Line #39 Main/ForgotToFeedTheMonster


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11	[[quoteright:330:[[Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/15p18.png]]]]
12	[[caption-width-right:330:(Yes, that is a BeeBeeGun.)]]
13	->'''Mr. Burns:''' This calls for the League of Evil! ''[opens sealed vault to reveal skeletons]''\
14	'''Mr. Burns:''' My league! My beautiful league! All dead.\
15	'''Smithers:''' Even monsters need air, sir.
16	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
17
18	In comedy works, it sometimes happens that a character will attempt to summon their [[{{Mooks}} minions]], [[TheReveal reveal]] a surprise character/animal/pet, or use a creature-based attack, only to have said minions/mooks/critters show up dead or incapacitated. Why? Because the character forgot to feed them or otherwise pay for their upkeep.
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20	This trope is frequently a [[ParodySatirePastiche parody]], is almost always {{Lampshaded}}, and is often used as a form of {{Deconstruction}} applied to other tropes, such as ZergRush, WeHaveReserves, SummonMagic, and animal-based [[WeaponizedAnimal weapons]] or {{Death Trap}}s such as BeeBeeGun or SharkPool, particularly if the villain makes a point of starving them to "keep them hungry". When it happens, it's usually to the MiserAdvisor, {{Jerkass}}, {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, or TheDitz characters, as they're presumably the kinds of people who would be too flaky or too cheap to feed the minions. The ButtMonkey or CosmicPlaything may also suffer this fate as a natural consequence of the universe screwing with them. When it happens to an EvilOverlord, it can be a result of incompetence on the part of the MinionWithAnFInEvil.
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22	SubTrope of LethalNegligence. Compare ItWorksBetterWithBullets, and SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome. Contrast InfiniteSupplies, OffscreenVillainDarkMatter, PerpetualMotionMonster. A good source of MookDepletion. A subtrope and subversion of CrazyPrepared.
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24	----
25	!!Examples:
26
27	[[foldercontrol]]
28
29	[[folder:Advertising]]
30	* A bafflingly dark M&Ms ad had a man realizing that his girlfriend never opened the gift that he had gotten for her, and after rushing to the closet and tearing it open he watches the anthropomorphic M&M inside choke on its last breath.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Comic Books]]
34	* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': One story has Asterix and Obelix thrown to wild beasts, who've been starved for a few days to make them nice and vicious. They take so long in actually getting on scene, however, that the only animal visible is a happy-looking lion with a ''very'' distended belly.
35	* In one ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' story arc, the hero ends up in an old mansion [[DeathTrap converted into a gigantic house of DEATH]]. At one point, he gets thrown into a tube and ends up in a pool... which, due to lack of maintenance, features a half-empty base, and a suffocating shark.
36	* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': A Donald Duck comic has him team up with a [[RetiredBadass retired]] [[TuxedoAndMartini super spy]] in order to stop his old nemesis from returning. They eventually end up captured by said nemesis and are dropped into a SharkPool which turns out to contain nothing but bones. Leaving your ElaborateUndergroundBase unattended for 20 years tend to cause such issues.
37	* There was an incompetent Mad Scientist Dr. Fishtein in ''ComicBook/GorskyAndButch''. All his death traps involved some kind of predatory fish, always dead because he kept forgetting about water...
38	* The comic book adaptation of ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis'' features this (somewhat surprisingly, given the franchise's general use of DurableDeathtrap). Indy and Sophia fall into a pit of alligator skeletons, which are of course long dead due to the temple being abandoned for millenia, prompting Sophia to remark that it isn't really much of a deathtrap anymore.
39	* The Mane Six get a warning about a giant monster in ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW''. They eventually encounter said monster's remains, noting that the EvilOverlord forgot to feed it.
40	* ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'': One story featured the Pink Panther trying to deliver a package to a fort in the desert. A bandit steals it and runs into a cave. When Pink enters the cave, the bandit threatens to release a dragon. Said dragon turns out to be really tiny and Pink theorizes the bandit forgot to feed vitamins to him.
41	* Defied in the miniseries ''ComicBook/ThessalyWitchForHire''. The title witch is revealed to have captured or enslaved several monsters over the centuries. When her would-be suitor Fetch accidentally makes her a target for a seemingly invulnerable beast, she decides to let most of these monsters go because she doesn't expect to survive her encounter with the beast, and thinks it would be cruel to let her assorted captives die.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
45	* In [[http://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1983/06/13 this]] strip, ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' attempts to have a singing and dancing mouse that he's been training for four years perform for the reader, only to discover he forgot to cut air holes in the mouse's box.
46	* In ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'', this serves as the basis for the classic "Bag Wars" arc. Brian, while checking the list of what his character is keeping in his bag of holding, discovers a complement of hirelings he had placed in there and forgotten about. When he investigates, he discovers that the hirelings have used the resources of the bag to build a keep and declare themselves an independent nation. Writer Jolly Blackburn claims this storyline was inspired by an actual incident in one of his games where a player hid hirelings in a bag of holding in order to smuggle them into an enemy stronghold and then forgot about them.
47	* In ''ComicStrip/{{Wormy}}'', the "Siege of the Iron Keep" wargaming set that Wormy had ordered took four months to be delivered. Unfortunately, the enclosed playing pieces had only been provided with six weeks of rations.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Fan Works]]
51	* The ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'' has this happen in [[BadFuture Dark World]] as a ShoutOut to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' example. After [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Traitor Dash]] and [[BigBadWannabe the Valeyard]] have been beaten, Discord orders Fluttercruel to summon his [[PsychoForHire League of Auxiliary Minions]]...only to discover, even though he made them TheAgeless, he'd forgotten to provide a way for air to get into the room and they all died. [[spoiler:It later turns out that [[TheBrute Angry Pie]] killed them all in a MamaBear rage when they tried to rape one of her [[MoralityPet foals.]]]]
52	* Mentioned in ''Fanfic/TheTwoSidesOfDaringDo''. While exploring an ancient temple, the heroes avoid a trap that would have dropped them into a SharkPool. AK Yearling asks how in the world the sharks are still alive.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Literature]]
56	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
57	** In ''Literature/{{Wintersmith}}'', Roland and the Nac Mac Feegle travel to a disused Underworld to rescue the Summer Lady, and find the skeleton of a three-headed dog that had apparently starved to death.
58	** In ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'', there's a sequence where the GrandVizier attempts to find a way of killing/torturing Rincewind, but keeps being told there's something wrong with the device. For example, when he suggests throwing Rincewind in a cage with a tiger, he's told the tiger is ill. They then resolve to throw him in the SnakePit, which may be an example of this also because it only contains one snake, which is rather tame and doesn't attack anyone.
59	* Subverted in the H.P. Lovecraft story ''Literature/TheDunwichHorror'', where the monster escapes from its prison when its [[spoiler:brother]], Wilbur Whateley, fails to return to feed it after being mauled to death by a guard dog.
60	* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', the angel Aziraphale finds a dead bird lurking in his old, disused magician's coat. Oddly, it's the demon Crowley who restores the bird's life and sets it free.
61	* In the first book of the ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'' Han and Chewie are thrown in a cage on Kessel with a massive, rotting Rancor corpse. The crime lord who owned it then reminisces about the entertainment it provided before one of his minions forgot to feed it.
62	* ''Literature/TheJungleBook'': Mowgli falls into a treasure hoard guarded by an ancient albino cobra. However, the cobra is so old it has no venom left.
63	* In a variant, one of the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' tie-in novels had an ancient (and slightly senile) wizard summon up a vicious unnatural horror he remembered from his youth -- only to get a heap of dusty bones. This prompted him to think something along the lines of "Has it really been so long?"
64	* Overlaps with BuriedAlive in [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Poe's]] short story "The Premature Burial"
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
68	* Played straight in the fifth season of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', when Illyria returns to Vahla'hanesh to get her demonic army. She's been dead so long they have all crumbled to dust.
69	* Any time GOB performs an illusion involving animals in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''.
70	* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Howard is preparing to do a magic show when he finds an old trick in his closet involving a metal tin and a live dove. When he opens the tin, feathers fly out and the sight makes him retch.
71	* One woman on an episode of ''Series/FatalAttractions2010'' was attacked by her pet tigers because she could no longer afford to feed all of them and had to resort to scrounging for roadkill.
72	* One episode of ''Series/HorribleHistories'' covered Tudor medical treatments. One of them involved covering live spiders in butter and feeding them to the sick victim. They were about to try it, but couldn't, because they forgot to feed the spiders.
73	* Invoked by Ramsay Bolton and his attack dogs in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', since starving them will make them more desperate and therefore more violent and ravenous when they're unleashed. [[spoiler:This ends up literally biting him in the ass when he's defeated and gets his own dogs sicced on him; he says they're loyal and won't harm him, but since they're starving, said loyalty takes a backseat to their hunger.]]
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Podcasts]]
77	* In ''Podcast/TheThrillingAdventureHour'' episode "Sarcophagus Now", Frank and Sadie Doyle visit an ancient pyramid where, among the death traps, is a room with hundreds of snakes. It would be quite frightening, were it not for the fact the snakes have been dead a very long time.
78	-->'''Frank:''' I don't know who thought they were being clever loading a place up with snakes, but they never had a goldfish nor a guinea pig for a pet. You have to feed animals, Ancient Egyptians! Oh, also they will not live to be thousands of years old even if you ''do'' feed them!
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Radio]]
82	* In a sketch from ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme'' parodying [[TheCaper heist movies]], this is how the crew got past one of the security features: a wolf that hasn't been fed for five weeks, and is [[VillainousDemotivator constantly being prodded by a robotic arm to keep it annoyed]].
83	-->'''Carrie Quinlan:''' What you have there is a wolf skeleton being poked by an electronic stick. I mean, as modern art it's a ''provocative'' statement, but as a security feature...
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Video Games]]
87	* In ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'', Grimskull, the master of a sadistically devious labyrinth filled with evil instakill traps, has a VillainousBreakdown upon finding out that Raxgore, the unstoppable juggernaut he intended to send after you, has starved to death due to not having been fed in ten years, and that all the necromancers that could have raised him as undead had been eaten by Binky, his man-eating unicorn and one of the most brutal bosses you will likely face.
88	* As of 2012, herbivorous animals in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' need to graze in a pasture, or they will starve to death. The mechanics of this are still pretty wonky, and several larger animals literally cannot eat fast enough to keep from starving. So much for your army of war elephants.
89	* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the captain's cabin on the Normandy 2 features a huge aquarium that you can fill with fish. And if you forget to feed them between missions, you'll be refilling it with fish, over and over and over again.
90	** This problem is cured in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', wherein you're able to purchase an automatic fish feeder for your aquarium.
91	** Back in 2, [[BridgeBunnies Kelly Chambers]] will do it for you if you ask nicely.
92	* One of the bosses of that long-forgotten NES game ''VideoGame/MonsterParty'' apologizes when you enter its room: "[[AlreadyDoneForYou Sorry, I'm dead.]]" {{Lets Play}}er LetsPlay/DeceasedCrab takes his name from this boss.
93	* Keeping your pet(s) fed in ''VideoGame/NetHack'' is important (and fortunately quite easy). [[spoiler:Feeding them treats will train them to fetch.]] Also, being separated from your pet(s) (on a different level) for too long will lead to them going feral. YetAnotherStupidDeath is being killed by a former pet.
94	* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Nintendogs}}'': If you neglect to feed your dog, eventually it will simply "run away." But it returns no worse for wear (if a little dirtier) soon afterwards.
95	* [[{{Superboss}} Bonetail]] of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' is a subversion, in that despite being reduced to a fossilized skeleton after a millennium of neglect, he is still an undead beast and the most powerful enemy in the game.
96	* During the Ardolis Pirate Trials in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankRiftApart'', one stage has the titular duo face a Grunthor named Snoojax... as a skeleton. The pirate hosting the trials then admits that the stage is "out of order".
97	* Subverted in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV''. According to legend, King Aquila decreed that no Samurai may enter the Land of the Unclean Ones, and had a powerful demon guard the way. Since this was almost 1500 years ago, when the party enters the demon's chambers and sees nothing, Walter suggests that it wasted away. Cue WakeUpCallBoss.
98	* In ''VideoGame/TheSims'' and its sequels:
99	** It is possible, albeit difficult, to starve your Sims to death by neglect. The difficult part is because the poor things will try anything to feed themselves until the fridge runs out of food and they're too broke to order pizza, unless you [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential intentionally trap them in a room with no doors]]. Attempt this on a child, however, and [[ImprobableInfantSurvival a Social Services worker will come to take them away.]]
100	** Dogs and cats in the games are treated like infants/children or infants, toddlers, and children depending on what version you are playing (apparently Child Services doesn't care about teens), but fish and other small animals can be starved if you forget to feed them.
101	** Also the ''University'' expansion for the second game lets you get a "cowplant", if you [[BlatantLies "forget"]] to feed the cowplant it will set out a cake-shaped lure on its tongue, which will attract non-household sims on the lot, which will then be eaten by the plant. Needless to say [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential many many players will use the cowplant to get rid of non-player sims they don't like]]. Especially since the plant produces milk that will [[FountainOfYouth make the sim that drinks it younger.]] And some sims want to "drink" sims they don't like. The plant [[https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Laganaphyllis_simnovorii#The_Sims_3 returns]] in [[VideoGame/TheSims3 The Sims 3]], behaving much the same as the last game, with some improvements, and as of [[VideoGame/TheSims4 the fourth game in the series]], you can indeed [[https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Laganaphyllis_simnovorii#The_Sims_4 forget to feed the Cowplant,]] and, upon being unable to catch Sim prey by itself for twelve ingame hours, it will [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/sims/images/5/57/Dead_Cow_Plant.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170623083824&format=original waste away into a lifeless skeleton.]]
102	** In ''VideoGame/TheSimsMedieval'', YOU can forget to feed the monster! Specifically, there's a huge tentacled beast used to execute Sims, and Spies and Knights are frequently assigned "Feed the Beast" as a responsibility. Sadly, they can only throw meat in, not Sims. And if they do literally forget to do it, the monster doesn't seem to suffer any ill effects. On the other hand, there ''is'' a quest where you have to cure the Beast of an illness.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Web Comics]]
106	* Used twice in ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' -- first when Bikke tries to attack the Light Warriors with his pirate minions, only to discover that they are all dead or dying of scurvy because he was [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2002/11/23/episode-218-foiled-again/ too cheap to buy supplies.]] Later happens to Thief, who [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2007/05/15/episode-846-ninja-chow/ forgot to feed his lawninja.]]
107	-->'''Black Mage:''' [[LampshadeHanging I don't get it. If they're dead then how did they know when to deploy? Hell, how have they been following us?]]\
108	'''Thief:''' They are '''exceptionally''' trained.
109	* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': In Beeman's interlude, [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/15p18/ here.]] "Wait, how long ago did I load this?"
110	* A variation in ''Webcomic/TheBMovieComic'': The BigBad of the second movie sends [[Film/AustinPowers sharks with]] [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]] after the heroes, only forgetting that a shark can only live underwater...
111	* In one story arc, ''Webcomic/BrunoTheBandit'' is planning to kidnap a girl for ransom and begins to reflect on the first time he tried something like that only to come to a sudden realization. Cut to them in the attic observing the BoundAndGagged skeleton of Bruno's first ransom attempt.
112	* ''Webcomic/ChainmailBikini'' plays with this. On the one hand, besieging the goblins' cave and starving them out so you can sell them trail rations is a perfectly good TakeAThirdOption. Too bad the quest is to [[NiceJobBreakingItHero "recover the pigs stolen by the goblins," and they were being kept in the cave.]] Of course, it took Marcus to point this out to the GM...
113	* O tries to invoke this in a ''Webcomic/{{Commissioned}}'' strip, to deal with a player who keeps his familiar in a sack and never makes any reference to it except when it's currently useful. He's talked down to the familiar having just run away due to neglect.
114	* ''Webcomic/DarkLegacyComics'': TheDitz tries to keep a turkey safe just before thanksgiving, [[http://www.darklegacycomics.com/314 so he builds a wall around it and guards it for a week.]]
115	-->'''Krom:''' Dude, you know you have to like, feed those things, right?
116	* Also used dramatically in ''Webcomic/TheDementiaOfMagic'': When Matt sees all sorts of dying monsters in the dungeon, he correctly guesses the evil sorceress that has been harassing and taunting him is not that competent.
117	* ''Webcomic/TheDreadful'' does this in [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2011/09/17/the-dreadful-059/ #059.]]
118	-->'''Liz:''' Wow, I forgot I had this fairy in a bottle thing.
119	* In ''{{Webcomic/Drowtales}}'', Kiel'ndia has been feeding her friend Naal'suul, who [[DemonicPossession succumbed to her demonic taint]] earlier in the story, for years in her hiding place under their old school. When she runs off to another city for a few chapters she gets back and [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=10464 realizes]] Naal hasn't eaten in days, so she promptly heads back to fix this. When she gets there [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=10582 Naal attacks her]] and then goes on a rampage. Ironically, this ultimately [[spoiler:saves Kiel and possibly the entire world, as it results in Naal being present when Kiel's "Big sister" [[HumanoidAbomination Kharla'ggen]] loses control after she's forcibly merged with a Demon God and is this close to mind-controlling Kiel too before Naal jumps in to try and eat Kharla, ultimately leading to both her and Kharla's demise]].
120	* Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'': If you fail to pay the upkeep, the unit disappears, and the leader is normally given a psychic indicator that their forces have decreased from starvation. If the leader doesn't get such an update, then that's usually due to "Carnymancer" trickery and the ignored death is intentionally orchestrated.
121	* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/3/23/ once demonstrated the trope with a]] Franchise/{{Pokemon}}.
122	* Inverted in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', where failure to [[spoiler:give Satan's feline offspring milk]] on a daily basis results in them becoming extremely dangerous, and they're otherwise docile. The entire plot of the first [[spoiler:K I T T E N]] all started because one of their caretakers switched from the real deal to a soy-based substitute; the sequel involved a government conspiracy depriving the town of [[spoiler:milk]] so they could reproduce the conditions of two years ago.
123	* [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=1 As did]] ''Webcomic/VGCats''.
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Web Original]]
127	* [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP]]-[[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-4290 4290]] is an EldritchAbomination [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] by a succession of [[AdvancedAncientHumans precursor civilizations]] and after ten thousand years, the mystical barriers are failing. [[spoiler:When they finally break all the way, it turns out that SCP-4290 starved to death approximately nine thousand years ago]].
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Web Videos]]
131	* In ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'', the Mighty Nein are exploring some ancient ruins and a trap is triggered that summons a swarm of venomous snakes. While in most ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' games, this would be the cue for a battle, this trope is invoked instead; all the snakes are dead.
132	* We do not know what [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen a certain reviewer]] wears on his head, but apparently [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5YvU5XYsYQ it gets cranky when he forgets to feed it.]]
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Western Animation]]
136	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'' had Woody Johnson trying to come up with ideas to keep the new Secretary Of the Interior from firing him, and tries to summon a group of [[Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Oompa Loompas]] to help him.
137	-->'''Woody:''' ''[plays a flute; nothing happens] WHERE THE HELL ARE THEM OOMPA LOOMPAS?!''\
138	''[cut to the Loompas rotting remains in a cage]''\
139	'''Woody:''' ''GODDAMNIT'', forgot to feed them!
140	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' it's revealed that the housemates have a dog named Thirsty. The camera then cuts to the skeleton of a dog chained to a doghouse where the chain was slightly too short for the dog to reach his water dish.
141	* ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales\|2017}}'': In "From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22!", a flashback to the 60's had Scrooge and Mrs. Beakley explore a booby trapped island, which included a pool full of piranhas. In the present, Scrooge and Webby go to the island, and they find that the piranha have all died. Scrooge complained that having to wade through a pool of dead piranhas was even worse than when they were alive.
142	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' loves this trope.
143	** In one instance, Peter reveals he'd been saving a pony [[AllGirlsLikePonies for an easy way to cheer up Meg]] when needed. Opens the closet, sees its skeleton.
144	--->'''Peter:''' Uh that's right, ponies... ponies like food, don't they?
145	** A similar thing occurs in another episode where he stashed party balloons, streamers, and a clown on the chance where he was finally right about something.
146	--->'''Lois:''' You were right, Peter.\
147	'''Peter:''' No way! I finally get to do this!\
148	''[pulls on a rope which drops balloons and confetti and unrolls a banner that says Peter's Right]''\
149	'''Peter:''' I had that set up fifteen years ago. Hey where's the clown?\
150	'''Lois:''' We have to do something about the FCC. Pack your bags, Peter, we're going to Washington DC.\
151	''[skeleton with a clown nose and a rainbow afro wig falls from the ceiling]''\
152	'''Peter:''' Oh, there he is.
153	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', Jon digs a top hat out of a trunk while mentioning that he hasn't practiced the trick in 20 years. He then reaches into the hat and pulls out a rabbit skeleton, to which Garfield remarks, "Maybe you should've fed the rabbit."
154	* ''WesternAnimation/RightNowKapow'' plays this for laughs in a single sketch. The Villain has captured the heroes and hung them over a giant tank filled with sharks that he starved just for the occasion. The silhouette of a shark appears in the water but quickly sinks to the bottom of the tank along with several others indicating their death and prompting one of the captive heroes to ask how long it has been since the sharks were fed.
155	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has done this at least three times.
156	** Mr Burns [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E22FraudcastNews orders the assembly]] of his [[LegionOfDoom League Of Evil]], and opens a hidden door to a meeting room... only to reveal the long-dead skeletons of an outlaw cowboy, a Nazi officer, a Saracen, a samurai lord and a MadScientist.
157	--->'''Mr Burns:''' My League!! My beautiful League!!\
158	'''Smithers:''' Even monsters need air, sir.\
159	'''Mr Burns:''' ''[grumbles]'' Well, gather their watches!
160	** Disco Stu's, er, aquarium-shoes.
161	--->"Uh, your fish are dead."\
162	"Yeah, I... can't get them out of there."
163	** A Halloween special parodies Creator/DrSeuss with Homer as the "Fat in the Hat".
164	--->'''Homer:''' We'll fix up this mix-up in two minutes flat\
165	With the helpers I've hidden right under my hat!\
166	''(takes off hat to reveal a tower of miniature versions of himself, who all topple over dead)''\
167	'''Homer:''' ...I knew there was something I left off my list.\
168	Without food, air, and water, they cease to exist.
169	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'':
170	** The Monarch had a trap in his lair which consisted of releasing a horde of "man-eating butterflies"... except he forgot to feed them, so Brock just had several hundred dead butterflies dumped on his head. The Monarch then berates his henchmen for the mistake.
171	** On a related note, at one point Dr. Venture is going through his mail, and opens a package containing a [[AnimalAssassin coiled cobra, poised to strike]], and the words "Die, Dr. Venture!" [[CouldntFindAPen written in blood]]. After a moment, the snake crumbles into dust, at which point he checks the postmark, realizing a) the package has been on his desk for years, and b) "I really have to get my shit together."
172	[[/folder]]
173
174	[[folder:Real Life]]
175	* Neglect has led to the death of many a beloved pet (or even child) in RealLife, for reasons ranging from forgetfulness to addiction to malice. Since this is neither funny nor relevant, please refrain from adding examples.
176	* There's a classic riddle about a man who is given the choice of taking his chances with cannibals, or being thrown into a pit full of lions who haven't eaten in a year. He chooses the lions and escapes, because the lions have obviously died at this point. A variation has a man forced to choose between three doors, one having raging fires behind, the second having assassins with loaded guns, and the third with lions that haven't eaten in 3 years.
177	* Admit it; you've had a virtual pet that you left alone for ages and came back only to find it was dead, diseased, and surrounded by its own crap. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOAKOMHZgCM Tamagotchis can take care of themselves]].
178	* A slightly more family-friendly variation happens in real-life to ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' games. If you forget to visit every so often, you start to lose your town to the inexorable decay of time -- without maintenance, buildings become dilapidated, fields are overgrown, belongings rot, and townsfolk leave. No one actually dies, but your village is little more than a ghost town by that point.
179	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ForgotToFeedTheMonster