History Main / SpontaneousHumanCombustion

See Also: MadeOfExplodium, YourHeadAsplode, ManOnFire.

* Variant: {{Hellboy}} love interest Lizzie has problems controlling her flames, and lights up whenever she's stressed. Good thing she's immune to her own fire!

->''"You know, dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It's just not really widely reported."''\\
--David St. Hubbins, ''ThisIsSpinalTap''

* PlayedForLaughs in a ''FamilyGuy'' CutawayGag in the episode "A Fish Out of Water," when Stewie imagines how his family look if they were more cultured. Cue the Griffin men sitting in the living room wearing formal clothes, drinking wine, talking with British accents... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAMfCG6nn1w and Peter spontaneously bursting into flames.]]

* Played for laughs in a ''FamilyGuy'' CutawayGag in the episode "A Fish Out of Water", when Stewie imagines how his family look if they were more cultured. Cue the Griffin men sitting in the living room wearing formal clothes, drinking wine, talking with British accents... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAMfCG6nn1w and Peter spontaneously bursting into flames.]]

* Played for laughs in a ''FamilyGuy'' cutaway gag in the episode "A Fish Out of Water", when Stewie imagines how his family look if they were more cultured. Cue to the Griffin men sitting in the living room wearing formal clothes and drinking wine:
-->'''Stewie:''' The port is quite good.
-->'''Brian:''' Yes, quite good.
-->'''Chris:''' Indeed.
-->'''Peter:''' Well, certainly.
-->'''Brian:''' What year is it?
-->'''Chris:''' '51.
-->'''Peter:''' Ah.
-->'''Stewie:''' Delectable.
-->'''Brian:''' Indeed.
-->'''Chris:''' Yes.
-->''(Peter bursts into flames)''
-->'''Peter:''' Oh, dear!
-->'''Brian:''' What is it?
-->'''Peter:''' I've spontaneously combusted.
-->'''Stewie:''' Well, I am sorry.
-->'''Peter:''' Oh, it's quite all right. I've grown tired of living.
-->'''Stewie:''' Ah, very good then.
-->'''Chris:''' For the best.
-->'''Brian:''' Yes, indeed.
-->'''Stewie:''' Is it raining again?

See Also: MadeOfExplodium, YourHeadAsplode.

Not actually the [[InvertedTrope Inverse]] of ExternalCombustion.

* In ''CelebrityDeathmatch'', it appears that Mills Lane is about to suffer from this, but it turns out it's just gas. Later, Stacy Cornbred (the somewhat ditzy interviewer) starts showing signs of it, and Nick Diamond and Johnny Gomez think it's just gas ... until she suddenly explodes.

A classic [[UrbanLegends Urban Legend]], hundreds of [[ButItReallyHappened allegedly true]] accounts of a phenomenon such as this have been reported for centuries, stories of which can be dated as far back as the [[OlderThanSteam the mid 17th Century]], and thanks to the aura of mystery and strangeness surrounding these incidents, SpontaneousHumanCombustion is an anomaly that some can’t help but try and find a valid explanation for.

* An episode of ''{{Picket Fences}}'' wrote the depressed, alcoholic mayor out of the plot by having him spontaneously combust within his own house. He already figured his political career was over, apparently making him a literal burn-out was the final blow to the character.

* Krook in CharlesDickens’ ''BleakHouse'' dies like this and is '''possibly''' the UrExample of this trope appearing in fiction, though true stories were already said to have existed at the time, and Dickens was known to have strongly believed that this was possible.

* In the original ''{{X 1999}}'' manga, Kamui's mom spontaneously combusted in the BackStory. The reason for this, however, was made pretty clear: she made herself a shadow sacrifice of the entire planet Earth and, by burning to death, delayed its destruction by GlobalWarming. ItMakesSenseInContext.

* In ''[=~Garth Marenghi's Darkplace~=]'', Rick Dagless's old college buddy spontaneously explodes (though his head survives long enough to ask Rick to finish him off); in the commentary, Dean Learner mentions that while filming the scene it was clear to everyone that "someone close to Garth had exploded" in real life.

* In the original ''{{X}}'' manga, Kamui's mom spontaneously combusted in the BackStory. The reason for this, however, was made pretty clear: she made herself a shadow sacrifice of the entire planet Earth and, by burning to death, delayed its destruction by GlobalWarming. ItMakesSenseInContext.

[[AC:Webcomics]]
* Unexpectedly happens to [[spoiler:the main character]] near the beginning of ''Not Included''.

* In ''[[GuitarHero Guitar Hero II]]'', the drummer is shown exploding and leaving behind a puff of smoke after performances of Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight as a ShoutOut to the band that wrote the song, SpinalTap.

[[AC:{{LiveActionTV}}]]

As such, works of fiction tend to explore this subject in a few ways. Comedic works may more often than not tend to let such occurrences happen without a clear explanation regarding why being given. On the other hand, more serious stories, especially in the SpeculativeFiction genre or strange tales about the paranormal, may tend to provide some kind of explanation (potentially even revealing an external cause) that is likely one of pseudoscientific origin that may involve anything from aliens or ghosts causing it, an uncontrolled [[{{Pyrokinesis}} Pyrokinetic]] ability, or weirder.

As already mentioned, several theories for this anomaly have been posited in RealLife, too, not just in fiction. For more information on those, TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion keeps a tab on them.]]