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Clutching Hand Trap
- 168 statements
- 32 feature instances
- 21 referencing feature instances
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A Comedy trope in which someone reaches their hand into a container to grab something, often but not always food, but their hand gets stuck because of the way that they're gripping it. This trope can come with An Aesop about greediness if the character is unable to get their hand out of the container because they're holding too much of it and are refusing to let go, or about thinking rationally with the situation at hand (pun very much intended) if they'd be able to remove their hand with the item simply by holding the item in a different way. Can result from a Tempting Cookie Jar. Compare Hand in the Hole, which this trope is similar in concept to where it is also a form of Schmuck Bait, but it differs in that for a clutching hand trap, the victim reaches in on their own whims since they know what's inside and want to get it, whereas Hand in the Hole is when the victim is being an idiot and putting their hand inside with no idea of what's in there in the first place. The entire concept of the trap relies on the premise that Greed Makes You Dumb. |
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Dropped link to MoodWhiplash: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_15152049 | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_15152049 | comment |
Sister Floriana: The Vase shows the titular character getting her hand stuck in a flowerpot, trying to test if the pots can be smashed with a hammer without hurting the duck inside. One of the girls tries sticking her own hand in to try and prove she's just being a crybaby, and immediately gets her hand stuck too. They're eventually discovered by a priest who kindly offers them some lubricant, but not before they realize they're late for hymn practice, and have to attend it with the vases still on their arms. | |
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Sister Floriana (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_1beda93b | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_1beda93b | comment |
Combined with an ironic cut in Sluggy Freelance: Lord Horribus and Reakk of the Dimension of Pain discuss their plan to capture Torg, and mention how clever and resourceful Torg is to have evaded them every time prior. Cut to Riff and Torg setting up Halloween, with Torg having his hand stuck in a jar of candy corn. | |
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Sluggy Freelance (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_22d87fc9 | type |
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That '70s Show: Kelso gets his hand stuck in a vase. Like Homer below, we only find out his hand was "stuck" this way after he mentioned the vase was where he hid their stash of marijuana and he has it explained that holding onto the bag is why he can't take his hand out. He then lets go of it while still holding the vase in the air, causing it to drop to the ground and break. | |
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That '70s Show | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_261c8d3f | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_261c8d3f | comment |
The Simpsons: Homer got both of his hands stuck in two different vending machines while trying to get a free can of soda and a candy. They think they have to cut his arms off in order to free him, but then they discover that he's still holding onto the can of soda and candy inside the machines and that his hands weren't even stuck — he just wouldn't let go of the immovable can/packet. | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_261c8d3f | featureApplicability |
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The Simpsons | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_34de22dc | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_34de22dc | comment |
Mr. Bean is in a hospital waiting room with a small kettle stuck on his hand. In the same episode, he puts his hand into a litter bin with a small opening; the bin then ends up stuck on his other hand. | |
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Mr. Bean | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_39f6a46c | type |
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Played with in Diamonds Are Forever. A Mook, frisking James Bond, reaches inside his jacket to go for the gun... and receives a nasty surprise, courtesy Q-Branch. | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_39f6a46c | featureApplicability |
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Diamonds Are Forever | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_3defe34c | type |
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Discussed in Shaka Zulu when Shaka uses the "catching a monkey" variation as a metaphor for how he believes the English are manipulating his greed and lust for power. Of course, by the time he realizes this, it's already far too late. | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_3defe34c | featureApplicability |
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Discussed Trope | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_3e5de40b | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_3e5de40b | comment |
In Scrubs Turk has gotten his hand stuck in an ice dispensing machine (during Carla's labor), apparently this latter also happened to Leonard the Hook-Handed Security Guard. Another time, he got stuck in a candy machine because he wouldn't let go of the candy. When Carla asked why JD wasn't mocking him, he revealed that he also had his hand stuck, in a glass coffee pot (because he dropped a penny inside). | |
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Scrubs | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_44715363 | type |
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Yami Yugi uses this trap in Yu-Gi-Oh! against a crooked shopkeeper in a game involving expensive sneakers, some coins, and a scorpion. | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_44715363 | featureApplicability |
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Yu-Gi-Oh! (Manga) | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_44e0b783 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_44e0b783 | comment |
Happened to Garfield in this strip, but he subverts it by breaking the cookie jar on Jon's head, instead of just simply letting go of the cookie that he wanted. Not a cookie jar, but Jon got both of his hands stuck in pickle jars (as did his date) in this strip. Garfield gets his hand caught in an olive jar in this early strip, which was recycled into a gag in the very first Garfield animation, a nameless short from 1980 that was only shown in the special Happy Birthday, Garfield. |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_44e0b783 | featureApplicability |
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Garfield (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_4585d76b | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_4585d76b | comment |
Where the Red Fern Grows has something similar as a way to trap raccoons. You cut a small hole in a hollow log, drive some nails around it pointing down and inward, and place something shiny at the bottom like cut-up pieces of tin can. A raccoon passing by will be attracted, reach in to grab it, and catch its fist on the nails trying to pull it out. The narrator thinks his grandfather is teasing him when he first tells him this method, because all the raccoon would have to do is let go of the tin. But the grandfather assures him that a raccoon will never willingly let go of anything shiny. After the narrator has caught one raccoon like this and can use its skin to train his hunting dogs, his father makes him pull the nails out of all his traps, because if raccoons are that serious about their tin then they don't have a sporting chance. | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_4585d76b | featureApplicability |
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Where the Red Fern Grows | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_46518682 | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_46518682 | comment |
In a Sesame Street episode from the mid-'70s, Oscar has his hand stuck in a jar. Throughout the episode, the adults try many methods of prying his hand out, even by greasing it with lard. Turns out he wanted to look at his rock collection that he kept in the jar. The adults convince him to let go and his hand comes out easily; the adults then pour the rocks into his hand. Immediately after, Luis comes by with an old alarm clock in pieces as a gift to Oscar. Luis puts the pieces in the jar, and Oscar immediately grabs them. He finds his hand stuck once again as the closing credits begin. | |
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Sesame Street | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_4b5dbe41 | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_4b5dbe41 | comment |
The idiot customer with the Pringles can in Clerks: The Animated Series. Dante subtly points this out by pouring the remaining Pringles into his hand while telling the customer that "sometimes you just need to let those hard-to-reach chips go." | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_4b5dbe41 | featureApplicability |
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Clerks: The Animated Series | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_4b5dbe41 | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_5df4e6f5 | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_5df4e6f5 | comment |
In the reboot of The Pink Panther (2006), while talking with casino owner Larocque, Clouseau gets his hand stuck in a vase and struggles for several minutes trying to get it out. Finally, he asks the owner: | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_5df4e6f5 | featureApplicability |
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The Pink Panther (2006) | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_6d6ccc60 | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_6d6ccc60 | comment |
Moongobble and Me: Variant in book 2 — when Edward, Moongobble and Urk go to see the Rusty Knight, he has his hand stuck in a vase... not because he was trying to get something out, but because he was cleaning it. Fortunately, Edward's able to get it off him with the help of a stick of butter. | |
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Moongobble and Me | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_733e66c9 | type |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_733e66c9 | comment |
Used in one of Jungle Doctor's Monkey Tales, when Toto (a generic African name for a small child) the monkey is trapped this way using a kerosene tin half-filled with stones and dirt so it's too heavy for a monkey to lift, and a layer of peanuts on top with a hole only just big enough for him to insert his hand but too small for him to remove it while holding anything. "It is not the habit of monkeys to let go of peanuts" and so Toto is caught. | |
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JungleDoctor | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_75602a19 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_75602a19 | comment |
Fort Boyard: If the teams want to sacrifice a player to gain an extra clue, the player has to put their hand into a tiger statue's mouth, which then ends up manacled to the tiger. | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_75602a19 | featureApplicability |
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Fort Boyard | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_75602a19 | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_76e1ae72 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_76e1ae72 | comment |
CatDog: Cat got both of his hands stuck in a pickle jar. Since he was also about to be on a date, he had Dog substitute his arms for him in a suit. | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_76e1ae72 | featureApplicability |
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CatDog | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_76e1ae72 | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_7899c84f | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_7899c84f | comment |
During the events of Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, Adrian's mother is taken to hospital to give birth to his sister whilst he is at school. She has left money for the taxi in the spaghetti jar but it gets stuck and he is forced to come into the delivery room with the jar still wedged on to his hand. | |
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Adrian Mole | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_7899c84f | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_7de22ab8 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_7de22ab8 | comment |
In Clerks, an idiot customer needs Dante's help to get his hand unstuck from a Pringles can. Dante lampshades his stupidity by immediately tilting the can sideways to get chips from the bottom. | |
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Clerks | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_7de22ab8 | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_7efcd096 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_7efcd096 | comment |
This happened to Socrates in the Adventures from the Book of Virtues episode "Moderation", when he tries to take a cookie out of the jar Zach gave him. | |
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Adventures from the Book of Virtues | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_8114703a | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_8114703a | comment |
Colossal Cave: After descending a set of stairs into the caves, the player finds a large gold nugget accompanied by a note warning that "You won't get it up the steps." Sure enough, so long as the player is holding the nugget, the stairs that would lead them back out don't appear. As soon as the nugget is dropped, the stairs are present again. There are alternative ways to exit the cave and keep the nugget, though, such as invoking the magic teleportation word "plugh". | |
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Colossal Cave (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_8351aa89 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_8351aa89 | comment |
In Strangers on a Train, Bruno, a remorseless murderer, gets his arm stuck in a drainage hole by the sidewalk. This is played for suspense, as it helps buy time for Guy to finish his scheduled tennis match, Bruno arrives at the tennis match anyway, though it does have Alfred Hitchcock's trademark dark humor. Subverted, as Bruno is able to easily pull out his hand clutching the lighter from the tight grid where he struggled to slide his forearm through just moments ago. | |
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Strangers on a Train | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_b0fc9724 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_b0fc9724 | comment |
One iteration of Celebrity Jeopardy featured Tom Hanks, flanderizing himself into a bumbling idiot, fall to this trap while trying to get a pickle out of a jar that came from...somewhere. | |
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Saturday Night Live | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_b0fc9724 | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_b1d4639 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_b1d4639 | comment |
In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, this is used as a Funny Background Event when the dwarves arrive at Bilbo's house: Dwalin is seen with his hand in the cookies jar, and he has a hard time pulling said hand out, mostly because his fingers are far too big to fit in a jar made for Hobbits. | |
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_b1d4639 | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_ba99af8f | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_ba99af8f | comment |
Saw II: The movies typically go the Hand in the Hole route, but this one had a more seriously played case of this with a glass case containing a syringe of antidote the characters needed for poison they'd been given. One character on the tail end of the poison's effects discovers the glass case, sticks her arm in and, due to the entry being lined with blades, can't get the arm back out causing her to bleed to death trying. | |
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Saw II | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_ba99af8f | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_bc848d30 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_bc848d30 | comment |
In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Squid's Day Off", Mr. Krabs gets his claw stuck in a sink drain because a dime fell into it, and he couldn't get his claw out unless he let go. However, when SpongeBob suggested that he simply let go of the dime to get free: | |
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SpongeBob SquarePants | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_bc848d30 | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_ccd1ec22 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_ccd1ec22 | comment |
The Thief and the Cobbler: At one point the Thief sees a bottle filled with jewels. Unfortunately, the jewels are too big for him to get past the opening. He won't let go of the diamond, even when the palace guards have him surrounded. | |
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The Thief and the Cobbler | hasFeature |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_ccd1ec22 | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_ce3b52f2 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_ce3b52f2 | comment |
Nerds and Monsters: The shiny rock monster trap from the "What's Mine Is Mine" episode is shiny rock inside a cave with an opening to small for it to pulled out and the monsters are too dumb to let go. Judging from the amount of bones surrounding the cave, the trap has claimed the lives of many a monster. | |
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Nerds and Monsters | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_d71b912e | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_d71b912e | comment |
The final shootout of Just Heroes have the Plucky Comic Relief sidekick trying to "help out" his idol, Cheung, by hiding pistols in various random places, one inside a narrow vase. Cheung tries getting said gun, only to get his hand stuck in the middle of a shootout necessitating him to smash the vase. And then, the sidekick realize he forgot to reload some of the guns. | |
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Just Heroes | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap / int_de0f8ee1 | type |
Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_de0f8ee1 | comment |
One skit in RWBY Chibi involves Yang very intensely removing the lid off a jar of sweet pickles for Ruby (after both Ruby herself and Sun failed to get the jar open). She then sticks her hand in to try one out, Ember Celica and all, only for it to get stuck. She is not at all deterred by this, causing Ruby and Sun to run for the hills in terror. | |
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RWBY Chibi (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
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Clutching Hand Trap | |
Clutching Hand Trap / int_f5799bd9 | comment |
The Critic's Jay Sherman got his head stuck in a honey jar a la Winnie the Pooh. Someone even took a photo of it. | |
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