"When I put my finger on your lips it means you stop talking."
— Abby, Primeval
Bob is either already talking or about to say something, but Alice wants to playfully silence him. So what does she do? Why, put the finger muzzle over his mouth of course!
Like a regular muzzle prevents dogs from opening their mouths, the Finger Muzzle prevents another person from opening his/her mouth by placing a finger over his/her mouth. It's used by both men and women, but more often than not, it's an intimate gesture. Sometimes, a kiss will follow the gesture, or an Indirect Kiss by touching the finger to their own lips. Or it will just be a means for a character to act flirtatious.
Not to be confused with Finger on Lips or Finger Gun. Related to the "Shut Up" Kiss and Hand Gagging. Compare Finger in a Barrel.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In The Melancholy of Asahina Mikuru, the sixth Haruhi Suzumiya light novel, Mikuru shuts a mumbling Kyon up with her finger, which she then brings to her own lips.
- In Sailor Moon S: The Movie and in the 11th volume of the manga, Luna flies around with Kakeru after becoming a human so she can be with him for one night. When he nearly says her name, she uses this gesture to keep him quiet.
- In Darker Than Black, Eelis Kastinen to Kirsi/Yin in a flashback. Later, Yin reverses it in a Meaningful Echo.
- Kyo Kusanagi does this to his girlfriend Yuki in Tatsuya Shinjyouji's The King of Fighters '94 manga. This is because he has just rescued her from a very cruel Deadly Game, and since Yuki is rather traumatised by the experience Kyo thinks he's unworthy of getting a Smooch of Victory from her.
Fan Works
- In the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story "Days Of Auld Lang Smurf", the Imaginarium version of Papa Smurf's wife does this to him when they're alone with each other.
Films — Animation
- In the animated version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Esmeralda shushes a hurt Phoebus with a finger to his lips.
Films — Live-Action
- In You've Got Mail, when Kathleen is about to insult Joe, he shuts her up in this manner and says: "Let me just help you to not say something you're just gonna torture yourself about for years to come."
- This gesture always comes before Dianne Weist's Catchphrase, "Don't speak," in Bullets Over Broadway.
- Vince Vaughn's character is silenced in this manner in Wedding Crashers while he is tied up in bed and is straddled by Rachel McAdams' brother. It Makes Sense in Context.
- In Dumb and Dumber, this is parodied as Jim Carrey does this to the female love interest at the airport; it's funny because she is so obviously not into him at this point.
- In True Memoirs of an International Assassin, the Comedic Hero does this to an Action Girl (copying the move from the fictional character he writes) and gets his finger painfully twisted.
- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Valerian leans in to kiss Laureline, who blocks him with this trope, then uses the finger to point out the horde of aliens rushing up behind him wielding sharp objects.
- Deadpool. When Deadpool catches the man who recruited him for a Mad Science program (involving a sh*tload of torture and a disfigured face and body), he's more than willing to spill the beans on where the Mad Scientist is, but Deadpool shuts him up with this trope because he wants to torture him anyway.
Literature
- In Tales of MU, Amaranth does this to Mackenzie regularly. Unfortunately, she is prone to doing this when Mackenzie is trying to tell her something important, which leads to several serious situations that would have been easily prevented had she just let Mac speak.
Live-Action TV
- Ally McBeal: Larry Paul shushes Ally with his index finger when she thinks he's going to break up with her because his ex wants him back and they have a kid together. Nah, we knew that Ally is his number one girl.
- Batwoman (2019). In the pilot episode, Kate Kane as the title character pulls a dramatic falling rescue of her ex-girlfriend Sophie Moore that ends with them crashing through a roof onto a bed with their faces really close to each other. When Sophie expresses shock that the 'Batman' isn't a man, Kate hushes her with this trope. Kate uses the trope on Sophie again in a later episode when she's not wearing the batsuit, further fueling Sophie's suspicion that they're the same person.
- Blake's 7. In "Sand", Tarrant and Servalan are trapped on a Death World together, have Sex for Solace and forgo a mutual opportunity to kill each other. At the end of the episode, Tarrant is about to teleport up and starts to say something to her, but she silences him with this trope before he vanishes under her fingers.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Towards the end of "Surprise" Buffy and Angel start kissing passionately, and Angel makes a half-hearted attempt to forestall the inevitable.
Angel: Maybe we shouldn't--
Buffy: Don't. (finger on lips) Just kiss me.- That incident leads to the return of Angelus, so it Book-Ends the scene where a spell restores Angel's soul, only for the portal to Hell to form behind an unknowing Angel's back, watched by a horrified Buffy.
Angel: What's happening?
Buffy: Shhh... (finger on lips) Don't worry about it. Close your eyes.
(Buffy gives Angel a final kiss, then rams a sword through his chest)
- Doctor Who:
- "Fear Her": The Doctor makes a group of arguing people do this to themselves to get them to shut up.
- The Eleventh Doctor can enforce this with his Psychic Powers, though he notes it only works on less intelligent lifeforms (which, admittedly, from his perspective is almost everyone), and It Only Works Once for each individual.
- Game of Thrones: Margaery Tyrell does this to her husband Renly Baratheon; he's quoting philosophy, but she wants him to shut up and focus on consummating their marriage.
- Subverted in Primeval when Abby puts her finger on Connor's lips in episode 5.5, he keeps talking.
Abby: When I put my finger on your lips it means you stop talking.
Connor: Sorry.
Music Videos
- The music video for "Call Me When You're Sober"
by Evanescence ends with Amy Lee silencing Oliver Goodwill this way.
Theme Parks
- In a far darker example than most on this page, The Caretaker from Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights would in 2015 sometimes do this to his victims in conjunction with his own take on "Hush Little Baby" before subjecting them to one of his famous live autopsies.
Video Games
- In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Larxene does this to Axel.
Web Comics
- Exiern: Tiffany brings Denver's existential despairing speech to an end with one of these, followed by the obligatory kiss.
- In El Goonish Shive, this is done to Sarah in her mind by the aspect of herself that want to build a vampire based card deck.
- Rusty and Co.: Y.T. the lamia silences Madelin the Paladin as The Ditz starts blurting out the very reason of their mission. Although she doesn't uses her finger for this, but the tip of her snake tail.
Web Videos
- The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: Lydia covers her sister Jane's lips with a finger when Jane doesn't go along with Lydia's improvisation in episode 20 "Enjoy the Adorbs".
- When Bennett the Sage is reviewing Battle Angel on Anime Abandon, his character Suave starts cracking bad jokes, only for Sage to reach up and do this to Suave...from his chair, across the room.
Suave: [beat] ...you have a very long arm.
Western Animation
- From the Archer episode "Lo Scandalo", after Krieger has just finished Disposing of a Body.
Mallory: But how did you get rid of it so qu-
Krieger: Shhh. You don't want to know. But you'll probably want to wash your lips now. - A full hand variety is used in the Gravity Falls episode "The Inconveniencing" on Mabel by Dipper. While it accomplishes its purpose, it's also foiled by Mabel apparently licking his hand
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic features a "hoof muzzle" in the episode "Secret of My Excess", when Rarity does this to Spike when he tries to confess his love as they are falling to their apparent doom.
- In Danny Phantom, Sam does this to Danny at the end of "Reign Storm" when he stressing himself out to figure out what occurred behind the scenes in his last battle with the Ghost King.
