History Main / ReadingsBlewUpTheScale

* In the ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'', Reed and Sue's son Franklin is a {{Mutant}} with GooGooGodlike potential. So Reed tasked a robot "playmate", H.E.R.B.I.E., to monitor for any manifestations of Franklin's powers. The first time Franklin really begins to start pouring out psionic energy, H.E.R.B.I.E. issues a few futile warnings before overloading and exploding.
* In ''ComicBook/JoeBarTeam'', the main characters destroy numerous radar speed gun radars with their motorbikes using this very trope.

* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' fanfic "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/377554/chapters/616150 The Sith Who Brought Life Day]]," an Imperial officer investigating the Rebel pilot who blew up the Death Star studies some archival youth aptitude and reflex tests from the backwater world of Tatooine, and discovers something quite unusual about one Luke Skywalker.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** Irony Meters have also been stated to 'implode' on occasion, often creating a miniature black hole in the process.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/ElTigreTheAdventuresOfMannyRivera'' the titular character gets measured by a literal KarmaMeter. It promptly explodes due to the fact that he still hasn't decided on being a hero or villain.

* When investigating the ValueJet Flight 592 crash, which was caused by an onboard fire, the NTSB tested how hot a fire caused by oxygen generators could get. The thermometers--which could measure several thousand degrees--''didn't go high enough to give an actual reading.'' While that's ReadingsAreOffTheScale, what qualifies this as "blowing up the scale" was the extensive damage the test fire did to the ''testing facility.''

* At the end of the final boss fight in ''[[VideoGame/Splatoon2 Splatoon 2's]]'' Octo Expansion single player campaign, [[spoiler:Pearl engages in a BeamOWar with the final boss. During this, the meter for the end of match results pops up, and Pearl's side end up exploding out the other end, resulting in an ''888.8%'' victory for the good guys.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': Once he gets his hands on the Dawn Shard, Judge Ghis decides to hook it up to his airship's engines to measure its power. After a brief pause for Ghis to mention that the ReadingsAreOffTheScale, the entire ship explodes mid-air.

[[caption-width-right:275:Excessive power levels may void warranty; scout carefully.]]

-->-- '''Freeza's Scouter''' (before it self-destructs), ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''

* In ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', the original meters to measure radiation are destroyed in the initial explosion and the only ones at hand are meant to warn workers of unsafe work conditions and max out at 3.6. ''"Not good, but not too bad."'' The next one they find goes up to 200 and also maxes out. When they get one that goes up to 1,000, it just blows out immediately.

* In on episode of ''WesternAnimation/ElTigreTheAdventuresOfMannyRivera'' the titular character gets measured by a literal KarmaMeter. It promptly explodes due to the fact that he still has decided on being a hero or villain.

* In on episode of WesternAnimation/ElTigreTheAdventuresOfMannyRivera the titular character gets measured by a literal KarmaMeter. It promptly explodes due to the fact that he still has decided on being a hero or villain.

* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', the title mech eating a Big Bang safely spoon-fed by Lordgenome causes the power gauge to shatter ''[[UpToEleven and then keep going outside the monitor]]''. Keep in mind, this power gauge was designed in a universe where the RuleOfCool is ''scientifically acknowledged'', to measure power levels that are known to ''routinely'' go [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale off charts]]. [[BeyondTheImpossible The monitor blew up anyway]].

* In ''Fanfc/TheSilverRaven'', Nero's sheer power causes a device designed to measure a Witch's magical output to explode when Lilith takes him in to be examined by a member of the Healing Coven after he awakens his Devil Bringer.

* ''WebVideo/WhatTheFuckIsWrongWithYou'': In [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/nash/specials/29196-nash-doctor-who-classic-the-tv-movie his review]] of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' 8th Doctor movie, Nash has a [[FlameWar "Nerd Rage meter"]], and when it turned out the Doctor was half-human, it finally blew up. Then it blew up again later on.

* The 2010 Wimbledon match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut is the longest professional tennis match in history, with Isner finally winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 70-68. During the absurdly-long fifth set both the electronic scoreboard at the court the two were playing at as well as the internet scoreboard on Wimbledon's website broke down and were unable to display the correct score -- the former was stuck at 47-47 and was later turned off (an IBM technician made a hotfix to get it working when play resumed the next day) while the website scoreboard made it to 50-50 before also freezing and eventually had a note attached to the bottom asking viewers to add 50 to each side.

** In ''Children of the Lens'', the last physical battle of the series involves [[spoiler:a faster-than-light planet hitting a star]].

* In ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', the original meters to measure radiation are destroyed in the initial explosion and the only ones at hand are meant to warn workers of unsafe work conditions and max out at 3.6. ''"Not good, but not too bad."'' The next one they find goes up to 200 and also maxes out. When they get one that goes up to 1000, it just blows out immediately.

** However, this trope was once {{defied}} when a commenter [[http://www.fstdt.com/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=8520&Page=1#6195 modified his irony meter so that it would not explode:]]

-->'''Movie Sin Tally:''' R.I.P

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2oPT-k0VOU opening trailer]] of ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Tag Tournament 2'' shows Lili watching a tournament fight with her hi-class viewing glasses. She notices Jun Kazama near the exit and tries to zoom in on her, only for Lili's glasses to explode (minor one).

A SubTrope of both ReadingsAreOffTheScale and ExplosiveInstrumentation. Compare AwesomenessIsVolatile.

%% Image and caption selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1320946846002365900
%% Please do not change or remove either without starting a new thread.

[[quoteright:275:[[Manga/DragonBall https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/readings_blew_up_the_scale1.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:275:Excessive power levels may void warranty; scout carefully.]]

%% %%%%%%%%%%%% Please DO NOT adjust the caption to include or reference the "over 9000" meme.
%% %%%%%%%%%%%% The picture already shows it's well past that anyway.

-->-- '''Freeza's Scouter''' before it self-destructs, ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''

* The Phobos/Huitzil computers in ''Anime/NightWarriorsDarkstalkersRevenge'' do this when reading Donovan's power (at the same time that Donovan is unleashing a very powerful attack on the Phobos).

* In a ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' strip, Snoopy adds the number of pizzas he and Woodstock ate before midnight to the number of pizzas they ate after midnight. The result blew Snoopy's pocket calculator.

* In ''Fanfic/TheBridge'': Gigan, a cyborg, had torque limits to how much force his mechanical muscles could produce. When throwing everything he had against Kaizer Ghidorah, the [[HeroicResolve desire to save his team]] caused him to exert more power than his mechanical part should have. At 109% the readings crack and spark. In the end at 264% they shatter.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/AssassinsCreed2016'': Callum's final session in the Animus results in a synchronization so perfect that it breaks the device. It also results in Callum being presented with [[spoiler: visions of past assassins surrounding him and his long-dead mother inducting him into the order through their shared genetic memory]]. Everyone observing the moment is shocked because they weren't aware that the Animus was capable of such a thing.

* In ''[[Literature/{{Lensman}} Children of the Lens]]'', the last physical battle of the series involves [[spoiler:a faster-than-light planet hitting a star]].
-->''Finally it happened. What happened? Even after the fact none of the observers knew. The fuses of all the recorder and analyzer circuits blew at once. Needles jumped instantly to maximum and wrapped themselves around their stops. Charts and ultraphotographic films showed only straight or curved lines running from the origin to and through the limits in zero time.''
** Earlier, at the beginning of ''Galactic Patrol,'' the Patrol's Grand Fleet takes the first shots from Boskone's jury-rigged prototype primary beams. Kinnison jumps to read the analysis and reports: "Those beams were hot - plenty hot. These recorders go to five billion and have a factor of safety of ten. Even that wasn’t anywhere nearly enough - everything in the recorder circuits blew."

%%not an example "No, it's not when it's measuring something that could reasonably destroy the scale, like measuring greater extreme heat than a thermometer can withstand. This is when the extreme amount of the readings themselves cause the destruction."* ''Series/TheGoodies''. In one episode the temperature gets so high that a thermometer ends up blowing its top and squirting fluid in someone's face.* The above be a ShoutOut to an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' about the world becoming unbearably hot.

-->'''Gilligan''': Well, they were delicious.
* In ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', the original meters to measure radiation are destroyed in the initial explosion and the only ones at hand are meant to warn workers of unsafe work conditions and max out at 3.6. ''"Not good, but not too bad."'' The next one they find goes up to 200 and also maxes out. When they get one that goes up to 1000, it just blows out immediately.

[[folder:Theater]]

* At the end of the final boss fight in ''[[VideoGame/Splatoon2 Splatoon 2's]]'' Octo Expansion single player campaign, [[spoiler:Pearl engages in a BeamOWar with the final boss. During this, the meter for the end of match results pops up, and Pearl's side end up exploding out the other end, resulting in an ''888.8%'' victory for the good guys.]]
* The ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven'' minigame "Quiz" has a counter showing how many times you've pressed the buttons. If you press the buttons more than 99 times, your counter will explode. Continuing to mash buttons will also blow up the host's counter and the "QUIZ" marquee.
* One mini-game in ''VideoGame/PajamaSam 3: You Are What You Eat From Head To Feet'', features a score counter that can only count up to 99. Once that score is exceeded, the counter stops working in a dramatic fashion.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' [[https://egscomics.com/egsnp/2016-08-17 references]] ''Anime/DragonBallZ'''s usage of this and [[DiscussedTrope discusses]] it in TheRant.

* In [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/nash/specials/29196-nash-doctor-who-classic-the-tv-movie his review]] of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' 8th Doctor movie, [[WebVideo/WhatTheFuckIsWrongWithYou Nash]] has a [[FlameWar "Nerd Rage meter"]], and when it turned out the Doctor was half-human, it finally blew up. Then it blew up again later on.
* This trope became a minor RunningGag on ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic''. The Critic would count a certain feature in a movie; after a handful of examples, an explosion would sound and the Critic would cry out, "Oh, great, you blew up the (X) Meter!"
* In the ''Series/FlandersCompany'' episode "German Übber Fantasy", GadgeteerGenius Caleb builds a "[[TheMillstone Millstone Detector]]" to help Hippolyte sort out supervillain candidates. That's when Maxence and Déborah, a pair of insufferable, fashion-obsessed gits, come by. The detector starts beeping very fast and explodes.
* In the ''WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier'' episode for ''Franchise/StarWars'', Grenier calling ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' the best film in the series makes his "Sarcasm Detector" beeps loudly. Then, when he praise the quality of a UsefulNotes/PlayStation game of the same name, the detector explodes.
* ''WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows'' applies a "[[ThingOMeter Douche-O-Meter]]" to Music/JustinBieber's "Sorry". It breaks after the first lyric. Then, on a later lyric, it ''explodes'' - even though it wasn't plugged in.
* "Irony Meter":
** On Fundies Say The Darndest Things, a common response to an ironic statement made by one of the fundies whose statements have been quoted is that it has [[InvokedTrope "destroyed my irony meter."]]
** This originated on the Usenet group alt.atheism, back in the 1990s: an irony meter was never mentioned except in the context of its (usually spectacular) failure:
--->"Every irony meter on the planet just exploded."\\
"My irony meter has melted a hole in the ground and is putting up plumes of radioactive fallout."\\
"I spent extra to get a heavy duty, auto-ranging industrial irony meter, with the 4th generation titanium filter and laser readout and everything, less than a year ago. Pfft, it's toast. First time I've had to use a fire extinguisher of a piece of smoking electronics."\\
"OK, Mark, you now owe me a new Myth 6 (model 66) Irony-O-Meter. It was not even a week old and it blew up like Krakatoa."
** However, this trope was once {{defied}} when a commenter [[http://www.fstdt.com/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=8520&Page=1#6195 modified his irony meter so that it would not explode:]]
-->"And apparently this one has infinite irony, because my irony meter is still going. You are going to have to make your own guys, it isn't patented or anything, and i just made it out of spare parts: mostly my old ironymeter, a clock and one of those stroke counters some people use in golf."
** At one point, a meter designed to measure "nigh absurd amounts of irony" overloaded so much that it blew up straight through the roof, into space, and impacted Venus so hard it caused the planet to undergo nuclear fusion and turn into a miniature sun.
* The Sin counter has been through its paces on ''WebVideo/CinemaSins'', but one scene on ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'' is too much for it to handle, causing it to break, random symbols appearing with each sin instead of numbers. Then another ridiculous scene causes it to ''die'' (read: glitch up and start blinking around the screen). Of all the crap that poor counter has seen, it just couldn't take the likes of that. From then on, the videos have featured a "Sin Counter 2.0" in a different font.
-->'''Movie Sin Tally:''' R.I.P

--->'''CBG:''' Ooh, a sarcasm detector. That's a ''real'' useful invention. ''(boom)''

''([[EpicFail lie detector beeps and explodes]])''

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/MummyNanny'' shows an old collector piece radar that can't handle flashing anyone above 203 km/h (that's 126 mph). But it's in town, so it's safe, [[DrivesLikeCrazy right?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'': Egon's PKE Meter often caught readings intense enough to make the thing overheat and/or explode.
* Happens ''twice'' to the same power scanner in the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E33GarnetsUniverse Garnet's Universe]]". The scanner actually reassembled itself just so it could blow up again. Of course, Steven made everything in this episode up, so it's not a problem.
* A variation occurs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PennZeroPartTimeHero'' focusing on [[CalvinBall an incredibly complicated game called "Ultrahyperball"]]. Sashi's computerized glasses explode not from scanning something immeasurable, but from trying to load the rules. The actual rulebook is so massive, player's eyes will fall out of their sockets long before finding out how to win.

* A possible inversion - there are multiple reports of aircraft flying in the Israel area that have their navigation systems go haywire. The reason? The Dead Sea area is BELOW sea level, causing nav systems that aren't coded to deal with that to freak out and believe the plane has flown several hundred feet into the planet. In a couple of extreme cases with little documented evidence this phenomenon has caused the nav systems to completely crash. Most of the documented examples have much lesser impact, with the nav simply blaring that the plane had crashed and refusing to offer any navigation guidance at all; even after it had safely landed by pilots using visual navigation. Either way, the scale of the reading caused a system to lose it (and anecdotally even implode), just with an incredibly LOW number - negative, to be specific - instead of a high number.