Dangerously Close Shave: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Beadle Bamford:''' Your establishment is in Fleet Street, you say?

See [[Cut Himself Shaving]] and [[There Will Be Toilet Paper]].

 

* In ''[[Akumetsu]]'' chapter 27, one of Akumetsu's victims gets killed this way.

 

* In ''[[Eastern Promises]]'', a barber asks his nephew to shave a customer. Turns out it's code for slicing his throat open.

* In an [http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/picture/upload/image/books/Sherlock_Holmes.pdf early draft] of ''[[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]]'', Dredger (who wound up a silly French thug) was a razor-wielding psychopath who [[Hoist by His Own Petard|impaled himself on his own razor]] near the end. Holmes and Watson agree to never touch a razor again.

* Sweeney Todd's main method of murder for Tim Burton's [[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]

 

* The ballad ''Der rechte Barbier'' (The Right Barber) by Franco-German poet and naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838): A man calls for a barber, offering a high price for taking off his beard and shaving him, only if the barber nicks him and spills one drop of blood, he'll kill him. The master barber is too scared, tells the journeyman to do it; the journeyman is too scared, sends for the apprentice. The apprentice does it and does a fine job. The client says: "Well done, and you didn't tremble, even though I'd have killed you if you had spilled one drop of blood." - "Sir, that wasn't a problem. [[Oh Crap|I had you by the throat - if you had flinched and my knife had gone awry, I'd have cut your throat immediately]]."

* In "The Iron Hand of Mars" [[Marcus Didius Falco]] finds himself accompanied to Germania by Nero's former barber, whom he fears might actually be an assassin sent to kill him. We don't find out if he is, but the barber does quite handily cut the throat of a mook who tries ambushing them. When questioned on his throat-slitting ability, the barber quietly points out that someone in his occupation is often open to abuse - he's had to learn how to defend himself.

* This is in the backstory of Garrett (formerly "George the Fiend") from ''[[Betsy the Vampire Queen]]'' - he was an actor who was supposed to play Tarzan, but when the movie was canceled (in favor of ''[[Gone with the Wind]]''), the producer took him to the barber for a haircut and shave. The producer was the vampire Nostro, and he had the barber slit Garrett's throat so he could drink.

* In recognition of this trope, in ''[[The Malloreon]]'' Belgarath criticized Kal Zakath for [[Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense|allowing a barber to shave him when he lived in constant danger of assassination]].

* The original [[Sweeney Todd]] story was ''The String of Pearls'', published in the 1840s. In that version, Todd did in his customers by opening a trapdoor under the chair, and only employed this trope if the fall into the cellar didn't kill them outright.

* In both the novel and movie of [[The Color Purple]], Celie is required to shave Mister. Before she does it the first time, he threatens to hurt her if she ever "accidentally" cut him. Given the way he treats her, she certainly had reason to consider performing this trope on him.

 

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' has a few:

** [[Terry Gilliam]]'s animation of a man lathering his entire face and then chopping his head off.

{{quote|"CUT! CUTCUTCUTCUTCUTCUTBLOODSPURTARTERYMURDERHITCHCOCKPSYCHO DAMMIT!"}}

 

* Explicitly invoked, but averted (with tragic consequences for the scrupulous barber), in ''[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3qf2z_le-barbier-ticky-holgado_shortfilms Le Barbier]''.

 

* The quintessential embodiment of this trope is of course ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', who murdered his customers and handed their bodies off to his partner Mrs. Lovett to be baked into meat pies.

 

* The [[Disney Theme Parks]] ABC Soundstage attraction "Sounds Dangerous" simulates Drew Carey getting one of these with audio.

 

* On [[Discworld MUD]], there is an NPC who is a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Sweeney Todd]], and even warns you beforehand that he'll slit your throat when you get a shave from him. But hey, dying this way gets you an achievement and a percentage of another achievement ''and'' [[I'm a Humanitarian|creates pies that]] [[I Ate What?|taste like you]].

* One of the playable personas in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]'''s multiplayer is the Barber, a spy for the Templars who goes around cutting throats with a straightrazor.

 

* Lumpy from ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]'' ups the ante by shaving ''himself'' while driving. This being ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]'', the results are messy.

 

* [http://nedroid.com/2011/04/beartato-and-reginald-in-a-close-shave/ This] Nedroid comic has Reginald doing it to himself.

 

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "That's Lobstertainment", the gang watch an old film starring Zoidberg's uncle Harold Zoid, in which he's a barber who accidentally chops off a customer's head while shaving him with his claws.

* The [[Tex Avery]] short "The Car Of Tomorrow" has a gag about a car that shaves the driver, and what happens when the road is not smooth.

* Bart and Lisa plan a script for ''[[Show Within a Show|Itchy & Scratchy]]'' from ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' involving Itchy decapitating Scratchy with a straight razor although the idea gets scrapped as too cliché.

 

* Al Capone in ''[[The Untouchables]]'' moved his head. Everyone in the room froze as they saw that the barber had cut him.

* In ''[[Mississippi Burning]]'', the FBI agent played by Gene Hackman intimidates a KKK member who was getting a shave by replacing the barber.

* During the Baptism Scene of ''[[The Godfather]]'', it certainly ''looks'' like this is about to happen to someone, but it turns out that {{spoiler|The man getting a shave is a hitman for the Corleone family, and was getting a shave so he could sit and watch a door for his target without raising suspicion.}}

 

* In "[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Man_from_Ironbark The Man from Ironbark]", by Australian bush poet [[Banjo Paterson]], a barber plays a trick of this trope on a country yokel. The barber makes the man ''think'' his throat is cut by heating up the ''back'' of a barber's blade and drawing it across newly-shaven skin. The feeling that is left is as if the throat is cut. This ... [[Berserk Button|doesn't go well]].

 

* In the ''[[Kolchak the Night Stalker]]'' episode "Bad Medicine", Kolchak talks to a former criminal gem cutter who now works as a barber. He gets lathered up but then decides not to get a shave after noticing how much the barber's hand shakes.

* In the [[Syfy]] remake of ''[[Flash Gordon (TV series)|Flash Gordon]]'', Ming was nicked when being shaved mainly because he couldn't sit still. As punishment for the nick he cuts off the guilty barber's finger.

* In the ''[[Alcatraz (TV series)|Alcatraz]]'' episode "Cal Sweeney", the prison barber accidentally cuts Tiller while Tiller is demanding a cut of Sweeney's racket. The barber's reaction shows he expects some retribution from Tiller, but Tiller uses the cut as an opportunity to deliver a veiled threat to Sweeney about what happens if you shave against the grain.

 

* [[Velvet Underground|Lou Reed]]'s song "Harry's Circumcision" is about a man who, while shaving, realises that he's turning into his parents... and promptly [[Body Horror|starts cutting up his face]], ending by slashing his own throat.

 

* [[Bugs Bunny/Characters|Bugs Bunny]] [[Karmic Trickster|gives one]] to Elmer Fudd in the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short "Rabbit of Seville".

{{quote|There, you're nice and clean / although your face / looks like it might have gone through / a machine.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]