Characters getting “knocked out” in films and TV shows

It sort of annoys me when characters in films and TV shows get conveniently knocked out, usually banged on the head, and then come to later like it was a sleeping pill. I don’t know what it takes to actually knock somebody out, but I got to imagine they don’t feel too good afterwards. Heck, or actually die or be comatose. And it’s a bit of a joke to me when it does happen and represents lazy writing to me.

Anyone else feel the same or do you feel it’s handled well in cinema?

 

I always thought the post Emma Avengers were big on that. It seemed every other show Purdy was chloroformed, knocked on the head or drugged. A guy at school used to keep track of what method got her napping. But to be fair, on later viewing, Emma did take a lot of naps, too.

My favorite laughable one was a Shelly Hack Charlie's Angels ep where I think she counted to four and then went from struggling to tolally limp in the blink of an eye.

 

If you're familiar with the Phillip Marlowe character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of several hardboiled detective novels, then later portrayed in film by Humphrey Bogart most famously, as well as Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery, James Garner, Robert Mitchum and others, you would note that Marlowe is either drugged or sapped unconscious in every installment. And that includes in all of the books.

Chandler was a great writer, and Marlowe an extraordinary 20th century literary accomplishment, but I found that particular aspect of the novels to relieve me of my suspension of disbelief. I guess nobody really knew what multiple concussions would cause back then.

 

It happens a lot.

Tap on the Head - TV Tropes

 

Not to mention the radio series with Gerald Mohr - knocked unconscious in practically every show.

 

I read somewhere that if you hit someone over the head, you're either going to just annoy them, or kill them. Very little middle ground. But movies aren't documentaries, and are full of tropes like this that we just learn to accept.

 

Two words.Jim Rockford.

 

It always amuses me how flimsy furniture and bottles are.

 

Tonto from the Lone Ranger should have been in concussion protocol after the first episode.

 

It bothers me a lot; those blows would be fatal in most cases IRL, but they're treated as a joke...

 

The Kids In The Hall did an excellent bit about this:

 

In classic American TV and cinema the way to solve a interpersonal problem is to punch someone in the face. I don’t know if “it is handled well” but the audience seem to cheer at the sight of it. In Kung fu movies getting kicked in the head should have 5 to 10 times the impact as a mere punch and yet they don’t stay down.

 

EXCEPT......

 

When that one guy karate chops the other guy in the neck, instant KO...


though my personal method of knocking out bad guys is to use a Kirk 2 handed punch to the jaw

 

His slap didn't seem to pack much of a punch, though. See:

 

Ever seen the BBC comedy 'Bottom' with Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson or 'The Young Ones'?Likewise many Vic Reeves/Bob Mortimer sketches.Like homages to classic Tom and Jerry but more violent!

 

I've noticed that on movies/TV anytime someone is pushed down the stairs, they either die instantly or are unharmed...no in between.

 

As many times as Jim Rockford has been knocked out he should either be dead or have serious brain damage.

 

Peter Gunn too. He never seemed to check the backseat before getting in his car.

 

Mannix. I don't have any real numbers but it seems like he gets knocked out almost every other episode.

 

In a lot of old TV westerns someone always gets hit on the back of the head with a gun.

 

My immediate thought

It happens in every single episode, I think? Deliberately so.

EG.