History Main / BalloonBurstingBird

If you have a party balloon or [[AllBalloonsHaveHelium some other inflatable]] (inner tube, hot air balloon, weather balloon, etc), it always seems that [[FridgeLogic there's a bird around to break it]]. Usually PlayedForLaughs, especially in cartoons - yet if you're [[FridgeHorror floating high up in the air]]...

* In the ValentinesDay episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', [=SpongeBob=]'s gift for Patrick is a hot air balloon made of chocolate. Sandy is to fly it to the carnival but is delayed when scallops (which act as birds on the show's setting) try to eat the balloon.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Ducktales}}'' episode "The Big Flub" revolves around an invention called Flubble Gum, which is a bubble gum allowing bubble blowers to fly. When Fenton Crackshell is floating around in the air, Scrooge McDuck mounts an improbable rescue scheme. Scrooge throws lots of Flubble Gum into a trash compactor along with water, mixes it up, and uses an air pump to blow a giant-sized bubble, [[ItMakesSenseInContext causing Fenton's trailer to float into the sky]]. The rescue is successful, but a passing bird [[BubbleGumPopping pecks at the bubble, bursting it]] and sending the trailer crashing to the ground.

* Frequently happened with WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget and his inflatable coat.

* A variant in an early episode of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' and its counterpart ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'': The MonsterOfTheWeek, a giant crow named The Peckster in the US version, is tricked by the Black Ranger into pecking a bunch of helium balloons, the last of which turns out to be a playground ball that traps the monster's beak long enough to take him down. Unusually for this trope, the balloons were normal sized while the bird was human sized.

** In ''Videogame/DonkeyKongCountry3'' Parry the Parallel bird serves this function, flying a little bit over head the Kongs.

* In the second ''SimonTheSorcerer'' game, after you use three balloons to get to the castle treasure room through a window, a bird bursts all three balloons when you leave the room.
* You can aim a bird toward balloons in ''AngryBirds'' in many levels. Popping lets the stuff the balloon was holding up crash on what's below it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTales'', this happens to Schoolgirls Patch and Bon-Bon while they ride a hot air balloon over an ocean, conveniently over some [[ThreateningShark circling sharks]].

* A variant in an early episode of ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' and its SuperSentai counterpart: The MonsterOfTheWeek, a giant crow named The Peckster in the US version, is tricked by the black ranger into pecking a bunch of helium balloons, the last of which turns out to be a playground ball that traps the monster's beak long enough to take him down. Unusually for this trope, the balloons were normal sized while the bird was human sized.

* GastonLagaffe's pet [[FeatheredFiend laughing gull]] ''hates'' balloons with a passion. At one point it crosses paths with a hot-air balloon, and the next panel has the now grounded occupant saying "I don't know, there was a kind of sadistic laughter and the next thing I knew, pffffft!"

* The tie-in magazine for ''ThreeTwoOneContact'' would publish computer games written in BASIC to run on your computer during TheEighties. One of the games, called "Pop!", carried an illustration of a computer blowing bubble gum and spotting a bird ready to [[BubbleGumPopping pop the bubble]].

* A variant in an early episode of MightyMorphinPowerRangers and its SuperSentai counterpart: The MonsterOfTheWeek, a giant crow named The Peckster in the US version, is tricked by the black ranger into pecking a bunch of helium balloons, the last of which turns out to be a playground ball that traps the monster's beak long enough to take him down. Unusually for this trope, the balloons were normal sized while the bird was human sized.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Ducktales}}'' episode "the Big Flub" revolves around an invention called Flubble Gum, which is a bubble gum allowing bubble blowers to fly. When Fenton Crackshell is floating around in the air, Scrooge McDuck mounts an improbable rescue scheme. Scrooge throws lots of Flubble Gum into a trash compactor along with water, mixes it up, and uses an air pump to blow a giant-sized bubble, [[ItMakesSenseInContext causing Fenton's trailer to float into the sky]]. The rescue is successful, but a passing bird [[BubbleGumPopping pecks at the bubble, bursting it]] and sending the trailer crashing to the ground.

* A variation happened in one episode of the animated ''DennisTheMenaceUS''. Mr. Wilson parachutes from a plane, but a bird pecks at his parachute - leading to a long drop.

You've got a big balloon. The balloon is so big that you're actually floating up into the air. But what's this? A bird is approaching your balloon and you suddenly realize how sharp the beak is...POP!!!

If you have a party balloon or some other inflatable (inner tube, hot air balloon, weather balloon, etc), it always seems that [[FridgeLogic there's a bird around to break it]]. Usually PlayedForLaughs, especially in cartoons - yet if you're [[FridgeHorror floating high up in the air]]...

Could overlap with BubbleGumPopping, if bubble gum is involved.

Examples:

* Anime/{{Pokemon}}: Team Rocket's hot air balloon is [[OncePerEpisode prone to bursting]], and if a flying-type Pokemon is involved, you can bet that that's how it's going to bust.

* The 1963 horror film TheBirds involves said avians attacking a little girl's birthday party. During the assault, the birds pop a number of balloons.

* The tie-in magazine for ThreeTwoOneContact would publish computer games written in BASIC to run on your computer during TheEighties. One of the games, called "Pop!", carried an illustration of a computer blowing bubble gum and spotting a bird ready to [[BubbleGumPopping pop the bubble]].

* Anime/{{Pokemon}}: Team Rocket's hot air balloon is [[OncePerEpisode prone to bursting]], and if a bird type pokemon is involved, you can bet that that's how it's going to bust.

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* Subverted in one table-top electronic game version of Donkey Kong Jr. The port added a few things [[PolishedPort not in the original arcade game]] such as umbrellas to float down on and balloons to float up on. Birds are your enemies - but they're not the ones who can pop the balloons; that's done by a sharp tree branch at the top of the game screen.
* Birds could pop Alice's balloons in the 1990 Game Boy game {{VideoGame/Balloon Kid}}.
* In {{VideoGame/Point Blank}}, one of the shooting mini-games involved [[HoldTheLine protecting Dr. Dan or Dr. Don]] from birds since they were floating on balloons over shark-infested waters.

* The 1970 Beary Family cartoon "The Unhandy Man" has Charlie Beary trying to [[DIYDisaster install a garage door opener on his own]]. One of this attempts to get his garage door open involves a big balloon, which fails when a bird pops the balloon.
* WoodyWoodpecker did this too when opponents used balloons.
* Frequently happened with InspectorGadget and his inflatable coat.
* A variation happened in one episode of the animated DennisTheMenaceUS. Mr. Wilson parachutes from a plane, only to have a bird peck at his parachute - leading to a long drop.
** It happened again in another cartoon episode when Dennis gets accidentally caught up in a hot-air balloon race. A flock of birds burst one of the hot-air balloon.

* One animated segment from SesameStreet had a JerkAss asking for a big, bigger, and biggest balloon (popping the first two he's offered); the biggest balloon causes him to fly up into the sky, only to get popped by an equally big bird soon after.
** Another animated segment from SesameStreet was a balloon alphabet. Balloon shaped letters from A to Z were popped by a speeding bird.