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Tickle Torture

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"This tickle torture isn't funny!"
Luigi, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, "Count Koopula"

So, we have a Card-Carrying Villain in a G-rated show who is going to inflict a horrible torture on his victims. Most normal methods of Cold-Blooded Torture would be way too dark for something aimed at children; what can be a substitute? Tickling, of course! Anyone ticklish can attest that getting tickled without being able to stop it would be pure torture, and the censors are content that the character isn't being horribly brutalized. This is usually done with a feather on the soles of the feet (despite not being the most effective method in Real Life), and it is often led up to by the tickler saying "We Have Ways of Making You Talk."

This trope was so widely used in cartoons from the 90's and earlier, many a kinky adult can trace their...inclinations to watching these scenes as a child. See also Accidental Tickle Torture for the unintentional variant, and Friendly Tickle Torture, for, well, the friendly variant.

Also compare Bathroom Control, when people are denied bathroom access as a method of torture.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Happens in the Ah! My Goddess manga, as part of a contest.
  • Battle Girls: Time Paradox When the Saigoku Three show up and finish their introduction, Nobunaga easily defeats them and ties them up. To find out where the Dismantled MacGuffin is, Hideyoshi does this to each of them. They return the favor later in the episode.
  • Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo invokes this with startling and unexpected frequency between the various characters in the show, which comes as no surprise given the anime's sense of humor. Often zigzags into this trope's more "friendlier" counterpart.
  • In the first Crayon Shinchan movie, Crayon Shin-chan: Action Mask vs. Leotard Devil, Leotard Devil's minions managed to capture the main cast, sans Shin-Chan and friends, and prepares to interrogate Dr. North Kasukabe for Shin-Chan's whereabouts. It turns out their method of interrogation is tickling the pits, which makes Kasukabe spill the beans.
  • Digimon:
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Goku performs this on Hasky to get her to hand over the Dragon Balls she tried to steal from him.
    • In Dragon Ball Z, Goku gets tickled by Caterpy (no, not that Caterpie) in his first round of the Otherworld Tournament.
    • He is not so lucky in Dragon Ball GT when he is tickled out of the ring during the Junior Division by a nerd. (Thanks in part to a distraction by Vegeta.)
    • In GT, Goku was also tickle tortured by an old hag in Hell after she attempted to cook him.
  • In the first episode of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. Zurbon, The female member of the Fake Heroes, is kidnapped by Dai to find out where Gome-chan is. When she refuses to speak, she is tickle tortured by an anteater.
  • In Fairy Tail Jellal suffers this when Ultear worries that he'll break his cover while hiding from the government. However, she tickles her ally Meredy, who has a Psychic Link with Jellal, in order to get him. This causes Jellal to pass out before winning a tournament for Fairy Tail.
  • In Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals, Rouge orders this done to Pritz with a dramatic buildup that makes you wonder whether she's a villain or just crazy.
  • Galaxy Angel Rune has the angels subjected when an ai of Hot Spring Asteroid wants to know their problems Although, this only ends up tickling Apricot, and for the rest of the crew, it causes them excruciating pain.
  • In "Memory Gallery" on The Galaxy Railways, this is one of the ways in which the SDF convinces the memory thief to give back Bruce's memory.
  • The "Is Lupin Burning... ?!" episode of Lupin III: Part 1: Occurs to Fujiko in one of the most famous scenes of the episode. The DVD/Blu-ray set of Lupin III: Part 5 features a memorial episode that re-creates said scene.
  • Gingka of Metal Fight Beyblade gets this treatment during a "training course" orchestrated by Merci.
  • Sir Nighteye of My Hero Academia has a tickling machine that he uses to strap and torture his sidekicks when they fail to make him laugh. When Izuku first arrives to his hero agency for internship, he's using it on Bubble Girl, because she didn't make him laugh while giving her report.
  • In Nabari no Ou, Raikou and Kouichi do this to some poor Alya Academy student for fun.
  • At least 3 times in Nagasarete Airantou. Once on Mikoto from some bats summoned by Rin. Again on Ikuto when he was placed in a trap by Chikage. And lastly on Suzu, when she refused to do studying and was subjected to this by Ikuto.
  • Naruto: Jiraiya interrogates some mooks from the Rain Village using this method. When that fails, he threatens them with turning them into frogs.
  • In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Asuna got the tickle treatment in the nude from Fate who could make water turn into a bunch of arms. It's later revealed that the only thing stopping him from ripping her to pieces was Asuna's magic-cancelling ability.
    • Later on, most of class 3-A does this to Chao.
  • This happens to Cube in episode 2 of Petite Princess Yucie by Gaga on Glenda's order.
  • Pokémon:
  • Happens to Sasami in the second OVA and an episode of the Pretty Sammy TV series.
    • Happens to Sammy (a.k.a. Sasami) again in Magical Project S via a tickling hand by Mrs. Third of the Lovely Madams.
  • Evoked with Fanservice in the 1st episode of the Queen's Blade OVA, Beautiful Warriors, when Echidna uses her pet snake, Keltan to "play" with Elina's private parts...
    • When Nanael is trapped by Melona and Airi she is subjected to this in their cage.
  • In Samurai Pizza Cats, when entering a Kung Fu Tournament, Polly Esther goes up against a fighter named "Smiling Jack" the Chiropractor. Smiling Jack easily defeats Polly by tickling her until she rolls out of bounds.
  • In episode 27 of SD Gundam Force, this is how the Zako Soldiers get the Zakurello Gate to change its destination mid-transport. "Do what we say, or you'll get..." "TICKLE TORTURE!"
  • Squid Girl's Ika Musume discovers this in a chapter of the manga (which was adapted into an anime sub-episode), and goes on a tickling spree with everyone she meets. Naturally, she decides to use it to make Chizuru die of laughter. Chizuru being who she is, though, means annihilation ensues. (Presumably, the episodes are not in chronological order, as a couple of earlier episodes show her tickling Eiko both as revenge and to convince her to become her servant, and on the four alien-obsessed scientists to find out why they wanted a strand of Chizuru's hair.)
  • In I'm Gonna Be an Angel!, Noelle is subjected to this by several tiny robots after a series of weird, non-lethal experiments by Alien Robots.
  • Used in To Love Ru by a Man-Eating Plant. Since it's To Love Ru, it's purely for Fanservice.
  • In Yumeiro Pâtissière, Kashino is tied up and tickled by his sister when he refuses to be follow his family's tradition as a patissier.

    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Heroes:
    • In Season 2 episode 8, Careless S. shoots Doctor H.'s alarm clock from his gun. The clock proceeds to attack the "scary" monster by tickling it until it reverts back to normal size.
    • In Season 8 episode 2, the King punishes the Supermen by sentencing them to hanging... only for them to realize their feet are going into the nooses to be tickled.
    • In Season 8 episode 39, the Supermen have Huo Haha tickled to make him smile, since his smiling is what makes Xiao Haha remember some important memories.
  • In the Lamput episode "Martial Art", Lamput is fighting Fat Doc and Slim Doc in the style of the martial arts film he was trying to watch in a theater. During the fight, Lamput is seen briefly tickling Slim Doc's armpit to fend him off.
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: In Great War in the Bizarre World episode 10 and continuing into episode 11, Wolffy tickles Jollie on the feet to make him say which of the items the goats have carried with them are the Luminous Ray. Later in episode 11, Jollie tickles Wolffy in the feet for having tried to cook him alongside Eggy.

    Comic Books 
  • Asterix: In the first story, Asterix the Gaul, Getafix is tortured in this manner by the Romans after they capture him. However, he's completely unaffected by it and "playing along". Complete with "Torture me instead!" once Asterix shows up to rescue him.
  • In Street Fighter in an extra of her comic Ibuki gets tickled by her pet tanuki Don-Chan, though the situation was implied through text outside of where they were. The comic's artist Omar Dogan liked this situation enough that he would later draw a picture of Ibuki tied up being ticked by her Tanuki based on the comic.

    Fan Works 
  • In Ahsoka Tano And Scorpios Riddle, the second titular character subjects the first one to this as part of his plan to 'tame' her. Ahsoka bravely endures it for several days, but eventually cracks and begs Scorpios to stop. It gets worse from there...
  • Horrible variation in the Torture Porn Hivefled prequel Reprise; Gamzee spent some time being kept as a student and treated something approaching normally by his Famous Ancestor the Grand Highblood, who was actually grooming him for real torture and eventual sacrifice. At one point, GH tickled Gamzee into hypersensitivity and punched him in the groin, then went back to acting as if nothing happened. Naturally, when Gamzee messaged his friends to complain, they didn't believe this was a problem. It got worse later on; Condesce wanted a turn, and then they decided to "immortalise the moment"...
  • Boiling Isles and Beyond: Amity learns that Luz is ticklish and fully intents to take advantage of it. Luz quickly realizes that she's screwed.
  • Your Alicorn Is in Another Castle: From "Inevitability Frames": How Carl gets his wings back:
    "Two of us," the turtle lectured, "have to stand next to him. One on each side, holding a wing. And then he has to step between us. Followed by having four additional staff members immobilizing him. One to each of the limbs he still has attached. To keep him from fleeing. From the torture."
    "Um," Twilight tried, and instantly regretted that.
    "Carl," the turtle sighed, "is extremely ticklish — and here is your room."
  • Beyond the Outer Gates Lies... A high school library? has Harry tickle Sona until she is gasping for air. He does to escape when she has basically wrapped herself around him.
  • In the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", the Smurflings subject the custodian of the Wizard of Odds (who is portrayed by Brainy) to a tickle torture in order to get him to allow them an audience with the Wizard.
  • In the Punch-Out!! fanfic Shining and Sweet chapter "Get Him!", Little Mac, Katrina, and Princess Hook tackle Aran Ryan to the ground and tickle him as retribution for annoying them.

    Films — Animation 
  • The climax of Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure involves this. King Koo Koo is normally short, but inflates when he laughs at the misfortune of others. So he sets a tentacled sea monster called Gazooks on our heroes and many of the supporting characters and orders it to tickle all of them at the same time in order to have the last laugh due to them fleeing his clutches.
  • A relatively-dark example in The Fearless Four: Fred gets sent to a high-tech chamber where he's fiercely tickled all over by a pair of robotic arms wearing cartoonish gloves. The dark part? Those gloves are covering up a nasty pair of sharpened metal claws, and the operator threatens him that if he ever gets sent back, he won't be laughing.
  • In The Jungle Book (1967), King Louie is holding his arms up in place of a column in his palace-ruins. Baloo was in a similar position, until he nicely stepped out and shifted the entire burden to King Louie. Taking the opportunity presented by King Louie's raised arms, Baloo tickles him until the entire building collapses. Ironically, Baloo himself told Mowgli in an earlier Friendly Tickle Torture scene, that one didn't do that in the jungle.
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie becomes distracted by Sally's leg and he proceeds to remove her shoe before tickling it. The foot is shown to be fidgeting, meaning Sally is indeed ticklish. Unfortunately, this causes the leg to slip out of the doorway, revealing that it is not attached to a body.
  • In The Boss Baby, Tim tries to break the Boss Baby by tickling him, but the Boss Baby says that it won't work on him, as he doesn't have any ticklish spots. Tim says that everyone does and proves it. Later, the both of them use this against Francis E. Francis.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In the screwball comedy Ball of Fire, some mild-mannered professors do this to extract information from a gangster's Mook. It works.
  • In the 1971 film, Carmen Boom, the eponymous Spanish dancer is chloroformed and abducted by a Chinese gang who wants to steal her uncle’s secret formula. In order to make her talk, they decide to interrogate her using this. They remove her boot and tickle her nylon sole with a feather. Carmen pleads with them, begging that if they don’t stop, she will end up peeing herself. The torture technician desists briefly…only to come back with a vibrating handheld massager. He applies it to her foot and travels his way up her leg, past her waist and up to her chest, causing Carmen to laugh even harder, insisting that she doesn’t know anything.
  • In the 2009 German comedy movie, Die Perlmutterfarbe the kids take a kid form a rival gang and lay him in a creative makeshift tickle machine, where the kid is subjected to having his feet tickled by rotating belt leather, this sides tickled by brooms, his ears tickled by noisemakers and stomach tickled with long feathers, all at the same time!
  • In the Japanese action comedy, Eyecatch Junction, Makoto enters a martial arts competition against athletic weightlifter Atsuko, who agrees to join the Shintai Sobu fitness club if she loses while Makoto agrees to shave her head if she loses. Makoto nearly loses but, discovers that Atsuko is ticklish on her sides and defeats her by exploiting this weakness.
  • In George of the Jungle, George is subjected to this twice. Once when he is fighting a lion while trying to save his love interest and again when he is briefly held down by two villains in a fight.
  • In the 1947 film Hue And Cry, street boy Joe and his friends apprehend crook Rhonda Davis in her home and tie her to a chair with the intent of making her tell them who her boss is. While debating on what interrogation method to use, the younger Alec suggests tickle torture but, is quickly shot down by Nicky. During the interrogation, Nicky repeatedly threatens to cut the uninterested and annoyed Rhonda with a pocketknife but, is unable to follow through with it. The camera then widens to show Alec at Rhonda's stocking feet. Rhonda easily dismisses Alec, who has been ineffectively tickling her feet with a brush the entire time.
  • In the Laurel and Hardy feature Way Out West, the dance-hall villainess gets the deed to a gold mine from Stanley with a ruthless full-body search that leaves him helpless with shrieking laughter for several minutes afterward.
  • Grimmace and Hamburglar become victims of this in the second Ronald McDonald animated movie.
  • A New York Christmas Wedding: Gabby is very ticklish. In flashbacks we are shown that it was a fairly common part of her and Jenni's "friendship" for Jenni to tickle her.
  • Played for Drama in Psycho IV: The Beginning. Norman's mother would pretend she was giving him Friendly Tickle Torture at first, but as soon as he would laugh, she'd use it as an excuse to abuse him. Sometimes, it was also an excuse for her to touch his body.
  • This happened a couple of times on The Three Stooges:
    • In the short "Self-Made Maids," the Stooges tie up the father of the girls they want to marry. When he refuses to give his consent, Shemp tells Moe to "do his stuff." Moe then takes off the father's shoe and..you can guess what happens next.
    • In the short "Space Ship Sappy" the Stooges are on a spaceship and land on the planet Sunev (which is Venus spelt backwards). As they explore the planet, the stooges are captured by tall amazon women who plan on making a meal out of them. But they first decide to tickle the Stooges half to death before trying to eat them.
  • In the Disney Channel film The Swap, Jack (in Ellie's body) has to endure this while getting her foot scrubbed with the pumice stone at the salon with her mother. Summer appears rather shocked as her "daughter" pleads to the technician for mercy, as if Ellie doesn't normally react this way during a pedicure.
  • Employed in Dasepo Sonyo, when two of the boys are trying to figure out why the girls have become virginal.
  • In The Ribald Tales of Robin Hood, Lady Sallyforth tortures Marian by tickling her with a feather while she is chained in such a position that she will press her naked body against a bed of spikes if she writhes.
  • The French horror film Tombville opens with main character David waking up in a strange town tied up in a dungeon, and he's tickled on his feet until he reveals his name. But when the torturer wants more information, he moves on to more conventional methods...
  • Wild West Days: In possibly the weirdest moment in the series, Mike and Trigger have Buckskin prisoner in episode 10 and are trying to get information out of him. Mike chooses to torture Buckskin by tickling his feet with some scrub brush. It doesn't work as a gang of bad guys shows up before Buckskin talks.
  • Shall We Play?: Jess tickles Stacy so she'll dish about Matt to her.

    Game Shows 
  • The Argentinian game show Combate have the girls use this against the guys. In this challenge, the guy is instructed to hold a cup of water, filled to the brim, in each hand with his arms stretched out while remaining still for one minute. While he does that, two girls from the opposing team are sent in to distract him into spilling the water, using a bucket of ice, a spray bottle, a handheld scalp massager and feathers. After both teams go, the remaining water for each team is poured in a pitcher in order to determine the winner.
    • The girls from both teams turn out to be very effective ticklers with solid techniques, as evident in this clip. During Julián's (Red Team) turn, the girls (Green Team) tend to gang up on him in one area at a time, targeting his ears, nose and underarms, to overwhelm his senses. On the other hand, during Sergio's (Green Team) turn, the girls (Red Team) target spots at different ends of the body. One tickles inside his nose, underarms and neck and the other girl at his feet slowly threads the feather in between each of his toes while blowing on them. In the end, the Red Team wins.
  • The Italian version of Distraction utilizes this on two separate occasions on female contestants. The contestants were suspended by their ankles using inversion boots and had their bare feet tickled by either two women with long nails or one woman with long nails and a feather, all while trying to answer the host's questions.
    • The British version did this to a male contestant using two women with sharp nails on his feet to distract him.
      • The Indian version also attempted this. This time around, it was a male competitor who administered the tickling to the two female contestants. The first was fully capable of withstanding the tickling while the second had some trouble resisting it.
  • On I kveld med Ylvis, a few hosts had to guess each others' answers for some questions. Wrong guesses were punished with tickling. In fairness, Vegard is undoubtedly overacting.

    Literature 
  • In Neverworld: The Great Dragon, after Lynn and Katie capture an intruder, they interogate her by taking off her shoes and tickling her bare feet with a feather. She turns out to be Pear who ends up being the villain. She escapes soon after though.
  • Inverted for Gallows Humor in A Song of Ice and Fire, which has a Torture Technician known only as "The Tickler" who "tickles" captured villagers to gather information about Lord Beric Dondarrion's outlaw band.
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets introduces the spell "Rictusempra," a Tickling Charm which is used only once on Malfoy. Other sources however claim that Rictusempra is also a stunning spell.
  • The faceless monsters known as night-gaunts in the works of H. P. Lovecraft (such as The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath) will explicitly inflict this on victims they've grabbed and are carrying off. While flying.
  • Played fatally straight in the short story "The Screaming Laugh" by Cornell Woolrich.
  • Where's Wally?: in the medieval setting of the book Where's Wally Now, one of the things one can find is a man in stocks being tickle tortured.
  • In The Dragon's Familiar by Jeffrey Cohen, Tickle Torture is one of the most frequently used torture techniques used by demons to punish their slave boys for bad behaviour (justified since the torture is only meant to punish, not maim or kill.
  • Played for Drama on Nightmare Hour when evil, murderous clowns abduct children from the audience of their circus performances to tickle them until they die and eat their souls. The audience apparently just assumes that if the children are laughing then it's just harmless fun from their point of view. Chris almost suffers from this until he strikes a deal to join the clowns and in exchange he will help them find more victims to kill. He breaks the fourth wall and tells the reader that if they cross him then he'll tickle them to death with his clown powers.
  • In Maburaho, Elizabeth does this to Yuna. You can't see what's happening, though, and she does it in such a dramatic and over-the-top fashion that Kazuki assumes it's actual torture.
  • Spice and Wolf: Lawrence tells the shepherdess Norah that he heard about instances in which sheep are used for torture. The torturer rubs some salt on the bound criminal's feet, leads the sheep to the criminal, then the sheep would lick the salt off the criminal's feet.
  • This featured in one of Gold Key Comics "Big Little Books": Donald Duck is kidnapped by bandits who suspend him belly down over a "tickling machine", a mechanical gloved hand. A nearby record plays someone telling bad jokes one after another; after each punch line, the mechanical fingers wiggle tickling Donald's tummy, forcing him to laugh. His nephews, watching from hiding, wonder how long it takes for somone to laugh themselves to death.
  • Diane Carey's 1986 Star Trek novel Dreadnought, a Lower-Deck Episode featuring Cadet Lieutenant Piper, saw the female protagonist attempting to uncover a conspiracy involving Starfleet's newest vessel. At one point, she threatens her ex-lover that she's going to "lean on that ticklish right foot of yours" unless he reveals the information she wants.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In All That, Detective Dan has the cops do this to his daughter (Amanda Bynes) when he suspects her as a robber. Then he does it to himself to show them how to crack a criminal correctly.
  • In the “Measurement” segment of Beakman's World, Beakman compares Phoebe and Lester's foot sizes to explain the need for standardized measurements. Beakman repeatedly tickles Phoebe’s foot, who in turn tickles Lester’s rat costume foot. Somehow, Lester is in hysterics. At the end of the segment, he tickles Phoebe's foot and she kicks him in the face while she laughs hysterically.
  • During a Black and White Dream Sequence on an episode of The Bold and the Beautiful, Quinn imagined that she has Hope tied down to a chair in her loft, surrounded by large pictures of herself. The leather-clad Quinn tells Hope that she loved her and her baby and wants to hear her say it in return. To get her to say it, Quinn tickled Hope’s arms and neck with a feather wand as Hope twitched and protested. "I love you, Mama Quinn, and I want you to be a part of my family", Quinn instructed Hope to repeat. Hope, agonizing beneath the tickling wand until she could take no more, repeated the phrase back to Quinn.
  • In the episode "The Accidental Cleanist" of the Canadian series Corner Gas, while she's trapped under a deck, Hank does this to Wanda by "checking for coins between her ribs". Wanda is not amused.
    Wanda: [laughing] I'm gonna kill you [more laughing] you're a dead man!
  • In the soap, Days of Our Lives, Jack has a dream that Greta and Jen have tied him to a chair and are about to torture him. He snaps out of the dream and tries to calm himself down by meditating. When that doesn't work, he begins to dream again and this time Greta grabs a feather and says they will tickle him right where it tickles the most...his feet. They tickle his feet and Jack snaps out of it again, only to find Jen and Greta standing there confused.
    • And again when Bonnie Lockhart sneaks in the morgue, looking for bones. A member of the staff walks in and sees red spiked shoes sticking out from the bottom of a sheet covering a body on a gurney. The woman walks to the shoes as Bonnie lays under the sheet, waiting to be exposed. She takes the red heels, places them in a bag and grabs a cloth to clean her feet with. Bonnie tries to resist and keep still but, one of her feet shoots up involuntary. The woman becomes frightened and heads towards the door of the morgue, muttering to herself about rigor mortis.
      • Ben, the reformed serial killer, had rescued Ciara following her motorcycle accident and began taking care of her in a remote cabin. At one point he offered to help give her foot on her injured leg a sponge bath. While at first reluctant Ciara ended up enjoying it but given her ticklish feet managed to kick Ben right in the face by accident. When Ben came to he decided he best stop before he lost some teeth.
  • In the French science program, E=M6, test subjects Nicolas and Jeannette have their feet tickled in a test of wills. They are first tickled with a tiny feather duster and both manage to hold a straight face. The woman performing the experiment on the two soon ditches the feather duster, opting to use her fingers instead. During the timed experiment, Nicolas is the first to crack, lasting a total of six seconds while Jeannette is broken down after the ten second mark. To conclude the experiment, Jeannette mentions that the repetition of the woman's fingers gliding across her arches turned it into a torturous experience and both Nicolas and Jeannette give the experimenter a taste of her own medicine.
  • An episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys had a screaming man in Tartarus subjected to having his foot tickled with a feather. It's a short moment of full-blown camp in an otherwise dramatic scene.
    Hades: [The torture is] no crueler than he was in his previous life. Believe me, he deserves it.
    Torturer: Tickle, tickle, how does it feel?
  • Faith, played by Kelly Ripa, seems to get it a decent amount of it in Hope & Faith.
    • In "Faith's Husband", Bob, Faith's separated husband played by Tom Arnold, picks Faith up to carry her to his RV but, in protest, she holds on to the door frame, begging Hope to help her. Hope, who is eager to get her sister out of the house, tickles Faith's underarms to keep her from holding onto the door, causing her to let go during her giggle fit.
      • Faith receives it again, this time as punishment courtesy of her nephew, Justin, in “Aru-Bah Humbug”. Justin admits to his mother that he knew his aunt, who is now stuck in the chimney, was playing Santa Claus and seems fairly alright with it. After Hope runs up to the roof to help pull her out, Justin rips off one of Faith’s boots. When asked what he’s doing, Justin retorts with “This is for impersonating Santa Claus!” and sadistically scribbles his fingers under Faith’s foot. Faith laughs hysterically and Justin only stops when she claims she has to pee.
  • Johnny and the Sprites had the feared "tickle troll." "A tickle troll, a tickle troll! He'll try to make you laugh, that's his only goal! A tickle troll, a tickle troll! Just one tickle, and you lose control!"
  • In Just For Laughs, during their "Tickle Torture Therapy" compilation, three women and a man have their feet subjected to this, under the impression that they'll be receiving a nice, relaxing foot massage. When their "masseuse" begins to break out feathers, a rotary brush and a toothbrush to assault their toes, they begin to pick up on the act.
  • Janina Burgmer is frequently tickled on her neck and feet throughout one episode of the German kid's show, Kaiser! König! Karl! Twice by her co-host (a cat puppet named Kater Karl), once in a medieval torture chamber, complete with dull witted Torture Technician, and once during an interrogation by her “daughter”, using the same torture technician, who is trying extract what her birthday present is from her.
    Janina: You'll get a new bicycle!
    Daughter: Which color?
    Janina: Hahaha, yellow!
    Daughter: But I'd prefer pink.
    Janina: OK, OK, pink it is!
  • Used in "Spy-anoia Will Destroy Ya" of K.C. Undercover as an interrogation tactic. K.C. uses her tickle taser on Ernie's new "girlfriend" Jolie's underarms and neck to get her to reveal that she's a spy. Despite being rather ticklish, she manages to keep up the act until K.C. tricks her later on in the episode.
  • In the Laverne & Shirley episode "Festival Part 1", Laverne pumps Shirley for $70 out of Shirley's vacation funds in order to help a guy she just met win a trip to Italy. When Shirley denies any knowledge of her vacation fund, Laverne recalls that she keeps money in her shoes as well. Shirley denies this too, stating all she has in her shoes are Zeno pads. After tricking Shirley into turning around, Laverne throws her over the armrest of the couch and rips both her shoes off. Laverne's assumption is correct, finding two $20 bills taped to the bottoms of her socks, and tickles her foot into letting go of the second $20 bill. Shirley submits and retrieves the remaining $30 after Laverne threatens to wrestle her for it.
  • In the first episode of Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, this is what happens to the prisoners in King John's dungeons.
  • An episode of Monster Squad (the 1976 live-action kids' series, starring Fred Grandy and Henry Polic II) had a villain who used giant feathers in an attempt to tickle Our Heroes to their doom. It was as silly as it sounds.
  • On The Office, Darryl further educates Michael on the ways of the street by explaining that gangs often duel using a technique called Fluffy Fingers, where members of each gang tickle one another to the point of capitulation.
  • Administered in the Brazilian telenovela, Três Irmâs, to Graziella Moretto's character, Valéria Gutierrez, as an interrogation tactic. Valéria, who hid money from the gang of thieves she belongs to, had her wrists and ankles tied together while Vidigal Castro, their leader, gently stroked a feather up and down the soles of her feet. Initially, Valéria denies knowing anything about the money's whereabouts but, Vidigal is persistent and continues to tickle her feet until she cracks. After her confession, he stops briefly and goes back to tickling her feet, claiming she didn't beg for mercy. Valéria immediately complies and Vidigal apologizes, stating that it was the only way to get her to talk.
  • The Suite Life on Deck: Mr. Blanket has a "tickling jacket" as one of his methods of therapy. London has to wear it to get over her obsession of insulting people due to a bet she made with Bailey.
  • Power Rangers Megaforce once had a monster named "Nojoke" who tried to suck anyone who laughs into a pod he had. One way of doing this was his special attack called "Tickle Wind," which binds his victims and tickles them until they get sucked into the pod.
  • On NewsRadio, Matthew manages to win a no-holds-barred fight with Joe by tickling him until he taps out.
  • On the "Restoration" episode of the British television program The Supersizers Eat, Sue Perkins places a live snail on the tip of her big toe to demonstrate an old-fashioned method of removing corns. As the snail slowly makes its way down her sole, Sue has difficulty finishing her sentences and begins to stumble and repeat her words while stifling laughter. Sue admits to having ticklish feet and, once the snail reaches her arch dead center, she is unable to contain her laughter.
  • On Today, Jenna Bush Hager, yes, Bush 43's daughter, had her foot tickled by Savannah Guthrie, after being teased about her callouses.
  • In the Ugly Betty episode, "Queens for a Day", Betty is forced to endure this as part of her makeover. Turns out Betty's feet are so ticklish, it requires both Hilda and Cholli to keep her leg down.
  • You Can't Do That on Television:
    • On the "Medicine" episode, hostess Christine "Moose" spends the bulk of the episode in a cast. At the very end, Ross, the producer, threatens her foot with a feather duster while she begs him not to. He then tickles her foot, causing her to fall over hysterically into a nearby trash can.
    • And again in "Fame", where Christine grabs Lisa's bare foot and, despite her begging not to, tickles the hell out of it after Lisa compares her to Lassie.
  • In an episode of Zoey 101, when Dustin got sick, one of the ways Quinn tried to cure him was by immobilizing his bare feet in a pair of stocks. She flashed proton impulses to his feet, making him laugh and squirm around.

    Music 
  • In an Italian parody of the Dutch Girlband ADAM's single, "Go to Go", where the women attempt to sing while...having orgasms (yeah, you read that right), Cinizia Gargano, Alessandra Ponente and Barbara Tutrone are tickled under the arm, stomach and foot, respectively, to recreate the style of the original. As the video goes on, each of them begin to break down and miss certain lyrics, with Alessandra suffering the most. By the end, all the women are either in hysterical laughter or tears.
    • Another one in Switzerland did the same with a stuffed dog toy being brushed against the singer's' feet.
  • The Italian singer Gala spends the entirety of the music video of her song "The Beautiful" tied to a roof and tickled by off-screen strangers for seemingly no good reason whatsoever.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Call of Cthulhu. Nightgaunts can grab people and tickle them, rendering them helpless so the nightgaunt can carry them away.

    Video Games 
  • In LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren uses feathers to tickle Poe Dameron, interrogating him for the map to Luke Skywalker.
  • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, Prosecutor Nahyuta Sahdmadhi says that Maya Fey will go to the "Hell of Tickling" for 500 million years after death for murdering a priest.
  • In Alice: Madness Returns, the Dollmaker attempts to do this against Alice during the final boss fight with his Giant Hands of Doom, but she's not laughing due to being hell-bent on killing him. Then again, given the Dollmaker's proclivities, he may be attempting to do something... else.
  • The Joker briefly does this in an attempt to make Batman give in to the Titan transformation right before the final battle of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Batman responds by punching him.
  • The children's game Dracula's Secret requires using two sources of tickle torture - a feather, and a spider.
  • A heroic example happens in Donkey Kong 64 during Tiny Kong's turn facing the Final Boss, (King) Krusha K. Rool. It involves entering one of his boots that has a hole in them and shooting feathers at his toes.
  • Among the many other kinds of interrogation methods present in Evil Genius, this method is used when strapping enemy agents (Or your own minions) into an AI computer that is also used for research.
  • In Farnham Fables, this can happen in two optional scenes in Episode 4, both of which end in a fourth-wall breaking Snap Back:
    • The dark forest is guarded by tickle vines, magical plants which tickle unsuspecting passerbys. To enter the forest, Theresa needs to put on protective boots. If she takes off the boots inside the forest (or gets teleported inside while barefoot) and tries to leave, well...
    • Theresa enters a trailer which supposedly belongs to Yvonne Stroker, a Mad Scientist obsessed with tickle torture. If certain conditions have been met, Theresa can subject dream versions of her bullies, Angelica and Janine, to a bit of torture in the Tickletron... but once she thinks they've had enough, she realizes that she has no idea how to actually stop the machine.
  • The Japanese version of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker had some censorship issues with the scene of Dr. Strangelove interrogating Big Boss. This led the already existent torture scene of the game to change tones through new dialogues and switching the color of the tools to justify the use of "Laughing Rods" instead of "Shock Rods", giving the method a less harmful twist that toned down the scene for a less severe rating approval.
  • Played very darkly in The Park, when Nathaniel Winter's final note reveals that he kidnapped a child and tickled him until he couldn't breathe. Given that Atlantic Island Park is already notorious for missing persons, it can be assumed that the child didn't survive the encounter. Technically, the real goal of the tickling was to give Winter enough laughter to activate his machines and make him immortal.
  • In Rumble Roses, one ringside weapon is a long stick with a cartoony hand on one end that is used to tickle an opponent. It doesn't hurt them, but causes their humiliation meter to rapidly shoot up. The next game would allow the winner of a "Queens Match" to tickle the loser with the same stick using an extended sequence of the tickle animation.
  • In The Sims Medieval Pirates & Nobles Expansion Pack, this is one of the methods a Spy can use to gather information from a Sim tied to an interrogation chair.
  • In Sly 2: Band of Thieves, THE MURRAY captures General Clawfoot so Bentley can get info on the Contessa's castle from him... With a feather.
    Bentley: Talk, you scoundrel!
  • In Sonic Rush Adventure, Captain Whisker threatens to subject Marine the Raccoon to this when she mouths off at him.
  • Space Ace:
    • One of the death scenes involve Ace and Kimberly falling off of a maze and into a pit filled with pink balls called "Tickle Plants." This is reinforced by Ace and Kimberly's hysterical laughing upon falling into the pit.
    • One death scene in the final level has Ace being electrocuted, which, in contrast to Dexter, where he reacts in pain, causes Ace to chuckle uncontrollably.
  • In the "What If? Mode" of Spider-Man (2000) during the first boss fight with Venom in the Back Alley. When Venom uses his "lick attack" on Spider-Man, Spidey with start giggling and lampshades this trope.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, if you don't give in to Yaridovich's Hostage for MacGuffin demands, he tickles the town's mayor mercilessly until you give in. (The more you resist his demands, the number of Flowers you get from him afterward is reduced to merely one. Keep it up long enough, and all you get is a single coin.)
    • In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team in the Battle Ring, Bowser Jr. can steal some of your attacks to prevent you from using them against him. He does this by tickling Mario or Luigi with his Magic Paintbrush before your turn(s).
  • A quest in World of Warcraft's Northern Barrens has you interrogating a Quilboar. You can break him instantly if you either feed or tickle him as opposed to punching or kicking him. You also get a status buff, "Saintly" for interrogating him through non-violent means.
    Haha - *snort* ha - heee! *snort* Haha no stop haha *SNORT* *wheeze* Hee hee! Battlemaster Tortusk never prepared us for this!
  • Xenoblade Chronicles X: depending on what decisions you make, at one point you can use this to extract information from a computer.note 

    Web Animation 
  • One episode of Arby 'n' the Chief has Arbiter doing this to Chief so that he can play Halo: Reach's Beta release.
  • In Silver Quill's review to Rainbow Falls, he is not too happy with Toon Critic stealing his continuity joke, so he has a group of griffins take him away and tells them to give him "the treatment." Even though we don't see anything, we can tell what's going on when Toon Critic says that he is "not here for feathers," and then we hear him laughing and begging for mercy.
    • At the end of his review to "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows," he and Pinkie Pie have Mayor Mare tied to a chair and tell her that they are going to punish her for almost spilling the beans about Cadance and Shining Armour's new baby to the mane six. Silver then pulls out a huge feather right before the screen turns black and we can hear the Mayor laughing hysterically.
  • How Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Should Have Ended: "Super-tickle!" That is, Superman tickling Bruce Wayne.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • Adventures of the Gummi Bears had an actual session of Tickle Torture. Duke Igthorn had tried to get Granny to reveal the recipe for gummy berry juice, but she gave him a false one instead. During the actual torture, she does eventually give him the real recipe, but leaves out the last vital step to complete it.
  • The Adventures of Letterman (a regular animated segment in the live-action television series The Electric Company (1971)): The 1973 segment "In a Pickle" had the segment's antagonist, the Spellbinder, goes to a pickle factory and turns a "pickle" into "tickle," unleashing a feather onto the factory's CEO, Mr. Dill. Letterman sees that the CEO is being tickled to death and rescues him by turning "tickle" back into "pickle" ... but not before turning the tables and sending the feather onto Spellbinder. Spellbinder is tickled for an extended amount of time before finally getting away, exhausted from laughter; he finally admits defeat by saying, "Goodbye folks!"
  • In an episode of The Adventures of Marco and Gina, Gina is captured. To extract information from her, she is restrained to an interrogation table and her feet are tickled with two spinning brush wheels.
  • Used on two separate occasions by Robotnik to attempt to gain information in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks:
    • In "Principal Interest," Alvin tickles Brittany's armpit when she blocks his way to see the principal.
    • In "Kiss Conspiracy," Alvin and Theodore tackle Simon and tickle torture him.
  • Played for laughs in the Arthur episode "Buster's Dino Dilemma". Buster had kept the dinosaur fossil (a footprint) he had dug up during a field trip, instead of turning it in so it could be displayed at the museum as the class had been ordered. In a Dream Sequence, he is found out because Arthur was put through this.
  • In the kiddie show, The Backyardigans episode "International Super Spy", this is Lady in Pink's (played by Uniqua) torture. Agent Secret (played by Pablo) is completely immune, as he isn't ticklish.
    Agent Secret: Do you expect me to talk?
    Lady in Pink: No, Mr. Secret, I expect you to laugh.
  • In a episode of Ben 10 (2016), Ben utilizes this as Grey Matter by tickling Gwen's bare foot with a feather to get her to break a vow of silence. If you're wondering, she's clearly ticklish since it causes her to jump but still doesn't speak.
  • In Big Hero 6: The Series, Fred incorporates this in a technique he learns from his father, making it his own.
  • An episode of Blinky Bill has Blinky training a crocodile friend of his to be tough, part of which involves tickling. His rationale is that "tough crocs aren't ticklish".
  • Bob's Burgers: In "Purple Rain-Union" the kids want to go see their mom's band at a high school reunion, but their babysitter won't let them. They find out she's extremely ticklish and try using this to threaten her, but she freaks out and punches Tina.
  • Something similar to this happened in Bobby's World. He thought he would be able to use his new found Martial Arts skills to bully his classmates, and is tickle-tortured in a fantasy sequence.
  • In the crossover between Bunsen Is a Beast and The Fairly Oddparents, Bunsen is able to defeat Amanda Killman by ripping off one of his arms and having it tickle her until she accidentally knocks over the cage he and his friends were trapped in.
  • Courage the Cowardly Dog:
    • In an episode Muriel is on the receiving end of this trope when Dr. Le Quack interrogates her to tell him where her valuables are while under the ruse of being a psychologist trying to help her get her memory back after a blow to the head gave her amnesia.
    • A later episode sees Muriel hanging by her wrists in a dungeon, along with Eustace and Courage himself. A mischievous henchman briefly tickles her under the arms.
  • Happens to Gwizdo in an episode of Dragon Hunters.
  • In Eek! The Cat segment Horrible thunder lizards episode Everything about Babes, one of Thunderlizards Squad during encounter with Thugosaur, pulled one Thougosaur cloak over his head and than tickled him on his ribs with feather. The scene is quite humiliating.
  • Definitely not played for laughs on one episode of Extreme Ghostbusters, in which a clan of psychic vampires who gain strength from laughter attempted to use it on the Ghostbusters.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: In one episode, Timmy Turner is tickled twice by a race of cute alien bunnies that have taken over Yugopotamia. They've also mentioned that they've done this to the Yugopotamians as well, but being the kind of alien race that they are, it only made them fear them rather than affect them directly.
  • The Flintstones: Both Fred and Barney fall victim to this. In one episode, Fred's neighbor, with whom he was feuding, traps Fred's feet under the stone wall between yards and then tickles his feet until Fred can pull free: in another, Pebbles buries Fred at the beach (with his feet sticking out); when he calls Wilma to pull him out, she instead tickles his feet for a minute. Betty uses this on Barney, grabbing his foot and tickling until he agrees to ask for a promotion at work. In "Adobe Dick", when trapped inside the belly of a whale, Fred and Barney tickle its ribs (from inside, no less) with feathers until it spits them out. Finally, there's an episode where Barney is playing the part of a child while Fred reads a parenting book- when he gets to the part about "affectionate play", he starts tickling Barney's feet. (Makes you wonder about the producers a little, actually...)
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
  • A Goofy short titled Tiger Trouble has Goofy subdued by the tiger he's hunting for, who then proceeds to rip the sole from Goofy's boot and lick his bare foot, tickling him immensely. Given that (a) the tiger was obviously planning on having Goofy for lunch and (b) big cats have a habit of licking the skin from their prey before chowing down, it borders on Fridge Horror.
  • This is how Harry rescues Trike from a possessive octopus named Soggy in "Can You Hear a Drip?" on Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs by arms extended from a submarine.
  • Hiccup Hound: A pair of gremlins do this to the titular character, tickling him so much he gets the hiccups that make him jump in the air. They continue to tickle him while also holding a frying pan over his head which he knock his head over whenever he hiccups.
  • In a third season episode of Jackie Chan Adventures, the Monkey King tickle tortures Tohru to make him confess where Jackie and the others went. He then dresses Tohru in a mouse costume and traps him in a continually moving hamster wheel on the roof of their shop.
  • On Jimmy Two-Shoes, when Jimmy is tried by the Horn Fairies (Miseryville versions of the Tooth Fairy), he expects this is the worst punishment they will come up with. He's wrong.
  • Johnny Test introduced a one-shot villain named "The Tickler", who is the brother of reoccurring villain, Wacko. Tickler lives up to his name by not only capturing and tickling Susan and Mary Test (for the majority of the episode as well,) but he also tickles Johnny on their first encounter. He eventually is subjected to his own tickling when Johnny tricks him into tickling Albert, who revealed that he is NOT ticklish due to his old age.
  • Josie and the Pussycats are captured by a Villain of the Week and put in a chamber where Alexander is pinned to a platform barefoot as a feather on a pendulum sweeps by and tickles his feet.
  • Krypto the Superdog: When Krypto's tail becomes a sentient being and runs out in the world on its own to stir up trouble the Dog Stars are tasked to stop it by any means necessary. They eventually trap the living tail in a hole while Mammoth Mutt holds it down. However, the tail playfully tickles her belly, causing her to roll over laughing hysterically as it escapes.
  • A Little Bill episode sees the title character dreaming that he is trapped on a distant planet with a special lava-like substance that does this to anyone trying to cross it. He sees Captain Brainstorm, his hero, in the clutches of this tickling substance, and manages to rescue him.
  • In the Lucky Luke episode "Alibi", a young blonde girl name Gladis is kidnapped by outlaws who want her to sign a document. When she refuses, they tickle her with a feather on her bare shoulders.
  • The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: In "These Boots were Made for Walking (On Your Face)" the gang searching for K'nuckles kidnap Flapjack and attempt to force him to tell them were Kn'uckles is by tickling him.
  • In "Miraculous Ladybug", Manon, Etta and Ella tickle Marinette Dupain-Cheng on the belly, the armpits and the ribs in order to know what is in the sewing box.
  • An episode in The Mouse And The Monster has the titular characters Chesbro and Mo (the mouse and monster, respectively) being test subjects for some scientists. Mo is subject to tickling, though the actual torture part is subverted as he actually enjoys it.
  • While not exactly torture, Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot has nerve endings installed onto her body in one episode that gives her physical feelings of ticklishness and pain. While she actually enjoys being tickled throughout the episode, it still causes problems for her, but they do pay off in the end against a villain that feeds on mental pain.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • In the episode "It's About Time", Spike does this briefly to Twilight Sparkle.
    • Also used by Trixie on Applejack in "Magic Duel" to make her give in to her demands. Trixie unintentionally does this to Rainbow Dash at the end of the episode, trying and failing to do an Agony Beam.
    • Spike ends up on the receiving end of this courtesy of the CMC in the episode "Just For Sidekicks".
  • In the Muppet Babies (1984) episode "The Frog Who Knew Too Much", Kermit is subjected to this by a machine in a fantasy in an attempt to find out what secret he's keeping from the others.
  • In an episode of The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn entitled "Huck of La Mancha", where Huck and his friends join forces with none than Don Quixote and Sancha Panza, the latter is captured at one point by bandits who torture him by - surprise, surprise - ticking his feet with a feather until he tells them what they want to know. Or rather, what they want to hear, namely that his master is rich.
  • The Pac-Man episode "The Day the Forest Disappeared" has Mezmaron use a Laugh Laser to incapacitate Pac-Man and the Pac-Marines through laughter.
  • In "The Golden Pyramid Problem" on Peg + Cat, the dragon threatens Peg + Cat with this, but is unable to because they're protected by a magic cylinder. Peg then uses this on him to get him to reveal what he did with the pyramids.
  • In one episode of The Penguins of Madagascar, Savio tickles Private in order to delay him and the Penguins from him eating a baby Fossa.
  • Happens all the time on PJ Masks since they are young heroes who can't use too much violence.
    • Luna Girl has used her moths too tickle Owlette, Gecko, and Romeo into submission.
    • Romeo used a device to force Catboy to tickle himself.
    • Catboy tickled Night Ninja by crawling inside his super suit while he was shrunken down to a small size.
  • Olive Oyl has her feet tickled on four separate occasions in the Popeye cartoon. Twice through her shoe ("Seasin's Greetinks!" and "Be Kind to 'Aminals'") and twice barefoot ("Shiver Me Timbers!" and "Bridge Ahoy!").
  • A fox gets tickled as punishment in two scenes in an episode of the Redwall series, but they manage to make even this somewhat dark (compared to the actual torture from the book). The fox happens to be dangling by a rope hundreds of feet above the air as he's being tickled—eventually, we hear his laughter suddenly turn into a scream and then a thud. Less brutal than being tortured on the rack or riddled with arrows, like in the book, but it's a pretty neat way of averting full Bowdlerization.
  • In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "No Pain No Gain", Rocko gets on a rowing machine at the gym (that has a TV screen), and mistakenly gets the Deliverance scene. On the screen, Rocko runs into hillbillies, one of whom says "Now we gonna make you squeal, piggy!", and produces a pig and proceeds to tickle it with a feather. Rocko screams bloody murder and abandons the machine.
  • Rugrats has a few scenes of this nature, one in particular when the babies and imitating a Crime-flick. Angelica has Chuckie tied up and has Phil tickle his feet.
  • Used in The Secret World of Benjamin Bear episode: "A Tickle Too Far"
  • This happens in The Simpsons episode "Dangerous Curves" where during a flashback, a very young Bart and Lisa do this to Grandpa to get him to tell them where the cookies are.
  • In the Space Goofs episode "Scout's Night Out", Gorgious is subject to this after being captured by boy scouts.
  • In an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, SpongeBob uses a tickle belt on Man-Ray when he is training him to be good. During training, Man-Ray tends to beat up Patrick, leading Patrick to torture Man-Ray with the belt.
    • In "Planet of the Jellyfish", Sandy straps SpongeBob to a table and tickles him in order to find out if he is really a "jelly-clone".
    • In “Karate Island”, one of the fighters Sandy faces off with specializes in tickle-style. He’s able to get in one attack before she fights back.
  • In the Samurai Jack episode "Jack and the Smackback", Jack defeats a giant Sumo wrestler this way. (Jack's face gaining the biggest smile that likely ever was on it in the whole series.)
  • Deconstructed in Star vs. the Forces of Evil. When Marco refuses his appointed duties as Star's knight, his fellow knights subject him to this in an attempt to force him to do so. Naturally, Marco completely dismisses the threat- turns out, most people won't abandon their deeply-held convictions to avoid being tickled.
  • The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode where Bowser was a vampire had him perform this on Luigi who provides the page quote.
  • Sushi Pack: In "The Wrong Sushi", in order to get the trophy from The Legion of Low Tide, Maguro tickles an inflated Fugu with a feather via her psychic powers, causing him to deflate, and the Legion to fall.
  • In the TaleSpin episode "Polly Wants a Treasure", Don Karnage has his flunkies do this to Kit Cloudkicker.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    • Used by recurring villain Don Tortelli to try to force his captives to talk (which, oddly enough, never included the Turtles themselves, just their human allies). It's interesting to note that he seemed to prefer tickling male captives, even focusing more on them when he had a woman at his mercy as well. If that was a conscious choice on the writers' part to avoid making him seem sexual, it didn't work. It really didn't.
      "Where do you want it, blondie? Under the arm? The soles of your feet?"
    • In the episode "Bunre's Blues," Burne and Vernon get captured by some spies who enact this on them. The two are then abducted by Tortelli who proceeds to do the same thing to them. Then by the end of the episode, the two are abducted by aliens who all look like Elvis, and they put Burne and Vernon through this as well just for the heck of it.
  • In Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline it is used effectively by the Rigor Mortis Quartet in the episode On Borrowed Time.
  • In "Pickle's Problem" from ToddWorld, when Pickle keeps running out on everyone because he doesn't want them to know he needs glasses (though they don't know this is why), Todd suggests that they tickle him until he talks. After a few more suggestions, Todd finally suggests that they could simply just ask him why, since they haven't actually tried doing so.
  • Used twice in The Triplets. In the episode "Oliver Twist", Oliver is tortured this way by Sikes for information about a stolen clock. In "Robinson Crusoe", the three protagonists themselves are tickled by a group of natives before being rescued by Robinson.
  • Underdog has done this a few times:
    • In the finale of "The Big Shrink", after Simon Bar Sinister employs his cloud-making machine to rain his Shrinking Water over the city and shrink everyone to the size of his thumb, Underdog, Sweet Polly and all the rest of the shrunken citizens decide to turn his own Shrinking Water against him and employ a feather to tickle him until he tells them the antidote.
    • After numerous failures at taking over the world, especially with the aforementioned Shrinking Water, Simon later does this to everyone in the country in "The Tickle Feather Machine" to neutralize voters so nobody can stop him from being elected dictator. This scheme quickly backfires, because as convicted felons, he and Cad were not registered to vote, to which Underdog turns his own weapon on him before blowing the rest of the feathers off the face of the Earth with his Atomic Breath.
  • In the VeggieTales adaptation of the story of Esther, the worst punishment possible was to be banished to the Island of Perpetual Tickling.
  • The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald: "The Legend of Grimace Island" has One-Eyed Sally try to coerce Ronald and friends into revealing the location of the treasure of Grimace Island by tickling them.
  • Dr. Screwball Jones' plan in "The Boy Wander" from Wander over Yonder is forcing everyone to be happy through this method with a tickle machine.
  • On the Winx Club, while keeping the kingdom safe without help from the fairies, the pixies are able to defeat Darcy by shrinking and crawling all over her while she laughs hysterically and is rendered helpless.
  • In an episode of Xiaolin Showdown Jack Spicer has Clay, Kimiko, and Rai strapped down to a large "tickle bot". You can guess what happens from there.

    Real Life 
  • Take caution Googling "Tickle Torture," for fear that you'll come across a generous amount of websites listing this trope as a fetish.
    • Truth in Television—there are a handful of people for whom the tickling sensation is very uncomfortable. Several advice columnists have received letters from people whose supposed love ones have been exploiting this almost to the point of abuse—one woman described being pinned down by her boyfriend so that he could tickle her until she was in tears.
  • In Medieval times, tickling was used as a real form of torture. The victim's feet would be placed in a stockade and soaked in salt. Then, the torturer would bring in animals that love the taste of salt, such as goats, to lick the salt off the victim's feet. Of course, it would tickle at first, but later would become painful as the torture would last for more than a day. To make matters worse, once the goats licked all the salt off, the process would begin all over again.
  • Miriam Pielhau had her feet tickled during a broadcast of GIGA Green. She attempted to resist and continue her sentence but, the tickling proved to be too effective and she quickly crumbled.
  • Samantha Brown, host of multiple Travelogue Shows on the Travel Channel, seems to react to most treatments involving her feet as this.
    • During her "Great Hotels" episode in Savannah, GA, Sam received a pedicure that included having her foot scraped with an oyster shell. Sam admits to being ticklish after her foot begins to jerk, saying she hopes she doesn't kick the technician in the chin.
      • Another occurred in her "Passport to Latin America" Mexico City episode where Sam enters a market for a spiritual cleansing, complaining of achy feet, back and throat. The man in charge of the "cleansing" brushes her with a branch, rolls an egg on her head and arms, blows cigar smoke in front of her face and rubs garlic on her soles. Sam's composure breaks as the cleanser begins to rub oil on her toes, causing her to giggle uncontrollably. She even asks how to say "ticklish" in Spanish. The cleansing is completed by tossing two palmfuls of birdseed over her shoulders. Total Cost: $8.
      • The most notable incident was in "Samantha Brown's Asia" Cambodia episode. Sam stops to try a fish pedicure, where the fish nibble away dead skin from feet, resulting in smoother skin. Sam is justifiably nervous when the fish start to gather around her feet but, she submerges them in the water anyway. Upon contact with the fish, Sam bursts into laughter, struggling to keep her feet still. However, her hysterical laughter quickly transitions into hysterical screaming as she begins desperately swatting the fish away. She soon regains her composure long enough to explain the fishes' purpose but her feet continue to twitch and jerk throughout the pedicure.
  • QVC presenter Alison Young has been known to utilize this on models with ticklish feet. In this clip, she even tickles a model until she begs her to stop.

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Gamon

Gamon explains his torture methods to Natsu and Lucy, showing even something as silly as goat licking can be very painful.

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