Line #13 Main/SockItToThem


1	%%
2	%%
3	%%
4	%%
5	%%
6	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
7	%%
8	%%
9	%%
10	%%
11	%%
12	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1661366134058193800
13	%% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.
14	%%
15	[[quoteright:350:[[Series/OneHundredDeadlySkills https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/100ds_coin.png]]]]
16	[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/SpiderMan2 Here's your change!]]]]
17
18	->'''Carly Shay:''' What is that?\
19	'''Sam Puckett:''' A sock full of butter.\
20	'''Carly:''' For what?\
21	'''Sam:''' For swingin'! I could brain an elephant with this thing!
22	-->--''Series/ICarly''
23
24	When a character uses a sock with a heavy object inside it as an improvised [[EpicFlail flail]]. The most commonly used items in fiction are [[MoneyMauling coins (preferably rolled)]], bars of soap, and [[BadGuysPlayPool pool balls]]. With coins, the most commonly used are nickels and quarters.
25	SubTrope of ClothingCombat.
26	----
27	!!Examples:
28
29	[[foldercontrol]]
30
31	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
32	* A sock full of coins is used as a ''murder weapon'' in ''Manga/CaseClosed''. And in another, it's a sock full of ''aquarium rocks''.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Fan Works]]
36	* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3885086/ Almost a Squib]]'': Since Harry can't easily cast spells, he typically carries a miniature crossbow as a backup, with a half-brick-in-a-sock cosh as a ''second'' backup. [[spoiler:At various times, he uses the cosh to take down Remus Lupin, Viktor Krum, and Peter Pettigrew.]]
37	* ''Fanfic/AWandForSkitter'': Taylor puts a handful of galleons in a sock. [[spoiler: She winds up using it on her first night in the dorm room.]]
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
41	* A variation in ''Film/BadBoys1983''. Mick uses a pillowcase loaded with soda cans to dish out a vicious beating to two other juvenile inmates.
42	* In ''Film/DeathWish'', Paul Kersey attacks a mugger with a sock filled with quarters. Fortunately the mugger is implied to be a frightened amateur without a gun and is easily driven off.
43	* The infamous "blanket party" scene from ''Film/FullMetalJacket'', where everyone wraps a bar of soap in a towel, and participates in a run-by pummeling of Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence after he screws up one too many times, resulting in [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure consequences for everybody]]. Also marks the start of Leonard's [[SanitySlippage slide into madness]].
44	* ''Film/TheGrifters'' has a discussion on the pain and damage that can be inflicted with a sack filled with oranges.
45	* ''Film/HeavenlyCreatures'' ends with a murder committed with a brick in a nylon stocking.
46	* In ''Film/TheHeist1989'', Neil defends himself against the thugs who jump him in prison with a bar of soap inside a sock.
47	* ''Film/{{Mallrats}}'': Jay advises, "Phase one: First you take a run at La Fours with a sock full of quarters." Ultimately, the would-be assaulter slips, accidentally tosses the sock full of quarters in the air, and crashes, the sock of quarters landing neatly in the confused target's hands.
48	* ''Film/OldPeople'': When the Old Guy enters the cabin Sanna and Malick are in, he screws a ball off of what looks like an old bed post and puts it in his sock. He uses it to kill Malick and knock Sanna down the stairs.
49	* ''Film/{{Scum}}'' had an infamous scene where Carlin (Creator/RayWinstone) assaults Richards (the lackey of Banks, the "daddy" of the Borstal) with two snooker balls in a sock.
50	* In ''Film/StarredUp'', the thug who jumps Eric in the showers hits him with a billiard ball in a sock, and then tries to strangle him with the sock.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Literature]]
54	* The ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' special book ''Dogbert's Clues for the Clueless'' explained that, though tube socks and a paperweight make useless gifts by themselves, they can be combined into something useful for assaulting the gift-giver.
55	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
56	** In ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'', Rincewind attempts to fight the Sourcerer with a half-brick in a sock. He later fills his other sock with sand in the Dungeon Dimensions.
57	-->'''Coin:''' You're going to fight [[EldritchAbomination them]] with a sock full of sand?\
58	'''Rincewind:''' No, I'm going to [[LovableCoward run away]]. The sock full of sand is for when they follow me.
59	** Morporkians in general feel that if twenty-to-one odds in your favor are unavailable, a halfbrick in a sock and a dark alley to lurk in are a good second.
60	** Given a CallBack in ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals''. When a wizard fight nearly breaks out, Ponder (who wasn't around for the events of ''Sourcery'', but knows about them) notices Rincewind hastily putting his sock back on and thinks "It was probably the same sock."
61	* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': In the short story "Heorot," Harry is attacked by a lowlife wielding a weighted sock. It's specified as a "dirty gym sock," the implication being that the thug took it off and stuffed something heavy in it just minutes before. Harry is ambushed and smacked in the head, preventing him from concentrating enough to use magic, but he manages to disarm the guy by wrapping the sock around his wizard's staff and yanking it away. Then he gets in a GroinAttack with the other end.
62	* ''Literature/HickoryDickoryDock'': The final murder of the book is committed with a paperweight in a sock.
63	* In ''Literature/MrMercedes'' and following works in that trilogy, Hodges has the "Happy Slapper", which is a sock that has the foot part filled with ball bearings. It's said to not ''technically'' be a weapon, as far as the law is concerned.
64	* ''Literature/ParkerPyneInvestigates'': In "The Gate of Baghdad", the killer attempts to make it look like the murder victim had been coshed with a sock full of sand by planting damp sand in the spare socks carried by one of the other passengers.
65	* Referenced in the first ''Literature/{{Starfist}}'' novel: as a child from a lower-class background sent to an elite school, Joseph Dean decided to take matters into his own hands when tormented by a bully over his EmbarrassingMiddleName. He calmly and efficiently laid the bully's head open with "a field-expedient cosh made from a gym sock and a chunk of broken concrete," which got him kicked out of the school but also flagged as a potential recruit for military service.
66	* ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'': In "The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge" Jim is in a heavily surveilled society where weapons are easily detected and hard to come by. Under his sheets, he stealthily assembles a weapon from available components: a sock full of coins.
67	* Creator/CarlHiaasen's ''Stormy Weather'' features Ira Jackson, a [[TheMafia mob goon]] who is specifically prohibited from carrying a firearm, but prefers the ''"more personal touch afforded by [[CrowbarCombatant crowbars]], [[BatterUp aluminum softball bats]], [[FightingWithChucks nunchaku sticks]], [[RazorFloss piano wire]], [[BladeEnthusiast cutlery]], or gym socks filled with lead fishing sinkers."''
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
71	* In ''Series/NineteenTwentyThree'', Teonna Rainwater loads two Bibles in a pillowcase and uses them to bludgeon a nun who had been constantly abusing her to near death. She finishes the job by smothering her.
72	* ''Series/ThirtyRock'': A drunk woman challenges Liz to a fight, and tells her she has two minutes to fill a sock up and meet her outside.
73	* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' mentions someone being beaten with a pillowcase filled with batteries in a play being put on by a prison warden (ostensibly drawn from experience).
74	* In ''Series/TheBlacklist'' episode "Marvin Gerard", Dembe is interrogated by a man hitting him with a pair of billiard balls in a tube sock.
75	* ''Series/BurnNotice'': Fiona places a couple of cans of soda in a pillowcase and uses it to attack two men.
76	* One ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode featured a padlock in a sock as the murder weapon. Wielded by a PsychoLesbian, no less.
77	* ''Series/{{Enlisted}}''; Sergeant Perez mentions her uncle was killed by someone swinging a bag full of door knobs. Or was it oranges? His corpse was sticky.
78	* Becomes a RunningGag on ''Series/{{iCarly}}'', where Sam lays into a writer with a sock full of ''butter''. The "Buttersock" had a few other mentions, including "iOpen a Restaurant" and "iParty with Series/{{Victorious}}."
79	* This is the signature weapon of ''Series/InLivingColor'''s Homey D. Clown, an ex-convict clown with a chip on his shoulder. He mostly uses it to [[DopeSlap punish dimwits]].
80	* There was an episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}'' where a guy did this to ''himself'': He tied the sock weapon to a ceiling fan so as to give himself contusions and frame another man.
81	* Referenced in ''Series/TheOfficeUS''. Dwight saves Jim's life by incapacitating Jim's attacker with pepper spray, but when asked what happened, [[CloudCuckoolander Creed]] expounds a story about a sock full of nickels.
82	* Referenced several times in ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack''. In one case, when discussing an article for a prison newsletter on how to deal with a bunkmate stealing things, Piper suggests purchasing a sturdy lock down at the commissary, while Flaca has her own ideas on how to use the lock.
83	-->'''Flaca:''' That's what I'm saying. Buy a lock, stick it in a sock, and slock the bitch down.
84	* An episode of ''Series/{{Passions}}'' had FemaleMisogynist Charlie kidnap [[PregnantHostage pregnant]] [[DamselScrappy Sheridan]] by knocking her out with a relatively small amount of dry sand placed inside of sock at the behest of [[spoiler:Beth.]] The latter had hoped to kidnap the child once she gave birth and pass it off as her own in order to hold onto [[spoiler:Luis]] all while she pretended she was pregnant by him via [[PillowPregnancy a bag of sugar.]]
85	* ''Series/ReservationDogs'': Referred to euphemistically as "soaping," a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of one of Cheese's roommates is his wake-up on his first morning in the group home. Though the beating occurs off-screen, the weapons are understood to be bar soap in socks.
86	* The Janitor on ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' claims that his father used to do this. It's unlikely that he was telling the truth, of course.
87	* In the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Reverse Peephole", Kramer and Newman [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin reverse the peepholes on their apartment doors]] so that they look inside the apartment rather than out. When asked what purpose that could possibly serve, they bring up the possibility that some lunatic could be waiting inside to ambush them with a sock full of pennies. At the end of the episode, a minor character gets ambushed in this exact way by another character who mistakenly thought that his wife was cheating on him with the first character. "He should have had a reverse peephole..."
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
91	* The AEW team of Santana and Ortiz use a loaded sock as their signature weapon.
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Video Games]]
95	* The "Rock in a sock" in ''VideoGame/{{Cataclysm}}''. Truly a weapon of desperation, especially since more reliable weapons can be crafted from smashed furniture most of the time.
96	* ''VideoGame/TheEscapists'': Combining a soap with a sock creates a sock mace, a mid-tier weapon. Combining a sock with a battery creates a "super" sock mace... that is "super" in name only, since it has the exact same attack power as the regular sock mace.
97	* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' has an item for the Boots slot called A Knotted Sock with a Heavy Lump in It. Its description points you (the wearer) to an urchin who can teach you how to swing it "to enable the greatest wallop with the least effort".
98	* In ''VideoGame/{{Fearmonium}}'', Max describes, in painful detail, how his [[AbusiveParents stepfather]] regularly beats his mother with a soap bar in a sock. It's so the bruises don't show.
99	* A sock full of rocks is the weapon of choice for [[spoiler: Irisu]] in ''VideoGame/IrisuSyndrome,'' at least in the bad endings.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
103	* A variant occurs in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' where the students have to solve a murder mystery within a murder mystery involving a missing school swimsuit, a broken fish tank and a victim with a bashed-in skull. At Mioda's offhanded suggestion, TheHero figures that the culprit wrapped the tank's gravel in the swimsuit and tied it into a knot so that they could disguise the swimsuit's going missing as a random pervert sneaking onto the campus (also a convenient RedHerring to lead the police off their trail).
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Webcomics]]
107	* Used in an ImagineSpot in ''Webcomic/JohnnyWander'', as the characters discuss what to do with $50 worth of small change.
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Web Original]]
111	* A unique weapon of the [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 Angry Marines]] is a powered adamantium-weave sack of doorknobs.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Western Animation]]
115	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
116	** After Meg gets out of prison, [[AlphaBitch Connie D'Amico]] and her friends are teasing her in the school cafeteria. Meg ignores them and buys a bunch of soda cans from a vending machine. She loads them into a bag, and uses the bag on the group BatterUp style.
117	** When Chris briefly attended a wealthy boarding school, the other students held him down in bed and attacked him with socks full of money.
118	** One episode ends on a fake montage of every instance in the shows history were Peter Griffin got hit in the crotch with a bag od nickles. In particualr, Meg hits him so hard the bag bursts.
119	* A variation is used in the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Hare Trimmed". In response to being hit with a glove by Yosemite Sam, Bugs Bunny takes his own glove, puts a brick in it, and hits Sam with it. When he empties the glove, the brick is completely crumbled.
120	-->'''Bugs Bunny:''' HA! YOU HAVE INSULTED ZE GREAT LOVER, THE MARQUIS OF QUEENSBURY RULES! TAKE ZIS!!! ''(slaps Yosemite Sam with a glove)''
121	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': When Homer and his buddies become a vigilante force because the police can't catch the ClassyCatBurglar stalking the neighborhood, Jimbo joins. He's told that his weapon should be a sack full of door knobs, with the caveat that he has to supply his own doorknobs (a news anchor interviewing Homer later mentions that beatings with such a weapon have skyrocketted).
122	* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Lice Capades", Kenny is accused of having lice. The kids all gather bars of soap and socks and all signs point to them throwing a traditional blanket party on him... [[SubvertedTrope but]] it turns out the plan was to "[[CoolAndUnusualPunishment wash him with the soap, and dry him off with the socks]]."
123	* Brock Samson from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''' is said to have once killed a guy with a sock full of [[YourHeadASplode party snaps.]]
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Real Life]]
127	* There's a rumor/urban legend that Music/BingCrosby beat his children with a sack filled with oranges, because that would cause serious pain but no visible bruises or internal injury. ''The Grifters'' claims the opposite effect (nasty looking bruises if done correctly; internal injury if not).
128	* A notorious weapon in prison is the lock in a sock. Notorious Boston monster Whitey Bulger fell victim to this in 2018.
129	* If [[http://www.google.com/patents?id=UhANAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false US Patent 6,641,059]] is to be believed, protecting sprinkler heads from such weapons is SeriousBusiness
130	[[/folder]]

Context Main / SockItToThem