Watch Out for That Tree!

Wait, what tr— *WHACK*
Oh, that tree.

"Dumb place to put a tree — in the middle of a forest."

— Fiona Whittaker, Adventures in Odyssey

The primary hazard faced by jungle-swingers, Giant Flyers, and even people at a fast run are not the Mooks in hot pursuit, the thunderstorms brewing up above, or the cars moving at Mach 1 in the street. It's... trees.

Well, trees, poles, walls and other decidedly immobile hazards, anyway. If a character is flying, swinging or even simply running through an area, and he happens to get distracted, he will wrap himself around the nearest obstacle in fairly even time. His momentum generally sees to it that he either gets completely flattened, or ends up with his arms splayed at weird angles.

This also happens a lot to people on skis, either comedy beginners or even good skiers who get overconfident. The viewer sees the hapless skier whose feet spread so that the skis are spread to left and right of a fast-looming inconvenient and very unyielding tree... and then... Ouch! That's Gotta Hurt!

A hazard on horseback, too. A horse is smart enough to avoid trees and branches — but it might not notice that a branch is just the right height to brain the unfortunate rider. Or worse, the Moody Mount might invoke the trope, maybe hoping to unseat the rider or just For The Lulz.

Moody mounts aren't the only risk of intentional attack. An enemy can lie in wait and pull a flexible branch back out of your path, compelling you to proceed, only to release it to whip you just as soon as you get in range. Similar to shutting the door in someone's face except you don't even know there is a door or a shutter.

While trees and poles are common targets, windows are as well. If a character runs into a window, expect to see a shot of his smushed face from the other side. Also expect to hear the slow squeaks as he peels off and slides to the ground. This specific subtrope is Glass Smack and Slide.

A subtrope of Amusing Injuries when it's Played for Laughs. Similar in principle to Not the Fall That Kills You…, which usually isn't. Compare Low Clearance, Belly-Scraping Flight, When Trees Attack.

Named for George of the Jungle, who did this so frequently, it's mentioned in his theme song.

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Examples:

Advertising

• A popular Halloween decoration is a witch that appears to have done this◊ while riding her Flying Broomstick.

Anime & Manga

• In Angel Beats!, Yui misses her turn for a Heroic Sacrifice (in a series where Death Is Cheap) due to a beam jutting out from the slope the characters were sliding down. When they reach the bottom, they look back and conclude that their enemies must have gotten her.
• In Cardcaptor Sakura, this happened to... Sakura's Cute Clumsy Girl of a mother, Nadeshiko, when she and her best friend Sonomi were skiing.
• Doctor Slump:
  • This is averted with Arale. Played straight when ordinary humans are involved, though.
  • In an early chapter, Akane ties a rope around Arale and ask her to run while Akane herself wears roller-blades in order to save herself the trouble of walking. Arale stops and turns sideways after a short distance, resulting in Akane smacking into a tree ahead of her.
  • Late in the bike Grand Prix, Tsukutsun's family watches the race from afar. When Tsuruten informs them that Tsukutsun is coming in last place^note because an ordinary bicycle isn't going to outpace a motorcycle with high horsepower, even if the bicycle rider IS a kung fu master, Tsururin, at her mother's prompting, employs her Psychic Power to make Tsukutsun get to the first place. Too bad that Tsururin gets distracted at a crucial moment, causing Tsukutsun to ram into a nearby tree, which gets Tsukutsun's bicycle totaled as a result.
• Fubuki faceplants into a pole while training in the 2nd episode of KanColle.
• It happens at least once in the Naruto Shippuden anime (to Might Guy, of course).
  Might Guy: Me? My battery never runs down!
  [slams into a tree]
• In The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey, Lock, Shock, and Barrel bring a sled to Christmas Town. They've never actually done this before, don't know how to stop once they pick up speed, and smack right into a pine tree due to it.
• In One Piece, while in Skypiea, Zoro, Robin, and Nami use vines to leave the altar where Going Merry is marooned and explore the jungle of Upper Yard. Zoro even does a Tarzan yell when he swings away. Nami has some difficulty, nearly hitting a tree trunk.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • In the episode "Pikachu's Goodbye", Ash is swinging on a vine, and Misty says, "Ash, look out for that tree!" Then, Ash slams into said tree.
  • In an Orange League episode, Team Rocket slams into a tree while reciting their motto. They were sliding down a zip line. They finish a garbled motto on the ground.
  • Even earlier: during his first Orange League gym battle, Ash has to compete with the leader in a Pokémon surfing race, with his Lapras. Lapras wins, but the sudden stop when he reaches ashore causes Ash to be sent flying and slam face first against a palm tree.
  • Team Rocket, Pikachu, and Ash all swing off a ship in EP274, the last episode before Pokemon Advanced, and slam into a wall.
  • And in Diamond and Pearl, the Buneary Dawn eventually caught got shy because she had developed a crush for Pikachu, covered her face in her fur, and hopped right into a tree trunk.
• Slayers: Lina barrels into a tree, eliciting a pained mutter of "koala".

Animation (Eastern and Asian)

• In episode 14 of Happy Heroes, Doctor H. accidentally hits a wall while doing a Vine Swing in Mr. Lightbulb's garden.
• Masha and the Bear: In the first episode, after dumping Masha deep enough (or so he thinks) into the forest with his bicycle, the Bear celebrates getting rid of her while he's driving away without looking in front of him... and crashes into a tree.
• In the title card for Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Joys of Seasons episode 45, a winged Paddi spreads snow on the ground but doesn't pay attention to where he's flying, resulting in him hitting a tree.

Comic Books

• An Archie Comics parody of Tarzan features Archie as Tarbland, who, like the story's apparent inspiration George, constantly manages to smack into trees or fall from vines. Betty co-starred as his smarter, long-suffering "Jane" counterpart.
• In Knightfall, Maxie Zeus attempts to escape Arkham Asylum, but runs into a tree and is knocked out.
• Wonder Woman Vol 1: While Keith Griggs is being chased by Circe's beast men he pulls a sapling bent while he runs by and lets go of it so that it snaps back into one of the monster's faces.
• Asterix the Legionary: Obelix, distracted by Panacea, walks smack into a tree and knocks it over due to his Super-Strength. This is much to the ire of Getafix, who was up in the tree at the time.
  Getafix: ENJOYING YOURSELF, OBELIX, KNOCKING DOWN TREES WHILE I'M UP IN THEM CUTTING MISTLETOE?!
• Princeless: During a flight, Bedelia tells Sparky to "watch out for that..." and they hit a tree before she has a chance to finish the phrase.

Comic Strips

• Crabgrass: In this 3-days long comic, Kevin's attempt to ride a skateboard ends with him crashing face first into a tree.
• FoxTrot: "We need to find softer trees."
• From Calvin and Hobbes, during one of the titular duo's sled runs:
  Hobbes: There's a tree! Hit the brakes!
  Calvin: Trees are my brakes.
• One Garfield strip went something like this:
  Odie is eating his dinner when it vanishes in the next panel. Jon is also eating his dinner, when it too disappears in the next panel.
  Garfield: (Carrying both Odie and Jon's food) You can't stop what you can't see. (The following panel shows Garfield crashed face first onto a wall.)

Fan Works

• Double Rainboom: Unfortunately for Scootaloo.
• Alabaster: The Doomed Session: Cauchemar's end.
• Breeze Rider smacks into a tree while flying in the intro of Dusk's Dawn.
• Pony POV Series: In the Pearls Arc, Onyx Tiara gets turned into a child and tries on roller skates. He gets so excited that he doesn't watch where he is going and smacks into a tree.
• Domoverse: Caroline runs into a tree when running with Dr. Chance while marveling at the sensation of seeing the auras of everything around her.
• This Bites!: Kizaru in his light beam form ends up flying into a mirage, gets refracted out the other side and out of the fight... and right into the Red Line.
• The Harry Potter story Effects and Side Effects has Harry take out an attacking dragon by blowing sand into its eyes, causing it to crash into the nearby cliff.
• In Teen Titans: Call of Blood, Conner flies around Titans Tower as part of his grand introduction to the team. He forgets to stop while locking eyes with Donna, and rams head first into a wall.
• In The Last Son, Superman describes his early attempts to fly as "George of the Jungle, only without vines".
• Date A Live: Altered Timeline: After dodging a sofa being carried by two men, Kaguya turns around and brags this fact to Yuzuru while skating backwards, leading her to crash, back first, into a light post.
• Winter's Flowers: A Redwall story where Rose is alive. Martin is reading a message from Rose aloud to his companions while marching through the woods and...WHAM! Runs right into a pine tree and falls over onto his back. Gonff finds the situation hilarious and ends up on the ground, too, from laughing so hard.

Films — Animation

• In Aladdin, while the Sultan is flying around on the magic carpet, Iago tries to stay ahead of him to keep from being bowled over. After he manages to get out of the carpet's path, he sighs in relief... and ends up slamming into a pillar in front of him due to having his eyes closed.
• Asterix:
  • The Twelve Tasks of Asterix: The high speed race that makes the first Task ends with the Greek speedster Asterix competes againt crashing into an apple tree and getting buried under a mound of its fruits. Asterix even told him about that zone of the forest with apple trees seconds earlier.
  • The Secret of the Magic Potion: A hazard when running at full speed thanks to the Magic Potion.
    • First, after a wild boar accidentally drinks Asterix's potion, he, Obelix and Dogmatix are dragged behind the super-strong pig until they all get slammed into a tree.
    • Later, when pursuing Sulfurix, Asterix ends up slamming into a tree, and then Obelix coming right behind him crashes into the same tree, squishing Asterix.
• BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui: This is a running gag for Matau, as he flies into a pillar, the interior of a Force Sphere, and a telescreen.
• In Corpse Bride, Victor runs into a tree when running away from Emily. He then runs into the tree again.
• DC Showcase – Constantine: The House of Mystery. While experiencing The Many Deaths of You, John Constantine tries running away from the demons who keep killing him, only to run into a tree and knock himself out because he's too busy looking over his shoulder. His next turn in the Ground Hog Day Loop he dodges the tree, takes out his pursuers and declares victory. Then the tree grabs hold of John and eats him.
• In FernGully: The Last Rainforest, the decidedly absent-minded Batty Koda does this... several times. It's not so much that he's blind as it is that his wiring is on the fritz. Similarly, in FernGully 2, he crashes into several windows. Interestingly, this is Truth in Television — fruit bats fly perfectly well, but they have a lot more trouble landing than most other bats. Although they rarely face-plant into the trunk the way Batty does.
• In Frozen, Anna causes this to happen twice. The first time, she does it on purpose using a snow laden tree to fend off an attacking snowman. The second time, she does it by accident when she runs Kristoff into a pole in her excitement.
• In Hercules, as they're flying away on Pegasus, Philoctetes gets snagged by a low-hanging tree branch while trying to get a love-struck Herc to keep his eyes on the road.
  Phil: That's it. Next time, I drive. (faints)
• In the Hundred-Mile Dash scene from The Incredibles, pretty much all of the hovercraft are destroyed by crashing into trees or rocks.
• In Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Little Creek rides Spirit backwards in order to wedge a branch between two narrow canyon walls to knock some of the pursuing cavalry soldiers off their horses. It works.
• In The Iron Giant, Hogarth hits his head on a branch as he runs from the giant.
• The Lion King: During "I Just Can't Wait to be King," Zazu flies sideways when singing to Simba, "I think it's time that you and I arranged a heart-to-heart," and slams into a rhino.
• In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack runs straight into a signpost at the end of the song "What's This?"
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Miles' first attempt at web-swinging under duress ends up with him slamming hard into a tree. He subsequently tries to flee on foot, against Peter's advice.
• In Spirited Away, Chihiro's rapid barreling down a flight of narrow steps reaches its inevitable conclusion when her momentum carries her into a nearby wall.

Films — Live-Action

• Dragonheart: During Bowen's fight with Draco, the knight ends up dragged under the dragon with a rope he himself threw with bolas. Draco goes through a forest on purpose, and naturally Bowen crashes into some trees much to the dragon's amusement, though the knight eventually manages to make the dragon crash-land by snaring the rope in a tree trunk.
  Draco: Come! Visit the woods! [...] Look out! (Bowen dodges a tree) Well done! (Bowen fails to dodge the next one and smacks right into it) Oh, pity. That must have hurt! (smack) Again! (smack) And again! How do you like the ride so far?"
• Star Wars:
  • The Empire Strikes Back has the asteroid field version when the Millennium Falcon desperately tries to escape Imperial TIE fighters.
  • Return of the Jedi:
    • The speeder bike chase on the forest moon of Endor. Several of the bikes end up crashing into trees, with one of the crashes happening simply because the Imperial scoot trooper wasn't looking in front of him.
    • The run inside the second Death Star. Several TIE fighters inevitably crash into the obstacles on the very narrow way to the reactor core.
  • The pod race in The Phantom Menace has a few collisions with rocks.
  • The Sequel Trilogy has the chases on Crait in The Last Jedi and with hyperspace jumps in The Rise of Skywalker, with plenty of TIEs crashing into obstacles time and time again.
  • Solo has the Kessel Run, in which, you guessed it, TIEs crash into obstacles as well while chasing the Millennium Falcon.
• A Classic Horror Story: Mark swerves the RV to avoid hitting a corpse into the road... and hits a tree instead.
• As Ug in Carry On Up the Jungle swings into a tree, the camera cuts to a sign reading "CAUTION! CONCEALED TREE".
• Peter Parker has this problem during the How Do I Shot Web? sequence of the first Spider-Man movie. And there is another "slamming into a wall" scene in the sequel.
• Intacto makes use of this. One of the games that play has its players wearing blindfolds and running full speed through a forest. The winner is the one who is able to avoid the trees longest.
• An especially funny example shows up in Raising Arizona. After Hi punches Glen for suggesting they wife-swap, Hi starts chasing Glen. We then get this little chesnut.

Glen: YOU'RE CRAZY!! I PITY YOU!!(runs face-first into a cactus)

• In Death to Smoochy, Rainbow Randolph's victory dance after framing Smoochy as a Nazi is cut short by a wall.
• Buster Keaton built an entire career on this trope.
  • He runs headlong into a telephone pole in Neighbors (1920).
  • As the blind old man Erronius in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, he cracks his head against a low-hanging tree branch. The stunt was so convincing that cast and crew thought he really hadn't seen it.
• Sapphire in Almost Famous, while running alongside Stillwater's tour bus to give William a message, runs straight into a wall.
• Happens in Kung Fu Hustle during the chase scene, in good old fashioned Looney Tunes tradition. It's both hilarious and implausible, as the impact causes the victim to lose accessories and clothing that by all rights they shouldn't have lost.
• In In the Land of Women, Carter is out jogging, and is so caught up in his Flashback about his former girlfriend that he runs into a tree.
• A rare time this trope is Played for Drama; in Tequila Sunrise, Cody, when he's surfing, goes straight into the pier (or one of the poles holding it up).
• Given its source material, this is a given in George of the Jungle.
  • Every swing George takes ends with him crashing into something. The Animated Credits Opening itself features baby George as well as many jungle animals doing vine swinging and repeatedly smashing into trees. It's hinted that this happens mostly because George doesn't know any other way to stop himself mid-swing.
  • The climax begins with George grabbing a vine tossed to him by Tooki in order to save Ursula. The resulting (inevitable) crash leaves an Impact Silhouette on the opposite side of the tree.
    George: This biggest swing in jungle history. Will hurt very much... But George have to do it. [Whimper]
  • George isn't the only one to run afoul of this trope. When Ursula arrives at the treehouse during the climax she does so by swinging in on a vine, knocking over one of the bad guys... and then crashing into a tree.
  • George's infant son also bumps into a tree branch while toddling around.
• In Airplane! a woman is chasing after her fiancé who is going into the military, and is standing in the doorway of the moving plane. As she chases it the way someone might follow a train, she keeps crashing into things. Like a lamp post, a steel crane, a telephone pole...
• In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Benny the Cab crashes on a lamppost after slipping on Dip.
• In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka runs into the Great Glass Elevator twice: once because he's caught up in his excitement about the successful results of the tour, and the other because he's talking over his shoulder to Charlie.
• Racing Stripes: While racing the mailman, Stripes slams face-first into a tree when he notices Sandy.
• Billy Club (2013): While Danny is driving through the woods on a buggy to escape from Billy, he gets clotheslined by a low tree branch and knocked off of the buggy.
• Playing With Dolls: When the police detective is being chased by guards, he loses one by making him clothesline himself against a low tree branch.
• In See No Evil (1971), Sarah tries to escape the killer on horseback but gets knocked to the ground by a branch. The horse continues on its way, leaving her alone in the forest.

Jokes

• Joke time! On one particular clear night, one particular bat comes flying into a cave with his face smeared with blood. Naturally this piques the interest of the other bats, who all flock round doing whatever the bat equivalent of licking one's lips is. So they say, "Well? Spill the beans. Where'd you find all that blood?"
  "Don't wanna talk about it," he says, wiping his face.
  "G'wan!"
  "OK," he says, raising one batty wing in a pointy fashion. "See that village over there?"
  "Yes?" they say.
  "See that hill?"
  "YES?" they say, nodding.
  "See that tree?"
  "YES?" they say frantically.
  "I didn't."

Literature

• Discworld:
  • In Equal Rites, Granny Weatherwax forcibly imposes this trope on a hungry bear, causing it to walk headfirst into a tree and knock itself out.
  • Granny herself seems to suffer from this when she flies a broomstick. Because, Granny believes it's the job of the rest of the world to get out of her way while she's taking the most direct path towards her destination, so she ends up crashing into a few trees.
  • In Moving Pictures, when the Librarian — an orangutan for those unfamiliar with the series — tries to do a Tarzan moment to stop an Eldritch Abomination that was in the form of a giant woman, he misses it and smashes into the Tower of Art. This then leads to a King Kong spoof with an ape being held hostage by a giant woman. Only Pratchett could do that many spoofs in that little time.
• Annith's method of escaping pursuit in the last His Fair Assasin book subverts this trope a little. She stands up on her galloping horse's back and crashes into a tree branch on purpose in order to escape a bunch of pursuing Hellequin.
• This is how Yorick died in Firewing. To his credit, it was during a storm.
• Go to Sleep (A Jeff the Killer Rewrite): Jeff sprints into the forest to get away from Randy's gang since he can locate the trails to his home. He looks over his shoulder to see how close they are, but turning his head again, his view is blocked by a branch, which he runs into and blacks out.
• In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the title character and his best friend Ron Weasley drive a flying car headlong into a tree on the grounds of Hogwarts. Of course, "Watch out for that tree!" becomes even more urgent when they find that the tree hits back. Harry actually says the trope name in the U.S. version of the book. In the original version and the movie, it's "Mind that tree!"
• In Redwall, Matthias does this to get rid of a rat that's following him (and talking to himself).

Live-Action TV

• News Reporter Chuck Storm, meet pole.
• A beautiful double aversion done by Dutch entertainer Rudi Carrell in Germans Great-Saturday-Family-Show Am laufenden Band: In a closing-sketch he walks through a city, absent-mindedly reading a newspaper. Lamppost approaching... approaching... elegantly sidestepped. Carrell, to the audience: "You expect me to fall for THAT lame old gag?" Walks on and falls into an open manhole.
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Giles walks straight into a tree when Buffy reveals that she knows about one of his previous... misadventures. A beautiful case of Throw It In!: Anthony Head wasn't paying attention to what's going on so he actually did hit the tree, but the timing was so serendipitous to the scene that they kept the take.
• Cousin Skeeter during "The Not-So Great Outdoors" explores the park's wilderness and swings into a tree.
• Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor walks straight into a tree in "The Eleventh Hour", mainly because he hadn't gotten used to his new body so soon after regenerating.
  The Doctor: Early days. Steering's a bit off.
• On The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Secretariat has a bit of a mishap.
• The Not the Nine O'Clock News skit "Rowan walks into a lamppost" is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• In Power Rangers Time Force, the rangers are once scattered through different film genre parodies, Eric being in a Tarzan-like setting where he's chased by aborigines. Luck has the dimension vanish just as he swings from a rope, getting his yell cut short as abruptly as he's stamped flat against a conveniently placed brick wall prop.
• The West Wing: In the first episode, President Bartlett gets hurt riding his bike into a tree because he was distracted thinking about his granddaughter being threatened by a Christian fringe group.

Radio

• Our Miss Brooks: "Skis in the Classroom" see Miss Brooks' runaway skiing stopped in this fashion:
  Mr. Boynton: Look out, you're heading right for that big tree! Look out for that tree!
  Miss Brooks: It's the only way I can stop! Oh, if I can just grab one of the branches! Here goes!
  Crash!
• Adventures in Odyssey has had two examples; both Played for Drama:
  • The page quote came from a 1988 Thanksgiving Episode titled "Thank You, God"; and at one point Whit reminisces about Fiona, his step-mother, having gone horseback riding with him growing up in North Carolina when Fiona was struck by a tree branch and knocked off her horse, eventually being blinded as a result - though as things worked out, Fiona's faith and how that helped her cope eventually resulted in Whit becoming a Christian.
  • The 2021 episode "Higher Than Our Ways" (part of the "One in Three Will Fall" saga) has a newly-mentioned teacher named Trevor Norton who ends up killed when he crashes into a tree during a school skiing trip; with that being the event that triggers Olivia Parker undergoing a Crisis of Faith.
• Aother beloved Christian radio drama Patch The Pirate has this trope applied quite literally to the Tarzan Boy called Bananaman(not to be confused with the British superhero) He has a bad hobbit of using his Vine Swing to destroy his jungle unitentionally, even knocking out his poor pet money sidekick, Chocolate Chimp.

  In the episode intitled Patch the Pirate goes to the jungle; -Sissy Seagal: "Watch out for that!...(*Banaman crashes)...tree" -Lilly Elephant: "Don't worry Sissy. The trees are used to it. In the episode entitled Afraidica Fever; -Princess Pirate(reacting to Bannaman hitting a tree): "That's gotta hurt" -Lilly Elephant: "You better believe it hurt honey. We're loosing more rainforest every day. Somehow we've gotta save the trees.

Video Games

• Persona 4 Golden: During the ski trip, Teddie will at one point decide to go sliding down the slope on his stomach while wearing his bear costume rather than use skis. He promptly crashes into an obstacle offscreen, causing everyone present to wince and Naoto (who's never skied before and incredibly nervous already) to declare that she's just going to walk back down the mountain.
• In Touhou Project, Rumia likes flying around in a bubble of darkness she can't see through. This results.
• In Atari's arcade game Road Riot 4WD, driving into a tree will have the race's announcer singing the line verbatim.

Web Comics

• Spinnerette manages to flatten herself against a wall during her first web-swinging experiment.
• From Goblins, Klik smashes into a branch while trying to save Dies-Horribly's life.
• Viktor of Lucid Spring uses this technique to try slowing his and Pacem's pursuer.

Western Animation

• The Trope Namer is, of course, George of the Jungle. This was a key part of the series' theme song. "George, George, George of the Jungle — WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!"
• DuckTales: Happens to Launchpad, naturally enough, in "Jungle Duck".
• A running gag in most Warner Bros. cartoons. Becomes an Overly Long Gag in Robin Hood Daffy, that alternates between hilarious and painful to watch: "YOIKS... AND AWAAAY!" *WHAM* Daffy eventually chops down all the trees in his path, then tries again — only to crash into a huge boulder on the ground.
• A popular variation on Tom and Jerry is for Tom to knock off the bit of tree (or pole) he hits, causing the rest to fall on top of his head, flattening him.
• The same gag appears in the Yogi Bear short The Buzzing Bear.
• In the Classic Disney Short "Ben and Me", Amos Mouse tries to warn a distracted Benjamin Franklin:
  Amos: Post, Ben, post.
  Ben: Oh, how do you do, Mr. Post. [clunk!]
• The Simpsons:
  • Homer Simpson, singing while driving...
    Homer: Simpson, Homer Simpson, he's the greatest guy in his-to-ry!
    From the town of Springfield, he's about to hit a chestnut tree! ...YAAAAA!!!!" (CRASH!)
  • And in another episode, he walks into a cactus... Then does the same thing about three scenes later.
• The Mighty Mightor episode "Cult of the Cavebearers". After L'il Rok is grabbed off his back by the Cavebearers, Ork continues flying right into a tree.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The opening features Aang crashing into a statue while riding his air ball.
  • Aang also crashes into Sokka's snow tower in the first episode, to Sokka's despair.
  • Later, in season 3, he runs into a pole while chasing after the Painted Lady.
• Wakfu:
  • Armand conjure a tree right into Sadlygrove's path during their duel in season 1 episode 19.
  • In season 1 episode 21, Yugo runs straight into rock walls a few times, as he's trying to master Aura Vision with his eyes sealed shut.
  • Baby Grougal chasing after Az in season 2 episode 6.
  • And then, Adamaï chasing after Baby Grougal in season 2 episode 9.
  • In The Legend of Ogrest special, Ogrest's first attempt at flying leads to a crash against a stone pillar, and then a boat.
• In The Powerpuff Girls episode "Bubblevision", Bubbles needs glasses. When she doesn't wear them, she hits trees, a building, and a pole.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy: In "Keeping Up With the Eds", Ed tries to search through a field of tall grass for his little sister Sarah, and runs into a tree. "Ow... That wasn't you!"
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In the episode "Griffon the Brush Off", after Rainbow Dash flies away from a running and shouting Pinkie Pie:
    Pinkie Pie: But...
    Rainbow Dash: I said, not now! [thud]*
    Pinkie Pie: I was going to tell you to look out for that mountain.
  • Rainbow Dash is a great flyer, but she really has a habit of hard landing if she ever get distracted, earning her the nickname of "Rainbow Crash".
  • In "Winter Wrap Up", Twilight Sparkle ends up victim to this trope and so much more during her various misadventures in trying to help.
  • In "Dragon Quest", when Spike and the other dragons venture out in their hunt for phoenix eggs, the teenage dragons crash into a tree when chasing the phoenix parents and when chasing Spike and the ponies.
  • In "No Second Prances", Derpy Hooves gets distracted by waving at Twilight while flying, and smashes her muzzle against a hanging sign.
  • "School Raze – Part 1" opens with Derpy delivering mail to the school. The mailmare is just as clumsy as ever, smacking into the school's blason because she is busy checking out the address on a letter.
  • In "Student Counsel", Sunburst is fleeing in the Everfree Forest with his eyes closed because he's pursued by a cockatrice; naturally, he gallops straight into a tree.
• Adventures from the Book of Virtues episode "Humility" (1998): At the end, Socrates the bobcat slides down the snow hill on a snowboard and accidentally crashes into Aristotle the prairie dog, resulting in both of them rolling into an Animal Snowball, and finally, they (especially Sock) crash into a tree.
• American Dad! had this happen in the episode where Stan finally learns to ride a bike, arriving at the courthouse in time for his father's probation hearing, he approaches the courthouse triumphantly, and then...
  Stan: Look, I can ride a bike! But I don't know how to stop! Quick, move the building!
• Happens to Candace in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Run, Candace, Run"
  You're light on your feet
  you're almost home free
  Nothing can stop you
  Look out for that tree!
• Atomic Betty: Betty to Noah in "Beach Blanket Betty" while they were surfing.
• Huckleberry Hound does this in "Spud Dud" when a giant monster potato throws him through the air.
  Huck: [just swoops over a chimney] I didn't miss that by much... [runs into another chimney] I didn't miss that one at all!
• Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: In "The Cuckoo Patrol," the Squadron — disguised as birds — tail Yankee Doodle Pigeon as they fly into seclusion in clouds. Unfortunately for them, a mountain peak is concealed within the next cloud to which they hop.
• 2 Stupid Dogs: Hollywood suffers this in "Stunt Dogs" while filming a movie.
• Kaeloo turned this trope into a Running Gag where someone is driving a car and crashes it into a tree.
• She-Ra: Princess of Power: Madame Razz and her sentient Broom frequently run afoul of this Trope when they're flying through the Whispering Woods. After a collision, Razz will sometimes complain about the tree moving.
• Steven Universe: When Pearl and Peridot are having a giant robot contest, during the race part they focus on each other so much that they both crash into a tree (the tree then gets the point for victory). When we later see the blackboard used for tallying points, the tree has several more points, implying that this happened again.
• Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons:
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In "Full-Tilt Tails", Dr. Robotnik decides to make his Super Special Sonic Search & Smash Squad faster via a new super weapon that took years to make - Speedamint gum. It works wonders and Grounder does a full lap of Mobius in record time, but when his braking chute breaks, he is unable to stop himself in time and crashes into a tree, losing the Speedamint gum as a result.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): Dulcy hits a tree in "Game Guy" due to being too drowsy to heed Sally's warning. Given Rotor's expression when she falls into his workshop, it's happened before.
• A variation in The Fairly OddParents!. When an angry Timmy wishes that "the worst non-lethal thing" happens to Chip Skylark, a tree pops out of the street in front of Timmy's house, causing him to (non-lethally) crash his car into it.
• The opening of The Raccoons featured Bert swinging from a rope with a sword in his hand only to smack his face into a tree.

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