Tongue on the Flagpole: Difference between revisions

 

[[Truth in Television]]. The saliva on your tongue ''will'' freeze on contact with a cold surface if it's cold enough, and it's possible to lose your tongue to severe frostbite. [[Schmuck Bait|Better not try it.]] Of course, if you breathe on it enough or get some hot water, that isn't a problem.

{{examples}}

* Happens in a UK advert for Pot Noodle. A boy's tongue is stuck to a pole. A teacher needs warm water and a sponge to free him. But when she goes to boil the kettle she finds a Pot Noodle and uses the hot water on that instead, leaving the boy stuck.

* Played with in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz0f6sjliR4 this commercial] for Jeep.

* All three of the Budweiser Frogs once [https://web.archive.org/web/20120701140045/http://fliiby.com/file/542026/s343z6m7g3.html got their tongues stuck] to a very cold can of Bud in the middle of a blizzard in the swamp.

 

* [[Good Is Dumb|Sora]] gets dared to do this in the ''[[Kingdom Hearts (video game)|Kingdom Hearts]]'' fanfic ''[[Other Halves and Other Tales]]''.

* In the [[Doujinshi|fanworks]] of ''[[Touhou|Gensokyo]]'', [[Baka|Cirno]] the [[An Ice Person|Ice Fairy]] is prone to have certain characters stuck to her by their tongues, including [[Big Eater|Yuyuko]].

 

* As a colt, the eponymous ''[[Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron]]'' gets his tongue stuck to a large icicle. He then snaps it off and carries it away with him until he melts his tongue free in his mouth.

* In ''[[Brother Bear]]'', Koda relates a story to Kenai wherein some bear licked an iceberg and got his tongue stuck to it. It then floated away, so to save him "They had to, like, rip his tongue off, so now, he hath t'talk like dis alla time..."

** In the first movie, Sid gets his tongue stuck on the floor of an ice cave.

* At the end of ''[[Flushed Away]]'', the evil Toad and his French cousin Le Frog actually get their tongues frozen onto a large pipe containing liquid nitrogen after Roddy smashes it apart to freeze the tidal wave Toad sent to drown the rats of Sewer-London. It's implied that the two amphibians were both arrested after they were unfrozen.

* ''[[A Christmas Story]]'', the [[Trope Codifier]].

* ''[[Dumb and Dumber]]''. Happens on a ski lift, and Harry doesn't need any goading or triple-dog dares; he just says [[What an Idiot!|"Oh look, frost!" and sticks his tongue on it]].

'''Harold:''' [[Deadpan Snarker|Oh, is it really?]] }}

 

* One [[Paul Jennings]] story features a boy kissing an ice sculpture of a girl. The inevitable happens, inevitably, so he goes into a pool of water to melt it off.

* ''The Watsons Go to Birmingham'' had a scene like this too.

* The narrator in ''Popular Music From Vittula'' climbs to a mountain in the Himalayas, and kneels over to kiss a metal plate on the ground. He has to pee in a cup to free himself.

* In ''[[Little House on the Prairie|Farmer Boy]]'', Almanzo is egged on to lick a pump handle, but knows better than to rise to the bait.

* One of the stories in ''The Book of Heroic Failures'' tells of a man who knelt down to breathe on the lock of his car door in an effort to defrost it and ending up spending a freezing night outside with his lips stuck to the car door.

* ''[[Warrior Cats]]''

** In ''Sunrise'', Hollyleaf gets ''her'' tongue stuck to a frozen pond. After much hilariousness, Brambleclaw gets her free by breathing on the ice to melt it.

 

* Tested and confirmed on ''[[MythBusters]]''. Evidently, enough people thought it to be a myth to justify it. This also showed how much damage it could cause. They stuck a pig's tongue to it, and when they pulled it off by force...

* The [[Paul Jennings]] story mentioned above was one of many adapted as an episode of ''[[Round the Twist]]''. The ice statue Bronson kissed was of a girl who had red hair—who turned out to be his cousin.

* Referenced in ''[[Scrubs]]''. Turk is keeping his boxers in the freezer and JD's brother warns him to make sure he is completely dry 'down there' before putting them on or he could end up with "a tongue on the flagpole situation".

 

* There's a verse about this in ''There Are Many Dangers'' by [[Crash Test Dummies]].

 

 

* One of the frogs in ''[[It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie]]''.

 

* On ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]'' Garrison Keillor jokingly suggested that pump handles (and frozen objects in general) have the ability to hypnotize children to make them stick their tongues on them.

 

* The (very surreal) [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''So Far'' ''dares you to lick a frozen pole.'' {{spoiler|It's a bad idea, because you will get stuck and eventually freeze.}} While your tongue is stuck, all descriptions come back muddled, as if the narrator ith thalking with ith thung thuck to a thlagthole.

* In the [[Canada, Eh?|Canada]] level of ''[[Tony Hawks Pro Skater|Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3]]'', there is an objective to help a guy called Chuck (specifically, "[[Rhymes on a Dime|Get Chuck Unstuck]]") who has got his tongue stuck on a pole and is being taunted and having snowballs thrown at him by two bullies. This being a skateboarding game, what's the solution? Plow into him at full speed.

* Not performable, but mentioned in ''[[Dragon Age]]''. [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|"Have you ever licked a lamppost in winter?"]]

* One loading screen video loop in ''[[Monday Night Combat]]'' features the Ice Men Pit Girl trying to pull free an Ice Men Tank... whose tongue is stuck to a ShaveIce turret.

 

== Web Animation ==

* [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/522828 This] ''[[Newgrounds]]'' Flash short. For [[Bilingual Bonus]], the sign on the pole says "Wishing pole: one lick = one wish".

 

* [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1700/fc01688.htm This strip] of ''[[Freefall]]'', with ''a friggin' adult [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]'' instead of a kid.

* A variation occurs in [http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?series=amd&ep=1&id=242 this] ''[[A Modest Destiny]]'' strip, in which Maxim sticks his tongue to a metal shelf in a freezer.

* And in [http://gucomics.com/comic/?cdate=20060201 this panel] of ''GU Comics'', we find a party whose tank has managed to stick his tongue to a ''Frost Giant''!

 

* In one ''[[Gaia Online]]'' mini comic, several of the male characters do this.

 

* ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'': ''The Fast and the Furry'' movie. Gorthon, an evil-looking racer voiced by Tom Kenny, is tricked by Biff and Buzz (the race announcers) into sticking his tongue to the South Pole (because he thinks his tongue won't stay there).

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'': In "Out to Launch", Dr, Doofenshmirtz gets his tongue stuck on the giant ice cube tray he was using to hold Perry the Platypus prisoner.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:These Tropes Were Frozen Today]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]