Mouth Taped Shut

"Silence is golden, duct tape is silver."

—Anonymous

Some people just don't shut up without being forced. Sometimes the best method of dealing with that is with some tape.

Mouth Taped Shut is when a character who talks too much, especially one who knows something that others really don't want getting out, is prevented from talking/punished for talking by...well, having their mouth taped shut.

Usually Played for Laughs, with more serious examples usually being found under Bound and Gagged. Often accompanied by a Painful Adhesive Removal.

Compare Food Shove Gag for another way that someone may make someone stop talking, and Wipe That Smile Off Your Face, when the talker's mouth is literally removed instead.

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This trope can be found in:

Advertising

• Happens in this Listerine commercial: Two special forces units rescue a bound and gagged hostage and then find out that her mouth smells horrible, putting the tape back on her mouth.
• A Twix commercial has a factory tour guide tape a tourist's mouth shut after getting annoyed with him pointing out how the adjacent factory operates in the exact same way.

Anime & Manga

• Variant in Doraemon: Nobita's Little Space War (manga and both anime adaptations) when Doraemon and gang, including their new friends Papi and his talking dog Rokoroko face a firing squad. When the villain General Gilmore offers them their Any Last Words? request, Rokoroko starts going on a lengthy, pointless speech thanking his parents, grandparents, his theories on life, his pride and honor as Papi's best friend, his opinion on the judicial system... a speech that lasts for several minutes until Gilmore decides to have Rokoroko's mouth tied shut.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: When Fujiwara accidentally spoils a manga they were trying to recommend to Kaguya, Shirogane and Ishigami tape her mouth shut to prevent her from speaking. When they almost immediately afterward spoil the entire manga, Fujiwara returns the favour.
• MegaMan NT Warrior (2002): Lan discovers a girl all tied up with her mouth taped shut. He removed the tape from her face.
• In Episode 16 of Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure, Laura gets kidnapped by the villains, and to prevent her from being so noisy, Butler tapes her mouth shut.

Comic Books

• Tintin: In "Tintin: Flight 714", Tintin and Haddock capture the villain Rastapopoulos and put tape over his mouth. The billionaire Carreidas starts mocking Rastapopoulos for being so easily silenced, but Tintin tells him to stop making noise as he risks alerting the other villains. As Carreidas refuses to stop talking. Haddock puts tape over his mouth as well.

Fan Works

• In Anything for Family, Joker uses some Bad Energy to tape Cure Marine's mouth shut, saying she's annoying.
• In Our New Sister, Chuck's mouth is taped shut to keep him quiet while he's about to be tortured.

Films — Animation

• In Dot In Space (the last sequel to Dot and the Kangaroo), Dot's mouth is taped shut when she is ambushed and tied up by bubble-shaped alien soldiers after crash-landing on their planet.
• Shrek Forever After: Donkey is captured by a group of ogres who plan to eat him. While they tie him to a stick they are carrying, they put tape on his mouth even though there isn't any reason to other than to shut him up.

Films — Live-Action

• The Abyss. Throughout the film, Lindsey Brigman and Navy SEAL Lieutenant Coffey have been arguing and verbally sniping at each other. Finally, when it's revealed that the SEALS are planning to detonate a nuclear weapon to destroy a disabled U.S. submarine (which will kill everyone on Deep Core One), Coffey takes over and threatens Brigman's team. Coffey tells Brigman, "This is something I've wanted to do since we first met," indicating that he's going to kill her, but instead he pulls off a strip of tape and puts it over her mouth to shut her up.
• Better Watch Out: Ashley is being held hostage by Luke, a boy whom she's looking after on Christmas Eve. She's all tied up with her mouth taped shut. Ashley later uses the same tape from her mouth as an Improvised Bandage to stop her neck from bleeding.
• Home Alone 3, Alice Ribbons tapes Mrs. Hess to a lawn chair, then tapes her mouth shut after luring her into the garage.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, while Donatello is busy freeing Raphael during the junkyard scene, he pulls the duct tape off of his mouth, which prompts Raph to yell at him about almost ripping his lips off. Don proceeds to put the tape back on him while he works on untying him. Shortly after, Donnie finds the kidnapped professor in the same state, and painfully rips off his adhesive gag. Upon hearing the professor also cry in pain, he remarks, "I've gotta get the hang of that."

Live-Action TV

• Castle: In a season 1 episode, Castle has himself bound, and then gagged in duct tape by his daughter, Alexis, so he can work out how a character in his story would realistically escape such a scenario. Alexis also takes money from his wallet, reasoning that he wouldn't respect her if she didn't rip him off, to which he can only nod. He does get out of it, resulting in triumphant, but Painful Adhesive Removal.
• In the iCarly episode "iSpeed Date", in order to announce that Carly needs a date without being interrupted, Sam straps Carly into a chair and tapes her mouth shut.
• During the wedding punishment in Impractical Jokers, the priest asking for objections toward the marriage of Murr and Sal's sister prompts Joe to tape Sal's mouth shut.
• In the Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation episode "Turtles Night Out", Bonesteel uses duct tape to seal a pizzeria owner's mouth shut and ties him up so he can take over the place and lure Michelangelo in.

Video Games

• Batman: Arkham City: When Batman infiltrates the Sionis steel mill near the end of the game to retrieve the Titan cure, he finds Harley Quinn taped to a pole and gagged with duct tape by the Assembly Line. Harley was tied up by Talia al Ghul, who took the cure Harley stole back. Batman has the option of removing the tape... and then putting it back on, repeating as many times as the player desires.
• Sly Cooper has plans to steal a rare gem from a moving train, only to discover another criminal has the same objective. Sly discovers detective Carmelita Fox Bound and Gagged in a lavatory stall and removes the tape from her mouth. She wises him up on who the other criminal is, and how many mooks he brought with him. Sly decides that he can still achieve his objective by hoodwinking the other criminals rather than bypassing the security system. However, poor Carmelita will only be The Millstone in Sly's effort, so he leaves her tied up and reattaches the tape over her lips. She gives him a nuclear grade Death Glare for this.

Web Comics

• Schlock Mercenary: When the Toughs had reason to take prisoners Pronto enjoyed shutting them up with duct tape. Once he quips that a prisoner they're leaving behind had better remember how to say "I would like some anesthetic" in sign language.

Western Animation

• In The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Words", while trying to curb Darwin's obsessive Brutal Honesty, Mr. Small shows him an ink blot sheet and asks him to describe it. Darwin says it looks like a very sad middle-aged man wearing sandals (which it does). Mr. Small, assuming Darwin's talking about him, gives up and just tapes Darwin's mouth shut.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy: In "The Day the Ed Stood Still", Edd tries to warn the other kids that Ed is ramping through the cul-de-sac as "Ed-zilla", but Eddy, looking to cash in this real-life thriller, slaps a giant band-aid over his mouth.
• Josie and the Pussycats: When the Big Bad learns that Melody has memorized a secret formula, he sends his mooks to kidnap her. The mooks succeed in capturing Melody, and get her into their vehicle. As they make their escape, Melody starts bitching about their driving, which prompts the mooks to adhere a crisscross of tape over her lips. This reduces Melody's complaining to irritated humming.
• The Patrick Star Show: In "The Patterfly Effect", Bunny is telling Patrick what her old dream job was (being a race car driver). However, Patrick interrupts her and thinks that she wanted to be an actual race car. When Bunny tries to correct him, he tapes her mouth shut and heads off into his Time Machine to make her "dream" come true.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle: In one episode, Boris and Natasha kidnap and tie up the Interactive Narrator, which includes taping his mouth. However, they have to rip it off so he can properly end the episode.
• The Simpsons: "We're On the Road to D'oh-where", used as part of a gag where Homer restrains a troublemaking Bart in the car by duct-taping and chaining him to the seat.
  Bart: Dad, I think you actually enjoy seeing your own son suffer.
  Homer: I don't enjoy it! Being a father is just a job. Long hours, no pay, and at the end, all you get is someone yelling "You screwed me up".
  Bart: Well, maybe if you enjoyed me more, I wouldn't be so screwed up.
  Homer: Hey, I enjoy you plenty. Talking time is over. (tapes his mouth shut)
• The Transformers: In "B.O.T.", Elise has her mouth taped by Roland and Martin at the end of the episode before they drag her away. In front of the Autobots, no less.

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