Shake Someone, Objects Fall

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

We've all Seen It a Million Times, the hero gets cornered by a group of thugs that want to steal whatever he has on him. One thug grabs up the hero by the ankles and starts shaking him so hard, causing a plethora of items to fall from his person. Bonus points if the items would be completely impossible to conceal, such as a cannon, a ladder, or maybe even an elephant.

This is a Comedy trope in which the above happens to the unfortunate character. Expect to see this trope show up in Comedy or Western Animation.

Justified if the shaken character has a Bag of Holding.


Examples of Shake Someone, Objects Fall include:

Advertising

  • In an ad for T-Mobile cell phone service a Brand X customer is having his "monthly mugging" for his bill. At the end the two mugger guys are holding the customer upside-down, shaking him. "I sent too many emails."

Film

Literature

  • Used in Thud!, whenever something goes missing from Pseudopolis Yard, SOP is to shake Nobby up-side-down.

Video Games

  • A major example here, the entire game is based around this possible trope. Mischief Makers. You can shake objects/people and sometimes they will drop items, mostly crystals, that you pick up. The game is based around this system.
  • Wario Land: Shake It! has a similar mechanic. By grabbing enemies and shaking the Wii remote, things will fly around. Garlic, money, or even the armor they're wearing.
  • Rather morbid example in Duke Nukem Forever: when exploring alien-infested areas, you'll find cocooned EDF soldiers hanging from the ceiling. If you punch or shoot them, they always drop useful stuff like guns, ammo and grenades.
  • Used in Escape from Monkey Island. The fallen items are all things you picked up earlier in the game.

Web Comics

Sette: These things're mine! Thief! Thieeeef!
Duane: Says the lass raining pocketwatches.

Western Animation

  • Veggie Tales: Larry-Boy also did this to a bandit by capturing him with his Super-Suction Ear then shaking him so hard, causing the milk money that he stole from some kids to fall off of him.
  • A gorilla actually does this to Professor Porter in Tarzan, causing several objects to fall out of his pockets, including a stuffed Little Brother toy.
  • In The Band Concert, Donald Duck is disrupting Mickey's orchestra with his flute playing - every time Mickey snatches his flute away, he produces another and continues. At one point the trombonist grabs him by the neck with the slide of his horn and shakes him rapidly - dozens of flutes fly out of his coat.
  • In Popeye Meets Sindbad the Sailor, Sindbad (Bluto) pummels Popeye like a punching bag and all sorts of things fall out of his pockets - assorted ship fittings, binoculars, a life preserver, an anchor...