Offhand Backhand

Being a Mook is a hard (and short) life. If you're not constantly getting killed, you're getting knocked out by the Hero.

Some Mooks, instead of following the rules of Mook Chivalry, try getting smart by sneaking up on the hero when he's busy fighting another fellow Mook or while in conversation with someone, and striking him from behind.

Sounds easy, right? He's not even looking your way, throwing punches or talking. All you have to do is be silent... just a little closer...

* POW*

Nope, not only do you still get knocked out (or shot down), the Hero doesn't even give you the courtesy of looking your way first. And of course, you just made him look that much cooler.

Compare Foe-Tossing Charge, only even more humiliating for the poor sap on the receiving end. Very commonly featured in a work that is Rated M for Manly. Users of this move tend to have a Badass Back. There is a certain amount of Truth in Television to this: The reverse kick is a fairly viable move. Doesn't mean a flippant Backhanded Apology. See also Excuse Me While I Multitask.

Trivia

 * Bleach :
 * Matsumoto Rangiku does this to both Asano Keigo and Kon when they both attempt to thrust themselves into Marshmallow Hell.
 * Not a punch, but Muguruma Kensei stabs his knife behind him into a skyscraper-height Giant Mook's face to blow it up.
 * Dragon Ball Z :
 * When Frieza fights with Nail, he Flash Steps, intentionally exposing his back to Nail  just  so that he can do this.
 * Dragon Ball Xenoverse  used this scene as inspiration for the Frieza Race's back attack animation.
 * Frieza does it again in the Tournament of Power arc, using his tail.
 * A band of Mooks surrounds Vegeta in Frieza's ship, and the only one that has the balls to attack him from behind (or at all) gets taken out by one of these.
 * It's unknown if Vegeta was intending to invoke this trope by turning his back on Semi-Perfect Cell when dominating him, but given his taunting him, it's likely that's exactly what he planned to do, although Cell seems to wise up and just doles out Ki attacks in response.
 * In Buu's Reincarnation (the penultimate episode of the series), Vegeta does this to his would-be opponent when the latter foolishly attempts to taunt him, knocking him far enough back to hit a billboard and severely injuring him, then has the other opponents inform the referees that his opponent has decided to forfeit the match without turning around even  once.
 * Gohan does this to Bido in  Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound . It ends up killing him and cuts him in half.
 * Master Roshi does this to one of Frieza's minions in  Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’.
 * An enraged Goku instantly teleports and casually backhands Zamasu in  Dragon Ball Super.


 * Alucard from  Hellsing  loves to go Guns Akimbo without looking in one direction. In the finale, Sir Integra shoots Shröedinger without looking (he got better).


 * In  Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin pulls this off against a mook during one of the Kyoto arc episodes with his sheath.


 * Botan, of all people, pulls it off in  YuYu Hakusho . Even if Kuwabara warned her, she still doesn't even look back before thwacking the mook with a metal bat.
 * The title character in Disney's  Hercules  does this to Hades near the end of the film.


 * Slappy Squirrel in  Animaniacs, as quoted above, pulling a huge club out of her purse and....

Toph: You're blind compared to me. Bruce: Why weren't you watching your back? Terry: I was too busy watching my front! Am I supposed to have eyes everywhere? Bruce: Only if you want to live to a ripe old age. Terry: You don't make it sound too inviting.
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender :
 * Aang does this with the Big Bad in the finale using the skills he learned from Toph. He also does this to a  boulder when he was storming the Earth King's palace.
 * Much earlier, Admiral Zhao does this to a North Water Tribe warrior wannabe who tries to attack him during the Siege of the North. Of course, one would have had to be blind and deaf not to see that idiot coming after he announced that he was attacking.
 * A non-violent version of this trope appears in  The Legend of Korra : Korra, Asami and Mako, recently reunited, embrace each other in a group hug. When Prince Wu tries to join in, he runs into Korra's outstretched palm and is kept at arm's length.
 * Earlier in  Korra, during her sparring match with Toph, Korra tries to hit Toph with Waterbending and is smacked down before she even finishes lining up for the strike.
 * Batman  is very, very good at this. In fact, one ad for  The Animated Series  on Kids' WB referred to this move as "Sucker Punch The Guy Behind You". He does it with such frequency that the average mook is  less  likely to land a hit if he's approaching from behind.
 * On the other hand, one episode had guest character The Creeper do this to a few mooks, then Batman himself without missing a beat.
 * In the pilot episode for  Batman Beyond, old man Wayne does this to a Mook with his cane.
 * Lampshaded in the episode "Payback". Terry gets knocked out from behind and later gets a scolding from Bruce:
 * Episode  Out of the past  has this parodied at  Batman the musical  where you could see (an actor playing) Batman doing this to (three actors playing) The Joker, Two face and the Penguin.
 * In  Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker , The Movie for Batman Beyond, Terry manages to pull this off himself, which is part of his claiming/growing into the role.
 * In  Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Gentleman Ghost grabs and throws Deadman in this manner. In an earlier episode, Batman does an Offhand Backhand  underwater . Yet another episode has Green Arrow doing it  between launching arrows fires  in a single movement so fluid it almost looks like an accident.
 * In "Mayhem of the Music Meister", this is done by Black Canary to mooks while singing about Batman.
 * In "A Bat Divided", Batman not only does the offhand backhand but while the victim is standing stunned he grabs him by the head and throws him forward over his shoulder.


 * In  Hey Arnold! , Tsundere Helga likes to monologue about her unrequited love for Arnold when she thinks nobody can hear. However, background character Brainy is always hovering over her shoulder, breathing heavily... and is Offhand Backhanded for his trouble.
 * Jackie Chan Adventures  has Uncle establishing he is sufficiently badass when he grabs a broom, that Jade just used to trip a mook, and comments to "leave the rough stuff to Jackie" then uses the broom to gut punch said mook after he walks behind Uncle.


 * In The Movie of  Kim Possible  Ron Stoppable accidentally defeated the Sumo Ninja by a weak Offhand Backhand.
 * Shego also does it to her temporarily-evil brother. "He always does that move. It never works."
 * Daffy did this to Foghorn Leghorn at one point during their fight in  The Looney Tunes Show  episode "The Foghorn Leghorn".


 * Star Wars Rebels : In "Legacy of Mandalore", Sabine at one point does this to an Imperial Supercommando with the repulsor on her left vambrace.
 * In an episode of  Static Shock, Future!Static does this to a Mook with a quick bolt of lightning from his finger. Present-day Static is naturally quite impressed.
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): When the Shredder and the Foot Ninja attack April's antique shop, Master Splinter delivers a classic Batman-style backhand to a Giant Mook. He does this again to another Foot ninja when Karai invades the Lair and maybe once more at one point inbetween.
 * ThunderCats (2011)
 * Tygra does this to one of the bulldog-like Trollog's in the episode "Berbils". And he's shamelessly awesome doing it.
 * Kaynar does this to Tygra in "Trials Of Lion-o Part I" after he attempts to sneak up on him while invisible.