History Main / GoingPostal

While Going Postal is strictly a work-related massacre caused by a disgruntled employee, it may involve elements of a BerserkButton, a RageBreakingPoint, BewareTheNiceOnes, SelectiveEnforcement, or a combination of the four. Compare AxesAtSchool and SpreeKiller.

* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons:'' An early comic has Moe's Tavern attacked by a mailman (who looks suspiciously like [[Series/{{Cheers}} Cliff Clavin]]) armed with an assault rifle, who declares he's fed up of jokes about crazy mailmen and has come looking for revenge. Before he can get further than demanding the bar's occupants start singing "Little Rabit Foo-Foo", he's knocked out by an oblivious Barney swinging a door into his face.

RealLife has more premeditated mayhem. In TV Land, the worker snaps on the spot and becomes an ImprobableWeaponUser, wielding something work-related, like a boxcutter, letter opener or something hefty to bludgeon with.

Named after a series of incidents involving U.S. Postal Service workers going on killing sprees dating as far back as 1983, and occurring most infamously in Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986 that has henceforth become a part of popular culture.

While Going Postal is strictly a work-related massacre caused by a disgruntled employee, it may involve elements of a BerserkButton, a RageBreakingPoint, BewareTheNiceOnes, SelectiveEnforcement or a combination of the four. Compare AxesAtSchool and SpreeKiller.

* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons:'' An early comics has Moe's Tavern attacked by a mailman (who looks suspiciously like [[Series/{{Cheers}} Cliff Clavin]]) armed with an assault rifle, who declares he's fed up of jokes about crazy mailmen and has come looking for revenge. Before he can get further than demanding the bar's occupants start singing "Little Rabit Foo-Foo", he's knocked out by an oblivious Barney swinging a door into his face.

* Creator/DaneCook's "Creepy Guy at Work" routine ends with said creepy guy snapping and proceeding to shoot up his office, with the set up being that [[YouWillBeSpared you'll be spared]] [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe because you went out to talk to him and buy him candy.]]

* This trope led to people mocking advance trailers for ''Film/ThePostman'', so new trailers were made without any scenes of Creator/KevinCostner giving the TitleDrop. The film itself doesn't have anything to do with the trope, and is closer to an inversion: a man who has made it his mission to deliver the mail in a post-apocalyptic future to help rebuild society.

* PlayedWith in ''Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000TheMovie''. In the film ''Film/ThisIslandEarth'', a deliverman (played by Coleman Francis!) heads towards Cal Meachim's laboratory, shuffling through some packages. As he does, Mike riffs out "Sort this, deliver that, I'll make 'em all pay", treating him as this kind of person.

'''Newman:''' [[https://youtu.be/LL6ubXD9ZjY Because the mail never stops]]. It just keeps coming, and coming, and coming. There's never a letup, it's relentless! Everyday it piles up more, and more, and more, and you gotta get it out! [[MotiveRant But the more you get out the more it keeps coming IN! AND THEN THE BARCODE READER BREAKS! AND IT'S PUBLISHER'S CLEARING HOUSE DAY!]]\\

* The ''TabletopGame/IlluminatiNewWorldOrder'' "Post Office" card has a heavily-armed postman blazing away with a machine-gun.

* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'' featured Carl Schliff, a proud member of the United States Post Service. Before the zombie apocalypse, he had a perfect record at his job. Once he learns who Chuck is, he goes into a homicidal rage, and starts throwing around bombs and firing a shotgun at him.

* In ''VideoGame/Afterlife1996'', one of the IronicHell punishments for Wrath is "The Post Office Game", which makes the damned do postal service in Hell, forcing them to put up with wrong addresses, weird smells, and the occasional explosion. This punishment also puts some damned with packages on endless lines, where the attendants close for lunch every time they can attend someone. [[InvokedTrope Conveniently-placed rifles are found on both sides of the punishment]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' "Perils of Gorgon" dlc, one of the most dangerous Marauders on Gorgon is Charles from Accounting, a former accountant who lost his mind [[spoiler:due to Adrena-Time side-effects like the rest of the Marauders]]. He's dangerous because he is armed with one of the dlc's new Science Weapons, a device meant to launch ''mail'' quickly that he converted to instead make express deliveries of ''rockets''.

* The CreepyPasta ''If You See Ghost Lights, Don't Leave the Trail'' starts out with a story about a disgruntled ex-employee of the towns textile factory going berserk and shooting his coworkers up and blowing up the building with a truckload of kerosene.
* A Website/{{Twitter}} post proposed going postal as an official part of the job: For any person working a SoulSuckingRetailJob, the employee is allowed to kill an UnsatisfiableCustomer to destress. They only get the two per year, and they're allowed to tell customers about the policy, but deliberately leave it open whether any of the staff has already used it as a measure to ScareEmStraight.

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''WebVideo/TVTrash''[='s=] review of ''WesternAnimation/OliveTheOtherReindeer''. Rowdy says that he deplores the trope because he's had nothing but positive experiences with the US Postal Service, and most postal workers that he knows are nothing at all like the trope.

** A quick joke in "Homer Loves Flanders" when Ned dreams of shooting bystanders from a bell tower à la Charles Whitman, a postal worker retaliates.

* Very nearly averted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}''. After thinking Lana had sex with every man in the office [[note]]She actually had everyone pay her to ''say'' they had sex with her, but did not sleep with any of them, knowing nobody would be the first to admit he didn't sleep with Lana[[/note]], Cyril is seen in the bathroom loading a rifle á la ''Film/FullMetalJacket'', but was evidently stopped by someone who didn't realise the stall was occupied.
* ''Westernanimation/TwoStupidDogs'' had a mail-carrier who tries to explode the post office, before the Big Dog convinces her otherwise.

** In ''Off The Record'', he tries to kill Frank because he thinks Frank committed ''mail fraud''.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. In "Repo Man", a demon has possessed a postal worker and used his vessel to murder women. [[spoiler:We later find that the postal worker is a [[WillingChanneler willing participant]], as the demon makes a point of seeking out potential serial killers and acting as an EvilMentor.]] Naturally, this trope is lampshaded by Dean. "So you find postal workers and help them go postal?"

* Funnily enough, ''Film/Postal2007'', based on the [[VideoGame/{{Postal}} game of the same name]], subverts this trope, with the main character being an ordinary underachieving trailer park bum just trying to go about his day while everyone ''else'' [[OnlySaneMan around him is batshit crazy]]; from the crazy barista with the HairTiggerTemper, his potential new boss being a CloudCuckoolander, the [[PoliceAreUseless Cops]] being both stupid and bloodthirsty maniacs, and even his local convenience store actually being a front for ''UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden'''s terrorist activities.

While Going Postal is strictly a work-related massacre caused by a disgruntled employee, it may involve elements of a BerserkButton, a RageBreakingPoint, BewareTheNiceOnes, SelectiveEnforcement or a combination of the four. Compare AxesAtSchool.

* The videogame titled ''VideoGame/{{Postal}}'', and its sequel. It's basically ''VideoGame/TheSims'' meets ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto''. Or to be more precise, ''Music/AnalCunt'' in video game form.

* A Website/{{Twitter}} post proposed going postal as an official part of the job: For any person working a SoulSuckingRetailJob, the employee is allowed to kill an UnsatisfiableCustomer to destress. They only get the one per year, and they're allowed to tell customers about the policy, but deliberately leave it open whether any of the staff has already used it as a measure to ScareEmStraight.

* An episode of "[[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory Justice Friends]]" briefly features a PracticallyJoker villain named Disgruntled Postman, who robs a post office to steal a single postage stamp to mail a bomb to the US President.

* Parodied in the ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' sketch "Postal Workers Gone Postal". Two postal workers decide to have their murderous rampage on the same day, but of course they don't want to share. They argue about who gets to go on a killing spree, which has the more [[FreudianExcuse traumatic past]], and which person each of them gets to kill. Then a third guy who was planning the same thing walks in. When a fourth guy walks in, they ask him why he hates being a postman, but he turns out to be a robber. They use their guns to arrest him and are hailed as heroes, and the government makes firearms mandatory for all postal workers.

* ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'': When Van Pelt goes to the gun shop, the salesman says "You're not a postal worker, are you?" upon seeing a man with a [[AdventurerOutfit pith helmet]] buying firearms.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has the product of such an event in containment, and this being the SCP-verse, it's an odd one. [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2262 SCP-2262]] is an anomalous letter "B" written on a scrap of paper created by a studio artist and typographer experiencing severe ArtistDisillusionment and the mother of all {{Creator Breakdown}}s. Viewing the strangely-scripted letter [[BrownNote incites murderous rage]] in anyone with knowledge of aesthetics, art, design, or typography. In a twist, the unveiling actually managed to invert the trope: [[spoiler:upon unleashing his creation upon his coworkers, a riot quickly ensued, as apparently was intended. What may not have been planned, however, was the mob focusing its collective rage on the ''creator'' of the item and tearing him limb from limb]].

* Parodied in the third ''Film/TheNakedGun'' movie. While Frank is dealing with a number of threats (itself a parody of the staircase shootout scene in ''Film/TheUntouchables1987''), a woman screams "disgruntled postal workers!" and he sees a number of mailmen firing assault rifles.[[note]]"Disgruntled" was the media's preferred euphemism for going postal at the time.[[/note]]

While Going Postal is strictly a work-related massacre caused by a disgruntled employee, it may involve elements of a BerserkButton, a RantInducingSlight, BewareTheNiceOnes, SelectiveEnforcement or a combination of the four. Compare AxesAtSchool.