Overly Long Hug

Gumball: Dude, little tip. Normal people don't hug for this long.
Bobert: Just a little longer.

— The Amazing World of Gumball

Two character engage in a hug that, given the context, goes on a little too long for comfort. Generally, it happens when one of the participants is not ready to let go and the audience can see the other individual trying to pull away. It might go all the way to the extreme of a Glomp, one person isn't even a part of the hug.

Sometimes this is Played for Laughs, such as the Heterosexual Life-Partners giving each other longer (and more emotional) hugs than a respective Love Interest. It might also be played for drama, where someone is about to go on a Heroic Sacrifice (or otherwise something dangerous) and their friend/love interest doesn't want to let go.

This doesn't account for general "comforting" or Cooldown Hug type situations. This kind of hug should be awkward for either the characters or the audience.

See also the Overly Long Gag.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Im: Great Priest Imhotep: In keeping with his No Sense of Personal Space, Imhotep gives an overly long hug to Hinome in thanks for protecting him from Ramses. She is more embarrassed by the gesture than anything.
• In My Hero Academia, Endeavor pulls Bakugou and Natsuo into a long hug after rescuing the latter from a villain who wanted to be killed by the Flame Hero. Natsuo is stunned into silence by the gesture, while Bakugou is so annoyed that he wriggles his way out so he can start surveying the damage caused during the chase.
• Rebuild World:
  • In part due to Akira being her Living Emotional Crutch, Sheryl frequently holds him for more than an hour to recharge herself, leading to Akira having to pry himself out of her arms when waking up next to her.
  • When Hikaru is acting as The Handler for Akira and they go to the roof of the Big Badass Rig he’s escorting to watch the sunrise, she clings to him out of fear of falling off due to him having Sticky Shoes Powered Armor, which leads to a Not What It Looks Like situation when Shirou and Halmers run into them.
• Skip Beat!: Cain's lingering hug with his sister Satsuka in Volume 34 ends up disturbing the actors who witness it, and Murasame chastises them for being perverted as he forces them apart.

Fan Works

• Naru-Hina Chronicles: After Naruto almost dies and wakes up at the hospital in Chapter 10, Hinata immediately hugs him in relief. However, she keeps hugging him even while Tsunade is berating Naruto for not telling anyone about what almost killed him:
  Tsunade: ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME, NARUTO?
  Naruto: Errr... Hinata!
  Hinata: [with a big smile on her face] I'll never let my Naruto go!

Films — Live-Action

• Groundhog Day: One of the recurring events of Phil's endless single day loop is having to run into his annoying old classmate Ned every single morning. After several unsuccessful loops of becoming increasingly abrasive to Ned, including punching him out a few times, Phil tries a different approach of being too nice to Ned, pulling him in for an uncomfortably long hug that causes Ned to back off.
• i am sam: Played for Drama when the Kindhearted Simpleton Sam and his young daughter Lucy ultimately have to be pried off of each other when saying goodbye.
• Thor: The Dark World: When Darcy and Ian rescue Dr. Erik Selvig from a mental ward where he'd been left after suffering an Exposition Beam from Loki, he's more enthusiastic and clingy in his gratitude than either of them want.
  Darcy: ...Getting weird now.
• Zombieland: Double Tap: Columbus is the first human contact Madison has had in years, so she has trouble letting go of him when she first hugs him in the mall. They later sleep together.

Literature

• The Lightning Struck Heart: Sam is definitely a Cuddle Bug. It's a running gag that he will get overwhelmed with emotions and hug whomever he is talking to, often for minutes at a time, and very rarely does the recipient consent to it.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: After admitting to their feelings for each other earlier in volume 4, Oliver and Nanao have their first real public display of affection near the end of the book, after Nanao's first senior-level broomsports match. Intending it as a reward for getting through the match without injury, Oliver gives her a big hug—and then neither one of them can bring themselves to end the hug for a full ten minutes.
• Tricky Business: After a series of increasingly unlikely accidents all involving the news channel's reporters being out in a storm, the two anchors share a hug onscreen on hearing some good news that seems to last a little too long to each anchor's spouse(the anchors are secretly having an affair).

Live-Action TV

• Arrow. When Oliver Queen and his sister Thea share their final hug in Season 8.
  Thea: One of us is going to have to let go first.
  Oliver: Same time?
  Thea: Mm-mm... (both let go)
• In The Big Bang Theory the guys are in a position for an expedition to the North Pole and when Sheldon informs Penny of the trip, she shows unusual concern about Leonard leaving for several months. Later, she privately gives him a going-away present (a blanket with sleeves) and a surprising hug that goes on a lot longer than Leonard expects, showing him trying to break away sooner than her. All things considered, the hug is the main sign to Leonard that she is developing romantic feelings for him. When Leonard approaches her about it, he says "It was at least 5 Mississippi."
• In the Dead Like Me pilot, George — newly dead and enlisted as a Psychopomp — is put in the awkward position of watching her (married) father give a long hug to a strange man at her own wake. She remarks on it, to a noncommittal shrug from Rube. The scene is a remnant of an Aborted Arc where the father would have been revealed to be gay, but nothing comes of the incident in canon.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Played for Laughs in "Burning Down the House" when Phil eventually see the kitchen Will accidentally burns down while cooking and having tried to hide it during an important dinner when Phil's boss is invited over. Things work out, Phil stays calm after the discovery and even hugs Will... and then we jump to three days later where Phil is still hugging him with his arm around his neck in a headlock.
  Will: Uncle Phil, are you gonna let me go anytime soon?
  Philip: [calmly, with a serene almost unnerving smile] No, Will.
  [Beat]
  Will: That's cool.
• Kitchen Nightmares: One chef in the second episode is very enthusiastic to be working with Gordon Ramsay. He needs a translator to talk with Gordon, but takes matters into his own hands once, hugs him tightly, and won't let go.
  Gordon: Tell him, tell him it's only a scallop, we haven't lost our children. [Beat] Okay, okay, you can let go now. You can let go now. He can let fucking go now!
• My Name Is Earl has an episode where Earl is trying to hide Joy (his ex-wife) from an ex girlfriend from even further back. Trying to hide Joy in an old camper trailer, they have to make a deal with a homeless guy for a pair of shoes and a hug "from the cute one." He ends up taking Joy's stilettos and Earl has to give him an uncomfortably long hug. After some time talking to each other, Earl and Joy manage to patch up their rocky post-marriage life and they hug each other. Joy starts to pull away, but Earl isn't quite finished yet, due to the last hug he had to give.
  Joy: [trying to pull away] Uh, Earl?
  Earl: Give me a minute, I'm trying to get that gay homeless guy out of my head.
• Quantico: One episode Alex and Shelby share a long hug and Alex asks if it's getting a little weird.
• In Scrubs, J.D. and Turk tend to give some exceptionally long hugs, one particular big one happening after they get ridiculed at a hospital party for their Heterosexual Life Partner behavior. After half-an-episode of trying to restrain their behavior, they give in and have a long Bear Hug complete with a reprise of "Guy Love." In the Grand Finale as J.D. is about to leave the hospital and on his last day, Turk gives him another long hug which prompts Carla and Elliot to remark on it. They decide to experiment to see what the appeal was, which makes the guys pause with shock and give advice on how to hug better.
• The X-Files, "Three Words": Frohike, one of the Lone Gunmen trio, is really excited to see Mulder for the first time since Mulder's unprecedented return from the dead. Frokihe embraces Mulder tightly around the waist. Mulder hugs him back, but it gets awkward.
  Frohike: You know, it's really not fair. You've been dead for six months and you still look better than me. But not by much.
  Mulder: Melvin, I'd be a whole lot happier to see you if you'd just take your hands off my ass.
  Frohike: Sorry. [gets embarrassed and lets him go]
• Played for drama and maximum tears in Criminal Minds. When Peter Rhea gets angry over the fact that Agent Hotchner wouldn't make a deal, he orchestrates a chain of events that culminate in taking Haley Hotchner hostage along with her small son Jack. Relishing his accomplishments and knowing that Aaron will not make it in time to save his wife, Peter allows the two to speak for a final time. Aaron covertly tells Jack to hide but Haley embraces Jack before he can comply and a few tense moments pass before he complains that she's hugging him too hard and that he has to leave. He exits the room and shot rings out over the phone.

Video Games

• Community College Hero: Played for Drama if you raise your Relationship Value with Origami high enough and then declare that she's the little sister you never had — she sheds a Single Tear and gives you a long, long hug.
• In Heart of the Woods, best friends Madison and Tara have a rather long hug when they're reunited after Madison, having died in the snowstorm, becomes the Fairy Queen and returns to life.

Web Original

• Critical Role: The Gadfly Jester invokes this against Shadowhand Essek when, after a mixed first meeting, his Den awards Jester and her companions a house. She passes a Persuasion check to reel him into the hug, then holds it "for an awkward amount of time" while he politely tries to extricate himself.

Western Animation

• The Amazing World of Gumball: In the episode "The Robot", Bobert does this twice. First, he does this after Gumball and Darwin try to teach him to be a real boy. The second is after Bobert is brought back to normal after attempting to Kill and Replace Gumball.
  Gumball: This is even longer than last time.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: When Madam Foster steals tickets to Europe from Mac in "Fosters Goes to Europe", she does it by hugging him tightly for a good few seconds. Mac is honestly very weirded out by it and quickly leaves when Madam Foster lets go.
• In the Futurama episode "Hell Is Other Robots", Bender, who has undergone a personality reversal after a religious conversion, hugs Fry for way too long, making him very uncomfortable.
• A non-comedic example in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, when Scorpia agrees to help Glimmer and gives her a hug. Glimmer clings on so tight and for so long, even Scorpia, a noted Cuddlebug herself, comments on it. After spending most of Season Four struggling with her her mother's death and her newfound status as queen, and inadvertently pushing her friends away with her behavior in the process, the hug (from a woman who used to be her enemy, no less) is the first moment of physical affection and support she's had in quite awhile.
• Steven Universe: Future: When Lars is getting ready to go back to space, Cuddle Bug Steven gives him a Man Hug that stretches out far longer than Lars expected, and that keeps going as the scene changes.
  Lars: ...Are you gonna let me go anytime soon?
  Steven: Just a couple more minutes.

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