Basic Trope: A person ignites into flames or outright explodes without the aid of external ignition sources.
- Straight: Alice witnesses Bob suddenly catch fire or explode.
- Exaggerated: Bob's ignition was so powerful and violent that it matched the destruction of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
- Downplayed: Only a small part of Bob's body spontaneously catches fire, like his hair or his hand, and he manages to put himself out relatively quickly thanks to Alice's quick response to the emergency.
- Justified:
- The incident with Bob is based on true events about a man in which spontaneous human combustion was suggested as an explanation for his death.
- Bob has a fire-related superpower that he can't control.
- Inverted: Alice witnesses Bob's temperature suddenly drop to subzero levels before freezing in a block of ice.
- Subverted:
- Alice finds a lit match and a burned patch of gasoline underneath where Bob was when the incident occurred, suggesting an external cause.
- Alice thinks Bob is about to combust spontaneously, but Bob just has stomach cramps.
- Double Subverted:
- ...Except that said evidence is unrelated to the incident with Bob and the cause of his combustion remains a mystery.
- The next time he complains of stomach pains, she dismisses him, only for him to burst into flames.
- Parodied:
- Alice witnesses Bob bursting into a cloud of confetti and party streamers.
- Bob keeps spontaneously lighting on fire and keeps having to put himself out, some times three times in a day.
- Zig-Zagged: Sometimes people ignite or explode with no apparent exogenous cause, sometimes not, and either can be a surprise to some and not to others.
- Averted: Alice blows Bob up with a rocket launcher/sets him on fire with a flamethrower.
- Enforced: "Hmm, what are some other unsolved mysteries we can use. Oh, how about spontaneous combustion?"
- Lampshaded: Alice asks, "How could that happen to Bob? I thought people were just making those stories up!"
- Invoked: Since Bob's days to live are already numbered, he decides to pull the ultimate practical joke of his life by setting himself on fire or blowing himself up via a method so mysterious and outlandish that nobody will ever find out how he did it.
- Exploited: Somehow, Alice knows the cause of spontaneous combustion and plans on spurring this reaction in Bob.
- Defied: Upon realizing this is possible, everyone starts wearing fireproof clothing.
- Discussed: Alice tells Bob that the TV show they're watching is "the kind of show that thinks people can catch fire/blow up under their own free will."
- Conversed: Alice insists that Bob must have spontaneously combusted because "there are some well-documented cases" which bear strong similarities to this incident.
- Implied: Bob died in a setting where there are few things and/or small amounts of substances that can catch fire, yet all that remains of him is a pile of ash.
- Deconstructed: Alice dedicates her whole life to figuring out how Bob spontaneously combusted, and surprisingly discovers an external cause to the incident and enough evidence to prove that spontaneous combustion cannot happen.
- Reconstructed: ...But the discovered cause is even more outlandish and bizarre than the idea of somebody spontaneously combusting already is to begin with.
- Played for Laughs:
- Bob scoffs at Alice's belief in spontaneous human combustion and insists that it cannot happen just before spontaneously combusting.
- Bob randomly catches on fire. He's completely unharmed and only mildly inconvenienced by it at worst.
- Bob exploding or catching fire is played for Surreal Humor.
- Played for Drama: Bob knows he'll combust spontaneously; it's beyond his control and it will happen very soon, but he must profess his feelings for Alice before that happens.
Back to Spontaneous Human Combustion
