I Hit You, You Hit the Ground

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
A crude diagram
"There'll be only two blows struck: I'll hit him, and he'll hit the earth."
—
Flip, Little Nemo in Slumberland, 1909-06-20

Stock phrase originating...we're not really sure. The internet doesn't seem to know either. Our best guess is Little Nemo in Slumberland (see page quote). It's been showing up fairly frequently in the early 21st century, making it a Stock Phrase. The implied threat is obvious: Screw with me, I'll punch your lights out. Obviously, it doesn't have to be the ground, just whatever surface is under your feet. A subtrope of Badass Boast, and related somewhat to Chew Bubblegum. Not to be confused with Meteor Move.

Examples of I Hit You, You Hit the Ground include:

Film

  • In The Breakfast Club, Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez) says to John Bender (Judd Nelson), "Two hits: Me hitting you, you hitting the floor."
  • In Inglourious Basterds, Sgt. Donny Donowitz says this to a Nazi soldier when leading him to be interrogated by Lt. Aldo Raine.
  • The Devil's Rejects, Captain Spaulding to Otis Driftwood during a tense moment; "Two hits; I hit you, your dick hits the dirt!"
  • Subverted in [[Scooby-Doo (film}|the first live action Scooby-Doo movie]], When Shaggy and Scooby are about to fight each other over Scooby accusing Shaggy's love interest of being one of the monsters Shaggy says;

"There will be two hits, I'll hit you, and then I'll hit you again."

  • The Scott Pilgrim movie has a little bit of a variant. "The first click is me hanging up the phone. The second is me pulling the trigger."

Live-Action TV

  • Variation from Titus; Ken Titus says to his girlfriend's gay ex-husband, "There's gonna be three hits; me hitting you, you hitting the floor, then you hitting on the ambulance driver."
  • In "The Fight" episode of The Office, Steve Carell's character gets the line just a bit wrong: "Two punches: Me punching you, you hitting the floor."

Music

  • Variation in a Will Smith song: "Three hits, I hit you, you hit the floor; this track is the third hit, that's for sure!"
  • Sick Puppies' song You're Going Down: "When my fist hits your face; and your face hits the floor"
  • Mindless Self Indulgence's song Lights Out is about a guy who enjoys the mindless ultraviolence that can come with this trope: "Punch your lights out, hit the pavement, that's what I call entertainment!"

Newspaper Comics

Professional Wrestling

  • The stage-name of the late Scott "Bam-Bam" Bigelow was derived from this.
  • A variation of this comes from Harley Race: "If I hit him with my left [hand] and he doesn't go down, I will walk around him to see what's holding him up."

Video Games

  • Punch-Out!!: "I have a three-step program for you. I punch you, you fall down, I win!"
  • In Fallout 3, one of companion Jericho's battlecries is "Two hits, kid! Two hits!" (Oddly enough, his default weapon fires three-round bursts.)

Web Comics

Web Original

  • Kind of a variation from Old Man Murray: "You be Sonny Bono, and I'll be a tree. You hit me and die."
  • On one of the "Mr. T facts" pages, there was this gem: "If you try to fight Mr. T, it will end in two hits. Him hitting you, and you hitting the surface of the sun"
  • Persona 4 Endurance Run: Episode 93. "This will be over in two hits, Yosuke. Me hitting the X button and you hitting the floor."

Western Animation

  • Beavis and Butthead: During one music video review, Butt-head does this to Beavis when he keeps telling him to shut up. But, being Butt-head, he doesn't quite get how you're supposed to do it.

Beavis, there's going to be two hits. My fist hitting your face, and, uhh...my fist hitting your face again.

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