History Main / SpoonBending

* When Uri Geller first came to prominence in TheSeventies and demonstrated his putative skill on TV in Great Britain, the watching audience was invited to join in. Indicating something interesting was going on, or possibly the extreme gullibility of the British TV viewing public, the BBC's switchboards were inundated with calls from viewers alleging not only spoons bending to order, but also anomalies like long-stopped clocks springing into life again, or else clocks and watches inexplicably stopping at the very instant of Geller putting out the 'fluence. Either way - genuine paranormal event, mass gullibility or people misinterpreting wholly coincidental events - it provided lots of material for publications like ''Magazine/ForteanTimes'' to fill space with. FT still deals with spoon-bending, under the general headings of things like parapsychology, telekinesis and poltergeist activity. He was eventually caught rigging the spoons by bending them back and forth until metal fatigue set in to the point that they could subtly be pushed with the tip of the thumb as a slight-of-hand trick. He also was never able to bend a spoon that was offered by someone else and usually refused to do so. He also tried to sue Nintendo for use of his likeness with the Pokémon Kadabra and Alakazam, claiming they were based on him and the symbols on their bodies (actually taken from Zener cards) were occult Nazi symbols used to defame him. The suit lasted from 1999 to ''2017'' before finally being dismissed.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* An episode of ''Series/ThatsSoRaven" has Raven and her friends meet a group of psychics--one of them is a classic spoonbender.

** ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries: In the episode "[[Recap/PokemonS1E22AbraAndThePsychicShowdown Abra and the Psychic Showdown]]", many of the psychics in Sabrina's gym are shown to be practicing their psychic abilities by trying (to limited effect) to bend spoons. One such psychic tries demonstrating this to Ash, Brock and Misty with great difficulty. For some reason, Ash was unimpressed, then bent a spoon with his hands and boasted his method was better.

While spoon bending in real life is an art based around misdirection, simply convincing the observer that the spoon is moving, pop culture has come to associate bending spoons as a technique among those with psychic powers. Spoons are small enough to grasp, common enough to find and are easy enough to bend with physical force, so it stands to reason that utensils like the common spoon would make a harmless [[PsychicPowers psychokinetic]] demonstration.

* When Uri Geller first came to prominence in TheSeventies and demonstrated his putative skill on TV in Great Britain, the watching audience was invited to join in. Indicating something interesting was going on, or possibly the extreme gullibility of the British TV viewing public, the BBC's switchboards were inundated with calls from viewers alleging not only spoons bending to order, but also anomalies like long-stopped clocks springing into life again, or else clocks and watches inexplicably stopping at the very instant of Geller putting out the 'fluence. Either way - genuine paranormal event, mass gullibility or people misinterpreting wholly coincidental event - it provided lots of material for publications like ''Magazine/ForteanTimes'' to fill space with. FT still deals with spoon-bending, under the general headings of things like parapsychology, telekinesis and poltergeist activity. He was eventually caught rigging the spoons by bending them back and forth until metal fatigue set in to the point that they could subtly be pushed with the tip of the thumb as a slight-of-hand trick. He also was never able to bend a spoon that was offered by someone else and usually refused to do so. He also tried to sue Nintendo for use of his likeness with the Pokémon Kadabra and Alakazam, claiming they were based on him and the symbols on their bodies (actually taken from Zener cards) were occult Nazi symbols used to defame him. The suit lasted from 1999 to ''2017'' before finally being dismissed.

** Mewtwo, an incredibly powerful psychic pokemon from ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', is shown to wield a massive spoon. [[SpontaneousWeaponCreation It's made of Mewtwo's own psychic energy]].
** In the [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime]] episode "[[Recap/PokemonS1E22AbraAndThePsychicShowdown Abra and the Psychic Showdown]]", many of the psychics in Sabrina's gym are shown to be practicing their psychic abilities by trying (to limited effect) to bend spoons. One such psychic tries demonstrating this to Ash, Brock and Misty with great difficulty. For some reason, Ash was unimpressed, then bent a spoon with his hands and boasted his method was better.

* [=SCP-463=] "A Spoon That Bends People" from ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' is a spoon that bends people's spines backwards by 90 degrees when it's picked up, acting as a playful inversion of the trope.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

** Kadabra and Alakazam from [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I]] -- two particularly iconic Psychic-type Pokemon -- each wield spoons. Their SignatureMove is Kinesis, which reduces the target's accuracy by bending spoons to confound them.

* The titular Mob of ''Webcomic/MobPsycho100'' tends to do this accidentally when he's eating, mainly thanks to his ludicrously powerful esper abilities that he sometimes doesn't have complete control over. His younger brother Ritsu helps him out by repairing the spoon with his bare hands, [[spoiler:once he gets esper abilities of his own he fixes the spoons up quickly with his own telekinesis]]. [[UnusuallyUninterestingSightTheir parents don't seem the least bit bothered by these events and chalk it up to just boys being boys]], although seeing Ritsu start using psychic abilities does confuse their father for a moment.

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action Television]]

[[/folder]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Manga/MobPsycho100 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_478.png]]]]

* ''Manga/MobPsycho100'':
** A RunningGag is that Mob has trouble eating soup, since he always subconciously bends his spoons with his mind. When he gets upset while talking about things over dinner, his power makes them fall over limp. His brother Ritsu usually fixes or replaces them.
** [[spoiler:Ritsu discovers his powers at the Awakening Lab, where he thought he was the only member with no powers at all until a burst of anger caused three spoons to twist together into a gnarled mess. He then became the single strongest esper in the group, and his help led the rest to improve their less-than-impressive abilities.]]

[[folder:WebAnimation]]

While spoon bending in real life is an art based around misdirection, simply convincing the observer that the spoon is moving, pop culture has come to associate bending spoons as a technique among those with psychic powers. Spoons are small enough to grasp, common enough to find and are easy enough to bend with physical force, so it stands to reason that utensils like the common spoon would make a harmless, [[PsychicPowers psychokinetic]] demonstration.

-> ''Do not try and bend the spoon, that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth ... there is no spoon. Then you will see it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.''

* Kadabra and Alakazam from Generation One of ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'' - two particularly iconic Psychic-type Pokemon - each wield spoons. Their SignatureMove is Kinesis, which reduces the target's accuracy by bending spoons to confound them. In Generation [=IV=], the item Twisted Spoon can be used to increase the power of psychic-type attacks when held by a pokemon. This is taken up to eleven with Alakazam's [[SuperMode mega evolution]] in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', Mega Alakazam has a whole swarm of spoons it manipulates in battle.
** In ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' the logo for Psychic type on the futbol-like Pokemon League uniforms has two spoons twisted around each other.

* When Uri Geller first came to prominence in TheSeventies and demonstrated his putative skill on TV in Great Britain, the watching audience was invited to join in. Indicating something interesting was going on, or possibly the extreme gullability of the British TV viewing public, the BBC's switchboards were inundated with calls from viewers alleging not only spoons bending to order, but also anomalies like long-stopped clocks springing into life again, or else clocks and watches inexplicably stopping at the very instant of Geller putting out the 'fluence. Either way - genuine paranormal event, mass gullibility or people misinterpreting wholly coincidental event - it provided lots of material for publications like ''Magazine/ForteanTimes'' to fill space with. FT still deals with spoon-bending, under the general headings of things like parapsychology, telekinesis and poltergeist activity. He was eventually caught rigging the spoons by bending them back and forth until metal fatigue set in to the point that they could subtly be pushed with the tip of the thumb as a slight-of-hand trick. He also was never able to bend a spoon that was offered by someone else and usually refused to do so. He also tried to sue Nintendo for use of his likeness with the Pokeémon Kadabra and Alakazam, claiming they were based on him and the symbols on their bodies (actually taken from Zener cards) were occult Nazi symbols used to defame him. The suit lasted from 1999 to ''2017'' before finally being dismissed.
* The Bent Spoon Award is an award given by the paranormal and pseudoscientific investigating organizations Austrailian Skeptics and [=NZ=] Skeptics to those who are "perpetrator[s] of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle." While there is an actual, physical award that exists, there is only one in existence (having claimed to have been made from wood from Noah's Ark and a spoon from the last supper to {{Troll}} winners) and the winners are only allowed to possess the award for themselves if they acquire it through supernatural means. Naturally, no one has accomplished this task.

** In the [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime]] episode "[[Recap/PokemonS1E22AbraAndThePsychicShowdown Abra and the Psychic Showdown]]", many of the psychics in Sabrina's gym are shown to be practicing their psychic abilities by trying (to limited effect) to bend spoons. One such psychic tries demonstrating this to Ash, Brock and Misty with great difficulty. For some reason, Ash was unimpressed, then bent a spoon with his hands and boasted his method was better. A flashback to Sabrina's childhood has her bending all the cutlery on the rack before shattering the rack itself with her immense power.

* When the protagonist family from ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'' discover that all of their cutlery has been distorted at the beginning of the movie, that is their (and the viewer's) first clue that the house is being haunted. Of course, everything gets downhill from there.

* Kadabra and Alakazam from Generation One of ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'' - two particularly iconic Psychic-type Pokemon - each wield spoons. Their SignatureMove is Kinesis, which reduces the target's accuracy by bending spoons to confound them. In Generation [=IV=], the item Twisted Spoon can be used to increase the power of psychic-type attacks when held by a pokemon.

** Mewtwo, an incredibly powerful psychic pokemon from ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', is shown to wield a massive spoon. [[SpontaneousWeaponGeneration It's made of Mewtwo's own psychic energy]].