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Now That's Using Your Teeth!

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"You know, you talk too much... In battle, there's only one way you should be using your mouth!"

"I am sick of hearing these bullshit Superman stories about the legendary waza Bruce Leroy catchin’ bullets with his teeth. Catches bullets with his teeth?! Nigga, please."
Sho’nuff, The Last Dragon

Hard as it may be to imagine, having two hands with opposable thumbs can actually be pretty restrictive. For one thing, everybody knows that you can do stuff with your hands. No one in their right mind is going to do something like point a gun at a person's arm, because you're pretty much just begging them to grab a bullet out of thin air and throw it at you. So once a character is sufficiently strong, he needs a new way to catch an opponent off guard, and that means giving him a third arm. And what better place to have a third arm than with those shiny white things in your mouth?

In terms of story and narrative development, this is a fairly popular method of showing a character as being unbelievably strong—or, at any rate, much better at what they do than pretty much any nameless mook. In actual practice, this is a trope that usually falls strictly under the domain of Rule of Cool. Are there people in the world who can use their teeth to do practically anything? Maybe. Teeth are pretty strong, after all, and can exert more force than a hand. Still, one can't help but wonder how those teeth manage to continue to stay pearly white even after they've grabbed every filthy, dangerous, explosive object under the sun. Ah well. Best not to dwell on it too much.

Cutlass Between the Teeth is a subtrope, when someone uses their mouth to wield a weapon. Another subtrope is Pin-Pulling Teeth, when someone uses their teeth to arm a grenade. Compare Handy Mouth, where creatures without grasping limbs make do by using their mouths instead.

See Man Bites Man for the other use of the teeth in battle.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • In an Isuzu commercial, Joe Isuzu (actor David Leisure) demonstrates the car's speed by firing a bullet, then getting in the car and driving ahead of it. Once ahead, he gets out of the car, holds a target in front of his face and catches the bullet in his teeth.
  • In a Rold-Gold pretzels commercial, a guy sitting in the crowd (played by Jason Alexander) is picked out to be the substitute goalie for a hockey game. Near the end, he blocks a shot by catching the puck in his teeth.
  • According to the "Chain of Mystery" Tab Clear adverts, the Olga rock formations were created by a crashed Soviet cosmonaut who spent thirty-one years carving statues of his girlfriend Olga with his teeth. Now everything becomes clear...

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Case Closed, it looks like an old man had committed suicide in his room; then Conan deduces that the victim had his hands bound behind his back, and then the rope that was looped around his neck was also threaded through his teeth so that if he called for help or his jaw gave out he would hang himself.
  • Ranma has on many an occasion blocked opponents' attacks with his teeth, most notably against Ryu Kumon.
  • In D.Gray-Man, Krory stops Lavi's Hammer Drop attack (which involves Lavi jumping above him and growing his hammer to roughly the size of a small building) with his teeth. Lavi is duly impressed.
    Lavi: Nice teeth.
    • A later arc sees a Level 4 Akuma catch Allen's Crown Clown sword this way before wrenching it out of his hands. It would've won the fight then and there had Allen not had the ability to call the sword to him.
  • In Hellsing, Alucard stops Rip van Winkle's bullet with his teeth (and half his face, but he gets better).
  • In Michiko & Hatchin, Michiko pulls up a rope with her teeth to save a man from falling to his death while her hands are tied on her back.
  • Roberta from Black Lagoon makes use of this trope to catch one of Shenhua's kukris mid-swing. She then proceeds to shatter it with her teeth while giving a giant Slasher Smile, thoroughly freaking Shenhua out.
  • In the Sengoku Basara anime, Sarutobi Sasuke catches a knife with his teeth when Kasuga throws it at his face.
  • In Battle Angel Alita has a complicated to explain example. During a Tournament the android Sechs has to face off against an opponent whose arms are designed to work as a rail gun to catapult objects into orbit, which means around mach 27. During the fight Sechs is bound up with super elastic belts designed to hold cargo together during said catapulting. His opponent then grabs Sechs and shoots him at a wall. However Sechs managed to not only cut free from the belts but also place them around his opponents head. He then holds the two ends of the belt between his legs and in his teeth. The result is Sechs being catapulted back at his opponent.
  • Kagura from Gintama catches a bullet with each hand and the last one in her teeth when fighting Matako. Later, Gintoki breaks Oboro's first sword by biting it.
  • Kuroki from Blazer Drive blocks a shadow spike from an enemy with his teeth. Said spike came from the enemy's tongue, leading to... unfortunate implications.
  • Irresponsible Captain Tylor catches a nail shot from a nailgun in his teeth. If that isn't bad enough, the nailgun actually had enough power to shoot the nails from halfway across a room with enough force to pull him out of the way of a falling scaffold and nail his jacket (with him still in it) to a wall several meters away.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi has Jack Rakan, who when confronted with knives surrounding his head in his fight with Negi, decides to bite them. The knives SWEAT!
  • One Piece:
    • Roronoa Zoro uses three swords in combat: one in each hand, and one gripped in his teeth.
    • Arlong's jaws are so strong, he's able to catch a cannon ball in his mouth, which he subsequently shatters. He later does the same thing to a stone column.
    • The New Fishmen Pirates captain Hody Jones, a Great White Shark fishman, has destroyed a whole pirate crew and their ship using only his jaws. His crewmate Daruma is a Cookie-Cutter Shark Fishman that threatens to eat offenders. He regularly tunnels underground with them.
  • One-Punch Man: Saitama catches and breaks Sonic's sword with his teeth, so fast that Sonic doesn't even realize what happened at first. In the webcomic, he later does something similar to Flashy Flash.
  • The 7th from Future Diary blocked Yuno's knife with his teeth. Partially justified because he knew it was coming.
  • In a bonus novel for A Certain Magical Index, Sogiita Gunha uses his teeth to stop Mikoto's Railgun (at 30% power).
  • In the second Durarara!! OVA, Shizuo catches a knife (thrown at him by Izaya) with his teeth twice, shattering it one of those times.
  • Rave Master:
    • Demon Beryl at one point blocks Haru's Explosion sword with his canines and no collateral damage. Meaning that he took an explosion in the mouth with no ill effect.
    • Haru catches an arrow with his teeth that an enemy fired at point blank range.
    • Towards the end of the series, Lucia does this to one of Elie's tonfa bullets, also fired at point blank range.
  • In one Saiyuki Reload chapter, Goku, in his Seiten Taisei form catches a bullet by his teeth.
  • In the finale of My Bride is a Mermaid, Nagasumi is able to catch a bullet between his teeth and proceeds to pound the shit out of his shooter.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid: When Harry/Hallie Tribeca had her limbs bound in Els Tasmin's chains, she responds by using her teeth to grab one of the chains her opponent was holding on to and tugging at it with all her might, dragging poor Els towards her and right into the range of her fist.
  • Tekken: The Motion Picture has a scene where this occurs; as described by Spoony after seeing it…
    Spoony: *laughing* My god, I love it. Someone actually wrote in the script the words, "Julianote  throws a Tomahawk at Heihachi, who catches it in his mouth, and eats it". See, what's funny is, I don't actually question that he can do this; just, when did he know that he could break metal with his teeth? I mean, did he practice or something?
  • In the Grenadier manga, Namari Shirogane manages to catch one of Rushuna's bullets with her teeth. Rushuna wonders what kind of teeth could do something like that, and Namari comically insists they're so strong because she brushes every day.
  • In Isuca, Shinichirou Asano manages to catch a cursed katana with his teeth. As a bonus, this is close enough to count as a kiss, allowing his Magic Kiss ability to activate (the katana is sentient).
  • My Hero Academia: Moonfish is a supervillain with the power to rapidly grow and control his teeth. He grows them into jagged, multi-pronged stilts to hoist himself above the battlefield, and extends them like spears to skewer people at wild angles.
    • Chapter 410 has Bakugo do this to the reverse-aging All For One's final desperation attack; a Rivet Stab spike from the mouth, leading him to blow it to pieces with his Quirk before All For One disappears from existence.
  • In Berserk, Guts and Griffith's duel (with the stakes being that if Guts loses he'll join the Band of the Hawk) seems like it's come to a conclusion when Griffith has Guts at swordpoint. Guts interrupts his speech by biting the tip of the sword to move it away. Griffith is taken aback by Guts doing something so unconventional and dangerous just to keep fighting. Guts still loses the duel, but by the end of it Griffith is suitably impressed.
  • GTO: The Early Years: When one of the Yagyo Atsuki gang tries to stab Ryuji with a razor blade (the break-off kind), he bites it off.
  • Hunter × Hunter: A Mafia man tried to shoot Uvogin at point-blank range, only for the latter to catch the bullet with his teeth.
  • Detroit Metal City: Negishi/Krauser's signature move is playing the electric guitar (with metal strings) using his mouth. Off-stage Negishi worries it will damage his teeth in the long run.
  • Dropkick on My Devil: In Episode 8 of Dropkick on My Devil X (season 3), Yurine, Kyon-Kyon, and Lierre all storm a castle that Jashin-chan, Mei, and the fallen angels (Pekola, Poporon, and Pino) have proclaimed theirs. Near the end of the episode, Mei attempts to shoot a bullet at Kyon-Kyon (who is furious because Mei took her sister Ran-Ran), but the latter catches the bullet with her teeth.
  • Mashle: Magic and Muscles": Mash attempt this against Master Doom's BFS. Doom knows full well that Mash can absolutely pull it off, so at the last second he raises the sword to cut Mash's eyes. Which leads to the even more absurd scenario of Mash catching the sword with his eyelids.

    Comic Books 
  • Green Arrow has been shown using his teeth to draw back his bowstring when one of his arms is incapacitated, most notably in the final battle in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, where said arm doesn't exist any more.
  • In the Lucky Luke book "Fingers", the titular stage magician interferes when Joe Dalton is about to shoot an unarmed Luke, saying that it "wouldn't be nice". Joe, being Joe, pulls the trigger anyways, only for Fingers to catch the bullet. Joe, enraged, fires his gun point blank in Fingers' face - and Fingers catches the bullet with his teeth. It turns out to be a subversion; Fingers had made sure Joe's revolver was loaded with blanks. The "catches" were all Fingers' trademark sleight of hand.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Sensation Comics: In #68 Diana bites through the chain holding her to a weight after being sent overboard.
    • Wonder Woman (1942): Diana uses her teeth in a lot of odd ways, though one of the most memorable was biting the top of a cage filled with US Navy men who'd been captured by Queen Clea and holding it so it didn't fall into the water Clea intended to drown them in while using the rest of her limbs to defend against Clea's attacks and keep hold of the chain that had been holding the cage.

    Fan Works 
  • Fates Collide: Penthesilea catches Neo's sword with her teeth. However, Neo then yanks the sword out, and it ends up cutting the inside of her cheek.
  • In the crossover fic Thieves Can Be Heroes!, Ann Takamaki has the Quirk, "Razor Teeth", that gives her superhumanly strong teeth with a visible cutting edge, letting her bite through metal if she tries hard enough. It tends to be a hindrance in normal life(she's bitten through four forks and countless sets of chopsticks by accident), but has proven very useful as a Phantom Thief.

    Film — Animated 
  • In Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Kale grabs his enemy's sword in his teeth, then jerks his head to throw the opponent overboard. Quoth Sinbad, "And I was overworking it?"
  • In Turning Red, Abby catches a dodgeball with her teeth.

    Film — Live Action 
  • Jim Carrey catches a bullet in his teeth (while driving his car and leaning out the window, mind you) in Ace Ventura.
  • Ichi the Killer: Kakihara loves showing off his Glasgow Grin; in one street fight, he yanks the pins from his cheeks and catches a man's fist in his horribly wide maw. Chomp.
  • Hand of Death: Yun Fei, the hero gets captured alive and subjected to Unwilling Suspension via the ankles... only to untie himself by bending over and using his teeth on the ropes.
  • The Long Chase: The main character at one point catches three darts flung at him, two with his hands and one with his teeth. And throws them back killing three mooks in the process.
  • In You Don't Mess with the Zohan, when fighting terrorists, Zohan catches two bullets with his hands before catching a third one with his teeth. He then catches a fourth one with his nose. This is all seen as pretty mundane to Zohan.
  • Parodied in UHF, where the bullet is not only caught with the teeth, but it is then crunched and shot back from the mouth.
  • The Taiwanese martial arts flick, The Supreme Sword, has the heroine's mentor (a Cool Old Guy) using his teeth to catch an opponent's sword by the tip during a fight, and then break it by biting.
  • In the Mamushka scene of The Addams Family, Uncle Fester catches a falling dagger in his throat, blocking it with his teeth.
  • Hulk. Annoyed that his attempt to make his son start Hulking Out isn't working, David Banner decides to bring about his own transformation by biting through a thick power cable. Given his deluged ranting moments before, it's a literal case of Chewing the Scenery.
  • At the end of The Last Dragon, Bruce Leroy achieves the final level of Kung Fu mastery and is able to catch a fired bullet in his teeth.
  • Body: Although paralyzed from the neck down, Arthur managed to grab the tassel on a table runner with his teeth and pull on it, causing a tray of glasses to fall to the floor in an attempt to attract attention.
  • An accidental version in The Spy Who Loved Me when James Bond takes a shot at Jaws, only for the bullet to ricochet off his steel teeth. Jaws doesn't push his luck and instead ducks into a nearby doorway.

    Literature 
  • In Worm, Bakuda tries to break herself and two other criminals out of their transport to the Birdcage by getting Lung angry enough to heat up a piece of iron with his fire powers. She then uses her teeth to forge it into a screwdriver to help loosen their bonds. It hurts a great deal, but it actually works, to an extent.
  • The two-headed Peirson's Puppeteers from the Ringworld series lack arms (or looked at another way, their heads are their arms, given their brains are near the point where the necks join into the trunk), but their mouths are well adapted to manipulating objects.
  • In Clan of the Cave Bear, Creb used his mouth and teeth to hold and manipulate objects because he only had one arm. His teeth were worn down from doing that. Noteworthy for being one of the few characters to do this who is explicitly not super strong, as well as for showing what would happen to a real person's teeth if they did this all the time. (Well, OK, technically he's a Neanderthal, but that's neither here nor there.) Truth in Television, as the teeth of people from low-tech societies often exhibit wear-patterns from tasks such as chewing on animal sinew to soften it for use as twine.
  • Sunny from A Series of Unfortunate Events. She doesn't mostly use her teeth in combat even under a loose definition of that term, but the stories constantly imply that Sunny's teeth are as useful to her as those of a beaver; for instance, they have many plots tailored to the party and ordinarily Sunny's part involves using her teeth.
    • As an example, in The Ersatz Elevator she used them to scale a wall.
    • In The Miserable Mill Sunny actually uses her teeth as pseudo-swords to fight off the villain in a 'swordfight,' and the most impressive thing about it is that they were pretty much equals in the fight, despite the fact that the villain had a longer reach, was using an actual sword, and was fighting a baby.
  • In The Fifth Elephant, Vimes fires a shot at Wolfgang, who, currently shifting between human and werewolf, instinctively catches it in his teeth. Unfortunately for Wolfgang, it was a shot from a flare gun.
  • Lincoln Rhyme, in The Bone Collector and other novels in the series, is essentially quadriplegic throughout the series. In the first book, he's about to be killed by a psychotic madman, so he uses the only weapon he has left, his teeth. As noted below in Real Life, that's more than enough to rip out a throat...
  • One viking in Everworld is named Sven Swordeater, who has a matching pair of ugly scars on each of his cheeks. And he's the same age as the protagonists!
  • According to one of his crew, Wulfrik's fangs can bite through iron (and has sworn that someday he'll bite through steel).
  • Frank Willis of 100 Cupboards uses his teeth to bite Monmouth free of Unwilling Suspension in a woven sack, as his hands are tied behind his back. He also bites Monmouth, but that's an accident.

    Live Action TV 
  • In an episode of Batman (1966), the Riddler had captured Robin, tied him up and threw him off the ledge of a building. Batman saved him by throwing down the Bat-Rope and telling him to grab onto it with his teeth.
  • MythBusters tested the "catch a bullet with your teeth" myth. They used both human teeth and pig teeth (a pig's teeth are much tougher than a human's). They found that even if a human somehow had the reflexes to catch a bullet, the bullet would completely destroy the teeth and continue through the person's head, so they declared the myth busted.
  • Odd Squad:
    • In the Season 3 finale "End of the Road", Orana, who is buried under sand, uses her teeth to grab her Boomerang-inator and use it as an improvised shovel to dig herself out, along with Oprah and Oliver.
    • Freeze Ray Ray uses his teeth to grip a pencil and write with it in "The Perfect Score".
    • The Season 2 finale "Odds and Ends" has Otis flying up to the Black-hole-inator sphere and yanking the #5 gadget out of it using his teeth, deactivating it.

    Manhwa 
  • Gangryong in Veritas often uses his teeth when fighting an opponent.

    Music 
  • They Might Be Giants' song "I've Got A Fang" opens with the lyric: "Glistening white triangular tooth / Open up a can of tomato juice." Reportedly, the song was inspired by John Linnell's memories of watching Fangface (see below under Western Animation) as a kid. Fangface never actually used his fang to open up a can of tomato juice, but he did once open a can of red paint (in the episode "The Invisible Menace Mix-Up").

    Professional Wrestling 

    Video Games 

    Web Animation 
  • DEATH BATTLE!: In "Dante vs Bayonetta", Dante catches one of Bayonetta's bullets with his teeth.
  • Helluva Boss: In "Truth Seekers", at the start of the fight sequence, one of the agents attempts to attack Blitzo with a sickle on a chain. Loona leaps in front of him and catches it with her teeth, then uses the sickle to slice another agent's throat.
  • Homestar Runner: In the Strong Bad Email "haircut", Strong Bad doodles a guitar across a face-shot of Strong Mad, and it ends up going over Strong Mad's mouth.
    Strong Mad: I DON'T WANNA EAT A GUITAR!
    Strong Bad: You're not eating it! You're shredding some hot licks... with your teeth.
  • Tyrian Callows of RWBY once caught a crossbow bolt with his teeth, just for the hell of it after doing a regular Arrow Catch earlier in the fight. It backfired when the bolt exploded in his face.

    Webcomics 
  • Demon Fist: Jaws routinely disarms enemies by biting their swords in half, among other things.
  • Jungle Juice: Suchan's dragonfly powers include extremely sharp teeth, using it to chew his way through silk trapping one of his friends as well as to cut his own bindings on numerous occasions.
  • One-Punch Man: When Sonic tries to kill Saitama with a sword strike that's too fast for normal people to see, Saitama demonstrates his overwhelming superiority by not only seeing it coming, but shattering the sword by biting it.
  • Monsters Can Be Heroes Too!: When Coal is fighting a skeleton who claims that he has the legendary blade Excalibur, Coal responds by biting down on his sword. Coal has the ability to eat metal so biting a sword isn't a problem for her.

    Web Original 
  • Mr. Welch has been forbidden from doing a few versions of this.
    #948: Even if the rules allow it, I can't catch dropped cannonballs with my teeth without drawbacks.

    Western Animation 
  • Ben 10 has Rath stop Seven Seven's laser sword with his teeth! He even destroys it.
  • Fangface combines this with some pretty intense Cartoon Physics, routinely carving doors into rock walls, chewing tree trunks into usable ladders, and opening up paint cans with the comically large fang in the middle of his mouth.
  • Inspector Gadget was once given the task of retrieving a scarf from around a pole with his teeth...while on horseback. He succeeded, thanks to his "Gadget Teeth," a pair of flying, remote-controlled dentures. (Just so we're clear, the guy who challenged him was a MAD Agent, and the scarf had a bomb in it.)
  • Ubiquitous to the point where the vast majority of its uses fall under Mundane Utility in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Completely justified since, as ponies, they have no hands with which to manipulate objects.
  • When Splinter finally faces the Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), he manages to catch one of Shredder's blades with his teeth and break it. This isn't too far from what rats in real life can do, having been observed chewing through concrete or even lead pipes; in fact it's at this point Splinter turns the fight around by fighting like a rat instead of a man (including Running on All Fours).
  • Total Drama:
    • Once the crates are brought over to the cabins in "Not So Happy Campers - Part 2", the next part of the challenge is for the contestants to open them using only their teeth. It's tough and painful, but all the crates do get opened.
    • Leshawna provokes Beth during the badminton match in "Million Dollar Babies" by insisting that she's lying about having a boyfriend. Beth shoves all her fury into the match with some incredible winning maneuvers, for one of which she holds the racquet in her teeth.
    • In imitation of Jimi Hendrix, Courtney plays with her teeth for a bit during the guitar play-along challenge in "Rock 'n Rule".
    • A segment on Eva in "Celebrity Manhunt's TDA Reunion Show" reveals that she's upped her training regime. One form of training she's been doing is pulling a filled bus with her teeth by means of a rope.
    • Part of the challenge in New York City in "Broadway, Baby!" is to bob for human-sized apples in a pond in Central Park. The three bobbers may not use their hands and Chris specifies only their teeth may be used. Of the three, only DJ actually uses his teeth to pull the apple by its stalk while the other two use their heads to move their apples.
    • One part of the search for Jack the Ripper in "I See London..." requires the teams to undress a Beefeater to find a clue in his clothes. Team CIRRRRH nominates Tyler for the job, who is under the mistaken impression that he has to undress the Beefeater with his teeth only. Noah lets him stumble a bit before setting him straight.
    • At the prospect of getting a kiss from Cody in "Niagara Brawls", Sierra becomes hellbent on saving everyone from going over the Niagara Falls. She ties a rope around Owen, throws him over to the other paddle boat as grapnel, holds the rope between her teeth, and starts paddling the boat she's in forward with superhuman speed.
  • The first time Molotov appears in The Venture Brothers, Brock throws a knife at her and she catches it in her teeth. Then she licks the blade and tries to stab him.

    Real Life 
  • The human mouth is quite useful at acting as a third hand.
  • Truth in Television: Jimi Hendrix could play guitar with his teeth. If that doesn't count, nothing does.
    • Buddy Guy will perform the same feat when covering Jimi's songs live. He can also play covers of Eric Clapton with a handkerchief, or just play solos of his own making with his ass.
    • The above Truth in Television is referenced in K-On!, in which the advisor of the titular club turns out to be able to perform the same feat.
    • So can Krauser from Detroit Metal City, though Souichi notes that it's not good for himself.
    • Zack Wylde of Heavy Metal band Black Label Society shows off this ability as well during solos in live sets.
    • Ryyuske from BECK as a homage.
  • Humans have very impressive jaw strength compared to many animals, comparable to most attack dogs in terms of pounds per square inch exerted. And yet, only in the direct bite - human jaws are quite feeble otherwise. A German Shepherd died after attacking a slightly intoxicated man on a street in Ukraine. The cause? The man tore out the dog's throat. With his teeth!
  • Some Native Americans would carry an arrow in their mouth. This would make a faster draw than to draw from the quiver. It also allows them to use their hands to help ride their horse or to sneak around by crawling on all fours.
  • It's common for paralyzed people to paint, write and control wheelchairs with their mouths/teeth.
  • Jeff Fabry is a U.S.Paralympic athlete born without arms who shoots his bow with his teeth.
  • Paleolithic man would scrape hides by holding the hide with their non-dominant hand and their teeth, will scraping with their dominant hand. The resultant scratching pattern on recovered teeth has been used to demonstrate that humans have been predominantly right-handed since their earliest origins.

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Catches Bullets with His Teeth

Bruce Leroy performs his most amazing trick!

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