Cherry Tapping: Difference between revisions
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Winning feels good, and the more [[Humiliation Conga|humiliating it is]] for your foe, the greater the satisfaction. Who cares about good sportsmanship and "being big about it"? Forget giving that cardboard villain who kidnapped the princess a [[Last Second Chance]], you just want to ''grind'' that [[Smug Snake]]'s head into the earth in the most [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|soul-crushingly cheap way possible]] for all the grief he's caused you. Or because you can. Both are good reasons, ''really!''
Enter '''Cherry Tapping''', the [[Video Games|video game]] equivalent of the [[Humiliation Conga]]. Cherry Tapping uses [[Improbable Weapon User|strange]] [[Joke Item|and/or]] [[Nerf Arm|weak]] "weapons", or [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|powers that are lame]], [[Useless Useful Spell|weak]], and/or stupid looking to defeat powerful, fear-inspiring foes and cheapen their value and status as [[Boss Battle|Bosses]]. If you're playing an [[FPS]], [[The Points Mean Nothing|bonus points]] if you rough up their corpses after they get killed. It can be a way to show off crushingly superior fighting technique by using a [[Joke Character]] in a fighting game; a slow, weak melee weapon in a war game; or shameless abuse of [[Level Grinding]] to kill the [[Big Bad]] with a feather duster.
Cherry Tapping is sort of the opposite of strategies like [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] which [[Attack Its Weak Point|exploit the enemy's inherent weaknesses]] [[For Massive Damage]]. Even if it ''is'' a [[One-Hit Kill]] à la [[Revive Kills Zombie]], Cherry Tapping is purposely using weapons others think of as weak to humiliate, ignoring other items in the arsenal that do damage at a more effective rate. Cherry Tapping is sometimes referred to as ''Woodpeckering'', can (and often will) induce [[Death of a Thousand Cuts]], requires being [[Willfully Weak]], and often goes to show even a [[Big Bad]] with [[Contractual Boss Immunity]] can be utterly humiliated. May be a variation of [[Stat Grinding|stat/skill grinding]], if what counts is using the skill as such or hitting, rather than significant results.
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== Literature ==
* In the X-Wing series book, ''Starfighters of Adumar,'' Wes Janson gets into a duel with a pompous and arrogant native noble using "blastswords," basically blasters on a stick, the prefered weapon for such things. After [[I Shall Taunt You|hurling a bunch of insults]], he throws the sword away and proceeds to deliver a [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]] all the while explaining what it means to be a real warrior. It ends when they guy is so beaten down and disoriented that he doesn't even know where Wes is (standing right in front of him) who then knocks him out with a slap to the face, specifically for this purpose.
* The climax of ''[[Harry Potter and
** Also - not exactly non-lethal, but definitely primitive compared to a wand: in the Battle of Hogwarts, Neville {{spoiler|fights the entire time using only the Sword of Gryffindor - no magic.}}
* ''[[Wheel of Time]]'': [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] by Semirhage in the prologue of ''Lord of Chaos''.
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== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* On ''[[Leverage]]'', Eliot specializes in this, having defeated opponents with everything ranging from plastic bats to an appetizer. However his best example comes from this:
{{quote|'''Hardison''': "Look, nobody's asking Eliot to kill someone with a Nerf sword..."
'''Eliot''': "Damascus. 1992." }}
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=== [[Collectible Card Game]]s ===
* Many of the more out-there combo decks in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' can be used to savage an opponent in the most humiliating ways imaginable. This was particularly prevalent during initial playtesting, before all the rules were finalized. One story goes that, before the "only four of any card except basic lands" rule was instituted, one player loaded his deck with bunches of [https://web.archive.org/web/20090428134237/http://ww2.wizards.com/
** The designers even slip in the occasional obviously terrible card [http://www.wizards.com/magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr179 specifically to please the cherry-tappers] (scroll to "Issue # 2").
* There's a ''[[Pokémon (game)|Pokémon]]'' TCG deck called the "No Energy Stall." It contains a bunch of high-HP Pokémon, healing Trainers, and [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|no energy whatsoever]] - which means you ''can't use any attacks.'' The point is to hold out as long as you can until the other player runs out of cards.
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