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{{trope|wppage=Shooting an apple off one's child's head}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''''Calvin:''' Look, I put a snowball on top of this snowman's head. Now I'll be the next William Tell, and I'll hit the snowball clean off!''
Shooting an [[How Do You Like Them Apples?|apple]] or some other item [[Absurdly High Stakes Game|off another character's head]], to show off one's [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]. Usually with a [[The Archer|bow and arrow]].▼
▲{{quote|'''''Calvin:''' Look, I put a snowball on top of this snowman's head. Now I'll be the next William Tell, and I'll hit the snowball clean off!''<br />
▲''(attempts the shot)''<br />
▲'''''Hobbes:''' Ouch.''<br />
▲'''''Calvin:''' Ahhh! He flinched!''|[[Calvin and Hobbes (Comic Strip)|Calvin and Hobbes]]}}
▲Shooting an [[How Do You Like Them Apples|apple]] or some other item [[Absurdly High Stakes Game|off another character's head]], to show off one's [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]. Usually with a [[The Archer|bow and arrow]].
This is based entirely on the legend of [[William Tell]], though the same story has existed before his time in similar variations. In the legend, William Tell, who originally came from Bürglen, was known as an expert shot with the crossbow. In his time, the Habsburg emperors of Austria were seeking to dominate Uri. Albrecht (or Hermann) Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf, raised a pole in the village's central square, hung his hat on top of it, demanding that all the townsfolk bow before the hat. When Tell passed by the hat without bowing to it, he was arrested. As punishment, he was forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son, Walter. Otherwise, both would be executed. Tell was promised freedom if he successfully made the shot. On 18 November 1307, Tell split an apple on his son's head with a bolt from his crossbow. Gessler noticed that before the shot Tell had removed two crossbow bolts from his quiver, not one, and after the shot asked him why. Tell replied that if he had killed his son, he would have turned the crossbow on Gessler himself.
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
Needless to say (and since when has that ever stopped us from saying?), [[Don't Try This At Home]]. There's a reason the trope-naming incident was such a big deal: It is ''shooting a deadly weapon at a small object near a person's head''. Miss, and someone is likely going to become seriously injured or even killed.
== Advertising ==
* In one of the old Federated commercials in the 1980's, Shadoe Stevens (as Fred Rated) shoots merchandise off the head of a female assistant (apparently missing his last shot, as he gets a squeamish look and frantic stage hands rush past him to assist the girl).
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTl3U6aSd2w&feature=player_embedded This ad for Gillette] featuring tennis player Roger Federer.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' used this as a [[Kick the Dog]] moment in an early episode, with one of Diamond's men forcing a villager to try to shoot a can off the head of his son with a bow and arrow. When the father can't go through with it, the scumbag takes it upon himself to "help" him, taking hold of the bow and arrow in a [[Hands
== Comic Books ==
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* In [[The Film of the Book]] ''[[Naked Lunch]]'', [[Author Avatar|William Lee]] is shown shooting a glass of whiskey off of Joan Lee's head in what they called their "William Tell act." {{spoiler|[[Book Ends|At the end of the movie]], he attempts this again and accidentally kills her. This is based on the [[Real Life|actual death]] of William Burroughs' common-law wife, Joan Vollmer.}}
* This happens in ''[[Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past]]'' involving an arrow, a rising pop star, and the 6th place Japanese archery champion.
{{quote|
* Happens in ''[[A Fish Called Wanda]]'', in the bank heist in the beginning, as the four thieves are about to get away with their bank heist, [[Know
* In the [[Video Nasty|strangely notorious]] [[Exploitation Film]] ''[[Axe (
* Done in ''[[The
* In ''[[X
* ''[[
* In the short ''Cavalcade of Archery'', Howard Hill (who did the archery stunts for ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (
* Gonzo's amazing new act in ''[[The Muppets (
* In ''[[Posse (
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== Game Show ==
* On one [[Broadcast Live|live]] episode of ''[[
* The conceit of the British [[Game Show]] segment "The Golden Shot", in which a viewer would attempt to direct "Bernie the Bolt" via commands over telephone to shoot a crossbow bolt at an apple to win prizes.
== Jokes ==
* Two boys are playing this trope. The boy with the crossbow shoots - but hits the other boy's [[Eye Scream|left eye instead]]. He shoots again - hitting [[Black Comedy|the right eye]].
{{quote|
Boy with crossbow: "Come on, don't be a spoilsport!"
Now-blind boy: "I have to, my mom said I have to be at home when it's getting dark!" }}
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* On ''[[Gor]]'' the Wagon Peoples had a similar thing as a contest of skill - a [[Slave Girl]] would stand in profile holding a piece of fruit in her teeth and a warrior would lance it while galloping by on the local equivalant of a horse. For infinity [[Bonus Points]] they'd do it while she was facing him head-on.
** And if she really loved him she would swallow. To explain: a girl accidentally stabbed in the back of the mouth was shown to have been swallowing the blood released by the (non-fatal) injury rather than let her owner lose face by forfeiting the contest.
* In Heinrich Kramer's 1486 ''[[
* In the first ''[[Doom]]'' novel, Flynn Taggart reminisces on the day his comrade and best friend Arlene Sanders first joined the Marines and took care of any latent [[Stay in
== Live Action TV ==
* One time on ''[[Bones]]'' when she and Booth were undercover at the circus doing a [[Knife
{{quote|
* In ''[[Married...
* On ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' (the one guest starring [[
** Another example from ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' has an orchestra performing the William Tell Overture and finishing with the cellist firing the bow from his cello to shoot an apple off Beauregarde's head.
* One of the German episodes of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' begins with a William Tell sketch. It has Tell successfully shooting the apple, then the camera zooms out to show his son's body is riddled with arrows from previous attempts.
* Played with in an episode of ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]''. Alfred attempts to show off his archery skills and places an apple on Dick Grayson's head. Bruce stops him saying it's not worth taking the risk so Dick places the apple on a stationary target. Alfred shoots and misses. Had they gone through with it the arrow would have hit Dick right between the eyes.
{{quote|
* One of the most famous moments of ''[[The Tonight Show]] with Johnny Carson'' was when he had famed actor Ed Ames (who played the Indian "Mingo" on ''[[Daniel Boone]]'') demonstrate his tomahawk-throwing skills. Ames was to throw an axe and try to hit the head of a cowboy silhouette set up on stage - unfortunately he hit the drawn cowboy's crotch, with the handle pointing up, eliciting the longest laugh in television history.
* Done in a "Secret" game on ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'', with Ryan Styles as William Tell and Colin Mochrie as his son. After Colin bites into the apple and finds hidden nude pictures of Friar Tuck, Ryan unsubtly attempts to [[Make It Look Like an Accident]] by attempting to shoot a ''grape'' off his head. And then doing it ''[[Crosses the Line Twice|blindfolded]]''.
* In ''[[
* Actually subverted in the live-action series ''Crossbow'', which is a fictionalised version of Tell's legend. How so? {{spoiler|Tell (Will Lyman) faints after passing the test, thus in a [[Kick the Dog]] moment Gessler (Jeremy Clyde) makes him and everyone else believe that his son Walter (David Barry Gray, who is here renamed Matthew) is dead, via having the the kid taken away and slandering Tell to Hell and back. It'll takew a while to see that it's not true.}}
* In the 2000 ''[[Arabian Nights (TV series)|Arabian Nights]]'' mini-series, one of Scheherazade's stories concerns a prince who sets out to obtain a great treasure. As he is justly proud of his archery skills, the guardians of the treasure tell him he must prove himself worthy of it by shooting a target balanced on a child's head. It turns out to be a [[Secret Test of Character]]: when he declines to take the shot, admitting he's not certain he won't hit the child, he passes the test.
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': The monster of "Foul Play in the Sky" was the Snizzard, a Snake-Lizard monster whose weak spot/power artifact was a golden apple atop his head. This was a Kimberly-centered episode, and Kimberly's weapon is a bow. Cue [[Twang! "Hello."]] + [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands]], and then an arrow to the apple.
* ''[[
* ''[[Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries]]'': In "Death at the Grand", Phryne's father shoots the hat off the man he was fighting a [[Ten Paces and Turn]] duel against as a way of proving his point.
== Music ==
* In the Northumbrian ballad of ''Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and Wyllyam of Cloudeslee'', which was a source of Walter Scott's ''[[Ivanhoe]]'', William of Cloudeslee tells the king he will put an apple on his seven-year-old son's head and shoot it off at 120 paces:
{{quote|
Hee is to me full deere;
I will tye him to a stake—
All shall see him that bee here—
And lay an apple upon his head,
And goe six [score] paces him froe,
And I myself with a broad arrowe
Shall cleave the apple in towe. }}
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* Happens in ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]'': the protagonist being the glutton that he is misses intentionally so that he can eat the apple afterwards.
* ''[[The Far Side]]'' did a strip depicting William Tell's less fortunate son Warren, balancing an apple atop his gigantic head and encouraging Dad to shoot it off. Gary Larson caught some flak for this one, as some assumed he was mocking people with [
* Chalie Brown does it to Snoopy in [http://gocomics.com/peanuts/1952/03/07/ this] early ''[[Peanuts]]'' strip.
* Used in a ''[[Mutt And Jeff]]'' strip:
{{quote|
'''Mutt:''' What? Are you crazy?
'''Jeff:''' Why? I'll bet cha two bucks I can do it?
'''Mutt:''' You little boob! You gotta be a marksman, an expert to do a stunt like that! Suppose you miss!
'''Jeff:''' Yeh, I suppose you're right! It is kinda risky at that!
'''Mutt:''' Of course, silly!
'''Jeff:''' O.K. then instead of two bucks I'll only bet a dime! }}
* Done in ''[[FoxTrot]]''. Roger asks Jason what sport he has taken up and Jason tells him to put an apple on his head and he'll demonstrate. Roger, wisely, flees.
* ''[[
* Part of Willie's [[Knife
== Theater ==
* In ''[[
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[
* Invoked in the ''[[
* A trailer for another [[Valve]] game, ''[[
* One of the plays in ''[[Suikoden III]]'', which includes William Tell... and can ''screw up'' if you pick incompatible actors as William Tell and his son. Will net a boo, [[Rule of Funny|but who cares,]] [[Comedic Sociopathy|it's funnier that way!]]
* ''[[Suikoden II]]'' has the hero participate in a traveling circus's show by having various pieces of fruit placed on his head while knife-thrower Eilie impales them with expert precision. You can throw off her aim and get hit with a knife yourself by choosing to wimp out and move to either side before she throws.
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== Western Animation ==
* Happened on ''[[
* On the [[Classic Disney Short]] "The Tortoise And The Hare", the Hare shows off his speed by shooting an arrow, running ahead of it, standing under the target with an apple on his head, and letting the arrow split the apple in two.
* In ''[[The Simpsons (
* ''[[
** The extra comic "Going Home Again" shows how Zuko and Mai get together. After Azula ruins the dinner she set up by giggling in the bushes with Ty Lee, the couple go on a walk where they run into Jin. Mai, suspecting a history, demonstrates her knife throwing prowess by standing Zuko in front of a fountain, sticking a fish on his head and then chucking an icicle at the fish. She then offers Jin another icicle to try it out for herself. Jin hurls it a Zuko who dives out of the way and falls into the fountain. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|And to top it all off, Mai leans over him and says, "Now we're even."]]
* This is one of the training methods employed by Prince Derek in ''[[The Swan Princess]]'', only the [[Plucky Comic Relief]] shoots the arrow and Derek is supposed to turn and catch it. {{spoiler|It turns out to be a [[Chekhov's Gun]], when they use it to take down the [[Big Bad]].}}
* ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'': Kowalski wishes for a plasma blaster and then uses it to shoot an apple off Rico's head.
* An episode of ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' had 'The Reverse Willam Tell' challenge, wherein half the contestants had to balance an arrow on their heads, while the other half had to throw crabapples at their heads blindfolded to try to knock the arrow off.
* On ''[[
{{quote|
'''Ferb:''' [takes photograph of the apple, shows it to Buford]
'''Buford:''' {{[[[Beat]] pause}}] ... Not really what I meant, but okay.
'''Ferb:''' [puts apple photo into machine and it teleports the apple off Buford's head along with a tiny bit of his hair]
'''Buford:''' ...nice! High and tight! }}
* Sonic does this to one of Robotnik's robots in ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. Getting up in [[Robin Hood]] garb and balancing an apple on his head, Sonic tauntingly asks the robot (Called Dragon Breath in [[Dr. Robotniks Mean Bean Machine]]) if he's ever heard of [[William Tell]]. Infuriated, Dragon Breath throws his spiked club at Sonic, but the hedgehog's super speeds allows him to dodge just in time, so that the only damage done is that apple is split in half...and the tree behind Sonic falls over onto Dragon Breath.
* [[Rule of Funny|For some reason]] this was part of a 'Cutest Kitty' competition on ''[[The Twisted Whiskers Show]]''.
* One scene of ''[[
* ''[[Stoked]]!'': In "Surfer's Got Talent", Broseph discovers he has an uncanny aim with a water hose and attempts to shoot a half-eaten apple off Emma's head.
* Subverted on an episode of ''[[
* ''[[King
* ''[[Taz
* The story of William Tell is retold in Sherman and Peabody's segment on ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]''. In this version, Tell is nearsighted and [[Blind Without'Em| has broken his glasses]], leaving his son fearing for his life as the date approaches. After failed attempts to replace the glasses, Mr. Peabody solves the problem by replacing the apple with another one [[Hollywood Magnetism| with a powerful magnet inside]], which Tell is able to hit easily.
== Real Life ==
* [[William S. Burroughs]] accidentally killed his wife while [[I Just Shot Marvin in
* This kind of trope was also done with guns, by Annie Oakley. There was a bit in her act where she would shoot the ash off her husband's cigar.
** At one point, Kaiser Wilhelm was in the audience. Annie's husband asked for volunteers, as he always did, and to his surprise the Kaiser stood up. Annie pulled off the trick, and after [[World War
* Obviously appeared among [[Darwin Award]] stories
* Straddling the line between [[Real Life]] and folklore are the tales of American [[Mountain Man]] Mike Fink. Several stories tell of him and his friends shooting cups of whisky off each other's heads. One account of his death says that in 1829 in a drunken stupor, when aiming at a mug of beer from the head of his longtime friend, John Carpenter, he shot low; shortly thereafter, his other longtime friend, Talbot, retaliated by killing Fink, using Carpenter's pistol.
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[[Category:Older Than Print]]
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
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