Big Guy Rodeo

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Basically, a small, weak person attempts to disable a big guy by jumping on their back and wrapping their arms around their neck. May overlap with Cranium Ride.

Examples of Big Guy Rodeo include:

Anime


Comic Books

  • In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Quatermain attempts this against Mr Hyde. It doesn't work, so he feeds him a mouthful of laudanum.
  • Spider-Man is famous for going up larger opponents so it's no surprise that he has pulled this move. The most famous example being his first fight against The Juggernaut. He did it as a distraction to trick Juggy into sinking in wet cement.


Film

  • In Hot Fuzz, this is Angel's move of choice during the battle with Lurch in the supermarket. It works after a couple of tries, sending him crashing into a bin of frozen treats.
  • In Judge Dredd Rob Schneider does this to Rico's ABC robot.
  • You'd expect Arnold Schwarzenegger to have done a few of these in his career. What you might not expect is for him to be the little guy. Admittedly the big guy in that scene (in Conan the Destroyer) was played by Wilt Chamberlin.
  • A subversion occurs in The Avengers when Thor jumps on Hulk's back and begins choking him with his hammer. The subversion comes from the fact that, despite the size difference, the two are very close in strength.
  • This is how Westley defeats Fezzik when they first meet in The Princess Bride.
  • One of the tactics used by Thor against the Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok.


Literature

  • Happens in The Princess Bride, with The Man in Black doing this to Fezzik. It works, too; according to Fezzik, it's because he's got used to fighting crowds and is out of practice with one-on-one duels.


Live Action TV

  • A third season episode of Primeval, about 36 minutes in has Abby doing this. (Spoilers for outside UK, if you can even access it, will not be up past early May).
  • In CSI New York, a boy is able to successfully strangle his father using this technique.


Real Life

  • Properly applied, this move is usually called a "rear naked choke" and is common in Mixed Martial Arts. Of course, it's much easier to pull off as the bigger guy against the smaller one without the whole rodeo business.


Video Games

  • Buck does this to save Romeo from a Brute Chieftan. Taken to a more practical extreme when he stabs it in the neck with a bowie knife.
  • In Meet the Scout, the Scout is seen doing this to a Heavy, with the added help of his baseball bat.
  • Sort of played in Resident Evil 4, where killing a Gigante involves riding its back.
  • Batman can do this to Titan inmates in Batman: Arkham Asylum, causing them to flail wildly. You can even get an achievement for smacking enough goons while doing this; appropriately enough, the achievement is named "Freakshow Rodeo".
  • The Jockey from Left 4 Dead 2 does this to survivors to force them into inconvenient places (such as other zombies).
  • Spidey does this to Rhino, complete with steering through concrete walls and hordes of Mooks, in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows in order to break into a prison.


Western Animation