History Main / CookingTheLiveMeal

Supertrope to StewedAlive. Overlaps with CapturedByCannibals and BlackComedyCannibalism. Often combined with FatteningTheVictim, though in typical cartoon logic the cook will often start to prepare the victim ''immediately'' after feasting it, so realistically there is no time for the victim to put on fat. May involve ConvectionShmonvection, when the "roast" suffers no apparent discomfort from being rotated over an open fire. Contrast CookedToDeath, which is a gruesome death in an oven or boiling pot depicted realistically and without an intent to eat the victim. Contrast also InstantRoast, which is when a cartoon animal is transformed into a finished roast instantly, which ''also'' avoids any realistic depiction of the meat preparation process.

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[[folder:Films – Live-Action]]

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* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'':

* "Literature/HanselAndGretel": On the same day the witch of the gingerbread house is about to carry out her long-announced plan of killing and cooking Hansel, she fires a baking oven and tells Gretel to crawl into the oven "to see if it is properly hot" for baking bread, because, as the narration assures us, she wants to lock up Gretel in the oven to bake and then eat her. Gretel, however, turns the tables on the witch by pushing her into the oven and locking the door. The witch's plan for Gretel contrast with her declared intention to kill Hansel before cooking him.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short "That's My Mommy!", Tom exploits the naïveté of the duckling Quacker, who believes Tom to be his mother, by trying to cook him by successively tying him to a spit and roasting him on an open fire (which Quacker believes is meant to keep him warm), baking him as a pastry (by tucking him into a "bed" of dough), and by fattening him up and oven-roasting him as a "stuffed duckling" (which Quacker interprets as having dinner and then going to sleep in his bedroom). Each time Quacker is saved by Jerry, but runs back to his "mother" until finally Quacker learns the truth by reading Tom's cookbook while the latter is preparing to cook Quacker in a stew. When a heartbroken Quacker wants to jump into the bubbling pot to please his "mother", Tom has a change of heart and saves Quacker.

** Two French chefs look towards cooking Bugs for their respective restaurants in "French Rarebit". Chef Francois has Bugs in a stew pot when Bugs offers him the recipe for Louisiana Back Bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise a la Antoine (name drop for an actual restaurant in New Orleans that has been in business since 1860).

** Two French chefs look towards cooking Bugs for their respective restaurants. Chef Francois has Bugs in a stew pot when Bugs offers him the recipe for Louisiana Back Bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise a la Antoine (name drop for an actual restaurant in New Orleans that has been in business since 1860).

** Two French chefs look towards cooking Bugs for their respective restaurants. Chef Francois has Bugs in a stew pot when Bugs offers his the recipe for Louisiana Back Bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise a la Antoine (name drop for an actual restaurant in New Orleans that has been in business since 1860).

* Two French chefs look towards cooking Bugs for their respective restaurants. Chef Francois has Bugs in a stew pot when Bugs offers his the recipe for Louisiana Back Bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise a la Antoine (name drop for an actual restaurant in New Orleans that has been in business since 1860).

The trope has precedents in {{fairy tales}}, in which a somewhat darker tone may prevail, and in which the gruesome threat of being CookedToDeath is taken more seriously, even if the hero or heroine will inevitably evade that fate, ''without'' ever going into the oven (instead it is frequently the thwarted ogre or witch or their kin which [[KarmicDeath end karmically in their own oven]]). Despite being fundamentally unrealistic, Cooking the Live Meal also occurs in live-action film; in such examples, the grim threat of death and cannibalism is mellowed by the silly way the cannibals go about it.

** In "Recap/TheThreeStoogesIllNeverHeilAgain" the daughter of the king of Moronika, disguised as a fortune teller, shows Hailstone, Pebble, and Herring a terrifying vision of what their allies might do to them through a special telescope: All three of them are tied to a roasting spit, and turned over the fires of {{Hell}}, with demons poking them... and seasoning them!

** "Bedevilled Rabbit": On a stint in Tasmania, Bugs Bunny is caught by the Tasmanian Devil and (after learning that rabbit is the Tasmanian Devil's favorite food) tied up like a turkey with an apple in his mouth while Taz seasons him with pepper and salt. Bugs can however persuade Taz to untie him so Bugs can cook "wild turkey surprise" for him (which turns out to be sticks of dynamite arranged in a turkey shape).

Oh no! A cartoon character has fallen into the hands of [[SapientEatSapient toon-eating toons]], and they intend their catch to be their next meal. And so the captive is tossed into a pot, or tied to a cooking spit, or wrapped in dough like a meat pie, to be roasted over an open fire, or baked in an oven, or cooked into a [[StewedAlive stew alive.]]

Supertrope to StewedAlive. Overlaps with CapturedByCannibals and BlackComedyCannibalism. Often combined with FatteningTheVictim, though in typical cartoon logic the cook will often start to prepare the victim ''immediately'' after feasting it, so realistically there is no time for the victim to put on fat. Overlaps with ConvectionShmonvection, when the "roast" suffers no apparent discomfort from being rotated over an open fire. Contrast CookedToDeath, which is a gruesome death in an oven or boiling pot depicted realistically and without an intent to eat the victim. Contrast also InstantRoast, which is when a cartoon animal is transformed into a finished roast instantly, which ''also'' avoids any realistic depiction of the meat preparation process.

Supertrope to StewedAlive. Overlaps with BlackComedyCannibalism. Often combined with FatteningTheVictim, though in typical cartoon logic the cook will often start to prepare the victim ''immediately'' after feasting it, so realistically there is no time for the victim to put on fat. Overlaps with ConvectionShmonvection, when the "roast" suffers no apparent discomfort from being rotated over an open fire. Contrast CookedToDeath, which is a gruesome death in an oven or boiling pot depicted realistically and without an intent to eat the victim. Contrast also InstantRoast, which is when a cartoon animal is transformed into a finished roast instantly, which ''also'' avoids any realistic depiction of the meat preparation process.

[[folder:Films –- Animated]]

[[folder:Films –- Live-Action]]