Dartboard of Hate

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Bob is really mad at Alice so he does the most cathartic thing he can: He puts a picture of her face over a dartboard and throws darts at her (or rather, the picture of her).

Sometimes happens right before Bob is going to unleash his real torments against Alice. Other times, Bob simply hates Alice, and one of his pastimes is casually throwing darts at her picture.

Characters in this situation usually have good dart-throwing skills and almost always hit their target. In comedies, expect a dart to be thrown at the board just as Alice opens the door next to it.

Occasionally a punching bag may be used for the same purpose, particularly if the angry person is athletically-inclined.

See Decision Darts for another trope that involves dart throwing and Percussive Therapy for a more general example of taking out frustrations on inanimate objects.

Examples of Dartboard of Hate include:

Anime and Manga

  • Urusei Yatsura
    • Parodied: Kurama has one of Ataru; she throws a dart at it, only for the image to catch the dart in its teeth and gleefully eat it.
    • Also, one of the Spice Girls has a somewhat cruder version with doodled pictures of Benten, Oyuki, and Lum with Ataru. When she's trying to be dramatic about suggesting they try seducing Ataru to get to Lum, she attempts to look cool by announcing her intent with a thrown dart, but it misses by a huge margin—so she has to walk to the wall and manually jabs Ataru with it.
  • In Detective Conan, when Vermouth's hideout is raided, a picture of pre-Apotoxin Haibara is tacked on a dartboard with a giant "X" drawn over her face.
  • Used in the absolute most hilarious fashion possible in Mazinkaiser.
  • In Vampire Knight, Kaname pins a letter opener into a picture of Zero and Yuki (in Zero's neck, to be specific) after Zero bites Yuki.
  • Kara no Kyoukai has a variant of this. With a plushie of the object of hatred in place of a picture and fire magic in place of the darts, but the intent is the same.
  • In Hajime no Ippo, when Ippo visits the Mashibas' appartment while on a date with Kumi, she admits to be embarrassed because there is a picture of Ippo in the living room. To Ippo's chagrin, the picture was pasted on Mashiba's sandbag.
  • A subtle variation appears in the film of Howl's Moving Castle. Howl points out the oath he took before becoming a wizard: it's pinned to a dartboard by several darts and what looks like a pair of scissors.

Comic Books

  • Lex Luthor has one of Superman. He has also been known to purchase Superman merchandise to casually destroy.
  • In an issue of The Flash, Wally fails to rescue a woman from a fire because he needs to save 10 people in a plummeting elevator, and didn't have time to check the fire for anyone who might be trapped inside (a policeman tells him there is no-one there). The woman ends up badly scarred and loses both of her legs. Guess what she has on the dartboard in her hospital room?
  • In Twisted ToyFare Theatre, Captain America has one of Rob Liefeld's take on the Fighting American, who was such a blatant ripoff of Cap that the issue was taken to court.
  • An issue of Archie's Joke Book had a full-page gag in which Archie's mother reprimanded him for throwing darts at a picture of Reggie.
  • In the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic, Robotnik has one.
  • Starr from Preacher (Comic Book) has toilet paper decorated with the faces of Jesse, Cassidy, Eisenstein, and other foes that, over the course of the series, have left him a one-legged, castrated, head scarred to look like a penis, shell of his former self.

Film

  • The Swan Princess has 13-year-old Prince Derek shooting arrows at a drawing of Princess Odette.
  • In Disney's Peter Pan, the pirates throw knives at a crudely drawn picture of their boss, Captain Hook.
  • The Emperors New Groove: After Emperor Kuzco fires her, Izma vents her stress by smashing stone busts of the Emperor with a comically oversized mallet, just before conceiving of her plan to kill him and take over.
  • One scene from |Hercules has Hades skeet-shooting, albeit replacing skeets with Hercules merchandise and a gun with his fireballs.
  • In Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, there's a scene in which the title characters end up in George W. Bush's den. In the den is a dartboard decorated with Osama bin Laden's hairy mugshot.
  • In Matilda, Miss Trunchbull is seen to have a dartboard on her office door covered in photos of random students. She's so Badass that she is able to throw about a dozen darts at the thing at once and accurately hit all of the pictures.
  • In My Favorite Year, which is set in a fictionalized version of Your Show Of Shows, the arrival of the head writer/star causes a scramble of activity, including a few darts quickly pulled out of his picture.
  • Averted in Gremlins. The Gremlins don't throw darts at a photo of Gizmo, they actually put Gizmo on the dartboard! But thank goodness, they miss.
  • The Beatles movie Help! begins with Clang throwing darts at a projected film of the band performing (specifically targeting Ringo).
  • Troop Beverly Hills: In this kitschy late-80s movie, the main antagonist Velma has one for her rival Phyllis.
  • The film version of Titus Andronicus has one of these for a split second.
  • One of the Olsen twins movies has a sequence in which the two of them had a falling-out, and one theatrically lay on her bed throwing darts at a photograph while the other came in. Some utterly forgettable dialogue later, non-dart-throwing twin observes "that's a picture of you," and exits triumphant.
  • In X-Men: First Class: Erik Lehnsherr, as an adult, is looking at a map containing pictures, he then toys with the concentration-camp coin from his childhood, and then magnetically tosses it right at a picture of Dr. Klaus Schmidt, hitting it cleanly through. This also serves as foreshadowing, since in the end of the movie Erik kills Sebastian Shaw in the exact same way.
  • In Johnny English, Johnny uses one with a picture of Pascal Sauvage after being demoted.
  • In Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), after Harley and Joker break up, she is seen throwing knives at a wall with target rings and aiming for the picture of Mr. J close to the center.

Literature

  • One of the books in the Horrible Histories series features an illustration of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany/Prussia's leader in World War I, throwing darts at his grandmother Queen Victoria.
  • Averted in Grunts! by Mary Gentle. Orc Marines don't use a dart board to play darts, they just nail another orc to the wall and paint a bullseye on her stomach!
  • In Diane Duane's X-COM novel, base commander Jonelle Barrett relieves stress with one of these, featuring her thoroughly incompetent predecessor.
  • No actual dartboard involved, but Morley Dotes from the Garrett, P.I. series once hung a cheap portrait on his wall and used it for knife-throwing practice. He claimed the picture resembled his brother-in-law.
  • Callahan's Crosstime Saloon: The dartboard used in the Darts Championship of the Universe at the Saloon was one of these. Author Spider Robinson wrote that the picture was of a politician who was to remain nameless—then heavily implied that it was Richard Nixon.

Live-Action TV

  • On a Christmas episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, a party of holiday-hating witches have Santa Claus on a dartboard. Apparently if you hit his picture in the right eye it bleeds.
  • In the Star Trek episode "A Piece of the Action", Krako's office has one of these with Oxmyx's picture on it.
  • Murphy Brown had this in her office as a running gag. The picture on the dartboard was different pretty much every episode. At least once, it was a Mad Magazine ? I think the Murphy Brown cover, in fact.
  • Sam, Sock and Ben have one of Ted in Reaper.
  • Home Improvement: Tim Taylor has one of these with Bob Vila's face on it, at which he shoots nails with a nail gun. Tim being Tim, they all miss.
  • M*A*S*H: Shortly after Radar is rotated home, BJ and Klinger use a dartboard and syringes to play "Vaccinate Radar". BJ is upset because the daughter he's never seen called Radar "daddy", while Klinger is mad because he doesn't feel up to the Company Clerk's job he inherited.
  • NCIS: At the end of the episode where Ari is introduced (by taking the medical examiner and his assistant and eventually Kate hostage in the morgue before shooting the ME's assistant in the shoulder, killing some people and putting a bullet in Gibbs' shoulder), Gibbs is seen in his basement messing with his gun. When Gibbs looks up he fires two shots that hit between the eyes of a picture of Ari pinned on a beam on the wall.
  • The pilot episode of The Monkees had Mike Nesmith throwing darts at a picture of The Beatles (with one dart landing straight in the middle of Ringo's head).
  • Battlestar Galactica
    • After Boomer reveals her true nature and shoots Commander Adama, posters of her are used as targets on the Galactica‍'‍s firing range.
    • After her imprisonment on New Caprica, Kara uses a poster of Leoben.
  • Stargate SG-1: Baal has a variation on this. Rather than a picture, he chained Jack O'Neill to it, and used a sarcophagus to resurrect him every time he got a "bullseye".
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike drew a hilariously dorky-looking doodle of Angel to put on his punching bag after he saw the two of them kissing in the seventh season. That is, Angel kissed Buffy, not Spike's punching bag.
  • In a second season episode of The Wire, Frank Sobotka has a Dartboard of Hate on the wall of his office. It's actually Bob Irsay, the owner of the Colts who moved them from Baltimore to Indianapolis.
  • The Brittas Empire: In season 5, episode 8, one of Gordon Brittas's employees is revealed to have a photo of him in her locker for this purpose. Amusingly all the darts are embedded in the crotch area.
  • In an episode of Parker Lewis Can't Lose, the trio forges a video so Ms. Musso will stop pushing two characters together (long story). The video includes a dartboard at her effigy.
  • Even Stevens has a variation: After Twitty, as a Pitcher, goes completely ballistic on Louis over nagging him in regards to Baseball one time too many, they get the idea of having the Umpire using a baseball mitt with Louis's photo on it, which Twitty, who still had sore feelings for Louis, was able to land a successful strike on the opponent.
  • On Parks and Recreation, Leslie plans to get the former heads of her department together for a photo to use on the cover of the parks newsletter. To the disappointment of Leslie, who was expecting to be inspired, they all turns out to be an awful bunch of career bureaucrats who don't give a shit. Ultimately, a picture of Andy and April is put on the cover while the picture of the former heads is used as a dartboard by Ron and Leslie.
  • Criminal Minds: An UnSub [1] uses a photo of his stepmother as a dartboard. This normally funny trope becomes squicky when you realize the unsub has piquerism—a sexual obsession with stabbing, cutting and piercing.
  • One Family Feud episode had a survey question asking you to name someone who would likely have a dartboard of George W. Bush. (with answers like Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Al Gore)
  • Clark told Lois in the Lois and Clark episode where a forged photo made everyone believe Lois cheated on Clark with Superman that some of the people who hate his alter ego for this have a dartboard of him. However, it's never shown onscreen.
  • The Australian sketch comedy show Full Frontal did a sketch that parodied an advertisement from the lead up to the 1996 Australian election in which veteran Australian actor Bill Hunter openly abused Liberal Party leader John Howard. The parody, written after Howard won the election, featured Ross Williams doing an uncanny Hunter impersonation and explaining that he was lying and in fact thinks Howard is terrific. The zooming out and panning of the camera reveals, among other things, a dartboard bearing Howard's image and a poster with a Hitler mustache and swastika drawn on it.

Music Videos

  • Among other things, Lars Ulrich is seen throwing darts at a picture of Kip Winger in the video for "Nothing Else Matters".

New Media

  • Reverend Jeremiah has a game where you can throw darts at the Holy Ghost. Play it here [dead link].

Newspaper Comics

"It widnae be right lads, she'd blunt the darts!"

  • FoxTrot did a variation that mixed this trope with Batter Up where Andy Fox, when expressing irritation at having to go golfing with Roger Fox while the kids are out, envisioned Roger Fox's face on the golf ball making statements that were apparently audio flashbacks to when he got her to go golfing, with Andy proceeding to hit the ball extraordinarily hard, enough to break the tee, with Roger obliviously remarking "Easy, dear. You want to hit the ball, not kill it.", with Andy, whose arms are currently twisted around her body, coldly responds "Says you."

Oral Tradition, Myths, Legends, and Folklore

  • There is an Urban Legend about a teacher at a Christian school who had the class bring pictures of people they hated so they could put them over a dart board in turns and throw darts at the images. Afterward the teacher revealed that underneath it all was a picture of Jesus, and quoted him: "Insofar as you have done it unto any of these the least of my brethren, you have done it unto me."

Theater

Video Games

  • Street Fighter II: Zangief does this to Vega in one of his endings.
  • Sam and Max Freelance Police: Sam and Max appear to simply hate dartboards. Theirs has some darts, a switchblade, and an axe lodged in it, but no picture to go with. When you use the look command, Sam says, "Vertical silverware storage." When you use it, he grabs everything and throws it one-handed. Everything hits.
  • The villainous Dr. Bredell in Star Trek: Judgment Rites has a phaser target on the wall of his quarters with Captain Kirk's face on it.
  • A variation occurs in Punch-Out!! Wii, where Super Macho Man has a punching bag of hate with Little Mac's face on it.
  • Miles Edgeworth is too sophisticated for a dartboard. Instead, he has a chessboard of hate, with a bunch of red knights with sharp edges surrounding a spiky-headed blue pawn.
  • Resident Evil 4 has one after Luis' death. The documents in the game have an image in the background (surveillance photos of Leon when Mendez warns of a bid to rescue the President's daughter for example). Leon comes across a document on the Las Plaga being retrieved and the background is of Luis' photo on a dartboard.
  • LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 has one of these in the Slytherin bedroom; Draco has a dartboard near his bed with a picture of Harry on it (how he got the photo/who gave it to him is something to ponder), which the player can throw darts at using Wingardium Leviosa, resulting in a monetary award.
  • Variant in Modern Warfare 3. At the end of the Spec Ops mission "Stay Sharp", a picture of General Shepherd can be seen with three knives stuck in it.
  • In The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, visiting Groose's room reveals that he has a punching bag bearing a caricature of Link's face.
  • In Mass Effect 2, Zaeed apparently uses the large Carberus logo in his room as a target for knives.
  • In the Old World Blues DLC of Fallout: New Vegas, you can find a picture of Robert House with knives stabbed all over it in Dr. 0's old house.

Web Animation

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

  • The episode "Joker's Millions" from Batman: The Animated Series shows that Harley's cell at Arkham Asylum has one of these showing Batman.
  • In The Fairly OddParents, Mr. Crocker has a dartboard with Timmy Turner's picture on it, and vice versa.
  • The animation Robbie the Reindeer has Robbie spying on Blitzen and seeing him throw a series of weapons at a picture of Robbie.
  • Parodied in The Simpsons, where Sideshow Bob makes an outline of Bart's head with blue darts, and then hits it in the forehead with a red one.
  • Darkwing Duck's Evil Counterpart, Negaduck, often does this. Then he switches to throwing knives at the photo. Then arrows, axes, swords, shurikens, and a spiked mace. Then chainsaws!
  • King Koopa in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 has two, one for Mario and one for Luigi.
  • An episode of The Real Ghostbusters has Peter throwing darts at a picture of a police detective that had been antagonizing him. And then, of course, the cop shows up to question the guys again...
  • Sonic the Hedgehog
  • An episode of the Sunbow G.I. Joe series shows the Joes with a dartboard sporting Cobra Commander's, um, face. It later turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun when Cobra Commander uses his image to subliminally control a neighborhood.
  • The Mask: On the season two episode, "Flight as a Feather," Lieutenant Kellaway is taking a phone call about a pizza-napping and when he hears that the suspect is "green", he chucks a dart at a dartboard with The Mask's photo (and a couple of other darts that have missed the bulls'-eye).
  • In Jimmy Two-Shoes, Saffi throws a figure of Lucius at a picture of him. The picture has darts through it, obviously having been used for this purpose. Oddly, it's hanging in Jimmy's house.
  • In one episode in Aaahh Real Monsters, a dartboard of the Grumble is seen in the trio's room.
  • One episode of Biker Mice From Mars shows the main villain use one as Decision Darts.
  • An episode of The Penguins of Madagascar has Officer X doing this with a poster of the penguins as the dartboard and a pair of chopsticks as the darts.
  • An episode of Johnny Test shows that Bling-Bling Boy has a dartboard near his bed with a picture of Johnny on it.
  • Tarantulas had one of Megatron in his lair during season 1 of Beast Wars.
  • The Legend of Korra
  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius does a variant of this with Cindy beating up a bop bag of Jimmy at the beginning of one episode, which she punches so hard its head comes off and its expression changes from a :B to a :O.

Real Life

  • Nintendo Magazine System, an Australian Nintendo magazine, had one of their reviewers, Amos Wong, give positive reviews on a Sega game for a games show. This earned him the hatred of readers, to the point where the magazine had a cut-out dartboard of the reviewer.
  • In a similar vein, during WWII they sold a chamberpot in England with Adolf Hitler 's face on the bottom. Think about it...
    • Egyptian businessman Mohammed al Fayed famously had the face of his hated rival "Tiny" Rowland printed onto a toilet seat.
  • Serial killer Edmund Kemper, who absolutely hated his mother, used her severed head as a dartboard.
  • In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, at least one Egyptian salesman has been seen selling sandals with Mubarak & co. printed on them. (Walking on somebody's image, throwing a shoe at them and similar actions are gross insults in the Arab world)
  1. ↑ Unidentified Subject. The perp, Bad guy, Villian, Complete Monster, whatever
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