Quotes • Headscratchers • Playing With • Useful Notes • Analysis • Image Links • Haiku • Laconic |
---|
The Summation is over and the perpetrator has been caught.
The lead detective then proceeds to tell the perp just how evil he is before he's carted off to jail.
Named for Steve McGarrett's trademark line from Hawaii Five-O. "Take him away, boys" is a related and also common Stock Phrase for carting the criminal off to jail.
Contrast with Swiper, No Swiping, where a lecture actually stops the Big Bad from doing whatever he's about to do.
Anime and Manga[]
- In Death Note, Near only waits until it sinks in quite firmly that Light's final Evil Plan has gone horribly, horribly wrong before telling his minions to start the capturing. This is followed by pages upon pages of gloating, a Motive Rant, and a "No, you're just a murderer" Shut UP, Hannibal speech. And then there's High-Pressure Blood. (Duh.)
- Once Kaitou Saint Tail has escaped Asuka Jr. yet again and the thief she foiled turns on him, he often does one of these and has the police arrest the thief instead. One of the first signs that Rina isn't nearly as moral and upstanding as he is is that she doesn't do this.
Film[]
- Discussed (quoted even) by the eponymous character in one of the first scenes of Hudson Hawk when complaining about his parole officer being corrupt.
- In Howard the Duck: "Book 'em, ducko!"
- Death always wanted to say that.
Literature[]
- Parodied in the Discworld novel Guards! Guards! when Vimes arrests the villain and tells Constable Carrot to "throw the book at him". Since Carrot has excellent aim but a poor understanding of metaphor, and the book in question is a massive tome containing all the laws of the city, and the villain is standing on the precipice of a high ledge, this proves fatal.
- Vimes actually gets a lot of these, such as "You're nicked" (to Carcer in Night Watch; see the Live Action Quotes below). In The Fifth Elephant however, he refuses to make a funny remark after putting down a criminal, "because then everyone'd know that what he just did was only murder."
- In And Then There Were None, U. N. Owen plays a record telling each person what crimes he or she had committed. Inverted in that this was at the beginning of the book.
Live-Action TV[]
- Frequently done in the CSI franchise by Horatio Caine (usually as "hook him up!") and Mac Taylor, but not as much by Gil Grissom (mainly because Gil isn't a cop by training).
- Police Squad!! had them name every criminal ever caught in the series, in reverse order, explaining that the criminal will join all of them in jail. It would've gotten even more ridiculous had the series not lasted for only six episodes.
- And then there's:
Captain Hocken: (to a pair of police officers) Sergeants, take her away and book her. |
- This happened a lot at the end of Adam West's Batman. Typically telling the Joker/Penguin/Egghead/etc. something along these lines, "You thought you'd dam up Gotham River, but now YOU'RE GOING UP THE RIVER!"
- UK cop shows often used "You're nicked, sunshine".
- While the pilot of The Sweeney gave us the immortal "Get yer trousers on, you're nicked."
- In Life On Mars, Sam Tyler tries to give the suspects the caution but since he came from the future he always gets it wrong. In the end he resorts to saying "You're nicked" like his other colleagues.
- In the Saved by the Bell movie, a sheriff arrests the gang and says to his deputy, "Book 'em, Danno". The exasperated deputy turns around to reveal that his name tag actually says "Danno".
- In the NCIS episode "Power Down", where the team have to rely on old-fashioned investigation methods after a major power failure in DC, Gibbs tells Tony after the perp in a murder is caught:
Gibbs: Book 'em, Da-Nozzo. |
- Which raises a bit of a paradox, as NCIS spun off NCISLA and Kensi from NCISLA recently appeared on the new Hawaii Five-O or do Danno and McGarrett find it odd that they share names with characters from a 70's TV show?
- Ellery Queen's father would give the command to "book 'em, Velie" on Ellery Queen.
- The new remake of Hawaii Five-O has fun playing with this.
- Firefly uses "bound by law" in place of "under arrest".
Fed: By the authority of the Union of Allied Planets, you are hereby bound by law! |
Video Games[]
- The Trope Namer gets a Shout-Out in Luminous Arc 2: after subduing a group of bandits, Dia quips "Book 'em, Kid-o!" ('Kid' being her moniker for the protagonist).
Web Comics[]
- Order of the Stick: In Cliffport, it's official police procedure.
Roy: Well, at least you didn't say - |
Western Animation[]
- Chief Wiggum of The Simpsons: "Book 'em, Lou!" or "Take 'em away, boys." This is parodied in one episode where Bart Simpson uses his "take 'em away, boys" as the police arrest the criminal. This angers Wiggum, saying that he's the chief, and tells the arresting officers to "Bake 'em away, Toys!" Realising what he said, he then tells the officers to "do what the kid said."
- In Duckman: Cornfed says the trope name when he arrests Harry Medfly in "Clip Job".
Real Life[]
- In the UK, the law requires only that British Coppers inform a suspect that they are under arrest, in a manner that they will understand to mean that they are under arrest. The Police Caution has to be given to them as soon as reasonably practicable (if they're kicking off or drunk that could potentially be the following day). It's far more common to hear officers grab perps and say "You're nicked" or "You're locked up" rather than "You're under arrest."