History Main / ElectrifiedBathtub

** On the season one episode "A Hero Sits Next Door," (it's the episode that introduces the Swansons, for those who haven't seen ''Family Guy'''s first season) when Peter mentioned how much he hated new neighbors because they always borrow his stuff and never return it, the scene cuts to a man about to commit suicide in a bath with a toaster (implied to be one of the many things he lent to his neighbor and hasn't seen since) because his wife divorced him and wanted full custody of their children. [[BrickJoke During the next scene]], [[CrossesTheLineTwice the lights in the Griffin household flicker]].

* Interestingly, water in its pure form won't readily act as a conductor. In fact, water is a pretty good insulator. Unfortunately, water is also a great solvent...this means that there's almost always some minerals and/or other salts dissolved within. It's these salts that readily conduct electricity. Even if you took a bath in pure [=H2O=], the moment you dipped your toe in the tub, the salts and other contaminants on your skin have doomed your fate!

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]], the title character kills a large number of security guards by first getting the fire sprinklers to activate, then, once a sufficient amount of water had built up on the floor, shooting the water.

* In ''Series/AdamTwelve'', a woman kills her husband this way. He was mentally disabled and on the level of about a two-year-old, and she got tired of taking care of him. She almost got away with it, but the officers noticed there was no water on the floor outside the tub as there would have been if the man had gotten out himself to grab the hairdryer.

* ''Series/{{Taggart}}''. A husband rigs the wall heater in the bathroom so it will detach from the wall and fall into the tub when his wife pulls on the cord to switch it on. However, her pull is too weak and it doesn't detach until the husband tries it after coming home and finding his wife still alive. So he has to resort to other methods.

* In The [=REmake=] of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', this is how you permanently kill Neptune - while the shark has been eliminated as a threat due to the water in its area being drained, you can finish it off by throwing a fuse-box into the puddle it is impotently flopping in and throwing a switch. Don't worry about killing yourself doing this -- the box is completely fried and expends all of its charge during Neptune's death cutscene.

* This was how Debbie Jellinsky attempts to kill Fester in ''Film/AddamsFamilyValues''. Fester being ''Fester'' (the TV series had him lighting a bulb in his mouth, a gag actually used here), it doesn't work. Leads to FridgeLogic when she later tries to kill him with an electric chair. (Especially since Fester would in the TV series strap himself in one to "recharge".)

* Madame Aurora in Creator/JeanPierreJeunet's and Creator/MarcCaro's ''Film/{{Delicatessen}}'' has a penchant for RubeGoldbergDevice suicide attempts. One would drop a table lamp into her [[ElectrifiedBathtub bathtub]] when the doorbell is pressed. Narrowly averted when her neighbor's hammering jolts the lamp's plug from the socket, viewable here: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9uEJSn2zPc]].

* Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode, "Too Pooped to Puff". After being annoyed to do every single menial work for others, the girls try to explain to the very dumb citizens of Townsville that spraying water on a monster caught in telephone lines will electrocute it, so they use the trope as an example.

* [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]] on ''Series/{{Life}}'': When facing a hitmanwoman (sic) who [[MacGyvering kills using household materials]], Charlie thinks that a bathtub was rigged to be electrified as a backup plan to murder the victim in case the murderer's Plan A failed. Bobby says that it's a myth because the circuit breaker would prevent the electrocution from taking place. Charlie then tests this claim by throwing a TV into the bathtub. The TV explodes after hitting the water, and the power for the entire building goes out. They then realize that the killer had circumvented the circuit breaker as well.

* In ''Film/TheAstronautsWife'' (''Film/RosemarysBaby'' [[RecycledINSPACE with aliens]]), the wife of one of the astronauts commits suicide this way after her husband dies of a stroke. When the main character confronts her alien-possessed husband, she's standing with her feet in water dripping down from the sink, preparing to commit suicide the same way... [[spoiler:and after confirming that he's been possessed, water pours down from above, as she's left the tub and sink on the other floor on, causing him to be electrocuted instead]]... ItMakesSenseInContext. But too bad [[spoiler:this frees up the alien to possess her instead]].

* ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'': During the Squad's rampage in the Resistance camp, Bloodsport kills a man by shooting at an electric fan that falls his bathtub.

* ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'''s review of ''The Last Ninja'' ends with Ernie from ''Series/SesameStreet'' getting mad at the Nerd for beating his high score, specifically because the Nerd entered ASSSSSS as his name. The Nerd then kills Ernie by dropping his Nintoaster (a toaster modified to play [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] games) in Ernie's bathtub.
* ''WebVideo/TheJokerBlogs'': Joker murders [[spoiler:the best man at Harleen's wedding]] this way. It's actually a ''{{camera|Abuse}}'' (still filming!) in the bathtub.

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* The ''[=AstroLOLogy=]'' short "The Doll" has [[CreepyDoll a killer doll]] attempting to do this to an unsuspecting Pisces while she's taking a bath, but Capricorn stops him and wrestles the toaster away. Capricorn then falls over into a puddle and gets electrocuted himself, resulting in XRaySparks.
[[/folder]]

* This was how Debbie Jellinsky attempts to kill Fester in ''Film/AddamsFamilyValues''. Fester being ''Fester'' (the TV series had him lighting a bulb in his mouth, a gag actually used here), it doesn't work. Leads to FridgeLogic when she later tries to kill him with an electric chair. (Especially since Fester would in the TV series strap himself in one to "recharge".

* Music/NoDoubt's video for "It's My Life": Gwen Stefani, in the guise of a [[Theatre/{{Chicago}} Jazz Age murderess]], dispatches drummer Ade Young this way.

* The culmination of the tryst depicted in 'Digital Bath' by Music/{{Deftones}}.

* In the video for Music/AHa's song ''Velvet'', Morten Harket gets "killed" like this when his in-story girlfriend tosses her still-connected blowdryer in his bathtub. [[NarmCharm And he keeps singing the song, even when he's dead.]]

* Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley, in the video for "Where's the Dress" (a [[Music/CultureClub Boy George]] parody), one scene has Bandy bathing with a radio precariously sitting on the tub's lip ... and you can guess what happens next.

* Rum Rogers Sr. in ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' dies in a bathtub thanks to his habit of bathing while eating toast. [[spoiler:In ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'', [=LeChuck=] reveals that he killed him there, and made it look like an accident.]]

* In ''VideoGame/UrbanChaosRiotResponse'', during one of the [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway hostage situations]], a [[FacelessGoons burner]] will use a reporter as a human shield. When you successfully shoot him, he will fall backward into a conveniently filled bathtub, and said reporter will then drop a television on top of the guy ("Fry, you bastard!") as payback.
* One of the installments of ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series even had this move on advertisement posters. And indeed, in one mission this is the possible, and indeed advisable for a "true", never-seen never-recognized, killer, way to assassinate one of your targets.
** Taking into account how difficult it would be to kill ''yourself'' this way, however, doing this won't be counted as an "accident".
* Not a bathtub, but one of the bosses in ''VideoGame/Gamer2'' is fought in a flooded factory. Hailey has to shoot him until he crashes into the water, whereupon she must activate a lever to electrify him.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}}'', you can use this to kill hostile creatures in bodies of water, or Maxwell if you don't make sure he's safe.
* The Disney game ''VideoGame/NightmareNed'' has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq0pmg0gjg8 whole song]] about this. The level it appears on requires you to leap from bathtub to bathtub and avoid getting shocked in the process.
* In ''Videogame/AloneInTheDark2008'', there are some points where you have to pull electric cables out of the water so you can traverse through the area without getting zapped.

* Using a LightningGun in the water in ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' discharges all of your ammo into the surrounding area. Damage scales exponentially; one cell (out of a maximum possible of 100) will be a small hit. Ten cells will viciously maim you. Twenty or more cells will gib the player and anything nearby.
* One puzzle in ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' has you drop a hairdryer in a sewer main to kill [[BrokenBridge a monster guarding a bridge]].
* Played for laughs in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia''. Raven is perfectly aware that he'll get electrocuted if he goes in a hot spring [[spoiler:because of his blastia heart]]. When Yuri brings it up to him, he simply says that it's WorthIt.

* In ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune II'', you kill Domingo Sanchez by blowing a fuse box while he's standing in a puddle of water.

* Using the Beam or Plasma ability while over a body of water in ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'' will send a surge of electricity across the water's surface. [[spoiler:[[BonusBoss Void Soul]] also has an attack where it raises the water level in the stage and then fires a laser into it, electrifying it.]]
* Utilized by the player in ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsGame'' during the first ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror''-themed level based on "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E1TreehouseOfHorrorXI Night of the Dolphin]]". To defeat King Snorky at the sea park, Lisa must use her Buddhist powers to put an electric eel in the dunk tank under him, allowing Bart to use his slingshot to knock Snorky in and kill him.
* In ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'', the Paralyze truth bullet electrifies enemies. If the enemy is standing in water, it will hit everyone else in the water (including Komaru herself if you're not careful).

* The InteractiveFiction game ''In The End 2'' has this as one of its methods for attempting suicide. As is the theme of the game, it doesn't work; if you're not in the bath, electrifying it produces a spectacular lightshow, but if you're in the bath all you get is a muffled ''pop'' and a puff of smoke from the wall socket.

* An unusually bloody example shows up at the beginning of ''Webcomic/{{Hellp}}'''s second chapter. Serves as a FramingDevice to show how people enter Hell in this universe.

* Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode, "Too Pooped to Puff". After being annoyed to do every single menial work for others, the girls try to explain to the very dumb citizens of Townsville that spraying water on a monster caught in telephone lines will electrocute it, so they use the trope as an example.
* ''WesternAnimation/Sealab2021'':
** In the episode "Waking Quinn". Stormy drops a high powered hair dryer into a pool which electrocutes Quinn, causing him to experience lots of odd hallucinations. He did it [[HanlonsRazor not out of malice, but out of stupidity]]. Later, when Quinn wakes up, Stormy tries to revive him with a [[MagicalDefibrillator defibrillator]] (by putting it directly in the water, away from Quinn himself), then shows him his "bitchin'" homemade Tesla coil. [[spoiler: The last one was implied to have been malicious, as Quinn asked if Stormy was ''that'' stupid before Stormy dropped it in.]]
** In a later episode, Sparks kills Murphy by dropping the same Tesla coil into the jacuzzi Murphy is sitting in. However, because of the slow speed of the aforementioned visible arcs of electricity, [[spoiler:Murphy lives long enough to [[TakingYouWithMe take Sparks down with him]]]].

* Hilariously attempted by Dale in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' to Hank when he heard he had an EroticDream about his wife. Dale ran in with a toaster in hand, but forget it was still plugged, so he just tripped and fell before he could make it.
** It gets better, he then asks Hank if he can [[TooDumbToLive BORROW HIS EXTENSION CORD!]]

* Done in ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode "Fatal Contraption" when the new jealous appliance destroys the toaster by throwing it a piece of bread to chase in which said piece of bread falls into the sink so that the toaster follows it.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Da Flippity Flop", Klaus attempts to kill himself by dropping a hand vacuum in his fishbowl, but nothing happens, causing him to lament that the vacuum is never charged.

* Armless waterbender Ming-hua from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' meets her demise when Mako zaps the pool they’re fighting in with lightning.
* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben102016'', Frightwig attempts to kill a pool full of people by dropping a laptop into it before Ben as Fourarms grabs it.
* In the animated short ''The Thing What Lurked in the Tub'', Lugmeyer accidentally kills the titular monster by knocking his radio into the bathtub the creature is hiding in.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePJs'', after being placed under house arrest for a parole violation, [[NeverMyFault Thurgood]] tries to expose Walter as corrupt. They end up wrestling in a puddle near the curb and are both electrocuted by Thurgood's tracking brace. Their spirits ascend, Walter is allowed into Heaven and vouches for Thurgood to join him instead of being sent to Hell, but they're revived at the last minute.

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hitman_toaster.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} Shocking. Positively shocking.]] ]]

* In ''Manga/FutureDiary'', Fifth almost killed Yuno this way and was only prevented from doing so by Yuki cutting the electricity to the entire house.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' once had a guy who kept [[TooDumbToLive his pet electric eel]] in the bathroom, where it could easily fall into the bathtub if knocked over.
* In ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'', it's revealed that Secret was originally killed by this method.

* In the graphic novel ''ComicBook/BlackCanary and ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}: Bloodspell'', the ghost of a gang leader is possessing the bodies of the gang members who betrayed her and forcing them to commit suicide. One of her victims takes a plunge into a swimming pool along with a number of electrical devices.
* ''ComicBook/HackSlash'': In ''Girls Gone Dead'', Father Wrath tries to kill a group of 'sinners' by tossing a television into their hot tub. Vlad manages to slow him down long enough for most of them to get out.

* Early in ''Film/TheBodyguardFromBeijing'', the female lead is nearly killed while taking her bath, unaware that she's marked for death and her tub is booby-trapped by a hidden battery. [[ThatPoorCat But her cat jumps in before her]].
* ''Film/DiaryOfTheDead''. The nerdy character experiences this as a zombie tackles him and pushes him into the tub while he's using a blow drier to dry his hair. Strangely, the electricity doesn't disturb the security camera that's watching him the whole time. Also, it wasn't like the shock could hurt him anymore since he ''was'' in the middle of being mawed by a zombie anyway.
* This was how Debbie Jellinsky attempts to kill Fester in ''Film/AddamsFamilyValues''. Fester being ''Fester'' (the TV series had him lighting a bulb in his mouth, a gag actually used here), it doesn't work. Leads to FridgeLogic when she later tries to kill him with an electric chair. (Especially since Fester would in the TV series strap himself in one to "recharge".
* Bill Murray attempts suicide by tub and toaster in ''Film/GroundhogDay''. Like with [[GroundhogDayLoop all his other suicide attempts]], he gets better.

* Mel Gibson's character in ''Film/WhatWomenWant'' is almost killed by this, but instead ends up with the power to read the minds of women.
* Featured in the teaser to ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', including Creator/SeanConnery giving the expected BondOneLiner. "Shocking..." (long beat) "Positively shocking."
* Done in ''Literature/TheRing''.
** Particularly noteworthy, since rather than just drop an active, mundane electronic device into a bathtub, he sets up a rather complicated metal harness connected to ''numerous'' devices, steps into the bathtub, and then switches it on. The result is also more realistic, as it causes the lighting to intermittently short out, and much convulsion and a ''lot'' of blood.

* According to WordOfGod, this later happens to the man who spends the whole of ''Film/TheTrumanShow'' watching TV in the bath.
* In ''Film/TheAstronautsWife'' (''Film/RosemarysBaby'' [[RecycledINSPACE with aliens]]), the wife of one of the astronauts commits suicide this way after her husband dies of a stroke. When the main character confronts her alien-possessed husband, she's standing with her feet in water dripping down from the sink, preparing to commit suicide the same way... [[spoiler:and after confirming that he's been possessed, water pours down from above, as she's left the tub and sink on the other floor on, causing him to be electrocuted instead]]... ItMakesSenseInContext. But too bad [[spoiler:this frees up the alien to possess her instead]].
%%* One of the traps in ''Film/SawV''.
* In ''Film/TheRoyalTenenbaums'', Etheline is concerned about her daughter, Margot, watching TV in the bath. Margot ''does'' at least have the TV tied up so it doesn't fall in.

* A bizarre variation occurs in ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105434/ Snake Eater 3]]'': Soldier (Lorenzo Lamas) electrifies a biker perp's ''toilet bowl'', killing the biker as he relieves his bladder. [[GroinAttack Ouch!]]
* One girl in ''Film/SlumberPartyMassacreIII'' takes a bath after having sex, and is electrocuted when a buzzing dildo is thrown into the water.
* During the prison riot scene in ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', Rorschach kills one of the inmates by breaking a toilet on him and then letting the water reach an exposed wire near the wet guy.
* The same principle is used in ''Film/WristcuttersALoveStory'', except instead of throwing an appliance into liquid, Eugene throws liquid (a beer) onto an appliance (his guitar) for a rock 'n' roll suicide. Works just as well, apparently.
* In ''Film/StayTuned'', while the main characters are stuck as cartoon mice and being chased after a robotic cat, they lead it into a bathtub and throw a hair drier into it.

* ''[[Film/CabinByTheLake Return to Cabin by the Lake]]'': In the climax, Allison tries to kill Stanley by knocking him into a bathtub and then throwing in a blowdryer. She ultimately relents because [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim she doesn't want to become a killer like him]] and alerts the police who just arrived on the scene, [[spoiler:but this just gives Stanley a chance to escape and disappear forever]].
* In the horror film ''Film/{{Valentine}}'', Paige is killed when the killer throws her into her own hot tub, throws the lid closed to trap her, terrorizes her by punching through the lid with a power drill, and then, as an encore, throws the power drill inside to electrocute her.
* The SoBadItsGood horror movie ''Film/ShriekOfTheMutilated'' has an incredibly contrived version. After a man has a psychotic break and murders a woman via SlashedThroat, he goes to wash off the blood and calm down in the bathtub... only for it to be revealed that the woman is NotQuiteDead, as she slooooowly crawls across the living room pushing a toaster in front of her, reaches the bathroom, plugs it in, and with her last strength lifts it into the bathtub, killing him.

* In ''Film/{{Vlog}}'', the killer murders Brandon by rigging a light fitting to fall into his bath when he reaches for his rubber duck.
* In the German film ''Film/ThePrincessAndTheWarrior'' (2000), the trope is played straight in a flashback when a mental ward patient throws a hairdryer into a bathtub used by Sissi's mother. Later, a fugitive hiding from the law in the same mental institution is relaxing after a botched heist in the same bathtub, and the same patient ([[CrazyJealousGuy believing Sissi has fallen for him]]) throws a toaster at him. He instinctively catches it, and both stare in shock at each other for a moment before the fugitive leaps up with murder in his eyes.
* In ''Film/ThisIsYourDeath'', the person to kill themselves on the show does so by dropping a stereo into her bathtub after confessing to the murder of her husband.

* In ''Film/{{Superdome}}'', the killer electrifies a whirlpool tub to kill [=McCauley=] before the Super Bowl, thus ensuring his team will lose. Mike foils the attempt by running into the locker room and knocking [=McCauley=] aside before he can get in.
* Referenced in ''Film/TheButterflyEffect''. In one AlternateTimeline where his friends all seem better off without him, Evan Treborn fills up a bathtub with water and sets about trying to drown himself in it; his friend [[spoiler:Tommy]] comes in and saves him, remarking that Evan forgot to put a toaster on the ledge.
* ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'': During the Squad's rampage in the Resistance camp, Bloodsport kills a man by shooting at an electric fan that falls his bathtub.

* The title character in Creator/HarlanEllison's ''Literature/JefftyIsFive''. The protagonist doesn't realize until it's too late that [[spoiler:Jeffty's mother deliberately propped the radio by the tub precariously enough that it would tip into the tub as soon as Jeffty changed the channel]].

* This is the cause of death/murder method in Creator/CarterDickson's Literature/SirHenryMerrivale mystery [[spoiler:''The Reader is Warned'']]. Sir Henry, while delivering TheSummation, points out that the London County Council had banned electrical fittings in bathrooms for that reason.

* ''Series/{{Harrow}}'': In "Ab Initio" ("From the Beginning"), the VictimOfWeek is found dead is found electrocuted in his bath. It looks like the radio fell off a shelf into the tub, but Harrow notices the dust marks on the shelf indicate it had sat for for months, possibly years, and wonders why it should suddenly have fallen now.

* Featured in the teaser to ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'', including Creator/SeanConnery giving the expected BondOneLiner.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "Hijack", Bodie and Doyle investigate a flat and find an Arab woman dead in the bathtub with an electric heater. They don't know if dodgy British builders [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident or a Libyan hit squad]] was responsible, and nothing more is said about the incident [[RiddleForTheAges so the audience doesn't find out either]].

* Shower variant in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' - Buffy is set up to shut off the water in a locker room shower just as the puddle reaches a live wire. She sees the trap and jumps out just in time, with only static-frazzled hair to show for it (which [[SkewedPriorities concerns her quite a bit]]).
** Buffy is given a malfunctioning Initiative taser in TheUriahGambit set up by Prof. Walsh -- she throws it into a pool of water in which a demon is standing.

This, and other forms of electrocution, is more likely to be fatal where the mains voltage is 220V --- the power output for a given impedance, e.g., that of a human body, goes as the voltage squared, meaning 4 times the power at that voltage as at North America's 110V.

* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': A concussed Colin once took Brittas' sarcastic statement of asking him to attach one end of a piece of rope to a lightning conductor and the other to a trouser zip and jumping off seriously and needed to be stopped as a result. In the resulting kerfluffle, said conductor winds up being thrown into the pool and electrocuting a group of Pentecostalists who were being baptized. Luckily, no-one died, although they were briefly stunned.

%%* Used in an early episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}''.