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Cat-apult

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Cats Are Mean. Not only that, but they're also little balls of teeth and claws in a relatively small size, and a propensity to cling to objects, possibly while scratching it as best they can. And they tend to get very angry when handled roughly.

All of this makes them a wonderful projectile weapon. Forget the Bee-Bee Gun, terrify your enemies with the Cat-apult!

Expect to see Amusing Injuries in the form of tiny cuts to the face, where the cats will inevitably attach themselves. Variants include swinging a cat around like a melee weapon, or using a cat that can launch its own weapons.

A primarily comedic subtrope of Abnormal Ammo. Related to That Poor Cat. When an actual catapult is involved, it's usually a Visual Pun.


Examples

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    Comic Books 
  • Górsky & Butch, in its Asian cinema parody episode has the protagonists witness a battle where one of the combatants uses a "Cat's Claw" attack, which consists entirely of tossing a cat at the opponent's face.

    Films — Animated 
  • In the film version of Coraline, the title character throws a cat at the Other Mother in order to buy herself time to run away. The cat makes it out alive, but he gives Coraline a cross look when they meet each other again in the human world.

    Literature 
  • In Find Waldo Now, "The End of the Crusades" has a cat loaded onto the rightmost catapult.
  • Garfield's Christmas Tales: In the second chapter, "The Great Snowball Fight", Garfield comes to U.S. Acres for the holiday season, only to find Orson, Roy, and Wade being pelted with snowballs by Gort, Wart, and Mort, Orson's three mean older brothers. When one of the pigs pelts Garfield with a snowball, he vows revenge and teams up with Orson, Roy, and Wade to build a catapult, with which to take down Gort, Wart, and Mort. When Garfield's team runs out of snowballs, they resort to launching Garfield, allowing him to easily take down the pigs.
  • In the Discworld book Lords and Ladies, Magrat takes out an elf by stuffing Nanny Ogg's amazingly dangerous cat Greebo into a box and having the victim open it, upon which Greebo "went off like a claymore mine".
  • In the Raymond Chandler story "Finger Man", when the villainous corrupt politician has the protagonistnote  taken to his turf in order to threaten him, the protagonist tosses the villain's pet cat into his face and uses the distraction to grab his revolver and hold him at gunpoint.

    Live-Action TV 
  • A variant: the Saturday Night Live Digital Short "Lasercats" and its sequels are about a pitch for a sci-fi series where cats can shoot lasers, and thus have replaced guns.
  • In the TV adaptation of Gormenghast, Flay throws one of Gertrude's cats at Swelter.
  • A sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus, where a grotesque, played by Michael Palin, boasts to a sceptical TV interviewer, played by John Cleese, that he owns an amazing flying cat. When pressed for specifics, Palin reluctantly admits
    I fling her....

    Pinball 
  • In Medieval Madness, a cat is one of the things that can be fired from the catapult after you hit the ramp three times (the others are a cow, a chicken, a bowling ball, and the No Fear skull).

    Toys 

    Video Games 

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • Mayor Adam West defends his home in Family Guy with a crossbow that fires cats, which he stores in a large sack on his back.
  • The Crazy Cat Lady in The Simpsons ends any conversation she doesn't like by throwing some of her innumerable cats at someone.
  • Futurama: In one episode where Fry is leading an army of Neanderthals against Zapp Brannigan they catapult a saber-toothed cat through his flagship's windshield.
  • The Transformers: Soundwave will sometimes eject Ravage out of his chest directly onto an Autobot.

    Real Life 
  • A Real Life example: During the siege of Pelusium in 525 BC, the Persian general Cambyses was known for hurling live cats over the walls of the Egyptian fort to demoralize the defenders (to whom the cats were sacred). He also instructed his men to drive cats before the army, and tie cats to their shields to further deter the Egyptians. He was not a nice person.
  • Cats, and other dead animals (as well as occasional dead people or parts of their bodies), were flung over walls during various medieval sieges. The goal was to spread disease inside the walled city, as a sort of early bioweapon. Remember: Medieval Morons is not Truth in Television. The attackers may not have known why, but they knew that close contact with dead bodies wasn't good for you.
  • Kunoichi (female Ninja) who kept cats would sometimes use them as surprise weapons, throwing them into the faces of their enemies.

 
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Video Example(s):

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Saber-Toothed Catapult

Fry defeats Zapp Brannigan and the Nimbus by catapulting a saber-toothed cat at them.

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