A trick in which a performer (usually a Non-Ironic Clown or a Stage Magician) puts their hand in their mouth, ear, sleeve, or pocket and starts to pull out a long string of colorful scarves tied to one another. The rope would keep going, and going, putting the audience in suspense, until they eventually pull out the rope to its end, revealing a bouquet of flowers (or a pair of underwear, with the implication that it's the performer's, leading to them to react in embarrassment).
Compare similar clown tricks, like Cartoon Juggling, Pie in the Face, Clown Car, and Tightrope Walking.
Compare similar magic tricks like What Have We Ear?, Saw a Woman in Half, and Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat.
To find more tropes about other wacky clown tricks, visit Clown Tropes, to find more tropes about the tricks of whimsical magicians, go to Hocus Tropus.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Love Lab: After getting his uniform back from Maki, Yan discovers that she shoved a string of scarves into his inner pocket, with a message that he could use this to break the tension instead of being sarcastic. Nagi finds it hilarious and compliments Maki's sense of humor, but then Yan clarifies that it's not a joke. She was probably completly serious about this, and held back from using a more outlandish trick like putting in a body-pillow. It's never confirmed that she did, but his guess is frighteningly in character for her. He swears to never use that trick, but he ends up using it to cheer up a crying student.
- Ranma ½: Ranma's last attempt at taking a homemade scarf from a Jizō statue ends up with him finding himself grabbing a never-ending stream of silky clothing, no part of which resembles the scarf he's trying to take away from the Jizō statue in question.
Cologne: I don't think it's ever going to give up that scarf.
Film — Animated
- All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: When Charlie and Itchy first meet David, David pulls a colorful scarf chain out of Itchy's ear as he shows him the magic tricks he's been practicing. Later, during "Easy Street", David pulls scarf chains out of his sleeve and Charlie uses one to pull in an audience when their attention is diverted towards a competing street performer.
Film — Live-Action
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules: Rowley's magic act involves him pulling a scarf out of his mouth.
Literature
- In the novelization of Babe: Pig in the City, a waiter in the ballroom trying to catch Esme Hoggett (who's wearing Fugly's clown costume) pulls out a pink handkerchief from her back pants pocket, which extends into a rainbow chain of cloth as she swings across the ballroom by a drape. In the film itself, the aftermath of the scene is visible as the rainbow cloth chain is lying on the floor and the pink handkerchief is suddenly missing from the pocket.
Live-Action TV
- A variation occurs in CSI: NY. When questioning one of the circus clowns in "Blood, Sweat and Tears", Mac asks to see the man's hands because he's wearing gloves. The clown immediately removes the right one first, then starts on the left one. Mac raises his eyebrows as this takes forever since this glove is extremely long, and it ultimately results in a pile of cloth on the interrogation room table.
- In one episode of Dumbo's Circus, "Barnaby's Magic Coat," Barnaby acquires a magic coat. Meanwhile, Dumbo comes down with a cold. Barnaby uses the coat's magic to conjure up a handkerchief for him, and the result is a long chain of handkerchiefs in classic magic show style.
- House of Anubis: In season 3, the students are performing for prospective parent's day. At the same time, half of Sibuna is stuck in a crypt, and Alfie and Patricia must rescue them. Alfie is doing stage magic, and is running around with both his magic props and supplies to rescue their friends. Victor corners him during one attempt to sneak out and he gets nervous, requesting a handkerchief to wipe his face... And tricks Victor into pulling an entire string of handkerchiefs out of his own pocket, which confuses the housefather greatly and gets Alfie off the hook. Patricia later tries to ask how he pulled this off, to which he just replies...
Alfie: Magic, dude.
- Kenan & Kel: In "Clowning Around", a clown who visits Rigby's performs this trick for Kenan and Kel. He then uses the scarves to tie them up and rob the store with the two of them not realizing until after he's left.
- One sketch written by Ronnie Barker is about a stage magician who's having an affair with his Lovely Assistant, and trying to avert his wife's suspicions by explaining any evidence away as being for a trick he's practising. When he has to hide his lover's negligee down his trousers, and his wife asks what the bulge is, he pulls out a string of silk flags.
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: On Season 1 Episode 2: "Footloser", Cody has to replace Zack at the dance competition. Not only can Cody not dance, but the suit that he put on for the performance is a magician's suit. He accidentally starts pulling a scarf and a rose out of it. His dance partner Max is clearly annoyed but is able to make it look like it was a part of their dance routine.
Puppet Shows
- Sesame Street: The song "Pockets" shows a montage of people with pockets, including a Stage Magician pulling a long rope of scarves out of his shirt pocket.
Theatre
- In Peter Pan (1954), the song "Oh My Mysterious Lady" has Hook chase after a veiled, opera-singing "lady," who's actually Peter Pan Disguised in Drag and toying with him. At one point, the "lady" hides behind a tree, but dangles a corner of "her" veil within Hook's reach. In hope of discovering what she looks like, Hook pulls on the veil, only to reveal a long string of different colored scarves. Meanwhile, Peter sneaks behind him unnoticed and helps him pull the scarves out, then gives him a kick in the pants when he reaches the end and finds the "lady" vanished.
Video Games
- In Anna's Quest, you have to make a magic trick with pulling a handkerchief chain out of a magic hat. Said chain is later needed to get of out tower in which you are trapped.
- McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure: In addition to being able to jump and throw magic dust at his enemies to make them disappear, there is also a button that allows Ronald to pull scarves out of his sleeve, given that he's a Magical Clown. This allows Ronald to grab onto hooks. While holding onto the hooks, pressing up or down on the D-pad raises or lowers Ronald.
Web Animation
Webcomics
- Cyanide and Happiness: One strip plays this for Black Comedy by having a clown go for a proctology exam that involves the doctor pulling a long string of scarves out of his anus. A few scarves in, they turn red, which from the doctor's reaction appears to be the clown equivalent of a bloody stool (i.e. not a good health sign).
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: “Clown Physics”, a hooded figure proposed a new form of infinite clean energy. In the energy process, a clown is placed on the air-tight ceiling of a tower, along with some lead-weights. Then a ball is attached to clown’s infinite handkerchief rope and pulley, where as the ball drops, the handkerchief rope runs its energy.
- Sluggy Freelance: Colonial-era magician Kesandru made a Deal with the Devil ostensibly for the power to pull a bunch of scarves from his mouth. After he double-crossed his extraplanar benefactor, he attempted to develop the act on his own but died choking on a neckerchief.
Web Games
- In Amateur Surgeon 2, one of Alan Probe's patients is a clown named Uncle Chuckles, with his procedure involving extracting a string of handkerchiefs from his stomach, which are revealed to have a dead rabbit tied to the end.
- Happy Tree Friends: In Lumpy’s Lame Card Trick," if you select the fifth card, Lumpy will perform the trick of pulling a long ribbon out of his mouth. Lumpy opens his mouth, and a blue ribbon comes out. Lumpy pulls on it, but realizes it's stuck so he pulls hard on the ribbon until he eventually pulls out his skull.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: In "Hypno Birthday to You", Jimmy hypnotizes his parents into celebrating his next few birthdays early. Jimmy's parents hire a clown named Mr. Giggles to perform at Jimmy's parties, and one of the tricks Mr. Giggles performs is pulling scarves out of his mouth. When Hugh slaps Mr. Giggles on the back, Mr. Giggles swallows his scarves.
- Bob's Burgers: In "Some Kind of Fender-Benderful", there's a four-car pile-up in front of the restaurant, and one of the victims is a clown performer. When Bob tries to console her, he grabs a handkerchief from her coat pocket, which turns out to be the scarf chain trick.
- Ducktales 2017: After Magica De Spell was robbed of her magic, she goes to hide in a swamp where she is reduced to ordinary prestidigitation tricks such as this one.
- Family Guy: in "Peter's Two Dads", when Peter was playing as a clown for Meg's birthday, he tried doing the pulling scarves out of mouth gag, but he messes up the gag, and actually swallows the scarves, and midway, Peter starts to choke and puke up on the rope of scarves.
- Garfield and Friends: In the U.S. Acres Quickie preceding "Scrambled Eggs", Orson finds a weed, and as he pulls it out of the ground, he finds it tied to a bunch of scarves, much to his bewilderment. He pulls on the scarves until he finds a rabbit at the end. His friends applaud him, and he says "Ta-da." unamused.
- Hailey's On It!: In "Magician: Impossible", Hailey does this trick during a magic performance, as she finishes pulling the rope out of her mouth, she coughs a bit.
- The Little Rascals: This is one of the acts in Spanky's magic show in "Alfalfakazam!" Spanky pulls handkerchiefs out of his sleeve as Darla ties them on from backstage, until Buckwheat and Porky run out of handkerchiefs. The act ends with Comedic Underwear Exposure.
- The Loud House: In "Cereal Offender", Rita is seen plunging the kitchen sink, with the source of the clog being a handkerchief rope.
Rita: Luan, no more comedy props in the sink!
- In the Pixar short Presto (2008), Alec's efforts to ruin Presto's magic show include trapping Presto's hand in a drawer and rummaging through Presto's sleeve, where he finds playing cards, flowers, and a long string of scarves.
- In one Robot Chicken sketch police officers strip search a clown, which at one point involved pulling scarves out of his anus.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- In "One Trick Sponge", part of SpongeBob's magic trick has him pull a strand of scarves out of his sleeve, which get progressively longer and longer until they cover up the entire screen.
- In "Pet the Rock", Gary (while dressed as a magician) pulls scarves out of SpongeBob's holes, with there being so many that there are giant piles on the floor.
Real Life
- Performance artiste Ursula Martinez does a set-piece in her stage act that sends up the conventions of both stage magic and striptease, where she is bothered by a red handkerchief that keeps disappearing and reappearing from ever more improbable places. As she strips off completely while searching for the pesky red hanky, its final appearance is apparently from the oddest place of all. This could be viewed as a stage magician literally demonstrating that there is nothing up her sleeve.
