History Main / ThisIsMyBoomstick

->''"Yeah. All right, you primitive screwheads, listen up. See this? This...is my '''''BOOMSTICK!''''' It's a twelve gauge double barreled Remington, S-Mart's top-of-the-line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart. YA GOT THAT!?"''

It's [[DeadHorseTrope almost never played straight anymore]]. If the time traveler ''gives'' modern technology to the locals, it's GivingRadioToTheRomans. If it's done with contemporary music, it's ALittleSomethingWeCallRockAndRoll. If the natives buy it, a CargoCult may spring up.

* With wars often involving previously unexplored jungles, this trope gets invoked quite often. Natives have been discovered worshiping weaponry, babbling into discarded radios and even making runways in the hopes of summoning the powers the Americans displayed to them.
** See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult Cargo Cult]] in Wiki/ThatOtherWiki

In a GodGuise or TimeTravel scenario, a modern person with some technological convenience uses it to try and impress the more primitive locals. Guns and cigarette lighters are common versions, with Polaroid cameras not far behind. Japanese fiction has [[CriticalResearchFailure a particularly ludicrous variant]], where [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy a medieval Europe analogue]] is introduced to such "unbelievable technologies" as [[KatanasAreJustBetter fold-forged sabers]] and [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage short-form writing systems]].

* An episode of ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' revolved around this: Nobita tried gathering a number of modern objects and using the time machine to travel back in time to the prehistoric age in order to invoke the trope and have the locals make him their king. However, being an idiot, the stuff he took either didn't work in that era (like a radio or a flashlight without batteries), or didn't cause any awe whatsoever (like a pack of playing cards). He ends up mistaken for a monkey and tied to a leash by some cave people [[IdenticalGrandson looking suspiciously like his friends]]. To humiliate him even further, Doraemon shows up, chases away a mammoth with his ray gun and the cave people make ''him'' their king.

* [[http://partiallyclips.com/2002/01/13/king-and-queen/ This strip]] from ''Webcomic/PartiallyClips'' showcases a unique subversion of the concept.

* In the ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' [[SwordAndSorcery]]] sourcebook ''Warriors and Warlocks'', the quote text for the Timelost Hero archetype is "Yeah, your big pointy stick is real impressive. Now watch what happens when I point this shiny baby at you and pull this itty-bitty piece of metal called a 'trigger'."

* An episode of ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' revolved around this: Nobita tried gathering a number of modern objects and using the time machine to travel back in time to the prehistoric age in order to invoke the trope and have the locals make him their king. However, being an idiot, the stuff he took either didn't work in that era (like a radio or a flashlight without batteries), or didn't cause any awe whatsoever (like a pack of playing cards). He ends up mistaken by a monkey and tied to a leash by some cave people [[IdenticalGrandson looking suspiciously like his friends]]. To humiliate him even further, Doraemon shows up, chases away a mammoth with his ray gun and the cave people make ''him'' their king.

* After ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'' are separated in a Medieval world, [[IronMan Tony Stark]] tries to scare off some enemies with a road flare. They are not impressed and beat him up.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E5TheGirlWhoDied "The Girl Who Died"]]: The Doctor tries (and fails) to [[GodGuise convince a Viking village that he's Odin]] by wowing them with his yo-yo skills. Made even less impressive when the Mire show up, who have already put on a much more convincing display (without yo-yo).

-->'''Spa'am:''' We see you have boom boom sticks. Bye Bye!

* Parodied in ''Film/BlackKnight''; Martin Lawrence, stranded in the Middle Ages, tries to impress the locals with his cigarette lighter, to which a bemused peasant merely responds "We ''have'' fire."

* Stuck on a backwater planet in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'', space cadet Claude unthinkingly uses his laser pistol to dispatch a monster threatening a local girl. Worse, it turns out the natives have a prophecy about a "hero from the skies" bearing a "Sword of Light". Eventually the gun's battery runs out, and he's forced to make do with an actual sword.

** And perhaps somewhat subverted in a much later episode when O'Neil's team delivers several crates filled with modern firearms to help supply a group of rebel Jaffa they're allied with. The Jaffa, more used to the flashy energy weapons they'd been trained with by the Goa'uld they'd previously served, are quite skeptical of the value of the Earth-made weapons. O'Neill has to convince them that they're worth using by having Carter (wielding a FN[Fabrique Nationale] P-90) do a side-by-side comparison with a Jaffa marksman wielding a staff weapon at the shooting range. The staff weapon blows a flaming chunk out of the target log (and misses two out of five shots), while the P-90 ''saws it in half'', before Carter finishes by firing a single shot to cut the rope the log is hanging from. O'Neill points out that staff weapons are designed to invoke this trope by being big, flashy, and terrifying, whereas a P-90 is designed to kill things very efficiently.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

* In the ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' PulpFantasy sourcebook ''Warriors and Warlocks'', the quote text for the Timelost Hero archetype is "Yeah, your big pointy stick is real impressive. Now watch what happens when I point this shiny baby at you and pull this itty-bitty piece of metal called a 'trigger'."

* In the ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' PulpFantasy sourcebook ''Warriors and Warlocks'', the quote text for the Timelost Hero archetype is "Yeah, your big pointy stick is real impressive. Now watch what happens when I point this shiny baby at you and pull this itty-bitty piece of metal called a 'triger'."

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireball_(novel) Fireball]], two teens travel to an AlternateUniverse where the Roman Empire hasn't collapsed, but hasn't evolved technologically either. One of them is able to convince a Christian priest that he's telling the truth via his digital watch. They later help overthrow the Romans by passing on the technology of longbows, which can be made and understood more easily than more advanced weapons.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': several examples.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames "The War Games"]], the Second Doctor proves he's from the future by demonstrating the use of the Sonic Screwdriver (on actual screws, for once).
** River Song does it too. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]] she vaporises a piece of furniture to gain the Tribune’s respect.
*** It's more in the nature of open intimidation than superstitious awe; in fact she explicitly compares herself to the Roman's superiority to primitive tribesmen.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Similar to, but earlier than, the ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' example below ... one episode features ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' being kidnapped by a primitive tribe of Bigfoots in present-day Washington (OK, the 'Pacific Northwest'). Darkwing and his daughter, once the truth of the situation (it involves volcanoes and people-sacrificing) is explained, try this. Honker tries a flashlight, but finds the effect ruined by the natives' Klieg lights. They try to invoke an eclipse via a rogue airship from earlier. The natives say they can't see the eclipse since the airship's in the way. In the end, they get away in their airplane... since the natives' own business jet suffers a breakdown on the runway.

* ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'' is something of a subversion, as it features a strategy game geek who gets summoned into a game world. His knowledge of exploiting game mechanics to great effect might have changed the course of the war were it not for his superior, [[PointyHairedBoss Lord Stanley]]. [[spoiler:Parson did change the course of the war, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome by Uncroaking the volcano and roasting the entire invading army.]] Now things are going sorta kinda his way. Maybe.]]

* The fifth ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' novel, ''Mostly Harmless'', does a DoubleSubversion of this trope. Arthur Dent, stranded with a primitive tribe after an accident, thinks about using this trope and/or GivingRadioToTheRomans, but realizes that he really doesn't know enough to do anything that would impress them. Then he makes a sandwich. One FlashForward later, and the village has given him the sacred position of sandwich maker, complete with an eager apprentice.
** They weren't even all that primitive, considering how good and variable steel they made his work knives of.
*** Primitive is relative, Arthur had been hanging out with tech that's best described as borderline SufficientlyAdvancedAlien hybridised with RuleOfFunny.