History Main / PressurePoint

* Pressure points are omnipresent in martial arts and self-defense classes, often in the form of joint locks, precision strikes, and the good old GroinAttack. Some schools of Japanese jujutsu make use of a wide range of points called ''kyusho'', used to induce a person to be more compliant or cause enough pain when struck to induce an individual to discontinue hostilities, and police forces are also taught to use them in control methods. However, pressure points are decidedly not an exact science: there's a considerable amount of variation in location and effectiveness between individuals, and they are frequently ineffective on someone who is in an altered state of consciousness, drunk or on drugs, has a large amount of body fat or muscle mass, has trained to be resistant to them, or is simply that tough. All of this means that the most effective application of these techniques is ironically after the user has the opponent already controlled in more practical holds and positions, where he can still exert dominance if pressure points fail; a fighting system or gameplan solely based on trying to hit the points without no control or setup is fundamentally condemned to be less effective than brute force, as in striking or grappling, or even not effective at all.

* The Vulcan nerve pinch is parodied in a ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode where the Planet Express crew end up in a death-match with the cast of the original ''Star Trek''. Leonard Nimoy tries to see if the "Vulcan nerve pinch" actually works but tries it on Bender, a robot and thus lacking nerves, who doesn't even flinch. In another episode, the robot cop URL does this to a criminal and says "Spock you out".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' knows a variation of it but it only works on the prostate.

* Uncle from ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' did this to many a {{Mook|s}} in the first season. He even did this to Captain Black when he wouldn't heed his warnings about attacking a magical demon BigBad.
-->"Who else wants a piece of Uncle?!"
** Tohru does this once at least, as does Jade [[GrandTheftMe (when possessed by Shendu).]]
* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E9MayoredToTheMob Mayored to the Mob]]", where Homer acquires the skill off disabling people for half an hour using the Spock touch. Promptly he applies this technique on his family members just for fun and even on himself in order to skip the 30 minutes waiting time until supper. Though in Homer's case, he whacks his head on the kitchen table as he falls down.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Big Macintosh knows just the right one to treat Granny Smith's muscle spasm.

* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'', several characters, most prominently Po and Mantis, can hit pressure points to inflict paralysis and other effects. In one episode, Taotie invents a vehicle that can use incredibly accurate acupressure to make victims do virtually anything and uses it to manipulate Po, Shifu, Monkey, Crane, Mantis, and Viper until Tigress destroys it. Also, samurai clam Kira is shown to use pressure point techniques.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'':
** Master Splinter uses this to calm down and discipline an overreacting Raphael. Later in the episode, Raph himself [[ChekhovsGun uses the technique]] to paralyze a powerful, rampaging mutant.
** Splinter later combines with some qi manipulation to purge [[spoiler: Karai from the brainwashing slugs Shredder created.]]

* At the end of the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Raging Bully", Ferb uses the Vulcan nerve pinch on Buford.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "The Boring Identity", Stan kills a guy by pressing several pressure points to rupture his heart.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/CarmenSandiego'' episode "The French Connection Caper", just when Coach Brunt was about to crush Carmen to [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence death by bear hugging her]], [[DeusExMachina Shadow-san]] suddenly stuns Brunt unconscious with the Vulcan nerve pinch, saving Carmen's life.

** [[ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist]]

** The SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has these techniques become the weapon of the enemy "[[MugglePower Equalist]]" faction. Their leader, Amon, even learns how to permanently strip bending powers using it.[[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Or so he claims]]. He actually does this with very advanced [[PeoplePuppets Bloodbending]].]]

** ComicBook/{{Gamora}} [[https://imgur.com/a/QHjbI is capable of this]]. According to Thanos, he's the only one who could survive such a move.

*** Neji Hyuga is a prodigy of this to where he self-taught himself the two strongest techniques of the Gentle Fist, with one of them, the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, allowing him to make a series of quick strikes to completely disable an enemy by locking down their chakra. Unfortunately for him, he was fighting [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan Naruto]], who proceeded to use the Kyuubi's chakra instead to force them open for a HeroicSecondWind. His cousin, Hinata, also utilizes this though is more defensive in her usage than him.

The practice of pressing a certain point on a person's body to achieve a certain effect (can also be multiple points in quick succession, or multiple points simultaneously). The most common effect is to [[TheParalyzer paralyze the target]] or knock him unconscious. For knocking someone unconscious by the less subtle method of a strong blow to the head see TapOnTheHead. For the more lethal version see TouchOfDeath.

* In the campy ''Film/DocSavage'', a member of the Fabulous Five grabs a mook's wrist in a painful restraint hold, carefully removes his own glasses, then grabs the mook behind the ear and squeezes to knock him unconscious.

* The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Day of the Samurai" revolves around a martial art called Kiba no Hoko (The Way of the Fang), which uses precise strikes against pressure points. Batman's foe [[TheRival Kyodai Ken]] managed to learn its most fatal technique, the [[TouchOfDeath Oonemuri Touch]].

* The core of Kenshiro's Hokuto Shinken style in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' is the ''Keiraku Hikou'' (Meridian Channel Hidden Points), used for a large variety of effects up to and very often including making YourHeadASplode. If you happened to contact a hit from Kenshiro, there is (almost always) only one outcome: YouAreAlreadyDead. Occasionally, he's been tripped up by his enemies being too fat to effectively reach the pressure points (luckily, Hokuto Shinken comes with a technique ''explicitly'' for this scenario) or by them [[spoiler:having their pressure points completely flipped around]].

*** Neji Hyuga is a prodigy of this to where he self-taught himself the two strongest techniques of the Gentle Fist, with one of them, the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, allowing him to make a series of quick strikes to completely disable an enemy by locking down their chakra. Unfortunately for him, he was fighting Naruto, who proceeded to instead use the Kyuubi's chakra to force them open for a HeroicSecondWind. His cousin, Hinata, also utilizes this though is more defensive in her usage than him.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'': In the qualifying round of the Festival Tournament arc, we see Evangeline keeping a combatant incapacitated with one finger in the back. Apparently just to show that, yeah, she doesn't ''just'' know a hundred lethal spells and how to magically enhance her physical power to rip-people-in-half levels... she's a master of esoteric martial arts ''too'', which makes sense, as she's ReallySevenHundredYearsOld and needed something to fill the time, plus martial arts allowed her to be lethal even if her [[PowerLimiter powers were sealed.]]

** Comicbook/CaptainAmerica
** Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}

* This is basically what's [[spoiler:keeping the Dark Dragon asleep]] in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}''; [[spoiler:when all seven needles are pulled, the dragon awakens, and, depending on the heart(s) of the one(s) who pull(s) them, either destroys the world, or recreates it into a paradise]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival Survival]]", the Seventh Doctor paralyzes a bullying physical education instructor by pressing a finger on his forehead. Also a standard "Venusian karate" tactic of the Third (and occasionally later) Doctors.

* The core of Kenshiro's Hokuto Shinken style in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' is the ''Keiraku Hikou'' (Meridian Channel Hidden Points), used for a large variety of effects up to and very often including making YourHeadASplode. If you happened to contact a hit from Kenshiro, there is only one outcome: YouAreAlreadyDead.

** ComicBook/{{Gamora}} [[https://imgur.com/a/QHjbI is capable of using such a move]]. According to Thanos, he's the only one who could survive such a move.

** ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}--[[LegacyCharacter specifically]], [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl 2000}} Cassandra Cain]]. After a mook she was fighting shot and killed one of his own men by accident, she temporarily ''stopped his heart'' to give him an idea of what he'd done.
** ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} the Terminator.
** ComicBook/{{Gamora}}

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'', Master Splinter uses this to calm down and discipline an overreacting Raphael. Later in the episode, Raph himself [[ChekhovsGun uses the technique]] to paralyze a powerful, rampaging mutant.

** Superman himself uses these from time to time. When Batman got possessed by a sentient cloud of kryptonite once, Superman pokes him in the side and Batman's body collapses, with the cloud wondering why it can't move anymore. When Superman tried this on Maxima, she was tough enough to shrug it off.

* In the ParodyFic ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space'', [=TuMok=] of Mars uses the Martian Nerve Pinch, which turns out to be a simple GroinAttack.

* ''Series/TheAvengers'' episode "The Living Dead". Emma Peel applies pressure to two points on the neck of a female guard's neck to render her unconscious.

-->'''Rimmer:''' That's not an Ionian nerve grip, that's smashing me over the head with a vase!
-->'''Kryten:''' There's no such thing as an Ionian nerve grip! Now stand still while I hit you.

** Also there are apparently ''708'' of them, with effects ranging from sudden paralysis to curing muteness to ''suddenly allowing one to read other languages'' (possibly {{justified|Trope}}, as that message had been written by early Hokuto Shinken practitioners and could have just been a code that could be read only that way).

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Survival", the Seventh Doctor paralyzes a bullying physical education instructor by pressing a finger on his forehead. Also a standard "Venusian karate" tactic of the Third (and occasionally later) Doctors.

* Subverted on ''Series/RedDwarf''. When Kryten needs to render the other Dwarfers unconscious as part of a plan, he suggests using an "Ionian nerve grip" on Rimmer, assures him he won't feel a thing - and then hits him with a vase. Since Rimmer is now a nigh-indestructible HardLight hologram, he proves impossible to knock out anyway.