History Main / AteTheSpoon

* Depending on the thing doing the stirring and the stuff being stirred, this can happen by accident. Silicon rubber dissolves in cooking oil, for example, and one reason paper straws are so disliked is that they melt in drinks regardless of composition.

* With repeated exposure, sriracha can eat ''forklifts''. The manufacturing process for sriracha sauce, the popular Thai chili sauce often seen with green caps and a rooster on the bottle, has the vinegar-and-pepper mash stored in barrels and moved by forklift. Turns out sriracha seepage onto the lifting forks forces the company to replace them every few years thanks to how pitted and corroded they become. Tabasco sauce, made under similar circumstances, also corrodes forklifts.

* In Tom Smith's ''307 Ale,'' the titular "[[GargleBlaster Hyperbeer]]" does "frankly obscene" things to test equipment, including but not limited to setting test tubes on fire, like it's made of [[MadeOfExplodium Hydrogen Flouride]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins'' theme song, Fidgel's spoon corrodes a second after he sips a blue liquid from it. [[DelayedReaction Another second later his facial expression changes from joy to disgust.]]

* In one episode of ''Series/GilligansIsland'' the professor is cooking up a batch of sulphuric acid to use to purify the rubber from the rubber trees. Gilligan finds the kettle bubbling and assumes it's soup. He tries to ladle some into his mouth and burns up the ends of two spoons in the process. Then he hits upon the idea of using [[TooDumbToLive a cup]]...

* In a 1999 Czech film ''Film/CosyDens'' (''Pelíšky''), set in TheSixties, achievements of the "[[AluminumChristmasTrees space-age socialist science]]" are examined, in the form of the plastic teaspoons from East Germany -- which [[http://media1.webgarden.cz/images/media1:5105f76ba1c9f.jpg/Pel%C3%AD%C5%A1ky.jpg promptly melt in hot coffee]]. The phrase "Where did the comrades from GDR make a mistake?" underwent rapid MemeticMutation in Czech.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'': In the Thanksgiving Special, Gopher is saddled with pumpkin pie-making duty and actually produces a nice-looking pastry, although his methods ("processing" a pile of pumpkins to kingdom come with his signature explosives and mixing the batter with a ''blowtorch'') and ingredients (jalapenos and turmeric) are somewhat... questionable.

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[[caption-width-right:206:Now '''that's''' good coffee!]]

* Used as a RunningGag in ''ComicBook/AlanFord'' where a character, hostile to another, offers the latter a drink, only for the latter to pour it on the table, marveling sarcastically as the drink eat a hole through the wood as the former sheepishly comments on how strong the drink was.

* On the old PBS cooking show ''The Frugal Gourmet'', the host talked about an attempt by a company in New Mexico trying to can chili peppers. The chili's acids ''corroded the cans'', '''weakened and dissolved the boxes''' the cans were in and was [[UpToEleven started to eat the pallets the boxes were on]]. The company switched to glass jars.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', this happened with the ''cafeteria meal''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' "The Common Cold", Dan's attempt at a cold remedy eats a hole through Chris's table and floor.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' and its "Vat of Acid Episode". The titular vat of (fake) acid -- actually flat mountain dew -- is used to fake Rick and Morty's deaths, and has a little compartment in it marked "in case of ladle". The compartment contains a laser gun, and the intended use is clearly to melt any inserted ladle or spoon in order to convince people that the contents of the vat are indeed acid. Rick pulls it off, but when Morty tries it, he ends up hitting the person holding the ladle instead.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'' where Clam comes down with a condition that makes him fall in love with [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Gretchen]], one of Lazlo and Raj's attempts at a remedy is a soup made with water from Raj's Kafizzle River snow globe. The water from the Kafizzle River is previously established to be [[GrimyWater highly acidic]], so every time Lazlo spills a drop of the soup, it eats a hole in the ground. When Lazlo comments that it's like lava from the earth's core, Raj states that it's [[UpToEleven even more powerful than that]].

* [[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/2253606/1/Football-Fiasco Football Fiasco]], a Misfit-verse (crossover between ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' and ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'') fic, features Roadblock's Special Five-Alarm Chili. As he puts it, "It's not hot, it's atomic!" Roadblock has to prepare (and serve) it in a hazmat barrel (the only thing strong enough to hold it) and ladles regularly dissolve in it.

* ''[[WebVideo/ThePeriodicTableOfVideos Periodic Videos]]'' has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4UX_NdSxPM spoon made from Field's Metal]], an alloy with a low melting point, melting in a beaker of hot tea.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' and its "Vat of Acid Episode". The titular vat of (fake) acid -- actually flat mountain dew -- is used to fake Rick and Morty's deaths, and has a little compartment in it marked "in case of ladle". The compartment contains a laser gun, and the intended use is clearly to melt the ladle in order to convince people that the contents of the vat are indeed acid. Rick pulls it off, but when Morty tries it, he ends up hitting the person holding the ladle instead.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "The Fake Smurf", the formula Hogatha creates for changing herself into a Smurf causes the spoon she mixes it with to dissolve.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CampLazlo'' where Clam comes down with a condition that makes him fall in love with [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Gretchen]], one of Lazlo and Raj's attempts at a remedy is soup made with water from Raj's Kafizzle River snow globe. The water from the Kafizzle River is previously established to be [[GrimyWater highly acidic]], so every time Lazlo spills a drop of the soup it eats through the floor. When Lazlo comments that it's like lava from the earth's core, Raj states that it's [[UpToEleven even more powerful than that]].

* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', some Alethi bars refuse to serve [[GargleBlaster Horneater lager]] because it dissolves their cups. The horneaters, by contrast, think very little of Alethi wines, even though some of them would be classed as distilled spirits on Earth.

* This can happen if the dishes are extremely hot and the spoons are biodegradable (plastic). It's generally a bad idea to eat the stuff afterwards, though. This isn't limited to biodegradable plastics. Very cheap non-biodegradable plastic spoons may not dissolve, but they can definitely soften and distort in near-boiling beverages (i.e., coffee, cocoa, etc.).
* Stainless steel will corrode in sodium hypochlorite (bleach).
* Gallium is a metal that melts at around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius). If you can make a spoon out of it, serve someone a hot drink with said spoon. Gallium spoons will melt in the user's hands (staining them gray because liquid gallium, unlike mercury, ''wets'' skin and glass). Fortunately, gallium is non-toxic. Do NOT do this anywhere even remotely close to aluminum, because gallium forms a (very brittle) alloy with aluminum that crumbles if you so much as ''look'' at it funny. This is why metallic gallium is one substance that's on an omniverse-wide no-fly list because almost every metal used in aerospace engineering alloys with and is in the process embrittled by the liquid form of the stuff.
* A number of special alloys melt well below the boiling point of water. One of the better-known is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood%27s_metal Wood's metal]]. A spoon made from many of these would melt in a typical cup of coffee, though given the horrifically toxic metals used (such as lead and cadmium) you wouldn't exactly want to drink the coffee afterward...

** Likewise, Indian ''achar'' pickles can corrode a stainless steel spoon if left inside of it long enough.

** On the old PBS cooking show ''The Frugal Gourmet'', the host talked about an attempt by a company in New Mexico trying to can chili peppers. The chili's acids ''corroded the cans'', '''weakened and dissolved the boxes''' the cans were in and was [[UpToEleven started to eat the pallets the boxes were on]]. The company switched to glass jars.
* Some of the {{Gargle Blaster}}s served at science-fiction conventions will warp or deform plastic drinking cups.