Electric Joy Buzzer

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Even Liu Kang falls for it.

Antoine Rotelli: What if we say no?

The Joker: Well, Tony, nobody wants a war. If we can't do business, why, we'll just shake hands and that'll be it.

From clowns to big kids and kids with big brains, you can count on them pulling out one of these eventually. Usually made by Acme Products or a competitor, these seem to appear everywhere in media. Until recently a true electric joy buzzer was just a thing of fancy, the traditional joy buzzer is actually a vibrating device that you wind up, however there is now a gag device that will deliver a small, harmless shock but at nowhere near the power of the device used by various bad guys.

Examples of Electric Joy Buzzer include:

Anime and Manga

  • Ranma ½: Ranma used a magical one on Mousse in the manga.

Comic Books

  • Batman: The Joker. Since this is The Joker we're talking about, his version of the joy buzzer is frequently lethal to those foolish enough to shake hands with him, such as the gangster from the first Batman movie who got fried alive during a crimelord meeting.
  • Captain America (comics) used one on Iron Man in Marvel's Civil War event, shutting down his power armor with it.
    • To be fair, what Cap used was a specially made device designed to do exactly that, not a joybuzzer. Sure, there was a similarity, but it was a purpose-designed device built to use against Stark.
  • The Electric Joy Buzzer is a key item in the armoury of Trickster characters (i.e. most of the heroes) in British children's comics such as The Beano and The Dandy.

Film

  • Featured prominently in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: "The hand buzzer. Still our biggest seller." Marvin Acme's joy buzzer was designed to look like a fancy jeweled ring befitting a millionaire businessman/prankster.

Live-Action TV

  • In one Sesame Street Muppet sketch, the prankster Harvey Kneeslapper intended to use one of these for a gag involving the number 5.
  • In Supernatural a confused kid with Reality Warping powers turned a normal joybuzzer into this. It not only electrocuted a man, it was later used to cook a ham. "That'll do, pig," indeed.
  • On The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon rigs one up to use on Howard, powerful enough to nearly knock himself out when he tested it. When he uses it on Howard, however, he appears to collapse from a heart attack and is forced to administer a syringe of adrenaline straight to the heart, Pulp Fiction style. Of course, Howard was faking it and it was all an elaborate counter-prank. Sheldon facepalms himself... and knocks himself out with his own buzzer.

Video Games

  • Destroyman of No More Heroes uses this during the pre-battle on Travis. He seriously thought he was going to die laughing from how Travis fell into it.
  • This is one of the pranks Sims can pull on each other in The Sims 2. It makes the camera shake if it happens on-screen.
  • You can get one in Kingdom of Loathing from the skill Summon Hilarious Objects. When equipped, it provides a skill that deals damage if your foe falls for it. they never fall for it.

Web Comics

Web Original

  • In Arfenhouse: Teh Movie, Piakchu uses one of these on Joe. The buzzer then flies off shouting "SO LONGG, SUCKKKREZA!" Yeah, it's a weird movie.

Western Animation

Real Life