"Excuse me, waiter. I ordered the veal piccata."
A cloche (French for "bell") is that big dome-shaped silver cover they put on top of plates at fancy, expensive restaurants. In fiction, when you see one of those in any setting that isn't a fancy restaurant, it will almost certainly be used to dramatically reveal something. Just put the object on a big plate, cover it up, and bring it to the person you want to surprise. Remove the cloche with a dramatic flourish and watch them react with shock, disgust, horror, or disappointment. The thing on the plate could be a priceless artifact, an incriminating photo, your worst enemy's severed head...the possibilities are endless.
A milder example is when the person being served is anticipating food, but the meal turns out to be something gross, inedible, bizarre, or just not what they ordered. Or the plate is totally empty.
Has nothing to do with cloche hats, bell-shaped hats that were popular among flappers in the 1920s.
Related:
- Decapitation Presentation: With the "human head under the cloche" version.
- Dramatic Curtain Toss: A similar kind of reveal.
Lift the cloche to reveal the examples!:
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Advertising
- A Nickelodeon stop-motion animated bumper from the 1980s
features a waiter lifting a cloche three times to reveal a singing Inuit, then a hippo eating grass, and finally a Viking singing opera. The last one, instead of being covered back up by the cloche, is squashed by a heavy orange weight with the Nickelodeon logo.
- In a PSA from 1974, Cookie Monster from Sesame Street is interviewed at some kind of outdoor dining setting. But to the reporter's surprise, the food he is served under the cloches is not cookies, but rather a variety of real foods such as meat and veggies. Cookie Monster explains that he cannot only eat cookies to be healthy. Finally, a cloche is delivered which contains a whistle — "for dessert". Cookie Monster blows the whistle and an avalanche of cookies descends from an approaching front-end loader.
Comic Books
- Batman:
- Played with in Death of the Family. In the climax, Joker hosts a mock dinner in the caves leading to the Batcave, where he has taken all of Batman's allies captive with their faces being bandaged. Then a brainwashed Alfred serves the main course, hidden under cloches. Everything implies Joker has cut off the faces of his captives, as he did with his own, and when the cloches are lifted, the viewer and characters see the cut-off faces of the captured heroes lying on the plates on top of some ice. However, they're not real faces, because after Batman saves everyone, they are revealed to still have their face. It was just another cruel joke.
- When Batman once again Forgets to Eat, Alfred comes with a cloche-covered platter which batman refuses. Alfred sasses him about it, revealing "a generous portion of nothing" under the cloche, lamenting how it will all go to waste. And "emptying" the platter into the trash next panel.
- Largo Winch: One arc has the waiter at a fancy restaurant pull up the cloche and faint when he realizes he's been carrying a severed human head.
Comic Strips
- Garfield: In this comic, Garfield serves Jon a plate with a cloche, claiming he made Jon dinner. But when he removes the cloche the plate is empty since, as Garfield puts it, he already ate it for Jon's convenience.
Fan Works
- Lila's Lament: On the first day of her new life as Gabriel's daughter and the top supermodel of his fashion line, Lila sits down to breakfast and Natalie brings her a covered dish. Her mouth waters at the possibilities, imagining things like a fancy quiche or Belgian waffles covered in chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Imagine her surprise when the cloche comes off and reveals celery sticks and toast, with Nathalie explaining that she needs to stay thin to be a model.
Film — Animation
- The Bad Guys (2022): While sneaking into the award ceremony to steal the Golden Dolphin award, the titular Bad Guys send a cart with a dish on it labelled "Fish Surprise" to the guards. After they lift the cloche, Mr. Piranha yells "SURPRISE!" and knocks them out so they can proceed with their heist.
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: During the initial montage of a Who Christmas, a Who waiter puts a cloche and platter on the table, then picks up the cloche to reveal a smaller Who waiter with a proportional cloche. This leads to a third, fourth, and then a fifth who presents the final platter and cloche to Cindy Lou, who lifts the cloche to reveal a strawberry.
- The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part: As Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi and Batman make preparations for their wedding, Watevra suggests releasing bats instead of doves at the wedding and opens a cloche full of bats that come flying out.
- The Little Mermaid (1989): Ariel, Prince Eric and Grimsby are sitting down for dinner. As he talks to Eric, Grimsby lifts his cloche, revealing Sebastian underneath, hiding from Ax-Crazy Chef Louie. Ariel quickly hides him under her cloche before the others notice.
Grimsby: Now, let's eat before this crab wanders off my plate. [puts his fork down to an empty plate]
- Shark Tale: At Oscar's sit-down with the sharks, Don Lino has a shark-sized dish with a cloche brought in, which he lifts to reveal Angie Bound and Gagged underneath. While it's not much of a surprise to Oscar, as Angie's kidnap was what forced him to attend the sit-down in the first place, it still reinforces the leverage the sharks have over him. Or so they think, as he swiftly orders a disguised Lenny to grab her in his mouth.
Film — Live-Action
- An American Werewolf in Paris: When Brad's ghosts first appears to Andy, he does it by showing his head from under a cloche in the restaurant he's visiting. Of course, Andy is the only one that can see the ghost; to the people around, it looks like Andy is yelling at the fish that he's dead.
- Babe: Pig in the City: During Fugly Floom's clown show, Babe is involved in one of the show's gags where the apes bring out a platter with a cloche and Fugly places it on the table and opens it to reveal Babe's head poking out of it.
- Barney's Great Adventure: While searching for the missing rainbow egg, Barney and the kids end up in a French restaurant. While Barney entertains the patrons by singing "If All the Raindrops," the kids lift up cloches to search for the egg. Marcella finds escargot under one cloche and has a disgusted reaction.
- Carry On Up the Khyber: During the siege of the governor's residence, Sir Sidney decides to host a dinner party where the guests ignore what the rebels are doing outside. When the butler brings in the main course, he takes off the cloche to reveal the severed (but still speaking) head of the local fakir. Sir Sidney is outraged... because he ordered a sucking pig. He also points out that the rebels have been unsporting, since it is the wrong season for hunting fakirs.
- Cruella: Horace causes chaos at the Baroness's Black and White Ball by putting three huge rats on top of a dish, hiding them under a cloche, and then unleashing them in the ballroom, causing all the guests to scream and start running. The incident causes the Baroness, a renowned fashion designer, to become a laughingstock in the newspapers.
- Diamonds Are Forever ended with James Bond and Tiffany Case being served dinner by Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. They remove the cloche from several dishes including La Bombe Surprise...which is an actual bomb!
- Kingsman: The Secret Service: Played for Laughs when Valentine has a private dinner with Harry. The build-up would suggest a very fancy meal when Gazelle brings out the tray, only for her to pull the cloche and reveal that it's simply McDonald's, a result of Valentine's lower-class history and nouveau riche nature. Harry, ever the gentleman, rolls with it and requests the Big Mac for dinner.
- Theatre of Blood: A cloche is used for the big reveal of the Titus Andronicus-themed murder, where Lionheart and his crew have put on a fake cooking show for the victim. "Two dogs — two pies!"
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?: Jane does this twice to torment her sister Blanche. First with Blanche's pet parakeet, then with a large rat (which Jane prefaces with "Oh, Blanche? You know we've got rats in the cellar?").
Literature
- The 1001 Nights contains the tale of Barmecide, a prince who as a joke invites a beggar to a lavish feast of covered dishes. However, as each dish is uncovered, it turns out to be empty. The prince pretends to eat and drink from them, and the beggar realizes that he has to play along, praising the "dishes" and "eating" them with good manners. Finally, when the prince offers imaginary "wine," the beggar refuses it on the grounds that he has already had too much "wine", and then "drunkenly" knocks the prince over. The prince takes the hint, praises the beggar for playing along, has him served a real feast, and gives him a job in his household. The phrase "Barmecide feast" has come to mean something lavish that turns out to be illusory.
- Clue: In book #1, chapter 12 ("April Fools"), a covered dish has been added to the table without anyone noticing, which is supposed to contain dessert — baked Alaska. When Mr. Boddy whips the lid off though, it reveals Mrs. White's head, sitting on a bed of lettuce with an apple in its mouth. Almost everyone is horrified at the sight, but Mr. Green just laughs and pulls out the apple, and Mrs. White promptly yells "April Fools!" before lowering her head out through a hole in the tray. As she explains afterward, she and Mr. Green had set the whole thing up as a prank for the holiday.
- In "Doctor Know-All", one of the fairy tales of The Brothers Grimm, a man named Crabb tries to make his way in the world by calling himself Doctor Know-All. At the climax of the story, a nobleman asks him to name what is in a covered dish, and having no idea, he says "Alas, poor Crabb!" The nobleman reveals that the dish is crab, and he gets a happy ending purely by luck.
- The Lunar Chronicles: Queen Levana hates mirrors because her glamour can't fool them and they always show a person's true face. When Prince Kai is having dinner with her, Levana's plate has a hand mirror on it when uncovered, and she is furious. Sybil almost makes the servant who brought it stab out her own eye until Kai lies that he was responsible and apologizes. After she leaves, he examines the mirror and notices a Lunar rune on the back — she had it put on that plate to test what he would do.
- Masquerade of the Red Death: At one point, a group of American gangsters meets a group of Mafia vampires to discuss an alliance. A mindreader among the vampires learns that one of the gangsters is planning to double-cross them. The vampires express their displeasure by seating the rest of the gangsters for dinner, bringing in several covered trays, then removing the cloches to reveal the hacked remains of the traitor.
- Sherlock Holmes: In the climax of "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty", Holmes reveals that he has retrieved the titular treaty by returning it to the client in this manner.
Phelps raised the cover, and as he did so he uttered a scream, and sat there staring with a face as white as the plate upon which he looked. Across the centre of it was lying a little cylinder of blue-gray paper. He caught it up, devoured it with his eyes, and then danced madly about the room, pressing it to his bosom and shrieking out in his delight. Then he fell back into an arm-chair so limp and exhausted with his own emotions that we had to pour brandy down his throat to keep him from fainting.
- Stuck On Earth: The Filber family is barely scraping by on Ruth's job as a waitress. During one family dinner, she brings out a covered dish. Inside isn't food, but a huge pile of overdue bills.
Ruth: Mortgage bill. Overdue. Four hundred and thirty-two dollars. We’re going to lose the house.Graham: Ruth, please. Don’t alarm the kids. No one’s going to take our house.Ruth: (pulls away) STOP! I can’t do it anymore, Graham. Not on what I make at the diner. Not with you drinking it away.Graham: Now you know I’ve been looking—Ruth: We don’t even have money to take your son’s braces off his teeth! What kind of a man are you?
- Vorkosigan Saga: Inverted and then subverted in A Civil Campaign, first when Miles covers a kitten that climbed up onto the table, and then when Ivan, arriving later, uncovers it, notes deadpan "Ah. One of you." and covers it again.
Live-Action TV
- Bewitched: This trope served as the prank-loving Uncle Arthur's Establishing Character Moment in "The Joker is a Card." After Samantha and Darrin's dinner with Endora is plagued with practical jokes, Sam realizes that Uncle Arthur must be nearby, and Endora points out a covered cloche as the perfect hiding place. When Sam lifts the lid, they discover Arthur's head poking out from a bed of lettuce, and he immediately quips "Sorry for not rising, but I'm up to my neck in work!," showcasing his love of tricks and terrible puns.
- Big Brother: Played for laughs in the fifth UK series. In the second week, Emma and Michelle were supposedly evicted, but actually moved to a bedsit next to the main house; and a few days later, they were allowed back in. This was presented to the other housemates in the form of a banquet with two cloches, which were lifted to reveal Emma and Michelle's heads, sticking up through holes in the table, their bodies being hidden by the tablecloth. This surprise did not go down well with Victor, who had been carefully plotting his own win, and a massive fight ensued, most of which was not shown on television, and Emma was evicted permanently.
- A Bit of Fry and Laurie: In one sketch, taking place in a posh restaurant, Fry orders "Chicken a la Croix, prepared at the table". When the food arrives, Laurie, playing the waiter, takes off a cloche to reveal a live chicken — "prepared at the table" includes watching the chicken being slaughtered. Fry is put off and orders a salad instead.
- A key part of Chopped, where the losing dish of each round is revealed by Ted Allen revealing it from underneath a cloche.
- Fawlty Towers: Played for laughs at the end of "Gourmet Night". Basil Fawlty is about to serve what he believes to be duck, but when he removes the cloche, the food is revealed to be a dessert. He rummages around inside the dessert in a vain attempt to find the duck that he thinks must be hidden inside before telling his guests "Duck's off, sorry."
- Hell's Kitchen: When presenting dishes to Chef Ramsay and sometimes the guests of the episode, they are always revealed from under cloches. In Season 3, Episode 5, the red team and blue team are presenting sample dishes for a wedding menu, but the red team is very hesitant to present theirs. It turns out to be a single, overcooked duck breast with no sauces, sides, garnish, or anything else. Bonnie admits in the confessional that when it was revealed, she wanted to disintegrate on the spot.
- LazyTown: In "The Lazy Genie", Robbie Rotten wishes to obtain some money, and then food by speaking the words three times before lifting up a cloche and is surprised to find nothing underneath each time. This leads to him eventually mail-ordering a Genie of Everlasting Eternity, who provides the main conflict of the episode.
- Mr. Bean: In "The Return of Mr Bean", Mr Bean's restaurant meal is presented from under a cloche. He discovers that he does not like the food at all, and goes to great lengths to dispose of it discreetly. When Mr Bean angrily reveals the bits of food hidden everywhere, the manager apologetically presents him with another dish, and the cloche is lifted to reveal... the same meal again.
- Out of This World (1987): In "The Secret of Evie's Success", Evie gets a job at a restaurant and soon earns the position of "waitress of the month". Events lead her to try and get fired, and she succeeds after a particular customer demands a plate of fresh chicken. She uses her powers to give him what he wants — a covered dish that, when the lid is lifted, reveals a chicken that's so fresh, it's still alive.
- Rome: When Julius Caesar visits the court of Ptolemy XIII of Egypt chasing his rival Pompey, who fled after the battle of Pharsalus, Ptolemy delivers Pompey's severed head in a pot to Caesar, complete with servant bringing out a closed pot, placing it on a table, then opening it and placing Ptolemy's head on a plate.
- Roseanne: In the season two Halloween episode "BOO!", during their haunted house tour, Roseanne lifts a cloche to reveal Jackie's severed head (with her actually sticking her head up through a hole in the table).
- Scream Queens (2015)’s Thanksgiving Episode (titled simply “Thanksgiving'') ends with one of these as Chanel removes the cloche to what was supposed to be a roast turkey only for her to scream as the actual contents are revealed to be Gigi Caldwell’s severed head.
- Sesame Street: In one sketch, Cookie Monster is expecting a plate of cookies under a cloche, with the number of cookies being equal to the number of the day; much to Cookie Monster's dismay, the number of the day is zero, so there are no cookies on the plate.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In ''Inquisition", everyone has been confined to quarters during the hunt for a Dominion spy, and even the replicators have been turned off. Dr. Bashir finally gets his order of scones, moba jam, and red leaf tea, puts it on the table, and removes the cloche—only to reveal Worf's order of live gagh. Of course, since the whole thing is just an elaborate holodeck simulation meant to break Bashir's will, it's just part of his extended torture.
- Star Trek: Voyager: In "The Haunting of Deck Twelve", an alien presence is swept up in nebula gas that Voyager absorbs through its engine collectors. When the presence begins to affect systems, and control Voyager, like a ghost in a haunted house, Neelix becomes scared. He meets up with Tuvok, who tries to calm him down. To do so, Neelix thinks back to a happy memory in the mess hall, where he's surrounded by his friends and about to dine on his favorite food. However, when he opens the cloche, Neelix is so scared by the alien presence that he imagines a cloud of nebula gas, in the shape of a demonic fanged face, underneath.
Pro Wrestling
- The Boogeyman had an occasional tendency to do this, unsurprisingly with the severed head variety. First in a backstage segment before his debut match against Simon Dean, and again in a commercial promoting Summerslam 2006.
Theme Parks
- For a while, the Disney Theme Parks had an animatronic Remy from Ratatouille that toured specific restaurants in Epcot's Paris. The animatronic would be taken around the restaurant by a waiter/cast member, and they would entertain guests together. The cast member always introduced Remy to the diners by removing the cloche from the plate Remy sits on.
Video Games
- This is common in BeTrapped! among the things under the cloche are bombs, trapped pockets of poisonous gas, and even hookahs!
- Darkest Dungeon: Manservant enemies in the Courtyard carry trays with cloches on them that they often use as shields. Their "Refined Palate" attack consists of lifting the cloche and revealing the dish of the night: A grotesque arrangement of human offal that stuns and stresses whoever it's presented to from sheer disgust.
- Deltarune: In Chapter 2, Queen's Mansion has a lot of these.
- The Swatchlings are butlers who work for Queen, their attacks in battle involve moving cloches that have different things hidden under them depending on which colours the Swatchlings are. Earlier in the game, during one of your encounters with Queen in the Cyber Field, she has a Swatchling bring in a cloche; beneath it is an arcade game that's far too big to realistically fit under it, clearly played for humor.
- Other cloches in the mansion have various items hidden under them, as well as two puzzles where you have to find a key hidden under one of them (the others have bombs). There's also a big room that is filled with cloches on tables which keeps resetting if you fail to find the key 3 times until you get some help from the Annoying Dog, who was hidden under one of the tables. In another room, interacting with a very long line of cloches will have them fly and shoot projectiles at you until you lift the last one, which has a chest under it which contains the Glowshard for that chapter.
- Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt: In the first game, there is a dining room table filled with cloche-covered platters. Under one of the two you can actually click on is a giant eyeball that screams and raises Garfield's fear level.
- Last Half of Darkness: If you lift the lid on a silver platter on a dining table, a ghost jumps out.
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham: In the level "Power of Love", during the battle against the Predator, Cyborg, Flash, and Martian Manhunter try to lure the embodiment of love by setting up a dinner date for it. When Cyborg uses his Magnet Suit to open the cloche on the table, a bundle of dynamite underneath blows up in its face.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Right before the final battle against Jasper Batt Jr. — the final target of Travis' Roaring Rampage of Revenge — Jasper makes a point about the Cycle of Revenge and "poetic justice", having three butlers present three silver platters containing the bloodied, decapitated heads of Sylvia (Travis' lover), Henry (his brother), and Shinobu (his apprentice), riling Travis up even more. It's shortly revealed by the entrance of the real Henry that they're all just fakes — Jasper just wanted to fuck with Travis even more before he kills him.
- Pink Panther: Hokus Pokus Pink: In the third act, set in Ancient Greece, Pink has to defeat two gorgons but without shedding any blood. Pink can defeat the first one by offering her a Greek salad he brought with him from the Periowinkle mansion, and which is served on a plate with a cloche. Once the gorgon lifts the cloche off the plate, she inadvertently glimpses her own reflection in the cloche and petrifies.
- Team Fortress 2: Played for dark laughs with "Headcase", one of the Pyro taunts where the Pyro lifts a cloche to reveal a Heavy's severed head on a plate, completely oblivious to what's under the cloche even after the reveal.
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon: In the game's prologue, set fifty years before the start of the game, a young Masumi Arakawa is taken out to dinner by his father to have Peking duck, but when the waiter lifts the cloche it reveals a revolver under it, which the waiter uses to kill Arakawa's father in front of him. In the game itself, Ryuhei Hoshino, who was the gunman in the prologue and is now the head of his own yakuza clan, invites Ichiban to dine with him and the cloche again is lifted to reveal a revolver. This time, however, it's Hoshino's way of telling Ichiban that he should avenge Arakawa's murder by tracking the killer down himself. Ichiban, being an idealist, refuses to take a life, even in revenge for the death of his beloved master.
Web Animation
- The Cyanide & Happiness Show:
- In "Le Telepathé", Stephen receives his dinner from the waiter, who lifts the cloche and reveals it to be a pile of dicks, much to his comical shock while insisting that he did not order that.
- Double subverted in "Dinner with the Folks". The boyfriend is shocked to learn that his girlfriend's parents are Satanists. After the parents chant and coat the wall with sigils, the father suggests the boyfriend "do the carving" on their dinner with a special blade. The girlfriend's mother then places a covered plate on the table and removes the cloche, revealing a baby. She then wonders aloud how he got in there, scoops him up, and replaces him with a baby goat wearing a onesie. Horrified and reluctant, the boyfriend does the carving, though tastefully off-screen.
Webcomics
- It's Jeff!: Jeff the Land Shark eats the Avengers' Thanksgiving turkey, then takes a nap under the cloche. Kate Bishop obliviously presents it to the others, leaving them shocked and horrified with the impression that Jeff had been cooked and served. Jeff wakes up, to everyone's relief, though his shark grin with turkey bits and bones stuck to his teeth gave away what happened to the turkey.
Web Video
- In one of Nathan Fielder's videos, he offers someone a plate covered with a cloche, only to reveal that it has nothing underneath it.
Nathan: I hope you're hungry...for nothing!
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: In "Life’s Ruff", Hip and Hop Koopa sneak into King Windbag’s castle to steal his magic wand. One of the king’s servants was bringing him a roast duck on a silver plate with a cloche over it. The evil twins knock out the servant before he can get to King Windbag. Then, Hip walks into the room King Windbag is in, wearing the servant’s hat over his face as a disguise, and holding the plate and cloche. He then lifts up the cloche, revealing Hop is on the plate. Catching King Windbag off-guard, Hop then dives forward and snatches his wand from him.
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force: At the end of "Monster", Frylock hears someone knocking on the door, opening it to find a demon-possessed Shake who lifts up the cloche showing a decapitated Carl as Frylock screams.
- Arcane: Subverted in "The Monster You Created"; Jinx has Vi and Silco tied up at a macabre imitation of a child's tea party. She brings out a covered dish and tells Vi, "I paid your girlfriend a visit.” When a horrified Vi asks what she'd done with her, Jinx says that she "made her a snack" and lifts the cloche to reveal a cupcake.
Jinx: Sheesh, I'm not that crazy.
- Arthur: In "Arthur's Family Vacation," David is really excited about the lobster dinner they have planned. When they're at the restaurant, the waiter brings dishes with cloches, and David tells Arthur and D.W. to close their eyes. When the cover is removed, he tells them to open their eyes. They scream in horror at the lobster.
D.W.: It's a giant bug!Arthur: How are you supposed to eat these things anyway?
- Codename: Kids Next Door: In "Operation: C.L.U.E.S.", Numbuh 2 and Numbuh 3's families have dinner together, during which the lights go out and Numbuh 3's Rainbow Monkey disappears. Numbuh 2's mother just tries to keep the dinner going and lifts the cloche to eat their turkey but under it was actually the Rainbow Monkey with a fork embedded in its back, which is treated as a murder.
- The Dragon Prince: In "True Heart", Rayla decides to help Runaan, who is currently imprisoned in the Banther Lodge, escape so he can return to the Silvergrove. She sends a cloche down through the dumbwaiter; when the guards inspect it, Stella the Cuddlemonkey jumps out from underneath and attacks them.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: At the beginning of the episode "Ed… Pass It On…," Eddy sets up a restaurant scam, and Johnny orders an Ed Turkey. When Edd lifts up the cloche, it turns out that Ed used himself as the turkey (while naked), when Edd told him to use a real turkey. All of the other kids leave in disgust.
- Kamp Koral: In "Scaredy Squirrel", Sandy can't find SpongeBob and Patrick anywhere when she's in the creepy Trawler cabin overnight. When they invite her for dinner, she's terrified. Jimmy Blobfish and Roxy lift two cloches to reveal SpongeBob and Patrick on the plates, scaring Sandy, who thinks the Trawlers killed them. It turns out SpongeBob and Patrick are alive after all and wanted to be at the dinner to make Sandy feel welcome.
- In the Looney Tunes short "Hare We Go", Bugs Bunny presents Christopher Columbus with a cloche when it is clear they are running low on rations. When all it contains is a single bean, Columbus seeks to make hasenpfeffer out of Bugs.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles," young Applejack sits down to a fancy dinner with her upper-crust Manehattan relatives, where the waiters bring in dishes covered by big silver cloches. She exclaims, "I'm so hungry I could eat a— " before the meal is revealed to be nothing but a tiny orange seed and a sprig of wheat in brown sauce.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: The opening credits have Scooby lift a cloche being served to him, only to reveal a monster's growling head on the serving platter.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Catch Em If You Can", Homer and Marge spontaneously decide to run off and spend time together without the kids (using Flanders' credit card); when Bart and Lisa figure this out, they decide to pursue them (using Rod's credit card). Cue Homer lifting the cloche off his hotel room service to reveal Bart and Lisa.
- In "The Fight Before Christmas", the family surprises Marge on Christmas morning with "breakfast in bed" underneath a cloche. Homer says "Now we just have to make it" and lifts the cloche to reveal bowls, spoons and ingredients.
- Tiny Toon Adventures:
- In "Buttering Up The Buttfields", Buster and Plucky chase away a stuck-up fat couple that wanted to eat them by lifting a cloche and presenting their meal as "Skunkette A La Fifi", showing coyly posed Fifi La Fume underneath.
- Fifi does this a second time in "How I Spent My Vacation" while trying to sneak into the hotel via meal cart in order to meet movie star Johnny Pew. She instead gets sent to a room full of current at the time talk show hosts and after the cloche is mistakenly used near a drum set for a Rimshot, she jumps out the window, startling the room.
- Tom and Jerry: Subverted in "The Million Dollar Cat''. Tom thinks he's finally rid of Jerry by pretending to set a fire, causing Jerry to jump out a window, and goes to eat a meal sent to him. Fearing Jerry is hidden under it, he throws it off to reveal his breakfast - Jerry's actually hiding in the napkin.
