Uncle Fester: No, there's only one way to settle this! *grabs a blunderbus*
Morticia: Uncle Fester! Uncle Fester, please, not that!
Uncle Fester: But, Morticia, the family honor!
Gomez: He's right, Morticia: the family honor! You'll have to challenge Palmeroy to a duel!
Uncle Fester: No, I'd rather shoot him in the back.
Morticia: Uncle Fester, that is not the honorable way!
Uncle Fester: I know, but it's the safe way.
Gomez: Uncle Fester, I'm ashamed of you! An Addams doesn't know the meaning of the word "fear!"
Uncle Fester: I do. I'll shoot him in the back.
Morticia: Uncle Fester, remember the Addams name!
Gomez: It'll have to be a duel!
Uncle Fester: With swords?
Gomez: With victory going to the swiftest, the cunningest, the deadliest!
Uncle Fester: I'll shoot him in the back.
Gomez: Wait, how about pistols?
Uncle Fester: Well, that's different! I- [Beat] Does he get one, too?
Gomez: Naturally!
Uncle Fester: Loaded?
Morticia: You get one bullet apiece.
Uncle Fester: In the baaack!
Morticia: Uncle Fester! Uncle Fester, please, not that!
Uncle Fester: But, Morticia, the family honor!
Gomez: He's right, Morticia: the family honor! You'll have to challenge Palmeroy to a duel!
Uncle Fester: No, I'd rather shoot him in the back.
Morticia: Uncle Fester, that is not the honorable way!
Uncle Fester: I know, but it's the safe way.
Gomez: Uncle Fester, I'm ashamed of you! An Addams doesn't know the meaning of the word "fear!"
Uncle Fester: I do. I'll shoot him in the back.
Morticia: Uncle Fester, remember the Addams name!
Gomez: It'll have to be a duel!
Uncle Fester: With swords?
Gomez: With victory going to the swiftest, the cunningest, the deadliest!
Uncle Fester: I'll shoot him in the back.
Gomez: Wait, how about pistols?
Uncle Fester: Well, that's different! I- [Beat] Does he get one, too?
Gomez: Naturally!
Uncle Fester: Loaded?
Morticia: You get one bullet apiece.
Uncle Fester: In the baaack!
Odo: You'd shoot a man in the back?
Garak: Well, it's the safest way, isn't it?
Michael Parkinson: Well, I mean, much was made of the fact that [Angus Deayton] was sacked, and the suggestion was that you and Ian stabbed him in the back...
Paul Merton: Well, we stabbed him in the front!
Paul Merton: Well, we stabbed him in the front!
"They're all fools
to live by rules
The rider wearing black
You know he's gonna shoot you In the Back, hey!"
to live by rules
The rider wearing black
You know he's gonna shoot you In the Back, hey!"
— Motörhead, "Shoot You In The Back"
"Your standard CHR fight. Some guy attacks, and the person attacked moves behind that guy. If it's a REALLY dramatic fight, the guy who got moved behind will move behind the guy who moved behind him!"
— Author's notes, Christian Humber Reloaded (webcomic)
"Right behind you."
— Red Spy, Team Fortress 2, "Meet the Spy"
The young among us will happily chirp out "THOR!" when asked about the gods of war, but a proper warrior, the sort who won't do something as stupid as bleed out in a shield wall when he's supposed to have your back... that man will smile and talk of Loki. ... Thor booms at you like a huge fucking arrogant asshole, but Loki will step up behind you while you're chatting up some maid and dig out your kidney with a trowel. The concept of "Striking the enemy where he isn't." Cheating, other people like to call it. Typically the dead ones.
"You should learn to shoot people in the back. You'd find it safer."
— Full Moon Killer, The Punisher War Zone #39
Billy Ray Smith: You just shot that man in the back!
Van Leek: His back was to me.
[Later...]
Van Leek: Damn, boy! You shot him in the back.
Billy Ray Smith: Well, his back was to me.
Van Leek: Oh, yeah. I forgot.
— El Diablo
Prue: I'm scared — and you should be too. Our lives, everything we've worked for, could be destroyed with one stupid mistake. Our entire future — our entire destiny — could be wiped out just like that!
[A gunshot is heard, and Piper gasps and flinches.]
Prue: ...What was that?
[Camera pans from Piper's face down to her shaking hands and a bloody stain on her stomach.]
Prue: Piper... [Catches Piper in her arms] Piper! [Raises her hand, showing it's covered in Piper's blood] ...Oh, God...
[Cuts to outside, revealing Alice Hicks, holding a scoped rifle.]
Alice: I killed the wicked witch... The wicked witch is dead!
— Charmed
"They shoot us in the back! Like traitors!"
— Space Marines when shot from behind, Dawn of War II
"It's just like being in a knife-fight in a dirt-floor bar. If you want to fix a fella, the best way to do it is to get behind him and stick him in the back. It's the same in an air fight. If you want to kill the guy, the best thing to do is get around behind him where he can't see you...and shoot him."
— Captain William R. O'Brien, USAAF (six credited kills)
"Tell me; if I'd stabbed the Mad King in the belly instead of the back, would you admire me more?"
— Jaime Lannister, Game of Thrones
Vila: [Travis] said we should pool our resources and I still say he may have a point!
Avon: You turn your back on him you might find it between your shoulder blades.
— Blake's 7, "Hostage"
Stick 'em wiv arrers. Stick 'em wiv knives an' swords an' spears. Stick 'em quick and stick 'em where it 'urts. But most of all, stick 'em when they's looking the other way.
—Gorduz Backstabber, Warhammer: Chaos Dwarfs Army Book (4th Edition)
"Jamie, you put me in mind of a case I ran into in the American West. A respected citizen shot a professional gunthrower in the back. When asked why he didn’t give the other chap a chance to draw, the survivor said, ‘Well, he’s dead and I’m alive and that’s how I wanted it to be.’"
— Dr. MacRae, Red Planet
"In my day we had filthy little swine like that shot in the back!"
— The President, Doctor Who, "The Caves of Androzani"
"She's a robo cop with a weird robot walk and only one weakness: getting snuck up on by dudes with tasers. (montage of Major being repeatedly tased from behind) You know, for all the gadgets...maybe invest in a rear camera?"
Bugs Bunny: (seeing Elmer Fudd aim his gun at him) Eh, only a rat would shoot a guy... (turns his back to Elmer) in the back!
(Elmer squeezes the trigger)
Bugs: I reiterate: only a big, fat rat would shoot a guy in the back!
(Elmer fires his gun at Bugs, creating a big cloud of dust and smoke)
Elmer: (looking into camera) So I'm a big, fat wat!
(Suddenly, Bugs, very much alive, pops his head out of the cloud)
Bugs: (imitating Jerry Colonna) Ah! Have some cheese, rat!
(He shoves a hunk of cheese in Elmer's mouth)
(Elmer squeezes the trigger)
Bugs: I reiterate: only a big, fat rat would shoot a guy in the back!
(Elmer fires his gun at Bugs, creating a big cloud of dust and smoke)
Elmer: (looking into camera) So I'm a big, fat wat!
(Suddenly, Bugs, very much alive, pops his head out of the cloud)
Bugs: (imitating Jerry Colonna) Ah! Have some cheese, rat!
(He shoves a hunk of cheese in Elmer's mouth)
— Looney Tunes short, The Unruly Hare
"The report read 'Routine retirement of a replicant.' That didn't make me feel any better about shooting a woman in the back."
—Rick Deckard, Blade Runner
"You see, whether a guy shoots square or not—according to the law—ain't always it—but no matter what he's done, to me, he should have a break, and somebody shot this guy in the back."
— Dan McCorn, Broadway
