The intensive focus on the reception process of figures of speech, in terms of the psychological processes operated on their understanding, explains that nowadays a crucial limitation in figurative language theories is the production process of non-literal forms, as joint activities between speaker and hearer. Since the object of study has traditionally been the figurative sentence, either in isolation or in the context of an artificially constructed text, it is not surprising that the collaborative nature of figures has been overlooked. This paper focuses on hyperbole, a long neglected trope, despite its pervasive frequency of occurrence and co-occurrence with other tropes in everyday speech. It attempts to explore, from a conversation and discourse analysis framework, the ways in which hyperbole is used in interaction, paying special attention to listeners' responses, since any full account of hyperbole, like any other act of linguistic creativity, must refer to its interactive dimension. With this aim, a set of naturally-occurring conversations, chosen at random from the BNC, were analysed, and the occurrences of hyperbolic items identified. The results suggest that hyperboles need to be viewed interactively, by including listeners' responses and further contributions to the unfolding act, rather than being studied as single, creative acts by the speaker alone. Finally, the data also shows that hyperbole might be classified as a low-risk figure, since the chances of misunderstanding are low.