History Main / SawAWomanInHalf

* This was Fran and Gracie's talent performance for the mother/daughter pageant in ''TheNanny''. Dude to a bad initial run (Fran was stuck for hours), they changed it to a puppet show.

-->''"Sawing a lady in half is easy. Sawing a lady in half and then joining her up together again is less easy, but can be done with practice."''
-->--'''DirkGently''', ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency''

* In the film ''Houdini'' ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory based very loosely]] on the life of Harry Houdini) Harry brings a "saw a woman in half" kit home, wakes his wife, and makes her get in. A JumpCut happens as he's sawing, so he didn't do any "trick"; he just sawed, and she was OK.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sawing_in_half.jpg
[[caption-width:200:[[DontTryThisAtHome Not to be imitated.]]]]

* Played for laughs at Sullah's Sideshow in ''WorldOfWarcraft''. Two NPCs are practicing the trick with a box containing two pygmies. When the first saws too slowly, the other attacks with a flashy blow, shattering the box and killing both pygmies.

* In ''{{CSI New York}}'', a woman got killed by being sawed in half as part of a series of magic trick inspired killings performed by [[spoiler:a famous magician played by Criss Angel]].

** For UK viewers, this version of the trick appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us.

* In ''{{CSI New York}}'', a woman got killed by really being sawed in half.

-->'''Mumbo:''' It's only fair to warn you... [[{{Ptitlex4lq75dz}} I have no idea what I'm doing]].

** the shock factor was that everyone had clearly seen the woman get into the box, and during their explanation of the trick, using a very subtle trick, they'd swapped her for said fake gore mannequin. The effect was shocking.

* This was Fran and Gracie's talent performance for the mother/daughter pageant in ''TheNanny''. Dude to a bad initial run (she was stuck for hours), they changed it to a puppet show.

* This was Fran and Gracie's talent performance for the mother/daughter pageant. Dude to a bad initial run (she was stuck for hours), they changed it to a puppet show.

* Done in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRMetCwYEmE&feature=related an M&M's commercial]] with Red as the magician and Yellow as the (unwilling) assistant.

* Spoofed by Ernie Kovacs in a 1950s appearance as Matzoh Heppelwhite, the inept magician. He asks the visible model whether she is ready, and she chirpily responds, "Ready!" — but is quickly followed by a second, muffled "Ready!" from within the lower half of the box.

* Rank 4 in ''NoMoreHeroes'' is a stage magician who fights Travis at his show; before the fight, one of the two tricks he does involves cutting a woman in half — ''with a buzzsaw''. He later uses the saw in an attempt to bisect Travis vertically [[spoiler:and it plays a role in his own demise]].

* Is done to Barney Rubble on ''TheFlintstones'' while he's hypnotized. The magician doing the trick shows Fred (and the audience) how it's done — Barney is in the top half bent in two, and the bottom half has fake legs.

* Legless performer Johnny Eck (who was also the most memorable character in ''{{Freaks}}'') participated in a variant of this act where his nearly identical twin brother (''he'' had legs) would be the ringer called up for the trick — and during the act, Johnny and a dwarf in pants would be substituted so that the "volunteer" would fall into two pieces ''on stage''. Freaked audiences out, you bet!

* In the film ''Houdini'' ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory based very loosely]] on the life of Harry Houdini) Harry brings a "saw a woman in half" kit home, wakes his wife, and makes her get in. A JumpCut happens as he's sawing, so he didn't do any "trick" he just sawed, and she was OK.

* In {{Discworld}}, the coat-of-arms of the Guild of Conjurers shows a woman, with a saw-toothed bend dividing the image in half.

* The live-action version of TheFlash has MarkHamill playing an AxeCrazy version of one of the more prominent [[RoguesGallery Rogues]], the Trickster. Before adopting the Trickster identity, James Jesse (in the identity of a magician) kidnaps a woman and attempts to saw her in half...with a chainsaw.
--> Jesse: Other magicians may give you the ''illusion'' of sawing a woman in half... (produces the chainsaw and slices through a nearby mannequin) ...but there's no substitute for the real thing!
* Spoofed by Ernie Kovacs in a 1950s appearance as Matzoh Heppelwhite, the inept magician. He asks the visible model if she is ready, and she chirpily responds "Ready!" -- only to be quickly followed by a second, muffled "Ready!" from within the lower half of the box.
* In {{CSI New York}}, a woman got killed by really being sawed in half.

* Rank 4 in ''NoMoreHeroes'' is a stage magician who fights Travis at his show; before the fight, one of the two tricks he does involves cutting a woman in half - ''with a buzzsaw''. He later uses the saw in an attempt to bisect Travis vertically [[spoiler:and it plays a role in his own demise]].
* [[AreYouAfraidOfTheDark The Tale of Orpheo's Curse]], a point-and-click adventure game, has one ghost who has suffered from the trick and now has a wandering bottom half as a result.
* In [=~Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge~=], if you close the coffin on Stan and try to use the saw on the coffin, Guybrush will say "I'm no magician".

* Used hilariously in the ''LooneyTunes'' short "Show Biz Bugs", in which Daffy Duck is not intimidated by the whole scenario because he thinks it's all a trick (in fact, he even ''describes the trick's mechanics to the audience'' in the process). [[RuleOfFunny Cue Daffy's upper body detaching from his lower body.]] "It's a good thing I have Blue Cross".
** Another cartoon had Egghead (a precursor to Elmer Fudd) going on about how fake it was as he volunteered for it. At the end of the trick, he jumps out and walks away... with his upper and lower halves going in opposite directions.

* Is done to Barney Rubble on ''TheFlintstones'' while he's hypnotized. The magician doing the trick shows Fred (and the audience) how it's done - Barney is in the top half bent in two, and the bottom half has fake legs.

* Legless performer Johnny Eck (who was also the most memorable character in ''{{Freaks}}'') participated in a variant of this act where his nearly identical twin brother (''he'' had legs) would be the ringer called up for the trick -- and during the act, Johnny and a dwarf in pants would be substituted so that the "volunteer" would fall into two pieces ''on stage''. Freaked audiences out, you bet!

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* An episode of ''RubyGloom'' had Skull Boy doing this do Iris. She spends most of the rest of the episode in two halves because Skull Boy gets amnesia and forgets the combination for the lock.

* [[AreYouAfraidOfTheDark The Tale of Orpheo's Curse]], a text-adventure game, has one ghost who has suffered from the trick and now has a wandering bottom half as a result.

* In ''LesFemmesEnBlanc'', a surgeon uses laser surgery to operate on his patient, but accidentally cuts his body in half. The patient, who is still live, says his life is screwed up, and the last panel shows him as working as a magician's partner for this sawing magic trick.

* In DeadRising 2, there are a pair of magicians attempting to perfect this trick. They have a giant circular saw, a woman strapped to a table, and a complete misunderstanding of how the trick is supposed to work. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel It doesn't end well.]]

-->'''Mumbo:''' It's only fair to warn you... I have no idea what I'm doing.

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** Criss Angel has since done a variant of the same trick with a legless woman.
*** And himself.