Link wipes the floor with his enemies.
Eithan Aurelius: He initiated an open attack against me in Serpent's Grave, and I was forced to take out the broom.
Emperor Naru Huan: I've never heard that expression. I assume you mean an actual broom.
Emperor Naru Huan: I've never heard that expression. I assume you mean an actual broom.
All right, you primitive screwheads, listen up. See this? This... is my broomstick!
So our hero is weaponless and about to face a horde of Mooks. He desperately looks around for anything that he can use in a pinch. He grabs the first thing he can find — a mop from the supply closet — and goes to town, using it as one would a Martial Arts Staff.
Note that the title need not be taken literally. Anything vaguely cylindrical and tall as the character wielded as an Improvised Weapon (for which this is a Sub-Trope) falls under this; broomsticks and mop handles are simply the most iconic. This is also a go-to weapon for witches, adding fight to their flight. Anyone who prefers this as their weapon of choice is an Improbable Weapon User. Theoretically, this can be Truth in Television.
Removing the head, or simply attacking with the handle whenever it's a better weapon than the other end of the object, is optional based on the Sliding Scale of Seriousness Versus Silliness.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door: Spike infiltrates a chemical company disguised as a janitor (in another homage to Bruce Lee) and has to defend himself with a push-broom when detected by Action Girl Electra. Not that he made it difficult, since he was using the broom to clean the walls for no reason.
- High School Of The Dead: Rei starts out with one of these, being trained in combat with a spear, and learns the hard way early on that impaling zombies with a broom handle doesn't work.
- Kyo Kara Maoh!: Jennifer uses a broom in place of a fencing foil in the second season.
- Maiden Rose: A group of Luckenwalde students show up armed with brooms and buckets to haze Taki on his first day. By the time we see any action, it's Taki holding the broom and mopping the floor with his attackers.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi: The fight between Setsuna and Asuna in the Tournament Arc features Setsuna wielding a push-broom against Asuna's Paper Fan of Doom, due to bladed weapons being verboten. Also, Setsuna and Asuna are in maid outfits because they weren't as interesting, so Chao ordered them made cute.
- Earlier in the same arc, a minor character, Mei Sakura, wields a traditional broom as a magic weapon; unfortunately, she's up against Kotaro.
- Ranma ½: Ranma has used various things as quarter staffs such as a broom or a laundry pole.
- School-Live!: Yuki comes across a zombie and is forced to kill it with a mop she's holding. It's a major part of her Character Development as, until then, she'd been oblivious to zombies even existing.
- Slam Dunk: During the fight at the gym, one of the members of Mitsui's uses a mop to hit Rukawa in the head.
Comic Books
- Batman: In Detective Comics #59, Batman confronts the Penguin on board a riverboat. When the Penguin pulls a sword from his umbrella, Batman grabs a mop to defend himself. The Penguin cuts through the mop handle, and Batman slaps him in the face with the mop end.
- Daredevil: Matt Murdock and his sensei Stick will use anything at hand as a staff or club, whole or broken.
- Empowered: The weapon of choice for Maid Man. Fitting for a superhero dressed like a maid.
- Hex Wives: In 2005, Isadora killed the Head Architect by stabbing him with a broomstick.
- In Kajko i Kokosz, a Polish comic, Kokosz at one point uses a broom as a very effective weapon. However, a Magic Feather is involved, so he immediately starts losing once it falls apart, even though the handle alone would have been harder.
Fan Works
- The Ultimate Evil: Valerie Payne often ends up using a broom as a weapon, like in her first encounter with the Dark Hand Enforcers. When Valmont hears about how his henchmen were defeated by an average woman armed with a broom, he says that to be the final proof that the Enforcers are hopelessly incompetent. When they are later sent to retrieve the Sheep Talisman from Uncle's shop, Shendu tells them to watch out for brooms, adding with dark humor that Valerie might have killed them had she been armed with a mop.
- Wonderful (Mazinja): One of the many devices Taylor ends up creating is the Wonder-Mop. Originally meant just be a more efficient mop for cleaning purposes, Taylor wasn't able to calibrate it correctly, causing it to make a hole in the floor. It eventually ends up as Emma's weapon as Wonder Star.
Films — Animation
- Adolescence of Utena: Utena uses a broom with the head removed as a sword against Saionji.
- In Turning Red, Mei and Ming brandish brooms at some teens who vandalize their temple with spray paint.
Films — Live-Action
- American Psycho 2: All American Girl: A janitor is found with a mop handle impaled through his head.
- Coming to America has Prince Akeem (professionally trained from childhood in martial arts) do this with an unscrewable mop handle to ward off an armed robber played by Samuel L. Jackson.
- Death Line: One of the cleaners attacks the cannibal with a broom. The cannibal then kills him by shoving the broomstick through his chest.
- Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!: A prostitute has a broom handle shoved down her throat.
- Go West, Young Lady: During the final battle against Killer Pete's gang, several of the women of Headstone are armed with brooms that they use to whack the outlaws.
- Hobgoblins: Nick teaches Kevin all about "hand-to-hand" combat using garden implements.
- Machete: Machete uses a mop to fight his way past Booth's goons following the faked assassination attempt on the senator.
- The Matrix Reloaded: Neo rips a metal post out of the ground (which is almost a case of Telephone Polearm) to use against the army of Smith clones in the Burly Brawl. The first shot has him using the block of concrete at the end as a hammer, but once that breaks he uses it as a quarterstaff.
- My Bloody Valentine 3D: The miner murderer is momentarily fought off with a mop.
- Outlaw Brothers have the hero being attacked by a BFS-wielding villain in the final battle. Unarmed, he grabs a nearby broom and use it surprisingly well to kick ass, and defeats his opponent. Broom — 1, BFS — 0.
- Prom Night (1980): Wendy knocks the killer down with a broom (and lays on a couple of additional blows while he's done) when she escapes from an auto shop.
- Takers: When the crooks he is buying plastic explosive off try to double cross him and take the money, AJ grabs a broom to defend himself and beats the crap out them.
- Tamara: When attacked in the basement, Allison grabs a shovel to defend herself. When Shawn snaps the head off the shovel, Allison is left holding the handle. She then uses the sharp end of the handle to stab him.
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Sarah Connor uses a mop handle during her asylum escape attempt, until she gets a nightstick to replace it.
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974: When it is revealed that the gas store attendant is one of the villains, protagonist Sally quickly grabs a knife to defend herself. She is immediately disarmed and beaten unconscious with a broomstick (in an almost unrealistic fashion).
- UHF's Stanley Spadowski is a simple man. All he wants to do is clean the floors, dig the prize out of the cereal box, and occasionally host an insanely popular kids variety show. But get between him and his mop, and you are asking for problems.
Literature
- Cradle Series: Eithan, being a proud janitor, uses a broom when he gets serious. A broom forged in soulfire, making it strong enough to perfectly conduct madra and knock people through mountains. In Reaper, this is revealed to be a preference he inherited from Ozmanthus, the original patriarch of the Aurelius family. Ozmanthus was so unspeakably good at killing things, but all he really wanted to do was clean up the world by destroying the dreadbeasts that were infesting it. So he intentionally downgraded his weapon to a broom.
- Heralds of Valdemar: In one of the Tarma and Kethry short stories, Tarma defends herself against an armed drunk with a broomstick because she wants to avoid doing permanent damage if possible. Unfortunately, the drunk ends up cracking his head against the fireplace and dying. Fortunately for them, the drunk in question was well known and highly unpopular. Unfortunately for them he also ran the town and was the only one the thugs he used for "law enforcement" would heed, so his not-so-bereaved widow pays Tarma and Kethry off to lead them out of town.
- In Rapscallion, Matthew Hawkwood defends himself with a besom broom. Played far more seriously than most examples, as Hawkwood shoves the twig end of the broom in his foe's face, causing dozens of sharp twigs to snap off and embed themselves in his face. Ouch!
Live-Action TV
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Any wooden object can become a stake, and Buffy often improvises in this manner to slay vampires, most notably when she massacres a vampire gang in "Into the Woods". It's also Played for Laughs a few times, including when Cordelia picks up a spatula thinking she will use it as a weapon.
- Doctor Who: In "The Vampires of Venice", Rory attempts to take on a swordsman armed only with a broom.
- Fawlty Towers: In "The Psychiatrist", Mr Johnson smuggles a non-paying girl into his room. Basil suspects this, and when he thinks he has them cornered, he leaps out of a cupboard brandishing a broom, saying "Right! The game's up." Unfortunately, he has ambushed Doctor and Mrs Abbott instead, and covers by sweeping the floor and the wall, saying "a bit of game pie got stuck up there".
- Grange Hill: In series 2, the caretaker Mr Garfield catches Cathy, Madelin, Jackie and Brenda smoking behind the bike sheds. When they run off, Mr Garfield and his colleague block the girls' path with a broom.
- Kamen Rider Den-O: Ryotaro uses a nearby broom on a Monster of the Week when he's fighting for his life. The broom is quickly broken. Despite its short-lived appearance, the so-named "Rider Broom" remained in the fandom's memory throughout the year.
- Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: In "Blood & Money", Phryne grabs a mop and uses it to fend off a man who attacks her with a bayonet.
Pro Wrestling
- In 2005, WWC booked Black Rose and La Bella Carmen in a brooms match.
- When La Intrusa and Polly Star got together and enlisted the help of a referee to take out Diana La Cazadora during a 2006 LLF show, she ended up using a broom to fight the three of them off.
- During one of TNA's all knockout shows, Jacqueline pulled out a broom on ODB, leading to the crowd singing "Sweep her up Jackie, sweep her up!"
- Kenny Omega took up a broom as part of his "Cleaner" gimmick in Bullet Club. He's going to "sweep" all the "trash" out of New Japan's super junior ranks.
Video Games
- Brooms are weaponisable in the Assassin's Creed series starting with Assassin's Creed II. Taken to absurd levels in that same game when you find out that it's possible to slit someone's throat using the broom, with the same sound effects of a regular bladed weapon. There's an achievement for killing someone using a broom in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, in which it is used the same way as a hammer.
- In Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea, one of the two main characters, Shallotte, uses brooms as her weapons. This fits with both her job as a janitor, and her dream of having a Flying Broomstick.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the Xbox. Stuck without a weapon? Look for a broom or a mop (or just kick a chair in half).
- In Chrono Trigger, Charming a Nu gives you a Mop, which Crono can wield like a katana. It's weaker than even his starting weapon, but that just makes it all the more entertaining when, after two or three passes through New Game Plus, you get strong enough that you can equip the Mop and still curb-stomp everything in the game.
- City of Heroes: One of the weapon appearances for the Staff Fighting powerset is a broom, leading to people making characters with names like "Maid Man".
- Clunky Hero: Rufus' starter weapon is his wife's broomstick.
- Yan from Crisis Beat, who's working part-time as a cleaner on a luxury ship called The Princess when terrorists take it over. Escaping with her trusty broom, she spends the entire game using it to whack the asses of several dozen terrorist mooks, and can even defeat enemy bosses with it.
- Crisis Core: Zack fights a bunch of armed soldiers on the beach... wearing only a bathing suit and armed with an umbrella. He wins.
- Dead Rising, king of the Improvised Weapon trope in video games, includes a broom. After a few hits, the end breaks off and Frank uses it as a spear.
- Dungeon Siege: The first game starts with the hero having to do this with a pitchfork until he gets a real weapon from his enemies.
- Final Fantasy VII: One of Cid's weapons is actually a mop (well, more like a push broom...). Other characters have similar weapons, which are rather powerful but lack materia slots, the best example being an umbrella for Aeris.
- Jackie Chan Stuntmaster has players becoming Jackie himself and kicking ass with an assortment of weapons, one of them being brooms. The first boss fight (against a Chef of Iron) even ends with Chan using a broom like a hockey stick to send his defeated opponent out of the screen!
- The janitor from Kindergarten regularly uses the handle of his mop Mr. Sweepy to stab to death children who anger him (or in the case of Monty, near death).
- Legend of Mana: Lisa uses her father's broomstick as her weapon of choice. Partly justified in that she uses it as a staff, which mostly have magic-related specials. That doesn't stop her from cracking skulls with that thing.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: One of the melee weapons is a Wooden Mop, found either around the villages and stables or being wielded by Bokoblins, which is used like a thrusting spear. Strangely, when swung around it always makes a wet sloshing sound as if it had just been dipped in a bucket for a cleaning job, even the ones the Bokoblins use.
- Mace: The Dark Age has a Hidden Character named Ned the Janitor. He's a reskin of Xiao Long and uses a pushbroom in place of Xiao's quarterstaff.
- Miitopia: One of the Mages' weapons is a broom. They can even cast spells with it.
- Persona: The default weapon for some party members is a mop. It's the only weapon that can be equipped by all characters. Justified, because they're all school students who got caught up in the apocalypse and have to contend with whatever the school can provide.
- Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire: A Nerf Arm is a broom whose enchantments are allegedly only to make sweeping easier, but counts as a superb unique weapon and can cause dazing, possibly even confusion on a hit.
- RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore: Remi's weapon in the game is the broom she's sweeping the library with at the start. It's surprisingly strong to be able to smash objects and Mecha-Mooks.
- Resident Evil: Outbreak: Push brooms are available as (very weak) weapons. There's also nondescript wooden poles and crutches available.
- River City Ransom EX features mops as one of the available types of Improvised Weapons. The only way to acquire a mop is by fighting the Entrees gang (who, in addition to mops, use ladders as weapons).
- Sakuna Of Rice And Ruin: There's a broom that Sakuna can equip as a two-handed weapon. It at first seems to nothing but a Joke Weapon that only deals 1 point of damage per hit, but when combined with several items it instead becomes a Lethal Joke Weapon that's one of the most powerful two-handed weapons in the game.
- Soulcalibur features a broom as Seong Mi-na's unlockable joke weapon.
- Spike Out have some occasional mooks armed with scrubbing brushes, which they'll use as a weapon. Though if left idle, they'll actually ignore you and start scrubbing floors (until you approach them).
- Tales Series: The Deck Brush is a recurring weapon in the series, and varies wildly in how effective it is.
- Tales of Destiny 2: It's a Joke Item to the fullest extent, and will make Loni botch his ultimate Limit Break in an amusing fashion if you try to use it while he has it equipped.
- Tales of Symphonia: It's a Lethal Joke Item for Raine Sage, being one of her strongest weapons.
- Tales of Vesperia: It's a Lethal Joke Item for Judith, and also gives her a trio of special sweeping attacks if she's wearing her maid costume.
- Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Roll uses a broom as a weapon.
- Thy Dungeonman II: The titular Dungeonman gets only a mop as a weapon, being a janitor working in a dungeon.
- Troublemaker has Alan as the only boss who fights using a weapon, that being his trusty broom. In both his boss fights.
Web Animation
- Dead Fantasy: Tifa does this with a service jack, before removing the thick metal end.
Webcomics
- Dead Winter: Lizzie's primary weapon of choice is a mop. Becoming proficient with it due to her days as a waitress, somehow.
- Girl Genius: When Agatha and Tarvek get cornered
by Vrin the sword-wielding Geisterdamen warrior-priestess, Tarvek tries without success to use a broom as a weapon; Agatha has better luck because commands issued in her voice trigger just enough of an involuntary reaction in Vrin to slow her down.
- Homestuck: The nigh-omnipotent Doc Scratch uses a broom to smack around his "guest", a young girl. Later on, this same broom is used by Andrew Hussie himself to give Doc Scratch a senseless drubbing.
- Never Satisfied: Broom Girl has carried a broomstick around since chapter one, though she mainly uses it as transportation. In the fifth round, she uses it as a weapon.
- The Order of the Stick: In one strip, Roy considers using a broom handle as an improvised quarterstaff when deprived of more conventional weapons.
- Penny Arcade: The Cardboard Tube Samurai — except it's not an Improvised Weapon, it's his weapon of choice.
- Sinfest: Nana scares off a couple of demonic bullies with her broom, then goes back to using it to tidy up the coffee shop.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: One episode uses this in a fight between Jimmy's mother and a robot duplicate of her: After pulling out the broom, mop, and rake, and having each one snapped in half by the robot, she reveals that she keeps a plasma rifle in her broom closet "for those tough, ground-in stains". (Considering her son's experiments, a wise precaution...)
- American Dad!: In "Stan Knows Best", a stripper in a French Maid Outfit uses a broom with a retractable blade in the handle.
- The Boondocks: Huey snaps the head of a broom off with a kick and uses the handle to subdue the theater security, but he doesn't fare as well against Uncle Ruckus's unforeseen nunchaku expertise.
- Jackie Chan Adventures: In the first episode, Jackie is able to fend off the Dark Hand's Enforcers using a pair of windshield wipers, much to their boss's disappointment.
Valmont: You mean to tell me that three of my best enforcers, armed with cutting edge high tech weaponry, were defeated by an archaeologist?
[Beat]
Finn: Did we mention he had windshield wipers? - The Simpsons: In the Season 4 DVD menu, Marge uses a mop like a bo-staff.
- Superman: The Animated Series: Subverted when Superman faces off with Parasite, who is able to copy powers by stealing them from their owners. He stole most of Superman's powers, as well as those of Livewire's. Superman bravely waves a mop in his face, and Parasite answers by using electricity to set it alight. Superman, unimpressed, raises the burning mop... next to a fire detector, causing the sprinklers to activate, as being immersed in water causes Livewire's powers to act up.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): When the turtles are held captive on an alien prison asteroid, they find a broom closet and get replacements for all of their weapons from the tools inside it.
Real Life
- An eighty-two year old woman, Willie Murphy, used a broom as a weapon against an intruder in November 2019 in Rochester, New York. Murphy, a regular weightlifter who can deadlift 225 pounds, started her defense with a table and a full bottle of shampoo before going at him with the broom.
