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"Ah, there's no justice like Angry Mob Justice."
"These torches signify displeasure."
The standard equipment for any angry mob on a Witch Hunt. The mob may be going after an evil wizard, a vampire, a mad scientist, or any other unpopular local figure. If they're coming after the good guys for one reason or another (like if our heroes are hiding a Reluctant Monster), their best defense is Shaming The Mob.
Related to the less focused, but more destructive, Powder Keg Crowd. Malicious Slander may have stirred them up; good luck finding out who, if anyone, is responsible for the rumors.
A common parody is to have someone at a riot scene politely selling or handing out said pitchforks, or for angry mobs to be judged by the quality of such equipment.
Featured and parodied so many times, it's a definite Undead Horse Trope. See also Kill It With Fire and Burn The Witch for its inspiration.
Examples
Anime and Manga
Comics
- Parodied in The Far Side several times; in one, the mob is storming the castle, and one man looks down at his torch, which has gone out, to regret buying it from a discount "Torches And Pitchforks Store".
- Parodied again in Sam And Max Freelance Police, "The Tell-Tale Tail", when a group of torch-bearing Scotsmen arrive at the castle where Max is attempting to reanimate his severed tail (don't ask):
Sam: It's an irate mob of torch-bearing villagers out to destroy anything different, abnormal or misunderstood!
Scot: Irate? We're not irate! We're here in town for the annual torch maker's convention!
Film
- The 1931 film version of Frankenstein features some of the most famous Torches And Pitchforks angry mobs.
- In the Lon Chaney silent film version of The Phantom Of The Opera, the Phantom is rather brutally killed at the end by one of these.
- In The Music Man, after Charlie shouts to the citizens of River City that they've been conned by Harold Hill, torch-wielding mobs run around the town hunting for him. They ultimately succeed in getting him arrested, but the rumors of tar and feathers prove to be just talk — and it all turns out well in the end.
- The Night Of The Hunter climaxes with an angry mob forming against Harry Powell.
- Tombstone. Not literally pitchforks, but pickaxes. A lynch mob, including miners with pickaxes, appears after Curly Bill kills the town marshal. Wyatt disperses the mob by saying there will be a trial.
Literature
- Both parodied a few times and played straight in Discworld. For example, in Carpe Jugulum, Nanny Ogg gets several of her sons to organize an angry mob to go after Count Magpyr and his family, who have moved into Lancre Castle with the intent of taking over the country. The Count is not impressed, and simply steps out to criticize their "angry mob" form (like using large, unwieldy scythes instead of sickles) before siccing his personal army on the mob. But at the climax, a mob takes on the count — much to the approval of the witches, as you have to kill your own monsters. (They had brought their children, which would teach the children that monsters could be killed.)
- Maskerade features a brief discussion of angry mob etiquette when a mob goes after the Phantom (apparently, it's torches when chasing monsters, and lanterns when chasing smugglers).
- Igors have an ability to make a quick exit when Torches And Pitchforks show up.
- Otto von Chriek of The Truth cites this as the reason for his "comical vampire" act—if he's weird but amusing, they're less likely to kill him. He also mentions having lost a friend to such a mob.
- An illustration in The Art Of Discworld shows "The Mob"; the crowd of not-necessarily-antagonistic people who treat any interesting event in Ankh-Morpork as a form of street theatre. Two of them are, in fact, holding a torch and a pitchfork - but this being the Morporkian melting pot they are a vampire and an Igor.
- Played more or less straight in the seventh book of A Series Of Unfortunate Events, with a village of puritanical fanatics whose punishment for breaking any of their village laws (which prohibit mechanical devices, books which break the rules, and harming the local crows) is burning at the stake.
- Esther Friesner's Magyk By Accident has a town that stages these regularly to get around an inconvenient law against dealing with witches. Trying to kill the witch isn't illegal, after all, and if the witch turns out to be too powerful and has to be appeased with trade goods, that's not the mob's fault. And if they find useful herbal remedies of completely unknown origin placed near her cottage, well, it must be their lucky day.
- In the first book of The Sword Of Truth series a wizard's house is surrounded by the trope mob. Well, the wizard first points out they call him a witch - which is reserved for females, while males are warlocks. Then, he asks them what do they think a warlock can do. Then, after receiving a complete answer, he says that they must be very brave if they go against someone with such powers with... well... you know. Hilarity Ensues.
Live Action Television
Music
Tabletop Games
- This is pretty much the defining trait of the rabidly xenophobic Hive Minded kithkin (pictured above on the card Kithkin Rabble
 ) in Magic The Gathering's Shadowmoor setting.
- Guess what the mob on the Magic the Gathering card "Angry Mob" are wielding?
- The Torches And Pitchforks effect is incorporated into Promethean: the Created, which is basically "Frakenstein's Monster: the RPG." Humans recognize, on some visceral level, that Prometheans shouldn't be, and suffer "Disquiet" in their presence that eventually turns to violence.
- The AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft-setting book Van Richten's Guide to the Created has rules for how and why a torch-and-pitchfork angry mob can kill "the created," mostly Frankenstein's monster-esque flesh golems, when they're normally immune to damage from non-magical weapons. Part of it's damage from fire, and part of it's from the potent symbolic darkness in an act of mob mentality, which appeals to the Dark Powers of Ravenloft, empowering the mob as a result.
Video Games
- In Resident Evil 4, Leon finds himself facing Torches And Pitchforks as wielded by "Los Ganados", the infected townsfolk.
- Mildly subverted in Toejam and Earl, as one of the grouped earthling enemies is a horde of irate geeks (or "Nerd Herd").
- In Legacy of Kain, when Kain teleports into the future after killing the William the Just, he is confronted by angry mobsters with torches and pitchforks, led by Moebius, who are bent on killing all vampires.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- In the The Fairly OddParents episode "Mother Nature", every time the local weather reporter makes an incorrect forecast, they get run out of town by an angry mob, who come complete with Torches And Pitchforks.
- Truth In Television: an Indian weather reporter so consistently got the weather wrong that enraged viewers harassed him on the streets, waved weapons at him, and even threatened his mother with a chainsaw.
- In the episode "The Secret Origins of Denzel Crocker", townspeople out to celebrate young Crocker's birthday get their memories of all the great things he had done for them erased. When they wonder why they're there, they see Crocker on stage and reason that they can't be celebrating anything, so they must be an angry mob out to get him, and out come the Torches And Pitchforks, which they all happened to have tucked away somewhere.
- Alternately parodied and featured several times on The Simpsons, like the mob that comes after Bart near the end of "The Telltale Head", and the one that goes after Homer in The Movie.
- The "Angry Mob" approach is also how they do politics. In Much Apu About Nothing, the town is angry about the new "Bear Patrol Tax" so an unruly mob goes to meet with the Mayor:
Mayor's Aide: Sir, an unruly mob is here to see you.
Mayor Quimby: Does it have an appointment?
Mayor's Aide: (Checks his clipboard) Yes.
Principal Skinner: (Pops his head in) I called ahead!
- The Simpsons uses this trope often. They even have a store selling angry mob supplies during a riot! On another occasion Quimby yells out Homer is a monster (Long story - involving a lot of plastic surgery) and tells the crowd to get out their pitchforks. Lo and behold, everyone had the foresight to bring their along to the ceremony honoring Marge's successful new gym. It seems they always come prepared for some mob mayhem.
- In the commentary for one episode (I can’t remember which), one of the directors recalls the following line in a script: "The town riots, more than usual."
- "Can't this town go more than one day without a riot?" - Quimby
- In the opening scene of Shrek, the ogre is obviously used to angry mobs coming to drive him out of his hut, as he easily scares one of them off, even prompting them at one point, "This is the part where you run away." He later hangs a lampshade on it when speaking to Donkey.
Shrek: "I'm an ogre! You know, 'Grab your torch and pitchfork!' Doesn't that bother you?"
- Also lampshaded in the sequel, when Shrek and Fiona step out of their carriage in Far Far Away and are revealed to be ogres. Shrek sees some pitchforks in the crowd and gets nervous, commenting "Let's go before they light the torches."
- Parodied in an episode of Dilbert, in which an angry mob becomes confused and wields ice cream scoopers and toilet plungers.
- Another comic has Dilbert and Dogbert fleeing in terror of villagers armed with pitchforks and scythes; as they escape, one villager says "Did anyone remember to tell them about the Harvest Festival?"
- Heck, in the TV show's intro, Ratbert and Catbert are running with a torch and a pitchfork, respectively, for no explicable reason.
- Lampshaded in Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Wererabbit, wherein a garden fete stall changes its sign from "Gardening Supplies" to "Angry Mob Supplies." The stall holder cries out:
Stall Holder: "Mob Supplies! Get your Angry Mob Supplies here!"
- In the Powerpuff Girls episode "Collect Her", Lenny Baxter, a geek who has kidnapped the Powerpuffs to add them to his collection of Powerpuff merchandise, finds his apartment building surrounded by an angry mob (some wielding torches) demanding the release of the Powerpuff Girls, and remarks, "Well, paint me green and call me Frankenstein... they're on to me!"
- In another episode, Buttercup, having stunk up Townsville after refusing to bathe, is run out of town by a mob (led by the Mayor, no less). The scene parodies the usual setting, with a dark forest, Buttercup glancing back anxiously before tripping and cutting herself on a bramble - then she comes to her senses and just flies away.
- Seen in Beauty and the Beast. There was even a song called "The Mob Song."
- Used a couple times on Spongebob Squarepants. On the episode "Sing a Song of Patrick", an angry mob went after Spongey and Patrick, and passed a torches stand [yes, they burn, and yes, they're still underwater], a pitchforks stand, and a... cotton candy stand. After all, as the man said, "You can't go riot without cotton candy!" On another episode, Spongebob and Sandy were at the movies, and Spongebob's wig blocked the screen. Spongebob made the mistake of saying there was no need to start a riot, and so they did...
- Parodied in an episode of Father Of The Pride, in which an angry mob is formed by characters who were on their way to a luau-style harvest festival. And despite the fact they already have Torches And Pitchforks, they decide the symbol of mob justice is ... rocks.
- An angry mob, complete with torches and pitchforks (and rolling pins, hoes, and a chair) features in the Phineas And Ferb episode "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein."
Real Life
- There is a company in America called "Accountrements" (famous for products like Devil Ducky, Nunzilla, and historical action figures) who sell an "Angry Mob Playset," complete with little plastic figures of angry villagers armed with torches, pitchforks, guns, and whatever else an angry villager could find. And this is practically a kids' toy...
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