This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
"The Simpsons", in fact, uses this every opportunity they can...I believe they once had a baby carriage burst into flames (in a "Battleship Potyamkin" hack?).
Looney Toons: I've cut the following out of the main entry and put it here; some of this material has gone back as Examples.
//Although I can't recall what show, I distinctly remember a parody of this involving an exploding horse-drawn carriage. Can anyone verify?
//Yes. That happened on an episode of the Simpsons. A horse-drawn carriage is run off the road, rolls down the mountainside, and suddenly bursts into flames. Very funny.
//This also happened in Van Helsing, though I believe it wasn't meant to be a parody, which just made it more laughable.
//also Family Guy, I believe
//Better still, the horse also burst into flames.
//There's also a similar scene in the Discworld novel Soul Music in which a horse-drawn carriage tumbles down a mountainside and explodes, after which — "because there are certain conventions, even in tragedy" — a burning wheel rolls out of the wreckage.
//There's also a milk truck exploding in another ep of The Simpsons. — Ungvichian
// Also in Top Secret — an East German army vehicle is wildly out of control, until the driver realizes he's on a collision course with a Pinto that is inexplicably standing out by itself in the middle of a field. Through dint of heroic effort, the driver wrestles his vehicle to a stop — almost. His front bumper ever-so-gently pings the rear bumper of the Pinto — which promptly explodes and takes out both vehicles. — Looney Toons
//I remember that one! *screeeeech* *dink* *ka BLAM!* — Ungvichian
My favorite example was in one of the James Bond movies; James is in a plane that has run out of gas, he manages to escape while the plane crashes. The fuel-less plane explodes in a huge fireball. — Corvus
—+ Actually more likely, as it's not the liquids that explode/burn, it's the gases. So an "empty" air tank (unless it has pure nitrogen pumped into it as it empties) has a maximal of fuel vapor inside it. Again, unless it's done with nitrogen, you have to have something else going into the tank, so your fuel pump doesn't have to suck against a vacuum... and that's often outside air. Which has that 21% oxygen in it... — Ellen Hayes
Silent Hunter: It's in The Living Daylights. BTW, where does the name of this entry come from? Are Pintos known for exploding.
Firvulag: Yes, yes they were. The gas tank was easy to damage in a rear-end collision and this often led to the damaged car going up in flames. It was called the barbeque with four seats. Ford also knew about the problem and decided fixing it was too expensive leading to some rather infamous litigation.
http://www.calbaptist.edu/dskubik/pinto.htm
LTR - It's kind of interresting, as a kid growing up in the early 80's, everyone knew what a Pinto was because of that famous lawsuit. Nowadays, I forget, younger folks have never even seen one on the road let alone remember the flak they took. For what it's worth, 80's and some 90's model GM pickup trucks are also prone to catching fire in certain accidents because their fuel tanks are mounted on the outsides, not the insides, of the vehicle frame rails, increasing the chance they'll be punctured in a side collision. But that covers such a wide range of models, it never got the Pinto's single-car notoriety.
Citizen: I understood the trope title because we went over this in a sociology class a semester or two ago. I'm surprised there isn't some of the above explanation in the trope page itself. Imma gonna do some copypaste, and let those who come after revise it as they will.
Randallw: the car crash inDeep impact does have a plot point. When they recover the information about the comet they mistakenly believe the amateur astronomer's name on the disk is a real astronomer. Frodo Baggins is surprised when he find the comet is jointly named after him.
Fast Eddie: Moved ani to a jump.
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Challenger was not a Pinto. The entire stack broke up under the stress, and the crew likely survived until hitting the ocean. The fuel tank did not explode; it could have been filled with kittens and the result would have been the same. The other wiki has details.
Would computers that explode be added here? Star Trek, the original series had a number of them.
Just as a fun link since there's multiple mentions of Mythbusters evaporating a cement truck on various explosive trope pages... this was done not by professional pyrotechnicians, but some amateur in his spare time :P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7YJxsKD5jw
About the C4 exploding. When I went through boot camp, it was explained that C4 can be slapped around, stomped, or beaten OR it can be burned, but not at the same time. It requires heat and pressure at the same time to explode. We were told the same story about G Is stomping out burning C4 and losing appendages, but that's the kicker right there, which the troper mentions: burning C4+stomp=splode. Is okay to change? It's based on personal experience so I can't back it up with hard data. — Trope A Dope
