Armed with Pepper Spray

"Pepper spray? That sounds delicious! (gets sprayed in the face and screams) I WAS WRONG!! I WAS HORRIBLY WRONG!!!"

— Chowder, Chowder, "The Wrong Address"

Our good ol' friend Alice, who has absolutely no self-defense skills whatsoever, is walking down an empty street, and suddenly a stranger comes at her at knifepoint and tells her to give him her handbag or else...

However, much to the surprise of this mugger, Alice quickly pulls something from her handbag; pepper spray. She proceeds to use it on the mugger, irritating his eyes and temporarily blinding him, giving Alice enough time to flee and alert the police about the attacker.

It should be also noted that while most of the time the characters will use pepper spray exclusively to defend themselves, it can also lead to some of them using it as a way of abusing others while calling it self-defense in order to get away with it, using it as Disproportionate Retribution on anyone that pisses them off or who they wrongfully perceive as a threat, and in the worst case, getting over-confident and thinking that the pepper spray will help them take down any threat they face, leading to a disastrous result. Also, if someone like The Ditz, The Klutz, or the Cloudcuckoolander is given pepper spray, chances are that they accidentally end up spraying themselves. Another popular gag with pepper spray is that whomever owns one is a little too paranoid and trigger happy with it, panicking and spraying someone whom was casually greeting them or trying to strike up a conversation with them, being spooked because they were preoccupied being overwhelmed by paranoid thoughts.

Pepper spray might also be referred to as Mace in a case of Brand Name Takeover, however it's noteworthy that in works set during the 1980s and earlier Mace usually referred to a brand of (now illegal in most jurisdictions) tear gas, not capsaicin spray.

Sometimes, a contrast will be made about the way males and females defend themselves, with men fighting their attackers with their bare fists while women use less combative means of defense, with the most common one being pepper spray. That said, men who defend themselves with pepper spray or other types of non-lethal tools such as mace or tasers are also shown on media, albeit more rarely than women.

However, people carrying pepper spray in order to protect themselves from any type of attacker is not exclusive to fiction, especially in the case of women. In real life, many countries encourage women to either take self-defense courses or carry pepper spray with them in case someone tries to attack or force themselves onto them. In more recent times, the U.S. has seen an increase in the number of women that carry pepper spray as a means of self-defense. Importantly, since it is not considered a deadly weapon, it is allowed in places where firearms are prohibited.

A Sub-Trope of Eye Scream.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Durarara!!: Unlike her brother and sister, who are athletic and resort to either dodging or violence to deal with attackers, Kururi uses slightly more conventional methods and arms herself with pepper spray, which she sprays in the eyes of a thug when she and her Mairu are threatened.

Comic Books

• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: In one story, Daisy buys pepper spray and ends up using it on a crook that tries to rob her. She then ends up giving him her money anyway since she can't stand seeing a man cry.
• Kick-Ass: Dave Lizewski uses pepper spray against the gangster Eddie Lomas in Issue 3 (in the film adaptation, he uses a taser gun instead).
• Spider-Man had a Badass Normal sidekick named the Steel Spider for a while who used wrist-mounted pepper spray canisters as a homage to Spider-Man's web shooters. He'd originally been an incompetent nerd who called himself Spider-Boy, but after growing up a bit, working out, and learning how to fight he was shown to be quite effective against normal foes.

Fan Works

• CONSEQUENCES (Miraculous Ladybug): In "EXPOSED'', Marc carries around pepper spray at the insistence of his parents to protect himself from bigots as he is openly gay. He winds up using it against Lila when she attacks Marinette.
• Greyjoy Alla Breve: The various modern devices introduced to Westeros by the Self-Insert-as-Theon include pepper spray, as Jaime Lannister finds out to his own cost upon trying to force a female coach driver to take him to King's Landing. She sprays him, gives him a Groin Attack with her steel-toed boot, and gives him back to the Starks, who promptly lock Jaime up again.
• Hybrid Hive: Eat Shard: Taylor makes sure she retrieves her pepper spray before answering the door to a stranger. Turns out it was a good idea, since he was there for some misguided revenge; the spray hampers him long enough for her dad to arrive and punch him out.
• Security! (Worm): Wanting to give Taylor the best possible chance against Lung, Mike gives her military grade pepper spray, instead of the civilian stuff she was using. And she contrives to have Lung swallow the whole canister, which puts him down hard.
  Mike: You spray this in someone's eyes, his grandaddy feels it.
• Taylor Hebert, Medhall Intern: Sophia gets a spray in the face to stop her from interfering with Taylor's internship. However, she comes back the next day for revenge, stealing the spray to fill Taylor's locker before shoving her inside. Greg manages to bring The Cavalry Just in Time, and Sophia is charged with attempted murder for it.
  Alan Barnes: What, murder? Pepper spray is non-lethal. You’ll never make it stick.
  Alexander: It's an inflammatory. A brief exposure can leave a person helpless for minutes at a time, and cause breathing problems. How would you fare if I forced you to breathe a concentrated dose for an hour and a half?

Films — Animated

• Batman: Soul of the Dragon: When Batman and Bronze Tiger find that their martial arts do nothing against Schlangenfaust, Batman pulls a canister of pepper spray from his utility belt, suggesting that it might be effective. Bronze Tiger scoffs, then grabs a torch from the wall to make an Aerosol Flamethrower.
• Bolt: After Bolt and Rhino free Mittens from the Animal Shelter, a series of bizarre accidents cause the shelter's marquee sign to topple onto a vehicle in the parking lot, making it explode. The vehicle belongs to Ester, who gets so peeved at this disaster that she pepper-sprays her guard Marty, blaming his goofball antics for her loss. In fact, when Ester is first seen, she states that she keeps pepper spray specifically to reprimand her goofball underlings.
• Hoodwinked!: Red manages to get away from Wolf by spraying him with pepper spray labeled "Wolf-Away".
• Over the Hedge: RJ's plan to have Hammy Fake Rabies to scare away girl scouts and steal their cookies goes awry when they fight back, hitting Hammy with a book and then pepper spraying him in the face.
• In Ratatouille there's a scene in which Colette holds up a can of pepper spray as Linguini kisses her, which she ends up putting down because she enjoys the kiss.
• Parodied in Shrek 2, where Shrek, Donkey, and Puss get arrested, and one of the knights subdues Shrek with a pepper shaker.
• Zootopia: When Judy leaves for her police job in Zootopia, her mother insists she bring fox spray with her to fend off predators. Judy insists she won't need it but takes it anyway to humor her. Later, when Nick gets angry with her, she instinctively reaches for the spray, making him even angrier to see her thinking of him as a threat.

Films — Live-Action

• Blade (1998): A variation of this trope appears when Blade gives Karen garlic spray, specifically formulated to be harmful to vampires, rather than the traditional pepper spray. Unfortunately the first person she uses it on turns out to be human and therefore unaffected, although she is able to later use it successfully on a vampire.
• The Butterfly Effect: In college, Evan receives a threat from Tommy. The only weapon he is able to find in the fraternity house is a can of pepper spray. He later uses this to incapacitate and disarm Tommy.
• The Hot Chick: April, mistaking Clive to be a pervert trying to attack her (and oblivious that her friend Jessica had swapped bodies with Clive thanks to a curse) blasts Clive / Jessica in the eyes with the pepper spray she carries on her keyring (among a ridiculous amount of plush doll keychains). This ends up causing Clive / Jessica to slip while atop some stairs, cue Staircase Tumble.
• The Invisible Man (2020): Sydney keeps a can of pepper spray on her nightstand, which saves her life when Tom breaks into her home trying to kill her.
• Black Widow's use of it in Iron Man 2 is clearly meant to be comedy that plays on what you expect. Here, we have a woman that has physically defeated several men with skillful weapons or her bare hands, proving that she's more than capable of fighting on equal terms. Then, for the final guy, she doesn't even bother using any of the stuff we just saw. Without even looking at him, she just pepper-sprays him and keeps walking toward her goal.
• In One Crazy Summer, Teddy threatens to beat up Hoops and his friends before Cassandra steps in.
  Teddy: What, do you know karate?
  Cassandra: I know Dow.
  Teddy: Dow? What's Dow?
  Cassandra: Dow is the chemical company that makes mace. (sprays them)
• SHAZAM!: As Billy Batson gets acquainted with his new superpowers, he hears a scream and sees a man and a woman fighting over a purse. Billy rushes over with Super-Speed to help, only to learn the attempted robber man was screaming because the woman had pepper-sprayed him and the robbery was already thwarted.
• Twilight: in the film version, Bella tries to escape James by using pepper spray. It appears to annoy him momentarily but is otherwise a No-Sell as he's a vampire. The only reference to pepper spray made in the book version is when Bella is stalked in Port Angeles and notes that she knows exactly where her pepper spray is: in a bag under her bed.
• Under Siege 2: Dark Territory: Sarah attempts to defend herself against the imposing mercenary Penn by spraying him with what she thinks is mace. Penn, however No Sells it entirely and mockingly tells her that what she's using is not mace, but pepper spray, taking the canister from her and spraying some into his mouth as he claims it "clears the sinuses" after he got used to it. This scene invokes heavy Artistic License; in reality, pepper spray replaced mace because it's a stronger chemical and it is impossible to build any immunity to it because it causes an immediate biological reaction, making it impossible to see or effectively breathe. All of this was ignored in order to make Sarah vulnerable and make Penn look imposing.
• The Viral Factor have a brief moment during Man Yeung's intro, when he escapes custody from Malaysian police. One of the policemen is armed with pepper spray and delivers a handful into his eyes, but Man Yeung beats up all his escorts and escapes, reaching a nearby drinking fountain to wash his face.
• Water (1985). Pamela Weintraub tries to spray a couple of Cuban insurgents, only to realise she's using her perfume spray instead. They like the smell.
• Wind River plays this seriously when a meth dealer is being interrogated by two law enforcement officers over a recent murder. He starts reaching for a weapon, and it turns out to be bear spray, which he uses to douse the officers. He uses their temporary incapacitation to arm himself for a deadly shootout.

Literature

• Dr. Greta Helsing: At one point in Strange Practice, one of the "monks" hides in the backseat of Greta's car to ambush her. She empties her pepper spray canister into his eyes, which works better than normal thanks to the severe UV burns all over the guy's face.

Live-Action TV

• Adam Ruins Everything: At the very beginning of "Adam Ruins Voting'', Adam surprises that episode's victim when she voices some "facts" about American democracy, and she maces him. When Adam convinces her to go back in time to see the birth of American democracy, she points the can at him, but he tells her that pepper spray canisters are usually a one-time use weapon.
• The Arrested Development episode "Justice Is Blind" has Tobias sneak into blind prosecutor Maggie Lizer's house to find any evidence she has on George Sr. In the process, it's revealed that she's only faking being blind and she catches him in the act. He uses pepper spray to ward her off. Unfortunately for Michael, this temporarily blinds her for real and ruins his attempt to prove she's faking blindness.
• Boogies Diner: One character spends one episode working as a mall cop, and starts the episode showing off the pepper spray can he was issued. At the end of the episode, other characters ask if he still has that spray because they need to fake crying.
• CSI: Miami: In "Driven," a high-end spa is robbed by masked gunmen who demand the patrons hand over their car keys. One young lady digs around in her purse, then comes out with some mace which she sprays in the closest man's eyes. He is arrested after he goes to the hospital, then tells the CSIs he was stung by a bee.
• CSI: NY: In "Vigilante", rapists are being targeted by vigilantes armed with pepper spray. Their plan is complicated when one of their targets is immune to capsaicin.
• The Golden Girls: In "Break In", Blanche goes to the police station to talk to them about her stolen jewelry and sees a cop she's interested in, so she pulls out a can of what she thought was hairspray that she borrowed from Rose's purse, only to find out the hard way that Rose had bought a can of mace after the robbery.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: In "Mac Is A Serial Killer," Dennis and Dee try getting into a serial killer's mindset and take to stalking the Waitress as if they were going to kill her. She does NOT handle this well and gives both of them a faceful of Mace. The twins are shown washing their faces in the bar's bathroom and sobbing in pain.
• In Jessie, the titular character pepper-sprays Tony (who had gifted her the pepper spray in the first place) in one episode after hanging out with him for a day under the impression that he was trying to kiss her, not because she didn't want to, but because she remembered what happened to her the last time a man dumped her and panicked. Jessie immediately apologizes for this.
• How I Met Your Mother: In "Rabbit Or Duck", Marshall remembers at the last minute that he was supposed to find a date for Ted for Valentine's Day, so he asks several random girls in the bar if they would be interested. One of them gets scared and sprays his eyes with pepper spray, which doesn't stop him from asking her anyway.
• Mimpi Metropolitan: When Alan mistakenly sprays Mami Bibir with pepper spray instead of face mist from her bag, Mami Bibir explains that she bring pepper spray in her bag for this purpose. She carries a lot of money every night and needs something to defend herself. It eventually gets put into good use when they wants to capture a con man.
• The Office (US): When Roy tries to attack Jim for kissing Pam, Dwight springs into action and blasts Roy with pepper spray... and also accidentally sprays Pam (who was seated behind Roy) and Jim (who was in the middle), and also gets a dose himself. In the same episode, Dwight mistakes Andy's return for another attack and gives him a faceful too.
• Orphan Black: When Felix meets Krystal for the second time in Season 4, she recognizes him as the guy who stole her purse and pepper-sprays him. She'd taken to carrying it after getting kidnapped in the previous season.
• Person of Interest. In "Prisoner's Dilemma", Harold Finch places a call to Detective Fusco, only to hear him screaming and shouting angrily as supermodel Karolína Kurková has just pepper-sprayed him in the face, mistaking Fusco for a villain when he first approached her.
• Supergirl (2015): In the Season 4 finale, Lillian Luthor uses pepper spray to defeat two of Lex's goons in the White House.
• In an episode of Psych, Gus tries to flirt with a coworker he has a crush on. Unfortunately he comes off as incredibly creepy to said coworker, who pepper-sprays him in the face without saying a word.
• Invoked in True Blood where silver nitrate comes in a spray to ward off vampires. Once when Bill gets in a fight with Pam, she "maces" him this way.

Newspaper Comics

• In an early arc of Foxtrot, Paige went to the prom with a guy known to be the school sleaze bag and her older brother Peter made her take a can of Mace. In the last strip of the arc, she says she had to threaten to use it when he tried taking her to the local make-out spot.
• Subverted in one Liberty Meadows strip, a woman Dean is hitting on warns him that she's armed with a mace. He assumes she misspoke at first before she pulls a medieval weapon out of her purse and whacks him with it.

Video Games

• In level 1-11 of Super Scribblenauts, Maxwell has to transform villagers into warriors by giving them weapons. It's possible to solve the puzzle by equipping one of the villagers with pepper spray, which will comically transform him into a girlfriend.
• Sharpshooter 3D allows you to collect pepper sprays to be used on enemy mooks, where thugs whose life are depleted by the spray will throw up green vomit - onscreen! Sometimes policemen will attack you with their sprays as well.
• In Simon the Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens, One puzzle requires Simon to help the Big Bad Wolf get rid of Little Red Riding Hood, who uses pepper spray to defend herself. To solve the puzzle you have to annoy Red repeatedly causing her to spray Simon enough times to empty the can so the Wolf can get rid of her.
• Yandere Simulator: Akademi High School has allowed the members of the Student Council to carry pepper spray and restrain anyone who presents a threat to the safety of the students, as the president of the Council suspects of someone dangerous being on school grounds (a.k.a Ayano Aishi, you). If they catch Ayano killing someone or disposing of a corpse, she tries to directly attack them, or she bumps into them too many times, they will pepper-spray and restrain her with zip-tie cables, causing a Game Over.
  • In 1980s mode, the Student Council was also allowed to carry pepper spray and zip-tie cables following the disappearance of Sumire Saitozaki (whom Ryoba Aishi, Ayano's mother, killed and then proceeded to dispose of her body) on school grounds.
• In Adam Cadre's I-0, Tracy, the protagonist, begins the game with pepper spray, which she can use on other characters — either in self-defence, or aggressively. So has the girl behind the counter at Taco Junta, and she's quicker on the draw.
• OMORI: You can actually get yourself out of an otherwise Hopeless Boss Fight against all of Aubrey's crew jumping you at once by using Pepper Spray you can find earlier in the game; six against two or not, pepper spray is pepper spray and they all get taken out on the spot.
• Quest Arrest: One of the options you have for combat against enemies is to use pepper spray against them. It does minor damage to them.

Web Animation

• In the Happy Tree Friends episode "Blind Date", Disco Bear is seen trying to make a move on Petunia, causing her to get extremely uncomfortable. When he tries to kiss her, she sprays him and causes to him to go blind, though considering she's a skunk, it most likely wasn't pepper spray.

Webcomics

• Grrl Power: While not actual pepper spray, Sydney Scoville's love of incredibly hot dishes means that after she eats such a meal, the fumes from her breath are potent enough to have the same effect. When a group of bank robbers tries to take her hostage, her angry shouts have a caustic effect on the robber holding her. Later, when she Stress Vomits, it sends the people around her running like they've been Maced.

Web Videos

• Mentioned in Yahtzee's review of webcomics when discussing how the average webcomics creator treats female characters.
  The third character is The Girl. You know, girls? Those mysterious creatures you see on the bus, who have their own bathrooms and spray stingy liquid in your face. If you don't know much about girls, because your conversations with them don't last for more than a few minutes before the police are called, just use your mum as a frame of reference, characterizing the female as a disapproving, eye-rolling nanny who tolerantly wipes up the whoopsies of the idiot man-children and chastises them with the occasional spanking.

Websites

• There's one entry from Chuck Norris Facts that states, "Chuck Norris uses pepper spray to clean his breath!"

Western Animation

• American Dad!: In "Iced, Iced Babies", Stan catches Francine trying to fondle him while he sleeps, shouts "Rape!" and pepper-sprays her. Later, she sprays him back when she finds out he had a vasectomy without telling her and leaves to get his frozen sperm.
  Stan: MY EYES! (runs into the door) MY MOUTH! (backs into another door) MY BACK! (sees at a dead plant) MY BEGONIA! (turns on the radio) "MY SHARONA"! (turns on the TV) MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING—AAH! MY EYES, AGAIN!
• Chowder: In "The Wrong Address", Mung and Chowder, in an attempt of escaping from the giant rat that is pursuing them, hop into a woman's car. When the rat hops into her car, the woman pulls out a bunch of pepper spray from her handbag and uses it on Chowder, Mung, and the rat. Mung in turn grabs one and uses it on her, which devolves into the two repeatedly pepper-spraying each other utill it causes her to crash the car.
  Chowder: Pepper spray? That sounds delicious! (gets sprayed in the face and screams) I WAS WRONG!! I WAS HORRIBLY WRONG!!!
  • Turns out she's a door-to-door pepper spray saleswoman.
    Mung: Why do you have so much pepper spray?!
    Lady: I'm a pepper spray saleswoman! I've got the top sales in my district. (sprays Mung again)
• Family Guy:
  • Quagmire is pepper-sprayed by a woman, but doesn't even flinch and boasts that he's built up an immunity.
  • In "Brian Goes Back to College", Brian is pepper-sprayed by a female student after asking her if he was in the correct class, with the girl claiming that she has a right to defend herself as a woman. After the girl calms down, she apologizes and explains that she just came back from a seminar about college dating, which made her paranoid that any man on campus would try to rape her.
• Futurama: In "Yo Leela Leela", Leela manages to create a successful TV show and tries to show the merchandise to a random old lady, but she thinks she's assaulting her and puts pepper spray in her eye. Some times later, Leela runs into the same old lady happily wearing a hat from her show, and she sprays her in the eye again for no apparent reason.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  • In "Recipe For Disaster", a woman becomes scared at the sight of Grim and attempts to use pepper spray on him. Since Grim is a skeleton and doesn't have eyes, it doesn't hurt him.
  • After learning he's one-quarter vampire, Irwin once again hits on Mandy, leading her to spray him in the face and him to react in pain. Billy asks if it was pepper spray, and she responds that it was garlic butter.
• The Looney Tunes Show: A Cold Open for one episode has Daffy Duck reading a "Dear John" Letter, and getting misty over it. The postman comes along, asking Daffy why is he reading other people's mail. Daffy's response? "It's not a crime." It actually is, for which the postman pepper-sprays Daffy, blinding him. The postman then reclaims the mail and departs.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "The Strong Arms of The Ma" Marge is mugged by a homeless man at night in front of the Kwik-E-Mart's restroom, causing her to become paranoid and develop agoraphobia. When she decides to go back to the Kwik-E-Mart to do some shopping the following day, Homer gives her a bag with various self-defense tools, among which is some pepper spray. When Marge gets to the Kwik-E-Mart, her paranoia gets the best of her and she ends up using the pepper spray on Ralph Wiggum when he says "hi" to her, making her panic.
  • In the episode "War of the Simpsons," when Barney approaches Patty and Selma and tries to hit on them, Patty maces him.
  • In "Saturdays of Thunder," at the final soapbox derby, Barney approaches Patty and Selma and tries to hit on them yet again, and he gets pepper-sprayed as a result.
• Parodied on Spongebob Squarepants in "No Free Rides" when Spongebob attempts to pepper-spray Mrs. Puff in order to stop her from car-jacking his boatmobile, but accidentally ends up spraying himself.
• Transformers: Prime: In "Plus One", Agent Fowler and June get captured by Knock Out and, while trying to devise an escape plan, find the only resource they have to work with is June's pepper spray. With no other options, they take the chance and find that pepper spray somehow works on Knock Out, despite him being a robot.

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