I was watching a recent movie where someone throws an object at someone, at some distance, and conks them perfectly on the head (side note: feel free to PM if you think you know the movie, but no spoilers please).
It struck me as very familiar, comedic kind of trope despite its actual violence.
And so I went looking on TV Tropes for this, and maybe I didn’t search exactly right, but didn’t find what I was looking for. Can you think of examples? I feel like it was used on the Simpsons for example.
Here’s one I did think of, though the arc on the coconut isn’t quite long-distance.
There’s a pretty good beaning-by-chalkboard-eraser in The Meaning of Life (“What do we do once we’ve removed our clothes?” “Put them on a lower peg, sir?” WHIP).
Back in uni I was showing friends a copy of Drunken Master 2, and there’s a scene right at the beginning where Andy Lau accidentally whacks one of Jackie Chan’s companions in the head with a baseball. One of the crowd in my living room lost it in hysterics at this. He said that to Filipinos (as he was) that kind of slapstick was hilarious. I haven’t watched many movies with my other Filipino pals, so I haven’t put this statement to experimental testing.
There’s the great scene in Braveheart where Mel Gibson and Brendan Gleeson throw rocks at each other. Gleeson throws a head sized rock and misses. Gibson throws a golfball sized rock and hits him right in the forehead.
The Sherlock episode ‘Scandal in Belgravia’ has a subplot of the death of a man who was standing in a field. Without spoiling it, the object that killed him was thrown and travelled some considerable distance.
Hey! The Elf clip and the Incredibles clip were likely the exact ones lurking at the back of my mind, since I’ve watched both multiple times. Lots of other good clips in the thread too (the Superman deleted scene is, hmmm, exactly the right action, but wow what a dark finish!).
