Line #62 Main/KickingMyOwnButt


1	->''"Man, man, we should start putting those Homestar vs. Homestar fights on pay-per-view. Instant classics!"''
2	-->-- '''[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Strong Bad]]''', ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' #165 [[Recap/StrongBadEmailE165StrongBadathlon "strong badathlon"]]
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4	This isn't a case where you're [[MirrorMatch fighting an evil twin or a clone of yourself]], but where you are literally fighting yourself. As in, you're voluntarily hitting yourself or otherwise trying to inflict damage to yourself.
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6	Sometimes this is used to set up a WoundedGazelleGambit, PoliceBrutalityGambit, or for PlayingTheVictimCard, while other times it's a literal form of FightingFromTheInside. In cartoons, this can result from a BigBallOfViolence in which all but one character escapes. Compare AttackingThroughYourself, when the only way you can hurt your opponent is to hurt yourself as well.
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8	The "Voluntarily" part is important. If the self-hitting is involuntary, it's StopHittingYourself.
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10	Not to be confused with SelfHarm, which doesn't have a motive beyond causing pain to yourself.
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12	----
13	!!Examples:
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15	[[foldercontrol]]
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17	[[folder:Advertising]]
18	* A Pepsi Max commercial has a man at a job interview suddenly start screaming and beating himself up, including tearing his shirt, dunking himself into a fish tank, and throwing himself out of the office. It turns out it was a ploy to scare away the other interviewees so that his friend would have no competition for getting the job.
19	[[/folder]]
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21	[[folder:Films]]
22	* ''Film/FightClub'': The narrator blackmails his boss into paying him for no work, and to seal the deal beats himself up in front of the boss, threatening to blame him for the beating if he doesn't comply, and of course in order to show how serious and nuts he is.
23	** Also - [[spoiler:at the beginning of the film, the narrator and Tyler Durden have fighting sessions in the parking lot of a restaurant. At the end, when it's revealed that Tyler was a figment of the narrator's imagination, it's shown that the narrator was actually beating himself up.]]
24	* ''Film/LiarLiar'': Fletcher Reede desperately needs an excuse to get out of a court case since he's stuck with a curse so that he CannotTellALie. After hurting himself in the bathroom (by knocking his head against the wall), he comes up with the idea of beating himself up to get out of the case.
25	--> '''Fletcher Reede:''' I'm kicking my ass! Do you mind?!
26	* ''Franchise/StarWars'' Episode III ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' has [[BigBad Palpatine]] effectively do this when, disarmed by Mace Windu, he blasts [[ShockAndAwe Force Lightning]] directly into Mace Windu’s lightsaber to reflect it back onto himself and make it appear that Mace Windu brutally attacked him while he was defenseless. He claims that “the attempt on (his) life (from the Jedi) has left (him) scarred and deformed” [[WoundedGazelleGambit as a ploy to get both the Galactic Republic and]] [[TheChosenOne Anakin Skywalker]] [[WoundedGazelleGambit to feel sympathy and side with him over the Jedi.]] The Republic was not there to witness it, giving them no reason to doubt the claim. As for Anakin, who saw the whole scene play out right in front of him...
27	[[/folder]]
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29	[[folder:Literature]]
30	* ''Literature/CerberusHigh'': Blanc becomes a victim of Akuji's poisonous senbons during his fight with the demon in the Underworld Arc. In order to snap his body out of the poison's advancing effects and continue fighting, Blanc drives his ice arrow into his own leg.
31	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': It's said in ''Literature/AHatFullOfSky'' that [[PintSizedPowerhouse Nac Mac Feegle]] are [[BloodKnight so belligerent]], one left on his own for long enough will try to kick himself in the nose to alleviate the boredom.
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34	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
35	* An episode of ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' where Bobby and Tony get into an argument results in Bobby talking Tony out of slugging him by slugging himself. Alex - always the OnlySaneMan - can't believe he's breaking up a fight between one guy.
36	* In ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', Francis Dolarhyde beats himself bloody in his attic. Although from his point of view, it's his split personality, The Great Red Dragon, punishing him.
37	* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': In an episode where Malcolm and Reese are both trying to convince Francis to take them to a wrestling show, Reese punches himself in the face repeatedly ([[BloodyHilarious drawing a lot of blood]]) and claims that Malcolm beat him up in an effort to get Malcolm punished so he couldn't go. It doesn't work.
38	* In a sketch from a ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' live stage show, Graham Chapman plays Colin "Bomber" Harris, a wrestler who goes up against...Colin "Bomber" Harris.
39	* ''Series/NightGallery'': In "The Hand of Borgus Weems", Peter Lacland smashes his own hand because he believes it belongs to Borgus Weems.
40	* ''Series/{{The Office\|US}}'': As Dwight is giving a martial arts demonstration, Jim states that "the only one who can defeat you is yourself", which leads to Dwight trying moves on himself.
41	* ''Series/SavedByTheBell:'' Screech wrestles himself in order to get out of a match with another character.
42	* Shown several times on ''Series/WorldsDumbest''; as mentioned above, often used to set up a PoliceBrutalityGambit. The presence of cameras recording the events means that they never work.
43	* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': in "Precipice", Helen's psycho ex-boyfriend Paul smashes his own face into a mirror, which leaves deep gashes in his forehead and blackens both eyes. Then he admits himself to Helen's hospital and claims her new boyfriend Lex paid some thugs to beat him up.
44	[[/folder]]
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46	[[folder:Web Animation]]
47	* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'':
48	** In the ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' "strong badathlon", one of the events is "Greco-Roman Homestar Crud-Out-Of-Beating." The reigning champion is none other than Homestar, who is shown beating the crud out of himself.
49	--->'''Homestar Runner:''' C'mon, you little so-and-so! (''SLAP! PUNCH!'') Is that all you got? (''PUNCH! PUNCH!'') Oh yeah? Oh yeah? You think you got it like that?
50	** In "The Next April Fool's Thing", Strong Mad tries to psych himself up to "talk to orange juice" by punching himself in the face. He turns out to be [[DumbMuscle strong enough]] to [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom send himself flying]].
51	* ''WebAnimation/HowItShouldHaveEnded'''s take on ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' has Anakin throw a wrench in Palpatine's scheme by calling Windu straightaway when the Sith Lord reveals himself. Palpatine panics and charges up his Force lightning.
52	-->'''Palpatine:''' Help me, Anakin! The Jedi are taking over!
53	-->'''Anakin: ''' Why are you shocking yourself?
54	* In Jonbro's Franchise/SuperMario parody ''WebAnimation/PowerStar'' ''4.5'', Mario is shown constantly dealing more damage to himself than to his brother, Luigi. While this mostly only happens during the first few seconds, the remainder of the battle still shows him not putting much effort into actually hurting Luigi.
55	* In the ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' episode "[[Recap/HTFAutopsyTurvy Autopsy-Turvy]]", Flippy's evil SplitPersonality Fliqpy has seemingly emerged as an EnemyWithout, and they engage in an episode-long fight to the death. However, near the end of the episode, the two happen to pass by a mirror, and [[TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf upon seeing their reflections, or rather reflection]], they realise that it was all a hallucination brought on by Flippy taking too much anxiety medication, and that he was actually fighting ''himself'' the whole time by repeatedly switching back and forth between the two sides.
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58	[[folder:Western Animation]]
59	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' episode ''Movie Magic'', Sylvester Calzone criticizes Timmy's Amateur Movie, to which Timmy retorts, asking if he's some kind of critic. Since Sylvester had built an image of being a "Critic Punching Movie Star," he punches himself out, and throughout the rest of the episode, can be occasionally seen in the background continuing to punch himself.
60	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In the episode "Bender Gets Made", Bender joins the Robot Mafia and when they hijack the Planet Express Ship, the Donbot tells him to go and find the robot listed on the ship's crew and kill him (not knowing that that robot was Bender himself). Bender then proceeds to hide from the Donbot's sight and beat himself over the head with a frying pan, while pretending to be beating up someone else.
61	* Comes up several times in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''.
62	** In ''The Refund'', Gumball repeatedly slaps himself in order to pressure Larry into giving him a refund while Darwin holds his breath. It doesn't work because Larry was willing to do something for them, but saw his cheapskate manager was still watching.
63	** In ''The Banana'', Banana Joe's attempt to attack Gumball and Darwin results in him slipping and bruising himself. Knowing they'd be seen as bullies if anyone saw this, Gumball and Darwin proceed to beat themselves (and each other) up to make it look like it was an even fight, even tricking Joe once he woke up.
64	** In ''The Watch'', Marvin refuses to give the back family heirloom Darwin gave away, so Gumball uses Marvin's cane to beat himself [[WoundedGazelleGambit for the sake of accusing Marvin of having done it when the cops come]]. After hitting himself once [[GoneHorriblyRight he becomes too disoriented to remember what he was even doing]].
65	* On the WesternAnimation/{{Classic Disney Short\|s}} "WesternAnimation/LonesomeGhosts", Goofy tries to ambush one of the ghosts hiding in a dresser, but he ends up trying to strangle himself. He then sees his own butt and, thinking it's the ghost's, [[PainToTheAss stabs it with a thumbtack]].
66	* In the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' episode that introduced him, Negaduck was originally Darkwing's LiteralSplitPersonality. The two are merged together in the middle of a fist fight between each other, resulting in Darkwing grabbing himself by the collar and punching himself before realizing he's back to normal.
67	* On the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoon "WesternAnimation/TheGreatPiggyBankRobbery", WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck is so excited after reading a ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' comic that he starts miming a fight, and throws a punch so hard that his fist springs back and knocks himself out, leading to the DreamSequence that makes up the rest of the short.
68	* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "No Weenies Allowed", Patrick performs a ''brutal'' beatdown on himself as part of a ruse to make [=SpongeBob=] look tough enough to get into the [[BadGuyBar Salty Spittoon]]. [[spoiler: It works, but [=SpongeBob=] slips on an ice cube right after walking in the door and has to go to the hospital.]]
69	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', Jimmy builds a pair of nanobots to pilot a machine to serve as his bodyguard, but they get carried away and attack anyone for even the slightest offense against him. Jimmy eventually stops them by beating himself up, causing a LogicBomb in the nanobots because they were programmed to protect Jimmy, but they can't hurt him either.
70	* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': In "The Helper", Wander's ChronicHeroSyndrome accidentally causes a lot of trouble, with him repeatedly trying to help people who don't need help. In the end, Wander offers to make it up to the townsfolk by throwing ''himself'' out of town.
71	* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' has a variation in one episode where Clay tries to get past an EnemyMime who keeps copying his every move. He eventually succeeds by punching himself in the face; while Clay only got a black eye, the mime ended up knocking himself out.
72	[[/folder]]

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