Share the Male Pain

Two Fisted Wedgie: A wedgie so powerful, even girls can feel it.

"In the era in which this fight took place, turning a man's junk into cube steak was technically allowed in MMA rules. The referee practically had a nervous breakdown as he struggled against his instincts to stop this inhuman basket strangling. There was so much testicle damage being done that 20 years in the future, The Pedro's son was shrieking at his own hand while he faded from existence. The crowd booed and whistled and sometimes threw garbage because no one could agree on the proper social etiquette for watching a man legally kill a penis."

— Seanbaby, "The 6 Least Sportsmanlike Moments in MMA"

Commonly used in comedy series/movies, this is any instance where other male characters seem to sympathetically feel it whenever another male character has found himself to be the victim of a Groin Attack. Usually complimented by a loud groan and the cradling of their testicles, as if they had been hit there themselves. A common comment is "That's Gotta Hurt." You know it's bad when even the females can feel the male pain. It doesn't necessarily have to be a blow to the groin, however. A similar response can be made for another form of injury that looks suitably painful, such as a leg split, a belly flop onto water, or such.

If the one delivering the kicks is an Action Girl, Tsundere or all of the above, part of the reaction probably comes from wondering if they're next.

Like Groin Attack, this is rarely applied to females in pain except comedically, but there are a few exceptions. The closest female equivalent is for mothers to wince during scenes of other women giving birth.

Contrast Instant Soprano, in which it's the victim of the Groin Attack whose reaction emphasizes its painfulness. Related to the same emotions present in Eye Scream. The Animals Fear Neutering trope is, in part, a byproduct of this one.

Might involve a Sympathetic Wince, possibly even as a Universal Group Reaction.

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Examples:

Advertising

• This whiskey commercial lampshades the fact that, like whiskey itself, getting hoofed in the nuts is something well understood by different cultures.

Anime and Manga

• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, when the Dai-Gurren is attacked in its crotch, all men (except Leeron) do this trope.
• In Slayers Next, Lina gets cursed to feel all the pain she inflicts on others; naturally, Xellos gets her to invoke this trope in the course of the explanation.
• In One Piece upon seeing Franky subjected to severe testicular torture at the "hands" of Nico Robin (which the anime chose to show five times) to convince him to join the crew, Chopper immediately breaks out in screams of painful protest while Luffy starts yelling at Robin to stop (Zoro and Sanji are not present). Even Nami finds it in herself to speak up about the poor man's agony. Even members of the crowd, including one or two women, who had earlier yelled at Franky to Please Put Some Clothes On, found this to be just a little much. Franky calls them on it.
  Franky: You ain't got a clue how this feels.
  • An earlier case happened during Luffy's fight against Don Krieg. When Luffy punches his hand through a spiked cape to hit Don Krieg, several of the Baratie's chefs clutch their hands and cringe.
• Occurs during a manga episode of Ranma ½ when Akane and Shampoo are trying to get Ranma to be their partner through an obstacle course. Shampoo grabs one leg and starts dragging, Akane grabs the other and starts dragging... until the hallway splits and Ranma gets slammed against the corner in a most unfortunate position. Mousse, a romantic rival who hates Ranma and has been more or less trying to kill him all series, winces, and remarks that even he wouldn't have wished that on Ranma.
• In one episode of Crayon Shin-chan, Misae and Shinnosuke switch bodies. So as Misae (in Shin's body) chases after Shin to get him to stop doing weird stuff in her body, she accidentally trips against a short table, and of course, hits herself in the nads. Then she screams in pain and wails, "Why didn't you guys tell me it hurt this badly!? Oh God, I never knew! I've never KNOWN a pain this bad! Well, except for wracking period cramps for two out of five days in a month, and popping out two kids out of the (beep) after several excruciating hours and (more examples) and...!!"
• In MÄR, the men in the public do this when Jack gets defeated with a Groin Attack by Pano in their first match.
• Black Lagoon: Lovelace maid (and protege to the Bloodhound of Florencia A.K.A. Roberta) Fabiola Iglesias comes to the Yellow Flag. A Too Dumb to Live cartel gangster grabs her by the collar and she proceeds to reverse-kick him in the groin. With a heel blade. The entire bar winces.
• During a fight in Change 123, Motoko (at that moment Hibiki) jumps into a fight with a Yakuza member by stepping on his sword, which flips around and slices him right in his...man area. All the other yakuza, the group leader, Kousukegawa, and Motoko's own adoptive father (and by now, probably you) all grimace, and chastise her for the move.
• Haikyuu!!: Downplayed. When Hinata gets hit in the crotch by one of Kindaichi's spikes, all of the other players present go Blue with Shock — including Tsukishima — and Kindaichi himself openly admits he feels bad about it. Even one of the coaches present looks visibly uncomfortable after bearing witness.
• During episode 6 of Majikoi! Love Me Seriously!, Momoyo and the girls demonstrate the proper way to erotically eat a mushroom-shaped lollipop at a festival. Every male in the vicinity is totally mesmerized...and then they all aggressively bite the heads off the treats, causing every one of them to collapse in pain.
• In Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva Emmy Altava uses a groin attack on one of Descole's troops. Clamp Grosky sees this and proceeds to hold his groin.
• In episode 2 of Onegai My Melody, the Monster of the Week gets bitten on the crotch by a mouse. While the girls laugh, the guys are horrified.
• Episode 10 of Gundam Build Fighters Try has Mirai unleashing a Jigen Haoh-style Shoryuken on an opponent's Gunpla. Since she's using the Petitgguy (a baby-sized Beargguy) against a ∀ Gundam, the attack strikes it squarely in the cockpit region, which causes the Turn A's pilot and every single male in attendance to clutch themselves and go white with shock.
• In the first episode of Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!, Mahiro covers himself and shudders when Nyarko Rider Kicks a Nightgaunt below the belt.
• In My Hero Academia, when Midoriya gets punched in the groin by a surly child, the entirely of Class 1-A — boys and girls alike — go white with shock while his best male friend Iida runs up to check on him and shouts "How dare you do that to Midoriya's scrotum!"
• In chapter 6 of I'm a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl's Pet, Aria (the aforementioned Elf Girl) ends up in a duel against Kassman. He ends up immobilized (thanks to the titular Behemoth's attack), leaving him on his backside with spread legs, as Aria goes to end the fight with an axe-heel kick. The reader doesn't actually get to see the blow, but a few male audience members are shown grabbing their bits in horror, leaving very little doubt to where she aimed her strike.
• Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online: One of LLENN's first kills in the second Squad Jam tournament has her making use of her avatar's small size to charge between a guy's legs with a knife. Given that she immediately goes for an instant-kill hit while he's squealing in pain, she obviously didn't aim there for the HP damage. When the scene cuts to the audience in the Squad Jam lobby, several male watchers are holding their groins.
• The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior: Sayaka recounts the story of how she had an awkward reunion with an ex-boyfriend at a group date. When he forcefully kissed her, she took off one of her pumps and clocked him in the balls, prompting the two resident males of the Kawai Complex, Usa and Shiro, to hold their own groins and groan/moan in pain.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Jaden and the other male duelists share looks of discomfort when Crowler takes a direct attack in the groin.

Comedy

• This is what happens when a Japanese comedy troupe takes the concept and runs with it. How good are you at tongue twisters?
• Dara O'Briain presented a Rare Female Example when talking about birthing classes bringing up one important topic, which he'd set up for over the course of a minute.
  O'Briain: When I say something in about a minute's time, every woman in this room is gonna make a noise. [...] During the process, there's a point where a decision may have to be made... — Icannotapologizeenough — ...between a tear and a cut.
  Audience: Ohhhhhhhh.
  O'Briain: There's the noise.

Comic Books

• Green Arrow: In issue #0 of Green Arrow (2011), Oliver Queen is showing off his archery skills to two of his friends. Instead of hitting the apple on the dummy's head, the arrow lands right in the dummy's crotch. His male friend winces at the sight of it.
  Oliver Queen: I meant to do that.

Fan Works

• Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past: All the teenage males of the Weasley family, including Harry, silently cringe when they learn about Ginny's revenge on Percy. She soaked his underwear in a heat-activated Shrinking Solution.
• In the Iron Man fanfic Let's Dance Buttercup, Tony accidentally kicks Captain America in the nuts and every man promptly winces at the pain.
• In With Strings Attached, when As'taris slices off the penis-sword of the living statue he's battling, the four wince as one.
• Shirou in his Rage Against the Heavens rant in The Hill of Swords.
  Shirou: I've decided that I shall slaughter the innocent. I shall murder all who stand in my way, sparing none, until my name is synonymous with fear itself, thus cementing my status as an Anti-Hero. Then, once my reign of terror is finally ended, I shall wait patiently at the Throne of Heroes for however how long it takes until one of the infinite realities that exist that still performs the ritual of the Holy Grail War summons me forth. Then, I shall resume killing all around me until my bloodstained hands hold the Holy Grail itself. Once I have the all-powerful artifact, I shall use it to force the Root of the World, the wellspring of all creation, to assume a human male form in my presence. And then I'm going to kick it in the balls so hard that all of reality will simultaneously feel it.
• In A Frog in Arkham Asylum, Jackie feels some sympathy for Drago after an accidental Groin Attack by Jade.
• Near the end of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic A Voice Among the Strangers, a goat is munching on a pillow, angering the owner of said pillow. We never get to see what the goat experiences, but at the end of the train ride the goat is clearly in… distress. The guard stallion, looking over the token human Jessica, moves his hind legs together a bit more than usual. Jessica is confused by the action.
• In A Father's Wrath The entire male half of the audience at the Chunin Exams exchanges sympathy winces after Shikamaru suffers a Groin Attack at the end of his match.
• An Inversion of this can be found in the comments for a lemon fic that involved molten gold being used as a lubricant.
  "Ow my penis! I don't even HAVE a penis, but OW! MY PENIS!!"
• In the Bleach / RWBY crossover Soul Hunter, everybody cringes in sympathy when Cardin kicks Jaune below the belt. Even Hollow Ichigo, who comments that as much as he enjoys kicking people's asses and being a Combat Pragmatist, he would never do that to another man.
• In the Sonic 2 adaptation Rising Star, Robotnik has one of these during the boss fight in the Oil Ocean Zone.
  Sonic's only answer came in the form of a deadly leap, body curled over to crash into the vehicle's shell with devastating force, slicing through the metal and putting it out of commission.
  
  At least, that was the plan. The reality was that his oiled body hit Robotnik's equally oiled submarine, skidded forward to straddle the fin at the end and send Sonic into his own, very private world of pain, then slithered off into the oil with a gloomp.
  
  Robotnik sucked in his breath with a sharp hiss, eyes gleaming with demonic amusement and perhaps a tiny hint of involuntary male sympathy.
  
  Robotnik: Ooh. Felt that, Sonic.
• Born to Be Wilde: A variant that's heavily Played for Laughs. After Judy, Jimmy, and Carla are arrested in the Outback part of Zootopia, they're each interrogated. Carla is describing her version of events as best as she can, but she doesn't know what a double entendre is and made the mistake of mentioning that (because the fight occurred in a "naturalist" bar), the Mook she fought was completely nude. Thus, most of her details of the fight sound like double entendres that have her interrogators wincing in sympathy for what Carla apparently did to the hippo's private region. When Nick later explains to her (while laughing himself sick what she accidentally said, she's horrified and tries to get her interrogation tape erased.
• In Unconventional Harry Ginny hits Draco's crotch with the bag containing Harry's Triwizard Tournament winnings.
  Harry winced sympathetically, even if it was Malfoy, as did all the other boys who saw what had happened. It was just a guy thing.
• The New Adventures of Invader Zim: When Norlock resorts to a Groin Attack to win his fight with Mortos, every other male present — human, Irken, and underworld monster — winces in sympathetic pain.
• Fates Collide: Mordred, Cleopatra, Nitocris, and Tomoe Gozen (who are all girls) wince in sympathy when Yang hits Astolfo in the groin so hard it breaks his pelvis. Achilles, Robin Hood, and Ren wince when they are told about this. Later, Jaune winces too.
• In The Wolf Lord when Susan accidentally hits James in the crotch with her elbow, all the other Hufflepuff boys cross their legs and groan.
• In the Pokémon Reset Bloodlines side story "The Wild Boy from Sinnoh", Hareta encounters a trainer named Park and challenges him to a battle. Unfortunately, he misses his Poké Ball throw and ends up hitting Park right in the family jewels. Everyone nearby instantly winces in sympathy.
• Haunted Jaded Eyes:
  Severus winced in sympathy when a certain spell hit Nott. He didn't care if the man lived or died really, but to be hit with that spell in that area, well who could blame him for wincing? Everyone else had done the same thing; an invisible boot kicking you between the legs would be excruciatingly painful.
• In A Mother's Love xx Going Grey Snape winces while watching a Pensieve memory of Harry kicking a Death Eater in the crotch.
• In Reclaim Fred and George mess with Harry's booby-trapped desk. When Harry comments that the prank they triggered will make having sex and taking a piss difficult for the next few days, Mr. Weasley and Voldemort wince.
• Evershade: When Dr. Emilly discusses how a penis is handled when a Gender Bender from male to female happens:
  I clenched my teeth, and stood up. "I'm a guy. I'm still a guy!" I stomped my foot. "I've still got a cock, and-"
  "And it will surely go the way of the dodo." She sang to me. "It could just disappear into your black stuff overnight. Oooor maybe it'll just fall off, and turn into dust. Or maybe it could even slowly turn into a vagina, starting with the balls pulling inside into your ovaries, the sack turning into your lips, the length sinking inside, and the tip turning into your little clit." She suddenly seemed to have a sparkle in her eyes. "Wouldn't it be amazing to watch that process happen?" The three men shuddered in unison, but none more than me, as that vision might very well be my reality.
• Realm of Entwined Science and Sorcery — Academy City: Tamamo-no-Mae says if she finds whoever is responsible for the monsters that are attacking Academy City, she'll nail them with her Polygamist Castration Fist, which makes the males in the party shudder.
• In Boldores And Boomsticks after Yang gives a Team Skull grunt a Groin Attack, every male present is wincing in pain, even the Pokémon.
• J-WITCH Series: When the Bound and Gagged Will kicks Daolon Wong in the crotch in order to delay his attempt to drain the magic of the Heart of Kandrakar in "The Precious Mask", Tarakudo winces and remarks that's going to leave a mark.
• In Cronus Hermione kicks Cormac in the crotch several times, then stomps his groin, after beating him up for trying to gang-rape her and all the other male students present wince.
• In Apex Harry punches a Hufflepuff in the crotch during a fight and most of the male onlookers wince.
• In Out of Azkaban Harry and Sirius are dueling.
  Harry simply ducked out of the way from the spell. "Phasmaleda!"
  
  All males and most females in the room winced collectively as a ghostlike foot appeared and kicked the Defense Professor in the groin with inhuman force.
• In The Serpent’s Vow, learning that Nephthys publicly castrated Heru'ur is enough for O'Neill to look surprised, horrified, proud and disgusted at the same time.
• In Harry Potter, Unexpected Animagus all males except Flitwick and a goblin flinch and cross their legs when Hermione mentions that goblins used to turn the scrotums of offensive wizards into coin purses.
• In Dreams Sometimes Don't End Tonks kicks Remus in the balls so hard that in addition to the other men cringing and covering their groins, the women wince.
• Vow of Nudity: When Fiora zaps a demon in the nuts, every male townsperson watching the fight oooh's in sympathy.
• The Huntsman of Red V2: Team CRDL is given an artifact that induces Synchronization with the opponent, so they defeat Team PRWN, who are all girls, by having Cardin kick Sky in the groin, knocking Sky out and crippling PRWN with pain. The boys all wince while the girls are skeptical. Glynda thinks they are being drama queens while Ozpin says she wouldn't understand.
• RealityCheck's Nyxverse: In Alicornundrum, after Prince Blueblood is scared off by Twilight's Love Interest during a visit to the Canterlot royal palace, he tries a Super Window Jump. He ends up taking a flagpole somewhere uncomfortable, and the other stallions (and Luna) react accordingly.
  "Too bad he didn't catch it between his front hooves," [a royal guard] muttered. Every male in the room winced. Luna leaned out the window.
  "Art thou all right, nephew?"
  "Can I get back to you on that, auntie?" came the faint, squeaky reply.
  Luna grimaced. "Go help him down," she told two of the pegasus guards. "...gently."
• In Harry Potter and The (Cursed) Power of (Mad) Love Pansy kicks Draco in the crotch for taking liberties with her because of their marriage contract and every sentient male within earshot winces and crosses their legs when they hear his screams. This includes even ghosts and portraits.
• In Failure To Thrive when Hermione escapes from capture by Rabastan Lestrange and Harry states that her wandless trouser shrinking charm is "awfully powerful" all of the younger males groan in unison.

Films — Animated

• Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms sees Jax, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Stryker wince or just generally become horrified at Johnny Cage being punched in the balls by D'Vorah.
• Monsters vs. Aliens: When General W.R. Monger gives a wedgie to the poor "nerd" who questions the wisdom of unleashing a monster problem to fight an alien problem, everyone else in the board room cringes.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Love Guru during a diner scene a meal called "nuts in a sling" is prepared by Pitka’s assistant. It is two lychee nuts in a dough pouch. His assistant asks him if he wants his nuts crushed and Pitka responds incredulously with "doesn’t everyone". As they are whacked with the wooden mallet Pitka exclaims and grunts and groans. Jane goes from entertained to wincing. He shouts out his safe word. The next step is dipping it in hot oily water. Pitka groans in discomfort at first, hissing and groaning then moans in pleasure.
  • The hockey team does this when Coach Cherkoff punches Pitka.
  • Jay and Trent, the commmentators, react this way to Darren being elbowed during a hockey fight.
• In She's the Man, the entire soccer team reacts in this form when Amanda Bynes' character is hit in the crotch with a soccer ball. Bynes (who is impersonating a guy) reacts last after seeing the other guys do it.
• In Austin Powers Goldmember, when Dr. Evil is hit in his crotch with a meteor globe. Goldmember, a eunuch, groans at the same time Dr. Evil does and puts his hands on his groin. Frau Farbissina also reacts.
• Hot Shots! Part Deux has this trope to the nines. Spoofing on Blood Sport, Charlie Sheen's character and his opponent rush at each other and collide, with the implication being that they drove their knees into each other's tender spots. The crowd winces en masse before cutting back to the opponent, whose cheeks are puffed out... before spitting out two walnuts and saying "You win" in falsetto and falling backward.
• In Bananas, Fielding Melish cringes at the mention of the word "castration."
• In Clue, when Mrs. White mentions what besides her husband's head was cut off, the seated men cross their legs protectively.
• In Spaceballs, the bridge crew of Spaceball One have come to learn the hard way what pissing off Dark Helmet means. When he insists that nobody saw his latest faux pas, they all cover up in anticipatory terror.
  Dark Helmet: I always drink coffee when I watch radar! [...] Everybody knows that!
  Crew: Of course we do, sir!
• Curiously averted in Idiocracy, where the incredibly popular Show Within a Show "Ow, My Balls" features a man continually taking blows to the crotch. Everyone thinks the show is hilarious, and his fans even pay "tribute" when he's making public appearances. Perhaps the people of the future are too dumb to recognize sympathy?
• In Kick-Ass 2, Colonel Stars and Stripes demonstrates his dog Eisenhower's training to bite people's dicks on command. Kick-Ass gasps and covers himself.
• In Krippendorf's Tribe, both male and female audience members respond like this to video footage of a (faked) circumcision ritual.
• On the Buses: After seeing Stan get a Groin Attack via air hose courtesy of some of the new female bus drivers, Jack can only cross his eyes in discomfort.
• In Pulp Fiction, Marsellus Wallace tells Butch to "step aside" and proceeds to fire a round of buckshot into Zed's crotch. Butch awkwardly covers his genitals while looking on.
• In Real Steel, Midas delivers a Groin Attack to Noisy Boy. Since both are non-sentient robots operated by humans with controllers, Noisy Boy feels no pain. However, the males in the audience visibly wince when this happens. Like Real Life boxing, it's implied that this move would have been illegal in an official match.
• Early in You Don't Mess with the Zohan, the titular character (a Badass Israeli) and his Palestinian archnemesis The Phantom are engaged in a Feel No Pain contest. The Phantom grabs a piranha and sticks it to his cheek while smiling. Zohan grabs the piranha and drops it down his shorts and looks nonchalant as it does its thing in there. The Phantom, meanwhile, is visibly pained looking at this.
• The infamous scene in There's Something About Mary where Ben Stiller tries to zip up too quickly and gets stuck. This is the reaction of every man that sees the predicament he got himself in - until it gives way to No Sympathy for managing to get the zipper all the way to the top.
• In Hostel Part II: Beth kills Stuart by castrating him with garden shears (without a Gory Discretion Shot) the on-looking male members of the hunting club all recoil in shock. And then subverted when she feeds his genitals to dogs and instructs everyone to let him bleed out, several of the hunters can be heard chuckling.
• Happens twice in Miss Congeniality:
  • Gracie's fellow agents, all of them male, wince sympathetically after hearing her scream in pain while getting a bikini wax during her Makeover Montage.
  • During the talent portion of the pageant Gracie improvises a self-defense demonstration using her partner Eric as an assistant. The final move she demonstrates is punching him in the groin. The audience and television crew all groan in sympathy after the hit.
• The "Denver Jock Strap" from The Naked Gun 33 1/3. Drebbin and Hocken wince in horror as they watch a prototype antitheft device; a woman is being carjacked but she presses a button and a robotic arm comes out and places a metal clamp on the man's groin.
• An unfortunate mook in The Legend of Zorro loses his footing during a fight on a half-built bridge and lands with his groin squarely on a scaffolding pole. Zorro takes a moment to wince in very sincere sympathy.
• Guns Akimbo. During Miles' and Nix's assault on Skism headquarters, Nix dispatches a number of mooks by shooting them in the nether-regions with a high-powered rifle.
  Miles: Really, ANOTHER dick shot? Oh, God damn it, please! Why do you have to keep doing that?
  Nix: What? I would have shot YOU in the dick if the target wasn't so small!
• Black Widow (2021). After being punched in the face by Yelena, Alexei asks if she's on her period. She explains that she doesn't get periods because the Widow program forced her to have a hysterectomy, and then goes into graphic detail about what that entails until Alexei begs her to stop.
  Yelena: Oh, well I was about to talk about fallopian tubes...but, OK.
• One of the Star Trek porn parodies riffs on "Spock's Brain", only this time they've stolen his genitals. Captain Quirk and his officers all cringe on being told this. When it's suggested that the "Dingons" are responsible, Quirk responds that they are a proud race of macho men who would never do this to another man.

Literature

• In Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment, main character Polly, who is pretending to be male to get into the army, gets bitten in the crotch by her lieutenant's horse. She's not hurt, since all she keeps down there is a rolled-up pair of socks, but her lieutenant faints. He almost does so again immediately after, when he comes to and asks her if she's all right. She cheerfully replies "Oh, it'll just need a few stitches," meaning her trousers.
• In A Civil Campaign, Lord Dono (who was Lady Donna prior to the sex change) invokes the trope retroactively after having been kicked there himself.
  "Ivan… do you remember, whenever one of you fellows got kicked in the nuts and went over, doing sports or whatever, how I laughed? I’m sorry. I never knew. I’m sorry…"
• In Varley's Gaea Trilogy, Robin the witch was raised in an all-female space colony. After having ignorantly inflicted a Groin Attack on a male companion, and witnessed the results, she spends the rest of the day marveling that he doesn't keep his hands over his groin all the time, to protect his vulnerable privates.
• In Moon Over Soho, when Stephanopolis calls Peter to the scene of a Vagina Dentata killing, he muses that she didn't give him a hard time because she was impressed he hadn't retreated from the room, whimpering from the sight of its literally dismembered victim.
• Aside from playing this straight after a number of Groin Attack scenes, Simon R. Green has employed this trope at least twice when male characters in his Urban Fantasy series, inspecting an array of exotic gourmet foods, have cringed away from the sight of a roasted pachyderm penis being sliced up and served. (It was elephant in the Nightside series, mammoth in Secret Histories.)
• Dave Barry presents this anecdote in the column "The Unkindest Cut of All":
  One time my wife and I were at a restaurant with two other couples, and one of the women, Susan, started discussing her husband Bob's vasectomy, which she had witnessed.
  "NO!" we guys shouted, curling our bodies up like boiled shrimp. "Let's not talk about that!"
  But our wives were fascinated. They egged Susan on, and she went into great detail, forcing us guys to stick wads of French bread in our ears and duck our heads under the table.
• An Invoked Trope that is Played for Drama in Redemption Games. When attacked by a kidnapping team, John Rain cuts the testicles off one attacker so his shriek of agony will make the others stop in their tracks.
• In one of the stories in Cops: Their Lives in Their Own Words, a detective tells a pedophile that he intends to take a fingerprint of his penis, then hits it with a blackjack. Everyone in the police station grabs their balls in response.
• The nonfiction book The Name of the Cat by Barbara Holland has a section about the importance of neutering, which comments that male owners of tomcats are frequently uncomfortable with this.
• Safehold: In A Mighty Fortress, Merlin tells Eastshare that one of Eastshare's staff officers is part of a treason plot. Eastshare wants to start by roasting the officer's balls over a low fire. Later in the conversation, Merlin notes that the officer can be used to trap the man in charge of the plot if Eastshare can restrain his understandable desire to castrate the officer and grill his balls.
  Eastshare: Did I say something to make you think I intended to cut them off before I fried them?
  Merlin: [winces]
• In Doglands, Furgul's male owner Gerry acts sympathetic when he's due to get neutered.
• In the first Temeraire novel, Catherine Harcourt recounts a time when she was sixteen and a man sexually harassed her at a formal concert, until she poured a pot of coffee in his lap. Her fellow aviator Berkley swears openly that he would make certain there was nothing hot at hand if he were ever obliged to offend her, while the more gently reared newcomer Laurence is torn between outrage at the man's appalling behavior and visceral horror at Harcourt's method of fixing the problem. She insists that she would have struck him instead, but then she would have had to get up and rearrange her skirts all over again.

Live-Action TV

• My Country: The New Age: Hwi and Seon-ho wince in unison when Hui-jae kicks a guard between the legs.
• Psychopath Diary: Bo-kyung kicks a mannequin between the legs. Her colleague and Dong-sik react with horror and agonised groans.
• In an episode of Frasier, Eddie the dog is taken to the vet to be neutered. Frasier, Niles, and Martin are seen crossing their legs in response to the operation.
  Frasier: A guy should never have do that to another guy.
  Martin: Amen to that.
• Referenced and explained in the Red Dwarf episode "Legion", where the titular Legion explains that any pain he feels is conveyed to the rest of the crew. He stabs his hand to show them and then tells them not to anger him, or "it'll be there".
  Kryten: Now look here, that kind of tough talk doesn't scare us!
  Everyone Else: Yes it does!
• Lampshaded in America's Funniest Home Videos, during the Daisy Fuentes season, where she gives a little speech about the three primary audience reactions to the videos — this trope, the usual LOL, and 'What Were They Thinking'.
• In the Animal Planet series Pit Bulls and Parolees the parolees working at a pit bull rescue center are brought along to a neuter and spay clinic for the dogs and watch a dog get neutered. Their expressions indicate they're thinking this trope.
• Dirty Jobs:
  • Similar moments have been seen on the show, most notably when Mike had to assist in castrating a horse.
  • Another instance is when Mike was assisting a family of goat farmers castrate the young male goats they didn't want reproducing. WITH. THEIR. TEETH. The goat farmers then had to spend the next five minutes (likely much, much longer was left out of the episode) trying to convince Mike this was very standard procedure for all goat farmers and that they were not raving sociopaths.
• In an episode of Designing Women, Anthony recommends that a woman being assaulted by a man should execute a Groin Attack against the nearest male even if he's not the attacker because this trope will come into play.
• It's frequent on TruTV's World's Dumbest... for male commentators to be shown wincing, cupping themselves, or otherwise expressing this trope in response to clips showing groin injuries (self-inflicted or otherwise), and not unusual for female commentators to at least verbally express sympathy pains of their own. For example. The first guy to comment even lampshades the trope directly.
  Judy Gold: Okay, I don't have balls... and my balls hurt watching that.
  Loni Love: That hurt and I'm a GIRL!
  • And a female version when a woman decides to break open a melon with her own "melon".
    Jamie Lee: OWWW! Boob sympathy! Owww!
• Averted in one episode of MythBusters, when the camera cuts from Tory reacting to a groin impact to Grant laughing his head off, with no apparent sympathy. Considering how often Tory is a victim of a groin impact himself, he could probably be forgiven for being amused when it finally happens to someone else for a change.
• Backup: When a dog bites a child abuser in the groin even the intended victim's father feels some sympathy.
• In one episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, during the Newsflash game, wait for it...
• In an episode of iCarly, Spencer spends the episode making prototype holes for a mini golf course. One of them is designed so that the hole is the crotch of a cardboard man (with the man taunting the golfer each time they miss). When Spencer gets a hole in one, Freddie winces and awkwardly covers his area.
• Invoked in CSI, the episode "Ending Happy". Doc Robbins has an autopsy underway and is explaining some things to Warrick and possibly Catherine. Doc wants to examine the guy's privates because they were enlarged, and Warrick asks Doc to wait until he leaves the room.
  • There's also a sympathy female pain version where Catherine explains about what parts of the vagina get damaged during consensual sex vs. non-consensual sex and the (male) cops this exposition gets dumped on express discomfort, though from Catherine's reaction she seems to think the men were merely Squicked out by Too Much Information.
• On Blue Bloods, a female M.E. describes the damage inflicted on a man who'd bled out from a shot to the groin, then remarks that all the men she's told this to have instinctively covered their privates. Danny, the detective to whom she's speaking, immediately realizes he's doing it too.
• On How I Met Your Mother, when Quinn suggests putting a shock collar on little Barney, all the men in the room wince and cross their legs.
• Averted in one Cold Opening of The Office (US), in which Dwight dumps a mug of hot coffee on his crotch due to trying to pick it up with his feet. Only Pam and Phyllis are shown to wince in sympathy.
• In The Wonder Years, when Kevin has to explain that the family dog has to be neutered, both Jack and Wayne cross their legs simultaneously.
• After Rick Santorum compares contraception laws to the French Revolution, Colbert of The Colbert Report pulls out a banana, puts a condom on the banana, then pulls out a miniature guillotine. When the blade comes down the entire audience screams. One male audience member even shouts "No!" before he drops the blade.
• L.A. Law had a case involving a rabbi who nicked a baby boy's penis while performing a bris, leaving a scar. When the case was discussed at the meeting at the beginning of the episode, the male lawyers all winced.
• Happens in NCIS: Los Angeles when Deeks is shocked at the Groin Attack that Kensi launches against a foreign operative. He then shocks Callen and Sam when he relates what happened.
  Deeks: Just uh, don't let Kensi interrogate them.
  Callen: Why's that?
  Deeks: Cause the guy on the right, she kicked him right in the nom de plumes.
  Sam: No.
  Deeks: Guy didn't even have his weapon out.
  Callen: Really?
  Kensi: I...
  Deeks: Right in the cul de sac. Kicked him so hard it gave me a stomach ache.
  Kensi: So what? It would have been better if I'd pistol whipped him across his face?
  Deeks, Callen, Sam: YES!
• In the Supernatural episode "Changing Channels," a trickster beams Sam and Dean onto a wacky Japanese game show called Nutcracker. When Sam fails to answer the host's question, he gets nailed by a spring-loaded lever, and Dean looks more legitimately concerned for him than he has all season.
• A video on GSN's "Caroline & Friends" showed a man on a spring teeter-totter lean too far back, fall off, and suffer a Groin Attack on the rebound. Everyone in the studio felt it.
  Shari Sheppard: I don't even have those parts and mine hurt!
• In Bones, when a severed testicle is recovered from a corpse found in a high-powered washing machine in "The Rocker in the Rinse Cycle", there's a Running Gag about the men in the lab feeling the deceased man's pain. Especially Booth.
• Mimpi Metropolitan: Played with in episode 39. When Alan falls and his crotch hits a block of wood, the female Rike is the one who wince while the male Bambang has no such reaction and immediately tries to help Alan.
• A scifi variation in Farscape when a "Freaky Friday" Flip leads to Rygel (a short amphibious alien) ending up in John Crichton's body. When he has to take a leak, Crichton (stuck in someone else's body) has to tell him how to unzip his fly, take out 'Sparky' and urinate. Rygel is happy until he zips up his fly and yelps in pain, causing Crichton to wince over the sound of his own testicles being hurt.

Music

• In the music video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's song, "Headline News", features a stage production of several news stories of the mid-90s. When it gets to the story of Lorena and John Bobbitt, the men in the audience gawked in horror.

Professional Wrestling

• Done mockingly by Paul London, who tends to bend over after his Manhattan drops.
• While The Boys had spent most of their night braving the harassment of Taeler Hendrix to support Dalton Castle, they tried to ease the pain of Frankie Kazarian on Supercard Of Honor X, night one, after he caused a chain of events that caused every other participant in the six-way scramble match to be hit in the crotch and thus got three feet in his groin as they all rushed to give him retribution.

Tabletop Games

• The unofficial Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook The Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge has rules for a called shot to the nuts: every male within visual range must make a Fortitude save or be disabled briefly as they reflexively wince and cover their groin.
• Ogres in the Warhammer universe have a similar reaction to disembowelment because their guts are so huge that any Ogre who has it happen to them invariably dies a drawn-out, messy, and agonizing death. One of them, Bragg, is The Dreaded among the Ogre race because he makes a habit of gutting Ogres who lose duels against him.

Theater

• In the play Sheik, Rattle and Roll, there is a scene set in the harem where the thieves, the harem girls and the eunuchs all reveal that they are members of Weird Trade Unions. They immediately exchange cards for the Amalgamated Thieves and Rogues union, the Amalgamated Harem Girls and Dockers, and the Amalgamated Eunuchs and Bacon Slicers. At this point, every male on stage winces and crosses his leg.

Video Games

• This happens in Heavenly Sword if Nariko executes a Groin Attack, causing nearby soldiers to fall over clutching their groins.
• When the group is huddled together at the end of Jak X: Combat Racing and Ashelin suggests a Groin Attack as a means of dealing with the Big Bad, Sig covers his crotch with his hand.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • One Fatality in Mortal Kombat 9 involves Kung Lao sawing his opponent in half from bottom to top with his chainsaw hat. A commercial used to promote this game featured males everywhere reacting to the attack, while a female bystander looked on in surprise.
  • Cage's Daughter also inherited this move... as an X-ray finisher. Cue collective crotch-grabbing when it was revealed that the X-ray even shows the nuggets being brutally, brutally crushed.
  • Not to mention Johnny Cage's signature nut-buster comes back with a vengeance as an x-ray move, hitting both men and women so hard that their pelvic muscles pop. And then comes the back-breaker...
• In Mass Effect 2, during his loyalty mission Archangel AKA Garrus kicks the bad guy, Fade, in the family jewels. Shepard acknowledges the man's pain but does not seem to share it. Especially funny with Fem!Shep:
  Shepard: [rather cheerfully] That had to hurt.
  • Goes into full-blown Black Comedy if you let the man be shot in the leg after the interrogation with a Fem!Shep watching:
    Shepard: [amused] You're lucky. I wouldn't have shot you in the leg.

Webcomics

• Female example in Questionable Content by a hypothetical concerning Mundane Made Awesome. Eating cereal like you're tearing through tissue paper? Fine. Sex that goes so hard it leaves cervical bruises? Not so much.
• Trope Distaff Counterpart: In Keychain of Creation, Misho, piloting a mech, kicks giant robot Cat Girl Nova in the breasts. Cut to Marena and Blossom holding their breasts sympathetically, and Karen looking not too pleased either.
• Captain SNES: The Game Masta, with added My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Alex punches Boogerman in the 'nads and every male sprite in Videoland reacts to it.
• The first monster Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki fights is a giant bull, who she first incapacitates via...well, a hammer to the balls. And immediately sympathizes. "I don't even have them right now, and I can feel that...!"
• Taffe's favorite method of attacking guys in Pacificators. Her sister Larima gives us a nice wince when Taffe takes down the guy threatening Larima.
• In a preview for one of the pornographic "Working Girls" Penny Dreadfuls on Chimneyspeak, an attractive new girl named Gnasher is brought to the brothel, strips naked, and gets examined by Alice. At first, the girl seems perfect, with a gorgeous body and a pretty face. When Alice asks what's the catch, Gnasher gives a sheepish grin... and reveals a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs. A visibly-disturbed Alice remarks...
  Alice: I don't even have a dick, and looking at those teeth hurts my dick.
  • In later comics involving Gnasher, we learn she was hired, but is forbidden to speak or otherwise open her mouth around the customers.
• In one Arthur, King of Time and Space strip, Arthur visits the castle paddock and asks what's happening. Upon being told the colts are being gelded, he leaves again quickly.

Web Animation

• Revenge Films: In "Got a emergency call from my friend, telling me to stop him! So, I headed to his house…" Ore winces and instinctively puts his hands over his groin after hearing from his friend catching his younger brother-in-law raping the former's wife and crushed the brat's exposed family jewels with his bare hands in retaliation. He still winces whenever he remembers the incident.
• Simon's Cat: Upon being told what neutering is by the Kitten (who just had his procedure), the balls-intact Cat faints in shock.

Web Original

• LoadingReadyRun tried to give Casino Royale (2006) the 'Sympathetic Pain in Film Award', but the presenter was too busy wincing.
• One of the Miss Dynamite webtoons ends with Eva torturing one of the Backstreet Boys tied to a chair by hammering a nail into one of his testicles until it pops. It even has a warning screen come up before the scene and the scene won't play until you press the button to continue.
• In Critical Role episode 17 the entire crowd at the Braving Grounds groans in reaction to Grog doing this to his opponent.
• In the Whateley Universe, Phase's birthday party in Boston turns into not one, not two, but four separate superhero battles. One has a super-strong girl with goat legs being held hostage by a man in body armor standing behind her. But she's super strong and has goat legs. She kicks him so hard his helmet ends up embedded in the ceiling. Even though it's a battle between armored mercenaries and superpowered mutants, every guy in the room cringes. Even Samantha Everheart, Mega-Girl, and Delta Spike do the cringe, but they all used to be male.
• Happens in Suburban Knights when The Nostalgia Critic is forced to repeatedly hit himself in the groin.
• At the Illinois State Fair of 2011, Brad Jones and several of his friends tried deep fried turkey testicles, crotch grabbing and groans of pain abound with almost every bite.
• Mentioned by Welshy when Jill shoots Trevor in the crotch in his review of Scream 4. He even mentions a male patron that was sitting near him actually screaming during that scene, leading him to believe something similar had happened to the man in real life.
• Cracked:
  • "5 Baffling Uses of Sex Toys That Prove Humanity Is Doomed" features an example of share the female pain when describing number five, where a young couple decided to attach a dildo to a saber saw blade with predictable results.
    Did you just make an uncomfortable face when you read that? Yeah. Imagine what her expression was like.
  • Their article on a man ("Thomas B") born without hands features this gem:
    As for the limitations, well, it's a lot of the little things we take for granted. "I don't have nails, so I have a really hard time peeling stickers off. It's also hard to scratch scabs. Hell, I can't really scratch anything." Ladies, if you are reading this with a guy, and he's making a face that was full of discomfort and compassion, please do not question him about it. (For the purpose of this article, let's say Tom was referring to not being able to scratch animals behind the ear.)
• Any time you hear Nash say Gentlemen, BRACE YOURSELVES. Or, rarely, "Ladies, Brace yourselves." And then, there was that one memorable time when he said "EVERYBODY BRACE YOURSELVES." He's never kidding.
• In the Epic Spell Wars episode of TableTop, Wil Wheaton tells a story about accidentally punching himself in the nuts while walking his dog. Even the female players gasp in shock.
  Emily: I felt bad for him, even though I don't have genitals like his.

Western Animation

• "Ike's Wee Wee" counts, given the fact that the South Park boys were concerned about the welfare of Ike's penis.
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law involved an episode where Apache Chief had burned himself with coffee and was suing the coffee company over it due to losing his...er, "growing powers". When he comes to meet Harvey and tell him what happened, Harvey takes a while to understand his plight. Once he does, Harvey instinctively crosses his legs.
  Harvey: Oh OOOOH hehe, let's all go to the mountains.
• In Total Drama Island episode "Brunch of Disgustingness", the first thing that is served in the titular brunch is beef testicles. This trope is what keeps the guys from even trying.
  • And even earlier in "Not So Happy Campers - Part 2," Harold takes his dive only to wind up hitting the water in a split that has all the males - and the sharks - wincing/grimacing in pain.

Real Life

• Very Truth in Television. Want to know why men do that? It's painful. Almost every man experienced it at least once in their lives, and it's way simpler than losing a loved one. Unless you have Nerves of Steel, an extremely blessed life, or no empathy, it's almost impossible to not react to the pain you wouldn't subject to your worst enemies.
• African male circumcisions are typically communal affairs, hence sharing the male pain. Speaking of which, there's also female circumcisions in Africa too (ever heard of the musical The Book of Mormon? Girls, you will wince upon listening to "Hasa Diga Eebowai").
• It's a rare case in introductory anatomy classes when the task of dissecting the genitalia of a male specimen isn't delegated to a female student. When a male med student does dare volunteer to undertake such a task, he's usually complimented by his classmates for having nerves of steel.
• Some male pet owners refuse to neuter their animals, for this reason, unable to distance themselves from the idea even when a species gap is in place.
  • For curious minds: the neutering of pets is rarely a painful procedure (spaying a female has a greater likelihood of being painful, but it is often quite treatable), nor is it done while the animal is awake.
  • Squeamishness about neutering has led to a thriving market for prosthetic pet testicles. Really.
• The many ingenious and inventive methods used in olden times for male castration in many societies and social systems. Not all of them involved knives and the method varied between ages and societies, be it to create a castrato singer for the Vatican choir, a harem servant in the Ottoman Empire or Imperial China, or a docile field slave in the Deep South (done for punishment or expediency). More than you might wish to know is here.
• The Distaff Counterpart is rarely encountered in media, but any woman who has taken a hit to the genital area can attest to this trope existing among females, and plenty of women will wince at least a little at the concept of female genital mutilation.

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