William Telling: Difference between revisions

''(attempts the shot)''<br />

'''''Hobbes:''' Ouch.''<br />

 

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| "She didn't even medal!"}}

* 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-Nothing Know-It-All|Ot]][[Axe Crazy|to]] [[Crazy Prepared|pulls an apple out of his sack]] and places it on a bystander's head. He readies his crossbow, scaring the bystander, but he's stopped by Wanda [[It Makes Sense in Context|(not the fish)]] before he can pull the trigger, though.

 

 

== Game Show ==

 

* 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.

 

* 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.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* One time on ''[[Bones]]'' when she and Booth were undercover at the circus doing a [[Knife-Throwing Act]], she made him throw a knife at an oversized prop apple on top of her head. She sprang it on him all of a sudden during the show. She then puts on ''[[Beyond the Impossible|a prop nose]]'', visibly worrying him (and the team watching back in the institute). Made funnier by the fact that she was wearing an eye-patch at the time.

{{quote| '''Crowdmember:''' Be careful, she's only got one eye left!}}

** 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.

{{quote| '''Alfred:''' I... uh.. I think I'll go dust the Batcave. (quickly leaves)}}

* 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.

* 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.}}

* ''[[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.

 

== Music ==

'''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.

 

== Theater ==

 

 

== Video Games ==

 

* 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.

== Western Animation ==

 

* 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.

** 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.

{{quote| '''Buford:''' Bet you can't shoot this apple off my head.<br />

'''Ferb:''' [takes photograph of the apple, shows it to Buford]<br />

* 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]]''.

* ''[[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.

 

== Real Life ==

 

* 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 One]] started said she regretted not shooting a few inches further down the cigar. (She sent the Kaiser a letter asking for a second shot. To no one's surprise, he never sent a reply.)