"I repeat things for emphasis. Emphasis!"
— Josh, Drake & Josh
During a dialogue or monologue, one speaker's line has a single word repeated for dramatic effect, either by the same person (to emphasize his point) or by the other (to undermine said point).
Compare Department of Redundancy Department, where an item is listed repeatedly for comic effect; Parrot Exposition, where multiple characters utter the same word or phrase for similar reasons; Ironic Echo, for the entire sentence; Repeat to Confirm, where a character repeats an order to ensure that it's properly understood; Anaphora and Epiphora for the repetition of the start or end of a sentence / phrase; Symploce which is the repetition of more than one word; and Again with Feeling, where the repetition underlines a realization instead of emphasizing a point. See also One-Liner, Name... One-Liner.
Not to be confused with Punctuated! For! Emphasis!.
Examples
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Advertising
- Used by Avery Brooks in an IBM Business Software commercial
, which uses Epiphora first:
It's the year 2000. But where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars! I don't see any flying cars! Why? Why? Why?
Fan Works
- Elementals of Harmony: In "Odd Ends": When Trixie is being questioned out of the blue:
The blue unicorn almost missed a step at this. Almost.
Film - Animated
- Cinderella has one where the stepmother tells Cinderella that she can go to the ball if she finishes the housework. The stepsisters are furious until she says "I said if".
Film - Live-Action
- Pacific Rim has Hannibal Chau say "I went into a public shelter once." He then takes off his shades, revealing a very nasty scar. "Once."
- A Running Gag with Danny Vermin's character in Johnny Dangerously. (also subverted by not letting him get out the final word.)
Vermin: You shouldn't grab me, Johnny. My mother grabbed me once... Once.
Vermin: You shouldn't hang me on a hook, Johnny. My father hung me on a hook once. Once.
Vermin: You shouldn't kick me in the balls, Mrs. Kelly. My sister kicked me in the balls once... (pained noise)
Vermin: You shouldn't have shot me, Johnny. My grandmother shot me once... (gets pulled away by the cops before he can finish) - Undercover Brother. While the title character and Sista Girl are talking, he uses one of these while trying to seduce her.
Undercover Brother: Nothing relaxes a brother after a hard day of going undercover like a little piece of the cookie.
Sista Girl: My cookie would break you in half.
Undercover Brother: May be, but that would be some long division. [Aside Glance] Long. - "First rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. Second rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.
Literature
- Isaac Asimov's "The Secret Sense": As Fields leaves the portwem, Garth calls out to rub in the Sense Loss Sadness Fields is feeling by emphasizing Fields feels blind now.
"You entered a normal man! You leave blind—blind-BLIND."
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Mad-Eye Moody (actually Barty Crouch Jr. using polyjuice potion) makes a point of repeating "CONSTANT VIGILANCE" in class, even long after he's stated once how important it is.
Live-Action TV
- One sketch inside El Chapulín Colorado had a man recounting how he was discussing with his son about waiting for marriage. And he kept repeating several words twice to emphasize how heated the conversation was. But he then said at the end he decided to give up, since he doesn't like to just repeat everything.
- Josh from Drake & Josh does this regularly as something of a Verbal Tic.
- The Sixth Doctor in Doctor Who has a habit of repeating something someone else (usually Peri) said in increasingly dramatic and questioning tones, to demonstrate his disdain for it.
- Mahabharata: People tend to do this a lot in the television adaptation of the epic. A lot
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40,000 has a dialogue where an Eldar talks down to a human, telling him that they (the Eldar) once had the power to move the stars themselves however it pleased them. The human replies, "Once."
Video Games
- Prayer of the Faithless: When talking about Heroic Sacrifice after meeting Mia again:
This "noble sacrifice" crap people love to spew out makes me sick. I tried to do that once. Once. Never again.
- A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: Judd pitching his latest final tier of wares:
This new stuff will protect you from anything. ANYTHING.
Visual Novels
- Murder by Numbers (2020): In Case 1, after getting Becky and John arguing, Honor repeats "Almost" after saying she "Almost feels sorry" for getting her into an argument.
Web Video
- Stopmotion Chess: Parodied with the "legendary" word in the Distant Prologue text.
Real Life
- Legend has it that when Philip II sent the message "If I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta", the Spartans sent a one-word reply: "If". Philip left them alone.
