History Main / BuffetBuffoonery

* [[https://youtu.be/7K9OJLwhU4s One of the subplots in]] ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' is Cyborg in an all you can eat restaurant in Japan and the head chef tries one upping him with more disgusting things until he and his chefs chase him out. At the end though he relents and gives Cyborg indeed all he can eat.

* Played with in the 1982 film ''Film/{{Pandemonium}}''. A customer in a restaurant asks what the special of the day is, the waitress replies that it's all you can eat for a dollar. He orders that, and the waitress places an enormous tray of food in front of him. He takes one bite from a burger, and the waitress grabs both the tray ''and'' the burger away from him.

* Played with in the 1982 film ''Pandemonium''. A customer in a restaurant asks what the special of the day is, the waitress replies that it's all you can eat for a dollar. He orders that, and the waitress places an enormous tray of food in front of him. He takes one bite from a burger, and the waitress grabs both the tray ''and'' the burger away from him.

* [[BigEater Elma]] goes to a buffet with [[ThoseTwoGuys two of her work friends]] in chapter 2 of ''[[Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Elma's OL Diary]]''. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Predictably]], she ends up getting banned after eating more than 100 plates of food in the two-hour time limit.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix'', one of the tasks is to finish a meal cooked by Calorofix the Belgian, a chef famous for making meals for the Titans. Obelix cleans him out (eating -- as the first course -- a boar with french fries, a flock of geese, several sheep, an omelette made with eight dozen eggs, a whole school of fish, an ox, a cow and two veal ("because to separate ze family... zat would not be right!"), a huge mound of caviar (with a single piece of toast), a camel, and an elephant stuffed with olives) and is still hungry.

* In the ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' fanfiction ''Slayers Demiurge'', cooks take it as an article of religious faith that you do NOT have an All-You-Can-Eat special on the opening day of a new restaurant, because if you do, ''[[TheDreaded she]]'' will come. The head chef [[TemptingFate mocks this superstition]], claiming that [[BigEater Lina Inverse]] is a myth. [[SpeakOfTheDevil Then a certain red-haired sorceress walks through the door]], and proceeds to eat him out of business.

* [[https://youtu.be/7K9OJLwhU4s One of the subplots in]] ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' is Cyborg in an all you can eat restaurant in Japan and the head chef one upping each hung with more disgusting things until he and his chefs chase him out. At the end though he relents and gives Cyborg indeed all he can eat.

* [[https://youtu.be/7K9OJLwhU4s One if the subplots in]] ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' is Cyborg in an all you can eat restaurant in Japan and the head chef one upping each hung with more disgusting things until he and his chefs chase him out. At the end though he relents and gives Cyborg indeed all he can eat.

* ''Film/KrushGroove" has the Fat Boys performing their song, "All You Can Eat" while living it in a Sbarro's restaurant. They eat everything including the pictures of food on the wall.

* Played for drama in an episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' where the investigators were going over the steps of the VictimOfTheWeek. The man was a BigEater because of a neurological disorder that made him feel eternally hungry (to the point that his sister had to keep him restrained Hannibal Lecter-style for years in order to prevent him from overeating himself to death)[[note]] A likely cause of this is what’s known as [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prader–Willi_syndrome Prader-Willi syndrome]], a genetic disorder with one of the symptoms being constantly hungry which leads to obesity[[/note]], and once the sister's boyfriend (who knew nothing about this issue but took pity on the man being bound to a chair) cut him loose, he went straight to a hotel's buffet and had to be kicked out by security because he was attacking other people that were trying to serve themselves.

* Played for drama in an episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' where the investigators were going over the steps of the VictimOfTheWeek. The man was a BigEater because of a neurological disorder that made him feel eternally hungry (to the point that his sister had to keep him restrained Hannibal Lecter-style for years in order to prevent him from overeating himself to death)[[note]] A likely cause of this is what’s known as [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prader–Willi_syndrome Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic disorder with one of the symptoms being constantly hungry which leads to obesity[[/note]], and once the sister's boyfriend (who knew nothing about this issue but took pity on the man being bound to a chair) cut him loose, he went straight to a hotel's buffet and had to be kicked out by security because he was attacking other people that were trying to serve themselves.

* Played for drama in an episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' where the investigators were going over the steps of the VictimOfTheWeek. The man was a BigEater because of a neurological disorder that made him feel eternally hungry (to the point that his sister had to keep him restrained Hannibal Lecter-style for years in order to prevent him from overeating himself to death)[[note:]] A likely cause of this is what’s known as [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prader–Willi_syndrome Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic disorder with one of the symptoms being constantly hungry which leads to obesity[[/note]], and once the sister's boyfriend (who knew nothing about this issue but took pity on the man being bound to a chair) cut him loose, he went straight to a hotel's buffet and had to be kicked out by security because he was attacking other people that were trying to serve themselves.

* Played for drama in an episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' where the investigators were going over the steps of the VictimOfTheWeek. The man was a BigEater because of a neurological disorder that made him feel eternally hungry (to the point that his sister had to keep him restrained Hannibal Lecter-style for years in order to prevent him from overeating himself to death), and once the sister's boyfriend (who knew nothing about this issue but took pity on the man being bound to a chair) cut him loose, he went straight to a hotel's buffet and had to be kicked out by security because he was attacking other people that were trying to serve themselves.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In one issue of ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'', [[BigEater Volstagg]] encountered an all-you-can-eat buffet. He declared that it made a decent snack after cleaning it out as the staff looked on in horror.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{FoxTrot}}'', Peter cleans out an entire buffet, leaving nothing for his family. In another strip, he takes advantage of the all you can eat special at the pizza place where his friend Steve works at, and eats for six hours straight, only stopping when Steve tells him to leave at midnight (seeing as the special has ended, and his manager is ''pissed''. Peter pushes his luck further and asks if he can have some to go.). In [[http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2016/03/27 this later strip,]] he believes "all you can eat" is a requirement.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'': An 'all-you-can-eat' pizza place hurriedly closes its Venetian blinds and flips the "closed" sign when it sees a group of teenage boys approaching.

* ''ComicStrip/PiranhaClub'' has a series of strips where Sid took advantage of a buffet to feed his ExtremeOmnivore BigEater piranha Earl. After the first visit almost made them bankrupt, the restaurant started trying to keep Sid out, culminating in making him wait indefinitely for a table. This just leads to Sid feeding the vestibule couch to Earl instead.
* In ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'', restaurants have been known to post disclaimers saying that their "all you can eat" doesn't apply to [[BigEater Sergeant Snorkel]]. Or go bankrupt or receive advance warning and close early.
* The Finnish strip ''ComicStrip/{{Fingerpori}}'' has an all you can eat pork buffet at a vegan restaurant.
* ''ComicStrip/CitizenDog'' set a whole series of strips inside an all-you-can-eat buffet, with Fergus the dog first asking the waitress to confirm the exact meaning of "all you can eat". He proceeds to bring tons of plates of food back to the booth; his owner Mel reminds him that multiple trips to the buffet are allowed, which Fergus [[BigEater already understands]]. When Mel goes to pay at the end, Fergus is trying to bring half of a watermelon out with him; the waitress politely informs him that all buffet portions must be eaten on-site. Cue the final panel with Mel and Fergus back in their booth, Fergus munching away.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix'', one of the tasks is to finish a meal cooked by Calorofix the Belgian, a chef famous for making meals for the Titans. Obelix cleans him out (Eating -- as the first course -- a boar with french fries, a flock of geese, several sheep, an omelette made with eight dozen eggs, a whole school of fish, an ox, a cow and two veal ("because to separate ze family...zat would not be right!"), a huge mound of caviar (with a single piece of toast), a camel, and an elephant stuffed with olives) and is still hungry.

--->'''Waitress''': Okay, that's all you can eat for a dollar.

* Early in ''Literature/TalesOfMU'', Mack and some of her friends go to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Because Mack is a half-demon, she doesn't actually need human food to live and her bigoted religious grandmother who raised her never actually gave her any ([[AbusiveMom and told her she should feel thankful that she got anything at all]]). Mack therefore has atrocious table manners when her friends start introducing her to food, and at the buffet she gets hooked on barbecued ribs, eating not only the meat but the bones as well. Naturally, this freaks out the other patrons and she gets thrown out and banned.
* ''Radio/TheNowShow Book of World Records'' has an entire section on unlimited salad bars, and how you opt for them thinking "It's a salad; it's healthy", and then find yourself loading your plate with multiple servings of cold sausage pasta, rollmop herring, and boiled eggs, none of which count as one of your five a day.

* A skit on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', possibly one of their "Limits of the Imagination" thriller spoofs, had a couple go to an "All-you-can-eat" restaurant and be later told "It's not all you CARE TO eat, it's all you CAN eat!" and they look and see the other patrons are being force-fed.

* Played for drama in an episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' where the investigators were going over the steps of the VictimOfTheWeek. The man was a BigEater because of a neurological disorder that made him feel eternally hungry (to the point that his sister had to keep him restrained Hannibal Lecter-style for years in order to prevent him from overeating himself to death), and once the sister's boyfriend (who knew nothing about this issue but took pity on the man being bound to a chair) cut him loose, he went straight to a hotel's buffet and had to be kicked out by security because he was attacking other people that were trying to serve themselves.
* One episode of ''Series/HomeImprovement'' had George Foreman as a guest star with a running gag about him being a BigEater. He told Tim about the time he went to a seafood buffet and ate eight plates of shrimp. When he tried to eat a ninth plate of shrimp, "I was TKO- totally keeled over," and said that it taught him the important lesson of needing to know one's own limits: eight plates of shrimp.
* One episode of ''Series/WorldsDumbest'' featured a man that called 911 for being kicked out from a buffet after eating the entire stock of the day's "all-you-can-eat" special. The man later protests the place's "false advertising" with a poorly-done picket sign and is eventually banned from the eatery.
* During the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' Vegas storyline, when Joey learns breakfast at the casino is a buffet, he says, "Here's where I make my money back!". Over the course of his subsequent conversation with Chandler, Chandler gets distracted by watching him load pretty much ''all'' of the scrambled eggs onto his plate.
* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' episode "Turning Japanese" had Marcy, in an attempt to keep the hideous and embarrassing Bundy family away from her boss to keep her from getting an important promotion, pays for Al, Bud and Kelly to eat at an all you can eat seafood restaurant. Unfortunately, their food-starved antics cause the family to be ejected from the establishment [[spoiler: and it later comes out that they're infected with a strain of botulism by the episode's end. However, they were just happy to have food.]]

* Music/{{Fatboys}} video "All You Can Eat". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDPk6OQkpeI Case in point.]]
* In Shape of You by Music/EdSheeran, the couple goes to a buffet on their first date. Because they want to save money, the woman fills up her bag. (The man merely fills up his plate.)

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheWhiteboard'', it's stated that the Chinese restaurant where Pirta used to work had to discontinue its buffet due to [[BearsAreBadNews Doc]] [[BigEater eating a whole Tibetan yak's worth]] every time he went.

* Happens in ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal''

-->'''Customer:''' Must... enjoy... terrible taste!

* ''Webcomic/NothingNiceToSay'' has an early strip where Mitch takes massive advantage of a diner's All You Can Eat Enchiladas offer, to the point that the waiter threatens to clean his table and kick him out the next time he uses the bathroom. Mitch replies that's why he brought a bedpan.
* In ''{{Webcomic/Rhapsodies}}'' Nancy accuses [[StarvingArtist Paul]] of [[http://rhapsodies.wpmorse.com/comic/12312009/ doing this at a New Year's Party.]]
-->'''Nancy:''' I saw you lining your pockets with plastic bags.
* Implied in ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'', where Professor North Dakota Jones is such a BigEater that he orders for two at all-you-can-eat restaurants. Regrettably, we never actually see it take place on screen.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', Garfield goes to the buffet, and after eating everything, the owner cries about how he's been wiped out. Garfield complains, "False advertising. You didn't have all I could eat." Then he hopes that the owner will restock before dinner time since he [Garfield] is still hungry. Later, Jon tries to take him and Odie to the buffet for dinner, but Garfield is banned and has to sneak in.
* A ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' gag features Music/BritneySpears rapidly consuming a comically large amount of food at a buffet, including standing right by the serving tables instead of sitting down, while her hapless dietitian completely fails to stop her.
-->'''Dietitian:''' N-not everything needs gravy... there's some carrots right there... that cheesecake was for everyone...
* ''WesternAnimation/DrKatzProfessionalTherapist'': Patient Barry Sobel recounts his father's suspicious nature, extending to all-you-can-eat steak restaurants -- he insists "Don't eat the breadsticks! By the time you get to the steak you're too full. That's how they get'cha!"
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' centers around the pair trying to sneak into a buffet that they'd been banned from thanks to Dog's overeating ("Just because it says 'All you can eat' doesn't mean you're supposed to eat it ''all''!")
* ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' episode "Lady Hawke" had a scene where Jay is showing Olivia around New York, and they pass a Chinese Buffet, with Jay hungrily staring through the window. The staff recognizes him and panics.
-->'''Waiter:''' It's the monster with many mouths! Kill the lights!!
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'': Young Dilbert's father had a ''very'' LiteralMinded interpretation of "All You Can Eat" at a seafood restaurant. By the time he and Dilbert meet again when Dilbert is an adult, he makes it pretty clear that he's going to stay until he's had absolutely "all he could eat"... which pretty much means dropping dead inside the restaurant.

* Nanny Ogg tries to counter the vampires who have taken over Lancre Castle by putting booby-trapped vol-au-vents, with a lot of garlic in them, on the finger-food menu. This is, of course, an example of [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffet, the Vampire Slayer]]. [[note]]It doesn't work. wrong kind of vampire.[[/note]]

* Early in ''Literature/TalesOfMU'', Mack and some of her friends go to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Because Mack is a half-demon, she doesn't actually need human food to live and her bigoted religious grandmother who raised her never actually gave her any ([[ParentalAbuse and told her she should feel thankful that she got anything at all]]). Mack therefore has atrocious table manners when her friends start introducing her to food, and at the buffet she gets hooked on barbecued ribs, eating not only the meat but the bones as well. Naturally, this freaks out the other patrons and she gets thrown out and banned.

** In one episode, an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet [[{{Pun}} flounders]] once Homer shows up and eats for hours, actually forcing the restaurant to go on food runs several times to keep the pantry supplied (which he eats). Homer was finally kicked out when it became clear to the restaurant's employees that Homer wasn't going to stop eating even if it was midnight and the restaurant had long since closed and they wanted to go home. The guy in charge, Captain Macallister, has Homer thrown out, leading to a lawsuit for "false advertisement". In the end, they come to an agreement: the owner just charges people to watch in horror as Homer eats endlessly.

# There will always be items on the menu that are not part of the buffet and will not be provided unless you order normally -- so, sorry, that filet mignon with beluga caviar and champagne will always cost $500.

** In one episode, an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet [[{{Pun}} flounders]] once Homer shows up and eats for hours, actually forcing the restaurant to go on food runs several times to keep the pantry supplied (which he eats). Homer was finally kicked out when it became clear to the restaurant's employees that Homer wasn't going to stop eating even if it was midnight and the restaurant had long since closed and they wanted to go home. The guy in charge, Captain Macallister, has Homer thrown out, leading to a lawsuit for "false advertisement". In the end, the owner just charges people to watch in horror as Homer eats endlessly.

# One of the key rules about buffets is that it's "all you can eat" both within a certain period of time after you paid (usually around half an hour to an hour or so, and then you need to pay for another serving) and for however long the buffet is active for the day (so you can't pay $2.50 and eat "free" forever -- or until the restaurant closes, if you feel like allowing it to close because you haven't eaten "all you can eat" yet). Also, the buffet will supply food as long as supplies are available -- once the available vittles reach a certain level, more won't be made until after the buffet time ends (or maybe even the next day).

* Played with in the 1982 film ''Film/Pandemonium''. A customer in a restaurant asks what the special of the day is, the waitress replies that it's all you can eat for a dollar. He orders that, and the waitress places an enormous tray of food in front of him. He takes one bite from a burger, and the waitress grabs both the tray ''and'' the burger away from him.

** Played with in the 1982 film ''Film/Pandemonium''. A customer in a restaurant asks what the special of the day is, the waitress replies that it's all you can eat for a dollar. He orders that, and the waitress places an enormous tray of food in front of him. He takes one bite from a burger, and the waitress grabs both the tray ''and'' the burger away from him.

* A ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2647 comic]] has a customer gloating to an apathetic restaurant clerk about how he filled his pay-by-weight salad with cheeses, dressings, cashews, and olives. Of course, now he has to eat the result. [[spoiler:The votey extra panel reveals he got a heart attack from it.]]