Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique / Western Animation

---

• American Dad!:
  • In "Homeland Insecurity", Stan does this to everyone in the neighborhood, including himself!
  • In "In Country... Club", Roger interrogates Stan to give him a pay-per-view code by reading him the first draft of the Sex and the City script.
• In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Old Wounds", Nightwing recalls how back when he was still Robin, how he got on Batman for pulling this on a mook in front of his wife and kid. It was one of the reasons that lead to him going solo. However, he and Tim, the new Robin go to visit said mook, revealing that being interrogated by Batman wound up being a wakeup call for him, and he ended up going straight, even getting a job at Wayne Enterprises. He noted that Bruce occasionally comes in and checks up on him.
• The Boondocks: Used in "It's Goin' Down", a parody of 24, featuring a Jack Bauer expy named Jack Flowers. His method of interrogation? Kicking the suspect in the groin repeatedly until they confess. If they don't confess right away, he brings out the steel boot...
• Family Guy: In "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", Lois gets Brian to tell her where Peter and Chris are going by blowing into a dog whistle until he talks.
• Justice League:
  • In "Secret Society", when Flash threatens to drop a mook off a ledge for info, the mook tells him he is no Batman. Flash shows the mook that he is right — unlike Batman, Flash will drop you (though he'll run down and catch you before you go splat).
  • In "The Once and Future Thing: Time, Warped", several members of the present-day League travel into an alternate version of the Batman Beyond future. When present-day Batman threatens to drop a mook off the roof, Old Bruce scoffs "I can't believe I was ever that green" and menacingly approaches the mook while brandishing his cane. Cut to the mook spilling his guts about his gang's strength and organization, along with the fact that he wet the bed until he was fourteen.
  • In "Flash and Substance", after Orion fails to get the information he wants from the Trickster using the standard "threaten grievous bodily harm" routine ("Talk... while you still have a jaw."), Flash volunteers to take over from there. He then proceeds to sit the Trickster down, have a serious but friendly chat with him, and not only gets exactly what they wanted from him, but manages to casually talk the villain into happily turning himself in after finishing his drink.
    Trickster: '[toasting to Flash]'' Caught me again, Flash.
    • Of course (as largely evidenced by that last part), it helps a lot that Trickster has a mental disorder that makes him go out and act like a lunatic, and is mostly aiding the Rogues because he's off his medication (he wasn't even aware that he was wearing a costume until Flash pointed it out). Flash has, however, gotten Ultra-Humanite, a much more serious villain to turn himself in once as well. It helps that it was Christmas and Flash even gave him a Christmas Tree as a thank you.
    • Still, considering Flash's relationship with some of his rogues gallery, this isn't really that surprising. Sure, they wouldn't mind killing him or subjecting him to a fate worse than death when he stands in their way but other times they can shown to be quite friendly to each other.
• The Legend of Korra:
  • In Book Two, Korra herself uses this technique (well, the threat-of-violence variety) on the judge who sentenced her father in a fixed trial. Her method involves holding the man's head between Naga's open jaws. He swiftly tells her everything.
  • Korra tries using brute-force interrogation again on Baatar Jr. in Book Four. This time, however, he knows she's bluffing and refuses to cooperate. It takes a different sort of threat (keeping him and Kuvira apart) to make him give in.
• Parodied, deconstructed and subverted in the Finnish animation Pasila, in the episode "25", a 24 spoof. After Repomies beats the location of a bomb out of a terrorist, Pöysti proceeds to beat a made up location out of the terrorist just to demonstrate that torture doesn't work. Subverted further as when they bring in CIA agent Jack Jofa himself to interrogate the man, the terrorist's lawyer arrives and gives him an extremely strong dose of anesthesia, as although a new USA/EU agreement permits the CIA to torture European terrorists, the terrorists have to be so numb on painkillers that they can't feel the pain, rendering torture useless. The episode closes with Jofa dragging the terrorist off to Guantanamo Bay since he thinks he's roughed the terrorist up enough to turn him against the US.
• The Simpsons: In the 24 parody episode "24 Minutes", Bart interrogates Nelson by putting a garbage can over his head and repeatedly banging on it. He does so before asking any questions.
  Nelson: I'm unclear on what you want!
• Parodied in the South Park episode "The Snuke" that was, in itself, parodying 24. Cartman is under the belief that some Arabs are planning a bombing and wants to know where their son is, so he begins seeming as though he's going to start beating them, and instead injects himself with apple juice and begins farting in their faces until they give in (it turns out that there is indeed a terrorist plan, but it has nothing at all to do with the people he's "torturing").
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "Imitation Krabs", SpongeBob attempts to Spot the Imposter between Mr. Krabs and Robot Krabs by metaphorically holding both of them at gunpoint with a hose full of tartar sauce while asking them trivia questions that only the real Mr. Krabs would know.
  • "Krab Borg" provides more of a parody. When SpongeBob and Squidward become convinced Mr. Krabs has been replaced by a robot, they kidnap the "fake" Krabs and tie him to a chair. After Squidward slaps him a couple of times to establish his authority, SpongeBob joins in...
    SpongeBob: (slaps Mr. Krabs)
    Squidward: SpongeBob, you gotta ask him a question first.
    SpongeBob: Oh, yeah. What colour is my underwear?! (slaps Mr. Krabs)
• As hard as it is to believe that someone as sweet as Strawberry Shortcake would resort to something like this, she did indeed in one of the original specials, in her own way. (And indeed, it was one of the rare times she was visibly angry.) After the Pieman had framed her for cheating in her own contest, she deliberately spoke in Berry Talk to him (something he simply can't stand) until he broke down and confessed to everyone.
• Played with in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Knight Time". Supes, posing as Batman, initially tries to get information from the Penguin with a straightforward plea that a man's life is at stake. The Penguin isn't impressed. Robin then whispers a suggestion to kick over Penguin's desk. After Superman does that (hard enough to send it flying into the wall) and puts a more ominous tone into his Bat-voice impression, Penguin immediately cracks.
• Happens to Lance in the Sym-Bionic Titan episode "Fortress of Deception", although it's on an airship rather than a police station.
• In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) episode "Rise of the Turtles", Raphael gets information about the Kraang by threatening to tip Mutagen over Snake. Later on, Snake gets (accidentally) mutated for real into Snakeweed.

---