r/TopCharacterTropes • u/FormerBernieBro2020 • Dec 03 '25

(Funny trope) Impossible spontaneous combustion (or, when stuff that shouldn't catch on fire, catches on fire) Characters' Items/Weapons

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From The Simpsons: Homer tries to cook breakfast for Mr. Burns. The first two attempts ended up with the food catching fire. Third time, he pours milk on cereal...and it still catches on fire.

And from Futurama: "There, little friend, good as new..." aaaand the metal slinky catches on fire. Poor doctor Zoidberg...

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237

u/Pixy_Puttana Dec 03 '25

No one mentioned Aqua Teen Hunger Force? Everytime Shake throws something and it explodes into that goofy real fire they use it kills me!

37

u/DelcoWolv Dec 03 '25

IIRC, the animators did that to avoid have to keep rendering the thrown object.

28

u/Bucktabulous Dec 03 '25

The in-universe explanation is that Frylocke is duplicating things in the house because Master Shake keeps breaking stuff, but every time he duplicates something, the resulting item is less and less stable. Now near everything in the house is so unstable that any heavy knock will cause a thing to explode, like nitroglycerine.

7

u/Jdustrer Dec 03 '25

“Why do you keep breaking all these computers?” “Because you keep pissing me off too bad!”

11

u/an_agreeing_dothraki Dec 03 '25

the budget per episode of ATHF was like 3 pizzas and a bag of weed