A Red Boxing Glove on a mechanical arm that extends and retracts,note hence the name. Often used for comedic effect.
Realistically, much of the strength behind the punch is how the rest of the body moves with it to increase the weight behind the punch. If someone pulls out a thin, flimsy-looking mechanical arm and attaches an empty boxing glove to it, that device probably won't do much. However, given the slapstick nature of this trope, realism will rarely get in the way of characters losing teeth and getting knocked out by spring-loaded boxing gloves.
See also Amusing Injuries. Also compare its more serious sibling, the Rocket Punch.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- As a Shout-Out to Lupin III, in FLCL the same thing happens to Naota's dad when he tries to jump Haruko in episode five.
- The first opening sequence for Lupin III: Part II depicts the title character getting clobbered by one of these gloves on a spring when he tries to jump into bed with Fujiko.
- Naruto: During the "what's under Kakashi's mask?" episode, Kakashi has an Imagine Spot where he gets bopped by one of these and Squashed Flat against a wall, to which Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura triumphantly declare "He fell for it!"
- One Piece: The Thunder Tempo attack (not to be confused with Thunderbolt Tempo) from Nami's first Clima-Tact consists of this. Unlike most examples, this is portrayed as a 100% harmless party trick - though many of the video games make it a legitimate attack.
Comic Books
- Frequently used in Achille Talon as traps or fighting devices. On one occasion Achille tries to use one on his neighbour Lefuneste, only to hit instead the support on which Lefuneste was piling bricks, causing all of them to fall on Achille.
- Batman: A recurring part of the Joker's arsenal, whether launched from inside his Badass Longcoat or from a giant pistol. The latter has also become something of a signature weapon for Harley Quinn. On the original Cover for the 1988 release of The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told, Joker even has a variant: a pistol on a pantograph that comes out of the flower in his lapel that shoots.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe:
- This is used as a weapon by two superheroes, namely Paperinik (alias Donald Duck) and the Red Bat (Fethry).
- In Paperinik New Adventures, Paperinik's favourite feature of the Extransformer Shield is the Crusher, that is basically a hi-tech (and much more powerful) version of the Extendo Boxing Glove.
- Funnyman (1948)'s arsenal of practical jokes he used to fight crime included boxing gloves on springs.
- In The Hair Bear Bunch story "The Weirdo Map" (#8 Gold Key, Nov. 1973), Peevly and Botch inspect some packages the bears are expecting, suspecting they contain means of escape. They open one and get knocked out by a pair of spring-loaded boxing gloves.
- MAD:
- A Don Martin cartoon ("In a Doctor's Office", MAD #70, April 1962) went weird places with this: A doctor taps his patient's knee with a reflex hammer, whereupon a boxing-glove device pops out of the man's mouth and smacks him in the face. He asks the patient's wife "How long has your husband had this condition?" and a boxing glove pops out of her mouth when she starts to answer. He turns to his nurse: "Get rid of these people, nurse.. before I go out of my mind!!" and a boxing glove comes out of HER mouth when she answers. Staggering towards the door of his office ("I better get out of here!!"), he is flattened in the final (full-page!) panel by a boxing glove the size of the doorway.
- Spring-loaded/extending-arm boxing gloves are a common booby trap in Spy vs. Spy. These can be seen hidden in safes, wall panels, articles of clothing, or occasionally, food items.
Fan Works
- Switcheroo AU: Spessartine's (Spinel and Garnet's fusion) weapon is a spring-loaded fish coming out of her shoulder.
Film — Live-Action
- Batman:
- The Joker uses one of these in Batman. It goes by quickly, but on closer inspection, it's not so much a gadget he had lying around as a mounted device aimed directly at the television, as if he was just waiting for a reason.
Joker: Batman. Batman! Can somebody tell me what kind of a world we live in when a man dressed as a BAT... gets all my press?
- Concept art for Batman Returns featured a penguin with one of these in a chest-mounted case.
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- The Joker uses one of these in Batman. It goes by quickly, but on closer inspection, it's not so much a gadget he had lying around as a mounted device aimed directly at the television, as if he was just waiting for a reason.
- What is quite possibly the Ur-Example is seen in Buster Keaton's 1922 silent short Cops. Buster improvises an ingenious device to signal a left turn with a boxing glove on a pantograph. It works quite well, until he encounters a traffic cop at an intersection, clocking him twice as he makes a u-turn.
- Hot Shots! Part Deux: Rabinowitz knocks out an enemy soldier by firing this from his bazooka.
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space: Shorty uses one to decapitate a rude biker who taunted "What are you gonna do, KNOCK MY BLOCK OFF??".
- Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact have the Science Search Party using gigantic, turret-mounted red boxing gloves attached to the bottom of their aircrafts in an attempt to knock out a benevolent monster in a non-fatal manner. Surprisingly enough, it works - until the movie's millstone, Commander Shigemura, interferes with their efforts by calling a missile attack on the unconscious monster, waking it up.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: A detective overlooking the Acme factory finds a cartoon mallet that shoots out an extending boxing glove, which later becomes a Chekhov's Gun used by Eddie Valiant to defeat Judge Doom.
Literature
- In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Fred & George develop a prank telescope gimmicked to shoot one of these. To add insult to injury, the black-eye it leaves can't be removed by regular magic; you have to buy a special removal cream from them. These were apparently going to appear in the movie, but got cut and relegated to a special feature on the DVD; you can now buy life-sized versions at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Live-Action TV
- The Thundermans: Max once spent an entire episode trying to get into Dark Mayhem's evil safe, hoping to find some sort of evil plan inside. All he finds is a spring-loaded boxing glove rigged to punch anyone dumb enough to open the safe.
- A variant appeared in one of the Whammy animations on the original Press Your Luck. The Whammy comes in from the left in a boxing outfit, going "I'm ready, bring on Rocky, bring on Rocky, I want him, I want him—"; he's cut-off as a giant boxing glove with a spring coil on the end (apparently launched by someone off-screen) rams into him.
- In Wipeout (2008) the Sucker Punch is an obstacle consisting of boxing gloves that pop out of a wall at random to punch hapless contestants into the mud.
Manhua
- Old Master Q have a comic panel where Master Q brought his girlfriend a wrapped present before proposing to her, only for the girlfriend to turn him down. Cue Master Q leaving, dejected, without taking his present, and as the ex-girlfriend curiously helps herself to the gift... she then gets the spring-loaded boxing glove in it into her face◊.
Theme Parks
- At Universal Studios:
- In the pre-show for A Day in the Park with Barney, Mr./Mrs. Peek-A-Boo, while trying to locate the door to the main stage, accidentally triggers one of these and ducks just before they can get hit.
- A giant extendo boxing glove is used as an obstacle in the Minion training course at the Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem ride.
- The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera has Dick Dastardly's rocket equipped with some, which he uses to punch away incoming traffic.
Video Games
- Throughout the Ape Escape series, one of these, called the Magic Punch, is the final tool given to the player in each game.
- ARMS: The characters can wear Glove-type to accommodate with their genetically spring-like limbs. Glove-types function similarly to simple boxing gloves, with the key difference being different attributes and abilities. Played straight with Mechanica, who attaches the weaponry onto her Mini-Mecha.
- Another potential item you can get in Board Game Online. The Extendo Fist can be fired forwards or backwards 5-7 spaces to knock another player away and incapacitate them, if it can't hit anyone it will knock you out instead, though it can be useful in moving forward.
- Carmageddon as a potential powerup in the second game. Using it sends nearby cars flying away from you. It's fairly harmless, but could be potentially fatal if it catches the car between a solid wall at the right angle. Using it with the Pinball powerup is also fairly deadly.
- Claws of Furry: Robodog has giant extendable boxing gloves in his hands as a close-range attack.
- In DC Universe Online, this is available as an Iconic Power for tech users.
- An Extendo Boxing Glove is Mickey's main weapon in Disney's Magical Quest 3. He receives it from a blacksmith along with knight's armor and a shield.
- Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!: The robot boss Kaos is fitted with these and will use them to punch the Kongs off its body if they try to climb it during its vulnerable phase.
- In Goofy's Hysterical History Tour, Goofy's invention, the Extendo-hand has a boxing glove as an attachment, which is used to attack enemies. When you beat the game, this is what knocks Pete out in the game's ending cutscene.
- One of the many parts in The Incredible Machine.
- Walter the Penguin in Insaniquarium has one inside his mouth, and uses it to punch fishes and pets alike, forcing them to use their abilities.
- A gigantic version appears in Pete's Rec Room in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep as the spring launcher for a giant pinball machine.
- Tia's weapon of choice in Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals is a boxing glove that fires out of a luggage case.
- MDK2 features dispensers various points on the orbiting Alien Station that give items for free. However, each use has a chance of triggering a punch to the face from one of these, complete with comedic sound effect.
- Throughout the Mega Man (Classic) series are various Hopping Machines that slowly approach Mega Man by jumping. Mega Man 11's version of this trope is the Press Don, a jetpack-powered version... that will open a hatch on its abdomen and launch out a boxing glove if Mega Man stands in front of it for too long.
- This is sometimes used by the guys in the Metal Slug series. Instead of just knifing enemies, one of these will shoot out of their backpack.
- The Joker nails Scorpion with one in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and they later become a regular part of his moveset in Mortal Kombat 11.
- Ninja Clowns: Extendo Boxing Gloves are a weapon you can get for wrecking stuff. They can attack ten times before being dropped.
- Normy's Beach Babe-O-Rama: The first weapon Normy starts out with is a spring-loaded boxing glove, which he collects at the beginning of the first level. As the game progresses, he can acquire more weapons which replace the boxing glove, such as rocks, pies, spears, and banana peels.
- The Lucky/Miracle Punch skills in Persona 5 appear as this and are accompanied by a comical sound effect. The damage isn't terribly impressive, but they have a high chance of getting a Critical Hit.
- In Pizza Tower extendable boxing gloves are located inside presents, acting as springboards.
- Pokémon has the recurring Lucky Punch item, which will increase the critical hit chance of Chansey when she holds it. It takes the form of a boxing glove with a spring inserted inside of it.
- It's also Willy's weapon of choice in Rockin Kats.
- The Video Game adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events has Klaus wield one of these.
- Sonic Adventure 2: Dr. Eggman uses one as a close-range attack.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario Sunshine: Several of the alcoves in Noki Bay are rigged with booby traps that knock Mario backwards. One of these traps is a giant, spring-loaded boxing glove called a Puncher.
- Super Mario Party: In the minigame Train in Pain, each player drives around an arena in a small train with a large boxing glove mounted on the front. The objective is to eliminate the opposing players by firing the glove to punch them from behind and send them flying out of the arena. Any ally characters that players have recruited will ride their team's train in an extra cart on the back, effectively granting that player an extra hit point.
- Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings have two built into their Koopa Clown Cars in Super Smash Bros. U/3DS for their standard attacks.
- A Terraria weapon called the KO Cannon invokes this.
- In the Tiny Toon Adventures Licensed Game for the NES, Montana Max uses these in the final battle against him. These actually lead to his downfall, as the player can hop across them to get high enough to jump off his head.
- Sylvia uses one of these as her punch attack in Viewtiful Joe 2. Good range, but it lacks the combo potential of Joe's punches.
- The 'Genius Wario' disguise uses this in Wario: Master of Disguise
Visual Novel
- In the second game of the The Great Ace Attorney duology, it's shown that the big metal chest in the middle of Herlock Sholmes' living room is booby-trapped with one of these. When Sholmes himself opens the chest during the "Dance of Deduction" sequence near the end of Episode 4, he is punched into the air and against the ceiling before landing unconscious on the settee next to the chest... where the unconscious body of Professor Yujin Mikotoba is already lying in the exact same position that Sholmes ends up in, thus providing a demonstration how he fell unconscious.
Western Animation
- In The Batman, it gets bumped up to one of Joker's recurring weapons.
- In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Girls' Night Out", Harley Quinn tries to ambush Supergirl with one. It just bounces back and knocks Harley out.
- In Codename: Kids Next Door, the KND have been seen using weapons with these on occasion. In this case, it's called the SLUGGUH.
- Darkwing Duck, "Days of Blunder": When Launchpad and Gosalyn run into Quackerjack, the Villainous Harlequin points a gun at Gosalyn. Launchpad steps in front of her...and gets hit by a boxing glove from the gun's barrel.
- Looney Tunes: Wile E. Coyote tried to stun the Road Runner with this in the cartoon, "Beep, Beep".... with predictable results.
- In The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Hot Air Buffoon", the Mayor becomes convinced that he shouldn't just rely on the girls all the time. He decides to fight crime using a hot air balloon and one of these.
- In SheZow, the fox clown Brouhaha carries one as part of his arsenal. He uses it on Maz in "BrouHaHa".
- A Simpsons episode has Stephen Hawking fire one from his wheelchair.
- Krusty also owns one, and has stated it dates back to The '40s.
