Spinning Paper

I speak for all printers when I say "Ouch!"

"And the spinning... always the spinning. Let's see you do that, computers!" (hurls laptop through the air)

— Jon Stewart, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Simultaneously showing the passage of time and the impact of events by showing newspaper headlines. For added effect, the papers emblazoned with these headlines spin towards the camera before pausing briefly and fading out. It is usually also accompanied by a trumpet sound effect.

The Spinning Paper usually takes place against a black background but often fades in footage of people in animated conversation, using telephones, or reading newspapers. It is also common to show the Spinning Paper as an overlay on footage of printing presses. It is usually prefaced with either a newspaper boy yelling "Extra! Extra!" or a shot of a stack of newspapers being delivered.

The Spinning Paper is more commonly used in movies rather than TV shows and is so incredibly over-used that these days it is usually used not for dramatic, but for comedic value. It has also become rarer overall as newspapers lose ground to television or (more recently) online news.

Back in the days before this device had been done to death, some B Movies would—as an alternative to printing up a custom faux-newspaper — apparently use certain stock layouts, with everything below the massive main headline cut-and-pasted from previous fake front pages. This is why certain news articles, like "New Petitions Against Tax," appear on completely unrelated front pages with such frequency. Which does lead one to wonder why, with the main headline proclaiming Armageddon, some papers consider "Building Code Under Fire" to be newsworthy.

A Spinning Paper will often display the Worst News Judgment Ever. See also News Monopoly.

Compare Spinning Clock Hands, Exploding Calendar to show the passage of time.

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Examples:

Advertisement

• Parodied in a TV advertisement for Yogo, with the last paper of the montage saying 'Newspaper Readers Get Dizzy'.

Anime & Manga

• Played straight in Haruhi Suzumiya with a tabloid press newspaper, showing what would happen if Haruhi was to spread the picture of the computer club president groping Mikuru.
• In one Lupin III (Red Jacket) episode, this is used to tell the world of Lupin's capers... specifically that of the "Gold-Mask of Tuotankhamon Stollen!"
• Anime/Yumeria: At one instance, headline text spins into place over a shot of a printing press.

Comic Books

• Batman '66: Issue #52 features a case with a headline about the Joker becoming a crimefighter.

Fan Works

• Pulled at the end of Episode 8 of Friendship is Witchcraft to show public coverage of Twilight's wedding and Cadance's disappearance, complete with the series' usual Lampshade Hanging.
  Spinning Newspaper Narrative copout, FiW Writers Confirm.

Films — Animated

• Used in The Incredibles, in conjunction with Practical Voiceover and fake news footage, to explain the Super Relocation Act.
• The ending of Dumbo, after Dumbo has become a celebrity.
• Used on "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At The Met" segment of Make Mine Music, first in the opening, where the articles about singing in the open sea begin as small articles before gradually moving to the front page; and then during Willie's fantasy of becoming an opera singer.
• Used in The Simpsons Movie, after Lisa succeeds in getting the mayor to pass a measure for cleaning up & protecting Lake Springfield. The front page reads "Clean-Up Begins at Lake", before it becomes waterlogged and the camera pulls back to reveal it floating on the surface of the lake before it gets scooped out.
• A variation with spinning pottery is used in Hercules throughout the “Zero to Hero” musical number.
• The Wind in the Willows segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad uses it twice, once when Toad is arrested for stealing a motorcar, and then to show the attempts to appeal his conviction, the story going from the front page to a small article on the back to show the public's waning interest on it.
• Pinocchio in Outer Space. After Pinocchio and Nurtle hypnotize Astro the Space Whale, an astronomer sees them guiding Astro back to Earth. A spinning paper appears with the headline "Astro captured". Two additional spinning papers appear, with headlines in Russian and what might be Japanese.

Films — Live-Action

• Played straight in Accidental Hero, when newspapers and magazines reacting to the story of the mystery hero are shown spinning.
• Airplane! uses spinning newspaper headlines as a stock gag. The first two are about the plane that is doomed to crash, and a third is about a child who ate his own foot. In the next shot, there's a spinning TV that cuts to a news broadcast. The sequel recycles the joke, with the third one being about a man who undergoes sex-change surgery and marries him-(her?)-self. The DVD has a similar gag- when the menu pops up after the starting previews, a porno mag spins up, before we hear a record scratch, it reverses, and an "in-flight guideline" pamphlet spins in, depicting scenes from the movie.
• The prologue of Angels with Dirty Faces ends with a montage of newspaper headlines detailing the Villain Protagonist's various crimes and acquittals in the years between his childhood and the start of the movie proper.
• Back to the Future Part II: The video at the Biff Tannen Museum uses this editing trick while showing newspaper headlines documenting Rich Biff's life story, including his winning streak.
• A non-spinning instance in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms marks the death of Dr. Elson, with the headline "Famed Scientist Lost in Sea Tragedy". Pausing the movie reveals that they did indeed write an entire obituary rather than just filling the article with lorem ipsum text, although the side articles have titles like "Court Seeks Adjournment" and, of course, "New Petitions Against Tax".
• The film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey ends with a minutes-long comic headline sequence where various real-world publications detail the band's rise to fame and the resulting steps towards world peace. Also, Death manages to win the Indy 500 on foot. His response? "I didn't know I could run that fast."
• In Chicago, just as Roxie's verdict is about to be announced, a paper with the headline "Roxie Hart Innocent" is shown. It's also revealed that the newspapers printed up some "Roxie Hart Guilty" issues, just in case.
• Averted in the 1953 Film Serial Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe, where the newspapers announcing sabotage and disaster don't spin until the chapter "Nightmare Typhoon". Perhaps it was the typhoon in question that made it spin?
  • The first Commando Cody adventure Radar Men from the Moon did this for variety in a Rule of Three. Oil wells get blown up and it fades to a newspaper with the headline "MYSTERY ATTACK RAZES OILFIELD" lying among a bunch of other papers. Transmission lines get blown up and a paper with the headline "TRANSMISSION LINE WRECKED" spins up. A skyscraper gets blown up and it cuts to the Science Hero's Babe Assistant reading a paper with "OFFICE BUILDING WRECKED BY MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION".
• Played for Laughs in Crackerjack with Nancy Brown's lawn bowls columns being used to show the progress of Cityside through the bowls tournament.
• Used to fill in the details of what happens between the capture of the gang and Robert's trial in Crime Doctor.
• Dick Tracy, Detective uses this trope to show the hysteria generated by Splitface's murder spree.
• Do the Right Thing uses a similar device, panning across stacks of newspapers on a news-stand to show the effects of the heat wave on the neighborhood.
• Fatal Instinct: The headline for Lana Ravine's trial is introduced this way until Lola Cain yanks it out of the air.
• Used in Frieda to show the war progressing towards its end, and Robert and Frieda's arrival in Oxfordshire.
• A variation was used by Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940), where papers coming off the press are used in the same way. This later became a popular Film Noir trope.
• Harry Potter:
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix features a series of dynamic and quite visually impressive Spinning Paper-esque headline montages, as well as using the moving pictures in the paper (Magic, people!) to transition smoothly from scene to scene.
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them starts with a montage of papers covering the fight against Grindlewald.
• Used to show the passage of time and the progress of the manhunt for the bank robbers in The Hoodlum.
• The Incredible Mr. Limpet. After Henry Limpet destroys the attacking U-boat wolf pack, a series of spinning newspaper headlines list the final events of World War II until victory.
• In Knockout, the montage of Belle's boxing success begins with one of these, showing the article about her first win.
• The definitive parody of the Spinning Paper trope is in The Last Remake of Beau Geste when a spinning newspaper is delivered to the Geste family's doorstep, and the paper continues spinning even as butler Spike Milligan attempts to pick it up. He has to keep circling around the spinning newspaper so that he can read the headline.
  • There's a running gag involving the butler and several similar tropes, including a scene with the Exploding Calendar, where the butler is desperately trying to stop the pages from flying off the calendar.
• Spoofed in Jane Austen's Mafia!. One of the headlines is "A spinning paper appears over a cathedral."
• Although not spinning, each of the Indians' Miracle Rally montages in the first two Major League movies (as well as their near-collapse in the ALCS of the second) give us newspaper headlines of big moments, which have as a picture the last frame of the previous scene.
• Used to show Savaard's progress from the trial to the gallows in The Man They Could Not Hang.
• The Man with Nine Lives opens with a series of papers proclaiming Dr. Mason's freezing therapy as a potential cure for cancer.
• Used in The Mighty Ducks to cover the Ducks' series of victories.
• In The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, the reactions from around the country and the world to the "miracle" including from Adolf Hitler and Mussolini.
• In Muppets Most Wanted, there are sequences that start with the spinning, blurred newspaper, but instead of ending with a shot of the front page, they end by cutting to a shot of a 1970s-style console TV, with the Muppet Newsman giving a report.
• The prologue to Murder on the Orient Express (1974) features a montage of Spinning Papers chronicling the kidnapping, and eventual murder, of Baby Daisy Armstrong.
• Night of the Dribbler: Each instant of an unfortunate fate befalling a member of the Plumbers basketball team from High Top onward is followed by a newspaper reporting on it.
• Early in No Regrets for Our Youth, a series of dramatic newspaper headlines tell the tale of the student protests against the right-wing Japanese government, and how the protests are eventually crushed.
• The film Revenge of the Creature features a spinning paper announcing the creature's escape.
• Used in the Genre Throwback movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), along with a Practical Voiceover, to show that the robot attack on New York is part of a worldwide phenomenon. The short film version had the paper spin, the 2004 movie just had a pan across newspaper headlines from across the world.
• Used in Spice World, whenever there is a headline about the Spice Girls, and is sometimes followed by a Newscaster Cameo (Peter Sissons).
• Played straight, but without spinning, in the first Spider-Man movie.
  • And shows up in the second, as J. Jonah Jameson yells "I WAAANT SPIIIDEERMAAAAAAANNNN!!!", a spinning newspaper announces: "He's Back!"
  • Spider-Man 3: After Jameson fires Brock for false news and angrily says how he hasn't printed a retraction in twenty years, a spinning paper shows said retraction, as the infamous Emo Peter's strutting scene begins.
  • Scenes from the first two films are re-enacted by children in a play for the music video to Snow Patrol's song 'Signal Fire' (which is part of the soundtrack to the third film) and features a live-action spinning paper detailing Spidey's heroics.
• Batman has a spinning newspaper announcing the Cosmetic scare in Gotham city.
• In Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, a very popular Finnish hobbyist-produced sci-fi parody film, newspapers headlines following P-Fleet's conquest of the world are shown in this manner within an old-style propaganda film within the show.
• In the film Strange Brew, there is a spinning newspaper, but when it stops, it is revealed to have the wrong side up and a hand quickly reaches out to flip the paper over to show the intended side.
• Played straight in Talk of the Town, when it's used repeatedly for transitions, exposition, and montage. Spinning papers appear when Leopold Dilg (wrongfully accused of arson and murder) escapes, after he's caught, and when he's freed.
• A montage of glossy covers of popular real-life magazines when Michael Dorsey starts becoming famous as Dorothy Michaels, in Tootsie.
• Played straight in The Toxic Avenger when the title hero starts making a name for himself by helping the populace of Tromaville.
• Transylvania 6-5000 ends with a series of spinning covers of the tabloid Jack and Gil work for showing what happens to the characters after the events of the film. (Or possibly just what the tabloid made up about them.)
• Undercover Brother. During a scene showing various ways that black performers are falling under the effect of The Man's mind control drug, one of the warning signs is a newspaper story (John Singleton to remake Driving Miss Daisy) in a spinning paper.
• Done in Underworld U.S.A. with newspapers covering Smith's arrest. Here the camera zooms in not on the headlines, but on the mastheads of the papers: showing that story is getting national coverage.
• In The Walking Dead (1936), a succession of newspaper headlines are used to show the progress of Ellman's trial and his journey to the electric chair.
• Done humorously in the Shirley MacLaine film What a Way to Go!, when successive spinning Variety headlines become more and more tongue-twisting and ridiculous, some having every word start with the same letter.
• In Who Am I (2014), the hacker group's actions are compressed in a montage of newspaper headlines and reactions in society.
• In Zachariah, this is used during a montage of the Crackers' robberies, with a paper appearing after each attack.

Literature

• In Craig Shaw Gardner's Bride of the Slime Monster Roger has a nightmare.
  Newspaper headlines spun toward him, freezing in place with headlines like:
  
  "ROGER FAILS!"
  "DELORES LOST FOREVER!"
  "DOCTOR DREAD TRIUMPHANT!"
  "CINEVERSE DOOMED!"

Live-Action TV

• Used in the opening credits of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. to tell the pilot's back story of Brisco's dad getting killed, millionaires hiring his son, and Lord Bowler as a competitive bounty hunter.
• Siskel & Ebert: Used as the title logo screen.
• Married... with Children: During the baseball strike in 1994, one spinning headline reads, "Baseball Player Spinning Papers", before showing someone (the baseball player) doing just that.
• Lois & Clark has spinning newspapers from across the world reacting to Superman's debut in the pilot. They do it again when he leaves Earth in the last episode of Season 3. On both occasions the trope is dealt with more or less straight... until the final paper is a supermarket tabloid with a ridiculous headline.
  • They also did it when Lex Luthor was exposed for the criminal he was and plunged to death to avoid life in prison. The last headline said he and Elvis Presley opened a shop in Hawaii.
• In the Doctor Who 2008 episode The Unicorn and The Wasp, three newspaper front pages telling about Agatha Christie's disappearance are shown in this manner.
• Lampshaded to death in British children's comedy series Roger and the Rottentrolls. When a new Rottentroll Prime Minister is elected, the newspapers are nailed to a wall and Yockenthwaite is seen spinning them by hand.
• In an episode of Scrubs, the Janitor puts his newsletter The Janitorial on a stick and spins it to get this effect.
• Parodied in an episode of The Facts of Life where Tootie fails her driving test.
• Parodied in a couple of sketches in The Kids in the Hall, one with headlines telling of teenager Bobby's below-average poetry and songwriting, and another with Simon & Hecubus ("Simon Eats Soup In A Fit Of Rage")
• Parodied in Police Squad! where a paper reading "Chump KO's Champ in Bar Fight" is followed immediately by another reading "Champ OK's Chump for Title Fight".
• Given this trope's popularity in old B-Movies, it should come as no surprise that it shows up many times in various episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, often with a Proportional Article Importance joke about the new petitions against tax, as seen in the link above.
  Servo: Audience baffled by free-floating headlines! Trite headline device used to enhance plot! Producers hope to work in calendar-flipping before the end of the film!...Trite headline device still ineffective! Buildings still large!
  • They even used Spinning Paper during a sketch in which Servo parodied Tony Travis' rise to stardom in The Beatniks. Naturally this was done in the No Budget style of the show, with each headline on the end of a long pole that Joel twirled manually in front of Cambot while vocalizing the musical effect.
  • The source of a memorable gag in Gamera:
  Servo: "Smash! Newspaper hits Japanese in the face!"
  Joel: (as a Japanese guy looks up from the newspaper) "Ooh, that stung!"
• Used as part of the autobiographical musical Bret and Jemaine perform in the final episode of Flight of the Conchords - because it's a stage performance, they just turn down the lights and have a black-clad Dave slowly walk towards the front of the stage while twirling the paper.
• In November of 1988, when Wheel of Fortune did its first-ever roadshow in New York City, a paper from the "Anytown Times" spins in and says, "Wheel of Fortune in New York!"
• A Superman themed Saturday Night Live sketch ended with the newspaper headline "Earth Destroyed! All that's left, printing press, guys to run it."
  • Also appears in the very first SNL episode, as part of a short film by Albert Brooks.
  • And in a later sketch about a citywide wave of uncontrollable vomiting. The paper stops spinning, and the camera pans right to show the guy who's been cranking the turntable it's on — and who is now retching violently.
• Used often in Corner Gas with the local Howler. Parodied in "Wedding Card":
  Lacey: I made a complete fool of myself... I hope they don't write about this in "The Howler"...
  Spinning Paper: NEW BYLAW PROPOSED
  Wanda: Nah, the big story's the new bylaw.
• Psych: Parodied; the camera zooms out to reveal that the headline is on Gus's iPad, which Shawn is spinning on a desk.
• Used in the 1970s Ellery Queen TV series. It is very prominent in the pilot episode "Too Many Suspects" but also used in other episodes. Undoubtedly a deliberate choice to help invoke the feeling of the 1940s when the series is set.
• The JAG episode "Contemptuous Words" opens with a printing press spinning, however, the relevant content is read in the following scene.
• Spoofed in Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's failed pilot The Weekenders, where Vic's character spots a newspaper ad saying 'Meat Festival' and mimics this effect by spinning the whole table he's reading from like the Wheel of Fortune.
• Becomes a Running Gag throughout the Agatha Christie's Poirot adaptation of The ABC Murders.
• Happens Once per Episode in El Caso, as viewers are shown the front page of the titular newspaper when the case of the week is solved.

Music

• Styx used this in both "Paradise Theater" tours. The first, in 1980, was part of the animated "opening credits," which displayed the performers doing various old-timey things. The second was at the beginning of the "Return to Paradise" tour: on the VHS release, the graphic now read "PARADISE THEATER RE-OPENS!"
• This trope appears during the music video of Steve Taylor's 1984 song "Meltdown (at Madame Tussaud's)".
• A spinning newspaper can be seen in Phil Collins' music video for "I Wish It Would Rain Down".

Pinball

• WHO dunnit (1995):
  • A spinning newspaper announces the start of each new murder case.
  • If you capture the killer, the arrest is reported on a newspaper that spins into the camera (which also heralds the start of a multiball mode).

Theater

• Shakespeare's Richard III summarizes an entire civil war with a series of messengers arriving at Richard's headquarters.
• The Solid Gold Cadillac opens its second act on a show curtain showing the tabloid papers putting the government sex scandal in big headlines, and the New York Times ignoring it in favor of financial news. (The movie version averts this trope.)

Video Games

• Alba: A Wildlife Adventure: When you complete a major quest, a newspaper spins onto the screen showing what you've done.
• The first Destroy All Humans! uses it straight at the end of each stage... if you can call the increasingly implausible cover-ups for the mayhem Crypto has committed "using it straight". You'll also see a Spinning Paper if Crypto gets killed, describing the cover-up used for the capture of his body.
• Shows up at intervals in Day of the Tentacle; each new headline alludes to Purple Tentacle's progressing plan for world domination.
• Whenever a new feature is unlocked, you enter the playoffs, or you pitch a perfect game, this happens in Backyard Baseball.
• The opening video of Zork: Grand Inquisitor has a couple, in addition to a lot of severely not-funny footage of book-burnings and mass arrests and the like with such hilarious narration that it Crosses the Line Twice.
• Happens when you lose in Theme Hospital, with a front-page scandal about you.
• You get one of these every time a new level begins in The Simpsons Hit & Run.
• Covert Front has these in the beginning of the first game, starting with one reporting the assassination of the French Prime Minister and ending with one reporting the beginning of World War I.
• In The Journeyman Project Pegasus Prime, a holographic version of this shows up when Gage Blackwood uses his toilet, reporting on the Cyrollan spaceship that landed earlier in Caldoria. The newspaper even has video footage on its front page, and audio narration.
• In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, the Allies ending there are several newspapers showing the Commanders victory and the Soviet premier defeat in his boxer.
• At the intro of Beaver Power in Fur Fighters a spinning paper is displayed showing that Viggo Industries has bought the dam the hub is centred around. It spins into the hands of a beaver just before Viggo himself shows up.
• In Jazzpunk, this occurs when you use the newspaper vending machine, complete with appropriate musical sting. If you happen to use a quarter on the Fem Bot prostitute, the next paper you buy may report that you sexually harassed the vending machine.
• The Intro of Bug has this.
• The Sega Genesis version of Ghostbusters (1990) uses a variant of this: the newspaper simply fades in, but the effect is the same. The headline is always "GHOST COPS BUST ___ STREET SPOOK."
• The opening cutscene of Tiny Toon Adventures: Wild and Wacky Sports begins with this as Montana Max announces the opening of a new sports festival, with the grand prize being one million dollars.
• The Bonkers video game for the SNES does this in the opening cutscene, as well every time Bonkers beats a level, except for the fifth level. At the bottom of the newspaper, the Chief gives his opinion on Bonkers, which varies depending on how long it took him to beat the level.
• War of the Monsters has a few during the opening cinematic, describing how aliens are attacking the earth, are brought down, then monsters being created when they come into contact with their fuel.
• Fabulous: Angela's High School Reunion: This happens at the start of Level 21, and at the ends of Levels 40 and 50, respectively.
  Snuggford East sets high bar for high schools; School set to receive award for outstanding performance
  Pregnancy scandal shocks Snuggford High!
  Arrests made as Snuggford High School is destroyed by illegal reunion party
• The first scene of Justice League Task Force is one announcing Darkseid has declared war on Earth.
• The Game Over screen in Elroy Goes Bugzerk shows a newspaper with a photo of Elroy being punished or recovering from injury.
• Fighting Force has this at the very end when you defeat Zeng.
• Psychonauts 2: Raz can find newspapers in Ford's mind that spin up to the screen detailing Maligula's rampage.
• The 1996 remake of Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego and its sequel have one of these at the end of every attempt to catch one of Carmen's minions, whether you succeed or not. You also get one when you finally catch Carmen in the first game, but not in the second.
• Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee does this trope with its newspaper The Daily Deception. The name in itself makes fun of lies printed in the media, and the paper itself is used to show story progression. Most notably in the Best and Worst endings of the game.
• Tropico has this happen in the 7th mission of the 4th game where the president of Tropico is accused of assassinating the president of the U.S.! The newspaper (along with others of concurrent events) about this topic is shown in a cutscene after beating the mission.
• In L.A. Noire, you can find newspapers lying around in certain areas that reveal certain plot points. When you pick them up, you see the headline and then get the spinning newspaper effect, then it dissolves into a Flash Back (or rather a Flash Sideways: most of the things you see are concurrent with the story you're playing out).

Web Animation

• In the Father Tucker short "Judgment Day", newspapers frequently spin in with headlines describing Father Tucker's crimes.
• Minilife TV: This happens twice in the episode "Crossing Ian", before and after the election. Lampshaded with the headline "Recent Poll Declares Spinning Newspaper Gag Still Trendy".

Web Comics

• In Kevin & Kell, a newspaper with headlines discussing the destruction of Rabbit's Revenge and Danielle's death blows by on the wind at the graveyard.

Web Original

• In his Let's Play of Superman 64, ProtonJon kicks off the openings of the supervillain intros in Superman 64 with a spinning edition of the Daily Planet, which has the "pictures" taken from Superman: The Animated Series.

Western Animation

• Cat Burglar: Shows up in every ending. Exaggerated in the third one; after two plot-relevant papers, the third newspaper is about a string of spinning newspapers causing havoc all over the city. As Peanut finds his old uniform in the garbage, a random spinning newspaper flies by and decapitates him.
• El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera: Maria already knew about his "secret identity" because, prior to this episode, he had made no attempt to hide his identity and a spinning newspaper already explained he is actually quite famous.
• Hey Arnold!! had this during a Dream Sequence in the episode "Married".
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • In "The Masked Magician", they did a spinning paper, and then pulled out to show it in the middle of Timmy's room with Cosmo spinning it in midair. Wanda complains that she's trying to read it, so Cosmo proceeds to spin her along with the paper.
  • This trope was used much earlier in "Foul Ball", where Chester, son of the worst Major League baseball player in history, suddenly becomes ridiculously good at the game (thanks to Timmy's wish). Cue not newspapers, but magazines with Chester's face plastered across them (and ending with a picture of Timmy on Pack Mule Monthly)
• Robot Chicken:
  • Parodied with a headline reading "Spinning Newspapers voted 'Lamest Cliche' by TV viewers."
  • Another episode lampshades the trope by having one of the papers be named "The Spinning Times".
• The Simpsons:
  • Parodied in "Radioactive Man". After being played straight with two newspapers announcing plot points, a third one bears the headline "Spinning Newspaper Injures Printer" (pictured above).
  • Another is in a Couch Gag: "Couch Gag Thrills Nation".
  • The Springfield Shopper announcing Homer's challenge to Gentleman Thief Malloy is stolen by Malloy as soon as it stops spinning.
  • One episode featured a spinning newspaper with a headline that related to the main story. One of the sub-headlines read "China invades US".
  • In "Krusty Gets Kancelled", Mayor Quimby admits to using the city treasury to fund the murder of his enemies, then immediately quotes Gabbo's "I'm a bad little boy" catchphrase. A spinning paper shows the main headline "Quimby re-elected in landslide" while smaller corner article reads "Two more bodies surface at harbor"
  • "Marge vs. SSCCTG" has the sub-headline "Second Headline Less Important, Studies Show".
• Done several times in the Transformers: Animated episode "Three's A Crowd". when Dirt Boss and the Constructicons start taking over gas stations and oil refineries. It's rather obviously metaphorical since this all seems to take place in a single day (unless the Autobots were spending all week trying to get Lugnut out of that hole). Also it's The Future, they may not even have newspapers.
• Parodied in The Oblongs with the first two having headlines about a "local hero woman" and the third one with a headline about the "unexplained newspaper spinning continuing", alongside a sub-header reading "Unconfirmed rumors of pages falling off calendars".
• Played straight in Batman: The Animated Series. Additionally, Fox Kids patterned house-ads previewing upcoming episodes after this trope; interestingly enough, these ads often took pains to mimic what an in-universe newspaper would report on, which sometimes led to headlines only tangentially related to the episode's plot (the ad for "Joker's Favor", for instance, focuses solely on the banquet for Commissioner Gordon).
• The student election episode of Clone High has one of the best spinning paper gags. The main headline is the sensible and plot-relevant "New Polls In: JFK ahead", but below that is "New Poles In: Tetherball Club Ecstatic".
• Parodied in Super Dave Daredevil For Hire with two spinning newspapers in succession, the second one with the headline "Newspaper Spins!" and a photograph of the first paper.
• Used multiple times (including the Couch Gag) in the Squirrel Boy episode "News It or Lose It".
• In the Futurama episode "Less Than Hero", after Fry, Leela and Bender become superheroes, a Spinning Paper is shown... with the headline "No Action on Rates by FED". "Mysterious Vigilantes Foil Crime" is a title of a small article in the same newspaper.
• Superfriends 1973/74 episode "The Balloon People". A spinning newspaper said "Balloon People land on Earth. Saucer lands in backyard after space trip" after these events occurred.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Used in "Green Isn't Your Color", with magazines featuring Fluttershy's face demonstrating the runaway success of her modeling career.
  • Used with the Ponyville school newspaper in "Ponyville Confidential".
• The Critic:
  • In "Marathon Mensch," when Jay went missing during the New York marathon and was presumed dead.
  • In "Eyes on the Prize," when Jay is nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
• Urban Vermin: The trope is parodied in "The Rat Pack", where spinning newspapers are used to announce a coup against Ken. It turns out the papers are spinning because Madman is holding them up and spinning around in a swivel chair to announce the news to the rest of the GLF.
• An episode of Chilly Beach had two spinning papers covering the local election, and a third announcing that "Small town can support three newspapers!"
• A spinning front page of the Smurf Village newspaper can be seen in The Smurfs episode "All The News That's Fit To Smurf". And this is just right after Reporter got some juicy news from his fellow Smurfs by hiding under a table and listening to them talk secretly to each other!
• The Looney Tunes short "Catty Cornered" begins this way.
  • 1939's Thugs With Dirty Mugs uses this to report the banks that the Killer ("Eddie G. Robemsome") has robbed and his subsequent sentence after police apprehend him.
• Turbo F.A.S.T. used a variant with a smartphone displaying a website article.
• The Gravedale High episode "Monster Gumbo" showed a montage of spinning newspapers with headlines indicating how well Blanche's Monster Gumbo was selling.
• We Bare Bears: "Panda's Sneeze" features a high-tech version of the spinning paper montage, with spinning cell phones and computers showing articles about Panda's viral video as it becomes popular.
• In the Ready Jet Go! episode "Mindy's Meteorite Stand", as meteorite fever grips the neighborhood, a spinning newspaper is shown with Mindy's portrait on it.
• The Quack Pack episode "Tasty Paste" featured spinning newspapers with headlines describing the popularity of the titular Tasty Paste.
• The Rocko's Modern Life episode, "Wacky Delly" does this three times; first, when the titular Show Within a Show becomes the newest hit animated series, then when it becomes even more popular with the "10 Minutes of Mayo" episode, and then finally, when Rachel's episode leads to its downfall and cancellation.

Other

• Older versions of Windows Movie Maker had a video effect that let you show text as a spinning newspaper.

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