In fiction, when a character makes the mistake of eating or drinking something strange - be it poisoned, enchanted, or just plain alien - weird and unusual effects are quick to follow... but in this case, one of the most immediately recognizable consequences involves loud burping.
A trope common to more light-hearted works for younger audiences, there's no adequately-explored reason for the belching apart from "something weird and magical just happened," and possibly a generous dose of Toilet Humor. One of the more explainable variants features characters who Eat the Bomb burping puffs of smoke or a jet of flame after said bomb explodes inside of them. In the majority of other cases, however, anomalous belching usually means that even weirder side-effects are soon to follow... or, in the case of works for adult audiences, more serious ones.
For added weirdness, the victim may not actually have to ingest anything at all.
Compare and contrast Burp of Finality. Contrast Gassy Scare for when the burp is a sign that things weren't a big deal.
Examples:
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Anime
- In the Animated Adaptation of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, episode 5 of the 1st season opens with Hestia drinking away her grief at Bell "cheating on her". She knocks back roughly half a dozen tankards of what looks to be ordinary ale, and then belches a cloud of crimson mist.
Comics
- In one four-strip story in Footrot Flats, Horse gorges himself on a massive amount of rotten fish-heads. Just as an incredulous Dog muses he can't believe anyone could eat that many rotten fish-heads with no ill effects, Horse belches and emits a visible cloud of miasma that kills a meters-long stretch of grass. A dumbfounded Dog weakly notes that Horse's vile feast certainly did his breath no favors.
Fan Works
- Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls: Since Pinkie's evolved Fullbring runs on the Rule of Funny, it can do some very bizarre and ridiculous things - in one case, belching in response to absorbing an energy blast (also a case of Burp of Finality).
- Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse: Miriam eats a toxic mushroom called an Erlin's Jest, then proceeds to belch out a cloud of toxic black fumes that withers the grass it touches before going on a Mushroom Samba. In a later chapter, she belches up a cloud of pink vapor after eating Porche's hypnotic gas-loaded baton to prevent her from using it to cheat in a match — an Eating Contest, for added irony.
- Overlaps with Burp of Finality in Chapter 31, where Nabiki Tendo belches a cloud of phosphor green greasy ashes after she finishes digesting a Blob Monster.
Films — Animated
- In the climax of Bartok the Magnificent, Ludmilla drinks a magical potion in the belief that it will make her even more beautiful - and immediately lets out a very loud, unladylike belch, coughing up a cloud of multicolored smoke in the process. Unfortunately, the potion actually brings out the drinker's true nature, and this initial belch is just the first symptom in Ludmilla's Bit-by-Bit Transformation into a dragon.
- Happens to Queen Elinor in Brave after Merida feeds her enchanted cake that causes her to turn into a bear. The first sign the spell is taking effect is that Elinor starts to feel ill and eventually lets out a loud burp.
- Early in Rango, the titular lizard, in an effort to look tough to a local thug, snatches and eats a lit cigar, then downs a shot of the local rotgut, which results in him burping fire into the face of said thug, who is not amused.
Films — Live-Action
- In Bridesmaids, the first hint that the bridal party has come down with a vicious case of food poisoning is a very loud belch from Megan, which soon escalates into vomiting and uncontrollable diarrhea.
- French Kiss provides a semi-realistic example: after trying multiple kinds of cheese on a spur-of-the-moment whim, Kate is left overwhelmed with painful belching, apparently due to a really bad case of indigestion. Before long, she's also exhibiting "spasms" and sensitivity to the rocking of the train... and eventually, she remembers why she doesn't normally eat cheese: she's lactose intolerant.
- In The Witches (1990), people who've been dosed with the Grand High Witch's Formula 86 often let out a loud burp as soon as the potion takes effect; this soon escalates to puking clouds of green smoke, twitching spasms, and a horrifying-looking transformation into a mouse. Bruno is the first victim to demonstrate this but by no means the last. In the finale, the witches are unwittingly given a dose of the potion, with the dining hall erupting in loud burps as the transformations begin; however, the Grand High Witch is able to resist the effects - so it takes Bruno taking a flying leap in her direction to get her to lose concentration and finally let out the fatal belch.
- In two different movies, Fantozzi had for some reason drunk a large amount of beer or sprinkled water, resulting in incredibly powerful belches capable of causing avalanches.
- In Zombieland: Double Tap, the team start to suspect that Madison is turning into a zombie when she begins burping and farting, which then escalates into her uncontrollably vomiting, a sign of zombification. However, it turns out to actually be symptoms of an allergic reaction to trail mix, which she thankfully survives from.
Literature
- A variant is mentioned in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Fizzy Lifting Drinks cause the drinker to float progressively upwards - up until you find yourself inclined to burp, whereupon you gradually return to the ground. In this case, the burping is at least partly justified since it's a fizzy drink, and the burping is a positive sign, as it's the only way to avoid floating off into the sky.
- Ron Weasley finds himself exhibiting this in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets after his wand backfires on him during a confrontation with Malfoy; until the curse wears off, Ron is left repeatedly burping loudly and puking up slugs.
Tabletop Games
- One of the ailments in the modern revamp of Operation is known simply as "Burp Bubbles" - in this case, literal bubbles inside the stomach causing uncontrollable belching. And this is something that can only be treated via operation...
Theatre
- In Dinner for One, James lets out a pretty unusual belch after downing three rounds of drinks that sounds like a guttural, drawn-out 'bye'.
Video Games
- In the original No One Lives Forever, uncontrollable burping affecting several characters is eventually revealed to be the first symptom of being injected with a poison that gradually turns your body into a walking time bomb.
Western Animation
- Beast Wars: One episode had Rhinox get infected with a Predicon virus that caused him to belch uncontrollably, firing energy beams every time. Transforming into beast mode simply re-orientated the problem.
- In the Futurama episode "Overclockwise", Bender is overclocked to godlike levels and claims that the simple act of burping allows him to create new worlds - two if he's been eating broccoli.
- Lilo & Stitch: The Series: In "Poxy," Experiment 222 is a microscopic organism that infects a host and produces symptoms designed to make the victim look repulsive. One of the first signs of the illness is uncontrollable burping.
- The Loud House: Flip's weird personal attributes take an even weirder turn in "Blinded By Science" when he burps green gas out of his ear. And after drinking all the water in the tank he was trapped in, he belches more green gas - this time powerfully enough to send him flying.
- Paper Port: One of the random daily powers exhibited by Matilda is the ability to stop time by burping.
- The Secret Show:
- "Alien Attack" inducing humanity to eat them, as once a human has consumed a male alien and a female alien, they burp up a baby alien, which looks like a grey alien head floating in a glowing bubble.
- Positive example: "Commando Babies" reveals that the only way to undo Nanny Poo-Poo's Fountain of Youth is by getting the victim to burp, prompting Professor Professor to induce burping via laser ray so that the regressed individuals can be restored to normal.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Subverted in "Dying for Pie". It's implied that SpongeBob has accidentally swallowed a bomb, which will explode once it reaches the end of his digestive system. Near the end of the episode, SpongeBob burps, which he interprets as a sign that something has dropped into his lower intestine. Fortunately, this turns out to be Fauxshadowing, since it's then revealed that the protagonist hadn't eaten the bomb to begin with.
- In the pilot of Twelve Forever, there's a pool on Endless Island made of a liquid that you can drink to burp what appears to be living creatures made out of bubbles.
