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Angry Collar Grab - TV Tropes

  • ️Tue May 22 2018

Angry Collar Grab (trope)

During a heated conversation an enraged character will grab another character by the collar, typically with both hands, pull them close and shout something dramatic right into their face.

This move is likely to be used as part of a Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique or when making somebody come to their senses. Might be followed by a Minion Maracas.

Compare the more intense Neck Lift, where one character grabs another character by the neck and actually lifts them up, and Villainous Face Hold, where it's the face that's grabbed contemptuously. See also Dragged by the Collar, Necktie Leash and Shake Someone, Objects Fall. Not to be confused with Awkward Collar Pull.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga 

  • Parodied in one Crayon Shin-chan story, although in this case the character doing the grabbing is obliviously naive and neither angry or malicious. Class crybaby Masao is weeping his eyes out after some bullies stole his video game console when Shin-Chan, Kazama and Bu-chan passes by. Kazama tells Shin-Chan to try comforting Masao, and Shin-Chan performs this trope while telling Masao, "You, stop crying now!"... it predictably leads to Masao crying louder.

    Kazama: You baka! Is this how you comfort someone?

  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Phantom Blood: Upon discovering that Dio has been secretly poisoning George, Jonathan grabs ahold of Dio and tells him he will find the proof that will expose Dio's actions.
    • Battle Tendency: Caesar angrily grabs Joseph when the latter refuses to go along with his plan to attack Kars during the day, citing that it may be a trap. In the end, Caesar storms off to fight by himself.
    • Stardust Crusaders: After learning of Holly's illness brought about by her own Stand, Joseph immediately grabs Jotaro and ram into a wall while yelling a Big "NO!" in anguish.
    • Diamond is Unbreakable: When his father tells him that he should escape from Morioh before being discovered, Yoshikage Kira reacts by grabbing him and states he refuses to stay in hiding and degrade himself further.
    • Golden Wind: Following Abbacchio's death, Narancia grabs Giorno and insists that he should be able to heal the body. Giorno's silence causes Narancia to angrily shake him further until he understands a revival isn't possible.
    • Stone Ocean: After Weather Report regains his memories and declares his intent to die after defeating Pucci, Anasui grabs him by the collar to demand his stops spouting nonsense until he realizes Weather has regained his memory.
    • Steel Ball Run: As Johnny's eyes lit up when planning to kill Diego to retrieve a corpse part, Gyro angrily grabs his collar and reminds him their objective is retrieving the corpse parts only.
    • JoJolion: After learning his Plague of Good Fortune was deliberately caused by Zaihei's Milagro Man, Joshu rams him up the collar outside his apartment after locating him.
    • The JoJoLands: After Dragona believes Usagi had wasted their twenty dollars during a test on the lava rock, they annoyingly shake Usagi by the collar demanding their money back until Paco comes back with an unexpected refund.
  • My Hero Academia: Due to her inability to dissuade Toya from training on his own, Enji hit Rei so hard that she was thrown back to the floor. Five-year-old Shoto stood between his dad and his mom, crying and yelling at Endeavor to stop "bullying" his mother. Enji proceeds to yell at him to get out and even went to grab Rei by the collar of her shirt, yelling at her that she's responsible to keep an eye on Toya.
  • Pokémon the Series:
    • Misty did it to Ash a couple times during Pokémon: The Original Series, as seen here.◊ More often than not he was asking for it.
    • A thoroughly well-deserved example is Brock doing it to Damian, who was just bragging about abandoning his Charmander and refused to go back for it, even though it was caught in a rainstorm and in mortal danger.
  • The Promised Neverland: During Don's breakdown after learning the truth about Grace Field House, he ends up angrily slugging Norman and Ray in the face over them keeping the secret from him. He then grabs Emma by her shirt front in order to do the same thing to her. Fortunately for her, he stops himself short of doing so as he can't bring himself to harm her even in his rage, so he lets her go and walks outside to cool down.

Comic Books 

  • Batman: Tim Drake gets yanked around by his collar by two out of the three Batmen he works with as Robin (only Dick doesn't do so). When Bruce picks him up by the collar in apparent anger, it's a mock fight they'd set up ahead of time. In Robin (1993), Azrael tries to kill him after grabbing him by the collar and pinning him. This doesn't work out for Azrael, as Tim had already weaponized his costume to prevent this sort of thing.
  • Blacksad: Early on in the first album, the titular detective searches for his girlfriend's stalker, who is a florist, and grabs him by the collar with a pistol on his mouth◊.
  • Captain Marvel Adventures: In issue #121 "Sivana's Time Trap", a time-travelling Sivana has fooled past Captain Marvel into believing he is a honest scientst, when Marvel realizes Sivana knows things he should have zero knowledge of. Guessing he is being deceived, Marvel grabs Sivana's collar, lifts him off the ground, and angrily demands answers.
  • Superman:
    • The Phantom Zone: Superman rudely and roughly grabs the collar of Thul-Kar's robe as asking whether the wizard will answer his questions willingly or will need to have them beaten out of him.
    • The Dominator War: When interrogating Plant Lad, who has just revealed to be a traitor to the Legion of Super-Heroes, Timber Wolf angrily grabs him by the collar and demands answers.
    • The Hunt for Reactron: During one argument, Supergirl grabs the collar of Flamebird's suit as shouting her before punching her into a car.
    • Death & the Family: While interrogating Inspector Henderson, who is at the time kneeling on the floor, Silver Banshee grabs his collar and lifts him up.

Comic Strips 

Fan Works 

Films — Animated 

  • Batman: The Long Halloween: Carmine does this to Alberto while physically threatening him.
  • Near the climax of Castle in the Sky, Muska grabs Sheeta by the collar while he's threatening her.
  • In Cats Don't Dance, Darla Dimple grabs Danny by the collar as she rants to him that she should've drowned him and his friends when she flooded the stage, inadvertently exposing her offscreen demeanor towards the audience.
  • In The Iron Giant, government agent Kent Mansley lies to general Rogard that the titular protagonist killed Hogarth, but the latter two prove to them that he's still alive, with the former glaring disapprovingly at Kent for his actions, which causes Kent to freak out and order a nuclear strike at the giant, which is only a few feet away from him. General Rogard then grabs Mansley by the collar and yells into his face that he's all but doomed the town.
  • Kung Fu Panda 2: When Po and the Furious Five are infiltrating Gongmen City to free it from Lord Shen's takeover, they witness one of the wolf soldiers threatening a sheep cook, complete with him hoisting her up by her collar, for not being able to cook him rice even though he had stolen all of her pots and pans for Lord Shen's cannons. He's about to beat her up when Po and the Five intervene and beat him up. The cook thanks them by telling them the location of where the captured Masters Ox and Croc are being held.
  • The Little Mermaid (1989): Scuttle tries to convey urgent news to Sebastian and Flounder, but is too flustered to speak coherently. Scuttle resorts to seizing a dubious Sebastian by his shell, and punctuates the sentence, "The Prince is marrying the Sea Witch in disguise!" by slamming the poor crab into the pier.
  • Mulan: When Chi Fu is still insulting Mulan even after she saves the day, Captain Li Shang grabs him by the collar. (Bonus points, Chi Fu normally answers to the Emperor.)

    Shang: Listen, you pompous—!
    Emperor: That is enough!

  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
    • In the first movie, as Twilight first meets the alternate-universe human Pinkie Pie and calls her by her name, she grabs the front of Twilight's shirt and excitedly asks if she's a psychic. Pinkie isn't angry, though, just hyper.
    • In Rainbow Rocks, when Beta Bitch Aria Blaze suggests that maybe the Dazzlings should follow her lead instead of Big Bad Adagio Dazzle's, Adagio grabs her by the front of her vest and promptly reasserts her authority over the trio.
  • Sykes is the Card-Carrying Villain of Oliver & Company. He meets with destitute Fagin to exact a loan payment, and seizes Fagin by his collar to issue an ultimatum: Repay every cent in three days, or "get hurt." The collar grab further acts to position Fagin's neck in the path of Sykes's car window, where it begins squeezing his throat.
  • In Runaway Brain, Mickey Mouse finds himself in a Shackle Seat Trap while Mad Scientist Doctor Frankenollie throws the Big Electric Switch. This results in Mickey's mind being transferred to the body of a hulking, brutish monster, and vice versa. The monster-minded Mickey bursts his bonds and goes running around loose. The Mickey-minded monster seizes the Mad Scientist by his lapels and demands that he reverse the process. Unfortunately, Frankenollie has been reduced to a skeleton by his own device, and crumbles to dust, leaving Mickey holding an empty lab coat.
  • Your Name: When Taki (in Mitsuha's body) tries to convince Mitsuha's father to evacuate Itomori, he brushes it off as either a bid for attention or mental illness, and picks up the phone to call the hospital. Taki loses his temper and yanks the older man forward by his necktie, shocking him.

Films — Live-Action 

  • Death Becomes Her: Upon finding his wife, Madeleine, is no longer in the doctor's room, Ernest asks the hospital staff about his wife's whereabouts. When she consoles him, Ernest gets furiously impatient that he grabs her collar, demanding her to tell him where Madeleine is. Thus, she tells him that Madeleine is taken to the morgue.
  • In The Great Houdinis, Harry's "audition" in London involves being arrested. He doesn't try to resist, but angrily grabs an officer who tries to arrest Bess.
  • In Mackintosh and T.J., a man grabs T.J.'s front while accusing him of theft.
  • In Midwinter Night's Dream, Lazar does this to a man who harasses Jasna while she's working as a waitress.
  • In The Naked Gun 2½, Frank does this to two Almost Dead Guys in order to press information from them. His aggressive approach doesn't work out for him, though.
  • Two examples from The Room (2003). Denny yells "You're not my fucking mother!" at Lisa's mother, provoking her to start yanking his shirt collar. Later Mark grabs Peter by his jacket during their heated argument on the rooftop and shakes him hard.
  • Les Visiteurs: A confused Godefroy (a Frenck knight who's been accidentally transported to 1992) grabs the Maréchal des logis (gendarmerie officer) Gibon by the collar in the presbytery scene.
  • In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, after Roger is confronted with evidence of his wife Jessica cheating, Eddie Valiant jokes that "the dames will be breaking his doors down". An angry Roger jumps on him and grabs him by the collar, ranting that he and his wife were going to be happy again before storming out through the window.
  • In Zig Zag (2002), Singer does this to an employee at the Monkey Cage for calling ZigZag a retard. Towards the end of the movie, Hawke does it to Walters because he's sick of his rude behavior.

Literature 

  • An infuriated Miranda does this to Arnie in Dr. Franklin's Island — but she does it in "the white place" where she has some control of her shape, so while standing and looking mostly human, she grabs him with a taloned bird foot.
  • In Fractured Stars, Axton warns Dash, "If you so much as piss wrong, I'll pound you into the deck and report you to HQ for insubordination." Dash says, "Insubordinate... pissing?" Axton picks him up by the front and shouts, "Watch your tongue, or I'll blazer it out!"
  • Into the Fiery Abyss: After Jermaine's Dragged Off to Hell, Satan grabs him by the shirt and throws him into a fiery pit where he'll relive all of his worst memories forever.
  • In The Nowhere Girls, Rosina's mami angrily grabs the front of her shirt after Principal Slatterly falsely accuses her of being a drug addict.

Live-Action TV 

  • The Are You Being Served? episode "The Hold Up" has the Camp Gay Mr. Humphries playing a mob thug. He does this with one of the actual thugs in one scene — except that Humphries, being the shorter man, yanks the thug down to his level.
  • The Barrier: When Alejo is found dead in the police headquarters, Enrique grabs a random policeman by the collar while angrily telling him to find the killer.
  • The criminal surgeon Doctor Mayfield from the Columbo episode "A Stitch in Crime" seizes the persistent Lieutenant Columbo by his overcoat lapels, seemingly in a passion to perform surgery over answering questions. However, Columbo notes that this behavior is an Out-of-Character Moment for Mayfield, and correctly deduces that Mayfield used this collar grab to conceal damning evidence.
  • In Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa, Himura ends up confronting the serial killer Apollo. Both of them harbour a desire to commit a "beautiful" crime, but Himura realises how disturbing his thoughts are and catches criminals in an act of defiance, so when Apollo starts romanticizing his crimes, the usually stoic Himura grabs him by the lapels and gives him a thorough chewing out.
  • Firefly: In "Out of Gas", Mal grabs Wash by the collar and yells at him to get up to the bridge. Wash is understandably panicky because Zoe was knocked unconscious in an explosion and Wash refuses to leave her. However, he's the pilot, Simon is giving Zoe good medical care, and Mal desperately needs him to get on the bridge and help Kaylee find out why Serenity exploded and went dead before they all die.
  • Full House:
    • In "Knock Yourself Out", Reggie subjects Danny to this treatment as he demands the truth regarding his wife from Danny.

      Danny: Let's talk about strategy. [Reggie lifts him up by the dress shirt] Let's forget about strategy!

    • Rebecca grabs Joey by the collar in "The Wedding (Part 1)" upon finding out what Joey did with Jesse on her and Jesse's wedding day.

      Rebecca: [grabs Joey's shirt] You took him skydiving?!

  • Good Omens (2019): When Aziraphale calls Crowley "nice", he gets this, nose-to-nose with the furious demon, for using such a "four-letter word" to describe him. Crowley does this again at the end of season 2, this time upset over Aziraphale's decision to leave Earth and return to Heaven, before giving him The Big Damn Kiss.
  • In the Here Come the Brides pilot, Joshua does this to a sailor who makes fun of Jeremy's stutter.
  • In the Kamen Rider franchise, characters do this a lot in moments of dramatic adversity. For example, in Kamen Rider 555, the Creepy Good Masato Kusaka often holds The Hero Takumi Inui's collar while scolding him for being responsible of other's suffering, when he's actually plotting for him to not be around.
  • The Untamed: Jiang Cheng does this regularly, usually to Wei Wuxian when the latter is doing something to annoy him more than usual.
  • Vikings: Viking Rollo has an Old French lesson, trying to overcome a Language Barrier at court in Paris, and boy, he does not enjoy himself. The lesson ends when he flips out: he tears a page from a (no doubt very precious) book, tears it into tiny pieces, crumples them and is suddenly fluent in Angrish gibberish that resembles Old French. He then flips his own table, grabs his teacher by the collar and flings him across the room. He storms out of the room and knocks down a chair for good measure.
  • In Without a Trace, Agent Martin Fitzgerald does this with an uncooperative suspect he's interrogating, warning him "Do you know what they do to guys like you in prison?!", prompting his supervisor to do the same thing to him (though it's his arm, rather) to get him to calm down.

Video Games 

Web Animation 

  • Helluva Boss: In "Truth Seekers", Millie yanks Loona (who's wearing a studded dog collar) by the collar while demanding she reopen the portal.
  • RWBY: In Volume 8, Watts reveals that the virus he infected Penny with will force her to self-terminate after opening the Vault, but Cinder angrily grabs him by the collar. She raises him off the ground in a Neck Lift before dangling him over the side of the building they're arguing on.

Web Comics 

  • Vikki from Furry Experience grabs her close friend Ronnie by the lapels in the Tuesday 13 March 2012 strip because Vikki must walk on eggshells around her zealously Mormon roommates, and needs Ronnie to desist being a Jerkass by snarking at their beliefs.
  • Girl Genius: They're not actually wearing shirts, but Agatha grabs Tarvek and Gil's harnesses up near their collarbones to yank them close and yell at them in this strip.
  • Lackadaisy: Viktor yanks Rocky, who infuriates him on the regular, around by his shirt collar on several occasions — and by his neck itself at least once.
  • Never Satisfied: When January, attempting to make small talk with Seiji, accidentally strikes a nerve, he quickly grabs her by the collar and threatens her.
  • Stand Still, Stay Silent: This has happened a couple times:
    • Reynir does this to Lalli during his Cabin Fever moment in Chapter 15.
    • When Reynir runs off to the church on his own in Chapter 19, Sigrun does this to him after catching up with him.
  • Unsounded: Stockyard angrily grabs Elan's collar to yell at his face and then shove him out of the room when Elan questions his superior's involvement in the smuggling plot.
  • Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic: With his Cloudcuckoolander attitude, Cap'n Fang manages to make several characters angry which results in him getting pulled close by the collar and being shouted at repeatedly, like with Captain Corona and Arachnee.

Western Animation 

  • In the pilot of The Cleveland Show, Cleveland does this to Federline when telling him not to try anything strange with Roberta on their date.
  • Darkwing Duck: In "Apes of Wrath", Darkwing jumps on a gorilla's chest and grabs him around where an anthropomorphic animal's collar would be as he interrogates him about where Gosalyn is.
  • DuckTales (1987):
    • In Major Courage's first scene in "Where No Duck Has Gone Before", he sees Scrooge and company and grabs the director by the collar, demanding to know what the "clowns" are doing hanging around his set. When the director tells him Scrooge owns the studio, Courage immediately lets go of him in favor of flattering his new boss.
    • In "Jungle Duck", the eponymous Jungle Duck, who happens to be the long-vanished Prince Greydrake, pulls his uncle close by the collar when the latter doesn't want to step down from the throne that rightfully belongs to the prince.
  • In the Gravity Falls episode "Fight Fighters", Robbie does this to Dipper after the latter ends up destroying his phone.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • In "Slick Hare", Humphrey Bogart asks waiter Elmer Fudd for an order of fried rabbit. Elmer tells him that they're fresh out of rabbit but Bogart grabs him by the collar and gives him one hour to get him that rabbit, or else.
    • Played with in "Tortoise Beats Hare" when Bugs Bunny grabs Cecil Turtle by the shell, which comes right out.
  • The Owl House: In "Reaching Out", Eda grabs Warden Wrath by the collar and was very close to using her free hand to claw his face off.
  • The titular wallaby in the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Rocko's Happy Sack" does this to Filburt at the supermarket after the latter made Rocko miss the 99% deal and threatens him to change the total back before he does something NOT NICE!
  • The Simpsons: In "Summer of 4 Ft. 2", Lisa does this to Bart when confronting him over revealing her true geeky nature to her new friends out of jealousy.
  • Steven Universe: In "The Trial", Defense Zircon holds up Steven by his shirt collar when he states he doesn't know how Pink Diamond's shattering happened.

Real Life 

  • Allegedly, after Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson visited Lyndon Johnson after making a speech in Philadelphia that Johnson thought was too critical of America's involvement in The Vietnam War, Johnson grabbed Pearson by the lapels and told him he'd "pissed on my rug."
  • Prince Harry revealed in his memoir Spare that his brother William did this to him twice — once during an argument at his house ("he grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor"), the second time during an argument after their grandfather's funeral so as to force him to look at him and maintain eye contact.