History Main / HairballHumor

* In ''WesternAnimation/Aladdin1992'', when the Genie gathers everyone for a group hug, he asks if he can kiss Abu the monkey, and immediately coughs out a hairball after he does.

** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1987/12/28 a 1987 strip]], after a loud hacking sound, Jon is startled by a hairball the size of a basketball bouncing by him. Cut to Garfield rubbing his throat and saying "Wow, talk about your hairballs."
** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1982/05/15 this strip]], Garfield gets a hairball stuck in his throat while telling the audience what exactly a cat is, causing him to remark the hairballs are standard equipment.
** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1987/12/25 this strip]], Garfield gives Jon a hairball as a Christmas gift.
** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1998/07/03 this strip]], Garfield watches the Hairball Theatre on tv, in which the (presumably cat) actors have to cough up hairballs in the middle of their dialogue.
** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2000/12/23 this comic]], Jons neighbor Mrs. Feeny complains to him that Garfield left a hairball on her doormat. Garfield himself is quite proud of it, considering it a gift.
** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2001/07/20 this comic]] Jon is InstantlyProvenWrong when he calls cats refined, as Garfield loudly hacks up a hairball in front of him.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2004/01/25 This strip]] has Garfield turn his hacking up hairballs into an act, which he performs in front of Jon, who is naturally not amused.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2005/09/06 This strip]], Garfield is revealed to own a hairball scrapbook. Jon finds it disgusting.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2010/09/14 This strip]], Garfield loudly hacks up a hairball off screen, which he considers his work. The sound startles Jon.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2017/10/29 This strip]], Garfield hacks up a hairball after Liz asks him his opinion about the clothes Jon wants to wear to their date. She knows enough and orders him to change into something else.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2020/09/19 This strip]], after Jon informs Garfield he left him a salad in the fridge, the unamused Garfield retaliates with the reveal he left a hairball in Jon's slipper.
** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2022/09/08 This strip]], Garfield intentionally hacks up a hairball just as Jon is done cleaning the floors.

* Parodied in TheStinger for ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}''. [[spoiler:Goose the Flerken (a dangerous alien animal that looks superficially identical to a house cat) gobbles up the [[MacGuffin Tesseract]] when no one else in the party is willing to handle it with their bare hands to hold in a StomachOfHolding. In the stinger, the Tesseract, with all its awesome Infinity Stone power... gets hacked back up like a hairball onto Nick Fury's desk.]]

* In ''Film/TheSmurfs'', Azrael coughs up some of Smurfette's hair he swallowed during a fight with her, which leads to Gargamel using it to make Smurf Essence.

* In one of the ''Literature/SkippyjonJones'' books, Skippyjon is asked to solve a riddle but he can't think of an answer and coughs up a hairball instead. The dogs think he has a virus and make up a limerick about it.
* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book "Into the Wild", Sandpaw is being rude to the newly-apprenticed Firepaw, so Graypaw says, "She must have a hairball somewhere".

* In ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'', Amanda's (admittedly small) cat Selenium horks up a hairball as big as he is, [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/pretty-amazing/ shown in the last panel]].

* ''Blog/CrappyPictures'': In one post talking about the annoying parts of having pets and children at the same time, it's mentioned that sometimes, her toddler son is curious about their cats' hairballs.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/JungleCubs'' Bagheera the panther is so embarrassed after horking up a hairball in front of half the jungle that he runs away.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode "Along Came a Sister", Lincoln is looking after his teacher's pet tarantula Frank. The kids see a hairball that their cat Cliff coughed up and [[DisneyDeath mistake it for Frank's corpse]], only realizing Frank is alive when Cliff coughs up another hairball that looks just like it.

** In the pilot episode "Big House Blues", Stimpy coughs up hairballs all over Ren. He's at first angry until a little girl comes to adopt him because the hairballs make him look like a poodle.
** "The Boy Who Cried Rat" has Stimpy cough up what at first looks like a hairball, but turns out to be Ren, who was in Stimpy's mouth after passing himself off as a mouse.

** There is a song called "Music/CatHairballs". It has a premise fairly similar to The Cat That Laid The Golden Hairball, with Ren setting up a conveyor belt for Stimpy to "Hwarf" up hairballs onto while the former stamps them with approval. Though in this case they also sing about what they'll make out of the hairballs, like high heel shoes, a hat, and matching underwear. Much like the episode that inspired it, by the halfway point Stimpy is starting to run out, licking at spots that have been farmed dry and gasping for breath. At the end, an overworked and completely licked clean Stimpy tries to hwarf one last time and passes out on the conveyor belt. Ren then says "That's disgusting" and [[PainToTheAss stamps Stimpy's butt]] with a painful ''hluarf'' sound, indenting it with a brand which the video iris out on.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode "Babysitting Fluffy", Chuckie and his father are babysitting Angelica's cat Fluffy, who coughs up a hairball on Chuckie's shirt. [[ThePigPen Phil]], who previously thought he didn't like cats, says, "I guess I do like cats!".
* ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries'': In the subplot to "Wag the Witch" (the school election episode), one of Salem's talents for the Witches' Council is coughing up ''flaming'' hairballs.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had [[IronicName Snowball]] II (named after the first one they had, who was already white), a black cat who became part of the family for a long time, and also known for throwing hairballs up as seen in most of her artworks. This is even lampshaded in the TradingCardGame by Skybox where a mini-collection of scratch-and-smell cards have one about how it smells like Snowball's hairball.
* ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'': During the battle against the sea monster at the beginning of "Bride of the Pastmaster," after the Turbokat is hit with the creature's spines, Razor begins making gagging noises, leading T-Bone to worry that he's been hit. However, it turns out it's just a hairball, which he promptly coughs up onto the cockpit window behind T-Bone's head.

->'''Puss:''' ''([[{{Squick}} upon regurgitating a hairball]])'' Heh-heh, hairball.\\

However, writers sometimes see one good thing about cats coughing up hairballs: it's an opportunity to make some [[ToiletHumour gross-out jokes]]. This might be popular because cats are generally quite elegant and composed, so it could be used as a quick way to temporarily [[NotSoAboveItAll bring down the dignity of a cat]] for comedic effect. There's also the fact that, unlike when a human vomits, coughing up hairballs is actually ''normal'' for cats, so they can have the moment of gross-out humor without making anything too bad happen to the cat.

* In ''ComicBook/CatsAreWeird'', one strip has Misty the cat cough up a hairball on the ground, much to the disgust of her owners.

** In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1987/12/28 this strip,]] after a loud hacking sound, Jon is startled by a hairball the size of a basketball bouncing by him. Cut to Garfield rubbing his throat and saying "Wow, talk about your hairballs."

** There is a song called "Music/CatHairballs". It has a premise fairly similar to The Cat That Laid The Golden Hairball, with Ren setting up a conveyor belt for Stimpy to "Hwarf" up hairballs onto while the former stamps them with approval. Though in this case they also sing about what they'll make out of the hairballs, like high heel shoes, a hat, and matching underwear. Much like the episode that inspired it, by the halfway point Stimpy is starting to run out, licking at spots that have been farmed dry and gasping for breath. At the end, an overworked and completely licked clean Stimpy tries to hwarf one last time and passes out on the conveyor belt. Ren then says "That's disgusting" and [[PainToTheAss stamps Stimpy's butt]] with a painful ''hluarf'' sound, indenting it with a ButtBrand, which the video iris out on.

** [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2017/10/29 This strip], Garfield hacks up a hairball after Liz asks him his opinion about the clothes Jon wants to wear to their date. She knows enough and orders him to change into something else.

* In one ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1987/12/28 strip,]] after a loud hacking sound, Jon is startled by a hairball the size of a basketball bouncing by him. Cut to Garfield rubbing his throat and saying "Wow, talk about your hairballs."

* In ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'', Puss in Boots tries to assassinate Shrek, but then pauses to cough up a hairball, which grosses even Shrek out.

* Parodied in TheStinger for ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}''. [[spoiler:Goose the Flerken (a dangerous alien animal that looks superficially identical to a house cat) gobbles up the [[MacGuffin Tesseract]] when no-one else in the party is willing to handle it with their bare hands to hold in a StomachOfHolding. In the stinger, the Tesseract, with all its awesome Infinity Stone power... gets hacked back up like a hairball onto Nick Fury's desk.]]

* In ''Socks in Space'', an online game based off ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks'', some [[AlienAnimals aliens that look exactly like cats]] throw weaponized hairballs.

* ''Blog/CrappyPictures'': In one post talking about the annoying parts of having pets and children at the same time it's mentioned that sometimes, her toddler son is curious about their cats' hairballs.

** In the pilot episode "Big House Blues", Stimpy coughs up hairballs all over Ren. He's at first angry, until a little girl comes to adopt him because the hairballs make him look like a poodle.

** "[[Recap/RenAndStimpy2x09TheGreatOutdoorsTheCatThatLaidTheGoldenHairball The Cat That Laid The Golden Hairball]]" revolves around hairballs somehow becoming more valuable than gold. Ren sets up a production line for Stimpy to cough up hairballs continuously. Eventually, poor Stimpy is left not only hairless, but also unable to cough up any more hairballs from being overworked.
** There is a song called "Music/CatHairballs". It has a premise fairly similar to The Cat That Laid The Golden Hairball, with Ren setting up a conveyor belt for Stimpy to "Hwarf" up hairballs onto while the former stamps them with approval. Though in this case they also sing about what they'll make out of the hairballs, like high heel shoes, a hat and matching underwear. Much like the episode that inspired it, by the halfway point Stimpy is starting to run out, licking at spots that have been farmed dry and gasping for breath. At the end, an overworked and completely licked clean Stimpy tries to hwarf one last time and passes out on the conveyor belt. Ren then says "That's disgusting" and [[PainToTheAss stamps Stimpy's butt]] with a painful ''hluarf'' sound, indenting it with a ButtBrand, which the video iris out on.