loose outdoors. But after the battle with ''The Chicken From Outer Space'', we see Courage looking at it again as it fed on the ashes of the fallen fowl. [[RedEyesTakeWarning The mouse's eyes turn bright red]] as a result. It was a JustifiedTrope as Courage screams in terror.

* Bella from ''FiremanSam'' often freaks on seeing mice, regardless as to whether they're real or clockwork ones.
* ''TitanicTheLegendGoesOn'' had a scene where Angelica's stepsisters were scared by mouse.
* ''[[VideoBrinquedo Ratatoing]]'' plays this trope straight too.

* Subverted in ''TheSimpsons'' at Apu's wedding. When a mouse runs out in the the elephant's path, the elephant recoils for a moment... and then proceeds to deliberately step on it.
* The premise of many of the TomAndJerry and HermanAndKatnip shorts, only with the mouse as the hero of the story.

* Stu from ''{{Rugrats}}'' has a moment like this when he discovers the thing wrecking his garage wasn't a rowdy Spike, but a mouse. He even apologizes to his dog when he "saves" the day by chasing it away with a bark.

* In ''[[{{Disney/Cinderella}} Cinderella III: A Twist In Time]],'' Jaq and Gus help Cinderella get into the palace by scaring the kitchen servants while Cinderella poses as the "royal mousecatcher".

* ''{{Dollhouse}}''. At the start of Season 2, a pissed-off Dr Saunders puts lab rats in Topher's cupboard, in a not-too-subtle message of what she thinks of him. His female assistant Ivy has to retrieve them while Topher climbs the nearest railing to get away.

* Athena from UchiNoMusumeNiTeODasuNa is a super heroine who could probably juggle tanks but she loses when confronted by a pack of rats.

* Played with in one ''{{Garfield}}'' strip, where Garfield screams and scurries up onto Jon's head upon seeing a mouse - and Jon is disgusted, because Garfield is a ''cat''.

** ''USAcres'': [[http://garfield.com/us-acres/1988-07-16 A worm had this reaction after entering a mouse hole to hide from Booker.]]

* This is how Ma Gorg reacted to Fraggles on ''FraggleRock''.

* ''CalvinAndHobbes'': Calvin once tried to gross out Hobbes by telling him he had a loathsome bug hidden in his hands. When Hobbes asked if it was a centipede with poison pincers, Calvin did an OhCrap, dropped the bug, and jumped into Hobbes's arms, declaring: "It's a lucky thing you guessed so fast!"

* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose''. The monks hear a shriek, then laugh at a CampGay monk on top of a stool with a mouse below. They quickly shut up when an elder friar starts shouting at them. [[spoiler:This turns out to be a ChekhovsGun re the motive of the killer, who hates laughter.]]

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

* In ''[[{{Disney.Cinderella}} Cinderella III: A Twist In Time]],'' Jaq and Gus help Cinderella get into the palace by scaring the kitchen servants while Cinderella poses as the "royal mousecatcher".

* ''WesternAnimation/WildWestCOWBoysOfMooMesa'': When a circus arrived in town, Mayor Bulloney tried to use a mouse to scare an elephant so the resulting distraction would allow Saddlesore and Boothill to steal a diamond.
* Happens in the ''DangerMouse'' story arc "The Great Bone Idol." Count Duckula steals the idol and awakens a herd of elephants in the underground cavern in which DM and Penfold had traversed to locate the idol. The elephants naturally freak out.

* Employed and then subverted in ProducingParker when Parker shrieks at the sight of a mouse in Dee's office. Dee, who has been turned into a human/reptile hybrid by experimental snake venom-based drugs, promptly [[SquIck claps her jaws shut on the little critter and gulps it down]].

* Psychologists who studied the EekAMouse phenomenon concluded that it's not the mouse itself which the typical distressed housewife is afraid of, but her awareness that she'll probably have to ''kill'' the animal to remove it from her residence. The mouse is harmless, killing is Squicky.

* Inverted with mice and rats as pets, which are far more popular with women than men. This was even so in Victorian times, where some upper-class young ladies would keep them almost like [[MisterMuffykins toy dogs.]]

* AkiraToriyama, creator of ''DrSlump'' and ''DragonBall'', has an intense fear of mice, such that his work suffered when his workplace had an infestation, since he was too scared to step inside.