History Main / MadScientistLaboratory

* In [[https://www.deviantart.com/slifofinadragon/art/Having-Fun-while-you-can-Ch-8-Pt-2-949599376 chapter 8 part 2]] of [[https://www.deviantart.com/slifofinadragon SlifofinaDragon]]'s ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' [[ModernAUFic modern day fanfic]] ''Having Fun while you can'', we learn that [[UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide Akechi]] [[MadDoctor Mitsuhide]] has one stationed right underneath the Basara Academy infirmary.

* ''VideoGame/TheRoomTwo'': The final area is a tower on an island belonging to Professor de Montfaucon, set up in his research to save his dying sister Lucy. His equipment ranges from bug specimens and [[LightningCanDoAnything stimulating a hand with electricity]], to [[SentientPhlebotinum the Null]] and a [[BeatStillMyHeart still-living heart]]. [[spoiler: Lucy died before he could complete his research.]]

** [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996 In the original game]], Dr. Neo Cortex's lab, which is shown in the intro cutscene, has his [[MindControlDevice Cortex Vortex]], [[TheIgor N. Brio]]'s Evolvo-Ray, and countless cages where a lot of marsupials are fearfully waiting for their turn to come.
** ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'': N. Gin Labs is a big homage to labs and factory levels from the first two games, having radioactive barrels, the Evolvo-Ray in one section, and a big corridor where you constantly boost.

%%* ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'': This is the whole point of the game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Insanity}}'': There's one of these labs located in the basement of the Murai mansion, belonging to [[spoiler:Shigeki Murai, the MadScientist patriarch of the Murai family]], where he carries out his experiments [[spoiler:in an attempt to resurrect the dead]]. It's not too creepy or bizarre-looking... well, except for the over-sized cages and [[spoiler:the human corpses]].

* ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009'': The "ginger midget" Luke Reordan, who turns out to be on [[BigBad Lord Blackwood's]] payroll, has two laboratories that are visited after his body is found in Blackwood's coffin. The first one's in his apartment, and the second is in a slaughterhouse. The walls of both places are adorned with writings and drawings that speak of experiments to combine sorcery with science as well as Reordan's connection to Blackwood who presents himself as TheAntiChrist. Holmes finds from the first laboratory most of the clues [[ChekhovsArmoury that later turn out to be essential]] in proving that [[spoiler:Blackwood accomplished all his magical feats with science and trickery]]. The second laboratory was where Reordan created the [[spoiler:chemical weapon Blackwood attempts to gas his opponents in the British Parliament with]], and it's also where [[spoiler:[[TheBrute Dredger]] killed Reordan [[ShooheBuilder after the latter had delivered everything Blackwood wanted]]]].

* ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009'': The "ginger midget" Luke Reordan, who turns out to be on [[BigBad Lord Blackwood's]] payroll, has two laboratories that are visited after his body is found in Blackwood's coffin. The first one's in his apartment, and the second is in a slaughterhouse. The walls of both places are adorned with writings and drawings that speak of experiments to combine sorcery with science as well as Reordan's connection to Blackwood who presents himself as TheAntiChrist.

%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'': Merlin's cottage is one of these. In this film, he's a powerful wizard who uses magic to teach science to young Arthur.%%How is this an example?

* ''Literature/TheCastleOfTheSilverWheel'': {{Deconstructed|Trope}} by Gwenlliant's reaction to Lord Cado's wizard's laboratory. When Gwenlliant -- who grew up at court and was taught by the resident alchemist/wizard -- first sees Cado's laboratory, she is immediately uneasy, knowing that he must be a bad wizard -- "either not very principled, or not very wise". No proper wizard would bother to keep so many showy magical experiments running at once; they would be set up one at a time for research purposes, and would not be shown off to visitors.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The novels can't have a scene in a magic-user's residence without poking fun at the Mad ''Wizard'' Laboratory variant of this trope. Most common are jokes about how they all order identical décor out of a kit: pre-dribbled candles, dusty skulls (with optional raven on top), mysterious alchemical glass apparati (usually filled with green-dyed water and soap), and the sorcerer's equivalent of the Jacob's ladder, i.e. [[ApothecaryAlligator a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling]].
** We actually meet a dealer in such accoutrements in the Tiffany Aching series, as well as a catalog marketing the witch's version: packaged cobwebs (with optional rubber spiders), icky bubbly goo for cauldrons, big ominous mirrors with a selection of frames, enough dopey Wicca-wannabee amulets to strangle a giraffe, etc. Boffo!
** ''Literature/WyrdSisters'': Magrat is a sucker for this stuff, although Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax think that it's all a waste of time, although maybe good for "headology" -- i.e., for a combination of public image projection and deliberately instilled placebo effects that makes up a good portion of a competent witch's repertory.

* [[JarOfTheBizarre Bits of animals and people preserved in formaldehyde]].

* ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'': The base editor has all requisite mad science lab items, with classic items ranging from operating tables to Jacob's ladders of various sizes to organs in jars (ranging from preserved to rotted), and more modern items like microscopes, X-ray machines, and LCD monitors.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': Doc Brown's lab, originally the garage of his family estate, was crammed full of all types of scientific gear. He even had the old tape drives to (presumably) the '50s/'60s style computer he would have used to invent time travel.
* ''Film/{{Blackenstein}}'': Despite all his talk of DNA and laser surgery, the Dr. Stein's laboratory set uses Kenneth Strickfaden's original sparking and zapping electrical equipment from the 1931 ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'' film.

* ''Film/DraculaVsFrankenstein'': Dr. Durea has a secret laboratory hidden beneath the Creature Emporium -- the house of horrors he runs at the amusement park -- where he conducts all of his experiments in developing his blood serum. Much of the electrical lab equipment in the lab are props originally used in ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}''. Ken Strickfaden, who had designed all the electrical gadgetry in that film, supplied the equipment.

* ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'': Henry Stauf has one, rather well hidden in his mansion. It is infamously known for a now-impossible minigame of Infection inside a microscope there. On top of that, a rather {{squick}}y cutscene can be watched of a ghost patient who wakes up and finds that half of his head is missing, then reaches down and tries to put his brain back.

* ''Film/AyoyDrJekyllAndMrHyde'': Jekyll has one, full of technicolor chemistry and stuff. Although the potato doesn't really do anything.

!!Examples

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This is edging toward becoming a DiscreditedTrope, at least in the classic beaker/Jacob's Ladder/operating table configuration. For the more modern variations, see HackerCave. For labs that were once this, but ended up being evacuated due to an experiment that went wrong, see AbandonedLaboratory.

-->'''Queen Cersei:''' You can save him?\\
'''Qyburn:''' Difficult to say, your Grace. But if [[TestedOnHumans my past work is any guide]]... we stand a chance.\\
'''Cersei:''' Do everything you can. Come to me for anything you need.\\
'''Qyburn:''' Thank you, your Grace. You should know, the process may... [[CameBackWrong change him]]. Somewhat.\\
'''Cersei:''' Will it weaken him?\\
'''Qyburn:''' ''[[CameBackStrong Oh, no]]''.

Every MadScientist has to have a lab. This is typically a refurbished dungeon of some sort, with aging stone walls; some are instead in higher locations, for better access to lightning, astronomical lookouts, and vantage points for death rays. Particularly enterprising scientists may have multiple such labs in different points of their home base. Regardless of location, they also must contain most of the following lab equipment:

* An [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable operating table]]. Two if the MadScientist does brain transplants. Optional, though, is the winch for raising the table up to the roof.

* A 60s-style mainframe computer with big dials and switches on the front. Add [[ComputerEqualsTapedrive spinning tape reels]] for extra credit.
* [[JarOfTheBizarre Bits of animals and people preserved in formaldehyde.]]

Never mind that real science does not generally call for all of these things at the same time -- or within the same discipline! -- the MadScientist [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist doesn't specialize]]. All the same, most of what he does will at least ''look'' like chemistry, since nothing shouts "science" to the casual viewer more than a guy in a lab coat fiddling with a beaker of [[TechnicolorScience colored liquid]].

A significant portion of mad scientist laboratories are not low budget small scale DIY projects that take up no more than a spare table in a corner. Instead, these labs are very elaborate for someone who usually does not appear to have anyone funding them, let alone working for them. Often the equipment is huge, bulky, unwieldy, and difficult to transport and assemble for just one man, even with an assistant. It's worth remembering that many mad scientists are older men (or physically weak men) who would definitely not be able to manage such a feat on their own. While not a mad scientist, Franchise/{{Batman}} fans will recognize a modern iteration of this dilemma whenever the question is posed of [[FridgeLogic how Bruce Wayne (maybe with Alfred's help) managed to build the Batcave, Batmobile and all his equipment by himself in secret]].

All of the film, TV, and comic versions of the Mad Scientist's Lab derive originally from Gothic horror stories of the 18th and 19th centuries, the most famous of them being Creator/MaryShelley's novel ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' and Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau''. The concept developed from older stories about the lairs of alchemists and sorcerers. The Enlightenment put paid to many kinds of mystical dabbling by dilettantes, tinkerers, and wealthy eccentrics, but these characters were replaced in the public imagination by gentleman scientists -- many of them self-taught, many very eccentric -- who built laboratories and observatories in their homes and made a number of important discoveries in the new disciplines of chemistry, physics, and biology.

The age of the gentleman scientist was ending by the 1850s, when the most famous of them, UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin, published his Theory of Evolution. More and more, experimental research became associated with facilities provided by universities, foundations, museums, governments and industry. However, the romantic image of the mad scientist -- isolated from his fellows and angry with a world that would suppress his ideas -- has deep archetypal power. It's also [[EconomyCast dramatically compact]], needing only the scientist, an assistant, and a faithful servant or two as characters. The {{meme|ticMutation}}'s emotional energy and enactment efficiency has kept it alive into the 21st Century, and it's even routinely projected into future scenarios via television shows like ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963''.

** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen Feeling Pinkie Keen]]": Twilight Sparkle's basement is shown to be filled with complex sensory apparati, tubes and bottles of colorful bubbling liquid, racks of test tubes, bookshelves, and giant tubing and machines of unclear purpose, which many of the larger pieces having tree roots wound around them.

Every MadScientist has to have a lab. This is typically a refurbished dungeon of some sort, with aging stone walls. It also must contain most of the following lab equipment:

* A [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_coil Tesla coil.]]

* ''Literature/ComradeDeath'', a short story by Gerald Kersh, features Sarek's Under World, the underground nightmare where his company's increasingly horrible chemical weapons are developed.
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfProfessorJackBaling'': The titular character has a rather mundane version of one of these in a shed in his backyard, but in the second episode he encounters some really sophisticated ones in the Prometheus Corporation's HQ, some of which even have Jacob's ladders and bubbling beakers.

%%* ''Literature/TheProbabilityBroach'', by L. Neil Smith. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by the protagonist when he enters the lab in the Colorado State University that (unknown to him) is actually a gate to an AlternateUniverse.%%How is this an example?
* ''Literature/HeartOfSteel'': Alistair Mechanus has a sprawling labyrinth of a lair inside a dormant volcano on Shark Reef Isle, mainly comprised of laboratory and research space.
* ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'': The Ghosts' main objective in ''Salvation Reach'' is to [[spoiler:raid a well-defended Chaos research facility and capture as much intelligence material as possible, which may be further used in advantage to the Crusade. The laboratory is described as grim halls filled with strange and disturbing devices. Although they cannot read them, even the mere touch of scrolls and dataslates stored there fills the Imperial Guardsmen with a feeling of dread]].
* ''Literature/FrannyKStein'': Franny's room is her laboratory, where the little girl mad scientist frequently conducts her experiments using whatever chemicals and technology she needs.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. The maester's laboratory in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS4E10TheChildren The Children]]" is a MedievalEuropeanFantasy version once [[MadDoctor disgraced ex-maester Qyburn]] starts PlayingWithSyringes on a dying [[TheDreaded Ser Gregor Clegane]].

* Grandpa from ''Series/TheMunsters'' has a laboratory in the dungeon under the house where he performs experiments both scientific and mystical. For added fun, his [[TheIgor Igor]] is a bat.
* For seven seasons, the villains on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' work in an ElaborateUndergroundBase; the audience occasionally glimpses chemistry equipment, chalkboards, computer consoles and mysterious air ducts. Things become tighter when the villains' [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replacements]] have to work out of a space-travel-equipped VW Microbus, but this lasts for only one season -- they return to a [[HauntedCastle more appropriate environment]] soon enough.
** In the [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Screwed By The Studio]] [[TheMovie Motion Picture]], Dr. F's lab gets a major overhaul, complete with a fish tank filled with acid.

** Notably at the start of the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E15DarkFrontier Dark Frontier (Part 1)]]", the ship is lit by blue flashes and the sound of electrical arcs, with the occasional burst of steam, even ''before'' they enter combat with Voyager.
** In the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E3Brothers Brothers]]", we start at the requisite glass containers full of bubbling chemicals and a tube generating lightning-like effects before panning across to the more homely aspects of Dr. Soong's hideout.

* The entire playfield for ''Pinball/StrangeScience'' is decorated like a classic laboratory. Operators can also install a backbox topper resembling a Jacob's ladder with an electric arc between the poles.
* The "Tower" table in ''[[VideoGame/ThreeDUltraPinballCreepNight 3-D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night]]'' takes place in one of these.

* In ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'', XERRD -- an entire organization of {{Mad Scientist}}s -- has three notable Mad Scientist Laboratories where they perform experiments on dinosaurs: the Dino Island Laboratory, the LEGO Island Laboratory, and the Adventurers' Island XERRD Fortress.

* Toys/LEGOFriends brings us Olivia's Inventor's Workshop, complete with colored beakers of liquid and helpful robot assistant. Might be a bit too pink to completely qualify, though.
** LEGO Studios and LEGO Monster Fighters play this trope more straightly, with each line's resident MadScientist having his own personal laboratory where he creates a CaptainErsatz of FrankensteinsMonster.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The Forsaken apparently discovered this trope in the ''Wrath of the Lich King'' expansion, as their bases in Northrend tend to be full of traditional MadScientist equipment like Tesla coils, Jacob's ladders, and mechanical arms that move vials of [[TechnicolorScience glowing chemicals]] around.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterLab'': Mad Science Castle is, of course, ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. You get no less than four laboratories, three that correspond with the three disciplines of mad science (mechanics, biology and alchemy) and a fourth where LightningCanDoAnything.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': A large number of them exist. Somewhat {{justified|Trope}} in that several factions are technocratic cabals who see "technology alone as a source of political power", and [[BlackAndGreyMorality some of them are on your side]]. Still, applies mainly to scientists serving the BigBad.
* ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy'' and ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsKingAbaddon'': The whole Gouma-Den. Hosted by [[LargeHam lovable]] [[MilkingTheGiantCow lunatic]] [[MadScientist Dr.]] [[ShoutOut Victor]]. Complete with virtually all of the accoutrements of the standard lab.

* Henry Stauf has one in ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'', rather well hidden in his mansion. It is infamously known for a now-impossible minigame of Infection inside a microscope there. On top of that, a rather {{squick}}y cutscene can be watched of a ghost patient who wakes up and finds that half of his head is missing, then reaches down and tries to put his brain back.
* Dr. Pickles has a couple of places in ''VideoGame/StayTooned'' replete with items of this trope, some of which can be interacted with.

* Butchery Loves Company, the ''Franchise/{{Frankenstein}}''-inspired starting level of the fourth episode in ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'', complete with all of the listed features.
* One of these can be found in ''VideoGame/TheUltimateHauntedHouse'', in the house's basement, belonging to [[MadScientist Dr. Synthesis]]. You can use it to create a monster of your own, or even use parts found in the house to put together [[FrankensteinsMonster the Ultimate Monster]].
* In ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'', [[AIIsACrapshoot AM]] builds a mock-up of a Nazi death camp for the character Nimdok to explore. One part of it includes a bunker containing a laboratory that fits this trope per the World War II setting, with implements from a teletype, a morphing creature in a bell jar, and a {{Golem}} made from steel and clay. [[spoiler:It's also significant by the fact that Nimdok himself once performed experiments here alongside Dr. Mengele. Some of them included genetic manipulation and a [[WhoWantsToLiveForever youth serum]], which is how AM kept Nimdok and four other humans alive for 109 years, and [[BodyHorror warped one of them into a mutant]] [[ForTheEvulz just for fun]].]]
* The final area of ''[[VideoGame/TheRoomMobileGame The Room Two]]'' is a tower on an island belonging to Professor de Montfaucon, set up in his research to save his dying sister Lucy. His equipment ranges from bug specimens and [[LightningCanDoAnything stimulating a hand with electricity]], to [[SentientPhlebotinum the Null]] and a [[BeatStillMyHeart still-living heart]]. [[spoiler: Lucy died before he could complete his research.]]
* The Explodatorium from ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'', domain of {{Plague|Doctor}} [[MadBomber Knight]], is a place chock full of oversized labwear, exploding rats, flamethrowers, barrels full of boiling chemicals and scientists all trying to further chemical warfare.
* In ''VideoGame/KillingFloor2'', Dr. Hans Volter has one underneath his manor in Switzerland, where it's implied he performs [[NotUsingTheZWord Zed]]-related experiments. The Descent map shows that it extends over a kilometer below the surface, with at least 11 different floors.
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'': The first dungeon (known as "Chateau Irenicus" in the community) has "pickled" people in jars, rampant clones, a lightning generator, portals to other dimensions and other crazy contraptions, and a horde of duergar serving as [[TheIgor Igors]]. The only difference with a traditional mad science lab is that the owner is an EvilSorcerer and all the contraptions are powered by magic. Half the protagonist's canonical party from the first game ends up StrappedToAnOperatingTable, and not everyone walks away...
* {{Dracula}} tends to maintain at least one in the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series, complete with all the glass containers, arcing electrical devices, and operating tables typical of the trope. It's usually where FrankensteinsMonster and other artificial monsters are created and fought.
* ''VideoGame/{{Insanity}}'': There's one of these labs located in the basement of the Murai mansion, belonging to [[spoiler:Shigeki Murai, the MadScientist patriarch of the Murai family]], where he carries out his experiments [[spoiler:in an attempt to resurrect the dead]]. It's not too creepy or bizarre-looking... well, except for the over-sized cages and [[spoiler:the human corpses]].

* Every Spark worth their salt in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' possesses one of these.
** One? Why stop at ''one''?
** Castle Heterodyne has quite a lot of them, so every Spark in the family can perform their own experiments without getting in each other's way. And so they don't have to drag the bodies far when the urge strikes.
** In the novel "Agatha H. and the Airship City" (an expanded prose version of the first few comic volumes), Agatha asks Gil why he needs four labs aboard Castle Wulfenbach. He replies that his father has ''forty-three'' plus two ground-based facilities, so by comparison he's a model of efficiency. And that's not counting all the other labs on Castle Wulfenbach that the Baron set up for his employees, one of which is labeled "Lab Full of Exploding Things #5".
* The Opians, an alien race in ''Webcomic/ThogInfinitron'', have an interstellar spacecraft with an [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Thog_Infinitron/index.php?p=428274 onboard laboratory where they engineer ways to destroy Thog.]]
* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' Riff rents out some tunnels to act as his secret, underground lab. At least when Minion Master's not using it as his "Domicile of Evil".
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive''. Tedd's lab consists of a desk, computer, and a place to test the [[TransformationRay TF Gun]].
* Professor Joseph Corwin in ''Tales of Gnosis College'' houses his Apsinthion Device, a tank with a tentacle monster, and in impressive amount of weird glassware in a mad scientist's laboratory located in a derelict red-brick ''brewery'' that rather resembles an old-fashioned castle.
* ''Webcomic/EvilPlan'': Doctor Kinesis has a multi-level lab, complete with minions and a vat of "acid".
* Dottore's lab in ''[[http://commedia2x00.wordpress.com Commedia 2X00]]'' is packed with this stuff -- literally, in the storage basement, the boxes are labeled with things like "blinkenlights", "boss themes (casettes)", and "mecha-piranhas, x-mas decs". Being Dottore, it's also stocked with warp-pipes, wall-mounted chainsaws, an inexplicable fiery lake of lava (complete with Heli-Kraken)...

* The Science Lab in ''WebVideo/KateModern: Precious Blood'' is a [[ElaborateUndergroundBase mazelike underground nuclear bunker]] in which the Order carried out gory "research".

* [=LifesBlood Labs=], and specifically Maggie's "magical place filled with wonders", in ''WebVideo/LG15TheResistance''.

* ''WebVideo/AgamemnonTiberiusVacuum'' has a very high-tech "pretty bad-ass" one in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdvo86kPcnQ The Experimentasium.]]''
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': {{Parodied|Trope}} with [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1417-j SCP-1417-J,]] a joke SCP who uses its psychic powers to play childish pranks on people unless surrounded by over-the-top HollywoodScience equipment.

%%* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': [[EvilGenius Tarantulas]] has several, while Megatron and Scorponok have labs too, to name just a few.%%How are they examples? Characters that "have labs" aren't enough to establish this trope as occurring.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Mostly {{averted|Trope}} with Professor Farnsworth's lab, which is usually surprisingly sparse, with only one piece of equipment at a time, although in one episode he's shown to have about a dozen different {{doomsday device}}s tucked away.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'': Man-at-Arms has a big and impressive lab (good for those trademark Creator/{{Filmation}} long, slow pans), although it's not at all sinister-looking, since he's a nice guy.
%%* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen Feeling Pinkie Keen]]" shows one of these in Twilight Sparkle's basement.%%One of what?
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': It's revealed in season 2 that Rick built one under the garage, causing Beth and Jerry to have a $6,000 electric bill. It appears in a later episode in which Rick attempts to make clones of himself.
* ''WesternAnimation/SwatKats'': Dr. Viper's laboratory, seen in "[[Recap/SWATKatsS1E2TheGiantBacteria The Giant Bacteria]]", is pretty impressive to behold, featuring retorts, racks of test tubes, flasks, beakers and even a microscope that for some reason has smoke pouring out of the eyepiece (!). Interestingly, production notes called for even ''more'' chemistry equipment to be seen, but for some reason the animators didn't get the message.
* ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'': Dr. Karbunkle has a pretty spacious lab, which includes, among others things, his transporter.
* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'': {{Parodied|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E12HareRaisingNight Hare-Raising Night]]". There's a panning shot of what appears to be Dr. Gene Splicer's laboratory, with a bunch of spiraling glass tubing and oddly-shaped chemistry equipment (flasks, beakers, etc.) in the foreground... only for the pan to continue and reveal it's just a painting, titled "Dad's Place". Dr. Splicer's actual laboratory is a surprisingly mundane office building (the giant vat of "gene juice" aside).
* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'': The titular mice, being [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted lab mice]], naturally have Acme Labs as their home/base of operations. While the scientists there perform subpar experiments, Brain puts the equipment and resources to more ambitious use in his endeavors to take over the world.

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', MadScientist Dr. Gero had one where he worked on his android project. Despite its destruction, the version of his [[UltimateLifeForm ultimate creation]] Cell from the future was unaffected thanks to way Trunks' time machine operated.
* Jail Scaglietti of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' has the operating table, but lacks most of the other stuff. He makes up for it by having rows and rows and rows of PeopleJars.

* Professor Franken Stein from ''Manga/SoulEater'' has quite an interesting home/lab. Stitched patterns are found randomly throughout the house, both the inside and outside (and also on his clothes and even his person). He has an older looking computer and many chemistry related items such as a Bunsen burner, beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks, etc. (which, it should be noted, he occasionally uses as ''drinking glasses''). Arrows are painted on the floor pointing in different directions, usually away and toward doorways.
** He no doubt has an operating table somewhere in his lab, since he has an affinity for dissecting things. Anything.
* Washuu from ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' has a giant laboratory that spans ''five planets'', set up in other-dimensional space and accessible through a door that is usually located under the stairs in Tenchi's house, but which can vanish or move as Washuu wills it.
* In ''Manga/WildFangs'', Syon was [[BioAugmentation created]] and grew up in one of these, of the castle dungeon variety.

* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Tim leads the ComicBook/TeenTitans into a secret underground lab belonging to [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] that's full of autonomous robots, half-finished experiments, and vials of manufactured cures and diseases in search of a cure for ComicBook/{{Superboy|1994}} who was dying at the time.

* The ''Film/JamesBond'' films had their resident good-guy MadScientist, Q; almost every film features a peek into his lab, which usually features several [[TheIgor assistants]] participating in such dubious experiments as testing a new {{bulletproof vest}} by putting one on and getting shot.
* Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene's lab in ''Film/ReturnOfTheKillerTomatoes'' certainly qualifies, but he isn't mad, just a little angry.
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'': The laboratory of Dr. Walter Jennings (with mutated fetus and tiny elephant), and the room in [[TheShangriLa Shangri-La]] (shown in a deleted scene) where Totenkopf conducted experiments on radiation victims from his uranium mine.
** Dr. Totenkopf requires a special mention here as his 'laboratory' is a whole factory complex, complete with a [[spoiler:rocket launch silo]].
* In ''Film/IronMan'', Tony Stark has an updated version in the basement of his house: [[TheIgor robot assistants]], machine shop, [[InformedAbility electronics fabrication]], CADCAM system.
%%* ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985''.
* Dr. Rotwang's laboratory in ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' is perhaps the earliest example of the trope on film, and features all the necessary paraphernalia, along with large pentagrams to tie him to the classical magician/alchemist archetypes.
* Doc Brown's lab in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', originally the garage of his family estate, was crammed full of all types of scientific gear. He even had the old tape drives to (presumably) the '50s/'60s style computer he would have used to invent time travel.
* Of course Jekyll in ''Film/AyoyDrJekyllAndMrHyde'' has one, full of technicolor chemistry and stuff. Though the potato doesn't really do anything.
* The Chamber of Life in ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'', where the Skeksis drain innocent Podlings of their life essence. It's filled with {{Ridiculously Cute Critter}}s in cages which Skeksis scientist skekTek performs cruel experiments on.
* [[DrFakenstein Dr. Frank N. Furter's]] lab in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' is full of {{Big Electric Switch}}es and octagonal monitors. The tank that [[FrankensteinsMonster Rocky]] is born in is the same one from ''Film/TheRevengeOfFrankenstein''.
* ''The Resurrected'', a 1991 film adaptation of ''Literature/TheCaseOfCharlesDexterWard'', recreates the scene where the hero has to navigate his way out of a subterranean laboratory/oubliette of failed BodyHorror experiments [[DarknessEqualsDeath after dropping his lamp]].
* ''Film/LadyFrankenstein'': Baron Frankenstein maintains one under his castle. It is filled with GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks, arcane electrical equipment, strange clockwork, a walk in cold room for keeping corpses...
* Maria has one set up in the monastery in ''Film/JesseJamesMeetsFrankensteinsDaughter''. The lab was actually composed of props from Franchise/UniversalHorror movies, and would largely be reused in ''Film/YoungFrankenstein''.
* Count Frankenstein's laboratory in ''Film/FrankensteinsCastleOfFreaks'' contains operating tables, GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks, and an improbable number of Jacob's ladders.

* ''Film/{{Horrific}}'': In ''Terror Vision'', Jordan has converted his apartment into one for his experiments in accessing the 8th dimension.
* In ''Film/FrankensteinIsland'', Sheila Frankenstein has one in her house that is part electrical lab and part intensive care unit.
* ''Film/ACureForWellness''. There's a locked tower on the spa grounds that the protagonist Lockhart eventually breaks into. He finds stairs leading down to a grotto containing an underground laboratory, which is replete in 19th century-style with beakers containing mutated fetuses, dissected eels, and scientific notebooks. [[spoiler:It turns out the anachronistic look is not a coincidence, as the doctor who runs the spa is a [[{{Immortality}} lot older than he appears]]]].
* ''Film/{{Blackenstein}}'': Despite all his talk of DNA and laser surgery, the Dr. Stein's laboratory set uses Kenneth Strickfaden's original sparking and zapping electrical equipment from the 1931 ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'' film.
* In ''Film/KissMeQuick'', Dr. Breedlove's laboratory has all of the standard mad scientist accoutrements, including GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks, an arcing Jacob's ladder, and a talking skull.
* In ''Film/DraculaVsFrankenstein'', Dr. Durea has a secret laboratory hidden beneath the Creature Emporium -- the house of horrors he runs at the amusement park -- where he conducts all of his experiments in developing his blood serum. Much of the electrical lab equipment in the lab are props originally used in ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}''. Ken Strickfaden, who had designed all the electrical gadgetry in that film, supplied the equipment.
* Dr. Lurience's home lab in ''Film/TheManWhoChangedHisMind'', where he appears to swapping minds between bodies using a Jacob's ladder. His new lab at the Haselwood Institute looks far more high-tech and antiseptic, even if it performs the same function.

* Bits of animals and people preserved in formaldehyde.

* The first dungeon of ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' (known as "Chateau Irenicus" in the community) has 'pickled' people in jars, rampant clones, a lightning generator, portals to other dimensions and other crazy contraptions, and a horde of duergar serving as [[TheIgor Igors]]. The only difference with a traditional mad science lab is that the owner is an EvilSorcerer and all the contraptions are powered by magic. Half the protagonist's canonical party from the first game ends up StrappedToAnOperatingTable, and not everyone walks away...

* In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', [[EvilGenius Tarantulas]] has several, while Megatron and Scorponok have labs too, to name just a few.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'', Man-At-Arms has a big and impressive lab (good for those trademark Creator/{{Filmation}} long, slow pans), though it's not at all sinister-looking, since he's a nice guy.
* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen Feeling Pinkie Keen]]" shows one of these in Twilight Sparkle's basement.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', it's revealed in season 2 that Rick built one under the garage, causing Beth and Jerry to have a $6,000 electric bill. It appears in a later episode in which Rick attempted to make clones of himself.
* Dr. Viper's laboratory in ''WesternAnimation/SwatKats'', seen in "[[Recap/SWATKatsS1E2TheGiantBacteria The Giant Bacteria]]", is pretty impressive to behold, featuring retorts, racks of test tubes, flasks, beakers and even a microscope that for some reason has smoke pouring out of the eyepiece (!). Interestingly, production notes called for even ''more'' chemistry equipment to be seen, but for some reason the animators didn't get the message.
* Dr. Karbunkle has a pretty spacious lab in ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'', which includes among others things, his transporter.
* {{Parodied|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' in the episode "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E12HareRaisingNight Hare-Raising Night]]". There's a panning shot of what appears to be Dr. Gene Splicer's laboratory, with a bunch of spiraling glass tubing and oddly-shaped chemistry equipment (flasks, beakers, etc.) in the foreground... only for the pan to continue and reveal it's just a painting, titled "Dad's Place". Dr. Splicer's actual laboratory is a surprisingly mundane office building (the giant vat of "gene juice" aside).
* WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain, being [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted lab mice]], naturally have Acme Labs as their home/base of operations. While the scientists there perform subpar experiments, Brain puts the equipment and resources to more ambitious use in his endeavors to take over the world.

* Merlin's cottage in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'' is one of these. In this film, he's a powerful wizard who uses magic to teach science to young Arthur.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' has an impressively huge one, complete with Tesla coils and blinky dials.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', there's Yzma's 'secret lab', which contains dozens of transforming potions.[[note]]Unfortunately they are all the same color and not properly labeled.[[/note]] Yzma and Kronk enter it by a roller coaster ride accessed by pulling a lever on the wall, though Kronk occasionally pulls the wrong one.

* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} a little in Creator/TeresaEdgerton's ''Literature/TheCastleOfTheSilverWheel'' by Gwenlliant's reaction to Lord Cado's wizard's laboratory. When Gwenlliant -- who grew up at court and was taught by the resident alchemist/wizard -- first sees Cado's laboratory, she is immediately uneasy, knowing that he must be a bad wizard -- "either not very principled, or not very wise". No proper wizard would bother to keep so many showy magical experiments running at once; they would be set up one at a time for research purposes, and would not be shown off to visitors.
* No surprise that ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' can't have a scene in a magic-user's residence without poking fun at the Mad ''Wizard'' Laboratory variant of this trope. Most common are jokes about how they all order identical décor out of a kit: pre-dribbled candles, dusty skulls (with optional raven on top), mysterious alchemical glass apparati (usually filled with green-dyed water and soap), and the sorcerer's equivalent of the Jacob's ladder, i.e. [[ApothecaryAlligator a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling]].
** We actually meet a dealer in such accoutrements in the Tiffany Aching series of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' stories, as well as a catalog marketing the witch's version: packaged cobwebs (with optional rubber spiders), icky bubbly goo for cauldrons, big ominous mirrors with a selection of frames, enough dopey Wicca-wannabee amulets to strangle a giraffe, etc. Boffo!
*** Magrat was a sucker for this stuff in ''Literature/WyrdSisters'', though Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax thought it was all a waste of time, though maybe good for "headology".

* The title character of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfProfessorJackBaling'' has a rather mundane version of one of these in a shed in his backyard, but in the second episode he encounters some really sophisticated ones in the Prometheus Corporation's HQ, some of which even have Jacob's ladders and bubbling beakers.
* The eponymous MadScientist in Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/HerbertWestReanimator'' has a hidden laboratory, first in a dilapidated farm house and later in his cellar, for his experiments of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent dead body revival]] and other, [[BodyHorror more gruesome]], things. He also pursues a quasi-legitimate career in medicine and research at the Miskatonic University and could procure scientific apparatus -- without attracting unwanted attention -- by plain old theft.
* ''The Probability Broach'', by L. Neil Smith. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by the protagonist when he enters the lab in the Colorado State University that (unknown to him) is actually a gate to an AlternateUniverse.
* In ''Literature/HeartOfSteel'', Alistair Mechanus has a sprawling labyrinth of a lair inside a dormant volcano on Shark Reef Isle, mainly comprised of laboratory and research space.
* The ''Literature/GauntsGhosts''' main objective in ''Salvation Reach'' is to [[spoiler:raid a well-defended Chaos research facility and capture as much intelligence material as possible, which may be further used in advantage to the Crusade. The laboratory is described as grim halls filled with strange and disturbing devices. Although they cannot read them, even the mere touch of scrolls and dataslates stored there fills the Imperial Guardsmen with a feeling of dread]].
* ''Literature/FrannyKStein'''s own room is her laboratory, where the little girl mad scientist frequently conducts her experiments using whatever chemicals and technology she needs.
* Played with in ''Literature/SomethingMoreThanNight'': The MadScientist's secret basement laboratory is the site of genuine unethical mad science research, but because it was bankrolled by a movie mogul with an overdeveloped sense of drama and kitted out by his set construction department, a good proportion of the buzzing machines, bubbling tubes, unidentifiable specimens, etc. are just leftover props irrelevant to the actual task at hand. And the stone walls turn out, on closer inspection, to be textured plasterboard.