Bungee jumping is an exhilarating sport that involves using an elastic cord to snap back to the top of a high spot after jumping from it. In media, there are times when characters have to go bungee jumping for action purposes, but they don't always have the resources for proper bungee gear. That's when they have to improvise.
In fiction, characters can use any sufficiently stretchy object as a makeshift bungee cord, and more often than not, it can support their weight. This is often done to retrieve an object or rescue someone from a great height, but there can be other uses. In cartoons, this is often done for the sake of Rule of Funny. This is sometimes achieved with Goo It Up and Rubber Man powers.
Don't Try This at Home; bungee jumping should only be done with proper bungee gear and an expert.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Crayon Shin-chan has an Injured Limb Episode where both Shin-Chan and Ume Matsuzaka sprained their ankles and against all odds, end up sharing the same ward in a hospital. While Ume broke her leg because she slipped while exiting a pub, Shin on the other hand tried playing bungee with his house's clothesline.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: In one comic, Calvin attempts to use a rope as a makeshift bungee cord and wants to jump off the roof but his mother is having none of this.
Calvin: Aw, mom, you act like I'm not even wearing a bungee cord!
Films — Animation
- BIONICLE 3: Web of Shadows: When Matau falls off the Tower of Toa, Vakama rescues him by tying a Visorak web to his ankle and using it as a bungee cord.
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2: In Flint Lockwood's old lab, Flint and Chester V use their Wedgie-Proof Underwear as bungee cords to collect some equipment when the floor is electrified.
- In The Garfield Movie, when Garfield and Odie were still young, Garfield would use Odie's famous Overly Long Tongue as a bungee cord.
- The Simpsons Movie: As he and Homer are falling down Springfield Gorge, Bart uses his trusty slingshot to grab onto a protruding branch and sling them up to safety on the other side.
Films — Live-Action
- Babe: Pig in the City: In the film's climax, Esme Hoggett ties her clown costume's trick suspenders to a drape attached to a ballroom chandelier to swoop down from the balcony and try to take Babe back from a chef who wants him for himself.
- Waterworld: At the climax, the Mariner ties a rope to his ankles and leaps from Gregor's zeppelin, doing an impromptu bungee jump down to the water to rescue Enola.
Literature
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: In the eighth book, the Baudelaire siblings escape from a burning hospital using a bungee cord made from rubber bands.
- My Life as Dinosaur Dental Floss: The incident that gives the book its title occurs when Wally is running from a SWAT team in a museum and impulsively tries to jump from a balcony using a fire hose to stop the fall, not realizing until he has already jumped that the hose is far too long for the length of the drop, but is saved when the hose gets caught in the teeth of a T-Rex skeleton.
Live-Action TV
- The Red Green Show: One of the "Adventures with Bill" segments has Bill making a bungee cord by tying together a bunch of L'eggs-brand pantyhose, because it was much cheaper than a real bungee cord.
Video Games
- Earthworm Jim: The "Snot-A-Problem" level has Jim fighting against Major Mucus while using bungees made out of... you guessed it, snot.
- Henry Stickmin Series: One of the options for descending an elevator in the Ghost Inmate path is to try and use a normal rope to bungee down the elevator. Normal ropes aren't elastic like bungee cords, and Henry finds this out the hard way as his back gets ripped off and the rest of him continues to fall down the elevator.
- Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals: Passionate Patti manages to safely reach the bottom of a chasm by using her pantyhose as a makeshift bungee cord.
- Pizza Tower: The level "Oh Shit!" introduces Mr. Pinch, who uses his hand to catch Peppino by the back of his pants with the intent to pickpocket him and can be used to slingshot himself to a higher ledge.
- Plants vs. Zombies 1: Early concept art for the Bungee Zombie depicts him using what looks like an intestine to do his job. In the final game, it's a simple rope.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom: One mechanic involves SpongeBob getting his underwear hooked on a hook and using it as a bungee cord to collect items. This mechanic is also used in The SpongeBob Movie Game.
- In Stupid Invaders, the game based on Space Goofs, Bud at one point needs to jump down a very long shaft meant for space rockets. To do this, he uses a garden hose that is standing right next to it. In fact, he needs to first shorten the hose before using it, since otherwise it would be too long and he'd smash the ground at the bottom, triggering a game over.
Western Animation
- The Magic School Bus: In "For Lunch", a shrunken Wanda uses gum for bungee jumping. In the segment at the end of the episode where a viewer has a phone call with the show's producer, the viewer points out that this is absolutely impossible. Right after they say this, Liz the lizard does the same thing.
Viewer: What was that?Producer: That was Liz, stretching the truth.
- Total Drama: In "Celebrity Manhunt's Total Drama Action Reunion Special", the bus the contestants take on their way to The Orpah Show goes over a cliff after Courtney and Duncan get distracted making out behind the wheel. While it seems like they're all going to die, Leshawna's bra (which she took off earlier to use as a catapult to launch caramel-covered chocolates at the Total Drama Dirtbags bus) catches on a rock and flings the bus up and down in the air. Duncan then cuts the bra strap, and the contestants make it out (mostly) uninjured.
- Wallace & Gromit: In A Matter of Loaf and Death, when Fluffles falls into the mouth of a crocodile, Gromit uses the hatband from Piella's sunhat as a bungee cord to get her out.
Real Life
- Bungee-jumping was inspired by the "land-diving" practiced by the native peoples of Vanuatu, a traditional harvest celebration where tribespeople would tie a liana vine to each ankle and then jump off a tower to which the other end was secured. According to legend, it commemorates a woman named Tamalie who was displeased with her husband and did this as a sort of Wronski Feint: her husband didn't realize she was using the vines, jumped after her, and fell to his death. Now the men practice it so they don't fall for the trick.
