History Main / WormInAnApple

* There are two instances in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':

-->--'''Applin's''' Pokédex entry from ''[[VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield Pokémon Shield]]''.

* While waiting for his team to come pick up a curious meteorite in the album "[[Recap/TintinTheShootingStar The Shooting Star]]" of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin1991'', Tintin eats an apple he discovers a maggot inside of and promptly throws it away. The next morning, the maggot has metamorphosized into a giant butterfly and the apple core has sprouted into a humongous tree all due to the meteorite's influence.

* After much trouble with Slappy, the serpent in the GardenOfEden finally gets its tail on an apple to feed to Eve in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' episode "Guardin' the Garden". However, she declines when she spots a worm sticking out of it. The serpent only barely realizes in time that the worm is actually a lit fuse and that the apple is a bomb.

* In the episode "[[Recap/ArthurS2E1ArthurMeetsMisterRogersDraw Draw!]]" of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', Francine says that Fern's caricature comic of her is "about as funny as biting into an apple and finding half a worm".

* "Langtree's Lament" in the "Schooltown Follies" episode ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall'' is a heartache song disguised as an educational song that starts with ""A" is for the apple that he gave to me, but I found a worm inside."

* [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick try to raise an abandoned clam (the equivalent of birds in the setting) in "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''. Ignorant of what a clam eats, they unsuccessfully present it with an apple. However, a worm that talks and claims to be visiting from Apple World pops out from the fruit. The duo feeds the worm to the clam instead, despite the worm's threat that "[[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev [w]e will bury you!]]"

* The villain of "[=LarryBoy=] and the Bad Apple" of ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' is [[TemptingApple Temptation Apply]], an apple who seeks to control people by making them lose themselves to temptation. Her one henchman is Curly the Worm, who spies on her prospective victims to figure out what they're sensitive to. Curly gets captured by [=LarryBoy=] and arrested, but Temptation escapes.

* The ''[[WesternAnimation/JonahAVeggieTalesMovie Jonah: An Overboard Adventure!]]'' edition of the ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' book ''[=VeggieTots=]'', which is a series of lesson plans for vacation bible schools, contains a script for a sketch called "Khalil, The Worm, Is Sorry". In the segment, Khalil, a part-caterpillar, part worm, has to resist eating an apple that belongs to his friend William until he comes back. Unfortunately, he eats the apple, leading to the person he was with to teach him a lesson.

->''As soon as it's born, it burrows into an apple. Not only does the apple serve as its food source, but the flavor of the fruit determines its evolution.''

* In ''VideoGame/Pikmin4'', a red apple is a treasure, and is referred to as the "Insect Condo" as a reference to this trope. Further cementing the connection are Louie's notes, where he advises checking for worms before taking a big bite, and saying if you find one, it's a sign of good luck.

Unlike its fellow infested food tropes, such as FlyInTheSoup and [[PicnicEpisode Ants at the Picnic]], a worm in an apple stands out because it isn't beholden to a singular setting or context. This is largely courtesy of the apple aspect. An apple is a natural product that is picked instead of a dish that needs to prepared. This means that a worm in an apple can show up everywhere and that the worm may be considered the apple's proper owner because it was there first. Apples also just so happen to be fruits that have both nutritional and religious connotations. The worm aspect may overlap with the LiteralBookworm, strengthened by the fact that apples have their own link with education in AppleForTeacher.

* In the ''Literature/{{Shivers}}'' book ''The Awful Apple Orchard'', one of the first pranks from the ghosts haunting said orchard involves having Sara seeing a worm in an apple she just bit into. She promptly freaks out and drops the apple, but after picking up and re-examining the apple again, the worm had somehow disappeared.

* [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick try to raise an abandoned clam (the equivalent of birds in the setting) in "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''. Ignorant of what a clam eats, they unsuccessfully present it with an apple. However, a worm that talks and claims to be visiting from Apple World pops out from the fruit. The duo feeds the worm to the clam instead, despite the worm's threat that "[[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev [his people] will bury [his killers].]]"

* Spongebob and Patrick try to raise an abandoned clam (the equivalent of birds in the setting) in "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''. Ignorant of what a clam eats, they unsuccessfully present it with an apple. However, a worm that talks and claims to be visiting from Apple World pops out from the fruit. The duo feeds the worm to the clam instead, despite the worm's threat that "[[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev [his people] will bury [his killers].]]"

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* One of the items in ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' is a "Wormy Rotten Apple"; it's one of the foods that will make your pet sick if they eat it.
** It will have the opposite effect on a Pteri (since they're based on birds). The item will fill it's hunger to full and cure it of any disease.