| rdfs:comment | - In fictionland, anyone caught unawares may be easily, instantaneously and noiselessly incapacitated with a single blow to the head (or alternatively, a karate chop to the neck). A character thus treated will usually be perfectly fine afterwards; at worst they may have a headache, dizziness, slightly blurred vision, or in the very worst cases, laser guided amnesia, or find themselves strapped to a table when they wake up. Minus the last two points, this will in no way hinder them for the rest of the plot. Other variants of the trope:
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| abstract | - In fictionland, anyone caught unawares may be easily, instantaneously and noiselessly incapacitated with a single blow to the head (or alternatively, a karate chop to the neck). A character thus treated will usually be perfectly fine afterwards; at worst they may have a headache, dizziness, slightly blurred vision, or in the very worst cases, laser guided amnesia, or find themselves strapped to a table when they wake up. Minus the last two points, this will in no way hinder them for the rest of the plot. Needless to say this is not Truth in Television at all; in reality a blow to the head is probably the least reliable way of rendering someone unconscious. Any head injury severe enough to cause unconsciousness is also severe enough to cause a skull fracture, concussion, intracranial bleeding, permanent cognitive impairment, amnesia, blindness, personality change, and even death. In Real Life, a sharp blow to the head the causes unconsciousness of more than about one minute is usually a sign of brain damage. It will probably take months to recover, if not years, and you will likely have permanent impairment. In action genres, though, getting knocked out is treated like a nap. Heroes wantonly deliver painful and dangerous concussions to guardsmen, and friends knock each other out in disagreements, with little acknowledgement that brain cells are dying. In many role-playing games, knockout punches are actually treated as a form of nonlethal damage from which you recover quickly. Contemporary audiences are becoming increasingly canny about this, meaning the characters now typically use more elaborate, realistic, or permanent techniques for dealing with opponents. The "karate chop to the neck" version may have been removed from modern TV because if you hit the right spot it actually can knock you out, though not without serious risk of death. It utilizes the Carotid Sinus Reflex (the reason you should not take a pulse at the neck) and is very dangerous. Other variants of the trope:
* In Western media, there's the punch to the jaw (AKA a "knockout punch"). Again, in reality this could inflict serious injury. In this case, not only to the victim, but the attacker (without hand protection) could very easily injure their hand.
* Common in anime is the "sharp shot to the solar plexus", often used to subdue a struggling person. It makes it fairly easy to pick up the now-unconscious person and sling them over one's shoulder for easy carrying. Its effects are just as exaggerated as the Western version; in real life, such a blow does not cause unconsciousness but does cause the muscles of the diaphragm to spasm uncontrollably, making any activity requiring air very difficult. It is safer than a blow to the throat or the back of the head, but can occasionally lead to dangerous organ or nerve damage and is thus best avoided.
* Choke Holds, where an arm around the neck is used to cut off blood to the brain ("blood strangle/choke") or oxygen to the lungs (chokehold, stranglehold). Properly applied, this is a safer and more reliable way of causing someone to become unconscious (even allowed in judo competition for many decades), but carries a risk of stroke or other dangerous problems if used on an older victim or one with a weakened circulatory system. It also tends to wear off quickly (as in, after a couple of seconds), or alternatively when it doesn't, cause varying levels of brain damage. Another variant is instant knockout caused by shattering either a vase or lamp over someone's head or even just on their back. See also Back Stab, Choke Holds, We Need a Distraction, Stun Guns, Pressure Point, Instant Sedation and Blinded by the Light. Contrast Death by Falling Over. Often leads to Waking Up Elsewhere. Pistol-Whipping and Put Their Heads Together are Sub-Tropes.
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