Torture for Fun and Information

Bangladesh DuPree in a nutshell.

[Gene is beating up a crook]

Alex Drake: Is that strictly necessary?

Gene Hunt: No, but it's bloody good fun though!

— Ashes to Ashes (2008), season 3 episode 2

A subtrope of Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique and Perp Sweating, Torture for Fun and Information is torture used for extracting information, in the manner of Jack Bauer, but played for laughs or audacious absurdity. When using Torture For Fun And Information, the interrogator isn't simply causing pain to a victim to get information — they're doing it creatively, and probably having far too much fun in the process. Most of the time, they already have the information, they just want to let off some steam while verifying it. While this is more likely to be in the repertoire of a Magnificent Bastard, a sufficiently dark Anti-Hero might be able to get away with it.

Simply put, it's the difference between beating a man senseless with a pool cue, and stripping his clothes off, having your friends hold him down on the table, and [repeatedly] striking the eight-ball right into his sensitive regions. It's all in the audience's reaction: "oh god, that's horrible" to "oh god, that's horrible — and kind of hilarious".

If there's any method to the madness at all — that is, the cop isn't just genuinely Ax-Crazy — it might be to make the suspect so terrified of how unhinged and unpredictable he is that they'd rather give up the information than find out.

May involve Interrogation by Vandalism, High-Altitude Interrogation, or False Roulette. Compare Cool and Unusual Punishment, which is what happens after you're charged. See also Torture First, Ask Questions Later, for when the torturer flat-out forgets to ask anything. Compare and contrast Torture Technician, who may be just as sadistic but is usually more chillingly professional about it, and Exalted Torturer, where the torture may or may not be Played for Laughs, but the torturer is portrayed as a hero.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The titular Tank Police from Dominion Tank Police seem to enjoy interrogating criminals almost for the sake of it as much as a way to gather information, with officers actually taking bets on how long each criminal will last.
  • The first time, we see a crook tied to a post (with a sign saying Hell's Cops on it) with a grenade in his mouth. Said grenade's pin is connected to a bucket which officers each take turns trying to punt another grenade like a golf ball using an M-16 rifle, hoping to get a hole-in-one in the bucket to knock it down and pull the pin.
  • The second time, a crook is tied up to a large wheel, again with a grenade in his mouth. This time, the officers take turns throwing knives at him. Leona emceed the event in a Playboy Bunny outfit.
• Witch Craft Works: When scheming villain witch by the name of Weekend moves her plan-to-corner-protagonists into the violent phase, Chronoire the unclear agenda self-fulfilling villainish witch decides she'd like to have a piece of the mastermind. The plot follows protagonists, and the short comic relief scene at one point has Chronoire together with her anthropomorphic crocodile helper wielding a hair-trimmer in a mock of a barbershop setup. Chronoire's idea of an incentive for the distressed Bound and Gagged nameless pawn witch of the invasion force to speak of Weekend's whereabouts — is a threat to vandalize the victim's long hair into something more appropriate to the surrounding apocalypse landscape.
• Kyoka in Fairy Tail tortures Erza for information at one point, but admits that she hopes Erza holds out for as long as possible since torturing her is so much fun. Her superior Mard later tortures Kyoka for this, since taking pleasure in torturing a human means that she actually likes humans in a warped way.
• Ryo Saeba from City Hunter has a penchant for this. We see him torturing someone twice: the time he was in a hurry he squeezed the perp's balls until he talked, with his partner Kaori quipping he shouldn't use such a vulgar torture in presence of a lady (and a note from the author pointing out that Ryo doesn't consider her a lady); in the occasion he had time he stripped two goons to their underwear, tied them to the floor, covered them in fat and seeds, put trays with bottles of nitroglycerin on their hands, and threatened to sic chickens on them, and when they wouldn't talk he did (it's implied there was actually water in the bottles, as they survived when they talked and he just left them with the chicken. It was still such a horrible experience that when they met again the mooks immediately told him everything).
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind has the famous Torture Dance scene onto Zucchero. After beating the Stand user who is being kept alive through Bruno's Sticky Fingers, Mista is trying to get information off of Zucchero on the other Stand user, though Zucchero is completely silent; because of this, he gets his eye on a fishing line with glasses on to get burnt by the sunlight, as Narancia, Mista, and Fugo go into a dance routine.

Comic Books

• Sere, from A Distant Soil, makes no secret of her fondness for this:
  "I adore these evil little rebels. They're so entertaining! Let's not delay gratification. Let's attack now! We'll take prisoners — it'll be such fun!"
• In Civil War II: Ulysses, Karnak admits to Ulysses that he knows full well that torture isn't very useful for producing credible information, but applies it often anyway because he "enjoy[s] the feeling of power".

Fan Works

• In the WWE alternate universe story, The Horsewomen Of Las Vegas, Becky Lynch takes a sadistic enjoyment to torturing and killing people in creative ways. It's also shown that Nikki Cross shares her feelings, and is shown experimenting with new torture methods.

Film — Live-Action

• In the 2004 Punisher movie, the Punisher strings a man up by his ankles and explains that a blowtorch will kill nerves so quickly that the victim doesn't feel pain so much as a sense of numbness. He then lights his blowtorch behind the victim so he can't see, directs it at a raw piece of meat, and drags a Popsicle along the man's back. The victim almost instantly gives up everything he knows, totally convinced he can smell his flesh burning even as it's numbed by the intense heat. In this case, the Punisher used intense mental anguish rather than physical agony, but the pain was just as real and probably more severe. This is directly taken from the comic book.
• In The Mask, Big Bad Tyrell shows up at the hideout of a rival mob boss, Niko (for whom he is ostensibly The Dragon at this point). Niko has his mooks hold Tyrell down and places a golf tee in his mouth. Three guesses what happens next, and the first two don't count.
• A Fish Called Wanda. We really shouldn't laugh when Kevin Kline sticks fries/chips up Michael Palin's nose and eats his fish. We really, really shouldn't. *snickers*
• Dragnet (1987 Movie): Joe Friday goes to get coffee so that Pep can use this on Emil Muzz. This works at first, but when Emil tries to clam up again, Pep comments that "some donuts would go real nice with this coffee".
  Pep Streebeck: Well, Emil, I guess it's just you and... me and... your balls... and this drawer.
• L.A. Confidential: First, when Bud White plays False Roulette with a murder suspect to find out where he's stashed a rape victim. Second, when Bud dangles Ellis Loew out a ten-story window to scare him into giving up information and Ed Exley watches bemusedly.
• This happens in Bon Cop, Bad Cop - although the pair aren't above torturing suspects for no apparent reason, too.
• In Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Dog tortures two drug dealers into telling him the location of their stash by pelting golf balls at one while using the other's mouth as a tee.
• The Empire Strikes Back: Implied. After Darth Vader captures Han and the gang, he tortures Han by strapping him to a machine. Later Leia asks Han what Vader wants, but Han tells her, "They never even asked me any questions." This is because Vader isn't interested in interrogating the heroes, he just wants Luke to sense his friends' suffering so he'll come straight to him.

Literature

• Discworld Night Watch: Sam Vimes puts so much diabolical glee into pretending to do this that it probably cycles right back around.
• Taylor, the Sub-Visser who tortures Tobias in Animorphs, gets so wrapped up in the "Fun" part that she actually kind of sucks at the "Information" part. She was trying to force Tobias to demorph, which takes concentration and focus. The question of whether or not Tobias would have cracked and done what she wanted if she had just given him a second or two to think is an interesting one that, luckily, Tobias never has to find out the answer to.
  • At one point, when she's moved on to asking him questions, he actually breaks down and tells her something. (Possibly. He's delirious at that point, and the narration is first-person). As far as he can tell, she doesn't even hear him, let alone stop to ask him any further questions.
• Butler Parker had occasions in just about every issue. Usually the fun part was in the reader enjoying the psychological tricks played by the butler, such as dripping paint remover on a cupboard (vausing the varnish to bubble and the wood to change color) and assuring the visibly shaken gangsters that he'd have no compunction using the same 'poison' on them should they not be willing to tell him what he needed to know.
• In That Hideous Strength, "Fairy" Hardcastle openly admits she gets off on torturing people (especially women), and questions how anyone could succeed in the Secret Police if they didn't get a kick out of it.

Live-Action TV

• Life On Mars kicks off Gene Hunt's fine tradition of extracting confessions using some of the most ridiculous means possible in episode 1.04, where Gene and Sam lock a suspect inside a meat locker until he confesses:
  Gene: My friend is going to ask you some questions. Personally, I hope you don't answer them because I want you to die in here and end up inside a pork pie.
  • Episode 2.02, where he punishes Dickie Fingers for accusing Harry Woolf of being a corrupt officer by smashing Dickie's fingers with a telephone receiver.
  • Episode 2.05 has the Camberwick Green scene, which really must be seen to be fully appreciated.
  • Also a Spin-Off book that was supposedly written by Gene Hunt himself about modern policing in the '70s, there is a chapter about how to perform this, with diagrams, and covered in blood.
  • In the American version, the 125's interrogation room is also the lost and found — because the surrounding walls happen to be thick enough to largely block out the sound of anything that might be happening on the inside.
  • Heck, this used to be called the Gene Hunt interrogation technique, which shows you just how fond of it he is.
• Ashes to Ashes (2008): Aside from the incident involving the pool cue, there have been other examples:
  • In episode 1.02, which was also the pool cue incident episode, there's also Gene throwing Mr. Bonds — a 60-something war veteran — down the stairs because Bonds thinks his son is innocent and threatens to hit Gene with a baseball bat. Ray contributes by spraying soda water into Mr. Bonds' face when he calls Alex a cow and continues to refuse to cooperate.
  • In episode 2.03, Gene not only eats fish and chips in front of a vegan on a hunger strike but sticks a suspect's head down a urinal and flushes.
  • Episode 2.04: Threatens to pour a chemical cocktail down a photographer's throat.
  • Episode 2.06: Gene and the crane.
    • To wit, a corrupt businessman's thugs have come after both Gene and Alex, beating Gene with a baseball bat in an alley and intending to do the same to Alex if she hadn't hidden. One does not hurt women around Gene Hunt, especially women for whom he has feelings. Gene goes to find Riley, the businessman, handcuffs him to the inside of a car, and picks the car up with a forklift-crane, interrogating him about the murders they're investigating. Every time Riley denies all knowledge, Gene lowers the car nearer to the crusher. Just in time, Alex, Ray, and Chris get to him with new evidence that proves Riley's innocence.
  • In episode 3.04, Gene chases a suspect through the Blue Peter garden.
    • Also in 3.04, he takes possession of DCI Wilson's nine-iron and commences whacking things off Wilson's desk unless Wilson comes clean about Louise Gardiner and the Staffords.
• In The Remake of Hawaii Five-0, McGarrett seems to have taken lessons from the Gene Genie himself when it comes to inventive interrogation:
  • In "Pilot," McGarrett threatens to deport Sang Min's family to war-ravaged Rwanda.
  • In "Malama Ka Aina," McGarrett and Danno convince an associate of the Samoan mob that they're leaving him in a shark cage with vicious man-eating sharks and chum when in actuality, the sharks are harmless and the chum is just water. Steve and Danno crack open beers and watch the guy freak out.
  • In "Lanakila," McGarrett threatens a corrupt prison guard with a trip to the cell block:
    McGarrett: Billy, so help me God, you answer incorrectly one more time, I gonna put those scrubs on you myself and then drop you in general population. How long do you think you'll last there?
  • In "Nalowale," McGarrett and Danno witness a suspect drug a girl's drink in a club. Danno tells the suspect to drink it if he "didn't do anything to it", and if he doesn't drink it, Danno will break his teeth and make him drink it. He drinks it and passes out. McGarrett wakes him up in an interrogation room with an air horn.
  • In "Mana'o," Danno ties a suspect to the hood of his car, then proceeds to drive around the streets of Honolulu like a madman to get information out of him.
    McGarrett: Just for the record, if I pulled something like this, you would be reading me the riot act on proper police procedure.
    Danno: No. I'd probably just arrest you.
    McGarrett: Compared to this, hanging a guy off a roof and throwing a guy in a shark tank is pretty tame.
    Danno: You know what? I disagree. Shark cage is way worse.
    McGarrett: Whatever. You're wrong. I'm just saying, to be clear, next time I get a free pass, okay?
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Near the end of season two, Angelus captures Giles and tries to torture the knowledge of a ritual out of him. At first, he is hopeful that Giles resists: "I wanna torture you! I used to love it, and it's been a long time. I mean, the last time I tortured somebody, they didn't even have chainsaws." Giles quips back: "You must..perform...the ritual..in a tutu." Angelus snarls. "All right, I'm getting the chainsaws!" (Luckily for Giles, they get the information out of him another way.)
  • In "Real Me" Buffy strides into Spike's crypt and immediately starts beating him for information on the location of Harmony's lair. After Spike tells her she punches him one more time.
  Spike: I was telling you the truth!
  Buffy: (cheerfully) I know.
• Aaron Echolls of Veronica Mars is introduced, in his very first episode, beating his son with a belt, and is eventually revealed to be the killer of Lilly Kane, so you don't want to admire anything about him. But in "Hot Dogs", we find out that Trina, Aaron's daughter, is being abused by her boyfriend. In a scene that has quite a bit of Fridge Horror to it, but is undeniably kind of hilarious, Aaron kicks the daylights out of the kid, singing along with the tune of "That's Amore".
• In Wire in the Blood, Tony, of all people pulls one. In "Synchronicity", he convinces a suspect that porridge and jam from the canteen in a plastic bag is actually human brain tissue, and makes the kid vomit. Clearly, the kid's not their sniper, doesn't even own a gun.
• In the NCIS episode "Terminal Leave", Gibbs interrogates a terrorist by forcing him to watch Ducky do an autopsy. All the while, Ducky is explaining it to the terrorist in a step-by-step fashion, as well as saying that's what he'll do to the terrorist after he's dead.
  • Then there's the hilarious and mildly narmy scene that involves Gibbs jabbing at the suspect with a lit cigarette and shrieking that he deserves it. Thankfully, the Director stops him before he goes too far . . . only to find out that the Director is in on it.
• In Community episode The Science of Illusion Annie slams Jeff's head down onto a table in an attempt to at what first appears to be Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique, but given the context of the show (and the general cuteness of her character), it comes off more as the Torture For Fun And Information (at least to the audience).
  • Of course, the fact that her partner, Shirley, threatens him with a pizza slicer immediately afterward probably helps with the comedy factor.
• Firefly
  • In the pilot, Jayne is a little too enthusiastic when Mal gives him the job of finding out how much Lawrence Dobson, an undercover cop they captured, was able to transmit to the Alliance before Wash killed his call. Dobson lies poorly almost immediately and Jayne sees right through it and starts grumbling about how "I was gonna get me a ear, too."
  • In "War Stories", Wash and Mal are kidnapped and brutally tortured by Niska. It becomes funny when Mal, in order to keep Wash from passing out, starts arguing with him about Wash's wife Zoe and implying that their relationship has been more than platonic. He's lying, of course, but it keeps Wash alert. The best part is when the conversation gets so heated, Wash seems to forget he's tied up in a torture chamber, much to the torturer's bemusement.
• In Game of Thrones, Ramsay Snow spent the whole 3rd season physically and psychologically torturing Theon Greyjoy, to the point he has become a broken shell of who he was, and renamed him Reek. Ramsay had successfully gained information that the Stark boys are still alive, but his father Roose Bolton berates him that he damaged Theon so much that they can't use him as a bargaining chip to the Greyjoys. It didn't matter anyway since Balon Greyjoy doesn't care about Theon.
• The Babylon 5 episode "Parliament of Dreams" has G'Kar kidnapped and electric tortured by an assassin hired to ensure he dies screaming. G'Kar's aide Na'Toth finds them and introduces herself as the backup assassin, then starts kicking G'Kar to disable the shock collar. After they take down the assassin:
  G'Kar: That hurt.
  Na'Toth: Ambassador, it was the only way to disable the pain-givers. I had to hit them as hard as possible, as often as possible, and still make it appear as though I were beating you into another incarnation.
  G'Kar: (grins) And you didn't enjoy it in the least.
  Na'Toth: (grins) I didn't say that.

Video Games

• In Modern Warfare 3, Captain Price's utterly insane method of interrogating Somalian warlord Waraabe is for he and his buddies to put on gas masks, open up a container of Waraabe's own nerve gas, and offer to give him their spare mask if he talks. And then once he does, Price simply shoots him in the face. He did promise that he wouldn't let the gas kill him.
• In The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, you will obtain a torture room on the Gesellschaft if any of your servbots become TOO lazy. It's essentially a minigame where you have to completely empty their Sloth gauge by forcing them to run around a track while pulling various traps on them.
• In Wolfenstein: The New Order, BJ is short on materials when interrogating General Keller in Anya's garage toward the beginning of the game. So what he ends up doing is tying him to a chair, grabbing a chainsaw, revving it up, and holding the whirring blade right up to Keller's neck until he agrees to say where the remaining resistance members are being held. BJ's speech to the General sells it:
  BJ: Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to ask a few questions. You are going to answer those questions in a way I find satisfactory. And if you do not, I will saw your head off with this here appliance.

Webcomics

• Girl Genius presents Bangladesh DuPree, ex-airship pirate and Baron Wulfenbach's pet Psycho for Hire. Early on, she 'tries' to 'help' the Baron do lobotomy experiments on a troublesome enemy... After later receiving Mad Science electromedical treatment for a broken hand, she figures out how to use it as an electrical torture device.
  DuPree: I'm working here! Do I come to your lab and tell you how to torture rats?
  Gil: Frequently.
  DuPree: So I know what I'm doing!
• In Minion Comics, one of the torture options includes "The Shocker" - a giant power tool with a hand attached making the shocker gesture. The torturer notes: "They'll all have to go in the stink, but that's what makes it torture.".
• Dubious Company: Walter threatens Mary and Sue with permitting Tiren, whom the two earlier ran through a Humiliation Conga, to use them as a scratching post.
• Schlock Mercenary: When a gang of thugs tries to kidnap Kevyn Prime for stealing from them, his neighbor General Karl Tagon grabs a gun to help fight back. Both of them are captured, and the thugs have to deal with the fact that they accidentally kidnapped a retired general.
  General Tagon: There's no point torturing me. I don't know anything. I'm here accidentally.
  Torturer: Yes, yes, we accidentally abducted a retired Celeschul Defense Services General. We can't release you, though, so it falls to me to derive some value from all this added risk.
  General Tagon: Bad business, kid. You're chasing a sunk cost.
  Torturer: The military strategist is an armchair economist! Who would have suspected?
  General Tagon: Somebody who knows that I'm living off a successful retirement plan, perhaps?
  Torturer: Then I shall torture you for investment advice.

Web Original

• "Zero Dark Sealy" from The Damn Few.

Western Animation

• The season 3 finale of The Boondocks opened with agent Jack Flowers (a parody of Jack Bauer) interrogating a terrorist with a series of Groin Attacks before breaking him (and them) when he puts on a big steel boot (with studs over the toes), walks out the door, down the hall, and takes a running start... Later it's pretty much confirmed that Jack Flowers is essentially just the guy you go to when you want somebody's nuts to die.
• Archer's style in the episode "Placebo Effect". Highlights include conducting an interrogation in the style of a game show, with "wrong answers" receiving a shotgun blast to the kneecap, and chaining down a mook in order to perform an Ass Shove with a fragmentation grenade. Bonus: He had Lana record the whole ordeal, then cut the footage into a movie, Terms of En-Rampagement.

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