If a cartoon character stops suddenly, there will be puffs of smoke and a sound akin to car brakes. This will occur even if said character is hovering or flying, because it's just funnier that way.
Their legs will be in front of their body. In more exaggerated depictions, they may bend forward heavily, dig a trench, blow on their feet afterwards to cool them down, etc.
Often comes at the end of a Scooby-Dooby Doors scene or accompanies someone who's Stopped Dead in Their Tracks after hearing something unexpected. It's also very usual when someone gets Wheel o' Feet while running. Compare Record Needle Scratch, a stock sound effect of a phonograph record being scratched, used to represent surprise or shock. Contrast Brake Angrily, the act of slamming a vehicle's brakes out of anger.
Examples:
Anime- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Kaguya's Delayed Reaction upon realizing Shirogane asked her out and she turned him down on reflex includes one as she suddenly freezes in her tracks.
Fan Works
- Rocket Power The Lost Episode: Squid does one when he runs to the competition to warn Otto not to do the Super McZoogle 9000.
- The Return to Gravity Falls: It happens to Dipper when he is trailing The Warlock.
Films — Animation
- Hotel Transylvania 2: When a swarm of Bat Cronies surrounds Drac, he freezes them in place, causing them to make an audible screeching sound.
- Meet the Robinsons: The flying Time Machine screeches to a halt whenever it stops careening from a time jump.
- The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach!: When running from the Spinies, Mario and Luigi stop in their tracks after getting surrounded by them.
Films — Live-Action
- Labyrinth: Ambrosius does one when Sir Didymus threatens to never feed him again if he runs from the goblins.
- Natural Born Killers: In the opening sequence, one bullet about to hit a waitress suddenly screeches to a halt so the camera can show her expression before her brains are splattered.
Live-Action TV
- The Greatest American Hero: The first time Ralph Hinkley uses his super-suit to run super-fast, he is not only accompanied by a train-like "chugga-chugga-chugga" as he runs but when he tries to stop, it's accompanied by a screeching stop. And he was running on gravel.
- LazyTown: In "Defeeted", Sportacus is put to one after Robbie's done having fun sending him gliding across the stage.
Video Games
- Pizza Tower: Peppino emits a screeching sound when stopping or turning around, assuming he moves at considerable speed.
- PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale: Kat does this during the cool-down for her Spiraling Claw (Forward + Circle) and during the cancelling process for her Gravity Slide (Down + Triangle). Both cases involve her skidding on her heels and kicking up a bit of dust.
- Super Mario Bros. 3: Mario produces that noise whenever trying to change the running direction quickly.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: In just about any game you'll get a noise like this when skidding.
Web Comics
- qxlkbh: In 136: introducing byzantine football
, one of the hitmen kneels to the ground just before entering the hyperbolic space portal, producing a written "screech" as they come to a stop.
Web Videos
- The Cartoon Man: Simon stops with a screeching sound at the start of Return of the Cartoon Man's climactic chase scene.
- Drew Gooden: A sprinting Drew screeches to a halt when his girlfriend asks him for a kiss, complete with a "slamming the brakes" pantomime.
- RebelTaxi: Pan-Pizza's "That Came Out Wrong" moment during his review of "Nevermore" is met by a car brake sound and shocked stares from the Teen Titans.
- Two Best Friends Play: When playing Deadly Premonition, they die laughing whenever they hear the "screeching brakes" sound produced by the fast-travel radio.
Websites
- NFL Quarterbacks On Facebook: When Johnny Manziel yells to Peyton Manning a "Shut Up, Kirk!", two sound effects can be heard to highlight how much the former has put his foot in his mouth —tires screeching and a Record Needle Scratch. The latter then proceeds to chew him out.
Western Animation
- 101 Dalmatian Street: Delgado's Saying Sound Effects Out Loud tic includes making a screeching sound whenever he's skidding around a corner or coming to a halt. A great part of it is due to him having wheels for hind legs.
- Adventure Time: In "The Dark Cloud", Marceline leaps into the fight against the Dark Cloud with a shout of "I'm gonna poop my pants if Finn kills this guy instead of me!". Then she comes to an audible halt, and it cuts to literally everyone else being involved in the battle, along with the citizens of the Candy Kingdom and the half-melted King of Ooo, reacting to the sight.
- Filmation's Ghostbusters: They do this all the time, especially on their way to the Transformation Sequence.
- Futurama: Hovering cars can and will screech to a halt even though they lack tires to produce such sounds due to friction.
- Tex Avery MGM Cartoons: In "One Ham's Family", a Bratty Half-Pint does a careless Banister Slide but manages to stop, shrieking sound included, mere millimeters away from the expensive vase perched on the finial. It gets lampshaded by what they say next: "I've got me good brakes, haven't I, folks?".
Real Life
- Truth in Television on certain surfaces with certain types of brake shoes.
