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"But I don't wanna use my head!"
It has been shown time and again, in cartoons, movies, and video games, that the best way to break something is by hitting it with your head. Really hard.
We're not talking ordinary, run-of-the-mill headbutts here. Heck, we're not even talking about headbutts of love. When a character uses his head, they transform from ordinary bloke to full-on Battering Ram. The character may go into full on raging-bull mode, charging blindly ahead at whatever stands in his path. Or his companions may actually pick him up, using the blunt end of his skull to smash down whatever it is that needs smashin'. This can be an effective means of attack for some. For others, it's simply the easiest road to destruction. When somebody breaks out the cranial cannonball, the walls are going to come tumblin' down.
Strangely enough, no character who ever employs this technique ever seems to get a concussion--or even a headache. This may be because he's a Big Guy or a Cloudcuckoolander—two character subspecies known for this trope—and for having very thick skulls, or maybe he's wearing Weaponized Headgear. ( Genius Bruisers are, of course, an exception.)
Although the Trope Naming phrase doesn't always precede incidences of this trope, if you utter it in the presence of the Big Guy or a Cloudcuckoolander in battle, you know exactly what you're likely to get.
Also see Headdesk, which is Using Your Head out of frustration. Compare Ass Kicks You. A signature move of the Violent Glaswegian.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk likes to do this a lot.
- A lot? It's practically his off-basket signature move. One of his first scenes ever in the series involved him headbutting his True Companions for teasing him, then other people for unknowingly hitting one of his Berserk buttons, and more than once he has dealed them to his own teammates (like Miyagi), schoolmates (like Aouta) or people from other teams (like Hikoichi) if they piss him off enough. Akagi and Rukawa are pretty much the only ones who can resist his headbutts without being knocked-out.
- Dragon Ball
- Early on, a flying headbutt was just about Goku's primary finishing move, being used to end his fights, for example with Staff Officer Black.
- Goku headbutts Piccolo Jr. to send him out of the ring and win. That's right. He saved the world with a Ring Out. He already tried the same strategy against Tenshinhan 3 years ago, where it would have worked if it wasn't for that damned truck driver on the way.
- His Son Gohan performs a rather impressive, armour-splitting headbutt on his uncle Raditz. He also pulls one against Garlic Jr. on filler.
- The second Goku vs. Vegeta fight has on the anime a rather ridiculous scene where the two fighters keep headbutting each other. Just like goats!
- Mazinger Z
- Kouji — who is a full-blown Combat Pragmatist — has no qualms uisng that tactic when he is fighting with Mazinger-Z. It should be justified, since he is using his Humongous Mecha's head to ram the enemy instead of his own — but it is not, since Mazinger-Z's cockpit is on the head of the giant robot.
- Great Mazinger: Tetsuya is an even bigger of an offender than Kouji.
- UFO Robo Grendizer: Duke also uses that tactic sometimes, although he has a good excuse: usually he is trying to ram the enemy rather than head-butt it, but his Humongous Mecha head is on the front of his Star Ship when both mechas combine, so that it is the first thing hits the enemy.
- Mazinkaiser: Kouji also does it in this series.
- Naruto
- This happens during the title character's fight with Gaara. There is some injury, causing both characters to bleed, and it also shatter Gaara's control over his jutsu. You try maintaining the form of a hundred-foot tall Eldritch Abomination through that.
- Also, the filler episode where Hinata opens a door to find Naruto standing upside-down on the ceiling so that his face is, like, three inches from hers. She, of course, blushes beet-red with her crush so close to her. When Naruto puts a hand to her forehead (he mistakes the blush for a fever-flush), she screams and then impulsively headbutts him across the room, knocking both him and herself out.
- At the end of chapter 563 Naruto does this to Tobi immediately upon finding him.
- Veemon's main attack in Digimon Adventure 02 is Vee Headbutt.
- Arf does a charging headbutt in wolf form that sends Zafira flying in the second episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's to prevent him from interfering with Nanoha's Starlight Breaker.
- Luffy's attack, Gum Gum Bell, from One Piece. This one has the added advantage of Luffy being able to stretch his neck out over 100 feet before he executes it. Justified in that Luffy's rubber body renders him pretty much immune to blunt damage. One interesting use is when he wraps his arms and legs around Captain Kuro, then uses his head, his only free part, to headbutt him and knock him out.
- Sonic Boomer in Transformers Zone uses the spike on his head to but Trypticon.
- In Yu Yu Hakusho, Chu tries to finish off Yusuke with a headbutt, but Yusuke counters it with an even stronger headbutt, and then quips that humans invented it.
- Mahou Sensei Negima!
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: this is, oddly enough, how hacking works. (The Gurren Lagann also has a habit of using its head, admittedly as a guided missile).
- Bleach
- Isshin Kurosaki has used this on his son Ichigo more than once. Specifically, to break him out of Heroic BSOD's, like the one that cam after losing to Gin Ichimaru.
- More recently, a truly spectacular headbutt
 is the key to Ikkaku finally defeating Shishigawara in the X-Cution arc.
- Pokémon
- Ash's Scraggy likes to headbutt as a greeting, though this is natural for its species.
- In addition to the use of the attacks mentioned above throughout the series, a scene in Pokémon 3 the Movie: Spell of the Unown shows Pikachu and a Quagsire suffer a Double KO when Pikachu accidentally smacks headfirst into it after rebounding off a swing.
- The Law Of Ueki has a minor character whose power is the ability to turn his head into diamond when his hands are in his pockets. His only attack is using his head.
- In Holyland, Katou doing this to Shougo starts the latter's defeat.
- Rin does this in Blue Exorcist when told by his brother to start using his head in battle. He literally does when knocking out a demon twice his size with a headbutt and the only damage done to him is a minor nosebleed, which is only seen in the anime.
- In Code Breaker, this appears to be The Prince's favorite way of getting her point across.
- In one of Baccano!'s climactic scenes, Jacuzzi Splot uses a series of relentless headbutts to the face to distract and disorient his opponent.
Comic Books
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Pro Wrestling
- The Battering Ram — a finishing move used by several wrestlers, most notably The Bushwhackers. Which was first used by Bobo Brazil (Houston Harris — a former baseball player), and called the Coco Butt, in 1950.
- The diving head butt is mostly used by Samoan wrestlers, but to the world a large, Bam Bam Bigelow and Perry Saturn are probably the most famous users.
- The Junkyard dog would comically get on all fours and repeatedly ram fallen opponents head first.
Radio
- From the Captain Kremmen radio show: "I shall break out of this cell using the hardest substance known to Mankind! MY HEAD!"
Sports
- The danger of a concussion is why direct, intentional helmet-to-helmet collisions are not allowed in the NFL. Spearing, the practice of diving into another player helmet-first, is also illegal due to the risk of spinal injury. This practice gained a lot of notoriety during the 1990s, largely because safety Chuck Cecil was so fond of using it. Yes, before he was a controversial assistant coach often fined by the NFL for his actions, he was a controversial player who was often fined by the NFL for his actions.
Toys
- From BIONICLE, the Bohrok, and their Elite Mook cousins, the Bohrok-Kal have a headbutt gimmick. In-story, they used their heads and other powers to demolish the entire island of Mata Nui.
Video Games
Web Comics
- In 8-Bit Theater, as explained by Black Mage: "The main tactic of the Ram Form of Zodiackenshido is to break your opponent's equipment with your head before he breaks your head with his equipment." Fighter's the only human ever to succeed at this without dying in the process.
- An interesting version of this trope resides in Dominic Deegan with the character Rachel, whose favorite pastime is breaking objects (and occasionally people) with her face. This, of course, leads to comedy whenever villains try to punch, or occasionally headbutt, her in the face.
Web Original
Western Animation
- He then headbutts Chef.
- In Futurama, Bender has been used as a battering ram whenever the situation calls for it. In the movie "Bender's Big Score", when ordered to break down a wall, he voluntarily does it it with his head.
- Ram-Man of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. It's his frikkin' superpower! (Well, that and having coiled springs for legs...)
- Mike, Lu & Og: Lu actually says "Use your head" before coming up with the idea of ramming her head into a money printing press to put her face on the island's cash.
- Toph uses this in Avatar The Last Airbender to illustrate the basic principle of Earthbending to Aang:
Toph: You've got to face it head-on. And when I say "head-on", I mean like this. HUAH! (jumping headbutt into nearby rock, pulverising it)
- Transformers
- The Dinobot Slag of Transformers Generation 1 does this on more than one occasion. One of the best instances would be when he rams Devastator in Transformers: The Movie. Being a giant robot who transforms into a robot Triceratops is very useful for this. For this guy, Ramming Always Works.
- Slag's Transformers Animated counterpart Snarl (who would have been called Slag too had Hasbro not chickened out) also turns into a robotic Triceratops.
- Also, the Conehead Decepticon Seeker Ramjet has a reinforced nosecone for doing this in vehicle mode. It counts because his nosecone is indeed part of his head. Ramjet actually did fail at this once — then again, he was trying to ram Warpath.
- There's Rhinox too, and Backstop, both of whom turn into Rhinoceri.
- In the Legion Of Super Heroes, Stone Boy was used as a head-first battering ram to ram open a door. Justified in that he can turn himself into stone, and so cannot be injured from this.
- On at least one Classic Disney Short (Mickey's Fire Brigade), Goofy has been used as a battering ram.
- Donald Duck has also tried to break through doors with his head on a number of occasions, and elicits snarky commentary from his uncle Scrooge once he does this in DuckTales.
Scrooge: That's how he exercises his mind!
- In one episode of Popeye, while trapped in a cell Olive Oyl tells him to use his head, and being who he is he obviously thinks this is what she meant.
Popeye: I'd try to, but then it gets rather tender.
- Wakfu
- Goultard tells his apprentice Sadlygrove that he needs to know how to use his head in battle. Sadlygrove takes this advice literally and defeats Rubilax by headbutting him so hard he sinks into the desert with a real risk of choking to death on sand. Goultard approves.
- Goultard himself also favors this tactic. In his special Goultard the Barbarian, he headbutts Katar so hard that a crater forms underneath them. He does the same thing to Rushu in the series proper.
- In Adventures of the Gummi Bears some of the characters are trapped in a barrel and only Tummi is around to help them. When told to use his head to find a way to free them, he of course rams head first into the barrel without any injury and creates a hole big enough for the rest to enlarge to get out.
Real Life
- Football/soccer player Zinedine Zidane shows that the most effective way to punish someone for insulting your family is not a conventional kick or punch, but a headbutt square in the chest in the middle of a World Cup final. This has also been parodied rather hilariously to no end.
- The animal kingdom has its share of bad-ass headbashers. Check out pachycephalosaurs, Majungasaurus, bighorn sheep, some chalicotheres, and giraffes. Yes, giraffes. Slightly subverted with the former, as they were originally thought to have engaged on direct-headbutting action, but biomechanical studies suggest that flank-butting (like giraffes) is more likely. Giraffes are basically the living version of Epic Flail. Don't believe me? Just look at this. Yeah, you go and say giraffes aren't Badass. I'll be over here where it's safe.
- Don't forget the triceratops (no longer with us, but still). Also rhinos.
- Heck, a plain ordinary ol' bull can headbutt your ribs into splinters, even without horns. And a full-grown male plains bison can easily do the same thing to your car's door.
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