History Main / JarOfTheBizarre

* In a ''Burger King'' kid's meal commercial for the ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' toys, a little girl shows her friends her collection of ghosts that she caught. The ghosts are displayed in jars on the shelves of her bedroom closet. One of the girl's friends says that there are no ghosts in the jars until one of them shows his face and frightens the kids.

* "Bottled Creatures" is a series of pictures on Deviantart by the artist [[https://www.deviantart.com/emmalazauski/gallery emmalazauski]] depicting glass jars and bottles containing a variety of fantastical creatures, such as small snake-like dragons, a nightmare, a series of colorful slimes in test tubes, creatures that can turn into smoke and back and a bat that breathes out fumes with strange effects on dreams, each bottle labeled with a small tag bearing the scientific name of its occupant. Warning to those that follow the link that a couple of the creatures are [[NightmareFuel not the most pleasant to see unprepared]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'': Played with. The glowing rose floating in a bell jar is one of the first signs of the Beast's HiddenDepths, serving as a symbol of the story's gothic themes and setting. However, while it further attracts Belle's curiosity into the mysteries of the castle, part of its strangeness is its relative normalcy compared to everything she's already seen. (And of course [[DramaticIrony the audience recognises its significance from the prologue]].)

* ''WesternAnimation/WendellAndWild'': Manburge has collected and trapped demons in jars. He puts them on display on the shelves of his laboratory. [[spoiler: The demons happen to be Buffalo Belzer's children before Manburge brought them back to him.]]

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'': The Collector's abode is full of display cases and jars containing many impressive items with several that are Easter Eggs to Marvel comics, including living creatures, such as Film/HowardTheDuck.
* ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'': Area 52 keeps some of its bizarre alien creatures in giant Mason jars with air holes punched in their lids. One of these aliens is Marvin the Martian, who escapes easily once he receives his orders from the BigBad.

* ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'': Discussed when Daniel tells Eli that, compared to his more successful twin brother, he is "just the afterbirth" and "should have been kept in a glass jar on the mantle."

* ''Literature/DollangangerSeries'': The second book, ''Literature/PetalsOnTheWind'', contains an AmbiguousSituation where Cathy spontaneously begins bleeding heavily from the vagina. It may or may not be a miscarriage. An extremely UnreliableExpositor claims there was a "two-headed embryo with three legs -- twins who didn't separate properly." Complicating matters, Paul (Cathy's guardian and also the doctor who oversaw her treatment) apparently ''does'' have such an artifact, preserved in a glass jar, leading her to believe that he kept and preserved the malformed fetus. Even if Cathy ''did'' have a miscarriage, though, the idea that Paul kept and preserved the embryo seems pretty far-fetched.
-->'''Cathy:''' She said you kept the embryo, one with two heads. I've seen that thing in your office in a bottle. Paul, how could you keep it? Why didn't you have it buried? […] There ''is'' a bottle in your office with a baby like that inside! I saw it! Paul, how could you? ''You'', of all people, to save something like ''that''!\\
'''Paul:''' No! That thing was given to me years ago when I was in med school -- a joke, really -- med students play all sorts of jokes you'd find gruesome.

* ''Literature/TheStrain'' and [[Series/TheStrainTVSeries its TV adaptation]]: Abraham Setrakian keeps the still-beating heart of his vampirized wife in a jar, because [[StakingTheLovedOne he can't bear to fully destroy her]]. The villainous Eldritch Palmer, like the bad guy in ''Cronos'', keeps his discarded organs in jars on shelves.

* ''Tabletopgame/{{Warhammer}}'': Any Clan Moulder laboratory will have many jars containing mutated and still living organs extracted from all manner of creatures that the [[MadScientist Master Moulders]] will use in their tests, most times implanting random body parts in their subjects of experimentation [[ForScience just to see what happens to them]]. Victims that can be exposed in jars later if the Masters consider that the result was interesting enough.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': Since [[CityOfAdventure Yharnam]]'s unique MadScience focuses on transplanting [[BloodyHorror blood]] and [[EyeScream eyes]], nearly every building the player character enters has entire shelves of these... along with other samples [[YouDoNotWantToKnow that aren't for the faint of heart]].[[labelnote: Though for the morbidly curious...]] Standouts include mutated organs, mold collected from corpses, eldritch-infused invertebrates and ''[[PoweredByAForsakenChild stillborn fetuses]]''.[[/labelnote]] You can even collect some of these harrowing ingredients yourself, as they are required to access the [[ProceduralGeneration Chalice Dungeons]].
* ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'': The decoration options in the base editor include organs in jars, ranging from preserved to rotted.

* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'': Souls, an ubiquitous part of the setting's underground commerce, are usually stored in glass jars and bottles, with the spirit visible inside the container as a cloud of colored fluid and a floating human face.

* ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'': In the cartoon "your funeral", Strong Bad suggests that, after he dies, he might want to end up as this trope.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Unusual things in flasks appear frequently as background decoration, and given that the few that are released get weaponised they're probably safer that way. An in-universe [[ScienceHero Heterodyne Tale]] ends climactically with the opening of a [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030827#.ZBTSKS-p6Ec literal ocean-in-a-bottle]], and later advancements in [[spoiler:the Other's Hive Engine technology]] produce a small ominous glass globe full of meat and clockwork [[spoiler:that manufactures [[ParasiteZombie a prototype slaver wasp capable of infecting a Spark]]]].

* ''Webcomic/PragueRace'': Amongst the many strange items in Sela's [[TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday little shop that wasn't there yesterday]] there is a sealed jar with some kind of dead bird-like thing inside it.

* Generally speaking, any real-life museum of natural history will have no shortage of specimens preserved this way, whether on display or behind the scenes. The collection at the Natural History Museum in London, UK ranges from tiny insects in glass vials up to a fully-grown giant squid in a specially-commissioned tank.

* ''Literature/AHouseWithGoodBones'': Samantha's misgivings about her late grandmother's house spike dramatically when she finds a jar of [[spoiler:hundreds of human teeth]] in the rose garden -- not least because of the question of how she got them. [[spoiler:It turns out to be part of a ProtectiveCharm over the house.]]

-->-- '''[[Characters/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanCaptainJackSparrow Captain Jack Sparrow]]''', ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest''

** ''Film/NightmareAlley2021'': The carnival barker (played by Creator/WillemDafoe) has a collection of pickled punks as well. The star of his collection is a fetus with a gigantic {{cyclops}} eye in the middle of its forehead. [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, under unclear circumstances, he has sold this one to another carnival barker, played by Creator/TimBlakeNelson.]]

* ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'': Hannibal Lecter tips Agent Starling off that a public storage unit may contain something of interest to the hunt for elusive SerialKiller Buffalo Bill. When she searches the unit, she finds a jar containing a severed human head, which turns out to have been one of Bill's very first murders.

* ''Literature/TheStrain'' and [[Series/TheStrain its TV adaptation]]: Abraham Setrakian keeps the still-beating heart of his vampirized wife in a jar, because [[StakingTheLovedOne he can't bear to fully destroy her]]. The villainous Eldritch Palmer, like the bad guy in ''Cronos'', keeps his discarded organs in jars on shelves.
* ''The Terrible Old Man'' by Creator/HPLovecraft has a somewhat baffling example in the titular old man's house. He keeps jars and bottles containing suspended leaden pendulums that he names and speaks to, and which answer through vibrations. Apparently, he can even invoke some lethal protection from them, [[MuggingTheMonster as a trio of would-be robbers discover]], though [[NothingIsScarier we never learn what exactly he does to them]].

In the lairs, studies, and hideaways of unusual folks, one can find dozens of mason jars, bottles, and glass containers filled with oddities and unusual things, many of them preserved in alcohol and other chemicals for study.

** In ''Film/{{Cronos}}'', the villain is a fabulously wealthy [[EvilOldFolks old man]] who, [[ImmortalitySeeker trying to prolong his life as much as possible]], routinely has his aged organs swapped out for new ones. He keeps his discarded organs in jars on his shelves.
** In ''Film/TheDevilsBackbone'', the kindly Dr. Casares has a collection of "pickled punks": stillborn infants preserved in jars. Owing to prenatal malnutrition, they all possess the titular deformity - an oddly prominent spine bursting through an underdeveloped torso. The doctor is able to make a bit of supplementary income selling the brine from the jars to superstitious locals, who believe it is a cure for impotence.
** In ''Literature/TheStrain'' and [[Series/TheStrain its TV adaptation]], Abraham Setrakian keeps the still-beating heart of his vampirized wife in a jar, because [[StakingTheLovedOne he can't bear to fully destroy her]]. The villainous Eldritch Palmer, like the bad guy in ''Cronos'', keeps his discarded organs in jars on shelves.
** In ''Film/NightmareAlley2021'', the carnival barker (played by Creator/WillemDafoe) has a collection of pickled punks as well. The star of his collection is a fetus with a gigantic {{cyclops}} eye in the middle of its forehead. [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, under unclear circumstances, he has sold this one to another carnival barker, played by Creator/TimBlakeNelson.]]

* In ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', Hannibal Lecter tips Agent Starling off that a public storage unit may contain something of interest to the hunt for elusive SerialKiller Buffalo Bill. When she searches the unit, she finds a jar containing a severed human head, which turns out to have been one of Bill's very first murders.

* Invoked in ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'', when Daniel tells Eli that, compared to his more successful twin brother, he is "just the afterbirth" and "should have been kept in a glass jar on the mantle."

* In the ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' cartoon "your funeral", Strong Bad suggests that, after he dies, he might want to end up as this trope.

** In ''Film/Cronos'', the villain is a fabulously wealthy [[EvilOldFolks old man]] who, [[ImmortalitySeeker trying to prolong his life as much as possible]], routinely has his aged organs swapped out for new ones. He keeps his discarded organs in jars on his shelves.

** In ''Literature/TheStrain'' and [[Series/TheStrain its TV adaptation]], Abraham Setrakian keeps the still-beating heart of his vampirized wife in a jar, because [[StakingTheLovedOne he can't bear to fully destroy her]]. The villainous Eldritch Palmer, like the bad guy in ''Cronos'', keeps his discarded organs in

* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': Since [[CityOfAdventure Yharnam]]'s unique MadScience focuses on transplanting [[BloodyHorror blood]] and [[EyeScream eyes]], nearly every building the player character enters has entire shelves of these. And that's just the start; are plenty more containing unknown fluids and preserved samples [[YouDoNotWantToKnow that aren't for the faint of heart]].[[labelnote: For the Curious...]] Standouts include mutated organs, mold collected from corpses, eldritch-infused invertebrates and ''[[PoweredByAForsakenChild stillborn fetuses]]''.[[/labelnote]] You can even collect some of these harrowing ingredients yourself, as they are required to access the [[ProceduralGeneration Chalice Dungeons]].

Cluttered shelves holding rows of bottled curious and failed experiments are ubiquitous in wizards' workshops and {{Mad Scientist Laborator|y}}ies. Canned and pickled oddities of various sorts will also make up a good portion of the wares of TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday and the BazaarOfTheBizarre.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': The entomologist Gil Grissom keeps various insect specimens in his office, but among his collection is also an irradiated fetal pig in a jar. When he leaves the Crime Lab, he gifts it to David Hodges, who later returns it to Gil's office (which a few of the other [=CSIs=] were sharing by then) and says "This belongs in here."

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': In a flashback, King Mickey pays a visit to Ansem the Wise in his office underneath Radiant Garden's castle, and tubes are seen containing floating stylized hearts behind his chair. Per the series's lore, everyone in the universe has a heart, which means the hearts might belong to subject tests.

* "Bottled Creatures" is a series of pictures on Deviantart by the artist [[https://www.deviantart.com/emmalazauski/gallery emmalazauski]] depicting glass jars and bottles containing a variety of fantastical creatures, such as small snake-like dragons, a nightmare, a series of colorful slimes in test tubes, creatures that can turn into smoke and back and a bat that breathes out fumes with a strange effect on dreams, each bottle labeled with a small tag bearing the scientific name of its occupant. Warning to those that follow the link that a couple of the creatures are [[NightmareFuel not the most pleasant to see unprepared]].

In the lairs, studies and hideaways of unusual folks, one can find dozens of mason jars, bottles and glass containers filled with oddities and unusual things, many of them preserved in alcohol and other chemicals for study.

The exact stuff in these jars can be as varied as the writer's imagination. Weird dead creatures floating in alcohol or brine are some of the most common, alongside bits and pieces of larger beings. Weird ''live'' creatures are also fairly common. As a rule, human parts are reserved for the collections of the nastier sort of characters. These display jars are usually just used as CowTools, props made to enhance the strangeness of the environment. In other cases they can be ingredients of use to whatever witch or mad scientist that keeps them in their workspace, or be keepsakes of some specific personal interest to their owner.

* In a ''Burger King'' kids meal commercial for the ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' toys, a little girl shows her friends her collection of ghosts that she caught. The ghosts are displayed in jars on the shelves of her bedroom closet. One of the girl's friends says that there are no ghosts in the jars, until one of them shows his face and frightens the kids.

* "Bottled Creatures" is a series of pictures on Deviantart by the artist [[https://www.deviantart.com/emmalazauski/gallery emmalazauski]] depicting glass jars and bottles containing a variety of fantastical creatures, such as small snake-like dragons, a nightmare, a series of colorful slimes in test tubes, creatures that can turn into smoke and back and a bat that breathes out fumes with a strange effects on dreams, each bottle labeled with a small tag bearing the scientific name of its occupant. Warning to those that follow the link that a couple of the creatures are [[NightmareFuel not the most pleasant to see unprepared]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'': During the "Jack's Obsession" song sequence, Jack briefly inspects a small series of jars containing preserved possessions. What are these objects that Jack has preserved for study? Christmas toys and a gingerbread cookie. This can be considered an inversion, as creepy things like body-parts or animals would be the norm in a place like Halloween Town, so to have Christmas toys and cookies instead would be appropriate.

* The Meguro Parasitological Museum in Tokyo, Japan is a real life science museum that keeps every parasitic organism mankind has encountered, all preserved and on display.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1998'': The sea witch Ursula has a few oddities in glass containers on a shelf in her lair. Some of these become ingredients in her roiling cauldron that transform the mermaid Ariel into a human girl. One or two of these ingredients seem to be live creatures, helplessly watching their demise unfold.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'': The sea witch Ursula has a few oddities in glass containers on a shelf in her lair. Some of these become ingredients in her roiling cauldron that transform the mermaid Ariel into a human girl. One or two of these ingredients seem to be live creatures, helplessly watching their demise unfold.

* ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': One of the many strange things kept at the League?s secret base is a dead Cottingley fairy preserved in a jar of formaldehyde.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': The Collector's abode is full of display cases and jars containing many impressive items with several that are Easter Eggs to Marvel comics, including living creatures, such as Film/HowardTheDuck.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': The Collector's abode is full of display cases and jars containing many impressive items with several that are Easter Eggs to Marvel comics.

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[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

-->'''Bloodbottler:''' You and your pibbling bottles! What is you putting in them?
-->'''BFG:''' Nothing that would interest you. You is only interested in guzzling human beans.

-->'''Cathy:''' She said you kept the embryo, one with two heads. I've seen that thing in your office in a bottle. Paul, how could you keep it? Why didn't you have it buried? [...] There ''is'' a bottle in your office with a baby like that inside! I saw it! Paul, how could you? ''You'', of all people, to save something like ''that''!
-->'''Paul:''' No! That thing was given to me years ago when I was in med school -- a joke, really -- med students play all sorts of jokes you'd find gruesome.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]