History Main / BrickBreak

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries''

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries''

* 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, then another one on his forehead.

* 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 [[WidgetSeries casually punching the Earth and cracking it in half]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'':
** Akane does it sometimes, usually to relieve stress. Even the opening narration [[EstablishingCharacterMoment shows her doing this]] OnceAnEpisode.
** 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.

* 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 [[WidgetSeries casually punching the Earth and cracking it in half]].

* 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.
* 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.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* 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."
* 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.
* 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, then another one on his forehead.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* ''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.

* ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' did this in one episode when they were on a talk show.
** ''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.
* 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".
* A ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' skit had Will Ferrell try to do this, but failed to break the board, yelling "What kind of wood was that?"
* 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.
* 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.

* 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.
* 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.

* 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?"
* One episode of ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' featured Number Two doing this in his office.
* 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.

* ''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.
* 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.

* 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.
* 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.
** 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.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''
** [[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.
** Breaking bricks is the [[LogicalWeakness possible logic]] behind why Fighting is [[ElementalRockPaperScissors super effective]] against Rock, Ice, and Steel.
** The TM/HM Rock Smash counts as well, which has the secondary effect of lowering the opponent's Defense stat.
** The Block Smash event of the Pokéathlons in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', which involves breaking stacks of cement blocks.
** ''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.
* When [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] is powered up with a mushroom, he can do this from below.
** Countless Mario immitators from the ''VideoGame/TheGreatGianaSisters'' to ''VideoGame/DistortedTravesty 3'' share this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylm3TNzYDOs odd superpower]].

* 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.
* One of the challenge stages in ''VideoGame/KarateChamp'' features brick-breaking.
* 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.
* 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.

* ''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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.]]
* 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.
* ''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.
* 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.

* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' show had Hamato Yoshi explaining where he got his other name, narrating over another scene.
-->"My students [the turtles] nicknamed me Splinter. For...obvious reasons." ''*he chops through two boards, and then bites through a third*''
* ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' had this, but with ''cinderblocks''.

* 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.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'', "The Benedictine Monk Variety Hour" shows The Pope successfully breaking a large block of ice with his forehead.
* 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.
* 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.
** In the episode "Homer's Triple Bypass" Akira is shown in a hospital waiting room with his hand lodged sideways in a board.

* Sort-of present in the bonus rounds in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' (and ''Super VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''), where you destroy things like cars for more points.
** Oh, and "breaking tiles" is listed as JokeCharacter Dan Hibiki's special skill in his official bio.
** It was already in the original game, with 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.]]

* One microgame in the first ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' game involved this in its basic level.

* The BonusStage in the first ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'' 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.