History Main / WastebasketBall

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'',: When Sulley points out a flaw in Mike's plan to get rid of Boo, Mike crumples up the paper he was writing on and tosses it into a wastebasket overflowing with flawed plans.

* One of the ways Shawn amuses himself in his office on ''Series/{{Psych}}''.
* Jon Steadman, the "new" bank manager, does this in ''Roxy Hunter and the Secret of the Shaman''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', when Sulley points out a flaw in Mike's plan to get rid of Boo, Mike crumples up the paper he was writing on and tosses it into a wastebasket overflowing with flawed plans.

* Near the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddysBigPictureShow'', [[NeatFreak Edd]] attempts to write a farewell letter to his parents, and he throws out his failed attempts by folding the papers and stacking them neatly in his wastebasket.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' sees a veternarian do this ''with a hamster's corpse''.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''Machinima/FreemansMind 2'': When Gordon encounters the infamous [[Videogame/HalfLife2 "Pick up that can!"]] Civil Protection officer, he mistakes the officer's attempt at denigration for a request to demonstrate his "famous" can-throwing skills, and he promptly takes the can and sinks it into the trash can from a good ten feet or so on the first try.

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* ''WebVideo/KateModern'':
** In the episode "Anything can happen on Halloween!", Gavin does this repeatedly. The bin in question is strapped to the head of Lee Phillips, work-experience boy and resident ButtMonkey.
** Inverted in the animated segment of "Sinking In", when Lee attacks by launching balls of paper out of the bin on his head with explosive force.
[[/folder]]

* A commercial for Geico opens with a businessman throwing out a rejected document this way...only for the tossed piece of paper getting intercepted by Dikembe Mutombo. Apparently, blocking free throws makes Mutombo almost as happy as Geico customers saving on car insurance.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* After decapitating [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys Freddy Fazbear]] in ''FanFic/DantesNightAtFreddys'', [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]] begins tossing his (still living) head in a trash can for the fun of it. In his dialogue, Dante states he scored ninety-nine points doing this.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', when Sulley points out a flaw in Mike's plan to get rid of Boo, Mike crumples up the paper he was writing on and tosses it into a wastebasket overflowing with flawed plans.

* The ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'' movie has one of those little basketball hoops hung over the wastebasket. The blind yet supersensitive Matt Murdock always dunks it, and the comic relief sidekick, Foggy Nelson, can never manage it. It doesn't stop him from saying [[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud "swoosh"]] to try to convince the blind guy that he made it, however.

* In ''Film/IronMan2'', the HolographicTerminal that fills Tony's work station allows him to pick up a floating program window, scrunch it into a ball, and throw it in the Recycle Bin, which immediately announces "SCORE!"
* ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' has a humorous variation, in which the title character tosses a package backwards over his shoulder into a trash can. As the DVD outtakes demonstrate, it took Creator/MichaelCera ''thirty tries'' before he got it right.
* Comes into play at the beginning of ''Film/OneCrazySummer''. After we see that "Hoops" is not a very good cartoonist, he plays the trope by throwing away the crumpled up drawing. A couple dozen such crumpled papers surround the wastebasket which is ''completely empty''. Apparently, Hoops isn't much of a basketball player either.

* In the first ''Literature/RedDwarf'' novel, Rimmer decides that, if he can get do this first time with a paper towel, this means he will pass his exam. He doesn't. So he decides that if he can do it three times in a row this cancels it out, and not only will he pass his exam, he will have sex with a beautiful woman. He achieves this by standing directly over the bin. [[DroppedABridgeOnHim And then he gets hit in the face by a nuclear blast.]]

* In the novel ''[[Literature/MatadorSeries The Man Who Never Missed]]'', the title hero makes his reputation by tranq-darting several ''thousand'' enemy soldiers with a tiny personal firearm, each one with a single perfect shot. In the last scene, after the hero has retired and opened a bar, he makes a paper-ball-and-wastebasket shot - and misses.
** It is revealed early on that his reputation is a careful construct, and that he has missed a (very) few times.
-->"Only eight times. It's still amazing." Khadaji heard grudging admiration in his voice. Then Venture said, "But The Man Who Only Missed Eight Times doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?"

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* Done in an episode of ''Series/SevenDays'', which Frank used as part of him letting everyone know he was stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop.

* In ''Series/{{Monk}}'', Stottlemeyer is playing this when his wife's camera crew come in, in an angle that doesn't allow them to see the actual wastebasket. He misses, says "swoosh" and Randy pretends he hit it.
* In an early episode of ''Series/{{ER}},'' John Carter loses a bet with Doug Ross, and his buttocks have to be the backboard for Doug's wastebasket.
* In the ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' episode "My Best Moment", when all the characters are reflecting on their best moment in medicine, Dr Cox remembers a time he was trying this, when he saw a woman choking. He performed the Heimlich, whatever she was choking on flew out and landed in another patient's mouth, he performed the Heimlich again, and it went right in the basket.
** In "My Quarantine", the Janitor loses badly at this, betting ridiculous amounts of money with Dr Kelso.
* Interesting take on this in ''Series/TheWestWing'' episode "Faith Based Initiative." A basketball is left on C.J. Cregg's desk as a joke in response to recent internet reports about the skills she had as a high school basketball player (really these are an attempt to call into question her sexuality). C.J. easily sinks the actual basketball into the trash can while sitting behind her desk.
** In "Evidence of Things Not Seen," the staff's poker game devolves into a card-tossing contest after somebody throws away the joker from all the way across the room. (They move into the press briefing room to try aiming for different seats and are in there when someone attempting SuicideByCop fires three shots at the window, one of the main plot points of the episode.)
* In ''Series/TheOfficeUS'', Michael pits his staff against the warehouse workers in a game of basketball, under the assumption that by having a black man on his team (Stanley) it's a shoe-in. We then see a brief segment of Stanley tossing a ball of paper, completely missing. Kevin, the lazy fat man, on the other hand, does the same thing, and makes it. It's a bit of foreshadowing, as later on Stanley sucks at the real game, and Kevin shoots hoop after hoop once the game is done, never missing a shot. This was all performed in real-life, as Kevin's actor is a skilled basketball player and sunk ''seventeen shots in a row'' (The camera does not record all of them, as they had no idea he would actually make so many).

* Jon Steadman, the "new" bank manager, does this in ''RoxyHunter and the Secret of the Shaman''.
* Tony often does this on ''Series/{{NCIS}}''. He is either freakishly amazing (scoring repeatedly from across the room, over his shoulder, without looking) or terrible (hitting everything- and ''everyone''- except the basket) depending on which of his coworkers he is trying to annoy.
* [[HeterosexualLifePartners Sam and Callen]] do this a lot on ''Series/NCISLosAngeles''. At least once, [[TeamMom Hetty]] makes sure they're actually using waste paper and not fresh paper.

* Spoofed in ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide''. The episode "Elections" has Ned trying to get himself out of the running for Class President. His last attempt to do is to attempt a food fight...by tossing his trash into the recycling. Seth, the sport guy, thinks that Ned thought of a "cool way to recycle" and [[SpringtimeForHitler convinces everyone to toss their recyclables like Ned did.]]
* A bored Clark does this in an early episode of ''Series/LoisAndClark'' when he and Lois are stuck sitting around waiting in an office--except he [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers uses his super-breath to cheat]]. When Lois turns around, he converts his super-breath into an [[NotSoInnocentWhistle innocent whistle]].
* On ''Series/CornerGas'', Karen mistakenly uses the men's bathroom and complains that "guys can't aim". Wanda assumes she's referring to men aiming their pee and is grossed out, at which point Karen elaborates that there were crumpled up paper towels littering the entire area around the trash can.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* The August 24, 2020 ''ComicStrip/{{Drabble}}'' strip has Norman attempting this. He yells "Kobe!" while making the shot, but misses. [[note]] Kobe Bryant's fatal helicopter crash occurred earlier that year. [[/note]]
-->'''Norman:''' I though if you yelled "Kobe", you always made it.\\
'''Ralph:''' Kobe didn't teach us to always make it. He taught us to keep shooting, even if we didn't.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]
* In the ''WebVideo/KateModern'' episode "Anything can happen on Halloween!", Gavin does this repeatedly. The bin in question is strapped to the head of Lee Phillips, work-experience boy and resident ButtMonkey.
** Inverted in the animated segment of "Sinking In", when Lee attacks by launching balls of paper out of the bin on his head with explosive force.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Lois Lane does this in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. Later in the episode, when she has to get a chunk of kryptonite into a lead cup, [[ChekhovsSkill it ends up being a useful skill]].

* The old live-action/animated Saturday morning TV show ''Drawing Power'' had a cartoonist with a basketball net set up over her waste basket, where she throws the crumpled-up piece of paper from her drawing board into.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' episode, "Role Models", Sonic and his friends do this with the wrappers from their food at Meh Burger. Chumley, Lady Walrus' infant son [[BabySeeBabyDo tries to do the same]] with his bottle, but misses the trash can. Lady Walrus sees this and reprimands Sonic and his friends for being bad role models... [[HypocriticalHumor just before she says she's going to find a precarious ledge for Chumley to play on]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode [[VerySpecialEpisode "April 9th"]], Arthur's father David tells him a story from his youth about how he feared for his mother's safety when she was in a car accident, and how he used to throw crumpled paper into his wastebasket for luck when she left the house in her car. He later realized that he had nothing to worry about when she came home safe one day when he forgot to do it.
* Near the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddysBigPictureShow'', [[NeatFreak Edd]] attempts to write a farewell letter to his parents, and he throws out his failed attempts by folding the papers and stacking them neatly in his wastebasket.
* A variation of the trope is seen in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' where Stewie uses Brian's ConeOfShame as the wastebasket.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' episode, "Role Models", Sonic and his friends do this with the wrappers from their food at Meh Burger. Lady Walrus' Baby tries to do the same with his bottle, but misses the trash can. Lady Walrus sees this and reprimands Sonic and his friends for being bad role models... [[HypocriticalHumor just before she says she's going to find a precarious ledge for her baby to play on]].

* In ''Series/TheOfficeUS'', Michael pits his staff against the warehouse workers in a game of basketball, under the assumption that by having a black man on his team, Stanley, it's a shoe-in. We then see a brief segment of Stanley tossing a ball of paper, completely missing. Kevin, the lazy fat man, on the other hand, does the same thing, and makes it. It's a bit of foreshadowing, as later on Stanley sucks at the real game, and Kevin shoots hoop after hoop once the game is done, never missing a shot.

* Interesting take on this in ''TheWestWing'' episode "Faith Based Initiative." A basketball is left on C.J. Cregg's desk as a joke in response to recent internet reports about the skills she had as a high school basketball player (really these are an attempt to call into question her sexuality). C.J. easily sinks the actual basketball into the trash can while sitting behind her desk.

* ''Machinima/FreemansMind 2'': When Gordon encounters the infamous [[Videogame/HalfLife2 "Pick up that can!"]] Combine officer, he mistakes his attempt at denigration for a request to demonstrate his skills at this. And he promptly takes the can and dunks it into the wastebasket from the other side of the hallway on the first try.
-->'''Freeman:''' I got my degree under the tutelage of Dr. Pepper!

->''"I got my degree under the tutelage of Dr. Pepper!"''
-->--'''Gordon Freeman''', ''[[Machinima/FreemansMind Freeman's Mind]]''

* In ''TheOffice'', Michael pits his staff against the warehouse workers in a game of basketball, under the assumption that by having a black man on his team, Stanley, it's a shoe-in. We then see a brief segment of Stanley tossing a ball of paper, completely missing. Kevin, the lazy fat man, on the other hand, does the same thing, and makes it. It's a bit of foreshadowing, as later on Stanley sucks at the real game, and Kevin shoots hoop after hoop once the game is done, never missing a shot.

* Spoofed in ''NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide''. The episode "Elections" has Ned trying to get himself out of the running for Class President. His last attempt to do is to attempt a food fight...by tossing his trash into the recycling. Seth, the sport guy, thinks that Ned thought of a "cool way to recycle" and [[SpringtimeForHitler convinces everyone to toss their recyclables like Ned did.]]

* The very first episode of ''{{Moonlighting}}''.

[[folder:Film]]

* The film ''TheCuttingEdge'' has the ice-skating male lead do this while negotiating with the female figure skater's father over being hired on as her partner after the father misses three times.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', when Sulley points out a flaw in Mike's plan to get rid of Boo, Mike crumples up the paper he was writing on and tosses it into a wastebasket overflowing with flawed plans.