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Blind Shoulder Toss

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"I was gonna pollinate that, you jerk!"

Where a character is given or is holding an item, considers it for a second and then dismisses it as worthless, unimportant, or irrelevant and subsequently rids themselves of it, frequently by tossing it over their shoulder without a glance.

Sometimes results in item breaking or secondary character chasing after it as it may actually be important. Sometimes it is a part that was broken off of something else, and is accompanied by an "Oh, well," or "Whatever." Can be Played for Laughs if discarded item unintentionally hits something, such as That Poor Cat. If it's a disguised explosive, expect it to detonate on impact. When this trope is in action, don't expect any form of proper disposal to occur anytime soon as Littering Is No Big Deal.

The item may just not be what a character is looking for, especially if sought item is thought to be buried in a closet or other clothing storage place. Expect something similar to a toned-down Ransacked Room but usually done by a forgetful owner who can't remember where they hid something.

Often used to show an impatient or careless character trait, or a moment of frustration.

While this does happen in Real Life, sometimes intentionally like a Bouquet Toss or for a Superstition Episode with salt, most people will simply put or hand an item back. If they do toss it, it usually isn't over the shoulder (a blind-spot). If it's actual garbage, might be used as a Wastebasket Ball. May come back later as a Brick Joke. Compare and contrast Bill... Bill... Junk... Bill....


Examples:

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    Advertising 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In one episode of Great Teacher Onizuka, Urumi throws an empty bottle over her shoulder; It hits a Yakuza boss on the head.
  • Keyne Aqua gives Photon a bath in her starship's pool, beginning by pouring shampoo onto Photon's head at the start of chapter two. She simply lobs the bottle over her shoulder to free up both her hands to begin lathering Photon's hair. Neither shampoo nor bottle are seen nor mentioned thereafter.
  • Done in Pokémon the Series: Black & White by Iris, with an oversized Basculin. She has grabbed it out of a river with her bare hands during a fishing contest after getting bored with fishing the normal way, and throws it back after she is told she has broken the rules.
  • This is how Usagi initially meets Mamoru in Sailor Moon — she crumples up and tosses away a bad test paper, and hits him.
  • An Omake in Sengoku Basara: Ransei Ranbu has Mitsuhide trying to use his joke weapon (oversized cutlery) to eat some food. After spilling pretty much everything on the table, he calls them useless and throws them behind the shoulder as a shocked Nobunaga watchs.

    Card Games 

    Comic Books 
  • Archie Comics:
    • One issue has Jughead who refuses to be superstitious on Friday the 13th. After bad luck following each attempt to disprove the notion, he finds a horseshoe, scoffs at the idea it's lucky, and casually throws it away. It hits a passing driver in the head — who turns out to be tall, muscled, and none too pleased.
    • Another has Archie spill salt and Jughead advise him that he should toss some over his shoulder for luck. Archie does it, which hits a fairly big fella right in the eyes, and he punches Archie in the mouth.
      Archie: You call that good luck?!
      Jughead: Yeah! Imagine what he might have done to you if you hadn't thrown the salt!
  • As seen in the page image for 419 Scam, in a Bart Simpson comic, Bart receives a "letter from a Nigerian prince," which he details to his sister, Lisa, before tossing it over his shoulder in disgust.
  • In one Disney comic, a superstitious Donald Duck spills a salt shaker and declares it's bad luck, unless you toss some above your shoulder. He promptly does so, only for the salt to land in someone's ice cream. Cue angry customer.
  • In the comic continuation of Gargoyles, Broadway disarms the club-wielding clone Burbank. He then blindly tosses the club over his shoulder, to knock out the clone known as Malibu.
  • Lucky Luke: In Fingers, at his trial, the eponymous magician/escape artist starts his pleading by casually tossing aside the handcuffs that were binding him.

    Comic Strips 

    Films — Animation 
  • The Emperor's New Groove: At the end of Kuzco's funeral, all the "mourners" casually toss the candles they were holding behind them and go back to work, clearly not distraught in the least.
  • In the "Wayne Manor" teaser for The LEGO Batman Movie, Batman tosses the laptop he was using to check "The Twittersphere" straight over his head and into the background once he's done with it, at which point it snaps in half.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rollercoaster of Friendship: As they depart Flim and Flam's ring-toss game in defeat, Sunset Shimmer throws the last ring she and Twilight Sparkle had blindly behind her. It lands perfectly on one of the bottles.
  • WALL•E: While WALL•E is looking for treasure, he comes across a diamond ring in a hinged box. However, after pulling the ring out of the box, he tosses the ring over his shoulder, being fascinated with the box.
  • In Wreck-It Ralph, while rummaging inside Tapper's lost-and-found box, Ralph finds a Metal Gear exclamation point and tosses it over his shoulder.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Alien: Resurrection has one memorable scene where Ellen Ripley tosses a Basketball into a hoop as if it was no big deal. Sigourney Weaver actually got the ball in the hoop for the shot, but that doesn't mean the scene wasn't unedited: they had to edit out one of the actors exclaiming "Oh shit!" at the fact that she got it in the hoop, which would have been an Out-of-Character Moment. Doubles as a Real Life example in this case.
  • Billion Dollar Brain. General Midwinter sends his private army to liberate Communist-controlled Latvia, but the Soviets are waiting for them, as shown by the attack being plotted on a table map—a single black counter marked with Mindwinter's symbol, surrounded by an array of red bomber-shaped counters being moved into position around it. After Midwinter's force is destroyed, KGB colonel Stok picks up the black counter and contemptuously tosses it over his shoulder.
  • The Blues Brothers: Early on, when Jake tries out the cigar-lighter in the police car his brother came fetch him out at the prison, he finds it not working and impatiently tosses it by the window.
  • In the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mr. Salt hands Wonka a business card, which Wonka promptly whips over his shoulder without even a glance at it.
  • In Deadpool, Negasonic Teenage Warhead types a tweet on her smartphone just as she is about to fight Angel Dust (who, along with Deadpool, politely wait for her to finish), then she tosses the phone aside. Partially justified, though, since as we see right afterward, using her power just vaporizes her clothes with the exception of her X-Men uniform underneath, so the phone would have likely been totaled too if she'd kept it on her.
  • Dumb and Dumber:
    • Lloyd tells Harry that, in order to get rid of bad luck, he should toss some salt over his left shoulder. Harry, without a thought, tosses an entire salt shaker over his right shoulder. This, of course, beans "Sea Bass", a very large and angry gentleman.
    • In the end of the sequel Dumb and Dumber To, they throw away their milkshakes because they get "wrong" flavors. Each one got the flavor the other wanted. They hit Sea Bass again.
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: In the beginning of Part 2, Haymitch tells Katniss they prepared a speech for her, but she doesn't like it and refuses. Haymitch says he isn't really surprised, and just toss the speech tablet.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • In Iron Man, while Tony Stark is in captivity and building a weapon, he carefully pulls apart a warhead for .13 grams of palladium and tosses the rest of it behind him with a comment of "Don't need that."
    • Guardians of the Galaxy: Rocket is discussing what he will need for escaping the prison of Kyln, including a quarnyx battery behind a black casing with a yellow light. Without waiting, Groot cluelessly goes for it behind Rocket's back, ripping out the casing and tossing it behind him; it lands on the head of another inmate, knocking him out.
  • In Police Academy, an apple core thrown over the shoulder hits a gangbanger and starts a chain reaction that results in huge riots.
  • In the film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Scott buys an item from the internet for the sole purpose of talking to Ramona. When she delivers it, he casually tosses it into the trashcan behind him without looking. Notable because no special effects were involved: Michael Cera had to do about 40 some odd takes in order to get the package to land exactly in the trash can. Shown in the outtakes, along with a throw counter and, at one point, moving the bin closer to him.
  • Star Trek:
    • Generations: After the Enterprise-D crash-landed, Picard is seen in his ready room looking for his photo album, and he picks up a ceramic object, casually putting it back down in a dismissive manner. It was his priceless Kurlan naiskos from the show, used here as a random prop. Notable from the RedLetterMedia review, including dubbing a glass shatter over the discard.
    • First Contact: After having a glass of "the good stuff" with Troi, and gagging on it, Cochrane decides it wasn't so good and tosses the bottle away.
  • Star Wars:
    • In Rogue One, K2-SO catches a live thermal detonator, and then casually tosses it over his shoulder at a bunch of incoming stormtroopers, blowing them up. Thus mixing up this trope with a kind of Offhand Backhand.
    • At the end of The Force Awakens, Rey arrives on Ahch-To with Luke Skywalker's old lightsaber and presents it to him. When this scene resumes in The Last Jedi, the first thing he does is toss the lightsaber over his shoulder (and the cliff behind him) before stalking off.
  • The 1960 Disney version of Swiss Family Robinson, Francis tosses a lit-up coconut bomb at the pirates, where the pirate captain grabs hold of it looks at it for a second, then tosses it away. It hits another pirate on the head, and explodes.
  • ¡Three Amigos!. When the title characters are riding through the desert, Lucky Day and Ned Nederlander run out of water. Dusty Bottoms takes a drink from his canteen and casually tosses it away even though it's still full of water, to the stunned disbelief of Lucky and Ned.
  • This often occurs in The Three Stooges, whatever was being tossed aside would end up hitting Moe and giving him a reason to Dope Slap someone.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: Bad Luck Betty, a superstitious deputy, manages to put the sheriff in a full body cast after tossing salt over her shoulder just as he comes in, which makes him lose his footing and a grandfather clock fall on him.
  • Played with in Andor. Luthen is willing to buy the stolen Starpath Unit from Cassian but is more interested in recruiting him for the Rebellion, as the kind of man who can just walk into an Imperial base and steal restricted technology is much more useful. When they're forced to Run or Die, he repeatedly tells off Cassian for trying to run back and fetch the Starpath Unit when they should be escaping.
  • Doctor Who:
    • "Dalek":
      • An Establishing Character Moment for the rich obstructor, van Statten, who confers with the Ninth Doctor on an alien device that turns out to be a delicate musical instrument. He plays a few notes, then, content that he knows all he needs about it, casually tosses it aside.
      • The Doctor tosses away items in this fashion while looking for a weapon to fight the Dalek with "Broken, broken, hairdryer..."
    • "Smith and Jones": The Doctor is lamenting his broken sonic screwdriver when he realizes that Martha is trying to tell him something, so he immediately tosses the screwdriver behind him.
    • "Planet of the Dead": After the Classy Cat-Burglar companion goes to great lengths to pilfer a big, expensive-looking crystal from an alien spaceship, the Doctor later offhandedly discards the crystal: all he needs is the piece of Artificial Gravity machinery it was mounted in.
    • Likewise in "Horror of Fang Rock", the Doctor casually throws aside a fortune in diamonds having found the one perfect diamond he needs to focus a Ray Gun. Another character can't resist stopping to gather up the diamonds, and gets killed by the Monster of the Week.
  • Forever Knight. In "Dance by the Light of the Moon", the Villain of the Week is a Femme Fatale who gets Nick Knight to steal the casebook of the investigation into one of her previous murders, then tosses it in the fire without reading it. It's not a Fiery Cover-Up; she just gets a thrill out of enticing men to break the rules. It's later mentioned that the casebook didn't have any evidence pointing at her anyway.
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The newsreader announcing Zaphod Beeblebrox's theft of the Infinite Improbability Drive spacecraft casually throws aside each page of his script once he's finished reading it. So it's not just the Big Z who is flipped.
  • MythBusters:
    • During a build-off, Jamie pulled the outer shell off a radio and tossed it over his shoulder.
    • Happens again, this time by Adam with a matchbook jacket, with the 1,000,000 match bomb YouTube special.
  • Odd Squad:
    • In "Totally Odd Squad", Oprah's story is interrupted by the sound of Oscar crying and blowing his nose into a tissue because he's afraid that Odd Squad will go out of business forever. Once Olive assures him that isn't the case because the organization is still around in the present day, he tosses the used tissue to the side and lets his boss continue.
    • A rather cool example in "Moustache Confidential", which has Olive and Otto crumple their paper cups in their hands then simultaneously throw them into a wastebasket behind them and make the shots (albeit after a couple misses), all while keeping the same hardened expressions on their faces.
    • In "Not OK Computer", this is how Olympia changes her desktop wallpaper while stuck inside her computer. On Otis's suggestion, she takes a photo from her Photos folder of her visiting Pieta San Marco and tosses it behind her, where it instantly applies as her new wallpaper.
    • In "Rookie Night", Orchid asks Ocean, who is on a phone call with Olympia, to see his phone. He hands it to her, and she promptly tosses it over her shoulder as she declares "no calls on Rookie Night!" Since they're in the Bubble Room, this renders his phone unusable.
  • Person of Interest: Root steals a Handcuffed Briefcase from an international courier containing a priceless Faberge egg. Which on the orders of the Machine she then smashes, as the objective was the indestructible Kevlar case.
  • On the June 23, 1960 telecast of The Price Is Right, a contestant stood to win bonus money by selecting which out of three glasses of champagne was most expensive through tasting each. At the end of the show as host Bill Cullen says goodnight, he tosses one of the glasses over his shoulder and it shatters against the turntable wall behind him.
  • The Professionals: A KGB agent blackmails a politician into providing a top secret document. Later he reveals that he already delivered that document months ago to Moscow Centre, but by handing it over to a foreign agent the politician will be committing treason and thereafter be under the KGB's thumb.
  • Alan Davies occasionally does this on QI when the guests are given cards to interact with. In particular, he disgustedly threw away his diagram of a tongue map after learning that its theory is now discredited, and did the same with a silhouette of an elephant after incorrectly labeling its knees (the joints of an elephant's front legs are considered elbows).
  • Sherlock. In his first showdown with Moriarty, Sherlock presents him with the stolen submarine plans that were surely his objective all along. Moriarty casually chucks the flash drive in the swimming pool, saying he could get them any time.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Played comically in "Melora", where the title character and Doctor Bashir have a date in a Klingon restaurant. Unimpressed, Melora argues over the food quality with the chef. The chef, impressed by a woman who knows what she likes, takes the food back, gleefully tosses it, and serves up good stuff.
  • The Super Dave Osborne Show: Sometimes Super Dave is given an award that he feels reflects badly on him in some way, or a memento of an earlier event that he'd rather forget about. As soon as the person who gave him said item isn't looking, Super Dave will toss the object over his shoulder.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • During a filmed WWE promo, Curt Hennig in his "Mr. Perfect" character throws a basketball behind his back and gets nothing but net.

    Puppet Shows 
  • The Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show tosses food over his shoulder almost every time he appears. The puppeteers had a Self-Imposed Challenge to dislodge everything on the rear wall this way.

    Video Games 
  • In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate Simon comes across a magical relic: a blue crystal ball. After picking up and staring at it for a bit, nothing happens, causing him to give a disappointed "Bah." and tossing it over his shoulder with a deadpan look, breaking it. After breaking however, the Spirit of Belnades appears from inside and starts to help him out.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, no sooner have you gotten the three Plot Coupons than the apparent Big Bad Zant shows up, takes them, looks at them for a moment, and then tosses them away in disdain, leaving you to find four more Plot Coupons to find him again.
  • In LEGO Dimensions, in the cut-screen after the battle with Karlof, while Master Chen triggers a Trap-Door Fail, then another, then another, Gandalf munches an apple and then tosses it over his shoulder. It happens to be launched into one of the many misfired trapdoors, right as it's opened.
  • Characters in Scribblenauts do this with items they don't want.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, If you try giving a Chao fruit and they don't finish it, they toss it away.
  • In the thirty-second World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria short "Bottoms Up", the human does this with an empty tankard. Surprisingly, he actually does look where he tosses it... but it still manages to trigger That Poor Cat. Still follows the trope in that tankards are not normally discarded in this manner.

    Visual Novels 
  • During the 4th trial in The Great Ace Attorney, Prosecutor van Zieks closes his eyes and calmly flings his freshly uncorked bottle of wine into the public gallery behind him, just to emphasize an objection.

    Web Animation 
  • Deadpool tosses away the disembodied head of Deathstroke — after having used it like a macabre hand puppet — both at the conclusion of their DEATH BATTLE!, and in episode 8 of Super Power Beat Down. Hard to say if it's coincidental, of if the latter influenced the former, which is more recent.
  • Happy Tree Friends: In "The Wrong Side of the Tracks", there is a recurring scene where Sniffles walks through the amusement park with a metal detector. When he finds useless junk he tosses it behind his shoulder. During one scene, Lumpy is fixing a hole in a fence while Mime is watching. Sniffles finds a nail and throws it behind his back, accidentally popping the balloon that Mime is holding, causing Lumpy to turn around and hit Mime with the plank of wood that has nails on it.
  • Several instances in Lackadaisy:
    • When Venturous Smuggler Rocky is digging around in the back of the Lackadaisy car in search of his violin case, he tosses everything he gets his paws on over his shoulder, including a flask, some pancakes, and a creepy Cactus.
    • When The Highwayman Nico nearly swallows a piece of windshield glass during the subsequent shootout, he promptly sets it aside upon identifying it.
    • At least half the dynamite Rocky throws out of a steam shovel bucket he rides in during a Construction Vehicle Rampage is done without the slightest care for where it lands, which is exactly how one stick he flings away comes back at him by way of bouncing off a water tower leg, necessitating his hasty exit from the bucket.
    • Lackadaisy Speakeasy proprietor Mitzi tosses away the cork from a bottle she'd opened.
    • Inverted when Rocky takes his hat from The Drag-Along Freckle, despite never looking at him the entire time.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Summertime Shorts: In "A Photo Booth Story", Photo Finish seems to have a habit of tossing things, as she does it first with a drink bottle, and then with her own camera (which is thankfully caught by Pixel Pizazz). You'd think a photographer like her would take better care of her equipment.

    Webcomics 
  • Goblins: When he discovers the Any Mug in the poorly locked chest, Minmax declares the mug "lame", tosses it blindly behind his shoulder and hits Forgath on the helmet. It's not until a later scene that they realize the mug is a magical item.
  • The Order of the Stick:
    • In strip #32, a pair of lawyers for Wizards of the Coast show up to drag away the monster, as it isn't open D&D content and thus copyright infringement. As a result, on the next page Roy Greenhilt is seen tossing away the script for strip #33 while saying they're finding themselves with no plot for today.
    • In strip #1215, Xykon tosses the beheaded head of Kraagor's statue in the chasm behind him with one hand, while firing an energy drain at Durkon with the other.
  • Realm of Owls:
  • Weenie Licked: Paul does this with the Key to the Arg.

    Web Videos 
  • Mickael J, for the 100th episode of his web show Fermez-La !, starts out planning to tackle the polemic around the old Tintin in the Congo comic, only to get a phone call from another youtuber telling him It's Been Done a few times already, recently, and it would be a waste to use it for this Milestone Celebration. Thus Mickael J calls his secretary for a brainstorm while tossing aside the Tintin in the Congo album.
  • In a parody of Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" ("Get Loki" by The Avengers), at the beginning Loki picks up the sign "PROPERTY OF S.H.I.E.L.D. (please do not steal)" that's above the Tesseract and tosses it away.
  • Joueur du Grenier:
    • In the Papy Grenier episode for World of Warcraft, the captain of a ship trying to find the other "hidden" continents of Azeroth can't tell what is starboard or the stern, and he finally tosses his spyglass in the sea behind him in defeat.
    • For the Men in Black game, to illustrate how the Olmec statuette found at the end of level 1 has no relevance to the plot, we get a sketch of Seb briefly describing it, before tossing it away and sending the player to a mission in Antarctica. Later, he also does it with the "rare molecule" vial found at the end of level 2, which once again is irrelevant to level 3.
  • The Nostalgia Critic: The review of The Last Jedi recreates the scene of Luke Skywalker discarding the lightsaber, with Doug (as Luke) even more disdainful about it, and Tamarra (as Rey) completely baffled by the whole thing.

    Western Animation 
  • Classic Disney Shorts: "The Litterbug" is a short film featuring Donald Duck as the titular Litterbug and throwing trash behind their shoulders is a common method of them littering, even while driving.
  • In an episode of Dog City, Ace buys a newspaper, reads the headline, then disgustedly wads the paper and tosses it over his shoulder. Makes you wonder why he bothered wasting a quarter....
  • Appears as a Running Gag in Inspector Gadget. At the beginning of each episode, Chief Quimby gives the title character a mission briefing written on self-destructing paper. After reading it, Gadget invariably crumples it up and obliviously throws it over his shoulder on his way out, where it blows up in Quimby's face.
  • In an episode of Kaeloo where Stumpy is pretending to be a detective, he lights a pipe and carelessly tosses the lighter away. It lands on some poor guy offscreen who catches on fire.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Discord creates a glass of chocolate milk. He drinks the glass, leaving the milk behind and suspended in air and then casually tossing it behind him. The milk explodes. And the explosion creates darkness instead of light. Not a shadow — actual darkness.
    • "School Daze – Part 2": While the Mane Six are explaining to the students that they're reopening the school, but this time teaching their own ways and not following the EEA's rules, Fluttershy blindly tosses the rulebook behind her... where it hits a straggler pukwudgie.
  • The Simpsons, "Two Bad Neighbors":
    Homer: Good old Evergreen Terrace: the swankiest street in the classiest part of Pressboard Estates.
    Bart: Well if you love it so much, why are you always littering?
    Homer: [finishing a canned drink] It's easier, duh. [tosses can on ground]
  • In the first season South Park episode "Mecha-Streisand", Cartman tosses aside a triangle that he digs up on a school excavation trip. Said triangle turns out to be an ancient artifact.
  • In the first episode of Xiaolin Showdown, Jack Spicer opens a puzzle box containing "A mask? Lame." and tosses them behind him.

    Real Life 

 
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The Wrong Side of the Tracks

In "The Wrong Side of the Tracks", there is a recurring scene where Sniffles walks through the amusement park with a metal detector. When he finds useless junk he tosses it behind his shoulder.

How well does it match the trope?

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