History Main / FingerWag

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': In "The Coffee Shop", Penny shakes her finger scoldingly at Bolt for his bad behavior, specifically begging for treats at the title venue and eating from the garbage at home, which has caused him to put on weight.

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': In "The Coffee Shop", Penny shakes her finger scoldingly at Bolt for his bad behavior.

* ''Website/GoAnimate'' has this as a default animation, and videos normally have adult characters use it when in the process of scolding and punishing the troublemaker of the video.

* ''WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep'': Bitzer the sheepdog will often wag his finger at naughty sheep as a warning to behave. They never listen.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': In the episode "Gorilla Warfare", a [[UnstoppableRage pissed-off]] Optimus Primal gives Tarantulas a menacing finger wag after catching one of his projectile weapons single-handedly.
** In the episode "Law of the Jungle", Tigatron takes a stand against Inferno and wags his finger in emphasis. [[FunnyBackgroundEvent So are Optimus and Dinobot, in a more sassier manner]].
* {{Satan}} at the end of the ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy'' episode "Sven Hoek" cheerfully gives one to Ren as the latter arrives in Hell: "So, you whizzed on the electric fence, didn't ya?"
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants:'' At the end of "Graveyard Shift", Spongebob admonishes Film/{{Nosferatu}} in this fashion when it's revealed the vampire is the one who's been prankishly flickering the lights in the Krusty Krab.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': Optimus Primal and Dinobot wag their fingers at Inferno as Tigatron threatens him to not harm the wild.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'': Xellos' {{catchphrase}} has him wag his finger while saying, "That...is a secret!"

* In ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!'', Vino does this in episode 13.
* Dark Magician wags his finger at opposing duelists a few times in ''Anime/YuGiOh'' after pulling the "Mystic Box" trick.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'': Xellos' {{catchphrase}} has him wag his finger while saying, "That...is a secret!"
* Kid Buu from ''Anime/DragonBallZ''.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': Kabuto does this to Sasuke after he dodges the latter's Susanoo arrow.
* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Izaya does this at Anri while taunting her.

->'''Kimmi''': Don't wave your finger in my face!\\
'''Alicia''': I will ''always'' wave my finger in your face!

%%* ''Film/GhostRider'' has the titular character do this to a cop after resetting his jaw, which the cop had just dislocated by whacking him with his billyclub.

[[quoteright:300:[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/t1000_wag.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[NoSell That]] was naughty, Sarah.]]

* Happens in the 2014's Kia Forte's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhPBzlB6VJI Super Bowl XLVII Car Ad]]. When one unsuspecting auto enthusiast gets a little too touchy-feely with the all-new 2014 Kia Forte compact sedan exhibit, a futuristic [[HoodOrnamentHottie female]] robot punches him [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom across the room]] and finger-wagging him afterwards.

* ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''--Sarah tries to stop the T-1000 by blasting it with a heavy gauge shotgun, but after she runs out of shells the T-1000 puts itself back together and wordlessly wags a finger at her. It’s even more creepy in context because this is one of the few times the T-1000 ever shows explicit emotion.

--> She raised a finger and ''tsk-tsk''ed him. “You’re in the presence of royalty. Be silent.”

!Examples:

%%[[folder:Advertising]]
%%* [[VideoGame/DikembeMutombosFourAndAHalfWeeksToSaveTheWorld Dikembe Mutombo]]'s Geico commercial has him block thrown objects ''with tremendous glee'', followed by a finger wag.
%%[[/folder]]

* {{Satan}} at the end of the ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy'' episode "Sven Hoek" gives one to Ren as the latter arrives in Hell: "So, you whizzed on the electric fence, didn't ya?"

%%* In ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!'', Vino does this in episode 13.

%%* A favorite of [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Muhammad Avdol]], especially when he's turning the tables on an enemy.
%%* [[OneSceneWonder Femio]] corrects Duck this way in ''Anime/PrincessTutu'', while saying "[[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench Non, non]]!"

%%* Kid Buu from ''Anime/DragonBallZ''.
%%* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': Kabuto does this to Sasuke after he dodges the latter's Susanoo arrow.
%%* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': Izaya does this at Anri while taunting her.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', after Him turns everyone in Townsville against the girls - forcing them to beat their loved ones up - they warn him not to do it again, or else. His response is to wag his claw and say he never does the same thing twice.

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'': Phoenix Wright (the player character), being a defense attorney whose clients all tend to look incredibly guilty at first glance, is constantly at the receiving end of condescending finger wags from the Von Karma family (and Edgeworth, who was raised in it) as they counter his arguments, making it all that more satisfying to slowly turn the case around and watch their composure break.

* In the ''VideoGame/AceAttorney'' series, Miles Edgeworth does a variation of this whenever he is about to refute the defense's (or really anyone's) statement. It's a condescending gesture he picked up from his mentor, Von Karma, although after [[spoiler:learning that Von Karma was the one who actually murdered his father and tried to pin it on him]] he does this less, perhaps as a way of distancing himself from his former mentor and showing that he has grown as an individual.

%%[[folder:Web Animation]]

%%[[folder:Webcomics]]
%%* In ''Webcomic/OffWhite'', Albert does this with both hands at some hunters that were threatening him and Seven. It works.
%%[[/folder]]

%%* Black Magician does this several times in ''Anime/YuGiOh'', usually after pulling the "Mystic Box" trick.

* Dikembe Mutombo used to wag his finger towards opposing players at the end of his plays, which even led to an NBA rule change, making such taunts technical fouls (since it is blatantly unsportsmanlike conduct); Mutombo changed his finger wag from doing it in an opponent's face to gesturing towards the crowd.

%%* ''Film/TheMummyReturns''. Imhotep does this to Alex O'Connell.

* ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''--Sarah tries to stop the T-1000 by blasting it with a heavy gauge shotgun, but after she runs out of shells the T-1000 puts itself back together and wordlessly wags a finger at her.

** Metal Sonic does this before the race against Sonic in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD''. This goes with his tendency to imitate Sonic's mannerisms and stances, being his [[Main/EvilKnockoff evil]] [[RobotMe robotic]] doppelganger.

%%** [[Main/EvilKnockoff Metal Sonic]] does this before the race against him in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD''.

%%* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', Wesker manages to pull this off if you try to shoot him, practically in the exact same way as the T-1000.

* If you get the bright idea to shoot Verdugo with a rocket in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', it sends him reeling, but [[NoSell he gets right back up]] and wags his finger at you.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', Metal Face wags his finger at the party after they make a fruitless attempt to damage him in their first encounter, serving as an early indicator that he's more intelligent than the other Mechon.