Potty Emergency / Western Animation

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• Used a few times on 2 Stupid Dogs:
  • Big Dog mentions needing to find a hydrant throughout the episode "Seeing Eye Dogs".
  • In the episode "Bathroom Humor", during the middle of the night Big Dog has to pee. He searches for a tree but only finds one starting to bud. Little Dog stops him before he can go, telling him that "this is [their] home", so they go around looking for a place for Big Dog to relieve himself. They end up entering someone's house to use the bathroom there, but they can't find a tree and Big Dog briefly starts taking his frustration out on Little Dog. They get inspiration by a photo of a little boy using the toilet so they dress him up like one, but Big Dog finds himself unable to go because he doesn't feel comfortable. They then get inspiration from a picture of a little girl urinating and dress him in girl's clothes as he sits on the toilet, but he still doesn't feel comfortable. Finally, Little Dog suggests a glass of warm milk. While picking up the glass, Big Dog's fingers slip into the milk and he finally relieves himself.
• This happens multiple times to characters in 6teen. One example, from "Fish and Make Up", includes Nikki and Caitlin splitting the mall sides due to an ongoing fight. The latter happily takes full advantage of the situation when she's finally forced to come over to the loathsome washrooms (which are on Nikki's side of the mall) after having been holding it all day.
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius:
  • In "Professor Calamitous I Presume", Professor Calamitous has one. Realizing that Calamitous did not install a bathroom in his Humongous Mecha, Jimmy leads him through various water scenarios until he can hold it no longer and has to stop to use the bathroom. Then Jimmy has a cop man the boy's restroom, leading Calamitous to briefly consider the girl's bathroom, but a little girl beats him to it, so he takes off for home in defeat.
  • Sheen spends a large portion of "Beach Party Mummy" needing to pee.
• The Angry Beavers episode "Too Loose Latrine" has Daggett clogging his bathroom's toilet and having to pee real bad, his situation made all the more difficult because his brother Norb is too busy trying to style his hair perfectly to let Dag use his bathroom. After the entire house is flooded, Norb finally lets Dag use his toilet, only for Daggett to reveal that he ended up peeing in the river their house rested on when the flood occurred.
• Animaniacs (1993):
  • In the trope namer skit, Wakko Warner, who drank too much soda during a movie, is the hapless victim of this routine, which features just about every twist and turn that you can expect to see in a skit like this. There's a bit of a variation in that, midway through the short, Wakko remembers he has a toilet on him, thanks to his Bag of Holding — but he still needs a private place to make use of it. Fortunately, he actually does find a place to use the potty. In the movie that he was watching at the beginning of the skit.
    Gagnort: Oh, disgusting! He didn't wash his hands.
  • He has to go again in the song "I'm Mad", where Dr. Otto Von Scratchansniff drives him and a quarreling Yakko and Dot to a surprise visit at a carnival and the Warners spend most of the ride complaining.
    Wakko: Are We There Yet? I'm tired! I'm hungry! How far? My nose is feeling snotty, I need to move my body, gotta use the potty, better stop the car!
  • In "The Girl with the Googily Goop", Wakko gets scared by the cartoon environment he is in and says he needs to go to the potty. Dot reassures him that a potty will come to him because it's a special kind of cartoon, only for the potty to say that it needs to go back to Flushing.
  • In "The Sound of Warners," Dr Scratchansniff’s mention of nature calling and one sending a package to it is a call back to the Trope Namer episode.
    Scratchansniff: As you know, when nature calls, you have to pick up the phone and say "Hello. I got your message. I’ve got a package for you.”
    Yakko, Wakko, and Dot: Eww.
    Wakko: I’ve got a package for you? Excuse me?
    Scratchansniff: Oh look who’s talking, Mr. Potty Emergency.
    Wakko: Yeah, but I never said package.
    Scratchansniff: Shh.
  • Poor Wakko just can't avoid problems with that potty! It even happens in a holiday bumper from 1999!
• Arthur had an episode with the dream variety in "Jenna's Bedtime Blues", when minor character Jenna is at a sleepover and is afraid that everyone will find out she is a bed-wetter. Upon waking, she turns on the TV as a distraction...and finds, among other things, men with Scottish accents talking about "wee lassies" and a children's show that's a hybrid of Sesame Street and Wimzie's House brought to you by the letter P. Not helping matters is that she drank a lot of cola in an attempt to stay up, not knowing that caffeine (which cola has a lot of) is a diuretic. Whoops.
• Beavis and Butt-Head:
  • After drinking too much pop at a rock concert the duo soon have to go, they eventually find a port-a-potty but it has a very long line. They try to relieve themselves on a wall but a security guard catches them. Eventually they are finally able to use it but as it turns out the concert is over.
  • Inverted in another episode. Both Beavis and ButtHead have plenty of access to restrooms throughout the entire episode, but yet they still can't relieve themselves. The reason being they forgot how to perform the biological function of urination.
  • There was also an episode where they were abusing bathroom breaks at work and their manager needs to pee. He tries to use the dumpster behind Burger World when cops show up and bust him.
• In the Bing episode "Hide and Seek", Bing has one after refusing to use the bathroom before playing hide and seek. When he is found, he immediately has an accident.
• Used in this CN City bumper where Ben from Ben 10 has to go while in his Wildmutt form.
• Happens a lot in Caillou:
  • The episode "Rainy Day" is centered around Caillou having one while his mother waits for him to leave somewhere. Unfortunately, due to many distractions, he keeps forgetting about his urge. He does make it at the end, though.
  • In "Caillou Goes Strawberry Picking'', Caillou has to use the bathroom before leaving to go strawberry picking.
  • In "Let's Go Camping!", Caillou has one on their way to the campsite, so his mother pulls the car over by a rock for Caillou to relieve himself behind.
  • In "Caillou Goes To School", Caillou has to go during a school assembly.
  • Rosie has one when meeting Santa in "Caillou's Holiday Movie".
  • In "Caillou's Bad Dream", Caillou needs to go to the bathroom after talking to Boris.
  • In "Next Stop, Fun!", Caillou has one when touring the train, but the bathroom on board confuses him.
• Camp Lakebottom: In "Camp Lockbottom", the camp is turned into a prison. However, McGee desperately needs to go, and soon discovers that the latrines are on the other side of the fence.
• Happens in the Camp Lazlo episode "Hold It, Lazlo". Lazlo, having unwittingly annoyed Edward (again) by beating him in a lemonade drinking contest, soon has to go (bad). Edward takes advantage of this and repeatedly thwarts all of Lazlo's attempts to find somewhere to pee. The potty emergency comes to its peak when in the middle of it, Lazlo relieves himself in the lake, only to be reprimanded by a fish, forcing Lazlo to suck it back into himself. Ouch. The kicker was that the fish actually turned out to be a puppet worn by Edward. After successfully talking Lazlo out of both peeing on a tree and using the girls' toilet at Acorn Flats (a pure girls' camp so obviously, they don't have a boys' toilet, the girls did allow him to use it though and he probably would have if Edward hadn't made him feel self-conscious about it), he finally can't take it anymore and rushes to the bathroom back at Camp Kidney where Edward had previously placed a fake "Out of Order" sign on the door to keep him from using it.
• Dog is forced to endure a full bladder through most of the CatDog episode "The Golden Hydrant" because his conjoined twin brother Cat won't let him mark his territory on the titular golden hydrant. How he can pee is anyone's guess, considering that CatDog has a head on both sides of it.
• One episode of Chowder featured the titular character rushing to the bathroom, only to forget why he came there. When trying to leave, he discovers that he's locked in. Only when Shnitzel and Mung Daal gets locked in does Chowder finally remember why he went to the bathroom in the first place.
• In the season finale of Clone High, the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures sets out to collect the clones and terminate Scudworth at the prom. They don't show up until the end of the episode, however, because the caravan keeps having to stop for potty breaks (even though the leader asked everyone to go before they left).
  "Seriously, that is the last time we stop for wee wees. If you have to go, use the ash tray!"
• Courage the Cowardly Dog:
  • In the episode "Hothead", Eustace keeps Courage on a leash, forcing Courage to remove it while Eustace is sleeping so he can go to the restroom.
  • In "1000 Years of Courage", Courage needs to go (Muriel indicates that it's from drinking a lot of soda) and ends up stumbling upon the secret that the banana people are being manipulated by monkeys.
  • "Swindlin' Wind" has Shirley the Medium put a curse on Eustace and Muriel to make them swindle each other. One of the ways Eustace swindles Muriel is by tricking her into drinking a lot of tea and forcing her to pay the toll before she can use the bathroom.
  • "The Mask" has Muriel needing to use the bathroom and being unable to get there quickly because of the bedroom door being locked from the outside. It takes climbing out the window and getting into the house from there to make it in time.
• The Cow and Chicken episode "Chicken in the Bathroom" revolves entirely around this. Mom tells Chicken that he is not allowed out of the bath tub until he has taken a bath. This soon comes back to haunt her, as she later finds herself in need of the facilities, as do Cow and Dad. Chicken still refuses to take a bath and seems to enjoy making the rest of his family suffer extreme bladder agony (or in Cow's case, udder agony). Almost two-thirds of the episode consists of the three bursting characters pleading for Chicken to vacate the premises, while pointing out what they need to do in increasingly imaginative metaphors. Eventually, poor Cow just can't hold on any longer. The resulting eruption drowns everyone.
• Craig of the Creek:
  • Craig suffers from one at the beginning of “Jessica Goes To The Creek” but he and Jessica are locked out of the house and nobody is home. He eventually just pees in the bushes.
  • The "Alone Quest" episode happens because of this; Craig needs to poop while at the Creek, so he and J.P. have to leave to find a bathroom, leaving Kelsey to have the titular quest. They go to J.P.'s house first since it's closer, but can't get in because the front door is locked and a bunch of spiders are around the side door. They then go to Craig's house, but Jessica couldn't figure out how to open all the locks, so they're finally forced to go to Kelsey's house, where he's finally able to take care of business.
    • Made awkward by the fact that Kelsey isn't with them and that, combined with Craig's hesitation and agonized expressions made her dad think that something bad had happened to her.
  • J.P. has a minor one at the start of "Lost & Found" but he just uses a bush, though his privacy is invaded by the others after he alerts them to finding the titular location.
  J.P.: Stop Watching!
• The Crumpets:
  • In "Gambled Gables", Caprice gets one while working for her uncle and aunt's fast food drive-thru. After Caprice complains, her aunt points to a bit in the employment contract providing a two minute break every 64 hours.
  • In "Inside Li'l One's Brain", it's revealed the Crumpets possess a big "pee-pee gland" in the brain, although Li'l One is said to be the only one out of the children who inherited it. While Granny fiercely guards this secret and pretends it doesn't exist, Pa would remind her to accept the reality. Immediately, Granny develops a Potty Emergency and rushes to an outhouse.
• Danger Mouse: Penfold suffers one through most "Planet of the Toilets", due to the world's toilets having been turned sentient and being in revolt (It Makes Sense in Context).
• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood:
  • Prince Wednesday has to go in "Prince Wednesday Goes To The Potty", but he is reluctant to stop playing to do so. He does get convinced by Teacher Harriet to do it, though. Daniel suffers one in the same episode, but also doesn't want to stop building blocks to go.
  • Daniel again in "Daniel Goes To The Potty" whilst at Music Man Stan's Music Store.
• Danny Phantom:
  • "Prisoners of Love" has Jack having to pee after he follows his wife Maddie to the home of her sister Alicia, who despises her brother-in-law. Alicia tells him that there aren't any indoor bathrooms or outhouses in the area, forcing Jack to relieve himself outdoors.
  • "Infinite Realms" has Tucker needing to defecate after consuming vegetables (specifically, blood blossoms) for the first time.
• In Dan Vs., Dan falls victim to this in "Traffic." Trying to get home so he can pee, he's blocked by traffic due to a sock and road work, a train crossing, a group of senior citizens, and even a flock of sheep. He doesn't make it, and swears revenge on traffic.
• In the DC Super Hero Girls (2019) episode "#BurritoBucket", one of Batgirl's attempts at thwarting the bank robbers is interrupted by suddenly realizing she needs to pee.
• Dexter's Laboratory briefly makes use of this, although not as a major part of the plot. The episode "Labels" features the titular boy genius and his sister Dee Dee dueling with label-makers, completely surrendering themselves to the logic that whatever is labeled by each becomes that person's property. Dee Dee is quick to ensure that everything in the fridge is hers, but Dexter spots that she has missed a giant bottle of juice, which he promptly drinks. The juice quickly makes its way to his bladder, and he runs to the bathroom. To his horror, he discovers a toilet covered in Dee Dee labels. In the next scene, Dexter has fully relieved himself. Not until the denouement do we discover his desperate solution.
  Mom: Honey, why is the carpet all wet?
  • Also in "Dad is Disturbed" when Dexter's Dad drinks too much soda and has to choose between watching his beloved golf game on TV or take a bathroom break; not helping is the fact that the golf game course's lake fountains are going off and the announcer is making the following remarks:
    Announcer: This match at Flushing Meadows is just whizzing by. But you're in luck, because the tension is swelling with no relief in sight. He's in the lead now, but will he hold it?
• Weaponized by Dogbert in an episode of Dilbert to defeat a massive Skynet-like computer known as Comp-U-Comp. He gives the lone security guard and only human in the entire building so much soda that the man has to flee to find a bathroom, leaving Comp-U-Comp's plug unguarded.
• Dinosaur Train: Happens to Tiny in "Dinosaur Poop" a few times. She also experiences one at the end of the episode.
  Tiny: Uh oh. Mom, I gotta go potty.
  Mom: Okay honey, off you go to the restroom.
  (Tiny gets out of her seat and bounces up and down on her way to the bathroom)
• Disney Junior:
  • A series of shorts called Nina Needs to Go! ^note  at least the first two seasons of the show. The third one focuses on manners instead of toilet training. revolves around the titular little girl needing to use the bathroom and being far away from the nearest one. She tries to get to the nearest bathroom, usually with the help of her Secret Agent-esque Nana. The fact that the path usually includes something with running water certainly doesn't help matters. Each short ends with Nina saying, "That'll never happen again, 'cause now I know, don't wait to go!". Despite this, it always happens again. This show was actually based on the creator's real life experiences with her daughter, who always did this, explaining the Aesop Amnesia.
  • In a "Message from Miles" video, Miles tries to preach an important lesson about using the toilet to the target audience.
• Typically, The Fairly OddParents! take this to a new extreme in American animation.
  • In the A-plot of "Crime Wave", Timmy, who is forced to take a bath, wishes to go to the comic book store to pick up the latest Crimson Chin comic book. Cosmo and Wanda poof him there without dressing him first, and as he tries to make his way back home, he hopes his parents don't have to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately for him, his parents decide to have a prune-juice drinking contest after eating chocolate laxative-sprinkled High-Fiber-O's. Fortunately, he makes it back to the bathroom in time.
  • The episode "Truth or Cosmoquences" sees Timmy - unusually relegated to a B-story - have to spend an extended amount of time in Fairy World, where he soon discovers that he cannot magically transport himself through the bathroom door (the only way to pass through one) and obtain the relief he needs. With Cosmo and Wanda distracted, Timmy must endure hour after hour of unrelenting Potty Emergency - while serving the drinks at a party that has a giant fountain for a centerpiece. That not the worst of it, the whole them of the reunion was a "celebration to water". So as you can imagine this didn't help matters. He eventually does relieve but tells his godparents "Not to drink the punch". Even worse was that Cosmo and Wanda were already drinking punch at that point.
  • Tootie has one at the end of the episode, "Home Wrecker" when Timmy forgets that he left her locked in her (boarded-up) closet.
    Tootie: Timmy! I gotta use the bathroom! Oh, never mind...
  • In the special "Fairly Odd Baby", a Running Gag is that Jorgen has to use the bathroom due to eating some spicy burritos.
  • A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! has Timmy wish that Crocker had "the atomic runs" early on.
• The first episode of Family Dog ends with the titular dog having to pee after consuming a lot of water.
• Family Guy:
  • In an early episode, Peter mentions that he "shouldn't have had that prune smoothie" and then drives past a sign for a town dump, a truck emblazoned with the warning "Wide Load", a sign for a furniture store proclaiming that "All Stools Must Go", a car whose bumper sticker reads, "I love my Shih Tzu", a billboard for "Bob's House of Feces", (which he says can't possibly be real) and finally a casino billboard emblazoned with "Craps, Craps, Craps".
  • In the beginning of "Road To Germany", Mort Goldman takes laxatives and has trouble finding somewhere to use the bathroom. He eventually ends up using Stewie's time machine, thinking it is a port-o-potty.
  • Peter has one in "Mom's The Word" due to having eaten a raw tube of cookie dough.
  • In "Road to the Multiverse" one of the universes Brian and Stewie visit is one where everyone "has to take a poop just right now".
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends:
  • Bloo has one at the beginning of "Busted". However, he can't use the bathroom right away because Mr. Herriman makes him make his bed and brush his teeth first. Being a Well-Intentioned Extremist, Mr. Herriman makes Bloo do everything by the rules, much to the latter's chagrin.
  • Bloo, Wilt, Coco, Mr. Herriman and Frankie each have two in "Foster's Goes to Europe". Within the same episode, Eduardo has three of his own, the first two with his aforementioned friends, and the third when it is revealed that somebody sabotaged the Foster's bus.
  • Bloo has one in "Hiccy Burp" after drinking a huge amount of soda trying to get new hiccups in time for the talent portion of the annual Foster's talent show.
  • Bloo has one in "Bus the Two of Us", and tries to use a bathroom at Mama Joan's Pizzeria, which is for employees only. When Mac asks him why he didn't go to the bathroom at the gas station, since they were there earlier to borrow plungers for him to use as stilts, Bloo tells Mac that gas station bathrooms are disgusting. Bloo says this as he is wearing the dirty plungers, which Mac points out. When Bloo is finished, Mac now has to use the bathroom.
  • Bloo has one in "Ticket to Rod" when he drinks a lot of soda to pass the time waiting to hear a chime for a Radio Contest where the grand prize is two tickets to see a new movie starring Rod Tango. He gets Frankie to listen for the chime, and just as he leaves, the chime goes off and Frankie calls the station. This of course, sets the episode's main plot in motion.
  • Bloo has one in "Race For Your Life Mac & Bloo" after drinking a 172-ounce soda at a mini-mart. The manager makes him wait in line behind the other customers, and when he does get to the front of the line, he makes him buy a bag of chains with his last quarter, as the bathroom is for paying customers only.
  • Bloo has yet another one in “Jackie Khones And The Case Of The Overdue Library Crook”. The men’s room at Foster’s is smelly because of something involving George Mucus so he opts to use the ladies’ room. Unfortunately, Jackie and Mac are having a meeting about someone’s overdue library book checked under Mac’s name in the only stall, leaving Bloo to squirm around in discomfort. When they eventually get out, Bloo says a quick “hi” to Mac and then dashes in.
• In "Franklin Goes to School" from Franklin, while everyone rides the bus to school, Goose asks Franklin if he thinks there's a bathroom at school, saying that her mother told her to use the bathroom before she left. Although she doesn't say so directly, she rather looks like she needs to go.
• The 'urban legend' version described in the Folklore section above was used as the basis for an episode of Freaky Stories.
• In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Billy wants a cool knight costume that Grim gives him. During the course of events Billy drinks a lot of punch; he tries to relieve himself but he can't take the armor off as it turns out the only way to remove the armor is to win a challenge. He decides to challenge a bunch of people so he can finally pee but he loses every event. Finally, he challenges Mandy to a break dance contest, who tells him she doesn't want to participate. When he removes the armor and Mandy asks him if he has to use the bathroom, he replies that he doesn't have to go anymore. Mandy sniffs the armor and says "eew!". Also, as Billy is breakdancing, you can hear splashing sounds.
• A Running Gag variety on Hey Arnold! - Grandpa generally has to interrupt whatever lesson he's teaching Arnold because he "shouldn't have had" * insert food/drink here* .
• Hotel Transylvania: The Series:
  • In the episode "Casket If You Can", Aunt Lydia chooses to spend the next hour in her rejuvenation casket and trusts her niece Mavis to keep watch while she's in the casket. One of the things Mavis does to pass the time is drink a lot of blood, which makes her have to pee so bad that she ends up temporarily leaving her post to use the bathroom.
  • The episode "Exit Sandman" has the Sandman put everyone in the hotel to sleep because he's annoyed by the noise made by the zombie staff building Diane's new chicken coop, which Mavis decided to have done to make restitution for accidentally destroying the original chicken coop. The gang find their opportunity to make the Sandman stop when Hank finds that he needs to pee. We don't see how he takes care of his problem after he wakes up from the dream world and gets Diane to help them, but it is later implied that he mistakenly relieved himself in the hot tub of Diane's new chicken coop.
• In the The Incredible Dennis the Menace episode, "Wish You Weren't Here", this happens twice to Dennis and Joey. The first time, it happens when they ride in Henry and Alice's car, and it's quickly resolved when they stop at a gas station. The second time, it happens when they're in Mr. Wilson's camper van. When Henry asks them why they can't just use the bathroom in the camper van, they reveal that Joey flushed Gina's baseball mitt down the toilet, clogging it up as a result. This gets resolved when the Wilsons and the Mitchells stop at a rest stop.
• Happens to Fanboy and Chum Chum in the titular series Fanboy and Chum Chum with the two of them stuck in a plastic bubble without a toilet after drinking a bunch of soft drinks in a store. They do manage to secretly use the store toilet at night.
• The Jimmy Two-Shoes episode "The Big Drip" centers around Jimmy desperately needing to pee after Beezy accidentally destroys his bathroom. Things get worse when Lucius destroys every washroom in Miseryville after Jimmy tries to use his...including his own, which results in Lucius sharing Jimmy's emergency.
• Justice League Action: In "Unleashed", Dex-Starr infiltrates the Watchtower by pretending to be an ordinary cat. Plastic Man feeds him, mostly stuff that is not really suitable for feline consumption. This gives him indigestion and a serious need to visit the litter box; however, he is repeatedly sidetracked by calls from Atrocitus about his mission and interference from Plas, Krypto, and Streaky.
• Henry goes through one of these at the end of the KaBlam! episode, "Timeless!"
• Kaeloo: One episode had Stumpy really need to use the bathroom, but each time he reached the bathroom, it was at the same time as someone else. They play Rock–Paper–Scissors to see who gets to go first, and he loses as usual. He then tries to use the bushes, but Kaeloo sees him and refuses to allow him. He finally resorts to using a hat Kaeloo was wearing earlier in the episode when she isn't looking... and she puts the hat on her head.
• King of the Hill:
  • In one episode, Hank and the guys rush home to use the bathroom after drinking tainted beer from Mexico and all just make it but Dale has to wait even longer because of the complicated security system he's setup for his bathroom.
  • In one episode, Bill has locked himself out of his house and has to go badly but the other guys won't let him use their bathrooms so he resorts to using the cooler they keep their beer in, it's his after all.
  • In one episode, the town orders low-flow toilets installed into every home and building. Hank discovers that the flow is just too low, not enough to flush solid waste down the toilet. He has a meeting with several officials to get the old toilets back. He wins the debate by both filibustering the proposal and stalling for time until the officials had to go to the bathroom, where they discovered firsthand the consequences of having and using a low-flow toilet.
• In Life with Louie in the episode "The Kiss is the Thing" has this occur with Andy during the play. After drinking a lot of coffee at work, he rushes out to the play without using the restroom. Once getting there he really needs to go, but the mother doesn't let him. The father is forced in agony while sitting in his seat for the whole play really needing to pee, as a fountain is showed on stage torturing him even more. He puts his hands to his crotch and squirms in pain until the final kiss, when he rushes out feeling like he's going to blow. but, once getting to the bathroom he sees long lines and it's occupied. His legs cross down and tighten in torment.
• Littlest Pet Shop (2012): Zoe has a brief one in "The Very Littlest Pet Shop".
• In The Looney Tunes Show episode, "Customer Service", Bugs drinks a lot of water while waiting for Cecil Turtle, his cable service provider, thus triggering one of these. The second he leaves to use the bathroom, Cecil emerges from behind a tree and hangs a "Sorry We Missed You" notice on Bugs' door.
• The Loud House:
  • The pilot short involves Lincoln trying to make it to the bathroom at the other end of the hallway to pee, but has to tend to his sisters' mischief. He's briefly deterred when Lori beats him there, but he ends up chasing her out with one of Lily's dirty diapers.
  • In the episode, "In Tents Debate", to get Lincoln to see the downsides of spending the Loud Family's summer vacation at the Dairy Land amusement park, Team Beach (Lori, Leni, Lucy, Lola, and Lily) stands in front of the bathroom when he has to take a leak to simulate having to wait in long lines at the park. When Lincoln finally gets there, he finds that the toilet is "out of order", so he settles for going in the shower.
  • In "Raw Deal", Lynn's fortune of having her patience being tested is her having to wait in line to use the gas station restroom.
  • In "Snow Bored", Lana has one at some point, but is ambushed by Lisa and her snowball gun in the bathroom.
  • In the episode, "Kick the Bucket List", Leni has one in the park, and asks a rock that Clyde used as a substitute for Lincoln if he can look after Lola and Lana while she goes to the bathroom.
  • In "Mall of Duty", Lola, Lana, Lucy, and Lisa all have to go when they drink their Flipees.
• A The More You Know segment of Martha Speaks has T.D. get one of these after drinking a glass of water, though it's actual part of the segment.
  • He gets another one in a different episode as his teacher assumes he's asking about the subject at hand and answers ahead of him, so it takes him a few tries before he can get permission to go.
  • Milo fakes a couple in one episode to hide the fact he's having trouble reading out loud.
• In the Mickey Mouse (2013) short "Space Walkies", Mickey's return from space is interrupted when Pluto has to go to the bathroom. Mickey himself also has one at the end of the short.
• In The Midnight Gospel, Clancy has to use the restroom, but he's impaled on Annie's horns. Annie contorts herself in a restroom stall in a futile effort to lower Clancy onto the toilet. Frustrated, Clancy decides to just hold it.
• The episode "Body Rockers" of The Mighty B! has Penny suffering one, and it could be foreshadowed as she was seen drink all of Bessie's water from her backpack. Ends in a Potty Failure.
• In one episode of Molly of Denali, Molly and Tooey suffer one while Walter is fixing the bathroom. While there's another one available, they're too scared by a mysterious sound (actually an owl) coming from it, forcing Molly to use the (spider-infested) outhouse and Tooey to go in the woods.
• Muppet Babies: Animal has one in "Animal And The Little Accident" after drinking too much water. He insists that he doesn't have to go at first, but as the trip to Ratlantis goes on, he really has to go. He winds up having an accident trying to make it to the bathroom, and learns that it's important to stop a fun thing in order to take care of yourself.
• My Big, Big Friend: Golias spends a good chunk of "Diggin A Hole" needing to pee while stuck at the bottom of a pit with Yuri.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In the "Last Roundup" episode, Pinkie gets off the train in Dodge Junction quite clearly in need of a toilet. She finds a public toilet and is about to use it until she realises that Applejack, whom they came to Dodge to find, just walked out of it. She runs back after she and the others have caught her.
  • A Hub promo for the 2013 Summer Pool Party depicts Rarity (and Lucky from Pound Puppies (2010)) standing in a long line for a restroom by the pool. She and everyone behind her are unable to get in because MC Bat Commander accidentally locked the door from the inside.
  • Another instance is mentioned in Rainbow Dash's journal, as written in The Wonderbolts Academy Handbook: Rainbow Dash needed to use the bathroom "REALLY BAD" five minutes before the strict flight instructor's scheduled break time. Her request to leave a little bit early was met only with a Death Glare in response, and Rainbow mentions how she "almost wet herself" during the ordeal. Almost.
• A Nightmare Sequence in Nightmare Ned had Ned being force fed water until he had a Balloon Belly, which invoked this trope.
• There's an episode of The Non-Adventures of Safety Queen about a boy who has to pee but he's in bed and is nervous to get up.
• Oh No! It's An Alien Invasion: In "The Royal Flush", S.W.E.E.T. is forced to hold it in because Emperor Brainlius III had recently taken to flushing random things down the toilet, clogging the sewer pipes. S.W.E.E.T. goes on a mission to unclog the sewers, having to hold it in the entire time.
• The Pingu episode, "Pingu's Lavatory Story" depicts Pingu drinking too much lemonade and rushing home only to find the toilet is occupied by his father. Pingu rings the doorbell so his father can come out and answer it and he can rush into the bathroom himself. Unfortunately, the toilet is too high, so he urinates on the floor...
• Planet Sheen:
  • The pilot has Sheen needing to pee after his long flight to the planet Zeenu. The Emperor helpfully points him toward the nearest restroom.
  • This is the main plot of the episode "Gotta Go", where Sheen finds himself needing to urinate, but can't act on it because he clogged the toilet at his house from flushing trash down it. He spends most of the episode desperately looking for places to relieve himself while also actively avoiding being spotted by Aseefa. He finally gets his chance after explaining to Aseefa why he's constantly tried to avoid her.
• In the episode "Power Lunch" from The Powerpuff Girls (1998), the Gangrene Gang gorge themselves on candy at a convenience store; after the Girls chance them and zap them with their laser vision, the candy somehow becomes radioactive and gives the Gang superpowers. After a titanic fight that "turns Townsville topsy-turvy", the Gang is about to crush the Girls, when all five of them suddenly need a bathroom badly, breaking from the battle to use a set of Port-o-Lets. Unfortunately, this causes them to lose their superpowers, and the Girls are able to pummel them black and blue.
• Private Snafu: Unsurprisingly, given the subject matter, Snafu suffers one in "Few Quick Facts: Diarrhea and Dysentery".
• Recess: Mikey has one in the episode "Parents' Night" after TJ made him drink tons of water so he could get into Spinelli's house under the pretense of needing to use the bathroom (the plan is to find out who Spinelli's real parents are after she has lied about them multiple times). When Spinelli refuses to let the gang in, they have to take Mikey to a gas station five blocks away.
• The Real Ghostbusters:
  • In the episode "Camping It Up", Slimer at one point tells the Ghostbusters as they go on their camping trip that he needs to go, the Ghostbusters responding by chiding him for not going before they left. He later states this need again once they've set up camp, with Winston telling him that his only option is to go behind a tree.
  • The episode "Guess What's Coming to Dinner" has the Ghostbusters and Slimer return from a vacation only to find that a family of ghosts have taken residence in the Firehouse. The team tries to open the Firehouse's doors when Slimer complains of having to use the bathroom, only to find that the locks have been changed.
• In the third Robot Chicken Star Wars special, Darth Vader makes it to the bathroom just fine, but since this was right after he first got into the suit, he's unfamiliar with how to work it. So he's hastily hitting buttons, trying to find the one that will let him go to the bathroom, while he's doing the potty dance. He ends up falling to the floor and crying after accidentally activating his roller skates. Palpatine, whose flashing back is the Framing Device for this special, starts realizing he may have made a mistake in choosing Vader as his apprentice.
• Being around the normal potty-training age, Chuckie goes through this in Rugrats (1991) from time to time.
  • A key example is in "Chuckie Vs. The Potty", which also includes at least two potty failures. One on Chuckie's part when after a long time of sitting on the potty, with the grown-ups watching, Chuckie stands up thinking he doesn't have to go anymore and immediately urinates on the floor. At the end of the same episode, after Chuckie finally manages to use the potty all by himself, Angelica comes into the room crying because she's had an accident.
  • In addition, in the episode, "The Lympics" Chuckie is desperate to go but Angelica tells him he can't until he's won the race against the McNulty babies. This leads to Chuckie running as fast as he can to win the race quickly, and then subsequently dashing to the park toilet.
  • A further example occurs at the end of the episode, "A Dose of Dil" where Chuckie becomes desperate to go after having drunk too much Ginger-Ale earlier in the episode.
  • A further example occurs in the episode, "Cuffed" when Chuckie and Angelica become handcuffed together and Chuckie asks Angelica if its a bad time to mention he has to go potty, to which she replies that it is.
• In one of the Secret Squirrel segments, Dr. O causes a blackout and blocks out the sun, causing The Chief much distress because he can't find the bathroom in the dark. At the end, when Secret defeats the villain and restores the light, The Chief rushes to the bathroom, but it's occupied.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Last Exit to Springfield", Homer had been brought to Mr. Burns's mega-mansion to engage in union negotiations. The negotiations were quickly cut short by Homer's overindulgence in coffee and watermelon and his subsequent need to rush to the nearest bathroom. Unfortunately for Homer, the nearest bathroom was about 100 doors away and down a long hallway. (Homer does eventually relieve himself, although it is implied that he didn't quite make it to the bathroom.)
  • In a throwaway gag in "Marge Gets a Job", Homer rushes into the restroom at work having to go badly, much to the dismay of Smithers, who had been told to clean it by Burns, and had just finished making it spotless.
  • In "The City Of New York Vs. Homer Simpson", Homer, standing by his car at the World Trade Center Plaza in order to get it unbooted, overindulges in "crab juice". He rushes to the top of the (original 2 WTC) South Tower... and finds that the bathroom is out of order. To his utter dismay, he realizes he now needs to go to the top of the (original 1 WTC) North Tower. He does make it there in time. We're treated to a shot outside the tower and hear Homer groaning happily for half a minute. (And coincidentally, the cop he was waiting for shows up as he's relieving himself and tickets the car again, much to his horror.)
  • "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" involves Bart drinking a dozen glasses of water in order to wake himself up early for Christmas. It works...after he's subjected to a dream involving rivers, garden hoses, various other forms of water imagery, gigantic letter "P"s, and a cheerleader and a crowd saying pee-related puns.
    Crowd: "We're number one! We're number one!"
    Cheerleader: Gimme a 'P'!
    Crowd: P! GO GO GO! P P P!"
  • In "22 Short Films About Springfield", Milhouse needs to use the toilet and enters Comic Book Guy's store. However Comic Book Guy won't let the kid use the restroom unless he buys something. Milhouse eventually buys a cheap Hamburglar comic, but then Milhouse's father enters the store and says: "Hey, Milhouse. I thought you needed to go to the toilet and now I find you here, buying comics." Comic Book Guy cruelly tells Milhouse's father that their business is finished, whereupon Kirk drags Milhouse away.
  • In "Homer Simpson in: 'Kidney Trouble'", this is the kickoff point for the entire episode, as the family is coming from a vacation destination (from which they invited Grandpa to tag along). Grandpa overdrank, and desperately needs to use the restroom on the drive home. His pleas are ignored by Homer as they drive by one rest stop after another. Eventually, Abe's kidneys burst from the strain of holding it in for so long and he has to get a transplant.
  • Marge has a Potty Emergency at the beginning of "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh". She drinks too many samples of "Science Water", and she keeps trying to find a bathroom. She finds one in Springfield Elementary, which is what sets the main plot in motion.
  • In "Helter Shelter", when the family are at Moe's, Lisa offhandedly mentions she is suffering a Potty Emergency.
  • In "The Cartridge Family", after making it through a 5 day waiting period to purchase a handgun, Homer is seen standing outside the entrance to the Gun store anxiously waiting for it to open. Once it does so, he rushes to the bathroom to relieve himself.
  • In "How The Test Was Won", whilst being driven to Capital City on board the Springfield Elementary school bus, Ralph asks Principal Skinner "Can you pull over mommy I have to go potty". Skinner urgently instructs Otto to pull over to which Otto remarks that he was mesmerised by Ralph's Potty Dance. It is subsequently implied that Ralph failed to make it in time, as when Skinner asks if Ralph is finished, he remarks "I finished before we came in".
• Used in an episode of The Smurfs (2021), where Clumsy's cooking causes Smurfs to form a line at the outhouse to deal with their indigestion.
• Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons:
  • Sonic has one after he gets de-aged into a toddler in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode, "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby". Upon becoming a toddler, he exclaims "I gotta go potty!" and runs off-screen.
  • In the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) pilot Head or Tails, Tails tells Sonic that he has to go to the bathroom, and starts shaking up and down.
  • Knuckles has two instances of needing to go to the bathroom early on in the Sonic Boom episode, "Planes, Trains, and Dude-Mobiles", during his, Sonic, and Tails' road trip to their Dude-itude concert, resulting in them needing to pull over.
• South Park:
  • In the episode "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining", Cartman experiences severe diarrhea as a result of the various fast food he ate before and the soda he drank during the tour.
  • In "Death", Kenny suffers from stomach flu making multiple bathroom stops during class. Later on, many of the adults caught the stomach flu.
  • In "Make Love, Not Warcraft", Cartman has to use the bathroom really bad but can't step away from the computer. So his mom comes in, he drops his pants, and poops everywhere, catching half of it in a bedpan.
  • In "Bass To Mouth", Jenny Simons suffers one due to Cartman having given her a laxative-laced cupcake, and ends up soiling herself in front of the class.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "The Snowball Effect", Patrick has one after drinking water made from the snow in a Snowball Fight he had with SpongeBob, and asks Squidward if he can use his bathroom. Squidward tells him to use his own, but Patrick tells him he doesn't think he can make it. Squidward refuses to let Patrick use his bathroom, but eventually gives in, and at that point Patrick doesn't need to go anymore.
  • In "Tentacle Vision", Patrick has one while he's operating the camera for "Squid Chat". Squidward makes him hold it until his show is over, and later in the episode, Patrick says, "My shorts are wet!".
  • In "Ditchin'", SpongeBob intentionally triggers one of these as an excuse to get out of boating school long enough to meet Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy at a book signing.
  • In "Plankton Gets the Boot", Plankton has to pee after he gets kicked out of the Chum Bucket by Karen. He finally relieves himself after reluctantly accepting SpongeBob's offer to take him in, though it's implied he actually relieved himself in SpongeBob's broom closet.
• Steven Universe: In "Catch and Release", Steven has one while Peridot is Locked in the Bathroom during the night. The first time, he ends up having to go outside.
• Stōked:
  • Happens to Wipeout in the episode "Groms on Strike". He eventually makes it to toilet, just a fraction too late.
  • This also happens to Emma in "Fast Times When The Rip Tide's High."
• Teen Titans:
  • In the episode "Transformation", Starfire was analyzing her body changes while Beast Boy needed the bathroom. He notices Robin watering the flowers, Cyborg getting a drink, and Raven moving boulders out of the way of a waterfall. He says the alphabet to himself ending with the usual letter and as a plant comes into view, the scene ends with water going down a drain implying he went all over the plant.
  • In the episode "Hide and Seek", while Raven is watching over a trio of young kids, Melvin, Timmy and Teether, Timmy has to pee, which gets noticed and pointed out by Melvin. They manage to find a bathroom in time.
  • Another example happens in the animated film Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, where the Titans' travel montage at one point has Beast Boy crossing his legs in anguish over drinking a lot of soda. He screams over the other Titans' arguments, which makes them agree to make a rest stop. Unfortunately for Beast Boy, the other Titans occupy all the restrooms, so he resorts to turning into a dog so he can relieve himself behind a tree.
• Teen Titans Go!:
  • In the episode "Caged Tiger", Beast Boy really needs to pee while he, Robin, and Cyborg are trapped in an elevator. Eventually, Beast Boy says he can't take it anymore and wets himself, much to Robin and Cyborg's disgust.
  • This trope also sets up the plot of "Serious Business". Robin has to pee really bad, and unfortunately, instead of the other Titans helping him, they break out into a musical number about the pee-pee dance. Due to this, he has an accident.
  • Bumblebee remembers having one in "The Great Disaster".
• In the Thomas & Friends episode "Gordon Runs Dry", this is spoofed with Gordon's boiler running dry and him being too proud to stop at a water tower to fill up again. Despite his problem being the opposite of this trope, it's posed akin to a bathroom emergency as he desperately tries to keep his mind off the bodies of water he's passing and, when he eventually runs dry, is found by Thomas because the latter followed a trail of water he left on the tracks. His shame and the teasing he has to endure by the other trains is treated a lot like he had an accident.
• Totally Spies!: A throwaway gag in "Game Girls" has Clover hoping that the hotel she and Sam are traveling to has nice bathrooms; "that's another improvement to be added on KURT's makeover list".
• The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat had Felix take advantage of this in the episode "The Sludge King", where he tricks the titular villain into drinking too much grog and taking the chance to escape with Roscoe while the Sludge King rushes off to use the bathroom.
• In the VeggieTales episode "Lyle The Kindly Viking", Sven has one of these, and to top it off, he even sang "I need to go to the bathrooooooooooooooooooooooom!" But it does not show him using the bathroom, despite the fact that this was the end of the episode.
• Viva Piñata: Fergy has one in “Treasure of Piñata Madre” after he drank some lemonade in the desert.
• We Bare Bears:
  • Cub Panda has one in the short "Potty Time". But just when Cub Panda finds a bathroom after too long, the woman they met before hugs him, which results in Cub Panda wetting himself on her. Later on, the baby bears are given a Jar Potty for their box, likely preventing any more of these in the future.
  • Grizzly has a brief one in "Planet Bears" while at the supermarket. He is implied to have soiled himself in fear while riding on an out-of-control forklift in an attempt to break down the door to an employees-only bathroom.
  • Ice Bear offhandedly mentions he is suffering from one in "The Demon", although it isn't brought up again after he says that.
  • Ice Bear at the end of "Frozen Ice" after the ice cube he was stuck in melts.
• In the Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? episode "Family Vacation", Robot Jones at one point needs his oil changed and the process is treated like him needing to use the bathroom, complete with crossing his legs while he has an anguished look on his face.
• In What's with Andy?, Andy has a drinking contest with Lik and Leech at a mall to avoid having to buy food for them. He drinks too much and has to find a toilet. It ends up with him jamming the escalator with his shoe setting it on fire and accidentally cutting off the water supply in the mall. He eventually ends up peeing in a plant and putting out the fire.
• Happens three times in Winston's Potty Chair, which should come as no surprise, since the short in question deals with the subject of potty training:
  • The first one happens to Winston's older brother, Tony when Winston first tries to use his potty. Tony runs right past Winston and his dad so that he can use the toilet.
  • The second one happens to Winston's best friend, Molly when she and her parents go on a long drive to the beach. Because there's no potty in her parents' car, her parents have to stop at a service station so she can use the toilet there.
  • The third one happens to Winston himself as he is dancing to some music playing on the radio. His mom sees this and asks him if either he needs to use the potty or is just dancing. When he tells her, "Potty!", she tells him to hurry and use the potty before he has an accident, and Winston makes it to the toilet in time.
• Wishfart: When Dez gets turned into a merman in one episode, he goes through this while at Neptune's party as a result of forgetting to go to the bathroom before being transformed and having no idea how to use the toilet when your lower half is a fish (and it doesn't help that merpeople toilets are not user-friendly).
• In Wonder Pets!, this is basically the whole point of "Save The Puppy", where the Pets attempt to help a dog go outside so he can relieve himself out there. The pets themselves end up getting this too at one point in the episode.
  Linny: [singing] There's a puppy, who has to pee-pee, but he CAAAAAAAN'T, because he's stuck in the house!

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