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Frying Pan of Doom

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...please tell me you're going to make breakfast with—**SPANG**

"Let me stress that again: heavyweight. A thin-bottomed saucepan is useless for anything. (...) A proper saute pan should cause serious head injury if brought down hard against someone's skull. If you have any doubts about which will dent — the victim's head or your pan — then throw that pan right in the trash."

Pans and skillets are versatile utensils, useful for frying, sautéing, braising and bruising. There is actually some truth to this, as unlike many other Improbable Weapons, a frying pan (particularly if it's made of cast-iron and/or has recently been used) can actually make a decent weapon and can also do quite a bit of damage. Because a good skillet is considerably heavier than most war maces, it would take a considerable amount of arm strength to effectively wield one as a weapon, so one can safely assume that getting hit over the head with a slab of iron weighing five to ten pounds (or more) would cause a concussion at the very least. Indeed, the noble frying pan is a worthy melee weapon.

Just as it is in any good kitchen, this is an absolute staple of slapstick comedy. In some cases, it might also be considered the Western counterpart of the Hyperspace Mallet. May be found in the arsenal of the Chef of Iron or Apron Matron.

The frying pan may also be considered or used as an impervious shield, but it would likely need to be made from Phlebotinum in order to really block most kinetic damage.

Possibly used for a Tap on the Head. Sister trope of Rolling Pin of Doom. Not to be confused with Whip Pan.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • An advertisement for the mobile device game Design Island shows a little old lady getting increasingly honked off as a giant hand, presumably representing the player, ineptly rearranges her kitchen appliances, wrecking the place and endangering her. She throws a frying pan at the camera.
  • In 1997, French cookware brand Durandal made an ad featuring Roland, the hero of The Song of Roland, defending himself against a Saracen using... a frying pan, and kicking his ass. The joke being that "Durandal" is almost the same as "Durendal", Roland's Cool Sword from the legend.

    Animation 
  • BoBoiBoy:
    • Played for Laughs by Gopal in episode 5. He hits both BoBoiBoy Earth and BoBoiBoy Wind on the head with frying pans in an attempt to restore their memory, just because he saw it on TV. When he can't recall which channel it was, Ochobot suddenly slams his head with a frying pan to get him to remember, and he falls face-flat on the floor, followed by a Cranial Eruption growing on his head. Even better, he murmurs "TV 4" while dazed, suggesting that it worked.
    • In episode 12, since the other two elementals' upgraded forms were unlocked through emotion, Gopal suggests different feelings for BoBoiBoy Earth to try out to get his upgrade. One suggestion is pain, to which Earth contests that pain isn't an emotion, but is interrupted mid-sentence by Gopal hitting the back of his head with a frying pan, causing him to fall over with a Cranial Eruption through his hat.
  • Happy Heroes: In Season 3 episode 12, Arcas's mother hits him with a frying pan twice - once after seeing the trouble he's caused, and again when he forgets to refill their ship's fuel.
  • In the Motu Patlu episode "Motu Ke Sawaal", Motu decides to constantly ask questions to increase his knowledge. This gets on Patlu's nerves, so much so that Motu just barely dodges a frying pan that Patlu throws at him in his anger.
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, Wolnie's preferred method for punishing Wolffy is to hit him with a frying pan.

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Delicious in Dungeon, a Running Gag on the volume covers is the main cast using cooking implements as weapons. On the cover of the first volume, Laios is using a frying pan.
  • Doraemon: Nobita's Treasure Island: In the final battle, Marie attempts to fend off some Mecha-Mooks using her frying pan. It works surprisingly well, but then again she's a Chef of Iron.
    Marie: This is what you get for shooting at my restaurant! [whacks a mook and send it flying off-screen]
  • Mana from Dragon Half frequently uses a frying pan to rein in her perv of a husband.
  • Played with in Et Cetera where Ming-Chao has a wok of doom which can be used as anything from a weapon to a lifeboat to a shield capable of repelling bullets (to some extent).
  • Played straight with a twist in Fairy Tail, when Natsu battles a mercenary whose weapon of choice is a gigantic, magic frying pan.
  • In Hetalia: Axis Powers, a frying pan is Hungary's other weapon of choice, aside from her spear. Especially when around France, and maybe Prussia.
    • In the anime, China owns a wok of doom.
  • Yuno of Hidamari Sketch hits Miyako repeatedly on the head with a possibly hot frying pan for flipping her fried egg. The sound annoys Sae into coming up and meeting Yuno for the first time.
  • The Junji Ito short story, "Glyceride", have Big Brother Bully Goro trying to strangle his own sister and drown her in grease when his father - finally having enough of Goro's terrible behaviour - intervenes by whacking Goro behind the head using a frying pan.
  • In Kaiju Girl Caramelise, Kuroe Akaishi carries one when confronting what appears to be a Mothra-esque caterpillar on the street in front of her apartment, out of fear that it means to fight her in her Kaiju form. She ends up dropping the frying pan the moment the caterpillar twitches — though it turns out the "caterpillar" isn't looking for a fight anyway.
  • Tamako in Kemeko Deluxe!! wields a mean frying pan against Kemeko.
  • The Frying Pan Of Doom becomes Shinobu's weapon of choice in Love Hina. Fitting, since she is the resident chef of Hinata House. And yes, in the manga at least, she ends up smacking Keitaro with it at least twice.
  • A Running Gag in Martian Successor Nadesico, started by the chef main character, has various human baddies taken out by a sneak attack with a frying pan. Oddly, they seem more effective than the machine guns.
  • One Piece has an early use of this. Ninjin (Carrot), one of Usopp's child followers in Syrup Village, used this as his makeshift weapon against the Black Cat Pirates. He used it to great effect when he fought The Dragon, using it to deliver a Groin Attack. Poor Jango...
    • In the anime only G8 arc, Navarone's head chef Jessica uses this, but only to reprimand her underlings for not working hard enough.
  • Ranma ½:
    • One of the many blunt objects Akane introduces to Ranma's skull.
    • Used deliberately in a later story arc: when facing the fire-breathing Rouge (in her Asura form,) Ranma and Pantyhose Tarou arm themselves with griddles, pans, pots, and other kitchen utensils that they can use as shields. After Tarou punches Ranma high above the flying Rouge, Ranma comes down on top of her to deliver an overhead frying-pan smash to one of her heads.
  • In the Riding Bean OAV, it takes a frying pan (hot off the stove with eggs still sizzling in it) to awaken Bean Bandit from his slumber. Note that he slept through a stun-gun to the neck (or rather, his eyes shot open, then closed again) immediately before this.
  • Ataru from Urusei Yatsura becomes quite proficient with a frying pan. Which he uses both to block Jariten's flame breath and to bat the floating brat into next week (or off some combo of walls floor and ceiling). There's also one Pet the Dog moment when Jariten tries to get a mothers day carnation for his mother but winds up being delayed so that she's just left when he gets back. Ataru promptly uses his frying pan to smack him in a trajectory that lands him right on his mother's bike.
  • In the manga Worst, King Joe as a freshman perfectly justified his use of a Frying Pan against Tsukamoto Mitsunobu in stating that in a 6 versus 1 (King Joe being by himself), that the Frying Pan was his handicap.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Shingo Sawatari rescues Crow from a prison guard about to grab him by hitting him in the face with a frying pan from the prison's cafeteria kitchen. However, being Sawatari, he wastes time posing and bragging while Crow runs away, as the guard gets up and attacks him.

    Card Games 
  • The Lord of the Rings TCG made a card out of the frying pan used by Sam in the movie. In-game, it could be used to do direct damage to any orcs the wielder was fighting. Because you could give it to any hobbit you wanted (including Frodo, who for a while was a necessity in every deck), it ended up banned because it made orc-based decks much less effective.
  • In Ninja Burger, one of the combat boosting items you can get is the spatula, which is as deadly as the Ninja Burger Official Wakazashi. Also, a training card "Wok the Casbah" shows a ninja dual-wielding iron-cast woks on top of the Casbah.

    Comedy 
  • Eddie Izzard: Part of the "Heimlich Gesture", along with being thumped in the stomach and kneed in the bollocks.
  • Dara Ó Briain has a comment on frying pans as part of a bit on confronting burglars in the home.
    Don’t be fooled by the frying pan industry, they don’t go “dong” when you hit someone. There is no setting for “stun” on a frying pan. You're either going to anger the burglar, or you're going to fucking kill them.

    Comic Books 
  • Edge of Spider-Verse (2022): While exploring the local marketplace, Princess Petra is fascinated by seeing a frying pan for the first time. Moments later, she uses it to clobber Bishop Octopus as he attacks people (since at that point she lacks superpowers).
  • Suske en Wiske: Tante Sidonia uses frying pans often to defend herself.
  • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, Master Splinter and April O'Neil fend off Baxter Stockman's robotic rat-catchers: Splinter with his cane and April with her skillet.
  • In an issue of Spider-Man, while The Punisher was cooking bacon in a pan, a group of hitmen attempted to sneak up on and ambush him. He first threw the hot grease in the pan into the face of one hitman, then threw the pan at another's head knocking that guy unconscious. The others are then driven away with gunfire.

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 
  • In Harry Potter and Future's Past, Winky makes very effective use of cookware to keep Pettigrew subdued while Harry and Hermione are figuring out how best to deal with him.
  • In the fanfic The Life of Harry Potter and Hermione's part in it, Hermione's mother wields one in defense of her daughter.
  • In Supreme Champion, a frying pan is Narcissa's preferred tool for marital communication.
  • In Kedabory's Muppet Mania, frying pans often pop up as the Swedish Chef's weapon of choice, first used in Episode 1 to subdue Animal and prevent him from mauling Rizzo, and again in Episode 3 after finding out Wayne and Wanda "borrowed" his son for their act without him knowing about it.
  • In this MHA fanfic, an unknown vigilante wields a wok and successfully takes out the majority of crime in the country. The fic is told from the perspective of All-For-One as he attempts to deduce their identity, whilst preventing his successor from becoming their next victim.
  • Not the intended use (Zantetsuken Reverse): From "Chapter 7: Leon", as described by Leon, talking about his past:
    I tracked down my other sons and daughters, but earned a frying pan to the head when my exes saw that I was trying to bring their children into a dangerous life of monster hunting.
  • Once Upon a Studio: Version 2.0: In this reimagining of Disney's centenary short, Mickey is even more startled as Kaa tries to hypnotize Clarabelle. Fortunately, Rapunzel is soon on the case, as she whacks Kaa with her frying pan to snap him out of it.
  • Quizzical: From Thweet Geniuth's "And The Winner Is..." Reprise:
    Bon Bon turned to the nearest camerapony, held up her frying pan, and smiled. "The secret is to turn it on edge. You don't want to hit them with the flat; you want to chop like it's a cleaver. Puts 'em down every time."
  • This Bites!:
  • Vow of Nudity:
    • Carnerri the Succubus' first scene is threatening Haara with a frying pan when she catches the latter stealing trash from her backyard.
    • Father Pyrestein, a cleric whom Kay’la encounters in the snowy mountains, wields a flaming frying pan as his weapon of choice.

    Film — Animated 
  • Batman: Bad Blood Kate Kane uses one to defend herself when she is attacked in her bathrobe, and knocks out an attacker with it.
  • In The Emperor's New Groove, Chicha is startled by Llama Kuzco at the kitchen window and she hits him with the pan she was holding.
  • Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure has a whole caravan turn into a battlefield of frying pans, wielded by angry housewives who found their husbands sneaking near the dancers carriage.
  • Kung Fu Panda:
    • A Super Bowl commercial for Kung Fu Panda 2 called "We Will Wok You" shows Po using two woks to beat a bunch of wolf thugs with "We Will Rock You" by Queen playing. Woks are technically giant Chinese frying pans.
    • Averted in Kung Fu Panda 3 when the fight with the Jombies ends up in Mr. Ping's kitchen and Po grabs his favourite pan as an Improvised Weapon, only for Ping to snatch it off him and hand Po a (far less effective) spoon. Later the trope is played straight when Li Shan and Mr. Ping, fighting in unison, use their woks to save Po from a Jombie-Shifu.
  • The Son of Bigfoot: Adam's mom takes out one of the HairCo guards that is keeping her trapped in her house this way. The other one overpowers her before she can get to him as well.
  • The Sword in the Stone: Sir Ector and Kay discover that Merlin has enchanted the kitchen to wash the dishes automatically, and start smashing them up with their swords to stop it. Ector shoves a row of dishes backwards, they come roaring back at him, he swings his sword overhand, hitting the frying pan at the front of the line so hard his blade shatters.
  • Subverted in The Super Mario Bros. Movie; Toad looks like he's about to bludgeon some Toad guards with his pan when they don't allow Mario into Peach's castle, but he cooks food with the pan instead as a distraction for the guards.
  • Exaggerated in Tangled. While Rapunzel (the lead character) isn't the first Disney Princess to use a weapon, she's the first to use a cooking implement as one (specifically a cast-iron skillet); Always Female is averted when Flynn starts to use it as well, to fight off some guards. Then Maximus, the horse, uses it as well... and in the end it even becomes the entire Royal Guard's weapon-of-choice.
    Flynn: Oh Mama, I've got to get me one of these!
  • Trolls:
    • Downplayed when Branch throws one at a giant (relative to a Troll) spider and hits it in the head, but the spider is only briefly confused and charges him.
    • Subverted with Bridget, who attempts to smash Branch with a frying pan before Poppy interrupts her.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • The ABCs of Death: In the first short, a hysterical woman attacks her bedridden husband with this. She had meant for him to die from poisoning long before then but has run out of time. The title is then revealed to be "A is for Apocalypse", implying that this is a Mercy Kill.
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: During the fight against Sonny Burch's goons in the restaurant's kitchen, one of them tries to hit the Wasp with a frying pan, but she grabs his arm and knocks out another goon with it.
  • Austin Powers: Austin Powers whacks Mini-Me on the head with one during their fight in Goldmember.
  • Carry On Behind: Vera Bragg hits Bob with a one for coming on to her, then she and Sylvia Ramsden repeatedly pound their husbands, Fred and Ernie, with them after they find them sitting with in their caravan with Carol, Sandra, Sally and Maureen.
  • The Cherokee Kid: Abby knocks out Isaiah and Cortina with a frying pan and ties them up so she can turn them in for a reward.
  • In one of the more graphic scenes in Chocolat, a drunken Serge breaks into Vianne's flat to try and get his wife Josephine back. He ends up assaulting Vianne until Josephine sneaks up behind them and bangs the frying pan on Serge's head.
    Josephine: Who says I can't use a skillet?
  • Invoked but not actually used in Coroner Creek. Chris gets Frank Yordy to spill the beans by threatening him with a skillet full of hot grease.
  • In Dog Soldiers, one of the men beats a werewolf near to death with a skillet while screaming bloody murder. Unfortunately, another one comes and knocks it out of his hand.
  • Johnny Depp's cameo in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare involves him being whacked in the face with the frying pan during a "This Is Your Brain On Drugs" commercial.
  • Freebie and the Bean: During a Kitchen Chase, Bean knocks a shooter back by hitting him with a pot.
  • In Fresh Meat, Heri kills Johnny by beating his skull in with a crock pot.
  • The Funhouse Massacre: When Morgan decides to arm himself against Jeffrey "Animal The Cannibal" Rameses, he grabs a frying pan and uses that.
  • Go West, Young Lady: Bill uses a frying pan to knock out several bandits during the final battle. She then accidentally knocks Tex out with it while gesturing.
  • In one scene in The Great Dictator, two Mooks and the Tramp get knocked out with a frying pan.
  • Martin Blank in Grosse Pointe Blank uses a frying pan to deliver a Coup de Grâce on a mook in his girlfriend's kitchen.
  • Hilariously averted in Hancock when the titular hero attempts to prove a point. When trying to get answers from invincible counterpart Mary he manages to bend a barbecue fork in her back, shatter a rolling pin over her head and finally attempts to smash two frying pans on her head. She manages to stop him in time, though it is unlikely the frying pans would have had any physical effect, aside from Cross-Popping Veins.
  • In the musical The Harvey Girls, during a riot the waitresses of the title come charging out armed with pans, pots, and rolling pins.
  • The Hills Have Eyes (2006): When Lynn returns to the trailer hand finds Lizard threatening her baby, she grabs a frying pan out of the sink and hits him with it.
  • In The Hobbit, Bombur uses a soup ladle as a weapon.
  • Hoboken Hollow: When Trevor tries to force his way out of the Broderick kitchen, Lisa knocks him out with a frying pan.
  • In Hocus Pocus, Allison first grabs a broom to hit Mary Sanderson with, and then grabs a frying pan to knock Sanderson out.
  • In Julia X, Julia knocks The Stranger out in the kitchen by hitting him on the head with a frying pan.
  • Ju On: In the second VHS movie, Yoshimi Kitada kills her husband by walloping him with a frying pan. The scene is recreated in the second American movie, though this time, the wife pours scalding hot oil on his head before hitting him with the pan.
  • Keeping Mum: Grace threatens Mrs Parker with a frying pan, causing her to die of shock.
  • Kill Bill Volume 1 has The Bride using a skillet as a parrying weapon against Vernita's knife at one point during their fight.
  • Little Man: Darryl tries to play a game of peekaboo with "baby" Calvin. Eventually, Calvin gets tired of it and whacks Darryl on the head with a frying pan, knocking him out. He then drags Darryl's unconscious body to the den and places him on the couch to make it look like he was sleeping there. Vanessa then walks in and awakens Darryl and berates him for "sleeping while watching Calvin", leaving poor Darryl completely baffled.
  • In the James Bond film The Living Daylights there's a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in a kitchen between Necros and an MI6 Battle Butler. A saucepan full of boiling water is thrown but the target ducks out of the way, and the fight is finally ended by Necros knocking out the butler with a straight example of the trope.
  • In the movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Sam takes down a few goblins in Moria with his trusty frying pan.
    Sam: I think I'm getting the hang of this...
  • In Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Scrooloose, one of Max's young "followers", wields a metal frying pan during the final chase scene... and gives the driver (a follower of Ironbar) swat to the chops. TWICE.
  • Mary Poppins The cook, Mrs. Brill, attempts to use a frying pan to fend off the chimney sweeps when they hide in the Banks household.
  • The Outlaws IS Coming!: During the final chase, Ken and the Stooges are in a chuck wagon being pursued by an armoured stagecoach with a Gatling gun. The Stooges are reduced to throwing pots and pans at their pursuers.
  • In Raiders of the Lost Ark, during the battle in the streets of Cairo, Marion takes out an assailant with a handy frying pan. It's such a memorable moment that the Marion action figure in the new line comes with a frying pan. The stunt show at Disney's Hollywood Studios features this as well, with Marion using a frying pan on the roof of a building to knock back a mook on a ladder, though her backswing hits Indy as well.
  • In The Scorpion King, a little boy knocks out a mook by clocking him in the head with a frying pan.
  • In Sherlock Holmes (2009), Dr. Watson bashes a thug over the head with the chemical laboratory equivalent of a frying pan.
  • In Spy, a fight in a kitchen predictably involves one. It's one of the more effective objects used. Others include a dishcloth and (yes, plural) baguettes.
  • In Sunset, Cheryl hits Captain Blackworth in the face with a frying pan in the kitchen of the Kit Kat Club, breaking his nose and blackening his eyes.
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Todd gives a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Pirelli with an iron tea kettle, then finishes him with one of his razors.
  • Hilariously used in Throw Momma from the Train between Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal.
    Momma: Who the hell is this?
    Owen: Oh, this is Cousin Paddy. He's coming to stay with us a while. Isn't that nice?
    Momma: [suspiciously] We don't have a "Cousin Paddy".
    Owen: [to Larry] You lied to me!
    [Wham!]
  • In the movie Thursday, the protagonist gets bound to a chair in his own kitchen. He manages to free himself while alone in the room, grabs a frying pan, and sits back down in the chair with it held behind his back as the villain who was going to torture him returns. And proceeds to berate himself for not grabbing the hidden gun nearby instead.
  • UHF: "Hey, Bobbo, look up! Now look down! Now look at Mister Frying Pan!" clang "Uh-oh! Bobbo fall down; go boom." In the special features commentary, Al describes that he accidentally hit the actor portraying Bobbo VERY hard with the skillet. The pain and utter aggravation he exhibits is a real reaction.
  • In The Umbrella Coup, Josyane mistakes Moskovitz for Grégoire and whips him one with a huge pan when he enters the apartment.
  • Vet Hard: Played different than usual, as Bennie knocks someone out by throwing the frying pan at his head (as seen here), instead of the usual holding the pan in your hands to hit someone. Also justified that he uses this as a weapon since the scene takes place in the kitchen of the snack bar he owns.
  • Invoked in Vicki. When Steve arrives at the apartment to pick up Vicki, Jill opens the door with a frying pan in her hand (she had been making breakfast when he knocked). Steve looks nervously at the pan and assures her she won't need it. Jill's expression indicates that she is not convinced.
  • White Space: The ship's cook has two convictions for assault, using her frying pan as a weapon.
  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit:
  • Witch Hunt: 38 minutes in, Tyrone holds up one to threaten Lovecraft. Lovecraft distracts Tyrone and pushes it into his face, knocking him out.
  • Wonka: After Wonka releases Lofty from the jar, Lofty asks Wonka to pass him the frying pan hanging on the wall behind him. Wonka does so, and Lofty immedately hits him in the head with it and runs off with Wonka's chocolates.

    Literature 
  • Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer's joint story Agnes and the Hitman features a heroine who has a notorious habit of hitting men (particularly cheating boyfriends) over the head with frying pans. It is hilariously alluded to throughout the book from the first chapter - when she accidentally kills a dognapper by hitting him repeatedly with a frying pan, sending him hurtling backwards into a hidden basement - onwards. She even notes the differences in damage between frying pans ("It was nonstick, not cast iron, so he shouldn't even need a plate in his head!")
  • In the fourth book in The Bad Guys, Granny Gumbo needs to extract venom from Mr. Snake; to do so, she knocks him out with a frying pan. She isn't licensed to do that, if her words are any indication.
  • In Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series, a woman throws a pot at her employer during her "moontime." He then takes several of her cooking implements outside to throw around. She thinks that the Proud Warrior Race Guy is just taking out his anger on things other than her. Turns out he's trying to figure out which of them would make the best weapon for her, then trains her to be literally lethal with a frying pan. As a result of that training, the rather gentle, caring, and sweet female character declares that she can break bone nine times out of ten when she throws a skillet at someone.
  • Dean, Garrett's live-in housekeeper and cook, whacks the spy Lurking Felhske on the noggin with a skillet in Cruel Zinc Melodies.
  • Tika's most prominent scene in the Dragonlance Chronicles has her bashing a draconian in the head with a cast-iron skillet. The skillet was listed in her equipment (1d8 damage) in a version of the campaign modules on which the novels were based. In the 15th anniversary edition of the trilogy (The Annotated Chronicles), Tracy Hickman notes that Tika had a special weapon specialization, known as "Skillet Bashing", which gave several benefits when wielding a skillet.
    • In 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, this makes Tika's skillet as deadly as a longsword or a heavy mace.
  • In Evidence of Things Not Seen, Dwight's mom uses one to try to defend herself against her abusive husband, but it only briefly stuns him before he beats her even more violently.
  • An early victim in Friday the 13th: Carnival Of Maniacs tries to fight Jason off with a big iron skillet, to no avail.
  • In Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Frank Bennet is killed by getting a good, hard smack on the back of his skull with a heavy, iron skillet. It was wielded by Sipsy.
  • Harry Potter:
  • In the Star Wars EU novels The Lando Calrissian Adventures, Lando winds up in jail at one point, and his droid is impounded as evidence, resulting in this exchange when they're released:
    "Master, did you know that the most common murder weapon here is a frying pan?"
    "Blunt trauma or just bad cooking?"
  • John Irving's "Last Night in Twisted River" has a few of these: The cook, Dominic, is rumored to once have hit a bear with his 18-inch cast-iron skillet to get it out of his kitchen (in reality, he had hit his friend Ketchum with it when he found out Ketchum had been sleeping with his wife). His son Daniel later uses the skillet as a weapon against what he believes to be a bear mauling his father, killing his babysitter in the process.
  • One of several improvised weapons used in an effort to disable the crazed maitre d' in Stephen King's short story "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe" (found in the collection Everything's Eventual).
  • In Dan Wells's Mr. Monster John Cleaver knocks out Agent Foreman with a frying pan. In this case, there is no levity in the use of a frying pan.
  • In Native Son, Bigger kills a rat in his apartment with a heavy iron skillet.
  • In the Phryne Fisher novel Queen of the Flowers, non-action girl Ruth knocks out an intruder in the Fisher household with a long-handled frying pan.
  • In The Pinballs, Carlie's backstory involves a violent stepfather who all but killed her with his bare hands; Carlie retaliated with a frying pan before she passed out. What isn't outright mentioned, however, is that while Carlie's intention was just to get even, her action may have actually saved her life, as her stepfather would in all likelihood have continued to beat her even after she lost consciousness, potentially to the point of killing her, if he hadn't been incapacitated.
  • In the Relativity story "My Big Fat Superhero Wedding", mobsters crash a wedding reception. Sara sneaks away to unwrap the gift she bought for the couple - a large frying pan.
  • The opening chapter of Remote Man has Janet smashing a TV with a frying pan, the first indication we get of her nervous breakdown.
  • Short story "Utensile Strength" by Patricia C. Wrede, part of her Enchanted Forest Chronicles, centered around what to do with "The Frying Pan of Doom". It's not just a large blunt object — when wielded by the right person, it turns anyone whacked on the head with it into a poached egg. The pan is usually so hot that whoever holds it must wear an oven mitt; only its Rightful Wielder can hold it bare-handed.
  • The Wandering Inn features a main character who uses frying pans to fight monsters. It’s justified in that 1) she has a unique skill that gives her the ability to fight with improvised weapons rather than with swords or magic and 2) Liscor doesn't do light-weight aluminum-based, non-stick anything; heavy-duty, properly seasoned copper or iron pots and pans = ouch... and double-dead ouch if you happen to intrude on deep fat frying experiment day.
  • In the Discworld book The Wee Free Men, Tiffany uses a cast-iron skillet as a weapon on her journey with the Feegles to Fairy Land (justified, because elves and other creatures of Fairy Land can't stand Cold Iron).

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Adventures of Lano and Woodley : Lano and Woodley, interviewed by Andrew Denton, explained how a very lightweight frying pan or baking tin can be used this way for comic effect. It makes a funny clanging noise, and the actor's reaction sells it as a hard hit. Of course, the demonstration goes awry, and the resulting impact is a little harder than either comedian expected, turning this into another example of Truth in Television.
  • Annika: In S2E1, DS Tyrone Clarke chases a suspect into a hotel kitchen. While the two of them are wrestling on the kitchen floor, the hotel chef clouts the suspect over the back of the head with a frying pan, knocking him out.
  • In Atlantis when one of the heroes fails at the "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight to break a kidnapee's brainwashing, another of the heroes resorts to using a large pan for a Tap on the Head instead.
  • The Avengers (1960s). While fighting in a railway dining car, a helpful crewmember called Crewe throws a sheet over a mook's head, then offers Emma Peel a frying pan.
    Crewe: Ladies first.
    Peel: Be my guest! (Crewe knocks out mook)
  • Booth uses one because it happens to be within reach when chasing a suspect through a restaurant kitchen in Bones.
  • Boston Legal— Bernard Ferrion killed his mother by hitting her in the head with a skillet, and later killed his neighbor the same way when he thought she was had found out about the first murder. It then showed up again when Bernard himself was killed the same way by Betty White after he said that he wanted to kill again.
  • Bottom: In "Gas", Eddie repeatedly hits the gasman over the head with a frying pan, to stop him discovering them stealing gas from next door.
    Richie: Eddie! You've killed him!
    Eddie: (drops the frying pan) I never touched him.
    Richie: No, but the frying pan did, and you were touching that.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Anya takes out at least one of the Knights of Byzantium with a frying pan in "Spiral". A much more serious example — in his fake vision of their future together, Xander hits Anya in the head with a skillet after she chews him out for being such a terrible husband.
    • And Buffy takes out Ted with the same cast-iron skillet he made those damn mini-pizzas with!
    • In "A New Man", Xander is woken up by a demon whom he drives off in a hail of cookware; he later advises Buffy to look for a demon with a saucepan-shaped dent on its head.
    • Not played for comedy in the Season 6 episode "Normal Again" when a deranged Buffy hits Xander with one, then drags him to the basement to be killed by the Monster of the Week.
  • El Chavo del ocho: La Chilindrina decides to go fetch a frying pan from the kitchen "just in case", and uses it to fight off the "ghost" lurking around the vecindad (actually Mr. Barriga disguised as a ghost trying to scare El Chavo).
  • Ellie Bartowski manages to knock out John Casey with two blows of a frying pan in one episode of Chuck. Later on, she also uses a frying pan on Daniel Shaw.
  • Cinderella Chef: Ding Qi beats a man up with a frying pan.
  • In an episode of Le cœur a ses raisons, Criquette knocks her fiancé Brett out with a frying pan to avoid telling him about her pregnancy.
  • Come Back Mrs. Noah. Mrs. Noah is trying to cook something up for the people trapped on the space station, but gets annoyed by Cunliffe making one too many lewd comments about how she's the only woman on board, and knocks him off his seat with the frying pan.
  • Community - Troy narrates a spooky story where mad doctor Pierce has sewn him and Abed together. After their initial horror, they realize they have a new psychic bond - they knock Pierce out with a telekinetically hurled skillet. Then they levitate a big kitchen knife...and cut a sandwich on the counter in two and levitate it over to eat.
  • Copper: In "Home Sweet Home", Little Miss Badass Annie knocks out the seemingly Made of Iron psycho Buzzie Burke with a frying pan while he is holding Kevin at gunpoint.
  • Dexter. Dexter uses one to knock Rita's ex-husband unconscious after he makes one threat too many. Dexter then stages Paul passed out having a relapse, getting him thrown back into prison.
  • Doctor Who:
    • In "Closing Time", the Doctor uses a saucepan in an attempt to batter the Cybermat off of Craig, but winds up hitting Craig instead.
    • In "War of the Sontarans", Dan's parents work out that a Sontaran can be taken down by hitting their probic vent with a blunt object, so turn up to save their son with cookware. They lend him a wok when he infiltrates the Sontaran base, which he uses for a Bond One-Liner after knocking out a guard.
      Dan: How do you like that, eh? Pan-fried Sontaran. Now, I'm going to 'wok' right out of here. (runs into an entire squad of Sontarans)
  • On the second season premiere of The Dukes of Hazzard, Daisy chased after Bo and Luke with a frying pan after finding out they destroyed her car.
  • A non-comic example occurred in EastEnders with the death of popular, long-running character Pauline Fowler. After several months of leading viewers on a wild goose chase as to who her killer was, it emerged that she died from a brain hemorrhage after being hit on the head with a frying pan by husband Joe. Which is a Continuity Nod to a 1993 storyline where Pauline discovered her then-husband Arthur had been having an affair. The ensuing argument saw Pauline whack Arthur with a frying pan; unlike Joe's attack on Pauline, this was shown on-screen (3'53" in).
  • An episode of Emergency! had the paramedics sent repeatedly to a couple who are hurting each other during huge arguments. Only minor the first couple of times, the final time the unconscious husband has to be taken to a hospital after his wife hits him with a frying pan to the head.
  • In Faerie Tale Theatre's take on "The Three Little Pigs," this is how Tina Pig helps defeat Buck Wolf when he slides down the chimney of Larry Pig's brick house.
  • Father Brown: In "The Penitent Man", the Victim of the Week is bludgeoned to death by his wife with a frying pan.
  • In an episode of Fawlty Towers, Basil Fawlty brains Manuel with a frying pan after mistaking him for a burglar. According to The Other Wiki, John Cleese used a real metal frying pan instead of a rubber one and actually knocked Andrew Sachs (Manuel) unconscious. And according to the documentary, the sound you hear when Basil hits Manuel on the head with a frying pan is him actually hitting Manuel. Not a good sound and shows how this trope actually can be Truth in Television.
  • Friends:
    • When Chandler and Joey prepare for the arrival of Joey's Stalker with a Crush, Joey grabs a heavy frying pan. Chandler balks at this, suggesting a back-up plan "in case she isn't a cartoon!"
    • Another time, Monica and Phoebe are screaming because of leg-waxing strips. Joey and Chandler run in holding a pot and a tea kettle respectively.
  • Game of Thrones: Hobb, Castle Black's cook, kills a few wildlings by flinging boiling stew and then pummeling them with his cooking pot.
  • In The Haunting Hour episode "The Return of Lilly D", Lilly D (an evil doll) tries to attack Natalie with a knife, but Natalie knocks it out of her hand with a frying pan, then uses the pan to knock Lilly D's head off.
  • In the Here Come the Brides episode "The Legend of Bigfoot," the women sleep with frying pans under their pillows so they can defend themselves against Bigfoot if necessary. Captain Clancey runs into the dormitory at the wrong moment and gets beaten up.
  • On Justified, Ava uses her mother's cast-iron pan to beat down a member of Boyd's gang and assert her authority over everyone in Boyd's absence.
  • In one episode Kenan & Kel, Kel used one to take down a thug. And Kenan. And Kenan's parents. And a police officer.
  • Leverage: In "The French Connection Job", Elliot is posing as a chef and uses a frying pan to casually knock out a thug who comes to try and drag him out of the kitchen.
  • Subverted in Lie to Me: When attacked in her kitchen, Gillian grabs a frying pan and hits one of the attackers with it — only for it to make a little "ding" sound and the mook to tackle her to the ground.
  • Lost in Space. Judy Robinson wields one in "Welcome Stranger", knocking Jimmy Hapgood out during his fight with Don. As a Call-Back in the season two episode "A Visit To Hades", she tries this again with a pipe, only this time she hits Don instead of the guy he's scuffling with.
  • In the MADtv skit "I'm Sorry Mrs. Jackson," parodying a song by Outkast, Mrs. Jackson is seen wielding one in response to the Reverend Jesse Jackson's cheating on her.
  • Midsomer Murders:
    • In "Sins of Commission", an intruder in the hall is knocked out by the housekeeper wielding a frying pan.
    • In "Last Year's Model", the Victim of the Week is murdered by being bludgeoned to death with a heavy saucepan.
  • Murder, She Wrote: The Victim of the Week is killed by a blow to the head with a skillet in "The Sins of Castle Cove".
  • Lampshaded in an episode of NCIS. At Gibbs' place (doubling as a safe house for a young crime witness), Abby helps Ziva to subdue an intruder.
    Abby: It's a frying pan. It's a little cliché.
    Ziva: Works for me.
  • Our Miss Brooks: In "Angela's Wedding", Mrs. Davis uses a frying pan to great effect on the noggin of a gym teacher who insults her deviled eggs.
  • In Peaky Blinders, Tommy mentions an incident from his Hilariously Abusive Childhood where his mother sent him to buy some basic groceries and he blew the money on a top-hat and a coconut instead. Presumably he thought she'd be pleased, but instead she smacked him furiously with a frying pan.
  • Perry Mason: In the episode "The Case of the Bogus Buccaneer", a pregnant wife of a murder suspect is threatened by a man, claiming her husband owes him a lot of money. Della Street comes to her rescue by knocking him out with a handy skillet!
  • A Gender-Inverted Trope in Person of Interest. Root is guarding the Victim of the Week in his apartment when a Vigilance hit team attacks. Instead of hitting them with the pan, she uses it to cook up some field-improvised tear gas. Later John Reese gets hold of the pan and uses it in the traditional way to knock out the Vigilance mooks.
  • In "Heroes of Patience," the first season finale of Resident Alien, the government agents David Logan and Lisa Casper break into the Hawthorne home to grill the boy Max Hawthorne for information about the alien. They are chased out of the home by Max's parents, Ben and Kate, in an epic beatdown, using whatever household objects they can get their hands on. Kate's main weapon of choice is a large frying pan.
  • In an early episode of Six Feet Under, the opening "Death of the Week" segment involves a woman killing her boring Motor Mouth husband with a single blow of a frying pan.
  • In the Starsky & Hutch episode "Satan's Witches," Hutch uses a frying pan to knock out several Satanists.
  • During the All Just a Dream sequence in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Projections", Neelix brained a Kazon warrior with his favorite saucepan (unfortunately, it was not hardy enough to survive without denting).
  • Timeless: Emma uses one on one of Flynn's goons on the Hindenburg.
  • In the Xena: Warrior Princess episode "A Day In The Life", Xena fends off an attack by some bad guys with a frying pan. She even throws it like a chakram to take out a few goons. Gabrielle later laments Xena for destroying the only thing they had to cook their food.
  • The X-Files. In one episode the Monster of the Week is an Intangible Man. He breaks into the house of his ex, who swings a glass frying pan at him. The boiling contents pass right through his body, but fortunately, glass is the one thing that doesn't, so he gets knocked out long enough for her to flee.
  • On the You Can't Do That on Television episode about bullying, Barth hits Zilch on the head with a frying pan several times.

    Music 
  • They Might Be Giants, with Particle Man: "Person Man, Person Man, Hit on the head with a frying pan..."
  • Justin Timberlake's love interest in his video for TKO knocks him out with a frying pan.

    Pinballs 
  • The Bride of Frankenstein uses this against her mate in Monster Bash.

    Podcast 
  • In The Penumbra Podcast, Mary-Ann wields a frying pan during The Coyote of the Painted Plain, using it to knock out her fiancée Beau.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • During the Texas Death Match between Cactus Jack and the Sandman at ECW Double Tables, February 4, 1995, Jack grabbed a frying pan from ringside, fully expecting it to be a light aluminum pan bought from the dollar store next to the arena. It was cast-iron. According to Foley, Sandman's brains didn't unscramble for two weeks. This was back in the days of fans bringing their own weapons to the arena for the wrestlers to use on one another. Immediately following this match, ECW stopped allowing it.
  • At WWE WrestleMania X-8, Molly Holly turned on her partner The Hurricane by hitting him with a frying pan and pinning him to win the WWE Hardcore Title. She was upset because she saw him looking at the Godfather's Hos.
  • In September-October 1999, Chyna (who was being considered the ultimate feminist) had entered a feud with WWE Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett (who had adopted a Stay in the Kitchen mentality.) They decided to run with it and, for the October 99 No Mercy PPV, booked WWE's only "Good Housekeeping" match, where the area around the ring was littered with household objects. In her autobiography, there's a photo of Chyna bringing a frying pan down hard on Jarrett's head. Chyna won the match and the title, exiling Jarrett from the company in the process, after hitting Jarrett with a guitar. (Jarrett had debuted in December 1993 as "Double-J" Jeff Jarrett, doing an evil country singer gimmick [he's from Tennessee], and he has continued to use a guitar as his Signature Weapon to this day.)
  • At WCW Uncensored 1996, The Booty Man gave Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage frying pans to fend off the Alliance to End Hulkamania inside the Doomsday Cage.

    Puppet Shows 
  • In Dinosaurs, the baby repeatedly beats Earl over the head with a frying pan, all the while shouting, "Not the mama! Not the mama!"
  • The Muppet Show: In the Roger Moore episode, during the introduction to the "In the Navy" skit, the Swedish Chef takes offense at Kermit disparaging the Vikings as "cruel, heartless Scandinavian marauders" and hits him with a skillet.

    Radio 
  • The Stephanie Miller Show has voice impressionist Jim Ward portray former president Bill Clinton's reaction to titillating news stories of the day. Then his wife hits him with a frying pan after the inevitable innuendo. Mind you, this is a liberal radio show.

    Roleplay 

    Tabletop Games 
  • A classic story passed around in role-playing circles tells of the Dungeon Master who has a monster attack his players that can only be harmed with magic weapons, knowing that they have no such weapons in stock. Instead of fleeing like they were supposed to, one of the characters picks up the only magic item the party has, a self-heating frying pan the DM had previously given them as gag treasure. The character defeats the monster and the player goes on to build the character around frying-pan battle techniques.
  • In reference to the Dragonlance novels, several editions of Dungeons & Dragons had rules for using frying pans as weapons.
  • The fast-food themed (and soundly tongue-in-cheek) Feast Of Legends naturally includes a frying pan on its weapon list, along with its bigger cousin the two-handed cast-iron skillet.
  • One of Samwise Gamgee miniatures by Games Workshop dual wields a sword and a frying pan.
  • GURPS features the "Pan, Iron". This kitchen accessory functions as a slightly weaker round mace OR small iron shield. Unlike most improvised weapons, it is as solid as a Good quality weapon (most are of Cheap quality).
  • In Mysterium, one of the possible murder weapons is a frying pan.
  • In Zombicide, set after a Zombie Apocalypse, four to six survivors start with the following weapons, each distributed randomly to one of them: a fire axe, a crowbar, a pistol and a Frying pan per survivor beyond 3. In the Wild West-themed Zombicide: Undead or Alive, "Bruiser" characters (who have special abilities with melee weapons) automatically start the game armed with a cast-iron frying pan.
  • Pathfinder: Frying Pan is listed as a halfling weapon in one of the expansions for Pathfinder 2e. It is essentially a club, but it does extra damage on a critical hit at the cost of not being throwable.

    Theatre 
  • In the Broadway version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka subjects the factory visitors to an obstacle course of invisible hazards including a path with swinging frying pans. Most of the visitors take a blow or two as they navigate the course, though Mike Teavee takes the brunt of them, getting knocked silly repeatedly.
  • In the Met Opera's production of Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Norina playfully fences with Doctor Malatesta while they're coming up with their plot - she with a frying pan, he with a Classy Cane. This can be seen in the 2011 recording, though the revival changed it to a Rolling Pin of Doom.

    Video Games 
  • Featured in Alone in the Dark 2. The frying pan can even block most of the blow darts from the Evil Chef. After the chef exhausted his darts, he will go into a frying pan duel with you.
  • ANNIE: Last Hope has a Dead Weight Chef of Iron zombie boss who tries attacking Annie with a huge pan. A single hit is enough to send Annie halfway across the boss area.
  • Iksei of Atelier Rorona. Since he actually is a cook and runs a cafe, he can be literally considered a Chef of Iron.
  • In Attack of the Mutant Penguins, a frying pan is Bernard's main weapon.
  • Basingstoke: One of the weapon types you can find and use in the game is a frying pan.
  • Barbara Johnson (also known as "The Housewife") in BioShock 2 Multiplayer uses a frying pan as her unique melee weapon.
  • In Champions of Norrath, one might be able to deliver melee blows with The Scrambler.
  • In Chrono Cross, several characters use various cooking utensils as weapons, the strongest of which is a frying pan made of Rainbow Shell. Combined with a battle system that utilizes stringing weak-fierce blows together, this leads to, among things, an unassuming village girl unleashing a rapid-fire, martial arts Spam Attack with her trusty frying pan.
  • Conker's main weapon in Conker's Bad Fur Day. The remake gave him a baseball bat.
  • A decent Chef weapon in Contact, though the carving knives are better.
  • In The Curse of Monkey Island, if Guybrush goes to the chicken shop after being tarred and feathered, Blondebeard will mistake him for "El Pollo Diablo" and clobber him with a frying pan. Fortunately, this leads to Guybrush getting smuggled onto the Sea Monkey, which is where he needs to be.
  • The Vorpan is a weapon in Dead Cells. It's quite powerful, makes an immensely satisfying "clonk" sound when striking an enemy with it, and always inflicts Critical Hits when attacking an enemy from the front.
  • Dead Rising:
    • It's an amazingly powerful anti-zombie weapon in Dead Rising. You can smackdown a decent number of zombies with it ordinarily, but for massive damage, use the pan with a handy stove, to create a Red-Hot Frying Pan - which you can then use to toast the zombies' faces! One-hit knockout against any zombie, while also looking hilarious.
    • In Dead Rising 2, psychopathic chef Antoine Thomas uses a frying pan as his main weapon. He can even block bullets with it.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons Online, the final quest against a Droaam monster invasion has one fight involving a camp cook, armed with a frying pan that's not only a dangerous bludgeoning weapon to an unwary player, but also throws bacon grease around to make escape or evasion difficult. The enemies or you can set the grease ablaze.
  • In Eastward, the protagonist John's primary weapon is a skillet that he uses to both hit things as well as to cook food.
  • In Evergrace, you not only get a frying pan for Sharline, but the first upgrade adds a pair of eggs, and the second adds a strip of bacon to make a happy breakfast plate. Upgrades add enormous bashing damage (though not as good as the monstrous hammers) and fire attacks.
  • Evolution: The World of Sacred Device has one of the main characters, Linear, use a frying pan as her main weapon. What is odd is that they are exploring ancient ruins, yet she keeps finding upgrades for her weapon. Surely the ancients had some really tough eggs to fry.
  • After the treasure hunting quest chain Fable, the prize is a frying pan, which has several augmentation slots. note 
  • Fight The Horror: A frying pan is a weapon the players can use to fight the bosses.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • In Final Fantasy IV, Yang's Wife (later named Sheila in The After Years) gives the heroes a frying pan with which to hit Yang, and doing so cures his memory loss. It's hinted that this is because it reminded him of the many times it apparently happened before. It's even hinted that she shows her love with physical violence in the Japanese version, where the item is actually called the "Frying Pan of Love". The "Frying Pan of Love" returns with a ladle (meant for Yang and Sheila's daughter, Ursula) in The After Years. After Yang and Ursula take their beatings, they groggily mumble as though waking up, clearly believing that Sheila was the one who hit them. Luca is left utterly dumbfounded.
    • A variation is in Final Fantasy IX. A chef wants to use his frying pan as a hammer to help rebuild Alexandria, but he's told his work is just as valuable making sure everyone else is fed and healthy, so they can rebuild.
    • In Final Fantasy XIV, Julyan Manderville's discipline is a Culinarian, yet she wields a frying pan with enough skill to be a One-Man Army who terrifies everyone around her. She also has an even larger frying pan, which she combines with Dark Knight attacks.
  • In Fire Emblem Fates, a Frying Pan is a Joke Item (in the axe/club category) acquired from random drops in skirmishes or around the avatar's castle. It's not completely useless, as it adds 10 to the wielder's Dodge rating, and unlike the E-ranked brass/bronze weapons, it is capable of scoring critical hits.
  • In Fury Unleashed, the frying pan does double the damage of the default melee weapon, and has a chance to block incoming damage.
  • One of the best weapons in Harvest Town is a frying pan, which the player can obtain from Foxy after her Relationship Values is at least 10.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
  • Sauceror characters in Kingdom of Loathing wield a class of saucepans for their Saucery and for bludgeoning as per this trope. The frying brainpan, depicted and described as a frying pan, is among the top-level available.
  • Left 4 Dead 2: The humble cast iron skillet is every bit as deadly as any other melee weapon — maybe even more so, as it can be swung faster with a shorter cooldown. Its only downside is its inability to cut Smoker tongues, though that is very hard to pull off and as such, a niche disadvantage at best. It's such a liked weapon that in the promotion for The Passing DLC, the Frying Pan was added to Valve's other hugely popular multiplayer game, Team Fortress 2.
  • Bud from Legend of Mana uses his mother's frying pan as his preferred weapon. The game treats it as a two-handed sword.
  • The War Chefs from Legends of Runeterra beat down enemies attempting to cut of the Demacian army's supply lines with these. One of their attack quotes is "Pan to the face!"
  • In LittleBigPlanet, one of the costume objects is a frying pan. If you try to do a Sackboy Slap while holding it, you get the expected sound. It's also supposed to knock the target further than a standard slap.
  • In the Old West chapter of Live A Live, a frying pan is one of the traps that can be set up against O. Dio's gang. Annie has to be the one to wield it.
  • The Lord of the Rings
    • When you play as Sam in one of the tie-in RPGs, one of your abilities uses a frying pan that has a stun effect.
    • Likewise, in LEGO The Lord of the Rings, every version of Sam has a Frying Pan in his inventory, useful for both bashing Orcs if you're playing as an unarmed Sam, and actual cooking, that you have to do to solve some puzzles.
  • Love & Pies: When Sam tries seducing Amelia after serenading to her that he's better than Joe, she whips out her frying pan, presumably to hit him for it, just when Joe walks in on them.
  • Tia of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals uses frying pans as her weapon of choice.
  • Luna Noa from Lunar: The Silver Star usually uses canes, daggers, or bows in most versions of the game, but in the Game Boy Advance version, Lunar Legend, she uses frying pans.
  • The Chef class in Makai Kingdom uses Frying Pans as one of their preferred weapons. They're a pretty rare find, as they only show up in mid-to-high level random dungeons.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda: A murder victim on Kadara is found to have a frying pan nearby when Ryder examines the scene of the crime. Bear in mind, the murder victim was a krogan, who have Super-Strength. He could've just killed his attackers with his bare hands.
  • Hisui wields a pan, in addition to several other cooking (and cleaning) implements, in Melty Blood. Pishi! Of course, Hisui is deadly with a frying pan even out of combat...
  • The Chef class in Miitopia wield frying pans as their primary weapons. They can also use them to cook food to their allies and restore their health.
  • Frying pans are the recurring weapon of choice for the female leads of the Mother trilogy. They were the sole weapons available to Ana in EarthBound Beginnings and Paula in EarthBound (1994). Kumatora can use a Fake Frying Pan late in Mother 3, but they're not her primary weapon type.
  • In The Muppets: On with the Show! for the Game Boy Advance, the "The Swedish Chef Cooking Hour" mini-game involves the Swedish Chef hitting Rizzo and the rats with his frying pan to keep them from stealing his food ingredients.
  • Uzumaki Kushina from Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution uses a frying pan and a ladle as her preferred combat weapons.
  • Frying pans are among the many items you can use as weapons in Paint the Town Red.
  • Your main method of attack in non-Japanese versions of Panic Restaurant is a frying pan.
  • Subverted in Parasocial, where you can take a frying pan to use as a weapon against the stalker in the bad ending, but it turns out to be useless.
  • An entire sidequest in Phantasy Star Online involves a club of weapon enthusiasts talking about the ultimate weapon, which turns out to be the frying pan of the club's president's wife. Amazingly enough, it's actually more effective than some of the real weapons you usually get around that time.
  • Pans are usable as weapons in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds where, aside from doing the most damage of any melee weapon, they will also block any shots that hit them, whether the player is holding the pan or has it "holstered" on their back.
  • PO'ed have you playing a Chef of Iron stranded in a space station full of hostile aliens and robots, with your first weapon being your frying pan. And it works surprisingly well, with one or two hits capable of beating alien monsters to death.
  • The frying pan is one of many household items that can be drafted for combat duty in Project Zomboid. It's only mediocre—much better used for making "small animal meat" stir-fry—but if you're desperately scrabbling through kitchen cabinets and your only other choice is a butter knife, take the pan.
  • Ragnarok Online has the Lunakaligo, a transcendent acolyte class weapon, and the monster Magnolia, a reanimated fried egg that uses a frying pan as a weapon.
  • In Salt and Sanctuary, the Iron Pot is the starting weapon of the Chef class (or any class if the player chooses to attempt the "Pot Only" challenge), and can be found very early in the game for everyone else. Its damage is as laughably pathetic as you'd expect a cooking utensil to be in a world where fighting off giant Cthulhu-like monstrosities is just a part of daily life... at least at first. When upgraded at a blacksmith it gets a much bigger damage boost than other weapons. At max upgrade level, it has the highest base damage out of anything smaller than a BFS, and even beats out most of those. Granted, its stat scaling is still utter crap, so most other weapons will still do more damage if your stats are remotely decent, but its high base damage makes it very strong when used with elemental buffs, since the buff damage is based on the weapons base damage and does not factor in any scaling bonus. It also has the "Fast Hitter" ability, which makes it swing much faster than other weapons in its class.
  • Minori from Senran Kagura uses this as part of her fighting style (that, and a bucket full of candy).
  • Frying pans are an available weapon in Silent Hill: Downpour. They're actually the best weapon in the game if you're going for the best ending, due to their high toughness, availability (Every house has one in it) and tendency to lay out enemies without actually killing them.
  • The first two stages of Slaps and Beans, respectively in an outback and a saloon, have frying pans as useable weapons to smash into mooks' faces. It's especially when Bud The Big Guy uses it.
  • Frying pans are a weapon in the Snowboard Kids series. They are launched into the air rather than swung and will hit all other racers (unless they're made immune in some way, such as invisibility), flattening them and bringing their forward momentum to a screeching halt. Anyone in midair, such as when going off a jump or doing a trick, when hit by the frying pan, will plummet straight down. Disastrous over a Bottomless Pit.
  • In Splatoon, this is the weapon of choice for the Salmonids. A Splatoon 2 Sunken Scroll even mentions that they are Ancestral Weapons passed down from generation to generation and lovingly cared for.
  • Suikoden:
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • The online game Surviv.io has a frying pan one can get in an airdrop crate. It is a rare find but it only takes a few licks to knock out or kill an opponent. They also deflect bullets.
  • In Sword of Vermilion, if the hero refuses to go save a woman's husband, he gets whacked over the head with her frying pan.
  • Tales Series:
    • The remake of Tales of Destiny ditches Lilith Aileron's martial arts moves in favor of cooking-themed moveset. While her actual equippable weapon is a ladle, she uses a frying pan for her blocking animation and several artes.
    • Patty Fleur in Tales of Vesperia's PS3/DE versions uses a frying pan for her "Little Big Chef" and "Fire Big Chef" artes. In the former arte she smacks the enemy over the head with it, while in the latter she momentarily simulates cooking food. Somehow, both variants can produce dishes that may heal or harm your party.
    • In Tales of Xillia 2 Ludger can obtain a dual blade weapon called "Cookware", that looks like a giant spatula and a rectangular frying pan. If he uses these weapons while wearing the "Cook" costume, he can use the aforementioned "Fire Big Chef" attack, albeit renamed in English version to "Master Chef". No cooking this time, though.
  • Team Fortress 2: The frying pan was ported in from Left 4 Dead 2 as a cosmetic change to the stock melee weapon of all classes except for the Spy and Engineer. It became notorious for an abnormally high Critical Hit chance, despite actually having the same stats as stock. As it makes the same CLANG! sound on hitting a player regardless of them being friendly or enemy, it's also found a secondary use as a meme weapon to bonk teammates with. There's even the rare Golden Frying Pan, which can be equipped on every class, including the Engineer and Spy, and turns the victim into a golden statue on kill. It can be obtained from playing the Two Cities tour in Mann vs. Machine mode, at a VERY small chance. Very few Golden Pans exist, making them a prestigious item to own; one was sold for $5,500 in real money.
  • In Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break, when Hamton is playing the Montana Mash mini-game, a frying pan is his weapon of choice.
  • One of Miyu's weapon lines in Trinity Universe is an over-sized Phrying Pann.
  • While you never get to see your character use it, as such, the "burnt pan" is a weapon that can be equipped in Undertale. In addition to being the most powerful weapon thus far, it's also the last to have a passive bonus: all food items, including the instant noodles, heal for 4 more HP than usual. This makes it a good weapon for Pacifist Routers who aren't confident in their dodging abilities, and the best weapon for fighting Sans, who only takes one hit to kill once he finally stops dodging.
  • In a rather weird and somewhat different usage of the Frying Pan Of Doom, but not as a handheld weapon, you've got the Evil Chef boss in Wario Land: Shake It!, Large Fry. He actually rides around in a frying pan as some kind of flying device, uses it to charge at Wario for one attack and slam into the ground from above the screen in another attack, and uses said improbable weapon in quite possibly an evil more improbable way than most.
  • Warriors at the beginning of a Wildermyth campaign can choose a frying pan as their Starter Equipment.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Manana uses a cooking pan as a shield and bludgeon. It's deconstructed in her Ascension Quest, where it's pointed out that her abuse of her utensils is degrading the quality of her cooking.
  • In Your Turn to Die, Kai's frying pan is used as a weapon multiple times in the first chapter of the game. Kai himself uses it to hit Sue Miley in retaliation for her mocking a traumatized Kanna, and Nao is forced to in order to steal the laptop from Sou.
  • In Zombie Panic, one of the many melee weapons available is a frying pan. On a similar note, another is a cooking pot.

    Webcomics 

    Web Animation 

    Web Original 

    Web Videos 
  • Glove and Boots: Fafa hits Mario's father with a frying pan.
  • Hillary Clinton uses one to hit Bill with in the JibJab video "Time for Some Campaignin'".
  • Kate knocks out Steve with a frying pan in the KateModern episode "Ding Dong".
  • Scott The Woz:
    • Scott uses a frying pan to swat a copy of Paper Mario: Color Splash he encountered on his desk in the episode "The Best Games of All Time".
      Scott: Always keep a frying pan handy, you'll never know when a 7/10 game is gonna strike.
    • Scott himself ends up on the receiving end of one to the head in Virtual Boy: I've Seen Better and Borderline Forever.
  • In The Unexpectables, the NPC kiwi kenku Rogue appropriately named Kiwi uses a frying pan exclusively during the events of the Canary Perch Arc against the zealous United Clergy of Orun, to surprisingly great effect despite being under leveled compared to the party.

    Western Animation 
  • During Huey and Riley's fight in The Boondocks episode "Let's nab Oprah!", Riley first pulls out a frying pan from his pants (and later produces a gun from there as well), while Huey fends him off with a katana. As the fight moves into the kitchen area, Huey uses a frying pan that's lying around to knock Riley down.
  • In the Bunnicula episode "Curse of the Were-dude", Chester becomes human thanks to being bitten by Patches the Were-dude. Chester initially thinks it's great since he can do human things. Then he tries to go home. Mina greets Chester with a frying pan to the face, understandably freaked out by a strange man trying to sneak into her house via the pet door.
  • An episode of Camp Lazlo has Slinkman hitting Lumpus with a "full-moon" frying pan when he gets delusional. It's implied this wasn't the first time it's happened.
  • Sissi uses one in Code Lyoko's "Bad Connection" to knock out a XANA-possessed Herb.
  • A rarer male example occurs in the Darkwing Duck episode "Time and Punishment"; in a Bad Future where Darkwing has become a Knight Templar, Bad Future!Launchpad kayoes him with a frying pan after he threatens Gosalyn with a missile loaded gun.
  • Disenchantment: A pair of hillbillies try to roast King Zog and Prince Derek in a giant skillet, which gives the later a massive phobia of skillets. They also manage to subdue Bean, Elfo, and Luci with a regular frying pan and are as surprised as anyone else.
    Hillbilly: You know, when we bought the set, I never thought the little 'uns would come in handy...
  • From The Fairly OddParents! episode "Stage Fright", Vicky tries to audition for a movie role and has Timmy playing the role of her character's little brother, who is in a coma.
    Timmy: But I'm not in a coma.
    Vicky: You are now! *CLANG*
  • Family Guy:
    • Peter realizes that Lois will hit him with a frying pan if she finds out he is going golfing on their anniversary. So he invents an antidote for frying pans to the head. It doesn't work.
    • In "Mother Tucker" Peter won't stop tickling her so she responds with this.
      Peter: I tickle you, you hit me in the head with a frying pan?!
      Lois: I told you to stop!
      Peter: I taste blood!
      Lois: Well, there's a lot of it.
  • A season 5 episode of Futurama has Ndnd of the Planet Omicron Persei 8 and Leela facing off with these. Bender sells them when they start arguing.
  • In an episode of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Roadblock used a frying pan as a shield against a flamethrower blast from the "Dreadnok" named Torch. Like every improbable thing in that series, this worked.
  • Jellystone!: When Yogi starts freaking out, Cindy uses a frying pan as a "sedative".
  • Kaeloo:
    • Mr. Cat and Pretty do this on occasions, usually to Stumpy.
    • A variant was in Episode 88 where Mr. Cat throws the frying pan at Stumpy to get him to stop singing, with the same effect as usual.
    • In Episode 130, Mr. Cat tells Kaeloo to Stay in the Kitchen because she's a girl, and she angrily picks up a frying pan from the kitchen and repeatedly bashes him on the head with it for being sexist.
    • Exaggerated in Episode 59, where Bad Kaeloo uses a giant frying pan to hit Stumpy, Mr. Cat, Pretty, and Olaf on their heads at the same time.
  • Molly of Denali: In "First Fish," Nat allegedly took down his whopper of a salmon by hitting it with a frying pan.
  • The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" has the cake-guarding Pinkie Pie taken out with one by an elderly Ninja lady in one of Pinkie's Imagine Spots.
  • In the Lego Ninjago episode "The Attack", Misako uses one to defeat a Vermillion Warrior.
  • In The Simpsons Halloween Special Segment "Survival of the Fattest", Marge knocks out Mr. Burns and Smithers just before they kill Homer.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: In the infamous "A Pal for Gary", Gary uses one during the one-on-one battle with Puffy Fluffy.
  • In the Steven Universe episode "Laser Light Cannon", Greg busts out of his van brandishing a waffle iron when he thinks someone is trying to break into it.
  • Weapon of choice for Irma, April O'Neil's dowdy coworker in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She nearly brains Donatello before she realizes who it is.
  • Chris in the first episode of Total Drama World Tour hits Owen over the head with one in the first episode when he freaks due to his fear of flying.
  • In the Wacky Races episode "Idaho a Go-Go", Dastardly lures Penelope Pitstop into a Red Riding Hood scenario, with Muttley as the wolf. Except that Penelope's an Action Girl, so rather than hide from the wolf, she clobbers him with a frying pan. When the real wolf shows up, he doesn't fare any better.

    Real Life 
  • Richard the Lionheart is reputed to have died after being called out of his tent to come see an enemy Mook using a frying pan as a shield. The actual cause of death was being shot by crossbow though. Some versions claim that the lethal bolt was fired from the crossbow of the man with the frying pan. Lucky shot indeed.
  • As mentioned in the trope page; this trope is often seen because yes, Frying Pans can be pretty heavy and several people have put them to use as makeshift weapons in self-defense. Adding to that, if the frying pan has been recently used, it could also be red hot while it's being slung around. Not only that, but it might also have some blisteringly hot oil inside to fling at your would-be attacker, though there's a genuine risk of getting yourself burnt at the same time if you're too clumsy.
  • As the page quote shows, Anthony Bourdain once wrote that if you even think that the frying pan you want to use will dent on someone's head instead of the other way around, you should throw it out and get a heavier one. Please don't actually test frying pans in this way.
  • Back when fighter airplanes were unarmoured, many pilots sat on frying pans to cover themselves from shots from under the plane.
  • A man used a frying pan to fend off a home invader.
  • And this man apparently used one to fend off a crocodile.
  • On a darker note, this Ohio girl murdered her mother by beating her on the head with an iron skillet, then stabbing her in the neck multiple times.


 
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The Chef - AvM Shorts Ep 32

Despite having experience of sword fighting, fighting dangerous foes larger than life, and saving the world of Minecraft once, the main cast could not take on the village chef and steal the Master Cookbook.

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Main / ChefOfIron

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