History Main / LaxativePrank

* In the Cotton Drifting arc of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', Satoko uses this as part of an elaborate prank against some punks who are trying to take advantage of [[FanNickname Shmion]] during the Angel Mort dessert fest.

* In the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII episode of ''Series/TheSupersizersEat'', Giles bakes a cake with [[IAteWhat paraffin instead of lard]] as a prank on the American guests. Unfortunately, Sue eats the cake and is miserably ill thereafter.

DoNotTryThisAtHome. Seriously, ''[[SincerityMode don't]]''. [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs This is illegal and incredibly risky in real life]]; even over-the-counter laxatives are by definition a type of medicine, and misapplication of medicine can have severe consequences (and a "prank" is ''absolutely'' misapplication). The victim could end up seriously ill, hospitalized or worse. Dehydration is also not the only risk: the person could be allergic to the laxative or its inert ingredients (particularly soy, an ''extremely'' common allergen that is often used as a binder) or could even suffer a [[FromBadToWorse ruptured appendix or internal bleeding.]] The induced vomiting variant can cause internal bleeding, and is actually far more likely to do so than a laxative. Consequently, administering even such a seemingly-trivial pharmaceutical drug to someone without their knowledge is classified as a serious criminal offense in many jurisdictions--the perpetrator of the prank could face serious criminal charges--and in most jurisdictions this act would also constitute civil battery, or at least gross negligence (or the local equivalent), opening up the possibility that the victim could sue for damages (including, in many places, punitive damages). This could also fall under laws that criminalize adulterating or tampering with food.

* Done accidentally in ''Film/BringingDownTheHouse''. When [[RacistGrandma Mrs. Arness]] comes over for dinner, Charlene, who was convinced to act like the maid, puts milk of magnesia on her dinner, but Peter takes it and eats it. Luckily he was able able to reach the bathroom as it took effect.

* In ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie,'' in "S**t Canned," where one person tries to do this this to the bride in a wedding. As [[LaserGuidedKarma karma]] would have it, he takes the spiked drink instead. A KarmicDeath as usual in this show ensues.

* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Joy does this to Catalina (swapping out the rat-poison in the infamous Poison Cookie recipe that she once attempted to use on Earl to get his lotto money), to get revenge on Catalina for taking an embarrassing photo of Joy dealing with a PottyEmergency. Catalina gets onstage after enjoying some of the cookies, only to have to quickly ''leave'' the stage.

* An episode of ''Series/ThePretender'' had Jarod as a school teacher. To help a student who was being bullied, they prepared an laxative brownie, knowing the bully would take it from the kid and eat it. They also locked all of the porta-johns on the playground except one, so the bully would have to use that one - which they had rigged so the door would fall off while he was in there.

--> '''J.D.''': Who would do this to themselves?
--> '''Janitor''': [[WorthIt Totally worth it]].

* Mr. Bean did this to a security guard in ''Film/{{Bean}}'', along with mixing up the key to the bathroom with a bunch of other keys, giving Mr. Bean a chance to fix the painting of Whistler's Mother that he accidentally screwed up.

* In the episode "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsyWmrnVzQU Dine and Dash]]" from ''Series/That70sShow'', the rest of the gang split out of a meal early and leave Donna and Eric with the check. To "show that they're good sports", Donna and Eric make a batch of special brownies. Afterwards, they reveal that the special ingredient wasn't marijuana but Chocolate Super Lax.

* In the last scene of the ''Series/{{Reba}}'' episode "The Blonde Leading The Blind" Reba bakes cookies for Van to show him that she forgives him for telling Barbra Jean to check up on her after her laser eye surgery left her temporarily blind, despite her making it very clear that she wants to be left alone. Little Jake walks through the front door and a suspicious Van insists that he have a cookie, which he does, convincing Van that they're safe. Jake arrives in the kitchen where he tells Reba that he took the cookie she told him to. Van is then shown holding his stomach and walking quickly out of the living room.

* Done in '80s Aussie Prison-Soap ''Series/PrisonerCellBlockH'' with a massive bar of chocolate-laxative, only it goes a bit wrong and the wrong person gets it. A PottyEmergency is a serious thing when your locked in a cell with no toilet facilities, a hose is required for a start.

* Investigating a death during a high-stakes poker game, the heroes of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' discover that the waitress put eyedrops in the victim's drink as payback for him being a lousy tipper. She'd meant to give him diarrhea and force him to leave the game early, but he died before they kicked in (because the chemical in the drops reacted with the absurd amounts of lead in his system courtesy of eating several pounds of African chocolate a day for years).

* Done on an epic scale in the original ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' trilogy; Breeze puts laxatives in an entire *army's* water supply to delay them (which TagalongKid Spook finds [[ToiletHumor amusing, as expected]]). Later deconstructed when the same army does it right back to some of the wells in Luthadel, resulting in fatalities.

* In Creator/JeanShepherd's short story "A Fistful of Fig Newtons", originally published in ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'', a scrawny college student challenges a BigEater football player and several fellow college students to a laxative-off. They each took one piece of BrandX Ex-Lax stand-in Boomo-Lax every 5 minutes, and whoever has a PottyEmergency first loses. The Big Eater figured he'd have no problem, but he ended up heaving half his insides out while the little guy wins, having built up an immunity in the past.

* This is one of the ways the ''Film/ThreeNinjas'' defend themselves against a trio of bumbling kidnappers. Not exactly what you expect from "ninjas," but this is an early 90s kids' movie, so there we are.
** Then again, ninjas were historically known for [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatism]].
* In ''Film/The51stState'' [[MarketBasedTitle or if you live in the US,]] ''Formula 51''''. In a choice between blue pills and red pills, a gang of skinheads are tricked into eating the red pills (Elmo claims that the red pill is the stronger version), which is a powerful laxative. [[PottyFailure You can guess what happens next when the drug takes effect.]]

DoNotTryThisAtHome. Seriously, ''[[SincerityMode don't]]''. [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs This is illegal and incredibly risky in real life]]; even over-the-counter laxatives are by definition a type of medicine, and misapplication of medicine can have severe consequences (and a "prank" is ''absolutely'' misapplication). The victim could end up seriously ill, hospitalized or worse. Dehydration is also not the only risk: the person could be allergic to the laxative or its inert ingredients (particularly soy, an ''extremely'' common allergen that is often used as a binder) or could even suffer a [[FromBadToWorse ruptured appendix or internal bleeding.]] The induced vomiting variant can cause internal bleeding, and is actually far more likely to do so than a laxative. Consequently, administering even such a seemingly-trivial pharmaceutical drug to someone without their knowledge is classified as a serious criminal offense in many jurisdictions--the perpetrator of the prank could face serious criminal charges--and in most jurisdictions this act would also constitute civil battery, or at least gross negligence (or the local equivalent), opening up the possibility that the victim could sue for damages (including, in many places, punitive damages). This could also fall under laws that criminalize adulterating or tampering with food, which also covers [[{{Squick}} spit]], [[IAteWhat piss]], and the [[Film/TheHelp Terrible Awful]].

A subtrope of TamperingWithFoodAndDrink. Compare SlippingAMickey, which is basically this trope but with drugs, and MedicationTampering, which is basically this trope but switching drugs with ''other'' drugs.

DoNotTryThisAtHome. Seriously, ''[[SincerityMode don't]]''. [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs This is illegal and incredibly risky in real life]]; even over-the-counter laxatives are by definition a type of medicine, and misapplication of medicine can have severe consequences (and a "prank" is ''absolutely'' misapplication). The victim could end up seriously ill, hospitalized or worse. Dehydration is also not the only risk: the person could be allergic to the laxative or its inert ingredients (particularly soy, an ''extremely'' common allergen that is often used as a binder) or could even suffer a [[FromBadToWorse ruptured appendix or internal bleeding.]] The induced vomiting variant can cause internal bleeding, and is actually far more likely to do so than a laxative. Consequently, administering even such a seemingly-trivial pharmaceutical drug to someone without their knowledge is classified as a serious criminal offense in many jurisdictions--the perpetrator of the prank could face serious criminal charges--and in most jurisdictions this act would also constitute civil battery, or at least gross negligence (or the local equivalent), opening up the possibility that the victim could sue for damages (including, in many places, punitive damages).

Compare SlippingAMickey, which is basically this trope but with drugs.

* [[https://youtu.be/qMteIgh9NNA An episode]] of Creator/{{MTV}}’s ''High School Stories'' dealt with this; it was a recounting of an incident where three boys pulled the laxative prank on a few students with donuts, but somehow a '' teacher'' got a donut and got very sick. Thankfully, the teacher recovered but the boys ended up in serious trouble and were ''expelled'', which was the very least of what could’ve happened to them according to the officer interviewed.

DoNotTryThisAtHome. Seriously, ''[[SincerityMode don't]''. [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs This is illegal and incredibly risky in real life]]; even over-the-counter laxatives are by definition a type of medicine, and misapplication of medicine can have severe consequences (and a "prank" is ''absolutely'' misapplication). The victim could end up seriously ill, hospitalized or worse. Dehydration is also not the only risk: the person could be allergic to the laxative or its inert ingredients (particularly soy, an ''extremely'' common allergen that is often used as a binder) or could even suffer a [[FromBadToWorse ruptured appendix or internal bleeding.]] The induced vomiting variant can cause internal bleeding, and is actually far more likely to do so than a laxative. Consequently, administering even such a seemingly-trivial pharmaceutical drug to someone without their knowledge is classified as a serious criminal offense in many jurisdictions--the perpetrator of the prank could face serious criminal charges--and in most jurisdictions this act would also constitute civil battery, or at least gross negligence (or the local equivalent), opening up the possibility that the victim could sue for damages (including, in many places, punitive damages).

DoNotTryThisAtHome. Seriously, ''don't''. [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs This is illegal and incredibly risky in real life]]; even over-the-counter laxatives are by definition a type of medicine, and misapplication of medicine can have severe consequences (and a "prank" is ''absolutely'' misapplication). The victim could end up seriously ill, hospitalized or worse. Dehydration is also not the only risk: the person could be allergic to the laxative or its inert ingredients (particularly soy, an ''extremely'' common allergen that is often used as a binder) or could even suffer a [[FromBadToWorse ruptured appendix or internal bleeding.]] The induced vomiting variant can cause internal bleeding, and is actually far more likely to do so than a laxative. Consequently, administering even such a seemingly-trivial pharmaceutical drug to someone without their knowledge is classified as a serious criminal offense in many jurisdictions--the perpetrator of the prank could face serious criminal charges--and in most jurisdictions this act would also constitute civil battery, or at least gross negligence (or the local equivalent), opening up the possibility that the victim could sue for damages (including, in many places, punitive damages).

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[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/laxitive_orank_crop.jpg]]]]

* Creator/AlfredHitchcock did this to one of his cameramen in RealLife.

* [[https://youtu.be/qMteIgh9NNA An episode]] of Creator/{{MTV}}’s ''High School Stories'' dealt with this; it was a recounting of an incident where three boys pulled the laxative prank on a few students with donuts, but somehow a '' teacher'' got a donut and got very sick. Thankfully, the teacher recovered but the boys ended up in serious trouble and were ''expelled'', which was the very least of what could’ve happened to them according to the officer interviewed.

* [[https://youtu.be/qMteIgh9NNA An episode]] of Creator/{{MTV}}’s ''High School Stories'' dealt with this; it was a recounting of an incident where three boys pulled the laxative prank on a few students with donuts, but somehow a '' teacher'' got a donut and got very sick. Thankfully, the teacher recovered but the boys ended up in serious trouble and were ''expelled''.