Hand Gagging

Past Pete: Would somebody tell me what's been goin' on here? Who was that creep, anyways?
Sora: Hello? That creep was... [Goofy clamps his hand over Sora's mouth]
Goofy: Sora, that's a secret!

— Kingdom Hearts II

Similar to the Finger Muzzle, this is a more direct and easier way of shutting someone up. If Alice is being kidnapped, the best way to prevent her from crying out is by grabbing her and covering her mouth. Not only that, but Bob could easily do it if he just wanted her to stop talking for some reason.

This gesture can be threatening or playful, depending on the context. Rescuers may sometimes use this if they have to sneak up on a friend from behind and don't want them alerting nearby foes by yelling in surprise. If in hiding, the more self-controlled character may use it to keep the frightened character from crying out inadvertently.

It bears noting that this method of trying to subdue someone can be defeated if the person doing it is capable of feeling pain, namely by biting down hard on said person's hand.

This is Truth in Television to some extent — in situations where a child is kidnapped, the kidnapper will often grab them and place a hand over their mouth, since sedating them is unnecessary due to their small size making it harder for them to fight back.

Compare with Finger Muzzle, Food Shove Gag, "Shut Up" Kiss, Standard Female Grab Area, and Finger on Lips. See also Bound and Gagged. Contrast Forgot to Gag Him.

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Examples:

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• The logo for Huttons Hams involved one man doing this to another ("Don't argue, don't argue — Huttons is best.")

Anime and Manga

• Berserk: Played for laughs during the Griffith rescue, where Princess Charlotte has a quite uncharacteristic temper tantrum at the thought of not going with the now-exiled Band of the Hawk in order to stay with Griffith. To shut her trap, Casca, Guts, Judeau, and her maid Anna all put their hands over Charlotte's mouth.
• Bleach: When Nnoitra forces Orihime to watch Tesra curb-stomp Ichigo, the anime has him place a hand over her mouth. In the manga, he actually forces his fingers inside her mouth, which mimics a common kink in Japanese porn.
• In Brave10, Yukimura clamps his hand over Rokuro's mouth just before their Chained Heat moment, not wanting him to sonic blast the ninjas surrounding them before the crowd of civilians can clear. Rokuro's protests go unheard.
• Death Note: Rem does this to Misa after she makes herself visible and explains Misa's connection to her.
• Dragon Ball Z: Android 20 (a.k.a. Dr Gero) uses this on both Yamcha and Piccolo on separate occasions in order to drain their energy whilst keeping them quiet.
• Fruits Basket: When Kagura almost lets slip to Tohru about Kyo's true form, Kyo covers her mouth with his hand.
• Naruto: Sasuke does this to Sakura in the Forest of Death.
• One Piece: Heartwarming example. As their escape from Enies Lobby begins, Robin uses her powers to do this to Luffy when he starts thanking her for saving him, due to the fact that she should be thanking him for saving her.
• Pokémon: The Original Series: In the episode "Holy Matrimony!", Jessie does this to James several times.
• Sound! Euphonium: People do this to Kumiko a few times (including Kumiko to herself) to cut her off from saying things she probably shouldn't.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: In the Duelist Kingdom arc, Mai ends up kidnapped this way by Panik, who forces her later to duel him and takes all of her starchips.

Comic Books

• Batman will occasionally surprise his enemies from behind this way.
• Firefly: The Sting: When Saffron corners Kaylee in the spa, she cuts off her cry for help by muffling her mouth with her hand.
• Superman: Happened to Lois Lane quite a bit in the Golden Age comics.
• Talywn did this to Vorn in Ratchet & Clank (2010) when she, he, and Ratchet were trying to sneak past some Mr. Zurkon robots to defeat Artemis Zogg.
• Robin: Shiva appears from nowhere to clamp her hand over Robin's mouth when he starts to call for her after she seemed to have taken off on him without a word to prevent him from giving their presence away when they're tracking the Ghost Dragons back to Sir Edmund Dorrance.
• In Violine, Redder, after Violine sees him thinking about his (nude) wife, does this to Violine to keep her quiet. Other characters do it too when Violine threatens to reveal their secrets.

Fan Works

• Adjacency: In "Old Habits Die Hard", Trixie cuts short a song Pinkie was about to launch in by shoving her hoof over her mouth.
• A Certain Unknown Level 0: In the sixth chapter, Touma shuts up Misaka when they're hiding by clapping a hand over her mouth.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles Mini-sodes: Naruko, Naruto's female clone, does this to Hinata while kidnapping the latter from behind.
• Once Again: Ben does this to Shanks to prevent him from interfering in letting Luffy explain.
• Oversaturated World: Group Precipitation: He'll Save Every One of Us, by Masterweaver and FoME: Applejack prevents Pinkie Pie from blurting out stuff by covering her mouth:

  (FoME)
  
  "Flash Sentry says he wasn't fully aware of what happened, but you were there with him. What can you tell us?"
  "Well—"
  Applejack put a hand over Pinkie's mouth. "No comment."
  The reporter blinked. "But—"
  "No. Comment."

• Pokémon the Movie: Voice of the Ocean: When Flash Sentry rescues Sonata Dusk from Black and White, he pulls her between two buildings to hide and covers her mouth with his hand to keep her quiet until Malamar and Cloyster pass them.
• The Tale of Nagato Uzumaki: Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru do this at the same time to Fuu before she can say out loud that Naruto is a Jinchuriki.
• True Potential: When Haku almost accidentally reveals Hinata's feelings for Naruto to the latter, the Hyuga panics and covers Haku's mouth before whispering to him that she's planning on talking to the Uzumaki about it later that night.
• Witching Hour: When Gaz snaps at her handmaid Gretchen for almost dropping her bathing oils, the girl panics and babbles, "I'm sorry, Your Highness! Please don't give me boils, or turn me into a frog, or—" Sara, another handmaid, quickly covers Gretchen's mouth with her hand to stop her from saying more things that make it sound like she believes the accusations of Gaz being a witch. However, Gaz hears enough to hit her Berserk Button, and she throws them both out of her room.

Films — Animation

• Atlantis: The Lost Empire: "I have some questions for you and you are not leaving this city until they are answered."
• The Chipmunk Adventure: This occurs twice in a row when both the 'Munks and 'Ettes cross paths in Athens. First, Brittney does this to Jeanette when she tried to explain the mysterious man following them in Bermuda. Alvin then does the same to Simon before he could say he experienced the same thing.
• In Frozen, Kristoff does this to Anna when their sled suddenly stops in the middle of the woods and Anna is insistent on continuing their conversation about the love experts Kristoff is friends with despite him audibly telling her, "Stop talking." Anna then pushes Kristoff's hand away from her mouth, forcing him to give her a loud "SSHHH!" while he scans the surroundings looking for wolves about to ambush them.
• In The Great Mouse Detective, Basil does this to Dawson, as does Ratigan to Olivia—before she bites it.
• In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor does this to Hugo when he tries to spit on a mime.
• A monkey does this to Mowgli in The Jungle Book (1967).
  • Then Baloo does it twice in the sequel, the second time carrying him behind his back while doing so.
• Happens to Littlefoot in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure when he is captured.
• Lilo & Stitch: Nani does this to Lilo near the beginning, and shortly after wraps her entire arm around her mouth as well. Lilo licks her.
• In Mulan, Mulan briefly silences Mushu this way during his "dishonor" rant.
• In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sally's disembodied hand does this to Santa Claus when she's rescuing him.
• In Disney's version of Peter Pan, Wendy is silenced this way twice, once by Peter and once by a pirate.
• Pocahontas hushes Nakoma this way when John Smith approaches.
• Mojo Jojo does this to the Professor at a critical moment in The Powerpuff Girls Movie, preventing him from calling out to the girls. It turns into more of an arm gag as he kidnaps him from the scene. It's a smart move, since the girls are looking for him and have ridiculously good hearing. They heard his first call of distress from an asteroid in deep space.
• Flora shushes the other fairies this way in Sleeping Beauty. A goon also does this to Phillip for a second.
• In Tarzan, a villain gags Jane this way, causing her to bite him.
• In the Disney Fairies movie "The Legend of the Neverbeast," Fawn clamps her hand over Tinker Bell's mouth to keep her from screaming in front of a baby hawk.
  Fawn: Okay, just try not to scream. Deal?
  Tinker Bell: [sees hawk and gasps, about to scream]
  Fawn: [covers Tink's mouth] Shhh!
  Tinker Bell: [muffled] No deal! No deal! No deal!
• In Turning Red, Miriam does this to Priya then also to Abby as they reveal to Mei how Miriam has been taking care of Mei's Tamagotchi.

Films — Live-Action

• In Almost Famous, Will does this to Polexia after discovering that he's still in bed with her while trying to take a call from Rolling Stone. Hilariously, the hand that he puts over her mouth happens to be the one with all the notes that he was going to use to bullshit his way through the call (because he's extremely far behind on his article), so he's forced to switch hands...
• Beetlejuice Betelgeuse does this to Lydia during the wedding, in order to prevent her from saying no during the vows. However, it also ends cheerfully for Lydia at the end as Adam affectionately silences Barbara this way, who is calling him out on his own bad school grades.
• In Big Fish, conjoined twins Ping and Jing find Edward hiding in their dressing room from North Korean soldiers. Jing calls for a guard, but Ping hand-gags her and simply tells the guard to beef up security. Edward, of course, avoids being seen by the guard.
• Bird Box. After Tom is killed, Melanie is shown doing this to herself to stifle the sound of her own sobbing.
• Black Crab. One of the soldiers is caught talking on the radio moments before an enemy helicopter lands, and is accused of being a spy. Midway through his interrogation the troops landed by the helicopter pass close by, and he's hand-gagged in case he calls out to them.
• Blood Harvest: Mervo covers Jill's mouth while he tries to explain to Gary what she's doing in their secret lair.
• In Blossoms in the Dust, a brassy, fast-talking little girl dropped off at Edna's Orphanage of Love manages to get across the idea that she'sa hooker's child. After the policeman says she was scooped up in a raid, the little girl says "Oh sure, we're always being raided, my mother's a—", being cut off when the cop puts his hand over her mouth.
• The Boston Strangler uses this for a plot point. Albert DeSalvo tries to silence a victim this way, but she bites down on his hand. She survives the assault which leads to him being identified as the Strangler by the wound on his hand.
• When Deakin enters Marica's compartment in Breakheart Pass, he clamps his hand over her mouth and tells her not to scream. When he removes his hand, she opens her mouth as if to scream and he gags her again. The second time she takes the warning and keeps her mouth shut.
• In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid during the second train robbery. Woodcock, thinking Butch and Sundance were going to harm a female train passenger, opens the door to the car with the safe in it, only to find Sundance has the woman like this while Butch imitated her voice.
• In Cloud Atlas, Joe is ambushing Luisa Rey in her apartment, using this trope to muffle her screaming.
• Dances with Wolves. Ten Bears playfully tries to do this to his wife who's telling an embarrassing story about when they were children.
• In The Dark Crystal, Torture Technician SkekTek tries to silence Kira this way when she calls to his caged animals to help her. (Very bad idea. She bites him.)
• Decision Before Dawn: Mauer, a fugitive spy behind German lines running from the Nazis, has found the address Barth gave him. It's in a rooming house that has been badly damaged by Allied bombs. While he tries to find his way through the darkness by lighting matches, a hand shoots out and Hand Gags him. It's Barth.
• Faceless: When Dr. Flamand grabs Barbara from the backseat of Nathalie's car, he clamps his hand over mouth to prevent her from screaming.
• Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks: When Eric surprises Maria in her room, he does so by reaching out from behind the curtain and clamping a hand over her mouth.
• Happens twice to Annabelle, the love interest in The General (1926), first by the leader of the Union squad and later by the hero when he rescues her from the enemy's headquarters.
• Ghost Town (1988): When Langley arrives the town, Kate sees out of the window of the saloon. However, before she can call out, a desiccated hand clamps over her mouth and drags her away from the window.
• In The Horse Soldiers, Kendall tackles Hannah to the ground and clamps his hand over her mouth to prevent her from yelling out to the confederate troops and giving away their position.
• In House on Haunted Hill (1959), Jonas grabs Nora from behind, clamping a hand over her mouth and warning her that she doesn't belong here and should come with him.
• Indochine: Corinne and Jean-Baptiste's guide has to do this to her to stop her from screaming as the two of them, on a hilltop, watch Jean-Baptiste and the baby taken away by soldiers.
• Irréversible: Le Tenia spends most of the infamous eight minute rape scene with his hand over his victim's mouth. One of the many things that makes the scene so horrible to watch is the fact that Alex is not completely silenced, and her continuous muffled screams can be clearly heard by the audience.
• Played for laughs in John Carter, where Tars does this to John, Sola and Dejah when he helps them escape after they have been sentenced to death. Of course, Tharks have four arms, so it makes sense.
• A goblin does this to himself when told to be quiet by his allies in Labyrinth.
• Molly (1983): Jones sneaks up behind Maxie, claps his hand over her mouth, and demands, "Where is she?"
• In Mulholland Dr., Betty is muffling Rita's scream when encountering the corpse.
• Subverted in Operation Finale. When Eichmann's friends turn up to investigate the safe house where Mossad are hiding him, the agents hide him in a closet and one of them gags Eichmann...and then takes the opportunity to attempt to smother him to death, until another agent stops him.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: Will does the "rescuer needs to stop the victim from alerting foes" variant on Elizabeth when they sneak out of the pirate's cave.
• Predator. The Predator appears to be luring Dillon by mimicking Mac's voice whispering to him, when suddenly a hand reaches out and grabs Dillon. Turns out it is Mac, and he then takes his hand off Dillon's mouth and uses it to point out the Invisibility Flicker of the Predator in the trees ahead of them.
• A Quiet Place involves monsters who will attack anyone who makes a sound to draw them, so the protagonists are shown doing this to themselves or others.
• In The Raid (1954), Maj. Benton does this to the sergeant in the commandant's office when and Lt. Keating break-in to steal guns during the escape from the stockade.
• Reform School Girls: Charlie and her Girl Posse clamp a hand over Lisa's mouth when they abduct Lisa from her bed and drag her off to her initiation.
• Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt: When Antonio grabs Barbara from behind the tree, he clamps his hand over her mouth to prevent her screaming.
• More than once in Rovdyr, one of the hunters will grab one of the protagonists from behind, clamp a hand over their mouth, and drag them off.
• In Seven Samurai, Heihachi does this to Kikuchiyo after he blows his team's cover.
• In Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend, Nell catches Devlin breaking into her bedroom and threatens to scream. Devlin first of all uses his hand to gag her, before leaving her Bound and Gagged on the bed.
• Short Circuit: Shortly after Number 5 escapes, Ben and Crosby attempt to persuade their boss Howard Mariner to let them try to catch it instead of destroying it:
  Mariner: What if you don't catch it?! What if it goes out and melts down a busload of nuns?! How would you like to write the headline on that one?!
  Ben: Nun soup?
  Crosby: [putting his hand over Ben's mouth] BEN!
• Happens to Anabel in A Simple Wish by Boots.
• Sputnik. Dr. Tatyana Klimova is hiding in the back of a truck when she sees the alien monster being fed Bound and Gagged prisoners by the military. After witnessing the alien do a Deadly Lunge and rip a man's head off, she drops her infra-red binoculars and retches. This draws a guard in her direction and she's shown Hand Gagging herself until he leaves, whereupon she finishes vomiting.
• Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back: Early on, Han Solo is trying to find out if Luke has come back to the base from patrol and shuts up C-3PO this way. 3PO expresses exasperation nicely with body language alone.
• Played for horror in The Thing (1982) when the Blair-Thing shows up to kill Garry, simultaneously silencing and assimilating him by MORPHING HIS HAND INTO HIS MOUTH. Afterwards we're shown Garry's body being dragged by the hand-melded mouth.
• In The Thirsty Dead, the old woman who wakes Laura to warn her to flee places her hand over Laura's to prevent her from screaming when as she wakes.
• In Transylvania 6-5000, a little girl who finds a Frankenstein-like monster in the forest opens her mouth as if ready to scream, but the monster's hand suddenly covers it.
• Happens in Vertigo during The Reveal. Kim Novak has just seen her doppelganger (the real Madeleine) fall to her death and we see Galvin muffling her scream.
• In Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, the titular character does this to Mike Teevee to prevent him from telling the geese that Easter is over. If only he knew what was about to happen, he'd do that to Veruca instead...
• In the 1977 The Sweeney movie, Sgt Carter breaks into Regan's barricaded apartment to find him in bed with an escort girl, whereupon Regan slaps his hand over Carter's mouth and wrestles him into the bathroom and turns on the shower to cover their conversation as he thinks his room is being bugged. Unsurprisingly Carter thinks his partner has flipped his lid.

Literature

• Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: From Episode 3, along with Speak in Unison, to prevent Bianca from saying something that would get them in a fight, after she inquired about Rosina and Rosalind's similar names:
  Why do you ask?
  "No reason!" Flora and Gwen shouted in unison, their fingers firmly engaged around the witch's face.
• In Septimus Heap, this is done to Jenna by Wolf Boy when she trips over him and is about to scream, giving them away to the Tracker Ball Sleuth.
• In the first book of The Wheel of Time series, Rand's father uses the friendly variation of this to keep him from crying out when they're being hunted by trollocs. Rand nearly breaks his arm in his panic to get free.
• In The Witches, the boy is yelling for help when the witches have discovered him. Four of them carry him by his arms and legs, and a fifth covers his mouth with her gloved hand.

Live-Action TV

• Subverted in Arrested Development when George does it to Tobias. "Stop licking my hand!"
• In The A-Team episode "When You Comin' Back, Range Rider?", Murdock puts his hand over Lane's mouth briefly when he sneaks up to rescue Hannibal. He lets go quickly once he's sure she isn't going to scream from surprise.
• Breaking Bad: Just before Saul Goodman can get into his car, Walter White stops him from screaming while Jesse Pinkman pulls a black bag over his head, and they drag him off.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: in the episode "Witch", Buffy, all loopy from a spell cast by Amy's body-switched mother, gets booted from the cheerleading squad, letting Amy join. Buffy is about to say too much when Xander puts a hand over her mouth and he and Willow pull her away.
  Buffy: Nooo, you don't want her, she's a wMMMFP!
  Xander: ["finishing" her sentence] ...a wise choice indeed!
• Daredevil (2015): In "The Path of the Righteous", James Wesley clamps a hand over Karen Page's mouth with a chloroformed handkerchief as he's kidnapping her off the front stoop of her apartment building.
• The Dick Van Dyke Show: A benign example happens in "Long Night's Journey into Day." Millie keeps holding up the fishing trip because she won't stop giving Laura last-minute instructions on being alone safely. Exasperated, Jerry climbs out of the car, claps a hand over Millie's mouth, and cheerfully says goodbye to Laura while pulling her back to the car.
• Doctor Who:
  • In "The Time Warrior", Sir Edward's men do this to a sleepy sentry when Sarah and Hal sneak into Irongron's castle.
  • The Tenth Doctor does this to Tallulah in "Daleks in Manhattan" to prevent a Dalek from hearing them.
  • Played straight when a child is abducted by a Cyberman in "Nightmare in Silver", then taken to the next level when the Cyberman detaches its own hand to send after the next abductee.
• Farscape. John Crichton does this to Rygel to stop him interfering in negotiations with a trigger-happy planet they're trying to land on. Rygel eventually tires of this and bites Crichton's hand to make him let go.
• Fawlty Towers: In "The Hotel Inspectors", Basil does this to silence the loudly complaining guest Mr Hutchison, but holds it there for a little too long, and Mr Hutchison faints.
• Game of Thrones. In "Beyond the Wall", Sandor Clegane does this to a wight they're trying to capture and drag back as proof of the undead army, and is thoroughly squicked when the wight's decaying face peels off in his hand.
• The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries: Frank Hardy does this in the 3rd season episode Scorpion's Sting. Going undercover to trap a notorious international kidnapper, Frank ambushes the kidnapper's daughter in her apartment by sneaking up behind her, grabbing her arm, and putting his hand over her mouth to silence her.
• Happens a few times on iCarly. Most notably, Carly licks Sam's hand at one point, exclaiming that it tastes like peanuts and dirt.
• On an episode of I Love Lucy, Ricky does this to both Lucy and Ethel at once, while the two are gabbing about the possibility of the Ricardos moving to a larger, more expensive apartment in the same building. He then firmly asserts, "I won' swish apar'men's!"
• Mcmillan And Wife: Happens to Sally in the episode "The Man Without a Face" when an assassin trying to kill Mac, finds her and clamps his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet as he tells her to cooperate or else....
• Midsomer Murders:
  • In "Blood Wedding", the murderer clamps a hand over the mouth of the third Victim of the Week before killing her by thrusting a hatpin into her ear.
  • In "The Devil's Work", Ursula is gardening when someone creeps up behind her and covers her mouth their hand. They struggle and Ursula kicks him and runs away.
• Hand Gagging is done often to geeky Seth by his girlfriend Summer in The O.C., usually in a playful manner when he won't shut up.
• On The Office Jim does this to Dwight while trying to prevent him from doing something stupid. Dwight immediately licks his hand and Jim is left wondering how there was that much saliva.
• Our Miss Brooks: In "Magic Christmas Tree", Miss Brooks puts her hand over Walter Denton's mouth to stop his painfully off-key rendition of "Deck the Halls".
• The Partridge Family: In "Old Scrapmouth," Danny tries to tell Laurie's boyfriend she has braces. Laurie wanted to tell him herself, so Keith covers Danny's mouth with his gloved hand.
• Hilariously done by the host of the game show Password to Betty White, whose partner was given the word "Whip" and who, in turn, gave her the clue "Bull..."; the host knew what direction Betty would take it. See here.
  Betty: (innocently) "Frog?"
• Probe's "Quit-It": While kidnapping Karen, to keep her from making a noise, Austin douses a cloth with chloroform to silence her and knock her unconscious.
• Sherlock. John Watson goes to visit Mycroft Holmes at the Diogenes Club. Turns out there's a rule of strict silence in the tea room, and when he tries to ask where Mycroft is two attendants in padded shoes and white gloves rush in, hand-gag Watson and drag him outside.
• Sister Boniface Mysteries: At the start of "My Brother's Keeper", a dark figure sneaks into Sister Reggie's room and puts a gloved hand over her mouth before waking her. Reggie smashes a jug over his head before realising it is her brother Alfie.
• In the pilot of The Starlost, Devon leaves their City in a Bottle through the door warning of death and is declared as such by the Elders. They're embarrassed when he returns and have him gagged and sentenced to stoning when he tries to tell the others what he has seen.
• Supernatural: Castiel does the "can't let my friend make a noise" version to Dean in the season four finale.
• Victorious: In "Opposite Date", Jade does this to Cat when calling Tori and asking where she and Beck are, all while imitating Cat's voice which fools Tori dead-on.

Video Games

• In Aliens vs. Predator (2010), this is a common way to silence your victims as either a Predator or Alien during grab kills from behind.
• Happens to the titular character in the opening cutscenes in Jak II: Renegade to prevent him from alerting the guards.
• Happens several times in Kingdom Hearts II
  • Goofy does this to Sora to prevent him from revealing that they and Pete are from the future after beating the boss in Timeless River.
  • DiZ does so to Naminé to prevent her from revealing the truth to Roxas.
  • And much later on, before fighting the Experiment in Halloween Town, Sora clamps Jack Skellington's mouth shut when it emerges that he hasn't learned his lesson from earlier with wanting to take over from Santa Claus.
  • Before your fight with him, Xaldin does this to Belle after planting the Beast's Rose next to her.
  • In the manga adaptation, Pete does this to Megara when kidnapping her for Hades. Even though she bites him on the hand, she gets captured.
• Tachyon does this to Captain Qwark near the end of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. Unusual for this trope is that he puts one of the legs of his walking throne over Qwark's mouth, due to being out of reach, as well as keeping Qwark pinned down.
  • Pollyx also does this to Ratchet in the second level in Into the Nexus.
• Happens to Jude in Tales of Xillia by Alvin when grabbing him from behind to prevent him from yelling in surprise and alerting the passing soldiers.
• Luke did this to Clementine in The Walking Dead in Season 2: Episode 3 when he managed to sneak in Carver's camp to lay out a plan to try and break the group free.

Webcomics

• This is suddenly done to Tanna in Ears for Elves when she's hiding in the temple. Whose hand it is isn't revealed until some pages afterwards, creating suspense. When Luero finally releases her, after the priestess has left the temple chamber, Tanna jumps away and it's shown that even she didn't know who was holding her.
• In El Goonish Shive, Susan's Nurture does this to her Nature to symbolize her suppressing that aspect of herself.
• Girl Genius: Happens to Agatha along with Standard Female Grab Area.
  • And here with Agatha and Moloch, with a later Ironic Echo here.
• Homestuck: When Aranea (who is known for telling stories in great detail that go on for ages) starts to tell everyone the story of the pre-scratch troll's Sgrub session, Meenah interrupts her by putting her hand over her mouth and keeping it there while she tells a much shorter version.
• In Weak Hero, Ben tries to call Gray a nerd after he rebuffs a food run with the excuse that he needs to study, but Alex is a little more thoughtful and clamps his hand over Ben's mouth to shut him up.

Web Original

• Naturally it's played for laughs in Dragon Ball Z Abridged.
  Android 20: Hello there!
  Nail: I'm... gonna leave you two alone for now...
  Piccolo: [muffled scream] Naaaail!
  Android 20: Shh, shh, shh... Oh, don't struggle! Just lie back and think of.. Namek!
• Sanders Sides: The assumed leader of the Dark Sides, Janus/Deceit, has the power to force other characters (usually Logan/Logic or Virgil/Anxiety) to silence themselves in this manner.
• The Most Popular Girls in School: In Episode 71, Mackenzie does this to Trisha 2 in order to prevent the latter from blabbling to the Van Burens about what they're going to France for.
  Mackenzie: Shut up, Trisha!
• The True Love List from The Universal Genre Savvy Guide has a rather simple way to get out of this trope:
  If someone capable of feeling pain covers my mouth with their hand, I will make use of my pearly whites at the moment when my captor can least afford to be distracted.
• During the Volume 7 finale of RWBY, Oscar lags behind Team JNR while running from the Atlas military and becomes lost in the halls in Atlas Academy. Suddenly, Nora covers his mouth and pulls him into a dorm while a group of soldiers pass by. This seems like a good thing, except... it's actually Neo, who uses the opportunity to snatch the Relic of Knowledge and try to stab the boy. Cue an Oh, Crap! moment from Oscar.

Western Animation

• In The 7D episode "Water Ya Doin' Dopey," Happy does this to Grumpy after he almost spills an embarrassing secret about the two.
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: April the Gorlock did this to Jimmy Neutron in "Win, Lose and Kaboom" to secretly tell him of a plan to overthrow the evil gameshow host Meldar.
• American Dragon: Jake Long: In the episode "Legend of the Dragon Tooth", Haley gets her first loose tooth and almost accidentally lets slip the family secret in front of her father while discussing it. Luckily, Susan is quick to stop that.
  Haley: But Daddy, it's bugging me!
  Jonathan: Now, Honey Bun, the tooth with fall out when the time comes.
  Susan: Honey, trust me. You won't get that tooth out by pulling it.
  Haley: I know, 'cause it's not a regular tooth. It's a drag—!
  Susan: (hastily covers Haley's mouth) U-Uh, yes, Haley, it is a drag to have such a stubborn tooth! It'll just have to fall out on its own!
• Happens once in Code Lyoko's "End of Take." Odd attempts to pretend to be a ghost in the factory, banging pipes and moaning, but is held down by Jeremie and Yumi. Yumi puts her hand over Odd's mouth.
• The Deep (2015): "Fossil". When the giant crocodile lumbers into sight, Fontaine claps her hand over Ant's mouth to prevent him screaming in panic and giving away their position.
• The Fairly OddParents!: In "The Big Superhero Wish!", Timmy tries to get Cosmo and Wanda wish undo his wish for everyone to have superpowers by saying "I wish there were no more superheroes or supervillains". As he's talking, Negachin covers his mouth to prevent him from saying "...and supervillains", causing the fairies to depower only the heroes.
• Happened several times on Goof Troop:
  • Pete covers PJ's mouth when PJ tries to call him out on his hypocrisy for spending lots of money on a ski trip after refusing to pay him and Max for shoveling snow. Pete resorts to carrying PJ out of the area to shut him up so Goofy doesn't learn about Pete's ulterior motive for the ski trip.
  • Pete covers Pistol's mouth so that the Mrs. Spoonerville contest judges don't learn that the only reason she's doing housework is because he bribed her with fifty dollars.
  • Max covers PJ's mouth when he screams really loudly after a stolen perfume bottle goes missing so that he doesn't wake up the whole town.
  • PJ covers Pistol's mouth so she won't tell Pete that he has a crush on a girl in his class. When caught, he claims he was helping her swallow her dessert.
• Happens frequently to Inspector Gadget's niece, Penny.
  • It also happens to Inspector Gadget himself.
• Happened four times in Josie and the Pussycats:
  • Alan is captured this way in "Plateau of the Apes Plot."
  • In "Spy School Spoof," the Pussycats were delivering fake plans for a top secret device to the villain, thinking if they could convince them they were on his side, he'd let them go. Once they deliver the plans, Alexander goes on to brag about some of their other "escapades" until Alexandra puts her hand over his mouth, telling him not to overdo it.
  • In "The Jumping Jupiter Affair," Alexandra is about to tell off the villain, but Alexander covers her mouth before she can get them in any trouble.
  • Valerie was captured in this fashion in "Swap Plot Flop."
• Lilo & Stitch: The Series: Nani does this to Lilo licking it again.
• In The Loud House episode "Present Tense," Luna puts her hand over Luan's mouth to prevent her from making more of her usual puns.
  • Luna does this to Lola with both hands in the episode "Picture Perfect."
• Happens a few times in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The 'cover muzzle with hoof' variant is pretty common, but there's been a few cases where a pony actually shoved their hoof into another pony's mouth to keep them quiet, namely Applejack trying to keep Fluttershy or Apple Bloom quiet.
• In The Owl House episode "Hunting Palismen", Luz slaps her hand over The Golden Guard's mouth to prevent him from giving away their location to Kikimora. He licks her hand in response, which she slathers back onto his face in turn.
• This happens twice in Phineas and Ferb:
  • In "Put That Putter Away", Candace covers Stacy's mouth with her hand to silence her three times in the episode. It is important to note that Candace is sick in bed throughout the entire episode and has not gotten up to wash her hands, which is likely the reason why Stacy gets sick by the end.
  • Lulu does this to Candace in "Leave the Busting to Us!"
• Happens frequently in Sabrina: The Animated Series, usually by the title character:
  • Sabrina briefly does this to Harvey in "Field Trippin."
  • In "I Got Glue Babe," Sabrina clamps her hand over Gem's mouth to stop her from singing badly.
  • Sabrina does this to Norma in "The Importance of Being Norma" when the latter starts embarrassing her.
  • Happens to Sabrina herself in "Generation Zap" in which both Hilda and Zelda clamp their hands over Sabrina's mouth, silencing her.
  • Sabrina shushes Eiffel this way in "Straight Outta Paris."
• The Simpsons: In the episode "Homer the Great," Bart does this when he drags Lisa away after she annoys Homer with one of her lectures.
• Papa Smurf does this to Sassette in The Smurfs (1981) episode "Chlorhydris' Lost Love" when she is about to reveal where Drusilla is keeping Manfred prisoner, but Papa Smurf only wants the information revealed on the promise that they will be released from being Chlorhydris' captives.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Squidward does this to SpongeBob at the end of "Squid's Day Off", before he could say "Have you finished those errands?" one last time before Squidward stops him and says he's done.
  • In "Patty Caper", Mr. Krabs does this to SpongeBob right before he could say he didn't do anything about the secret ingredient when Mr. Krabs accuses him of theft.
• Star Wars Resistance: In "Synara's Score," the Literal-Minded Neeku interprets an order not to talk to anyone about a top-secret job Team Fireball is working on as meaning he has to hand-gag himself whenever he speaks. He later does it to Kaz while Tam and Synara are leaving the repair shop.
• Often happens to April and Irma on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Total Drama:
  • When another team gets their hands on the briefcase with the prize money in "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island", Heather decides it's time to rob them and asks Harold if he's in. Harold is all too happy to and prepares to reminisce about something that happened at computer camp when Heather cuts him off by putting her hand over his mouth.
  • As the ones who solved the previous challenge, Beth and Courtney get to decide the order in which the contestants will attempt the next challenge in "2008: A Space Owen". Beth wants to say that they'll go first, but Courtney has a better idea and shoves her hand in Beth's face. Courtney makes the order guys first, then Beth, and she'll be the last one so she can learn from the others' efforts.
  • Chris puts his hand over Sierra's mouth when she reveals she's been interviewing people from his past and readies herself to spill more of his secrets in "Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better".
  • In "Aftermath I: Bridgette Over Troubled Waters", Blaineley is halfway into introducing Bridgette as someone with a kissing problem when Geoff cuts her off by placing his hand over her mouth.
  • While standing in an avalanche-sensitive area in "Slap Slap Revolution", Lindsay mishears Chris's instruction to stay quiet as that there's a sale at the Khaki Bar and screams in delight. Both Tyler and Cody slap a hand over her mouth timely to prevent the snow from coming loose. Noah also pinches Owen's lips shut in warning in case he'd think about being loud.
  • Gwen earns Team Amazon's disapproval in "The Am-AH-Zon Race" when she notes that a challenge in the Amazon Rainforest should be a lucky break for them. There's a trend of teams losing if they say they're going to win, so Gwen might have just jinxed the team. As she stammers out a defense, Sierra puts her hand over Gwen's mouth to get her to just stop.
  • In "Can't Help Falling in Louvre", Chris ends Lindsay's squealing at the prospect of shopping in Paris by pressing her lips together with his fingers.
  • In "I See London...", the Ripper jumps down behind Noah and picks him up, holding a hand over his mouth to prevent him from alerting Owen, who at that time has his back turned towards them. He disappears with his captive before Owen turns around.
  • Sierra is an ordained minister and intends to trick Cody into marrying her in "Niagara Brawls". After she says her vow, she tries to get him to say "I do," regardless of context. At the customs booth, Sierra slaps a hand over Cody's mouth to stop him from answering Chef's questions and buy herself time to get Chef to ask one to which the answer could be "I do." Chef sends the both of them back for Sierra's craziness.
  • Ella is forbidden from singing for the rest of the competition in "A Blast From the Past" or she'll be removed at Chris's discretion as host. Sugar wants to get rid of Ella, so she encourages her to change his mind with a song. Sky quickly places her hand over Ella's mouth to stop her from getting herself eliminated.
  • Sky puts her hand over Sugar's mouth in "Mo' Monkey, Mo' Problems" when the latter is about to tell Chris that Ella sang despite his orders not to. She simultaneously lies that she herself hypnotized the bear.
  • Sugar saves Sky and herself from a bunch of bears by farting them into submission in "Sky Fall". Sky is downed to and when she groggily wakes up, she immediately asks what happened. Sugar asks her if she remembers the nine cabbages she consumed earlier, prompting Sky to slap her hand over the other's mouth to prevent her from explaining more.
• The spies on Totally Spies! frequently do this to each other.
• The Transformers has Ironhide push his hand in Huffer's face to shut him up. In "The Rebirth, Part 1", Hardhead supposedly covers Blurr's mouth with his hand to get him to stop talking, but the animation is done so that the entire action is obscured by Hardhead's back, which makes it look like a "Shut Up" Kiss.

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