Oh dear...
Animated characters in Non-Fatal Explosions usually just get charred, but a really big boom (or really hot fire) will do more.
The victim's entire body turns to ash and crumbles into a dozen pieces, except for the eyeballs, which bounce into the mess. Then another character will produce a broom and dustpan, and sweep up the ashes, eyeballs and all. Or a (relatively intact) arm reaches from the ash, produces a broom and dustpan, and the character sweeps himself up. Of course, all will be well a few seconds later.
Also see Ash Face, where the explosion leaves the victim with a blackened face.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Léonard le Génie: Happens very often to Basile, the clumsy assistant to Léonard.
Films — Live-Action
- Done in a dream sequence in Joe Dirt.
- Looney Tunes: Back in Action: Happens twice in Area 52, once to Daffy, who's reduced to a puddle of goo, and once to Marvin the Martian when zapped by an escaped Dalek.
Literature
- Happens in the novel Left Behind, after Hattie Durham gets incinerated by the Anti-Christ with a lightning bolt. Her friends sweep what's left of her into a jar to take back.
- Discworld:
- In The Truth this has to be done for Otto several times. He's a vampire photographer. The light from the device is enough to turn him to dust.
- It's mentioned in Small Gods that anyone who says gods don't exist is usually struck by lightning on a clear day, leaving only ashes, a pair of shoes, and a sign that says, "YES, WE DO".
Tabletop Games
- Bizarrely shown in many Paranoia illustrations. The "nothing left but a smoking pair of boots and a laser pistol" variation is so prominent a Running Gag that it's trademarked.
Video Games
- This is one of the many, many death animations in Atomic Bomberman.
- Happens if you take a nasty enough fall in Marble Madness.
- Dweep: Happens to Dweep (sans the "sweeping" part) if he's incinerated by a laser or a bomb (or the player, with a torch.)
- In The Lost Mind of Doctor Brain, Rathbone has four different ways of getting Inside a Computer System, one of which involves this. (He gets restored with a single drop of water.)
- In Earthworm Jim, this happens to the titular Jim when you lose a life.
- The Lost Vikings: When one of the Vikings fall in lava or die from a fire attack, this will happen.
- In Plants vs. Zombies and Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time, this happens to most zombies that are destroyed by fire damage, sans the sweeping part (they just fade away instead).
Western Animation
- Happens to several of the Looney Tunes characters:
- Wile E. Coyote swept up his own ashes in almost every Roadrunner cartoon.
- Daffy Duck sometimes did this with his feathers. He also does the full-on ashes version during the disintegrator pistol duel in Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.
- Also, Foghorn Leghorn, when he gets his feathers blasted off for one reason or another.
Foghorn Leghorn: Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered, for just such an emergency.
- One episode had Porky getting so angry at Daffy he burned himself up to ashes, then the smoke from the ashes condensed and transformed into Porky once again.
- It's happened to Tom of Tom and Jerry a few times, too, though moreso in the Chuck Jones shorts. This must have been a favorite trope of his.
- The title character of Dave the Barbarian does this almost as frequently.
- Groundskeeper Willie's ghost did it as part of his Freddy Krueger impression on one of The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror specials.
- Eustace in Courage the Cowardly Dog falls victim to this at the end of "Forbidden Hat of Gold" when he finally obtains the titular headwear and puts it on, only to crumble up into ashes immediately afterwards.
Eustace: (groans in annoyance) Stupid hat!
- Occurred in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V" from SpongeBob SquarePants: Squidward (as volcano-powered Captain Magma) becomes a pile of ashes after getting hit with Mermaid Man's water ball.
- In the Animaniacs episode "La La Law" after Yakko brings in the Mime as a surprise witness, he drops an anvil on his head which somehow reduces him to a pile of dust, Wakko then sweeps up his remains with his eyes and tongue visible.
- In the EarthwormJim episode "The Eggbeater" when Jim throws a moldy cheese grenade, it hits Professor Monkeyforahead and reduces him to a pile of ashes and eyeballs, a hand then comes out of the ashes and sweeps them up.
- Fairies on The Fairly OddParents! need to grant wishes; otherwise, they suffer from "magical backup" and explode into a pile of confetti (complete with eyes and their little crowns on top).
- Kaeloo: Happens to Quack Quack twice, both times because of Mr. Cat's inventions.
- Happens in one of Winslow's Home Videos about CatDog where at breakfast time, Dog eats his tacos with too much hot sauce making Cat breathe fire and burn him into ashes by liking the taste.
