History Main / KingKongClimb

* In one early issue of ArchieComics SonicTheHedgehog, Dr. Robotnik's giant ape robot King Gong falls in love with Sally and scales the Trans-Mobius Trade Center with her in hand. After Tails saves Sally, Sonic knocks Gong down by squirting with with a tank full of banana oil. Yeah.

[[folder:Anime]]
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': ''Slaking Kong'', with May serving the role of Fay Wray and a cliff face instead of a building.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'', there is an episode where monsters hold a convention in town. The group includes one giant ape, and it is traditional for it to climb the highest building available--which, of course, is Scrooge's treasure vault.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit The Curse of the Were-Rabbit]]'' has Wallace (as a giant rabbit) climbing a tower carrying Lady Tottington, while Gromit and Philip zip around dogfighting in two carousel airplanes.

* In one episode of ChipAndDaleRescueRangers a gorilla grabs a screaming woman (who was about to fall) while climbing an apartment block.

* In one episode of ChipAndDalesRescueRangers a gorilla grabs a screaming woman (who was about to fall) while climbing an apartment block.

* ''YellowSubmarine''. Behind one of the doors in the Beatles' home is a scene with King Kong breaking through a window and grabbing a woman.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit The Curse of the Were-Rabbit]]'' has Wallace (as a giant rabbit) climbing a tower carrying Lady Tottington, while Gromit and Philip zip around dogfighting in two carousel airplanes.

* FrankFrazetta's cover for ''ComicBook/{{Eerie}}'' #81 features the inversion, a giant woman atop the Empire State with a gorilla in her hand. Each of the stories in the issue was done around the idea of [[CoverDrop explaining the image]].
* DeKiekeboes: In the album ''"Bing Bong"'' a little gorilla mutates to enormous size and kidnaps teenage daughter Fanny, climbing on top of a church.
* One MadMagazine cover features Alfred on top of the Empire State Building surrounded by gorillas in airplanes.
* {{Cubitus}}: in one gag Balthazar is crushed by Kong's corpse falling from the sky.

[[folder:Music]]
* One of FrankZappa's most popular instrumental compositions was named ''"King Kong"''.
* DanielJohnston wrote a tribute song about King Kong.

** On one of the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E5TreehouseOfHorrorIII Treehouse of Horror episodes]], ''"King Homer"'' attempts to climb the Empire State Building, but only makes it up a few feet before he collapses from exhaustion while the pilots circle around the top, confused.
** In ''"Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times"'', Bart's story of revenge, ''"Bartman Begins"'', takes place in 1930s Gotham City. In a FunnyBackgroundEvent, Kong can be seen atop a skyscraper waving to paparazzi taking his picture.

** On one of the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E5TreehouseOfHorrorIII Treehouse of Horror episodes]], "King Homer" attempts to climb the Empire State Building, but only makes it up a few feet before he collapses from exhaustion while the pilots circle around the top, confused.
** In "Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times", Bart's story of revenge, "Bartman Begins", takes place in 1930s Gotham City. In a FunnyBackgroundEvent, Kong can be seen atop a skyscraper waving to paparazzi taking his picture.

* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'': Fish out of Water re-creates the scene with paper planes and a house of cards.

* In a ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'' comic, Sandman and Hydro-Man accidentally morph with each other, creating a huge mud monster. An overt homage to ''King Kong'' follows; the creature is put on display, breaks free, kidnaps the woman Sandman and Hydro-Man were fighting over, climbs a high building and eventually is destroyed by police helicopters (not with bullets, but a gas that dries it out, causing it to break up into fragments of sand).
* FrankFrazetta's cover for ''ComicBook/{{Eerie}}'' #81 features the inversion, a giant woman atop the Empire State with a gorilla in her hand. Each of the stories in the issue were done around the idea of [[CoverDrop explaining the image.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'': Fish out of Water recreates the scene with paper planes and a house of cards.

* ''Literature/WildCards''. The wild card Jeremiah Strauss has the ability to take the form of other creatures. After a nervous breakdown, he took the form of a 45 foot tall ape and remained that way for twenty years. Held in the Central Park Zoo in New York, he would periodically escape, grab the nearest blonde woman and climb to the top of the Empire State building. The nearest aces would beat him up, rescue the woman, and return him to the Zoo.

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': On Robin's TV show, a monkey from the Central Park Zoo escapes from his cage, grabs a doll, and climbs a scale model Empire State Building. The cameraman tries to get it down by tossing paper airplanes at it. [[UnreliableNarrator This may not have actually happened.]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* This trope is essentially the entire premise of the ''VideoGame/{{Rampage}}'' games, where you play as a giant monster, climb buildings, and get points for grabbing innocent civilians, all while being attacked by the military.

** On one of the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E5TreehouseOfHorrorIII Treehouse of Horrors]], "King Homer" attempts to climb the Empire State Building, but only makes it up a few feet before he collapses from exhaustion while the pilots circle around the top, confused.
** In "Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times", Bart's story of revenge "Bartman Begins" takes place in 1930s Gotham City. In a FunnyBackgroundEvent, Kong can be seen atop a skyscraper waving to Paparazzi taking his picture.

* On the ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'' episode "Otter Gone Wild", Marlene (normal sized but turned feral) carries King Julien to the top of the Central Park Cleopatra's Needle, while the penguins use RC model planes to save him.
* Probably the very first instance is the MickeyMouse cartoon "The Pet Store", released the same year as ''Film/KingKong''. A tamed ape, specifically imitating Kong, carries Minnie to the top of a pile of bird seed boxes while being attacked by birds.
* ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'' [[InvertedTrope inverts]] this. A giant girl grabs an ape and climbs a tower. For bonus points, one confused bystander [[LampshadeHanging points out that it should be the other way around.]]

* In the second-season ''WesternAnimation/{{Pac-Man}}'' episode "Super-Pac vs. Pac-Ape", an organ grinder's monkey grows into a giant ape and carries Ms. Pac-Man to the top of a skyscraper.

** On one of the Treehouse of Horrors, "King Homer" attempts to climb the Empire State Building, but only makes it up a few feet before he collapses from exhaustion while the pilots circle around the top, confused.

* In a ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'' comic, Sandman and Hydro-Man accidentally morph with each other, creating a huge mud monster. An overt homage to ''King Kong'' follows; the creature is put on display, breaks free, kidnaps the woman Sandman and Hydro-Man were fighting over, climbs a high building and eventually destroyed by police helicopters (but not with bullets, but a gas that dries it out, causing it to break up into fragments of sand).
* FrankFrazetta's cover for ''Eerie'' #81 features the inversion, a giant woman atop the Empire State with a gorill in her hand. Each of the stories in the issue were done around the idea of [[CoverDrop explaining the image.]]

* In ''HerbieRidesAgain'', one of Alonzo's Herbie-related nightmares is of him atop a skyscraper while little flying Herbies buzz around him and shoot grease at him.

* ''GodzillaTheSeries'' has this in the opening credits. And page picture.

* ''GodzillaTheSeries'' has this in the opening credits.

[[AC:Comic Books]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons":

* The ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' episode "Nighty Nightmare''. After Garfield eats way too much and grows huge, he starts climbing a skyscraper in the exact same way as King Kong.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':

** In "Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times", Bart's story of revenge "Bartman Begins" takes place in 1930s Gotham City. In a Funny Background Event Kong can be seen atop a skyscraper waving to Paparazzi taking his picture.

A StockParody and/or StockShoutOut where circumstances somehow conspire to [[{{Homage}} recreate]] the SignatureScene ending of ''Film/KingKong''.

In the original film, King Kong famously grabbed the female lead character and climbed up the Empire State Building while planes circled overhead, shooting at him. The iconic image of the giant ape climbing the tall building has since [[PopCulturalOsmosis wormed its way into pop culture]] and frequently attracts parodies and {{homage}}s.

So thanks to ''King Kong'', giant apes in fiction have a tendency to grab screaming girls and start climbing tall buildings while being attacked by airplanes. Of course, there are lots of other ways to riff on it. Some common variations: You could have normal-sized monkey climb a scale model of a tall building. You could flip things around and have a [[InvertedTrope giant woman carry an ape]] up a tall building. And it works with any {{Kaiju}}-sized creature too, not just giant apes.

* One [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMMUefgA1Kw Twizzlers commercial]] recreates the scene with everything--King Kong, the buildings, the planes--made out of Twizzlers.

** In "Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Three Times", Bart's story of revenge "Bartman Begins" takes place in 1930s Gotham City. In a Funny Background Event Kong can be seen atop a skyscraper waving to Paparazzi taking his picture.

* The ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' episode "Nighty Nightmare''. After Garfield eats way too much and grows to huge proportions, he starts climbing a skyscraper in the exact same way as King Kong.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'', there is an episode where monsters hold a convention in town. The group contains one giant ape and it is traditional for it to climb the highest building available - which of course is Scrooge's treasure vault.