"Look, do you want fries with that or not?!?"
A Comedy Trope where cheerleaders are often shown speaking as if they were cheering in ordinary conversation. They might be doing this as a form of practice, or because they are staying "in character" between games, or because they are just too airheaded to know any other way of communicating. Alternatively, they might be shown cheering at inappropriate events, such as chess matches.
See also Pom-Pom Girl, who may be likely to at least invoke this trope due to being a cheerleader girl.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- In Pokémon: The Original Series, Gary is followed around by an entourage of cheerleaders approximately twice his age. All they ever do is either cheer him on or cry when he loses a Pokémon battle or something.
- Ranma ½ character Mariko Konjō, though we only ever see her when she's actively being a Combat Cheerleader so she might not talk that way in civvies. Then again, this is Ranma ½.
Comic Books
- Pom Pom Girl was part of an girl meta human team that fought the Atom's version of the Teen Titans. She has a tendency to come up with ridiculous cheers such as "Sis-Boom-Bah! Pom Pom Girl will kill you all — Rah Rah Rah".
Comic Strips
- When Paige is trying out for cheerleading in FoxTrot, she starts using cheers all the time, including while giving the (correct) answer to a question on The Scarlet Letter in English class. In a much later arc, she joins the JJV (junior junior varsity) cheer squad and gets sent to cheer at events like chess matches and debates.
- In Zits, a group of cheerleaders use cheers to encourage Pierce to put some litter in the bin.
Pierce: There is such a thing as too much school spirit.
Fan Works
- In Pretty Cure: Magic of the Rainbow, Carmen the Cheerleading Fairy leads Cure Yell, Cure Butterfly, Cure Yum-Yum, and Cure La Mer to cheer for...a family barbecue. Yoko Omori muses that it's a bit much.
Films — Live-Action
- A deleted scene from Bring It On showed one character reviewing for the SATs by converting the answers into cheers to make them easier for her to memorize.
Live-Action TV
- A.N.T. Farm: China does this after being "accepted" into the cheerleading team in "ParticipANTs".
- An episode of California Dreams had three cheerleaders bid on a dating auction this way. As a Running Gag, they reappear a few more times in the episode; cheering in unison whenever they speak to or interact with anybody.
- Invoked and Played for Laughs in an episode of Even Stevens where Ren joins the squad, only to be criticized for not being perky enough; she takes this to heart and begins cheering all the time. This takes a turn for the bizarre where she cheers while doing laundry and suddenly realizes/cheers that a sock is missing...and still manages to make it rhyme and keep the pace.
- The Spartan Cheerleaders from Saturday Night Live. They consisted of students Arianna (Cheri Oteri) and Craig (Will Ferrell), a pair of awkward, self-conscious pariahs who led unusual cheerleading routines at school functions to which they had not been invited.
- Parodied in a game of "Scenes from a Hat" on the American Whose Line Is It Anyway?: "Moments When Cheerleading is Inappropriate".
Greg Proops: Grandpa's dead! Gimme a D! Gimme an E! Gimme— Come on! Where's your enthusiasm?
Ryan Stiles: Vasectomy! Vasectomy! Clip clip clip!
Wayne Brady: Okay! Somebody's goin' to the 'lectric chair! Gonna fry! Gonna fry! Somebody's goin' to the 'lectric chair! Gonna— Come on! (makes buzzing sounds) Say what?! Come on! Come on! - In Zoey 101, the main characters try to raise money for their favorite sushi restaurant, which had been badly burned in a fire. They do so by way of a people auction. Teachers are allowed to bid on students to do various chores for them. The girls are bid on by Logan, the rich Jerkass of the gang who offers to pay all of the money they need. The catch: the girls have to dress up as cheerleaders and follow him around, making him look good. After a few days, the girls get sick of it, and decide the one way to get him to stop is to cheer everything he does. They cheer him waking up, getting locked out of his dorm room in a towel with shampoo in his hair, and getting shut down by a girl. Eventually, he just gives them the check and begs them to leave him alone!
Professional Wrestling
- The Spirit Squad, a five-member stable of male cheerleaders in the WWE during 2006, whose personalities were those of obnoxious, self-loving cheerleaders who annoyed their opponents. They were best known for their feuds with Jerry Lawler and Ric Flair. One of the members, Nicky, went on to greater success as Dolph Ziggler. The other members — Kenny, Johnny, Mitch and Mikey — had varied success in the WWE and Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).
Video Games
- Club Penguin used to have a play called "Team Blue's Rally 2", in which one of the characters was a cheerleader named Bella, who put everything that happened during the play in her cheers, and all she ever did was cheer.
- Psychonauts has Crystal and Clem, who deliver pretty much all their lines in cheer form.
Web Animation
- Monster High: One arc in the Generation 1 webisodes has the Fearleading Squad end up cheering for mundane situations, including at a chess club meeting.
- In Season 4 of The Most Popular Girls in School, Brittnay starts a Mercenary Cheerleader hustle, and ends up doing a cheer to promote a stationary emporium at the mall.
- Contrary to expectations, Cheerleader of the Teen Girl Squad does not do this. However, Cheerleader Brian does, and his constant cheering at the prom ends up frustrating (and ultimately killing) Cheerleader.
PUT ME DOWN! I'M OFF DUTY!
Webcomics
- El Goonish Shive sketchbook explains
why "Cheerleadra" is an awful superhero concept.
- Elan in The Order of the Stick is a Bard, but definitely falls into the "cheering at inappropriate moments" category. Like "Concentrate, Concentrate, Concentrate!" or "Move, Move, Move Silently across the battlefield!"
Western Animation
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold: In a fight with Hellgrammite, Batman asks the Creeper for some support. The Creeper goes into a cheerleader routine, to which Batman responds "Not what I had in mind."
- Clone High: In "Film Fest: Tears of a Clone", a trio of cheerleaders break a window during a riot via a cheer routine, where two girls launch a third through a window, who then cheers "Riot!".
- Daria sometimes did this with Brittany, such as in "Malled" when she tries to start a cheer on the bus ride to a field trip. Her main Verbal Tic is her squeak, however.
- Paige in The Day My Butt Went Psycho! It drives Eleanor crazy. When Eleanor gets brainwashed, Zak and Deuce use Paige's cheers in an attempt to deprogram her. Instead, Eleanor ends up speaking entirely in cheers.
- In the double-length The Fairly OddParents! episode, "Timmy's Secret Wish", Timmy wishes for his own groupies that will constantly cheer for him. However, during Timmy's trial, the groupies will not leave Timmy alone with their constant cheering for him.
- Fanboy and Chum Chum: "2-4-6-8! I think I might regurgitate!"
- Fillmore!: In "Codename: Electric Haircut", one of the cheerleaders has the habit of spelling out her emotions. A former cheerleader assuming a new identity later gives herself away by spelling something out during routine conversation.
- Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil: "2-4-6-8! Battle Snax is really great!"
- Pixel Pinkie: Happens to Nina in "The 'B' Word" when a carelessly worded statement (that she wished she could be as enthusiastic about cheering for basketball as Pinkie) to Literal Genie Pinkie causes her to start speaking in cheers every time someone mentions the word "basketball".
- The Simpsons:
- In "Homer Badman", Homer is accused of groping a woman's butt, and the resultant feminist rally on his lawn contains a cheer-like chant.
2-4-6-8! Homer's crime was really great!
"Great" meaning "large", or "immense"! We mean it in the pejorative sense! - In "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase," the variety show skit claims that Lisa's "actress" refused to participate in the shownote , so she was recast with a teenage cheerleader whose lines were all performed in this manner.
- In "Homer Badman", Homer is accused of groping a woman's butt, and the resultant feminist rally on his lawn contains a cheer-like chant.
- In The Spectacular Spider-Man, one episode has the supporting cast quoting Shakespeare passages in auditioning for the school play. Sally Avril turns hers into a cheer — needless to say, she doesn't get a part.
- The VeggieTales episode "Tomato Sawyer And Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue" had a trio of female pea cheerleaders who showed up at random times during the story.
