Potty Emergency / Live-Action TV

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• According to Jim:
  • During the episode "The Thin Green Line" Cheryl arrives at a bar to use the bathroom after drinking a few cups of green tea. The bouncer tells her to just take a leak in the alley; she eventually does but gets arrested for public urination. When Jim bails her out, he tells her it's one of the hottest things she's ever done.
  • In another episode, Andy's girlfriend is desperate to pee and he insists on asking her to marry him before letting her go, she hurriedly says yes to him so she can go and relieve herself.
• A Good Burger sketch from All That has Ed suffering through this after he wins a bet that he can drink an entire "Turbo Good Gulp" in under ten seconds. Unfortunately for him, the bathroom needed to be repaired.
• In Season 14 of the American version of The Amazing Race, sisters Kisha and Jen got eliminated by a matter of minutes in fourth place because Jen had to go to the bathroom. She had done an eating challenge and drank 2 liters of water to get through it. The trip to the port-a-potty let another team beat them to the mat and cost them their chance to race in the finale for $1 million. When they came back a few seasons, later Jen said she’d pee her pants if it came down to it.
• When Beakman's World talked about toilets, Lester really needed to go to the bathroom...but is holds it in until he finds out whether toilets can explode like in the olden days. Then, when he finds out they're safe...someone else is in the can already!
• And the first episode of Being Human sees George dashing through the woods desperately seeking a place to transform into a werewolf and encountering civilian after civilian. He ends up going back home instead.
• The Big Bang Theory:
  • At the beginning of "The Agreement Dissection", Sheldon runs to the bathroom, but finds Leonard and Priya in the shower together, and so has to run across the hall to Penny's apartment.
  • In "The Precious Fragmentation", Sheldon, Howard, and Raj are in a competition to see how long they can hold onto the prop ring from The Lord of the Rings. When Sheldon starts mentioning things like 'waterfalls' and 'peeing' in an attempt to get Raj and Howard to let go and go to the bathroom, it backfires and all three of them end up needing to relieve themselves.
  • In "The Indecision Amalgamation", Sheldon can't decide between buying a PS4 and an Xbox One, so to help him decide, holds his pee. Penny then brags about being able to cry on cue, saying "here come the waterworks", prompting him to run to the bathroom, yelling the same thing.
• In the Broad City episode "Two Chainz," Abbi and Ilana both have one while out in the city. Abbi resolves hers by going in a Porta-Potty (which gets lifted into the air with her trapped inside), while Ilana doesn't.
• In the Bunk'd episode "Squatters Fights" Ava has one at the beginning due to Destiny taking too long in the bathroom in the girls cabin forcing her to use the one in the Grizzly cabin next door.
• In Business Proposal, Shin Ha-Ri desperately rushes to another bathroom stall outside the corporate building after discovering that the restroom she used had spy cams installed. She ends up getting stuck in traffic, and when she finally finds the bathroom, the door is locked. Thankfully, Kang Tae-moo breaks down the door for her in time.
• In Coop & Cami Ask the World, in "Would You Rather Rip Your Pants?" Cami has one while on vacation, she ends up fighting with Noah- one of the employees at a restaurant for the bathroom key with both trying to get the other to let go(with Noah at one point trying to torture her by pouring water into a glass which Cami drinks in defiance)Cami thinks she has the key only for Noah to reveal he has it and goes into the bathroom. Cami then gets triggered by seeing another guy drinking a glass of water and ends up frantically running behind the counter to relieve herself.
• In a sketch on Chappelle's Show, Dave Chappelle plays a laborer who desegregated a factory's "Whites Only" bathroom, because he dashed in there with explosive diarrhea.
• The City Hall: In Episode 6, the extremely cute but thoroughly obnoxious councilwoman Min Joo-hwa suffers a severe one, culminating in Potty Failure. While visiting protagonist Shin Mi-rae's bar with several journalists, she insults and belittles her for losing her job. This turns out to be a very bad decision, since she suffers a severe Potty Emergency and asks to use the toilet, which she mocks for being backward! Shin Mi-Rae is understandably a bit pissed off and takes the opportunity to get back at her, holding the key to the toilet out of reach and gloating about how good it is to abuse power - and informs her that there are no other toilets nearby, meaning that she is either using their toilet or her knickers. After making her squirm and Potty Dance for a while while suggesting that the journalists report on her increasingly likely accident, she gives her the key, giving her the impression that she's going to make it after all...and then smacks her hard on the bottom, causing her to finally lose control and wet her skirt in front of the journalists with a squeal of distress. On the bright side, she had the foresight to wear a yellow skirt that day...
• In the A Country Practice episode "Heroes And Villains" Terrance and Rosemary are stuck in an elevator in a hotel for several hours, during which time Rosemary is desperate to relieve herself after having drunk too much champagne. After 4 hours of being stuck, Rosemary decides she can't wait any longer and prepares to relieve herself in the corner of the elevator(something which Terrence remarks she should have done four hours previously). Just as she prepares to do this, the elevator doors open and her and Terrence are confronted by hotel staff and a group of reporters with cameras. They subsequently film Rosemary's dash to the hotel washroom and her accidentally entering the gents washroom by mistake.
• CSI-verse:
  • Subverted in the opening of a CSI: NY episode, in which a woman is seen desperately rushing from one downtown store to another, doing the Potty Dance each time she finds one is closed or only permits customers to use its facilities. The scene's comic tone is derailed when she gratefully comes across an automatic pay toilet ... only to be washed off her feet when the door opens, as it's full of water and a drowned corpse.
  • A far ghastlier subversion happens on the original CSI, when a stoner who desperately needs the loo bangs on the door of a gas station men's room ... only for the murderer on the other side to bang on the other side so hard that the aluminum door buckles from the impact. Peering under the door, the stoner gets a face full of blood that comes flooding out from under it.
• In the Danger Force episode The Thousand Pranks War: Part I", as part of a prank on Rivalton, the team secretly put a special water that makes the people at a diner have to go to the bathroom much more. They then bricked up the entrance to the bathroom and remotely locked the front door to keep them in. Cue all of them doing the Potty Dance
• Derry Girls: As the the only boy at an all-girls school, Englishman James is banned from using the girls' toilet. When he and the rest of the ensemble are stuck in detention, he relieves himself in a waste bin.
• In the Don't Drink The Water (an On the Buses spin-off) episode 'The Lift', after Cyril and Dorothy get trapped in the lift in their apartment and have been rescued, they both make a mad dash to the bathroom, only for them to get trapped inside after the door handle comes off.
• An episode of Enlisted finds the Sergeant Major in need of the facilities but because of an escalating prank war the only porta-potty available gets transported with him in it to a porta-potty storage facility. Fortunately, he enjoys the challenge of getting back to his base and subsequently pulls the same prank on his insufferable commanding officer.
• Extraordinary Attorney Woo: On the way to investigate a client's case, junior lawyer Soo-yeon experiences a case of indigestion so severe that her friend and coworker Young-woo has to bring her a change of clothes.
• In the "Freaky Friday" Flip episode of Farscape, Rygel (in John's body) needs to pee right before they have to meet the bad guys (long story). Everyone demands he hold it, but he can't figure out how to do that in John's body, so John (in Aeryn's body) directs him through peeing in a corner.
• Frasier:
  • Roz has a case of this in the beginning of the episode "Room Service" she holds up a sign asking Frasier to go to the bathroom but tells her to wait a moment, but she simply can't considering how Frasier's guest is talking about water.
  • In the 11th Season episode "Crock Tales", Frasier and a blind date become stuck to one another with superglue, and the date is on a liquid diet which catches up with her at that moment.
• When Joey gets an audition with a famous Broadway actor/director in Friends, he goes along having just had a drink and needing to pee. This, evidently, makes him a better actor (since he plays a nervous man with lines like "I could go right now!") He has an even worse potty emergency when he goes for the call back, due to trying to need to pee for the audition. This unfortunate circumstance leads to him having Potty Failure whilst said famous director is hugging him...
• Game of Thrones: Jorah Mormont mentions a time he participated in a 16-hour long battle. He was rewarded with a Knighting ceremony, but it sucked for him because he desperately needed to pee. Barristan Selmy says it was the same with his knighting ceremony.
• A self-inflicted example is implied on Britcom The Good Life, when the couple decide that they've gotten too hung up on money. The husband demonstrates his renewed commitment to anti-materialism by symbolically discarding their last penny ... only to be asked for said penny by his wife, who needs to use the streetside pay toilet.
• Charlotte in the beginning of the Henry Danger episode "Henry's Frittle Problem" has to go to the bathroom, but is stopped at each attempt. Eventually, Piper beats her to the bathroom, to which Charlotte finally replies to Henry about where she is going.
  In your backyard to water your bushes.
• In an episode of Hiccups, Millie rushes into Joyce's office, mentioning she has to "pee like a race truck." When she is held back, she starts doing a Potty Dance and the whole bit.
• Home and Away:
  • In one episode, Shane and Angel make Jack climb inside a boot during a visit to a drive-thru to see an R-Rated movie. After getting fed up of him complaining because he needs the toilet they go to let him out only for the key to snap in the lock. They are forced to drive the car back home and use a pair of pliers to open the boot, during which time Jack tells them to hurry up due to his need to go to the loo. When they eventually manage to open the boot he dashes off.
  • In a later episode, the characters Rob and Roxy become trapped in an elevator in a shopping centre, during which time Rob becomes desperate to use the toilet. After they are rescued it is suggested by Ailsa that "Rob shot off like a bullet as soon as the doors opened".
• Jennifer Ellison has a case of this on Hotel Babylon (Episode 13).
• How I Met Your Mother:
  • In one episode, Marshall and Lily hide in the bathroom because they don't want to "spoil the mood" of Ted's date in the other room, and Lily needs to pee, while at the same time being uncomfortable with the idea of peeing in front of Marshall.
  • In a later episode, Marshall fears that he has food poisoning from some soup he and Lily ate on the day of an important interview. He prepares himself for the possibility of this trope, but nothing happens. It turns out, Lily was pregnant, and what she thought was food poisoning was really morning sickness.
• iCarly in the episode “iCarly Web Awards”: After Carly and Sam present a web award, Sam announces "And now since I drank five sodas before this thing started tonight, I must go pee." Carly then groans exasperatedly "Sam!" to which Sam retorts "You want my bladder to explode live on the Internet?" Carly gets disgusted and says "Ew, no!"
• In one episode of Kim's Convenience, Mr. Kim and Janet get sick and fight their bathroom urges (and fail) while at their store which they're supposed to be running (Janet's friend ends up having to take over their shifts on the spot). At first Mr. Kim thinks it's because he ate the expired ravioli (which he ate in order to prove to Janet that it was okay to eat); however after Janet finds out she's having the same problem, they realize that the cause of this was Mrs. Kim's galbijjim which they both ate... and which Mrs. Kim also took to a church event. They call Mrs. Kim in time for her to throw out what left of it there is but not before her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Mrs. Park starts eating her share (not that Mrs. Kim feels guilty). At the end of the episode, Mr. Kim does Korean exercises to make himself feel better but accidentally farts (probably worse) when doing one of the moves.
  Mrs. Kim: I go open window.
  Mr. Kim: I go change panty.
• In The King of Queens this happens to Carrie multiple times, in "Ritchie's Song" she rushes into the house with groceries. Doug tries to tell her something, but she says, "Not now, honey, gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee," and rushes off leaving the front door hanging open. When she gets back she remarks, "Big Gulps and traffic jams do not mix."
  • In "Precedent Nixin" Doug and Carrie are staying at Doug's parents' house. Carrie has to pee in the middle of the night, but Doug doesn't want her to flush the toilet and wake everyone up. He tells her to pee in the bathtub, but she says she can't pee there and instead she leaves the house to find a bathroom somewhere else.
• In an episode of The Love Boat, flooding necessitates the male crew sharing a cabin, causing Isaac much anguish (and jumping around) when person after person manages to get into the bathroom just ahead of him. When he finally gets the facilities to himself, there is a few moments of silence behind the closed door before a glum Isaac comes back out, saying "Now I don't have to anymore."
• In the Love Thy Neighbour episode 'The Lift', Eddie, Bill, Arthur and Jacko get trapped in the lift in Arthur's block of flats. During this time Jacko becomes desperate to use the toilet. At the end of the episode when the four men are leaving the club, Jacko mentions that he needs to go again, this leads to the others following him into the gent's toilets and getting locked in for the night after the owner mistakenly thinks they've gone home.
• A scene in Married... with Children ("Field of Screams") where Al chains himself to his old high school football goal to prevent the stadium from being torn down, and is just about to give up since he has to pee (after realizing how dumb it was to drink a Big Gulp before chaining himself to the post), he tells Kelly to unlock him from the chains so he can take a leak but learns that the key doesn't fit and decides to take a leak while being chained up.
• Happens to Major Winchester in the M*A*S*H finale. The latrine is literally destroyed by a tank. When he resorts to going out to the woods he ends up 'capturing' a group of Chinese soldier-musicians when they won't stop following him around.
  • In "Germ Warfare", Hawkeye and Trapper use this as a tactic to obtain a "sample" from Frank so they can test him for hepatitis.
  • During an emergency trip to the front, Hawkeye has to stop the jeep so Trapper can use the bushes. (Somewhat incongruously, as the sequence was cut so that this was seconds after they escaped a mortar barrage.)
    Hawkeye: You're kidding!
    Trapper: Would I kid you?
  • One throwaway gag in an early season happens with Henry about to drive away from the camp with Radar. He stops as Radar tells him something, and says, "Now?? Oh, use the officers'!" (He meant officers' latrine, which Radar quickly rushes to do.)
• During an episode of Monk in which Julie is dying to go to the bathroom however she eventually uses the bathroom in the band Korn's bus.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus:
  • A rare non-potty version of this trope occurs in a sketch where a beachgoer, played by Terry Jones, is desperately trying to find a private place to change into his bathing suit. He ends up finding such a place... behind a soon-to-be-raised curtain at a burlesque theater...
  • Played straight in the Olympic Games skit during the "Marathon for Incontinents" segment.
  • In the "Hungarian Phrasebook" scene taking place in the courtroom (where book writer Alexander Yahlt is on trial), a Q.C. rises:
  Q.C.: May I ask for an adjournment, m'lud?
  Judge: An adjournment? Certainly not. (the Q.C. slowly returns to his seat with the loud sound of breaking wind) Why didn't you say why you wanted an adjournment?
  Q.C.: I didn't know an acceptable legal phrase, m'lud.
• In the My Family episode "Trust Never Sleeps", a series of misunderstandings results in Ben and Susan hiding in their bedroom while Janey is having a party in the house, not wanting her to know they're there because they don't want her to think they don't trust her. Then Ben needs to go. It starts with him trying to pee out of the bedroom window (which Susan cuts short when a neighbour calls her mobile to say a partygoer is peeing out of the window) and escalates with him trying to sneak to the bathroom, hiding in a shower, having his clothes taken away and hanging naked out of the bathroom window...
• MythBusters:
  • One test was to see if driving while severely having to pee is just as dangerous as driving drunk. Naturally, Adam had to fill his bladder to bursting, then get buzzed. The first test is funny, but the second combines Drives Like Crazy with Sir Swears-a-Lot. The verdict was driving drunk was more dangerous, but driving in the middle of a potty emergency isn't the safest idea either.
  • The Build Team at one point also purposely inflicted this on themselves in order to test whether or not the Potty Dance actually helps someone in this situation. The myth was actually deemed Plausible^{If you're curious} The test involved your standard potty dance vs staying calm vs acting normally. The results of what worked longest were all over the board, so the verdict was that everyone's biology is different and "Whatever works works, until it doesn't.", and in both trials, Kari held on for the longest.
  • Grant and Tory had to go through this again as part of a test about whether driving while stressed made you less fuel-efficient, vs driving while relaxed. Not only did they had to drink a lot of caffeinated drinks while being refused bathroom access, Kari also told them she slipped them a laxative. (It was actually just a vitamin, but she waited until the end of the test to tell them that, presumably banking on the placebo effect.)
• The Nanny:
  • C.C. has a brief case of this during the episode "Schlepped Away" in which she desperately holds it in. She finally relieves herself when she gets to Fran's parents house.
  • In another episode, where Fran and Val are kidnapped, Fran manages to trick their captors by offering them her mother's chocolate-coated laxatives, telling them it's candy, resulting in both of them having to make a mad dash for a bathroom. (After Maxwell finds and unties them, he still rejects her advances, causing her to sigh, and then offer one of them to him too. The episode ends at that scene.)
• NCIS:
  • At one point in the episode "Family", Abby hastily excuses herself to the bathroom. This likely shut up a lot of the fans who wondered how she can manage to drink so many large cups during the day without need to go to the restroom.
  • In another episode, Tony and Ziva get locked in a dockyard shipping container for most of a day. When they're set free, Ziva's second action (after kicking the villain in the balls) is to head directly for the ladies' room, an intention she explains in tones that promise mayhem for anyone who gets in her way.
• Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide:
  • A Running Gag involves Ned accidentally going into the girls' bathroom.
  • Episode 2 Bathrooms & Project Partners has Cookie need to go to the bathroom all day because he forgot to go at home and refuses to use the school bathrooms. Eventually, he can't hold it anymore during class and accidentally runs into the girls' bathroom.
  • Also in one episode, Moze is desperate and waiting in a long line to the girls room and makes numerous attempts to relieve herself, first she tries going to the other girl's room, only to find it just as crowded, then she tries to disguise herself as a boy to get into the boy's room, which almost works until Cookie blows her cover, then finally her and the girls get fed up with waiting and charge into the boys room to finally relieve themselves.
• Neighbours:
  • In episode 835, Des and Harold are trapped in an elevator together en-route to a meeting and eventually Des gets the urge to 'see a man about a dog'. Harold tries to distract him by suggesting he thinks of somewhere dry (which Des dismisses as it will make him want a drink) and then by singing "Ten Green Bottles" When the elevator is finally fixed Des frantically barges out past the mechanics causing them to apologise to Harold for being stuck with "A nut like that".
  • In another episode, the characters Toby and Lochy chain themselves to a roundabout in order to protest against the destruction of a playground. However they are left there after deliberately throwing the key too far out of reach and during this time Lochy becomes desperate to go to the bathroom. When they are eventually freed by their parents, Lochy immediately dashes off to some nearby bushes.
• In the Psych episode "Ferry Tale", Gus badly needs to use the restroom (to vomit) but when Shawn takes him to the bathroom, they are forced to wait while it's used by a large group of work release prisoners, and one little boy.
• Radio Enfer:
  • During Maria's first day of work at a fashion boutique, her boss notices she is moving her body like someone who needs to go to the bathroom. Maria then replies that she hadn't gotten the chance to go to the bathroom ever since she arrived at the boutique, making her boss say that she only needed to say it and allow her to get rid of this problem.
  • Carl has this problem during an episode where he and Jean-David are watching a women's beach volleyball game on TV at school.
• The Round the Twist episode "The Big Burp" opens with Pete experiencing a Potty Emergency. His eventual solution to this is what sets the main plot in motion.
• In one Royal Canadian Air Farce sketch, Mike from Canmore (John Morgan) walks into a MENSA membership office while trying to find a bathroom. The interviewer (Roger Abbott) proceeds to give him a water-related quiz. And it's raining outside. And the roof leaks.
• In an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sabrina is turned into a doll the size of a Barbie and trapped in a dollhouse. The dollhouse has no bathroom, and she makes a big deal about having to use one (doing a Potty Dance and the whole bit) in an attempt to get the child witch who shrunk her to let her out. It doesn't work.
• The Sarah Silverman Program:
  • In one episode, Sarah deals with one of these by relieving herself in a public mailbox.
  • In the "German Week" episode, Mrs Slocombe relates how an old lady customer was so desperate to use the toilet that she rushed into the one marked "Herren" ("Gentlemen" in German) because it had the word "Her".
• S Club 7: Happened on three different occasions to Hannah Spearritt, in Miami 7 (During the episode "The Blue Chevy"), La 7 (During the episode "Into the Unknown") and Viva S Club (During the episode "24 Minutes Till Doomsday").
• Seinfeld:
  • In one episode Kramer cannot find a place to go number 2, and ends up constipated.
  • In an even more famous example, Jerry, and later (and to a somewhat lesser extent, though with the same result) George both experience this trope while trying to find their car in a labyrinth parking garage. Kramer's advice to both is to urinate behind on a wall behind a parked car. Despite Jerry's early protests that he's actually proud to hold it in because it "builds character," he eventually loses his will to resist and takes Kramer's advice. Later, George is less difficult to convince. Both are quickly caught by the same security guard who keeps them in his office until they agree to pay a fine. This takes a while, as both are intent on finding an excuse that he'll accept. Jerry claims he suffers from "ural mysotisos poisoning", an imaginary, deadly disease which he further claims earned him a government pass which allows him to urinate anywhere penalty-free due to the fatal nature of his condition. He later claims he is urgently trying to reach his parents for their anniversary, made all the more special because his father supposedly was just released from decades in a Red Chinese prison. George later tells the guard the same story with slight variations before realizing Jerry is being held in the office too. The guard later appears as a witness in the trial in the finale episode, using this incident as testimony against their moral character.
  • Another scene (in "The Barber") has Newman pretending to have to use Jerry's facilities as a ruse to steal a lock of Jerry's hair.
• Sesame Street: In "Elmo's Potty Time", first Baby Bear needs to pee so badly he does a Potty Dance, then Grover almost knocks Elmo down when running to the bathroom, then later Curly Bear mentions having to take a dump (although for the last one, we don't know if it's quite an emergency).
• In an episode of The Slammer, The Governor, Mr Burgess, Gimbert and Peter get glued together. Gimbert then announces that he needs to go to the toilet. The others keep telling him to hold it.
• So Awkward: Happens to Ollie in "Space Over" when he is accidentally locked in the attic of Lily's house, and unable to notify anyone except Martha because he is not supposed to be there. Martha makes multiple attempts to free him which are all unintentionally foiled by her friends.
• Star Trek: Enterprise: Malcolm Reeds has a brief one in the episode "Minefield", while he's stuck to a mine. He tells Captain Archer about his predicament, who replies that he won't tell anyone (if he pees in his spacesuit).
• That '70s Show: Happens to Hyde, Kelso, Fez, and Jackie in "Dine and Dash", after Donna and Eric put laxatives into a batch of brownies they fixed for them, getting back at them for ditching them. After Kelso comes out of the bathroom and marvels at Donna and Eric's "wicked burn," he eats another brownie.
  • Also happens to Donna in "Keep Yourself Alive" where she has to pee so bad that she ends up going outside, only to have the rest of the gang witness it. She later remarks that she shouldn't have had such a large drink.
• Unhappily Ever After: In "Tiffany's Rival", its revealed that Tiffany was potty-trained to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and now she has to go to the bathroom whenever she hears it. Guess what the Alpha Bitch does to her own advantage the next day in the lunchroom?
• In the Korean drama Welcome To Waikiki season 2 episode 2, one of the actors is desperate to pee, while shooting a historical movie, but the strict director won't allow any bathroom breaks. He keeps trying to hurry the scene along but things keep delaying it as his situation gets worse. He eventually ends up wetting himself.
• A similar premise was used for a challenge on Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, in which contestants had to quickly find a concealed place to change into their super-costumes in the middle of a busy city plaza. (Ironically, one competitor changed behind a port-a-potty.)
• In Episode 3 of Will You Marry Me And My Family, Jiang Dayan ends up with a case of this after drinking a lot of water — while waiting for a man to show up at a café. It does not help that the bathrooms are closed, a comedic toilet commercial plays on TV at one point, and the café owner's ringtone is musical whistling (which was constantly ringing, by the way). She eventually manages to run home and make it.
• During the episode "Doll House" of Wizards of Waverly Place in which Alex shrinks herself to play in her dollhouse and gets a mild potty emergency.
• Worzel Gummidge: In John's very first scene, he has to pee while on a road trip and tells his father that he can't wait until he gets home, so Mr. Peters tells him to pee behind a hedge.
• In the Yes, Dear episode, "Arm Prins", when Kim tries to sell her titular new invention, Greg is left to babysit Sammy by himself. Because he had not gone to the bathroom in six hours and drank four iced teas during that time, he has to go to the bathroom real bad. While he goes, he occupies Sammy with a Blue's Clues VHS tape, Which of course, starts Sammy's Blue's Clues addiction for the rest of the episode.
• Young Sheldon: In "Blonde Ambition and the Concept of Zero", George needs to use the bathroom, but Missy has locked herself in after her bad dye job. In the end he decides to just go do his business outside.

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