A Comedy Trope that also functions as a sort of Tension Breaker, in which a character is so shocked or surprised that they lose complete control of their bowels. Of course we don't actually see this happen, we instead get a quirky little visual metaphor to let us know what they mean.
Bricks, due to the phrases "to shit bricks" and "to brick it", are especially popular.
When the joke goes the other way, then it's an Ass Shove.
Related to Potty Emergency (and especially its subtrope, Potty Failure). For a less vulgar case of characters being so shocked that they drop things that aren't visual metaphors for the contents of their bowels, see Dramatic Drop.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Inverted in this ad.
The person WANTS the bricks out...
- The HEXBUG Spider XL ad, the Spiders pooped their batteries upon seeing the giants.
- A trailer for Lego Star Wars III features a cocky clone trooper showing off his blaster skills to the camera, until the Zillo Beast comes on screen and he unceremoniously drops a pair of Lego bricks.
Anime & Manga
- In a rare non-comedy example, during High School Of The Dead episode 2, "Escape From The Dead", a student in the infirmary drops a push-broom in this manner when one of the victims they are tending to starts to reawaken as a zombie.
- In one episode of Gintama, Kondo, the Shinsengumi Chief had a marriage match up(with a gorilla of all things), and he had a... Potty Emergency. So he politely wanted to step out and go to the bathroom. The gorilla didn't understand what he wanted, and followed him. On his way there, he ran into Gintoki and gang. This happened. (Makes Sense In Context, if not anywhere else).
- In the opening credits of Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, the traveling circus troupe perform their water show in the presence of a large crowd. One of the skits involves the clown (actually the eponymous Pokémon Ranger working undercover), wearing a Sharpedo costume, "gobbling" up some Pokémon and ejecting them from "the other side".
Comic Books
- It's simply the main function of the waste disposal robot in The Smurfs comic book story "Can't Smurf Progress": he eats garbage and he turns them into bricks which he ejects from his rear hatch. Surprisingly, he doesn't poop bricks when he sees that the queen companion Handy Smurf made for him when he became King Trash fell apart and a swarm of termites came out of her.
Comic Strips
- A cartoon from The Far Side showed a spider dropping silk after a fright. (This comic was originally rejected by the syndicate, according to Gary Larson, but the editor liked it and hung it up in his office; later it was pressed into service to fill a gap.)
- Dilbert: In one of the strips, Dilbert is proudly walking around with a "vast array" of personal electronics displayed on his person, until he meets the only man that can beat him in this regard: Techno-Bill. The moment Dilbert sees him, a fax machine on his groin suddenly prints a long, long strip of paper.
Films — Animation
- Toy Story 2: Mr. Potato Head's rear compartment pops open spilling his accessories after seeing the luggage conveyor belt.
- Finding Nemo:
- Nemo's classmate, Pearl the octopus, "inks" near the beginning of the film when scared by a classmate. Her father also does it near the end when he sees a shark. This is accurate to real life ink-producing mollusks, who responds to dangerous or stressful situations by using ink as cover/an irritant while they swim away.
- In its sequel, Finding Dory, Hank also inks himself when he's touched by a child in the touch pool. This isn't presented as humorous at all as he Hates Being Touched and was suffering a PTSD-related panic attack.
- In Shrek the Third, Gingy deposits a little gumdrop when he faces the palace guards.
- And on Shrek Forever After, a goose spooked by Shrek lays an egg.
- In the special Scared Shrekless, Gingy poops out jellybeans during the scarily revised Duloc song.
- Rover springs an oil leak when intimidated by General Grawl in Planet 51.
- In We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Elsa claims that when she first tried a hot dog, she was so mesmerized she "laid an egg." Her embarrassment of the feat makes it similar to soiling oneself. It gets awkward later when she claims she feels like "laying an egg" when she looks at Rex romantically.
- Or maybe she means something else by laying an egg...
- In Robots, Fender lays an egg before facing a huge array of robots that want to recycle him and his friends, all the while describing what the rare metal afraidium is—yellow and Tastes Like Chicken (where he lays the egg in the first place). He looks in surprise, as he didn't know he could do that, since he only had the female legs for a short time.
- In Monsters, Inc.:
- After nearly being discovered by Randall in the bathroom, we see a huge splash in the stall Sully, Mike, and Boo are hiding in. Boo sums it up best.
Boo: Ew.
- Subverted in the next scene, when we see an up-close shot of Mike's legs completely soaked, implying that he slipped and fell in, with Boo still understanding how gross that was.
- After nearly being discovered by Randall in the bathroom, we see a huge splash in the stall Sully, Mike, and Boo are hiding in. Boo sums it up best.
- Rio 2 has one of the "bird lays an egg" variety.
- Trolls: When Chef finds the Troll's new home, Cooper poops cupcakes, which Poppy then somewhat nervously offers to Chef.
Films — Live-Action
- In The Ice Pirates, the robots are being sent into battle. One of them drops oil and some included nuts and bolts before being shoved into the fray.
- In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End , Pintel and Ragetti each grab a cannonball, planning to drop them on the bodies floating in the water while escaping Davey Jones' Locker. As they're about to, they see Tia Dalma standing there. The camera cuts to their lower bodies, as they drop the cannonballs in a way that resembles this trope.
- In The Mask, an animated alarm-clock spews cogs and springs just before The Mask smashes it with a giant hammer.
- In the vampire comedy Eat Local (2017), a chicken lays an egg after a vampire snarls at it.
Literature
- Referenced in 1635: The Cannon Law, one of the books in the 1632 series — which has a modern West Virginian town sent back in time to 1632 Germany by Alien Space Bats (long story). Don Francisco Nasi makes this observation regarding the American town's Protestant ally, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and his possible reaction to Mike Stearns's decision to approve political sanctuary for Pope Urban VIII and his clan. His wording makes it extra hilarious.
Don Francisco Nasi: ... I think State will be responsible for the brick that will be found, come the morning, in the privy of Gustavus Adolphus."
- The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash: A hen, terrified by Jimmy's boa, lays an egg in midair.
Live-Action TV
- In the Courteney Cox series Dirt, the slimeball producer is having a hot work affair with a young intern who makes him wear a butt plug to work one day. It so happens that this is the day that an unhinged gunman takes the staff hostage, and when he turns the gun on the producer, the plug falls down the leg of his pants and rolls away.
- Kamen Rider Den-O introduces us to Deneb, a benevolent demon who randomly distributes candy, which he sometimes keeps in his pants - one day he gets such a huge shock that candy starts dropping out of his robe.
- The opening of the pilot for New Girl has Jess doing a surprise striptease for her boyfriend only to discover he's been cheating on her. We cut to a shot between her legs of a bow hitting the floor. Where that was originally is anybody's guess.
- In an early episode of Scrubs, Elliot did this in one of J.D.'s fantasy sequences.
- On World's Dumbest..., a guy who ran out of beer expresses his displeasure by, among other things, grabbing a brick and pretending to literally "shit a brick". (This is actually the least bizarre thing he does; he also sets a teddy bear on fire.)
- Game of Thrones, Grand Maester Pycelle remarks in a meeting that Zombie Mountain is an abomination and should be killed. He turns to see the creature standing right behind him and we hear a very loud fart come from Pycelle.
Video Games
- Heroes of the Storm: Junkrat has a Talent that lets him trigger his Total Mayhem passive when hit by enemy crowd-control abilities, dropping several live grenades at his feet. Probably not the imagery the devs were going for, but still appropriate given the context.
- Pikmin: In the short movie "Occupational Hazards," a yellow pikmin follows a trail of screws down a pipe and encounters a sleeping bulborb. Not knowing what it is, the pikmin pokes the bulborb, waking it up. The pikmin then freezes in terror and drops the screws in this manner
- Ratchet & Clank:
- Ratchet & Clank (2002): When Clank is confronted by a robot commander, he jumps to a fighting stance. A smaller robot drops out of the back of the commander and he legs it.
- In Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, there is mention of Captain Qwark using "Emergency Defense Plan Number 2" before retreating to a bathroom.
Web Animation
- A terrified BLU Spy drops an entire cinderblock after he upsets a RED Heavy by stabbing his Medic in this Garry's Mod animation by Das Bo Schitt. Due to Team Fortress 2's style, the breeze block is notably wider in some dimensions than the Spy is.
- Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers: In "Mario Commits Tax Fraud", Yoshi, upon seeing Hal Monitor easily dispatch Beeg Yoshi with ease, releases about 30 eggs from his butt, signaling that he know he's not going to get away easily.
Web Comics
- Schlock Mercenary:
- When Ennesby attempts to contact an insane warship AI in virtual reality:
- In another strip, in a conversation with King Xinchub in his bathroom:
Petey: [...] I was going to employ Tagon and company to extract you, but they declined. Apparently they'd rather see you dead.
Petey: You look like you're thinking maybe the plumbing in here needs to accommodate flushed bricks.
- When Ennesby attempts to contact an insane warship AI
- In this page of a fancomic of Super Mario Bros., Mario and Luigi each drop a fireball out of their overalls upon seeing one of the fake Bowsers.
Web Original
- Optimus Prime lost a considerable deal of oil after seeing The Terminators of Terminator Salvation in this review.
- The Nostalgia Critic:
- Despite not being typically vulgar on his show, the Critic invokes this after watching a scary scene of The Care Bears Movie.
Critic: [thump] That was a brick. That was really a brick.
- Also mentioned in Top 11 Scariest Nostalgic Moments about the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Judge Doom reveals that he's a Toon.
Critic: Though the best scene comes in the very end where he transforms himself into a Toon psycho and you can't count the bricks we shat after seeing this scene.
- Despite not being typically vulgar on his show, the Critic invokes this after watching a scary scene of The Care Bears Movie.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: In "The Fortuneteller," a platypus-bear is in the middle of attacking a traveller, but when Appa roars from behind it, it lays an egg and hightails it out of there. Then a hungry Sokka picks up the egg and sniffs it.
- Later, he gets so angry, he loses hold of the egg and it lands on his head. That's sort of a Fridge Logic way of Crossing the Line Twice.
- At the beginning of one episode of Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, a trigger-happy hick in a mech was about to vandalize the Lincoln Memorial, until Big Guy showed him his "Mag Popper." The pilot then surrendered and ejected out of his mech's rear end.
- The Fairly OddParents!:
- In one episode, Timmy's dad becomes an astronaut. Built into their spacesuits is a compartment that you can go to the bathroom through. When you go about your business, it makes a beeping sound. When a monkey is told that he has to go on a mission all by himself, his spacesuit makes the beeping noise.
- Another had Adam West playing the Crimson Chin in a movie. The director (secretly the Bronze Kneecap) makes some changes in the movie to make the Chin seem more pathetic and embarassing like dressing him in a sailor suit and being afraid of his enemies. One scene has Adam saying he's so scared that he "dropped anchor" followed by a metallic thud.
- In Futurama, this happens whenever Bender is frightened and he literally shits bricks. Or when he eats chips with Olestra in them (Olestra is a food additive falsely rumored to cause loose stools). Something of a Running Gag.
- Mech Cadets: In the first episode, when Stanford asks Ava for help stealing an exosuit, the bottom of the box she's holding opens and spills out nuts and bolts.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- When Pinkie Pie (wearing a chicken costume) is frightened by Princess Luna in "Luna Eclipsed," she bolts, leaving behind an egg.
- In "Bloom & Gloom," Apple Bloom scares the family rooster off the windowsill, causing it to lay an egg. Given the later reveal that she was still dreaming, this actually comes off as some subtle foreshadowing that she's not back in reality yet.
- Several times during ReBoot, a baby binome is shown with a suddenly expanding diaper whenever something startling happens, such as Megabyte unveiling his latest scheme to take over Mainframe or a massive portal to the Web opening in the sky.
- An obscene storyboard drawn as a joke by Rugrats artists shows Tommy flapping around on the floor and dropping "malt balls" after Stu hits his wife, verbally abuses Tommy and takes his juice, demanding tribute as the "Alpha Male." Behold.◊
- In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Chocolate with Nuts", after being cornered by the "Chocolate Guy," who reveals that he wants to buy all their chocolate, a pile of chocolate bars falls out of Patrick's pants and is crowned by a tiny chocolate kiss.
- Steven Universe: A variant of this happens in "That Will Be All"; when Blue Diamond says that she never asked any Sapphire to go to Earth, the latter begins to freeze up the part of the floor that she was standing on.
- Garfield and Friends: In one U.S. Acres segment, Orson hypnotizes a bull into thinking he's a chicken. The bull promptly makes himself at home in the hen house, prompting Roy to quip, "If he lays an egg, I'm getting out of here."
- Whenever Scarecrow from Magic Adventures of Mumfie falls from a high distance, he poops straw.
- Total Drama: During the opening of "X-Treme Torture," Chris's jet tears through the confessional/outhouse, where a bear was helping itself to some marshmallows. Startled, the bear hides the marshmallows behind his back... and a couple of them drop between his legs.
