Necktie Leash



A situation where a man (and it almost always is a man) is dragged off or restrained by his necktie, which serves as a sort of "leash" for whoever's holding it. The one holding it is almost always a woman, and this trope can be seen as the visual equivalent of "pussy whipped", possibly serving as a visual cue for a Henpecked Husband. It's also a way of suggesting that some major league smooching (or beyond) is going to occur later off screen.

Obviously, a tie serves as a handy holding strap for anyone to grab—but of course, Freudian psychologists are prompt to note that a full cravat is a phallic symbol—hence women using them to lead their men around.

This trope is usually used to indicate who has the control in a relationship and is almost always played for laughs, though you'll never see it happen with a man holding a woman like this and have it be seen as funny. Also, women don't wear neckties as much.

Anime

 * In the first chronological episode of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon is dragged off in this fashion by Haruhi, quickly establishing who's in charge of their strange friendship.
 * Again, midway through the second OP, with a bold tug.
 * In the novels she usually pulls him along arm in arm instead.
 * A male-on-male example occurs in Genshiken, when Ogiue draws a hardcore Yaoi doujinshi inspired by one male member of the titular club pulling the other's tie.
 * A non-romantic and non-funny example occurs in Noir, when Kirika breaks a man's neck by flipping him over a beam while holding his tie. It's not pretty. But it's unbelievably AWESOME
 * Ryoko torments her subordinate this way in The Case Files of Yakushiji Ryoko, showing that he is basically her slave-boy. Monami, loves doing this to him as well, to the point that he once had to sleep in her bed because she fell asleep still holding it.
 * In the first episode of Gunslinger Girl, a thug gets the bright idea to grab Giuseppe by the tie and threaten him. Henrietta is standing right there and is not happy with this arrangement. Long story short, all the thugs end up dead.
 * In the third volume of the yaoi manga Under Grand Hotel Swordfish does this to Sen.
 * In Chapter 37 of Kaichou wa Maid Sama, Usui proposes a round of the Pocky Game when Misaki asks him for something. Eventually, she complies, and ends up pulling him in for a kiss by his tie.
 * Another male-on-male version: in an Axis Powers Hetalia strip, Norway strangles Denmark with his own tie.
 * In Bakuman｡, after Takagi says that he's confident Yakusa North High will be begging for him to attend in spite of his being suspended for punching Ishizawa, his girlfriend Miyoshi does this to Mashiro, who's walking alongside her, and tells him that she likes him because he says things like that.
 * In the manga for Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S, Subaru, in response to people still judging her and Teana as the "airheaded pair," says that if they continue to do well, people will change their minds. Teana, irritated, grabs Subaru's necktie, pulls her in and reminds her that it's her fault they got that reputation.
 * Done to Sanji of One Piece in a pre-violent way. After admitting that he can't beat Kalifa because he Wouldn't Hit a Girl, the CP 9 agent does this before kicking him off the balcony of her room.
 * The entire time, she's also mocking him for being too weak for overcoming his moral issues. There was a lot of freudian undertones there.

Film

 * A man is dragged off by a dancer in this fashion in Charlie Wilson's War, with the heavy implication that they have sex later.
 * Jessica Rabbit does this to Eddie Valient during her introduction number in the Ink and Paint club in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
 * The poster of the movie Pretty Woman feature Julia Roberts's character doing this to Richard Gere's.
 * Shows up briefly in The Incredibles. During the Good Times Montage, there is a shot of Helen Parr dragging Bob back into the house by his tie.
 * And since he has Super Strength and appears to outweigh her by about 200 pounds, this would be the aforementioned Fetish Fuel usage.
 * In Captain America: The First Avenger, a military secretary does this to Steve when she attempts to seduce him. It kind of works too, at least up until his Love Interest walks in on the two.
 * Subverted in Toy Story and Toy Story 2. While Woody does have a neckerchief on, Bo Peep uses her shepherd's crook to drag Woody along.
 * During the song "Topsy Turvy" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, during her dance Esmeralda runs up to Frollo, pulls him toward her face with her scarf, and kisses him.

Live Action TV

 * In Pushing Daisies Ned resurrects Chuck who has been placed in her coffin and Chuck (whose previous memory was of being strangled with a plastic sack) reacts by grabbing his tie and pulling him forward, causing him to hit his head on the coffin lid.
 * In an episode Cheers, people keep trying to grab Coach by his tie when he tells them he invited Diane back to Cheers - but he's wearing a clip-on, so it just comes right off! Eventually, Coach grabs his own tie and throws it to the floor.
 * In an episode of Open All Hours, David Jason's character gets suddenly pulled into a house by a woman.
 * In a rare male-male example, the Bones episode "The Man in the Cell" has a very annoyed Booth grab Zach Addy's tie and lead him out of an examination room.
 * In Stargate SG-1 Vala does this to Cam's old friend Darrell when he asks her if she wants refreshment. "It's flammable!"
 * CJ often kisses Danny using this in The West Wing.
 * Doctor Who: Amy Pond does this repeatedly to the Eleventh Doctor while he's still wearing Ten's outfit.
 * This is one of the many reasons he switches to a bow tie.
 * On Married... with Children, Marcy did this to Jefferson when they were role-playing as Al and Peggy.

Literature

 * In Silicon Wolfpack, Mark and Epsilon each try this during the course of their fight. They are both wearing clip-ons.
 * In The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, Kate uses this trope on Dirk when she's chewing him out for following her and running into her car. He eventually gets tired of this, and subverts it by taking off his tie and handing it to her.

Music

 * Britney Spears does this to a middle-aged man in her 'Toxic' video.

Professional Wrestling

 * Has happened more than once to I.R.S.

Video Games

 * Invoked in Super Smash Brothers where some characters look like they are doing this to Donkey Kong when they grab him, through careful placing of their models.
 * In Trauma Team, this seems to be Naomi's favorite way of getting Little Guy's attention.

Western Animation

 * Huntress does this to The Question in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Double Date", when it's heavily implied that they have sex offscreen (the fact that they're a couple later in the series supports this).

Other

 * This Victor Borge comedy routine, involving a rather...interesting signal to turn the page of Borge's sheet music.
 * Lois Lane does this to Clark Kent in the song "You've Got Possibilities" in the highly Narmtastic Superman musical "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman".
 * Part of The Angry Video Game Nerd vs. The Nostalgia Critic Final Battle involved the Nerd grabbing the Critic's tie in order to beat him up (about 15 seconds in here).
 * And according to Spoony,
 * And in fic, the amount of times that tie has been grabbed, pulled or been used as some kind of bondage has got to be far in the double-digits by now.
 * Once again involving Spoony, during Kickassia episode 3 he briefly grabs Chris Larios' tie, but doesn't hold on for long or really pull.
 * Obscurus Lupa joins in on the fun in Suburban Knights. She's done it twice so far.
 * It also got pulled quite a bit when he was a tied to a chair hostage in a Game Heroes kidnapping promo. Considering they had a gun at his head and he was already scared out of his mind, it's safe to say they were just doing it for the dominance factor.
 * This piece of Culture Shock fanart.
 * Police uniforms never include "real" ties (clip-on, if any) in order to prevent this or worse.
 * This is also true for ties and id-cards worn by people in security firms.
 * Same goes for people in places where they operate heavy machinery (admittedly, these guys don't usually wear ties, but there is always some manager that decides to visit wearing a three piece suit.)