Punctuated Pounding

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Do! Not! Piss! Near! A! Church!

One character is very much annoyed at another. Rather than just use the generic Hyperspace Mallet or whatever is freely available once, however, he uses it repeatedly, while admonishing the poor sap on the other end in a staccato tone. The beating serves as the staccato, with each word or natural beat in the sentence given its own "exclamation point" with the physicality.

Almost exclusively used in animation, as to do it in real life often carries a risk of injury. Comedy ain't pretty. Live action examples tend to be intentionally violent and non-comedic, or Crosses the Line Twice.

Compare And This Is For, Mickey Mousing, Punctuated! For! Emphasis!.

Examples of Punctuated Pounding include:

Comedic Examples

Anime and Manga

  • Trigun, episode "And Between the Wasteland and Sky": Vash the Stampede is trying to stop the sandsteamer he's riding from going into a canyon wall, and his companion, who knows the steamer's layout, has gone into a breakdown. In exasperation, Vash grabs him and headbutts him repeatedly - into the ground like a tent spike, it's worth noting, as well: "What! Are! You! Getting! All! Senti! Mental! For! You! Little! Squirt!"
    • It should be noted that said squirt had just cold-bloodedly manipulated Vash by pretending to be pathetic, drugged him unconscious, and then systematically betrayed everyone on the steamer to Crazy Awesome bandits who were going to kill them all, and they only had about half an hour before it went over the cliff. Because Vash is too nice a guy to behave like that without extreme provocation.
  • GOOOOOOD! MOOOORNING! ICHIGOOOOO!
  • In the Ranma ½ anime, Akane hits Ranma with a baseball bat, frying pan, and finally, a kettle, in an outrage that he hugged her after she caught (what appeared to be) him embracing Shampoo in a romantic fashion.

Akane: Molester! Pervert! You big liar!

  • Ladd Russo vs. Mook in Baccano!, bare-knuckle style. Your definition of 'funny' may wary, considering the end result of the poor mook's skull.

Fan Fiction

Film

  • The Bride does this to the last, frightened, teenage member of the Crazy 88s gang, with the flat of her blade against his backside, in Kill Bill:

"This -- is what -- you get -- for fucking -- around -- with yakuzas! GO HOME TO YOUR MOTHER!"

"STOP! HITTING! YOURSELF!"

Simon Skinner: "GET! *punch* OUT! *punch* OF MY! *punch* VILLAGE!" *punch*
Nicholas Angel (catching Skinners fist): "It's not your village any more!" *megaton punch*

  • Hudson Hawk. Tommy Five-Tone does it to Darwin Mayflower.

Darwin Mayflower: Tommy [snip] You were hired as bait. Do you have an answer as to why you betrayed me?
Tommy Five-Tone: I've got five of them. One! [punch] Two! [punch] Three! [punch] Four! [punch] Just one more! [punch]

Literature

"Heir (kick) to the (kick) Holy (kick) Rings (kick) of Betazed!" (punt)

  • In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Mad-Eye Moody turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret (punishment for trying to hit Harry with a spell while his back was turned), and then begins bouncing him between the floor and ceiling, shouting at him between each bounce.
    • Not to mention in the following book Order of the Phoenix: Harry has just had to repel two Dementors on his own in Little Whinging, much to Mrs. Figg's (a Squib who has kept watch on Harry secretly for years) ire. Mundungus Fletcher (who has also been tailing Harry in secret and abandoned his post momentarily in light of a business opportunity) returns to the scene, and is promptly attacked by a furious Figg and her drawstring shopping bag full of tinned cat food:

"Ow! Ow! Get off, you ol' bat! Somebody's gotta tell Dumbledore!"
"Yes- you- have!' shouted Mrs. Figg, punctuating each word with a blow, 'And- you- can- go- so- you- can- tell- you- why- you- weren't- there- to- HELP!!"

    • And then, in The Deathly Hallows, upon Ron's unexpected return to Harry and Hermione:

Hermione: "You- complete- ARSE- Ronald- Weasley!!!"

Live Action TV

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Buffy did this almost every time she beat the crap out of someone.
    • Like, when she pounded Olaf the Troll God into an unconscious pulp while verbally defending Xander's and Anya's relationship, or when she used Olaf's troll-hammer to play croquette with Glory (with Glory as the croquette ball, naturally).
    • Or in "Flooded", when a demon damaged her new plumbing: "FULL! COPPER! REPIPE! NO! MORE! FULL! COPPER! REPIPE!"
    • Combined with Dance Battler in the Musical Episode when she kills Sweet's puppet minions while singing "Give Me Something to Sing About".
    • Xander, in "Reptile Boy", when he was pounding on the frat boy

Xander: That’s for the wig...and that’s for the bra…… that’s for the make-up and that’s for the last sixteen and a half years!

New Media

"You! Can't! Go! And! Take! My! Punctuating! Each! Word! With! An! Assault! Thing! It's! MINE!"

  • Happens every time Gordon Freeman attacks something in Freeman's Mind.

Video Games

  • More of an implied example, really, but in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, one of Cyrax's training mode opponents is Johnny Cage. Apparently, Cyrax hates Cage's movies, and "felt especially robbed of his eight bucks when he saw Ninja Mime." With promises to beat that money out of Cage, it's not hard to imagine Cyrax going, "I! (whap) Want! (whap) My! (whap) Eight! (whap) Bucks! (whap) Back! (whap)", or something to that effect.
  • Sam's awesome beatdown to Skunkape in They Stole Max's Brain.

"I! have! had! e! nough! of! you!"

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

  • During a jailbreak in The Powerpuff Girls, Blossom smacks a prisoner's head back and forth, in the expressed hope that "maybe -- this will -- teach you to -- leave jail -- before you've -- paid your -- debt to -- society!" The Professor, currently in the role of the super-powered "PowerProf" and in a particularly overbearing mood, takes the prisoner and tries to correct her technique, saying that "It's -- all in -- the wrist!" while doing the exact same thing.
  • In part 1 of the Darkwing Duck episode "Just Us Justice Ducks", the title character's evil twin Negaduck jumps on top of Darkwing's body to the rhythm of "THIS! IS THE HAPPIEST! MOMENT! OF! MY! LIFE! Oh, almost forgot..."
  • On Xavier: Renegade Angel, a drug dealer beats Xavier, shouting, "Give! Me! Back! My! Son! Wait! Sorry! I! Mean! Drugs!"
  • YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GET ME THE RED MEGAMAN! YOU DIRTY! CHEAP-ASS! PIECE OF CRAP!
    • In another episode, Mickey Mouse beats up one of The Jonas Brothers when they refused to promote the purity rings for the company (which was actually a marketing ploy made by the company to get pre-teen girls into having sex) because the rings overshadow their music:

Mickey Mouse: You DON'T. FUCKING. TALK TO ME. LIKE THAT. Huh-huh-huh... YOU LITTLE. PIECE OF. SHIT!

Bender: YOU'RE - NOT - FIT - TO WEAR - FRY'S - LEOTARD!
Bender: Second place?! That's the same as losing! YOU. DIDN'T. STICK. YOUR. LANDING!

Martha Stewart: Hasn't anyone - ever - told you - not to - talk - with your - mouth full?


Serious Examples

Anime and Manga

Jubei: I SWEAR [crunch] IF YOU'LL COME BACK TO LIFE AGAIN [crunch] THAT I'LL KILL YOU AGAIN, [crunch] NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES IT TAKES [crunch] AAAAAAAH! [crunch]

  • The Mega Man NT Warrior Comic does this as well
  • In an early Fullmetal Alchemist episode, Edward has just discovered Nina's father having combined his daughter and dog into a true Chimera. Horrified, Ed punches him once; he merely laughs, half-crazed, and proceeds to explain to Ed how Alchemists like them were not altogether unalike- he, having done it out of desperation for the sake of his career, Edward having done it a year ago in an attempt to resurrect his mother from the dead via Alchemy. Distraught, Ed responds that the circumstances were different, and that he was

"Not- like- YOU!!" *PUNCH* "I'm not! Not! Not! I'm not!..."

    • Also a bit further in the series, this happens when Edward tries to get Ling back after he was made into the new host for Greed. It's noted that the only time Edward actually manages to hit Greedling without him blocking it is when he mentions Lan Fan.

Edward: "What about your country... *punch is blocked* What about Lan Fan?! *punch actually hits*

(elbow) Chachamaru-san (punch) is not (punch) a doll (throw). And neither is anyone else from this world! (fry)

  • In School Days, as Sekai repeteadly stabs Makoto, she screams "Liar! Liar! LIAR!"

Comic Books

  • EIGHT! LONG! YEARS! YOU! SON! OF! A! BITCH!
    • It sounds funny, but it's quite dramatic in context.
  • The titular (heh) heroine of Empowered manages to execute this during most of her rare and hard-earned CMOAs.
  • The Punisher: In #49, a former mafia wife who's gone through hell largely due to the machinations of her much more loyal sister ties her to a chair and uses an aluminum bat to drive home the point of where her comfortable lifestyle comes from: "THIS! IS! WHAT! THEY! DO!"
    • In a prequel comic of the same MAX series, Castle gets himself sentenced to Ryker's so that he can reach the men responsible for his family's death. After gruesomely killing the first man, he turns his attention to the hitmen twins who shot his son in the head. Pulling a nightstick out of his belt, he calmly says "When I tried to pick him up, his brains came out in my hands. Do you understand what it is I'm telling you? HIS BRAINS! CAME OUT! IN MY! HANDS!
  • One of the few decent moments in The Clone Saga involves the Scarlet Spider pounding on the Jackal this way. "Whatever I am - whoever I am today - is MY responsibility alone! And you, Jackal - are just ANCIENT HISTORY!"
  • Taken to extremes by super-speedster Quicksilver when fighitng a telepath:

"So you will be able to (breaks elbow) anticipate every move I make (breaks wrist) and do absolutely (breaks jaw) nothing about it (breaks hand) because I (breaks other hand) am (breaks ribs) the (breaks knee) fastest (breaks other knee) man (breaks leg) on (knockout blow) Earth."

Film

  • The film True Lies has a scene where the main character and his partner pretend to interrogate the main character's wife. When they don't believe she has remained faithful, she nearly shatters the one-way mirror with her chair, while shouting, NO! I DID (slam) NOT (slam) SLEEP (slam) WITH HIM!!! (slam slam) Yet it did add some humor when his partner then says, "She could be telling the truth." The whole film is like this; it's fabulous.
  • The famous bit in The Search For Spock in which the villain is hanging over a precipice and tries to pull Kirk down with him when the latter offers help. It ends up with the bad guy clinging to one of Kirk's feet while Kirk kicks him in the face.

Kirk: I [kick] HAVE HAD [kick] ENOUGH OF YOU! [kick]

  • Captain Miller from Event Horizon does this as he lays into Dr. Weir, who has been taken over by the evil titular ship, with a CO2 rod during the final showdown in the gravity chamber: "YOU...WON'T...TAKE...MY...CREW!"
  • In Con Air, after saving a police officer from being raped, Nicolas Cage smashes the rapist's head into the cage wall while saying "You don't... treat... women... like... that!".
  • (Borderline comedic - at least until you think about it.) From Dusk till Dawn has Richie Gecko kicking the bar guy, who has just had his finger and nose broken by Richie's brother, to the sound of:

Hi!
How ya doin'?!
Enjoying it?!
I hope so!

    • Slightly different in that Richie isn't angry - just a perfectly calm total psycho.
  • The Proposition: "Help... your... fucking... self."
  • Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - Vinnie Jones slams a man's head in a car door, enraged at him for threatening his son's life - "NEVER! EVER! HAS ANYONE! BEEN AS FUCKING RUDE! TO ME! AS YOU, DOG!"
  • Bruce Willis in Die Hard, as he is beating Karl. "You should [punch] have heard [punch] your brother squeal [punch] when I broke [punch] his [punch] fucking [punch] neck!"
  • Bruce again in Sin City.

Hartigan: Eight! Long! Years! Sonnuva! Bitch!

Dash: DON'T [PUNCH!] TOUCH [PUNCH] MY [PUNCH] SISTER!!!!

    • Of course, since Dash's power is Super Speed, the punch-to-word ratio is a bit higher than 1:1.
  • In the first Hellboy movie, Hellboy tears a ringing pay telephone off the wall and pounds Sammael with it.

Hellboy: It's for YOU! [wham!] You shouldn't [wham!] hurt [wham!] people! [wham!]

  • Leonardo Di Caprio keeps it short and sweet towards the end of The Departed
  • An unusual example occurs in Aladdin, where at the end of the first verse of his Villain Song, Jafar punctuates every zap from his staff thusly:

Jafar: Say "Hello" to your precious! Prince! ALI!

  • "I am ripper! (Smash) Tearer! (Smash) Gouger! (Smash) Slasher! I am the teeth in the darkness! (Smash) The talons in the night! (Smash) MINE IS STRENGTH! (SMASH) AND LUST! (SMASH) AND POWER! (SMASH) I! AM! BEOWULF! (SMASH)
  • From Terminator 2: "OUT OF THE CAR!" (shoots windshield, BANG) "RIGHT NOW!"
  • Planet Terror: SHOW! THEM! TO! ME! Somewhat subverted in that he's not hitting her, but jabbing her with her own hypodermic needles.
  • In The Boondock Saints, Rocco does this while he beats a Mafia hitman to death with a cue ball.

Rocco: SICK! FUCK! SICK! FUCK!

  • In Cyrano De Bergerac, Cyrano does this in an early dueling scene, where he composes a poem and strikes at the end of each line.
  • In Transformers: Dark of the Moon: "THIS! PLANET! IS! MINE!"
  • Mitch McDeere in The Firm, when he violently confronts his superiors.
  • There's a dose of Punctuated Pounding in Iron Man 2 when Rhodey (in the War Machine armor) confronts Stark in a weight room.

Stark: Sorry, pal, Iron Man doesn't have a sidekick.
Rhodey: (picking up a ring post from a demolished boxing ring) Side. Kick. THIS!

Literature

They did it in the movie too!

  • In Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones, Duffie (the human Evil Stepmother type) beats Tibbles (one of her cats) in this way for trespassing in the room where she keeps all her pottery. Naturally, since the victim of this incident is a cat, and the main character is a dog, this kind of incident with Duffie heads very quickly into literal Kick the Dog territory.

Live Action TV

Sheridan: No more! No more of you! No more Nightwatch, no more hostages, no more lies! Not on my station! Not on my watch! No more! No more!

  • Another borderline example, used in Relic Hunter. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to play! NICE?!"
  • Happens in Angel, 5x08, "Destiny::

You see me! [punch] You see all the nasty things I've done! [punch] All the lives I've taken! [punch] Because of YOU! [punch] Drusilla sired me! [punch] But you! [punch] You made me a monster! [punch]

    • The most heartbreaking one though is in Season 1:

Faith: I'm evil! I'm bad! I'm evil! Do you hear me? I'm bad! Angel, I'm bad! I'm bad! Do you hear me? I'm bad! I'm bad! I'm bad. Please. Angel, please, just do it. Angel please, just do it. Just do it. Just kill me. Just kill me.

      • She starts out pounding his face with her fist but ends up just ineffectually pounding on his chest, begging him to kill her.
  • In Doctor Who The End Of Time The Master gives one to Rassilon, where the words are: "ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!" He's counting out the drumbeat that drove him mad, which Rassilon put into his head. Also he's hitting him with lightning.
    • And the Doctor delivers one in Victory of the Daleks to a Dalek while whacking it repeatedly with a giant spanner. "YOU! ARE! MY! ENEMY!"
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Faith, beating up a vampire in Faith, Hope, and Trick, showing just how out of control she was:

Faith: This! Is! Me! You! Un! Dead! Bastard! You! Can't! Hurt! Me!

    • When Faith wakes up from a months-long coma, she is left a device with which she switches bodies with Buffy. Being in Buffy's body makes her realize how much better her life as a whole might have been if she wasn't such a bitch towards everyone she met. Thus later, when Buffy in Faith's body demands they switch back, ass-kicking ensues and Faith winds up fulfilling this trope on herself - well, on her own body. Buffy still feels the raw self-hatred Faith expressed during her self-beating seconds after they switch back, and Buffy is so shaken up that she can't go after Faith as she runs away.

Faith: You're NOTHING. DISGUSTING! MURDEROUS BITCH! You're nothing! You're disgusting!

      • The girl has trouble expressing her feelings without using her fist apparently...

New Media

Ahmad: "YOU!" *BANG* "LEAVE!" *BANG* "MY!" *BANG* "FRIENDS!" *BANG* "ALONE!" *BANG*

Other

  • A FOX News anchor did this, slamming his hand on the table declaring "We are America, WE DO NOT FUCKING TORTURE!"
  • Anyone who has ever been spanked by their parents knows this to be Truth in Television.

Video Games

Susano: GOOD!... WILL!... NEVER!... GIVE!... IN!... TO!... EVIL!

Merchant: No! Stop!
Tamir: Stop? I'm just getting started! (He slices the man over and over.) You came into MY souk? Stood before MY men... and dare to insult ME?! (Stab) YOU! (Stab) MUST! (Stab) LEARN! (Stab) YOUR! (Stab) PLACE! (Stab)

  • Lara Croft in Tomb Raider Legend does this to an immortal Amanda. With her gun.

Lara: WHERE [BLAM!] IS [BLAM!] MY [BLAM!] MOTHER?! [BLAM!]

    • Lara deliberately aims away from Amanda's head, hoping to merely scare her into giving a straight answer. Apparently, "immortal" doesn't necessarily mean "invulnerable", since it works.
  • "YOU SHOULD! HAVE LET! ME TALK TO THEM!" Kane and Lynch: Dead Men does this, too. After having his wife killed in front of his daughter as he tries to explain his criminal past, Kane crushes a man's head with a shovel until there is no more head left.
  • In BlazBlue, whenever a character faces off against someone important to them (usually a personal nemesis), they will taunt their opponent whenever they land a hit of their special attacks, instead of calling out their names as normal.
    • Ragna vs. Jin especially

Ragna: I'll never [Hell's Fang] Forgive you [follow-through]!

    • Makoto's Particle Flare is particularly big on this. Each part of her commentary is almost in tandem with a blow from her fists, whether it's a designated opponent or not.
  • Barlowe in Castlevania:Order Of Ecclesia combines this with Teleport Spam:

Die, Shanoa! *warp punch* How dare you- *warp punch* Even forgetting- *warp punch* Who raised you- *warp punch* You... *warp punch* stupid disciple!

  • Brief one at the end of Alpha Protocol: That was for [love interest]. That was for ruining my life!
  • In Portal 2, after Wheatley goes mad with power upon taking control of Apeture Science and snaps after being called a moron one too many times:

Wheatley: Could a MORON! PUNCH! YOU! INTO! THIS! PIT?!

Web Comics

Sillice: Focus, Will, Discipline, Loyalty!(Dead Link) Those who betrayed us lacked it all. These are the flaws that shall lead to your defeat.

Western Animation

"I! HATE! YOU! WALT! FREAKING! WHITMAN! 'Leaves of Grass', my ass!"

  • Planet Hulk has Beta Ray Bill pitted against the Hulk in an alien arena with a mind-control device on both their chests. His punctuated pounding is emphasized with a blow of his hammer, Stormbreaker, against the Hulk's head.

Beta Ray Bill: I act by the will of others, Hulk. The disk in my chest and in yours demand that one of us must die. You have my sympathy, because it will not! BE! ME! Bonus points for Bill's Oh Crap moment after he realizes the Hulk doesn't do punctuation.

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