"BANG!" Flag Gun

A notorious joke weapon responsible for the failure of countless murder and suicide attempts. When the trigger is pulled, the gun barrel emits a large flag saying "BANG!"

The title is a take on BFG.

Examples of "BANG!" Flag Gun include:

Advertising

• Fabio fires two of them in his challenge to the old Old Spice Guy.

Comic Books

• Used often by The Joker. You can never be sure what kind of gun The Joker is pointing at you until he pulls the trigger. And even if it's a BANG Flag Gun, you can't be sure if he's not going to kill you with it anyway.
  • One comic had him using the BANG Flag Gun to kill a henchman. First the flag popped out, causing the henchman to think the Joker was playing a prank on him. Then the flag got fired like a speargun, killing the henchman.
  • The gun is so iconic that it makes multiple appearances in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: in the uncut film, the spear verion is used to kill Bonk, and is laced with Joker Venom, and later it is the method by which the Joker himself is killed.
    • In the censored version, a second pull of the trigger results in a cloud of Joker gas. While the later use is replaced with Joker being pushed into an experimental lab, slipping on the water and glass, and electrocuting himself to get up. Because apparently that's "better".
  • Variation in The Killing Joke: The Joker finds he is out of bullets when his gun produces a flag saying "CLICK CLICK CLICK".
  • At the end of Andrew Helfer's prose story "On the Wire" from The Further Adventures of the Joker anthology, the Joker, despondent over having failed to drive a lonely woman on a chat line to suicide, glumly decides there's only one thing to do. He points a gun at his head and pulls the trigger, releasing a BANG flag. That cheers him up.
  • He also uses it as a weapon in an issue of Birds of Prey, where he shows it off to an unruly henchman, holds it right up to their eye and says "Wanna see?" before pulling the trigger.
• When Mad did a parody of Joseph Wambaugh's cop novel The New Centurions, one of the cops shot himself just before his scheduled retirement. Another cop said it must be because he felt he'd have nothing to live for after retiring, but it turned out he'd just mistakenly used a real pistol instead of the flag gun.
• In a recent Deadpool cover by the excellent Dave Johnson, Deadpool points an autoloader at the reader with a Bang flag coming out of it. In the background, a number of Faceless Goons lie on the floor, Bang flags embedded in their heads.
• New Warriors. A realist looking Bang Flag Gun was used by the prosecutor send the telekinetic Vance Astrovik to prison. His grabbing the smoke -of- the gun with his mind was used to prove he didn't have to be fatally damaging in defense from his father's abuse. The fact the prosecuter made everyone think she was trying to kill Vance didn't seem to actually matter to the judge. Prison ensued.

Fan Works

• The Joker pulls his beloved "lethal BANG Flag Gun" version off in A Dark Knight Over Sin City.

Film

• The Joker uses this on Vicki Vale in the 1989 Batman film, naturally. Which elicited one of Kim Basinger's zillion screams in that film.
• The Mask scares off some Mooks with two handfuls of guns (all of which turn out to be of these type), while doing a "Dirty Harry" impersonation to boot.
• Diamonds Are Forever: In a deleted scene available on the CD, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd kill Shady Tree with a BANG Flag Gun that also shoots a real bullet.
• In Cannonball Run, Roger Moore's character pulls one (that looks like a Walther PPK) on his mother.
• Sleeper. Woody Allen's character threatens the Leader's nose with such a gun.
• Bill and Teds Bogus Journey has a futuristic energy weapon that turns out to be one.

Literature

• This appears in an illustration in the second of Arthur Bloch's three Murphy's Law books, as the "Academiology" chapter head.

Live Action TV

• A BANG flag shotgun appears in a music video made by Rachel in Glee.
• An invention exchange in Mystery Science Theater 3000 has this trope combined with Bigger Stick, eventually culminating in a "Boingy Boing Ka Boinga" Flag Detonator.
• It appears in at least one episode of The Monkees.
• Turns up in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: In the episode "Wild West Part 1", Bulk and Skull's ancestors attempt to rob a stagecoach, even firing on the "White Stranger" when he arrives to assist... only for their revolvers to turn out to be trick ones.
• I Love Lucy features one in its fourth episode, "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her". Ricky is preparing stuff for one of his shows and one of the items is a "Bang" flag gun that Lucy thinks is a real gun, finally culminating in Ricky "shooting" Lucy, showing her that it is a prop.

Music

• Used in the music video for Tears For Fears' "Head Over Heels."

Professional Wrestling

• Infamously used by Stone Cold Steve Austin on Vince McMahon during an episode of WWF Raw, with the flag saying "BANG 3:16", no less. McMahon pissed himself in the middle of the ring.

Video Games

• The flag gun is so iconic to the Joker that it's even used as his fatality move in Mortal Kombat vs. DC...except it's subverted when he then drops it and pulls out a real gun.
  • And in Mortal Kombat 9, Shang Tsung reuses it as his own Fatality, with a few differences: 1. He transforms into a more generic Monster Clown (sure, since they can't use the DC characters), and 2. the victim's head is shown exploding after being shot.
• Used in Day of the Tentacle by a suicidal hotel guest who puts it to his head and pulls the trigger (the flag comes shooting harmlessly out his ear). Could be horrific under the right circumstances, but it's all Played for Laughs.
• Joker again: In the final cutscene of Lego Batman, Joker's thrown into jail again and looks ready to shoot himself in despair before we find it's one of these joke guns. (You read that right: Joker put a gun to his head in a Lego game.)
• Skullgirls: Peacock's revolver can shoot out a BANG flag, amongst other things.

Webcomics

• Subverted in Friday 4 Koma comic #9.

Western Animation

• In the Looney Tunes short "Hare Conditioned", Bugs Bunny fires a rifle at a store manager, but all that comes out is three "Bang" signs in succesion. The manager then produces three "Ouch" flags out of his mouth.
• Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century has a variation: Dodgers fires an Ultimatum Gun at Marvin, and the bullet stops short and out comes a flag reading, "Surrender, or be blown into 17,670,002 micro-cells." Marvin fires an Ultimatum Responder Gun, and the bullet stops in front of Dodgers and fires...a second bullet. Dodgers then fires another bullet with the rebuttal "Ouch!"
• An episode of Teen Titans has Cyborg turned into a bear. He thought his sonic cannon was usable, but it turns out to be this.

Cyborg: "'Bang'? (Looks up and sees he's about to be crushed) Oh dang..."

• In the "Monte Zooma's Treasure" Story Arc of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Boris tries to shoot the heroes with a "squirrel gun" pistol to keep them from stopping the dam from blowing up, but it just produced a "BANG" flag. Natasha realizes that this is due to a reduction of violence on television.
• An episode of The Simpsons featured Mr. Burns trying to amuse himself by shooting Smithers. The bang flag pops out to Burns' dismay, shouting, "Curses! It's jammed!" he smacks it on the side and the flag shoots out and sticks in Smithers. Burns declares it to be "hi-larious".
• Batman the Animated Series
  • In "Harlequinade", Harley Quinn, finally fed up with the Joker, pulls a tommy gun on him; Batman elects not to intervene. The Joker tells her she doesn't have the guts to pull the trigger. She does: "Ratta Tat Tat." She cringes with anticipated retribution, but the Joker, after a moment of cynical calculation, genuine surprise or both, decides to forgive her, and all is well.
  • In Harley and Ivy", The Joker asks for the gun to fire at the cops pursuing them. Harley hands it to him while she drives, he pulls the trigger..."Bang!"

Harley: You never said which gun...