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Tree Buchet: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
In animation, seeing a tall, skinny tree anywhere is a sure sign that someone is about to go flying.
In the world of cartoons, any sufficiently tall, flexible tree can be transformed into a [[Tree Buchet]]. The formula is generally as follows:
# Have the villain chase the hero through a forest, tree farm, or any other sufficiently wooded area.
# In an attempt to escape the villain, have the hero run up the tallest, skinniest tree available.
# Have the villain chase the hero up the tree. The fairly fragile tree will begin to bend beneath the weight of both people trapped within it, frequently doubling over.
# The hero must now jump out of the tree.
# We have a [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress|few seconds]] to register the [[Oh Crap|look of terror]] on the villain's face before the tree, freed of the excess weight, snaps back up. ''Thwwwwpp!'' The villain goes flying.
A frequent variation is for a character to use a tree snare--a tree purposefully bent low, with a trap tied to one end. Usually done in an attempt to [[Catch That Pigeon]]. Usually, the hunter will find himself either riding the tree out of town, or thrown back and forth after they get [[Hoist by His Own Petard|caught in his own trap]].
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== Literature ==
* Used by Special Forces soldiers in John Scalzi's ''The Ghost Brigades'' to escape an enclosure guarded by automatic turrets that lacked the ability to aim up.
* In ''[[Little Women|Little Men]]'', the boys are playing by climbing up young trees until they bend all the way down and drop the boys back onto the ground. Jack picks too big a tree, leaving him dangling several feet in the air. Dan climbs up after him, and their combined weight lowers Jack safely on the ground, but as soon as he lets go, Dan goes flying.
** This game is also referenced in Robert Frost's poem "Birches".
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* Happens a lot in the ''[[Pink Panther]]'' cartoons and its spin-offs (''The Inspector'', ''[[The Ant and the Aardvark]]'', ''Crazy Legs Crane''), which are set in such environments more often than in [[Looney Tunes]].
* A season one episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' had Homer attempt to make a tree snare and end up launching a bunny rabbit over a mile into the horizon.
** And in a halloween episode "Survival of the Fattest", he did it with a full size tree and essentially the entire supporting cast.
{{quote|'''Moe:''' Oy, ya fatass!}}
* Done in ''[[Kim Possible]]'' a few times.
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* 1960's [[Filmation]] ''[[The Atom]]'' episode "The House of Doom". The Atom uses one of these to fling himself after an escaping henchman's car.
* A Foghorn Leghorn cartoon [[Playing with a Trope|played with this one]], with Henery the Chicken Hawk setting up the "snare" trap, and putting corn in it. Foghorn mocks him roundly, about how a smart chicken would just pick up the corn, and then ends it with "A smart chicken would jump over it, like so!" and demonstrates. Too bad he hadn't thought of Henery [[Batman Gambit|building a pitfall trap right next to the snare]].
* George and Junior try this in the [[Tom and Jerry|MGM]] short ''The Henpecked Hobos''. Junior cuts the rope too early, while George is trying to explain the plan...
* Near the beginning of ''[[Goliath II]]'', the titular elephant accidentally gets knocked into a puddle while attempting to knock over ''a flower''.
* ''[[The Herculoids]]'' episode "The Raiders". In a light-hearted moment Igoo uses his great strength to turn a tree into a catapult to throw Dorno into a really high dive into the water.
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[[Category:Tree Buchet]]
[[Category:Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]
[[Category:Tree Tropes]]
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