History Main / HandInTheHole

* ''FlashGordon''. While Flash is in Arboria, he's forced to participate in a Death Game (SubTrope of DuelToTheDeath) with Prince Barin. They take turns sticking their arms into a hollow tree trunk that contains a Wood Beast. It has a sting that causes death after tortured madness. [[spoiler: Eventually, Flash pretends he was stung, then attacks Barin when he lets his guard down.]]

* In the ''[=~Yu-Gi-Oh!~=]'' manga, one of the portions of Seto Kaiba's sadistic "Death-T" course has a contraption with a hand-hole for each of the four characters running the course, each marked with some two-digit binary code (how Kaiba knew to use four holes when he was after Yugi specifically is anyone's guess). The contraption turns out to be a miniature guillotine ready to cut off their hands at the wrist if they don't press the button in the right hole before it drops. [[spoiler: The proper hole is the one that Anzu puts her hand in, marked "11". The only clue is a sign marked "bllood". Yugi realizes at the last second that it's spelled wrong, and is a clue that it is made up of binary symbols (10,11,00,01). The misspelling is a clue as to the right button.]]

* ''FlashGordon''. While Flash is in Arboria, he's forced to participate in a DeathGame (SubTrope of DuelToTheDeath) with Prince Barin. They take turns sticking their arms into a hollow tree trunk that contains a Wood Beast. It has a sting that causes death after tortured madness.

* In Film/SilentHill, Rose has to reach into the mouth of a corpse to retrieve a key.
* {{Creepshow}}. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel OH]] [[SealedEvilInACan DEAR]] [[EldritchAbomination GOD.]]
* The garbage disposal variant is subverted in ''Film/Halloween'', but not until the suspense is built up to HighOctaneNightmareFuel levels.

* Played with so frequently in {{Goosebumps}} books that this line of [[http://www.bloggerbeware.com/2007/08/30-it-came-from-beneath-sink.html a review]] sums it up best:

* Herpetologists on AnimalPlanet regularly deal with this trope, either while extracting reptiles in the wild from holes in the ground, or removing trespassing serpents from under the junk in somebody's garage. Often averted by using a snake-handler's hook.

* In the pilot episode of {{Smallville}}, Clark Kent tries to tell his dad that he has superpowers. His dad won't believe him, so Clark sticks his arm into a wood chipper, breaking the blades.

* In NorseMythology, Tyr puts his hand in [[BigBadassWolf Fenrisulfr's]] mouth to prove that the Norse Gods are sincere about their promise to let the Wolf go if they manage to hold him in their bondage games. They weren't, which is why Tyr is depicted with only one hand. Differs in that Tyr knew ''exactly'' what was going to happen to him.

* Censored for those who don't like discussing sexual things.

* The web novella ''Ted the Caver'' revolves around the title character, an amateur spelunker, discovering a fist-sized hole in a cave and endeavoring not just to stick his hand in, but to open it up and crawl through to find out what's on the other side. [[spoiler: CosmicHorror ensues.]]

** Glory Holes. [[spoiler: For men to stick their penises in, and 'hopefully' receive some sort of 'sexual gratification'.

* In a recent ''{{Naruto}}'' manga, Naruto is told to place his head in a statue's mouth. If he's overcome the darkness in his heart, the way forward will open. If not, the statue will come to life and bite his head off. Yeah, [[http://manga.animevibe.net/Naruto/496/6 things didn't go well for Naruto]]. [[spoiler:''Gotcha!'']]

* This is one way to catch a monkey. Put something that the monkey wants, like a piece of fruit, into a hole in a tree that is just the size of the monkey's hand. The monkey reaches in and grabs it but then it's fist is too big to pull out of the hole. Then you run up and grab the monkey before the monkey realizes that it has to let go in order to run away.

* James of ''SilentHill 2'' has no problems sticking his hand down an incredibly filthy toilet (without even rolling up his sleeve first!) to retrieve a clue; in the next game, if you have a save on the same memory card, Heather approaches a similar toilet and recoils, wondering out loud [[LampshadeHanging who would do such a disgusting thing]]. In the fourth game, Henry's irrational fear of toilets seems a bit silly given how he'd been crawling through or jumping down plenty of mysterious holes [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption without hesitation]], and even reaches into the pocket of a corpse to retrieve a PlotCoupon.
** Also in ''{{Silent Hill}}'' 2 there is a scene, when James has to reach into the hole to obtain a key. In SH5 Alex also has two "hole times" and he can even be killed when doing this.

* These were added as part of the tombs in TheSims 3 World Adventure. They can hide switches to deactivate (Or sometimes activate) traps or hide treasure. They are also sometimes full of bugs that causes sims to freak out in addition to the switch or treasure. Sims wihtout the Brave trait will refuse to stick their hand in one if they were recently covered in bugs.

* In ''{{Macross}}'' II, Hibiki re-enacts the belowmentioned ''Roman Holiday'' scene with Ishtar (it is even implied to be the same statue).

* In ''Roman Holiday'', Gregory Peck's character sticks his hand in the mouth of a statue he claims would bite if the person doing so was a liar, and pretends that this is exactly what happens. [[EnforcedMethodActing Audrey Hepburn wasn't told about this prank beforehand.]]

* In the ''YuGiOh'' manga, one of the portions of Seto Kaiba's sadistic "Death-T" course has a contraption with a hand-hole for each of the four characters running the course, each marked with some two-digit binary code (how Kaiba knew to use four holes when he was after Yugi specifically is anyone's guess). The contraption turns out to be a miniature guillotine ready to cut off their hands at the wrist if they don't press the button in the right hole before it drops. [[spoiler: The proper hole is the one that Anzu puts her hand in, marked "11". The only clue is a sign marked "bllood". Yugi realizes at the last second that it's spelled wrong, and is a clue that it is made up of binary symbols (10,11,00,01). The misspelling is a clue as to the right button.]]

*In a recent ''{{Naruto}}'' manga, Naruto is told to place his head in a statue's mouth. If he's overcome the darkness in his heart, the way forward will open. If not, the statue will come to life and bite his head off. Yeah, [[http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/496/03/ things didn't go well for Naruto]]. [[spoiler:''Gotcha!'']]