Fried dough to us is the first picture in the thread (elephant ear)
That is the first thing we head for at summer picnic....add some cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar.
The second piece we have we usually make a sundae on top of it (of course that is with the cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar first).
With funnel cake, the ice cream would leak through as it melted. I think that there is a funnel cake kit out there that allows you to make it at home.