Follow TV Tropes

Following

Flying Broomstick

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harrypotter_nimbus2000_49.jpg
The fastest model yet! (Until the sequel.)

"My Other Car Is a Broom"
Bumper sticker

Brooms are the traditional flying mount of the Witch Classic (and many a contemporary). According to The Other Wiki the idea of witches riding on brooms goes back to at least 1453. In the original woodcuts, they've got the head or brush part in front, logical enough since the original witch's broom was a staff with a carved phallic end and the brush was tied on as a disguise. Today's depictions most often put the head in the back, for sake of an aerodynamic appearance (and for similarity with an exhaust pipe or jet engine).

As brooms aren't exactly designed to be ridden upon, riding one would require really good balance so as not to fall off, especially when really high up. Prospective witches and warlocks should also try not to land wrong while sitting on their brooms either or you'll end up "Riding the Rail" if you know what I mean. But if these difficulties are discussed at all, there will usually be a Hand Wave about how the same magic that causes the broom to fly also makes the experience more comfortable than it logically ought to be.

At some point, witches were portrayed as riding the brooms side-saddle, similar to how women traditionally rode horseback. If two witches are shown together, the difference in how they sit on their brooms usually relates to a Tomboy and Girly Girl dynamic.

Appearance-wise, these broomsticks are almost always the old-fashioned kind made by tying bristles in a rough cone around the end of a long stick; modern brooms are very rarely put to such uses. When they are, it'll often be as a joke on witches getting on with changing times. In these cases, however, it's likelier for the joke to be pushed further and to show the witch riding around on a vacuum cleaner; even more recently, witches might be seen flying on roombas, as an ultra-modern broom.

Similar to the Magic Carpet, which is also a flying object but has unrelated origins and applications.

For the Speculative Fiction version see Rocket Ride. Compare Sky Surfing, in which various flying objects are ridden on while standing: particularly daredevil witches may well do this on their brooms. If also used as a weapon, it's a Broomstick Quarterstaff.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Advertising 
  • This GEICO insurance commercial describes customers' savings as making them "happier than a witch in a broom factory," along with a depiction thereof.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Ah! My Goddess:
    • The opening credits of the OVAs from the 1990s briefly show Belldandy on a broomstick, followed by Skuld riding a vaguely broom-shaped flying machine, and finally (in a subversion of a subversion) Urd riding a canister vacuum with the hose draped around her like a feather boa.
    • In the manga, Urd's broomstick is so jazzed up with magic, it is sentient. When Belldandy borrows it, love blooms. Weird, twisted, "sweep with me!" love. Yes, sweep.
  • Mostly played straight in Akazukin Cha Cha, but it is also parodied: the school bus that the class rides to field trips on is this, with enough seats for everyone.
  • During the Fantasia arc of Berserk , the party meets an attractive (but aggressive) witch Morda who rides flying broomstick casually. Isidro is quick to note how impressive it is to see a "actual witch" just to annoy the group's resident non-flying witch Schierke.
  • In the world of Black Clover mages use brooms to fly. It's used as a test at the Magic Knights Entrance Exam to see how skilled a mage is based on how well they use it.
  • Double-subversion in Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura does not ride a broomstick, but she uses her Magic Wand like this after she captures the Fly card until she upgrades it into a Sakura card and it lets her grow wings.
  • A Certain Magical Index: Aleister uses a flying broomstick to rescue Touma from falling, in New Testament 18's Epilogue.
  • Natsumi's angel in Date A Live is a flying broomstick that she can ride on, use to appear before people, and transform things with. It is quite the powerful multipurpose tool, perfect for a witch-themed spirit.
  • Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld has Nobita creating an alternate universe where magic exists, and everyone flies on broomsticks or carpets by default.
  • Makoto in Flying Witch complains that "Flying for a long time really hurts my butt and groin." Her senior-witch sister Akane laughs and points out that "A lot of people think they're riding the brooms," but "The secret is you don't ride the broom. You're actually supposed to levitate yourself too." That explains how witches can ride a broomstick without agony, or having to ride sidesaddle.
  • In Gakuen Babysitters, Kirin tries to invoke this trope since she believes she can become a witch and fly on a broom if she tries hard enough (due to being just a toddler who still can't distinguish fiction from reality). However, this isn't a fantasy series, so Kirin learns the hard way that this trope doesn't apply to a realistic setting when she jumps off a high ledge and Ryuuichi has to catch her before she hits the ground.
  • A Ghost Sweeper Mikami episode was about two flying brooms built centuries ago by Doctor Chaos. They have a tragic backstory, as they belonged to a páir of Star-Crossed Lovers whose souls are bound to them.
  • While Izetta of Izetta: The Last Witch is first seen riding the traditional broomstick, the magic is hers, not the broom's. When she has to catch her beloved Princess Finé from a still-airborne plane wreck, she grabs the closest available substitute: an anti-tank rifle. (A flying boomstick, perhaps?) The gun performs beautifully as a substitute; Izetta can stay abreast of fighter planes doing 400 kilometers per hour, and shoot them down besides.
  • Jewelpet:
  • This appears in the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! anime, fittingly enough in an episode involving a pastiche of the Harry Potter books.
  • Little Witch Academia:
    • Broom flying is considered such an elementary skill that nobody even considers the possibility that main character Akko can't do it. It becomes a running gag.
    • TV series:
      • Professor of "Modern Magic" Croix flies on a Roomba.
      • In the climax of the TV series, the main characters combine a large number of brooms to create the magical equivalent of a multi-stage rocket.
  • Dorothy of MÄR rides a broom, preferring it even over the carpet the other characters ride. It doubles as her standard weapon. The broom is about her only trait that most would consider telling for her classification of "witch". In MAR Heaven, it's just the name of a person from a restrictive country. None of the other characters from the same place are seen with brooms.
  • Fabia Crozelg of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid uses a witch broom called Hell Gazer as her Device.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Several minor magical characters have brooms, and Negi uses a staff that's functionally the same. He later switches to Sky Surfing on it, and by the end of the series he can fly unaided.
    • Yue's artifact includes a flying broom, and Ariadne Academy has classes of broom-riding.
  • Ojamajo Doremi has a button on the girls' taps in the first two seasons that summoned their brooms, but the cutscene is skipped in Motto and Dokkan. Humorously, Majorika flew by using a dustpan.
  • Brooms in Oku-sama wa Mahou Shoujo comes in several flavours, aside from the standard ones: Modern ones, vacuum cleaners, and giant eating utensils.
  • Perman: The mysterious witch in the episode "Perman 3's a Real Witch" flies around on a broomstick.
  • A variation in the Rumic Theater story "One Hundred Years of Love". Ninety-year-old Risa Hoshino gains weird telekinetic powers after a near-death experience, and they can fly by riding a crutch. She doesn't really need it, but it helps her stand up once she reaches the ground. Note also that since she's a Miniature Senior Citizen, the crutch is twice as tall as her.
  • In Servamp, Mahiru invokes this. His lead happens to be a broom, and his servamp's animal form is a black cat. It didn't take long for him to connect the dots.
  • Somehow subverted in Shadow Star with Jun Ezumi, a girl who rides a flying broom that really is a "dragon", one of the Mons equivalent of the series. The protagonist Shiina even mistakes her for a witch, but Jun says she choose that specific form for her dragon (aptly if not creatively named "Broom") just for fun.
  • Soul Eater:
    • We first see Medusa riding a broom... that has an arrow/snakehead.
    • Jacqueline turns into a lantern which can propel itself by shooting fire and grow a pole for her partner Kim to hang onto, visually evoking this trope. Which hints at Kim really being a witch.
    • People with a certain type of soul can make a Weapon they're holding sprout wings to fly on them if they have the power of a Witch's soul. Maka uses Soul's scythe form to accomplish it.
  • Subverted in Strike Witches, with broomsticks being relegated to use as training devices, as season 2 episode 3 demonstrated the visual and physical problems of their use.
  • Tamagotchi: In the "Three Hell Devil Sisters" episodes, Flowertchi plays a witch who flies around on a broomstick.
  • Tweeny Witches: The witches fly on brooms using the feathers of gryphon fairies.
  • Underworld Academy Overload!!: Shion travels around on a broom, appropriately for a witch.
  • A Witch's Love at the End of the World takes place at Sternenlichtl, a school for witches, and one of the various lessons shown taking place there is broom flying lessons.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: In keeping with the "witch" theme, the Gundam Calibarn has one that also doubles as a giant cannon.
  • YuYu Hakusho has a variation with Botan. Though she rides an oar instead, she rides it very much in the style of a witch on a broomstick.

    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Heroes: In Season 8, several dark wizards are seen flying through the air on broomsticks. Huo Haha is also shown using his toilet plunger Magic Wand in the same one would use a flying broomstick on several occasions.
  • Lamput: The docs find a flying broomstick in the castle in "Witch" and fly around on it to aid in their pursuit of Lamput. The witch who owns the broom soon notices and gets mad at the docs for it, along with disturbing her rest, and at the end of the episode she magically transforms them and Lamput into frogs.
  • In Pleasant Goat Fun Class: Sports are Fun episode 6, Weslie and Paddi compete in a tennis match with Wolffy on a floating piece of land in the sky. A number of animals can be seen flying on broomsticks and wearing wizard clothing, including Wolffy when he first appears to challenge the goats.

    Comic Books 
  • Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Routinely used by Magica De Spell and other witches from the Disney comics like Witch Hazel. Some comics even have the broom act as Magicka's Animate Inanimate Object sidekick.
  • In Hellboy: Darkness Calls, witches are shown flying unaided, on giant animals (like cats), in cups, and with all types of animals/items... even brooms.
  • In the Franco-Belgian Comic Mélusine, the Cute Witch protagonist and many other characters regularly ride brooms. The witch's school curriculum even includes broomstick lessons. Her friend Cancrelune, however, is a catastrophically clumsy flyer and a Captain Crash. Since Mélusine is employed as a maid in the Haunted Castle, she also often uses her broom for the task it was designed for.
  • Often seen (along with occasionally the vacuum cleaner variant) in the Sabrina the Teenage Witch comic.
  • In The Smurfs comic book story "The Flying Smurf", the titular character creates one by using a magic spell on an ordinary broom, but it ends up flying without him, and after Papa Smurf finds the book that Flying Smurf used and puts it back in his laboratory, Flying tries to create another flying broom with no success. (This was later used in the Animated Adaptation of the comic book story "The Astro Smurf").
  • In his very first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man, the Green Goblin flew around on a high-tech version of a broomstick. Subsequent appearances replaced this with the trademark Goblin Glider.
  • Starman foe the Prairie Witch rode on a flying broomstick. Starman was convinced that it was some kind of technological trick until he yanked it away from her (causing her to plummet to the ground) and discovered it was a perfectly ordinary broom.
  • Leni "Sky Witch" Muller from Top 10 rides a mechanical flying machine that resembles a broomstick.
  • Wendy the Good Little Witch (Casper the Friendly Ghost's friend) used to ride a broom (sentient in some stories, and called Broomie); now she rides a flying vacuum cleaner.
  • In the indie comic The Underburbs, main character Angela is a witch who rides a broom, complete with a black cat living in it. Bearing in mind the broom was part of a Halloween costume made real by magic.
  • The French comic Raghnarok is about the titular flightless young dragon. He steals the local witch's broom, jumps off a cliff with it... and goes splat, as usual. When the witch is patching him up, he asks why she keeps a broomstick if it doesn't fly, she answers that she keeps it for sweeping.
  • Sensation Comics: In the Halloween Wonder Woman issue Diana loops her lasso around Steve Trevor, Etta Candy and the Holliday Girls and has them sit on their costume broomsticks while she flies her invisible robot plane to make them appear to be flying on broomsticks like real witches.
  • In the Lowborn High strip in 2000 AD, flying brooms are used for playing Orbitus (which, aside from being an arial ball game, is not very much like that other Wizarding School setting's favourite game), and high-end brooms are shown as specially-created devices with animal heads at the front (the most expensive has a unicorn). Our Ragtag Band of Misfits, on the other hand, have a mismatched set of "broom-like" cleaning tools, including a plastic yard-brush, two different brands of vacuum cleaner (an upright, and more bizarrely, a Bland-Name Product Henry), and a couple of mops.

    Comic Strips 
  • Subverted in one Phoebe and Her Unicorn comic where Phoebe brings Marigold a broom and asks the unicorn to enchant it so Phoebe can be like the protagonist of her favorite book Emily Zapp: Witch Detective. Marigold zaps the broom...and it ends up sprouting a mouth and singing "The Song That Endeth Not".
    Phoebe: This isn't what I meant.
    Marigold: It goes on longer than you thought!

    Fan Works 
  • A.A. Pessimal's Discworld fanfiction sees two witches coming out of Far Ãœberwald who seek training in Lancre. Olga and Irena have a passion for flight. They develop into broomstick technomancers who seek to push the technomancy as far as it will (im)possibly go. Snapped up by Sam Vimes as prospects for the expanding Air Police and backed by his budget for R&D, they go to town. Vetinari, who needs an Air Force as a counter to the uneasy realization that Klatchians would have used magic carpets as a means of launching an airborne invasion, supports the two auburn-headed witches as they build an, er, Red Hair Force. Elves — on fast, maneuverable yarrow stalks — are also an airborne enemy to be shot down without pity where encountered. Innovations include a pretty much supersonic broom that they are banned from riding over the city because of its effect on windows. They have Dwarf technicians, the Messers Schmidt, whose designs are code-named with prefixes like the ME-262 (the aforementioned broom that flies faster than Discworld sound) and the ME-110 (a two-seater mounting automatic crossbows fore and aft). A Dwarf from a Far Ãœberwaldean clan called Mig Oyeff is adding his designs to the mix. The naming of souped-up high-performance broomsticks, necessarily festooned with armaments, is indeed an, er, Hurricane of Puns involving a couple of Spitfire pilots.
  • The Price of Flight focuses on the Air Watch and its pilots through two main story arcs and related shorts.
  • In Twinkling in the Dark, Riko floats on a broomstick while helping clean up the trashed Pretty Holic salon.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Kiki's Delivery Service, Kiki is a witch in training whose only real magical ability is flying, so she starts up a delivery service via her broomstick. The trope is played with in that the broom itself isn't magical, and a witch's powers are what make it fly. Kiki normally uses a traditionally made broom, and finds herself unable to fly at all when she loses her powers as a result of burnout. At the end of the film, however, she is forced to improvise, using a mass-produced deck brush. The deck brush works, but is extremely difficult to control.
  • Secret Magic Control Agency: Baba Yaga's broomstick is used to steer her flying mortar. Unfortunately, Hansel misunderstands Gretel's instruction to get the broomstick for their escape in the mortar - he breaks it, thinking that he's stopping Baba Yaga from chasing them by flying on the broom herself.
  • In Zombillénium, young-looking witch Gretchen uses a standard broom, except she stands on it when flying, Sky Surfing-style.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Early on in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Angela Lansbury's apprentice witch Miss Price receives one. She initially tries to ride it side-saddle because "a witch is always a lady except when circumstances dictate otherwise." Due to the difficulty, she eventually gives up on that and rides astride the broom instead.
  • Nicole Kidman (a.k.a. Samantha) rides one in the 2004 Bewitched film.
  • The fourth installment of Fantaghirò played with this one hard: When Xellesia and the Black Queen realize that the latter can't transform into anything that flies, they seek an alternate means (including carpets, rejected because they only work well in Arabian Nights Land) and eventually settle on the brooms, despite the Black Queen complaining that they will look ridiculous.
  • Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Averted. The witches fly long crooked sticks, but not brooms.
  • The Harry Potter movies, of course, featuring everything from high-speed chases to sporting events mounted on the brooms. The actors have often noted that while the broomstick scenes look fun when you see them on screen, they were not fun to film. They were uncomfortable for the male actors (as Daniel Radcliffe puts it, "certain very, very important organs are crushed") and tedious for everyone since actual filming obviously consisted of spending hours sitting around in front of a blue screen or green screen.
  • In Häxan, witches are seen flying over town on classic broomsticks. In a variation, some are seen flying on pitchforks instead.
  • In Hocus Pocus, when the Sanderson Sisters' brooms are stolen, Winifred is the only one to find a (modern) broom. Sarah has a mop and Mary has a vacuum cleaner.
    • In Hocus Pocus 2, all of the Sandersons get upgraded versions of their original flying instruments, with Winifred getting a proper Halloween witch broom, Sarah a Swiffer, and Mary a set of Roombas.
  • In Kamen Rider Wizard in Magic Land, the world is rewritten into one where magic is more widespread and practically everyone can turn into mass-produced Kamen Rider Mages. Among other things, the police ride metallic, Toku-style "broomsticks".
  • An interesting subversion for this trope comes from the movie version of Practical Magic, where witches having the brooms serves a purpose, to sweep away the ashes of the soul removed from possessing Gillian Owens.
  • In The Witch Files, witches fly by using magic to levitate themselves. However, this is inherently unstable, as MJ discovers when she crashes to the ground. Jules discovers that holding a staff between you legs provides stability, and speculates that this is why witches were depicted riding broomsticks. The entire broom is not necessary, and at the end of the film, MJ and Claire chase after Jules riding a mop handle that MJ took the mop head off.
  • The Wizard of Oz: The Wicked Witch of the West rides one, which she most notably uses for skywriting "Surrender Dorothy" over Emerald City. (In the original novel she carries an umbrella instead of the traditional broomstick because her secret weakness is... well... water.)
  • The titular character in The VVitch is seen rising into the air on a broom... after rubbing it down with the blood of a dead infant.

    Jokes 
  • Q.: Why would Hillary Clinton's election as president save the government a great deal of money?
    A.: Air Force One could be replaced with a broomstick.
  • Q: Why do modern witches use vacuum cleaners?
    A: Well, don't you?
  • "My mother-in-law Came from the Sky — because her broomstick broke!"

    Literature 
  • Keith Roberts' Anita stories had the title character, among other things, learning to fly a broomstick, and IIRC discussing its technicalities with other trainee witches in the same way other kids would discuss motorbikes. There are some bits with "the Controller," who gives out landing clearance instructions like an air traffic controller, and a scene where Anita's grandmother, attempting a tricky rescue on broom, tells a friend "Verniers," and a moment later corrects it to "Main jets ... Aggie, fire main jets..."
  • This trope is not exclusively western; witches flying on broomsticks are off-handedly mentioned in one story of the Arabian Nights.
  • The children discover Miss Price is a witch in Bedknob and Broomstick when they help her recover from a crash on one of these.
  • Early in Book of Brownies, the brownies escapes from an Evil Wizard's cottage by stealing his magical flying broomstick, which they unfortunately lose a chapter later. Oddly enough, the story ends with the brownies being pursued by a Wicked Witch who uses a Flying Carpet instead.
  • The Dorrie the Little Witch stories used them in the traditional way, and some not traditional, such as pulling carriages in the air.
  • In "Feathertop", Feathertop's spine is Mother Rigby's former flying broomstick. Incidentally, it doesn't appear that Feathertop himself can fly.
  • In the Harry Potter universe, flying broomsticks come in a variety of makes and models. Then there are the spells that go with them and a popular sport, Quidditch, that employs them.
  • Discworld:
    • In Equal Rites, Granny Weatherwax once had to make do with her protégé's wizard staff. (Earlier in the book, Esk had disguised the staff by sticking bristles on it, which is one theory as to the origins of flying brooms in the first place.)
    • In Wyrd Sisters, it's said you need magic to keep a broomstick up, but other books suggest the magic is intrinsic to the broom, and even Rincewind can fly one; apparently they can store a limited amount of magical energy but require a witch or wizard to replenish it after a while, or several witches if the rider is carrying out a complicated spell at the same time, which is how Wyrd Sisters became the first work of fiction ever to depict mid-air refuelling with broomsticks. (It Makes Sense in Context.) In Lords and Ladies Nanny Ogg complains her grandkids keep joy-riding on hers.
    • Going Postal: Averted. Moist von Lipwig just paints an ordinary broomstick blue with stars, in order to fool the antagonist into thinking it was a real one. Played for Laughs when a wizard cautiously asks him if he's aware that the paint job won't get the broom airborne (but is careful not to let the antagonist hear this).
    • Granny's broomstick is described as the magical equivalent of a split window Morris Minor, and the dwarf craftsman who looks at it is amazed it flew at all. In later books, it's been fixed up, but still needs a running start. Though in one case of escaping danger, just outright jumping off a cliff qualifies as a "running start". It inexplicably maintains this quality even after replacing every component multiple times. In the end they get it working perfectly by replacing both at the same time.
    • In Thud!, the wizards speed up a carriage in part by nailing broomsticks to the bottom to make it hover.
    • Wintersmith: When Tiffany Aching starts riding a broomstick, it has two smaller brooms attached to the back to keep her stable. These get removed as she gets more comfortable.
    • According to The Discworld Companion, Magrat's mentor, Goodie Whemper (maysherestinpeace), a witch of an experimental turn of mind, decided to find out if a broomstick could keep its magic if you pulled all its bristles out one by one while it was in flight. This was her last experiment.
  • Enchanted Forest Chronicles: This is the standard transport method for witches. Book 3 goes further into depth on it, where it's explained that the standard way to ride a broom is to sit sideways, not astride, which would be far easier on the groin; Telemain the magician insists on riding astride despite having been told otherwise, which is one of the reasons he hates using them. Later in the same book, it's shown that broomsticks are made to fly by the application of a balm, which can be used on anything wooden to achieve the same effect (Morwen mentions having once flown forty leagues on a borrowed rake). This is used to make a much more seatable flying basket, although it has stability issues (partly because it's missing a bit). A flying mortar and pestle are also mentioned, but Telemain declines to use them, sticking with the laundry basket.
  • Harold Shea: The titular character enchants brooms in each episode of The Incompleat Enchanter. In The Castle of Iron, he uses a Moorish carpet instead, while flying brooms don't belong in the Kalevala or Old Ireland and, presumably, for this reason, aren't resorted to in The Wall of Serpents or The Green Magician.
  • Robert A. Heinlein:
    • Magic, Inc. includes a witch riding a broom the proper way.
    • Another Heinlein novella, Waldo, has antigravity vehicles that consist of a horizontal cylinder (containing the mechanisms) with power receptor antennae at the rear. When mounted in a transparent hull, they resemble flying broomsticks, and are referred to as such.
  • Meg And Mog: Meg rides a broomstick.
  • The witches in The Midnight Folk, as part of their general Witch Classic presentation (some of which is eventually revealed to be just for show). At one point, the narration gives a list of the varieties and materials used, including a "broom (plant) broom".
  • In A Night in the Lonesome October, each of the main characters fits into a horror character archetype; Crazy Jill is the Witch Classic, and she and her cat familiar Greymalk get about on a flying broomstick.
  • Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Witch princess Bianca has a broom she can fly on, but it is really expensive, five times the value any heirloom the other princesses had.
  • Rachel Griffin: Used extensively in The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin. The eponymous Rachel, an expert, rides a hand-made steeplechaser-type broom. Others use more standard "Flycycles". Bristleless brooms are reserved for beginners.
  • Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Rather than being Animate Inanimate Objects, broomsticks in this series are stated to be a species of magical creature in their own right that feeds symbiotically on its rider's mana, and getting to ride one is akin to breaking in a horse; actual cleaning brooms are dead individuals. "Broomsports" in the series consist variously of obstacle course races, one-on-one jousting, and team battles—the latter of which Nanao quickly ends up excelling at after a notoriously Moody Mount takes a liking to her.
  • Septimus Heap. Averted. It is mentioned that no witch uses broomsticks anymore for flying.
  • Spellbreaker, given it's setting in the world of witchcraft and sorcery, have most witches travelling around using broomsticks, and carrying them around when on foot. One notable scenario have the protagonist encountering the Storm Witches, a trio of weird sisters who creates tornadoes by flying around in circles via brooms.
  • The Sleeping Dragon by Jonny Nexus is set in a Dungeon Punk world with vehicles that are basically magic-powered Hover Bikes, but are called "broomsticks" for historical reasons. (Similarly, the Flying Cars are called "carpets".)
  • Similarly to the Waldo example, Larry Niven's Svetz time-travel stories occasionally have Svetz riding a "flight stick", which is similar enough in appearance to a broom that that's what people in the past assume it is.
  • Dmitry Emets' Tanya Grotter series plays around with this. Usually, the most common flying object in the books is a vacuum cleaner, however, the dragonball (local Quidditch analogue) team from British magical university Magford sticks to brooms. It should be noted that, in general, any object can pop up as a means of flight in Grotterverse (the title heroine uses a flying double bass, for example).
  • Les Voyageurs Sans Souci: Séraphine Alavolette, queen of all birds, uses a talking, magical, flying broomstick made from birch wood while posing as a witch. Nonetheless, her broomstick is sick of serving her, so Alavolette throws it away angrily when the broomstick complains that she wants to be let go to go back to sweep floors.
  • In the children's story Whispering in the Wind by Alan Marshall, the Pale Witch uses her broom to fly to the Moon and sweep up all the footprints left behind by the astronauts.
  • In Wise Child, Wise Child undergoes a spiritual test of character that involves being given a hallucinogenic that grants her an out-of-body experience of flying on a broom to a place destined to be vital in her future (in her case, Brodgar).
  • The title story of the third collection of short stories written by Terry Pratchett for the Bucks Free Press early in his career is "The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner".
  • Averted in The Witches by Roald Dahl, where the opening line of the book is "In fairy tales, witches wear silly black hats and cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy tale: this is about REAL witches."

    Live-Action TV 
  • While not seen in the show itself, the opening credits of Bewitched features an animated Samantha flying around on her broom.note 
  • Lampshaded in Buffy the Vampire Slayer when a Wiccan group at Willow's college complain about this being a "non-empowering stereotype". Sure enough, Tara is seen faking a smile when Dawn gives her a broom for her birthday in "Family".
  • A Halloween episode of Charmed reveals Phoebe's dislike for the "cackling hags on broomsticks cliché", until time traveling shenanigans reveal that she created the cliché, much to her amusement.
  • In El Chavo del ocho, if Doña Clotilde and a broom are the topic of a conversation, expect this trope to be the source of a joke.
  • Doctor Who: In "The Shakespeare Code", Lilith, a witch-like alien called a Carrionite, departs an inn by murdering the landlady and stealing her broom as an escape vehicle. Martha sees her flying away.
  • In H.R. Pufnstuf, Witchiepoo drove a broomstick-like vehicle called the Vroom Broom that included a sidecar.
  • Key & Peele has the sketch "Inner-City Wizard School", which features the inner city equivalent of Hogwarts, Vincent Clortho Public School for Wizards. Among the various deficiencies the school faces, the Quiddich team is forced to use mops and Swiffers instead of regulation brooms.
  • Mahou Sentai Magiranger had a spin on this, hoverbikes that transformed from brooms. There was also a Magic Carpet for the Sixth Ranger. (Power Rangers Mystic Force kept the broom/hoverbikes, but ditched the magic carpet.)
  • One episode of The Nanny had C.C. say that they needed to deliver a package to London quickly; Servile Snarker Niles hands her a broom and quips "Here, hop on. With the time difference you should just make it."
  • Once Upon a Time: Zelena, being the Wicked Witch of the West, is shown with a flying broomstick, although it rarely appears. She mainly uses it during the Missing Year in Season 3 and during her Villain Song in "The Song In Your Heart".
  • In "Catastrophe", Kate's first appearance on Rentaghost, she and Mumford are transported back from the Spirit World on a flying broomstick; having turned down the offer of a flying vacuum cleaner.
  • Multiple episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch has her on a flying vacuum cleaner with the first episode explaining that they are now faster than broomsticks.
  • On The X-Files, Mulder and Scully were investigating a case that appeared to involve witches. They knock on a woman's door but there's no answer. Mulder points to a broom near the door and says, "Probable cause?"
  • One of the few things The Worst Witch is actually competent with.

    Manhwa 
  • West is curiously enough the only witch from Witch Hunter to use a broom.

    Mythology & Religion 
  • Baba Yaga is often said to fly using another domestic utensil, a pestle.
    • To be more precise, she is flying in a mortar, using pestle as a weapon and a broom to move and navigate the mortar.
  • Played With in Brazilian Folklore. One tale of Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, tells about a woman who was cleaning her house during the Good Friday (when it was said people shouldn't work in some traditions). As soon as she got the broomstick, however, it itself became a witch and flied away, called Vassoura Bruxólica ("witchy" broomstick).

    Pinballs 

    Podcasts 

    Tabletop Games 
  • One magic item in most editions of Dungeons & Dragons is the Broom of Flying, one of the basic forms of flight available to players along with the Magic Carpet, the Winged Boots, the Wings of Flying (a wing-like cape) and of course the Fly spell. Notably, near any object could also be enchanted for this purpose, and autonomous ass-kicking animated brooms are also available.
  • Palladium Fantasy has them as expensive alternative modes of travel. They won't burn away as much of a player's coin purse as a magic carpet will but hold far fewer passengers as a tradeoff.
  • In Witch Girls Adventures, various broomsticks are standard equipment for witches on the go (at least, those who don't use a Flying Carpet, a Flying Surfboard or a flying Vespa scooter). They are often highly customized and, next to the witch's Magic Wand, are one of the most important fashion statements a witch can make.

    Theatre 

    Video Games 
  • Atelier Series:
  • Gruntilda in Banjo-Kazooie. It appears to be sentient, as evidenced by the head with eyes and Scary Teeth. She divebombs the eponymous duo with it during the first part of the final battle against her.
  • Bubble Witch Saga: Cute Witch Stella is often depicted flying on her magic broomstick.
  • Castlevania:
    • The Witch enemy in rides on a broomstick and strafes you with magic. The Student Witch tries... but can't keep it in the air more than three seconds.
    • Charlotte, one of the two protagonists of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, briefly does it when she Double Jumps.
  • Cotton is a shump where you're a Cute Witch flying around on your trusty broomstick while casting attacking spells to take on ghosts, skeletons, zombies, and other supernatural foes.
  • In Dragon's Crown, investing points in the Sorceress' Levitation skill lets her zoom around the battlefield on her staff. The Labyrinth of Chaos/Tower of Mirages later gives her an actual Witch's Broom to equip as a staff to complete the witch on a flying broomstick visual.
  • A weapon type in Dungeon Fighter Online covering practical-looking brooms and sleeker "paintbrush" designs, intended for the female mage subclass Witch. While airtime is quite limited in play, it allows practical air-to-air melee and air-to-ground bombardment as well as extending some nasty launcher chains. Oddy, advanced broomstick skills tend to involve buzzsaw-type spinning. The Creator class shares the Broomstick Control skill and preferred weapon type despite being unable to execute the keyboard commands which would allow riding it, relegating it to a Stat Stick, and despite lore-wise having more effective transportation methods (space/time/planar gate control). Giving Creators the skill (which still implies broomsticks are flyable when you're not playing) isn't really arbitrary, as the weapon type provides a movement speed increase which helps the Creator stay out of enemy lines of attack.
  • Flyff has them, although they're not limited to only the magical character classes. Whether a player chooses to ride a broom or a board is largely a matter of taste. To go into more detail, there are three ways you can fly: sitting on something and riding it like a broom, standing on something, or with wings. "Broom" items are generally stick-shaped, although there are a few exceptions (like a wooden rocking horse); a recent "broom" is actually a guitar.
  • Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich features Red Oktober, a Soviet witch. When she flies into the air, it's on a broomstick.
  • Ghoul Panic: The third boss, Witchita the Cute Witch, attacks you while flying on her broom. And her weak spot is actually the broomstick's front.
  • Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls: Ending a level while wearing the Witch costume has Chelshia riding the broom, which floats, as the ending animation.
  • Kirby:
    • This is used by one of the enemies which gives you the Cleaning power, named Keke as an obvious parody to Kiki's Delivery Service.
    • In Kirby's Dream Land 3, pairing up with Chuchu with the Cleaning power lets Kirby fly a broom himself.
  • In Legend of the Ghost Lion, a flying broomstick serves as the game's Warp Whistle. You get a broom from a witch early on, which allows you to instantly warp to places you've visited prior.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • In Magical Doropie, Doropie's broom functions as a moving platform, like Item-2 from Mega Man 2.
  • In Magician's Quest/Enchanted Folk, a very Harry-Potter-esque game, it's no surprise that there is a wide selection of flying brooms (well, hovering brooms) to be ridden. There's also a broom-shaped taxi.
  • The Maid of Fairewell Heights: On examining the broomstick in the Magic room, Marshmallow says:
    Marshmallow: A witch's broom! I wonder if I can fly on this?
  • Later "silly" depictions of Kohaku in Melty Blood gives her this ability. Her broom also has a sword hidden in the handle. The only explanation has been the Tatari's Influence.
  • Mika and the Witch's Mountain: As the gameplay footage shows off, central to the gameplay will be Mika’s ability to fly around the environment on her broomstick.
  • Evie the Winter Witch from Paladins can fly around on her ice staff like a broomstick.
  • Pirates (NIX) inexplicably have witch enemies who flies on broomsticks attacking you while airborne, despite every other enemy being pirate-based.
  • Not a broom, but the way Braixen rides on her staff/torch in Pokkén Tournament when using Flame Charge and in some of her victory screens is supposed to invoke this.
  • The first stage of Savage Halloween have you hitching a ride with a witch, where you ride shotgun on her broom while shooting at ghosts and demons from a distance.
  • In Saints Row, It's possible to obtain a flying broomstick as one of your vehicles.
  • Used by the witches in Episode 1 of Scooby-Doo! First Frights.
  • Suikoden III's Rody wants to become a witch just so he can ride a broom. He even uses one as a weapon in the meantime, so he'll always have one handy.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Kammy Koopa from Paper Mario has one. Some of the Magikoopas do, as well.
    • Kamek from Yoshi's Island and Partners in Time fame.
    • Mario Party Advance: The minigame Broom Zoom, as its name suggests, has you flying through rings on a broom.
    • Mario Party 10: The default vehicle for Haunted Trail is the Magical Sleigh, a sleigh mounted atop a pair of magical floating brooms.
    • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga doesn't have flying brooms, but Professor E. Gadd shows up at one point riding a Poltergust 3001 (upgrade from the original Poltergust 3000 from Luigi's Mansion) to serve as transportation.
  • Even RuneScape has a magical broomstick which, when enchanted, can be used to teleport to a certain place, with the animation being of the player mounting it Harry Potter style. Naturally, it is earned by helping out a witch.
  • Wand Witches from Sakura Dungeon, though the broomstick itself isn't special. Rather, it's a ceremonial gift given to witches who reach such a proficiency that they are able to levitate themselves and cast strong magic.
  • In The Sims 3: Supernatural broomsticks were introduced as a vehicle. Although any sim can use them, typically witches will use them automatically.
  • One can buy a broomstick-themed Extreme Gear in the first Sonic Riders. It allows anyone who rides it the ability to grind on pipes.
  • Arche from Tales of Phantasia flies around on a broom, and in battle too, refreshingly. She also uses them for her weapons. This also enables her to dodge many ground-only based effects, such as the Tractor Beam spell.
  • In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Roll rides on her broomstick whenever she dashes forward.
  • Cute Witch Marisa Kirisame from Touhou Project. Word of God says she doesn't really need a broom to fly (since everyone in the games can fly anyway), but uses it because she consciously goes for a Western witch look, and that obviously includes the broom. Marisa eventually also started Sky Surfing on the broom as an attack or simply Rule of Cool, which due to her mini-reactor added to the end makes it closer to a Rocket Ride.
  • In World of Warcraft during the Hallow's End event, the summoned Headless Horseman can sometimes drop flying brooms that can be used as mounts as part of his loot. Unfortunately for players, they only last 14 days.
  • Mystic Belle: Belle rides her broom when she uses Dash.
  • Mystic Riders have both player characters, Mark and Zeal, flying on their brooms while battling enemies for the entirety of the game. It's loosely based on Cotton, after all.

    Web Animation 
  • Parodied in SuperThings. Walpurgis, being a witch coming from a world where objects are living things, is the broom in this situation, and is always floating off the ground. The toyline for the series would introduce her cousin Witchy Way, a flying broomstick witch on the side of the heroes.

    Web Original 
  • Empires SMP Season 2: Witches use these for transportation.note  Shelby, the resident Cute Witch, makes a passing nod to people vacuuming instead of using brooms (at least for cleaning), and jokes about using a Swiffer as a modern-day equivalent to the classic flying broom.
  • WitchCraft SMP: A viable form of transport available to the Witches via the modpack of the series.

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • In Beetlejuice the witches in the Neitherworld use broomsticks to fly around. Beetlejuice and Lydia too when they impersonate witches in order to save Lydia's cat from them.
  • In Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, there is a cleaning woman-gone-witch named Winifred who flies around on a magic hoover.
  • Witch Hazel from the Classic Disney Short "Trick or Treat", and subsequent appearances in Disney comics, has a broom named Beelzebub, which acts as both her servant and her mode of transport.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • Witch Hazel uses a flying broom. Broom-Stick Bunny has a gag where she mounts a broom and tries to fly on it, only for it to start sweeping the floor, then throw her off.
      Witch Hazel: Crazy me. That was my sweeping broom.
    • In "Bewitched Bunny", Hansel and Gretel — having been warned off by Bugs Bunny — jeer at Witch Hazel as they're departing her cottage: "Ach, your mother rides a vacuum cleaner!"
  • The New Adventures of Superman: The Warlock's sister has a flying broomstick. The Warlock steals it from her to embark on his scheme of revenge.
  • Denizens of the Boiling Isles in The Owl House use the staff forms of their Palismen for flight, which works in much the same way as the pop culture depiction of witches on brooms. Luz once found a storeroom full of brooms in Eda's house, and was disappointed that they were nothing but cleaning equipment.
  • Witches in The Real Ghostbusters are seen flying in broomsticks in episodes "If I Were a Witch Man" and "Kitty-Cornered".
  • Sabrina and The Groovie Goolies: Sabrina's ride had a big cushioned eggshell-like seat with a flower on top. (Aunt Zelda flew a vacuum cleaner.)
  • Bristle in The Scarecrow is a flying broom who just so happens to belong to Miss Bee Bee. At the end of the film, Miss Bee Bee creates a female broom so that he can have a dance partner.
  • Scooby-Doo:
  • From She-Ra: Princess of Power, Madam Razz has a flying, talking broomstick with anthropomorphic face and arms named... Broom.
  • Most if not all witches in The Smurfs (1981) used flying broomsticks. Most notably was Brenda, the good little witch.
  • Steven Universe: In "Change Your Mind", Rainbow Quartz 2.0 (the fusion of Steven and Pearl, has an umbrella for a Gem weapon, which they can fly on (leaving a rainbow-coloured trail), and they do so to rescue the falling gemstones of Ruby and Sapphire.
  • Played with in the Tom and Jerry one-reeler The Flying Sorceress. While cleaning up a mess he made, Tom finds am 'Help Wanted' ad in the paper. He follows up on the ad, to find the ad was placed by a witch. When he takes her broom for a joyride, the witch punishes him by enchanting the broom to shake him through - which causes Tom to wake up clinging to his home broom and realize it was All Just a Dream. He then seats himself on the (mundane) broom he's using to clean, kicks it like a motorbike... and the broom comes to life and flies away with him.
  • Hanna-Barbera's Winsome Witch. Crosses over with Sky Surfing as Winnie stands on her broom.
  • Lampshade in the 4Kids dub of Winx Club when Tecna says, "Real witches don't ride brooms, Zing. You've been watching too many of Bloom's Earth DVDs."
  • Robot Chicken extends the parody depicted in Hocus Pocus by having one of the Sandersons fly around on a Roomba like a hoverboard. It goes awry when the charge goes low and it tries to return to a docking station.
    • An early-season sketch also touches on one of the drawbacks of trying to fly on a broom as Harry Potter groans in pain on the ground after a certain mishap.

Alternative Title(s): Witch Broom, Witch Broomstick

Top

Flying Witch

Makoto tries out a broom before she buys it, revealing herself to be a witch in the process.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (5 votes)

Example of:

Main / FlyingBroomstick

Media sources:

Report