History Main / YouLookLikeYouveSeenAGhost

* ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'' had Kirk say this to Spock when he'd seen his long-lost half-brother. "Perhaps I have, Captain."

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* In ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII Back To The Future Part III]]'' , Doc says this to Marty after Marty finds Doc's grave. "You're not far off, Doc."

* The second ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' movie has Raph saying "I thought I just saw a ghost!" as he's infiltrating the Foot Clan's new headquarters with Keno, and with good reason--he's just caught a glimpse of the Shredder, who he thought was dead following the last movie.

* In ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'', [[spoiler:Billy]] says this to Sidney when he reveals himself as the killer.

A SubTrope of LiteralMetaphor. When characters enter screaming and running from a ghost (or any supernatural creature that would frighten your average [[{{Muggles}} Muggle]]), it is customary for a [[GenreBlindness Genre Blind]] character to say in complete jest, "What's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost." Alternatively, the line may be said mockingly by the 'ghost' - whether they're literally a ghost, some other kind of undead, or merely [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated wrongly believed to be dead]] - themselves.

* The second Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles movie has Raph saying "I thought I just saw a ghost!" as he's infiltrating the Foot Clan's new headquarters with Keno, and with good reason -- he's just caught a glimpse of the Shredder, who he thought was dead following the last movie.

* [[{{Valdemar}} The ghost of Herald-Mage Vanyel]] says this very cheerfully in ''Winds of Fury'' after interfering with a teleport (which was supposedly impossible) to bring the main characters to the Forest of Sorrows instead of where they wanted to go. Vanyel has been dead for about 600 years at this point.
* Played with in ArthurCClarke's story "Breaking Strain", in describing one astronaut's reaction to discovering that a meteor has punctured their reserve tank, leaving [[ColdEquation insufficient oxygen to reach their destination]]:
-->[=McNeil=] was just standing in the doorway, looking as if he had seen a ghost. The trite metaphor flashed into Grant's mind instantly. He did not know for a moment how near the truth it was. In a sense [=McNeil=] ''had'' seen a ghost -- the most terrifying of all ghosts -- his own.

* ''AreYouAfraidOfTheDark?'' has actually used this multiple times:
** In ''The Tale of Old Man Corcoran'', the new boys in the neighborhood realize that the kids who have been telling them ghost stories about the old gravedigger [[spoiler:are actually the real ghosts]].
--->'''[[spoiler:Old Man Corcoran]]''': What's the matter with you two? You look like you've seen a ghost.
** In ''The Tale of the Room For Rent'', the two girls see their archetypal-creepy-old-woman-psychic-inclined next door neighbor summon a ghost that descends from the ceiling and walks by them right through the wall. They run screaming into the one girl's grandfather's house.
--->'''Grandpa''': What's the matter with you two? You look like you've seen a ghost...
--->'''Friend''': Bingo!
--->'''Granddaughter''': We did!

* On ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the Winchester brothers say this to Bela Talbot, after she sees a [[PortentOfDoom ghost ship]] captained by an angry ghost who's going to come back a few hours later and kill her.

-->'''Sam''': You look like you've... well, I was going to say you look like you've seen a ghost, but you'd probably be stoked.

* Lampshaded in ''WorldOfWarcraft''. Upon turning in a quest dealing with the ghost/spirit/essence of the BigBad's innocence, Thassarian says to the player "What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost... Not that that would be all that unusual in these parts now that I think about it..." Also worth pointing out Thassarian himself is among the undead, albeit a Death Knight, not a ghost.

-->'''Danny''': ''(to Tucker and Sam)'' Guys, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost, or... something really scary that we don't see every single day.

* In ''[[Film/BackToTheFuture Back To The Future Part III]]'' , Doc says this to Marty after Marty finds Doc's grave. "You're not far off, Doc."

* In ''Film/{{Scream}}'', Billy says this to Sidney when he reveals himself as the killer.

* In DevonMonk's Literature/AllieBeckstrom novel ''Magic in the Blood'', after her father starts to haunt her.

A SubTrope of LiteralMetaphor. It started as nothing more than a simple simile in the real world to describe a look of utter shock, surprise, and/or fright. But at some point, no one knows quite when and no one knows quite where, some genius realized characters in fiction who really ''have'' seen a ghost would... look like they've just seen a ghost. Ergo, when characters enter screaming and running from a ghost (or any supernatural creature that would frighten your average [[{{Muggles}} Muggle]]), it is customary for a [[GenreBlindness Genre Blind]] character to say in complete jest, "What's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost." Alternatively, the line may be said mockingly by the 'ghost' - whether they're literally a ghost, some other kind of undead, or merely [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated wrongly believed to be dead]] - themselves.

* A usual {{pun}} of Doubting Dave's on ''MysteryHunters''.

* Used more than once [[ZigZaggedTrope in several ways]] on ''{{Series/JAG}}'', first when Harm meets a Vietnamese woman who reminds him of someone he saw die years before in "Déjà Vu", again when he meets Major Sarah [=MacKenzie=], who is a [[{{pun}} dead ringer]] for Lt. Diane Schonke, a murdered Naval officer Harm used to know ("We The People"), and finally when Mac confronts the officer who murdered Schonke, who is so startled by what appears to be the ghost of their murder victim that they stumble backwards off a pier and are crushed to death by the ship moored there, in "Death Watch".

* With the main characters appearing as spirits and investigating paranormal events in ''{{Ghost Hound}}'', the characters and spirits around them often get this reaction.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Outpost}}''. "You look like I've just fucked your sister."

-->'''Random Guy:''' What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost!
-->'''Random Guy #2:''' ''(points to Martha)'' I just did! Look!
-->- ''Half Magic''

* ''Film/{{Star Trek V|The Final Frontier}}'' had Kirk say this to Spock when he'd seen his long-lost half-brother. "Perhaps I have, Captain."

* This is among the final lines of ''MysteryCaseFiles: 13th Skull'', when two {{Muggle}} [=NPCs=] find the Master Detective lying on her back in the Louisiana swamp. [[spoiler:She's just watched a GhostPirate drown the people who were going to murder her.]]

* The second Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles movie has Raph saying this about himself, and with good reason -- he's just seen the Shredder, who he thought was dead following the last movie.

[[quoteright:269:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scooby_doo_3_3688.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:269:Zoiks!]]

* In ''[[Film/BackToTheFuture Back To The Future Part III]]'' , Doc says this to Marty after Marty finds Doc's grave.

* On ''CovertAffairs'', Jai says this to Annie when she realizes that [[spoiler:Jai was Ben's contact in Sri Lanka.]]

* ''Film/Tombstone:'' "Why, Johnny Ringo, you looked like somebody just walked over your grave."

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated,'' Starscream says this to Megatron after coming BackFromTheDead. May also be a ShoutOut to the ghost Starscream episodes of [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers some]] [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars past]] [[Anime/TransformersEnergon series]]. ''This'' time, Starscream's not a ghost, just [[spoiler: immortal thanks to [[Manga/InuYasha jewel shards]], uh, I mean Allspark fragments]].