Bitch Slap

That one slap.

Ashley: Please, Emily, please just try to understand—
Emily: Understand the palm of my hand, bitch! [slaps]

— Until Dawn

When somebody wants to humiliate or show someone else who's the boss, they give them a bitch slap. Someone being cheeky? Slap! A snarker failed to sneak a jab past their target? Slap! Someone is pissed and wants total ownage of their enemy? Slap! A villain is gloating and sending him a message with a fist is too unsophisticated? SLAP!!! As one can tell, this is the one slap that people do not want to be on the receiving end of, because it hurts their ego/feelings far more than anything. Most of the time it's done with the palm of one's hand, but it can also be done with the back of one's hand (which is called a "pimp slap").

This is often a favorite move done by villains and cocky fighters to disgrace others. It gets less awesome and more creepy if the villain does it to a bound victim, especially if there are sexual undertones. On the flipside, The Hero will most likely deliver one if they are royally pissed and want to bring the villain or resident Jerkass down a notch. Trolls and other pranksters will just do it for shits 'n giggles.

More often than not, however, this is Played for Drama. Usually one of the characters is way more powerful than the other; not in terms of superpowers or physical strength but in actual power (a top politician, businessman, crime lord, parent, etc.), and the slap highlights it. Either of the characters is speaking ill, or perhaps even insulting, the other, and then the slap silences the speech. For at least a moment, everyone will be shocked and fall into Stunned Silence. If there was a soundtrack, it will halt as well. The meaning depends of the power comparison: if the slap is made by the weaker character it works like a Defiant Stone Throw; if it is made by the stronger one it works like a Kick the Dog moment.

Expect a lot of hype when someone successfully pulls it off at the right moment. Even more so if a weaker person managed to bitch-slap someone who is above them in terms of power as they just slapped Cthulhu in the face, regardless if they live to tell the tale or not. But on the other hand, it can be an utterly disrespectful move when it's done to the undeserving as it's a degrading action.

Compare/Contrast to Dope Slap when the victim is being a moron, ditz or just plain silly and gets a slap to the back of the head to reel them in, and Zen Slap, when a Zen master does this to their disciple for the purpose of enlightening them. Compare Get A Hold Of Yourself Man, when the slap is used to put an halt to some chaotic behavior.

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• Arachnid:
  • Alice uses People Puppets traps to make it seem as if she's teleporting around Dinoponera and then slaps her to the floor before declaring she'll kill anyone who threatens her life or gets in the way of the truth behind her mother's death. Dinoponera was practically unfazed and unhurt by most other attacks up to this point.
  • An apparently cornered Kuramoto suddenly slaps Sara in the face, angry that she's keeping up her smug facade as the supposed Army Ant Queen while both of them are alone.
• Berserk. After Rickert realizes that Guts was right about all the shit Griffith pulled, he angrily slaps him over the atrocities he committed for the sake of his ambitions. Regardless of how graceful he may be, that is still something that will leave a mark on his ego.
• Chargeman Ken! has Ken and Caron's mother slap the latter out of her brainwashing due to her attempt to kill Ken.
• The Digimon Series has a tradition in which Angewomon and LadyDevimon slap each other on the face every time they meet one another. While Angewomon's Holy Hand Grenade powers are supposed to give her a type advantage against LadyDevimon, LadyDevimon always manages to goad Angewomon into hand-to-hand, slapping catfights in which LadyDevimon narrowly but consistently overpowers Angewomon.
  • Digimon Adventure: LadyDevimon gains a decisive advantage over Angewomon in their first battle, but instead of finishing Angewomon off, LadyDevimon decides to humiliate Angewomon by swinging her around by her hair. This requires AtlurKabuterimon to step in and save Angewomon, but Angewomon just uses AtlurKabuterimon as a launching pad from which she kicks off to shoot back towards LadyDevimon, then Bitch Slap her. The two then engage in a Cat Fight in which they slap each other hard repeatedly. It only ends when LadyDevimon knocks Angewomon out with a vicious Roundhouse Kick.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: Angewomon and LadyDevimon get into yet another slapping, hair-pulling Cat Fight. LadyDevimon once again overpowers Angewomon, this time by twisting Angewomon's arms painfully against her sides.
  • The process repeats itself again in "Digimon ReArise" video game, Digimon Crusader, and even the Digimon card game.
• Dragon Ball Z: Doesn't happen in the manga, but a couple of times in the anime.
  • In the anime, after Frieza kills Krillin and angers Goku enough to turn Super Saiyan, a sequence during the latter half of the fight involves Goku delivering a string of these consecutively! Since Goku wants to break Freeza mentally and manages to do so to the point where he is far less sane after he was revived by the Dragon Balls, it's safe to say it got the job done.
  • Goku himself is on the receiving end of one in the anime, after he gets bound to a mountain by Majin Vegeta, since Vegeta wanted to make Goku understand the humiliation he feels from being in his shadow.
  • Yet another anime-exclusive slap happens during Gohan's dream, where Cell slaps Chi-Chi so hard that she dies.
• Hello Sandybelle: Sandybelle's father, Leslie, does this to discipline her. While the anime is well-loved by those who grew up with it for being wholesome and fun, Leslie's actions are a major Values Dissonance factor.
• Isabelle of Paris:
  • Andréa is so angry that his sister, Geneviève, would try to marry a commoner despite being a bourgeoisie, that he slaps her. Geneviève bursts into tears and collapses, while Isabelle is shocked that the brother she idolized for so long would do such a thing.
  • Isabelle Bitch Slaps the Captain of the French military in the final episode, and then walks off.
• In the 1999 version of Hunter × Hunter, Aunt Mito does this to Killua after he attempts to kill a young injured foxbear that he viewed as "close to death" and suffering.
• In K, Reisi gives Kuroh one during their fight at the stadium.
• Kaze no Shōjo Emily: Emily is usually a nice girl, but when Academic Alpha Bitch Rhoda takes her bullying too far and makes her first day of school utter hell, she slaps her.
• Lady!!: In the manga, after Arthur announces he is going to marry Sarah, Mary runs after him and says she isn't the right one for him "because you don't know when someone like her can die" (Sarah is a Delicate and Sickly Ill Girl who was once so sick she needed to be sent to a sanitorium). Arthur slaps Mary hard enough to leave a mark. Mary is just as gobsmacked as the reader, as Arthur's typically a Princely Young Man.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena: Anthy is on the receiving end of this multiple times during the story, typically courtesy of Nanami and her posse. Her close relationship to the student council (particularly Nanami's brother, Touga) and Extreme Doormat tendencies made her an easy target.
• A Silent Voice: Shouko's mother comes out of nowhere and slaps Ueno in the face when the latter attacked Shouko.

Comic Books

• Ant-Man: Hank Pym, about to be court martialed and removed from The Avengers for his unprovoked attack against Elfqueen, was creating an undefeatable robot to attack the team. The robot would only be vulnerable to his stings, allowing him to seemingly "save the day". His wife Janet, the Wasp, tried to make him give up the idea, but Hank, already suffering from a host of issues, hauled off and slapped Janet in what has come down as his most infamous act before continuing with the plan. It worked awfully and everything came to light. Hank was removed from the team, and Janet divorced him. These actions resulted in Hank Pym's fall from grace as a superhero.
  • Henry Pym became a wifebeater in The Ultimates as well, a reimagination in the Ultimate Marvel universe. Whereas in the original comics, Hank only hit Janet once during a period of mental instability, the Ultimate Universe made him into an abusive partner from the start, including almost killing her in the series' opening story arc.
• Batman: There's a picture of Batman slapping his protege Robin in mid-conversation. Taken from World's Finest (1941) #153, published in 1965, the single-panel illustration has inspired a series of parodies featuring custom-captioned speech bubbles on 4chan, Reddit and elsewhere since 2008, explained with details by Know Your Meme here.
• The Flash: During the climax of The Return of Barry Allen, Wally West backhands Eobard Thawne in this manner while issuing a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him (Thawne had been masquerading as a revived Barry Allen, who was dead at the time).

Fan Works

• In Fate of the Clans Mikoto was on the receiving end of one by Cú Chulainn (Prototype Lancer) Alter. Due to who it was from his body goes flying sideways and the side of his head slams on the wall of the rocky cliff outside the cave to the Greater Grail despite the slap being half-hearted.
• The Night Unfurls: In a move no one saw coming, the normally soft-spoken Lily slaps Alicia for surrendering her entire fort to the Black Dogs instead of holding the line, hoping that the Black Dogs would keep their word to release the hostage nuns, Lily included, which ended with the hostages getting prison-raped. Afterwards, Lily gives Alicia a scathing remark, that she'll never forgive her for being an Accomplice by Inaction, and that she would happily have Alicia dead in exchange for her sisters' lives.
• The Rigel Black Chronicles: After the Lake Task, Johanna is not impressed that her (now ex) boyfriend prioritised retrieving the other items over getting her out. He's still wearing his broadcasting headband, too, so the whole audience hears the crack of her hand across his face, as well as the tirade that follows.
  Johanna: YOU LEFT ME! HOW DARE YOU, JACOB? DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I WAS WHEN I SURFACED? ONLY TO BE TOLD THAT YOU WERE STILL SWIMMING AFTER SOME BURIED TREASURE INSTEAD OF TAKING ME TO SAFETY!?
• In the 101 Dalmatian Street the fanfic I AM A DE VIL Dolly Dalmatian isn't upset that Dylan got kidnapped. Summer isn't happy with Dolly's bad attitude and not caring about Dylan. The two dogs argued. Dolly asks Summer what she see in Dylan and insulted both Dylan and Summer. Summer gets very angry, in tears, and slaps Dolly. Summer doesn't say a word about it. She's in tears and leaves the house. Dolly gets slap in the face hard, she has a red mark on her cheek. Dolly is surprised about this..
• At one point in chapter 7 of The Sun Will Come Up And The Seasons Will Change, Edith reaches out to Dana at the park to try and show compassion to a mother whose child is missing. But when Dana goes on a diatribe about how Edith's methods of raising Lianna are incorrect because she'd rather accept her for who she is rather than try to cure her, and makes one snide comment too many, Edith is so angry at her that she slaps her across the face and calls her out on not only degrading her daughter but for her treatment of Mary.

Films — Animated

• In Aladdin, Jafar slaps Al just before he exiles him to the "ends of the earth".
• Anastasia does this to Dmitri when she finds out she was being used for his con just to get the Dowager Empress Marie's reward money and she refuses to listen to Dmitri telling her she is the real Anastasia.
• The Secret Life of Pets has a scene where Gidget repeatedly slaps Ozone while interrogating him. For bonus points, Gidget is a female dog. That's right, she's a literal bitch doing the slapping.
• In Superman vs. the Elite, Superman does a couple of these to Manchester Black after depowering him, leading Black to think Superman is about to kill him.
• In the first sequel of The Swan Princess, Big Bad Clavius violently slaps his henchman Knuckles for having failed to kill Prince Derek with his traps. While Knuckles is much younger and bulkier than his boss, it is heavily implied the latter raised the former this way, so it is kinda justified to see a brawny fully grown man covering and shivering in front of an old and still powerless villain.
• In Turning Red, Mei does this to herself to get herself to stop crying and to prevent herself from blurting out to her mother that she's in her giant red panda form.

Films — Live-Action

• Back to the Future Part II: In Alternate!1985, Biff slaps Lorraine when tries to mouth off at him, causing her to admit defeat with an almost hypnotic flair.
• Bad Black: Flavia delivers one to her abusive father Hirigi when he tries to talk to her as she walks through the courtroom.
• In The Black Balloon (2007), Maggie slaps her son Thomas for calling his autistic brother Charlie a freak.
• Black Lightning (2009): When Dima tells Maxim that he invited Nastya to a restaurant to "feel rich", Nastya overhears it and slaps him.
• In Blue Iguana (2018), Arkady repeatedly slaps his henchman Deacon for his incompetence.
• In Eternals, Gilgamesh gives an appropriately epic one to a Deviant at the Gates of Babylon when he'd already put it down but it refused to stay down.
• In The Green Mile, Paul Edgecomb and the other prison guards have just thrown the young upstart Percy Wetmore into a padded room to punish him for his botched execution of prisoner Edward Delacroix. When they come to collect him later and undo his mouth gag, he starts demanding to be let out of the straitjacket, and Paul gives him a hard slap to shut him up.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Lucius suggests Voldemort to stop the battle and seek Harry Potter himself, hoping that will give him the opportunity to find his son. Voldemort has none of it and slaps him.
  Voldemort: How do you live with yourself Lucius?
  Lucius: I don't know.
• In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Colonel Vogel slaps Henry Jones with a glove as a way of humiliating him.
• In the theatrical cut of Justice League (2017), Superman delivers an epic bitch-slap to Batman. And he has a pretty good reason to do so.
• In Keep Off My Grass!, Horace slaps his son Grady and his daughter Rita when he finds out that Grady failed to keep Rita under control, so she now has the clap.
• Mercenaries from Hong Kong one given to a bitch. A flashback from the film's main villainess, He Ying, has her getting slapped across her face when her father (correctly) deduces her to be a greedy, self-centered, power-hungry usurper seeking to take over her father's business and running it her way, despite already being entitled to all his wealth due to being an only child. Her response is a Death Glare directed to the father... and arranging her father's assassination.
• Mommie Dearest has Joan Crawford delivering one to daughter Christina. (and it gets worse, as it's followed by some more discussion that leads Joan to try strangling her...)
• In The Odd Way Home, Maya slaps Duncan for trying to drive off with the truck, even though he Does Not Drive.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: When Elizabeth Swann is first brought aboard the Black Pearl and she attempts to begin negotiating for the pirates to stop their assault on Port Royal, Bo'sun slaps her. Captain Barbossa admonishes Bo'sun of striking Elizabeth who has invoked the right of parley.
  Elizabeth: I am here to negot— [is interrupted by Bo'sun's slap]
  Bo'sun: You will speak when spoken to.
  Captain Barbossa: [grabs Bo'sun's hand] And ye not lay a hand on those under the protection of parley.
  Bo'sun: Aye, sir.
  Captain Barbossa: Apologies, miss.
• Power Rangers (2017). During his first day in detention, Jason stops the resident bully from further picking on Billy by slapping him silly in front of the whole class. Later on, he has the Megazord backhand Rita Repulsa into space after Goldar's destruction.
• In Superdome, football player Dave Walecki and his wife Nancy both slap each other during an argument about their failing marriage.
• In When Taekwondo Strikes, the Japanese colonizers are fond of doing this to the Koreans whose country they're occupying.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Eddie Valiant gets slapped by Jessica Rabbit at the crime scene of Marvin Acme's death. He thought he was slapped by her because he was staring at her boobs and smirking at her earlier, but the reason for slapping him was because he took pictures of her playing pattycake with Marvin Acme and for getting her husband framed as a murderer.
  Jessica Rabbit: I hope you're proud of yourself and those pictures you took!
• In The Angel Levine, Levine has a Dead Person Conversation with his girlfriend Sally, who doesn't yet know he's dead, planning to tell her he loves her. Instead, they get into an argument about Levine's criminal lifestyle, which ends with Sally yelling, "You go die if you wanna, but get out of my life!" Levine slaps her, and she leaves.
• In ''For Your Eyes Only", Bibi gets this treatment twice during the film's climax. First time comes from Kristatos, who slaps her around as he was getting fed up with her whining, and Kriegler gives her one when she tries to save James Bond.
• In Marathon (2005), Kyeong-sook slaps her son Jung-won after he's arrested for kicking out someone's side mirror in a fit of road rage.
• In Too Soon to Love, Cathy's Boyfriend-Blocking Dad slaps her boyfriend Jim at the police station after the two are arrested for kissing in a car. Later, he slaps Cathy when she shouts at him during an argument.
• In Fighting Mad (1976), Lorene tries to talk Tom out of going through with his revenge plan. When he refuses to back down, she slaps him in the face.
• In Patrick Still Lives, Stella attempts to seduce Mr. Davis, but he rebuffs her advances, calls her a cheap whore, and slaps her across the face. Stella then returns the favor and slaps Mr. Davis.
• In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Tricia "Trillian" McMillan slaps Zaphod Beeblebrox hard on the face after learning that he signed off on the order to destroy her home planet of Earth, believing he was giving an autograph.

Multiple Media

• MonsterVerse:
  • Skull Island: The Birth of Kong: Riccio smacks Ato across the face with the butt of a gun for speaking up when the former reveals he intends to take down the Iwi village's barrier.
  • Godzilla vs. Kong: Rather hilariously, this is Godzilla's response to Kong's haymaker during their first fight at sea. Even more hilarious is that whilst Godzilla was able to tank Kong's attack and still remain on his feet, said bitch slap causes Kong to fall flat on his back.

Literature

• Maomao of The Apothecary Diaries smacks one of Consort Lihua's handmaids right in the face upon finding out that said handmaid is still using lead face powder on their mistress despite it being banned from the palace for being poisonous. Maomao then proceeds to dump said face powder all over the handmaid before brutally calling her out for using the same poison on Lihua that killed her baby and left her in her current sickly condition.
• In Ender's Game, the Small Name, Big Ego Jerkass Bonzo backhands Petra when she interrupts him, drawing blood. It's an Establishing Character Moment for them both: in contrast to Bonzo's blustering nastiness, Petra shows Nerves of Steel and doesn't react to the slap at all.
• In both the novel and movie for Gone with the Wind, Scarlett slaps one of her slaves, Prissy, when the latter lies to her about being able to help with childbirth and for generally being a useless brat. Considering that Prissy is one of the most hated characters in the book/film for being The Load and an Ethnic Scrappy, many in the audience cheered when Scarlett slapped her.
• The Hammer (2022): Due to having to keep up a veneer of civility on the Valentia estate, Tiny deals with multiple nobles trying to get close to Chloe by slapping them rather than punching them. But given his training, even a single slap sends men flying across the room.
• In Orange Clouds, Blue Sky, Skye accuses her mom of putting her lying, parasitic "friends" ahead of her family. Mom slaps her in the face.
• Bridget from Planet Earth Is Blue decided to run away after a fight with her and Nova's last foster mother, in which the foster mother slapped Bridget in the face.
• In Ranger's Apprentice, Morgarath slaps Erak after he finds out Erak has captured Will, an apprentice to a Ranger whom Morgarath hates, and lied to him about it.
• In The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong, the Little Palace Mistress and Ning Yingying get into an argument over Shen Qingqiu's alleged crimes. It escalates to a physical fight, during which, Ning Yingying holds back upon seeing the Little Palace Mistress lose her whip. The Little Palace Mistress takes advantage of her hesitation to give her a hard slap to the face. Shen Qingqiu more than happily helps Ning Yingying slap her back—twice.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, Jaime Lannister gets pretty good at doing this after losing his sword hand and having it replaced with a prosthetic made of gold. One particular example is when he strikes Red Ronnet Connington in the mouth for mocking Brienne of Tarth.
• Underdogs: When Ewan and Kate break into the inner slum of the prison city New London, Kate wants to search for her nonverbal brother James, but Ewan insists that they focus on the mission. They get into a fight, during which Kate slaps him.
• In the X-Wing Series novel Starfighters of Adumar, the normally happy-go-lucky pilot Wes Janson gets in a "blastsword" duel with a local nobleman to save an ally's life, but after infuriating his opponent with insults, Janson disarms the guy and introduces the nobleman to bare-knuckle fighting. At the end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, Janson decides to humiliate his opponent even further, by Cherry Tapping him into unconsciousness.
  Janson: At least you could say you were struck down with a good blow of the fist. If I were going to be nice to you, that is.
  (he raises his open hand, waits for the punch-drunk noble to focus on it, then SLAP)

Live-Action TV

• Better Off Ted: When confronted by Ted, Veronica's boyfriend completely humiliates Ted using an obscure slap-based martial art that apparently works via Death of a Thousand Cuts.
• Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 has one that's equally this and Dope Slap, given it's to both humiliate and reprimand (and fitting to being a combination, uses both hands): "Her face is the lunch meat, my hands are the bread. SMACKWICH!"
• Game of Thrones
  • Tyrion delivers some glorious ones to Joffrey. Considering he is a cowardly, immature psychopath who caused a lot of harm to his kingdom and people, he definitely deserves them.
  • Cersei slaps Joffrey after he mentions some "rumors" (they are true) about her and her twin brother's ''very close'' relationship. He reminds her that striking a king is a capital offense.
• In Hawkeye (2021), during the Uncomfortable Elevator Moment between Yelena Belova and Kate Bishop (long story short, Yelena wants to kill the title character, Kate won't let her do it), Kate delivers one in the heat of the moment. Yelena is downright shocked, and Kate's realization isn't too far off either.
  Yelena: [Stunned Silence] …What was that!?
  Kate: I don’t know!
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart", after Daniel Molloy is subjected to Louis de Pointe du Lac's People Puppets ability where his right arm was flopping wildly, Daniel is so incensed that he slaps Louis hard in the face, which is extremely brave (or foolish) when he knows all too well that Louis could easily kill him (which almost happened at the end of the first interview).
• In The Last Ship, Dr. Vellek tests out his new aggression-eliminating drug by repeatedly slapping his giant, muscular test subject in the face.
• Luke Cage (2016)
  • In the first episode, "Moment of Truth", the crime lord Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes has Shameek, a young thug who stole a lot of money from him, captive and tied up. While asking where the rest of the money went, Cottonmouth repeatedly slaps Shameek's face—then rubs it in by saying he's not the sort of man to hit a "girl" with a closed fist. Shameek says nothing, and spits on him. Cottonmouth says, "Good. Now I can hit you like a man," and proceeds to beat Shameek to death with his bare fists.
  • Luke Cage is more than capable of knocking a man unconscious when he does this.
• In Motherland: Fort Salem episode "But I Don't Even Have A Dress" President Wade delivers a solid one to Silver after the Bellweather unit reveals during their trial everything he did so he could become President.
• In the TV series The Unholy Alliance, Wai Lui does this to one of his men when he finds out that he's behind the op to steal drugs from the coffers of Ling Hung, the most powerful woman in her Triad group in Hong Kong. He also left him at the mercy of his men.
• Actor Arnaldo André did this frequently in the telenovela "Amo y Señor". He continued with this act in later telenovelas, but declined it when society changed and public awareness of the unfortunate implications are more widely acknowledged by the public.
• In what is more of a parental retort than a bitch slap, on One Day at a Time (1975), Julie and her mother Ann come to blows about disapproval over Julie's boyfriend. When Julie suggests that maybe Ann would rather sleep with the boy herself, she slaps Julie.
• Friends: The Show Within a Show version of Days of Our Lives has a character called "Jessica Lockheart" who's apparently famous for doing this to other characters. Her introduction sees her filming a scene where she slaps another character so hard the actress is seeing calling for ice to put on her cheek. When Monica finds out that Cecilia Monroe, who plays Jessica, is in Joey's apartment she tries to get Cecilia to slap her. Cecilia replies that her lawyers have told her not to agree to such requests anymore.
• Farscape. Lampshaded in Part 2 of "Look at the Princess". After surviving an assassination attempt by Prince Clavor, John Crichton barges into his august presence, slaps the Sissy Villain around and makes him promise not to do that again. The slaps Crichton gets from Clavor's sister, angry over him assaulting a Royal, are a lot harder.
  Chiana: You bitch-slapped the tralk!
• A Running Gag in El Chavo del ocho involves Doña Florinda delivering these to Don Ramón, always hard enough to make him spin. This always happens due to Quico not explaining who was wronging him (usually El Chavo or La Chilindrina), and thus she assumes Don Ramón was the culprit.

Professional Wrestling

• Stephanie McMahon is very fond of dishing these out. After delivering a nasty one to The Rock, she gloated her ability to always get away with this cheap shot because most of the male roster Wouldn't Hit a Girl, let alone the wife of the WWE chairman. The Rock agrees, before bringing in Ronda Rousey, who promptly kicks her ass when she tries the same move on her. Later on, when Ronda is finally signed to the WWE, she makes sure repeatedly that Steph learns her lesson by putting her into armbars.

Sports

• MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Nate and Nick Diaz are infamous for the "Stockton Slap". Expect fighters on the receiving end to either flip their shit or reveal how beaten they truly are if they don't immediately try and retaliate.

Theater

• In Anne of the Thousand Days, Henry slaps Anne across the face as her father and Wolsey look on for repeating the word "bastards" in reference to their potential offspring (he wants her to have sons) after he warns her not to say it again.
• In The Little Foxes, Oscar overhears his wife Birdie warning Alexandra about the Arranged Marriage planned between her and Oscar's son (and Alexandra's cousin) Leo. As Alexandra heads off to bed and Birdie, about to leave with Oscar, passes him near the doorway, he cruelly slaps her across the face. Alexandra tries to approach Birdie to see what happened to her, but she dismisses her and tells her that she only twisted her ankle.
• In Moonlight And Magnolias, producer David Selznick, writer Ben Hecht and director Victor Fleming exchange several slaps in rapid succession as they try to work out how exactly to shoot Scarlett O'Hara's slapping scene in Gone With The Wind. The three have been locked in Selznick's office together for almost three days, so the slaps also vent frustration that has reached the boiling point, getting harder and harder until the final one knocks Hecht over the couch.

Video Games

• In Bloody Battle, slapping someone in the face by using the Backhand will cause them to be knocked back a little bit, no matter what.
• Mortal Kombat X:
  • One of Cassie Cage's brutalities is a slap done as a mocking salute that spins her opponents head 180 degrees.
  • Shinnok's first attack in his X-ray move is a backhand that dislocates his opponent's jaw.
• In Deadpool, the titular character bitch slaps an unconscious Wolverine after he crashed the Blackbird. At first, Deadpool did it to wake Wolverine up, but after Deadpool realized that Wolverine was not gonna wake up for a while, the player then has the choice to either slap Wolverine for a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time or just get back to playing the game immediately.
• In League of Legends, Rakan mainly attacks his enemies with his wing but if he gets within melee range, he will slap his target instead.
• In Elsword: In Eve's opening story, she was awakened from her long slumber and found herself being found by Elsword and company. He reaches his hand to her, wanting them to be friends. She bitch-slaps him instead, which shocks his teammates. (She does join, though.)
• Injustice 2: Darkseid has a fighting style consisting primarily of bitch slaps. Demonstrating how terrifyingly powerful he is, because he's putting so little effort into fighting even the likes of Superman.
• In Assassin's Creed, Al Mualim slaps Altaïr, after Altaïr speaks out of turn, while Al Mualim is berating him for breaking the rules of the assassins.
  Al Mualim: There are rules. We are nothing if we do not abide by the Assassiyun's Creed. Three simple tenets, which you seem to forget. I will remind you. First and foremost: Stay your blade–
  Altaïr: –from the flesh of an innocent. I know.
  Al Mualim: [backhands Altaïr] And stay your tongue! Unless I give you leave to use it.
• Devil May Cry 5 has Nero doing this to Dante during the final confrontation with his father Vergil, using one of the spectral wings of his true Devil Trigger. The blow is enough to make Dante, who has already taken a beating as it is from his brother, have to sit the battle out. Dante also promptly lampshades what happened and name-drops the trope:
  That bitch slap nearly killed me.
• In Until Dawn, if Emily gets bitten by a wendigo, some Zombie Infectee drama results as the other characters are unsure if Emily will turn into a wendigo herself. Playing as Mike, you must choose whether or not to shoot Emily. Either way, shortly afterwards you will find proof that wendigo bites aren't infectious, meaning that Ashley, who wanted Emily killed for everyone else's safety, is left with egg on her face. If Emily is still alive, Ashley will go to apologize, but Emily has none of it and shuts her up with a massive slap that knocks Ashley right to the floor, providing the page quote in the process. Ashley skulks off immediately after.
• In Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! Aurelia's default melee attack is a slap across the face. More impressively, she can use it to hurt both armored soldiers and alien beasts.
• In the Criminal Case: Mysteries of the Past case "Death Comes to Lunch", one of the suspects, rich layabout Larry Rochester gropes the butt of the victim's maid Francine without her permission. She responds by giving him a ringing slap across his face. It serves as the image for both that case's third chapter and its Recap page.
• The Rose & Camellia games are about Regency-period ladies slapping each other black and blue.
• Princess Peach in Super Mario RPG slaps enemies around as her default attack and with the Slap Gloves. The Mega Slap weapon has her slapping enemies with a huge glove. Likewise, Valentina in the remake can slap your party as a physical attack when she's not using magic.
  • Lady Bow in Paper Mario 64 picks up where Peach left off with her main attack being a barehanded multi-slap, and her strongest is a multi-slap with her fan.
• Galaxy Angel: In Moonlit Lovers, Forte's method to get Noa to talk to them about the situation is to directly slap the girl, calling her a spoiled brat. Noa is impressed by Forte's boldness and this makes her relent. Forte even allows her to slap her back to get even, though she quickly regrets it when she realizes the little girl slaps harder than she expected.

Visual Novels

• Majikoi! Love Me Seriously!: Miyako receives both this and a "The Reason You Suck" Speech after years of overreliance on the Kazama family for any sort of companionship lead her to respond to lower attendance at Friday meetings by urging other members to prioritize Friday meetings over all else, including events crucial to realizing their individual dreams, and even after her efforts start a huge argument & send nearly everyone home in a rage all she can do is lament to the one person still there about everyone else's lack of devotion to the friendship. Miyako's After Story implies that if Chris left with the others and wasn't around to break Miyako out of her melancholy, Miyako would have killed herself.

Web Animation

• A Running Gag in the Something About series is the heroes (with one exception) slapping their opponents — with Bowser being a frequent target — silly:
  • "Something About Yoshi's Island" has Yoshi slap Baby Bowser, spank him, and then throw him out a window.
  • In "Something About Kirby Super Star", Kirbo slaps the sun and moon and scolds them for fighting.
  • In "Something About Super Mario 64", Mario slaps Bowser hard enough to outright paralyze him.
  • In "Something About Super Mario World", Mario backhand slaps Bowser so hard it actually leaves Bowser's eyes bloodshot and echoes pretty loudly.
  • In "Something About Smash Bros World of Light", Mario and Yoshi slap Bowser back and forth after Samus cuts off his growth to eclipse the galaxy. The last slap turns him into Dry Bowser.
  • "Something About Kirby's Adventure" has Kirbo defeat Mr. Shine, Kracko, and King Dedede by slapping them.
  • Subverted in "Melee Fox VS Speedrunner Mario", where Mario tries to backhand Fox, but he dodges it.
  • In "Something About Super Metroid," Mother Brain kills the Baby Metroid by slapping it. Samus didn't like that and kills her with a Hyper Beam.
  • In "Something About Mega Man X," Vile slaps X with his Ride Armor.
  • "Something About Yoshi's Story" has the entire Yoshi Clan slap Baby Bowser after he shatters the Super Happy Tree, reducing him to a puddle.
  • "Something About Super Mario All-Stars" has Bowser show up in Peach's room after Mario has already left, but Luigi suddenly warps back in with his Time Machine to slap him instead.
  • In "Something About Smash Bros The Subspace Emissary," in the recreation of the Super Mario All-Stars segment after Bowser is dunked into the lava, Mario dives in to deliver several of these to him. And later on after Tabuu shoots the Great Fox with his Eye Beam in retaliation to its laser, Peppy gives Fox a Dope Slap.
  • In "Something About Kirby 64," Kirbo slaps Ribbon's hand so hard that he launches her into the Sun. In addition, he destroys a green Pix by slapping it during his rampage in the pyramid.

Webcomics

• Sandra on the Rocks is an in some ways slightly old-fashioned comic about sometimes-bitchy interactions between fashion models and the like, so the bitch slap is inevitably deployed from time to time. For example:
  • Eva makes the mistake of unloading on the physically superior Zoé.
  • Later, Eva persuades Marie to slap down two other characters who had been unpleasant to her -- thus nudging Marie towards a more malevolent attitude.
  • ...which process comes to a head when Marie slaps Zoé.
• One of Gray's favoured tactics for putting bullies in their place in Weak Hero. When getting revenge on Bryce, he slaps him so many times that his hand ends up bloody- and he doesn't even stop there.
• In the webtoon adaptation of The Greatest Estate Developer, the main character delivers a truly epic series of these to the bullies picking on his little brother at the academy.

Web Videos

• hololive:
  • Marine Houshou became a little infamous for a short video she released in 2021 that consisted of her on the receiving end of these before tearing up and running off. The general audience reaction was of confusion and concern, to which Marine quickly responded by saying it was meant to be more kinky in nature (Marine being well-known as Hololive's resident Loveable Sex Maniac who proudly teases her fanbase), but she messed up as presenting the slap out of context made people less aroused and more worried for her safety. She followed up with a handful of sequel skits spoofing the incident, the first sequel showing the act is very much consensual.
  • On the Hololive English side of things, there's Ceres Fauna, who started playfully "slapping" her genmates, then really got into Jigglypuff's "Pound" move in Pokémon Unite, was delighted that Hitman 3 lets you play the "slap game..." She's more or less crowned herself the "Slap God," and slapping has become her Signature Move, to the point that she's slapped the viewer in her 3D showcase, and slapping is Fauna's melee attack in the fan game CouncilRyS RPG.
• Revenge Films: In "My parents treated me poorly," Katie attempts to make her parents focus back on her after Ali's rich husband bought them what they wanted, only to be slapped for talking back. Being spoiled all her life until that moment, she broke down crying and left the house for half a year.
• Dragon Ball Z Abridged: Goku's fight with Frieza retains the bitch/pimp slap combo from the original series, even exaggerating it further to emphasize how completely Frieza is being dominated by Goku.
  • In Kai 3.5, it condenses the "fights" between Cell, Krillin, Vegeta, and Future Trunks down to Cell giving a slap to each of them in succession.
• This is ZeroLenny's Signature Move.
  Robolenny: Do you want a fucking SLAP?

Western Animation

• In the Family Guy episode "Tiegs for Two", Brian and Quagmire get into a furious brawl after their arch-rivalry reaches a boiling point. While both are slugging each other, Quagmire gets in one of these to demonstrate his exceptional hatred of Brian.
• In the Justice League Unlimited episode "Ultimatum", Downpour attempts to blow out Aquaman with a torrent of water. After Aquaman points out this folly,^note "King of the seas, remember?" Downpour rushes him with a few punches that do absolutely nothing to the far more physically powerful Aquaman. After an Oh, Crap! from Downpour, Aquaman finishes the fight by way of this trope; a bitchslap so hard it knocks Downpour out cold.
• Looney Tunes
  • In the cartoons featuring the mice Hubie and Bertie, Hubie would repeatedly slap Bertie's face back and forth whenever he did something stupid. Often, Bertie's face would continue to go back and forth even after Hubie stopped.
  • In "Bully for Bugs", Bugs Bunny slaps the bull to the tune of the Mexican Hat Dance. Toro tries to punch him back, but Bugs slaps him again before he can.

Real Life

• During the 94th Academy Awards, Will Smith got up to slap Chris Rock on live television after the latter joked about his wife's alopecia. This quickly turned into a hell of a big deal, and got Will a ten-year ban from the Academy Awards.
  Will: Keep my wife's name out your FUCKING MOUTH!

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