Dope Slap

Riley: Huey, I was thinking...
Huey: Stop right there. I'm going to reach back like so. If you say something ignorant, I'm gonna smack you real, real hard.
(Beat Panel)
Riley: Nevermind, it wasn't important.
Huey: I thought so.

—The Boondocks

A corrective action in three parts:

  1. Take open palm.
  2. Apply directly to the back of the skull.
  3. Optional: Ask some variant of "What are you, stupid or something?"

The Dope Slap is a lighthearted slap (or knuckle tap) to the back of the skull that is intended as a disciplinary move by one character when another character does, says, or even thinks something that is uniformly stupid, or just to shut them up. The slap is almost always in some way played for laughs; think of it as an attempt at Percussive Maintenance on somebody's brain, and thus occasionally overlaps with Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! Another variation is a "shut up" poke to the ribs with the elbow.

It could be considered a subtrope of Slapstick. In a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine, it's most often done with a Paper Fan of Doom.

Also known as a Gerber Slap, since, when properly applied, the recipient's expression should resemble the "goo-goo" face on the eponymous brand of baby food; and the Gibbs Slap, in honor of the NCIS character having a propensity to do this.

Not to be confused with a Pimp/Bitch slap, which is a hard, either-handed (both backhand and front) slap directly applied to the cheeks in order to assert one's Authoritah.

Truth in Television, obviously. Which one of us hasn't been on the giving or receiving end of this at least once?

The complete inverse of Face Palm. See also Percussive Prevention.

Examples of Dope Slap include:

Advertising

  • The "Could Have Had a V8" line of commercials typically feature one character dope-slapping the other in the forehead, complete with a hollow "doink" sound.

Anime and Manga

  • Kogoro does this to Conan in Detective Conan/Case Closed quite often when he catches the boy snooping where he shouldn't. More often than not he uses his fist (and sometimes even gives Conan a full noogie), resulting in a painful-looking lump. (But this is still played for laughs.)
  • Used in Onegai My Melody, when a mother thought her young son's apology to the Victim of the Week wasn't heartfelt enough.
  • Inuyasha: Inu-Yasha chastises Shippo by conking him on the head (Inu-Yasha sometimes does this to Totosai, too). But since Shippo and Totosai are spirit monsters, it's a closed fist smack from the front, hard enough to raise a comical bump.
  • Mahou Sensei Negima
  • Soul Eater
    • Tsubaki unexpectedly do this to Black Star after he makes Maka run off crying during their training for Chain Resonance.
    • Shinigami hits people who irritate him with his Shinigami Chop. He's very tall and his hand is very large. Especially funny when he does it to Medusa.
  • In Sorcerer Hunters, Tira does this to Carrot more than once.
  • Azumanga Daioh
    • As punishment for forgetting her homework, Osaka is brought up before the class to do a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine with Miss Yukari. When Osaka suggests that Yukari be the boke, she is rewarded with a thwack ("pan") from a rolled-up book.
    • During the Okinawa trip, after Tomo nearly drops Chiyo-chan over a cliff (albeit accidentally), Kagura does this Tomo, even asking the "What are you, stupid or something?" question.
  • Bleach
    • Ichigo's teacher gives him the karate-punch variant after a long absence, when he tries to small-talks her and mentions that she changed hairstyle—which was three weeks ago.
    • Rukia and Renji deliver a tag-team Dope Punch to Ichigo for running off into Hueco Mundo carelessly, without telling them.
    • Anime episode #160: During a Flash Back, Kaien Shiba gives Rukia one while they're in a forest in the Soul Society. She wasn't paying attention to him and even yelling and shaking her didn't work.
  • Quite common in One Piece, and usually administered by Nami. Of note is the fact that her dope slaps even cause Amusing Injuries to Luffy, whose powers explicitly include being able to more or less ignore blunt force. This has been addressed... nonsensically.
  • Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: Jinpei got a few of these, usually after saying something stupid or smart-alecky.
  • Macross Frontier has an odd twist on the old concept, where Klan (in her macronized state) delivers a dope-slap to Mikael's Humongous Mecha's head, causing him to rattle around in the cockpit.
  • Sengoku Basara
    • The Tiger of Kai isn't content to deliver a simple dope-slap to Idiot Hero Yukimura Sanada. When he says something truly dumb, he delivers a dope PUNCH, usually sending Yukimura through the nearest door, or into a wall. He's always up again a second later though.
    • Magoichi also whacks Motochika on the skull like this to bring him to his senses. It stings, but doesn't send him flying.
  • Futaba Kun Change The wrestler sisters Karin and Anzu regularly give each other a karate chop on top of the head... or a dope punch... or a dope kick in the face... usually berating the other for her stupidity—or blaming her own on her sister. Yes, they're a pair of dumbasses.
  • Hanaukyo Maid Tai
    • Episode 2. The maids use a bright light to cover up their assisting Taro in solving a math problem in class. When one of the maids tries to explain the light as a U.F.O., another maid gives her one of these and tells her to think of a better excuse.
    • Konoe does it to various maids in both series (particularly Ikuyo Suzuki). Whenever she does, she hits so hard that it causes a lump on their heads.
  • Infinite Stratos. Chifuyu Orimura does this to her younger brother Ichika thrice in the first few minutes of the first episode.
  • The karate chop version is Kakeru's trademark move in Fruits Basket. One time Yuki tried it... with three times the power.
  • Pandora Hearts
    • In Retrace 49, Liam punches Break in the back of the head when he complains about telling Sharon about his blindness and calls him an idiot.
    • Retrace 65: Oz punches Leo in the face for talking about how the two can be enemies now that the one person keeping them friends, Elliot, is now dead.
  • Light, humorous moments are pretty rare in the manga Parasyte. However, there's that one time a classmate of Shinichi dope-slaps another, after the latter accidentally revealed Shinichi's large scar in the chest by horsing around in the lockers room.
  • Mio from K-On! does this a lot, usually to Ritsu. Her preferred method of application is a fist to the top of the head. In one episode, Mugi tries very hard to get Mio to hit her like this, because she sees it as an important part of bonding with friends.

Comic Books

  • In the last issue of Kingdom Come, Magog gives one of his fellow metahumans a Dope Smack for being disrespectful during the ceremony where Wonder Woman is welcomed back into the Amazons.
  • A particularly hilarious one in Ultimate Spider-Man. After a mutant's powers activate, Spidey and Iceman are trying to convince her to use her powers responsibly. After Iceman makes a particularly stupid comment about her powers (control of fire: "Or, we could get some marshmallows..."), Spidey delivers a quick slap to the back of the head.
  • Superboy (Conner Kent) received one from Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) during a team-up. Superboy, being the Casanova Wannabe that he was at the time, continuously showed off his tactile-telekinesis in order to impress her. When she simply ignores him and uses him as a Bulletproof Human Shield to protect her from an explosion, he finally gets angry and snaps back with a "What the Hell, Hero?" rant. Cassandra calmly slaps him across the forehead and says, "Focus." And Superboy is shocked that it hurt.

Superboy: She got past my force-field. My impregnable force-field. I feel so... pregnable.

Fan Works

  • In chapter 4 of the Harry Potter fic Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum by "Mister Cynical", Hermione dopeslaps Harry at the behest of Sirius when the former demonstrates a little too much fatalism for his taste:

"Slow down Harry," Sirius ordered. "Before you rush off and get sleeves, think about the repercussions. As far as magical society is concerned, only thugs like low-level criminals and Ministry hit wizards have tattoos. You could really screw up your chances at a decent job."
"You're assuming that I'll survive long enough to have to worry about getting a job." Sirius sighed and finished his drink.
"Hermione, if you'd please."
"Way ahead of you," the bushy-haired woman stated before smacking Harry across the back of the head.
"Ow!"
"You're going to survive mate," Ron stated flatly.

Films -- Animation

  • Ice Age
    • Proving that you don't even need a hand to give a dope-slap, Manfred the mammoth delivers one to Sid with his trunk in Ice Age 2.
    • And the more Egregious example from Ice Age 3: Ellie is going into labor; when Crash asks if she can just hold it in for a while, Ellie (being a long distance away and unable to reach him with her trunk) yells down: "Can somebody slap him for me?" Needless to say, Eddie obliges immediately and delivers a resounding smack to Crash's head.
  • In Balto, Kaltag has a habit of hitting Star on the head whenever he interrupts one of his rants as their Running Gag. Star is well aware of this and on one occasion does it to himself and at the end of the film he expects to receive one, only for Kaltag to actually agree with him.
  • In the end of Teen Titans Trouble in Tokyo, Raven does this to Beast Boy after he made his last and somewhat awkward comment: "Okay, next time, we're going to Mexico!". She then coldly slaps him senseless off the stage, the camera fades after that, then the credits roll.
  • It goes by pretty quickly, but in How to Train Your Dragon, Gobber gives Hiccup a light one on the back of the head after the boy's father tells him to go home after screwing up (and, heavily suggested, not for the first time).
  • Tulio does this to Miguel at least three times in The Road to El Dorado, in addition to many death glares and elbow nudges.
  • Even fishes can get into it. In Finding Nemo, Bloat (the porcupinefish) gives once a dope-slap to Gurgle (the royal gramma) with his fin.
  • In The Lorax, after the Once-Ler cuts down the first tree, two Humming Fish go near it, and one knocks on the stump with its fin to indicate nothing has really changed, only for the sky to suddenly turn black and begin to rumble (indicating the summoning of the Lorax). The other fish then slaps the first one in the back of the head for apparently causing the current thing.

Films -- Live-Action

  • The Three Stooges often feature an Overly Long Gag where Larry, Curly, and Moe take turns dope-slapping each other, escalating into bigger and bigger acts of violence.
  • In Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Eddie Valiant and Roger Rabbit are hiding from the police in a movie theater. Roger is talking loudly and Eddie hits him on the head while saying "What's wrong with you?"
  • In the Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince movie, Hermione Granger explains to Harry about the girls trying to slip him love potions. When Harry doesn't seem to mind the attention, she reminds him that they only want him because they think he's "The Chosen One".

Harry: But I am the chosen one.
Hermione: (smack)
Harry: Sorry. Um, kidding.

Young Biff: Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here?
Old Biff: (smack) IT'S "LEAVE", YOU IDIOT! Make like a tree and LEAVE! You sound like a damned FOOL when you say it wrong!

  • Clue, in the second ending.

Mr. Green: Ms. Peacock was a man?!

Lance: (entering a room filled with black people) Holy moly, looks like the Source Awards in here.
Conspiracy Brother: (hits the back of Lance's head)
Lance: Ow!
Conspiracy Brother: It does now!

  • Avatar. When Neytiri is trying to teach Jake the word "nari" (eye), he keeps saying "nadi" (which is not even a possible word in the Na'vi language), earning him an irritated (and ad-libbed) whack to the forehead.
  • Dogma's main characters deliver one to Jay after he goes on a rampage and shoots the wings off an angel, which was exactly what that angel needed.
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    • After Sir Bedevere fails with the Giant Wooden Rabbit idea, he comes up with a Giant Wooden Badger idea and king Arthur slaps him on the side of his helmet.
    • Prince Herbert and his father are standing next to an open window talking.

Father: One day, lad, all this will be yours. (gestures toward the window)
Herbert: What, the curtains?
Father: (hits him on the back of the head) No, not the curtain, lad!

  • In SWAT, a random gangbanger gets one from a cop while Street and Hondo are going to visit Sanchez. Said gangbanger had been beat-up by Sanchez during the arrest.

Street: Bad day, huh?
Gangbanger: Kiss my ass, ese.
Cop: (dope-slap)

  • Happens twice in Ghostbusters.
    • Peter Venkmann gives one to Ray Stanz when Ray interrupts his attempt to charm a beautiful female experimental subject.

Venkmann: I'm right in the middle of something, Ray!

    • Ray Stanz gives one back to Peter Venkmann while he and Egon are explaining the nature of Dana Barrett's apartment building.

Venkmann: So what? They don't make them like they used to.
Stanz: No! Nobody ever made them like this.

Literature

  • In Stephen Baxter's Manifold Space, Malenfant is repeatedly smacked on the head by superstrong Neanderthals for speaking at all. Turns out that nearly all of their language is sign, with a few super-special vocal words. The Neanderthals give him a sign-name that means "Stupid".
  • Belisarius Series: As dawazz to Prince Eon, it was part of Ousanas' job to deliver one of these whenever Eon needed correcting in his behavior.
  • HP Lovecraft's The Fungi from Yuggoth:

"I am his messenger," the daemon said,
 As in contempt he struck his master's head."

"It can only be that, master. The keepers of the labyrinth are unbribable."
Didactylos clipped Urn across the back of his head with his lantern.
"Stupid boy! I've told you about that sort of statement."
"I mean, they are not easily bribable, master..."
"That's more like it."

Live-Action TV

  • This is Gibbs' favorite form of discipline in NCIS, especially to Tony, who reminds Gibbs of himself in his younger days. He does it regularly enough that the other characters have called it the Gibbs-slap.
    • Honorable mention to Gibbs' reaction to catching Tony looking at "Page 57" of a men's magazine—since Gibbs was too far away to deliver a dope-slap, he caught Tony on the back of the head with a scrunched-up ball of paper. Certainly got his attention.
    • Tony, for his part, has at least gotten smart enough to dope-slap himself on occasion, and once got offended that Gibbs ordered Ziva to administer when Gibbs wasn't within arm's reach.
    • However, it also conveys a sense of family—only Team Gibbs gets Gibbs-slapped. When Ziva is assigned to Team Gibbs in "Silver War", she says, "I know, when we get out there you start kicking my butt." Gibbs replies, "I don't kick butts." She looks at him in confusion—in response, he dope-slaps her, and she beams, knowing that he's essentially saying, "Welcome to the family."
    • Furthermore, after being injured in an explosion, Gibbs suffers from amnesia and can't remember anyone or anything that happened after the end of his Marine career. Ziva manages to restore his memory by grabbing his hand and dope-slapping herself with it.
    • In one episode, Gibbs dope-slaps himself after tampering with evidence (which was for a good cause).
    • On at least two occasions, Abby dope-slaps McGee, saying "I was just doing what Gibbs would have done if he were here." On one occasion after discovering a solution that they hadn't considered earlier, she dope-slapped McGee on the arm, claiming, "We should have thought of that." She then bared her arm and insisted that McGee dope-slap her.
    • Kate does this to Tony once. He angrily tells her that she's not allowed to do that because she isn't Gibbs.
    • Kate and Tony dope-slap McGee simultaneously after he joins the team and thinks that they'll stop hazing him.
    • At yet another time, Gibbs dope-slaps both Tony and Ziva simultaneously, but Tony complains that he's not hitting her as hard as him.
    • Gibbs once dope-slaps a cardboard cutout of Tony, and Tony reacts as if he'd been hit.
    • Of course, we see in flashbacks that when Gibbs first joined NIS, Mike Franks used to dope-slap him.
    • A flashback in the episode "Baltimore" shows Gibbs giving Tony his first dope-slap, when Tony is uncertain about being any kind of cop. Tony indignantly asks, "Did you just physically assault me?" After Gibbs says he thinks Tony is too good to waste, Tony replies, "Never do that again."
  • Hyde doing this to Kelso is a Running Gag in That '70s Show. Red did this to Eric on occasion too.
  • Often used in the Britcom Coupling. Actor Richard Coyle (who plays Jeff Murdock) once was on the receiving end of a dope-slap that was so forceful he got angry over it. Crybaby.
  • Similarly, actor Andrew Sachs once asked John Cleese to tone down the dope-slap while filming Fawlty Towers.
  • On The Golden Girls, Dorothy is constantly hitting Rose with a newspaper whenever she says something stupid.
  • Titus would do this to Dave frequently on Titus, to the point that in one episode when Titus was unconscious in the hospital, Dave was slapping himself with Titus's hand, and weeping "It's just not the same!"
  • The Band of Brothers episode "Why We Fight" features this exchange while the soldiers are patrolling a forest in Bavaria:

Frank Perconte: Hey, George.
George Luz: Yeah?
Frank Perconte: This kind of remind you of Bastogne?
(comedic pause, including bemused look)
George Luz: Yeah... now that you mention it. Except, of course, there's no snow, we got warm grub in our bellies, and the trees aren't fucking exploding from Kraut artillery, but yeah... Frank... other than that, it's a lot like Bastogne.
Frank Perconte: Right?
George Luz: Bull, smack him for me please?
(thump)
George Luz: Thank you.

  • Repeatedly applied to Henry in You Rang M Lord, generally after he's made an accurate but unflattering observation about one of the other characters. It happens often enough that on one occasion, he hits himself preemptively to save someone else the bother. It doesn't seem to stop him being snarky, though.
  • Several episodes of The Amanda Show features skits involving Tony Pajamas (Drake Bell) and his lackey (Josh Peck). Josh would frequently say or do something stupid, get hit and ask, "What was that for?!" To which Tony would reply, "For bein' an idiot!" which Josh would accept with an "Okay."
  • Friends: Chandler manages to earn a five-person dope-slap (or at least two or three plus some stuff thrown at him...) after a particularly flagrant bit of Hypocritical Humor when he criticizes a Love Interest Of The Week for being "desperate"—after he's spent the whole episode literally watching the phone.
  • The dope-slap is a Running Gag on My Wife and Kids. Junior, not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, often said or did dumb stuff, leading to a dope-slap from another character, usually Michael or Jay.
  • In Brazil, comedic show Pânico na TV gave the dope-slap a Memetic Mutation, with a skit where a parody of a sports show host slapped two dwarves nicknamed after soccer players, along with the phrase "Pedala, Robinho!" and "Samba, Tevez!"
  • Happens so often Gilligans Island that some refer to it as a "Gilligan Slap".
  • In Stargate Atlantis, Sheppard has dope-slapped McKay on two occasions: once in the second season for doubting Ronon's tracking skills, and again in the third season for telling too much to the still-imprisoned and therefore Mind Probe victims O'Neill and Woolsey. Note that in the second case, it was all part of a ploy to feed them false information before they'd be interrogated by the Asuran Replicators.
  • A major point of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars is Aeryn giving birth during a firefight and demanding to be married to John before she finishes. Stark begins uttering some majestic sounding gobbledygook which Chiana recognizes as a Sheyang prayer for the dead. Cue SLAP! from Aeryn. Stark tries something else, which turns out to be a Delvian puberty rite. Cue BITCHSLAP!! from Aeryn. He finally just asks them if they want to be married, they say yes, and he declares them married. Then Aeryn gives birth and they shoot their way out. Whew!
  • It happens at least Once an Episode in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
  • The Big Guy in Sanctuary does this to Will and Henry a lot. However, in Big Guy's case, it's only occasionally a dope-slap. Usually it's just his way of demonstrating affection. Once in a while, Will or Henry will return the favor, either in dope-slap or Bromance context.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike pulls off a memorable one when, due to a spell, he has to explain a crucial plot point to Xander for roughly the 37th time. Note that Spike has a chip in his head which causes him extreme pain if he hurts a human.

Spike: This... is gonna be worth it.
(smacks Xander)
Both: OWWWW!

    • When the Trio start arguing about who the best James Bond was in the middle of their scheme, Andrew gets smacked for sticking up for Timothy Dalton.
  • Happens in the bloopers for Angel, after it is revealed that Wes, while making an ad for Angel Investigations, put down the wrong phone number.
  • The dope-slap became one of the best character signatures of Soledad from the Spanish sitcom 7 Vidas.
  • Leo does this to Josh in The West Wing after Josh mocks a sentimental tradition of Leo's: "First of all, that (OW!) is for 'total crackpot day'."
  • Supernatural: In the pilot episode, Dean reprimands Sam by slapping him in the back of the head. Strangely, this is the dope-slap's only occurrence, although Pam gives Dean one as revenge for getting her killed.
  • Bones: Hodgins does this to Zach in "Intern in the Incinerator".

Zack: You're married, and you sleep with men besides your husband.
(cue dope-slap)
Zack: Ow.

  • Arrested Development: While in prison, George Bluth does this to his son GOB after he reveals that he enlisted his fourteen-year-old nephew to break into a permit office and plant evidence, despite the prison's "very strict 'no touching' policy." According to George, "it's worth a week in the hot box."
  • El Chavo del Ocho
    • Taken to an extreme in this Mexican sitcom, where it's one of the show's many Running Gags

Don Ramón: (hits Chavo on head with usual Kung Foley) ¡Toma!
Chavo: Pipipipipipipipipipi....

    • El Chavo has also been known to give Quico a triple dope slap.

Quico: No me simpatizas...[1] (*Non Sequitur Thud*)

  • This happens to Royal Brat Juan in The Borgias after he brutally curb stomps his stepfather Theo. Rodrigo is not amused and delivers one hell of a Reason You Suck Speech, orders him to apologize and threatens to disinherit him if he does anything of the sort again. Juan agrees to do as he's told, but just when it looks like all is forgiven, he gets an almighty slap just to drive the point home.

Newspaper Comics

Radio

  • Car Talk is the Trope Namer. Hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi—better known as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers—claim to have been at the receiving end of many a dope-slap from their mother. (And according to each brother, the other brother stayed just as dumb.)

Recorded and Stand Up Comedy

  • Bill Engvall talks about getting these from his father, especially at church. His father would sit with his children on both sides of him, with his arms stretched out behind him on the pew, "like he was huggin' the whole family." And if one of the kids misbehaved, he would be in easy smacking range. "'Brain dusters,' we called 'em."

Video Games

  • Mother 3 has a pair of NPCs who are practicing a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine. The shorter one gives the dope-slap to the taller one as the "punchline" of every gag. He's also shown to do it when they're not practicing their jokes.... Even better? Their names are Bud and Lou.
  • At various points in Final Fantasy IV, Porom will walk around behind her twin brother Palom and clonk him on the head for his stupidity with an adorable "Do-PANK!" sound effect.
  • In Endless Frontier, Suzuka asks Reiji to give one of these to his partner Xiaomu after she makes a particularly bad observation/joke. This being at least in part a Namco game however, he spanks her instead. (At about 5:50 here)
  • Towards the end of Halo: Combat Evolved, Cortana figures out how to use Halo's teleportation system in order to rapidly move the Chief to Keyes's position. Unfortunately, she teleports him in after mixing up the ceiling of the ship with its floor, leading to the Chief landing on his head once he phases in. He proceeds to knock his helmet, since Cortana is an AI program that was currently housed inside it.
  • Jak and Daxter: Jak does this to Daxter at least once in each of the original three games. Daxter then slaps Jak twice in the racing spin-off.
  • In Psychonauts, this is Ford Cruller's response if Raz decides not to accept the call to adventure.
  • World of Warcraft has the emote "/smack", which, when used, will smack whomever the player is targeting upside the head. This is purely text however, as nothing actually happens with the characters.
  • LEGO Indiana Jones: Dr Jones Senior dope-slaps Indy at least twice.

Visual Novels

  • In Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2, Saeki Teru will give the heroine a "chop" with the side of his hand when he thinks she's being dumb. The new skinship system allows the heroine to do the same to Teru or any of the other guys.

Web Comics

Sheila: Did you just give me a "dope slap" with your tail?
Kell: Somebody had to.

Roy: (likely -- he's invisible) ... You're lucky attacking ends the spell, or I would smack the crap out of all of you.
Belkar: (probably) Bite my 50% miss chance.

"Stare at a sexy, stacked skunk sauntering slow, but a solid, stinging skull-slap soon sets a silly suitor straight!"

Web Original

  • Offhand example in this animated GIF.
  • SCP Foundation: Once a person is de-possessed of SCP-572, "all psychological effects can usually be expunged by a single swift blow to the back of the subject's head."
  • In Suburban Knights Group 2 battles the Cloaks on a playground. When a mother shows up with her kid and tells them to scram:

Angry Joe: Oh, come on! She's too old to be on a playground, anyway! What, does she believe in Santa Claus, too?
Little Girl: (looks shocked and begins to tear up)
Cloak 2: (hits Joe on the back of the head)

Western Animation

Raph: Woah, Donny, don't hit Mikey. That's MY job.

    • In one instance of particular annoyance, Leonardo restrained Raph from doing this... so he could smack Mikey himself.
    • An episode of the Fast Forward season had Splinter taking it to the extreme, tipping Mikey's chair over so he could hit him with the entire floor.

Splinter: "Someone had to do it. It was time."

Suberboy: Cool!
Wonder Girl: (dope-slap) Would you stop messing around?!

    • John Stewart is also fond of doing this to The Flash (who often earns it), as seen in "The Brave and the Bold" when Stewart gets Flash out of jail.
    • In the Cold Open of "Date Night", two goons argue over a scone recipe.

Cecil: But how come when I make the scones, they don't got that good flavor like yours, Tony?
Tony: (dope slap) Do I gotta tell you again how you gotta add the orange zest, Cecil?

  • Family Guy
    • In one episode, Peter tells the family that their tax refund will let them buy something they've always wanted. Chris suggests a cat and gets dope-slapped by Brian. Meg suggests a stereo and gets dope-slapped by Stewie. Then Lois says "A pool?" and gets dope-slapped by Peter, who then realizes what she said and responds "Oh, sorry, it is a pool."
    • There's another early episode, where peter loses his job and goes on welfare. When he tells Brian he got off subject by telling Lois she was getting fat, Brian rolls up the newspaper and whacks him twice saying "No. No."
  • "Mom" on Futurama frequently dope-slaps her children, occasionally all three of them at once. Being Expys of The Three Stooges, they often do it to each other as well.
  • As opposed to a full-handed slap, Uncle of Jackie Chan Adventures delivers a hard, two-finger hit to the forehead for anyone whose foolishness has earned his disapproval. Be they Jackie (many times -- "One more thing!"), allies, enemies, or even himself.
  • Ren from The Ren and Stimpy Show does this to Stimpy on a semi-regular basis after he's said something really stupid.
  • Butt-head from Beavis and Butthead does this to Beavis on a regular basis, which sometimes leads Beavis to retaliate.
  • Dick Dastardly to Muttley on Wacky Races. Usually, Dick's retaliation for Muttley snickering at him comes by a bop on the head, dumping water on him, or other variations.
  • Skipper's trademark in The Penguins of Madagascar. When Skipper is presumed dead, Private asks the others to slap him the way Skipper does; "Like you're disappointed, but you still care."
  • The Bugs Bunny Merrie Melodies cartoon Wackiki Wabbit features this trope with the two castaways.
  • Young Justice
    • Aqualad prompts Robin to stop laughing outright at Superboy's failure with a sharp elbow to the ribs. One gets the feeling that it would have been a smack upside the head were Aqualad a less reserved person.
    • Artemis delivers one to Kid Flash when he won't stop flirting with Miss Martian.
  • In the final moments of the Transformers Animated episode, "Decepticon Air", Megatron does this to Starscream. This example is even funnier due to the fact that Starscream is just a disembodied head at this point so Megatron's slap ends up knocking him across the room.

(Lugnut lands on the windshield of the space vehicle)
Starscream: So, now we're picking up hitchhikers? *SMACK*

  • Brain from Pinky and The Brain often does this to Pinky after he's said or done something particularly stupid, usually he pounds him over the head with his fist or an object.
  • From SpongeBob SquarePants:

Barnacle Boy: If you don't respect me as a hero, the you'll respect me as a villain. A villain who's EVIL!!
SpongeBob: Evil?
The rest: Evil?
Mermaid Man: (blankly stares, then dope-slapped by Mr. Krabs) EVIIIL!!!

  • In Codename: Kids Next Door, Numbuh Five dope-slaps Numbuh Four after the latter ate some Coco Nut Logs despite being allergic to coconut.
  • Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy: Eddy smashes a bed on a stressed out Edd, who promptly says he needed that.
  • The Simpsons: In Bart The General, Bart does this to a random kid, who explains about his nerves when it came to the dogs. Abe does this to Bart, though the kid told Bart he was cool with it, implying he needed that.

Real Life

  • Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers discusses various Korean Air plane crashes, concluding that a significant part of it was a hierarchical culture between pilots and co-pilots which led to poor communication. One Egregious example came when the captain dope-slapped his co-pilot.
  • This is common among middle- and high-school children, except they will announce it.

Kid 1: [stupid comment]
Kid 2: (eye roll) That's a neck. Slap yourself.

  1. ↑ "I don't like you..."
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