''Oh, I have all my fingers, the knife goes chop, chop, chop, if I miss the spaces in between, my fingers will come off...''👁 Image
Bronn: There's a Braavosi knife game I can teach you.
Tyrion: Does it involve loss of fingers?
Bronn: Only if you lose.
Tyrion: Does it involve loss of fingers?
Bronn: Only if you lose.
Human hands are delicate instruments designed for carrying out a wide range of fine motor skills. They allow us to craft and manipulate tools, which is part of what makes humans so advanced. As a result, most people show a healthy reluctance to put their fingers through the wringer. Regardless of how aware we are of this, we humans (and, as a result, characters too) instinctually fear suffering damage to our hands and fingers. There's a reason why Fingore is so uncomfortable to watch, after all.
All of this means that a character willing to stab between their fingers in quick succession is automatically labeled as both bold and wholly unconcerned with societal rules, if not necessarily very rich in common sense. This game is called "Five-Finger Fillet" and playing it also signals great skill with one's hands—therefore indicating the character is a Badass, if heroic, or a Psycho Knife Nut, if villainous. After all, the character wouldn't be risking their hands if they weren't confident enough not to mess up.
Alternate names are "the knife game", "nerve", "stabscotch", and "bishop". Needless to say, Don't Try This at Home.
A character might perform an Impaled Palm for a similar effect. Compare and contrast Dexterity Game for safer ways to demonstrate nimble hands.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Parasyte: When Shinichi first tries to confirm whether his right hand has been taken over by an alien, he places his palm on the table and prepares to stab a knife between his fingers, reasoning that it will dodge of its own volition if it isn't his. That's how he meets his parasite, Migi.
Fan Works
- Live a Hero (MHA): Izuku demonstrates his skill at Five Finger Fillet in one chapter, at Kirisima's request. The rest of his classmates, particularly Iida, are horrified.
Films — Animated
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. During the "Fearless Hero" song, Puss shown doing this trope with his rapier to one of his fans who's making an "I Can't Look!" Gesture. In fairness Puss is entirely willing to be on the receiving end; the next scene has him spinning on a casino wheel while people stab at him with knives.
Films — Live-Action
- Aliens: In the cafeteria scene, Hudson asks Bishop to do the trick👁 Image
. Bishop puts his hand on the table at first, but Drake grabs Hudson and puts Hudson's hand on the table. Bishop then puts his hand on top of Hudson's and starts the trick, with Hudson yelling in terror the entire time while the other Marines cheer Bishop on. Bishop actually thanks Hudson once he stops, and a thoroughly freaked-out Hudson says "That wasn't funny, man!" as Bishop and Drake walk back to their seats. This leads to Bishop's Robotic Reveal when he notices that he nicked one of his fingers and is "bleeding" white fluid. Alien vs. Predator (2004) also shows Charles Bishop Weyland doing this with a pen as a Mythology Gag Actor Allusion. - Drowning Mona: Jeph is seen playing this game in a flashback scene. In the present day, he's missing his entire hand although he lost it in a different way.
- Knife in the Water: The young hitchhiker does this, intimidating the middle-aged man that picked him up. The middle-aged man is jealous and tries to do it himself, but can't manage very well. This is part of an escalating spiral of tension that evolves into a Love Triangle and violence between the young man, the middle-aged man, and the middle-aged man's younger and very good-looking wife.
- Knucklebones: Subverted; the summoned demon does this to Travis and deliberately mutilates his hand in the process, dismissively observing that it was never very good at that.
- Populaire: Louis Echard does this to himself in order to convince his ex-girlfriend to give piano Lessons to Rose Pamphyle. He is later seen bandaging his hand with the help of Rose.
- Surviving Picasso: As in Real Life, Picasso becomes attracted to Dora Maar when she cuts her fingers doing this.
- Ted: During a party, Ted does this with a guy and eventually stabs the man's hand, causing him to scream in agony.
Ted: Well, you never shoulda trusted me, I'm on drugs!
- The World's End: Discussed. Andy has a scar on his middle finger from a failed attempt to re-enact the scene from Aliens, back when he, Gary, and the others were schoolboy friends hanging out. Andy reveals this scar to prove that unlike Bishop, he is not a robot (by this point the gang has figured out that aliens have invaded the town and replaced most everyone in it with android doubles).
Gamebooks
- Fighting Fantasy:
- City of Thieves: You can be challenged by a brigand in a tavern to play Five-Finger Fillet. You lose 5 Gold coins if you accidentally stab yourself and if you win, you gain a Silver Bracelet that can repel giant insects.
- Deathmoor: Winning a game of Five-Finger Fillet against your sworn rival, Fang-Zen of Jitar, is a must if you were to complete the gamebook. Fail this game or pass up the challenge (which happens really early in the book) and you'll lose an essential item, rendering your quest unwinnable.
Literature
- Neverwhere: Mr. Croup places his hand against a wall and throws several razor blades at it, landing in the spaces in between. Despite this impressive demonstration of marksmanship, Mr. Vandemar is unimpressed with the fact that Croup missed all his fingers.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: The Ironborn play a game called the "finger dance" in which they catch an axe thrown at them. This has a tendency to result in missing fingers.
- In The Stormlight Archive, Shallan deals with a potential threat at a bar by offering to play this game with her hand on his....and then deliberately sending the knife straight through both their palms, pulling it out, and walking it off. The patrons, unaware that Shallan has a Healing Factor, are suitably terrified.
Live-Action TV
- Barry: Subverted. In "The Show Must Go On... Probably", when Burmese mafia kingpin Esther pulls out a knife and lays her hand on the table to intimidate Chechen gangster NoHo Hank, Hank rolls his eyes and says he's seen this trick before. Esther instead just stabs herself in the hand without flinching or expressing discomfort.
- Boardwalk Empire: Jimmy expertly plays the game with his old trenchknife in "Family Limitation", establishing him as a Psycho Knife Nut who's still not over the war, and also establishing his usefulness to the gangsters he's trying to join. Capone's unfamiliarity with the game tips Jimmy off that he wasn't really in the war.
- Eerie, Indiana: In "Heart on a Chain", Devon is stabbing between his spread fingers in the classroom. When Marshall tells him to slow down, Devon replies, "Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse." After Devon's heart is transplanted into her body, Melanie does the five-finger fillet herself in the World O' Stuff and uses the same phrase.
- Fearless: The unaired pilot has a bad guy force Gaia's hand down and rapidly stab between her fingers, in order to get some reaction out of her. Presumably fear, but this is Gaia we're on about.
- Inside No. 9: In the episode "The Bill", the knife game is used to settle the bill when things really escalate out of control. Five Finger Fillet is Namedropped along with a number of other names the game goes by.
- Great News: Played for Laughs when a drunk Carol, who is 60 years old and a prim, proper suburban mom, plays Five-Finger Fillet at the office party in "Snowmageddon of the Century".
- The IT Crowd: Moss doesthe five finger fillet with a screwdriver in one episode with surprising skill, while connected to a machine that measures stress levels.
Moss: The needle is flipping out!
- Red Dwarf: In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in the opening episode, Chen can be seen playing five-finger fillet (badly) with a pen.
- Simon Schama's Power of Art (a BBC documentary series): Pablo Picasso meets his future mistress Dora Maar when she cuts her fingers playing Five-Finger Fillet at Les Deux Magots👁 Image
. - Xena: Warrior Princess: Xena stabs between a con man's fingers in order to make him fess up about a con on one of her friends. The speed at which she did it is beyond that of any normal human being.
- Wayne: The titular character is apprehended for trespassing by the groundkeeper of a golf course, and the groundskeeper's Vegan Satanist girlfriend challenges Wayne to a game of stabscotch, stabbing the spaces between her fingers and telling him to do what she does "faster and better." His interpretation of this instruction is... creative to say the least.
Video Games
- Aliens: Infestation: As a shout-out to the film Aliens, there is a playable mini-game where you get to imitate Bishop and stab a knife in the spaces between your fingers.
- Apex Legends: One of Fuse's unlockable banner poses has him apparently playing five-finger fillet with his own hand - only for him to finish the act by revealing that the hand actually belonged to a very nervous-looking Mirage.
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: In the thief's guild, a thief playsfive-finger fillet at one of the bar tables as an idle animation. Sometimes he wins and admires his hand and other times he loses and licks his wound.
- Darkest Dungeon: A Grave Robber under the Masochistic affliction may try to challenge the other heroes to "a round of stabscotch" during camping, which will stress them out.
- Horizon Forbidden West: A random character plays this on a table during a cutscene. Petra, who Aloy is taking with at the time, gets annoyed by the noise he's making and tells him to "put the knife down or I'll come over there and show you how the game ends!" He wisely stops.
- Later Alligator: One of the minigames is a three-fingered variation of this that plays like a "Simon Says" Mini-Game. In the first round, the player character and Bobby Blue Eyes use spoons, and in the second round, the player character switches to a knife. In round three, the player character uses a scary-looking combat knife, which unnerves Bobby to the point his first move in round four was hitting his finger with the spoon, making the player automatically win after they put a Band-Aid on his "fingey".
- Monday Night Combat: In Super Monday Night Combat, the Sniper and Assassin play five-finger fillet as a taunt. The Assassin uses her iconic dagger, while the Sniper uses a sub-machine gun. While doing a one-hand-stand. And while spinning.
- Mortal Kombat 11: One of Mileena's special moves has her place her hand on her opponent's face and play the knife game with her sai, stabbing them every time she wins.
- Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2: Offered as an optional Rhythm Game, complete with wagers. While it is possible to miss and accidentally stab a finger, the worst that happens is there's a new spot of blood on top of the already-dried bloodstains, but the player character's fingers are none the worse for wear afterwards.
- Manhunter: New York: A variation of this, where the player and an informant toss knives in between each other's fingers. The informant goes first to demonstrate, then the player has to do likewise to get a clue out of them. If they miss, then the informant crushes their skull.
- Yakuza 0: A subquest has Majima hook up a man looking for a counterfeit necklace with a Chinese forger. Unfortunately, the forger forgot to tell his Triad associates about the deal, so when the man arrives at his office, they wind up doing this to him until Majima intervenes.
Web Animation
- Eltorro64Rus: A botched gang of the kinfe game kicks off Scout's Amazing Adventures👁 Image
, where Scout attempts this on himself with a Spy-cicle after chugging some Bonk. It doesn't end well. - PUNCH PUNCH FOREVER!: Geiko does this during her introduction, but she goes so fast that she mangles all of her fingers. Luckily, being the daughter of a Jason Vorhees Captain Ersatz means you're Made of Iron and it doesn't affect her in the slightest.
- Spooky Month: In "Deadly Smiles", Dexter the Happy Fella suggests playing "The Knife Game" to Skid and Pump, pulling out the kitchen knife he stole earlier and stabbing it on the floor between his fingers to demonstrate. In actuality he's using it as a ruse to kill the two, but Pump's older sister Susie barges into Pump's room before he's able to.
Web Comics
- Ennui GO!: Max is seen playing this game this with Vanitas in "Scary Monsters". It's Played for Laughs and matches with both their violent natures; additionally, Max's mom (well used to this sort of behavior from him) doesn't try to stop him from playing, merely telling him to use a coaster so he doesn't nick her coffee table.
- Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: The Commander plays this game👁 Image
with Robert, telling Robert that he started doing this in training when he was ten. Robert says that's just boasting and all the Commander's bulk just slows him down. Robert loses.Commander: Look, Jones, I gotta take this guy to the ER, you might not wanna wait up.
Jones: Okay! Have fun trying not to marry him!
Robert: You think it'll help preserve it if I put the finger in whiskey?
Western Animation
- Adventure Time: In the background of one episode, Tail Tufts (male Tree Trunks) is seen playing the knife game with a spoon and failing, despite having a single undifferentiated hoof nub.
- The Amazing World of Gumball: Spoofed in "The Outside". When the Wattersons turn their house into a prison for Grandpa Frankie, Darwin plays the role of a creepy and vicious inmate who does the knife game during breakfast using a spork, but because he's a cartoon fish with no fingers, all he does is just stabbing the spork back and forth over his fin.
- Amphibia: In the episode "Fort in the Road", Polly is seen doing this with a pencil as Sprig complains about Hop Pop's travel rules. Given that she doesn't have fingers, her version of it doesn't seem too difficult. She afterward stabs the pencil into a kids' books as though it were a knife.
- Family Guy: In the episode "Be Careful What You Fish For", one of the kids at Stewie's horrible daycare center does this and some other kids bet on whether or not he can pull it off.
- Futurama: In the episode "How the West Was 1010001," Roberto plays a game of five-finger fillet, but instead of stabbing the space between his fingers with a knife, he uses a revolver that fires knives to shoot between his fingers.
- King of the Hill: One episode features the characters discussing the knifes game, with a prison inmate saying that he doesn't know what it's called. Peggy suggests the name "Stab Scotch".
- Madagascar: All the penguins are "psychotic" (as Alex says in the original film), but the short The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper has one of Rico's earliest moments of real characterization, showing him as one of the most psychotic, doing a variant of stabscotch in their base with the visual gag that 1, as a penguin, it's really more of a one-flipper fillet; and 2, he's using a plastic knife. Skipper tells him to stop as this is inappropriate behavior for the dinner table, so he grudgingly does, but takes a moment to rub his flipper over the serrated edge of the knife when he makes sure no one is looking.
- Rick and Morty: "How Poopy Got His Poop Back," after the gang does a bunch of drugs, Birdperson pulls out a knife and rapidly stabs the space in between his fingers. Squanchy then grabs the knife and immediately stabs himself in the center of his hand.
- Samurai Jack: Occurs in the episode "Jack versus Mad Jack". Two people in a Bad Guy Bar engage in the game with money on the line. Of course, since this is a cartoon, instead of a knife they use a...plastic spork.
- The Simpsons: Homer attempts this in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge", and manages to stab every single finger.
Marge: Homer! No knife games on the kitchen table!
Homer: I didn't hit your precious table. - SpongeBob SquarePants: An episode has one fish doing this to another fish. The first fish ends up going faster and faster while the fish holding his hand out starts sweating bullets. Eventually, he lands on a finger, although he acts like he won whatever they were doing.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: Mariner likes to do this to herself when she's bored. Presumably, any misses would be taken care of by Starfleet's advanced medical technology, as happens to other injuries she suffers through the series.
- Stressed Eric: A man in the hospital queue does this with his hand resting on his thigh. He seems quite happy to repeatedly stab his thigh but screams in pain when he misses and hits his finger.