History Main / FloorboardFailure

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', it happens to Zeetha's whole group in [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewers the sewers of Sturmhalten]], shortly after [[FromBadToWorse escaping a rampaging monster]]. They land in an ossuary.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

-->--'''RogerEbert''', ''Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary''

->''Some primal termite knocked on wood''\\
''And tasted it, and found it good''\\
''And that is why your cousin May''\\
''Fell through the parlor floor today''
-->--'''Creator/OgdenNash'''

!!Examples:

[[AC: AnimeAndManga]]
* In ''SeitokaiYakuindomo'', the main characters visit [[TheOjou Shichijou Aria's]] house and are taken to an old storeroom. The floor breaks under Shino and Hata asks if there's a way to get under the floor to take photos.
* Happens twice in the second episode of ''CodeGeass'': the rebels destroy a group of enemy [[HumongousMecha mechas]] by shooting the floor out from under them, and Lelouch's own mech falls through several floors of a concrete building [[PlotArmor (it survives undamaged)]].

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* The TomHanks movie ''The Money Pit'' had this.
** In this case, the hole was already there with a large rug thrown over it, and poor Walter gets stuck in it for several hours.
* Another TomHanks movie, ''TheBurbs'', also used this--although it was the creepy neighbor's porch in this case.

* The first [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Ninja Turtles]] movie has this occur in the middle of a fight between the Turtles and the Foot clan on the second floor of April's apartment. Given that the floor had been hacked at with ninja axes and the number of people in the room at the time this was inevitable. Donatello even tries to warn the Foot.
--> '''Donatello:''' Uh, guys, I'm not so sure if this is, structurally speaking... such a good time for your buddies to drop in.
--> ''Foot soldiers drop in through the skylight. Seconds later epic floorboard failure occurs.''
* A central part of the plot in ''Duplex'', a Drew Barrymore black comedy.
* Film/IronMan: Tony's first flight test ends him crashing though the ceiling ''and'' the floor during an attempted landing. Further causalities are a piano and a car.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* In one of the RamonaQuimby books, Ramona falls halfway through the unfinished floor of a friend's attic. She's very annoyed when she tries to tell the story at the dinner table with what she feels is an appropriate amount of drama, and her older sister interrupts, saying how easy it is to step onto the plaster and that she knows someone who fell all the way through.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''DesperateHousewives'', Susan managed to suspend herself between two floors when it happened to her in her house.
* In ''TheEqualizer'', Edward Woodward's character was being menaced by the villain on a building site. Woodward warned the villain not to come any closer because there were broken boards between them. Of course the bad guy didn't think the warning was for his benefit, so he stepped onto the broken boards and fell to his death.

* An episode of Growing Pains had Carol fall through the floor while doing aerobics. They had termites. Harsher in Hindsight given Tracy Gold's later battle with an eating disorder.
* In ''MuppetsTonight'' both MartinShort and Clifford, after eating too much of Mama Fiama's pasta sauce, cause this.
-->'''Martin Short:''' Uh oh...creaking floor...not good...

[[AC:{{Music}}]]
* Several consecutive times in {{iamamiwhoami}}'s video "drops". As it is a NonAppearingTitle, "drops" may also refer to Jonna dropping through the floor.

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/LittleNemo in Slumberland'', Nemo and Flip are served a new kind of breakfast food that gives them a BalloonBelly. The chairs start to collapse underneath their weight, and then the floors, leading to the entire house being demolished.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* SplinterCell has this when the player character moves too fast in a burning building.

* In the "TheWitcher2'' trailer for the Xbox-release, the assassin throws an [[KillItWithIce ice grenade]] at a kings ship, freezing the ship and almost everyone on it. When one of the survivors makes a few steps forward to see where the blast of cold came from, a breaking deck plank sets off the TranquilFury sequence while the entire ship starts to shatter around them.

** This happens in ''ResidentEvilCodeVeronica''. [[spoiler: Claire and Steve cause a walkway to collapse, leaving Claire's ankle trapped just long enough for Steve to have to kill his undead father.]]

[[AC:WebComics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': When Homer Simpson was joining the [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats Stonecutters]] he had to take part in an InitiationCeremony while blindfolded.
-->'''Number One''': All Stonecutters must take the Leap of Faith. If you survive this five-story plunge, your character will be proven.\\
''Homer whimpers''\\
'''Moe''': Happy landings! ''pushes him''\\
''Homer falls two feet onto the floor; everyone laughs''\\
''the floor collapses and Homer falls through with a yell and a crash -- five times consecutively''\\
'''Homer''': ''from the bottom'' I think I have to do it again. My blindfold came off.

* The ''FamilyGuy'' episode "To Live and Die in Dixie" had several.
* Happened in an episode of ''TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', where Piglet's floor collapsed, leading Tigger to joke about how he has a basement now.
* ''KingOfTheHill'': Hank falls through his kitchen floor to find a SecretUndergroundPassage built by Dale, Bill and Boomhauer.
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic]]'' episode "The Last Roundup," the disaster-prone Derpy manages to break a hole in the town hall's floor simply by ''sitting down''.

->Back to the computer, to link to the next tr-- *kee-RACK* [[OhCrap WHOOA]] *whump* oww...

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', a couple of buildings have this as a scripted event. The ''Point lookout'' expansion has you falling though several floors and into the basement.

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' averts it by [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=727 bypassing the rickety floorboards altogether]]

* A popular trope in SurvivalHorror games.

** This happens in ''ResidentEvilCodeVeronica''. [[Spoiler: Claire and Steve cause a walkway to collapse, leaving Claire's ankle trapped just long enough for Steve to have to kill his undead father.]]

** This happens in ''ResidentEvilCodeVeronica''.
** In the first ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'' game the player must fall through the floor to advance at [[spoiler: the shopping mall court. It's also a PointOfNoReturn and drops the player into a boss fight with the giant digging centipede]].

** The second ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' game has the player fall through the floor to advance, [[spoiler: upstairs by the shelves in the library]].
** This happens in ''ResidentEvilCodeVeronica''.
** ''GhostHunter'' has this happen when [[spoiler: playing as the giant mech]]. When no other way forward can be found, it falls through the floor to advance.

** In the first ''VideoGame/SilentHill'' game the player must fall through the floor to advance at [[spoiler: the shopping mall court. It's also a PointOfNoReturn and drops the player into a boss fight with the giant digging centipede]].

* ''[[http://www.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Portal2 Portal 2]]'' when reaching for the pedestal the portal gun was supposed to be on.

* In {{Bioshock}} 2 Subject Delta is shot at, nearly set on fire and falls though several floors into water.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/TheLastContinent'', the wizards and Mrs Flitlow are on a [[LivingShip ship-fruit]] which is breaking up once within sight of land in order to shed its seeds. The Senior Wrangler heroically attempts to save Mrs Flitlow by lifting her up, thereby transferring her weight to his feet, with predictable results.

Often leads to the floor below that collapsing, and then the floor below ''that'' in a cascade of disintegrating floors.

----

* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' book ''The Reaction'', Rachel involuntarily morphs an elephant on the second floor of her house, causing the floor to collapse.

* In ''LittleNemo in Slumberland'', Nemo and Flip are served a new kind of breakfast food that gives them a BalloonBelly. The chairs start to collapse underneath their weight, and then the floors, leading to the entire house being demolished.

* In ''HowIMetYourMother'' this happens to the building inspector checking out Ted's house.
* An episode of Growing Pains had Carol fall through the floor while doing aerobics. They had termites. Harsher in Hindsight given Tracy Gold's later battle with an eating disorder.

[[AC:Music]]

* In ''MortalKombat3'', the stage [[FinishingMove fatality]] of Shao Kahn Tower has the winner uppercutting the loser, after which the defeated opponent falls through the floor (which stayed intact for the entire duration of the fight), and keeps falling through several stories of floorboards, before landing on a bed of spikes.

* In ''{{Fallout 3}}'', a couple of buildings have this as a scripted event. The ''Point lookout'' expansion has you falling though several floors and into the basement.

* In ''{{Up}}'', young Carl has to cross the one remaining floorboard of the attic of an abandoned house (later his and Ellie's home) to get his balloon. He takes one step and falls through.

-->--'''OgdenNash'''

* When [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] was joining the [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats Stonecutters]] he had to take part in an InitiationCeremony while blindfolded.

** Another Simpsons episode has Homer & Marge talking about the terrible shape their house is in, and just then Bart falls halfway into the kitchen from the 2nd floor. "Little help?" Marge pushes him back up the newly created hole with a broom handle.