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Basic Trope: A character expresses intense frustration by banging their head against a desk, wall, or some other nearby item.

  • Straight: Alice is helping Bob with math, but even after hours of labored explanations, he still doesn't understand basic fractions. Alice, frustrated, slams her head against the table.
  • Exaggerated:
    • Alice is helping Bob with math, and his first question is "What are fractions?" Cue headdesk from Alice.
    • Alice slams her head into the table so hard that she breaks it.
    • Bob says something stupid in his office, and all his co-workers headdesk simultaneously.
    • Alice's repeated head-desking leaves telltale dents in pretty much everything she owns.
  • Downplayed:
    • Frustrated, Alice leans her head on a desk, but doesn't bang on it.
    • Alice places a cushion on her desk before hitting it with her head.
    • Alice makes the headdesk jerking motions against empty space.
  • Justified: Alice can't think of a better way to express her anger.
  • Inverted: After hours of fruitless tutoring, Alice grabs Bob's head and bangs it against the table.
  • Subverted:
    • After hours of fruitless tutoring, Alice prepares to bang her head against the table ... then takes a deep breath and tries yet another explanation.
    • Alice starts by beating her head against the wall, but then decided to beat her head against Bob's head instead.
  • Double Subverted: When Bob still fails to understand, Alice surrenders to temptation and proceeds to headdesk.
  • Parodied:
    • When Bob tells Alice he doesn't know what time it is, she proceeds to bang her head against every piece of furniture in the room.
    • Alice headdesks against thin air.
  • Zig-Zagged: Alice's reactions to frustration have no consistency — one minute she'll calmly accept a missed deadline, the next she'll headdesk at a missed phone call.
  • Averted: Alice and Bob are starring in a training video teaching tutors how to help troublesome students calmly.
  • Enforced: Alice is a Sit Comic famous for her exaggerated headdesks.
  • Lampshaded: "Excuse me, Bob, I need a bang-my-head-against-the-table break."
  • Invoked: Alice is hoping that her headdesk display will motivate Bob to study harder.
  • Exploited: Bob deliberately says something stupid, knowing that Alice will headdesk.
  • Defied: Alice knows that headdesking won't help Bob understand her explanations, so she use other methods to channel her anger, such as buying a stress ball.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: "Gee, how does Alice stay alive with all that headdesking? It's like she's got an iron skull or something."
  • Implied: After training Bob, Alice has a headache.
  • Deconstructed: Alice hits her head so hard she incurs a concussion, or even worse, a brain hemorrhage or even death.
  • Reconstructed: Alice gets brain therapy and learns to express her frustrations in less life-threatening ways.
  • Played for Laughs: Alice hurts herself hilariously by her headdesking at Bob's intransigence.
  • Played for Drama: Alice dies from her injury ... and still, Bob doesn't understand his math.
  • Played for Horror: Alice starts banging her head against her desk with absolutely zero warning, showing the audience how psychologically unstable she is.

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