History Main / DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud

* Tornadoes can also happen in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, much to the surprise of people who think it [[OnlyInAmerica only ever happens in the USA]]. British tornadoes are nowhere near the power and intensity of their American relatives but can still cause structural damage and consternation. The exposed and largely flat EastAnglia is Ground Zero, though they can occur anywhere if the conditions are right. One tornado, which began as a waterspout in the North Sea but came inland, is blamed for having caused an otherwise inexplicable [[FlyingSeafoodSpecial rain of fish]] over the coastal town of Cromer, Norfolk.

[[quoteright:350:[[Disney/FrozenII https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tornado_frozen_2.png]]]]

* As it turns out, Disney/{{Hercules}} ''can'' touch the funnel cloud--which he uses to suck up the rest of the Titans before hurling them into space, where they [[StuffBlowingUp explode]].
* ''Disney/FrozenII'' features a funnel cloud created by a belligerent wind spirit, pictured above, which is the reason why Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Sven aren't being blown away.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* In ''The Seven Serpents'' of the ''{{Literature/Sorcery}}'' gamebook series, the protagonist encounters a miniature tornado. If he touches it, he is sucked into it and it is GameOver.

* Averted in the ''Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' books. Laura was describing the effects of real tornadoes in the area around De Smet. Including the weirdness of a guy who ''survived'' being picked up--and put down--by a tornado. Though he was stripped of every stitch of clothing.

[[folder:Pinball]]

[[folder:StandUpComedy]]
* Creator/RonWhite talked once of a Floridian man who tried to tie himself to a tree on a beach to prove he was in good enough condition at 53 years old to withstand the wind and rain from an EF-3 hurricane. Ron had to explain this trope to him.
---> '''Ron:''' It isn't ''that'' the wind is blowing; it's ''what'' the wind is blowing. If you get hit with a Volvo, it doesn't really matter how many situps you did that morning. If you have a Yield sign in your spleen, jogging don't come into play. "I can run 25 miles without stopping." "You're bleedin'." "...Shit..."
[[/folder]]

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Tornadoes suck everything towards them in a very large radius.

[[folder:WebAnimation]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

** The tornado in ''Disney/TheBandConcert'' acts as if it were sentient, sucking up trees and buildings like a vaccum cleaner. It picks up Mickey and his band while they are still playing, too rapt up in the music to notice, and drops them harmlessly around a tree like Christmas ornaments.
** ''The Little Whirlwind'' gives similar treatment to a whirlwind, depicted as a mischevious child interfering with Mickey's yard work. Mickey chases it away, only to be chased himself by the [[MamaBear whirlwind's mother]], a full-grown tornado (which [[StockFootage reuses some of the same animation]] as ''Band Concert'').
** Similar whirlwinds appear in ''Playful Pluto'' and ''A Gentleman's Gentleman'' to bedevil WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup.

* The pictured funnel cloud in ''Disney/FrozenII'' is being created by magic, which is the reason why Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Sven aren't being blown away.

* The third generation of ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' has three monsters capable of creating tornadoes that only harm you if you directly touch them: [[BlowYouAway Amatsumagatsuchi]] has traditional ones, [[PantheraAwesome Sand Barioth]] has sandy ones, and [[UnderwaterBossBattle Abyssal]] [[ShockAndAwe Lagiacrus]] has underwater ones.

[[quoteright:350:[[Disney/FrozenII https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image0png_tornado.jpg]]]]

!!Examples

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Series/RedDwarf Swirly thing alert!]]]]

* The pictured funnel cloud in ''Disney/FrozenII'' blows right through Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven, though doesn't pick any of them up.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[Series/RedDwarf Swirly thing alert!]]]]

Tornadoes. One of the deadliest and most terrifying manifestations of nature's fury. They can strike anywhere at any time, claim hundreds of lives each year, and cause billions in widespread property damage.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tornado1.jpg]]

* The early gameplay teaser for ''VideoGame/JustCause4'' features Rico trailing a tornado as it bears down on an enemy installation, with only the comparably small funnel cloud doing any damage to anything, including aircraft. Heck, Rico is even able to freely glide about with no difficulty. Considering that the tornado is spawned from a fairly small stormcloud --blue sky is visible all around, in fact-- it could very well be some kind of artificially-generated tornado (it is [[RuleOfCool that kind of series]], after all).

* A Creator/RonWhite routine refers to a real news story about a man refusing to be evacuated during a storm (actually a hurricane), saying he was going to tie himself to a pole to prove that [[TooDumbToLive he was in good enough shape to withstand the wind.]] As Ron pointed out "It's not ''that'' the wind is blowing; it's ''what'' the wind is blowing. If you get hit with a ''Volvo'', it doesn't really matter how many sit-ups you did that morning."

* The early gameplay teaser for ''VideoGame/JustCause 4'' features Rico trailing a tornado as it bears down on an enemy installation, with only the comparably small funnel cloud doing any damage to anything, including aircraft. Heck, Rico is even able to freely glide about with no difficulty. Considering that the tornado is spawned from a fairly small stormcloud --blue sky is visible all around, in fact-- it could very well be some kind of artificially-generated tornado (it is [[RuleOfCool that kind of series]], after all).

* Averted in the ''{{Kessen}}'' series; then again, part of the appeal of spells in the series is watching all the little dudes get tossed around. However, damage-wise it does play it straight, as men that are tossed around at the edges have a moderate chance of survival, albeit shaken and morale-broken. The Dragon and Fissure spells follow the same pathing and are much more lethal.

---> '''Ron:''' It isn't ''that'' the wind is blowing; it's ''what'' the wind is blowing. If you get hit with a Volvo, it doesn't really matter how many situps you did that morning. If you have a Yield sign in your spleen, jogging don't come into play.

* The early gameplay teaser for ''VideoGame/JustCause 4'' features Rico trailing a tornado as it bears down on an enemy installation, with only the comparably small funnel cloud doing any damage to anything, including aircraft. Heck, Rico is even able to freely glide about with no difficulty.

* ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'': When Furiosa is chased into the enormous sandstorm she is chased by warboys in smaller cars. When one gets close, she ''eases into a tornado'' by pushing against it with her own truck, while her own truck is unaffected.

...unless, of course, you live in [[HollywoodScience the land of make-believe]]. There, only the visible funnel cloud is actually capable of damaging anything, and even then they usually don't even stir up any debris. Never mind that in real life the funnel cloud not the tornado itself, but only the ''center'' of it, with a wide radius of 300+ MPH ground winds rotating around it and ripping up trees, cars and [[Film/{{Twister}} cows]] and tearing entire houses out of their foundations. Forget the fact that even an EF-1 power tornado (on a scale of 5) can rip the roofs off buildings and turn cars into flying battering rams (an EF-5 tornado's damage level is scientifically described as [[StuffBlowingUp "explosive"]]). In fiction, you'll be perfectly safe, no matter how powerful the storm, as long as the physical funnel cloud does not touch you.

...unless, of course, you live in [[HollywoodScience the land of make-believe]]. There, only the visible funnel cloud is actually capable of damaging anything, and even then they usually don't even stir up any debris. Never mind that in real life the funnel cloud is only the ''center'' of the tornado, with a wide radius of 300+ MPH ground winds rotating around it and ripping up trees, cars and [[Film/{{Twister}} cows]] and tearing entire houses out of their foundations. Forget the fact that even an EF-1 power tornado (on a scale of 5) can rip the roofs off buildings and turn cars into flying battering rams (an EF-5 tornado's damage level is scientifically described as [[StuffBlowingUp "explosive"]]). In fiction, you'll be perfectly safe, no matter how powerful the storm, as long as the physical funnel cloud does not touch you.

->''"The [[BuffySpeak suck zone]]: it's the point, basically, at which the twister... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin sucks you up]]. That's not the technical term for it, obviously, but..."''

* Twisters can strike your island in ''JurassicParkOperationGenesis''. If it comes anywhere near anything but the biggest dinosaurs, they'll be picked up and spun around for a while before being hurled into the distance, killing them. The largest dinosaurs, such as ''Tyrannosaurus'', ''Spinosaurus'', and ''Brachiosaurus'', won't be picked up by the twisters, but if it passes directly over them, they will instantly be reduced to a [[LudicrousGibs quickly-dissipating red cloud]].

* Zoro in ''Manga/OnePiece'' after the timeskip can now create these with one attack.