"The Graduate" Homage Shot

"Wayne, you're trying to imitate me, aren't you?"

Start with a wedding, going along more or less as expected. As things approach "I do", everyone turns to the back of the church. There, banging on the glass and calling the name of the bride or groom, is the interloper.

The trope name comes from the Ur-Example at the climax of The Graduate. Most of these examples are straight parodies and/or Homage Shot(s); the rest are copies of copies due to Pop-Cultural Osmosis (à la Pietà Plagiarism).

Usually part and parcel with the Wedding Deadline.

For a trope based on an American film, this one shows up in a ton of Anime (especially ones from the '80s); obviously the movie went over big in Japan.

If you're looking for homages to the other famous shot from The Graduate, see Between My Legs.

---

Examples:

Advertising

• The famous series of UK Renault ads, "Papa and Nicole" ended this way. For added randomness, the groom and guy Nicole runs off with are Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.

Anime and Manga

• One episode of Kimagure Orange Road plays this one just like the movie except it wasn't a wedding, just the rehearsal - the girl was replacing her older sister, who was the real bride but couldn't attend that session also notable for continuing the homage with them running away and the scene on the bus.
• The climax of the first Urusei Yatsura movie finds Lum pounding on a stained-glass rosette and calling "Darling!!" (they get on a bus too, but it's not really a homage).
• Dirty Pair OVA #6 has Kei (in nun disguise) pounding away from the choir loft at Yuri's wedding. In this case, she isn't trying to move in on either half of the couple. She just needs to warn Yuri that the groom's "family" is on to them.
• The Live-Action Adaptation of Great Teacher Onizuka has Onizuka do this to a teacher one of his students has a crush on; subverted when she refuses to confess her feelings.
• This piece of promotional artwork (warning: large file) for Lucky Star parodies the scene from The Graduate right down to the costumes.
• Homaged in Princess Jellyfish's OP, where Shu pounds on a stained-glass window as a wedding goes on (with Inari as the bride).
• Happens in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes when Milky Holmes - Sherlock + Claris and G4 try to stop Sherlock's wedding to Prince Pero. Kokoro, of course, shouts "Dumbass!" into the church.
• The climax of the Strawberry Panic! anime is a stunning example of this trope, despite not technically involving a wedding: Shizuma crashes the Etoile ceremony, declares her love for Nagisa, and carries her off to frolic in a meadow, all with the greatest possible Melodrama.

Films — Live-Action

• Trope Namer, of course, is the wedding scene from The Graduate, pictured and quoted above.
• Used in Wayne's World 2 (Wayne interrupts the wrong wedding). Then does it again at the right wedding (being held at the same church as the film it is parodying). Much hilarity ensues.
• Not a wedding, but Sam of Love Actually does this when he spots his crush from a glass-walled walkway suspended nearby her terminal at the airport. Though the shot is on the other side of the glass and a medium close-up, not even the audience can hear him.
• In Saving Face a woman rescues her mother from marrying a man she isn't in love with in this way.
• Steve Martin does this in The Lonely Guy, only to find out he's burst in on the wrong wedding. The bride still calls it off.
• Subverted in an interesting way in Bubble Boy, after Jimmy stops the wedding between Chloe and Mark (rather anti-climatically for laughs) and "dies" from not having an Immune System. Jimmy's Mother is the one winding up pulling off the signature pose by banging on the window of the Church upon seeing her son die.
• In a deleted scene from UHF, George ("Weird Al" Yankovic) goes to the dentist's office where his girlfriend works and sees the receptionist, Elaine. Before he goes in, George bangs on the window, shouting "ELAINE!" Cut to Elaine saying "I hate when he does that."
• Done in The Other Sister with Daniel interrupting Carla's sister's wedding in order to profess his love for Carla. It's slightly different, in that he appears from the side of the church and slides down a streamer. It's also noteworthy that Carla and Daniel, in some scenes throughout the movie, are watching The Graduate on TV.
• Harold Lloyd's race to stop his girlfriend from marrying another man (who's already married) in Girl Shy ends with a scene just like this. What's interesting is that Girl Shy is a silent film made forty years before The Graduate.

Live-Action TV

• Parodied in Monk, when the main character interrupts two weddings in one episode by yelling the bride's name and banging on a door. Same priest, same bride, mostly the same guests, same guy lets him in.

Music Video

• In the video for the Train song "Save Me, San Francisco," the male protagonist gets a text message from his beloved Elaine telling him she's getting married that day. He drives across San Francisco to the church, bursts in and shouts out his objection - only to find that Elaine and her bride have already said their vows.

Video Games

• Ogami and Sumire's super-combo animation in Sakura Wars shows him crashing her wedding and eloping with her on a moped.
• The Secret of Monkey Island allows you to interrupt a wedding with the "ELAINE!" cry. Bonus points for the bride's name actually being Elaine.

Western Animation

• Parodied in an episode of The Simpsons with Grandpa Simpson. He breaks through the glass and falls to the floor below and keeps yelling. This instance takes it a step further by including a Sounds of Silence parody. Quite possibly a reference: In the filming of the wedding scene for The Graduate, the church they filmed the scene in was, in fact, concerned that in banging on the window Dustin Hoffman would do just that, which is why he extends his arms the way he does (he reasoned that just flapping his hands at the end of his wrists like that wouldn't put enough pressure to break) and gives everyone the impression that the director wanted him to be a messianic figure there. Ben using a giant cross as a weapon in the famous scene doesn't really counter that impression.
• In the Teen Titans episode "Betrothed"; in the midst of fighting to get to Starfire to tell her that she's being tricked into her wedding, Robin shouts her name from behind a window to attract her attention.
• When Daria gets assigned to writing a fictional story starring people she knows, her first idea involves Jane interrupting Kevin's and Brittany's wedding and ends with Jane and Kevin escaping on a bus. The animators even went so far as to shift to letterbox while showing their insecure expressions, probably to simulate a VHS or TV broadcast of The Graduate in which only the opening and ending credits appear in widescreen.
• Parodied in Family Guy with a Bar Mitzvah in "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein".
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law had this in an episode where Phil tries to marry Birdgirl. Harvey arrives to stop the wedding, not because he loves Birdgirl, but because Phil is actually her father. However, there is no glass, and Harvey tumbles off the balcony when he tries to pound on it.
• The Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Bride to Beat" does this at the end when Bloo crashes a wedding in which he thought was Mac's.
• Animaniacs (2020) has Pinky do this at the end of "Narf Over Troubled Water". It's not a wedding scene, but they re-enact the rest of the ending afterward, with Pinky and Brain reuniting and escaping on a bus together.
• The Rugrats episode "Let Them Eat Cake" doesn't include an exact homage shot, but it revolves around a young couple named Ben and Elaine getting married, and Ben shouts "Elaine!" in panic when Elaine doesn't show up for the wedding.

---