Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!

"This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you..."^note Nah, that's a lie. It's gonna hurt you a lot. I'll be alright.

Bug: My father? Very strict. It didn't matter that I was the youngest, when I would act up, he gave me his belt.
Dick: You wore the same size?
Bug: No, as punishment he would put me over his knee and give me a whooping.
Dick: He gave a "whoopin'" and a belt?
Bug: With a belt.
Dick: And then he gave you the belt?
Bug: Um...yeah.

— 3rd Rock From The Sun

Little Jimmy's done it now. His dad is angry, and this is a crime worthy of far more than a Time Out. And Daddy's getting out the belt. This ain't gonna be pretty.

Truth in Television. Corporal Punishment has been around since practically the beginning of time. More and more parents are considering it barbaric in the 21st century, but it still goes on. Values Dissonance tends not to be called out, (like other forms of punishment/abuse) because of how common an occurrence this trope was in Real Life for anyone born in the mid 20th century and earlier, and how common it is in certain cultures. Heck, many parents still use spanking today, despite the current culture drifting against it.

Of course, in the comedic version, the father takes his belt off, raises his arm to apply some pain, and his pants immediately fall down for want of a belt to hold them up.

Sometimes this trope is inverted when the father, after realizing he has been unfair with his son, hands his son the belt at the last minute and tells the boy to spank him. And despite the fact that we're mostly talking about fathers and sons, mothers and daughters are just as likely to apply for this trope, especially the Apron Matron disciplining the Bratty Teenage Daughter.

"You're not too big to turn over my knee" is a common variation. A variation of this trope in a Southern US setting is "Do you want me to cut a switch"? A Shoe Slap in the form of a sandal is extremely common in Latin American households, though many non-white households also tend to have their own method of discipline by sandals.

A common and rather peculiar feature of this trope is that the son or sometimes daughter who is threatened with the belt is often high school or even college-aged, but no one on the show seems to find it odd that they are still being spanked as if they were children. A possible explanation is that young kids may make up a large part of the shows' viewers and hence may find this sort of punishment relatable. Alternately, older people probably remember too well when THEY were spanked/beaten as punishment.

Related in spirit to Get A Hold Of Yourself Man, but different in application.

It can be coupled with (and the result of) Calling the Old Man Out. Depending how it's portrayed, this can occur in many places along the Sliding Scale of Parent-Shaming in Fiction; it could be anything from genuine Tough Love to a misguided Helicopter Parents to outright Abusive Parents. Compare Would Hurt a Child which is more about unrelated strangers willing to destroy a child out of sheer sadism rather than old-fashioned discipline.

Subtrope of Corporal Punishment; compare A Taste of the Lash. Compare and contrast the Sister Tropes Comedic Spanking and Kinky Spanking.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In My Hero Academia, this is Mitsuki's stock in trade when it comes to disciplining Katsuki. Given his rotten temper and aggressive nature, it's not very surprising to see why.

Comedy

• Double Subverted by Louis C.K. in a routine where he rants about how ridiculous corporal punishment is. "Kids are the only people it's okay to hit! They're the most defenseless, and they're the only people it's okay to hit!"
• Bill Cosby referred to this in many of his stand-up routines, including his mother's threat to "knock the black off of him".
  • His infamous routine "To My Brother Russell, Whom I Slept With" has him detail their father threatening Bill and his brother with 'The Belt.' Subverted in that Cosby notes that he and his brother "had never seen this belt", but they knew what it was like: it was "nine feet long, eight feet wide, and it had hooks on it that would rip the meat off your body if it ever hit you".
• Bill Engvall, who states that there's nothing like "the sound of a belt clearing belt loops".
• It also happens with redneck stand-up comics. Jeff Foxworthy stated that getting a "time out" in his family meant that "our dad would take time out of his busy day to blister our butts!"
• Steve Geyer recalled how his mother would tell him to bring her something to spank him with. At first, he would bring "a belt with a buckle on it", but eventually wised up and started bringing her sheets of notebook paper (don't laugh, he still has paper cut scars back there). Then she moved on to Hot Wheels tracks.
  Steve: And then, one day, I thought to myself, "Steve, get a clue, she's spanking you... with your own toys?!" Yeah, glad I never got that wood-burning set I wanted, though.
• Christian comedian Mark Lowry said that when you heard the sound of his dad's belt flying through belt loops "you knew JUDGEMENT had come!!"
• Dylan Moran once quipped about his disappointment in the corporal punishment laws, saying how that there are only so many ways you can say things to a child before going over to "have an encounter."
  "And I was rather saddened by this, I used to bound home from work to strike my children!"
• Rex Navarette, in addition to joking about typical Filipino discipline (read: the belt or the slipper), would fondly recall the usage of his mother's toe on him in Church whenever he got too giddy mocking the poor acoustics rendering the priests' sermons into total gibberish.
• Russell Peters did a routine about the time he tried to defy this trope. He'd gone over to a friend's house and seen how he talked back to his parents. When asked, the boy told him that they couldn't touch him because of child services. The comedian then imitates the boy upon returning home (responding to being nagged about chores with "fuck you dad"). His father, naturally, is less than impressed, and demands he front up for punishment. The comedian then tells his father that if he touches him he'll call child services. His dad's response? "Let me get you the phone." The father points out that there's a 23 minute gap between the call being made and someone arriving at the house, and that in that time, "somebody gonna get a hurt real bad."
• Cited by many Black stand-up comedians. Sinbad even had a routine wherein his mother turned into a superhero for the express purpose of catching him and giving him a whupping. It was for talking back to her (which you did not do with your parents back in the day) during lawn cutting day, and then turning around while she was reprimanding him. She beat him so bad, it was Monday when he woke up.
  • In the aforementioned superhero bit, his mother smacked him so hard that his butt fell off, which prompted this legendary quip from his friends: "It's yo momma's hand, man! It's yo momma hand! Just run! Drop yo butt and run!"
• Double Subverted by comedian Katt Williams:
  "Look, I know all comics come on stage and say you need to beat your kids, but as a father, let me just say publicly that maybe we should stop beating our kids... publicly."
• Pretty common with a lot of ethnic groups, especially Irish. Denis Leary:
  "Hey, my dad used to beat the shit out of me, and looking back I'm glad he did. And I'm looking forward to beating the shit out my kids. Aren't you?"
  • (Leary's routines from after he became a father make it clear his kids have got him totally wrapped around their fingers.)
• One black comic mentioned that her mom once spanked her with a wet towel for lack of anything better. "My ass said 'Motel 6' for a week."

Comic Books

• Any issue of The Beano in days gone by would have included at least two instances of this.^note Corporal punishment in the Beano lasted long after its abolition in schools and was only really confronted when Scotland, home of the comic, passed laws to make physical punishment of children into illegal child abuse. It was well into the 1990s when the father of Dennis the Menace kept his slippers exclusively for wear on his feet, and the long-suffering teacher of the Bash Street Kids hung up his cane for the last time.
• Birds of Prey: When Wildcat appears, he's shown to be prone to making these kind of threats to Black Canary, due to the two being surrogate father/daughter. Given he was the one who trained her how to fight (and he never pulled punches), its not unlikely he was being completely truthful.
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Donald Duck doesn't have a belt, but he'd often chase his nephews with a stick. Used to, anyway. This is practically nonexistent in the modern strips, and these days the boys aren't in need of this kind of treatment anyway, being usually more competent and mature than their uncle.
• Harley Quinn: In one issue, a woman who is otherwise portrayed as a kind and loving mother is shown taking a wooden spoon to her teenage daughters for joining Harley's gang. Subverted a few issues later when Harley advises a client against beating her rebellious daughter, reasoning that "a good old-fashioned beating" would only alienate her further in her current state.
• In the Harvey Comics series, L'il Dot, Richie Rich et al were often punished for their naughtiness at the end of their stories with a good spanking, often in a way appropriate to the character. (Dot's father using a giant dot, Wendy the Good Little Witch politely explaining to her aunts how a spanking should be carried out....)
• Love and Rockets have several kinky references to Hot Wheel tracks.
• The Punisher MAX: Nick Fury does this to a corrupt military general. To explain why, the general had put together a cell of middle eastern terrorists and sent them on a plane, which they were to hijack. The plane was then blown up by the Russians, killing the US funded terrorists and the innocent people aboard. Don't worry, he and his associates get a better punishment for it later.
• Zipi y Zape: But using a mattress beater, a good ol' spanking or the dreaded "Mice Room"

Comic Strips

• The Boondocks: There's a reason why Granddad's catchphrase is "Boy, where's my belt?!" Although he also uses his belt as a bonus weapon against pimps and hustlers.
  Granddad: Riley, your granddad is from a very small town. Do you know what the name of the town is?
  Riley: Whuppin Riley's Narrow Behind.
  Granddad: And you're making me what?
  Riley: Homesick.
• Calvin has been spanked on at least two occasions in Calvin and Hobbes.
  • Subtly implied in a Sunday strip where Calvin chokes his bedroom with bug spray and then his father walks into the room.
    Calvin: About time, dad! He crawled back into the bed! Get a fly swatter!
    Calvin's Dad: I'LL (cough) tell you who's going to get swatted! (choke) What have you done to this room?!!
• In Dennis the Menace (US), Dennis once protests to his mother about always being sent to time-out every time he misbehaves. She reminds him that she could spank him instead and he quickly decides to go with the time-out.
• A Running Gag in the early days of The Katzenjammer Kids. The strip would usually end with Hans and Fritz getting spanked for whatever prank they pulled.
• A Mafalda has Manolito discussing with the title character about their parents, and how his old man, once angry would get... "Rough?" "No, belty."

Fan Works

• Domoverse: Issac is spanked for fighting by his Amish father.
• In the RWBY fic Ivory Bones, Weiss is Covered with Scars from all the belt beatings her abusive, perfectionist father has given her throughout the years. They're mainly on her back, so Weiss easily hides them by keeping covered up.
• In the Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfic Laying Waste To Halloween, Gabe, Percy's abusive father, frequently physically hurts him if he does something Gabe doesn't like.
• Scrooge McDuck in the DuckTales (1987) fanfic, Mother Dearest takes his nephew's school performance very seriously. While he won't literally chase him with a belt or a stick, fans know that you do not want to cross him.
• In New Look Series: Link's New Look, what's the thing that Young Link fears the most in the world? A spanking from Princess Zelda. Apparently a Falcon Punch to the face is nothing compared to getting spanked by her.
• John Gage got it a lot as a kid in the slightly AU Emergency! fic "Remembrances of Things Past". To the point where he has a major panic attack in the locker room when Roy, who's a bit angry at him about something, quickly pulls his belt off as he's changing. Roy has to reassure John he isn't going to hit him with it.
• In the Harry Potter fanfic Shifting Lines, Remus' father hits Remus if he's too casual with his teachers or has attitude when speaking with his mother. This is portrayed as a bad thing in the work.
• In the The Loud House fanfic Syngenesophobia, after the sisters hospitalize Lincoln, Lynn Sr. severely disciplines all of his daughters by selling or giving away their possessions, forbidding them to participate their favorite activities and hobbies, culminating in him threatening to resort to this trope if they step out of line again or try to test the waters of their punishments though he hates himself for having to resort to such drastic measures.
• In Harry's New Home, Harry has endured this from the Dursleys long enough to think it's normal behavior. He's genuinely surprised that Snape only resorts to a single bare-handed swat when having to administer corporal punishment (and the man still thinks it's going too far), and is concerned that Snape doesn't know how to raise a child if he gets things wrong so much.

Film — Live-Action

• American Sniper: The Kyle brothers' father was a very firm sort of parent. During his "sheep, wolf, and sheepdog" lesson where he's teaching them how to fight the wicked, he takes off his belt and places it on the dining room table suggestively while mentioning that they'll be in a lot of trouble if he sees them turning into wolves.
• In Antwone Fisher, this is the favorite form of punishment for the title character's mother. Unfortunately, she goes way too far.
• In Bastard out of Carolina, Bone's stepfather Glen frequently whips her savagely with a belt. When her uncles find out about this they give Glen a beating with his own belt.
• In The Black Phone Gwen's father uses a belt to viciously spank her bottom. He then makes her let said bottom sting instead of icing it.
• In Coal Miner's Daughter, teenage Loretta leaves the house without permission to go out on a date with Doo. When she comes home, her father is waiting at the door with a switch in his hand. The spanking is shown on screen. Her mother comforts her afterward, but threatens to give her worse if she doesn't stay away from Doo.
• In Curse of the Golden Flower the Emperor beats one of his (adult) sons to death with a huge gem-encrusted belt, as the kid had just killed one of his older brothers and attempted a coup. Pretty much every person in that movie pulls something like that on a family member.
• A variant in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: the abusive Mary Lou Barebone orders her son to take his own belt off and hand it over to her. When she does it during the movie and threatens his sister Modesty, it's the last straw that causes him to lose control of his Enemy Within and kill her.
• Female Trouble: Played for laughts. Dawn Davenport threatens to whip her daughter Taffy with a car aerial for jumping rope.
• In Get on the Bus, Flip tells a story about the time he tried out for his school's track team against his mother's wishes. She showed up at the tryouts with a belt so thick nobody could actually wear it, and, well... let's just say Flip hates wearing belts to this day. By contrast, the man with the white mother relates how she grounded him for a serious infraction, and the other men all agree that their black mothers would surely have beaten them for the same offense.
• The Godfather: Carlo threatening and attacking Connie with a belt after she confronts him about his affairs is the thing that drives Sonny over the edge, on purpose of course, so that Sonny is lured to his death at the tollbooth.
• In Good Will Hunting, Will describes how his father would add a layer of psychological torment by making him choose what he would be beaten with. He always chose a wrench, the worst of the three options, "Because fuck him, that's why."
• Gregory from The Hanoi Hilton screams when rats crawl on him while he's restrained. Guards come in and beat him with a belt for making noise.
• Hitman (1998): The protagonist of the movie (played by Jet Li) removes his belt as an Improvised Weapon in the final battle, and manage to take down a Giant Mook half a meter taller than him using the belt.
• I Vitelloni: Francesco, Fausto's father, loses his patience with his son by the end of the film.
• In Madea's Family Reunion, Madea turns a young hooligan girl into a proper young lady... by repeatedly beating her with a belt.
• In The Man in the Moon, Matthew beats his daughter Dani with a belt after she comes home in the middle of the night after going swimming with Court. He later apologizes by saying he did so out of fear for his wife Abby dying of childbirth complications.
• Mr. Deeds: Played for laughs when quarterback Kevin calls Deeds to apologize for his earlier behavior and Kevin's dad decides to talk to Deeds. When Deeds points out that Kevin's misdeed was using foul language in front of ladies, daddy takes the belt off; however, it's clear from the scene that Kevin is beaten *in the face*
• In The Odd Way Home, Maya's boyfriend beats her with a belt.
• In Poor Pretty Eddie, Liz tries to escape the lodge with a guest, who instead forces her to give him a blowjob. Afterwards, Eddie beats her with his belt, yelling that she's his and she needs to be a decent girl.
• Pootie Tang has a magic +5 belt of whoopass which is the Source Of His Power.
• In Rock N Rolla, in a flashback, we briefly see Lenny Cole getting ready to take his belt to his rebellious son, the future rock'n'rolla Johnny Quid.
• Natasha's pimp beats her with his belt before he attempts to kill her in Son of a Gun.
• In Stand by Me, the boys point out that if they go to find the dead body, their parents will know they snuck out of town to do so, and will "get hidings," but rationalize that nobody will care. Save for Chris, who casually admits that his Abusive Parents will "hide him anyway" but admits that it would be worth it.
• Step Brothers: After Brennan acts like a brat one too many times, Robert gives him a barehand spanking, and when Dale tries to intervene, he threatens, "You're next, mister!" Dale immediately (and timidly) backs down and watches in horror.
• In Talk Radio, Barry Champlain takes a call from a listener who tells him, "My kids give me any trouble, I take off m'belt. They see the belt, that's it." Barry proceeds to berate him for hitting his kids.
• In Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, a young J.B. gets the belt for singing a rock song about fucking the devil at the dinner table.
• In They Made Me a Fugitive, it's Played for Drama: Narcy uses his henchman to find the whereabouts of a man they want from his girlfriend. He threatens her with the belt (which also has badges on it for maximum pain) if she doesn't give away the hiding place. After a few brutal whips, she gives in.
• The Thief: Toljan telling Sanya to get Toljan's belt causes Sanya to wet himself in fright. As it turns out, Toljan, somewhat surprisingly, never does beat the boy.
• Spoofed in Troll 2, where the dad fumbles with his belt while yelling at his son for ruining their food... and tightens it to deal with the hunger pains.
• When the Bough Breaks (1994) has a heroic example. When Macleah is cornered by the killer, she grabs a belt and hits him with it.
• One of Jennifer's flashbacks in The Windmill Massacre is of her brutish father taking his belt off and thrashing her with it. Everything she reveals indicates that this was a common occurrence.
• In Youth in Revolt, Ray Liotta's character apparently dealt with Nick this way before the start of the movie. Subverted in the movie itself.
  • "You done tough guy?”

Literature

• Inverted in an allegorical story where the much-loved father of a naughty boy forces the boy to beat him for the boy's misdeeds instead of the other way around. The boy cries throughout the process since he does love his father and hates hurting him. This helps the boy realise that by misbehaving, he's hurting his father as much as a beating hurts and causes the boy to try to behave better.
• In the novel Addie Pray (later renamed Paper Moon), Addie's temporary guardian (and possible father) warns her he will switch her for sassing him. She is indifferent to the threatened whipping and is far more upset when he tells her shortly afterwards he will put her in a home.
• In Richard Wright's Black Boy, Richard offends his visiting uncle without understanding why. He had offended his uncle when, after being woken up in the middle of the night because his uncle wanted to know what time it was, his perfectly civil response is somehow perceived as insolent. The uncle declares that he'll give Richard (who is around 11) the beating of a lifetime. The uncle makes a big show of ripping a branch off a hickory tree in the yard to whip him. Only to discover that Richard, in the meantime, has snatched up two razor blades between his fingers, one on each fist, and told his uncle that he'd fight him off. After a standoff, the uncle looks very weary, and gives up while sighing. Then the uncle tells everybody in Richard's life that the boy is a menace and is not to be given any help whatsoever in anything...including school.
• Bones of Faerie: Used as punishment by Liza's father.
• Bruiser: Uncle Hoyt is prone to this, and it's played for drama as seen by the numerous scars Brewster bears on his body.
• David Copperfield: "Salem House", Mr. Creakle's Boarding School of Horrors, runs on corporal punishment. Mr. Creakle lays the whip on the boys in passing sometimes, just on general principle.
• Discworld: Verence II of Lancre was beaten by his grandfather with a belt often when a child. Since said grandfather was a retired court jester, it was a belt with bells on, which made it more painful.
• Dragonriders of Pern series: When Menolly starts improvising, her sexist father, who is ashamed that a mere daughter has the skills of a Harper, ominously dismisses the class she's teaching and signals to her to lift up her tunic (not what it sounds like, but unpleasant in a totally different way) before belting her savagely. Even Menolly's mother, who's not a great help to the girl at the best of times, is shocked by the injuries inflicted on her unfavourite daughter.
• Frances the Badger: In Bedtime For Frances, Frances' father threatens her with a spanking if she doesn't go back to bed. In all fairness, she had gotten out of bed multiple times at that point and was now waking him up, so he was probably just frustrated at that point.
• The Grandmother: Referenced, but not applied. Kristla teases the Prošek children, who are talking about putting out stockings for St. Nicholas day, telling Jan that St. Nicholas will only bring some of them a scourge. Jan retorts that they had already received a scourge last year, but that the Grandmother put it away and never beats them. The Grandmother does claim, though, that little Jan would often deserve it.
• In Me and My Little Brain, part of The Great Brain series, John finally gets fed up with his adopted brother attacking him in mute silence, so he takes his little brother behind the woodshed and delivers an intense spanking. He expects to be whipped even worse by his parents for it, but the discipline breaks through the trauma his little brother had earlier experienced and caused him to open up to humanity again.
• The Headmaster, form masters and prefects of Greyfriars school can all dispense corporal punishment and do with (to a modern reader, at least) incredible frequency and little regret. A poor or obnoxious student, like the notorious Billy Bunter, can expect 'six' for offences as minor as 'lounging'. "Yaroooooh!", indeed.
• Miss Trunchbull threatens to punish Matilda with the buckle end of her belt.
• Karen from Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World has scars from her mother's abuse, which included beating her with a belt buckle.
• Power: Herman is described as often beating Omishto with his belt, while she stands naked trying to protect herself.
• Purple Hibiscus: Kambili (a girl) pushes her deranged father over the edge and he beats her. She nearly dies.
• Subverted in the short story The Pudding Like a Night on the Sea from The Stories Julian Tells. Julian's father warns him and his little brother to not, under any circumstances, eat the pudding he's just made for their mother when she gets home. Of course, Julian dares his brother into eating it. The father snarls, "There's going to be some beating and some whipping!" What happens next? You guessed it. Their punishment is to make a new pudding, and they have to beat the eggs and whip the cream.
• Ravensong: At the end of Chapter 10, after having broken a "promise" to her mother:
  Were she younger her mother would have whipped her. But she was eighteen and had been threatened with ostracism. Never again would her mother ever talk to her about her conduct. No more patience. She would have to own her every action. She felt frail, vulnerable, and transitory. Dispensable. She was dispensable. It felt too soon, too sudden. She was too wilful to trust her own conduct. For a time she quivered on the chair like a timid little rabbit the dogs had cornered; then she opted for bed.
• Nimbalo The Slayer's father in the Redwall book Taggerung frequently did this, until he finally stood up to the scumbag and ran off. Despite this, Nimbalo's still heartbroken when he discovers that his father was murdered by the vermin they're chasing with his own battle axe.
• Shine Shine Shine: Maxon's father used to beat him with a wide variety of implements, including a belt, until his death when Maxon was nine.
• In Summer of My German Soldier, Patty Bergen's Abusive Father doles out several savage beatings with his belt.
• Walker's Crossing: Lon sometimes threatens to "take a strap" to Gil for making white supremacist comments.
• In Where the Crawdads Sing, Kya remembers Pa whipping her with a belt for trying to stop him from beating Ma.

Live-Action TV

• All in the Family: Season 9's "Stephanie and the Crime Wave," where Archie wants to threaten to spank Stephanie for stealing and not explaining herself. In the end, Archie relents when he realizes Stephanie was insecure about her place in the Bunker household.
• In at least one episode of The Andy Griffith Show, specifically, "Mr. Mc Beevee." Opie is accused of stealing a quarter, and refuses to concede that Mr. Mc Beevee (a telephone lineman, who gave the coin to Opie) is imaginary, and Andy makes an implied threat that if Opie doesn't bend, he could face a whipping. The incident is averted when Andy decides he needs to believe his son ... and then really averted when Andy has a chance meeting with Mr. Mc Beevee.
• On Are You Being Served? Again, Mavis often says that her father will "give her the strap" if she gets caught doing something.
• Parodied in Blackadder the Third. Edmund tells Mr. Hardcastle that the Prince wants his daughter for his wife. Hardcastle, misunderstanding, responds:
  "Well his wife can't have her! Back, sir! Or I shall take off me belt, and by thunder me trousers will fall down!"
• By The Sword Divided: In the first episode, Sir Martin canes his daughter Lucinda for refusing to meet Lord Edward, her arranged husband-to-be. Much later in the series, having fallen in love with him, Lucinda tells Edward about her punishment and says that she deserved much worse.
• El Chavo del ocho: Don Ramón threatened to do this to La Chilindrina. It was usually followed with a snarky comment from her. For example, there was one occasion where he asked her if she knew what'd happen if he took off his belt and she told him his pants would fall down. He unwittingly proves her right.
• Daredevil (2015): Wilson Fisk bashed his father's head in with a hammer while he was attacking his mother with the belt.
• On Desperate Housewives Lynette once threatens to spank her rambunctious sons with an assortment of spanking implements, including a belt which she describes as "a classic" before cracking it. She ends up not spanking them, but in a later episode Bree turns one of boys over her knee, leading to a rift with Lynette.
• The Dick Van Dyke Show: Although she doesn't take off her belt, Laura raises her hand as high as it will go to threaten Richie with a spanking for not cleaning his room.
• Arnold in Diff'rent Strokes gets spanked by Willis.
• In The Dukes of Hazzard cousins Bo and Luke, despite being in their twenties, were sometimes threatened with strappings by Uncle Jesse.
• Everybody Hates Chris:
  • Rochelle.
  • Julius has a different belt for different offenses. The list goes; lying, stealing, lying & stealing, getting somebody pregnant, and doing drugs. The drugs belt has a gun holster on it.
• Good Times:
  • James usually to youngest son Michael (to get him off his soapbox).
  • Played with in one episode where Michael would rather take the belt than apologize for what he said to his teacher. James was reluctant to hit him too.
• Alf Stewart in Homeand Away when Duncan pushed him too far in a 2001 episode.
• Subverted and parodied in an episode of How I Met Your Mother, when Lily and Marshall are comparing which of their friends would make the best Parental Substitute for their child Marvin if they died. They ask their friends what they would use as a punishment for Marvin, and when Barney is asked an Imagine Spot is shown of Barney pulling out a belt... and announcing to Marvin that this fine belt the kid would usually wear is going to be confiscated as punishment, and he has to wear a common leather belt instead.
• Little House on the Prairie: Set in an era where whippings as parental punishment were common. Although a few episodes featured abusive parents mercilessly whipping their children (including one where orphans James and Cassandra Cooper ultimately come to live with the Ingalls), two episodes included incidences where whippings are depicted as proper fatherly discipline. When Nels Olesen grabs a belt to punish his spoiled daughter, Nellie (usually, after Nellie committed a particularly humiliating prank on Laura), although the whippings were not depicted onscreen (the scene cut before Nels administered the discipline). Also, Charles at least once threatened to use his belt on Laura.
• On The Lucy Show, Lucy is disguised as a life-sized robot when she ends up babysitting Mr. Mooney's impossibly bratty nephew.^note In a Casting Gag, he is played by Jay North of Dennis the Menace and is described as a "menace" in the episode. He thinks he's unsupervised, and has fun ordering the "robot" around. When at last she's had all she can take, Lucy turns him over her knee and spanks him good, just as Mr. Mooney walks in. Unfortunately, now that they've finally found a babysitter who can control the kid, she's stuck with the job long-term.
• In the 1950s sitcom Make Room For Daddy with Danny Thomas, the three children were frequently threatened with belt spankings. In one the father warns the oldest daughter, who is snootily correcting his grammar, that he will dangle his belt over her "double negative" if she doesn't shut up. In an inversion of this trope, he hands his belt to his son Rusty, who has resigned himself to a whipping and, admitting he was in the wrong, tells Rusty to spank him.
• Subverted in Malcolm in the Middle. Lois calmly asserts that she will spank Malcolm if he does not remain grounded and stay on his cot, who was objecting as they were having to sleep in cots in a school gym (the neighborhood was evacuated because of a chemical spill) and the punishment was not really applicable. When Malcolm disobeys her, she puts him over her knee, everybody else in the gym watching...And she gives him a light tap. The purpose of the "spanking" was not to punish him with pain, but with embarrassment. This ends up backfiring as the soldiers overlooking the whole evacuation throw her out, because the other families thought she was going crazy.
• In Married... with Children, Bud often offers to fetch Al's belt when Kelly is in trouble. Al however never actually punishes either of the kids in this manner.
• In The Middle, we learn that Mike's father had a belt he called "the Enforcer" that he used frequently on his sons. It is implied that this is the reason Mike never even considers Corporal Punishment for his children. Actually a subversion as Mike claims his dad never actually used it; the threat was enough.
• Midsomer Murders: In "Blood Will Out", the Victim of the Week is a bully who thrashes his stepdaughter with his belt. Of all his transgressions, it is ultimately this one that gets him murdered.
• Our Miss Brooks:
  • "The Twin Orphans" ends with Miss Brooks looking out Mrs. Davis' front window, and observing the titular pair being taken over their knee and spanked by their father. The "orphans", Mike and Danny, had tricked the Madison High crowd into believing they had escaped from an Orphanage of Fear. By the dialogue, Miss Brooks obviously believes the spanking to be well earned.
  • Averted in "Amalgamation". Mrs. Nestor's school is nearly merged with Mrs. Pryor's school next year. Upon visiting, Mr. Conklin almost swats one of the bratty child actors with his hand, but is stopped by Mrs. Pryor. As a believer in the "progressive method", students at Mrs. Pryor are allowed uninhibited self-expression. No discipline, corporal punishment or otherwise.
• A flashback scene in Roswell shows a young Michael running away from his foster father, who can be seen in the background with his belt in his hands.
• A sketch from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In had the mother (Ruth Buzzi) tell the father (Dave Madden) that their son (Henry Gibson) was misbehaving and to punish him. Dad takes Junior into the next room and sounds of spanking are heard. When they come out, Mom coddles Junior and says Dad was so mean to hit him. Outraged, Dad takes his belt off and takes Mom into the next room for a spanking while Junior tries told the laughter in.
• The Sandman, "Playing House": Jed's abusive foster father starts taking off his belt to give Jed a whupping. On this occasion, he's interrupted by a visitor at the door and never gets around to the whupping, but it's suggested that it isn't the first time.
• Done between adults in The Sopranos when Tony uses his belt to hit his corrupt congressman lackey for sleeping with his mistress. Even though he had (apparently) okayed it earlier.
  • This is also often discussed, with Tony stating several times that Meadow and AJ would probably be more well behaved if he were able to do this to them without coming under scrutiny by child services. Dr. Melfi doubts this, reminding Tony he actually was subjected to this kind of punishment by his parents and it didn't do much to improve his own misbehavior.
• Supernanny:
  • The Mann family falls under this before Jo's intervention; Mom Melissa is especially guilty. They spank their children forcefully with wooden spoons, wooden forks, and their hands. Melissa explains their church advocates this, and constantly says, "Trust and obey" before spanking a child (while simultaneously saying "I forgive you" and spanking more). Melissa also has some disturbing things to say about Naomi in particular, such as, "I want to smack her across the mouth" and "I don't like my daughter, I don't want her in my house, or around my children—er, my other children."
  • Jo actually called CPS on the Spivey family after the camera footage showed the father appearing to beat one of his children with a belt. The actual discipline took place off-camera, but the belt is seen beforehand and the child can be heard screaming.
• The Twilight Zone (1985): In "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty", Gus Rosenthal's father Lou hits him with his belt to punish him for shoplifting a comic book, which he has done several times before. However, Lou hates himself for doing it and breaks down in tears as soon as Gus leaves the room. His wife Sarita tries to console him by saying that it is the only way that Gus will learn.
• Logan from Veronica Mars even has to get the belt himself, at his age!
• Pops from The Wayans Bros., to the point that John Witherspoon is an honorary Trope Codifier. He does this in almost every episode.
• On one episode of What's Happening!!, Raj went to a party instead of watching Dee like he was supposed to. As punishment, his mother asked him for his belt. When Raj replied he wasn't wearing one, Rerun offered his, prompting:
  Mabel: "Rerun, I want to whip him, not hang him!"
• It's implied that Jack Arnold was about to do this to Kevin in the pilot episode of The Wonder Years for getting called to the principal's office. Kevin reflected that his dad had never spanked him before, but he had seen him do it to Wayne and he recognized that look. The punishment was quickly forgotten however when they got home to find out that Winnie Cooper's older brother was killed in Vietnam.
• Young Sheldon: Constance gives Sheldon a "swat on the bottom" for calling her selfish because she didn't want to take him to a lecture (the professor only invited him as a pretense to date her).
• One (long forgotten) Australian sketch show parodied this. The strict father ordered his son to eat his sausages; the son repeatedly refused. The father began to take off his belt to hit the son with it, but the belt was so long that the show cut to other sketches before cutting back, and the father was still taking off his belt.

Music

• Regina Spektor's "Belt", from the perspective of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship, features a chorus that goes "Yo girl, don't make me take off my belt / Don't make me take off my belt / And smack you right side up".
• "Weird Al" Yankovic's "When I Was Your Age...":
  Dad would whoop us every night 'til a quarter after twelve
  Then he'd get too tired, and he'd make us whoop ourselves
  Then he'd chop me into pieces, and played frisbee with my brain
  And lemme tell ya, Junior... ya never heard me complain!

Pro Wrestling

• A common match type is a "whipping" match, or a "(whip/belt/other weapon of the promoter's choice) on a pole," where the objective is for one wrestler to whip his opponent into bloody and bruised submission. Various adjustments to the rules apply.
• In 1987, when Ken Patera was released from prison (he had served time on a vandalism charge), he turned against former ally Bobby "the Brain" Heenan and renounced his former rule-breaking ways, sealing the deal when Patera whipped Heenan before tying the belt around his neck and whipping him across the screen. A week later, Heenan's minions got revenge by ganging up on Patera and whipping him until he lost consciousness.
• The belt is the second favorite and less serious weapon of The Dudley Boys, the first obviously being the table.
• Polly Star undid her belt to spank her student, Alicia, in LLF.
• At WrestleMania 39, Rey Mysterio removes his belt to give his son, Dominik, a well-deserved lashing as he's been acting very disrespectful to his family.

Religion

• The Bible:
  • The Book of Proverbs contains various passages which deal with a parent beating a child with a rod in order for him to gain wisdom and understanding. Proverbs 23:13-14 is a prominent example.
    "Withhold not discipline from the child, for if you strike and punish him with the rod, he will not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."
  • Elsewhere in Ephesians 6:4, however, it warns fathers not to drive their children to anger.
• Judaism: The Halachic codex Shulkhan 'Arukh says that if you must hit your child to discipline him, use nothing worse than a shoelace.

Video Games

• Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning: Whenever Baldi is nearby, you can recognize his approach by the sound of him hitting his ruler against his open hand. It's pretty clear what he intends to use it for.
• In Batman: The Telltale Series, Batman discovers three belts caked in blood in the secret Torture Cellar of an abusive foster parent couple. Said foster parents, the Vales, were already dead by the time Batman arrived, killed by their former ward Vicki Vale, a.k.a. Victoria Arkham, a.k.a. the villain Lady Arkham. She even took the time to give her foster father a Karmic Death by beating him with his own belt before hanging him with it.
• Implied in The Binding of Isaac. Two of the items you can obtain after defeating a boss are a belt and a wooden spoon, which cause Isaac's running speed to increase. Let that sink in for a minute...
• In Kara's story in Detroit: Become Human, Todd attempts to do this to Alice as a way to take his frustrations out on her. As Kara, you have the option to stop him from whipping her.
• In EarthBound (1994), after Pokey and his brother Picky arrive late at home, his father takes them both upstairs and a repeating smacking sound is heard. Afterward, when Ness talks to him, he says "I was really scolded by my father. Aa, my butt hurts." The American localization replaced the smacking sound with something more comical (though, from context, it's still obviously a hit) and Pokey replies with "My dad really got after me. He said I get no dessert for the rest of the decade..."
• A caller on Chatterbox in Grand Theft Auto III mentions that he was disciplined as such by his nanny when he was a boy. Now he's seeking a nanny because "Freddie's been a very naughty boy". About a minute later, it's revealed that the caller himself is Freddie and he now gets sexual satisfaction from spanking.
• In Halo, Sgt. Johnson will occasionally yell out in the middle of combat "Don't make me take off my belt!"
• In the old school learning adventure game Pepper's Adventures in Time, Pepper meets a young Ben Franklin and chats with him. However, at one point his father calls from upstairs for Ben to bring the candle wick that he'd (forgotten to) pick up at the general store. If you don't give him the bit of string you have in your inventory, Ben eventually goes upstairs to face the music and a smacking sound ensues.

Webcomics

• Forest Hill: Benni's abusive father takes his belt off to punish Benni on this page, although it is heavily implied that he may have actually done so to rape Benni.
• The Parking Lot Is Full: The March 6, 1998 strip shows a man wearing a Goofy mask declaring, "It's Goofy time!" with his belt in hand as his son reacting in horror.
• Princess Raeka has a moment of this to Itchyknee-san in Samurai Princess during their battle in the tower.

Web Original

• In Abuela, Abuela is constantly trying to spank her (adult) grandchildren, most commonly with sandals.
• Can You Spare a Quarter?: Jamie used to get belted by his father, for example every time he forgot manners.
• In the Newgrounds unlockable game "The Last Piece of Cake", a father gets into a fight to the death with his son over the last piece of cake. One of his random taunts is "Don't make me take my belt off".
• Lurking Dragon's Rejuve Universe is all about this trope. To wit, humanity finds some alien technology that allows them to be immortal by "rejuvenating" their bodies.But because aliens were asexual beings, machines doing it can't handle human puberty, so the people have to be sent to childhood. Guess what happens to criminals? Yeah, that's right. They get turned into children and given to strict "spanko" parents that spank them on the slightest provocation, then again and again, for decades of punishment (because everybody is practically immortal, years mean nothing to them). You can find more explanations on this page as well as original stories here (Warning, NSFW link)
• In Suburban Knights, The Cinema Snob was unable to use a whip for his Indiana Jones costume, due to customs officers taking it off him on the way there. He ends up using a belt to compensate.
  The Cinema Snob: I could whip a dozen schoolchildren's asses with this!
  JewWario: You mean like your son, Shia LeBouf?
• SuperMarioLogan:
  • In earlier videos, Bowser would beat Junior with a belt.
  • In "Jeffy's Tantrum!", Mario whacks Jeffy with a belt for throwing the couch and TV off the balcony.
  • In "Cody's Report Card!", when Junior shows Bowser his report card, which has Ds and Fs on it, Bowser hits his pillow with his belt, since he isn't allowed to hit Junior with it anymore, due to age-restriction. He then says it doesn't feel right, so he has Junior scream as he hits the pillow.
• Ghost of True Capitalist Radio does a segment where he pretends to take his many trolls to a woodshed and whip them with his belt, claiming he's the "fatherly influence" they never had. The trolls just laugh it off, until they get bored when he takes several minutes to do it.

Western Animation

• Celebrity Deathmatch: Naomi Campbell belts Rebecca Romijn with a riding crop (while both are in their underwear) during their match, after Gilbert Gottfried "accidentally" drops it into the ring.
• This is parodied in one episode of Family Guy where Elton John's dad hits him with a feather boa.
• In the Disney short Goliath II, the titular tiny elephant is punished for deserting the herd (which is considered treasonous) by being spanked with a stout blade of grass.
• Moral Orel: Typically happens at the end of an episode. This eventually developed into a Running Gag of Clay's pants falling down because he forgot to put his belt back on after the beating, at least until the Cerebus Syndrome kicked in.
• Just like in the comics version, Granddad of The Boondocks does/threatens this often... Seeing his Indiana Jones-esque skills with a belt, you can't blame Riley for freaking and running like hell.
• The Simpsons:
  • Grampa Simpson tries and fails this trope in "War of the Simpsons". This elicits Nelson's first ever "Ha-ha!"
    Grampa: [Holding his foot] You young hellion! You want me to take off my belt?
    Nelson: Yeah!
    Grampa: All right, I'll show you... [pants fall down]
    Nelson: Ha-ha-haaah!
    Grampa: Doggone it!
  • In "Bart the Genius", Homer is briefly seen loosening his belt while meeting with Principal Skinner about Bart's bad behavior, but no damage is done.
  • In "Pranksta Rap", Bart returns home from sneaking out to a rap concert his parents didn't want him to go to. He looks in the window and sees them angry that he disobeyed them, with Homer taking off his belt and saying Bart's going to be like "N.W.A.: Not Without Asswelts". This prompts Bart to fake his own kidnapping.
• South Park: Near the end of the episode "Grounded Vindaloop", the boys visit a grounded Butters in his room seeking his help getting out of virtual reality. Stephen then walks in and angrily yells at Butters believing he was having friends over while grounded, starts taking off his belt and prepares to beat him with it. Luckily, the boys manage to exit out of virtual reality before any harm can be done.
• Totally Spies!: In "The Granny", the titular villain smacks a ruler on a bank clerk's hands to immobilize her. It works.

Real Life

• Not limited to punishing children, but a few countries including Sweden and Iceland, since the early Middle Ages, have had a tradition of people whipping each other with rice panicles for three days before the fastening beginning and lasting for 40 days before Easter with Sundays excluded, with said plays being related to the suffering of Jesus Christ, and the fastening being releated to the Temptaion of Jesus. In Iceland it is still common for children to wake their parents up the day before "fettisdagen", the day before the fastening, by hitting them with decorated sticks. This was also used as Corporal Punishment by parents before child abuse was dealt with.

---