Boomerang Comeback

Two for the price of one!

"It's all coming back to you."

— Slogan for Cartoon Network's sister network, Boomerang

The Hero is on the ropes, getting his butt kicked by the villain. In desperation, the hero pulls out a weapon and hurls it.

He misses! Or maybe the villain dodges. Either way, the bad guy smirks or laughs at this futile final act of defiance as he closes for the kill...

... only to have the thrown weapon come back and hit him from behind, knocking him out or even killing him. Turns out, the weapon was in fact a Precision-Guided Boomerang (sometimes obviously so), or had boomerang-like properties. If the user has to manually recall the weapon to cause this trope, Summon to Hand is also related (but not mutually exclusive).

A comedic variant is for the character hit to be also the one throwing the weapon away, believing to get rid of it. Of course, it is extremely unlikely for a boomerang thrown by someone not knowing what it is to actually come back, but this takes a backseat to the Rule of Funny.

See also Exactly What I Aimed At.

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Examples:

Animation

• In Season 2 episode 20 of Happy Heroes, Doctor H. is frustrated about an incident earlier and gets hit by a bottle (actually a genie who is a bottle that was thrown by Big M.). After commenting that even a bottle won't stop pestering him, Doctor H. tries to throw it out of his sight, but it keeps coming back to hit him every time he does so.
• In episode 1 of Mole's World, Kula asks Mole Man to throw away his hammer. Mole Man throws the hammer up into the sky. The hammer comes back down out of the sky as a boomerang which hits Kula.

Anime & Manga

• In Basquash!, Dan uses his Lightning Ball technique this way to get out of a pit fight in the underground city of Underground. Actually, all signs point to Dan being able to actually control the ricochet of his shots in real time, so...
• In the first season of Digimon, Ikkakumon launches his Harpoon Torpedo attack at the Monster of the Week. His horn fires at the monster, immediately replaced by another that does the same, until four horns zip at the enemy... and miss. Then, when the enemy isn't looking, the horns open up revealing guided missiles that immediately turn around and tag the enemy.
• Done in the Saiyan Saga of Dragon Ball Z. Goku gives Krillin the energy for the Spirit Bomb to use against Vegeta. Krillin throws it, Vegeta dodges and the bomb flies at Gohan, who then repels the attack back towards Vegeta. He thinks he's in the clear, but then Vegeta gets broad-sided by the attack.
• Gundam: In episode 3 of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Kira Yamato's (Sword) Strike Gundam uses this against an attacking suit whose pilot is vastly more experienced. The inevitable return takes off the enemy machine's leg, stunning the awesome minor character Miguel Aiman inside it long enough for Kira to slice him clean in half.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency, Joseph's Hamon-charged clackers appear to be a Joke Weapon until it turns out they're capable of sticking to walls and flying back to him after a delay. Even Wamuu, the impossibly agile Pillar Man who effortlessly dodged all of Joseph's attacks beforehand, was taken by surprise and injured by this technique.
• In Mazinkaiser vs. Ankoku Daishogun, a badly-damaged Great Mazinger kills the Warrior Beast generals attacking New York like this.
• Nagasarete Airantou:
  • The girls nervously let Shinobu throw some shurikens to cut some rope across the river who believes that her skills isn't that rusty to miss. They somehow return to the girls instead, who point out this should be impossible.
  • Later at a festival, Ikuto shows that he mastered this technique while training with Shinobu. It results in shurikens flying in random patterns but still precisely hits the target. Even Mikoto, who's confident with shurikens, has no idea how to dodge them.
• Sailor Moon: Sailor Moon pulls this to bind the Monster of the Week during Sailor Mars' debut episode.
• Subverted in episode 3 of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Kamina throws Simon as a Fastball Special while fighting Viral. Viral dodges; Kamina expects to win the fight when Simon comes back again from behind, but Viral dodges the second attack as well. Mind you, the previous episode played it straight.
• Not exactly a boomerang, but in YuYu Hakusho, in a last ditch effort to beat Hiei, Yusuke goad him into the path of a point blank Reigun shot. It would have hit any other opponent, but Hiei manages to use his extreme speed to get out of the way. He then takes the time to gloat about how Yusuke was almost good enough, only to be hit in the back by the return shot a few seconds later; as it turns out, Yusuke figured Hiei would dodge, so he positioned himself so the shot would hit the Mirror of Darkness behind him and ricochet back when Hiei wasn't paying attention. Good thing it worked, too. Because if his shots didn't work that way, he had no other plans left.

Comic Books

• The DCU:
  • Batman and Robin #10 (Jun 2012) has a subplot where a villain assembles a bunch of Mooks who have been permanently given Hideously Amusing Injuries in their encounters with Batman. One of them tried to throw a Batarang back at Batman, missed — and now has it embedded in his skull.
  • Meanwhile at the Hall of Just... ahem, Captain Boomerang pulled this stunt against a member of the Jihad in the second issue of the original series of Suicide Squad.
• The DCU/Marvel Universe crossovers:
  • Marvel Versus DC shows a fight between Bane and Captain America, with Cap missing a shield toss, and Bane closing in and grabbing him, only to get struck by the returning shield before he can break Cap's back.
  • Subverted in JLA/Avengers when Hawkeye fires a boomerang arrow at Flash, who easily catches it on the return and remarks that he's had a little experience with these things before — the above-mentioned Captain Boomerang is one of Flash's Rogues Gallery.
• Gaston Lagaffe has several jokes about it.
  • One time Gaston's boomerang shatters a window. An angry neighbor brings back the boomerang to Fantasio thinking he's the one who threw it, Fantasio then throw it at Gaston's head while saying, "Gaston! It always comes back to the one who throws it!"
  • Prunelle throws through a window a wooden coat hanger which lost its hook (and happens to be shaped exactly like a boomerang) and it comes back in his face, to Gaston's hilarity.
    Gaston: You just reinvented one of the oldest jokes in the world!
  • On another occasion, Gaston attempted to launch a boomerang from a crossbow, with predictable results.
    Prunelle: [to a bandaged Gaston] Now you know why you should never launch a boomerang with a crossbow.
• Marvel Universe:
  • There's a Captain America comic where Cap is fighting HYDRA agents, stands on a pile of them, takes off a glove and licks a finger to hold up, throws his shield up into the air, and looks at his watch. "Two... one..." The last standing Hydra agent shows up with a hostage and goes into a standard Hydra rant about the organization's plans. He stops when he realizes that Cap is without his shield, Cap tells him that "It'll come if I whistle for it", the agent pulls a gun, Cap whistles... and his shield arcs down to hit the Hydra agent, leaving the hostage standing. That issue is full of him doing things like that; naturally, it's also the issue where it is lost.
  • Kid Colt: Almost without fail, the Fat Man throws a boomerang past someone, who laughs at his obvious miss. They continue to laugh until the boomerang comes whizzing up behind them and either knock them our, or knock their guns out of their hands.
  • The Mighty Thor: Played with when Thor threatens to do this to Loki — he hurls away his hammer, then grabs Loki by the neck, and reminds him that NOTHING can prevent his hammer from returning to his hand. Oh, and would he be so kind as to remove the curse he placed before the hammer returns? Gee, look, it's starting to arc back already...
  • In both film and comic version, the Green Goblin tries something like this against Spider-Man using his glider and attempting to hold/distract Spidey in place long enough for the glider to hit him. It doesn't work and Goblin gets impaled on his own glider for his trouble.
  • Subverted in The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, when Boomerang tosses one of his boomerangs at Bullseye. Bullseye performs a Nonchalant Dodge then proceeds to close the door behind him right before the boomerang comes back at him.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) #13, Rainbow Dash is playing with a boomerang on the beach, but gets distracted by the sight of genuine pirate captain and the boomerang hits her behind the head (but she completely ignores it).

Comic Strips

• The Far Side: A trio of labcoated scientists, all suffering from head injuries, futily attempt to figure out how to get rid of a boomerang.
• Garfield once told Odie to fetch a boomerang, only to get knocked over first by the boomerang and then by Odie.

Fan Works

• In part 9 of SlifofinaDragon's latest Sengoku Basara fanfic The Battle of Aki, as Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura's son goes through a simulated void of squaring off against a round full of Posthumous Characters, he faces off against Matsunaga Hisahide and sends one of his (Masa's) black hands, equipped with a katana, towards Matsunaga yet seemingly misses. As Matsunaga gloats, he gets sliced from behind by said hand.
• In chapter 16 of Code Geass: Awesome of the Rebellion, Suzaku uses his skill Spinzaku Boomerang, where he fires off his legs, that turned into a sword earlier. Sometime later, he activates Chekhov's Spinzaku, making the sword come back and impale Putin, leaving him too injured and tired to fight Rasputin.

Films — Animation

• Batman: Assault on Arkham: How Captain Boomerang takes out one of the guards on the tower: sending the boomerang past him to hit him on its return. This show-off stunt immediately bites the Suicide Squad in the butt; the boomerang alerted the guard, who had time to raise an alarm before it actually hit him.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Sunset's Backstage Pass: Pinkie Pie throws a rock-hard churro like a boomerang and knocks the Time Twirler off K-Lo's hair bow during the return trip.
• On the Over the Hedge DVD set, RJ and the kids are shown filming a "documentary" of Hammie finding a boomerang; one had been a running gag through the film itself. Hammie has... issues in getting rid of it. Issues exacerbated by the kids throwing more boomerangs at him from a box.

Films — Live-Action

• Parodied (what isn't?) in the movie Airplane! when Striker throws his jacket off-screen in a Disco, preparatory to a John Travolta Disco routine, only to have it fly right back at him.
• In Black Dynamite, The main character Black Dynamite is being threatened at gunpoint. Suddenly, a boomerang crashes through the window and cuts off the villain's arm! Black Dynamite then states that he "threw that shit before [he] walked in the room".
• In The Brothers Grimm movie, there is the magic handaxe seized from the lycanthrope woodsman, that can come back to the thrower. Toward the end, Jakob Grimm uses it to fight the French general's aide-de-camp, and miss — but the soldier is struck in the back by the axe returning before he can kill the hero.
• Occurs in Captain America II: Death Too Soon when the Captain foils a mugging attempt by tossing his trademark shield at a perpetrator, missing him at point-blank range, and the thug gives his shield enough time to curve back and knock himself out.
• In Jingle All the Way, the main character — in a Turbo Man costume that includes all the weapons — throws what is a high-tech boomerang. The villain lets go with one of his hands, while the other hangs on. He grabs the Turbo Man toy out of the boy's backpack and shouts "Victory is mine!", before the boomerang hits his other hand, causing him to fall. He lands on a parade float and is promptly arrested.
• In Pan, Tiger Lily is threatened by a fat pirate. She throws her hatchet nowhere close to him; the pirate sneers that she missed, before the hatchet finishes making a wide circle around a large tree and hits him.
• Thor pulls a similar trick to the example in the above section in Thor: Ragnarok while Loki is currently disguised as Odin, who enchanted the hammer to begin with. As he's not Odin, Loki can't stop it from coming back and has to drop the charade.
• In any number of The Three Stooges' shorts, one of them would swing a heavy pulley at a foe who would duck, then get knocked in the back of the head when it swung back. Would often end up as the "throwers hit variant".
• Played for Laughs in the old Italian movie "Totò cerca Moglie": the protagonist receives a boomerang as a gift from his Australian aunt, and whenever it's toss it will inevitably hit him back upon returning, almost as if it was alive. At one point near the end the boomerang even knocks on the door of the room Totò hid himself in to make him open the door so that it could hit him.
• An example from an action movie, although still comedic in nature: in Transformers, Frenzy is beheaded by one of his own CD-shuriken ricocheting wildly.
  Frenzy: Oh shit! [collapses]

Literature

• Discworld: At the end of Interesting Times, when Rincewind ends up on Fourecks, he runs into some natives who offer him a boomerang. Thinking it's yet another Call to Adventure, Rincewind throws it away in disgust and starts complaining that he's not going to do anymore heroics ever again, only for the book to end mid-sentence with Rincewind apparently being clonked on the head by the returning boomerang.
• The Hunger Games: This is how Haymitch won his game. He made it to the edge of the arena, where he discovered there was a force field that reflected back everything that was thrown at it. The other remaining competitor caught up with him, threw an axe, Haymitch ducked, the axe bounced back, and killed the thrower.
• Lensman: It's stated that this is likely to happen to Lensmen without the Sense of Perception who use energy weapons on the planet Trenco. Because the entire planet is so energistically charged, even sight is unreliable and energy beams have been known to enter the backs of the people who fire them. Perceivers are able to sense and correct for the distortion, knowing where the target really is and how not to shoot themselves.

Live-Action TV

• Arrowverse: Discussed in The Flash, when Cisco is testing out Bette Sans Souci's superpowers (she can touch anything and turn it into an Action Bomb). One of the items he gives her to throw is a boomerang, but Caitlin Snow wisely takes it away before Bette can try it out, pointing out that Cisco clearly Didn't Think This Through.
• One episode of Blackadder II has Edmund giving a boomerang to the Queen as a present from his expedition around the world. She's unimpressed by it, and tells Percy to throw it away. He does, and a few seconds later it comes back and smacks him in the head, which amuses the Queen immensely. It's also exaggerated for comedy, since Percy lightly lobs the boomerang out the door and yet it returns with enough force to knock him down.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As a training exercise Giles blindfolds Buffy, hands her a ball, and asks her to throw it at him. She throws it in the wrong direction, he starts to wax sarcastic, and the ball bounces back and hits him in the head.
  Giles: It's not that simple, is it— [ball bounces off his head] Ow.
• The Goodies
  • Variation in the infamous scene where Bill is proving "Ecky Thump" is superior to other martial arts. Graeme misses with a boomerang, but later when Tim has disarmed Bill with some bagpipes, it comes back and clouts Tim from behind.
  • In the Camelot episode, Graeme is fleeing the Black Knight when he comes across Excalibur in the Stone. He tries to pull the sword from the stone and ends up swinging the stone around his head trying to clobber the Black Knight until Excalibur goes flying out of his hands, stone and all. The Black Knight chases after the now disarmed Graeme and is just about to finish him off when the stone falls on his head.
• Horrible Histories has a bit where an Egyptian, trying to show off his cat that can fetch like a dog, throws a boomerang... the cat doesn't fetch it, but the boomerang fetches itself.
• Massive Monster Mayhem: Major Disappointment's intro sequence includes the giant robot pulling out his boomerang-shaped brow and throwing it at a building, only to get hit in the face from the return.
• Odd Squad: In "End of the Road", Orana throws her Boomerang-inator at the Sand Queen, only for it to miss and fail to come back. Much later, when Orana, her partner and the Big O are buried in a pile of sand, the boomerang returns and buries itself next to Orana's head. She grips it in her teeth and starts using it to did herself out.
• Sherlock: A side case in "A Scandal in Belgravia" involves a man found dead from a blow to the head by the bank of a stream. He had been seen standing there, all alone, with no-one anywhere near him, seconds before he was seen dead. He had received a boomerang as a gift, and had been experimenting with it. He had just thrown it, when he was distracted by a car backfiring, turned to look, and was hit in the back of the head. The boomerang landed in the stream, and floated away.
• In Sleepy Hollow, the angel Orion pulls this on the Headless Horseman by throwing his halo-shaped Deadly Disc. It misses and bursts out of the house's wall, forcing the angel to fight unharmed for a while, until the disc flies back and stabs the Horseman in the back.

Puppet Shows

• Fraggle Rock: In one of Uncle Matt's postcards, he watches a man throwing a boomerang and thinks it's a stick that magically keeps coming back, no matter how hard he tries to get rid of it. Matt decides to throw it away himself, only to get knocked down by it.
  Uncle Matt: Love, your Uncle Traveling... [the boomerang knocks him down] ...AAAHHHH!

Video Games

• One of your new tricks in Batman: Arkham City is to do this with Batarangs. The first example is in a hostage situation in a cutscene; following that, you can do it to thugs at will. It comes in handy with Predator battles because mooks will tend to focus their search in the direction the hit came from rather than where you actually are.
• In Bloons Tower Defense 6, the Boomerang Monkey has the Kylie Boomerang upgrade; while the default boomerang flies in an arc and can only hit a target once, the kylie is thrown in a straight line and can hit twice, once on the way out and again on the return.
• The boomerang in Igor Objective Uikokahonia is used solely in a cutscene for this purpose.
• In Jedi Outcast and Academy this is a useful trick, as a saber throw is easily blocked going forward, but impossible to block when it hits the enemy from the back.
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess uses this as the way of defeating an early miniboss: he throws a boomerang from atop a set of columns, and if you roll into the column he's on after he's thrown the boomerang, destabilizing him, it'll knock him down when it returns.
• A very real problem in any Mario Kart game with the green shell. Miss your target and it's just as likely to come back and hit you.
• In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, proficient players of Captain America make use of this factor with his shield throw to set up combos; usually knowing their opponent will either try to block it or dodge it. Arthur's Scythe Toss behaves similarly to it, as does Trish and Vergil's Round Trip, although theirs are slower.
• In M.U.G.E.N, the Dancing Banana throws Bananarangs that damage and bounce away should they score an unblocked hit. If they're blocked or miss, they stay a short while at the screen's edge before flying back in the opposite direction for a second chance to hit the opponent.
• In Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time, Bloomerang's projectiles can hit enemies on the first go and the return for double damage.
• This is a very common phenomenon in TRON 2.0. If you throw your disc at an enemy and miss, there is a pretty good chance it will hit the enemy on the return pass. The effect is even better with the sequencer subroutine.
• Shown in the very first cutscene in Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. Unluckily, though, it's the very beginning of the game and the setup to the actual plot, so it doesn't sort everything.

Visual Novels

• Fate/stay night: Archer does this very effectively against Caster in the UBW route, throwing his swords right before she freezes him in place with a spell. In the HF route, Shirou mimics this exact tactic repeatedly in rapid succession, attacking from all directions to overwhelm his opponent.

Web Animation

• DEATH BATTLE!:
  • In the "Captain America vs. Batman" match, Captain America's nails Batman behind the head with his shield by ricocheting it against a wall. Though it is just the warm-up phase.
  • In "Darth Vader vs. Doctor Doom", toward the end of the fight, Darth Vader throws his lightsaber at Doctor Doom, who easily sidesteps it. Later, though, guided by the Force, the lightsaber hits Doctor Doom in the back mid-gloating.
  • "Boba Fett vs. Predator": The most significant hit the Predator inflicts to Boba Fett is by throwing a pair of smart disks. Boba initially deflects them with his gaffi stick, but then one makes a loop behind him and, on the return trip, cleanly lops off his right arm.
• Tamagotchi: In one Sorette, Kuchipatchi. short, Kuchipatchi throws a bag into the air. It circles Tamagotchi Planet and hits Kuchipatchi right on the back.

Webcomics

• In The Dark Intruder strip "Drak-o-rang", Dark Intruder is the one throwing the boomerang, but not the one hit. Instead, it lands in the face of his sidekick, Smart Girl — but as she points out, that still mean he's in trouble.
• Double subverted in Errant Story. When Sarine throws her dagger, her opponent knew Sarine was trying this and blocks it with her sword. Which is why Sarine charged it with lightning beforehand.
• In Knights of the Old Coding, when Kuros finds the Axe of Agor, he discards the Knife of Throwing, forgetting that it always returns until it stabs him in the back.
• Done in The Non-Adventures of Wonderella when Wonderella throws her "Wonderang" (also her tiara, just like Wonder Woman's) at a bad guy and misses. She then gets him to sing a song until it comes back and lodges itself in his skull.
• Used in Skin Horse during the epic battle between Tigerlily Jones and Unity-in-Dr-Lee's-body.
  Tigerlily: SPRING-LOADED BOOMERANG CUDGEL!
  Unity: Ha! Missed!
  Tigerlily: Nine ... eight ... seven ... six ...
  Unity: Huh?
  Tigerlily: You fresh outta no-Boomerang-Having Stupid Town, ain't you.
  Unity: I don't get—
  [WHACK!]
  [everything goes black]
• Swords features the Swordarang, a boomerang with two bladed tips. Money back guarantee! Well, yeah, considering adventurers using it keep getting stabbed on the return, it's guaranteed they'd ask their money back.
• xkcd:
  • Played with as a long-term running gag: 1 2 3
  • "Turnabout", referring to reflectors left by Apollo on the Moon; they're still there and they still work!

Websites

• The DungeonVerse-inspired site Les Parchemins Anodins invented the no-return boomerang: a magical boomerang which always comes back, decapitating the launcher. Ouch.

Web Videos

• In Atop the Fourth Wall: The Movie, Linkara learns during the final battle that Mechakara can only adapt to weaponfire if he can see it coming. After gathering his friends to help charge the Magic Gun, Linkara fires at Mechakara and appears to miss... only for the shot to lob around and strike Mechakara in the back.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: In "The Avatar Returns", Sokka throws his boomerang at Zuko, who dodges it. Sokka then charges with a spear, Zuko blocks it, breaks it, pokes Sokka on the head with it, and then it comes back and smacks him in the back of the head.
• In Thor's introductory episode of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, "Thor the Mighty", Thor manages to hit three of the Wrecking Crew's four members by throwing his hammer. Then, he magically summons it to fly in the opposite direction, pummeling the fourth.
  Thor: Have you no honor?
  Wrecker: Not even a little.
  Thor: Then you should be familiar with attacking a foe from behind!
  [Wrecker looks behind him and gets hit in the face with Mjölnir]
• In Axe Cop, Book Cop throws a book at a Redcoat:
  Redcoat: Ha! You missed!
  Book Cop: No, I didn't. Boomerang Book Secret Attack!
• Camp Lakebottom: Buttsquat hits himself in the back of the head with his own boomerang, which knocks him off his boat, in "Slimey Come".
• Classic Disney Shorts: Mickey Mouse's very first cartoon, "Plane Crazy", ends with this happening; with his plane wrecked and Minnie having angrily left him after he deliberately scared her and then forcibly kissed her, Mickey throws away the lucky horseshoe he had been carrying the whole time in disgust. The horseshoe boomerangs around the tree behind Mickey and hooks around his neck, knocking Mickey unconscious and ending the cartoon.
• Yumi of Code Lyoko sometimes uses this trick when she misses with her tessen fans, usually helped by telekinesis. She vanquishes William twice this way: once by kicking him into the fan's return trajectory, and another time nailing him in the back just as he is devirtualizing her.
• In the Duck Dodgers episode "Hooray for Hollywood Planet", Dodgers is attacked by a female assassin wielding energy nunchucks while all he has to defend himself is a banjo. After the instrument is cut in two, he throws the head part, but she just jumps above it and mocks him.
  Nina: Ah! Did you think you could disarm me with a broken banjo?
  Dodgers: That wasn't just any broken banjo. It was a Kookaburra Special Limited Resonance from Australia!

And indeed, for some reason involving vibrations, the flying banjo head turns around and snatches Nina's nunchucks to deliver them to Dodgers.

• When the Eds come across a cursed boomerang in an episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy, they eventually manage to throw it into the distance. It comes right back with enough force to pin them all to a tree branch. Interestingly, it is the first point in the episode where the boomerang actually returns to the thrower at all.
• Futurama: In Bender's Game, during the parody of The Lord of the Rings, Pr. Fansworth (as the stereotypical fantasy wizard) turns his staff into a giant boomerang, but it hits him in the back when thrown — or even when slightly going past the screen border.
• Justice League:
  • In the Batman Cold Open of one episode, Batman pulls this off against KGBeast.
  • In "Flash and Substance", Captain Boomerang sends a swarm of boomerangs flying at the Flash, who catches them and throws them back. They turn around and fly back at him (suggesting that these boomerangs are so good that it doesn't take any skill to use them, they return whether you want them to or not). Upon seeing them going back towards him, Flash's response is a self-deprecating "DUH!"
• In an episode of Mega Man (Ruby-Spears), Megaman fires a buster shot at Protoman which misses and enters a steam pipe. The steam pipe loops again behind Megaman, who ducks just as the shot comes out the end of the pipe, hitting Protoman.
• Miraculous Ladybug: Averted several times in "The Collector", but it's a close call. Considering a single hit from the Collector's Precision Guided Book is an instant loss, both Ladybug and Cat Noir are very wary of not getting caught from behind by the book on its return path.
• Robot Chicken shows us that the hero of Krull has had this problem with the Glaive.
• Parodied in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Gary Takes a Bath" when SpongeBob tries to throw a new toy ball for Gary to chase into the bathtub, only for it to suddenly change direction mid-air, with SpongeBob reading the box and realizing it's a "Boomerang Pet Ball". He chucks the box away in frustration... which itself proceeds to hit the back of his head.
• In an episode of Tom and Jerry ("Duel Personality"), Jerry tosses a bent rapier at Tom; Tom dodges, but the rapier comes around and hits him.
• Wakfu: Attempted by Yugo with his wakfu shield in season 2 episode 25, but Qilby manages to parry it on the return.
• We Bare Bears: In "Lunch With Tabes", during Grizzly's side of the story he claims he tried to ward off some bugs by throwing a boomerang at them, but it missed. At the end of the episode, the boomerang comes back out of nowhere and hits Panda in the head.
• Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner:
  • Double-Subverted in a cartoon: Wile E. buys "One Genuine Boomerang (Guaranteed to Return)" to use against the Road Runner, but when he hurls it, it seems to come and smack him from the other side of the screen (and change color from yellow to red before it is seen)... until the camera pans over to show the Road Runner standing next to a box for "Another Genuine Boomerang (Guaranteed to Return)". Wile E. starts to give chase... then his original boomerang comes back and hits him.
  • In another cartoon, a boomerang Wile E. throws comes back with one of the dynamite darts he released earlier.
• Winnie the Pooh: One episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh has this as a Running Gag. Rabbit and Tigger use a boomerang to try to knock down a beehive, but it misses and they have to duck to avoid getting hit. The boomerang stays up in the air for the remainder of the episode, occasionally almost hitting Rabbit. At the end, the boomerang flies into Rabbit's house with a loud crash.
• Zig & Sharko: After Zig tries to take off carrying Marina (again), Sharko (after a big sigh) lazily throws a banana at him. Zig laughs it off as the banana flies past, expecting a failed attempt at the Banana Peel gag. Instead, the banana twists around like a boomerang and hits Zig in the face.

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