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Dope Slap

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Leroy Jethro Gibbs would not approve, Grace. You never apologize for a slap.

Paulie: WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?
Tony Pajamas: For being an idiot!
Paulie: Okay.
— The Amanda Show

A corrective action that consists of the following:

  1. Take open palm.
  2. Deliver slap directly to the back of the skull.
  3. (Optional) Ask some variant of "What are you, stupid or something?"

The Dope Slap is a (generally) light slap (or knuckle tap) to the back of the skull that is intended as a disciplinary move by one character when another character does, says, or even thinks something that is uniformly stupid, or just to shut them up. The slap is almost always Played for Laughs in some way; think of it as an attempt at Percussive Maintenance on somebody's brain, and thus occasionally overlaps with Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!. Another variation is a "shut up" poke to the ribs with the elbow. Finally, it may also be performed simply by making a slapping motion in the direction of the target, without any actual physical contact occurring.

It could be considered a subtrope of Slapstick. In a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine, it's most often done with a Paper Fan of Doom.

Also known by two other names: the Gerber Slap (since, when properly applied, the recipient's expression should resemble the "goo-goo" face on the eponymous brand of baby food), and the Gibbs Slap (in honor of the NCIS character who does this a lot to another regular who's a bit full of himself).

Not to be confused with a Pimp/Bitch slap, which is an either-handed (back or front), hard slap applied directly to the cheeks in order to assert one's Authoritah. The difference is explained, naturally, by Gibbs himself in an NCIS episode:

"A slap in the face would be humiliating. Back of the head's a wake-up call."
— "The Bone Yard"

The complete inverse of Facepalm. Compare Zen Slap, when a Zen master does this to a disciple for the purpose of enlightening them, and also compare/contrast to Bitch Slap, which is a slap to the face meant to humiliate. See also Percussive Prevention. See "Silly Me" Gesture for when a character does a similar gesture to themselves.

Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • The "Could've Had a V8" line of commercials typically feature one character dope-slapping the other in the forehead, complete with a hollow "doink" sound.
  • One commercial has a guy get an especially heavy one from a relative while he's fast-forwarding to get to the only part he wants to see... of a video will.

    Animation 
  • Mechamato: Rubika scans for bad robots and shows that there is one right next to Amato. MechaBot panics before realizing that it's himself. Amato gives him an annoyed look and chops him on the head.

    Comedy 
  • Bill Engvall talks about getting these from his father, especially at church. His father would sit with his children on both sides of him, with his arms stretched out behind him on the pew, "like he was huggin' the whole family." And if one of the kids misbehaved, he would be in easy smacking range. "'Brain dusters,' that's what we called 'em."
  • Similarly, Carlos Mencia's mother would deliver these when he acted up — and sometimes preemptively.
    Carlos: [rubbing his head in disbelief] Did you just hit me for something I might do?
  • Japanese Manzai comedy employs dope slaps as part of its Boke and Tsukkomi Routine, with Straight Man and Wise Guy in Boke's incompetence and idiocy driving the Tsukkomi to reprimand the Boke, often physically and violently.

    Comic Books 
  • IDW's Ghostbusters: Ongoing:
    • Peter gives one to Ray in issue 11.
      Peter: And how did you know telling the aliens they weren't aliens would work, Ray?
      Ray: That? Oh, I didn't. I just guessed.
      Peter: ...*THWACK*
    • And Egon gives a rather ironic one to Peter in the first issue of the continuation, The New Ghostbusters after all four of them have been kidnapped and sent into limbo:
      Peter: And the first person to make a "Peoplebuster" comment gets a whack to the back of the—
      Egon: *THWACK*
      Peter: —Hea-OW!
  • Kingdom Come: In the last issue, Magog gives one of his fellow metahumans a Dope Smack for being disrespectful during the ceremony where Wonder Woman is welcomed back into the Amazons.
  • Superboy (Conner Kent) received one from Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) during a team-up. Superboy, being the Casanova Wannabe that he was at the time, continuously showed off his tactile-telekinesis in order to impress her. When she simply ignores him and uses his Nigh-Invulnerability as a Human Shield to protect her from an explosion, he finally gets angry and snaps back with a "What the Hell, Hero?" rant. Cassandra calmly slaps him across the forehead and says, "Focus." And Superboy is shocked that it hurt.
    Superboy: She got past my force-field. My impregnable force-field. I feel so... pregnable.
  • A particularly hilarious one in Ultimate Spider-Man. After a mutant's powers activate, Spidey and Iceman are trying to convince her to use her powers responsibly. After Iceman makes a particularly stupid comment about her powers (control of fire: "Or, we could get some marshmallows..."), Spidey delivers a quick slap to the back of the head.

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 
Arrowverse
  • In chapter 38 of Supergirl (2015) story Survivors, Alex slaps the back of Kara’s head when her adoptive sister decides on a whim to erase her late birth mother’s hologram.
    "I must follow..." the robot started before Alex struck Kara in the back of her head.
    "Tell it stop now! If you never want to see it again that is fine but you aren't destroying it!
    Kara took a breath and hoped Alex hadn't broken her hand. Alex knew Kara hated it when she slapped the back of her head.

Calvin and Hobbes

Crossover

  • Child of the Storm has a few examples, usually Pepper doing it to Tony. Other examples include Sean Cassidy doing it to Warren when he was overdoing the angst, then Warren doing it to Sean when he was overdoing the angst. And while the other two examples have normal human strength, Warren is considerably stronger. When he smacks, whatever he smacks stays smacked.
    • Harry also does one to Ron at the latter's Uranus joke, and Thor gets one from his mother when he swears.
  • Harry Potter And The Order Of The Dragon (link) (Firebreather & Harry Potter): In Chapter 8, Ron comes in for a double dose of this from Ginny and Tracy.
    Hermione: Harry, I think we just found the Room of Requirement. I read about it in Hogwarts, a History. It's supposed to change its form to suit the needs of whoever finds it.
    Ron: So if you really needed to use the—OW!
  • Ninja Wizard Book 5 (Avatar: The Last Airbender & Harry Potter): Lavender and Parvati do it to Ron when he comments that Harry's owl Hedwig, who'd been missing for two weeks, probably got eaten by something.
  • Shinji and Warhammer40k (Neon Genesis Evangelion & Warhammer 40,000):
    • Administered several times by the Farseer.
    • Invoked in chapter 33 when the narration states that Yui should be there to give both her husband and her son a good headslap.

Godzilla

  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In Chapter 17, when Scylla doesn't immediately release her hold on Thor per Mothra's urging that they need to focus on the bigger issue at hand, Mothra cracks a forelimb across Scylla's face which makes Scylla release Thor in surprise.

Harry Potter

  • Crimson Ink: Bellatrix does it to Barty when he gets bored of looking for Voldemort's spirit and starts narrating what the search party is doing.
  • Dragon Chronicles 2: Harry Potter, Dragon Whisperer: Daphne does it to Harry after hearing that he ran into a cave full of dragon poachers without his wand.
  • Harry Potter and the Four Heirs: Susan does it to Harry when he says he deserves to be "tried for his crimes" after draining Voldemort's magic caused the unintentional death of every marked Death Eater except Snape.
  • Harry Potter and the Rune Stone Path: Alicia does it to Fred when he suggests skipping Astronomy to get his beauty sleep.
  • Harry Potter -- Three to Backstep: Daphne and Hermione do it to Harry and Matthias when they groan at the mention of clothes shopping.
  • Ninja Wizard Book 2: Dean does it to Ron when he derisively describes soccer as "Run around, kick the ball."
  • The Problem With Purity: Remus Lupin is in a meeting where he has to be polite to Severus Snape. When Lupin's first reaction to Snape's entrance is a growl, first Hermione then Tonks slap the back of Lupin's head to remind him to behave.
  • Thanks to a Snake: Daphne does it to Harry for making a remark that prompts a recuperating George to try to sit up, while Amelia does it to Sirius for complaining about receiving couple presents the first Christmas after their wedding.
  • The Videus Charm: Harriet does it to Ron when he says that they don't make girls like Fleur at Hogwarts.

My Little Pony

Neon Genesis Evangelion

  • HERZ: In the epilogue, Asuka smacks Shinji on the head because he did not manage to find their daughter among a crowd even though she had told him where she was several times.
  • Read the Fine Print (Evangelion): Shinji starts screaming when a (literally) flame-haired demon teleports into Misato's kitchen, and Asuka gets him to stop by slapping the back of his head.
    Before Shinji could get too carried away, Asuka reached out and slapped him across the back of the head. He stopped screaming and winced, bringing a hand up to where he was slapped, and gave her a confused look.
  • Scar Tissue: In episode 12 Asuka and Shinji are having a bonding moment when Shinji ruins it with a smartass comment. In reaction, Asuka bopped him on the head.

Unsorted/Dormant/Dead

  • The Child of Love: During an emergency Misato orders the pilots’ friends hurry to the nearest shelter as she takes the three Eva pilots with her. Kensuke says there are only two pilots only because Asuka is an inactive pilot, disregarding she is very sensitive about the issue. Asuka hit him on the back of his head.
  • Evangelion 303: In chapter 6 Asuka flicks Shinji's top of head after he said that he did not care much whether he lived or died. Then she angrily tells him that she could never go into combat with someone who would not fight to save his own life and reminds him that there are people like herself that depend on him to live.
  • Escape from the Hokage's Hat has Tsunade give Naruto a gentle bop on the head as a "Be Quiet!" Nudge, when Naruto does something stupid or is too forward and direct.
  • Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox has Ino do this to Naruto whenever he does something completely moronic.
  • In A New World, A New Way sidestory Swarm Inti the Heliolisk does one with her tail when Apocalypse the Tyrunt tries to run her tail over with a rock and fails.
  • In Peace Forged in Fire the tactical officer of the ch'R Maens does this to the sensor officer after he tries to laugh off a tachyon burst. This is a Call-Back to Red Fire, Red Planet, written by one of the authors, where it turned out to be a side effect of a cloaked warship dropping to sublight.
    Subcommander t'Ihaimehn: Better wake the leih.
    Sensor Officer: That could mean any number of things, rekkhai. (t'Ihaimehn whacks him) Ow!
    t'Ihaimehn: Yes, "any number of things", and most of the list consists of things I would not wish to face without Riov t'Khellian on the bridge.
  • Kid Icarus Uprising 2: Hades Revenge has Pit be on the receiving end of this once, due to a Captain Obvious moment where he warns Cloud of Teem Khaos, right after Teem Khaos had finished their motto.
  • In the thirteenth chapter of Thousand Shinji, Asuka whacks Shinji upside the head when he's poking fun at her and being a bigger pervert than usual:
    Whacking him playfully upside the head, Asuka says, "Stupid pervert."
  • This Bites!:
  • In chapter 17 of Mortem Cantor, Harry does it to a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist who's playing Space Invaders instead of trying to locate Loki.
  • In Cooking Lesson Lucius and Snape do it to Draco when he calls Harry a poof.
  • In Harriet Potter: What it is like to be a witch Hermione does it to Ron when he complains about Harry quitting the Quidditch team to concentrate on training to fight Voldemort.
  • In Amicus Protectio Fortis Fay does it to Ron when he deprecates his Quidditch skills.
  • In The Forgotten Daughter Melinda does it to Ron and Neville simultaneously right before fleeing Fluffy the Terrible.
    Melinda: See, this is why we don't do stupid impulsive things.
  • In Whispers in the Night, to avoid ruining the mood during the anniversary celebration of Harry Potter's adoption, any attempts at asking him if he's prepared for the Tri-Wizard Tournament dragons are met with slaps to the back of the asker's head and reminders to relax and let things happen as they would.
  • Nearly every other interaction between Andrea and Bentley23, in Marvel Nextgen consists of this, with Bentley on the receiving end.
  • In Harry Potter and the Horcrux Hunt Tonks does it to Harry for suggesting they use a thermonuclear device on Voldemort after all the Horcruxes have been destroyed.
  • In Beyond the Outer Gate Lies...' unpublished fourth chapter, Rias does this to Azazel and Harry, using a Paper Fan of Doom, to demonstrate her displeasure with their ideas for the Oppai Dragon show.
  • Unbreakable Red Silken Thread: Emma does this whenever Kitty starts Saying Too Much.
  • In Abandon Hermione does it to Draco when he says that she might have a mood swing if Voldemort decides to be insulted by her comment that he's "not such a bastard."
  • In Shazam! fanfiction Here There Be Monsters, Dr. Sivana slaps the back of his son's head when Thaddeus Jr. whines that they will be done if Sivana's contingency plan fails.
  • In Evangelion/Street Fighter crossover Neon Genesis Evangelion Senshi No Michi, Misato playfully smacks Asuka on the back of the head when the younger girl is rolling her eyes at Shinji and their master Gouken getting all emotional. When Asuka protests, Misato reminds her that she got all teary-eyed when they left their master's dojo.
  • When Reason Fails:
    • Katsuki's favored method of keeping Izuku from doing something stupid is a hand-chop to the back of the head.
    • Defied by Shoto, who doesn't ice-blasts Izuku after he makes an understatement regarding their discovery of the Special Exclusion Zone because he doesn't want to anger Aiko, who is sleeping in Izuku's arms.
    • Izuku uses Shoto as his proxy for delivering neck chops. Shoto is willing to hit himself when Izuku tells him to do so after making stupid comments.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Balto, Kaltag has a habit of hitting Star on the head whenever he interrupts one of his rants as their Running Gag. Star is well aware of this and on one occasion does it to himself and at the end of the film he expects to receive one, only for Kaltag to actually agree with him.
  • Even fishes can get into it. In Finding Nemo, Bloat gives a dope slap to Gurgle with his fin.
  • How to Train Your Dragon:
    • It goes by pretty quickly, but Gobber gives Hiccup a light one on the back of the head after the boy's father tells him to go home after screwing up (and, heavily suggested, not for the first time).
    • Hiccup also gets one from Toothless after nearly crashing them into a cliff during flying practice.
  • Ice Age:
    • Proving that you don't even need a hand to give a dope slap, Manfred the mammoth delivers one to Sid with his trunk in the first three films.
    • And the more egregious example from Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Ellie is going into labor; when Crash asks if she can just hold it in for a while, Ellie (being a long distance away and unable to reach him with her trunk) yells down: "Can somebody slap him for me?" Needless to say, Eddie obliges immediately and delivers a resounding smack to Crash's head.
    • Continued in Ice Age: Continental Drift. Captain Gutt is working some island locals to the bone, whipping them as they carry supplies on their backs (note: they are about the size of guinea pigs). Sid's comment?
      Sid: Two words: Anger. Management.
      [Manny slaps Sid upside the head with his trunk]
  • In The Lorax, after the Once-Ler cuts down the first tree, two Humming Fish go near it, and one knocks on the stump with its fin to indicate nothing has really changed, only for the sky to suddenly turn black and begin to rumble (indicating the summoning of the Lorax). The other fish then slaps the first one in the back of the head for apparently causing the current thing.
  • Near the end of Monsters, Inc., as the MI workforce watches Mr. Waternoose being arrested and hauled away in a CDA van.
    Smitty: I bet we get the rest of the day off.
    Needleman: [smacks him] You idiot! They're gonna shut down the factory!
  • An off-screen case happens in Mulan after Yao replies to "Any questions?" with "Does This Make Me Look Fat?"
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Spike hits the back of Twilight's head with his paw when she says "everypony" instead of "everybody" while talking with human Fluttershy.
  • In My Neighbor Totoro, Kanta's mother raps him on the head with her knuckle while chastising him for seemingly forgetting his umbrella at school during a thunderstorm and ruining his school clothes (he'd actually given it to Satsuki since she'd forgotten to bring hers to school in the first place).
  • Tulio does this to Miguel at least three times in The Road to El Dorado, in addition to many death glares and elbow nudges.
  • In Shrek 2, when the heralds show up to deliver an invitation to Shrek and Fiona to see Fiona's parents, one herald keeps trumpeting (the Hawaii Five-O theme) after the others stopped, so the lead herald hits his rolled-up scroll on the back of his head to shut him up.
    Lead Herald: Enough, Reggie.
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Doc gives Dopey one of these when the latter sticks two diamonds in his eyes, mimicking the former examining one.
  • The Super Mario Bros. Movie: During the dinner scene, while discussing Mario and Luigi's TV commercial, Uncle Arthur mockingly asks if they "give Oscars to Worst Actors". His wife gives him one in annoyance.
  • At the end of Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, Raven does this to Beast Boy after he makes his last and somewhat awkward comment: "Okay, next time, we're going to Mexico!" She then coldly slaps him senseless off the stage, the camera fades after that, then the credits roll.
  • Yellow Submarine: Max gets more than a dope slap from the Chief Blue Meanie several times, especially after the Beatles revive Pepperland. The Chief rasps "The hills are alive..." to which Max replies in sing-song "with the sound of music!" The Chief punches him.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In The Day After Tomorrow, Jason earns one from Frank when he hits on Janet Tokada instead of focusing on the global apocalypse at hand.
  • In the film Defiance there's a scene which shouldn't be funny (but is) wherein Zus confronts his Soviet commanding officer about one of the other Soviets for beating one of Zus's men for using the wrong latrine and for being a Jew. The soldier being complained about is also in the tent, and his CO looks at him and asks, while very drunk "Comrade, is this true?" "Of course, Comrade. He is a Jew." Cue the soldier getting an immediate dope slap and an exasperated glare from his CO.
  • In Dogma, Rufus and Serendipity deliver one to Jay after he shoots Bartleby's wings off, which was exactly what he needed in order to become human and re-enter Heaven.
  • A variation in Down Periscope: The first time Dodge orders Stingray to dive, Nitro asks, "Underwater?" Stepanek waves his finger in front of Nitro's face before jabbing him between the eyes in annoyance. Later in the film, Nitro can be seen doing it to himself and trying to dodge.
  • Bruce Lee does this to a Shaolin student in Enter the Dragon after teaching him how to kick with feeling.
    Lee: How did that feel?
    Lao: Let me think...
    Lee: [slaps him] Don't think! Feeeeeel. [points to the sky] It is like a finger pointing a way to the Moon. [sees Lao looking at his finger and slaps him again] Don't concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory.
  • Happens twice in Ghostbusters:
    • Peter Venkman gives one to Ray Stanz when Ray interrupts his attempt to charm a beautiful female experimental subject.
      Venkmann: I'm right in the middle of something, Ray!
    • Ray Stanz gives one back to Peter Venkman while he and Egon are explaining the nature of Dana Barrett's apartment building.
      Venkmann: So what? They don't make them like they used to.
      Stanz: No! Nobody ever made them like this.
  • Harry Potter:
    • In the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie, Severus Snape keeps catching Harry Potter and Ron Weasley whispering about the Yule Ball during a test. One of Snape's attempts to get them to stop involves grabbing a book and whacking it against the backs of Harry and Ron's heads.
    • In the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie, Hermione Granger explains to Harry about the girls trying to slip him love potions. When Harry doesn't seem to mind the attention, she reminds him that they only want him because they think he's "The Chosen One".
      Harry: But I am the chosen one.
      Hermione: [smack]
      Harry: Sorry. Um, kidding.
  • It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: Dingy Bell (Mickey Rooney) does this three times to Benjy Benjamin (Buddy Hackett).
    Benjy: [after the third time] You hit me!
  • John Carter: John Carter receives one from his Thark ally Tars Tarkas after they realize that they just invaded the wrong city.
  • The Kentucky Fried Movie segment "A Fistful of Yen". Loo gives one to one of his martial arts students after the student performs a lackluster kick. This a parody of one of the opening scenes in "Enter the Dragon" where Lee does this to his own disciple. Later he does it to an Angry Guard Dog.
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
    • After Sir Bedevere fails with the Giant Wooden Rabbit idea, he comes up with a Giant Wooden Badger idea and king Arthur slaps him on the side of his helmet.
    • Prince Herbert and his father are standing next to an open window talking.
      Father: One day, lad, all this will be yours. [gestures toward the window]
      Herbert: What, the curtains?
      Father: [hits him on the back of the head] No, not the curtain, lad!
  • The iconic scene from the movie Moonstruck is Cher responding to Nicholas Cage's declaration of love by slapping him and yelling "Snap out of it!".
  • In The Mummy (1999), when the executioner about to hang Rick O'Connell asks him what's his last wish, the answer is to remove the rope and let him go. All this earns Rick is a dope slap.
  • In Spanish 1995 movie Palace, the main characters' father is prone to do this whenever they screw up — even after he dies. At the end of the movie, the main characters shrug in front of his father's statue after their plans to turn the titular hotel into a building fail, and they get slapped again. One of them gets angry enough to dope slap the statue - which reveals that the statue was hiding the father's fortune, which they had been trying to find during the movie.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: When in need of his Piece of Eight, Barbossa asks it from Ragetti, to whom he entrusted it. It happens to be his wooden eye, and Barbossa makes it pop out of his eye socket with a dope slap.
  • The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement: Clarisse is trying to teach Mia about the "art of the fan", and Mia starts to make faces at her grandmother while the latter has her face covered with the fan. While Clarisse is amused by this, she responds by using the fan to whack Mia.
    Clarisse: Oh, this is also a way to show that you're [whack] annoyed [whack]!
  • Star Wars:
    • Rogue One: In Jedha City, when K-2SO is pretending before a squad of Stormtroopers that his rebel teammates are his prisoners, the droid gives Cassian a slap on the side of the face for speaking out of turn. He later apologizes for doing this. Note that this was a Throw It In by Alan Tudyk.
    • A New Hope: When R2-D2 refuses to display the rest of Princess Leia's holographic message to Luke, pretexting a dysfunction, C-3PO slams the top of his dome and tells him to stop fooling around.
    • The Last Jedi:
      • Happens during Rey's first lesson with Luke. Telling Rey to close her eyes, and reach out, Rey literally reaches out with her hand much to Luke's annoyance. Her eyes closed, he decides to mess with her by tickling her fingers with a blade of grass, leading her to believe she's actually feeling the Force, right before giving her a nice smack.
      • During the confrontation in Supreme Leader Snoke's throne room, Rey tries to grab her lightsaber with the Force, only for Snoke to easily overrides her pull and claim it back with his own power, smacking the back of Rey's head with it on the return trip.
  • In S.W.A.T. (2003), a random gangbanger gets one from a cop while Street and Hondo are going to visit Sanchez. Said gangbanger had been beat-up by Sanchez during the arrest.
    Street: Bad day, huh?
    Gangbanger: Kiss my ass, ese.
    Cop: [dope slap]
  • The Three Stooges often feature an Overly-Long Gag where Larry, Curly, and Moe take turns dope-slapping each other, escalating into bigger and bigger acts of violence.
  • Undercover Brother:
    Lance: [entering a room filled with black people] Holy moly, looks like the Source Awards in here.
    Conspiracy Brother: [hits the back of Lance's head]
    Lance: Ow!
    Conspiracy Brother: It does now!
  • Waterworld:
    • After Enola waves at a plane of "Smokers" flying above them, the Mariner dope-slaps her and yells, "What are you thinking about?!?"
    • Enola, again, gets one from the Deacon for mouthing out while they're confronting the Mariner on the deck of the tanker.
  • Weird Science. When the two girls Gary and Wyatt are interested in ask what they're doing in the bathroom, Wyatt blurts, "Oh, we're just taking a shit!" Gary gives him a glare and in a separate shot, gives him an epic slap to the face, then cuts back just as quickly.
  • In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Eddie Valiant and Roger Rabbit are hiding from the police in a movie theater. Roger is talking loudly and Eddie hits him on the head while saying "What's wrong with you?"

    Literature 
  • Belisarius Series: As dawazz to Prince Eon, it was part of Ousanas' job to deliver one of these whenever Eon needed correcting in his behavior.
  • Chrysalis (RinoZ): Whenever Anthony is being troublesome or foolish, which realistically is most of the time, he can expect a good THWACK on the head from his mother's antennae. It's all out of love.
  • Cradle Series: Lindon has a tendency to ask rather stupid questions, since he was raised in an isolated backwater and has finally realized he doesn't understand as much as he thinks. When the team is entering the Blackflame Empire proper for the first time, his friend Yerin asks a stupid question, so Fisher Gesha hits... Lindon.
    Lindon: Ow! Why did you hit me?
  • Discworld:
    • This extract from Small Gods:
      Urn: It can only be that, master. The keepers of the labyrinth are unbribable.
      [Didactylos clips Urn across the back of his head with his lantern]
      Didactylos: Stupid boy! I've told you about that sort of statement.
      Urn: I mean, they are not easily bribable, master...
      Didactylos: That's more like it.
    • Lu Tze (by being a wise old monk) does this occasionally.
  • H. P. Lovecraft's The Fungi from Yuggoth:
    "I am his messenger," the daemon said,
    As in contempt he struck his master's head.
  • Journey to Chaos: A quick smack to the back of the head is how Basilard Bladi shows his disaproval of whatever his novice mercenaries have just done.
  • Kate Shugak: Dinah does this to Bobby and Jim to get them to stop arguing in Less Than a Treason. For those not familiar with the series, Bobby and Jim are massive muscular men and Dinah is a petite flower child.
  • In Tanya Huff's Keepers Chronicles trilogy, Hell gets into an argument with itself, and somehow manages to pull off a dope slap (to itself... more or less).
  • Several characters in Malazan Book of the Fallen are fond of this, notably Kalam to Quick Ben.
  • In Stephen Baxter's Manifold: Space, Malenfant is repeatedly smacked on the head by superstrong Neanderthals for speaking at all. Turns out that nearly all of their language is sign, with a few super-special vocal words. The Neanderthals give him a sign-name that means "Stupid".
  • Somewhither:
    • Ilya (disguised as a slave) is slapped by Pally (a higher-ranking slave) when he mouths off about (not to, about) a non-slave.
    • Foster slaps Ilya upside the head when the latter ignores a warning.
      Foster: When the witchy wise-bird says "Beware", you stop and say, "Of what, please?"
  • Sylvester in Twig often receives these from his friends as a result of his affectionate attempts at annoying them.

    Music Videos 
  • In Michael Jackson's Ghosts, a running bit has a little boy's older brother smack him this way for revealing stuff about the mysterious Maestro that he was supposed to keep secret. Their mother then does the same to the older brother, usually with the comment "Don't hit your brother!" After the third go-round of this, the mother is smacked by an unseen force, implied to be the Maestro's doing.

    Podcasts 
  • Doctor Javolt from Fallout Is Dragons is a common recipient of these. He has noted it's interesting to observe when he's not a recipient.

    Radio 
  • Car Talk is the Trope Namer. Hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi — better known as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers — claim to have been at the receiving end of many a dope slap from their mother. (And according to each brother, the other brother stayed just as dumb.)

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition: The wizard Bigby is well-known for the numerous magic "hands" spell he created. From 3.5th Edition, you have Bigby's slapping hand, which just creates a hand made of force that slaps the side of the target's head. It's not capable of inflicting damage, but can cause enough distraction for foes to take advantage of it.

    Theatre 
  • In the Tsukiuta stage plays, Kakeru to Mutsuki-kun, often with a slipper.

    Theme Parks 

    Video Games 
  • In the trailer for Army of Two, one of the main characters hits the other main character on the back of the head and says "What the F*** are you doin'!" Watch it here, at about 30 seconds in.
  • Devil May Cry 4: At the end of the second Dante boss fight, there is an Internal Homage to Dante's impalement attempt on Vergil in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, which is mimicked exactly by Nero's lunging attack in this game. Dante easily dodges it and slaps him in the back of the head.
  • In Endless Frontier, Suzuka asks Reiji to give one of these to his partner Xiaomu after she makes a particularly bad observation/joke. This being at least in part a Bandai Namco Entertainment game however, he spanks her instead. (At about 5:50 here)
  • At various points in Final Fantasy IV, Porom will walk around behind her twin brother Palom and clonk him on the head for his stupidity with an adorable "Do-PANK!" sound effect.
  • Towards the end of Halo: Combat Evolved, Cortana figures out how to use Halo's teleportation system in order to rapidly move the Chief to Keyes's position. Unfortunately, she teleports him in after mixing up the ceiling of the ship with its floor, leading to the Chief landing on his head once he phases in. He proceeds to knock his helmet, since Cortana is an A.I. program that was currently housed inside it.
    Cortana: Oh, I see. The coordinate data needs to be— [SMACK] Right. Sorry.
  • In Hidden Expedition 14: The Pearl of Discord a ninja does it to his partner for tossing and catching the titular item as if it were a ball.
  • Jak and Daxter: Jak does this to Daxter at least once in each of the original three games. Daxter then slaps Jak twice in the racing spin-off.
  • King of Fighters XIII: King deilvers one to Yuri, during the Kyokugen Team's ending, when she unintentionally makes it sound as if she'd like to marry King, when asked to describe her ideal husband.
    Interviewer: I see. And, what would your ideal husband be like?
    Yuri: [thinking aloud] Hmm... Let's see... That's a tough one... I think they would have to be someone who was nice and polite...
    [Aha! pose] Oh, I know! Someone like King!
    [King whaps Yuri on the back of the head]
  • LEGO Adaptation Game:
  • In Mario Power Tennis Yoshi' s defeat animation is accidentally doing this to himself with his racket, knocking himself out and collapsing on his side.
  • Johnny Cage of all people gets to do this in Mortal Kombat 11... to his younger self, on account of time travel shenanigans. I Hate Past Me is in full effect, as the mature Earthrealm defender Cage clashes with the young egotistical diva Cage, especially when younger Cage doesn't show respect to either Sonya or their daughter Cassie.
  • Mother 3 has a pair of NPCs who are practicing a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine. The shorter one gives the dope slap to the taller one as the "punchline" of every gag. He's also shown to do it when they're not practicing their jokes... Even better? Their names are Bud and Lou. Also in this game, the item that specifically cures Strangeness happens to be a paper fan.
  • In Psychonauts, this is Ford Cruller's response if Raz decides not to accept the call to adventure.
    Raz: No, not yet.
    [Cruller smacks Raz]
    Cruller: How about now?
  • The Secret of Monkey Island: One of the Men of Ill Repute on Melée Island never talks, he just laughs at his partner's jokes until one of them shuts him up by bopping him on the head.
  • Raine in Tales of Symphonia gives out dope slaps quite often to Lloyd and Genis whenever they say or do something dumb.
  • World of Warcraft has the emote "/smack", which, when used, will smack whomever the player is targeting upside the head. This is purely text however, as nothing actually happens with the characters.
  • Yakuza:
    • Yakuza 0: In chapter 5, if you fail the Quick Time Event to give a client your business card, Kiryu will hand over his card incorrectly note  and also introduce himself as a Yakuza when he's supposed to be a perfectly legitimate real estate agent. Oda promptly slaps Kiryu upside the head.
    • One of Haruka's minigames in Yakuza 5 has her playing the tsukkomi half of a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine, so she'll slap her partner a lot. If you do very well, she'll pull out the Paper Fan of Doom.

    Visual Novels 
  • CLANNAD: Tomoya gives one to Fuko when she uses "Isogai" as her last name, which she read off the neighbor's house, when staying with the Furukawas.
  • In Ever17, after Kid has a dream that's weirdly similar to what actually happened when he was sleeping, Sara suggests he had an out-of-body experience. When Kid unwisely mentions the Power Perversion Potential of said idea, Sara smacks him.
  • In Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2, Saeki Teru will give the heroine a "chop" with the side of his hand when he thinks she's being dumb. The new skinship system allows the heroine to do the same to Teru or any of the other guys.
  • In Virtue's Last Reward there is a scene in Gaulem Bay when Sigma notices something and isn't sure what do do with it. After trying up almost anything he tries to eat it, which prompts Alice to smack him in the head.

    Web Animation 
  • Martha from DSBT InsaniT does this to Andy on a regular basis.
  • In Epic Rage Time: The Incredible Derp, Octavia Melody gives a good wallop to Vinyl Scratch when the latter calls for "more lasers" just as Derpy is calming down.
  • For the Empire (a Fan Animation Star Wars series made with Unreal Engine): In episode "Close Encounter", two Rebel soldiers and two Snowtroopers end up in a Mexican Standoff after the Battle of Hoth. TK-FNG then asks "Palpatunes" (a media player integrated in their helmets) to "play epic standoff music", and "Dual of the Fates" starts playing... until TK-FKU slaps his helmet.
    TK-FKU: Turn off that damn music!
  • Madness Combat: In Aggregation, Deimos dons a slain Engineer's mask and uses it to spook Sanford. Sanford proceeds to whack him.
  • RWBY:
    • Ruby does this to Blake in the first episode of RWBY Chibi after having read the "Ninjas of Love" book and declaring it "filth". Granted, Ruby enjoyed reading it.
    • Winter does this to Weiss in the main series when she doesn't get a straight answer to "How have you been?", and later when she's giving advice to Weiss about the Schnee summoning Semblance and Weiss tells her she can't do it. Jerk with a Heart of Gold 101.
    • The elderly Maria Calavera demonstrates that she teaches by the "hitting your pupil on the head with a stick" style of pedagogy when she bops Ruby with her cane for wanting to "laser-beam monsters" with her silver eyes.
  • In Sonic Shorts Volume 4, after Sonic fails at getting a chaos emerald before a goat-man swiped it, Knuckles smacks him in the head. Until he notices that he accidentally set the area on fire after tossing his cigarette.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Offhand example in this animated GIF◊.
  • Whateley Universe: Pucelle needs them from time to time, as said in Boston Brawl II:
    "Just another example of the blatant preference that this school gives to those who embody an arbitrary and pointless physical ideal of — " Pucelle stopped as Foxfire held a cupped hand in front of her and a bar of pale blue fire formed in the cup of her hand. It solidified into a crude 2x4 board, with which Foxfire tapped Pucelle none-too-gently on the forehead.
    "Believe me, this is the only way to get her to shut up, once she gets wound up," Foxfire said dryly. Slyboots rose up partially out of Foxfire's tote and stuck a pink tongue out at Pucelle. <nyeh!> Pucelle bridled and started to say something, but the 2x4 grew into a gnarled club with a long spike driven through the end, à la Li'l Abner.
  • In Worm, Grue subjects Regent to a few of these when he won't stop wisecracking during the fight against Behemoth.

    Websites 

    Web Videos 
  • Channel Awesome:
    • Poor Phelous gets one in Kickassia Part 2:
      N. Bison: Phallus, send the signal to sound the charge!
      Phelous: Okay, first of all it's "Phelous", not "Phallus", and second of all, the guy is standing right there looking at you. Why don't you send the signal yourself?
      N. Bison: [chuckle] Phallus. [dope slap] Just do it.
    • In Suburban Knights, Group 2 battles the Cloaks on a playground. When a mother shows up with her kid and tells them to scram:
      Angry Joe: Oh, come on! She's too old to be on a playground, anyway! What, does she believe in Santa Claus, too?
      [the little girl looks shocked and begins to tear up]
      [Cloak 2 hits Joe on the back of the head]
    • The Nostalgia Critic:
      • In the review of Waterworld, when the Deacon dope-slaps Enola, the Critic likes this part so much, he asks to watch it in loop.
      • In the Jem episode, the Critic gets one because of him saying a certain phrase from the analysts:
        Nostalgia Critic: I don't know... I mean the chart says...
        [Malcolm slaps Critic]
        Nostalgia Critic: Thank you.
  • Flander's Company:
    • Cindy gives one to Caleb in Season 3 for being one-upped by Nadège.
    • In Season 5, Henri Pottier and Caleb cannot help themselves giving repeated dope slaps to Jean Kevin Solo, a.k.a. Kylo Ren, because he looks so much like Severus Snape (Henri even ponders if he isn't Snape's hidden son).
  • To name one example in Vaguely Recalling JoJo, Polnareff gets a Dope Punch when he mistakenly thinks Joseph was talking about Indian curry. note 

    Real Life 
  • Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers discusses various Korean Air plane crashes, concluding that a significant part of it was a hierarchical culture between pilots and co-pilots which led to poor communication. One egregious example came when the captain dope-slapped his co-pilot.
  • An increasingly common variation nowadays is basically a whiffed dope slap. Make all the motions and aim for the general vicinity of the back of the head without actually striking the person. This avoids actually physically contacting people's heads and the imagery ensures the message is clear. Sometimes, the quip ("what are you stupid?!" or, "you dumbass!") is also left out as receiving the action is indicator enough that the recipient is doing something inane.
  • Montenegrin footballer Mirko Vucinic has a habit of celebrating goals by taking off his shorts and running around in his underwear. Originally believed to be a way to get around FIFA's rule that taking off one's jersey was punishable by a yellow card, they quickly caught on and translated it to this as well. When he did this while playing for Italian club Juventus after a penalty kick goal against Pescara on April 6, 2013, his manager, Antonio Conte, gave him several dope slaps, yelling at him the entire time. He got his yellow card. And scored a second goal six minutes later, though he did not take his shorts off the second time.
  • In American Sign Language, one way to point out a person is being stupid is to flick one's finger at the person's head, figuratively using the signal for the word "melon" to indicate the one flicked is being a melon-head. As a bonus, this is also an instantly recognizable signal to most hearing people even if they don't know any sign language, as it resembles how they might rap their knuckles on someone's head while asking "Hello! Anybody in there?"

 
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Video Example(s):

Sailor Moon - Dope Slap

Rei slaps Usagi's head after she shouts "I'll punish you" towards Hotaru's father.

Ishigami slaps ...

Robot Chicken

Not funny, Deimos

But I AM the Ch...

Zo Zo Zombie

Alternative Title(s): Head Smack The Idiot, Gibbs Slap, Gerber Slap

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Sailor Moon - Dope Slap

Rei slaps Usagi's head after she shouts "I'll punish you" towards Hotaru's father.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (18 votes)

Example of:

Main / DopeSlap

Media sources:

Report

Sailor Moon - D...

Ishigami slaps ...

Robot Chicken

Not funny, Deimos

But I AM the Ch...

Zo Zo Zombie