History Main / PromWrecker

* The ''Prom Night'' series of horror films, naturally, revolves around this.

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[[quoteright:350: [[Film/Carrie1976 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2021_04_08_at_92725_pm.png]]]]
[-[[caption-width-right:350:"[[Literature/{{Carrie}} That was when they all started laughing.]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone I did too]], [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge God help me]]."]]-]

* ''Series/EightSimpleRules'': [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. CJ thinks Rory is going to do this at the school's Halloween dance by blowing up a giant pumpkin decoration. Since he's the head of security for the dance, CJ goes to stop him. However, the actual prank is to have Rory's friends dress as members of ''Music/TheVillagePeople'', surround CJ (who is dressed like a police officer), and start dancing to "Macho Man". This is meant to evoke a similar event that happened when CJ was a kid.

* Happens in ''Series/{{Awkward}}'' Heartbroken after a breakup, Tamara attempts to convince her classmates to not only skip prom but to ''revolt'' against it, up to and including publicly denouncing the very concept of prom over megaphone. However, when Jenna decides to ask her, Tamara breaks character, revealing she really ''did'' want to go to prom.

* In season 2 of ''Series/DerryGirls'', a prom is organized at Our Lady Immaculate College by [[AcademicAlphaBitch Jenny Joyce]]. A rumor spreads that Jenny has rigged the vote so she will become Prom Queen. A new student from Donegal promises to take her down a peg. She does this by [[spoiler:dumping tomato sauce on Jenny when she becomes Prom Queen. The protagonists try to stop this but only manage to get covered in tomato sauce for their trouble. To make matters worse, one of the girls had paid for her dress with her mother's credit card and needed to return it in perfect condition so her mom wouldn't notice the charge.]]

** In Season Five, Tina is voted Prom Queen. [[AlphaBitch Bree]] does not like that another Glee kid became Prom Queen, so she [[spoiler:drops red goo all over Tina when she wins.]]

* "The Ballad of Sara Berry" from ''Theatre/ThirtyFiveMillimeterAMusicalExhibition'' centers around the titular AlphaBitch who undergoes SanitySlippage when it becomes apparent that a classmate named Julie, [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged who had recently lost a leg in a car crash]], will be named Prom Queen instead of her. [[spoiler:Sara ends up going completely AxCrazy and murders six classmates on prom night before Julie puts an end to things by [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome calling the police]]. When they find Sara, she's decked herself out with the Prom Queen's sash and scepter and is dancing by herself, all while still covered in her victims' blood.]]

* In WebAnimation/MurderDrones, episode three's main plot involves the character Doll acting as the prom wrecker to get revenge on the disassembly drone V for killing her parents.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad,'' Stan's backstory includes an homage to ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' where the popular kids dropped actual pigs on him.

* {{Discussed}} in ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaWorldTour,'' where Gwen lists "prom destroyer" as something that she wants to be in the song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11c3FXSNAVA&t=365 Before We Die]]."

* ''Film/FTheProm'' is about a group of {{Cool Loser}}s who want to ruin prom for the popular kids. Among the pranks played at the prom, they get various cliques to start fighting amongst themselves, project an embarrassing picture of a popular kid for everyone to see, and tar and feather the Prom King and Queen. One of the few examples of this trope that's presented sympathetically.

** ''Film/PromNight1980'' was a SlasherMovie in which a masked killer hacks up teenagers at the senior prom. The climax has somebody's severed head get tossed out onto the stage.
** ''Film/HelloMaryLouPromNightII'', [[DolledUpInstallment unrelated to the first film beyond the title]], opens with a boy named Billy catching his prom date Mary Lou making out with another boy, causing him to hit her with a stink bomb when she is named prom queen. [[GoneHorriblyWrong Unfortunately]], the bomb accidentally ignites her dress, [[DeadlyPrank immolating her]] in front of the entire senior class. The film then cuts to the present, where Mary Lou's ghost possesses a girl named Vicky to get revenge on the people who killed her, and proceeds to do this herself.

** And finally, ''Film/PromNight2008'', the remake of the first film, is about a teacher who is [[StalkerWithACrush murderously obsessed]] with one of his students, and targets her and her friends at the prom.

* In season 2 of ''Series/DerryGirls'', a prom is organized at Our Lady Immaculate College by [[AcademicAlphaBitch Jenny Joyce]]. A rumor spreads that Jenny has rigged the vote so she will become Prom Queen. A new student from Donegal promises to take her down a peg. She does this by [[spoiler:dumping tomato sauce on Jenny when she becomes Prom Queen. The protagonists try to stop this, but only manage to get covered in tomato sauce for their trouble. To make matters worse, one of the girls had paid for her dress with her mother's credit card and needed to return it in perfect condition so her mom wouldn't notice the charge.]]

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' ([[TropeNamer called]] [[Recap/VictoriousS2E5 "Prom Wrecker"]]), Tori finds out that there is no prom at Hollywood Arts school. She gets permission from the school to organize one. The problem is her prom is scheduled at the same time as Jade's one-woman show, causing the play to get cancelled. Jade takes her revenge on Tori by trying to sabotage her prom, so she would know how it felt to have something she worked hard on to be ruined. She rigs the projector to show disturbing images to the prom goers and hires a man who dresses up in a diaper and dances for entertainment. In the end, Tori manages to get rid of Jade, and the prom can continue. Interestingly enough, it is mentioned that Jade has some blood on standby.

* An unintentional example in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "The Chaperone", where Spongebob in his TallDarkAndHandsome look accompanies Pearl to the prom. After failing to impress Pearl and causing fiasco with that look, he tries to be himself by dancing "The Sponge" which leads to a ''bigger'' fiasco, and he and Pearl got kicked out of the building.

* In season 2 of ''Series/DerryGirls'', a prom is organized at Our Lady Immaculate College by [[AcademicAlphaBitch Jenny Joyce]]. A rumor spreads that Jenny has rigged the vote so she will become Prom Queen. A new student from Donegal promises to take her down a peg. She does this by [[spoiler: dumping tomato sauce on Jenny when she becomes Prom Queen. The protagonists try to stop this, but only manage to get covered in tomato sauce for their trouble. To make matters worse, one of the girls had paid for her dress with her mother's credit card and needed to return it in perfect condition so her mom wouldn't notice the charge.]]

** Season Two dealt largely with [[CampGay Kurt]] [[GayAesop being bullied for being gay]]. At one point, it seems like [[HopeSpot the bullying has stopped and the student body is starting to tolerate his sexuality]]. This changes on prom night, when [[spoiler: Kurt gets voted Prom Queen.]] To make matters worse [[spoiler: the Prom King is [[ArmoredClosetGay Karosky]], Kurt's bully and StalkerWithACrush.]]
** In Season Five, Tina is voted Prom Queen. [[AlphaBitch Bree]] does not like that another Glee kid became Prom Queen, so she [[spoiler: drops red goo all over Tina when she wins.]]

* ''Series/{{Scream}}'': In the season 1 finale, the students are at a Halloween Dance, and everyone feels safe under the assumption the killer was caught. Things quickly go south when [[spoiler: the entire dance is shown live footage of Officer Clark tied to a tree and clearly injured, panicking everyone at the dance and ruining things even more for Emma and her friends, who finally felt they could relax. The killer being a major troll, this was clearly an intentional way to ruin everyone's fun at the dance and keep their game going.]]
* One ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' VillainOfTheWeek was an AlphaBitch who was obsessed with being prom queen. She's put in a coma after a car accident, but she gains the power to possess other people. She uses this power to try to live out her prom fantasy, eventually possessing the prom queen. However, she realizes that the student body hates her and decides to [[KillItWithFire burn down the school]] [[DisproportionateRetribution while the prom is still going on]] for revenge. [[spoiler: Clark manages to stop her by [[HoistByHisOwnPetard tricking her into possessing his body and then exposing himself to kryptonite]].]]

* "The Ballad of Sara Berry" from ''Theatre/ThirtyFiveMillimeterAMusicalExhibition'' centers around the titular AlphaBitch who undergoes SanitySlippage when it becomes apparent that a classmate named Julie, [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged who had recently lost a leg in a car crash]], will be named Prom Queen instead of her. [[spoiler: Sara ends up going completely AxCrazy and murders six classmates on prom night before Julie puts an end to things by [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome calling the police]]. When they find Sara, she's decked herself out with the Prom Queen's sash and scepter and is dancing by herself, all while still covered in her victims' blood.]]

-->'''Angry prom attendee''': Go wreck someone else's prom, will ya?