History Main / TarAndFeathers

* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'': It’s actually molasses and feathers, but Curt Stevens ends up doing this to himself when trying to prank someone else in “Pranks for the Memories”.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In "Wishing Stone Island" by Creator/CarlBanks, Donald arrives on the island and grabs the first round, black object he sees and makes a wish, only to discover it is the head of a native who has been tarred and feathered. After he scares Donald off, the nephews help him and he explains that he was tribe's medicine man, but the tribe tarred and feathered after none of his medicine could summon any traders to the island, leaving them stuck with a huge glut of coconuts.

* Scrooge [=McDuck=] does this to Flintheart Glomgold in ''Comicbook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'' (Well, with ''molasses'' instead of tar, but close enough.)
* In ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'', the Knights' pirate characters (except for Sara's) are tarred and feathered by their mutinous crew in the strip "Justice on the High Seas".

* In one ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' strip, Meadow Party candidate Opus is out canvassing the neighborhood about the "upcoming" presidential election, and gets a dose of this treatment.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4553008/12/Second-time-love Second Time Love]]'' this happens to Rita Skeeter after she writes one too many libelous stories about Harry.

* In ''Film/LittleBigMan'', while the protagonist is apprenticed to a classic SnakeOilSalesman, their "elixir" makes some people sick. The angry townsfolk put tar and feathers on them and ride them around the campfire on rails before kicking them out.
* In the 1972 Creator/JohnWaters film ''Film/PinkFlamingos'', Connie and Raymond Marbles, are tarred and feathered as retribution for a series of misdeeds against the film's protagonist, Babs Johnson.

* An idealistic SchoolMarm is nearly tarred and feathered in the 1938 movie ''Film/ChildBride''.
* The full phrase is "tarred and feathered ''and run out of town on a rail''," as seen in the picture; the latter half, at least, happens in ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou''
* Glue and feathers on Creator/JoePesci in ''Film/HomeAlone 1''.
* In ''Film/TheNakedGun 2'', the modern variant happens to Dr. Meinheimer, who is covered with spilled oil and foam packing peanuts.
* In the remake of ''Film/{{The Parent Trap|1998}}'', the last event in the EscalatingWar between the twins involves doing this with chocolate syrup.

* Possibly the UrExample in fiction is Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's story ''The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether''. [[spoiler:It's administered to the ''staff'' of an insane asylum after the inmates take over.]]

* "What Happened To Charles," one of Creator/JamesThurber's ''Fables For Our Time'', has the duck Eva, who eavesdrops on every conversation she hears but never gets anything quite right, tarred and UN-feathered after, having mistaken "shod" (having shoes put on one's feet) for "shot" (having a ranged projectile physically fired into one) and spread the (false!) word that the horse Charles has been killed, he turns up very much alive and wearing new horseshoes.
* UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter's 2003 novel ''Hornet's Nest'' describes the tarring and feathering of a Tory by members of the Sons of Liberty. The man suffered severe burns on both feet as the tar filled his boots and had toes amputated as a result.
* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Literature/GoingPostal'', con-artist Moist Von Lipwig displays a unsurprising familiarity with this trope, although it doesn't actually happen to him (this time.)
* In ''Sarah Bishop'' by Scott O'Dell, set during the Revolutionary War, a young girl's father [[spoiler:dies after being tarred and feathered for remaining loyal to King George.]]

* In the Nathaniel Hawthorne story ''My Kinsman Major Molineux'', set right before the American Revolution, a young man newly arrived from England tries to seek out a relative (the title character) who is a person of importance in the colonial government, and a potential source of employment in the new world. When he asks around, he's eventually told by a strangely amused person that his relative will be passing by shortly. Sure enough, he seems Major Molineux passing by--being paraded through the streets, tarred and feathered, by the Sons of Liberty.

* ''Series/HarpersIsland'' with a guy getting tricked into having honey smeared on his back as part of a massage, then a pillow emptied on him.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'', and then they all got arrested.

* On the Spanish GameShow ''Series/ElGranJuegoDeLaOca'', any contestant who landed on space 58 (''la muerte'', or the "Death" space) was driven back to start on a piece of morbidly decorated construction equipment by the GrimReaper. On most episodes, the contestant was "tarred" fully clothed before being covered in goose feathers.
* In ''Series/TheBlackDonnellys'', in the episode "The Black Drop", Tommy Donnelly is tarred and feathered in retribution for trying to change a deal with Irish mob leader Derek "Dokey" Farrell.
* In the ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'' episode "Complications", Samuel Fields, the "Nigger General", is tarred at scalding temperature on the shoulder by a lynch mob leader, before the procedure is interrupted by sheriff Seth Bullock. The tar is then painstakingly but painfully stripped off his shoulder by Calamity Jane.
* ''Series/HellOnWheels'': In "God of Chaos", the Swede gets tarred and feathered before getting run out of town.
* In ''Series/GreenAcres'', the citizens of Hooterville threaten to do this to Oliver whenever one of his plans to help the county backfire.
* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryFreakshow'': [[spoiler:Vince]] is tarred and feathered by the freaks in retaliation for his mutilating [[spoiler:his daughter Penny]]. He comes out of it horribly burned and permanently scarred.

* The avant-garde electronic music artist Fad Gadget often performed on stage while tarred and feathered. He was photographed in tar and feathers for the cover of his album ''Gag''.
* "Tarred and Feathered", by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.
* Mentioned in Music/RufusRex's "Ingenious Forms of Torture".

* In ''WebComic/OzyAndMillie'', Ozy demonstrates the "coin behind the ear" magic trick for a younger kid. Unfortunately, since this was in a Christian bookstore, the girl immediately screams "Witchcraft!" and Ozy gets tarred and feathered.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** In "Treehouse of Horror XVIII," one of Marge Simpson's sisters appears to have been tarred and feathered from a Halloween prank.
** In "Bart of Darkness," Bart gets Grandpa Simpson tarred and feathered.
--->'''Marge''': Remember how you got Grandpa tarred and feathered?\\
'''Bart''': Sure. That was twenty minutes ago.\\
'''Grandpa''': Gonna be in the tub for a while.
** In the final segment of "Treehouse of Horror XXIV" parodying ''Film/{{Freaks}}'', the circus freaks chop Homer's limbs off and tar and feather him. The credits show that he later gained fame as the "world's strongest duck."
** In "At Long Last Leave," Homer is tarred and feathered as the family is driven out of town. ''Just'' Homer, of course.
* A very serious, notable TruthInTelevision example occurs in the historical fiction series, ''WesternAnimation/LibertysKids'', in which the main character watches as an innocent man getting this treatment from the mob, and ''joins in their mocking''. He later, however, is informed how dangerous the act is when he meets the man being treated for it...near death. While his final fate is left unclear, this is a show in which characters were often KilledOffForReal, so it doesn't look good.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode "The Sound and the Furry", the subject comes up, but, lacking tar or feathers, engine grease and spoons are used instead.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' episode "Robin Brain", the Brain and Pinky get tarred and feathered after suggesting that peasantry try washing with soap and hot water.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', Buster Bunny states in a school paper interview that he believes students who cheat on tests should be tarred, feathered, and kicked out of school. Interviewer Montana Max immediately follows up the question by framing Buster for cheating.

* Happens to Mary in the ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'' episode "The Ballad of Scary Mary", although it was probably a substance like molasses rather than tar.
* Mordecai and Rigby are victims of this in the ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' episode "Prankless", as part of an EscalatingWar of pranks against a rival park.
* ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'': The Vulture Squadron's first attempt to stop the pigeon in "Home Sweet Homing Pigeon" consists on this. Klunk drops the tar and Zilly and Muttley drop the feathers. They miss the target and Dastardly and his plane are hit instead.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode "The Traitor", Gumball and Darwin try to do this substituting the tar with maple syrup.

In WildWest and other American Frontier settings, a common form of mob justice short of actually lynching a wrongdoer (or suspected one) is to cover him with tar and feathers, parade him through town riding a rail, and run him out of town. May be found in other settings as well, and the sticky substance may not always be tar. Tarring and feathering seems to be the epitome of American folk justice (well, if we exclude lynching, that is). The belief that it is extremely dangerous seems to be an overreaction to the belief it was purely comic, there seems to be no corroboration on the use of boiling tar for this purpose (frankly, pouring boiling tar over a person's body is moving into lynching territory). The essential aspect of the punishment was to use the filthiest feathers possible.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'', this happens to Dilbert after delivering bad news to a company meeting, showing that the company policy about not shooting the messenger merely forbids doing it with a gun.

In WildWest and other American Frontier settings, a common form of mob justice short of actually lynching a wrongdoer (or suspected one) is to cover him with [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin tar and feathers]], parade him through town riding a rail, and run him out of town. May be found in other settings as well, and the sticky substance may not always be tar. Tarring and feathering seems to be the epitome of American folk justice (well, if we exclude lynching, that is). The belief that it is extremely dangerous seems to be an overreaction to the belief it was purely comic, there seems to be no corroboration on the use of boiling tar for this purpose (frankly, pouring boiling tar over a person's body is moving into lynching territory). The essential aspect of the punishment was to use the filthiest feathers possible.

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* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke''

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* In ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', villainess Yzma suffers this (although it's honey rather than tar), and then gets [[HumiliationConga whacked with sticks]] by a group of children who think she's a pinata.

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--> It was really vile weather when we got tarred and feathered
--> You could hear the six-guns sound as they chased us out of town

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* In ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'', this happens to Dilbert after delivering bad news to a company meeting, showing that the company policy about not shooting the messenger merely forbids doing it with a gun.
* In one ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' strip, Meadow Party candidate Opus is out canvassing the neighborhood about the "upcoming" presidential election, and gets a dose of this treatment.
* Seen in the infamous Jack Acid Society story arc in ''ComicStrip/{{Pogo}}'', which satirized UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy and the RedScare of the 1950s. The Society is a "bird watchers" group on the look out for migratory birds (read: Communist subversives), and when it's unable to find any, they accuse other characters of being them. Simple J. Malarkey, the strip's version of [=McCarthy=], [[MoralEventHorizon takes things too far]] by suggesting that they tar and feather their victims as "proof" that they are birds, and plans to start with his co-conspirators, who turn the tables on him.

[[folder: Professional Wrestling]]
* This was a common stipulation match in the South back in the territory days. The "tar" was just chocolate syrup.
* After Eric Young was on the losing side of a TagTeam match against [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys Team 3D]] on the 8/2/2007 Wrestling/{{TNA}} iMPACT, Wrestling/RobertRoode and Traci Brooks took the opportunity to tar and feather him.

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* ''Radio/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'': In "The Clan of the Fiery Cross", the Clan attempts to tar and feather a child.
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---> '''Salesman''': Your hair (pulls hat off, revealing bald head) never grows back!

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* In real situations, the subject was forcibly stripped fully or half naked and covered in hot tar, which if hot enough would burn badly. There was probably a beating or two along the way. After being feathered, the person would be humiliated by being carried around on a ''rail'' - not a rounded pole - the cross-section is square or rectangular, and the corners undoubtedly dug in. That's where most fiction ends. Then consider that if the person survived, the cooled tar would need to be removed - ''aggravating the burns and ripping out hair''. Being tarred and feathered was ''never'' a good or easily-overcome thing. ''Everyone'' would remember what was done to you.
** This was common in the aftermath of war and occupation by a foreign power - in the aftermath of German occupation in 1944-45, this was not uncommon as punishment for French women who had chosen to "collaborate" on a one-to-one basis with individual German soldiers. This was also meted out as punishment in Northern Ireland by IRA terrorists, as a deterrent to girls in nationalist areas "collaborating" with British soldiers. Social control and enforcement of rules/consolidation of power via a painful and humiliating punishment was the motivation.
* Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, was beaten, tarred, feathered and left for dead at one point. He survived, but his infant son- who was not tarred and feathered but had been forced from his house by the mob- ended up dying from exposure to the elements.

[[quoteright:298:[[ComicBook/LuckyLuke https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tar_and_feathers.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:298:A ProfessionalGambler gets his comeuppance. [[note]]"Stranger, if you have put down more than 4 aces, you risk being put down too"[[/note]]]]

* In ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', villainess Yzma suffers this (although it's honey rather than tar), and then gets [[HumiliationConga whacked with sticks]] by a group of children who think she's a pinata.

* Tarring and feathering is a fate suffered by one of the actresses in the SnuffFilm in the 2005 motion picture ''Snuff-Movie''.

* The 2008 HBO miniseries ''Series/JohnAdams'' featured a fictional scene of Adams witnessing a British tax collector being tarred and feathered by an angry Boston mob. In this case it is shown as a frightful form of torture and there is nothing funny about it. The title character quite aptly calls it barbarism.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', con-artist Moist Von Lipwig displays a unsurprising familiarity with this trope, although it doesn't actually happen to him (this time.)

** In the final segment of "Treehouse of Horror XXIV" parodying ''Film/{{Freaks}}'', the circus freaks chop Homer's limbs off and tar and feather him. The credits show that he later gained fame as the "world's strongest duck".

[[quoteright:298:[[ComicBook/LuckyLuke https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tar_and_feathers.png]]]]

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