Tongue on the Flagpole

"She got stuck! Should've ducked! Worst of luck! Stuck, stuck to a pole!"
—Courtney, Gwen, & Heather, Total Drama World Tour, "Stuck to a Pole"

We Triple Dog Dare ya to read this trope.

A character, usually (but not always) a kid, is dared to place his tongue on a flagpole (or other metal object) in sub-zero temperatures. The tongue becomes stuck to the flagpole and Hilarity Ensues.

Truth in Television. The saliva on your tongue will freeze on contact with a cold surface if it's cold enough, and it's possible to lose your tongue to severe frostbite. Better not try it. Of course, if you breathe on it enough or get some hot water, that isn't a problem.

Examples of Tongue on the Flagpole include:

Advertising

  • Happens in a UK advert for Pot Noodle. A boy's tongue is stuck to a pole. A teacher needs warm water and a sponge to free him. But when she goes to boil the kettle she finds a Pot Noodle and uses the hot water on that instead, leaving the boy stuck.
  • Played with in this commercial for Jeep.
  • All three of the Budweiser Frogs once got their tongues stuck to a very cold can of Bud in the middle of a blizzard in the swamp.


Comic Strips

  • Even well past age 20, Nemi still does this.
  • Garfield
    • Odie once gets his tongue stuck on a frozen fire hydrant. The strip then shows six panels' worth of outstretched Odie tongue, leading to Garfield saying, "We need a blow dryer and a really, really long extension cord."
    • Jon once got his tongue stuck on the mailbox, but it wasn't seen.


Fan Works


Films -- Animation

  • As a colt, the eponymous Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron gets his tongue stuck to a large icicle. He then snaps it off and carries it away with him until he melts his tongue free in his mouth.
  • In Brother Bear, Koda relates a story to Kenai wherein some bear licked an iceberg and got his tongue stuck to it. It then floated away, so to save him "They had to, like, rip his tongue off, so now, he hath t'talk like dis alla time..."
  • The Ice Age movies:
    • Scrat gets his tongue stuck to a glacier.
    • In the first movie, Sid gets his tongue stuck on the floor of an ice cave.
  • At the end of Flushed Away, the evil Toad and his French cousin Le Frog actually get their tongues frozen onto a large pipe containing liquid nitrogen after Roddy smashes it apart to freeze the tidal wave Toad sent to drown the rats of Sewer-London. It's implied that the two amphibians were both arrested after they were unfrozen.


Films -- Live-Action

Kumar: This is just like that scene in A Christmas Story.
Harold: Oh, is it really?


Literature

  • One Paul Jennings story features a boy kissing an ice sculpture of a girl. The inevitable happens, inevitably, so he goes into a pool of water to melt it off.
  • The Watsons Go to Birmingham had a scene like this too.
  • The narrator in Popular Music From Vittula climbs to a mountain in the Himalayas, and kneels over to kiss a metal plate on the ground. He has to pee in a cup to free himself.
  • In Farmer Boy, Almanzo is egged on to lick a pump handle, but knows better than to rise to the bait.
  • While not using the tongue, it is mentioned in Hogfather. Albert reminisces about a toy horse he wanted as a kid. "I must have spent hours staring at it with my nose pressed against the glass, until someone heard my cries and unfroze me."
  • One of the stories in The Book of Heroic Failures tells of a man who knelt down to breathe on the lock of his car door in an effort to defrost it and ending up spending a freezing night outside with his lips stuck to the car door.
  • Warrior Cats
    • Ravenpaw goes to drink from a gutter on the barn roof, but ends up with his tongue stuck to the ice he wasn't expecting to be there.
    • In Sunrise, Hollyleaf gets her tongue stuck to a frozen pond. After much hilariousness, Brambleclaw gets her free by breathing on the ice to melt it.


Live-Action TV

  • Tested and confirmed on MythBusters. Evidently, enough people thought it to be a myth to justify it. This also showed how much damage it could cause. They stuck a pig's tongue to it, and when they pulled it off by force...
  • The Paul Jennings story mentioned above was one of many adapted as an episode of Round the Twist. The ice statue Bronson kissed was of a girl who had red hair—who turned out to be his cousin.
  • An episode of Kenan and Kel where they get stuck in a refrigerator in a restaurant and one of them gets his tongue stuck on a fish (can't remember who though).
  • Happens to one of the President's bodyguards (on a skilift) in an episode of The Nanny.
  • Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear. In a variant, it was a metal hex nut he was holding with his mouth—but since he was standing on the polar ice north of Canada at the time, it had the same effect.
  • An episode of Rescue 911 had this happen on one of their segments where a kid got his tongue stuck in a freezer and the rescue squad had to come and free him.
  • Referenced in Scrubs. Turk is keeping his boxers in the freezer and JD's brother warns him to make sure he is completely dry 'down there' before putting them on or he could end up with "a tongue on the flagpole situation".


Music


Puppet Shows


Radio

  • On A Prairie Home Companion Garrison Keillor jokingly suggested that pump handles (and frozen objects in general) have the ability to hypnotize children to make them stick their tongues on them.


Video Games

  • The (very surreal) Interactive Fiction game So Far dares you to lick a frozen pole. It's a bad idea, because you will get stuck and eventually freeze. While your tongue is stuck, all descriptions come back muddled, as if the narrator ith thalking with ith thung thuck to a thlagthole.
  • In the Canada level of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, there is an objective to help a guy called Chuck (specifically, "Get Chuck Unstuck") who has got his tongue stuck on a pole and is being taunted and having snowballs thrown at him by two bullies. This being a skateboarding game, what's the solution? Plow into him at full speed.
  • In Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail!, Larry can lick an ice sculpture and get his tongue stuck.
  • Not performable, but mentioned in Dragon Age. "Have you ever licked a lamppost in winter?"
  • One loading screen video loop in Monday Night Combat features the Ice Men Pit Girl trying to pull free an Ice Men Tank... whose tongue is stuck to a ShaveIce turret.


Web Animation


Web Comics


Web Original

  • In one Gaia Online mini comic, several of the male characters do this.


Western Animation

  • Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry movie. Gorthon, an evil-looking racer voiced by Tom Kenny, is tricked by Biff and Buzz (the race announcers) into sticking his tongue to the South Pole (because he thinks his tongue won't stay there).
  • Phineas and Ferb: In "Out to Launch", Dr, Doofenshmirtz gets his tongue stuck on the giant ice cube tray he was using to hold Perry the Platypus prisoner.
  • Interesting, if sick, take on the subject in Superjail: The Warden gets his tongue stuck on Alice's frozen body, while trying to lick her breasts...
  • In the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang gets his tongue frozen to his glider. Since he appears in the next scene not attached to the glider, he presumably detached himself.
  • The Simpsons
    • One of the winter hazards faced by Lewis and Clarke (a.k.a. Lenny and Carl) in the episode "Magical History Tour".
    • And Homer gets his tongue stuck to the ice sculpture at Otto's wedding.
    • And in "The Springfield Files", Channel 6 News uses a file photo of Homer that shows him with his tongue stuck to a lamppost.
    • In "My Fair Laddy, Bart stores Lisa's saxophone in the freezer and then hands it to her. Her tongue gets stuck when she attempts to blow it.
  • In Yvon of the Yukon, Harland and the Duke find themselves lost in the middle of the arctic tundra when they come across a set of train tracks. Wondering if a train is coming, Harland gives the sage advice: "If you stick your tongue to the train track and it doesn't stick, then a train has gone by, and if it does stick, then a train is coming". The Duke tries this, and naturally gets his tongue stuck to the tracks.
  • In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Scratch and Grounder are in the Arctic cold, Scratch kisses Grounder, Hilarity Ensues.
  • In the Grossology episode "Fangs a Lot", Professor Skinner gets stuck when he kisses a frozen, giant, genetically modified snake.
  • Happens to Sir Roderick in Gawayn. Having won a fake Crystal of Gawayn in a game show, Roderick tries to get it to work by licking it. At this point, he discovers it is actually made of ice.
  • Total Drama World Tour: In the Yukon episode, Bridgette gets her tongue stuck to a flagpole thanks to Alejandro. Then Chris forces her to sing about it.
  • Penny from The Mighty B! once tried to do this on purpose. She failed.
  • Happens multiple times on Erky Perky.
  • In the Class of 3000 episode "Eddie's Money", Madison gets her tongue stuck on an ice sculpture at Eddie's birthday party. Twice.
  • The Venture Brothers, "Now Museum, Now You Don't": Hank sticks his tongue to the ice block containing Ug-Ugh.
  • Stimpy from The Ren and Stimpy Show once did this, once it became stuck he pulled until his tongue got ripped off.
  • In the Squirrel Boy episode "The Grim Cheaper", imaginary future Andy gets his tongue stuck on an icicle during the sled chase through the deep frozen house (which also makes sense in context).
  • In the Zekes Pad episode "The Artful Dodger", Zeke's dad gets the Captivity Harmonica he was playing inside the snowbound house stuck to his lips.
  • In the Camp Lazlo episode "Beans Are From Mars", Chip and Skip get their tongues stuck to an ice cream truck. Which then drives off.
  • In the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode "Hearth's Warming Eve", Scootaloo and some other poor anonymous filly get their tongues stuck to a huge (Christmas-tree-sized) candy-cane prop. They get better though.
  • Stoked: In "Channel Surfers", Reef attempts to kiss Lo while they are standing in the cool room. He misses and ends up with his tongue stuck to a metal strut.
  • Taz-Mania: Taz gets his tongue stuck to frozen dinner in "Take All of Me". Wendal's attempts to free him do not go well.
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