"...I fell face-down into the kitty litter tray and there are things in my hair I can't even bear think about..."
— Milly's dad going on a tangent about what went wrong, Milly, Molly, "Cats Alive"
You've probably seen it before: the age-old gag where someone trips up or slips on something (or, occasionally, is pushed) and ends up landing in something disgusting.
It's often animal poop or garbage, but it could be anything as long as it is significantly gross. A common variation is tripping and landing in a nest of skunks, which, while not gross in themselves, will inevitably spray the unlucky character.
This is a common way of villains, especially in comedies, getting defeated (especially if they were arrogant), but good guys can have this happen to them too, especially if they're unlucky or clumsy. Also, if anyone visits a farm who is either clumsy, inexperienced with farms/the country, or both, expect them to trip into either manure or rotting food scraps. Sometimes, for extra comic effect, the accident might happen right before or after the unlucky one is told what the stuff is. They might also try to jump over the stuff, but fail miserably. Usually, the one who lands in the gross stuff will be understandably grossed-out, especially if they're a Neat Freak, but sometimes they don't mind (see Filthy Fun and The Pig-Pen).
Sub-trope of Slapstick and Toilet Humour. Sister Trope to Trash Landing (which is falling out of the sky and landing in garbage). May lead to Covered in Gunge or Covered in Mud. See Carrying a Cake, Banana Peel and Staircase Tumble for other gags related to tripping/falling. Contrast Urine Trouble, Tinkle in the Eye, and Bird-Poop Gag for when something disgusting falls onto you.
Examples:
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Asian Animation
- Happy Heroes: In Season 3 episode 32, Big M. wants to bomb an iceberg to flood the Superstar School. He misunderstands a warning from Little M. and lands in a big pile of garbage below him trying to get to the iceberg.
Little M.: General! Ditch, ditch, ditch!
Big M.: "Go."note I know. Act fast. Don't rush me.
[Big M. runs and falls, and some garbage quickly springs in and out of view from the impact of the crash]
Little M.: I meant, be careful! There's a ditch!
[as Little M. says this, the frame pans out to reveal Big M. in a hole filled with garbage, and a robot appears and dumps more garbage on him]
Comic Books
- Blood and Thunder: Colonel Castillian's escape from an ork attack through a sewage line fails when he's captured at the other end. But due to the layer of green refuse covering him, he's mistaken for a particularly tall and smelly gretchin and kept in a cage as a good-luck charm by the warboss as his "lanky stinky grot".
Fan Works
- In the Discworld as expanded by A.A. Pessimal, this becomes the trademark of Jocasta Wiggs in every story she appears in. She is dumped upon by seagulls, stands at the wrong end of an incontinent elephant, passes her initiation into Assassin-hood by failing the Emergency Drop leading to her swimming for her life in the open sewer she has just fallen into; and on a visit to Howondaland, learns that the best angle from which to observe the passing of a rare and majestic flying elephant is emphatically not from directly underneath.
Films — Animation
- Monsters, Inc.: While hiding in a bathroom stall and standing on a toilet, Mike Wazowski's foot accidentally dips into the water, causing him to pull it out. However, he cannot hold his balance for long, and eventually slips and falls completely into the toilet with a huge splash.
Boo: Ewwww.
- Frozen Fever: As shown in this short, Prince Hans has been relegated to mucking the royal stables back home by his family for his crimes in Arendelle, namely the fact that he tried to kill Anna and Elsa in a selfish bid to become the king of Arendelle. Looking at his current situation, he's in a harsher condition than before, with the stables alone looking dark and uninviting. As if this humiliation wasn't enough, sick Elsa accidentally launches a giant snowball all the way to the Southern Isles, where it pummels him into a wagon full of manure. He even ends up being Covered in Gunge.
- In Turning Red, Mei accidentally sticks her foot in the toilet as a giant red panda. Fortunately for her, the toilet was apparently flushed since its last use.
Films — Live-Action
- Happens in Heathers, when Kurt and Ram end up in a pile of cow manure.
- Back to the Future. This is a bit of a Running Gag of the series, as usually, whenever Marty tangles with a Tannen, manure will be involved in some fashion.
- In the first movie Back to the Future, Marty causes Biff to crash into a manure truck and dump the contents on his convertible.
- In the second movie Back to the Future Part II, Marty manages it again, this time distracting Biff long enough to get the Almanac back that he once more crashes into a manure truck. The same one from the first movie to boot. Meaning in the context of the '50s timeline, it happened twice in one week.
- In the third movie Back to the Future Part III, Marty defeats Mad Dog Tannen by punching him out and causing him to fall on a manure wagon.
- George of the Jungle: Lyle faceplants in a pile of elephant poop, prompting the tour guides to laugh at him. This is even lampshaded by the guides when it happens
Guide: Bad guy falls in poop. Classic element of physical comedy. Now comes the part where we throw our heads back and laugh. Ready?
Fellow guides: READY!
[they throw their heads back and laugh] - Mission: Impossible II: Luther in his first scene, stepping off a helicopter that landed in some fields... on a pile of sheep poop.
- The Last Leprechaun: The villainess Laura Duvann gets hit with a bale of hay and falls into a manure pool and submerges completely into the poop.
- Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams: The rival spy kids, Gary and Gertie Giggles, are mistakenly sent to the Gobi Desert instead of their intended destination. They unfortunately fail to watch their step while checking their map and end up falling into a pit full of camel dung which they spend the rest of the film covered in.
Literature
- Angela Nicely:
- In “Miss Skinner’s Wig!”, Angela, who was on Maisie’s shoulders, gets startled by Miss Skinner and falls backwards into the compost heap.
- In “Girls United!”, Angela keeps slipping into mud when she tries to play football/soccer.
- In the Brotherband book The Outcasts, the brotherbands have to cross a log over a pit of mud (which they strongly suspect has been infused with pig manure) as part of their training. Ingvar, who is incredibly nearsighted, gets too nervous to cross on his own, so Hal and Stig try to help him. He ends up falling and dragging them down with him.
- In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the aptly-titled book "Hard Luck" has Greg step in poop and mention that "normally, [he finds] poop as funny as the next guy" and remembers a man tripping and landing in horse poop as a time he laughed about poop.
- Discworld:
- Night Watch Discworld: Young Assassin Jocasta Wiggs is sent to target Sam Vimes. A few wrong steps after getting into Ramkin Manor, she ends up treading what is mainly water in the septic tank.
- Going Postal: Moist von Lipgwig tries to escape a pursuer with a sprained ankle, using a push-broom as a makeshift crutch, only to fall face-first into the stable yard. The narration describes it like so:
The broom must have been kept as an ornament, because it certainly hadn't been used much on the accumulations in the stable yard. On the positive side, this meant he had fallen into something soft. On the negative side, it meant that he had fallen into something soft.
- The Odyssey: In trying to help her champion Odysseus win the footrace at Patroclus' funeral games, Athena causes one of his competitors, Aias the Lesser, to slip into a pile of ox dung. It even gets into his mouth and nose. Everyone laughs at him.
- In one of the Sophie books, Sophie has a rivalry with her classmates Dawn and Duncan and wishes they'd fall into a pile of dung, at one point drawing their legs sticking out of one.
Live-Action TV
- In one Bones episode, Booth slips, falls down a hill, and lands against the decomposing severed human head that was missing from the crime scene they were at.
- House of Anubis: One of Victor's cruel detention chores for Patricia and Eddie is to make them shovel a pile of manure on the flower beds. After only a few seconds of doing so, Eddie playfully trips Patricia into the pile, getting her shoes dirty. In retaliation, she outright shoves him into the pile, getting it all over his clothes.
- A running gag in Zoboomafoo involves the Kratt Brothers swinging around on ropes in a lemur-like fashion, only to lose control and fall into a big pile of mud.
- Hank Zipzer: In "Hank Rocks Out!", Rosa and Stan get locked inside a potable toilet at a rock festival. Stan attempts to break the door and winds up tipping the toilet over: covering the tow of them in human excrement.
- Shake it Up: In the episode "Oui Oui it Up," Rocky and Cece get in an argument on a farm and they both fall into a giant pit of liquid pig poop
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: In the episode "Free Tippy", the titular twins are on a search of Tippy, a horse who has been set loose around the inside of the hotel. When they reach the hallway, they come across....um.....something Tippy left them (off-screen). Soon, Tippy comes from behind, shoving Cody forward and — well you can guess what happens from there.
- The Brittas Empire: "The Elephant's Child" ends with Helen and Gordon Brittas falling into Elephant excrement. Even worse, Gordon manages to swallow a ring which had been swallowed by the elephant some time before.
Western Animation
- The Loud House:
- In the episode "Pasture Bedtime", Liam goes rolling down the hill and lands in manure. He doesn't seem to mind, though.
- In "Raw Deal", Lori trips on some oil and lands in garbage, therefore "going on a long trip" like her fortune said.
- In the Animated Adaptation of Milly, Molly, the episode "Cats Alive", has Milly's clumsy father trip and land in the litter box. Unfortunately, he doesn't like cats, so this situation just makes him all the more impatient for her to find homes for their cat's kittens.
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Winter Wrap-Up", Twilight Sparkle runs away from some bats and ended up with a beehive on her head. She then crashes into a skunks' nest and the skunks spray her.
- Time Squad: In the episode "Floral Patton", Tuddrussel ends up getting catapulted into a pile of fresh cow manure meant for General Patton's flower beds — he lies there completely covered and looking emotionally defeated.
