History Main / TailfinWalking

* Also averted with Nami from ''League of Legends'', with her "kneeling" and floating on her tail whenever she's on land.

* WesternAnimation/{{Jabberjaw}}, as seen in the page pic, is a shark that walks upright on his tail fin.

The trope where a whale, dolphin, porpoise, walrus, seal, fish or shark walks on its tail-fin. This trope is especially common in cartoons, since filming this is difficult with a real fish. In reality, tail-fins are rather floppy, and won't support the animal's weight, however, it looks more natural than walking on the pectoral fins (which would essentially be 'crawling'), or on the pelvic fins (which anatomically correspond to a tetrapod's legs).

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift''. Flynn, the seal, doesn't walk, he moves by slithering and flopping along [[TruthInTelevision much like real seals do on land]] (though he does so upright).

* Misterjaw in the 90-minute ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' show.

This is a sister trope to FeatherFingers. May also apply to FishPeople and TerrestrialSeaLife in animation.

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* subverted, played with and outright trashed by ''ComicBook/{{Viz}}'' with the Pathetic Sharks, who mostly do the "standing on their tail fins" bit, and Billy The Fish, who hovers with his tail curved beneath him

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** Small wild dolphins and porpoises sometimes do this too, while "spyhopping" to look above the surface.

If the character is a FunnyAnimal, some writers will just outright turn their tail-fins into straight-up legs. This is most commonly seen in pinnipeds, as unlike most other animals of this example, the tail-fins seen in their skeletons actually resemble that of legs not unlike most other tetrapods.

* The Humming-Fish from the animated adaptation of ''The Lorax'', just as with their book counterparts.

* An old cartoon had a female competitive swimmer win the trophy, we pull back, revealing her to be a mermaid, and she walks away by tip-toeing on her tail fin.

* In one episode of ''Fairly Odd Parents'' Timmy, as a merboy, takes the Atlantis king Greg (a parody of King Triton) to watch a movie on land. Strangely, both him and Timmy just seem to slide along on their tails in the "U-pose"(King Greg is somehow even shown ''running in terror'' in one scene!)

* Averted with Wakasa the merman in ''Manga/OrenchiNoFuroJijou'', who is mostly confined to a bathtub in the series, though there is one episode where he leaves the tub to look for his human friend Tatsumi, and he doesn't walk but just drags himself along the floor in a sitting position.

This is a sister trope to FeatherFingers.

* The fish in ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'' sometimes walk on their tailfins, but they stay in the water the whole time.

** ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' normally averts this with Ariel, who either shows up as a human or a mermaid, but plays this straight with her father King Triton.
** Some Franchise/DisneyPrincess artwork showing the princesses in a group will for some reason show Ariel as a mermaid, and ''standing on her tail!''

* Sometimes played straight and sometimes averted in Creator/ChuckJones' adaptation of ''TheWhiteSeal''.

* Averted with the fish and mermaids in ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1'', except during the "Under the Sea" song, where several fish walk (or more specifically, dance) on their tail fins underwater.

* One of ComicBook/WonderWoman's suitors in the Silver Age comics was Manno the Merman, who is commonly depicted standing up on his fins when on land. However, he doesn't walk, [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rLV-ZuNPwJ4/SYjnedh2AuI/AAAAAAAADf8/9hsInlKJeew/s1600-h/WonderWoman125_14.jpg he hops.]]

In some settings where they exist, [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent mermaids]] can also be seen moving about like this, though another common variant would be to have them 'standing' with their tails in a "U-shape", with the fins held off the ground, something like [[http://images-mediawiki-sites.thefullwiki.org/09/2/7/3/86468133466424933.jpg this.]]

* Charlie Tuna from the [=StarKist=] commercials.

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* Averted with the fish and mermaids in ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', except during the "Under the Sea" song, where several fish walk (or more specifically, dance) on their tail fins underwater.

* Willie the Operatic Whale in ''Disney/MakeMineMusic'', although it was only during his daydreams.
* Fish from ''Disney/ChickenLittle'', being a [[LiteralMetaphor literal]] FishOutOfWater, walks around on land on his tail fin.

* Mermaids in ''Manga/ACentaursLife'' are shown to do this in shallow water, sort of, with several feet of tail extending behind them.