Similar to the
Finger Muzzle, this is a more direct and easier way of shutting someone up. If Bob is being kidnapped, the best way to prevent him from crying out is by grabbing him and covering his mouth. Not only that, but Alice could easily do it if she just wanted him to stop talking for some reason.
This gesture can be both threatening or playful, depending on the context. Rescuers may sometimes use this if they have to sneak up on a friend from behind and don't want them alerting nearby foes by yelling in surprise.
Compare with
Finger Muzzle,
Bound and Gagged,
"Shut Up" Kiss,
Standard Female Grab Area, and
Finger On Lips.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Jessie does this to James several times in the Pokémon episode "Holy Matrimony!"
- Played for laughs during the Griffith rescue in Berserk, where Princess Charlotte has a quite uncharacteristic temper tantrum at the thought of not going with the now-exiled Band of the Hawk in order to stay with Griffith. To shut her trap, Casca, Guts, Judeau, and her maid Anna all put their hands over Charlotte's mouth.
- In Fruits Basket when Kagura almost lets slip to Tohru about Kyo's true form Kyo covers her mouth with his hand.
Comic Books
- Happened to Lois Lane quite a bit in the Golden Age Superman comics.
- Batman will occasionally surprise his enemies from behind this way.
Film
- In Disney's version of Peter Pan, Wendy is silenced this way twice, once by Peter and once by a pirate.
- Pocahontas hushes Nakoma this way when John Smith approaches.
- Happens to Littlefoot in the first Land Before Time sequel when he is captured.
- Flora shushes the other fairies this way in Sleeping Beauty. A goon also does this to Phillip for a second.
- A monkey does this to Mowgli in The Jungle Book.
- In The Great Mouse Detective, Basil does this to Dawson, as does Ratigan to Olivia—before she bites it.
- Mulan briefly silences Mushu this way during his "dishonor" rant.
- In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor does this to Hugo when he tries to spit on a mime.
- In Tarzan, a villain gags Jane this way, causing her to bite him.
- Lilo & Stitch: Nani does this to Lilo near the beginning, and shortly after wraps her entire arm around her mouth as well. Lilo licks her.
- In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sally's disembodied hand does this to Santa Claus when she's rescuing him.
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire: "I have some questions for you and you are not leaving this city until they are answered."
- In the first Pirates of the Caribbean, Will does the "rescuer needs to stop the victim from alerting foes" variant on Elizabeth when they sneak out of the pirate's cave.
- In Irreversible, Le Tenia spends most of the infamous eight minute rape scene with his hand over his victim's mouth. One of the many things that makes the scene so horrible to watch is the fact that she is not completely silenced, and her continuous muffled screams can be clearly heard by the audience.
- In Transylvania 6-5000, a little girl who finds a Frankenstein-like monster in the forest opens her mouth as if ready to scream, but the monster's hand suddenly covers it.
Literature
- In the first book of The Wheel of Time series, Rand's father uses the friendly variation of this to keep him from crying out when they're being hunted by trollocs. Rand nearly breaks his arm in his panic to get free.
- In Septimus Heap, this is done to Jenna by Wolf Boy when she trips over him and is about to scream, giving them away to the Tracker Ball Sleuth.
Live-Action TV
- Happens a few times on iCarly. Most notably, Carly licks Sam's hand at one point, exclaiming that it tastes like peanuts and dirt.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Often happens to April and Irma on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Happens frequently on Inspector Gadget to Penny.
- It also happens to Inspector Gadget himself.
- The spies on Totally Spies! frequently do this to each other.
- Happened several times on Goof Troop:
- Pete covers PJ's mouth when PJ tries to call him out on his hypocrisy for spending lots of money on a ski trip after refusing to pay him and Max for shoveling snow. Pete resorts to carrying PJ out of the area to shut him up so Goofy doesn't learn about Pete's ulterior motive for the ski trip.
- Pete covers Pistol's mouth so that the Mrs. Spoonerville contest judges don't learn that the only reason she's doing housework is because he bribed her with fifty dollars.
- Max covers PJ's mouth when he screams really loudly after a stolen perfume bottle goes missing so that he doesn't wake up the whole town.
- PJ covers Pistol's mouth so she won't tell Pete that he has a crush on a girl in his class. When caught, he claims he was helping her swallow her dessert.
