Balloonacy: Difference between revisions

* In the first ''[[Lupin III]]'' feature-length TV special, ''Goodbye Lady Liberty'', Lupin uses a giant balloon to steal the Statue of Liberty, which he then pilots all the way to the Grand Canyon in order to hide it.

* In the ''[[One Piece]]'' cover story featuring Eneru, four Spaceys fly from their island to the MOON using regular balloons.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* ''[[Real Genius]]'' (or at least the trailer and commercials as it didn't make it into the final cut). Val Kilmer in a balloon-lofted deckchair outside an upper-story classroom: "What are you doing?!" "Floating, sir."

* ''[[The Red Balloon]]''. See [[wikipedia:The Red Balloon|here]] and [http://the-haunted-closet.blogspot.com/2009/05/red-balloon-1956.html especially, here].

* This was done in ''[[The Three Stooges]]'', in an odd variation of this trope, where Moe himself ''became'' a balloon. In ''Dizzy Pilots'', Moe falls into a tub of tar, and to get the tar off of him, Larry and Curly cut a hole in his clothes and begin filling it up with gas. [[Hilarity Ensues]] as Moe begins to float away when Larry and Curly aren't looking, and they spend the next sizable chunk of the episode trying to get Moe down. He eventually floats through an opening in the ceiling and into the sky. Hearing Moe cry during the ordeal makes this a candidate for [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].

* At the climax of ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'', Basil tied the Union Jack flag with balloons underneath to a box of matches in order to chase Ratigan fleeing on his blimp. Helps that they're mice.

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story "Planet of the Daleks" has {{spoiler|the Doctor and a group of Thals escape from the lowest level of the Dalek city by making a hot air balloon from plastic sheeting and being carried up an air shaft}}.

** "The Impossible Astronaut" mentions an off-screen [[Noodle Incident]] where the Eleventh Doctor escaped from the Tower of London in a balloon he [[Gadgeteer Genius|apparently constructed in two days]].

* The opening credits to ''[[Webster]]'' had a sequence of still photos showing the title character being lofted by a bunch of balloons before being caught by his adoptive parents.

* In the third season of ''[[Arrested Development]]'', George tries to escape from house arrest by attaching weather balloons to a deck chair (apparently inspired by the "Larry Lawnchair" example below). {{spoiler|Given that he's a Bluth, it ends about as well as you'd expect.}}

* The Balloon weapon in ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' - single use, lifts the user out of the stage for the rest of the level. This makes it nearly useless for your own characters, but deadly in the hands of an enemy, as any enemy removed from the stage adds their levels to every other enemy left on the battlefield.

* [[Pitfall]] Harry uses a balloon to traverse a large open area in ''Pitfall II: The lost Caverns''

** There's also the Air Balloon, an item that allows Pokemon to float and avoid Ground-type attacks. A single red balloon is enough to lift even the monstrous, half-ton Snorlax into the air!

** That's also how promotional Pikachus are able to use the move Fly, according to the card game.

 

== Real Life ==

** Specifically, it takes 3,500 party-size balloons to lift a 40 pound child.

* A guy named [[wikipedia:Larry Walters|Larry Walters]] did it, and there's a movie based on his story, called ''[[Danny Deckchair]]'' (the real dude was nicknamed Larry Lawnchair) Friends of mine also made a couple gigantic balloons in the backyard of their cafe, and launched customers a few feet up (safely secured by a rope).

* On October 15, 2009, in Fort Collins, Colorado, it seemed that a child climbed into an experimental helium filled weather balloon, which slipped its mooring and floated away, thus causing a huge media sensation. When the balloon landed near Denver International Airport, rescuers discovered that the kid was not inside, and soon after, an ominous photograph surfaced showing the payload basket apparently falling off the balloon. What ''really'' happened is that it was a hoax planned by [[What an Idiot!|the kid's father]] to publicize a [[Reality Show]].

** Even before the hoax was revealed, there were a number of knowledgable people pointing out that the craft in question wasn't large enough to carry the child.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Vehicle Tropes]]

[[Category:Just for Pun]]

[[Category:Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]