Follow TV Tropes

Following

Improbable Weapon User / Western Animation

Go To

Bandito: Tell me, Kabong. What do you use—a sword? A whip? A shillelagh?
El Kabong: I use a GEE-tar. Kabong! (kabongs bandito)

  • In Adventure Time while Finn usually uses a sword, in the Season 2 finale he defeats The Lich with a sweater, thrusting it through his eye sockets and ripping the top of his skull off. This was because the sweater had been imbued with the power of l-l-liking someone a lot.
  • Subverted in the first episode of All Hail King Julien. Julien thinks that a rubber ball on a paddle will be a sufficient weapon to defeat a fossa; he uses it, but the fossa eats the ball and smashes the paddle.
  • Amphibia:
    • While Anne has been known to use a sword, her signature weapon is a tennis racket.
    • Other residents of Amphibia have been known to use unusual weapons: for example, Stumpy the chef uses various cooking-related prosthetic hands like spatulas, tenderizing hammers, and cleavers, Wally uses an accordion, and Fern the hairdresser wields a giant pair of scissors.
  • The Kyoshi Warriors of Avatar: The Last Airbender use hand fans.
  • Harley Quinn in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Picture this: she's rendered mute by an omnipotent Joker, themed like a 1920s Flapper, paired up with the fourth-wall ignoring Bat-Mite, reality has pretty much fallen apart, and she has some goons to beat up. What does she do? She and Bat-Mite tear the intertitles that hold her dialogue from the TV Screen and use them like 2x4s!
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Pretty much ALL KND operatives qualify as using unorthodox objects as weapons. They have 2x4 Weaponry. At the least, too.
  • Danny Phantom:
    • The Box Ghost uses boxes, cardboard, and anything square. Although sometimes he will use contents inside the box, one of which had very, very sharp scalpels. He also uses bubble wrap. Ember McLain has many functions for her guitar, but when she runs out of option, it doubles as her choice weapon. Technus uses 21st century machinery at his disposal, including, but not limited to computers, cars, satellites, and even an online video game.
    • One of the Fenton weapons is an ordinary baseball bat... with the word "Fenton" on it.
  • Adam West's Cat Launcher in an episode of Family Guy.
  • An episode of Futurama had Ben Franklin's Franklinator, which is essentially an animal (usually a badger) tied to a stick. However, Bender receives one with a small shark, and Fry gets a chipmunk.
  • An episode of Invader Zim saw Dib fighting in a cage match in order to see his father. He had a choice of improbable weapons, including a giant corkscrew, and giant cotton swab. Dib, however, chose the giant Turkey Baster.
  • In the pilot of Jackie Chan Adventures, Jackie beat off the Dark Hand Enforcers with a pair of windshield wipers.
  • This is The Questions's entire M.O. in Justice League Unlimited. While he does occasionally take more conventional weapons off of downed opponents, his usual style is to grab some random object around him and use it to clobber the bad guys.
  • Stumpy the squirrel from Kaeloo has used bananas as weapons instead of gunsnote .
  • Kim Possible:
    • Mad golfer Duff Killigan has been known to use golf clubs as weapons, as well as exploding golf balls.
    • The Mathther, an Expy of The Riddler only obsessed with math problems rather than riddles, occasionally throws grenades shaped like digits.
    • On one occasion, Ron's pet mole rat Rufus volunteered to let Master Sensei throw him like a throwing star. Ron's adopted ninja sister Hana once threw a cookie in the same manner, with destructive results.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • The titular heroine has a power called "Lucky Charm" that creates the most random objects to help her in battle, such as a spoon, guitar strings and a coin. "What am I supposed to do with this?" could be her catch phrase, but she always find a way to use them effectively.
    • Several of the Miraculous have rather unusual weapons. Sure, some are reasonable enough, like the Cat's staff or the Turtle's shield, but then there's the Ladybug's yo-yo, the Fox's flute, the Bee's spinning top, the Horse's horseshoe...
    • Also true of the akumatized villains. Often their weapons do something unusual — for example, Simon Says and Princess Fragrance can cause Mind Control with playing cards and perfume, respectively.
  • The Settler Ponies in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic arm themselves with apple pies to fight a war against a tribe of buffalo. Not a play war or a game, mind you, but a sincere war over a parcel of land that both groups claim ownership over. It even goes into slow-motion when Chief Thunderhooves is hit, complete with tragic western music as he lays stunned with pie in his face.
  • In a few of episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh characters used ice cream scoopers in place of guns.
  • The Patrick Star Show: In "The Patrick Show Cashes In", Perch Perkins fights Patrick with a cannon that fires Bermuda shorts.
  • Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero:
    • Penn doesn't always get a weapon when he enters a new dimension, so he often has to rely on Improv Fu or mundane items like clipboards or flare guns.
    • Vonnie Zero, Penn's mother, has a talent for this as well. It's an useful ability to have when you're trapped in a monster-infested dimension with no proper tools.
  • The Pink Panther: "G.I. Pink". Seeing the pink menace, Drill Sergeant Nasty immediately gives him a broom instead of a rifle. It doesn't help - the broom shoots him all the same.
  • And who can forget Quick Draw McGraw's alter-ego El Kabong whose weapon of choice is a guitar... nothing special, just a regular guitar he that he uses to beat folks about the head and shoulders. Lampshaded in an episode of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law when Quick Draw is arrested for hitting a man with his guitar and is charged with assault with a deadly weapon, leading to a courtroom debate about the right to bear guitars.
  • In Samurai Jack, Scaramouch is a Musical Assassin who uses two main weapons: A magic flute that can create stone golems and a sharp-bladed tuning fork that, when struck against an object, will cause it to resonate uncontrollably until it explodes. Jack takes the latter from Scaramouch and uses it in the following episode to cover his tracks as he escapes from an ancient tomb.
  • In a Show Within a Show example, Shaggy on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated once watched a doctor in a horror movie trounce some zombies using a stethoscope.
  • Lady Richington from Sheep in the Big City often beat up Sheep with her stainless steel wig as soon as she saw him due to despising sheep in general.
  • The Simpsons: When Marge is kidnapped by the Hell Satans in the episode "Take my Wife, Sleaze", Homer and their leader Meathook fight with motorcycles used as swords. Rule of Funny is in full effect here.
  • In South Park's unofficial trailer, The Spirit of Christmas, baby Jesus throws his Holy Halo at the murderous Frosty the Snowman, knocking the hat off its head and rendering it immobile.
  • Steven Universe:
    • Jasper wears a helmet with a hammer-like protusion to deliver powerful headbutts.
    • Most of Steven's fusions (except for Stevonnie and Obsidian) wield... unusual weaponry:
      • Smoky Quartz wields a Killer Yoyo, a combination of Steven's shield and Amethyst's whip.
      • Rainbow Quartz 2.0 combines Steven's shield and Pearl's spear into a Parasol of Pain.
      • Sunstone has the strangest weapon, turning Steven's shield and Garnet's gauntlets into giant gauntlets with suction cups on them.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
    • Casey Jones normally counts, using a variety of sports equipment as weapons. But special mention goes to the Casey from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), who uses not just a hockey stick, but hockey pucks with very powerful M-80s taped to them and a taser hidden in a hockey goalie glove that's made from a potato masher.
    • Bishop of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) is arguably a badass version of this, as he uses everything around him as a weapon to even the odds in a fight. He goes from taking the turtles' weapons, to using a baseball bat, to using his own necktie.
    • Lou Jitsu (AKA Master Splinter) of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles used ladders as his main weapon in one of his movies, and in the Battle Nexus. And in the episode "Evil League of Mutants", the Ninja Turtles were able to take on almost all of their enemies at once armed with just ladders and fish.
  • American Maid, from The Tick, uses her shoes as weapons. Unlike Jian above, she does throw them, and they apparently have some pretty pointy heels. She would occasionally use her tiara as a weapon, as well.
    • To say nothing of Captain Musilage, Babyboomerangotan and.... THE HUMAN BULLET!
    • Don't forget the woman who can shoot poodles out of a poodle gun.
  • The Transformers franchise has wound up with a number of these, generally being something fairly unremarkable when they're transformed.
    • A number of Transformers with helicopter alt-modes as of late have the ability to use the rotors as weapons in robot mode. These include Bulkhead from Energon, Evac from Cybertron, Blackout from the 2007 movie and Megatron from Animated (although he cheats by actually turning his blades into swords).
      • In what could be a deliberate inversion, the Animated version of Blackout shoots his rear rotor out as a disc weapon.
    • A great many Transformers with animal alt-modes can use their tails as whip-like weapons once transformed. Some even have something particularly nasty at the end, like a blade or a big spiked ball.
    • Engines forming guns. This happens a lot.
    • And, of course, anyone whose transformation leaves them with their alt-mode's head on one of their hands has a pretty nasty weapon. Not only can its jaws clamp down hard in close-range combat, but it can usually shoot some sort of beam attack as well.
    • The epitome of this, though, has got to be the Breastforce, from the Japanese-only series Victory. Their robot modes have chestplates than can be removed to turn into little robo-animal partners or hand-held guns.
    • Prowl; hubcaps into shurikens. Jazz; tailpipes into nunchucks. That is all.
    • The majority of the Transformers: Animated Autobots use improvised weaponry (grappling hooks, wrecking balls, welders) to one degree or another. This is topped by Ratchet, whose most powerful weapons are essentially powered-up medical equipment.
      • In the Animated continuity, pretty much all of the Autobots are pulling this one off. They're a work force forced into war, so it makes sense that they would use the tools of their trade.
    • Energon Megatron, and his redeco, Shattered Glass Megatron, have an entire tank hanging off their forearm, which they use as an Arm Cannon. It can also be used as a Blade Below the Shoulder.
  • VeggieTales:
    • Various episodes feature a mop, ballistic pies and dodgeballs used as weapons.
    • The French Peas of Jericho dropped slushies at the Hebrew veggies.
  • When not using his trusty bowie knife, Brock Samson from The Venture Bros. will use anything at hand as a weapon. A lawn mower, a bible, a shark, a jaw bone, a sock full of party snaps... anything... except for a gun.
  • Wakfu has a few: of the mains, Ruel fights with a shovel, and Amalia has a vegetable doll. One of the minor characters fights with a baker's plate.
    • Shovels seem to be the Enutrof weapon of choice since it can also be used to dig for gold, and Sadida in general (both in-game and in the show) are infamous for using weird little veggie dolls to attack with. Or to put it another way, this trope as a racial trait.


Top