Tap on the Head: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

In fictionland, anyone caught unawares may be easily, instantaneously and noiselessly incapacitated with a single blow to the head (or alternatively, a karate chop to the neck). A character thus treated will usually be [[Hard Head|perfectly fine afterwards]]; at worst they may have a headache, dizziness, slightly blurred vision, or in the very worst cases, [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|laser guided amnesia]], or find themselves [[Strapped to An Operating Table|strapped to a table]] when they wake up. Minus the last two points, this will in no way hinder them for the rest of the plot.

 

See also [[Back Stab]], [[Choke Holds]], [[We Need a Distraction]], [[Stun Guns]], [[Pressure Point]], [[Instant Sedation]] and [[Blinded by the Light]]. Contrast [[Death by Falling Over]]. Often leads to [[Waking Up Elsewhere]]. [[Pistol-Whipping]] is a [[Sub-Trope]].

 

{{examples}}

* The "karate chop to the neck" is still used constantly in shonen anime, but even with its credibility can have some ridiculous effects, particularly in ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', where characters can shrug off blasts and blows powerful enough to pulverize mountains, planets, and ''solar systems'', but one little tap on the back of the head and they're down for the count, usually coming to when it sits well with the plot, or rather whatever fight is going on.

** Used rather absurdly in ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'', although with nods to its dangerousness. Killua uses it to quickly advance through a tournament, but says he has to hold back to avoid killing his opponents. Chrollo uses one faster than the human eye can perceive in order to make it look like a girl fainted next to him. Someone watching a frame by frame video recording of it notes that it's surprising that he didn't chop her head off.

* ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' has Kojuro hit Masamune in the shoulder/neck area with the blunt edge of his sword, knocking him out. It causes no lasting damage but another character calls him out on the risk.

 

* Although "tap" is sort of a mild way of putting it, [[Asterix]], Obélix and company frequently employ this against Roman legionaries, bandits, and other foes.

** In ''Astérix and the Big Fight'', Obélix accidentally flattens Getafix the Druid with a menhir (causing the latter to develop temporary [[Identity Amnesia]]); he then describes it to others as "just a tap on the head".

* The famous "One punch!" with which [[Batman]] knocks out [[Green Lantern|Guy Gardner]]. The only after-effect is a comedy personality change.

** Note that, to avoid the implication that Batman had given Gardner brain damage, the personality change isn't caused by the punch, but rather by Gardner bonking his head on the underside of a desk, after waking up from the punch.

 

 

* Averted in the Chris Farley comedy ''[[Almost Heroes]]''. Chris Farley's character Bartholomew Hunt attempts to hit his companion Leslie Edwards, played by Matthew Perry, with a rock in order to knock him unconscious (for Leslie's own good; [[It Makes Sense in Context]]), but only causes considerable pain. He then picks up a comically-large rock that would almost certainly crush Leslie's head in and is about to try again before Leslie stops him.

** Also averted earlier in the movie when a dentist, about to remove one of Bartholomew's teeth, hits him over the head with a hammer to knock him out. It doesn't work, and Bartholomew just tells him to get on with it.

** Tank Girl knocks out Sub Girl (AKA "Rain Lady") by tapping her on the top of the head with a plastic fish.

** A Water & Power guard is knocked out from behind with a bowling pin.

* ''[[Austin Powers]]: International Man of Mystery''.

** Parodied by the title character's "Judo Chop!".

** Several Red Lectroids knock out humans with punches to the head near the Black Lectroid thermopod.

** While John Parker is infiltrating Buckaroo's estate, one of Buckaroo's Blue Blaze Irregulars takes him out by hitting him on the back of the head.

* ''[[Judge Dredd (film)|Judge Dredd]]''. When Dredd and Ferguson are in the Judges' locker room, Fergie distracts a Judge and Dredd knocks the Judge unconscious with one punch.

* Subverted in ''[[Funny Farm]]''. When one of the locals gets a fishing hook stuck on his face, Andy wants to knock him out so he can easily take out the hook. After several blows, the man is not knocked out, just pissed off, and one of his friends wonders if Andy is just beating him up.

*** Another soldier is rendered unconscious when Marcus Brody hits him over the head with an object.

* ''[[Tintin (film)|The Adventures of Tintin]]'' naturally plays this straight to the point of exuberance.

 

* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novels:

** Vimes in particular plays this trope quite straight.

* In Stephen King's [[IT]], staff of the Juniper Hill mental institution use rolls of quarters as improvised saps in order to subdue (and, in some cases, simply abuse) recalcitrant patients. One patient is said to have suffered severe brain damage as a result of such treatment and is barely functional as a result.

* Mentioned in the novel ''[[Lensman|First Lensman]]''. A thug of wide experience claims to be "an artist with the black jack". His boast is that he can knock out anyone within ten feet by throwing it, and can precisely time how long they stay unconscious.

* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''The Currents of Space'' a character attempts to pull this off on a guard and accidentally kills the guard.

* In Alistair MacLean's novel ''Ice Station Zebra'' the doctor protagonist goes into detail about how it is impossible to predict the consequences of a head injury, i.e. the patient could wake up soon or never, then later on has someone else inflict a "ten minute tap" on a villain. However, the doctor also explains to that chap that his huge wrench would cause instant death when hitting a skull. The doctor pads the wrench with a thick layer of bandage to make it less lethal.

* Richard Henry Benson, ''[[The Avenger]]'' is capable of doing this—with [[Improbable Aiming Skills|bullets]]! In "The Yellow Hoard" he is distracted by smoke sufficiently that he missed his target by a millimeter, and the thug wakes up too early.

* Jame in P.C. Hodgell's ''[[Chronicles of the Kencyrath]]'' is knocked out by blows to the head all the time, both by accident and malice, and is always fine. It seems to happen at least twice per book. It's justified in that she's not exactly human, and her [[Healing Factor]] ensures she repairs; also, realistic effects of concussion appear when the blows were severe.

* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[The Monster Men]]'', Professor Maxon is knocked unconscious by a blow to the head. Its only effect is to cause him to recover from being [[Mad Scientist]]—that is, to take up [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]].

* Completely averted in [[Vernor Vinge]]'s ''[[Zones of Thought|The Children of the Sky]]''. The blow that knocks out {{spoiler|Ravna}} is treated completely realistically, with various debilitating aftereffects until she gets advanced medical treatment.

* In [[Michael Flynn]]'s ''[[Spiral Arm|The January Dancer]]'', {{spoiler|the Fudir}} uses this on {{spoiler|Hugh}} to evade him. He does think that it's a trick business, but it's treated as if it were really harmless.

 

* ''[[Lost]]'' has used this a few times, though the preferred method of knocking someone unconscious is [[Pistol-Whipping]]. In "Hearts and Minds," Locke hits Boone to knock him out, ties him up, and sends him on a [[Vision Quest]] by "treating" the wound with a hallucinogen.

** More realistic effects of a Tap on the Head are shown in "The Other 48 Days," in which Eko kills two Others with a rock.

** The series is actually quite guilty of this, as characters would be knocked out with a tap every other episode but only when it would fit the plot. All the fighting scenes feature much harder blows then those who render them unconscious. Almost every major character took a beating at some point with a lot of hits on the head but we rarely see one fainting.

* In the ''[[MacGyver]]'' episode "Last Stand", Mac is holding some piece of equipment that he's supposedly going to use to fix up a plane so the bad guys can escape. When asked by his guard what the item is, he replies "Lateral... cranial... impact... enhancer", and smacks the guard across the head with it.

** Spock repeatedly used the nerve pinch in subsequent episodes. In one of them ("Mudd's Planet"), the pinch failed because he was using it on an android.

** "Obsession". Ensign Garrovick tries to knock out Captain Kirk with a karate chop so [[More Expendable Than You|he can be the one]] to lure the vampire cloud to the antimatter bomb.

** A truer subversion is seen in the episode "Mirror, Mirror," in which mirror!Spock is knocked out this way and Dr. McCoy declares that he'll die without immediate treatment. It may have averted the trope too far, though, considering the deadly object was a skull so fragile that it completely shattered after hitting Spock. It's difficult to imagine it would even knock him out in the first place.

*** That or the skull was so hard that it took a ''lot'' of blunt force to break it.

* Happens to the hero more or less [[Once an Episode]] in ''[[The Rockford Files]]''.

* Happens to the title character more or less [[Once an Episode]] in ''Mannix''.

* The karate chop to the neck variant is one of the three ways people tend to be non-fatally incapacitated in the 60s spy series ''[[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]''. (The other two are [[Pistol-Whipping]] and [[Instant Sedation]] via tranquilizer darts or knockout gas.)

* Subverted in ''[[NCIS]]'', when McGee sees a witness to a murder get attacked from across the street. He heads over to her apartment, only to find her door open. While he's seeing if she's alive, the assailant pops out of one of the rooms-which McGee didn't check-and smacks him over the head with a lamp. Despite getting hit hard enough for the lamp to break, McGee is still clear enough to unholster his gun and take a few shots at the fleeing perp, missing by inches.

* In quite a few murder mysteries, attempting the Tap On the Head via blunt object very often leads to [[Accidental Murder]] instead.

* Averted in season one of ''[[True Blood]]''; Lettie Mae hits Tara over the head with an empty Jack Daniels bottle, which hurts a ''lot'', but doesn't knock Tara out.

* Similarly tested on ''[[Deadliest Warrior]]'' with a pistol whip. If not fatal, it would be catastrophic and permanent injury.

* In ''[[Relic Hunter]]'' ("Etched in Stone"), Sydney smacks some bad guys in the head with a freakin' rock ([[Special Effects Failure|an obviously Papier-mâché rock]], but still) the size of a turkey. They are fine.

* Mostly averted in ''[[Burn Notice]]'', where mooks are heroes alike are usually shown as being stunned and in serious pain rather as a result of hand-to-hand scuffles, and are rarely KO'd by fisticuffs.

{{quote|Simmons: Ow, the back of my head! (then, later, ''Ow, the front of my face!'')}}

 

* In [[Jaga Jazzist]]'s "Airborne" music video, an attempted murder is foiled when the gunman is knocked unconscious by a flying champagne cork.

 

* In several versions of the ''Hero'' game rules, attacks made by surprise on an out of combat charater do double stun. If hit locations are used, attacks to the head have the highest stun multiplier, followed by attacks to the (other) vitals.

* In the great pulp tradition, any combat in [[Spirit of the Century]], whether you're beating people up, stabbing them, or shooting them, can end in a knock out rather than death, and this is actually encouraged (for the GM, so the [[PC]]s don't all die before they can get stuffed in a deathtrap, and for the [[PC]]s so they can interrogate the Mooks they just clobbered).

* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' supplement ''The Asylum and Other Tales'', adventure "The Asylum". Dr. Freygan could use his knowledge of human anatomy to perform a [[Star Trek]] style neck pinch and knock out a victim. Because he was a proto-shoggoth, he could extend his arm out many feet to do so.

** The "Knockout Attack" rules allow something like this, with blunt attacks optionally allowing a Resistance roll (Damage vs. HP). If successful, the victim is knocked unconscious and takes 1/3 rolled damage. Assuming two average unarmed humans this amounts to a 10% chance...

** A solar plexus shot (attack to the "vitals") does less bonus damage than a hit to the head, but it still does quite a bit extra, and has a stunning/knockdown roll at -5. So it probably will take them out, but they won't be unscathed...

* ''Time Lord'' RPG (based on ''[[Doctor Who]]'') main rules, "Curse of the Cyclops" adventure. If the [[PC]]s are captured they can be rescued by someone sneaking up behind the guards and knocking them out by hitting them on the back of the head.

 

== Toys ==

* Hitting the opponent in the head seems to be the most reliable way to knock someone out with no lasting consequences in ''[[Bionicle]]''. Ironically, the concept of [[Cool Mask|Kanohi masks]] was introduced specifically so that characters ''wouldn't '' have to punch each other in the face, as they could weaken or disable the opponent by removing their mask. However, as the series got progressively [[Darker and Edgier]], more "realistic" violence (with unrealistic consequences) was brought in.

 

* ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'' uses the a variant of the karate chop... To the victim's exposed throat. It's an instant takedown. Other animations for non-lethal [[Back Stab]]s involve broken bones, dislocated necks, and chocking them until they fall unconscious. The game repeatedly lampshades how "non-lethal" does ''not'' mean "harmless": You can even see how much you cost people in medical expenses from recovering from the takedowns. Hey, it beats "orphans created", which you get for killing them.

** Subverted if Mike pisses off {{spoiler|Madison}} enough to make her try this on him. When Mike points out that it only works in the movies, {{spoiler|Madison}} calmly throws a shock mine at him.

* In ''[[Ghost Trick]]'', the Guardian of the Park receives one {{spoiler|from a falling football}}. This is a particularly [[TV Tropes Drinking Game|egregio]]—er, [[Subverted Trope|extreme]] example, as going by the [[Time Travel|time said tap occurs]], he was left unconscious for ''five hours''.

* Apparently averted in the [[Resident Evil 1|first Resident Evil game]], of all things. {{spoiler|One ending variation has [[The Big Guy|Barry Burton]] sneak up behind an unsuspecting [[Big Bad|Wesker]] and whack him on the back of the head with his magnum. This would have to kill Wesker for him to be able to transform into his undead, G-Virus self, present in the rest of the series.}}

* Yuri from ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' does this with comical ease to multiple armored guards throughout the story, first with some thrown stones, then with half-hearted whacks on the back of the neck.

 

* [[Lampshade Hanging]] in [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-08-14 this] ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' strip. Elliot is of course completely fine after having been knocked out, but he flips out about silly things like "brain damage" and "concussions."

* Subverted in ''[[Narbonic]]''. Mell clonks Titus Misanthropie with the butt of her gun... and he yells "Ow!" He then proceeds to give her advice:

'''Mell:''' Usually I just kill.

'''Helen:''' Sorry, Titus. She's an intern. }}

* Done [[Reality Ensues|realistically]] in [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=207 this] [[VG Cats]] strip. Yes kids, ''that'' is what you are going for when hitting someone hard on the head.

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', Oggie [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050725 cures Lars' panic attack] with a punch the head. Of course, Og is a Jager and they are superhumanly tough, so by his lights this might be an acceptable form of discipline.

* In ''[[The Specialists]]'', [http://thespecialistscomic.com/page-30/ how Camille takes out Hartmann]

 

* [[Shadowhunter Peril]] has [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|Bezaliel]]. When the angel first appeared he started spinning out in a psychotic episode and nearly overwhelmed everyone present with his messed-up mind, thanks to his empathy powers. The problem was solved by his confused son Nicholas picking up a large rock and smashing it on the top of his head, knocking him out instantly. This would become the solution for how to deal with Bezaliel for several days after, until they figured out what to do with him.

** Hilariously, Veronica actually tried to knock him out once, only for Bezaliel to [[Hard Head|appear offended and slightly ruffled]]. [[Hilarity Ensues|Then they overheard Umbra and Nicholas having sex.]]

 

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' makes fun of this trope in the episode where Peter steals the Popemobile; the guy guarding it tells Peter that "even the slightest tap on the head knocks me out. I always wake up feeling fine afterwards, but it's just so darned inconvenient." The fellow then demonstrates this by lightly touching his head and knocks himself out, allowing Peter to steal the car.

* ''[[Stroker and Hoop]]'' has fun with this in one episode: The titular Stroker and Hoop knock out two guys to steal their clothes. One, though in pain, stays conscious and becomes despondent when he believes that Stroker had accidentally killed his friend with the blow to the head. After several moments of arguing ("Dammit, I know how to knock someone out!" "Well, do you check? Like, what if they have a concussion??"), the conscious man pretends to be unconscious just to avoid being hit again.

* Averted in ''[[Archer]]'', as when Archer punches out Ray to take his place on a mission it's stated being unconscious is very bad for him and he has to visit a neurologist later.

* [[The Flintstones|Fred and Barney]] taking out all those [[Mooks]] while escaping from Dr. Sinister's lair. "A judo, a chop chop chop!"

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Doctor Index]]

[[Category:Injury Tropes]]

[[Category:Medical Drama]]