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Finger-Snap Lighter: Difference between revisions

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Finger-Snap Lighter (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:JohnyStorm_1678JohnyStorm 1678.jpg|link=Fantastic Four (Filmfilm)|frame|What's hotter: the flame or [[Fan Service|Johnny's]] [[Shirtless Scene|bare chest]]?]]
 
One fun way of [[Playing Withwith Fire]] is to [[Couldn't Find a Lighter|coolly light your cigarette, cigar or pipe]] with a finger snap in an extravagant show of [[Mundane Utility]]. Of course, the power to hold flames in your hands can also be a potent intimidating gesture. Usually this is done by holding the palm open and facing up. Much like the Super Power equivalent of cocking the trigger on a gun, this is dangerous because it's just one step shy of firing it. Also, [[Rule of Cool|it looks really cool]].
 
A few other variations apart from the finger snap and palm up are when one or both hands are held overhead and an [[Energy Ball]] is hovering over them, and the "crucifixion", which has the energy shot to the sides in a shower.
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{{examples}}
 
== Advertising ==
* British Gas had a series of adverts years ago, featuring the finger-click into a thumbs up. The flame, naturally, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCfdczwRN2I was blue].
** Parodied on ''[[Spitting Image]]'' in a sketch where [[John Major]] is advertising a gas cooker. His first finger-click does nothing. His second sets fire to the kitchen.
* Sofia Vergara did a [[Tropes Are Flexible|variation]] in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmiZwE6w6o4 this commercial for Xfinity], except it's more "striking a finger match" than finger snap lighter.
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* The Human Torch of ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' is also prone to this, and literally lit someone else's cigarette - to their great surprise - this way.
* In the graphic novel [[The Red Star|Red Star]], the solders consider it good luck for a sorceress to light their cigarettes this way.
* Liz Sherman of ''[[Hellboy (Comic Bookcomics)|Hellboy]]'' and ''[[BPRD (Comic Book)|BPRD]]'' is a pyrokinetic and lights her smokes this way.
 
 
== Film-Animated ==
* The demon Chernabog does this a few different ways in the ''Night on Bald Mountain'' sequence of Disney's ''[[Fantasia]]'' while demonstrating his profane powers.
* Hades on ''[[Hercules (Disney1997 film)|Hercules]]'' does both the finger snap (to light a cigar) and the crucifixion (when he learns that Hercules is still alive).
 
 
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* Egg does something similar when he lets a magical energy bolt play between his hands in ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]].''
* ''[[Raising Arizona]]'' had the demonic biker Leonard Smalls do something similar to light his cigars.
* In ''[[Seven7 Faces of Dr. Lao]]'', Dr. Lao lights his pipe with a flame off of his thumb; it takes him a couple of attempts to get it to work.
* ''[[Warlock (Filmfilm)|Warlock]]'' (1989). The title character does this a couple of times, including generating a green flame to heat up some food and red flames while performing a magical ritual.
* Done by [[Laurel and Hardy]] in ''Way Out West'' (1937; probably the [[Trope Maker]]). Stan ignites his thumb as if it were a cigarette lighter several times; each time, Ollie stares in disbelief and tries to copy him. And eventually it works for Ollie, who reacts with horrified alarm.
* Variation: In ''[[Beetlejuice (Film)|Beetlejuice]]'', newly deceased Adam and Barbara get the first impression something is wrong when Barbara's fingertips ignite when she holds her hands too close to a fire. After a [[Beat]], she blows them out like birthday candles.
* The Devil was fond of this one in ''[[Oh, God!|Oh God! You Devil]]''.
* This is one of the few tricks the Devil can pull in his human form in ''[[Damn Yankees]]'', which rather annoys him as he's trying to give up smoking.
* ''[[Double Indemnity]]'' features a variation sans magic. Walter Neff uses the "strike-anywhere" matches that were common in the forties, and lights them with his thumbnail in a gesture that resembles a finger snap.
 
 
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* Shiva's top left hand as a symbol of cosmic destruction is depicted as doing this when Shiva is portrayed as Nataraja (Lord of Dance). Shiva Nataraja is also wreathed in an [[Power Glow|aura of flame]] for the same reason.
* The Archangel Uriel is frequently depicted holding a flame in his left hand.
* In folklore of the Hawaiian Islands, the goddess Pele sometimes masquerades as a humble hitchhiker who only asks for a ride up the mountain, and asks for a cigarette. She then lights the cigarette with a snap of her fingers - and vanishes.
 
 
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* This trope is used by both Valentin Ivashchenko and Iar Elterrus in their respective fantasy settings - almost every mage will light a cigar, a pipe or a bonfire in this manner. As the [[Magic A Is Magic A]] rule prohibits some mages from casting fire spells, e.g. sea-wizards (limited to water and weather magic) and necromancers, any mage pulling this off is about to mess with specialization.
* Used by Sergej Luk'yanenko - enraged Anton doesn't actually notice that a fireball forms in his palm, so he just incinerates a bowl of rice because he already has the spell readied.
* ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant (Literature)|Skulduggery Pleasant]]'': It's how [[Elemental Magic|Elementals]] cast fireballs; they take the friction from the finger snap, add magic, then fireball.
 
 
== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' demons do this ''a lot''. In fact, one episode with Barbas the fear demon had his powers amplified, then depowered without knowing it. His look of utter confusion at not being able to conjure up a fireball this way was priceless.
* Ted Sprague and Meredith Gordon from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' both do this. (Meredith does it so much that fans nicknamed her "Flamepalm."
* In an early episode of ''[[The X -Files]]'' has a pyrokinetic villain who does this to impress two kids.
* Kryten the android lights a cigar with a flame from his index finger in the ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' episode "Bodyswap". This was apparently a difficult and uncomfortable trick for the actor to achieve, involving pipes and cables running across the floor and up through the costume -- andcostume—and not made any easier or more comfortable by the fact that the script called for him to be knee-deep in water at the time. The scene was then deleted from the finished episode, therefore making all the effort and suffering for nothing. To further add insult to injury, the footage has since gone missing and was unable to be included on the DVD.
* Somewhere in season two of ''[[Roswell]]'', Michael provides a literal Finger Snap Lighter to prove to a discharged army veteren that he was one of the aliens he saved while still on active duty.
* Referenced in the opening sequence of ''[[Improv Heaven And Hell]]'' - one of the hosts (Canadian improv duo "The Devil's Advocates") demonstrated his ability to do this to light his cigarette; the other tried several times unsuccessfully, even going so far as to stick his hand in an open flame, only to finally succeed and set his whole arm alight. The first host grins at the camera and displays a small lighter hidden in his palm.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' has cantrip named "Firefinger", [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|making a little flame on the caster's fingertip]].
 
 
== Video Games ==
* Used as various intro and victory poses for Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami of ''[[King of Fighters]]'', in both finger-snap (Kyo only) and open-palm flavors.
* Used in adverts for the Incinerate! Plasmid in ''[[BioBioShock Shock(series)]]''. In fact, both Jack and Subject Delta snap their fingers when you use the plasmid. So truth in advertising!
* Axel does this occasionally in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' sometimes independently and sometimes as a part of summoning his weapon. Most notably when {{spoiler|he does this to poor Vexen, who more or less explodes on contact (being an ice-user). "You're off the hook." *snap*}}
* Mario and Luigi in ''[[Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (Video Game)|Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]''.
* Professor Galvez in ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'' has a mechanical hand with a lighter in it. Much later, he loses it, and Big Boss is seen using the hand as a cigar lighter since his regular lighter doesn't work.
* In [[Scary Black Man|Rodin's]] intro in ''[[Bayonetta]]'', he lights one of [[Captain Ersatz|Enzo's]] cigars from a blue flame sprouted from his thumb.
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== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', the firebenders do this ''all the time''.
** Iroh from used this in lighting some incense candles. In ''[[The Last Airbender (Film)|The Last Airbender]]'s'' film trailers he is seen doing something similar with fire on the back of his hand.
* In [[Sequel Series]] ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'',
** In "Welcome to Republic City" the Firebender of a [[Power Trio]] of gangsters pulls this to back up his boss's threat against a shopkeeper who was behind on his protection money.
** In "The Voice in the Night" After Korra challenges Amon to a duel and {{spoiler|is ambushed}}, she uses a ball of fire in her palm to verify that {{spoiler|Amon did not take her bending away.}}
* Shego of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' is pulling this pose on the [[Dark Action Girl]] page picture.
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** This joke is repeated in the videogame ''Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time''.
* In the ''[[Heckle and Jeckle]]'' cartoon ''The Power Of Thought,'' Heckle and Jeckle demonstrate this to the bulldog cop in showing how anything is possible in a cartoon. When the cop tries it, his hand is caught on fire.
* Bender from ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' is often seen doing this.
* Igor is shown doing this once in ''[[Count Duckula (Animation)|Count Duckula]]''.
 
 
== Webcomics ==
* Arcane casters are always drawn this way in ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' - and in ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' manuals, for that matter.
* ''[[Looking for Group]]'''s Richard has been known to do this.
* [[Badass|Jacques]] in ''[[Bibliography (web comic)|Bibliography]]'' uses this as his usual method to light up his [[Smoking Is Cool|cigarrettes]]... and to dispatch semi-sentient exploding fire familiars.
* ''[[Slightly Damned]]'': This is a staple of any sufficiently tough person of the fire element. Specifically done by Azurai and Cliff (although Azurai technically used his breath, but it was sufficiently [[Badass]] to work).
 
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