Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Register
Advertisement
WikEd fancyquotesQuotesBug-silkHeadscratchersIcons-mini-icon extensionPlaying WithUseful NotesMagnifierAnalysisPhoto linkImage LinksHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconic

Alice has the power to (or has acquired a device that can) hypnotize a person, and she wants to try it out on Bob. Bob merely scoffs at this, saying that he cannot be hypnotized. However, Alice tries anyway, and ends up successfully hypnotizing Bob.

If the character snaps out of hypnosis, expect him or her to say something along the lines of, "See? I told you I can't be hypnotized!"

Distantly related to Tempting Fate. See also Un Paused. A form of Irony.

Examples:


Fan Fiction[]

Live Action TV[]

  • In the season 1 finale of Eureka, Beverly hypnotizes Fargo so she can interrogate him.
Cquote1

 Beverly: When I snap my fingers, you will wake feeling refreshed and remember nothing about what we discussed here today. One... two... three. (snaps fingers)

Fargo: (smugly) ...which is why it's not even possible for me to be hypnotized.

Beverly: Well, Fargo, we'll just have to keep working on it.

Cquote2
  • In the first season of Smallville, Chloe and Clark go to see this man affected by meteor rock who claims he can hypnotize people. Chloe disbelieves him, he promptly does it to her, and he makes her kiss Clark. Afterward...
Cquote1

 Chloe: (even smugger than Fargo) See? Not even possible. *pause* Why do I taste mint?

Cquote2
  • The hypnotist episode of Murder, She Wrote has somebody do this to Jessica.
  • Star Trek original episode, "Dagger of the Mind," had Kirk try out the Neural Neutralizer, complete with him not realizing he blanked out for a second when it was turned on.
  • In Happy Days, the cowardly Ralph Malph is terrified by an approaching tornado, so a doctor hypnotizes him despite that he says he's too strong-willed; the doctor then makes him completely fearless, leading to his almost getting killed-- not only by the tornado, but also the Fonz.
  • From 30 Rock:
Cquote1

 Lemon: Pete, no. I listened to you when you wanted to take the staff to that R-rated hypnotist, and that sucked.

Pete: It was pretty bad. Nutmeg.

[Lemon stands up like a zombie and starts to pull up her shirt.]

Pete: Aaaah!! Rodeo rodeo rodeo!

[Lemon stops stripping and looks around in confusion.]

Cquote2
  • Urkel on Family Matters stated to a therapist that he cannot be hypnotized, until the therapist started swaying his pocketwatch back and forth, enthralling Urkel immediately.
  • In one episode of The Odd Couple, Felix confidently declares that he's immune because "persons of superior intellect cannot be hypnotized". After he goes under and Oscar asks what happened, the hypnotist jokes, "Since his intellect is too strong for hypnosis... he must be dead!"
  • Subverted in an episode of Perfect Strangers, where Larry claims he can't be hypnotized and — after briefly faking out the hypnotist — turns out to be right. Of course, poor Balki standing next to him was a little more susceptible.
    • This was recycled from an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, where the genuinely un-hypnotizable Buddy briefly fakes being hypnotized while Rob, in the other room, accidentally goes under for real.

Video Games[]

  • The Mass Effect series has many characters, of various levels of intelligence and willpower, who believe they will be safe from the effects of Reaper Indoctrination. Often, they take some kind of precaution against it, and think that this precaution will stop them succumbing. By the end of the series absolutely nobody has has been able to resist the effect once they are exposed to it, and the most that any indoctrinated character can manage is to commit suicide, and even that requires an extremely strong will and a lot of encouragement from Magnetic Hero Shepard to make them realise they've succumbed and break free for just a short while.

Western Animation[]

  • In the Looney Tunes short "The Hare-Brained Hypnotist", Elmer Fudd uses a book on psychology to learn hypnosis and attempts to use it on Bugs Bunny. While Bugs turns the table on him, they eventually start shooting hypnosis beam things at each other until Elmer runs away, leading to this line:
Cquote1

  Bugs: How's about that, thinkin' he could hypnotize me! Ha! *looks at watch* Ooh, I'm overdue at the airport! *jumps into the sky and starts flying* I'm the B-19!

Cquote2
Advertisement