History Main / HumanCannonball

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'', Link fires himself out of a Sky Cannon to reach the City in the Sky.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'', Yunobo has an ability to [[BeehiveBarrier become immune to any form of damage]]. As a result, he makes a very good cannonball and contributes to the Rudania fight by being used as ammo for the Goron Cannons.
%%** a similar minigame in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'', although the catapult used before the stealth scene in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'' might also count.

** The first ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' game had Wario's Battle Canyon in the original, where this was the only method of transport between areas.
** One of the 1 Vs. 3 mini-games in ''Mario Party 4'' is "Hide and Go Boom". Each of the three team players must choose one of four cannons to hide in (indicated by the controller buttons), while the single player is given three torches to light them. If the single player manages to shoot all three team players out of the cannons, then it wins, but if at least one team player is still in a cannon when the three torches are used up, then the team wins.
** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' had a giant Bob-Omb-powered cannon used to launch Mario to the moon...

* This is used as a pun in ''VideoGame/ToontownOnline''. After you beat the CEO, you get pink slips to fire enemy Cogs. By fire, of course, the game means fire from a cannon.

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], Lilith is placed in a canister and blasted out of a magnetic railgun. In a nod to what would [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome normally happen]] in such situations, it's [[HandWave handwaved]] by saying the gun fired at "minimum power." Plus, she's a Siren, so her physiology is [[SuperToughness more robust]].

* In ''VideoGameFTLFasterThanLightMultiverse'', the Clone Cannon essentially weaponizes this by firing clones of one of your crewmembers at your enemies, although it doesn't have to be a human that gets cannonballed...
* Each level of VideoGame/FreezeME'' has one or more cannons you can use to shoot yourself around it. Some are necessary to reach new areas.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JoeOrioloFelixTheCat'': In "Felix's Gold Mine", Professor tries to launch Rock Bottom up to the summit where the eponymous gold mine is located by using a cannon, but he's too big to fit inside of it. The Professor decides to launch himself up instead, only to completely miss the summit--fortunately for him, he had a parachute on hand.

* An Australian drink-driving PSA used the slogan "RBT[[note]]Random Breath Testing[[/note]] means you need a Plan B". The ad showed a man having a series of {{Imagine Spot}}s as he contemplated ways other than driving to get home as he's been drinking. One of these was being fired out of circus cannon.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'', Rocky is part of a circus act where he is shot out of a cannon. After one performance, he drops out of the sky into the lives of the main characters, who initially assume he can fly.

* ''Fanfic/{{Wonderful}}'': When [[AntiHero Wonder Shadow]] formed her giant crossbow, [[FlyingBrick Vicky]] became the ammo.

* Krusty the Clown in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' once shot his half brother Luke Perry out of a cannon. The shot missed, sending Luke out of the studio, through a sandpaper factory and a display of half-price acid at the Kwik-E-Mart before he landed in a mattress warehouse. Which was then blown up. He also often shot Sideshow Bob out of a cannon, which contributed to Bob's hatred of him in "Krusty Gets Busted." (This later comes back to good use in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E6TheGreatLouseDetective The Great Louse Detective]]", when Bob has to shoot himself out of the cannon on one Mardi Gras float in order to save Homer from getting ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice in the swordfish museum.)

%% *** In the episode, "[[CircusEpisode Circus of Plunders]]", Knuckles becomes one of these when he, along with Sonic, Amy, and Sticks get jobs at T.W. Barker's Circus of Wonders.
*** In the episode, "[[Recap/SonicBoomS1E13UnluckyKnuckles Unlucky Knuckles]]" from the same series, in an attempt to shift the luck balance of the universe (the idea given to him by [[ConspiracyTheorist Sticks]]), Knuckles fires himself out of a cannon at the bottom of a deep pit.

[[folder:Toy ]]

* Likewise in ''Film/ThingsToCome'', the first interplanetary expedition involves a [[AdamAndEvePlot young man and woman]] loaded into a capsule and blasted off from a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything vertically-standing cannon to spread the seed of Mankind]] across the Universe.

[[folder: Toys ]]

[[folder:Comic Books ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JoeOrioloFelixTheCat'': In one episode, the Professor launches Rock Bottom out of a cannon as part of his latest scheme to steal Felix's bag. Rock comments that he used to a be a human cannonball in the circus, but was fired for being "[[{{Pun}} the wrong caliber of man]]" for the job.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' had a supporting cast member called The Human Bullet who was frequently fired at the episode's climactic battle scene by his child (or neighbor in one case). He usually had little beneficial effect on the fight, if he ever made it in time at all.
* ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner'': Wile E. has attempted to fire himself out of a cannon multiple times in his neverending quest to catch the Road Runner. What he has achieved are multiple new ways to injure himself.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode, "[[CircusEpisode Circus Angelicus]]", when Angelica stages her own circus in Tommy's backyard, she wants Chuckie to be a "[[{{Malaproper}} human candyball]]". However, Chuckie can't remember what he's supposed to do, and as Angelica tries to explain it to him [[SeesawCatapult by sitting on one end of a seesaw, Phil and Lil jump onto the other end, launching her into the air]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}'': In the season 2 episode ''The Dreamland Job'', the circus troupe performing for King Zog end their show with one of these. This in order to mask the explosion in the vault they were robbing at the same time.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In the original pilot, as one of the many things Cosmo and Wanda do to Vicky, Vicky ends up shot out of a circus cannon. She lands ChainedToARailway.

-->'''Wilkins:''' Did you drink your Wilkins Coffee this morning?
-->'''Wontkins:''' Of course not!
-->'''Wilkins:''' Okay. ''(BOOM)'' That boy's got a ''long'' way to go.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* One filler villain in the ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' anime has developed a martial art based on being a human cannonball. His entire army uses it.

* In ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', Yahiko befriends a girl named Marimo who performs this act in the [[CircusBrat circus she works for]]. At the end of the episode, Sanosuke picks up the cannon and uses it as shoulder-mounted artillery to fire her at the VillainOfTheWeek. The gunpowder question is handwaved by saying that the circus owner had a special, proprietary mix of powder that was just strong enough to launch the girl without risking injury.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fan Works ]]

* In ''Fanfic/BetweenMyBrotherAndMeMorsOmnibus'', Yvonne duels Lillie in an Action Field of a circus. Yvonne slips herself into a cannon so she can fly towards an Action Card.

[[folder: Film - Animated ]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]

* In the Crosby/Hope comedy ''Film/RoadToZanzibar'' one of the scams the duo run is a human-cannonball act; it turns out Hope's character hides in a secret compartment in the base of the cannon and it's a dummy that gets launched out. (And catches fire, and crashes into a tent, and causes an entire carnival to [[DisasterDominoes burn down]].)

* Likewise in ''Film/ThingsToCome'', the first interplanetary expedition involves a [[AdamAndEvePlot young man and woman]] loaded into a capsule and blasted off from a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything vertically-standing cannon to spread the seed of Mankind]] across the Universe.

* ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' had a recurring act called the Flying Zuccini Brothers Human Cannonball Act. They were rarely on stage, but their cannon was used by Bob Hope as a means of fast and cheap travel. "Eat your heart out, Concord." They also tried to make a cow-cannonball act with the live-action cow wandering around backstage in the Julie Andrews episode.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''King David's Spaceship'' or "A Spaceship For The King" by Creator/JerryPournelle uses a variant of this because... supposedly they weren't sophisticated enough for orbital rockets and yet were inexplicably able to build a cannon firing a steady stream of explosive propulsion shells at the rear end of the capsule.

[[folder: Music ]]

* "Earl's Dead - Cadillac For Sale" by Music/JimmyBuffet is about the life and death of a human cannonball, followed by his widow launching his ashes out of the cannon and selling his car.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} had to use a cannon as transportation when his company was cutting back on travel budgets. A later arc involves him visiting [[{{Ruritania}} Elbonia]], which reuses this joke... except the Elbonians are both so primitive and so incompetent that they launch Dilbert to his destination via ''giant slingshot'' instead.

[[folder: Pinball ]]

[[folder: Theme Parks]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''VideoGame/DT3'' has cannons that launch the player so fast that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0czGDbvwUko you apparently trail rainbows]]
* In the ''VideoGame/ABoyAndHisBlob'' Wii game, one of the jellybeans transforms a blob into a cannon. A boy is one of things that can go in the cannon to be shot and there occasionally happens to be an enemy that can be shot from there too.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Jumper}}'', there are "shooters", pink boxes which Ogmo can hop in to be shot in direction indicated by spinning cursor. Variations include blue faster ones (''Jumper Redux'') and one-time use yellow ones (''Jumper Two Editor''). ''VideoGame/MoneySeize'', a game by the same author, features those as well.
* ''VideoGame/CarnEvil'' has the player getting into a cannon to launch them up to the top of the tent.
* Near the beginning of ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'' Guybrush can earn some money by letting the acrobatic Fetuccini brothers use him as a guinea pig for their human cannonball act, with a cooking pot as a makeshift helmet. Much later, he uses the same technique to shoot himself out of his ship's cannon in order to reach the shores of Monkey Island.

* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'', the only way out of the Russian unit Bullfrog is via the "Man Cannon". It's portrayed more realistically though since the infantry units descend with parachutes after being fired from the cannon.

* ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' has many tracks, often those based on the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' series, where you get launched out of a cannon.
** From ''Mario Kart: Double Dash!!'' there is DK Mountain.
** From ''Mario Kart DS'' there is Waluigi Pinball.
** ''Mario Kart Wii'' has three tracks where you are fired out of a cannon: DK Summit (DK's Snowboard Cross) in the Flower Cup, Maple Treeway in the Star Cup, and DK Mountain, which returns in the Lightning Cup.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'', probably once per game now. There are pipe cannons in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', cannons in various levels in ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', a giant cannon that launches you to Pinna Park in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'', cannons in space in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', cannons used as a WarpZone in ''New Super Mario Bros''...
** The first ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' game had Wario's Battle Canyon in the original, where this was the only method of transport between areas.
** One of the 1 Vs. 3 mini-games in ''Mario Party 4'' is "Hide and Go Boom". Each of the three team players must choose one of four cannons to hide in (indicated by the controller buttons), while the single player is given three torches to light them. If the single player manages to shoot all three team players out of the cannons, then it wins, but if at least one team player is still in a cannon when the three torches are used up, then the team wins.
** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' had a giant Bob-Omb-powered cannon used to launch Mario to the moon...
** In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'', Mario can get blown out of a cannon if he answers incorrectly in the Sudden Death question in the ''Shy Guys Finish Last'' quiz show. However, since the show takes place on a FloatingContinent, Mario gets blown through the roof straight into a NonStandardGameOver.

* In ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' Pit gets shot out as more an "Angel Cannonball". He doesn't like the idea one bit.
* Used as an actual ImprovisedWeapon in one level on ''VideoGame/TheOutfoxies''.
* [[PirateGirl May's]] new [[OneHitKill Instant Kill]] move in VideoGame/GuiltyGear X-Sign is basically this. She grabs her opponent, stuffs him/her inside the [[CoolAirship Mayship's]] ''actual'' cannon and, with the help of her best friend April, she ''shoots him/her off'' from there. It's both [[Awesome/GuiltyGear awesome]] and [[Funny/GuiltyGear hilarious]].

* Unsurprisingly, the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} video game ''Human Cannonball'' is all about this trope. The player must set the cannon's position, angle, and blast strength in order to shoot the subject into a water tank.
* In ''[[VideoGame/GanbareGoemon The Legend of the Mystical Ninja]]'', the protagonists are offered a ride to Izumo in a "Miracle Flying Transport," which turns out to be a cannon. It misfires, and they wind up at Tengu Mountain instead.
* ''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunter Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate]]'' features the Artillery Mask for your [[NonHumanSidekick Shakalaka companions]] to wear. The mask's special power is to turn the wearer into a cannon and fire the other Shakalaka out of it, making for a surprisingly effective projectile.
* In ''{{VideoGame/Scribblenauts}}'', you can summon a Human Cannon, which spawns with a clown already inside. Firing the cannon launches the clown, after which you can reload it with other people.
* In ''VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBustersHiddenTreasure'', in the [[SlippySlideyIceWorld ice mountain levels]], when Buster finds a cannon, it launches him into space. As he falls back down, he can collect airborne bonuses if he is positioned correctly.
* In ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsVirtualBart'', the goal of the Baby Bart level is to get Baby Bart into the cannon at the end of the circus tent. The cannon fires him out of the tent and into the ice cream truck he pursues in the following cutscene.
* One DLC vehicle in ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'', the Genki Manapault, uses this as its main weapon. Driving into pedestrians, gang members, or even ''your own homies'' sucks them up, at which point they can be promptly fired out of the cannon atop the car, leaving a trail of sparkling stars along the way.

* In ''VideoGame/SpankysQuest'' (SNES version), both player and enemy characters can shoot out of cannons, though neither exactly qualifies as human.
* ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' is a very badass example. At one point in the story, the Doom Slayer loads himself up to a giant cannon and shoots himself out of it (after kicking out the actual ammo) in order to get to a drifting space vessel. He's blasted straight through the hull like an actual cannonball and ''still'' lands on his feet and ready to start shooting.
* This is used as a pun in ''VideoGame/ToontownOnline''. After you beat the CEO, you get pink slips to fire enemy Cogs. By fire, of course, the game means fire from a cannon.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'', The Tank has a skill called Human Cannonball, which involves them loading an allied Mii into their cannon and launching them at the enemy. The launched Mii will not be happy about this.
--> '''Ally''': [[WhatTheHellHero Why would you DO that?]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* Variant in ''Webcomic/AMiracleOfScience'': A one-man pod is shot into space with a giant cannon, design courtesy of a mad scientist. When it fails, LudicrousGibs result. (Fortunately the failure rate isn't very big...)

* In ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'', the main characters have once to use a cannon to travel to their next destination. Of course, the first test is with [[ButtMonkey Black Mage]] and the explosion happens, but Black Mage isn't sent on the way.
* In ''Webcomic/HazardsWake'', Talon delivers [[TeamPet Fluffy]] to [[CloudCuckooLander Maple]] by firing him out of a cannon. Fluffy is resilient enough to survive this, but [[spoiler:his impact destroys Maple's ship]].

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Cuddles is shot out of one in an episode of ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'', with gruesome results (due to Toothy misinterpreting Mime's instructions to put two scoops of gunpowder in; Toothy put ''two barrels'' in instead).
* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': Done in a rather spectacular fashion with Jamie by everyone working together and combining their powers in the flashback in "Over and Under" to seal the Overlord of Evil away.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E12PinkiePride Pinkie Pride]], Pinkie Pie fires herself out of her party cannon, followed by Rainbow Dash being fired out of [[Music/WeirdAlYankovic Cheese Sandwich's]] party artillery piece.

* [[RollingAttack Cannonbolt]] is shot out of Rex's [[ArmCannon Slam Cannon]] in ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10GeneratorRexHeroesUnited Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United]]''. Justified in that Cannonbolt can survive reentering Earth and the Slam Cannon is designed to shoot projectiles the size of small cars.
* ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathmatch'': Roberto Benigni [[AchievementsInIgnorance accidentally wins]] his bout with Benito Mussolini this way.

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], Lilith is placed in a canister and blasted out of a magnetic railgun. In a nod to what would [[RealityEnsues normally happen]] in such situations, it's [[HandWave handwaved]] by saying the gun fired at "minimum power." Plus, she's a Siren, so her physiology is [[SuperToughness more robust]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}, The Tank has a skill called Human Cannonball, which involves them loading an allied Mii into their cannon and launching them at the enemy. The launched Mii will not be happy about this.

* In ''VideoGame/SpiritOfTheNorth'', it's more of a vulpine cannonball to be precise. There are rings than when powered by auroral energy, launch the player fox through the air.

-->Music/RayStevens, "Hugo, The Human Cannonball"

* One of the gadgets in ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'', the Youzooka, is a big gun that can be used to shoot people into the air.

* In ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', Yahiko befriends a girl named Marimo who performs this act in the [[CircusBrat circus she works for]]. At the end of the episode, Sanosuke picks up the cannon and uses it as shoulder-mounted artillery to fire her at the VillainOfTheWeek.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': In issue 10 Diana has herself shot out a cannon straight into the Saturn Emperor's throne room.