Glass Mask/WMG

Glass Mask takes place in The Middleman universe

In the 70s, a soft drink company in Japan came upon a fish species closely related to the Peruvian Flying Pike, and just like !!!! Industries later, they decided to turn an extract from this fish into a drink, called ????. This drink causes spontaneous bouts of exposition in its drinkers, which is the reason why the company was able to keep making it for years without a Middleman intervention. It simply wasn't visible enough on the worldwide scale. Also, the name of this drink is pronounced by making a shocked expression, eyes wide open, with the optional hand in front of the mouth gesture if you're talking about a full bottle.

So, once you realise this, it becomes clear that people in Glass Mask are not constantly surprised by everything around them, they are simply thirsty and asking others for a glass/bottle of ????. (Of course, for the Japanese, it would be impolite to actually come out and say "Do you have a glass of ?????", so they just hope that someone will notice.) And every time someone starts commenting on what this or that character is doing, they just had a glass of ???? and are feeling the effects.