History Main / HandbagOfHurt

* In ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Dewey starts to carry a handbag with him as a backpack. Reese, knowing that his brother would get picked on for this, [[PetTheDog tries to get him to use a backpack again]]. Despite spending the entire episode and still not changing Dewey's mind, Reese finally sees Dewey getting picked on for using a handbag. Dewey then proceeds to beat the crud out of his hecklers using his handbag. After they run away, Dewey reveals he was carrying a brick inside the handbag, as he expected this too.

* In the live-action ''[[Film/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians1996 101 Dalmatians]]'' movie, when Roger mistakes Perdita for Pongo and attempts to take her away, Anita puts a stop to it with this. She really is carrying bricks -- she was collecting bricks one or two at a time as she saw them; she was paving her garden and there were leftovers.

'''Anita:''' Oh, no; bricks.

* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': Sophia would sometimes indulge in this, using the beaded purse she carried with her everywhere. One episode of note is when her sister, Angela, moves to Miami and moves in with Sophia's current boyfriend. Sophia automatically assumes that the two are having an affair and goes to confront them. Angela pleads her innocence... only for Sophia's boyfriend to walk out of his bedroom with ''another'' woman. Sophia and Angela gang up on him.

* To be fair, getting hit with a handbag or any kind of bag can hurt, especially if that bag is filled with heavy objects like books or other things. In fact, it's sometimes taught as part of self-defense for women. Indeed, swinging a handbag or using any kind of improvised weapon can save your life, so don't worry about something as trivial as looking silly or weak; use whatever you can to defend yourself from and escape an attacker.

* Handbags were available as weapons in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' -- but only for female characters of a few classes. Some of them actually packed a rather impressive punch.

* ''ComicBook/MsTree'': Ms. Tree carries her pistol in her handbag, which makes it handy to swing at a enemy with unexpected force. Case in point when an argument with a militant feminist got physical and the protester suddenly hit the detective:

* First John Gage, then Chet Kelly in the ''Series/{{Emergency}}'' fic "[[http://web.archive.org/web/20110317165013/http://www.twochickies.com/youmakemefeellikedancin.htm You Make Me Feel Like Dancin']]" get this. John and Roy get injured hilariously at the station and Chet has to drive them to Rampart. John is dressed as a clown after a fire dept. carnival. He has to make Chet stop so he can throw up and a woman starts hitting him with her bag, thinking he's a drunk clown. Chet gets out of the squad, and is naked except for Roy's turnout coat (ItMakesSenseInContext). The old lady turns her bag on Chet, thinking he's a pervert. And John, wanting to annoy Chet, directs her how to hit so Chet will feel it more.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAndHarleyQuinn'': Harley attacks Nightwing with her purse during their fight. Said purse is revealed to be housing a ten-pound kettle bell.

* In the opening scene of ''Film/ManiacCop'', a waitress is attacked by two muggers as she walks home. She beats them off with her handbag and runs, before she has the misfortune to encounter the eponymous maniac cop.

* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E1Lessons Lessons]]", Dawn improvised a weapon from a handbag and a couple of bricks. On the commentary, Creator/JossWhedon refers to it as "[[FooFu Bag fu]]."

* In ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Dewey starts to carry a handbag with him as a backpack. Reese knowing that his brother would get picked on for this, [[PetTheDog tries to get him to use a backpack again]]. Despite spending the entire episode and still not changing Dewey's mind, Reese finally sees Dewey getting picked on for using a handbag. Dewey then proceeds to beat the crud out of his hecklers using his handbag. After they run away Dewey reveals he was carrying a brick inside the handbag, as he expected this too.

* ''Series/ThreesCompany'': When Mr. Roper believes a prospective tenant is a cross-dresser, she whallops Mr. Roper with her purse for poking her in the chest.

* Irma, the dorky friend of April O'Neill, utters the battle cry in the page quote in ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'', while facing off against an unstoppable robot.

* ''ComicBook/StuckRubberBaby'' is a comic depicting civil rights demonstrations in the south. One character learns to defend herself with a brick - in her handbag.

* In 4th edition ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'', the combat example is a bank robbery. At one point, a little old lady customer thwacks one of the goons with her purse. He goes down.

* Handbags were available as weapons in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' - but only for female characters of a few classes. Some of them actually packed a rather impressive punch.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ha8pC0aBc Supergran!]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' Betty and Wilma can knock anyone out with their purses. Enough so that '''they''' look like more badass fighters than their husbands.

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/TheSims4 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crumplebottomts4.PNG]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Are you trying to get fresh with me, young man? Take that cheek somewhere else!"]]

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'':
** Seto Kaiba uses a briefcase when he is attacked by Pegasus' goons. His [[DistressedDude little brother]] ''tries'' to pull off the same moves later on, but fails miserably.
** In [[Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries the first Yu-Gi-Oh! anime]], Kaiba hits Yugi with his school bag when [[BitchInSheepsClothing his true colours are revealed]]. This is actually a step down from the manga, where it was a metal briefcase. [[https://ms.yugipedia.com//e/e8/Eat_briefcase.png Ouch]].

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. Henrietta's EstablishingCharacterMoment is when the cute innocent girl breaks a terrorist's jaw with her violin case, before [[SenselessViolins using what's in it to massacre everyone else in the room]].
* In ''Manga/GTOTheEarlyYears'', both male and female delinquents beat others up with their school bags sometimes.

* ''ComicBook/StuckRubberBaby'' is a comic depicting civil rights demonstrations in the south. One character learns to defend herself with a brick - in her handbag.
* ''ComicBook/MsTree'' carries her pistol in her handbag, which makes it handy to swing at a enemy with unexpected force. Case in point when an argument with a militant feminist got physical and the protestor suddenly hit the detective:

(''tree hits back with her handbag with a CLANG!'')\\

* First John Gage, then Chet Kelly in the ''{{Series/Emergency}}'' fic "[[http://web.archive.org/web/20110317165013/http://www.twochickies.com/youmakemefeellikedancin.htm You Make Me Feel Like Dancin']]" get this. John and Roy get injured hilariously at the station and Chet has to drive them to Rampart. John is dressed as a clown after a fire dept. carnival. He has to make Chet stop so he can throw up and a woman starts hitting him with her bag, thinking he's a drunk clown. Chet gets out of the squad, and is naked except for Roy's turnout coat (ItMakesSenseInContext). The old lady turns her bag on Chet, thinking he's a pervert. And John, wanting to annoy Chet, directs her how to hit so Chet will feel it more.
* Many ''Series/TheSentinel'' fanfics have Blair using his backpack this way.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAndHarleyQuinn'': Harley attacks Nightwing with her purse during their fight. Said purse is revealed to be housing a ten-pound kettle bell.

* In the live-action ''Film/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians1996'' movie, when Roger mistakes Perdita for Pongo and attempts to take her away, Anita puts a stop to it with this.
-->''''Roger''': What do you have in that purse of yours, rocks?
-->'''Anita''': Oh, no; bricks.
** She really was carrying bricks. She was collecting bricks one or two at a time as she saw them; she was paving her garden and there were leftovers.
* ''Film/TheSting'': After Hooker yanks a woman out of a phone booth, the woman hits both Hooker and his partner with her purse.
* Mrs. Marcus from ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld'' will very often hit other people with her purse when she's really angry. The following characters she's hit with her purse are; Melville Crump, J. Russell Finch, Col. Hawthorne, Otto Meyer, and a random pedestrian.
* In ''Film/JingleAllTheWay'', various mothers hit Howard with their purses when they [[PaedoHunt accuse him of touching a little girl]] (he was actually trying to get a lottery ball for a [[ShowWithinAShow Turbo Man]] action figure that ended up in her grasp).

* In the miniseries "Smiley's People", elderly Russian émigrée Maria Andreyevna Ostrakova, fearing she will be attacked on the streets of Paris by Soviet agents, packs a flatiron in her capacious shopping bag. It comes in handy.
* ''Film/CoalMinersDaughter'' shows Loretta Lynn, in self-defense, hitting her husband with her purse. She ended up breaking his finger.
* ''Film/AllThroughTheNight'': Leda uses her purse to hit Gloves [[TapOnTheHead over the head]] to knock him out (though it's to keep Pepe from killing him).

* In ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990'', after having the Sai weapon knocked out of her hand in the subway station (and it lands near where Raphael is waiting), April O'Neil uses her purse for attack and holds up her own against the Foot until she is knocked out with a punch to the face.

* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', Agony Aunt Dotsie's unnaturally heavy purse provides a quick removal of any threat. Vimes, who is no stranger to delivering a proper TapOnTheHead to end a fight, considers her his superior in that aspect.

* A variation in the Literature/MegLangslowMysteries book ''Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon'' has Meg demonstrating a self-defense technique that uses the ''strap'' of the purse to disarm and strangle an attacker. The killer uses a mouse cord in a similar way, but since pretty much the entire company has seen the technique, it doesn't help the cops narrow down their list of suspects.

* A staple of Ruth Buzzi's old lady character on ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''.
* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E1Lessons Lessons]]", Dawn improvised a weapon from a handbag and a couple of bricks. On the commentary, Creator/JossWhedon refers to it as "[[FooFu Bag fu]]."

-->'''Penny''': You idiot! What the hell do you have in there?!
-->'''Amy''': ''(mortified at what she did)'' Just my wallet, keys and a coffee can full of change I've been meaning to take to the bank!
* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': Sophia would sometimes indulge in this, using the beaded purse she carried with her everywhere. One episode of note is when her sister, Angela, moves to Miami and moves in with Sophia's current boyfriend. Sophia automatically assumes that the two are having an affair and goes to confront them. Angela pleads her innocence...only for Sophia's boyfriend to walk out of his bedroom with ''another'' woman. Sophia and Angela gang up on him.
-->'''Angela''': You've insulted my sister's honor!
-->'''Tony''': I don't know what to say.
-->'''Sophia''': I'll tell you what you can say! Say "ouch"! {whacks him with her purse}
-->'''Angela''': Say, "That hurts!" {whacks him with ''her'' purse}
* Discussed in the final episode of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. The villain asks if she's going to hit him with her handbag. She doesn't, unfortunately.

* ''Series/ThreesCompany'': When Mr. Roper believes a prospective tenant is a cross-dresser, she whallops Mr. Roper with her purse for poking her in the chest.
* In the opening sequence for ''Series/{{The Odd Couple|1970}}'', Felix is shown trying to help an old lady cross the street. The lady hits him with her handbag and a Boy Scout punches him. It's just not Felix's day.

* On ''Series/TheXFiles'' a lizard man (unintentionally) attacks a UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} prostitute, who fights back with her purse in this fashion. The encounter leaves a huge hole in her purse.

** Battley Townswomen Guild's Reenactment of the Battle of Pearl Harbour
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFiN7Zsz2zM Hell's Grannies]]

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' sees this happen to Sophie in "The Wedding Job." Well, in the first season, she wasn't much of a fighter.

* ''Series/{{Batman}}'': Though Catwoman wasn't a DarkActionGirl like in the comics, she did occasionally use a handbag to hit Robin over the head.

* Jennifer Hudson has a song on her first album called "Pocketbook," the refrain of which is "Don't make me hitchu' wit' ma pocketbook," delivered with TranquilFury at a guy ([[AWildRapperAppears Ludicris]]) who won't stop hitting on her.

[[folder:New Media]]
* There is an (obviously faked) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQxcV4lu-a4 YouTube video]] of a little old lady in a crosswalk responding to the impatient honking of a motorist by whacking his front bumper with her handbag hard enough to set off his airbags.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* When she was with Wrestling/RandySavage in the late-1980's, Wrestling/SherriMartel regularly came to the ring with a loaded purse. It backfired on her at Wrestling/SummerSlam 1989 when Wrestling/HulkHogan got a hold of it.
* At ''New Year's Revolution 2006'', [[Wrestling/TheWorldsGreatestTagTeam Shelton Benjamin]] defeated Viscera after Shelton's mother clocked Viscera with her purse when the referee wasn't looking. After the match, she opened her purse and showed the audience there was a brick inside it.

[[folder:Satire]]
* UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher was often depicted wielding a killer handbag, especially on ''Series/SpittingImage''.

[[folder:Stand Up Comedy]]
* Creator/EddieIzzard once suggested that the Queen should be attacked by dogs ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]) and that she could defend herself with a handbag with a brick in it.
* Creator/MikeHarding described his grandmother as the sort of woman who would carry a brick in her handbag. So that if anyone ever tried to rob her, she could break his legs to prevent him from running away.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games ]]
* In 4th edition ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'', the combat example was a bank robbery. At one point, a little old lady customer thwacks one of the goons with her purse. He goes down.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Killer7}}'': Garcian Smith's down attack involves hitting an enemy with his large suitcase.
* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'': Both a leather purse and a briefcase are usable, though weak, weapons for players.
* Handbags were available as weapons in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' - but only for female characters of a few classes. Some of them actually packed a rather impressive punch.
* Chat in ''VideoGame/TalesOfEternia'' uses these as weapons, though sometimes she just pulls [[DropTheHammer hammers]] out of them.
** Karol from ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' smacks foes over the head with his large handbag for his various debuffing artes. He uses these as his secondary weapon and can be seen storing his main weapon in them outside of battle. The one he's currently using has his Bodhi Blastia[[note]]The artifact he needs to use his artes.[[/note]] attached to it.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims1: Hot Date'', ''VideoGame/TheSims2: Nightlife'', and ''VideoGame/TheSims4: Cottage Living'' expansions, the ambiguously wedded Mrs./Miss Crumplebottom carries a handbag that, while not murderous, is quite humiliating. She'll attack Sims for public displays of affection, usually with a few harsh words for them, too.
* Kisarah Westfield from SNK's ''VideoGame/NeoGeoBattleColiseum'' is a schoolgirl who fights with her bookbag, which is a callback to the fighting game she originally comes from (''VideoGame/AggressorsOfDarkKombat'') where various weapons can be picked up and temporarily used.
* Also wielding a schoolbag is Kyo's lover and hidden-battle JokeCharacter Yuki in ''VideoGame/SNKGalsFighters''. One of her special attacks has her throwing contents from it at the opponent.
* ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'': Eileen's handbag is the first weapon you get for Eileen, before even meeting her. Unfortunately, unlike most starter weapons in the series such as the [[PipePain Steel Pipe]], it has pathetic damage and reach, and may in fact be ''worse'' than giving her no weapon -- [[ArtificialStupidity her AI doesn't distinguish weapon power when setting her aggressiveness against enemies]], meaning she'll happily charge right into combat and take damage while swinging a "weapon" that is barely powerful enough to make monsters flinch when hit.

* ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'':
** After Banjo returns Groggy (the fat polar bear kid) to Mrs. Boggy, Groggy lies about Banjo forcing him to eat a hamburger (in actuality, he refused to let Banjo pick him up until after he ate it). Mrs. Boggy doesn't believe Groggy at all, and [[AbusiveParents she hits him with her purse several times]] in retaliation.
** Banjo himself provides a [[GenderInvertedTrope gender-inverted]] example. He can learn the Pack Whack, which allows him to take his empty backpack and swing it around his head, smacking any nearby enemies to their deaths.

* In one of the ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' games, there is an unlockable character skin called Tycoonius, who beats people up with a pair of briefcases.
* Eileen's bag is the first melee weapon you find for her in ''VideoGame/SilentHill4TheRoom''. It has very short reach and pitiful damage.
* ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' allows you to attack human enemies with briefcase-shaped cargo that you can carry on hand. They can either be slammed or thrown against up-close enemies. Doing this with your own cargo isn't a practical approach to combat since with one hit it damages the cargo, and another hit destroys it entirely. Enemy cargo can be picked up, however, and you can freely use them to knock enemies out if you don't intend on taking their stolen cargo for yourself.

* ''VideoGame/Hitman2'' features briefcases as a mundane prop that Agent 47 can use to sneak items into secure areas. Being a large, heavy piece of plastic lined with metal, 47 can also use it to [[TapOnTheHead swiftly render people unconscious with a whack in the head]]. It could also be thrown at people's heads for similar effect. An extremely popular GoodBadBug caused the briefcase to become a HomingProjectile and pursue targets at a slow but dogged pace. Despite all of its comically absurd abilities, the briefcase could only concuss people and would never kill them, as it has the 'non-lethal' damage flag.

* In the final episode of ''{{WebAnimation/RWBY}}'' Volume 2, Coco from team [=CFVY=][[note]]Pronounced "Coffee"[[/note]] wipes the floor with a very large Grimm using her handbag, and wounds a few more. [[SwissArmyWeapon She then transforms said purse]] [[BriefcaseBlaster into a]] [[GatlingGood minigun]] [[CurbStompBattle and utterly]] ''[[CurbStompBattle destroys]]'' [[CurbStompBattle several other, larger Grimm with ease]].

* In the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes shorts:
** ''WesternAnimation/BostonQuackie'', Quackie's girlfriend Mary clobbers the man in the green hat with her handbag. Of course, she is carrying an anvil in it...
** ''WesternAnimation/BallotBoxBunny'', Bugs pretends to be a baby and accuses mayoral candidate Yosemite Sam of biting him on the nose during a "[[PoliticiansKissBabies kissing babies]]" PR stunt. A crowd of angry mothers immediately swarm Sam and beat him with their handbags.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', an [[BadassBystander old lady on the subway]] saves Spider-Man's life by employing this technique ... against ''the Lizard!''
* Irma, the dorky friend of April O'Neill, utters the battle cry in the page quote in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'', while facing off against an unstoppable robot.

* ''WesternAnimation/TopCat'': In one episode, a female cat sends [[TheCasanova Fancy-Fancy]] flying with her handbag.
-->'''Fancy:''' Oh boy, she's weakening! Last time, she hit me with her fist.
* A minor ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' villain, a small-time gang leader and biological mother of her underlings, immediately attacks Batman with her handbag when the two of them meet up. This was so unexpected to Batman that she successfully knocks him to the floor with it.

--->'''[=SpongeBob=]''' (''[[{{Lisp}} lisping]]''): Excuse me, large lady, I'm a widdle girl who's misplaced herself. Can you help find me? I'm pretty!\\
'''Pedestrian:''' Weirdo! (''smacks [=SpongeBob=] with her purse and runs away'')

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Woman_Hitting_a_Neo-Nazi_With_Her_Handbag The famous picture]] called "A Woman Hitting a Neo-Nazi With Her Handbag" from a 1985 Neo-Nazi demonstration in Sweden.
* While she was never known[[note]]outside of satire, as noted above[[/note]] to use her iconic blue handbag as a melee weapon, UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher was proud of what her supporters and detractors call her "[[ObstructiveBureaucrat handbag diplomacy]]".

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims1 & [[VideoGame/TheSims2 2]]'', the ambiguously wedded Mrs./Miss Crumplebottom carries a handbag that, while not murderous, is quite humiliating.

* Attempted in the fight between a Russian assassin and a serial killer (revealed to be [[spoiler:[[IdolSinger Hijiribe Ruri]]]]) in the 4th volume of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}''. Unfortunately for them that briefcase belonged to a [[spoiler:[[FromBadToWorse certain man in a bartender suit]]]].

->'''Turtles:''' Turtles fight with honor!
->'''Irma:''' And women fight with handbags!

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[-[[caption-width-right:350:Image by [[http://www.editinternational.com/print.php?id=47dde79e19603 David Chan]].]]-]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'', an old lady attacks Alex with her purse. She does this again in the sequel, ''WesternAnimation/MadagascarEscape2Africa'', especially to [[BigBad Makunga]] when Alex gives it to him as a present.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Film/TheSting'': after Hooker yanks a woman out of a phone booth, the woman hits both Hooker and his partner with her purse.

-->'''[=SpongeBob=]''' (''[[{{Lisp}} lisping]]''): Excuse me, large lady, I'm a widdle girl who's misplaced herself. Can you help find me? I'm pretty!\\

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Grandmum's the Word", Grandma Plankton constantly hits [=SpongeBob=], Mr. Krabs, and Plankton with her purse.

* A variation in the MegLangslowMysteries book ''Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon'' has Meg demonstrating a self-defense technique that uses the ''strap'' of the purse to disarm and strangle an attacker. The killer uses a mouse cord in a similar way, but since pretty much the entire company has seen the technique, it doesn't help the cops narrow down their list of suspects.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Mrs. Figg hits Mundungus Fletcher with her handbag, which, from the clanking, appeared to be filled with cans of cat food.

* In the first book of the ''Literature/AlcatrazSeries'', Bastille mostly used her handbag to store her sword, but she also used it to whack Alcatraz.