Anti-Sneeze Finger

That's how we do it.

Very common in western animation, when one character is starting to sneeze and current situation calls for being quiet, this character or someone else will use a finger under nose to stop the sneeze from happening. This is typically followed up with a GIANT sneeze as soon as the finger is removed.

This trope is Truth in Television. There's a pressure point under your nose that, if you press it, temporarily stops the sneeze reflex. Note that you need to press it; simply holding your finger under your nose will have no effect. A similar and equally effective strategy is to press the sides of the nostrils together to relieve an itching sensation; a more clandestine method is to tickle the roof of your mouth with the tip of your tongue.

Compare Inconvenient Itch and Potty Emergency. Attempts to avert Pepper Sneeze or Sneeze of Doom with this trope happens sometimes.

Examples of Anti-Sneeze Finger include:

Film

• The dwarfs do this to Sneezy in Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.
  • When Dopey stands on Sneezy's shoulders for the dance with Snow White, and Sneezy begins to sneeze, Dopey tries the Anti-Sneeze Finger on himself. It doesn't work.
• In Balto, Nikki does this to Star to prevent triggering a cave-in. (His previous sneeze having caused an avalanche.) Unlike most other examples, it actually stops the sneeze permanently instead of resulting in a giant sneeze when the finger is removed. Not that it matters much since the cave-in is soon afterward triggered by another sound.
• The Three Stooges did it several times.

Live Action TV

• An Even Stevens episode uses this at the end, when Ren is getting a retake of her school photo. She is about to sneeze, but Louis puts his finger under her nose to stop it and save her from being photographed mid-sneeze.

Newspaper Comics

• In one Garfield strip, Jon does this to Garfield. Garfield thanks him, then notices that Jon's leaving the room. Jon says he's going to go "boil my finger".

Stand-up comedy

• In his "salad-maker" sketch, Red Skelton's waiter character tries to suppress a sneeze this way, only to fail at an inopportune time.

Western Animation

• In the Looney Tunes short "Frigid Hare", Bugs Bunny stifles an Eskimo's sneeze this way to keep the ice ledge under them from breaking. And then Bugs sneezes.
  • Likewise Yosemite Sam and a chronically sneezing dragon in "Knighty Knight Bugs"; he attempts to stifle the dragon this way when they end up in a room full of dynamite.
• Jonny Quest episode "Monster in the Monastery": Jonny does it to himself so he doesn't sneeze and alert the "yeti". He doesn't sneeze afterward, but Bandit does.
• Alan does this for Anne in the The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan episode "The Greek Caper" when they, Tom and Suzie are being chased by a masked stranger in a museum and disguise themselves as statues. It works... for about half a second.
• A Running Gag in The World of David the Gnome.
• Penelope does it to herself in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop episode "Tall Timber Treachery".
• The gang do this to Scooby-Doo in almost every incarnation.
• One episode of Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines featured the Anti-Sneeze missile, which would hit anyone who sneezes. A misfired pepper shot forced the Vulture Squadron members to use the Anti-Sneeze Finger technique to avoid being targeted. It ended as well as expected in that cartoon.
  • Muttley was the one who sneezed. He was at the end of the line so nobody could cover his nose.

Real Life

• In American Sign Language, the sign for "sneeze" is putting your finger under you nose, like so, and pretending to sneeze.