"We went back to first principals."
Ever got annoyed with someone so much you wished you could beat them up, but couldn't do it for some reason? Well, thankfully, there's an easy solution for that. Have a punching bag or a shooting target and whatnot and pretend it's them in person as you hit or shoot the inanimate object. The benefits include releasing pent-up anger and frustrations, improving stamina and strength, and is considered a good exercise overall. If you're against engaging in direct violence but still want to relieve your stress in a way that would feel satisfying or fun then this is the perfect, healthy alternative. However, if this isn't Played for Laughs, then it can be as a threat or an indirect warning of sorts; "This time I hit a mere object that resembles you — next time, I'll hit you for real."
Note again that it doesn't need to be a punching bag. Practice dummies, busts, a body pillow with a face printed on it, etc. all count as long as they're inanimate objects. The distinction between Punching Bag of Hatred and Percussive Therapy is that the one doing the destruction in the former hits an object that represents the person bothering them, while in the latter someone hits something just to relieve negative emotions in general. In short, this is a subtrope of Percussive Therapy. This trope could result in a destroyed punching bag after their attack.
Compare Dartboard of Hate where a character throws darts at a photograph of their enemy instead of punching it, and Stab the Picture which is when someone damages a picture of another as a threat. Also related to Defenestrate and Berate, where someone throws their ex-partner's belongings out the window usually due to being angry at them.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- When Mikoto from A Certain Magical Index was at the arcade, she furiously punched the punching machine that had a paper drawing of Touma taped to it repeatedly
◊ until she got a high score of 325. Everyone around her was watching her with surprise and awe. Played With since she actually likes him.
Mikoto (while beating the machine): You stupid idiot! [pauses briefly then continues punching] Is that how important a promise is to you?! - Sgt. Frog: Our first introduction to a frog alien besides the Gunso himself is the protagonist's Tsundere/Yandere love interest beating the everloving crap out of a sack after our protagonist unwittingly rejects her affection yet again. It turns out to contain Gunso's second-in-command.
Comic Books
- Archie Comics: On the cover of Archie and Me #98, Riverdale High principal Mr. Weatherbee is asking Coach Kleats how he got the football team to tackle so hard. The coach looks a little nervous since the secret was to put a picture of Mr. Weatherbee on the tackle dummy.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe: One Scrooge Mcduck short shows him training for the Billionaire Olympics with a punching bag that has a taxman crudely doodled on it.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): In the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds one-shot, it’s shown that Amy Rose has a punching bag and keeps a drawing of Dr. Eggman’s face taped on it.
- Spider-Man: In "Venom", Eddie Brock (Venom) explains to Spider-Man how, while he worked out, he imagined it was Spidey he was pummeling.
Venom: I relocated to the Bronx, spent part of my meager income on body-building equipment. I heard that exercise could reduce stress. It didn't work. Whenever I lifted a barbell, it was your throat I was squeezing. Each time I punched the heavy bag, I was pulping your face.
Comic Strips
- Hägar the Horrible: In the April 19, 2026 comic, after Hägar keeps complaining about how he hates the king, his wife advises him to try a hobby like painting and exercise. Hägar ends up painting a portrait of the king on a punching bag, and then prepares to start punching it as his exercise.
Fan Works
- False Heaven: Overlaps with Stab the Picture as Aubrey, upset that she can't deliver justice to Mari for raping Sunny due to her being already dead, draws a picture of her, tapes it onto a giant teddy bear, and repeatedly smashes the thing with her baseball bat while giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how Mari betrayed them all.
- Stab-a-John is a short animation of Jack Noir playing an arcade game where he stabs pop-up dolls of John in the order 4, 1, and 3.
- You Won't Know Me by Lady_LB starts with Chat Noir coming across Ladybug beating up a bag with her own face on it due to personal problems.
Film — Animated
- The Emperor's New Groove: After Kuzco fires his advisor, Yzma, she gets upset and starts smashing stone busts of him with a mallet in her lair. However, once Kronk says, "Well, it's better you're takin' out your anger on these things instead of the real Kuzco, huh?", she gets the idea of killing Kuzco.
- Kung Fu Panda 3: After Li Shan reveals to Po that he doesn't actually know how to use chi and lied to him so Po would go with him to the panda mountain and be safe from Kai, Po is angry and resolves to defeat Kai on his own. He grabs some wood, rope, and bamboo, builds an elaborate training dummy that looks like Kai and starts going to town on it. Besides using it to practice his kung fu moves, it's implied to also be Percussive Therapy because he just heard the entire Valley of Peace fell to Kai, and because of Li's lie, he wasn't there to protect it.
- Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa has Alex punching a bird hive nest with a face drawn on it, representing Makunga, who had tricked him earlier and replaced his dad as the Alpha Lion. His constant punching ends up waking the birds up and they start attacking him before flying away.
- Mulan (1998): During "I'll Make a Man Out of You", one of the training exercises involves shooting cannon fire at a dummy shaped like a Hun warrior with a sword in its hand.
Film — Live-Action
- In a deleted scene for Batman Forever, Dick Grayson is hitting a punching bag with a picture of Two-Face taped on it during his training sessions.
- Napoleon Dynamite: At one point, Fish Out of Water Pedro hangs up a piñata of the student he's running against in the school elections. It's taken as a violent threat by the principal, but Pedro explains it's common practice in Mexico.
- Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed: The Faux Ghost, a Bad Guy Bar for former Scooby-Doo villains, has a Whack-a-Mole machine where the "moles" are plastic models of the Mystery Inc. members' heads.
Literature
- The Berenstain Bears: In The Berenstain Bears and the Bully, Sister gets beaten up at school by a mean bully named Tuffy. Brother's first plan is to beat up Tuffy himself, but he can't do that when he finds out she's actually a girl. His Plan B is to train Sister to stand up for herself by having her punch a bag of beans with a drawing of Tuffy's face taped to it.
- A Clash of Kings: The mini jousting dummy at the royal tourney, which little Prince Tommen "fights," sports a pair of deer's antlers on its head. While he is too young to see real combat himself, his mother's family, the Lannisters, is currently at war with his uncles Stannis and Renly Baratheon (the Baratheons' sigil being a stag), who both claim that they are the rightful king because Tommen's older brother Joffrey is a bastard.
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In The Sea of Monsters, Percy, Annabeth and Tyson sneak aboard the enemy ship the Princess Andromeda. One of the things they see is a demigod practicing sword training on a dummy wearing a Camp Half-Blood shirt. When he destroys it, the monsters cheer.
Live-Action TV
- Birds of a Feather: According to "Porridge", Darryl has a punching bag with a picture of Sharon, whom he sees as an Obnoxious In-Law, on it.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike witnesses a kiss between Buffy and Angel in "End of Days". The next episode shows Spike working out his aggression on a punching bag with a crude drawing of Angel's face on it.
- A variant in The George Lopez Show; George's father-in-law Vic tries to train him with a punching bag and makes disparaging comments at him over it. He eventually suggests to George that he try picturing someone he really hates and take a swing, to which George responds "I would, but the bag's in the way".
- How I Met Your Mother: A variation; in Season 9, Lily creates Marshpillow, a pillow person with her husband Marshall's face on it, to get over how much she misses him. When she discovers that Marshall took a judgeship position that would interfere with her own new job in Italy without telling her, Robin encourages her to work out her anger on Marshpillow.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: Dr Forrester's offering for the Invention Exchange in The Giant Gila Mosnter is a series of punching bags with Renaissance Fair characters on them, allowing you to vent your frustrations on the likes of the Ratcatcher, the leather mug maker, and the harlequin. TV's Frank really goes to town on them.
23 dollars to get in! Huzzah my butt, you satin-suited, Tolkien-reading loser!
- NewsRadio: Played with. When Dave needs to lower his stress level, he finds he can amuse himself by hitting Matthew while Matthew is wearing a big padded suit so punches don't hurt him. When Lisa starts getting stressed Matthew offers to let her punch him. When Matthew finds out what a Pint-Sized Powerhouse Lisa is, it amuses Dave even more.
Matthew: DAVE. HELP! THE BIG PADDED SUIT. IT'S USELESS AGAINST LISA!
- Shadow and Bone: In "Every Monstrous Thing" Tamar and Nadia try to help Alina train her newly-amplified light powers against some dummies. Alina is frustrated that she can't seem to muster up range or power. Tamar advises her to envision targets as people she wants to crush; Alina promptly envisions Kirigan and unleashes a blast of light that slices cleanly through the training dummy.
- Superman & Lois: In an attempt to help Jordan learn to control his super strength, Clark presents him with a large log that he clearly practiced on in his own youth. Jordan's first attempt is a disaster with him failing to channel his strength and nearly shattering his hand. Then Jonathan tells Jordan to pretend the log is the face of a bully who routinely harassed Jordan. Jordan's next attempt properly funnels his strength and leaves an indent on par with Clark's previous punches.
- In True Beauty (2020), Juyeong, who has a huge crush on Goeun, mistakes Seojun for her boyfriend and thinks he's the reason she won't accept him. So he gets a punching bag with a large picture of him on it and punches the hell out of it and even gets on top of it as he beats the bag.
Video Games
- Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance: After Red Magnus joins the party, a red punching bag with his face on it racked with weapons appears on the bottom-right side of Seraphina's Pocket Netherworld as a Visual Gag.
Red Magnus... probably influenced it.
- Hi-Fi RUSH: Macaron is a pacifist by nature, but he has a punching bag with Zanzo's poster on it to work out his issues towards the mad scientist for taking over the Vandalay R&D department after he got ousted as its head, and twisting it into a mockery of its former self.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: In Groose's room at the Knight Academy on Skyloft, there's a punching bag with a picture of Link's face on it, given that he's Groose's greatest rival, at least at first.
- Being the Fighting Game engine it is, M.U.G.E.N allows any type of battle, including beating up the enemy of your choice, in this case, some character you can't stand. Of course, there're literal punching bag characters where you can beat and they won't move or resist your attacks (including the Super Smash Bros.' Sandbag recreated for M.U.G.E.N), but there's also a YouTube trend called "Everyone/Everybody Hates X" where some user picks up a character they hate and put it as Player 2 to be punished and beaten without getting a move in.
- Overwatch: One of Doomfist's sprays is a punching bag with a drawing of Winston's head on it.
- Persona 2: Ulala practices boxing on a sandbag that has the picture of her Con Man ex-boyfriend on it, while picturing herself actually punching him in the face. She gets to do it in Innocent Sin.
- Super Macho Man's Title Defense intro in the Wii version of Punch-Out!! has him so angry at all the fame Little Mac has earned after beating him that he goes off to train by attacking a punching bag with Mac's photo stuck on it.
- Team Fortress 2 has the Bare Knuckle Beatdown taunt for Heavy, in which he produces a training dummy with a photo of the Scout taped to its head and begins punching it repeatedly. Ending the taunt has the Heavy decapitate the dummy with an uppercut.
- Yandere Simulator: In the "Raising the Strength Stat" development video, Ayano tapes a picture of her romantic rival Osana to her punching bag when she starts working out.
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus: In "Beach Episode", Gangle is about to whack a watermelon as a piñata when Zooble stops her to draw Jax's face on it, making Gangle giggle.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: "A Beautiful Mine" opens with Cindy practicing karate on a Jimmy bop bag, complete with crossed eyes and Goofy Buckteeth. She ends up punching its head clean off, and even causes its face to look shocked.
- Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In "The Mystery of the Missing Hi-Tops", Harry the Hawker sets up a souvenir stand for a festival being held in Sonic's honor. One of the souvenirs he sells is a bop bag that resembles Dr. Robotnik.
- Amphibia: In "Toadcatcher", after the toads were defeated by Anne in the previous season finale, Grime's soldiers have abandoned him and he now spends all his time lounging around and watching Suspicion Island. Sasha, however, still very much wants her revenge and is practicing her combat skills on makeshift dummies shaped like Anne and the Plantar family.
- Futurama: In "My Three Suns", Leela, fed up with Fry's behavior as the new emperor of Trisol, beats on a punching bag with Fry's picture taped to it.
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In "Beat with a Schtick", Mr. Herriman beats a bop bag resembling Bloo with a stick when he catches him wearing his monocle.
- In one episode of the Nick Knatterton cartoon, Nick is shown training on a standing punching bag that has heads that can be swapped out. He's shown punching a fictional tax inspector, but the narrator mentions that Nick also has fake heads of public figures he doesn't like (hidden from the viewer behind a curtain).
- Pink Panther and Pals: In "Quittin’ Time", it’s shown Aardvark has a bop bag that looks like Ant in his house.
- The Secret World of Santa Claus: In "A Present For Santa", as the kids propose gifts for Santa, one kid shows off a punching bag with the likeness of Santa's archenemy Gruzzlebeard, for stress. The elves, however, deem it as too violent.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Brother's Little Helper", Principal Skinner punches a bag with Bart's picture taped to it after Bart floods the gym.
- In a Tracey Ullman short, Lisa draws Homer's face on a punching bag for her and Bart to beat. A bit later, Marge gets in on the fun.
- Taz-Mania: In "Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty", Molly finds a stray kitten and decides to adopt him as her pet. She tells Taz to be nice to them both or she will give him a bath, knowing he Hates Baths. The kitten causes trouble when Molly isn't looking and pins the blame on Taz, so when Molly orders Taz to stay away from her and the kitten, Taz goes to his bedroom, where he draws the kitten's face on his punching bag and then starts punching it.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: In "Hero Hamton", Montana Max challenges Hamton to a fight after school, and trains with a punching bag that has Hamton's face on it.
- Total Drama:
- In "Crouching Courtney, Hidden Owen", as part of his training, Harold is punching a punching back with a crude drawing of Duncan on it, with said bully holding the bag from behind. When Duncan tries to get Harold to punch harder by saying he kissed Leshawna, the nerd punches through the punching bag to grab the bully's neck in a chokehold.
- Jo's audition tape takes place in her exercise room, which includes a punching bag with a photo of Chris taped to it.
- In "The Enchanted Franken-Forest", Lightning, who is angry at Cameron for "stealing" his victory in the previous episode "Eat, Puke, and be Wary", makes a punching bag of Cameron by dressing a pillow in Cameron's clothes and glasses. During breakfast in the main lodge, Lightning intimidates Cameron by salting his Cameron dummy and taking a big bite out of it.
Real Life
- On Neopets, Team Kiko Lake is widely hated due to a random event where they steal an item from your inventory while collecting donations to go to the Altador Cup. At Neo York City Meets Picnic 2026, a fan meetup, attendees took turns whacking a piñata shaped like Team Kiko Lake's captain, "Poke" Cellers.