History Main / HappyFunBall

** While turning the savage UpToEleven, from the account of several characters.

* ''VideoGame/{{Worms}}'' has... well, there's the Banana Bomb, which [[StuffBlowingUp explodes spectacularly]]; the Super Banana Bomb, which [[KillItWithFire explodes]] ''[[UpToEleven more]]'' [[NukeEm spectacularly]]; the Salvation Army, which [[RuleOfThree explodes spectacularly]]; [[BaaBomb various animals]], which [[OverlyLongGag explode spectacularly]]; and the MB Bomb, a large balloon, which... yeah.

** And then played with in a mod where it will, in fact, stab you.
*** But, to be fair, [[ExactWords it doesn't threaten you first]].

* In Louis Sachar's ''[[Literature/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 doesn't let go.

-->-- '''[[TropeNamer Happy Fun Ball]] Advertisement,''' ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''

** "Happy Fun Ball" is also the FanNickname of the bouncing, giggling, spherical, smiley-face adorned Proximity Mines in the ChaosUT mod, included with the Game of the Year Edition of the original UT.

* ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'' has Delicious Fruit, whose rationale for crushing you (sometimes even flying upwards) is that they're "more like giant cherries" than apples.

* The TropeNamer comes from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M the "Happy Fun Ball" sketch]] on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. It's a [[MyLittlePanzer kid's toy]] with [[OverlyLongGag increasingly long]] [[NoProductSafetyStandards and bizarre disclaimers]], 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.]]"

* ''Literature/ChrysalisRinoZ'': In a fairly literal example, Anthony the ant has a ball-shaped pet monster which he names Crinis. She's affectionate to him, unwaveringly loyal, but lacks self-confidence, to the point of collapsing into a quivering heap whenever he compliments her. And then something threatens him, and the ball unfolds into a furious mass of barbed tentacles made of shadow flesh, surrounding a maw of teeth that can either devour a nigh-infinite number of enemies into a [[BagOfHolding dimensional stomach]], or outright ''disintegrate'' them. Even though he's become accustomed to slaughtering and eating monsters, Anthony still has to look away when her "ripping barbs" effectively become a chainsaw. And then a later evolution gives her "spirit seeker cilia" on the ends of her tentacles, which she can drive into a creature's brain to push them over the brink of sanity...

* ''[[Literature/ChrysalisRinoZ Chrysalis]]'' by [=RinoZ=]: In a fairly literal example, Anthony the ant has a ball-shaped pet monster which he names Crinis. She's affectionate to him, unwaveringly loyal, but lacks self-confidence, to the point of collapsing into a quivering heap whenever he compliments her. And then something threatens him, and the ball unfolds into a furious mass of barbed tentacles made of shadow flesh, surrounding a maw of teeth that can either devour a nigh-infinite number of enemies into a [[BagOfHolding dimensional stomach]], or outright ''disintegrate'' them. Even though he's become accustomed to slaughtering and eating monsters, Anthony still has to look away when her "ripping barbs" effectively become a chainsaw. And then a later evolution gives her "spirit seeker cilia" on the ends of her tentacles, which she can drive into a creature's brain to push them over the brink of sanity...

* ''[[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/22518/chrysalis Chrysalis]]'': In a fairly literal example, Anthony the ant has a ball-shaped pet monster which he names Crinis. She's affectionate to him, unwaveringly loyal, but lacks self-confidence, to the point of collapsing into a quivering heap whenever he compliments her. And then something threatens him, and the ball unfolds into a furious mass of barbed tentacles made of shadow flesh, surrounding a maw of teeth that can either devour a nigh-infinite number of enemies into a [[BagOfHolding dimensional stomach]], or outright ''disintegrate'' them. Even though he's become accustomed to slaughtering and eating monsters, Anthony still has to look away when her "ripping barbs" effectively become a chainsaw. And then a later evolution gives her "spirit seeker cilia" on the ends of her tentacles, which she can drive into a creature's brain to push them over the brink of sanity...

* ''[[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/22518/chrysalis Chrysalis]]'': In a fairly literal example, Anthony the ant has a ball-shaped pet monster which he names Crinis. She's affectionate to him, unwaveringly loyal, but lacks self-confidence, to the point of collapsing into a quivering heap whenever he compliments her. And then something threatens him, and the ball unfolds into a furious mass of barbed tentacles made of shadow flesh, surrounding a maw of teeth that can either devour a nigh-infinite number of enemies into a [[BagOfHolding dimensional stomach]], or outright ''disintegrate'' them. Even though he's become accustomed to slaughtering and eating monsters, Anthony still has to look away when her "ripping barbs" effectively become a chainsaw.

--> ''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...]]
** Notable in that the other rings of power are more ornate, while the One Ring is just a simple metal band who's only noticeable feature is the glowing inscription that doesn't even appear most of the time.

* In campaign 2 of ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' the Mighty Nein come across the key to The Folding Halls of Halas, the [[PocketDimension private demiplane]] of a powerful archmage from the [[TheTimeOfMyths Age of Arcanum]], which they literally call a "happy fun ball." It contains a number of [[DungeonCrawling extremely dangerous creatures and traps]] to defend against intruders. Also [[HourInsideYearOutside time passes differently inside]].

* In campaign 2 of ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' the Mighty Nein come across one of these which they literally call a "happy fun ball."

* Gordon Freeman tries to pull this off with a hand grenade in ''WebAnimation/FreemansMind''. It doesn't work very well.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'',, there is a weapon called the "Toy Bow", a plastic bow that fires suction-cup toy arrows. During the part of the game where you get it, it's very powerful and, unlike nearly every other bow, is very accurate. However, its usefulness swiftly wanes as the game continues.

* OlderThanFeudalism: PandorasBox (or Jar) from Myth/GreekMythology was designed to look fun, exciting, and interesting. The gods ''wanted'' Epimetheus to open it.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide''; A group of gangsters are trying to pry information from a guy who's tied up. The leader says they've tried everything on him except "this little baby we simply call 'Mr. Thingy'."

* There is a long history of Transformers who turn into seemingly-harmless objects, but the most famous would probably be Soundwave and his minions from [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the original series]], who transform into a tape player and cassettes. The practical upshoot being that Soundwave transforms from something you'd put in your pocket without a second thought to a giant war machine who can deploy his own personal army from his chest. Thankfully, he has a good counterpart, Blaster, who turns into a boombox and has his own cassette army.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' 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''. 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.

* Quackerjack in ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' tends to use these. Hell, Mr. Banana Brain is the only mundane toy of the lot, and he's still got some pretty distressing ideas. Which become even more distressing when he is [[SoulJar possessed]] by Paddywhack.

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', [[MalevolentArchitecture Castle Heterodyne]] houses the "Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers", bison-sized, murderous cat-like clockworks. When the castle is fully functional, it has complete control of them. When the Castle ''isn't'' fully functional, then you'd best hope the Fun-Sized Dispensers are confined to one room and don't know you're around.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0448.html "Follow the bouncing ball, children!"]]
* The Planet Devourer from ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy''.

* The TropeNamer comes from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M the "Happy Fun Ball" sketch]] on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. It's a [[MyLittlePanzer kid's toy]] with [[NoProductSafetyStandards increasingly bizarre disclaimers]], 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.]]"

* In ''Film/TheHazing'', Jacob is killed when a lawn dart (one of the items from the ScavengerHunt) is hurled into his forehead.

** There's also the Bag of Devouring - seems to be an ordinary sack, or possibly a BagOfHolding. It's actually the mouth of an extradimensional EldritchAbomination. Store your magic items in it? You'll be very disappointed when you try to retrieve them. Stick your hand in it? You'd better have a damn good Grapple modifier.