Friendly Tickle Torture / Western Animation

• In the The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Scooby and the gang are chasing a demon called Maldor. Eventually, Daphne ends up as his prisoner and he puts a curse of eternal sleep on her. Shaggy and the others try to wake her up with different methods, including tickling her bare foot with a feather. However, she gives no reaction. Eventually, Scooby wakes her up.
• In one episode of The Amazing World of Gumball, Anais, Gumball, and Darwin imagine a Mix-and-Match Critter into existence. At one point while trying to befriend it, Anais is tickled by the creature's disembodied hand. Gumball sums up the scene and trope best:
  Gumball: It's hard to know how to feel about this. On one hand it's "awwww." But on the other hand, it's (retches)!
• American Dad! has one moment in episode 3 when Francine helps Stan relax by "making him happy with her mouth..." (She blows a raspberry on his belly.)
• Animaniacs:
  • The opening sequence itself features the Warner siblings tickling Dr. Scratchansniff's feet. The reboot has them tickling Ralph the Guard's feet instead.
  • The movie, "Wakko's Wish", features a scene with Yakko tickling Dot as he tells her the story of their childhood.
  • The reboot series episode "The Cutening" has a scene with Dot tickling Wakko and Yakko after they are turned cute by her.
• Archer:
  • "Sea Tunt Part II" has Archer tickling Ray to get him to admit that he gave him mouth-to-mouth. It doesn't end well.
  • Archer himself also gets tickled in "The Man from Jupiter", by his idol Burt Reynolds - whilst he's driving.
• An episode of Arthur focused on Sue Ellen and her feeling lonely at being an only child, she meets up with the Frensky sisters, practicing cheering. Catherine gets her to put her arms higher over her head, and then...
• Baby Looney Tunes has a quick tickle between Lola and Bugs.
• Bartok the Magnificent features a combo of this and the accidental variant. During one of his attempts to get Piloff free from being frozen in place, Bartok winds up stuck between holding her tail and part of her body after it has been stretched out, leaving him exposed for Piloff to playfully tickle him with her hair.
• In The Batman, when Joker sets his pet hyenas on Catwoman they end up tickling her while rubbing up against her. Catwoman gained their respect because she easily tamed them.
• In Batman and Harley Quinn, Batman has come to find the missing Nightwing when he hears a scream. He kicks down the door only to discover that Nightwing and Harley are doing this to each other after they'd already had sex. After Batman gives Nightwing a disapproving look, the latter responds with "oh, like you never hooked up with a supervillain before."
• In "Big Bear, Small Bear" on the PBS version of The Berenstain Bears, when Sister Bear tells Papa that he's not that old, that there are some dinosaurs older than him, he subjects her to the "tickle-o-saurus."
• In "Caillou's Leaf Pile" from Caillou, Daddy tells Caillou that "There's always a way to solve a problem. You just have to use your imagination... or your fingers," then tickles him playfully.
• In one episode of C-Bear and Jamal, C-bear tickles Jamal's bare feet with a feather during his karate training.
• In "Commander No" from Doc McStuffins, Gloria intends the tickling she does to Commander Crush to be this, but for him, it's just Tickle Torture because he told her to stop, but she didn't, thinking he didn't really mean it.
• In an episode of Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong turns invisible in order to hide from Cranky Kong. When Donkey Kong tries to look for Diddy, Diddy Kong playfully tickles him.
• Justified in Dragons: Defenders of Berk when Gobber uses this on Fishleg's pet dragon, Meatlug to produce Lava known as "Gronkle Iron".
• Occurs a number of times throughout Ed, Edd n Eddy.:
  • In "Key to My Ed", Ed drinks an experimental and highly volatile soda Double D created. Double D tells him to stay completely still so he doesn't set off the mixture, but Eddy forces him to start moving around by tickling his belly with a feather.
  • In another episode, Eddy tries to get revenge on Kevin for ruining one of his scams, and one scheme he has is hitting him over the head with Ed's rotting, moldy lunch bag. Eddy tells Double D to hit him since he's the only one of the three that wouldn't look suspicious approaching Kevin. When he refuses, Eddy and Ed tickle him until he's right behind Kevin.
  • One episode has Ed and Double D hanging from a set of monkey bars, which Eddy is too short to reach up and grab as they did. When he protests to their assistance and poking fun at his height, they tickle him under his arms until he falls off.
  • In the episode where Eddy encourages all the kids in the culdesac to break and disregard the rules, there's a scene when Ed tickles Kevin.
  • Averted, yet still lampshaded in the Big Picture Show when Ed tries to stop Edd and Eddy's fighting in the swamp.
    Ed: Stop! I demand you tickle each other right now!
    Edd and Eddy: Stay out of it, Ed!
• One of every family member of the main cast in Family Guy has been tickled at least once:
  • Lois does this to Stewie in two episodes, once after Stewie escapes from Peter after shrinking down and entering him while Peter and Lois have sex.
  • Lois does this to Stewie later in the series during a cutaway for nearly one minute straight... then throws up on him.
  • In a different episode, Peter tickles Lois and she retaliates by hitting him in the face with a frying pan and breaking his nose.
  • Peter gets tickled by the wife of a family that's moved into his house when it's threatened to be taken away by the back. She gets him again at the episode's ending as well.
  • Chris gets tickled by Herbert during the first Star Wars Special.
  • In an episode where Meg and Quagmire are dating, Quagmire gets Meg by surprise while they're watching TV. Then she farts.
  • Averted for Brian during a deleted scene. Peter tries to cheer him up, but Brian only sarcastically remarks that it's sexual harassment.
• In "Franklin Goes to Day Camp" on the Animated Adaptation of Franklin, Bear does this to Franklin at the end to get him to give him his friendship bracelet.
  • In another episode, Franklin is upset because he got scared by a spooky noise in the basement, so his dad gives him a little tickle under his arms to cheer him up.
  • Towards the end of "Franklin and the Green Knight," Eagle tickles Beaver with her beak to prove to everyone that she's friendly.
• One Garfield and Friends Quickie (and therefore probably a U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm strip) has Orson and Bo trying to tickle Roy and Lanolin in an attempt to cheer them up. No reaction, aside from deadpan snarking when they leave.
• In Gravity Falls episode "Sock Opera" Mabel tickles Dipper to cheer him up. Later she uses tickling while fighting a villain who is "wearing" Dipper's body.
• On the Animated Adaptation of Guess How Much I Love You, Big Nutbrown Hare does this to Little Nutbrown Hare at the end of "Four Seasons" as he's putting him to bed.
• In Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats, Heathcliff does this to a Saint Bernard at a ski resort.
• JoJo's Circus:
  • In this stop-motion Playhouse Disney (and later Disney Junior) series, the family name of the main character is "Tickle." This came up once in the form of a song featuring JoJo's lion companion, Goliath called "Tickle Goodnight." "Little Goliath's all comfy in bed / Let's tickle his nose and the top of his head / We'll tickle his chin and tickle his cheeks / I could keep tickling and tickling for weeks." In fact, this is actually part of both JoJo and Goliath's normal bedtime routine, except that it's Mr. Tickle who normally sings it to them while doing the tickling.
  • In another episode, JoJo's teacher, Mrs. Kersplatski, decides to roll call everyone by saying their last names first. Of course, this leads to JoJo's best friend Skeebo tickling her, since her name "Tickle, JoJo" sounded like an instruction.
• Kaeloo: When Mr. Cat is told by his doctor that he is very stressed and he needs to relax a little, Kaeloo tries to help him out by tickling him since she thinks it will make him feel better. It doesn't work.
• In The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire, during the "Good Inside" song, Ducky briefly tickles Petrie.
• During the opening sequence of The Lion Guard's first episode, Bunga the Honey Badger playfully tickles Kion, (the titular Lion Guard) while they are rough-housing.
• Is invoked with startling frequency between the various characters on Little Bear, with the titular character almost always involved as either the tickler or ticklee. All the characters shown in the opening end up getting tickled at least once.'
• In the Littlest Pet Shop (2012) episode "Heart of Parkness," Sunil has a bunch of flashbacks of all the wonderful times he has had with his friends, and one of them shows him playfully tickling Penny Ling.
  • In the short music video The Ladies of LPS when Pepper is singing about how she enjoys making her friends laugh, she briefly tickles Minka's belly.
  • In Pump up the Panda, when Penny Ling loses confidence in how she looks physically, Blythe tickles her tummy to cheer her up.
  • Whenever Zoey gets into an overdramatic, angry rant, Blythe gives her a belly rub to cheer her up, causing her to giggle uncontrollably.
• The cartoon Maisy has a mini-episode titled "Feather", at the end of which Maisy and her friends take turns getting tickled with said feather.
• In The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack episode "Looking for Love In All The Wrong Barrels" while K'nuckles walks angrily looking at all the love couples, a guy is seen tickling a girl who is quite enjoying it, right before K'nuckles ties knots out of his fingers out of annoyance.
• In Miraculous Ladybug, Alya tickles Marinette after playing a game.
• In My Friend Rabbit, this happens to a few characters, usually to Thunder. Thunder gets tickled on his foot by Mouse's stick that he is holding in "Snowed Under" and when Rabbit puts grass on his face to look like a mouse in "You Be Me". Jade does this to Coral in "The Last Leaf" and Mouse gets tickled by honey on his feet in another episode as well as getting tickled by ladybugs in "Ladybug Day".
• In My Life as a Teenage Robot, Brad and Tuck engage in a tickle fight, but when they try this on Jenny, she just stands there confused until they realize that as a robot, Jenny is built without physical feeling.
• The end of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "A Bird in the Hoof" has Rainbow Dash convince Philomena to tickle the guard-pegasus' noses to get them to laugh.
  • In the episode "It's About Time", Spike tries to tickle Twilight Sparkle while she's trying not to move; she resists for a while, then sends him flying. This results in her looking a bit more like her future self...
  • Applejack does this to her little sister Apple Bloom in the "Sisterhooves Social" episode.
  • A third time has Apple Bloom do this to Spike in "Just For Sidekicks", when he won't let her and the Cutie Mark Crusaders off the train to the Crystal Empire (as they're not supposed to be there and he doesn't want to get in trouble).
• The OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode "Let's take a Moment" features a brief mother and son bonding moment, with Carol giving KO a raspberry.
• The episode "Butter's First Check-Up" of PB&J Otter has various characters getting tickled throughout as part of a game, "Tippecanoe and Tickle Me, Too." Any time you trick someone into saying it, you get to tickle them. When Baby Butter has to have a checkup at the dentist, it's how Peanut and Jelly get her to open up her mouth so that her new tooth can be examined, by getting her to giggle.
• Occurs a few times throughout The Penguins of Madagascar:
  • Private is tickled by a young and pretty Veterinarian (who he becomes smitten to) after botching a dangerous retrieval mission with the other Penguins.
  • Skipper is ambushed in a tickle fight by his Arch-Enemy, Hans. This is slightly justified, however.
• Popeye: In the episode "Shiver Me Timbers", ghosts tie up Olive Oyl and pour milk over her bare feet where two kittens lick it off, tickling her.
• At the conclusion of the Porky Pig cartoon "Injun Trouble," Sloppy Moe overcomes Injun Joe through his weakness—being ticklish. Injun Joe is incapacitated in a tree trunk as Sloppy Moe continues tickling him. As the cartoon irises out, Joe stops it with "Wait! Wait!! (iris stops; to Sloppy Moe) Do-um some more!"
  • Since the cartoon "Wagon Heels", is a remake of this, Sloppy Moe again tickles Injun Joe, this time into falling off a cliff, making the U.S. from Joe's impact. The cartoon also ends with Sloppy Moe tickling Porky instead.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • In Powerprof, the girls and the professor get into a tickle fight during one of their brief attempts to bond.
  • During the ending of The Powerpuff Girls Rule! When a repentant Mojo Jojo fixes the entire world to become a utopia, he and the girls make up to one another for their past quarrels. While saying goodbye, he briefly tickles them as they leave.
  • In the reboot series, During the 5-part story of Bliss's origins, there's a brief moment where the Professor tickles Bliss while entertaining her with a puppet show. Unfortunately for the professor, she enjoys being tickled so much she explodes during their bonding due to her Power Incontinence.
• Ready Jet Go!:
  • In "I Feel The Earth Move", Dr. Rafferty tickles Sean's belly.
  • In "Satellite Selfie", Jet and Sydney tickle Face 9000. Apparently, computers are ticklish.
• At the start of one episode of Sheep in the Big City, a segment known as "Touched by a Ninja" involves said Ninja touching a guy continuously until it transforms into this trope.
• One episode of The Simpsons has Homer do this to Bart in order to get him to dance at a stadium event and cause him to pee himself.
• In an episode of The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, Casper himself gets tickled by a mischievous, shape-shifting Ghost Horse.
• One episode of Steven Universe has Steven and Connie stumble across a secret lair that belonged to Steven's Mom, courtesy of Lion. When figuring out how to use her weapons (which is touch-activated via Steven,) Connie starts tickling him.
  • The 1st episode of Steven Universe: Future features a scene with Amethyst tickling Steven on the belly while they are both bonding.
• One episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! "Two Plumbers and a Baby" features a scene with Princess Peach tickling Mario as he's rescuing her after she had fallen off a cliff. Prior to this, Peach had turned into a baby herself after falling into the Fountain of Youth.
• In an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Mikey gets tickled by Metalhead's scanning lasers.
  • In another episode, after Raph switches brains with a Kraang, Mikey tries to get a reaction out of Kraang-Raph by tickling him.
• In an episode of Teen Titans, shortly after Starfire reunites with Galfore, her adopted father, they exchange rather menacing greetings in their native tongue. Then he decides to give her a more friendly greeting by tickling her. Starfire enjoys this.
  • This occurs a lot more often in Teen Titans Go! For example in one episode Starfire defeats the other members of the group in a tickle war. In another episode, Raven tickles the whisperer in exchange for it to make everything silent. Starfire has also been seen tickling her pet Silkie multiple times.
• The final seconds of the Totally Spies! episode "Freaky Circus Much?" are Sam and Alex tickling Clover on the living room couch, making her face turn pink from laughter. The context being the girls discovering Mandy had usurped Clover's chances to appear in a reality TV show the moment the first episode airs, but despite this being a possible attempt to cheer Clover up, considering Alex and Sam were furious with her signing them up for the show without their permission, it could simultaneously be an actual Tickle Torture for revenge.
• In "Great Gizmos!" from True and the Rainbow Kingdom, when True wakes Bartleby, he tells her that he can't start his day without a hug from "you-know-who." She asks if he means the Rainbow King, saying that he's very busy, but there's always time for "True tickles."
• In the VeggieTales DVD entitled "Bob Lends a Helping Hand", there is a segment before the end credits called "Fun with Hands." It is a bunch of scenes featuring Larry playing with his prosthetic hands to mess with Bob. One of them includes a scene where Larry tickles Bob with them.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Code Yellow", SpongeBob tickles a catfish to make him spit out his keys, curing him of his sore throat.

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