This Banana Is Armed

An ineffectual character shows up with an ineffectual "weapon", usually something that's not a weapon at all. Har har har! He's without a chance— wait a minute, turns out that this weapon is really dangerous! Related to Improbable Weapon User and Improvised Weapon.

Sometimes used as an end to an apparent Brandishment Bluff.

Can be done with a Finger Gun, especially if the user has Finger Firearms. Compare Lethal Joke Item.

Examples of This Banana Is Armed include:

Comic Books

Detective Richard Fell was Genre Savvy enough to recognize that the Ax Crazy guy putting razors into grocery produce was probably dangerous with a banana in his hand.

Fell: "So I shot him. He was armed, after all. With death bananas."

In a Pink Panther comic, Pink Panther threatens the villain with his pointer finger. The villain laughs... and Pink Panther somehow manages to fire from his finger.

Films - Animation

In the Babar movie, when Baber, Celeste, & Zephir's attempt to impersonate a rhino Totem Pole Trench style with the aid of a cape and a banana doesn't work out, Zephir quickly finds another use for the latter:

Zephir: Stand back!
Retaxas: Watch out! He's got a banana!
Zephir: And I'm not afraid to use it! *squirts it in Retaxas' face, temporarily blinding him and letting Babar snatch his sword*

Films - Live Action

Played for drama in Chronicle where Andrew points a Finger Gun at a local gang member and uses his telekinesis to knock him down.
Used in the Hancock when Hancock uses a candy bar to disable a would-be robber.

Literature

Subverted (or something) in the Discworld novel Sourcery. Rincewind is desparate enough to attack Living God and Reality Warper Coin with… a half-brick in a sock. Not that it actually works or anything, but Coin is so fascinated by the concept (half-bricks in socks don't ever really occur to you when you have limitless magic at your disposal) that he spares Rincewind.

Live Action TV

Get Smart - Maxwell Smart had a .22 calibre Finger Gun. Fires two shots.
- Inverted when KAOS abducts Smart, with his escaping being part of their plan. At one point Smart raises a finger to a KAOS guy who throws up his hands, as if Smart had a finger gun. Smart insists it's just a finger and shows the KAOS guy, who gives up and leaves. Alone in his cell, Smart mutters to himself "Come on, Smart. Use that fantastic brain of yours!"
Doctor Who - "Pssh, what could a screwdriver do?" is a pretty common reaction at first. But did we mention it's sonic?
One Muppet Show sketch featured Fozzie as an Old West-style criminal whose entire arsenal consisted of fruits and vegetables.

I-I'm sorry, I didn't know the pickles were loaded!

A literal example in a duel segment of Turkey Television. When choosing their pistols, one of the duelists is forced to take a banana. The real pistol jams, but the banana fires a lethal blast and kills the other duelist.
Zig-zagged in a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch with a police sergeant teaching his charges how to defend themselves against anyone armed with fresh fruit. He uses a gun, a 16-ton weight, and a tiger.
- Pointed sticks?
  - Shut up!

Radio

The Goon Show - "You fool, you can't shoot me with a banana, it's-" Bang! Bang! "... swine ... it was ... loaded!" *thump"
- In another episode, Seagoon is told that Moriarty killed himself by pointing his finger at his head, and saying "bang".

Seagoon: That’s ridiculous. [Laughs] How can a man shoot himself by pointing his finger at his head like this and going -
[Gunshot, body falls]
Undertaker: Mine, I think.

Video Games

In the Time Splitters series, there is a tendency to give the player a massive abundance of powerful weapons from destructive to plain Game Breaker and BFG, however in every installment they include the weapon "Brick", which may sound stupid at first, but has a tendency to do a massive amount of damage.
In the Worms Armageddon game when it was introduced and every version since then has included a series of very very silly weapons, however the sillier it is the more dangerous. When a worm pulls out a banana, expect at least a member of your team to die if not all of your team and maybe some of your enemies... and probably the worm who threw it too.
Plants vs. Zombies is based on the premise that you defend your home during a Zombie Apocalypse with assorted vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and other plants that can do massive damage to endless hordes of invading zombies.
The Heavy in Team Fortress 2 has a taunt where he points a Finger Gun and "fires" it at someone. If you happen to be in its line of fire, it's a one-hit kill.
- Not that it's easy!
In Soul Calibur Ghost Pirate Cerevantes normally uses a pistol gun thingy, but his Joke Weapon is a wooden toy sword… which can still use the bullet firing moves.
The 1993 Amiga game Hired Guns by DMA Design had a banana as the most powerful explosive weapon in the game as a joke item, similar to Worms.

Web Comics

Stage Select is the trope namer for this page and this page.

Web Original

A Team Fortress 2 Machinima where the Heavy invents a Sandvich gun proves surprisingly effective.

Western Animation

Often used in Looney Tunes shorts.
- "The Unmentionables": Bugs Bunny threatens mobster Rocky with a carrot. Rocky laughs it off, until the carrot fires in his face. Unfortunately, it won't fire again.

Bugs: "That's the trouble with carrots: they're only good once."

- "Drip-Along Daffy": Nasty Canasta is felled by a tiny wind-up soldier… whose rifle packs a mighty wallop.
Bounty Hamster - "Hah! You didn't think that banana was loaded!"

Real Life

The 6th finger, which is a toy that shoot darts.