History Main / PinPullingTeeth

[[caption-width-right:191:I hope Sgt Life has a good dental plan! (Lisa needs braces!)]]

* In his UsefulNotes/{{W|orldWarII}}WII memoir ''Quartered Safe Out Here'', Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser notes the dilemma of safety versus being able to pull the pins quickly. Fraser also notes that if Victor [=MacLaglen=], a British actor known for doing this trope in his movies, had done so during his actual army service in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, he would have left his incisors in Mesopotamia.

[[caption-width-right:191:I hope Sgt Life has a good dental plan!]]

* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'':
** Italy attempts this method of detonation but [[ThrowThePin throws the pin]] while still holding the grenade in his mouth.
** His brother does the exact same thing in a later episode, and Germany Lampshades this. HilarityEnsues.
** Germany himself plays it straight to demonstrate for Italy.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Done beautifully for [[spoiler:Misato]]'s death scene in the manga. JSSDF soldiers approach her slumped and fatally-wounded body; she turns her head towards them, revealing a pin in the corner of her mouth. [[spoiler:Misato]] then [[OhCrap shows her executioners the hand grenade she's holding]].

* ''Anime/HanaukyoMaidTai'' ''La Verite'' episode 7. While running away from a giant rolling ball, Ryuuka produces a grenade and pulls the pin with her teeth.

* ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany'': In "Rainbow Sprinkles" parody promotional video, [[BigGuy Haggard]] can be seen throws a frag grenade in this manner.

** You ''can'' do this with un-deformed pins if you have a strong enough jaw and bite the pin with the ''side'' of your mouth rather than the front [[note]]The teeth on the sides of your mouth are shouter and sturdier molars as opposed to the thinner and more fragile incisors on the front; they're made for chewing and grinding food, so they can put up with a little more abuse.[[/note]] and pull slowly rather than trying to jerk the ring out. However, if you have the time to do this, you probably have the time to just use your hands as recommended, and doing this repeatedly can still strain your jaw and molars.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'': Daffy does this while storming an Albanian prison to rescue Bugs in "Semper Lie".
* In the award winning short ''BirthdayBoy'', Manuk imagines that a rock is a hand grenade, pulls the pin with his teeth and hurls it at his imaginary enemies.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Grojband}}'': One of the mimes does this in mime ([[YourMimeMakesItReal complete with resulting explosion]]) in "Myme Disease".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{MAD}}'': Mickey Mouse does this while wiping out other cartoon mice in the "Mickey Mouse Rodent Control" ad.
* Comically inverted in a ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' sketch; a couple of soldiers firing at a shack have the ''pin'' thrown at them; we briefly hear "[[KilledMidSentence Oh, you idio]]-" before the shack blows up.

* In the 1943 film serial ''Film/{{The Phantom|1943}}'', one of the villains does this.
* Sammo Hung does this in ''Film/EasternCondors'': dropping into the back of an army truck with two grenades in his hands, then pulling both pins out with his teeth and using them to hold the soldiers in the back of the truck hostage.
* A tongue-in-cheek version occurs in ''Film/EscapeToAthena'' when a Greek priest takes a bite from a fruit, then throws it at the German soldiers. It explodes, apparently being a disguised grenade.
* ''Film/TheGunsOfNavarone''. In TheFilmOfTheBook Andrea does this in the final battle; unfortunate for a movie that generally speaking tries for accuracy.
* Done in ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'' by the terrorist in the ActionPrologue as part of his PineappleSurprise. Cue Eggsy's father JumpingOnAGrenade to save Harry.
* Played with in ''Film/SilentMovie'', where [[spoiler:Dom Bell dispenses a can of soda from a vending machine, removes its pull-tab with his teeth, and tosses it like a grenade, injuring one of the mooks with the explosion.]]
* Lampshaded and Defied in the Creator/PeterWeller / Creator/RobertHays film ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty/Fifty_(1992_film) Fifty/Fifty]]''. The pair are getting ready to go up against a large group of soldiers that have them pinned down, and plan to begin their counter-assault with a barrage of grenades. Jake (Weller) takes a grenade in each hand and pulls the pins with his fingers. Sam (Hays) had earlier been shot in the shoulder and held a grenade in his one good hand, attempting this trope. It doesn't work.
-->'''Sam:''' ''(winces)'' OW! I damn near chipped a tooth! ''(to Jake)'' Here, pull this for me.\\
'''Jake:''' ''(rolls his eyes and pulls the pin on Sam's grenade)''
* One scene from ''Film/HotShotsPartDeux'' has Topper Harley doing this once he runs out of, quite literally, [[MoreDakka thousands upon thousands of machine gun rounds]] while being attacked by an Iraqi patrol boat.
* ''Film/ThePredator''. [[HotScientist Casey Bracket]] has to do this because [[WithMyHandsTied one hand is handcuffed to a chair]]. The movie is something of a homage to TheEighties action movies that spawned the ''Predator'' franchise, so some RuleOfCool is indulged.
* ''Film/MajorPayne'' does this in response to Stone noting the cadets aren't in "a life-or-death situation." While the rest of the cadets run off through the training course as he starts counting down, Stone (and even some of the audience) assume it's just a dummy grenade he pulled to scare them. Cue Payne throwing it behind him and an explosion taking down a tree, with Stone falling on his face into mud in a panic.
-->'''Payne''': ''*with the pin still in his teeth*'' Who's the dummy now?
* ''Film/MenInBlackII''. While K is doing a CeilingCling in the MIB headquarters elevator, he uses his teeth to pull the pin from a grenade and drops it beside the combat robot that is trying to kill him. He swings out of the elevator and, after the door closes, the grenade destroys the robot.
* ''Film/{{Dobermann}}'': When the Abbot shoves his grenade inside the policeman's crash helmet, he uses his teeth to pull out the pin.

* Done during the climatic battle in the first ''Literature/ModestyBlaise'' novel.
* Trapper does this in ''King of the Commandos'', the first of the Literature/{{Gimlet}} novels by W.E. Johns (creator of ''Literature/{{Biggles}}'').
* In his UsefulNotes/{{W|orldWarII}}WII memoir ''Quartered Safe Out Here'', Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser notes the dilemma of safety versus being able to pull the pins quickly. Fraser also notes that if Victor [=MacLaglen=], a British actor known for doing this trope in his movies, had done so during his actual army service in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, he would have left his incisors in Mesopotamia.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{MASH}}'', Frank pulls a pin out of a grenade with his teeth and spits it away before panicking and desperately searching for the pin.
* Creator/RLeeErmey addresses this in an episode of ''MailCall'', pointing out how doing this is a good way to lose teeth.
* ''Series/TheGoodies'' references this trope when Graham bites the top off a pineapple which then [[RuleOfFunny explodes for no apparent reason]].
* Done in ''Series/TheRatPatrol''. See the episode "Truce at Aburah Raid" for one example.
* Tested as a mini-myth on ''Series/MythBusters''. Busted as it takes ten pounds-force to pull the pin from an M67 grenade, which is enough to break or uproot teeth. While people have pulled grenade pins with their teeth (see the RealLife section below), it is certainly not as easy as the movies make it appear.

* Michael Westen does this with a remote-detonator-on-a-deadman-switch (his words) in the season 1 finale of ''Series/BurnNotice''.

* Played with in the French-German mini-series ''Carlos''. Carlos the Jackal shows his Venezuelan girlfriend a suitcase full of weapons. [[PhallicWeapon He places a grenade in her mouth, letting her tease the ring with her tongue and teeth]], then suddenly removes the grenade from her mouth. The pin doesn't come out, of course.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Wolfram & Hart's black ops unit tries to kill Angel, but are wiped out by VampireHunter Holtz, [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou who ties Angel to a pillar to be tortured and murdered]]. Angel kicks a grenade (lying in the hand of a dead W&H mook) into the air so he can grab the pin with his teeth, then shakes his head violently to free the pin. Given that he's undead, he survives the blast and escapes.
* ''Series/TheNewAvengers'': In "K is for Kill: The Tiger Awakes", one of the Russian does this before tossing a grenade through the window of the Allied HQ museum.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Played with in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E10Ultraworld Ultraworld]]". Dayna has a microgrenade hidden in a tooth, which she primes by putting it back in her mouth and adjusting it with her teeth.

* Depicted on the cover of ''VideoGame/IkariWarriors'', a 1986 game for the Amstrad.

* Solid Snake pulls grenade pins with his teeth in the original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' but later games show the correct method instead.
* Befitting ''VideoGame/ArmyMen'' being a pastiche of WWII movies, this is how hand grenades are used in the ''Sarge's Heroes'' duology.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'':
** When [[WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner Wile E. Coyote]] tries it, the grenade naturally stays in his teeth.
** In the cartoon "Cool Cat", EgomaniacHunter Colonel Rimfire tries to pull the pin out of a grenade with his teeth, but ends up pulling out his dentures and hurling the unarmed grenade at Cool Cat.
** In the short ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatPiggyBankRobbery'', Duck Twacy (WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck) does this before throwing a grenade at the villain Pumpkin Head.
* In the Creator/{{M|etroGoldwynMayer}}GM WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}} cartoon "The Three Little Pups", the wolf did this, with comical results.
* Grampa Simpson is shown doing this in his flashback to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E22 Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"]]".

* Duke does this during the Russia infiltration mission in ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeResolute''.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': Batman does with (with two grenades at once!) during the teaser to "The Eyes of Despero!".
* ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'': Hunter Kain does this when he drops a grenade to cover his escape in "Night Falls".

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': In "I Got Yer Can", an EscalatingWar with Slappy Squirrel causes Candie Chipmunk to do this; terrifying a pair of nuns before blowing herself up.

* Misato Tachibana does this in an episode of ''Manga/{{Nichijou}}''.
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'':
** Spike does it while fighting Vicious's men in episode 5, "Ballad of Fallen Angels".
** He does it again in the finale, [[spoiler: during his StormingTheCastle moment]].
* Done habitually by Clair Leonelli in ''Anime/HeatGuyJ''.
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' - When Kyoko grabs Homura to keep her from [[FlashStep Flash Stepping]], Homura pulls a flashbang grenade out of her BagOfHolding and pulls out the pin with her teeth, forcing Kyoko back.
* [[ActionGirl Fujiko]] does this in ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'' during an escape. Her other hand is busy wielding an automatic pistol.
* ''Manga/{{Golgo 13}}''. In an anime episode Duke Togo encounters another hitman, who teeth-pulls the pin from a grenade (presumably to show he's just as cool as Togo) and tosses it back into the room where he just [[KneeCapping kneecap]]-interrogated a man. Duke shows he's even cooler by calmly looking at his watch, whereupon [[TimeBomb half the buildings around them blow up]]. Realising they're both after the same target the two assassins team up, whereupon we get a SplitScreen shot of them [[NotSoDifferent both engaging in this trope]] as they toss grenades around.
* Yuki Kaizuka does this in ''Anime/AldnoahZero's'' final episode while StormingTheCastle.
* ''Literature/DemonCityShinjuku''. In the 1988 OVA Chibi (AKA the Young Man) pulls a pin from a grenade with his teeth before throwing the grenade at a demon.
* ''Anime/DominionTankPolice''. Leona Ozaki yanks out a grenade pin with her teeth, then to maintain symmetry, shoves the grenade in the mouth of a drug dealer [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique who's proving reluctant to talk.]]
* ''Anime/BlackLagoon'' in the episode "Eagle Hunting and Hunting Eagles" Revy starts off a grenade this way, killing two Neo Nazis in the process while on a submarine.

* ComicBook/{{Mockingbird}} does this during a snowmobile chase in the first issue of the ''Widowmaker'' mini-series.

* Raphael does this a few times in the ''Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}'' story arc "Body Count".
* Elsa Bloodstone does in the second issue of ''LegionOfMonsters''.
* ComicBook/NickFury used to do this back in his ComicBook/HowlingCommandos days. The page illo on the Howling Commandos page even shows a member of the squad doing it.

* Stalker does it in ''ComicBook/DangerGirl/Franchise/GIJoe'' #5 during the escape from Cobra Island.
* One-shot ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' villain, called the [=NKVDemon=] did this after Batman broke both of his arms in an attempted TakingYouWithMe. But then the Russian police intervened, and he [[JumpingOnAGrenade fell on the grenade in question]].

* An amusing variation in one ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' comic: Frank is blackmailed by an obnoxious journalist into being accompanied on one of his criminal-shooting sprees. While chased by Russian mafiya, Frank tells the ''journalist'' to bite down on the pin (as he's driving) before throwing the grenade. It looks painful, but not permanent (then again, being the villain of a Punisher comic, he doesn't enjoy their use for very long).
* Bolly Quinn is shown doing this is the 'meet the gang' page of ''ComicBook/HarleyQuinn and Her Gang of Harleys'' #1.

* Ash pulls the pins of some grenades he stole from Kaiza and then blows up a bridge to keep the Cloyster from attacking him and Dawn in ''Fanfic/PokeWars: The Coalescence''.

* In ''Film/TheWrathOfGod'', one of the [[BoxedCrook "heroes"]] is mortally wounded but grapples his killer -- then brings up one hand holding a grenade. Grinning into the other man's horrified face (at about four inches), he says, "Life is just full of surprises!" before pulling the pin with his teeth and holding the grenade alongside their heads. Boom.
* Loki does this in ''Film/SonOfTheMask''... with a little tongue too. Justified since he has cartoon-style powers and is a literal god.
* Done by Leonard Smalls in ''Film/RaisingArizona''.
* Clarence does this in ''Film/RoboCop1987'' while playing Dick's recorded message for Bob, before leaving Bob in the room with the now-live grenade. He scores bonus creepy points by using his ''tongue'' to get the ring between his teeth.

* [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger Ahnold]] does this in ''Film/TrueLies'', using a grenade as the opening shot of a huge firefight at the enemy's hideout after escaping from being captured. Guess he still had his ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' teeth in place when he shot that film.

* In the 2005 version of ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds'', Ray spits out the pins of a couple of M67 grenades he uses to destroy a tripod.
* ''Film/StarshipTroopers''. Dizzy Flores does this, then throws the grenade down a Tanker Bug's throat to destroy it.
* Done during the half-track assault in the otherwise quite realistic 1945 film ''Film/AWalkInTheSun''.
* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra''. Ripcord does this before stuffing the grenade into the face of an armored Cobra agent.
* One of Deak's mooks does this in Creator/JohnWoo's ''Film/{{Broken Arrow|1996}}'', due to one of his arms being all shot to hell.
* Shows up in the controversial Creator/ErrolFlynn WWII film ''Film/ObjectiveBurma'', perhaps the only AmericaWonWorldWarII film made by an Australian. A number of WWII-era films compound this by showing both American and ''[[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan Japanese]]'' soldiers using this trope even though Japanese grenades operated in a different manner from American and British grenades (after a safety pin was removed, the grenade was struck on a hard surface to prime).
* Martin Short's character in ''Film/ThreeFugitives'' does this during the bank robbery. In the process, he rips his pantyhose mask.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

* ''Anime/BlackLagoon'' in the episode "Eagle Hunting and Hunting Eagles" Revy starts off a grenade this way killing two Neo Nazis in the process while on a submarine.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Wolfram & Harts' black ops unit tries to kill Angel, but are wiped out by VampireHunter Holtz, [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou who ties Angel to a pillar to be tortured and murdered]]. Angel kicks a grenade (lying in the hand of a dead W&H mook) into the air so he can grab the pin with his teeth, then shakes his head violently to free the pin. Given that he's undead, he survives the blast and escapes.

* Combined with artistic license in ''Anime/CastleInTheSky'' when Dola pulls out a German "potato masher" style grenade and pulls the pin with her teeth. Potato masher grenades didn't have pins, they used a pull cord in the handle instead.

* Grampa Simpson is shown doing this in his flashback to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E2122ShortFilmsAboutSpringfield 22 Short Films About Springfield]]".

* Grampa Simpson is shown doing this in his flashback to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"".

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': A SWAT cop does it in "On Leather Wings"; the very first episode.

* ''Film/MajorPayne'' did this to a live grenade when he threatens his cadets.