History Main / EverythingMakesAMushroom

** The Cain is specifically explained to ''not'' be nuclear in nature -- it's simply a large, explosive-filled shell launched at relativistic velocities towards a target. Since the resulting impact is powerful enough to create the characteristic mushroom cloud, it's referred to as the "Nuke Gun" by its users in-universe, and has radioactivity symbols plastered all over it. Presumably this is just clever product marketing by the Cain's manufacturers.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', the strongest fire spell "Explode" creates a large mushroom-shaped explosion of fire.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', the strongest fire spell "Exploder" creates a large mushroom-shaped explosion of fire.

* In ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'', the characters at one point throw [[LethalChef Cookie's]] greasy food into their campfire. The result is a miniature, oily-looking mushroom cloud. In a non-comedic example, the Viking Prologue DeletedScene features an unlucky longship targeted by [[MechanicalMonster the Leviathan's]] BreathWeapon, resulting in a huge mushroom cloud of vaporized seawater and a few wooden splinters.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E18SoItsComeToThisASimpsonsClipShow So Its Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show]], Homer is sent to the hospital due to Bart's April Fools prank. He took a can of Duff beer and stuck it in a paint mixer at the hardware store, then tricks Homer into opening it. The resulting mushroom cloud of beer ends up blowing the roof off the house, and can be seen by Chief Wiggum from a few blocks away. He initially pays no mind to it until Lou points out that it's beer.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E18SoItsComeToThisASimpsonsClipShow So Its Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show]], Homer is put into a coma due to Bart's April Fools prank. He took a can of Duff beer and stuck it in a paint mixer at the hardware store, then tricks Homer into opening it. The resulting mushroom cloud of beer ends up blowing the roof off the house, and can be seen by Chief Wiggum from a few blocks away. He initially pays no mind to it until Lou points out that it's beer.

[[folder: Anime And Manga ]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated ]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In the second book of ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', Tyson and Percy, playing with chemicals, make an "orange mushroom cloud in the trash can."

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* The Series/MythBusters made a mushroom cloud with a 1,000 pound [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=LptXaQ4Wkjw bomb]].
* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Tyrion's wildfire explosion in the Battle of Blackwater Bay creates a visible (green) mushroom cloud.

[[folder: Music Videos ]]

* At one point in ''Take It Back'' by Music/PinkFloyd a mushroom appears over skyscrapers of a distant city, the road the viewer is on is quickly destroyed and everything is blown away. Only it's not an explosion. The mushroom is an enormous puffball, and the whole event is nature destroying concrete jungle.

[[folder: Pinball ]]

** The SpiritualSuccessor ''[[Pinball/KissStern KISS]]'' from Creator/{{Stern}} has the band riding the top of an exploding mushroom cloud.

[[folder: Radio ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando '' has the Mini Nuke, an explosive grenade that isn't nuclear.
* The Cain in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' is specifically explained to ''not'' be nuclear in nature -- it's simply a large, explosive-filled shell launched at relativistic velocities towards a target. Since the resulting impact is powerful enough to create the characteristic mushroom cloud, it's referred to as the 'Nuke Gun' by its users in-universe, and has radioactivity symbols plastered all over it. Presumably this is just clever product marketing by the Cain's manufacturers.

* In ''Videogame/{{Fallout 3}}'', cars found in the game, all of which are nuclear-powered, will explode into a mushroom cloud if attacked enough

* The All-Out Attacks in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' result in a mushroom cloud when they finish off the enemy party. Its sequel, ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', added a dark gray wisps to it to give it a comical "skull-shaped" aspect, which was then put back into the UpdatedRerelease ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}} Portable''.
** And then [[UpdatedRerelease Persona 4 Golden]] took a step further with a ''pink'', skull-shaped mushrooom cloud with ponytails on the sides of the skull if you have sufficiently leveled up Rise's S.Link to allow her to pitch in during the All-Out Attack.

[[folder: Web Animation ]]

* WebAnimation/HomestarRunner:
** In the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "bedtime story", Maggot-Man explodes in a mushroom cloud after getting kicked across a football field by Moses Malone.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''

* Seems to happen a lot in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', where even being thrown off of a seahorse or falling off one's bike and down a cliff results in massive explosions that give off a mushroom cloud.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'': Green Arrow and Speedy resort to their "quantum arrows" after Wade Eiling shrugs off everything they and five other heroes can dish out. The result is a building-sized mushroom cloud.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Insane in the Mainframe", Malfunctioning Eddie is in the robot asylum because he explodes whenever he is told something surprising. When he's told he's being released, everyone tenses for an explosion, but all that happens is a tiny mushroom cloud erupts from his shoulder.

* The E3 trailer for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' (semi-)ended with Wario preparing his [[{{Fartillery}} fart attack]] -- whereupon the camera shifts to a remote view of a lime-green mushroom cloud.

It's worth noting that this is somewhat TruthInTelevision -- the mushroom cloud effect is not actually exclusive to nuclear weapons, it's just that nuclear weapons are far beyond the heat and explosive force required to cause the effect, whereas very few non-nuclear explosions are powerful enough to result in mushroom clouds. Therefore, the two [[TheCoconutEffect became heavily associated with each other]]. TheOtherWiki has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_cloud a nice article]] about how they form, but very basically, the intense heat of a large-enough explosion causes a massive updraft of air, which draws in dust and debris from the ground (the "stem"), and as it rises, the lower, hotter areas push the higher, cooler areas to the side in a swirling movement that forms the "cap".

It's worth noting that this is somewhat TruthInTelevision -- the mushroom cloud effect is not actually exclusive to nuclear weapons, it's just that nuclear weapons are far beyond the heat and explosive force required to cause the effect, whereas very few non-nuclear explosions are powerful enough to result in mushroom clouds. Therefore, the two [[TheCoconutEffect became heavily associated with each other]].

It's worth noting that this is somewhat TruthInTelevision - the mushroom cloud effect is not actually exclusive to nuclear weapons, it's just that nuclear weapons are far beyond the heat and explosive force required to cause the effect, whereas very few non-nuclear explosions are powerful enough to result in mushroom clouds. Therefore, the two [[TheCoconutEffect became heavily associated with each other]].

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' - Green Arrow and Speedy resort to their "quantum arrows" after Wade Eiling shrugs off everything they and five other heroes can dish out. The result is a building-sized mushroom cloud.

It's worth noting that the mushroom cloud effect is not actually exclusive to nuclear weapons, it's just that nuclear weapons are far beyond the heat and explosive force required to cause the effect, whereas very few non-nuclear explosions are powerful enough to result in mushroom clouds. Therefore, the two [[TheCoconutEffect became heavily associated with each other]].

* Seems to happen a lot in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', where even being thrown off of a seahorse or falling off your bike and down a cliff results in massive explosions that give off a mushroom cloud.

* In ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', Ed manages to create a mushroom cloud out of supercharged static electricity. It manages to destroy Edd's house ([[MadeOfIron Ed and Edd survive, of course]]).

* A flaming mushroom cloud is on O'Brien's "Fire Back" card in "Anime/YuGiOhGX''. (Ironically, it special summons a monster from his Graveyard, so it ''restores'' life, even though said life is a Pyro monster.

* As previously mentioned, any powerful enough explosive will create a mushroom cloud, but few conventional explosive are that powerful. The Tall Boy bomb, as seen in ''{{Rambo}}'', [[ShownTheirWork is one that is that powerful]], something many internet "comedians" failed to realize when snarking about [[RealityIsUnrealistic how Rambo should have been poisoned by nuclear fallout]].

* When the German city of Hamburg was deliberately targeted with thousand-bomber raids loaded up with incendiary bombs, the weather conditions were such that all the smaller fires joined up into one enromous firestorm. RAF pilots reported seeing the city as one enormous mushroom-shaped cloud, created by the intensity of the fire and the ground-draft piling it up into one huge plume.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Sideshow Bob takes Bart and Lisa hostage next to a 50's A-bomb. His demands are refused, he pushes the detonator, and a mushroom cloud explodes... before the camera pans out to reveal the cloud is, at most, two inches tall. Sideshow Bob then comments that "he HAD to go for the retro charm".

** When Strong Bad blows up the Tandy 400 in the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "retirement" using the King of Town's denture-cleaning tablets, a bottle of Mountain Dew, and a pickaxe, the computer explodes in a pixellated mushroom cloud drawn in the same style as the Bad Graphics Ghost.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Rainbow Dash makes a ''rainbow-colored'' mushroom cloud while helping to tear down Applejack's old barn in "Lesson Zero" (which she accomplishes by ''slamming into the ground at supersonic speeds'').

** In "Tanks for the Memories", a snow mushroom is unleashed on Ponyville after Rainbow Dash sabotages the weather factory.

** In her title episode, Maud Pie throws a boulder to the horizon, and it makes a mushroom cloud on landing.

* Seems to happen a lot in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', where even being thrown off of a seahorse or crashing a bike down a cliff results in massive explosions that give off a mushroom cloud.

* In the first two 1990s ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'' games every explosion of a grenade or anything bigger creates several skull-shaped mushrooms.

* In the first two 1990s ''VideoGame/{{X-COM}}'' games every explosion of a grenade or anything bigger creates several skull-shaped mushrooms.