First-Name Ultimatum

Edd: Edward!
Ed: Yes, mommy?

— Ed, Edd n Eddy, "Sorry, Wrong Ed"

A type of verbal Running Gag that's not quite a catchphrase and not quite a Stock Phrase. A Plucky Comic Relief character of the more annoying Characters as Device variety (i.e., The Trickster, Devil in Plain Sight, or Tagalong Kid) is so annoying that one or more other characters can only express their exasperation by saying their name. They use the exact same tone and inflection every time, maybe even accompanied by the same music/sound effect. The tone is so individual and memorable that some cases, if old enough, can even be parodied in future shows.

The effect of this trope is amplified significantly if the character addressed is usually known by a nickname, title or other moniker that isn't their real name. Once their real first name hits the air in that administrative tone, everyone — in-universe and out — can immediately tell things just got serious.

Full-Name Ultimatum (if it becomes a Running Gag) and Say My Name could also be examples of this. Compare Say My Name.

---

Examples:

Comic Books

• X-Men: Other characters tend to do this to Jubilee when they are getting frustrated with her behavior.
  Jubilee: Why does everyone say my name like it means "shut up"?

Fan Works

• In Eleutherophobia: How I Live Now, Eva calls Tom "Thomas" when she needs him to pay attention.

Film

• This one is likely to be incomprehensible to non-Swedes, but it has to be said: "EEEEMIIIIIIIL! FÖRGRÖMMADE ONGE!!" (Just in case: Astrid Lindgren, Emil of Lönneberga, The Movie (well, one of them). It's always Emil's father who yells this ('Wretched child!').)
• Parodied in Last Action Hero, where the police captain always shouts out Slater's name whenever he does something to piss him off (which is usually the case).

• Ocean's Eleven: The only times Danny Ocean's full first name of Daniel comes up is when someone is angry with him and wants to make that fact very clear.
  Danny: Saul, are you sure you're ready to do this?
  Saul: If you ever ask me that question again, Daniel, you will not wake up the following morning.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The infamously hammy way Shatner delivers the line "KHAAAAAAN!", as an Ultimatum to the antagonist of the same name.

Literature

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Dumbledore addresses Mad-Eye Moody as "Alastor" to stop an argument. It was a fake Moody, but still.

Live Action TV

• Famously inverted by Sheldon at the end of the The Big Bang Theory episode "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" as a Shout-Out to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
  Sheldon: WHEA-TONNNNNNNNNNNN! [echos off-planet]
• Drake & Josh: "Me-GAN!" Said by one or both of the boys either after her latest prank goes off, they realize she's tricked them, or they realize they need her evil genius help.
• The Electric Company (1971):
  • Buster Brown: A skit from the first season sees an angry mother (Judy Graubart) scold her mischievous, often fibbing son, Buster (Skip Hinnant), for making a huge mess in the bathroom. Every time Buster tries to explain an alibi – with various shouts out to Mighty Mouse – mommy says, "Buster, I want to know who did this right now!" Finally, the parrot is the one who saves Buster's hide, as "It was the plumber (squawk); he came to fix the sink" (a shout out to the popular animated short) that was the guilty party, vindicating Buster (who gives mommy a "'Told you so" look).
  • Spencer the Spaceman: Bill Cosby as the title character in a classic skit, where he acts like a buffoon instead of taking his mission seriously, irritating Mission Control (voice of Jim Boyd), who constantly prefaces his reprimands, "Spencer!" In the end, a splotch of spinach is spotted on Spencer's spacesuit, and Mission Control immediately calls for a splashdown. Spencer naturally delights in what he thinks will be the best part of the space mission … until he realizes he's only in for a spanking.
• In the Mexican sitcom El Chavo del ocho, Quico knows he's in trouble if his mother Doña Florinda calls him by his real name (¡Federico!).
• Family Matters: Most often used with Urkel in the Running Gag bit where the nerd rambles on about something, the hapless person he's talking to (usually Carl) says, "Steve," the process repeats with Urkel ignoring the request to stop talking and the irritated Winslow growing louder before finally shouting out "STEVE!!!!!"
• Game of Thrones
  • Jory!
  • Played seriously in "The Mountain and the Viper". On being exiled, a desperate Jorah calls his Khaleesi "Daenerys" for the first time. She forbids him from ever speaking her name again.

• An inversion; in Moonlighting, many, if not all episodes end with Maddie yelling David's last name. "ADDISON!!" And that's when she's not arguing with him^note Like she almost always does...
• Mystery Science Theater 3000:
  • CROOOOOOOOOW! (That's one O!)
  • Used more traditionally thanks to Memetic Mutation; MST Fan Fic has a habit of turning one member of the riffing crew into a pervert, whose lewd comments often elicit a First Name Ultimatum from the group's Straight Man.
  • It was used this way in a couple of episodes, memorably Riding With Death when Crow took the "trucks as metaphor for sex" gag a little too far. What most forget is, Mike follows up with a joke that makes Crow remark "And you say I'm bad..."
• The Nanny: "Miss FINE!" So habitual that it was still used as-is after Fran got married. Also once lampshaded with a Shout-Out to I Love Lucy: "Miss FINE! You got some 'splaining to do!"
• NCIS: Gibbs frequently inverts this by calling out his agents by their last name. ("DiNozzo!", "McGee!", etc)

• Sesame Street: As Bert is carried off by "The Boogie Woogie Sheep," he helplessly cries EEERRRNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
• In sitcom ''Sorry!", where Ronnie Corbett plays a middle-aged man still living at home with his mother, he knows he is in the doghouse when the sharp and disapproving Timothy! is heard.
• In the Scrubs episode "My Road to Nowhere", when Dr. Kelso discovers how much damage Ted did to his RV, he yells out, "THEODOOOOOOOOOORRRRRE!!!!" sounding almost exactly like David Seville.
• Stargate SG-1: "Jack..." "Daniel...". To the point that even when they're completely unrecognizable, that exchange is usually enough to make them realize who they're talking to.

Newspaper Comics

• Garfield: Of course, Jon Arbuckle's anguished cry of "Gaaaaaarrrrrrffiieelldd!"

Radio

• A frequent occurrence in The Aldrich Family. Every episode started with "Hen-reeee! Henry Aldrich!" followed by a cracking adolescent "Coming, mother!"
• Referenced on The Now Show: in one episode, Robin Ince says that John Howard (former Prime Minister of Australia) should be in a generic children's sitcom (he suggests the name Don't Ask Stanley!) playing the grumpy old man who lives next door; he decides an episode would end with Howard's house burning down and him staring over the fence (hat slightly aflame) yelling "StaaaaanLEEEEEEY!!!".

Stand-up Comedy

• This is the reason Rodney Carrington gave for giving his sons one-syllable names. When he's pissed at them, he doesn't want to spend a lot of time thinking (IE, "Bartholomew!").

Theater

• Happens in Ragtime during the "What A Game" number, when Edgar starts repeating the unsavory language of his fellow baseball spectators, increasing his father's frustration until, in the final line of the song:
  Ensemble: (sings) Whaaaaaaaaaaaat aaaaaaaaa....
  Edgar: Up your alley!
  Father: EDGAR!!!!
  Ensemble: (sings)...gaaaaaaaaaaaame!'

Video Games

• In Alpha Protocol, if Mike delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Conrad Marburg, he ends it by calling him by his first name.
• In The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: The Mystery of Mathra, we get this little one in the opening.
  Fletcher Limburger: Well.... peanuts, anyone?... that's what folks are saying— and there's an old superstition about a monster and a lost city.
  Santiago: Superstition!
  Leslie: Lost city?
  Joni: Monster?!
  Owen: ...peanuts?
  All: OWEN!

Web Animation

• In the Siblings episode "Don't Sleep, Robby!", Rob yells Johny's name offscreen ("JOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNN!") when Johny turns off his internet connection at the beginning.
  • Later in the same episode, Johny yells Rob's name ("ROOOOOOOOB!").

Western Animation

• David Seville of Alvin and the Chipmunks: "AL-VIN!" (Alvin's response is usually "O-KAY!")
  • Parodied once by Eric Camden on 7th Heaven: "SIII-MON!" (Simon was the name of another Chipmunk.)
  • Also parodied on Scrubs after Dr. Kelso's new RV is destroyed in the course of the road trip to Tacoma. Ted, who had been taking the RV for a car wash when it was commandeered, runs away just before Kelso notices, prompting him to bellow "THEO-DOOORE!" (Theodore was the name of another Chipmunk.)
  • In Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman, when Dave answers the phone, Miss Miller (The Chipettes' guardian) yells "DAAA-VID!" into his ear in the same manner he yells at Alvin.
  • In the "Chipwrecked" movie, Alvin ends up shouting "SIII-MON!" in the same manner as Dave to get a delusional Simon to come to his senses. Brittney lampshades it.
  Brittney: Uh, Alvin? You're starting to sound like Dave.

• Odd from Code Lyoko had gotten this in "A Fine Mess" after Yumi finds an unflattering image of her and Ulrich hugging.
• Fillmore!: Vallejo more then often shouts out the titular character's name in anger when he finds out he destroyed any property while on patrol.
• The Flintstones:

• Wilma sometimes did a more subtle version of this when Fred did something (or was somehow being) annoying. She would even give him a full name ultimatum when she got especially mad, and reserved "Frederick Flintstone" for when her Berserk Button really got pressed.
• Pebbles cereal commercials almost always have Fred yelling "BAAAR-NEY!" as Barney makes off with Fred's bowl of cereal.

• Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Both Frankie and Mac did this often, with Mac sounding shocked and indignant (surprising, considering he invented Bloo) and Frankie just sounding enraged.
• In Jem, whenever Pizzazz (lead singer of The Misfits) blames Eric Raymond for Jem and the Holograms beating them, she'll often give him an earful.
  "EEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIICCCCCCC!!!!"
• Kaeloo:
  • In any episode where Stumpy makes Kaeloo angry instead of Mr. Cat, he'll get one of these.
  Kaeloo: STUMPYYYYYYYY...
  • In Episode 83, Kaeloo does this to everyone on the show.

• The Magic School Bus:
  • The entire class in unison (after every instance of a Pun): "Car-los!" Parodied when his father appears in the Parents' Day episode: "Mr. Ramon!"
  • This gag is also occasionally played with involving some of the other students:
    • In the episode "For Lunch": "Ral-phie!"
    • In one episode, after Phoebe says she wanted to feed the sea monster: "Phoe-be!"
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "The Ticket Master": Twilight Sparkle does this to Pinkie Pie after Pinkie throws a party in Twilight's honor in a shameless attempt to butter her up.
• Ned's Newt: Ned mentions Newton in two episodes: one of them where he gets sent to the hospital due to a mild concussion, and the other where he and Newton attempt to find Ned's long-lost Uncle Sandy and halfway through Newton gets hypnotized by a group of sirens.
• Phineas and Ferb has Candace frequently yell, "PHIN-E-AS!" Interestingly, she rarely mentions Ferb, perhaps because she knows he won't answer. It's also probably because Ferb is her stepbrother, and Candace has had Phineas as her brother her whole life. Knowing how much the brothers get on her nerves, she's probably been saying "PHIN-E-AS" even before Ferb came along.

• ReBoot: Whenever Mike the TV starts going all Robin Williams the rest of the cast cuts him off with a chorus of Mike!
• On Rugrats, Phil's and Lil's full first names are only ever used A) by each other and B) when they're fighting.
  "You started it, LILL-I-AN!"
  "No, you started it, PHIL-IP!"
  "You were it, LILL-I-AN.
  "No, you were it, PHIL-IP!"
  "If they didn't make it, then how come they're not BACK, PHIL-IP?!!"
  "Maybe they got lost in the DIRTY clothes hamper, LILL-I-AN!!!"
• Muppet Babies (1984): The babies often shout "FOZZIE!" whenever the young bear says something stupid.
• Superintendent Chalmers did this all the time on The Simpsons with Principal "Skinnn-errrr!", even when he wasn't particularly angry at him. In "Future-Drama", the "future" Chalmers can no longer say anything else.
  • Similarly, Skinner's mother had that distinctive cry of "SEYMOUR!"
  • ...so when he walks in on their date, he's greeted with "SEYMOUR!" "SKINNER!"
  • Homer Simpson, before he goes to put a choke-hold on his only son, always says, "Ba-rrt!" then possibly "why you little" before proceeding to the execution. (At least he uses his name; most of the time, Bart is just "the boy".)

• The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald: The first video "Scared Silly" has Franklin's father Dr. Quizzical sternly exclaim his son's name when he tries to weasel out of apologizing for what he did.

Real Life

• One of the principles of how to choose your child's name: Stand at the back door and scream it, in full, First-Middle-Last. This'll give you a good idea of whether the name sounds good when used in full.
  • A Baby Blues strip had a similar gag: when Wanda suggested the name "Wren" for their third child, Darryl tested it by shouting as if admonishing said child. They were talking in bed at the time, though.
• Ozzy Osbourne's near-catchphrase. Say it with me now: "SHAROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!" (Sharon is Ozzy's wife.)
• The cast of Firefly developed a running joke where they'd yell "SUMMER!" whenever anything went wrong, even if the miscreant wasn't actually Summer Glau.

---