History Main / SharkFinOfDoom

* One of the stories on the ''I Survived'' episode that focused on Hurricane Sandy was of a man swept out to sea from his home. He realized how dire his situation was upon seeing a fin pass by him.
--> "I didn't know if it was a shark or a dolphin and I wasn't going to wait to find out.'

* These are a standard enemy in ''VideoGame/ToejamAndEarl''. Opening the Earthling present while surrounded by water will always result in one, sine they're the only enemy to appear in water. Frustratingly, there's a Game Genie code that grants immunity to most damage [[note]]anything that makes the character say "youch!" - the only dangers that ''don't'' are being SquashedFlat or hit with [[AbnormalAmmo tomatoes]][[/note]], but if you're hit in or near water while using said cheat, the game crashes - making sharks very dangerous indeed.

** PlayedWith in another ''Simpsons'' episode, a WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror story titled "Night of the Dolphin" about killer dolphins. Lenny is out for a night swim and gets surrounded by fins. He's scared that they're sharks, "the assassins of the sea," but they're just friendly dolphins, "the clowns of the sea" - [[DeviousDolphins who proceed to kill him]].

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''

* In one WesternAnimation/HumphreyTheBear cartoon, Humphrey takes the keel from a toy sailboat and wears it on his head as a fin to scare away fishermen and keep the fish for himself.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': An intensional subversion in the ColdOpen of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E21LeapOfFaith "Leap Of Faith"]]: it's actually Big Mac, [[HiddenDepths of all ponies]], giving Apple Bloom a scare [[TemptingFate right after she's asked if she'll ever be scared of the water]] (keep in mind that this is in response to Granny Smith telling how she engaged in dangerous HighDiveHijinks in her youth).

This can be subverted when a character falls in the water, sees a fin (or many fins) sticking out of the water and promptly imagines, "OhCrap, a shark! Gotta beat it!" However, most of the time it's just someone pulling a prank by swimming under the water with a fake shark fin strapped to his back. Or it may be a FriendlyPlayfulDolphin. This, in turn, may end up a DoubleSubversion when the character's don't fall for it, [[MistakenForAnImposter but then it turns out to be a REAL shark]]. Or, more comedically, a {{Devious Dolphin|s}}.

** PlayedWith in another ''Simpsons'' episode, a WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror story titled "Night of the Dolphin" about killer dolphins. Lenny is out for a night swim and gets surrounded by fins. He's scared that they're sharks, "the assassins of the sea," but they're just friendly dolphins, "the clowns of the sea" - who proceed to kill him.

This can be subverted when a character falls in the water, sees a fin (or many fins) sticking out of the water and promptly imagines, "OhCrap, a shark! Gotta beat it!" However, most of the time it's just someone pulling a prank by swimming under the water with a fake shark fin strapped to his back. Or it may be a FriendlyPlayfulDolphin. This, in turn, may end up a DoubleSubversion when the character's don't fall for it, [[MistakenForAnImposter but then it turns out to be a REAL shark]].

** Another Looney Tunes short, ''Porky's Naughty Nephew'', has Porky's nephew Pinky using a toy sailboat to simulate a shark fin during a swimming race, which scares Porky into swimming fast and winning the race. When Pinky tells Porky that the fin was fake, Pinky lifts it up to reveal a real shark, sending both fleeing.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': An intensional subversion in the ColdOpen of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E21LeapOfFaith "Leap Of Faith"]]: it's actually Big Mac, [[HiddenDepths of all ponies]], giving Apple Bloom a probable case of ScareEmStraight (keep in mind that this is right after she's asked if she could become an aquabat, despite Granny Smith's warnings about how dangerous it was).

This can be subverted when a character falls in the water, sees a fin (or many fins) sticking out of the water and promptly imagines, "OhCrap, a shark! Gotta beat it!" However, most of the time it's just someone pulling a prank by swimming under the water with a fake shark fin strapped to his back. Or it may be a FriendlyPlayfulDolphin. This, in turn, may end up a DoubleSubversion when the character's GenreSavvy enough not to fall for it, [[MistakenForAnImposter but then it turns out to be a REAL shark]].

* Subverted in ''[[Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters]]'', when Percy, Annabeth and Tyson are stuck in a small lifeboat, and start seeing what appears to be shark fins, circling around. They soon find out they AREN'T shark fins at all: [[spoiler:They're ''teeth'']].

* Effectively subverted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ2DyVqZYi4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ2DyVqZYi4 this ad]] called "Rethink the Shark", from a campaign aimed to put deadly shark attacks into perspective.

* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' in a StockParody of ''Jaws'' had the fin of the airliner slicing through the clouds.

* ''Film/FlyingHigh'' in a StockParody of ''Jaws'' had the fin of the airliner slicing through the clouds.

** In the WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "Wet Hare", villain Black Jacques Shellaque sees a fin on a stream and figures it's one of Bugs' tricks. He dives in to get Bugs, but finds an actual shark instead.

This can be subverted when a character falls in the water, sees a fin (or many fins) sticking out of the water and promptly imagines, "OhCrap, a shark! Gotta beat it!" However, most of the time it's just someone pulling a prank by swimming under the water with a fake shark fin strapped to his back. Or it may be a FriendlyPlayfulDolphin. This, in turn, may end up a DoubleSubversion when the character's GenreSavvy enough not to fall for it, [[MistakenForAnImposter but then it turns out to be a REAL shark.]]

* ''VideoGame/SecretAgent'': Some water pools have sharks in them, shown as a shark fin. However, since the protagonist has SuperDrowningSkills anyway, the sharks are just for show.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':

This can be subverted when a character falls in the water, sees a fin (or many fins) sticking out of the water and promptly imagines "OhCrap, a shark! Gotta beat it!". However, most of the time it's just someone pulling a prank by swimming under the water with a fake shark fin strapped to their back. Or it may be a FriendlyPlayfulDolphin. This, in turn, may end up a DoubleSubversion when the character's GenreSavvy enough not to fall for it, [[MistakenForAnImposter but then it turns out to be a REAL shark.]]

* Effectively subverted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ2DyVqZYi4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ2DyVqZYi4 this ad]] called "Rethink the Shark" from a campaign aimed to put deadly shark attacks into perspective.

* Played with in MahouSenseiNegima when the class takes a trip to an island. Negi is put 'in danger' so Asuna will make up with him after a falling out. The 'sharks' turn out to by Ku Fei and Natsumi in diguise.

** While the armed men are patrolling the beach watching for the shark a fin appears in the water and people panic and flee the water. When the men in the boats approach the fin it turns out to be kids with a fake fin pretending to be a shark.
** At other times in the movie the real shark's presence is revealed by its fin appearing, such as when it attacks the boats in the estuary/pond and while Brody, Hooper and Quint are out on the ocean hunting it.

* MADMagazine had a feature that played with this. Among other things, it showed a shark with a sinister look on his face approaching a beach while "hiding" his fin under an old box, a shark near a large city beach with graffiti on the fin, and another with a brave guy diving off a boat to hunt the shark with the tiny fin (once he's underwater, he's greeted by a HUGE shark who, apparently purposely kept only the very tip of his fin above the surface.)

* In ''ComicStrip/ShermansLagoon'' Sherman, an actual shark, does this occasionally; his crab friend does it for kicks to scare the hairless beach apes.

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'': The beach has a pair of enemies that play with this. One is a skeleton land shark. The other is just a cheep cheep wearing a large fin. Together they attempt a ShellGame to mess with the player.

** Done by Homer when they're at the beach wearing a fin attached to his back, causing the beachgoers to run away. Then when Bart swims up right next to him doing the exact same thing, Homer screams "AHHHH! Sharkboy!" and runs away.
** PlayedWith in another ''Simpsons'', a TreehouseOfHorror episode "Night of the Dolphin" about killer dolphins. Lenny is out for a night swim and gets surrounded by fins. He's scared they're sharks, "the assassins of the sea," but they're just friendly dolphins, "the clowns of the sea" - who proceed to kill him.

* On the [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts classic Disney short]] "No Sail", DonaldDuck and {{WesternAnimation/Goofy}} are stranded on a boat and shark fins start circuling them. Goofy lifts one fin and finds nothing underneath. Donald tries the same, but comes face to face with a real shark.

** In an early short, PorkyPig and his cat are out fishing and a flying fish decides to have some fun and sticks its side fin out to look like a shark's fin. The cat catches on and grabs the fin, but that time the shark was real.
** In the BugsBunny cartoon "Wet Hare", villain Black Jacques Shellaque sees a fin on a stream and figures it's one of Bugs' tricks. He dives in to get Bugs, but finds an actual shark instead.
** Another Looney Tunes short ''Porky's Naughty Nephew'' has Porky's nephew Pinky uses a toy sailboat to simulate a shark fin during a swimming race, which scares Porky into swimming fast and winning the race. When Pinky tells Porky that the fin was fake, he lifts it up to reveal a real shark, sending both fleeing.
* On one WesternAnimation/HumphreyTheBear cartoon, Humphrey takes the keel from a toy sailboat and wears it on his head as a fin to scare away fishermen and keep the fish for himself.

* In the Tommy Bartlett Water Show at Wisconsin Dells they have (or at least used to have years ago) a scene where a "shark" approaches the performers, represented by a shark fin floating on a piece of wood which is towed by fishing line towards the performers.