Floorboard Failure

No idiot has ever fallen through the floor before!

"It's amazing such shaky buildings can stand up well enough for the characters to walk upstairs in the first place."

— Roger Ebert, Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary

When the floor suddenly gives way underneath someone, usually due to the boards having been weakened by rot or something heavy falling on them.

Often leads to the floor below that collapsing, and then the floor below that in a cascade of disintegrating floors. If they go through to another room, that's usually Crash in Through the Ceiling.

See also Bullethole Door, where a floorboard (or wall) failure is invoked via More Dakka to create a passageway that wasn't there before.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Bleach, Ishida pulls this on Yammy using an anti-Arrancar landmine. As Yammy plunges to the floor beneath, Ishida reveals he took the time to weaken the rest of the floors, all the way to the bottom of the tower they're located in, to ensure Yammy would take a very long fall.
• Happens twice in the second episode of Code Geass. The rebels destroy a group of enemy mechas by shooting the floor out from under them, and Lelouch's own mech falls through several floors of a concrete building (it survives undamaged).
• In GTO: The Early Years the old tatami floors at Eikichi and Ryuji's new Horrible Housing gives way as soon as they step on it. Eikichi claims he feels something slithering around his foot.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Diamond is Unbreakable: Seeing Masazo Kinoto's odd behavior at wanting to avoid his back being looked at, Rohan deliberately lures him to a loose floor panel to have dropped through it so he could get a glance, leading to Cheap Trick attaching itself to Rohan.
  • Golden Wind: While being escorted to the exchange meeting with Bucciarati, Trish is dropped and taken through the bottom of an elevator after Diavolo used King Crimson to erase time and capture her.
• The Kindaichi Case Files: The Vampire Special Case takes place in an old hotel. One of its hallway floors is so rickety than one must not exceed 50 kg to pass. A careless Kindaichi fell through but thankfully landed on a pile of mattresses.
• Nichijou: When Yuuko, Mio, and Mai take shelter from a storm in a shrine, a Suzui bell falls and bounces around, smashing Yuuko and Mio through the shrine's floorboards.
• In Non Non Biyori, the school's leaky roof and general decay have resulted in patches of floor rotting away. Natsumi points this out in one episode but claims no one's stupid enough to fall through. The next shot/panel is her brother Suguru in a hole in the floor.
• In Seitokai Yakuindomo, the main characters visit Shichijou Aria's house and are taken to an old storeroom. The floor breaks under Shino and Hata asks if there's a way to get under the floor to take photos.

Comic Strips

• In Little Nemo in Slumberland, Nemo and Flip are served a new kind of breakfast food that gives them a Balloon Belly. The chairs start to collapse underneath their weight, and then the floors, leading to the entire house being demolished.
• When Popeye's boxing opponent Tinearo steps into the ring, the floor gives away instantly under his massive frame. A bystander notes, "He went through it as if was made of paper".

Comic Books

• Gaston Lagaffe:
  • In one strip, a chainsaw that Gaston had meddled with goes haywire, cutting a hole in the floor around his desk and dropping it and Gaston into the office below, where the process repeats itself. After going through three floors, it is still going, several characters have gathered on top of Gaston's desk (Lebrac appreciating the Security Cling courtesy of a female coworker), and one asks how many more floors there are.^note Gaston's desk is usually set on the cinquième or sixième étage, which in US numbering would be the sixth or seventh floor respectively.
  • In another, Lebrac drops termites overnight into Gaston's Gaffophone as a desperate measure to get rid of the damn thing. The next morning, everything made of cellulose is collapsing or disintegrating at the lightest touch. Gaston hurriedly runs to the attic... to find his instrument still there (the termites apparently left it alone due to the varnish on it). An incensed Prunelle asks Lebrac to follow him to his office... just as the two of them are going through the floor.
  • And yet another example, Gaston is painting the floor of his office while holding an internal monologue about how he won't be falling for the old "painted into a corner" gag because his home-made paint dries almost instantly. Unfortunately for him, said paint eats through the floor and completely disintegrates it, leaving him stranded on the tiny corner he left unpainted.
• Exaggerated for drama in a story Journey into Mystery from when it was a story anthology. In it, a 90 pound weakling drinks a strength potion from a Little Shop That Wasnt There Yesterday, but refuses the much more expensive antidote to it. After a day of reaping the benefits of being a bulky Charles Atlas type, he wakes up in the middle of the night to find himself heavy enough to crash through floorboards of his apartment floor. He keeps going through all the floors, not even stopping when he hits the ground. He realizes with horror that his body's every increasing weight will drive him all the way into the Earth's core.
• Zigzagged in Mortadelo y Filemón: The main characters are exploring a crumbling old mansion when the wooden floor suddenly gives way below Filemon. Mortadelo immediately starts to lament his partner, only to find that there is a stone floor just a few centimeters below the wooden one and Filemon is fine. Relieved, Mortadelo jumps onto the stone floor - which promptly collapses, sending the two falling into a hole so ridiculously deep it takes all night before they crash into the bottom.
• The Transformers (Marvel): When the Classic Pretenders are exploring an abandoned science facility, Jazz suddenly falls through the floor, and yells that "it's" got him, before sheepishly realizing it's just the floor giving way, and asking Bumblebee and Grimlock to pick him up. The real creature attacks from the ceiling.
• X-Men:
  • Happens somewhat frequently to the Blob, given how heavy he is and his status as something of a Butt-Monkey. Since he weighs several tons he has trouble even with reinforced floors.
  • During The Dark Phoenix Saga, this happened to Wolverine as a result of a Gravity Master hitting him with his powers. As Wolverine was busy leaping on him at the time, this resulted in Wolverine and his opponent both plunging through the floor, with a suddenly-much-heavier Wolverine on top. The villain was crushed by his own power.
• Wonder Woman (1942): After getting body swapped and waking up to find herself prisoner Black Canary takes advantage of the old floors in the room she is locked in to bash a hole to jump through.

Fan Works

• Justified in All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird, since the stone floor of the Cradle of Sulevin has slowly collapsed over several ages and it's dangerous to walk, never mind battle revenants. As a result, the Lady Inquisitor takes a nasty fall.
• In the Kung Fu Panda fanfic The Vow, Lord Shen avoids being crushed beneath a cannon because the deck of his destroyed ship under him collapses, resulting in him falling into the waters below.

Films — Animation

• Near the end of The Aristocats "Ev'rybody Wants to be a Cat" number, Scat Cat's gang are jamming on a piano in the attic of an abandoned house. The paw-stomping energy they play with eventually sends the piano and gang through every floor in the house until they reach the street level.
• Happens to Po in Kung Fu Panda as he tries to sneak down a hallway late at night.
• NIMONA: After Nimona transforms into a whale to ram down a door she slides out onto a conference room floor and remarks that the floor is surprisingly stable, right before crashing through multiple floors.
• In Up, young Carl has to cross the one remaining floorboard of the attic of an abandoned house (later his and Ellie's home) to get his balloon. He takes one step and falls through.

Films — Live-Action

• The Big Country: McCay goes to explore Big Muddy, and not seeing the owner Julie, decides to look around the dilapidated manor on the grounds by himself. Julie eventually sees him and mistakes him for a bandit; when she tells him at gunpoint to hold up his hands, McCay suddenly falls through the boards of the manor's stoop — and then obligingly holds up his hands.
• The Tom Hanks movie, The 'Burbs, uses this — although it is the creepy neighbor's porch in this case.
• Deadly Detention: When Lexie and Barrett are hiding from the killer in the ceiling, they end up on a soft part of it and fall through.
• Gooby: Played for Drama: While Willy and Gooby are exploring the now-abandoned childhood home of Willy’s dad, the dilapidated floorboards give way, leaving Willy hanging from a steel bar. It turns out, this was a plan by Gooby to bring him and his dad together.
• A central part of the plot in Duplex, a Drew Barrymore black comedy.
• Iron Man: Tony's first flight test ends with him crashing through his ceiling and the floor during an attempted landing. Further casualties are a piano and a car. Followed shortly thereafter by what little remains of Tony's dignity when his Robot Buddy Dum-E blasts him in the face with a fire extinguisher. Again.
• Masquerade (2021): Casey — cowering in the attic — does a good job of avoiding this by tiptoeing along the stronger wooden support beams, but eventually missteps and falls through the ceiling. She's able to climb back up, but still tips off the burglars to her hiding place.
• The Tom Hanks movie The Money Pit has this. In this case, the hole was already there with a large rug thrown over it, and poor Walter gets stuck in it for several hours.
• A justified variant in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, when Clark is trapped in the attic. He deliberately steps between the rafters rather than on them, so his weight is supported only by sheetrock, which, unsurprisingly, eventually gives in.
• The climax of The Ninth Gate (1999) where the floorboards in a ruined castle partially collapse, trapping Dean Corso (Johnny Depp). He is forced to watch Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) triumph. Why is he stepping between the rafters? Because when he tried to walk on them, the improper placement caused them to hit him in the face.
• Not Another Teen Movie: After her big makeover, Janey starts boldly walking down the stairs... when suddenly she falls through the staircase, followed by the stair carpet, a table, stair rods, and sundry stairs and other bits of the house falling on top of her.
  Janey: I'm Okay!
• Our Miss Brooks: When campaigning for the position of Coordinator of Education, Mr. Conklin falls through the floor of the temporary stage Walter Denton constructed. Walter didn't use enough nails.
• Damaged, rather than totally collapsed, floorboards play a key role in the climax of Pacific Heights (1990)
• The Rebel: Hancock has a huge, concrete statue in his art studio, which falls through the floor. This is lampshaded by his bad-tempered landlady yelling that her bedroom is just beneath. When it does fall through, Hancock mutters "missed her".
• Sherlock Holmes (2009). Holmes races to follow Irene Adler after she leaves 221B Baker Street by putting on a false nose and stealing Watson's coat as a disguise, then jumping out the window doing a silly shriek—cue Offscreen Crash. He shouts for Watson who looks out of the window to see that Holmes has fallen through the roof of the coal shed. Watson proceeds to roll his eyes, shut the window, and walk away. Even funnier is that the soot stains Holmes gains from this accident benefit his disguise.
• In Snuff Movie, Leon tells the actors not to wander into the west wing of the house, as the floors are rotten and unstable. Matt disregards this and starts down the stairs, only to immediately put his foot through one. Leon then says that from now on he intends his words to be taken seriously.
• The Suicide Squad: After the top part of the Jotunheim tower crumble, Bloodsport manages to break his fall with his Grappling-Hook Pistol and then lands on his feet a few meters down, unharmed. Except the weakened floor gives way around him, sending him down onto the level below where another piece of floor cracks underneath and send him down another level, and again, and again, until he reaches the bottom of the tower.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) has this occur in the middle of a fight between the Turtles and the Foot clan on the second floor of April's apartment. Given that the floor had been hacked at with ninja axes and the number of people in the room at the time, this was inevitable. Donatello even tries to warn the Foot.
  Donatello: Uh, guys, I'm not so sure if this is, structurally speaking... such a good time for your buddies to drop in.
  (Foot soldiers drop in through the skylight; seconds later epic floorboard failure occurs)
• Batman (1989): In the final showdown atop the cathedral, Lawrence jumps down from a raised platform behind Batman...and immediately breaks through the floorboards falling to his death, with Batman only noticing when the guy screams as he falls.

Literature

• In the Animorphs book The Reaction, Rachel involuntarily morphs into an elephant on the second floor of her house, causing the floor to collapse. Later books feature the house being repaired and discussions of a lawsuit levelled against the builders. Rachel feels guilty since the house was never meant to support an elephant, but she cannot explain what happened without revealing the truth.
• During a Galaxy of Fear book the protagonists, taking cover in a shack, notice that the ceiling is starting to creak and bow as the weight on the roof gets heavier and heavier...
• Happens a few times throughout the Harry Potter series - Hogwarts, for reasons unknown, has one or more disappearing steps. Although this is usually Played for Laughs, with a mention of new students - or Neville - forgetting or not knowing to watch out for them, it is Played for Drama exactly once in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry, sneaking around after-hours underneath his invisibility cloak, accidentally falls prey to one of the disappearing steps and drops a large metal egg, which attracts the attention of the caretaker and two professors, and is forced to stay there in silent agony until the adults leave the area.
• In the Discworld novel The Last Continent, the wizards and Mrs Whitlow are on a ship-fruit which is breaking up once within sight of land in order to shed its seeds. The Senior Wrangler heroically attempts to save Mrs Whitlow by lifting her up, thereby transferring her weight to his feet, with predictable results.
• In The Mighty Queens of Freeville, Amy Dickinson tells the amusing story of the time her daughter's entire high-school madrigal choir crashed through the boards of the stage in the middle of rehearsal.
• In one of the Ramona Quimby books, Ramona falls halfway through the unfinished floor of a friend's attic. She's very annoyed when she tries to tell the story at the dinner table with what she feels is an appropriate amount of drama, and her older sister interrupts, saying how easy it is to step onto the plaster and that she knows someone who fell all the way through.
• In Relativity, Vera Barracuda is a thief who uses improvised weapons and stuff she orders from the internet. In her first appearance, she's confronted on a rooftop by Dark Flame and Zephyra. She uses a powerful flashlight to temporarily blind the two heroes and lead them to a part of the roof which is under construction. They fall through.
• In Septimus Heap, when the Port Witch Coven is hunting after the protagonists, they are thwarted when the floor of the Coven collapses due to a long-standing giant woodworm attack.
• "The Termite" by Ogden Nash:
  Some primal termite knocked on wood
  And tasted it, and found it good
  And that is why your cousin May
  Fell through the parlor floor today

Live-Action TV

• Bar Rescue: Just prior to the soft open (stress test), this became a very real possibility for the staff at J.A. Murphy's. Jon Taffer ordered an evacuation of the premises on grounds of dry rot directly beneath the bar floors, necessitating several days of structural repair and off-site training.
• Breaking Bad: Happens when Walt and Jesse try Disposing of a Body by dissolving it in hydrofluoric acid in the upstairs bathroom. Jesse buys the wrong container to hold the acid bath, which they realize when the whole indescribable gore-slurry comes gushing down through the ground-floor ceiling.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Falling through the floorboards in a house they've collapsed with their Destructo-Nookie doesn't stop Buffy and Spike from having sex.
  • Sunnydale has more than a few buried secrets and underground lairs, so a couple of times the Monster of the Week gets found by a Scoobie falling through the ground because they're actually walking across a boarded-over cavern.
• El Chapulín Colorado had this happening in several episodes. One in particular involves a woman who's trying to convince her landlord to pay for the repairs of her house that's falling apart, and the characters constantly falling through the floors all over the place. When the landlord himself ends up falling through one, he finally relents and agrees to pay for the repairs.
• In Desperate Housewives, Susan managed to suspend herself between two floors when it happened to her in her house.
• In The Equalizer, Edward Woodward's character was being menaced by the villain on a building site. Woodward warned the villain not to come any closer because there were broken boards between them. Of course the bad guy didn't think the warning was for his benefit, so he stepped onto the broken boards and fell to his death.
• Farscape. Aeryn and John Crichton discuss their UST. Aeryn suggests they resolve it, but John is hesitant (they're picking their way through a badly damaged space station trying to get to a group of survivors, so getting into Aeryn's uniform isn't his first priority at the moment). Aeryn, annoyed, turns to face him and unzips her top, demanding to know what he's afraid of. Cue the floor giving out beneath her and dropping Aeryn into another part of the station.
• An episode of Growing Pains has Carol fall through the floor while doing aerobics. They have termites.
• In the final episode of House, Dr. Gregory House goes through the floor of a burning building.
• In How I Met Your Mother this happens to the building inspector checking out Ted's house.
• A blackout scene in one of Ernie Kovacs' 1961-62 specials for ABC featured him as a car salesman showing off a Nash Metropolitan. He slaps on the hood, sending the car down a hole in the ground. Reportedly, this five-second gag used the entire budget for the half-hour show.
• On The Muppet Show, the Porcelino Bros form a human pyramid. But because they're pigs, their pyramid causes the stage to collapse beneath them.
• In Muppets Tonight, both Martin Short and Clifford, after eating too much of Mama Fiama's pasta sauce, cause this.
  Martin Short: Uh oh... creaking floor... not good...

Music

• Several consecutive times in iamamiwhoami's video "drops". As it is a Non-Appearing Title, "drops" may also refer to Jonna dropping through the floor.

Video Games

• Subverted in Alan Wake. On the way to meet the kidnapper, the roof of an abandoned building caves in, dropping Alan into a roomful of enemies. However, after defeating the enemies, Alan can climb back up to the roof and take another route across.
• The original Alone in the Dark (1992) contains an immediately fatal example in the upstairs hallway, requiring you to cut through the bedrooms to avoid it.
• ANNIE: Last Hope have collapsing floors in the last few stages, over suspended walkways and platforms, that kills you instantly. Though you can trick zombies into walking over them.
• ANNO: Mutationem: During Ann's first encounter with Loki at Noctis City, in the midst of the fight against his Mini-Mecha, the rooftop of the abandoned building collapses due to the damage done around it, causing it to give way to break apart, sending both to fall into the bottom level and continuing their fight from their.
• In Barrow Hill, entering the barn's loft for the first time causes the floor to collapse, trapping you in the lower part of the building until you find the means to escape.
• In BioShock 2, Subject Delta is shot at, nearly set on fire, and falls through several floors into water.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has this happen to a tank. As it turns out, driving a 57-ton Abrahms tank into a parking garage only rated for 30 tons has predictable consequences.
• In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Kokichi is found on the ground bloodied and Faking the Dead. Turns out he went thru the floorboard, showing evidence that the killer of that chapter's class trial rigged each of the possible rooms of the seance to murder.
• Dragon's Crown: The B route of the Mage's Tower has the player(s) confront a massive Classical Chimera, big enough to take up the whole screen. Like the other B-route bosses, this is a Timed Mission to claim one of the Talismans — your timer being the floors of the tower giving way under the monster's weight. You'll know you're running out of time when the Chimera starts cracking apart the stone floor at the very bottom. Take too long, and the Chimera breaks through the floor and into the lava caves featured in the A-route, denying the player(s) the Talisman.
• While it doesn't happen to the player, one of the in-game notes in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim both describes and implies an example. A "Scrawled Note" found in Bloodskal Barrow in the Dragonborn expansion is written from one bandit to another, and reads, "Look Meryn I'm not arguing that these towers are falling to pieces, but I think you are exaggerating about the planks falling ou————".
• In Fallout 3, a couple of buildings have this as a scripted event. The Calvert Mansion in the Point lookout expansion has you falling through several floors and into the basement.
• Ghost Hunter has this happen when playing as the giant mech. When no other way forward can be found, it falls through the floor to advance.
• Happens quite often in the Half-Life games. Also happens in ducts as well (once into a room full of laser tripwire explosives).
• In the Home Alone Licensed Game for the Sega Genesis, the floors in the Old House break if Kevin, Harry, or Marv walk across them too much. Kevin can use this to his advantage, as he can hit Harry or Marv with one of his weapons as they try to jump across one of the holes, causing them to fall through it and increasing the pain in their Pain meter.
• In Mortal Kombat 3, the stage fatality of Shao Kahn Tower has the winner uppercutting the loser, after which the defeated opponent falls through the floor (which stayed intact for the entire duration of the fight), and keeps falling through several stories of floorboards, before landing on a bed of spikes.
• The Phantom Menace have one right in the first stage, as the player (as Obi-Wan) tries finding an exit through the Trade Federation's ship via Air-Vent Passageway, only for the bottom to break and dropping Obi-Wan to a lower section filled with maintenance droids.
• Portal 2 when reaching for the pedestal the portal gun was supposed to be on.
• Resident Evil:
  • The second floor of the library in Resident Evil 2 has a floorboard that collapses when you walk over it, sending you into a hidden alcove behind a wall. You have to fall down there to access a puzzle. The weak floorboard remains in Resident Evil 2 (Remake), but it serves more of a "gotcha" moment when the player tries to reach the nearby door.
  • This happens in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica. Claire and Steve cause a walkway to collapse, leaving Claire's ankle trapped just long enough for Steve to have to kill his undead father.
• SAR: Search and Rescue have several of these in the space station's corridors, which tends to give way the moment you try crossing on them, though luckily you can execute your Air-Dashing move to leap to a nearby platform. Getting caught leads to a fatal drop that costs you a life, though enemy mooks (save for the hovering robot drones since they could, well, fly) can suffer the same fate as well.
• In Silent Hill, the player must fall through the floor to advance at the Alternate Shopping Mall upstairs court. It's also a Point of No Return and drops the player into a boss fight with the giant digging centipede.
• In Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, after you beat the haunted kitchen, the house quakes and five floors collapse underneath you, leading you to "be garbage of cesspool."
• Splinter Cell has this when the player character moves too fast in a burning building.
• This accidentally happens sometimes in Superman 64, usually at complete random. Still, it can give some truly spectacular graphical glitches, as seen here.
• Super Mario Sunshine: In the first fight against Petey Piranha, Mario climbs to the roof of the large windmill, where the boss prepares to fight, only for the roof to promptly collapse beneath them.
• ThanksKilling Day: In one cutscene, the kid finds his mother hiding in the toolshed, calling the police. When she notices him, the floor gives out under her, causing her to fall in a deep hole.
• Collapsing floor tiles are a staple in the Tomb Raider series.
• In 2Dark, nearly every level has some broken floorboards on it. Smith will instantly fall through and die if he steps on these. Sometimes, this can be turned against Smith's enemies too. One of the female psychos in the final level, Adelaide, will regularly check on her painting, and monologue about her kills in front of it. This painting can be moved right in front of the crack on the floor; she won't notice, step there, and die.
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: Among many other feats of Malevolent Architecture engineered by the Ocean House Hotel's resident ghosts, the main staircase collapses underneath the player character as they walk in, forcing them to find a way out of the Creepy Basement.
• Wick (2020): Just as you seem to be nearing the end, part of the ceiling caves in because of the storm and the falling debris causes the floor to collapse beneath you, resulting in Wick falling into the crypts.
• In the The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings trailer for the Xbox-release, the assassin throws an ice grenade at a kings ship, freezing the ship and almost everyone on it. When one of the survivors makes a few steps forward to see where the blast of cold came from, a breaking deck plank sets off the Tranquil Fury sequence while the entire ship starts to shatter around them.

Web Comics

• In Girl Genius, it happens to Zeetha's whole group in the sewers of Sturmhalten, immediately after escaping a rampaging monster. They land in an oubliette turned de facto ossuary — but only discover this when they try to burn some "moss" growing on a "rock" for light.
  Dimo: Hokay. De goot news iz dot de bones vasn't scattered.
  Lars: That's good?
  Dimo: Yah. Dere ain't monsters attacking pipple from de dark.
  Lars: ... That is good.
  Dimo: De bad news is dot anyone who vind up here—dey stay here.
• Gunnerkrigg Court averts it by bypassing the rickety floorboards altogether
• In a Moment of Awesome, Muneca of the Pacificators fame used her gravity powers to throw the Shadow Sleuth through a pier.

Web Videos

• In the first episode of None Piece, this happens to the pirate captain.
  Pirate Captain: Alright boys, my fat ass fell through the floorboards again.

Western Animation

• American Dad!: In the James Bond spoof "Tearjerker", Stan and Francine's characters fall through the floorboards of the titular villain (Roger)'s lair when they try to escape. This was another blunder of the contractor who built the place as Roger comments "Never hire a contractor just because he's gorgeous." Later in the episode, when Roger sends his minions from his blimp to the lair, the floorboards break just as they land. All Roger can say is a deadpan "Really?"
• In The Critic episode "From Chunk to Hunk", Jay tries to hop into his chair, misses, and ends up crashing through several floors before ending up stuck in a hole with his rear sticking up. When Duke comes to berate Jay for his weight, Jay brings up that maybe Duke's floors are just shoddy, but Duke points out that Rush Limbaugh hasn't had any problems- up until Rush comes crashing down on top of Jay.
• DuckTales (1987): In "Catch as Cash Can", the floor broke to the Grand Kiska of Macaroon when he was going downstairs for a midnight snack, resulting in him discovering firefly fruit.
• The Family Guy episode "Fifteen Minutes of Shame" Peter makes Meg's slumber party worse by having the stairs give out beneath him and needing everyone to grease him up to free him.
  • "To Live and Die in Dixie" has several when the family in witness protection in the Deep South where they had to live in a dilapidated old shack. A Running Gag had Peter falling up to his shoulders through the floorboards, where he would casually point out something that ended up beneath the furniture nearby.
• King of the Hill: Hank falls through his kitchen floor to find a Secret Underground Passage built by Dale, Bill, and Boomhauer.
• Looney Tunes: The Bugs Bunny short "(blooper) Bunny!" has Bugs discovering a loose floorboard during shooting. He leads the camera away from it but sure enough, a few scenes later Daffy has the board slam into his face and through his bill. Another blooper immediately follows where Daffy somehow forgets to remove the board from his face.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Last Roundup", the disaster-prone Derpy manages to break a hole in the town hall's floor simply by sitting down.
• Happens in an episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, where Piglet's floor collapsed, leading Tigger to joke about how he has a basement now.
• Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: Ella crashes through the floor at one point in “Tempo Trouble”.
  Ella: It sure wasn’t build for tap-dancing pianos.
• The Simpsons
  • When Homer Simpson is joining the Stonecutters, he has to take part in an Initiation Ceremony while blindfolded.
    Number One: All Stonecutters must take the Leap of Faith. If you survive this five-story plunge, your character will be proven.
    [Homer whimpers]
    Moe: Happy landings! [pushes him]
    [Homer falls two feet onto the floor; everyone laughs]
    [the floor collapses and Homer falls through with a yell and a crash — five times consecutively]
    Homer: [from the bottom] I think I have to do it again. My blindfold came off.
  • Another episode has Homer and Marge talking about the terrible shape their house is in, and just then Bart falls halfway into the kitchen from the 2nd floor. "Little help?" Marge pushes him back up the newly created hole with a broom handle.
  • And in the episode "Lisa's Wedding", Lisa's fiance Hugh falls through the floor of the addition Homer built onto the house. Thankfully, the compost heap cushioned his fall.
• The floors in Architect Smurf's smurfominium are prone to weakness in The Smurfs (1981) episode "Skyscraper Smurfs".
• Wishfart:
  • The episode "Agita Una Gamba!" makes a Running Gag out of it. As Dez and Puffin try to sneak into an abandoned factory to help Akiko fight a ghost hunter, they fall through the unstable floorboards and into the basement every time they get out of the vents. Each time, Puffin then wishes from Dez to get out, only for him and Dez to end up right back outside the factory.
  • In "You've Been Funky Warlocked", a wish from Dez teleports G the Gargoyle from his rooftop lookout and into Dez's apartment room (which is on the top floor). Due to his massive stone pedestal, G then crashes through every floor of the apartment, leaving Dez and his friends to have to haul him from ground level all the way back to the roof.

Real Life

• Old mine workings. What looks like a solid rock floor may be only a layer of stone debris covering a structure of ancient timbers that have spent the last two hundred years or so gradually rotting away to the point where the only reason they are still up is that they haven't fallen down yet. Add the weight of an incautious mine explorer for an instant revelation of just how large the great big hole underneath them is. This is why one should never enter such workings without the knowledge to identify such hazards in a non-destructive manner.
• This happened to Spike Milligan during his wartime service in North Africa. His artillery section moved into a partially destroyed colonial house formerly occupied by an Italian farmer. They discovered an abandoned but playable piano in an upstairs room. Despite shell and bomb damage to the house, Milligan and his mates (the battery's musicians and dance band) used it for an impromptu band practice session. They then bedded down for the night in the safer and dryer downstairs rooms. During the night there was an almighty crash that led them to believe they were under attack. They discovered the upstairs floor supporting the piano had given way and the instrument had fallen through the ceiling, narrowly missing the guy who'd been playing it earlier.
• Throughout a list of Twitter compilation books, one question in particular was to ask a user's most embarrassing moment.
  "I fell through the floor seconds before foreman said "Careful, there are loose boards."
• "Hey, Ron." "Hey, Billy."

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