http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FryingPanOfDoom

...please tell me you're going to make breakfast with—**SPANG**

Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential "Let me stress that again: heavyweight. A thin-bottomed saucepan is useless for anything. (...) A proper saute pan should cause serious head injury if brought down hard against someone's skull. If you have any doubts about which will dent—the victim's head or your pan—then throw that pan right in the trash."

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Pans and skillets are versatile utensils, useful for frying, sautéing, braising and bruising. There is actually some truth to this, as unlike many other Improbable Weapons, a frying pan (particularly if it's made of cast-iron and/or has recently been used) can actually make a decent weapon and can also do quite a bit of damage. Because a good skillet is considerably heavier than most war maces, it would take a considerable amount of arm strength to effectively wield one as a weapon, so one can safely assume that getting hit over the head with a slab of iron weighing five to ten pounds (or more) would cause a concussion at the very least. Indeed, the noble frying pan is a worthy melee weapon.

Just as it is in any good kitchen, this is an absolute staple of slapstick comedy. In some cases, it might also be considered the Western counterpart of the Hyperspace Mallet. May be found in the arsenal of the Chef of Iron.

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The frying pan may also be considered or used as an impervious shield, but it would likely need to be made from Phlebotinum in order to really block most kinetic damage.

Subtrope of Tap on the Head. Sister trope of Rolling Pin of Doom.

Examples of ownage:

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An advertisement for the mobile device game Design Island shows a little old lady getting increasingly honked off as a giant hand, presumably representing the player, ineptly rearranges her kitchen appliances, wrecking the place and endangering her. She throws a frying pan at the camera.

Anime and Manga

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Asian Animation

Happy Heroes: In Season 3 episode 12, Arcas's mother hits him with a frying pan after he forgets to repair their ship.

In the Motu Patlu episode "Motu Ke Sawaal", Motu decides to constantly ask questions to increase his knowledge. This gets on Patlu's nerves, so much so that Motu just barely dodges a frying pan that Patlu throws at him in his anger.

In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, Wolnie's preferred method for punishing Wolffy is to hit him with a frying pan.

Card Games

In Ninja Burger, one of the combat boosting items you can get is the spatula, which is as deadly as the Ninja Burger Official Wakazashi. Also, a training card "Wok the Casbah" shows a ninja dual-wielding iron-cast woks on top of the Casbah.

The Lord of the Rings TCG made a card out of the frying pan used by Sam in the movie (see Film). In-game, it could be used to do direct damage to any orcs the wielder was fighting. Because you could give it to any hobbit you wanted (including Frodo, who for a while was a necessity in every deck), it ended up banned because it made orc-based decks much less effective.

Comic Books

Fan Works

Film — Animated

Film — Live Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

They Might Be Giants, with Particle Man: "Person Man, Person Man, Hit on the head with a frying pan..."

Justin Timberlake's love interest in his video for TKO knocks him out with a frying pan.

Newspaper Comics

Pinball

The Bride of Frankenstein uses this against her mate in Monster Bash.

Professional Wrestling

Radio

The Stephanie Miller Show has voice impressionist Jim Ward portray former president Bill Clinton's reaction to titillating news stories of the day. Then his wife hits him with a frying pan after the inevitable innuendo. Mind you, this is a liberal radio show.

Stand Up Comedy

Eddie Izzard: Part of the "Heimlich Gesture", along with being thumped in the stomach and kneed in the bollocks.

Dara Ó Briain has a comment on frying pans as part of a bit on confronting burglars in the home. Dont be fooled by the frying pan industry, they dont go dong when you hit someone. There is no setting for stun on a frying pan. You're either going to anger the burglar, or you're going to fucking kill them.

Tabletop Games

A classic story passed around in role-playing circles tells of the Dungeon Master who has a monster attack his players that can only be harmed with magic weapons, knowing that they have no such weapons in stock. Instead of fleeing like they were supposed to, one of the characters picks up the only magic item the party has, a self-heating frying pan the DM had previously given them as gag treasure. The character defeats the monster and the player goes on to build the character around frying-pan battle techniques.

In reference to the Dragonlance novels, several editions of Dungeons & Dragons had rules for using frying pans as weapons.

One of Samwise Gamgee miniatures by Games Workshop dual wields a sword and a frying pan.

In Zombicide, set after a Zombie Apocalypse, four to six survivors start with the following weapons, each distributed randomly to one of them: a fire axe, a crowbar, a pistol and a Frying pan per survivor beyond 3.

In Mysterium one of the possible murder weapons is a frying pan.

GURPS features the "Pan, Iron". This kitchen accessory functions as a slightly weaker round mace OR small iron shield. Unlike most improvised weapons, it is as solid as a Good quality weapon (most are of Cheap quality). it has different stats in Dungeon Fantasy: Taverns and Zombies

The fast-food themed (and soundly tongue-in-cheek) Feast Of Legends naturally includes a frying pan on its weapon list, along with its bigger cousin the two-handed cast-iron skillet.

Theatre

In the Met Opera's production of Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Norina playfully fences with Doctor Malatesta while they're coming up with their plot - she with a frying pan, he with a Classy Cane. This can be seen in the 2011 recording, though the revival changed it to a Rolling Pin of Doom.

to a Rolling Pin of Doom. In the Broadway version of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Willy Wonka subjects the factory visitors to an obstacle course of invisible hazards including a path with swinging frying pans. Most of the visitors take a blow or two as they navigate the course, though Mike Teavee takes the brunt of them, getting knocked silly repeatedly.

Video Games

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

Real Life