Line #40 Main/BrickBreak


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11	[[quoteright:235:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/page1.jpg]]
12
13	->'''''Test Your Might!'''''
14	-->-- ''Franchise/MortalKombat''
15
16	Martial artists showing they can break bricks and/or boards with a single barehanded blow because they're martial artists. They often {{Kiai}} while doing so.
17
18	The fancy version of this is to break not the first object you hit, but the one behind it, or a specific one in a sequence. Thus demonstrating you have not only brawn, but control. The usual subversion is for someone to hurt their hand after failing to break the boards/bricks. Doing this at various levels of difficulty is often one of the criteria for advancement in rank. This can be taken to extreme levels in fiction, where characters are allowed to break the bricks with [[FingerPokeOfDoom one finger]] or [[PsychicPowers their minds]] or whatever.
19
20	For when a character doesn't break but literally ''cuts'' the blocks in pieces, see RazorSharpHand.
21
22	Has nothing to do with Franchise/{{LEGO}} bricks or ''VideoGame/{{Arkanoid}}''. ''Definitely'' not to be confused with BowelBreakingBricks. A FlyingBrick presents somewhat more of a challenge.
23
24	----
25	!!Examples
26
27	[[foldercontrol]]
28
29	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
30	* In ''Manga/DoctorSlump'', there's a scene where Suppaman tries to convince Arale that he's impressive by setting up a stack of five clay tiles and breaking three of them with a punch (And boasting about it afterward while holding is sore fist). Arale responds by casually punching the Earth and cracking it in half.
31	* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
32	** In ''Manga/DragonBall'', Goku did it [[FingerpokeOfDoom with a single finger]] when Oolong challenged him to. In the first episode, he chopped firewood with his bare hands after throwing the logs into the air.
33	** In a filler episode of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Gohan tried this trick, but a little girl named Lime who was unaware of his powers asked him what he thought he was doing, which distracted him and made the logs fall on his head. He then chops them with an ax, slicing through them with no effort.
34	** Also, Mr. Satan breaks a stack of tiles to show how powerful he is. (Cell was not impressed.) Also a slight subversion, as he always, without fail, breaks all but ONE brick... which still settles him as a BadassNormal.
35	* In ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', one of Souther's soldiers demonstrates his strength by breaking a huge rock in half with his head. On the very next page, Kenshiro breaks the man's skull with a single fist.
36	* In episode 28a of ''Anime/JewelpetMagicalChange'', the Jewelpets and Airi have to break a bunch of bricks in this fashion for their training. Airi, predictably, hurts herself doing it.
37	* In ''Manga/LoveHina'', Motoko is capable of cutting objects with her bare hands. She can even cut objects behind other objects without harming the front object. This is a result of her martial arts style, the Shinmei Ryu.
38	* Kuu Fei in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' moved on to ''boulders'' once bricks didn't provide enough of a challenge. And when those stopped being a challenge, she moved on to ''mountains''.
39	* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
40	** An episode of ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl Diamond and Pearl]]'' featured a contest where Croagunk had to break several bricks in order to proceed, using the [[TropeNamer Brick Break]] technique mentioned below. Brock's Croagunk managed to break all of them. Meowth, disguised as a Croagunk, only managed to break his hand.
41	** A later episode in the ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite Black and White]]'' featured the same thing, but with Oshawott and Dewott using scalchops to break the bricks. Meowth participates in this one too, disguised as a Dewott, using high tech scalchops that manage to break all twenty of the bricks, where the top competitors could only manage around ten or so.
42	* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'':
43	** Akane does it sometimes, usually to relieve stress. Even the opening narration [[EstablishingCharacterMoment shows her doing this]] OnceAnEpisode.
44	** Ryouga learned a technique later in the series that allowed him to push or break any non-living matter, so while sometimes he would break apart boulders with ease, he'd also write things in stone.
45	* The Karate Club of Youkai Academy in ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'' once had a contest to see who could break the most tombstones. Kokoa won, beating the record set by the club captain.
46	** Better than that: it was actually a ruse to gain members since the challengers were breaking actual tombstones while the Karate Club were using weaker ones. Kokoa is a superstrong vampire, so this didn't matter.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
50	* In Season 7 episode 14 of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'', Happy S. sets up a stack of boards for his students to break as part of his kung-fu training session. When Little M. takes a go at it, Big M. tells him to pretend he hurts his hand on the boards since that will make the others think the training is not working as well as intended. Little M. ''very slightly'' touches the boards with his finger and fakes getting injured from it.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Comic Books]]
54	* ''ComicBook/GastonLagaffe'': One strip has Gaston announce his intent to practice karate after seeing a man perform on TV. He decides to start with a slice of Army-surplus bread.
55	-->'''Gaston:''' KIAAAAAAAAA-\
56	'''Gaston (offscreen):''' AWOOOOOOO\
57	'''Fantasio:''' You need to to yell afterwards too?
58	:: The final panel is Gaston with his arm in a sling and Fantasio commenting on the toughness of [[IndestructibleEdible military food.]]
59	* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': Karate Kid was often shown doing this during training.
60	* ''ComicBook/RichieRich''. After getting mugged, Mrs. Regina Rich decides to learn martial arts. Meanwhile Richie hires a bodyguard for her, who shows off his strength by breaking a branch with his bare hands, only for Regina to karate chop a log in half. She then goes around chopping everything she can see until she splits the Earth in two. Fortunately it's AllJustADream.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Eastern European Animation]]
64	* {{Parodied}} in ''Animation/InvestigationHeldByKolobki'', where one of the protagonists, Colleague, uses a karate chop to break a pack of macaroni in half.
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
68	* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Bratz}}'' movie, where the failure to accomplish this is mistaken for an attempt at comedy.
69	* During the TrainingMontage in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', they did this with their heads. Then during a fight later on, you see Ling doing it to an enemy soldier's ''back''.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
73	* Happens in ''Film/{{Bloodsport}}'', where Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme character Frank Dux hits a pile of bricks and smashes the ''lowest'' one. The villain Chong Li says, "Very good, but brick not hit back." His sidekick Ray Jackson breaks one brick in two with a simple punch after trying and failing to imitate his friend's feat the next day, then another one on his forehead to save face.
74	* In the parodic ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'', Film/JamesBond is introduced to an agent who breaks a cinderblock with a karate chop... and accidentally knocks himself out saluting Bond. Later in the film, Bond cracks a ''boulder'' in half with a karate chop while showing off following a successful caber toss.
75	* Creator/BruceLee and Creator/JackieChan sometimes got frustrated with people who wanted them to break boards to demonstrate their prowess. As Bruce Lee said in ''Film/EnterTheDragon'', "Boards don't hit back."
76	* In ''Film/TheFootFistWay'', the main character is a suburban Tae Kwon Do instructor whose talent lies in martial arts demonstrations like brick-breaking, which impress the locals enough to sign their kids up for classes. When he runs afoul of an action star, he loses their fight, but returns to challenge the star to a brick and board-breaking competition, which he wins soundly.
77	* ''Film/IpMan4'': The American Colin Frater challenges a bunch of Chinese martial artists to a fight, boasting that his karate is superior to their kung fu. He shows off by breaking three concrete blocks with one punch. The Chinese are not impressed, but he demonstrates he is also capable of breaking their bones with one punch. It takes Ip Man himself to defeat him.
78	* ''Film/TheKarateKid'' movies:
79	** In ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII'', Daniel sees a poster centered on a man (Sato, the BigBad) kicking a log in half.
80	-->Wow, Mr. Miyagi, can you break logs like that?
81	-->Don't know. Never been attacked by tree.
82	** The same film features this with several (6 to 10) sheets of ice. Of course, only Daniel can do it. In a CallBack to the previously-mentioned scene, Mr. Miyagi does break a log in half with his hands at one point, [[spoiler:to save the life of the man trapped underneath it, who happens to be his old enemy [[SaveTheVillain Sato]]]].
83	* In ''Film/KillBill'', this was used as part of Pai Mei's training method towards The Bride. In Vol. 2, she puts this to use after Budd buries her alive in a wooden coffin.
84	* In ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist'', The ChosenOne proves his strength with one-and no-handed pushups, and punching a board. He starts the punch, stops just in front of the board, pokes it with his finger, and... it explodes, sending the two people behind it flying.
85	* In ''Film/MiamiConnection'', the main villain demonstrates his martial arts power by walking up to a stack of a dozen bricks and breaking about four of them. They must have only had the materials for one take.
86	* In ''Film/Seven1979'', Ed Parker's EstablishingCharacterMoment is him breaking boards in his wood shop to stay in shape when Drew turns up to recruit for the Seven.
87	* In ''Film/{{Sidekicks}}'', Mr. Lee breaks 10 bricks in the tournament. Barry then breaks nine bricks, which are on fire, for the tiebreaker. Also gave us this immortal quote from [[Creator/{{Mako}} Mr. Lee]]:
88	-->NO NEED GI FOR BRICK-BREAKING!
89	* ''Film/TheyCallMeBruce?''. While gambling in Las Vegas, Bruce is told to "cut the cards", [[ComicallyMissingThePoint tries to karate chop them]] and breaks the table in half.
90
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Literature]]
94	* Danica in the ''Literature/TheClericQuintet'' could do this to chunks of rock, being a TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons monk. Eventually she also tried to do it with her [[HardHead head]], which was considered suicidal until she succeeded.
95	* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'', when Lu-Tze is being sniffily dismissive of all martial arts, he calls one of them "a waste of good bricks".
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
99	* Very ''[[UndignifiedDeath fatally]]'' used in ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie''. A skinny nerd attempts to break some bricks ''[[UseYourHead with his head]]'' as a part of a viral video he's shooting to score with chicks... and is dead after hitting himself on the head with a nunchaku. The brick breaking trick had actually cracked his skull, and the nunchaku hit fully fractured it.
100	* Done in a "How it's done" manner by Phoebe in ''Series/BeakmansWorld'' ([[TheCastShowoff allowing Senta Moses to use her karate skills]]). And yes, Lester breaks his hand on the board beforehand.
101	* In an episode of ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' Mr. Drysdale hires a Karate master, who demonstrates his prowess by chopping a car in half with his bare hand.
102	* Cliff did this in an episode of ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', using his head, after claiming to be a karate expert. Diane had to sneak him off to a hospital.
103	* ''Series/CobraKai'':
104	** Johnny interrupts the Miyagi-Do karate demonstration with one for Cobra Kai (just as Daniel is about to recreate his breaking ice blocks from ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII''), involving fireworks and having his students duke it out on stage. Then, when they set up the bricks, Johnny has his students ''set the bricks on fire'' before he breaks them all in one strike.
105	** For the skills competition during the All Valley tournament in Season 4, Kyler broke a stack of bricks with his head!
106	** After she left before Cobra Kai's Sekai Taikai demonstration match, Tory is forced to punch a stone dummy (a CallBack to ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII'' when Terry Silver made Daniel punch a wooden dummy). She manages to do it after several tries, but breaks her hand in the process.
107	* Done to show how 'hard' Rob Riggle is on his ''[[Series/TheDailyShow Daily Show]]'' leaving montage. "BOARD!"
108	* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has the Fourth Doctor karate chop through a brick effortlessly just after regenerating. Significantly, at the end of the episode, he punches the brick in childish frustration and hurts his hand, indicating that his hyperdriven physical processes had reverted to normal.
109	* Parodied in an episode of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''; Will goes to a karate instructor for lessons but finds nothing in the dojo but a board on two cinderblocks. He stomps the board and makes martial arts noises, but a moment later the sensei (played by Creator/PatMorita) comes in, looks down, and asks "What happened to my coffee table?"
110	* Max claimed to be able to do this to a large number of wooden boards on ''Series/GetSmart''. It used the usual "would you believe it" RunningGag, until he was eventually claiming to be able to break particle board or something.
111	* ''Series/TheGoodies''. In "Kung Fu Capers", Bill Oddie first demonstrates he knows martial arts by karate chopping the {{doorstopper}} Kung Fu instruction book that Graeme is holding. Tim then asks him to demonstrate on his Max Bygrave records. Bill makes FunnyBruceLeeNoises and chops to no effect except a sore hand, but when the others mock him, he points at the table the records were lying on, [[DelayedCausality which then breaks in half.]]
112	* In the ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' episode "The March to Freedom", a Chinese man mistakenly believes Hercules bought the man's wife as a slave. He tells the people in a bar that he will hunt Hercules down and kill him. When they express doubts that he can beat him, the man chops a huge table in half with his hand.
113	* Used in an episode of ''Series/HomeImprovement'', where both a guest on ''Tool Time'' and Al have studied karate. Not knowing this, Tim tries it...and, being Tim, and it being this trope, hurts his head.
114	* Parodied in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' - Mac and Dennis make Charlie do it while training for FightClubbing.
115	-->'''Charlie:''' ''[pained]'' Oh my god! What is that made out of?
116	-->'''Dennis:''' It's a board, so it's, you know, made out of wood.
117	-->'''Mac:''' It's like particle board.
118	-->'''Charlie:''' It's, like, harder than wood, dude!
119	-->'''Mac:''' It's actually ''softer'' than wood...
120	* ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' did this in one episode when they were on a talk show.
121	* During the second Ninja Special on ''Series/MythBusters'', the guys tested the "one inch punch". They showed highspeed footage of their expert breaking the third of a set of hanging boards, something Jamie couldn't duplicate with a normal (and higher-force) punch.
122	* This is one of Oprah's many skills in ''Series/OddSquad'', due to her PintsizedPowerhouse status. She can not only chop wooden boards with ease, but she can even chop cinderblocks with ease as well.
123	** In the ColdOpen of "Ocean and the Fly", Karate Karl attempts to chop through numerous boards, chopping through one board before making his way up to two. Otis asks him if he called Olympia and him to show off, and are surprised when he tells them that he thought he could chop ten boards before they got suspicious, wanting to see if he can actually pull off the feat for the first time. However, when he goes to chop the boards, he breaks his wrist.
124	* ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'' did an episode about martial arts and showed that board breaking is essentially a parlor trick that any reasonably fit person can do when they know to strike it along the wood's grain and even multiple boards if you separate them with weak supports like a line of chopsticks between them.
125	** Also demonstrated by Creator/StephenFry on an episode of ''Series/{{QI}}'' to make the same point.
126	** ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' also had it, though the Rangers ended up hurting themselves and Cam - not officially trained, but still the sensei's son - was the only one to succeed.
127	* One episode of ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' featured Number Two doing this in his office.
128	* Played with in an episode of ''Series/NewsRadio''. At first it looks like Joe is going to do this for a talent show, but when the board doesn't break, he reveals that his real talent is hitting stuff very hard without hurting himself.
129	* Played with by Hudzen in the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "The Last Day", who demonstrates his strength by breaking a brick in half with his "groinal attachment".
130	* A ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' skit had Will Ferrell try to do this, but failed to break the board, yelling "What kind of wood was that?"
131	* In an episode of ''Series/StepByStep'', Cody tries to do this with his head. Predictably, it doesn't go very well.
132	* Attempted by a wannabe martial artist at a karate show on ''Series/WorldsDumbest''. After three tries, he succeeded in breaking exactly ''one'' brick.
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Music]]
136	* Done in the video for Music/NickiMinaj's "Your Love", where she breaks through two cinderblocks at once.
137	[[/folder]]
138
139	[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
140	* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'':
141	** One strip has a martial arts class see invading aliens whose bodies are made of bricks and boards, and know that their time to shine has come.
142	** Another had a martial artist ''about'' to break a brick... with the wall behind him about to land on his head.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
146	* Played with in an episode of ''Wrestling/{{WWE}} Raw'', where to either build him up or get people to mock him more, Wrestling/EricBischoff claimed to be an "eighth-degree black belt". He then proceeded to break things with his bare hands and feet, though the harder ones seemed fake.
147	* After Wrestling/{{Umaga}} beat up Wrestling/HacksawJimDuggan, he took Duggan's trademark 2x4 and broke it in half with a headbutt.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Recorded And Stand Up Comedy]]
151	* Creator/BillCosby has a routine about a Karate instructor whose advice was "Don't think about the surface of the brick, you think ''through'' the brick." Unfortunately, the brick was thinking "No you won't". He now only picks on things like Jell-O.
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:Video Games]]
155	* The first ''VideoGame/ArtOfFighting'' had one minigame where you broke several sheets of ice, and another where you karate-chopped the necks off of beer bottles. The prizes range from better stamina to new moves.
156	* Kim Kaphwan breaks several boards while they're in the air with his feet in one of his ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium Capcom vs. SNK 2]]'' intros.
157	** Try to hit a really light object in the air without just pushing it away. It's pretty freaking hard unless you know the method to it.
158	** He does one better in his intro in the ''Real Bout VideoGame/FatalFury'' games: he breaks a column of ice blocks ''that's even taller than himself'' with one kick. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npNUvzwhtgQ See it around 01: 14]].
159	* Local chem-addled burnout Fred Allen of ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' attempted this while high on Buffout. As his terminal details, he managed to shatter ten at once...then he tried breaking a ''steel'' board. The last bit of the Buffout trial is typed with his left hand.
160	* Armor Break in several ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games. In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', in particular, Armor Break can also remove a target's "armored" status, which eliminates the need for {{Armor Piercing Attack}}s for the rest of the battle.
161	* The Chatterbox radio station in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' features an interview with a karate expert who demonstrates his prowess by chopping a desk in half. He fails and hurts himself.
162	* One of the challenge stages in ''VideoGame/KarateChamp'' features brick-breaking.
163	* The bonus minigame Megaton Punch in ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' has Kirby and his opponent breaking large piles of bricks. Do well enough and you'll crack the planet itself.
164	* The Imperial China Chapter of ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' opens with the elderly Earthen Heart Shifu attempting to break a boulder with a punch during a practice session...and fail. This is what convinces him that his time is running out and that he must seek out disciples to whom he will pass on Earthen Heart Kung Fu. [[spoiler:The chapter ends with the surviving disciple punching the same boulder and breaking it in two, showing that they have surpassed their late master. In the final chapter, the disciple must do this many times in their specific dungeon to claim their ultimate weapon.]]
165	* The BonusStage in the first ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1992'' was based around breaking rocks in this manner. The "[[MiniGame Test your Might]]" tests were reintroduced in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'', but dropped thereafter until ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9''. For the record, it started with wood, then went to stone, steel, ruby and finally diamond.
166	* ''VideoGame/{{MUGEN}}'' has Kung Fu Man, the original/default character who comes with the game. His battle intro has him kick a thrown wooden board into pieces.
167	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''
168	** [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]]: Brick Break is a fairly powerful [[ElementalRockPaperScissors Fighting-type move]] that can be learned by many Mons, which break [[DeflectorShields Reflect and Light Screen]], moves which halve physical and special damage when active.
169	** Breaking bricks is the [[LogicalWeakness possible logic]] behind why Fighting is [[ElementalRockPaperScissors super effective]] against Rock, Ice, and Steel.
170	** The TM/HM Rock Smash counts as well, which has the secondary effect of lowering the opponent's Defense stat.
171	** The Block Smash event of the Pokéathlons in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', which involves breaking stacks of cement blocks.
172	** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' and ''[[VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon]]'', which replaces the HM mechanic with Ride Pokemon, has the Tauros Charge and Sharpedo Jet, which destroys rocks (in land and sea, respectively) while in a NitroBoost.
173	* Ryo Hazuki gets roped into a martial artist street performer's brick-breaking exhibition in ''VideoGame/ShenmueII'', wherein the player must pass two rapid-fire QuickTimeEvents in order to succeed.
174	* ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' expansion ''World Adventures'' has the martial arts skill which includes an object to break blocks on. The possible blocks range from foam to space rocks. Once you've broken enough of the tougher boards you can collect gems from breaking space rocks. The sim can hurt their hand trying to break a block too high above their skill level.
175	* Terra from ''VideoGame/{{Smite}}'' can use her Force of Nature dash punch to shatter any stones created by her other abilities to cause damage to enemies.
176	* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'':
177	** ''VideoGame/StreetFighterI'' has two mini-stages where you had Ryu or Ken break either boards held up by others or some traditional brick pieces on the floor. [[WhatTheFuAreYouDoing if you failed the latter, the crowd booed you.]]
178	** Sort-of present in the bonus rounds in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' (and ''Super VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''), where you destroy things like cars for more points. And "breaking tiles" is listed as JokeCharacter Dan Hibiki's special skill in his official bio.
179	* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': When Mario is powered up with a mushroom, he can do this from below.
180	** Countless Mario immitators from the ''VideoGame/TheGreatGianaSisters'' to ''VideoGame/DistortedTravesty 3'' share this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylm3TNzYDOs odd superpower]].
181	* ''VideoGame/WarioWareIncMegaMicrogames'': One microgame involves breaking bricks in its basic level. To succeed, the player has to hit the A button when the oscillating pointer of the stamina gauge is within the topmost (red) area; otherwise, they'll fail.
182	* With the release of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s Asian-themed ''Mists of Pandaria'' expansion and its monk class, this inevitably pops up a few times, including vanity items the players can buy and then break whenever and wherever they feel like. The most impressive example is probably the quest chain of [[http://www.wowhead.com/npc=56714 Master Bruised Paw]], who trains the player in pandaren kung fu, including the use of three successively-tougher Brick Break challenges (bamboo, then wood, and finally stone) and two {{Training Montage}}s.
183	[[/folder]]
184
185	[[folder:Western Animation]]
186	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}}'' episode "Karate Mom", Mary takes a karate class with Clarence. When they get to the part when they break boards, Mary is about to take her turn when a pushy little kid cuts in line and breaks her board. Mary shows him up by taking the two halves, putting them on top of each other, and splitting those.
187	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'', "The Benedictine Monk Variety Hour" shows The Pope successfully breaking a large block of ice with his forehead.
188	* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Jade signs Jackie up for this during a martial arts tournament. When he protests, she points out his motto: "The greatest victory is the battle not fought. Thought you liked to ''avoid'' hand-to-hand combat?" Jackie breaks the first stack, but is ordered to break a bigger one. Cue GilliganCut to Jackie with broken hands.
189	* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', during a TrainingMontage, Baljeet karate chops a stack of boards only to have them remain unbroken, but the two cinder blocks supporting the boards turn to rubble.
190	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', a karate commercial has Akira breaking a board with his face. He shows several people of different occupations breaking cement blocks with their faces.
191	** In the episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" Akira is shown in a hospital waiting room with his hand lodged sideways in a board.
192	* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': In "Monster Arm", Marco trains for a martial arts tournament and chops through a wooden board with ease. He then tries it with a stack of three boards and breaks his hand.
193	* ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' had this, but with ''cinderblocks''.
194	* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' show had Hamato Yoshi explaining where he got his other name, narrating over another scene.
195	-->"My students [the turtles] nicknamed me Splinter. For...obvious reasons." ''he chops through two boards, and then bites through a third''
196	* In a Gene Deitch ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short, both of them take judo lessons and show off this way. It leads to an EscalatingWar as they try to outdo each other by breaking bigger and bigger things. Finally, Tom tries to break a huge marble block, but the block is too heavy and it, along with Tom, falls through the floor.
197	[[/folder]]
198
199	[[folder:Real Life]]
200	* Not that uncommon in certain martial arts, in fact it's a pretty standard part of training and competition in Tae Kwon Do. It's also not nearly as difficult as people think it is, though you can still break your hand or foot if you use bad technique, even with the wooden planks they start beginners with. It's also worth pointing out that one of the main goals behind this is that it builds confidence and trains students to always follow through with their strikes (failure to do so is what gets you hurt), not so much to show off how badass you are.[[note]]Proper breaking technique is more about precision than strength: applying maximum force in a minimum area at the target's weakest point. Get one of those wrong and the board won't break (although your hand might). It's just basic physics.[[/note]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mREmQ4gx9r4 Although it can certainly be used for that purpose as well.]] Some schools use reusable plastic boards that can be put back together after they're broken, of increasing difficulty based on their color (the hardest, of course, is black).
201	* This practice isn't limited to wooden boards, bricks or stone. Some martial arts styles are known to have their practitioners break glass bottles for training. There was even a school of kung fu that trained students to break coconuts with their bare hands. Why? Breaking coconuts was meant to [[NauseaFuel simulate breaking]] [[NightmareFuel human skulls]]!
202	[[/folder]]
203

Context Main / BrickBreak