History Main / PercussiveMaintenance

** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3'' features Percussive Maintenance in its most basic form, with Dante punching a jukebox to get it to play (''"This party is gettin' crazy!"''). Destroying a jukebox in Mission 3 will inexplicably incite it to play a few notes (a remix of the combat theme from ''[=DMC1=]'').

Compare PercussiveTherapy where a character hits things solely for their own emotional benefit, rather than the proper functioning of whatever they're hitting, and HaveYouTriedRebooting, another common way of fixing malfunctioning technology. Contrast PercussiveShutdown where the hit is intended to ''stop'' a thing from working. Compare and contrast HealingShiv, a weapon or technique designed specifically to heal and repair things attacked by it. For use on life forms, see the DopeSlap, GetAHoldOfYourselfMan, FacePalm, BeatTheCurseOutOfHim, or DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff.

''[[[OhCrapSmile Krazy 8 smiles nervously]]]'

--> '''Man''': "They say that... a hammer can fix anything, right? My TV's broken, yeah?"
-->[''Hits television with hammer'']
--> '''Man''': "Holy '''[[PrecisionFStrike SHIT]].''' WOW!"

-->'''Officer 1:''' Hey. Is this your vehicle?
-->'''Krazy 8:''' Uh, no sir.
-->'''Officer 1:''' Want to come down here?
-->'''Krazy 8:''' No problem, officer.
-->''[Krazy 8 comes down the ladder]''
-->'''Officer 2:''' Whatcha doing up there?
-->'''Krazy 8:''' Uh, just fixing a drainpipe. Some kind of block. ''[taps the pipe twice, and the drugs that were stuck in the drainpipe come piling out]''
-->'''Officer 2:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Guess you fixed it]].
-->''[[[OhCrapSmile Krazy 8 smiles nervously]]]'

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In "Rabbit in a Snowstorm," the office Wi-Fi at Nelson & Murdock is acting up, frustrating Matt and Foggy as they try to research case law. To fix it, Karen smacks the router a few times, which gets the connection working again.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'', when you are exploring an old Soviet military base, you spend a couple of minutes flipping some switches to get an old elevator working. After that fails one of your comrades hit the control panel and starts the elevator.

* Tech support according to ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}.

* In a ''ComicBook/TheTransformers'' comic, a two-bit crook finds Megatron, whose cyboneural circuits have been knocked loose in an earlier issue. The result is that Megatron has no free will, and will simply do whatever anyone else tells him. The crook embarks on a crime spree, but when he goes to confront his old boss, he drops Megatron -- conveniently reconnecting his circuits, allowing him to TakeOverTheWorld once again.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', episode "Cosmic Rust". After trying to get the matter duplicator to work to replicate more Corrorstop to cure the Autobots of said disease, it's '''Perceptor''' who resorts to this.

* During the Chop Shop level of ''VideoGame/ThePunisher'' video game, you can hear one thug struggling with a pop machine that won't give him his soda. Another guy tells him "Stop beating on it dumbass, it don't hardly work as it is!", leading to this hilarious burn, "You don't work either, but beating you gets results."

* If you call up the Nintendo Tech Support line with a Wii Mote problem, and they diagnose it as a stuck accelerometer, the fix they give over the phone is to, quote, "Hold the Wii remote buttons-side down, and whack it into your palm loud enough so I can hear it over the phone." [[http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2007/12/crazy-wii-remot.html It works]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'', the Slag brothers often do this to their stone-age car. Once though, the car hits back. The other racers also do this from time to time; Peter Perfect once fixes his car that had completely fallen apart with one kick.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear "The Web of Fear"]]: The Second Doctor has reprogrammed one of the Great Intelligence's spheres, but it doesn't respond until he whacks the bench it's on.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors "The Three Doctors"]]: The Second Doctor fixes a radio by whacking it against the TARDIS console.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E4StateOfDecay "State of Decay"]]:

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E4TheVisitation "The Visitation"]]: Lampshaded when Adric and Nyssa are trying to fly the TARDIS on their own. After a few failed attempts at landing, Nyssa tells Adric to think what the Doctor would do. Adric thinks about it for a moment, pushes a few buttons, and thumps the console. It works.
** Toward the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie the 1996 telemovie]], the Doctor uses the Fix on the TARDIS, one of the producer's many [[FanWank "kisses to the past"]].

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]]: The Ood do this in their first appearance. They approach the Doctor and Rose while menacingly repeating "We must feed...", then one of them irritatedly whacks his translator device and the output becomes: "We must feed... you, if you are hungry."
** [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride "The Runaway Bride"]]: The Doctor smacks a computer monitor at H.C. Clements to get it to turn on.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E15PlanetOfTheDead "Planet of the Dead"]]: The Doctor kicks the console of the heavily damaged Tritovore spaceship to get it to work while sending out a probe.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "The Eleventh Hour"]]: While inspecting a TV [[DoNotAdjustYourSet hijacked]] by the Atraxi, the Doctor smacks the remote control to get it to work.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E2DinosaursOnASpaceship "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"]]: Amy does this to a computer in the Silurian ark while pleading with the ancient system, "How about a picture, huh? Come on, for me?" [whack]
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E9EmpressOfMars "Empress of Mars"]]: The Doctor attempts to send out a distress signal, and the screen starts going hazy. He whaps it alongside the monitor, and then casually leans on the console to pretend it was his intention for it to go as smoothly as intended.

* In ''Series/{{NewsRadio}}'', this was electrician/maintenance guy Joe's go-to method for fixing nearly anything, including in one noteworthy case a nuclear power system.[[note]]Granted, it was a semi-daydream non-canon episode, but still, who whacks a nuclear ''anything'' with a planishing hammer?[[/note]] Subverted neatly in the first season when he's "fixing" Dave's malfunctioning laptop: giving it a whack, he kills it.

** Elliott's sorority sister hits a Jukebox and after it turn on, she says [[PersonAsVerb "Hey, I'm the Fonz!"]]

* A regular enough practice in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. Very few [[MadScientist "Sparks"]] are subtle, especially when they're in a hurry.

* In ''WebComic/TowerOfGod'' [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/tower-of-god/season-1-ep-55/viewer?title_no=95&episode_no=56 episode 56]], Hwaryun gets a vending machine to work by hitting it with the side of her palm. Khun is implied to try the same thing but only hurts his hand. Weirdly enough, it's {{justified}}, even {{Foreshadowing}}, since she's later revealed to be a Navigator with the ability to see what path will lead to the desired result.

* Happens [[https://youtu.be/AGCnFkBVv3w here]] characters watching a ShowWithinAShow parodying the climax of {{Film/Joker}}, when the TV stops working [[spoiler: right as Goofy shoots Pooh]].

* ''Manga/CityHunter'': [[{{Tsundere}} Kaori]] is convinced that if a machine does not work, a punch (or a kick. Or a mallet blow) will fix it. And if it keeps malfunctioning, [[http://mangafox.me/manga/city_hunter/v20/c099/11.html you are not hitting it hard enough.]]

* ''Series/MrBean'' attempts to use Percussive Maintenance in "Mind The Baby, Mr. Bean" to cheat at one of those token pusher machines. [[LaserGuidedKarma It doesn't end well]]: [[spoiler:As soon as he manages to get the machine to drop all the tokens, a kid comes along and nabs all the coins. Never mind that token pusher machines do not work that way.]]

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': The ''Complete Scoundrel'' sourcebook includes the skill trick "Opening Tap". It gives a rogue a chance to open a lock without any tools, just by tapping it with a hard, blunt object.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma meets Mikoto for what he thinks is the first time when he just lost ¥2000 (roughly $20) to a juice vending machine. She gets her supply of beverages by kicking the shit out of the machine, tarnishing [[OneGenderSchool Tokiwadai's]] reputation for ever. She explains it with the mechanics having rusted due to age, he explains it with the constant application of violence. Then, to regain his lost money, she [[ShockAndAwe hacks]] the machine, bombarding them with cans.

* In ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'', this is the preferred method of television repair because Nobita's family is so poor (Nobita's mother even shows Doraemon the preferred angle at which to whack) until Doraemon uses a magic cloth to restore the television to shiny newness.

* Spike Spiegel of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', from whom comes one of the alternate names of the trope, claims, "My ship works better when I kick it." His attempt to fix an antique Betamax player in the same fashion, however, does not turn out so well.

** In "[[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS18E16ToadsBrightIdea Toad's Bright Idea]]", Gator's lamp often fizzled out, and in order to get it working again, his driver had to knock it. Eventually, it stopped working altogether, and Toad let Gator borrow one of his lamps.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'':
** In "[[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS1E20WhistlesAndSneezes Whistles and Sneezes]]", Gordon's crew fix his jammed-open whistle by knocking it into place with a hammer.

** In "The Siege", Kira and Dax are trying to get an [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece abandoned spacecraft from the Occupation era]] that the Bajoran resistance [[TheAllegedCar cobbled together]]. After a while Dax gets exasperated trying to fix it in the cramped space available and starts hitting things.