Celebrating your birthday before you're even born.
Mario: I can't quit now, Luigi. I was born with a plunger in my hand!
Luigi: I know. Boy, it was awfully hard on Mom.
—The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, "Plumbers Academy"
During pregnancy, the only thing that should be inside a mother's womb or an animal's egg is an unborn child. Yet somehow, the baby manages to have an assortment of objects in the womb with them. Where did they get them? Who knows? Adding more mystery, when the baby exits the womb, the items are either taken out with them or they somehow disappear completely, never to be seen again.
A Sub-Trope of Pregnancy Does Not Work That Way. Possibly related to Hammerspace. See also Stomach of Holding. May be played as Funny X-Ray (or Funny USG, as it's called). Not to be confused with a Demonic Possession of a fetus, which would fall under Fetus Terrible.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Gatchan from Doctor Slump emerges from her/its egg fully clothed.
Comic Books
- An issue of "Billy Quiz" in Viz has Billy wondering if the baby his wife is about to give birth to is actually his. He's reassured at the end when the baby looks exactly like him, including being born wearing a bow-tie and glasses.
Comic Strips
- One cartoon in The Far Side shows twin babies wearing T-shirts — one says "STUPID" and the other says "I'M WITH STUPID".
Films — Live-Action
- Chairman of the Board: While in the womb, Edison performs an experiment using chemicals in test tubes, causing an explosion which blasts him out of his mother.
Folklore
- In Chile, there's a saying about newborn babies, in which it is said that the baby "born with the marraquetanote under the arm", which means that the baby will bring good luck to the family.
- Similarly, the English idiom, "born with a silver spoon in his/her mouth," meaning that the child was born into a wealthy and privileged family, with the advantages that one would expect from that.
Literature
- Jia Baoyu in Dream of the Red Chamber is born with a piece of jade in his mouth.
Music
- The Lonely Island: In "Creep," a singer declares "They knew I was a creep since the day I was born." The video shows a physician holding the baby immediately after his mother delivers: he is already fully dressed in a John Waters-inspired "creep" outfit.
Akiva: The doctor caught my head, and he started freakin' / 'Cause I came out clean, and I came out creepin'
- George Formby's song "With My Little Ukulele In My Hand" ends with what is this, if taken literally, but more probably intended as a cheeky Unusual Euphemism:
"My heart, it jumped with joy, I could see it was a boy, for he had a ukulele in his hand!"
Mythology & Religion
- She's not exactly born from a womb, but in Greek Mythology, Athena was born from Zeus' forehead fully grown, wearing a full set of armor. Some legends say that it was forged by her mother Metis, who had been consumed when she was pregnant by Zeus, the pounding of the forging becoming an unbearable pounding headache for him.
- In The Mahabharata, Karna was born wearing a pair of golden earrings that he never took off throughout his life. This was one of many signs of his true heritage- though abandoned at birth, Karna was of the kshatriya caste and a son of Surya Devi (the sun god). For some reason, the peasants who found and raised him didn't find this suspicious.
Puppet Shows
- Fraggle Rock: In "The Trial of Cotterpin Doozer", a Poison Cackler hatches wearing a diaper and a baby bonnet.
Radio
- How Green Was My Cactus: According to the obstetrician who delivered him, Liberal leader Dr. John Nuisance was born clutching a bag of gold ducats. In a past life, he'd somehow worked out how to take it with him.
Interviewer: That must have surprised his mother.
Doctor: More like shock. You see, he was also wearing skis.
Web Original
- In a particular interview
, the title character of Homestar Runner claims that he was born with his hat.
Video Games
- Pokémon: Many Pokemon hatch from eggs carrying objects, wearing armor or what appears to be human clothes, or, in Kangaskhan's case, hatching with a baby in their pouch. Where these things come from and how it's at all possible is never explored. Notably averted with Happiny, which isn't born with the egg its evolution Chansey has; instead, it finds an ovoid rock and puts that in its pouch until it evolves.
- In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, many of the baby dragons are shown to have some head decorations when they're freshly hatched. One of them even wears a sheep costume!
- In Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, Yuri and Chelinka were born clutching a crystal, the one which marks them as Starsingers.
- Tales Series
- In Tales of Symphonia, it is said that Colette was born with a Cruxis Crystal in her hand.
- Supplementary materials for Tales of Xillia 2 state that the pocket watches that allow certain individuals to use the Chromatus ability are formed in the womb with them. Ludger's mother decided to disappear because she saw her son's watch on an ultrasound.
Western Animation
- The Arthur episode, "Arthur's Eyes" has D.W. not recognising an old picture of her brother before he got his glasses because she thought he was born with them.
- Family Guy:
- Back when his character still had it out for Lois, Stewie claims that the first act of violence he ever committed was the ticking time bomb he left in Lois' uterus.
- A later episode has Stewie mention that he set up something of a man-cave inside, complete with a pool table.
- In a flashback to Stewie's birth, the doctor also took out a map of Europe marked with places he'll bomb. Prior to that, he kept a journal on which he logged his time in the uterus from the moment he has fingers to write with to the moment he was born.
- In another episode, Stewie mentions that he carved "Brooks was here" in Lois' birth canal.
- Another episode involves Susie Swanson being born with a wheelchair (but not actually paraplegic), with the latter coming out first.
- "Farmer Guy" has a scene where a baby is born carrying a gun and using it to shoot off its umbilical cord.
- The Loud House: The episode "Strife of the Party" establishes that Lola has planned birthday parties for her and her twin sister, Lana, since before they were born. A flashback sequence shows an ultrasound of the twins' fetuses (pictured above), with Lola wearing a party hat and blowing into a noisemaker.
- Rick and Morty: A Post-Credits Scene reveals that Mr. Poopybutthole (who wears a whimsical top-hat) is now married. His wife (who also wears a top-hat) has given birth to their child. A scrapbook photo shows an obstetrician taking a sonogram of Mrs. Poopybutthole's uterus: the baby is already wearing a top-hat just like its parents.
- The Simpsons episode "Lisa Goes Gaga" had a gag where Cletus Spuckler saw a train Lady Gaga was boarding and decided to swear off alcohol before asking his wife Brandine and their children to do the same. The pregnant Brandine then says to her belly "No exceptions", which then cuts to a fetus tossing away their jug.
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: Discussed and Played for Laughs in "Plumbers Academy." Mario tells Luigi he can't quit plumbing because he "was born with a plunger in [his] hand."
Luigi: I know. Boy, it was awfully hard on Mom.
Real Life
- There was a case of a baby being born holding the contraceptive coil that was supposed to stop him from being conceived.
