History Main / PuttingAHandOverHisMouth

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->'''Past Pete:''' Would somebody tell me what's been goin' on here? Who was that creep, anyways?
->'''Sora:''' Hello? That creep was... ''[Goofy clamps his hand over Sora's mouth]''[[note]]you from the future![[/note]]
->'''Goofy:''' Sora, that's a secret!
-->-- ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''

Similar to the FingerMuzzle, 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 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. If in hiding, the more self-controlled character may use it to keep the frightened character from crying out inadvertently.

It bears noting that this method of trying to subdue someone can be defeated if the person doing it is capable of feeling pain, namely by [[ManBitesMan biting down hard]] on [[{{Fingore}} said person's hand]].

Compare with FingerMuzzle, ShutUpKiss, StandardFemaleGrabArea, and FingerOnLips. See also BoundAndGagged.

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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Played for laughs during the Griffith rescue, 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.
* ''{{Manga/Bleach}}'': When Nnoitra [[ForcedToWatch forces]] Orihime to watch Tesra [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] Ichigo, the anime has him place a hand over her mouth. In the manga, he actually forces his fingers inside her mouth, which [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar mimics]] a common kink in Japanese porn.
* ''Manga/FruitsBasket'': When Kagura almost lets slip to Tohru about Kyo's true form, Kyo covers her mouth with his hand.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': Sasuke does this to Sakura in the Forest of Death.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Heartwarming example. As their escape from Enies Lobby begins, Robin uses her powers to do this to Luffy when he starts thanking her for saving him, due to the fact that she should be thanking him for saving her.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': In the episode "Holy Matrimony!", Jessie does this to James several times.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Rem does this to Misa after she makes herself visible and explains Misa's connection to her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Happened to ComicBook/LoisLane quite a bit in the Golden Age Franchise/{{Superman}} comics.
* Franchise/{{Batman}} will occasionally surprise his enemies from behind this way.
* In ''{{ComicBook/Violine}}'', Redder, after Violine sees him thinking about his (nude) wife, does this to Violine to keep her quiet. Other characters do it too when Violine threatens to reveal their secrets.
* Talywn did this to Vorn in ''ComicBook/RatchetAndClankComic'' when she, he, and Ratchet were trying to sneak past some Mr. Zurkon robots to defeat Artemis Zogg.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:FanWorks]]
* In the ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' fanfic ''FanFic/BackToTheFuturePrequel'', Hank does this as he kidnaps Marty from Doc's garage.
* In the ''Manga/OnePiece'' fanfic ''Fanfic/OnceAgain'', Ben does this to Shanks to prevent him from interfering in letting Luffy explain.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film: Animation]]
* In ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'', Mulan briefly silences Mushu this way during his "dishonor" rant.
* In Disney's version of ''Disney/PeterPan'', Wendy is silenced this way twice, once by Peter and once by a pirate.
* Disney/{{Pocahontas}} hushes Nakoma this way when John Smith approaches.
* Happens to Littlefoot in the first ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' sequel when he is captured.
* Flora shushes the other fairies this way in ''Disney/SleepingBeauty''. A goon also does this to Phillip for a second.
* A monkey does this to Mowgli in ''Disney/TheJungleBook''.
* In ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'', Basil does this to Dawson, as does Ratigan to Olivia--before she bites it.
* In ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'', Victor does this to Hugo when he tries to spit on a mime.
* In ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}'', a villain gags Jane this way, causing her to bite him.
* ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'': Nani does this to Lilo near the beginning, and shortly after wraps her entire arm around her mouth as well. Lilo licks her.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'', Sally's disembodied hand does this to Santa Claus when she's rescuing him.
* ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'': "I have some questions for you and you are not leaving this city until they are answered."
* In ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', Kristoff does this to Anna when their sled suddenly stops in the middle of the woods and Anna is insistent on continuing their conversation about the love experts Kristoff is friends with despite him audibly telling her, "Stop talking." Anna then pushes Kristoff's hand away from her mouth, forcing him to give her a loud "SSHHH!" while he scans the surroundings looking for wolves about to ambush them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film: Live Action]]
* In ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'' during the second train robbery. [[spoiler:Woodcock, thinking Butch and Sundance were going to harm a female train passenger, opens the door to the car with the safe in it, only to find Sundance has the woman like this while Butch imitated her voice]].
* ''Film/{{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.
* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': 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 ''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.
* ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': Early on, Han Solo is trying to find out if Luke has come back to the base from patrol and shuts up C-3PO this way. 3PO expresses exasperation nicely with body language alone.
* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' ends cheerfully for Lydia as Adam affectionately silences Barbara this way, who is calling him out on his own bad school grades.
* Happens to Anabel in ''Film/ASimpleWish'' by [[{{TheDragon}} Boots]].
* Played for laughs in ''Film/JohnCarter'', where Tars does this to John, Sola and Dejah [[spoiler:when he helps them escape after they have been sentenced to death]]. Of course, Tharks have four arms, so it makes sense.
* In ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'', TortureTechnician [=SkekTek=] tries to silence Kira this way when she calls to his caged animals to help her. (''Very'' bad idea. She bites him.)
* A goblin does this to himself when told to be quiet by his allies in ''[[{{Film/Labyrinth}} Labyrinth]]''.
* In ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', the titular character does this to Mike Teevee to prevent him from telling the geese that Easter is over. If only he knew what was about to happen, he'd do that to [[{{ItsAllAboutMe}} Veruca]] instead...
* Happens in ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'' during TheReveal. Kim Novak has just seen her doppelganger (the real Madeleine) fall to her death and we see Galvin muffling her scream.
* In ''Film/MulhollandDrive'', Betty is muffling Rita's scream when encountering the corpse.
* In ''Film/CloudAtlas'', Joe is ambushing Luisa Rey in her apartment, using this trope to muffle her screaming.
* In ''Film/AlmostFamous'', Will does this to Polexia after discovering that he's still in bed with her while trying to take a call from Rolling Stone. Hilariously, the hand that he puts over her mouth happens to be the one with all the notes that he was going to use to bullshit his way through the call (because he's extremely far behind on his article), so he's forced to switch hands...
* Happens twice to Annabelle, the love interest in ''Film/TheGeneral'', first by the leader of the Union squad and later by the hero when he rescues her from the enemy's headquarters.
* Played for horror in ''Film/TheThing1982'' [[spoiler:when the Blair-Thing shows up to kill Garry, simultaneously silencing and assimilating him by MORPHING HIS HAND INTO HIS MOUTH. Afterwards we're shown Garry's body being dragged by the hand-melded mouth.]]
* ''ShortCircuit'': Shortly after Number 5 escapes, Ben and Crosby attempt to persuade their boss Howard Mariner to let them try to catch it instead of destroying it:
-->'''Mariner''': What if you don't catch it?! What if it goes out and melts down a busload of nuns?! How would you like to write the headline on that one?!
-->'''Ben''': Nun soup?
-->'''Crosby''': ''(putting his hand over Ben's mouth)'' BEN!
* In ''Film/BlossomsInTheDust'', a brassy, fast-talking little girl dropped off at Edna's OrphanageOfLove manages to get across the idea that she's[[SonOfAWhore a hooker's child]]. After the policeman says she was scooped up in a raid, the little girl says "Oh sure, we're always being raided, my mother's a—", being cutoff when the cop puts his hand over her mouth.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In the first book of ''TheWheelOfTime'' 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 ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In ''Series/TheATeam'' episode "[[Recap/TheATeamS2E6WhenYouCominBackRangeRiderPartII When You Comin' Back, Range Rider?]]", Murdock puts his hand over Lane's mouth briefly when he sneaks up to rescue Hannibal. He lets go quickly once he's sure she isn't going to scream from surprise.
* ''Series/OurMissBrooks'': In "Magic Christmas Tree", Miss Brooks puts her hand over Walter Denton's mouth to stop his painfully off-key rendition of "Deck the Halls".
* Happens a few times on ''Series/ICarly''. Most notably, Carly licks Sam's hand at one point, exclaiming that it tastes like peanuts and dirt.
* ''Series/DoctorWho''. Played straight when a child is abducted by a Cyberman in "Nightmare in Silver", then taken to the next level when the Cyberman [[DetachmentCombat detaches its own hand to send after the next abductee]].
** The Tenth Doctor also does this to Tallulah in "Daleks in Manhattan" to prevent a Dalek from hearing them.
* Done often to {{Adorkable}} geek Seth by his girlfriend Summer in ''Series/TheOC'', usually in a playful manner when he won't shut up.
* ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'': Frank Hardy does this in the 3rd season episode ''Scorpion's Sting''. Going undercover to trap a notorious international kidnapper, Frank ambushes the kidnapper's daughter in her apartment by sneaking up behind her, [[StandardFemaleGrabArea grabbing her arm]], and putting his hand over her mouth to silence her.
* On an episode of ''Series/ILoveLucy'', Ricky does this to both Lucy and Ethel at once, while the two are gabbing about the possibility of the Ricardos moving to a larger, more expensive apartment in the same building. He then firmly asserts, "I won' swish apar'men's!"
* Subverted in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' when George does it to Tobias. "Stop licking my hand!"
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Castiel does the "can't let my friend make a noise" version to Dean in the season four finale.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': in the episode "Witch", Buffy, all loopy from a spell cast by Amy[[spoiler:'s body-switched mother]], gets booted from the cheerleading squad, letting Amy join. Buffy is about to say too much when Xander puts a hand over her mouth and he and Willow pull her away.
-->'''Buffy:''' Nooo, you don't want her, she's a w''MMMFP''!
-->'''Xander:''' ''["finishing" her sentence]'' ...a wise choice indeed!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Happens several times in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''
** Goofy does this to Sora to prevent him from revealing that [[spoiler:they and Pete are from the future]] after beating the boss in [[WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie Timeless River]].
** And much later on, before fighting the [[spoiler:Experiment]] in [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Halloween Town]], Sora clamps Jack Skellington's mouth shut when it emerges that he hasn't learned his lesson from earlier with wanting to take over from Santa Claus.
** Before your fight with him, [[{{ThatOneBoss}} Xaldin]] does this to [[{{Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast}} Belle]] after [[spoiler:planting the Beast's Rose next to her]].
** In the [[{{Manga/KingdomHeartsII}} manga adaptation]], Pete does this to [[{{DamselInDistress}} Megara]] when kidnapping her for Hades. Even though she bites him on the hand, she gets captured.
* Happens to the titular character in the opening cutscenes in ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'' to prevent him from alerting the guards.
* In ''Aliens Versus Predator (2010)'', this is a common way to silence your victims as either a Predator or Alien during grab kills from behind.
* [[{{BigBad}} Tachyon]] does this to Captain Qwark near the end of ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction''. Unusual for this trope is that he puts one of the ''legs'' of his walking throne over Qwark's mouth, due to being out of reach, as well as keeping Qwark pinned down.
** Pollyx also does this to Ratchet in the second level in ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus Into the Nexus]]''.
* Luke did this to Clementine in ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' in Season 2: Episode 3 when he managed to sneak in Carver's camp to lay out a plan to try and break the group free.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* [[http://www.earsforelves.com/archives/645 This is suddenly done to Tanna]] in ''Webcomic/EarsForElves'' when she's hiding in the temple. Whose hand it is isn't revealed until some pages afterwards, creating suspense. When Luero finally releases her, after the priestess has left the temple chamber, Tanna jumps away and it's shown that even she didn't know who was holding her.
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20130424 Happens to Agatha]] along with StandardFemaleGrabArea.
** And [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030514 here with Agatha and Moloch]], with a later IronicEcho [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080312#.VUX3MpMnIpQ here]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The True Love List from JustForFun/TheUniversalGenreSavvyGuide has a rather simple way to get out of this trope:
-->''If someone capable of feeling pain covers my mouth with their hand, I will [[ManBitesMan make use of my pearly whites]] at the moment when my captor can least afford to be distracted.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* Happens once in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'''s "End of Take." Odd attempts to pretend to be a ghost in the factory, banging pipes and moaning, but is held down by Jeremie and Yumi. Yumi puts her hand over Odd's mouth.
* Often happens to April and Irma on ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}''.
* Happens frequently on ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' to Penny.
** It also happens to Inspector Gadget himself.
* The spies on ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' frequently do this to each other.
* Happened several times on ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'':
** Pete covers PJ's mouth when PJ tries to call him out on his {{hypocri|te}}sy 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 [[BadLiar helping her swallow her dessert]].
* In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons The Simpsons]]'', [[ParentalFavoritism Bart]] does this when he drags [[TheUnfavourite Lisa]] away after she annoys [[ManChild Homer]] with one of her lectures.
* Happened four times in "[[WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussyCats Josie and the Pussycats"]]:
** Alan is captured this way in "Plateau of the Apes Plot"
** In the episode "Spy School Spoof," the Pussycats were delivering fake plans for a top secret device to the villian, thinking if they could convince them they were on his side, he'd let them go. Once they deliver the plans, Alexander goes on to brag about some of their other "escapades" until Alexandra puts her hand over his mouth, telling him not to overdo it.
** In "The Jumping Jupiter Affair," Alexandra is about to tell off the villian, but Alexander covers her mouth before she can get them in any trouble
** Valerie was captured in this fashion in "Swap Plot Flop."
* Happens a few times in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. The 'cover muzzle with hoof' variant is pretty common, but there's been a few cases where a pony actually shoved their hoof into another pony's mouth to keep them quiet, namely Applejack trying to keep [[http://iambrony.dget.cc/mlp/gif/299693__safe_fluttershy_applejack_animated_wat_out%2Bof%2Bcontext_dragonshy_hoof%2Bin%2Bmouth.gif Fluttershy]] or [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120104230959/mlp/images/8/80/Applejack_puts_her_hoof_in_Apple_Bloom%27s_mouth_S1E12.png Apple Bloom]] quiet.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' has [[CoolOldGuy Ironhide]] [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:DivideandConquer_shutupHuffer.jpg doing this]] to shut up [[SourSupporter Huffer]]. [[HardHead Hardhead]] [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Rebirth1_Hardhead_and_Blurr.jpg also does this]] to [[MotorMouth Blurr]] at one point, too.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'' April the Gorlock did this to Jimmy Neutron in "Win, Lose and Kaboom" to secretly tell him of a plan to overthrow the evil gameshow host Meldar.
[[/folder]]
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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. If in hiding, the more self-controlled character may use it to keep the frightened character from crying out inadvertently.

->'''Past Pete:''' Just who was that creep, anyway?
->'''Sora:''' Hello! That creep was... ''[Goofy clamps his hand over Sora's mouth]''[[note]]you from the future[[/note]]

* Happens to Littlefoot in the first ''LandBeforeTime'' sequel when he is captured.

* In ''Series/TheATeam'' episode "[[Recap/TheATeamS2E5WhenYouCominBackRangeRiderPartII When You Comin' Back, Range Rider?]]", Murdock puts his hand over Lane's mouth briefly when he sneaks up to rescue Hannibal. He lets go quickly once he's sure she isn't going to scream from surprise.

* [[{{BigBad}} Tachyon]] does this to Captain Qwark near the end of ''RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction''. Unusual for this trope is that he puts one of the ''legs'' of his walking throne over Qwark's mouth, due to being out of reach, as well as keeping Qwark pinned down.
** Pollyx also does this to Ratchet in the second level in ''[[{{VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus}} Into the Nexus]]''.

* In ''Film/{{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.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In ''Magic Christmas Tree'', Miss Brooks puts her hand over Walter Denton's mouth to stop his painfully off-key rendition of ''Deck The Halls''.

* Jessie does this to James several times in the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode "Holy Matrimony!".
* Played for laughs during the Griffith rescue in ''Manga/{{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 ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' when Kagura almost lets slip to Tohru about Kyo's true form Kyo covers her mouth with his hand.
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' Sasuke does this to Sakura in the Forest of Death.
* {{Manga/Bleach}}: When Nnoitra [[ForcedToWatch forces]] Orihime to watch Tesra [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] Ichigo, the anime has him place a hand over her mouth. In the manga, he actually forces his fingers inside her mouth, which [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar mimics]] a common kink in Japanese porn.

* Happened to LoisLane quite a bit in the Golden Age Franchise/{{Superman}} comics.

* In the ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' fanfic ''FanFic/BackToTheFuturePrequel'', Hank does this as he kidnaps Marty from Doc's garage.