Line #48 Main/TrailerParkTornadoMagnet


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4	[[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trailer_park_tornado_magnet.jpg]]]]
5
6	->''"We were in a mobile home, and I think God must really hate mobile homes, Andy, cuz tornadoes always attack them first. They get very mobile."''
7	-->-- '''Johnny Fever''', ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati''
8
9	Tornadoes always seem to hit trailer parks. In RealLife, they're no more vulnerable to tornadoes than major cities, as the odds of a twister hitting any one particular area are relatively low. However, mobile homes are lightweight for buildings and not anchored to the ground, making them more vulnerable to a tornado's fury. (Some studies say that tornadoes tend to touch down just outside of cities because of the landscape change, and that's [[TemptingFate not an uncommon location for a trailer park]], but they still don't specifically go after mobile homes.)
10
11	Thus, tornadoes that kill several people and [[IfItBleedsItLeads make the news]] tend to hit trailer parks in the outer ring of exurbs. Twisters that wander harmlessly over empty fields or [[Film/TheWizardOfOz merely suck a farmhouse up into the sky]] are too common to be big news anywhere outside the immediate area. Also, in a major case of IfItBleedsItLeads, news crews want scenes of utter devastation to report on, which the light, easy to pick-up-and-throw trailers provide, as opposed to normal houses which are anchored to the ground and can usually survive a much closer pass and thus do not provide a good image for TV.
12
13	However mundane the above explanation, the fact that newsworthy tornadoes often seem to hit trailer parks have spawned the RunningGag that "trailer parks have buried tornado magnets under them". Thus, movies and other media that feature tornadoes or trailer parks will usually have both, not just one.
14
15	TrashyTrailerHome is a SisterTrope, but generally, tornadoes will be only one of many reasons the trailer park is portrayed as an exaggeratedly horrible place to live.
16
17	----
18	!!Examples:
19
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Advertising]]
23	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6igIWJrw9cc This commercial]] for ''VideoGame/TazInEscapeFromMars'' has a family in a trailer park that was ravaged by a tornado being interviewed. The parents say that they never saw the tornado coming, as it seemed to have come out of nowhere. The announcer then tells the viewers that the alleged tornado was really Taz, and the destruction of the trailer park was the result of the family's son playing ''Escape From Mars''.
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Comedy]]
27	* Creator/JeffFoxworthy has a memorable routine about how TV news crews interviewing survivors after a tornado hits a trailer park always seem to find the least coherent person around to interview.
28	-->"It was [[{{Malaproper}} pan-delirium]]! I thought we'd be killed, [[AFateWorseThanDeath or even worse!]]"
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
32	* In ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'', Mater remarks that he's "as happy as a tor-nado in a trailer park!"
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
36	* Notably averted in ''Film/{{Twister}}'', of all movies. Although tornadoes devastate several farmhouses, two towns, a DriveInTheater and a whole bunch of empty fields, they never once whack a trailer park.
37	* In the movie ''Film/NightOfTheTwisters'', there is a short scene of a tornado wrecking a trailer park.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Literature]]
41	* The ''Annals of Improbable Research'' took on this issue quantitatively in "The Correlation Between Tornadoes and Trailer Homes" (reprinted in ''The Best of Annals of Improbable Research''). The article presented a statistical analysis, ultimately concluding that "real statistics can be used to verify virtually any harebrained fable about tornadoes".
42	* ''Literature/DorothyMustDie'': The main character lives in a trailer park and, like Dorothy before her, is transported to Oz after a tornado hits.
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
46	* Tornadoes seem to hit Camden pretty regularly on ''Series/MyNameIsEarl''. In fact, there was a whole episode where several came through, one right after another, causing all sorts of mayhem.
47	* As quoted above, this is referenced in an episode of ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati''.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Music]]
51	* Referenced in "Trailerhood" by Music/TobyKeith: "When the storm starts gettin' bad and you hear those sirens hummin' / Grab a six-pack and a lawn chair, there's a tornado comin'." This is much HarsherInHindsight considering his hometown of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore,_Oklahoma Moore, Oklahoma]] was struck by devastating F5 tornadoes in 1999 and 2013. At least half of the town was leveled during both tornado outbreaks and dozens of people were killed (including several schoolchildren).
52	* Music/SmashMouth's "Pet Names" includes the metaphor "you're my little tornado and I am your trailer park."
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Video Games]]
56	* The Drive-In level of ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'' has a trailer park with two tornadoes swirling around. They're needed to get a secret in the level, but it's not easy.
57	* ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever 2'' has a trailer park hit by a tornado; you have to fight off ninjas inside one of the trailers as its picked up by the twister and beginning to disintegrate.
58	* Double Wide Damage, the third level of ''VideoGame/TornadoOutbreak'''s main premise revolves around Zephyr and his army of Wind Warriors wreaking havoc with tornadoes in the center of a trailer park.
59	* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction'': Invoked with the description of the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Tornado Launcher]] weapon, which talks about the weapon's intense destructive power and notes that the trailer park is sold separately.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Web Animation]]
63	* A deleted scene on the season 3 DVD of ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' has Tex mocking O'Malley for using a weather machine in space, referencing this trope in the process.
64	-->'''Tex:''' Hey, everybody, watch out for the [[SpaceX space tornado]]! It's heading right for the intergalactic trailer park!\
65	'''Doc:''' Hey, that's not very PC.\
66	'''O'Malley:''' No, she's right. I was planning to destroy that place next Tuesday. I really can't stand the sight of all those cars on cinder blocks. It's unsightly.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Western Animation]]
70	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' had a short called "The Brave Little Trailer", in which the title character battles a tornado that always attacks the trailer park he inhabits.
71	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'': In "Trailer Park", [[HalfWittedHillbilly Bobby Possumcods]] finds out he's the legal owner of Brickleberry National Park (thanks to a Confederate ancestor), and promptly evicts the rangers before turning it into a trailer park. However, as the park fills up with more and more white trash assholes, Bobby promptly gets sick of them himself, and gives the park back. When asked how to get rid of the other hillbillies, Bobby says they just have to wait, since trailer parks attracts tornadoes like magnets. The rangers first try to fake a tornado, which fails but turns out to have been unecessary, as a real tornado shows up right behind it and wipes out the trailer park.
72	* ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'': In one episode, Jay gets annoyed at some tourists being given a tour behind the scenes at his show.
73	--> '''Jay''': Don't you people have a trailer park to go home to?!
74	--> '''Redneck''': Twister blew it away...
75	* The very first episode of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' has Xandir summoning a tornado that promptly plows its way through a trailer park.
76	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
77	** In the episode "Hassle in the Castle", Timmy meets some of Cosmo and Wanda's previous and most infamous godchildren through a magical portrait gallery. One of them, Sammy, proudly takes credit for wishing that tornadoes ''always'' hit trailer parks because he hates trailer parks.
78	** Referenced in another episode when, while Timmy is moonlighting as a superhero called the Masked Magician, a tornado does end up heading for the trailer park that Timmy's friend Chester lives in. He even screams "They tried to warn me, but I didn't listen!"
79	* The ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "Texas City Twister" plot involves Luanne moving back into the trailer park just as a tornado is coming. Lampshaded by weathergirl Nancy Gribble, who notes, on-air, that tornadoes always make a bee-line directly towards trailer parks.
80	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat''. A bunch of government officials have a discussion about what to do about a tornado that is heading towards a trailer park. But suddenly one of them panics and reveals there '''isn't''' a trailer park in the path of the tornado. This results in the government actually dumping trailers near the tornado so this trope plays straight.
81	* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' once got stuck in a trailer park during a tornado. They managed to survive the experience, and the trailer containing the chicks they had been trying to score with ends up in [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Oz]].
82	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Colonel Homer" has two scenes in a trailer park. In the first, there's a sign reading "14 days without a tornado." In the second, the sign's been updated to "2 days" and the park is littered with debris. The tornado goes unmentioned, as if it's business as usual in a trailer park.
83	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' episode "Short Tall Tales", Grim's version of the TallTale of Pecos Bill lassoing a tornado takes place in a trailer park.
84	[[/folder]]

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