Follow TV Tropes


Flipping the Table

Go To

Dave: Whoa, the Big Guy made a dud call? Uh oh...
Sara: Please don't flip the table, Brian. Please don't flip the table.
Brian: I'm... trying really hard not to, Sara, but... RAAAAAARRRGH!

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

When, out of anger or frustration, one character flips over a table that another character is sitting at, doing something on, or eating from. When the character is frustrated with himself/herself, they might flip their own table as a sign of extreme fury.

In Western uses (where it's often substituted with Desk Sweep of Rage), it's almost always a sign of a hot-tempered or violent character, and is done in anger, but as an alternative to hitting a person; while in a Boke and Tsukkomi Routine, it's more likely to be caused by frustration. Sometimes, the character is drunk and filled with rage, which is more often used in Japanese media. This may also be used in action movies as a form of diversion when fighting breaks out. In either case, the table may be covered with countless small objects which go flying everywhere when it is flipped.


See also Tantrum Throwing. If the action taking place at the table is a game of some sort, Flipping the Table often accompanies a Rage Quit, or more general Screw This, I'm Outta Here!

Not to be confused with Flipping the Bird, although both tropes involve angry reactions.


    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In the first episode of Bleach, Ichigo flips a table after hearing Rukia's explanation of Soul Reapers. The manga lampshades this: a note taped to the table reads "CAUTION: For use in sight gags only!"
  • In Kyojin no Hoshi (Star of the Giants), an old-fashioned father would flip over the family dinner table whenever he was morally outraged, while they were eating; the dinner would be subsequently ruined. Several subsequent occurrences of Flipping the Table were direct references to this scene, which appeared in the series' closing-credits montage; after undergoing Memetic Mutation, Flipping the Table became part of the visual meme-pool of Japanese comedy in general.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has a card called "Flipping the Table". In one episode, used by Hayato's (Chumley in the dub) father who (in the Japanese version, at least) was a substantial drunkard and owns a sake company (in the dub, he just owns a hot sauce company). When played, a giant table does invariably appear and Hayato's father does overturn it fairly violently.
  • Referred to in two of the Slayers Non Serial Movies. In Slayers: Gorgeous, Lina and Naga are engaged in yet another duel of spells, and Lina has cast a spell that, by way of a side effect, froze the surface of a nearby pond; Naga retaliates by summoning up an earth golem and having it perform a chabudai-gaeshi with the sheet of ice — it flips through the air and almost crushes Lina. In "Slayers: Great", while engaged in a battle that parodies the Super Robot genre, Naga purposely freezes a river the two are duelling near and uses her giant golem to flip the ice sheet to knock Lina's giant golem off of her feet.
  • One Piece: Franky does this during Luffy's fight with the Galley-La company, due to him being denied battling Luffy, since they were the ones fighting in the first place. Also done in Unlimited Adventure, where Franky actually builds a table from scratch, only to flip it mere seconds after finishing it. He also flips another table during the ending cinematic.
  • Ranma ½
    • Ranma, trying to convince Ukyo to dump him, flips a dinner table over with a meal she cooked on it. It didn't have the right effect as everyone at the table grabbed a plate and saved the meal and he got kicked into low earth orbit.
    • Subverted in the first episode, where instead of flipping the table over, Akane picks it up and smacks Ranma with it.
    • Genma has actually developed this as a martial arts technique, Wrath of the Father, which he uses against Nodoka (yeah, he's scum).
  • In Naruto, Shikamaru Nara gets mentally and verbally probed by his father Shikaku during a game of shogi after Shikamaru's sensei, Asuma, is killed. Shikamaru finally snaps and flips the shogi board with a well-placed backhand.
  • In Mamotte Shugogetten, Tasuke does this in one episode in order to get Shao to think of him as a jerk in order to help her.
  • In the Mazinkaiser movie, Boss insists on Flipping the Table before revealing where he hid the Kaiser Pilder, much to Kouji's confusion.
  • Kyouya flips the table on Tamaki (amoung other things) on Ouran High School Host Club when Tamaki jokes that losing claim to his father's company would give him time for more interesting things. As third in line in his family, Kyouya is disgusted Tamaki is so close to having it all and is not willing to fight for it. Tamaki counters that Kyouya is just projecting his frustrations on Tamaki and is mad that he isn't fighting for his father's company.
  • The second episode of Panda Z is made entirely of Talon, the main character, and his aged grandfather sitting down to a healthy meal of batteries (let's all use them properly). Talon tries various utensils to eat the batteries (fork, knife, screwdriver, scissors, etc.), but fails each time, gets frustrated and angrily knocks the table over. After several of these, Panjii gets up, picks up another fully set table from offscreen, sets it down where the original table was, and flips the new one over himself.
  • Early in Fruits Basket Kyo upends a table during a heated exchange with Yuki... and unintentionally hits Tohru in the head with it. Then we find out why you don't anger Yuki...
  • Used seriously in Mahou Sensei Negima!, against Big Bad Fate Averruncus.
  • Seitokai no Ichizon: Ken upon hearing Kurumi say she didn't do anything wrong on the exams. She got two 25s and a 27.
  • In Heaven's Lost Property, Tomoki sometimes does this when he's frustrated with the angeloids shenanigans (usually Ikaros'), such as when Ikaros failed to affect a smile or when the angeloids decided to make an entrance in the roof of his house.
  • Referenced by Death in the final episodes of Soul Eater when he flips over Arachnia's fortress while piloting Death City transformed into a Giant Mecha!
  • Axis Powers Hetalia Egypt flips tables.
  • Stocking of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt has this reaction to the Demon Sisters calling her fat. She surprises even her usually more hot-blooded sister, Panty.
  • Shizuo Heiwajima of Durarara!! has an infamous habit of flipping and tossing the nearest 400-pound object whenever he gets angry. Tables are not excluded.
  • In Zettai Karen Children, BABEL has different interview rooms specially designed for different situations. The "Gift of Children" arc shows one for talking to an esper-hater if their child awakens as an esper. It includes a tea table specifically so the parent can flip it if they get angry.
  • Done hilariously in magico by a samurai when he finds out that her wife had been lying about her BWH measurements.
  • Haruhi-chan had this in episode 3, which is Achakura's first episode. When Achakura is given a doggie dish, the doggie dish appears to contain dog food. Nagato thinks it's a joke and proceeds to give real food to Achakura in said doggie dish. Achakura's response? She flips the dish. Achakura acually does this with every other food Nagato gives her.
  • Flipping the (traditional) mahjong table seems to be a Running Gag in Legendary Gambler Tetsuya. Tetsuya does it the first time he is pwned by Boshu, then when Tetsuya get rid of the bamboo-backed mahjong tiles and change the set to plastic ones to deny Innami's heightened sense, and then when Danchi is pwned by Tetsuya. Everytime it happens, it's epic.
  • A slightly drunk Itsuwa does this in A Certain Magical Index. To Tatemiya, who had just played a prank on her regarding her crush on Touma. She flipped it so hard it struck him in the face and sent him flying out of the room. Everyone else wisely decides to stay out of Itsuwa's way after this.
  • One of the later chapters of Baki the Grappler (Baki: Son of Ogre) the protagonist Hanma Baki is engaging his father in a battle of minds where both try to catch the other in their illusions. This goes as far as the two of them having an imaginary dinner at an imaginary table. Baki eventually wins this battle when he flips the table and gets his father to try to catch it thus proving that the latter was deceived by the vividness of Baki’s illusion.
  • Samurai Champloo episode, 'War of the Worlds' has one rough-tough teacher insult and aggravate Mugen into learning how to read. In a semi-quiz, Mugen gets a character wrong, and gets slapped and yelled at - as a result of which, Mugen flips the table sitting between him and his teacher, shouting, "This sucks!!"
  • Downplayed in the Lupin III Pilot Film, but when Lupin "beats" Inspector Zenigata in Shogi, the detective knocks everything off his desk.
  • Invoked in Assassination Classroom, when Koro-sensei volunteers to coach his students for an upcoming baseball exhibition match. He brings along a miniature table stocked with food for the express purpose of flipping it over, thus achieving his dream of acting like one of those "hot-blooded coaches you find in sports series".
  • Levi in Trinity Seven has a skill specifically for flipping a table. She's however not someone who easily gives in to frustration, and the one time she uses it is to flip a bed, for the purpose of exposing what's on the underside of it.
  • This is a running gag with Keiichi Hiiragi in Onegai My Melody.
  • Gunslinger Girl. Mimi does this for a Ditch the Bodyguards ploy. She kicks over the chess set they were just playing while apparently Tantrum Throwing over not being allowed outside, then when Hilshire and Triela get down on the floor to pick up the pieces she handcuffs them together and flees.

    Comic Books 
  • Knights of the Dinner Table:
    • Brian flips the table he and his friends play Hackmaster at when the other players drive him into an Unstoppable Rage somehow.
    • Bob sometimes attempts it but usually can't lift the table.
    • We learn in issue #218 that Weird Pete had bolted his table to the floor to prevent this.
  • Prowl in IDW's Transformers comics has a tendency to do this, according to Rewind and Chromedome, to the point of it being a meme both in the fandom and in-universe. At one point, Rewind tries to do it, but being on the smaller side as far as Transformers go, he fails to make it jitter let alone flip. At one point in The Transformers: Titans Return, Fortress Maximus attempts to flip a table-shaped switch and is unable to do so. Prowl easily does it, despite Fortres Maximus being among the physically strongest Autobots.
  • Happens once or twice in Mafalda, but with chess boards instead of tables.
  • In the first story arc of the Adventure Time comics, Finn builds a table out of sand just so he can flip it over. He tries flipping over a real table in the second story arc, only to discover it's nailed to the floor.
  • Deadpool somehow managed to flip The Unbelievable Gwenpool's mental chessboard when he realized that the girl is also a Fourth-Wall Observer so he can make the encounter a meta-off instead of a fight (which he was losing).
  • Robin Series: Stephanie flipped the end table the phone was on when it kept ringing shortly after she and her mother learned of her father's supposed death. She was already upset because they were grieving him despite his criminal past and what a poor father and husband he'd been and was set off by the disruption.

  • In The List Harry is upset by Hermione's badgering and flips over their table in the library.
  • In Tealove's Steamy Adventure, Libra ends a tea party by calmly asking everyone to step away from the table, then flipping it across the room, roaring as she does so. Then she retrieves her baseball bat from a hole where the table had been standing a second ago.
  • In Harry and Sodor - The Magic of Normality Harry flips over Minister Shacklebolt's desk when the latter states that his term in office will be limited unless he chucks Harry into Azkaban.
  • An embittered Lieutenant Kim does this in the Star Trek: Voyager fic "The Flux of Mortal Things". B'Elanna ends up headbutting him and they both get thrown into the brig.

    Films — Animated 
  • In Beauty and the Beast, Gaston flips over a table in the middle of a chess game he's playing during his Villain Song. Probably because he was losing. That, and nobody flips tables like Gaston.
  • A more exaggerated version in Fantastic Mr. Fox: Bean does this as part of his Villainous Breakdown, though he doesn't just flip over the table; he destroys just about everything in his office.
  • Captain Hook in Peter Pan does this when he reminds Smee about the time Peter chopped off his hand.
  • In Cars, after Lightning's tire blows out, one of his pit crew members flips a stack of tires over in frustration.
  • In The Prince of Egypt, Ramses finds Hotep and Huy hiding behind a curtain applying ointments and medicines to their boils. Ramses flips the table and orders them to get out, implying that they're being fired.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Films about Jesus often have him doing this in the Temple (see Religion below). The King of Kings is just one of these.
  • In Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the newly married Milly flips the table her uncivilized brothers-in-law are sitting at after witnessing their disgusting table manners.
  • You will see this once in a while in American sports movies; usually the coach of a losing team flipping a table or bench loaded with Gatorade in order to shock his team into being serious.
  • Jules does this early in Pulp Fiction, at the beginning of the famous "what?" exchange.
  • In the Thor film, Odin berates Thor for his belligerence and withholds his Kingship. Thor does not take this well. The scene then immediately cuts to him flipping over an entire banquet table in frustration.
  • Happens in Take Shelter during a fight between the hero and his fellow colleague.
  • The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015). CIA agent Napoleon Solo and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin are ordered by their respective superiors to work together. They leave them in a cafe to 'get acquainted', and the two agents promptly try to find each other's Berserk Button. Solo wins, as shown when Kuryakin reaches this trope and storms off.
  • Flintlock Hogan flips the table after he accuses Rayne of cheating at poker in BloodRayne II: Deliverance.

  • 'The Yillian Way'' by Keith Laumer. A human diplomat negotiating a peace settlement with the Yill is about to tuck into the disgusting Alien Lunch being served up to him. However his aide realises this is a Secret Test of Character and knocks over the table to prevent this from happening. He then marches up to the table where the Yill leaders are dining and demands to be served good human food. As Yill society is based on alpha male domination, he successfully asserts his authority in their eyes.
  • In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Drinian and Bern do this to Gumpas' table, to get his attention.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire. Prince Aegon Targaryen kicks over the cyvasse table when Tyrion Lannister points out a few flaws in his Rightful King Returns plan, then demands that Tryion pick up the mess. Tryion can't help being reminded of Royal Brat Joffrey, who turned out to be The Caligula once he took the throne. It's a sign that the plan to raise Aegon as Modest Royalty, so he'll empathize with the common people, might have a few flaws.
  • Rogue: At a birthday party in fourth grade, Kiara lost her temper from all the other kids picking on her and flipped the table with the cake on it. She wasn't invited to any more birthday parties after that.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 24: Jack Bauer uses this at times as an intimidation tactic during interrogations. The most notable instance was his interrogation of Nina Myers, in which he deliberately played up his hammy rage to appear as if he were genuinely losing control of himself and an actual threat to this terrorist’s life right then and there. It scares his CTU coworkers who are concerned he isn’t faking, but it works.
  • Battlestar Galactica: Colonel Tigh is playing a game of cards with some of Galactica's pilots. He and Starbuck obviously don't get along, due to her being a Military Maverick and Tigh being a bitter obnoxious drunk. Eventually, the two antagonize each other to the point where Tigh finally loses it and tosses the table, leading to Starbuck reflexively punching him in the face. She gets locked up for her troubles, but Tigh agrees with Commander Adama not to press charges because he was too drunk to remember who started the fight.
  • Parodied in a The Kids in the Hall sketch where a disgruntled employee barges into his boss' office to berate him. He tries to flip the desk over but it proves too heavy. He makes several attempts but fails each time, eventually settling on throwing a pen across the room.
  • An episode of Monk involved a play where the male lead was supposed to flip over a table in anger. After he becomes the Victim of the Week, Adrian — after having memorized the entire part just from watching the rehearsal and turning out to be a good actor in his own right — ends up taking over his role. When it comes around to the table flipping scene, he can't bring himself to do that; instead he removes everything that's on it before carefully turning it on its side.
  • The Orville. In the episode "A Happy Refrain", Claire uses the idiom "let's flip the tables here" to suggest a change of conversation to Isaac. Due to being Literal-Minded, he does this (though since they are in the simulator, he merely has the computer reset the table afterward).
  • 30 Rock:
    • "Where's my mac and cheese?" in "Sandwich Day,"
    • Later parodied when Josh tries to storm out in disgust. He's unable to overturn the table, and Lemon urges the other writers to help him.
  • On Top Gear, when James May attempted to play a car-themed version of Top Trumps with The Stig, Stig overturned the table and stormed off in disgust.
  • On Glee in 'The Sue Sylvester Shuffle' coach Beiste flips a table after losing a game
  • On Man v. Food Adam Richman flipped a table after winning a spicy food challenge.
  • Teresa Giudice from The Real Housewives of New Jersey. right here.
  • Once Upon a Time: Emma is on a date with the person she needs to put in jail, and the guy flips the table on her.
  • On Bottom, a seemingly "innocent" game of Chess led to Eddie Hitler flipping the table onto Richie's feet.
  • Rizzoli & Isles: In "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", Korsak and Frost attempt to arrest a suspect at an underground gambling club. He flips the table as part of his attempt to escape.
  • The Colbert Report introduced Stephen Colbert's Super Coin Toss, a board game with an elaborate set-up (actually a Mouse Trap board with a few other things added on it) and rules. The first player — who would be the winner of the game — is determined by flipping the "Medallion of Fate". When Stephen loses the toss to young Brandon, he does this.
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: One of the setup steps to their incoherent drunken boardgame "Chardee MacDennis" is nailing the game board down because by round 3 (hard liquor), Mac always gets frustrated and tries to Rage Quit. Mac admits that it's for the best and will forget that board is nailed down later in the game. True enough, he does try to flip the board, but is unable to do so.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In "Blood Ties", vampire Spike does this with the stone lid of a sarcophagus while arguing with Buffy.
  • One clip on World's Dumbest... shows someone doing this after losing in a Rock–Paper–Scissors tournament. (Seriously.)
  • Weaponised in Game of Thrones. The fight at the inn starts with Sandor Clegane flipping the table onto Polliver, which interferes with Polliver drawing his sword. By the time he crawls out from under the table, Sandor has used the opportunity to kill several of his men.
  • Daredevil (2015):
    • When Madame Gao tells Wilson Fisk he will be removed if he does not reassert control over his criminal alliance, he ends up flipping his massive metal dining table in rage seconds after she leaves.
    • When Fisk goes public before Matt's group exposes him, Matt angrily knocks everything off his kitchen table.
    • In the last episode Matt flips over a table covered in playing cards when he finally gets to Hoffman, who he needs to take down Fisk's whole operation. Takes on extra symbolic significance given the Playing Card Motifs of Fisk's criminal empire.
  • The Defenders (2017): Returning back to his apartment after going out to beat up some looters in the midst of an artificial earthquake triggered by the Hand, Matt tries to bandage his bloodied knuckles. However, his hands are very shaky, and he eventually snaps and sweeps his medical supplies off the kitchen table. The shot is staged almost identically to when he was listening to Fisk's speech.
  • Vikings: Viking Rollo is shown being taught Old French at court in Paris by a clergyman and he's having a terrible time. It involves him suddenly being fluent in Angrish resembling Old French, tearing a book page in tiny pieces and crumpling it, flipping his own table, grabbing his teacher by the collar, flinging said teacher across the room. He storms out of the room and knocks down a chair for good measure.
  • Jonah's half of the Invention Exchange in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode Yongary, is a tiny desk you can flip over in a rage without making a huge mess you have to clean up afterwards.
  • Cracker. Fitz loses all his money gambling, so he asks the manager of the casino to do him the favour of banning him. He refuses. So Fitz walks over to some Asian gamblers and flips over their table, to their fury. The manager gives a deadpan, "You're banned."
  • In The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, one opening sketch (24th of October, 2019) depicted Risk: Chaos Edition, where when one player protests the other's claims of having won at the game, he just flips the table over. ("I win again!")
  • In the third season of the turkish soap opera ''Diriliş: Ertugrul", Vasilius, the Big Bad Guy of the season, he flipped over a tabletop chess, scattering all the pieces around, after the news of a big defeat and discovering a whistleblower in his castle, his former fiancee Helena.

  • Last in Bloodline does this a ton in the Tomato Land side story volume.

  • The event in The Bible is referenced in a comedic rap depicting the Vatican as being consumed by love of money.
    Buy as much as you want! Buy as much as you're able!
    Just don't let Jesus in, or He'll start flippin' tables!
  • Happens in the first verse of the Pet Shop Boys song "West End Girls"
    You think you're mad, too unstable
    Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables
    In a restaurant in a West End town
    Call the police, there's a madman around
  • Mentioned in the Let It Go song parody Fuck It All.
    ...Flip the table, screw you all!

    Music Videos 
  • The video for Duran Duran's Hungry Like The Wolf has the lead singer flip over a table in a restaurant. This is due mostly to sexual urges than anger, however.
  • Also done in the video for "We Didn't Start The Fire" by Billy Joel, and quite appropriately, at the line "Rock and roll and Cola Wars, I can't take it anymore!"
    • In one live performance (one of the concerts he did in the USSR in 1987) he noticed that audience members who were enjoying themselves became uncomfortable when the lights fell on them, as the film crew documenting the show kept turning on the lights so they could get film of the audience. He lost his temper, and ended up flipping over his electric piano.
  • In the video for "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers, during the scene when frontman Brandon Flowers is playing checkers with Eric Roberts.
  • About 2:25 into the music video for Rihanna's song "Hard", she flips the table during a card game.
  • This is also done to the boardgame "Mouse Trap" in a parody of OK GO's "This too shall pass".
  • At 2:00 in the Bruno Mars "It Will Rain" music video.
  • Andy Samberg does this to a couple of "Hollywood Phonies" during Threw It On The Ground of The Lonely Island fame. Unfortunately for him, the phonies (Ryan Reynolds and Elijah Wood) happen to have a taser, and they proceed to give him a hefty dose of Taser-Guided Karma.
  • In the DVD performance of "Not In Our House" from !HERO: The Rock Opera, the lead character Hero turns over tables at the synagogue that Chief Rabbi Kai is in charge of.

     Professional Wrestling 
  • Whenever there's a contract signing for a huge match in WWE, expect this to happen at some point as the tension between the two wrestlers boils over, and they either glare at each other with their faces inches apart, or just start brawling.
  • On one episode of Smackdown, Mark Henry was facing then World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton when someone hit Big Show’s music, distraction Henry long enough for Orton to RKO him and win via count out. In response, Henry angrily approached audio technician Jeremy Diaz, whom he believed had played the music, and began to destroy his equipment piece by piece before flipping over the table the equipment was on and throwing Diaz over a series of crates.


    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 
  • Tabletop Simulator features this as a game play mechanic.
  • One of Kliff's opening poses in Guilty Gear involves angrily flipping a table.
  • Meta example: Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto is known within the company for (metaphorically) "upending the table" on projects which he was unsatisfied with, like the father in Kyojin no Hoshi. The phrase has since become a minor meme to the fanbase.
    • During the development of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, Eiji Aonuma described Miyamoto as "upending the tea table" in the story development, leaving the plot rather... messy. He felt it was too complicated.
  • One of the sillier Finishing Moves in Tech Romancer involves one of the Mecha flipping the table on the other mech.
  • Referenced in Super Robot Wars. One of Masaaki's possible spoof-Calling Your Attacks for his Psybuster's basic Discutter is "Magic Blade: Ether Table Flip Attack! ...just kidding."
  • In Final Fantasy VII in the snowboarding minigame where you're weaving through igloos, one of them has a Moogle at a table. Crash into it and the Moogle will throw the table at you, imitating this trope.
  • One of Zangief's attacks in Super Gem Fighter, complete with him reading a newspaper before getting angry at the opponent and ripping it in half before flipping the table at them.
  • Chaos Code's resident Chef of Iron Bravo Peperoncine has a super attack called "Getting Angry! Evil Course Fast Food", during which a table with McDonald's food and a microwave oven appears before him. Enraged, he flips it at the opponent.
  • In the game One Piece: Unlimited Adventure, Franky flips a table as part of his animation when creating a new invention in his workshop.
  • Team Fortress 2's The Heavy in Poker Night at the Inventory does this when he loses a large hand—he follows this up by spinning his minigun, which thankfully, has no ammo.
    • In Team Fortress 2 proper, The Heavy has a taunt much like this, although he doesn't do it out of rage, and there are no board games on the table (instead there being some soup and other cooking objects).
  • Cho Chabudai Gaeshi is a arcade game from Taito that allow players to do this, with the goal being to slam the table to get people gathered in front of you, and to finally flip the table and let physics do the rest. No, we are not kidding. The game features a wide cast of characters to choose, changing the venue. For example: A ghost attending his own wake. Slamming the table makes the attendee think the place in haunted and investigate. The table you're flipping is actually your own open casket. It even received a sequel! Unfortunately, like a lot of Japanese-developed arcade games, it's Japan-only, unless your arcade decides to grey market import it.
  • In the Mass Effect 2 DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker, the Shadow Broker is revealed to be a 4 meter tall space gorilla. When Liara responds to his Breaking Speech by pushing his Berserk Button, he hurls his entire desk at the party before charging them. While Shepard and Liara dodge, whoever's filling the third party slot isn't so lucky and is knocked out for the fight.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda: Depending on the player's actions, they might hear about Nakmor Morda flipping tables when she's supposed to be meeting with the Andromeda Initiative's Acting Director (who she has a very personal grudge against), because she's angry. Or irritated. Or just because.
  • High level cooks in World of Warcraft can acquire a "flippable table" as a reward item in Mists of Pandaria. The icon for this item looks like an extremely enraged face.
  • If you're willing to accept the Earth, or at least Sumaru City as the "table" in question, then Nyarlathotep's actions just after the final boss fight in Persona 2: Innocent Sin are basically one huge table-flip, but one he had carefully set up just in case he was beat. Yes, Nyarlathotep is such a Chessmaster that table-flipping is one of his stratagems — he doesn't care about playing, he cares about ruining the game for everyone else.
  • In the beginning of Injustice: Gods Among Us, alternative reality Superman does this when "interrogating" The Joker, who was sitting behind the table — or at when least complaining to him about how he killed everyone and made Superman kill someone he loved. The table flies pretty far to the side, naturally, but still to a kind of restrained extent considering it's Superman we're talking about. Still, if you thought at this point he was flipping out, you'd be right.
  • The "Flip Out" Emote Animation in Destiny 2 has your Guardian conjure a table out of Hard Light for the sole purpose of flipping it in a huff.


    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • The Adventure Time episode What Have You Done? has Princess Bubblegum flipping a table in both the title card and in the episode itself.
  • On Jimmy Two-Shoes, Jimmy attempts to do this when subjecting Beezy to some Perp Sweating. He ends up being too weak to do so, and asks Beezy to help him. He does.
  • Averted in Metalocalypse. The band's manager has their tables bolted down since Nathan does this so often.
  • Muscle Man on Regular Show flips the table out of anger of being splashed with a soda twice.
  • On one episode of Family Guy, Cleveland was living with the Griffins, and in the midst of a messy divorce. While watching tv with Stewie, he finally snaps and says "I hate Bewitched!" when it comes on, and flips the couch over. While Stewie was sitting on it. Stewie responds "Yeah, that was totally reasonable reaction..."
    • Another possible instance is in the episode, where Stewie and Brian are playing Chess in the back of Quagmire's RV, while he is having sex while driving. When their chess pieces get knocked off due to the reckless driving, they argue when they try to put the pieces back, causing Stewie to snap and knock the pieces off the table again.
  • When Korra is upset with Mako in Book 2 of The Legend of Korra, she kicks over his desk with airbending... in the middle of the police station where he worked.
    Lin Beifong: What the flameo happened here?
    Mako: I broke up with the Avatar.
    Lin: This is nothing. You should have seen Air Temple Island when Tenzin broke up with me.
  • An episode of Dan Vs. sees Dan and his best friend's wife Elise trapped together in a cabin, where Elise tries to pass the time in a game of "Conglomerate". Dan makes himself banker, gives himself fifteen times the usual starting amount, insists that it's how he always plays with his sidekick Chris...
    Dan: I think you'll find the game is more realistic with a little corruption.
    Elise: ...Just roll the dice.
    [Dan abruptly puts his bare feet onto the table]
    Dan: Not until you rub my feet! ... Just another perk of being the banker.
    [Elise, equally abruptly, flips the table (and Dan) over]
  • In the The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Joy", Miss Simian rages out and flips over a desk from the side, completely flipping it over and landing back on its legs, not disturbing anything sitting on the table either. Realizing this, she then moves behind the desk and flips it over that way.
  • Referenced in Gravity Falls; in "Soos and the Real Girl", someone left a note on the box for the in-universe dating simulator Romance Academy 7 instructing someone to destroy it, and they included a flipping-the-table emoticon.
  • In The Simpsons episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish", Burns is furiously trashing the Simpson home and tries to flip over a table, but he is too frail to do so and makes Smithers do it for him.
  • The Looney Tunes Show has Daffy flip over a table during a game of chess with Bugs and claim that there was an earthquake.
  • Taken Up to Eleven in the Motorcity episode "Ride the Lightning". Texas doesn't just flip the table: he straight-up SMASHES IT to pieces... and then promptly starts crying afterwards.
  • In the Steven Universe episode "Keystone Motel," Garnet split up into Ruby and Sapphire out of anger. After rocking the diner table roughly, Ruby reacts rather badly and does this when Sapphire said the behavior would pass and that Ruby would burn out. It proves to be the last straw for Steven.

    Real Life 
  • Jackson Pollock did this to the dinner table in November of 1950. He was angry at Hans Namuth for ordering him around so much for the colour film they had been shooting and just finished, and also had his first drink of alcohol after two years of being sober (followed by several more). Drunk and angry, he eventually flipped the table much to the shock of the dinner guests. Bonus points for Thanksgiving dinner being on said table at the time he flipped it.
  • Reportedly happened in real life when Ed O'Brien of Radiohead lost his patience at a restaurant. "He thought he was Jesus in the temple of the moneychangers," fellow bandmember Colin Greenwood commented.
  • This can be done with any Board Game as a method of Rage Quitting, as seen on the image for that page.
  • Stories about players flipping tables are very common in competitive Magic: The Gathering.
  • Football player Jim Everett did this to sports reporter Jim Rome when Rome called Everett "Chris" right after Everett asked him to stop doing so.note 
  • While King Canute and the Danish Earl Ulf were playing chess, the latter overturned the chessboard out of anger over the former taking back a move. The king's courtman executed the Earl in church shortly after.
  • Magfest 11 featured a Table Flipping For Charity event.
  • On the messaging/chat service Discord, one of the server settings is "verification level", or degree of user verification (such as having an email address or phone linked to your account) required to post in a server. The levels are called None, Low, Medium, (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻, and finally, ┻━┻彡 ヽ(ಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻.

  • Now in emoticon form, for those who can see Asian characters.
    (屮ಠДಠ)屮 彡 ┻━┻ , (ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ ┻━┻ , (ﾉ・_・)ﾉ 彡 ┻━┻ , (ﾉ｡◕‿‿◕｡)ﾉ 彡 ┻━┻
    (ﾉ*'д`*)ﾉ ~ ┻━┻ , ( ﾉ♉︵♉ )ﾉ 彡 ┻━┻ , (ﾉﾟдﾟ)ﾉ　彡┻━┻ , (屮ಥДಥ)屮 彡 ┻━┻
    (屮ಥ益ಥ)屮彡 ┻━┻ , (屮≖益≖)屮 彡 ┻━┻ , (屮≖Д≖)屮彡 ┻━┻ , (┛◉///////◉)┛彡┻━┻
    ( ﾉ⊙Д⊙)ﾉ 彡 ┻━┻ , (屮=益=)屮 彡 ┻━┻ , ‎(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ , ┬──┬﻿ ¯\_(ツ)
  • In Soviet Russia, ┳━┳ ︵╯(.□.╯)
  • (ノ ಠ益ಠ​)​ノ~ (;｡▽｡​)​ヽ

You done? Good. Now put it back.

┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)


How well does it match the trope?

Example of:


Media sources: