History Main / WrongParachuteGag

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' does it once when he visited a dream in which he and Sandy were free falling. One of the things Sandy asked him to do was use a parachute. [=SpongeBob=] misheard that twice by inflating his shoes and giving Sandy a parakeet before she (forgetting to deploy her parachute) falls onto a truck full of clam manure and flatly says, "Medic."

** In the first episode of ''Total Drama: Pahkitew Island'', the contestants each have bags and when they jump off the blimp they were riding on, only half of the contestants have parachutes and the rest only have normal bags. The ones with the parachutes were put in the team Pimâpotew Kinosewak and those who don't are in Wâneyihtam Maskwak (Confused Bears).

** On one ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner'' cartoon, Wile E. tries to be CrazyPrepared by wearing a parachute in case he falls off a cliff. He opens it and out comes... canning samples. He was even prepared for that and swallowed a bunch of painkillers.

** On one ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner'' cartoon, Wile E. tries to be CrazyPrepared by wearing a parachute in case he falls off a cliff. He opens it and out comes... canning samples. He was even prepared for that and swallowed a bunch of painkillers.

'''Bugs:''' Yeah. [[{{Catchphrase}} Ain't I a stinker?]]

* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', Eddie is falling from a great height and is joined by WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, both wearing parachutes. Eddie asks for a spare, so Bugs gives it to him. He opens it... and out comes [[ExactWords a spare tire]]. The two activate their chutes as Eddie plummets to earth.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

'''Bugs:''' Yeah. Ain't I a stinker?

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* One of the guys in ''Film/{{Fandango}}'' is out to prove something.
-->'''Pilot's wife:''' All that laundry, shot to hell...
* On ''Film/TheGoodsLiveHardSellHard'', Creator/WillFerrell makes [[TheCameo a cameo]] as a member of the "mercenary" salesman team that died on a publicity stunt, which involved parachuting to the car lot while dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Unknowingly he took a backpack full of sex toys instead of the actual parachute, [[CrossesTheLineTwice and in his desperation, he tried to soften his fall with a dildo]]. [[TooDumbToLive Of course, considering that this is a "sad" flashback...]]
* At the end of the FreeFallFight in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', Jaws tries opening his parachute... and either breaks the ripcord because he DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength or simply took a plain backpack. Either way, he survives the fall, being MadeOfIron and landing straight on a circus tent, and comes back no worse for wear for more Wile E. Coyote-like antics chasing Bond throughout the film.
[[/folder]]

* The cover of ''[[http://www.comics.org/issue/288887/ Marvel Romance Redux: Restraining Orders Are for Other Girls]]''.

* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', Eddie is falling from a great height and is joined by WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, both wearing parachutes. Eddie asks for a spare, so Bugs gives it to him. He opens it... and out comes [[ExactWords a spare tire]].

A staple of cartoons where a character grabs a backpack and jumps from the great height, opens the pack, and anything ''but'' a parachute falls out. Commonly, it can be food, cutlery, camping supplies, or heavy objects like an [[AnvilOnHead anvil]]. Whatever the case, it results in them crashing into the earth. Of, course, since these cartoons obey sets of rules that don't factor into horrible injuries and feature quick recovery times, it's a staple joke.

* This is used in the ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'' game ''Escaping the Prison''. In one of the choices, Henry can use the parachute to fall down from the roof, only to find out that the "parachute" is actually just a regular backpack. The fail screen lampshades this (see page quote).

A staple of cartoons where a character grabs a backpack and jumps from the great height, opens the pack, and anything ''but'' a parachute falls out. Commonly, it can be food, cutlery, camping supplies or heavy objects like an [[AnvilOnHead anvil]]. Whatever the case, it results in them crashing into the earth. Of, course, since these cartoons obey sets of rules that don't factor into horrible injuries and feature quick recovery times, it's a staple joke.

* The commercial for ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'' has Banjo skydiving. The man in the plane tries to warn him, but Banjo shrugs it off. He jumps, but finds out too little too late Kazooie isn't in his pack.

* On ''Film/TheGoodsLiveHardSellHard'', Creator/WillFerrell makes [[TheCameo a cameo]] as a member of the "mercenary" salesman team that died on a publicity stunt, which involved parachuting to the car lot while dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Unknowingly he took a backpack full of sex toys instead of the actual parachute, [[CrossesTheLineTwice and in his desperation he tried to soften his fall with a dildo]]. [[TooDumbToLive Of course, considering that this is a "sad" flashback...]]

* There is a joke about Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, the Dalai Lama and a Boy Scout on a plane that is going down. (The identities of the figures vary according to when and where the joke is told. It's a very old joke.) There are only three parachutes. Michael Jordan declares that he is the world's greatest athlete and therefore deserves to live, grabs a parachute and leaps out. Bill Gates declares he is the world's smartest man and therefore deserves to live, grabs a parachute and leaps out. The Dalai Lama offers to give the last parachute to the Boy Scout. The Boy Scout says, "It's fine, Your Holiness. There are still two parachutes. The world's smartest man just jumped out wearing my knapsack."

* There has been a case where Scratch and Grounder's plan seems to have worked without a hitch, a rarity in ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'', as they have trapped Sonic and his GirlOfTheWeek in a carriage that's plunging off a cliff and they gloat over them having parachutes that will allow them to make it in one piece, an even rarer occasion, until it turns out that they are not parachutes, which makes it an even bigger failure as Sonic manages to use the actual parachutes to survive this cliff-hanging predicament.

** On one ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner'' cartoon, Wile E. tries to be CrazyPrepared by wearing a parachute in case he falls off a cliff. He opens it and out comes... canning samples. He was even prepared for that, and swallowed a bunch of painkillers.

!!Examples

[[folder:Advertisements]]

* The cover of ''[[http://www.comics.org/issue/288887/ Marvel Romance Redux: Restraining Orders Are For Other Girls.]]''

--->'''Dogbert:''' (''while wearing what appears to be a parachute bag'') It looks like the plane's going down and there's only one parachute.\\
'''C.E.O.:''' (''grabbing the "parachute bag"'') Give it to me!!! I'm a C.E.O. with a Harvard MBA. You're a dog!\\
'''Dogbert:''' (''as they're falling'') That's my knapsack.\\
'''C.E.O.:''' (''while random junk is flying out of the open knapsack'') [[LampshadeHanging Old joke.]]

--> '''Pilot's wife:''' All that laundry, shot to hell...

* At the end of the FreeFallFight in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', Jaws tries opening his parachute.. and either breaks the ripcord because he DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength or simply took a plain backpack. Either way, he survives the fall, being MadeOfIron and landing straight on a circus tent, and comes back no worse for wear for more Wile E. Coyote-like antics chasing Bond throughout the film.
* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', Eddie is falling from a great height and is joined by WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, both wearing parachutes. Eddie asks for a spare, so Bugs gives it to him. He opens it... and out comes [[ExactWords a spare tire]].
-->'''Mickey''': Ha ha! Poor fella.
-->'''Bugs''': Yeah. Ain't I a stinker?

* There is a dramatic version in the live-action ''Series/Shazam1974'' series in which a boy incorrectly packs a parachute by himself without telling any adults about it. As a result, a skydiver takes the pack and takes off for a dive before the boy confesses. They are too late to stop the dive and everyone watches in horror knowing that his parachute won't open. Fortunately, Billy Batson transforms into the FlyingBrick SuperHero, Captain Marvel, and flies up to open the parachute pack himself.

-->'''Greg:''' (''pulls ripcord'') Miniature Snickers?!\\
'''Colin:''' (''pulls ripcord, opens book'') "What To Do When Your Parachute Doesn't Open."

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Wildy's novel in ''[[Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures DMFA]]'': Wildy decides the parachute scene is boring, so she decides the parachute has been [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_458.php "rigged to be replaced with an alligator."]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Brian is going skydiving. Right before he jumps out, the instructor stops him and points out that he grabbed "the one with silverware" in it. He tosses Brian another parachute... that contains an anvil.
-->"... that one's probably fine. ..."

** "Devil's Feud Cake": An econo-cartoon featuring clips of past WesternAnimation/BugsBunny-Yosemite Sam adventures with alternate endings. The trope-fitting clip comes in the segment featuring a segment from "WesternAnimation/HareLift" where – after Bugs sends the plane they're on into a nosedive – Sam grabs what he thinks is the only available parachute and jumps ... only to find he's grabbed a knapsack of camping supplies and it's bye-bye, Sam! In the original cartoon, Sam's chute works fine, except that [[FallingIntoJail he lands in the backseat of a police car]] (having earlier robbed a bank).

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' does it once when he visited a dream in which he and Sandy were free falling. One of the things Sandy asked him to do was use a parachute. Spongebob misheard that twice by inflating his shoes and giving Sandy a parakeet before she (forgetting to deploy her parachute) falls onto a truck full of clam manure and flatly says, "Medic."

* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama: Pahkitew Island'', the contestants each have bags and when they jump off the blimp they were riding on, only half of the contestants have parachutes and the rest only have normal bags. The ones with the parachutes were put in the team Pimâpotew Kinosewak and those who don't are in Wâneyihtam Maskwak (Confused Bears).
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama'': In "Cuttin' Corners", Beth, [=LeShawna=], and Duncan try to become Izzy's best friends to get a corner piece of her cake. While playing 'Parachute', Izzy says it was lucky she found enough parachutes for everyone. However, when they jump out of the tree, it turns out only Izzy has a parachute, and the other three have ordinary backpacks.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' had eponymous amorph left behind because he doesn't have armor (he's ridiculously hard to kill anyway) and they were going through vacuum. Following the team on his own in an emergency exosuit, Schlock quickly [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-04-07 discovered]] that the emergency suit doesn't have gravitics like powered armor and he's going to "navigate" a shaft 6.2 kilometers deep ballistically, in near- Earth gravity, but zero air resistance.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' #176, which explains how Superman decided on his ideal location for his Fortress of Solitude, he's on a flight over the arctic as Clark Kent when the plane suffers engine troubles. Almost immediately, everyone went for the parachutes, but Clark, who was inspecting the packs with his x-ray vision, notices a ripped parachute and switches it with his good one. Luckily for Clark, nobody notices the {{Human Alien|s}} dropping like a stone in the arctic night.
* The cover of ''[[http://www.comics.org/issue/288887/ Marvel Romance Redux: Restraining Orders Are For Other Girls.]]''

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': A cartoon shows a skydiver with a piano and an anchor coming out of his backpack.
-->"Murray didn't feel the first pangs of real panic until he pulled the emergency cord..."

* Referenced in an episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}''. When Chandler realizes he's DiggingHimselfDeeper, he exclaims "Dear God, this parachute is a knapsack!" and rolls himself over the back of his chair to get away,
* Used as a gag in one episode of ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' -- a Scenes From a Hat game asked for things that one wouldn't want to see when their parachute didn't open.
-->'''Greg:''' (''pulls ripcord'') Miniature Snickers?!\\
'''Colin:''' (''pulls ripcord, opens book'') "What To Do When Your Parachute Doesn't Open."

* While this doesn't actually happen in ''VideoGame/FarCry3'', the in-game Survival Guide jokes about it once you receive the parachute after getting to the second island, stating that you should "make sure to watch out for the bags of pots and pans disguised as parachutes."

* Wildy's novel in ''[[Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures DMFA]]'': Wildy decides the parachute scene is boring, so she decides the parachute has been [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_458.php "rigged to be replaced with an alligator."]]

* WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes and WesternAnimation/MerrieMelodies:
** In ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'', Daffy's parachute works just fine, but [[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny the animator]] erases the chute and replaces it with an [[AnvilOnHead anvil]].
** On one ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner'' cartoon, Wile E. tries to be CrazyPrepared by wearing a parachute in case he falls off a cliff. He opens it and out comes... canning samples. He was even prepared for that, and swallowed a bunch of painkillers.
** "Devil's Feud Cake": An econo-cartoon featuring clips of past WesternAnimation/BugsBunny-Yosemite Sam adventures with alternate endings. The trope-fitting clip comes in the segment featuring a segment from "WesternAnimation/HareLift" where – after Bugs sends the plane they're on into a nosedive – Sam grabs what he thinks is the only available parachute and jumps ... only to find he's grabbed a knapsack of camping supplies and it's bye-bye, Sam! In the original cartoon, Sam's chute works fine, except that [[FallingIntoJail he lands in the backseat of a police car]] (having earlier robbed a bank).
** Variation in the WartimeCartoon "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips", Bugs encounters a parachuting Japanese pilot and hands the guy a "scrap iron" donation (See: Anvil) and the poor fellow instantly plummets to earth like his canopy was cut.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDayMyButtWentPsycho'': In "Flush of Dooty", Deuce opens his parachute for nothing but a stack of cheek burgers to come flying out.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Molang}}'', Molang and Piu Piu are trying to get a football player’s picture, they manage to follow the player onto a plane where they’re about to do some skydiving. When the player pulls the chord, only a football comes out and Molang and Piu Piu grab their own parachutes to save the player.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama'': In "Cuttin' Corners", Beth, [=LeShawna=], and Duncan try to become Izzy's best friends to get a corner piece of her cake. While playing 'Parachute', Izzy says it was lucky she found enough parachutes for everyone. However, when they jump out of the tree, it turns out only Izzy has a parachute, and the other three have ordinary backpacks.

* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', Eddie is falling from a great height and is joined by MickeyMouse and WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, both wearing parachutes. Eddie asks for a spare, so Bugs gives it to him. He opens it... and out comes [[ExactWords a spare tire]].

* In ''{{Superman}}'' #176, which explains how Superman decided on his ideal location for his Fortress of Solitude, he's on a flight over the arctic as Clark Kent when the plane suffers engine troubles. Almost immediately, everyone went for the parachutes, but Clark, who was inspecting the packs with his x-ray vision, notices a ripped parachute and switches it with his good one. Luckily for Clark, nobody notices the {{Human Alien|s}} dropping like a stone in the arctic night.

** "Devil's Feud Cake": An econo-cartoon featuring clips of past WesternAnimation/BugsBunny-Yosemite Sam adventures with alternate endings. The trope-fitting clip comes in the segment featuring a segment from "WesternAnimation/HareLift" where – after Bugs sends the plane they're on into a nosedive – Sam grabs what he thinks is the only available parachute and jumps ... only to find he's grabbed a knapsack of camping supplies and it's bye-bye, Sam! In the original cartoon, Sam's chute works fine, except that he lands in the backseat of a police car (having earlier robbed a bank).

* There is a dramatic version in the live-action ''Series/{{Shazam}}'' series in which a boy incorrectly packs a parachute by himself without telling any adults about it. As a result, a skydiver takes the pack and takes off for a dive before the boy confesses. They are too late to stop the dive and everyone watches in horror knowing that his parachute won't open. Fortunately, Billy Batson transforms into the FlyingBrick SuperHero, Captain Marvel, and flies up to open the parachute pack himself.