Water Guns and Balloons

The Weapon of Choice for the Bratty Half-Pint and Youngsters. Water Balloons may be used alongside slingshots.

The contents will not always be water—it could be jelly, ink, or something more... foul. Either that or some jerk will bring out the hose.

Expect college science geeks and/or medical students with too much time on their hands to build a water balloon slingshot out of lab materials, or some other ridiculous contraption.

Examples of Water Guns and Balloons include:

Advertising

• There's a rather amusing American commercial for hydrogen-cell cars that asks the question "What if we could replace something harmful with water?" Cue Matrix-style gunfight with water guns in place of real guns and water balloons in place of grenades.

Anime and Manga

• Cowboy Bebop: Ed uses water guns filled with "stinky gas" in "Mushroom Samba".
• The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya: Haruhi subconsciously modified model guns into firing pressurized water balls with unimaginably explosive firepower. Dual squirt guns turned dual mini water-grenade launchers/pistols.
• Yotsuba, Jumbu, and Yanda held a water balloon fight inside the house. When Yotsuba was supposed to be housesitting no less. And she even started it by ambushing Yanda with her water pistol.

Film

• Done in The Lost Boys, using squirt guns filled with holy water against vampires. Unusually effective.
• Played for Wayans-style comedy in Don't Be A Menace To South Central.
• From Dusk till Dawn also has holy water guns, treated somewhat like Holy Hand Grenades.
• Attack The Block has this with "probs and mayhem," 2 nine-year olds, using a water pistol full of petrol and a firecracker to burn an alien to death.
• Used in the final battle in Recess: School's Out, along with silly string, no less!

Literature

• In Adventures of a Demon Hunting Soccer Mom book 2, Eddie shows up with Power Soakers filled with tabasco sauce.
• Some mean upperclassmen in Paper Towns throw urine-filled water balloons at freshmen before Quentin intervenes.
• Shiro ends up with one in one of the The Adventures of Samurai Cat novels. Against a vampire.
• Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files once used water balloons filled with holy water against an attacking Black Court vampire.

Live Action TV

• In the Doctor Who episode "The Fires of Pompeii," the Tenth Doctor uses a water gun against the lead Pyrovile.
• When Ross is trying to convince himself his student-girlfriend isn't too immature for him in Friends, he arrives at the dorm to find she's having a water-balloon fight. After they split up, he thinks "She handled that really maturely. Was this a mistake?" and then she drops a balloon on him from the window...
• MythBusters: one myth they tested was a combination of a water gun and a Static Stun Gun.
• An early episode of Stargate SG-1 has Teal'c befriend a young girl who carries a Super Soaker around. After she helps save him, he gives her a "superior model"...which she immediately uses to shoot Daniel Jackson. The good doctor remarks that maybe they shouldn't have loaded it. Teal'c answers if they hadn't, she would be unable to defend herself, before he pulls out an even bigger water gun to chase after her.
• The West Wing: after noting that Josh is the kind of guy who has to be hit over the head to notice that a girl is interested in him, Amy tosses a water balloon at him from the balcony of her office as he's leaving the building, that almost hit him in the head.
• One episode of Boy Meets World had Cory trying to earn enough money to buy a high-end squirt gun in time for an upcoming water war. After his dad helps him finish his job so he doesn't miss the fun, Cory ends up trading the new gun for two smaller ones, which he and his dad then gleefully turn on the rest of the family.

Newspaper Comics

• Regular feature on Calvin and Hobbes. An Escalating War usually follows.
• Also appears in some Garfield strips.

Video Games

• The Hudson Wii Ware game Water Warfare is a Lighter and Softer First-Person Shooter based around water gun combat.
• zOMG!: the Heavy Water Balloon. Higher Rage Ranks will use larger balloons and slingshots.
• Adults seem keen to start water balloon fights in The Sims 2.
• Your starting weapons in Zombies Ate My Neighbors are water guns, specifically Entertech motorized water guns, although The game doesn't actually call them that. As most of your enemies are the undead, the guns are presumably filled with holy water.
• Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard features these as the only weapons really effective against the Soak'em commandos. Hilariously, they're just as effective against every other enemy.
• Dead Rising 2 has normal ones and improvised ones that work like flamethrowers.
• Bully features water balloons. Not one of the stronger weapons.
• One of the power-ups you can shoot at your opponents in Re-Volt.

Web Comics

• Loserz once had a story arc about this.
• Ozy and Millie indulge in a few of these. Both involve Millie, a favoured target of the artist, and More Dakka.

Western Animation

• The all-water balloon Patton parody from The Simpsons.
  • Bart used two water guns filled with ketchup and mustard to threaten Mr. Burns when he went on a date with Marge's mother.
• Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy: one episode involving the tree house has the Eds using water balloons. Another has them selling turkey basters as water squirters. Also Eddy's El Mundo Stinkbomb.
• Kick Buttowski: Kick and Gunthar fight Kick's older brother, Brad, for their hangout. Kick uses water balloons and Brad uses mudballs.
• Inspector Gadget has one of these equipped. For some reason.
  • It's more like a miniature fire hose, and he's able to put out a fire with it quite handily. So that's probably the reason—putting out fires.
• Johnny Bravo episode "Balloon Buffoon" has Johnny and his friends trying to defend against youngsters armed with water balloons, which is treated by Johnny as a military campaign.