History Main / BlowGun

* UpToEleven in ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'': Gourmet Corps [[CoDragons Sous-Chef]] Greenpatch uses a giant straw (obtained from the proboscis of a giant mosquito) as his weapon of choice, aide by his incredible lungs. While he normally uses it to suck in things and eat them, he can also use it as a non conventional blowpipe to shot powerful blasts of compressed air powerful enough to vertically drill through an entire island and reach the deepest caverns of the Earth.

* ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'': Jigo's men use blow gun pipes which they keep disguised as parasols when not in use.
* ''Anime/JinzoKonchuKabutoBorgVXV'': In episode 30, the assassin sent by the father of Kameida Carmeda tries to kill Ryūsei with a blow gun.

* A group of one-time villains in ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' comic (four criminals who learned to copy Vulture's wings) used those. The curare was fatal for humans — Spider-Man was too tough to die outright, but would get stiffer with every dart and actually got close to succumbing. The next issue, he had to save their lives when the real Vulture came to town.

* A Hovito Indian attempts to kill Dr. Jones on ThePrecariousLedge atop a New York skyscraper in ''ComicBook/TheFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'' #9.
* ''ComicBook/AllStarComics'': Hartford Dormley uses a blow gun to inflict his captured partner Sam Brent with Professor Elba's "tonic" in order to prevent him from confessing anything about their racket to the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica or the Police. The use of a blow gun means there's no noise to give away the cause of Sam's sudden lack of lucidity.

* Used in ''Film/AceVenturaWhenNatureCalls''. Ace is shot with dozens of little darts (with [[HilarityEnsues hilarious effects]]) before he passes out.

* In ''Film/YoungSherlockHolmes'', an assassin uses a blowgun to shoot darts tipped with a hallucinogenic drug.
* The natives in ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod'' keep sniping at the conquistadors on the raft with these.

* Mini-me uses one on Mustafa in ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe''.

* In ''Film/TheReturnOfSherlockHolmes'', Colonel Moran's weapon of choice is some kind of sophisticated blowgun, rather than an air rifle as it was in the original story.
* In ''Film/{{Primal}}'', Frank uses a blowgun and darts dipped in curare to recapture the escaped monkeys. [[ChekhovsGun He later uses it in his final showdown against Loffler]].
* The [[CannibalTribe Pelegostos]] of ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'' use blowguns. One is used to knock Will out after he stumbles into one of their snares.
* In ''Film/BlondeSavage'', Tonga uses a blowgun to deliver a TwangHello to Harper and Berger by firing a dart into the tree beside Berger's head. Realizing they are not alone, they panic and run.

* In ''Literature/TheSignOfTheFour'', Tonga uses poison blow darts.

* Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/DeathInTheClouds'' featured a blowgun on a plane as the apparent murder weapon [[spoiler: (it turned out the poison dart was pressed into the victim by hand).]] It wouldn't have worked anyway as real blowguns are several feet long (a policeman trying to reconstruct the scene by discreetly bringing the short tube to his mouth gets the entire plane staring at him), a fact that was self-deprecatingly pointed out in a later book.
* ''Literature/BenSnow'': In "The Edge of the Year 1900", a blowgun dart coated in curare is used as the murder weapon. [[spoiler:The murderer actually pressed the dart into the victim in the dark. Using the dart was an attempt to frame the blowgun's owner.]]
* ''Literature/ShadowPolice'': In ''Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?'', the killer recreates the scene from ''Literature/TheSignOfFour'' by shooting one the victims with a poison dart from a blowgun.

* ''VideoGame/LittleBigAdventure'': Twinsen, the player character, uses one in the second installment.
* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'': Lanky's Grape Blowgun is essentially this, though it doesn't function much differently from the other Kongs' ranged weapons.
* In the second chapter of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', you receive these. It poisons enemies but does very little damage either way and has limited ammo. If you use it to {{Cherry Tap|ping}} some zombies to death in order to save a particular NPC, however, you can get your sword (which just broke) repaired and then upgrade it to DualWielding with what would have otherwise been the replacement.
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Civilization}} Civilization Revolution]]'', one of the barbarian tribes you can encounter has their spokesman threaten you with a blow gun.

* Teemo from ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' uses this as his trademark weapon in order to pump his enemies full of poison.

* You can find blowpipes in some chests near the surface of ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}''. While getting ammunition for a blowpipe is a cinch (it uses seeds that you collect by cutting grass), the weapon is far outclassed by most other ranged weapons, at least one of which you should have at that point. Later on, though, you can buy a proper blowgun from the Witch Doctor and craft proper poison darts from stingers dropped by jungle hornets, making for a much more useful weapon.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has the Blowdart Snipers in Blighttown, who are one of the major reasons the level is so [[ThatOneLevel hated]]. They wear camouflage that makes them hard to see against the dark background, their blowguns are very quiet and the darts are easily missed, especially in a chaotic fight. While the darts don't do any damage, they inflict the Toxic status effect, which is super-poison that can't be cured by the normal means and drains your health about ten times more quickly. Unless you have the rare cure for toxin, getting Toxic inflicted is essentially a death sentence. The only mercy is that they do not respawn like most enemies after they're killed.

* ''VideoGame/DeadCells'': Blowgunners are found in Morass of the Banished. They blow darts from below and jump between platforms to get in range. You can get the Blowgun weapon blueprint from them, which deals poison damage and deals critical hits if it hits the enemy's back.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': In addition to her poisoned knives, Violetta has a blow gun she can use various darts in, including various poison-, tranquilizer-, BottledHeroicResolve-, and SuperSerum-coated ones.

* Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/DeathInTheClouds'' featured a blowgun on a plane as the apparent murder weapon [[spoiler: (it turned out the poison dart was pressed into the victim by hand).]]

* In a ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short, a Wacky Native tries to use a blowgun on WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, but Bugs blows in the other end just before the native does, so it ends up going down the native's throat. The same gag was also used against prehistoric Elmer Fudd.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' episode "The Deadly Doll", the villain Korbay uses a blowgun to fire darts that have a poison that causes its victims to enter a coma.
* In ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', a flashback shown that Cotton and Topsy attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro with a blow dart when attending a ball game in Yankee Stadium. The assassination failed when Tilly was in labor and all ran in to the ladies restroom which is where Hank was born.

* In earlier versions, blowguns were an option in ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl''. They didn't do much damage, but were excellent for inflicting status conditions (most commonly poison, but some other StandardStatusEffects were also available) from a distance without relying on magic. Curare needles were particularly effective, as they also inflicted damage through asphyxiation. Version 0.24 removed blowguns and changed needles to hand-thrown darts to cut down on inventory bloat.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': The Faceless Man known as "Jaqen H'ghar" used a poison dart fired from a blowgun to kill Amory Lorch at Harrenhal (on the request of Arya Stark).

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Fantasy'' has these as a Wargear option for Skinks, and a Huge version for mounting on dinosaurs.

* A ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' magazine article included a Tech level 0 blowgun that cost zero credits, meaning there was no reason not to give your character one. It only dealt nonlethal damage, so like the D&D example was designed for poison.
* The French-Canadian game ''TabletopGame/MechanicalDreams'' from Steamlogic, had the Biosniper from its ''Wilderness Bestiary'' supplement. The Biosniper was a [[Magitek Weirdsmith]] weapon that was a blowgun made from a still-living plant and did tremendous damage per shot — hitting harder than a ballista. As a living thing, it required a bit of water every so often to stay alive.

* ''Series/MythBusters'' made these in the ninja special.
* Parodied in a TV sketch of the comic trio ''Creator/AldoGiovanniAndGiacomo'', where the blowgun is used to anesthetize a patient.

* Subject of a gag at the start of one episode of ''Series/HillStreetBlues''.
* Series/JimmyKimmelLive: In a parody of the soap TV series ''Series/{{Scandal}}'' [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2570721/Kerry-Washington-affair-Mexican-president-hilarious-Spanish-language-spoof-hit-series-Scandal.html one of the characters has a poison dart in her neck.]]
* ''Series/TheNewAvengers'': Used by an assassin in "Target!". Gambit turns the tables on him by blowing down the end of the blow gun, causing him to swallow the poison dart.

* ''Anime/JinzoKonchuKabutoBorgVXV'': In episode 30, the assassin sent by the father of Kameida Carmeda tries to kill Ryūsei with one.

[[caption-width-right:348:A deleted scene from the original ''Recap/TintinTheBrokenEar'' album.]]

* You can find blowguns in some chests near the surface of ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}''. While getting ammunition for it is a cinch (it uses seeds that you collect by cutting grass), the weapon is far outclassed by most other ranged weapons, at least one of which you should have at that point.
* Blowguns are an option in ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl''. They don't do much damage, but are excellent for inflicting status conditions (most commonly poison, but some other StandardStatusEffects are also available) from a distance without relying on magic. Curare needles are particularly effective, as they also inflict damage through asphyxiation.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': In addition to her poisoned knives, Violetta has a blow gun she can use various darts in, including various poison, tranquilizer, BottledHeroicResolve and SuperSerum coated ones.

* WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob has this in ''WebVideo/{{Kickassia}}'' ([[ImprobableWeaponUser mostly because Brad wanted to stand out with everybody wielding fake weapons]], so his weapon was a packet of straws he bought in a gas station. And he inhales one of the darts.

* A group of onetime villains in ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' comic (four criminals who learned to copy Vulture's wings) used those. The curare was fatal for humans -- Spider Man was too tough to die, but would get stiffer with every dart and actually got close to succumbing. The next issue, he had to save their lives when the real Vulture came to town.

* Used by Papa Smurf in ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'' comic book story "The Black Smurfs" (and its English version "The Purple Smurfs") to shoot an antidote pellet into an infected Smurfs' mouth.

* The Kakamora in ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' use blowguns with tranquilizer darts as part of their attack. However, the tubes are very short, which might explain [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy why they don't hit anyone.]] [[spoiler: Except their own chief.]]

* In ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'', Jaguar Paw improvises one with leafs. He creates the darts with thorns and poisons them with frog venom.

* The French-Canadian game ''TabletopGame/MechanicalDreams'' from Steamlogic, had the Biosniper from its ''Wilderness Bestiary'' supplement. The Biosniper was a [[Magitek Weirdsmith]] weapon that was a blowgun made from a still-living plant and did tremendous damage per shot - hitting harder than a ballista. As a living thing, it required a bit of water every so often to stay alive.

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'': Lanky's Grape Blowgun

* In a ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' short, Lumpy attempts to sedate a animal mauling one of the "children", but accidentally sucks the dart in when taking his breath.

* Series/JimmyKimmelLive: In a parody of the soap TV series ''Series/{{Scandal}}'' one of the characters has a poison dart in her neck. [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2570721/Kerry-Washington-affair-Mexican-president-hilarious-Spanish-language-spoof-hit-series-Scandal.html]]

* The Kakamora in ''Disney/{{Moana}}'' use blowguns with tranquilizer darts as part of their attack. However, the tubes are very short, which might explain [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy why they don't hit anyone.]] [[spoiler: Except their own chief.]]

A tube used to shoot darts at targets by blowing into it, often used by hunter-gatherer tribes. Expect [[PoisonedWeapons poison]] and [[TranquillizerDart tranquillizer]] darts.

* Jigo's men from ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'' use blow gun pipes which they keep disguised as parasols when not in use.

* A genuine Yanomami hunting blowgun was tried out by ''Series/{{Survivorman}}'' in the Brazilian jungle.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': The ''Unearthed Arcana'' (1985) supplement introduced the blowgun (which was 4-7 feet long) as an available weapon. The needle did only one HitPoint of damage, and was therefore only effective if poisoned.

* The French-Canadian game ''Mechanical Dreams'' from Steamlogic, had the Biosniper from its ''Wilderness Bestiary'' supplement. The Biosniper was a [[Magitek Weirdsmith]] weapon that was a blowgun made from a still-living plant and did tremendous damage per shot - hitting harder than a ballista. As a living thing, it required a bit of water every so often to stay alive.

* ''Diablo'':

** The witch-doctor in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' uses one for their starting ability.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In addition to her poisoned knives Violetta of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' has a blow gun she can use various darts in, including various poison, tranquilizer, BottledHeroicResolve and SuperSerum coated ones.

* In ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'', the leader of the Assassin Guild uses a blowgun as his weapon.