Offhand Backhand

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
You were saying?

Hold it there! You're doing the old "Frozen Take" bit, which means Doug the Dog... *WHACK*... was Right Behind Me. Heh-heh-heh!

—Slappy Squirrel, Animaniacs

Being an Evil Minion is a hard (and short) life. If you're not constantly getting killed, you're getting knocked the fugg out by the Hero.

Some Mooks, instead of following the rules of Mook Chivalry, try getting smart, sneaking up on the hero when he's busy fighting another fellow Mook, or while in conversation with the Girl of the Week, and striking him from behind.

Sounds easy, right? He's not even looking your way, throwing punches or running his mouth. All you have to is be silent... just a little closer...

*POW*

Nope, not only do you still get knocked out (or shot down), the Hero doesn't even give you the courtesy of looking your way first. And of course, you just made him look that much cooler.

Compare Foe-Tossing Charge, only even more humiliating for the poor sap on the receiving end. Most users of this move have a Badass Back. There is a certain amount of Truth in Television to this: The reverse kick is a fairly viable move.

Examples of Offhand Backhand include:

Advertising

  • Rick Santorum did this in a political ad in 2006, which can be seen here.

Anime and Manga

  • Livio the Double Fang from Trigun has two cross shaped miniature machine guns that allow him to fire in four directions simultaneously.
  • Kirika in Noir pulls this off in the third episode after using popcorn to help her find the location of the unlucky Mook on the other end.
  • C.T. Smith, from Zombiepowder, while in the middle of a gunfight, using Guns Akimbo. Flips one of his guns over his shoulder and headshoots a mook threatening another main character, then switches back without missing a beat.
  • Alucard from Hellsing loves to go Guns Akimbo without looking in one direction.
  • The titular character of Afro Samurai does this to a guy at least 4 times his size. so hard that he flies through the wall.
  • Matsumoto Rangiku of Bleach does this to both Asano Keigo and Kon when they both attempt to thrust themselves into Marshmallow Hell.
    • Done to the extreme in the manga version of Bleach, (and presumably will happen in a future episode of the anime series) General Yamamoto does this to Haibel's Fraccion, Milla-Rose, Sun-Sun, and Apache. After finishing off their pet beast Allon, the three Fraccion try to take Yamamoto down from behind. Before they can strike, he comments, "Trying to take me down with one arm missing? I admire your spirit. Out of respect for your spirit, I will allow you to leave only slightly charred." With that, he unleashes a massive wave of fire that completely roasts the three Fraccion.
    • Not to mention when Kensei Muguruma blows up a Giant Mook of sky-scraper height's face. With his knife.
    • Not to mention Kenpachi's at the end of chapter 463. Cuts his opponent in half without looking. All he has to say... "Fucking Boring".
  • Pride of Fullmetal Alchemist manages to do an offhand BACKSTAB to a subordinate who had outlived his usefulness.
    • And in Brotherhood, Barry the Chopper managed one on a foolish guard who chose to investigate, with an axe, of course, it nailed him square in the head. And it was great
  • In the original El Hazard OVA, Ifurita demonstrates her newfound independence by laying out Jinnai with a no-look pimp-slap.
  • Dutch does this to a panicking Rock in the first chapter of Black Lagoon. Roberta does the same later during a gun battle, when a thug made the mistake of trying to attack her from behind after she agreed to stop shooting.
  • At the beginning of Midori no Hibi, the main character is ambushed from behind by the girlfriend of a gangster he beat up at the story's start... and smacks her down without looking. Or, rather, he wasn't looking - Midori, attached to his right arm, heard her coming and acted defensively.
  • In Fist of the North Star, one would-be Hokuto Shinken wielder is stalking Kenshiro through a town. When he pounces, Kenshiro backhands the faceplate of his helmet in. The punk grabs his ears, announces "You are already dead!", and counts down from ten... exploding on the zero. When Kenshiro backhands you, he knows where to hit.
  • Melissa Mao delivers one to Kurz Weber in the opening credits of Full Metal Panic!? Fumoffu.
  • Botan, of all people pulls it off in Yu Yu Hakusho. Even if Kuwabara warned her, she still didn't even look back before thwacking the mook with a metal bat.
  • Hilariously done in chapter 252 of Mahou Sensei Negima, with Setsuna splitting a steel ball that was flying at Konoka and a couple of children (they were a few meters behind her and its trajectory was within her reach) in half with her artifact... without even knowing she did it. She was busy worrying. About how she thinks she's getting WEAKER, no less. Sorry Setsuna, but the evidence is against you...
  • In the Ice Hunters arc of One Piece, Luffy does this to one of the bounty hunters, Hockera. In a subversion, though, Luffy's not even fighting him-he's fighting two other bounty hunters while Hockera attacks Chopper, and Hockera gets nailed when Luffy snaps his arm backwards. Luffy's not even aware of what happened until Hockera whined at him for interfering in someone else's battle.
    • Whitebeard himself recently got one against a giant Vice-Admiral who somehow thought his guard was down.
    • When Luffy fights Zoro on Whiskey Peak, they give each other full attention- despite Zoro previously having been about to engage Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine. The latter two get pissed that they are being underestimated, and proceed to launch attacks at the "distracted" pair. Neither breaks eye contact nor moves more than a few inches fending them off.
    • Inazuma should get a mention; when a wolf attacked from behind, Inazuma sent it flying with a reversed kick.
  • Used by The Stoic Thors to put down The Berserker Bjorn in Vinland Saga.
  • Episode 6 of Valkyria Chronicles: a fistfight breaks out between the members of Squads 1 and 7. During the fight, an unnamed soldier attempts to sneak up on Isara (who was eating at the time) before she knocks him out with a hereto-unforeseen wrench.
  • Kenshin pulls this off against a mook during one of the Kyoto arc episodes with his sheath.
  • In the Persona 3 manga, Akihiko does this to Junpei when he sneaks up on him while they're lost in Tartarus. The look on his face is pretty amusing.
  • In Dragonball Z, when Frieza fights with Nail, he Flash Steps, intentionally exposing his back to Nail just so that he can do this.
  • In the Slayers OVA, Jeffrey attempts a pointlessly overdramatic charge at an enemy general and is casually clotheslined by the general and knocked out cold. Unfortunately for the general, he then asks Lina and Naga who the idiot he just knocked out was, inadvertently calling down the wrath of Jeffrey's insanely overprotective mother.
  • Sebastian of Black Butler, in the recent manga arc, gave us a pretty epic one while soaking wet to a zombie on a sinking ship...no, seriously. [dead link]
  • This is how Hime-chan met with Arisaka in Himechan no Ribon.
  • This is actually a technique of the Kogan style in Shigurui. Its effects are quite devastating.
  • A Certain Magical Index:
    • This is how Touma finishes off Stiyl's fire giant Innocentius, after destroying the runes it needs to regenerate.
    • A variation: both Accelerator and Fiamma of the Right's powers can automatically protect them from any attack and take out the attacker, even attacks they are completely unaware of. At one point, Fiamma does this to a space station.


Comic Books

  • There are a lot of heroes who have done this, but Captain America (comics) is especially fond of it. In his case, however, he's far more likely to whack you in the face with his shield. Iron Man has done his fair share of this as well. Unlike Captain America, Iron Man will hit you with his fist. Either way, though, you're still going to get a face full of metal.
    • One of the funniest times with Captain America was, while in conversation with Ms. Marvel outside Avengers' Mansion on a snowy day, Cap flings his shield to the side, which bounces off a wall, passes behind him—incidentally intercepting the snowball thrown at him by a daring kid who climbed to the top of the outer wall—bounces off the opposite wall, then flies back to Cap's hand. Ms. Marvel remarks on Cap's unexpected show of humor.
  • Batman. It's practically a signature of his to leave one mook not a complete heap so he can backhand him when he tries to sneak up.
  • Apparently, the rest of the Batfamily has picked this up from him. Cassandra Cain (Batgirl II) and Steph (Spoiler) do this in sync at one point.
  • Bunnie Rabbot pulls this on Ixis Naugus once in Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog. Made even worse for Naugus since she used her cyborg fist instead of her normal one.
  • Mister E does this to a Mook in Books of Magic.
  • In the third issue of the Firefly comic Better Days, River kicks an Alliance soldier in the teeth when he tries to sneak up on and gut her with a knife. Though in this case, it is justified by her Psychic Powers.
    • River also did that to a random Mook in the bar fight scene of the Serenity movie .
      • She actually kicked the mook in the back of his head while standing in front of him. You have to see it to believe it.
  • In Watchmen, Ozymandias does this to Rorschach. Repeatedly. Got to admire Rorschach's tenacity, though.
  • Darkseid takes this to a new level with offhand Eye Beams.


Fan Works

“You were saying,” Hawk asked, just looking at Hornet."

  • In the Harry Potter fic Make a Wish, this is the interpretation made by witnesses when Harry unknowingly decapitates a vampire leader by flicking a chain whip back over his shoulder.

Film

  • Gun Kata practitioners in Equilibrium and works influenced by it do this all the time.
    • In that film, Preston even pulled off one backhand with a sword: as two mooks attempt to off him, he stabs one sword forwards and one sword back, instantly killing both attackers. Prior to that, he began the same fight by unsheathing the sword of the mook standing behind him and slashing the one in front of him in the face.
    • The sword to the back was a sheath that he pulled off one attacker and sharpened into a killing point by blocking an attacker with it such that half the sheath was sliced off.
  • The Joker does this to his ex-boss in Batman, although he's already shot him several times.
    • And before that scene, Batman himself clobbers one of Jack Napier's men like this during the battle at the Axis Chemicals plant.
  • RoboCop too shoots without looking, but he pre-targets the bad guys in his computerized head. Given the satirical tone of the series, this is almost certainly done tongue-in-cheek.
  • In Muppet Treasure Island Polly Lobster is thrown into the side of the ship and loses consciousness. Some minutes later he recovers, and Mr. Arrow (Sam the Eagle) slams him back against it with a wing, without taking his eyes off the duel between the two captains.
    • Minutes later, Sam does it again, while performing a Face Palm.
  • Makes an appearance in this short featuring TNA wrestler Kurt Angle.
    • "Less talk, more action"? Pot, kettle, black.
  • In Rollerball, the protagonist does this, then points out that he could hear the other guy.
  • Leeloo pulls this stunt in The Fifth Element.
  • Darth Vader does something similar in Revenge of the Sith: when he's on Mustafar slaughtering the Separatist council, a battle droid shoots at him from behind, and without turning around, he just puts his lightsaber behind him, deflecting the blaster bolt back and destroying the droid. This occurs right before he turns to face the camera, showing off the red-rimmed yellow eyes of Dark Side corruption.
    • This is actually a pretty common Jedi ability, and forms the basis of their defense against blaster bolts. A better example would be how Yoda disposed of Sidious's Praetorian Guard in the same movie, offhandedly smacking them both against a wall with the force without even turning around.
  • Trinity does this in The Matrix. With her FOOT.
    • This variation was parodied as a Running Gag in Austin Powers: Goldmember: every time Foxxy Cleopatra tries to attack Goldmember from behind, he manages to kick her in the face, at one point raising both legs at the same time.
    • Neo also pulled one off during the chateau fight in The Matrix Reloaded: when one mook attempted to backstab him, he blocked over his shoulder.
  • Doctor Octopus takes it to another level in Spider-Man 2. When Mary Jane grabs a 2x4 and starts advancing on him, he uses two of his mechanical arms to snatch it out of her hands and knock her to the floor, all without taking his eyes off Peter. Of course, it's possible the independently intelligent tentacles did it all on their own.
    • Well, the film seems to imply that since the tentacles are basically connected to his mind; they can feed him information about his surroundings from their own built-in sensors (and if you watch closely, one of the tentacles was indeed "looking" at MJ before she struck). A similar thing happens during his first battle with Spider-Man. His back is turned completely to the direction Spidey is coming from, yet one of his tentacles seems to spot him coming. Ock then turns around throwing bags of money at Spidey as an attack.
  • Legolas does this during the hand-to-hand fight in Edoras. Finishes off one, another's approaching from behind... bam
    • Aragorn also stabs people without looking at them, the idea being that he's been trained in the elvish martial arts.
      • It also helps that he's been fighting for longer than any of the mooks have been alive.
  • Hudson Hawk does this to Kit-Kat when the latter is inexplicably dressed like him, standing behind him, and mimicking his every move.
  • Doesn't Bruce Lee also this in The Big Boss? (Unrelated to the Metal Gear character.) He does it in one of his movies, anyway—to two Mooks at the same time.
  • James Bond pulls this off in Licence to Kill, starting a very messy bar brawl.
  • In Roxanne (based loosely on Cyrano De Bergerac), CD (Steve Martin) pulls this off after his Crowning Moment of Awesome showing up the bar fly who (poorly) insulted his nose. After the humiliated guy tries to hit him, CD counters and brings his fist up backwards into the guy face. As the guy stands there stunned CD walks nonchalantly back to his table, not looking back and asks his companions "Has he fallen yet?" just as the guy drops to raucous cheering.
  • Despite showing no inclination toward being combat proficient throughout the entire first part of the movie, the main character of Dagon (actually based on The Shadow Over Innsmouth) somehow manages one of these during a fight when his girlfriend is threatened.
  • Parodied in the Do You Know Praying Mantis? scene from Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
  • Wolverine elbows Gambit in the face as he's coming up behind him to deliver an angry speech.
  • Airplane!. The hero is being constantly hassled at the airport by cultists offering free flowers in exchange for donations. After his love rejects him and flies off in the ill-fated airplane, another cultist leans over his shoulder offering a flower...without changing expression, Stryker slams his fist backward into the man's face.
  • The tituar character in Disney's Hercules does this to Hades near the end of the film.
  • In Troy, Achilles parries several blows on the upswing thanks to a Badass Back. Then he walks away without looking.
  • After being made to concede defeat to General Miura, Zealot Lin from Ip Man attempts an attack In the Back. General Miura successfully catches him fighting dirty. When he still refuses to give in, General Miura proceeds to show him that cheaters don't prosper on his watch.
  • Congo. The female ex-CIA protagonist is bribing a corrupt army officer when one of his soldiers starts running his hand through her long blonde hair. She promptly elbows him in the groin without looking, much to the amusement of his CO.
  • In Despicable Me, Gru does this to a shark after Vector had kidnapped his adopted children.
  • Serenity has River pull this on the captain, just to show how Crazy Awesome she is. Likewise bounty hunter Jubal Early on Simon Tam. On both occasions no one is shot; it's just a less-than-subtle way of saying "Back off".
  • In The Lion King, Rafiki pulls off this stunt on one of the hyenas.
    • Pumbaa does this too. Except with his back legs.
  • In 1989 Batman film, Batman does this to a Mook who's around the corner.
  • Undercover Brother. Sista Girl strikes someone behind her with a fist twice: Undercover Brother (while he's sexually harassing her) and a golf course security guard.
  • Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. John Bigbooté does it to one of the hunters.
  • Judge Dredd. While Dredd and Herman Ferguson are trying to sneak through the Judge headquarters, Dredd does this to another Judge who is trying to arrest him.
  • In the 2008 3D film of Journey to the Center of the Earth, Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser) does this to punch out a giant Venus flytrap that is creeping up behind him.
  • In Kung Fu Panda 2, Po and the Furious Five are trying to free two of Lord Shen's prisoners from prison. After most of the guards are beaten up, the last one sneaks up behind Po, only to get hit with a rather impressive offhand backhand. Tigress compliments him on it.
  • Nice dual example with Sir James and Ransome in Casino Royale 1967, during the climactic fight scene, with no break in their conversation.
  • In The Avengers, Hawkeye doesn't even turn his head or blink as he fires exploding arrows at a Chitauri squadron. After the Hulk and Thor manage to take down a Chitauri leviathan into Grand Central Station, the Hulk immediately backhands Thor right out of the shot without a single change in expression.
    • Earlier, Iron Man snarks one time too many for Thor's taste and gets gets a face full of Mjölnir for his trouble.

Literature

  • In The Bourne Conspiracy, the titular character frequently pulls this off during fist fights: while focused on one mook, another will sneak around behind Bourne and attempt a sucker punch. Bourne will (attempt to) retaliate with a rather devastating single back hand that has all the implications of a "wait your turn" punch.
  • Discworld:
    • Carrot Ironfoundersson performs a variation of this in Men at Arms, out-maneuvering a slippery crook who tries to escape through a narrow alley and sticking his (very muscular) arm out across the crook's likeliest path. The resultant impact is compared to running into a steel beam at full sprint.
    • The big bad of Interesting Times, another Discworld book, does this on a sneaky assassin. With a sword he just finished making seconds ago. Sizzle indeed.
      • Followed momentarily by a footnote on the precise details of quenching a recently-forged sword in a person. Oddly enough, this is Truth in Television to some extent.
    • During the Wyrmberg sequence of the first book, The Colour of Magic, Liessa Dragonlady attempts to stab a vulnerable Hrun the Barbarian. He instinctively reaches out and grabs her wrist in mid-swing... while fast asleep.
  • Mat Cauthon of the Wheel of Time series does this accidentally in the third book by shouldering his quarterstaff. Justified by Mat's supernatural luck.
    • In a later book, after losing an eye, he randomly tosses a dagger behind him while in the woods and kills a rabbit for supper. The way he figures it, luck works better when you're not looking anyway.
  • In Battle Royale, Kiriyama kills Mizuho Inada this way in the novel. The way in which he pulls this off makes him seem almost psychic.
    • At that point, Kiriyama already had Hiroki Sugimura's tracking device which made it impossible for anyone to sneak up on him.
  • Cara pulls this off in Soul of the Fire

Live-Action TV

  • The title character of Xena: Warrior Princess does this constantly.
  • Worf stabs one of the boarding-party Klingons in Way of the Warrior, his first episode on Deep Space Nine.
    • Fake Martok stabs two Klingon guards at the same time in this way in the episode "Apocalypse Rising".
  • A skit in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode Overdrawn At the Memory Bank has Observer attempting to attack Bobo while the latter is sitting down at a table, eating a fast food meal. As Observer rushes forward with a mighty yell, Bobo calmly holds his fist behind him, which Observer promptly smashes his own face into.
  • Part of Spike's Establishing Character Moment in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Step one: swagger into the current villain's lair and make fun of a mook's overly dramatic speech. Step two: knock out the mook without even looking at him. Step three: stop to fawn over Ill Vampire Girlfriend.
  • Scrubs uses it at least once. (Check around :55 into the video).
  • In the "Forget Me Not" episode of Dead Like Me, Jerkass Ray is choking Daisy when Mason charges to the rescue. Ray casually smashes him to the ground with a single sweep of his arm without turning around. Then, subverted, as Mason bashes Ray's skull in with a metal tray.
  • Eliot Spencer of Leverage does this to Iranian secret police.
  • In Doctor Who, River Song pulls one off as she destroys an entire room filled with the Silence and as Rory asks what kind of doctor she is, she kills one more Silence as she nonchalantly answers his question.
    • The Doctor himself does this in The Christmas Invasion with a satsuma.
  • Saturday Night Live once did a skit, featuring John Goodman, of a group of ninjas talking about their work. One lamented to the others, "I tried sneaking up behind him, going real, extra careful and quiet, y'know, but he always gives me one of THESE!" while making the Offhand Backhand motion. One of the other ninjas chimes in, "Yeah, how do they do that?"
  • In Sir Arthur Conan Doyles the Lost World, a villain casually kicks Malone away when he tries a Click. "Hello." on him.
  • Similarly to the first Discworld examples above, in one episode of Stargate SG-1, Teal'c outmaneuvers a Person of Interest by not following his partner to the back door and instead waiting on the lee side of a Dumpster and sticking his arm out right in the suspect's face as he sprinted past.
    • Subverted in a later episode, however. Teal'c hears a Replicator coming up behind him and shoots it dead on with his staff weapon without turning around. The Replicator is totally immune to staff weapons and continues attacking, to Teal'c's shock.
  • More of a kick, Tina does this to a mugger, who was running for the law, in one episode of Hollywood 7. She didn't even noticed the crime in process. She was showing Jon some dance moves.

Music


Newspaper Comics


Tabletop Games

  • One of the many uses of the Hair Trigger Neck Hairs gun schtick in Feng Shui is to allow a seemingly unaware gunman to do this to someone trying to sneak up behind him.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons, some dungeon masters let you be able to sometimes hit other enemies (or players) upon getting a Critical Failure with a ranged weapon.


Video Games

  • Sun Ce does this to a Mook in a cutscene in the fifth installment.
    • He does this again to two mooks on either side of him in one of the seventh game's scenes.
  • One type of demon in God Hand has an attack where it teleports in behind you and tries to slam you. Hitting the Action Command at this point results in Gene doing this and sending the demon flying about a thousand yards back.
  • In Kingdom Hearts, the Ansem-possessed Riku does this to Donald.
  • In the Team Fortress 2 trailer for the Soldier, said Soldier manages to backhand a Spy ready to backstab him with a shovel.
  • In The Bourne Conspiracy, Bourne can do this to enemies that disrespect Mook Chivalry in close combat.
  • The intro cinematic for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade features a variant on this, with a Forsaken mage obliterating a trio of murlocs coming up on him from behind with a Blast Wave spell, and a more regular example with a draenei paladin and his hammer. One watching might feel that "THAT HAS TO HURT!"
  • In Super Robot Wars, the weakest attack of Ialdabaoth and Valefor starts out with this... only to continue with spamming kick attacks, finished with a Falcon Punch. Of course, they Flash Step behind the enemy beforehand, so it's less "I know you're behind me" and more "Hey, I'm right behind you".
  • In Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Lloyd does this to the main character, Emil, just about every time they meet. Unusually for this trope, both are using swords.
  • In Rainbow Six: Raven Shield, terrorists can shoot you without turning around. It also doesn't help that they spawn right behind you.
  • In Halo 2, Jackal Snipers(instant death on Legendary) can shoot at you without directly aiming, as well as bounce their shots off of walls.
  • In The Movies, one of the scenes allows a character to do this, in defiance of the scene's standard "bad guy sneaks up and chokes the character to death."
  • Devil May Cry 3's Vergil pulls an incredibly badass one of these on a Hell Vanguard, delivering an inhumanly fast Diagonal Cut with Yamato.
    • Dante does this in many forms in his intro. Some notable ones include kicking a mook that is being dragged with him because said mook's scythe is stuck in him and another blade by cutting down a ceiling fan onto the mooks below using a scythe blade lodged in his chest. All that and he's just walking over to his jukebox like he wasn't stabbed 6 times by farming tools.
  • In several games in the series, Dante can fire one of his guns in a direction he's not facing.
  • In a cutscene in Brutal Legend, Eddie does this to a Tainted Coil cultist sneaking up on him, and even briefly interrupts a conversation he's having with potential Love Interest Ophelia. "Hold on a sec... *thwack*" She gets one right afterwards. Eddie: "Right shoulder." Ophelia: *stab*
  • Elven War Dancers from Heroes of Might and Magic 5 can harm all the adjacent enemies with one sweep of their swords, including those standing directly behind them.
  • In Batman: Arkham Asylum, one of the possible counterattack animations when an enemy is behind him is a variant of this. Unfortunately, it isn't the specific version he's known for in Batman the Animated Series... He saves that one for a cutscene.
    • He also does it to one of Ivy's plants in another cutscene.
  • In the Final Fantasy VII spinoff Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent is struggling with his Super-Powered Evil Side Chaos when a mutated hound-like enemy tries to take advantage of his distraction and ambush him from behind. Vincent sends it flying with a casual backhanded swipe.
  • Crow does this to Trejo in Def Jam: Fight For New York when he laughed at one of his jokes.
  • Beyond the Grave does this sort of thing too when using his Burst Attack, and in some cutscenes.
  • Kyle Blackthorne from the game Blackthorne could do this as a standard move, even though it was for the most part completely useless.
  • In The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker, while Link is targeting one enemy and another sneaks up behind, he can strike both with one wide swing if they're close enough.
  • In Shadows of the Damned, when an enemy attacks Garcia from behind a button prompt will appear to make Garcia elbow said mook.
  • It's technichally possible to do this from the viewpoint of certain characters in Super Smash Bros Brawl. Finishing off the Teleport spamming Tabuu this way is extremely satisfying.
  • In Mass Effect 3, after the final battle with Kai Leng, a Renegade interrupt allows you to do this, breaking his sword as he sneaks up on you to shank you from behind, just before using your omniblade to end him once and for all. Given the crap that Kai Leng has pulled on you all game, this is a very satisfying way to take him down.
    • Shepard even makes it clear to Kai Leng how satisfying this is to him/her right before he dies.
  • In Kid Icarus: Uprising, Dark Pit's Establishing Character Moment has him doing this to Pandora, just as she introduces him as her "new minion".
  • In one cutscene in Assassin's Creed II pressing the weapon hand button when prompted will have Ezio kill two guards with his hidden blades without so much as a glance.


Web Comics

--And look at me when I'm trying to kill you!

Web Original

  • Bobby Jacks of Survival of the Fittest pulls off the firearm based version with Andy McCann. Bobby hears the latter cry out behind him and shoots him in the head with a pistol without even turning around. However, this isn't due to Improbable Aiming Skills - Bobby just made a lucky shot.
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd once pulled one of these on Bugs Bunny without looking up from his game.
  • The Nostalgia Critic pulled a double one of these in the One Year Anniversary Brawl.
  • The Limp Ninja does this in Ninja Rap.
  • Variant on the theme with an offhand Dope Slap in this animated GIF.
  • Haloid: Done by Samus to a pair of elites while dual-wielding energy swords.
  • Batman in I'm a Marvel And I'm a DC does this to the Green Goblin.
  • LC gives one to Spazz in Project Million when the latter attempts to run away to Disneyworld.
  • Glynda Goodwitch disposes of several Grimm with casual back-waves of her riding crop/focus before repairing the subway breach in RWBY volume 2, episode 12.

Western Animation

  • Batman is very, very good at this. In fact, one ad for The Animated Series on Kids' WB referred to this move as "Sucker Punch The Guy Behind You". He does it with such frequency that the average mook is less likely to land a hit if he's approaching from behind.
  • In the pilot episode for Batman Beyond, old man Wayne does this to a Mook with his cane.
    • Lampshaded in the episode "Payback". Terry gets knocked out from behind and later gets a scolding from Bruce:

Bruce: Why weren't you watching your back?
Terry: I was too busy watching my front! Am I supposed to have eyes everywhere?
Bruce: Only if you want to live to a ripe old age.
Terry: You don't make it sound too inviting.

    • In Return of the Joker, The Movie for Batman Beyond, Terry manages to pull this off himself, which is part of his claiming/growing into the role.
  • In Batman the Brave And The Bold, Gentleman Ghost grabs and throws Deadman in this manner. In an earlier episode, Batman does an Offhand Backhand underwater. Yet another episode has Green Arrow doing it between launching arrows fires in a single movement so fluid it almost looks like an accident.
    • In "Mayhem of the Music Meister", this is done by Black Canary to Mooks while singing about Batman.
    • In "A Bat Divided", Batman not only does the offhand backhand but while the victim is standing stunned he grabs him by the head and throws him forward over his shoulder.
  • Cheertor from Beast Wars does this in the season 3 episode Feral Scream part 2. Waspinator attempts to attack him from behind after he's just acquired his Transmetal 2 form. It did not go as planned.

Optimus: Cheetor! Watch out for the other bot!
Cheetor: Which bot? Oh, you mean this one right here?
*BOOM*

  • Slappy Squirrel in Animaniacs, as quoted above, pulling a huge club out of her purse and....
  • In Hey Arnold!, Tsundere Helga likes to monologue about her unrequited love for Arnold when she thinks nobody can hear. However, background character Brainy is always hovering over her shoulder, breathing heavily... and is Offhand Backhanded for his trouble.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Aang does this with the Big Bad in the finale using the skills he learned from Toph.
    • Aang also does this to a boulder when he was storming the Earth King's palace.
    • Much earlier, Admiral Zhao does this to a North Water Tribe warrior wannabe who tries to attack him during the Siege of the North. Of course, one would have had to be blind and deaf not to see that idiot coming.
  • Brian uses the kicking variation at the end of the "Patriot Games" of Family Guy. A neat little subversion, as he sets it up so that Stewie thinks he is going to receive some kind of offhanded karmic retribution for constantly and mercilessly beating Brian until the fifty dollars that he bet on a boxing match was going to happen when he least suspected it: As Brian and Stewie are walking down a sidewalk in London, a double-decker bus passes by, and without a single word uttered and without attracting the attention of Chris, Peter, Meg, or Lois, Brian swiftly juts his left leg out so that Stewie trips and is run over by said double-decker.
  • Occurred twice in Asterix:
    • During the last of The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, Obelix and Unhygienix start beating dozens of Romans this way, totally unaware of their presence, and while arguing about who should get the fun on this last task.
    • During Asterix Versus Caesar, Obelix asks if he can be nice to the other gladiators, while taking them out with offhanded attacks.
  • In The Movie of Kim Possible Ron Stoppable accidentally defeated the Sumo Ninja by a weak Offhand Backhand.
    • Shego also does it to her temporarily-evil brother. "He always does that move. It never works."
  • When the Shredder and the Foot Ninja attack April's antique shop, Master Splinter smacked a Foot Soldier with his stick without even turning back. He does this again to another Foot ninja when Karai invades the Lair and maybe once more at one point inbetween.
  • In an episode of Static Shock, Future!Static does this to a Mook with a quick bolt of lightning from his finger. Present-day Static is naturally quite impressed.
  • Cody did this to Duncan in Total Drama World Tour.
    • Another one occurred in Total Drama Revenge of the Island when Mike was fighting his alter egos.
  • Daffy did this to Foghorn Leghorn at one point during their fight in The Looney Tunes Show episode "The Foghorn Leghorn".
  • Tygra does this to one of the bulldog-like Trollog's in the ThunderCats (2011) episode "Berbils". And he's shamelessly awesome doing it.
  • Archer does this with a net to catch grenades being thrown at him in "Heart of Archness, Part II."

Real Life

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