A spit-take is a comedic technique or reaction in which someone spits a drink, or sometimes food, out of their mouth as a reaction to a surprising or funny statement.
An essential part of the spit-take is comedic timing. The person performing the spit-take usually starts drinking or eating right before the punchline is delivered. When the joke hits, the person accentuates the effect by pretending that the alleged humor/shock is so overwhelming and irresistible, that they cannot even control the urge of laughter/scream before swallowing, and therefore has to reflexively spit out the mouthful of content to prevent choking.
In performance, a spit-take represents a reaction of shock, while in real life it is typically one of mirth.
"Spit take" was included in the Oxford Dictionaries (not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary ) in a 2014 update. [1] It was also added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in an April 2019 update.
The spit-take, as a comedic technique, is a noun, but it shows up in media in some different forms. It can be seen used figuratively in a description of a satire work, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping : "(it) is a spit-take on the world of contemporary pop music and celebrity..."
It can also be used as a verb: "On the morning of May 12, LinkedIn ... emailed scores of my contacts and told them I'm a professional racist. It was one of those updates that LinkedIn regularly sends its users, algorithmically assembled missives about their connections' appearances in the media.... This surely caused a few of my professional acquaintances to spit-take. — Will Johnson, Slate , 24 May 2016." [2]
The conjugation of spit-take as a verb is not clearly defined. There is evidence of both "spit-taked" and "spit took." Constructions like "made me spit-take" are convenient for avoiding this issue all together. Beyond that, leaving the phrase as a noun, like "do a spit-take," continues to be the most common usage.
Originally called a spit gag, the word itself most likely dates to the early 20th century, but it mostly existed in showbiz vernacular.
Danny Thomas, commonly associated with the spit-take, is credited[ by whom? ] as the comedian who made it famous. It is sometimes referred to as the "Danny Thomas spit take." He perfected it during the 11 seasons of The Danny Thomas Show (1953-1964). However, Ricky Ricardo did it a year earlier in an I Love Lucy (1951-1957) episode. Also a year before Thomas, a spit-take was performed by David Bruce in a 1952 episode of Beulah (1950-1953), "The New Arrival." It has been used in several sitcoms since.
The "spit" part of the term is clear, but the "take" part is a little less obvious. In this context, the word "take" is used in the sense of a visible response or reaction (as to something unexpected). It is similar in construction to the phrase "double-take". [3]
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