History Main / CrushingHandshake

* ''Film/DrNo'': Averted--"Forgive me for not... ''shaking hands'' ..." Dr. No later demonstrates his mechanical hands' impressive strength by crushing a gold statuette.

* This can be a source of occasional {{Cross Cultural Kerfluffle}}s: there are many areas where it is considered rude ''not'' to return a handshake with a firm grip. This unfortunately results in some ValuesDissonance when a person from such a region shakes hands with a person used to the custom meaning "briefly wafting hands in proximity". The person from the firm-handshake region is usually percieved as this trope, while the hand-toucher is in turn often perceived as [[HatesBeingTouched standoffish]], insincere, condescending, or even ''deliberately insulting''.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' in the episode "Sisters" Blackfire gives this to Cyborg crushing his fingers causing him to say "Little girl, big handshake!"

* In the ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' episode "Home Sick", Spider-Man shakes hands with ''the Hulk'' as the two of them part as friends. Once the Hulk is safely out of earshot, Spidey starts crying out in pain as his hand pulses and throbs from being on the business end of Hulk's handshake.

* In one episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', Brock and James seem to be doing this during an EnemyMine moment.

* In the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''Monster Blood II'', bully Conan Barber does this to protagonist Evan Ross three times, and each one is even more painful than the last.

* ''Manga/ShiawaseKissaSanchoume'': Uru's stepfather greets Shindou in this manner, all the while giving him a "Don't-Touch-My-Daughter" DeathGlare.

In animated works, expect the victim's hand to be red and pulsing afterwards. The squeeze itself would remind one of a tube of toothpaste: the palm area gets basically empty, all the volume migrating to the fingertips.

* Bluto/Brutus does this to Popeye in several ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' cartoons, followed by a shot of Popeye's red, crushed hand and a "wrumph-wrumph" sound effect. In one cartoon, the hand literally turns into a vise when he does this
* In ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2002'', there is an episode where Man at Arms shakes hands with his brother. When they shake, the brother's mechanical hand can be heard clanking, implying he's applying more pressure than he needs to. Man at Arms doesn't scream, however.

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons Droopy's Double Trouble]]'', Droopy's super strong twin cousin Drippy crushes the hand of Droopy's superior, the mansion's head butler, upon extending it for a shake.
* Apparently, [[AmazonianBeauty Steelheart]] from ''WesternAnimation/{{Silverhawks}}'' [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength doesn't know her own strength]]. Whenever she shakes hands, the person she's shaking hands with quickly crumples over from the pain. Fortunately, Commander Stargazer is smart enough to refuse her when she offers him one.
-->'''Steelheart:''' "Put 'er there, sir!"
-->'''Stargazer:''' "Forget it! I read your file!"

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Prototype", Corey Mills puts on PoweredArmor and becomes a new hero. When Superman shakes his hand, Corey deliberately squeezes as hard as he can. It doesn't hurt Superman, but it is strong enough for him to notice.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'': Fred's mother-in-law does this to Fred when she comes over for a visit.
** In the episode where Fred plays quarterback for Princestone U., he gets introduced to the players; one shakes his hand and crushes it into the shape of a football.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', after being pressed by President Raiko to develop some countermeasure to Kuvira's [[WaveMotionGun spirit ray cannon]], Asami and Varrick shake hands to cinch the partnership... but Asami remembers the last time she partnered with him (he tried to steal her company Future Industries out from under her), and nimbly turns the handshake into a pressure point attack on his hand while warning him not to try it again.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode "[[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS3E38TheTriangle The Triangle]]", as Gumball congratulates Darwin for getting the slide whistle solo in the school marching band, Darwin feels Gumball is being insincere because he's "kind of breaking my hand right now".

* In one episode of ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'', Gordon Brittas becomes so strong that a casual handshake from him causes male members of staff to wince in pain and fall to the floor.

* ''Film/DrNo'': Averted--"Forgive me for not... ''shaking hands'' ..." He later demonstrates his mechanical hands' impressive strength by crushing a gold statuette.

[[quoteright:179:[[Webcomic/MenageA3 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crushinghandshake_4210.png]]]]

* An ''Franchise/ArchieComics'' story had this happen to Mr. Weatherbee when congratulating substitute hall monitor Maria Rodriguez for teaching the other students not to run in the halls. Maria is actually a [[StrongerThanTheyLook lot stronger than she looks]] so she crushes the bee's hand while giving him a handshake. The last panel shows Mr. Weatherbee getting his hand bandaged by Miss Grundy.

* Bluto/Brutus does this to Popeye in several ''{{WesternAnimation/Popeye}}'' cartoons, followed by a shot of Popeye's red, crushed hand and a "wrumph-wrumph" sound effect. In one cartoon, the hand literally turns into a vise when he does this

* Happens in Disney's ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'', when Hercules shakes Phil's hand. Herc is so excited to meet his mentor that he [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength forgets to be careful]] with his SuperStrength.

* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': The series includes enough characters from high-gravity worlds for the occasional [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength accidental]] hand-crushing, but it's known to happen deliberately as well. At the first meeting between Klaus Hauptman and Honor, he tried to crush her hand ... forgetting that she's a heavyworlder. Honor wins.

* Hobbs does this to a security officer in FastAndFurious6 to threaten him against continuing to aid the bad guys.