Pipe Pain



Subtrope of Improvised Weapon and related to both Carry a Big Stick and Simple Staff, segments of piping usually used to channel liquids or gases are also effective clubs. Use of them as a weapon is especially common in derelict or wartorn zones where the piping is not in use and in poor repair, allowing easy acquisition. When not in the hands of a criminal or simpleton, this is generally a weapon of last resort.

Even if the piping is still installed, pipes can still be used as weapons. Broken pipe ends can be used to impale a careless enemy, valves can release scalding liquids or gases, and they can make for a good surface to crack heads against.

While most piping is generally featureless, weaponized pipes tend to feature elbow joints and valves to emphasize the fact that they are, in fact, from a plumbing system.

Anime & Manga

 * In the second episode of Digimon Frontier, Kouji proceeds to use this against a horde of Pagumon. And wins. At least until one of them digivolves into Raremon.
 * In the virtual world arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kaiba uses one of these against Nezbit/Tristan.
 * Russia from Axis Powers Hetalia carries around a lead pipe as an Improvised Weapon.
 * Erza uses a pipe in a fight with delinquents in the Fairy Tail High School AU story.
 * Otcho of 20th Century Boys was trained to use a bo, but since he's mostly in an urban environment his usual weapon is a pipe.
 * In Naruto, Madara once used a jagged pipe as a spear instead of a club when fighting

Board Games

 * Clue: One of the possible murder weapons is a lead pipe.

Comic Books

 * The Goon uses one as one of his weapons as a kid.

Film

 * In Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Tommy beats Michael with a pipe until green slime starts bleeding out of his head.
 * Commando: Let off some steam, Benett!

Live Action TV

 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy beats a demon to death in the flooded basement of her house with a pipe in the episode "Flooded."

Music

 * In The Protomen's Act II, Joe used one when attempting to fight the Sniper. It didn't help much.

Tabletop RPG

 * Iron Crown Enterprises' Cyberspace RPG had a "heavy alloy" pipe as an available weapon.

Video Games

 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Manhattan Project: During the boss fight with Groundchuck he starts out unarmed, after taking several hits he rips a large pipe out of the wall and uses it as a weapon.
 * Urban Dead: Metal Poles are possible weapons obtainable, although their base 2 damage and 10% accuracy is overshadowed by stronger, more accurate weapons.
 * In Final Fight, pipes can be used as weapons, their slow attack speed mitigated by damage and long striking range. When some of the characters from the series were ported over to other games set in the same universe (mainly Street Fighter), the pipe made occasional appearances alongside them. It's brandished by Cody in a baseball-like fashion at the end of his Last Dread Dust Ultra Combo in Super Street Fighter IV and is used as a special by Haggar in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
 * Streets of Rage: Pipes are one of the most common weapon type through the series, and they work pretty much exactly like they do in Final Fight. The Xbox Live Arcade rerelease of Streets of Rage 2 also has an achivement for killing enemies with a pipe.
 * Brick from Borderlands uses one as his melee weapon. Strangly, his action skill is basically putting it away and using his fists instead....
 * Lots of fragile mooks in No More Heroes come at you with pipes.
 * Pipes are one of the Improvised Weapons that can be used (by ripping them off the wall) in Condemned.
 * Oddly the pipe in Beneath a Steel Sky was not used as a weapon till very end, and only to.
 * Every Silent Hill game except Shattered Memories and 0rigins features a pipe as a weapon.
 * Pipes are also featured as weapons in the Grand Theft Auto games.
 * Both Sonny games start you off with a pipe. The Flavor Text in the second game is "Me and the pipe...we go way back".
 * A pipe is the starting weapon in the first System Shock. Does less damage than a basic pistol bullet, but with greater Critical Hit chance and armor penetration.
 * In Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, lead pipes are weak melee weapons commonly used by raiders.
 * Raul uses one as his default melee weapon.
 * The Half Life Game Mod Poke646 has a gaspipe as its first Emergency Weapon.
 * In the end of Episode Two, tries to attack  with a pipe, but this simply seems to have annoyed it.
 * One of the many improvised weapons available in Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl.
 * Also one of the weapons that can be found in River City Ransom. With high damage and a long range, it's a good one.
 * The first melee weapon in Kingpin Life Of Crime.
 * Georg in Agarest Senki 2 uses a lead pipe as a Joke Weapon.
 * Persona 3: Mitsuru's Joke Weapon
 * Max Payne uses a lead pipe as his only melee weapon in the first act of the first game, before picking up a baseball bat from Frank Niagara.

Web Comics

 * During their final duel in Goblins,

Western Animation
"Jasper (to Stewie): Sorry little guy, we were playing Clue and he got me in the bedroom with a lead pipe."
 * The Clue weapon was also used for a gay-joke on Family Guy.


 * The "Intensive Care Bear" from The Simpsons.