History Main / FarSideIsland

* WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}} get sunburns in "Sun Scream" so the mere touch of the villains causes pain. When the bad guys later surrender, instead of taking them to jail, [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment the girls strand the pair on an island to suffer the same fate]]. The girls left them sunscreen, but just like everyone else, they deem it to be "for nerds" and prefer to burn in the sun.

[[folder:Film]]

* The ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' episode "Jumping the Shark" has this as the main plot. Somehow, their ''bus'' crashes onto a deserted island after falling off a cliff, followed by their subsequent attempts to escape.

** UsefulNotes/{{Nauru}} takes the concept of a small atoll country UpToEleven. While other countries consist of hundreds or thousands of coral islands, Nauru has just ''one'' island, measuring 21 km[[superscript:2]] in area. You can get around the country in under five hours on foot, and probably see all it has offer in a day.

* Master Roshi of ''Franchise/DragonBall'' lives on such an island. It's big enough to hold his small house, but that's it. Said house also manages to have running water and electricity.

* Unsurprisingly, in the ''[[TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon Trading Card Game]]'' the card known as "[[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Castaway_(EX_Crystal_Guardians_72) Castaway]]" depicts a man on such an island, although said island is just off the coast of a larger one. The illustration hints that he has not been able to get back to the larger island.

* ''VideoGame/IslandWars'' features tiny islands with a rotating cannon and few palm trees. Said palm trees act as your VideoGameLives, and your job in [[CoOpMultiplayer Invasion Mode]] is to defend said trees with your cannon. In the VS mode, one player uses a plane to attack their opponent's palm trees.

* WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls get sunburns in "Sun Scream" so the mere touch of the villains causes pain. When the bad guys later surrender, instead of taking them to jail, [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment the girls strand the pair on an island to suffer the same fate]]. The girls left them sunscreen, but just like everyone else, they deem it to be "for nerds" and prefer to burn in the sun.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'''s Peter ended up on one while trying to circumnavigate the Earth on a raft. He eventually noticed that he could walk home during low tide.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Bizarro}}'' [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wqo9IVCWV5E/TPKAiGLRFJI/AAAAAAAAE4s/nQmDLjzcF2s/s1600/BizarroShipwrecked%2B07-02-95.jpg features many of the island's inhabitants]] in a comic of its own.
* The {{Trope Namer|s}} is Gary Larson's ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', which often includes these islands.
** One lacked the tree, because it was actually a SeaMonster's eyeball.
** And another with a SeaMonster, with its stalk eye disguised as the tree.
** One had [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext a duck taunting a scientist who'd just escaped a sinking ship.]]
--->'''Duck:''' So, Professor Jenkins! My old nemesis! {{We meet again}}, but this time, the advantage is mine! Ha! Ha! Ha!
** One had a man find a crate that floated ashore... only to find a plastic island intended for pet turtles.
** One had two men, a tree, and a printing press, one man reading the headline "NED IS A WHINER".
--->Hot off the press, the first edition of the ''Desert Island Times'' caused the newspaper to quickly fold.
** One had a tree, two men and an armchair, with one of the men berating the other for taking the first man's favorite chair.
** One had a tree, two men, and a woman, with one man horrified that the woman had fallen for what's-his-name.
** One had two men and a tree covered in graffiti reading "Al is a Jerk" and "Bob is a moron".
** One had a shipwrecked man wash up on an island, which was already occupied by another man and his ventriloquist's dummy. The dummy warns the newcomer that the other man is a cannibal, before being told to shut up.
** One had a tree, two men, a telephone booth... and one of the men yelling "For the hundredth time in as many days, I HAVEN'T GOT A QUARTER!"
** One had two men, one yelling to the other that they'd been spotted... and the island is in the middle of a pond in a public park.
** One had a tree, a man, and a flying saucer coming down... and then leaving, having rescued the tree-shaped alien.
** Two islands side by side, one occupied by a man, the other by a chicken, who is loudly commenting on how many sharks there are swimming in the channel between the two.
* ''Grin And Bear It'' features these a lot.
* ''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible'' regularly gets stranded on these with Lucky Eddie.
* They're frequent in the work of Spanish cartoonist Forges, who prefers the two-character format.
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[[folder: Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'', Karn and Ardam [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0400.html somehow wind up on one of these]] after the BigBad accidentally causes TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. It turns out to be a movie set, somehow.
* ComicBook/TheJoker and Harley Quinn end up stranded on one after the Joker sinks Greenbeard's ship in ''Webcomic/LilGotham'' #8. It turns out this was the one time Harley hadn't packed her escape balloon, because [[AllWomenLoveShoes she needed to make room for all her shoes]].
%%* [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/danmazur/palindramas/series.php?view=archive&chapter=35235 This]] ''WebComic/{{Palindramas}}'' strip ends up on one.
* Used in the short ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'' side story where Bun-bun gets sidetracked trying to get to Tijuana to set up a black market Viagra ring. Stoner Gilligan provides Bun-bun with company... for a short time.
* In ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'', Monica finds a small tropical island that more or less fits this description, to which she and the golem girls can poit for a bit of peace and quiet. Except that [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/spot-of-heaven/ the last time Bud went there]] she found something else [[spoiler:and the island got blown to bits]].
* Played with in [[http://xkcd.com/731/ this]] WebComic/{{XKCD}} strip, which contrasts the drabness of the tiny desert island with [[SceneryPorn the vibrant sea-scape just beneath the waves]].

* This is the setting for ''WesternAnimation/{{W}}''.

%% Image and caption selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1333909407055700100
%% Please do not change or remove either without starting a new thread.

* Desert Island Dick from ''ComicBook/TheTopper'' was just a whole comic strip about this trope: one guy lives on a deserted island by himself and never escapes but never starves either. He is friends with the wildlife though. This trope has also been occasionally used in ''The Topper''[='=]s better-known stablemates ''Comicbook/TheBeano'' and ''ComicBook/TheDandy''.

* While ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'' isn't an example, containing everything needed for resourceful castaways to build a successful colony, it [[spoiler:becomes this after the volcano explodes, leaving all the humans stuck on a tiny rock barely big enough to hold all of them.]]
* In ''Literature/TheArchonate'' setting, the Commons, humanity's collective unconscious, is well-stocked with tropes including this one:
-->... a quiet Landscape that consisted of little more than a tiny patch of sand-colored rock, set in an endless ocean and shaded by a single Sincere/Approximate palm tree. No idiomat ever came there, and Bandar had often wondered what role the simple setting could have played in human history.

* The third series of ''Series/{{Eyewitness}}'' features one island like this in its intro; this island itself was the central figure of the titular episode on islands.
* On ''Series/WandaVision'', the [[ParodyCommercial "Yo-Magic" commercial]] features a man stranded on an island like this without any food, before a TotallyRadical '90s [[MascotWithAttitude surfer shark]] arrives and offers him a Yo-Magic yogurt. Given that this is ''[=WandaVision=]'', a show built around a mix of AffectionateParody and subversion of classic television tropes, it doesn't go well.

* ''Magazine/PrivateEye'' did one once complying with gender, race, religion and disability discrimination laws, the comic in question featuring a woman in a burhka and a wheelchair on a desert island reading a message in a bottle rendered entirely in [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign As Long As It Looks Foreign]] script.

* Creator/GahanWilson did a bunch of tragic 'stock cartoons' for the ''Film/NationalLampoon'', including a little desert island with a bleached skeleton on it.

* ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'''s Peter ended up on one while trying to circumnavigate the Earth on a raft. He eventually noticed that he could walk home during low tide.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Bizarro}}'' [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wqo9IVCWV5E/TPKAiGLRFJI/AAAAAAAAE4s/nQmDLjzcF2s/s1600/BizarroShipwrecked%2B07-02-95.jpg features many of the island's inhabitants]] in a comic of its own.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''
** There's a tiny island in the background of one section of Keelhaul Key in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor''. There's a palm tree there, and if you hit it with a hammer, a Coconut falls out for you to collect and exchange for the [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Chuckola Cola]] Flavio has on him, if that's where you are in the story. There's a pipe linking it to the main island for "easy" possible access.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' has a number of these, most notably one at the HubLevel with a castaway on it. It's also notable as part of what is probably [[ThatOneSidequest the most frustrating sidequest]] of the game, with two different spins on SuperDrowningSkills.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland'' has a few of these, especially in Episode 2. When Guybrush encounters one of these for the first time, he [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] with his remark "I didn't know tiny islands like this really existed." He also comments that he's glad he's not stranded there (he got there by sailing to it after choosing the destination from the ship's map) or else he'd have to worry about having something to read.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/OneHundredAndTwoDalmatiansPuppiesToTheRescue'', Horace, Jasper and [=LePelt=] hide in a crate about to be shipped out, in an attempt to ditch Cruella [=DeVil=]. They end up on an island just like this...for some unexplained reason.
-->'''Horace:''' Boy, I sure hopes one of you brought sunscreen.
* ''VideoGame/IslandWars'' features tiny islands with a rotating cannon and few palm trees. Said palm trees act as your VideoGameLives, and your job in [[CoOpMultiplayer Invasion Mode]] is to defend said trees with your cannon. In the VS mode, one player uses a plane to attack their opponent's palm trees.
* ''VideoGame/Macbat64JourneyOfANiceChap'' has a level made up of multiple little islands.

* The ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' episode "Jumping the Shark" has this as the main plot. Somehow, their ''bus'' crashes onto a deserted island after falling off a cliff, followed by their subsequent attempts to escape.

* Used in the short ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'' side story where Bun-bun gets sidetracked trying to get to Tijuana to set up a black market Viagra ring. Stoner Gilligan provides Bun-bun with company... for a short time.

* Played with in [[http://xkcd.com/731/ this]] WebComic/{{XKCD}} strip, which contrasts the drabness of the tiny desert island with [[SceneryPorn the vibrant sea-scape just beneath the waves]].

* ComicBook/TheJoker and Harley Quinn end up stranded on one after the Joker sinks Greenbeard's ship in ''Webcomic/LilGotham'' #8. It turns out this was the one time Harley hadn't packed her escape balloon, because [[AllWomenLoveShoes she needed to make room for all her shoes]].

* The trope maker may be ''Animation/{{Ostrov}}'', a 1973 Russian cartoon in which a little man with a thick beard sits on a Gary Larson-style Far Side Island, barely big enough for him and one palm tree. Some pointed satire ensues as all sorts of people cruise by the island and harass or take advantage of the man, or just ignore him, but no one ever bothers to help him until [[spoiler: another castaway, floating by on a chunk of driftwood, offers to help the man off what's left of his island.]]

* One of these is seen regularly on ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' as an establishing shot for the city Bikini Bottom. The cast even went there in the episode "Pressure".
** ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobMovieSpongeOutOfWater Sponge Out Of Water]]'' revealed that the island is actually much bigger than it looks. It has a dense jungle that's dwarfed by three giant palm trees.
* Showed up in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''. The only inhabitant was a [[WickedWeasel weavil]] Lucius had imprisoned there.
* ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'': Taz and Wendal are stranded on one in "Taz-Manian Theatre".
* WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls get sunburns in "Sun Scream" so the mere touch of the villains causes pain. When the bad guys later surrender, instead of taking them to jail, [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment the girls strand the pair on an island to suffer the same fate]]. The girls left them sunscreen, but just like everyone else, they deem it to be "for nerds" and prefer to burn in the sun.

* ''WesternAnimation/PrivateSnafu'': Snafu and a Japanese sailor find themselves stranded on one in "No Buddy Atoll".

* Happens in ''WebComic/TheNoob'' in [[http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=404 this comic]] (along with several {{ShoutOut}}s to Literature/TheBible).

* ''Webcomic/TheKAMics'' has a [[http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_KAMics/5434898/ series]] featuring these.

[[MST3KMantra Please don't think about]] where the lone inhabitant is [[FridgeLogic getting enough food and fresh water to live]] long enough to grow [[BadassBeard that spectacular beard]]. Or even how they survive high tide.

* Can be an exaggerated TruthInTelevision for many of the countless [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_atoll coral atolls]] scattered around the globe. Atolls form from the remains of old undersea volcanoes which result in a ring shaped series of coral islands around where the mountain previously emerged from the sea. A single Atoll can be comprised of many small islands, some remarkably similar to the trope in its most literal sense, but even where the islands are large they are still small by any land based means of comparison. For example in World War 2 thousands of soldiers would fight over strategic coral islands the size of a good sized city park.

* Not unusual in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' ocean biomes.
** "Survival island" maps are based around these.

** One had a shipwrecked man wash up on an island, which was already occupied by another man and his ventriloquist's dummy. The dummy warning the newcomer that the other man is a cannibal and told to shut up.

[[folder: Other ]]
* The Castaway Bill Screensaver features a lone man wandering about one of these. As did [[Creator/{{Sierra}} Sierra On-Line]]'s Windows 3.x screensaver ''JohnnyCastaway''.

* Animated screensaver ''Johnny Castaway'' was set on one of these, featuring the titular shipwrecked character carrying out increasingly wackier plans to get off.

[[folder: Web Animation ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls get sunburns in "Sun Scream" so the mere touch of the villains causes pain. When the bad guys later surrender, instead of taking them to jail, [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment the girls strand the pair on an island to suffer the same fate]].

* On ''Series/WandaVision'', the [[ParodyCommercial "Yo-Magic" commercial]] features a man stranded on an island like this without any food, before a TotallyRadical '90s [[MascotWithAttitude surfer shark]] arrives and offers him a Yo-Magic yogurt. Given that this is ''[=WandaVision=]'', it doesn't go well.

* The third series of Series/{{Eyewitness}} features one island like this in its intro; this island itself was the central figure of the titular episode on islands.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall Rockall]] is perhaps the best real life example, although it is a single large rock jutting out of the North Atlantic, 162 miles away from the nearest landmass and sporting no palm trees. Most useful as a means to claim exclusive economic rights in the surrounding ocean, Rockall is normally uninhabited, but claimed by the UK, Ireland, Iceland and Denmark. Longest duration anyone has spent on the island is 42 days.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairway_Rock Fairway Rock]], in the Bering Strait southeast of Little Diomede Island. Slightly larger than Rockall, at 0.3 square kilometers, but basically the same thing, a tiny rock far out at sea lacking either sand or palm tree.
* Of course, many islands are extremely small, but most this size are within swimming distance of larger landmasses.
* Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas (part of Florida) is practically built on a RealLife version. It's closer to 100 meters wide rather than just one, but the public non-fort area which allows overnight camping would fit the bill. ETA: It's about fifty miles west of Key West, making it one of the most remote spots in the continental USA.

* Most of the islands in ''VideoGame/{{Raft}}'' are only slightly bigger than your raft, with room enough for some flowers, fruit, and a few small palm trees. Later in the game you can encounter "large islands" which have more resources but also aggressive wildlife like [[FullBoarAction boars]] and [[GiantFlyer Screechers]].

-->'''Duck:''' So, Professor Jenkins! My old nemesis! We meet again, but this time, the advantage is mine! Ha! Ha! Ha!

-->Hot off the press, the first edition of the ''Desert Island Times'' caused the newspaper to quickly fold.

* Most of the islands in ''VideoGame/{{Raft}}'' are only slightly bigger than your raft, with room enough for some flowers, fruit, and a few small palm trees. Later in the game, the islands get larger.

* The Muten-Roshi of ''Manga/DragonBall'' lives on such an island. It's big enough to hold his small house, but that's it. Said house also manages to have running water and electricity.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode "[[Radar/RockosModernLife Schnitheads]]" Heffer joins a sausage cult, but is sentenced to Sauerkraut Fielding after tiring of sausage. Rocko and Filburt try to rescue their friend, but are caught. Just as the three are about to be punished, Really Really Big Man shows up disguised as The Most Supreme and Mighty King Of Wieners. He claims he will take his faithful servants home but instead drops them on a deserted island.