History Main / HappyFunBall

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' had an item that was similar to the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' example above, but infinitely worse: a small goose idol that turned things into gold... at first. Then it started a chain reaction that was ''turning the entire world into gold''.
** To elaborate, the golden goose was held in a magic fountain that neutralized its gold-turning powers. If the goose was taken and kept away from the fountain's water for too long, it will awaken and turn things [[TakenForGranite and people]] to gold on its own accord. And if allowed to remain awakened for too long, the goose's gold-turning powers escape from its body, leaving it as a normal goose, while the powers proceed to turn the world to gold, referred to as [[ApocalypseHow "The Golden Death"]]. The only way to stop this scenario, obviously, is to return the goose to the fountain.

* ''Literature/InterstellarPig'' has "The Piggy", a small grinning pig statue. Cute and harmless-looking, but it's likely to destroy every planet in the universe except the one it's on when the time is right. [[Then the Piggy admits it made up that legend and says it only destroys the planet it's ''on''... when it hiccups. Poor piggy, it just wanted friends...]] At the end of the story, the reader learns that the Piggy [[spoiler:is nothing but a recording device that made up the stories to be passed around and record everything. It can't destroy anything -- although it can teleport anything touching it away if it becomes bored.]]

* ''Literature/InterstellarPig'' has "The Piggy", a small grinning pig statue. Cute and harmless-looking, but it's likely to destroy every planet in the universe except the one it's on when the time is right. [[spoiler: Quite the opposite, really: the Piggy made up that legend, and it says it only destroys the planet it's ''on''... when it hiccups. Poor piggy, it just wanted friends...]] At the end of the story, the reader learns that the Piggy [[spoiler:is nothing but a recording device that made up the stories to be passed around and record everything. It can't destroy anything -- although it can teleport anything touching it away if it becomes bored.]]

* [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings ''One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them'']]
** [[LampshadeHanging Strange, that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing...]]

* ''Literature/InterstellarPig'' has "The Piggy", a small grinning pig statue. Cute and harmless-looking, but it will destroy every planet in the universe except the one it's on when the time is right. ([[spoiler: Or maybe not. It's possible The Piggy itself made up that legend so that the universe would fight over it.]])
** [[spoiler: Quite the opposite, really: the Piggy did in fact make up that legend, and it only destroys the planet it's ''on''... when it hiccups. Poor piggy, it just wanted friends...]]
*** At the end of the story, we learn that the Piggy [[spoiler:is nothing but a recording device that made up the stories to be passed around and record everything. It can't destroy anything -- although it can teleport anything touching it away if it becomes bored.]]

* The "Lok-nar", the evil green sphere in ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'', had a tendency to melt the flesh from the bones of people who happened to touch it, when it wasn't busy animating corpses.
** To be fair, [[PowerGlows it glows]]. That should have been a giveaway.
* The ''{{Superman}}'' villain Toyman is basically a professional HappyFunBall manufacturer.

* The TropeNamer comes from [[http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/happy-fun-ball/n10032/ the "Happy Fun Ball" sketch]] on ''SaturdayNightLive''. It was a [[MyLittlePanzer kid's toy]] with an [[YesButWhatDoesZataproximetacineDO increasingly bizarre disclaimer]], containing warnings such as "[[HyperDestructiveBouncingBall May suddenly accelerate to unsafe speeds]]", "If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, seek shelter and cover head", "Happy Fun Ball is being shipped to Saudi Arabia and is being dropped by our troops on Iraq," and the immortal "[[DoNotTauntCthulhu Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.]]"

* [[TheLordOfTheRings ''One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them'']]

* OlderThanFeudalism: Pandora's Box (or Jar) from GreekMythology was designed to look fun, exciting, and interesting. The gods ''wanted'' her to open it.

Aww... [[KillerRabbit nothing that cute could be dangerous]]. Until it comes cutely to life and uses its precious widdle claws to rip your face off; [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Adorably.]]

* In the [[DadSeries Dadgame]], defeating [[BonusBoss Mecha]] [[ThatOneBoss Death]] earns you... a ''[[LethalJokeWeapon cat launcher]]''. Which deals damage. And is the longest range weapon of the game, especially if you charge it up - the cat gets sent ''flying across the screen''.

** And the Eculid Finder in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', seemingly a harmless toy gun... which is in fact a target finder for a ''KillSat''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' has '''The Nozzle''', an innocuous yet fear-inspiring doodad that not even its owners understand the purpose of. Its engagement is accompanied by an unsettling mechanical voice warning the patient; "Do not move while '''The Nozzle''' is engaging. Moving will interrupt calibration of '''The Nozzle'''. Please do not look away while '''The Nozzle''' is calibrating."

Sometimes, horrifically dangerous objects are obvious -- with nasty-looking [[SpikesOfVillainy spikes]], painted [[DarkIsEvil dark and foreboding colors]], covered in SchmuckBait, and generally like something straight from a 12-year old's ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game.

And then, it sometimes looks like a cute kitten statue. Aww... [[KillerRabbit nothing that cute could be dangerous]]. Until it comes cutely to life and [[ArtifactOfDeath uses its precious widdle claws to rip your face off.]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Adorably.]]

A Happy Fun Ball is something extraordinarily dangerous that looks completely innocent. It might destroy the entire universe, or it might just rip a single person to shreds while looking oh so precious. The fact is, it's incredibly deadly, despite its packaging. A living version of a Happy Fun Ball is a KillerRabbit.

* In ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', one of [[spoiler:Eriol]]'s many [[XanatosRoulette needlessly complicated plots]] involves turning Sakura's homemade teddy bear into a booby trap.

* The TropeNamer comes from [[http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22Happy+Fun+Ball%22 the "Happy Fun Ball" sketch]] on ''SaturdayNightLive''. It was a [[MyLittlePanzer kid's toy]] with an [[YesButWhatDoesZataproximetacineDO increasingly bizarre disclaimer]], containing warnings such as "[[HyperDestructiveBouncingBall May suddenly accelerate to unsafe speeds]]", "If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, seek shelter and cover head", "Happy Fun Ball is being shipped to Saudi Arabia and is being dropped by our troops on Iraq," and the immortal "[[DoNotTauntCthulhu Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.]]"

* A horrific example: In 1999, 39 people were literally cremated in one of the worst tunnel fires in history in the Mont Blanc tunnel in France. The main fuel for the fire? Ordinary margerine. If you get the stuff to ignite, it burns as hot as diesel fuel; vegetable oil, one of its key ingredients, can actually be mixed in with diesel and run an engine.

** As is aerosolized sugar, as we learned so painfully after the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Georgia_sugar_refinery_explosion 2008 Georgia sugar refinery explosion]].[[note]]A [[LiteralMetaphor literal]] SugarApocalypse![[/note]] Indeed, it's ''worse'' than aerosolized flour--flower doesn't melt into a sticky, smoldering mess when you subject it to high heat.

* West End Games' ''TORG'' had "Conjure The Bouncing Hordes Of Doom", found in the supplement, "Pixaud's Practical Grimoire". The material component for the spell was a rubber ball with arcane symbols carved into the surface. When the caster tossed the ball while saying "I invoke you", the ball would split into six armed and armored Munchkins with [[NewWarriors Speedball's... I mean Penance's]] bouncing powers and resistance to kinetic damage, combined with Wolverine's skills with blades AND a gremlin's sheer nastiness.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'',, there is a weapon called the "Toy Bow", a plastic bow that fires suction-cup toy arrows. It is one of the most powerful ranged weapons in the game. It's very accurate and depending on your stats and when you get it, can be incredibly overpowered (or an amusing piece of junk).

[[quoteright:320:[[Series/SaturdayNightLive http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/happy_fun_ball.jpg]]]]

Sometimes, horrifically dangerous objects are obvious -- with nasty-looking spikes, painted dark and foreboding colors, covered in SchmuckBait, and generally like something straight from a 12-year old's ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game.

* In the Korean horror film ''TheRedShoes'', the titular shoes look like just an ordinary pair of women's high heeled shoes, but the shoes are haunted by a murderous ghost. Whoever touches or wears the shoes is driven to insanity and murder.

[[quoteright:320:[[Series/SaturdayNightLive http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/happy_fun_ball.JPG]]]]

[[quoteright:320:[[Series/SaturdayNightLive http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/happy_fun_ball.jpg]]]]

* Richard Corben wrote a short comic called "Top to Bottom" where a children's toy that looks vaguely like a high-tech 3D labyrinth game proves to be a potential world-wrecking device when used unwisely. Borderline NightmareFuel.

* ''{{Transformers}}'' movie: An innocuous-looking radio proved to be the Decepticon Frenzy. And the movieverse version of Frenzy... let me put it this way: he's got an entry under NightmareFuel. When he's eventually knocked in half, what's left of him is enough to, with a bit of shifting as parts, function as a killer robot and hide as [[spoiler:an equally innocent-looking cell phone]]. MoreThanMeetsTheEye, indeed.

* In Louis Sachar's ''[[WaysideSchool Sideways Stories From Wayside School]]'', Todd brings a [[TastesLikeDiabetes sickeningly adorable]] toy puppy to school for show-n'-tell. The puppy can be manipulated into a terrifying, twisted creature that resembles a werewolf. Joy steals the puppy, not knowing this, and is ''bitten'' by it. The puppy toy ''[[NightmareFuel doesn't let go]]''.

** Indeed, D&D's original name should have been '[[EverythingTryingToKillYou Happy Fun Ball: The RPG.]]' Killer statues, killer walls, killer floors, killer bridges, killer ceilings, killer stalactites, killer cloaks, killer bedsheets, and killer water can be found with a glance through the bestiaries. One cursed magical item worthy of mention is the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Scarab of Death,]] which has the form of a scarab (Egyptian-style brooch) until sustained proximity to a body warms it up, at which point it becomes the other kind of scarab (a flesh-eating beetle) and [[NightmareFuel eats its way to the host's heart.]]