Line #46 Main/MarshmallowDream


1	[[quoteright:292:[[Webcomic/SlightlyDamned https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Marshmallow_dream_2685.JPG]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:292:This is precious. Unless you're a pillow.]]
3
4	->''"Okay, so funny story: I had a dream I was eating my pillow."''
5	-->-- '''Tiger Arbelt''', ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'' ([[InvertedTrope After going to bed with a giant marshmallow]])
6
7	"Last night I dreamed that I was eating a giant marshmallow, and when I woke up, my pillow was gone!"
8
9	Simply put: a character is dreaming about doing something (such as eating a giant marshmallow) while in the waking world, they are doing that thing to some real object (or person!) at hand, such as their pillow, often ending with them waking up with a mouthful of feathers. This is a staple dream type found in comics and animation. Though eating is the most typical version of this, other activities can also be involved.
10
11	The lower the dreamer's intelligence, the more likely this is to happen, and the less need for there to be an actual marshmallow in the dream. {{Big Eater}}s are, of course, prone to this trope as well.
12
13	Always PlayedForLaughs, it exists solely due to RuleOfFunny. It's likely OlderThanYouThink.
14
15	Not to be confused with MarshmallowHell. Though now that it's been mentioned, it's only a matter of time before somebody [[RuleThirtyFour figures out how to combine them]] [[note]]Which has since happened in the anime version of ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'', see Anime & Manga, below.[[/note]]. Compare CrashingDreams, ActingOutADaydream, and DeliciousDaydream.
16
17	----
18	!!Works featuring marshmallow dreams:
19
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Advertising]]
23	* In [[http://youtu.be/O3oZWfLFM6w one of the State Farm commercials]] with [[Series/SaturdayNightLive The Superfans]] and Aaron Rodgers, Bob is dreaming of eating a sausage pillow while receiving a massage from Mike Ditka, and chewing on Rodgers' shoulder.
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
27	* One chapter of ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' has Matsuri tasked with getting a LifeEnergy sample from Suzu while she's sleeping. In the process, Suzu's dream about eating marshmallow's causes her to bite and nibble on Matsuri's ''breast''.
28	* In ''Manga/ToLoveRu'' and the sequel ''Darkness'', Rito often dreams about ice creams and marshmallows. Due to him being the king of {{Accidental Pervert}}s, this inevitably leads to him groping and licking any nearby girl. The first time is in the first series with his sister (grabbing her butt); fortunately she pinches his cheek to make him release her. One dream late in ''Darkness'' has an '''incredibly''' racy version where Rito wakes up with his face in front of Lala's crotch. The specific candy shown in the dream[[labelnote:*]]A dark, round piece in the cracks between marshmallows that made honey come out when Rito licked it.[[/labelnote]] [[VisualInnuendo heavily imply]] he was giving her cunnilingus.
29	* In an {{eyecatch}} for ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'', Nanoha is shown happily eating sweet potatoes... pan down to show that it's only a dream, and she's actually gnawing on a struggling Yuuno.
30	* In ''Literature/InvadersOfTheRokujyouma'' Satomi grabs Ruth in his sleep, dreaming about climbing a tree to catch a beetle. Ruth gets so upset (about [[ArentYouGoingToRavishMe him dreaming her as a tree rather than any inappropriate contact]]), that she develops an [[BerserkButton unreasoning hatred]] of Rhinoceros Beetles, despite not even knowing what one looks like until later.
31	* Some of the extra scenes in the anime of ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' have Shouta, who shares a bed with Lucoa, dream about giant balls crushing him and a bear pushing its paw into his face. In one instance he dreams that he's fighting a sumo wrestler, which naturally translates to him pawing at her chest, which she thinks is flirting.
32	* An incident in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' had Ranma and Ryoga fighting to keep Happosai from slipping into Akane's bed and cuddling with her while she's asleep. Happosai manages to succeed, only to find out the hard way that Akane sometimes fights in her sleep.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
36	* ''Animation/HappyHeroes'': In the title card for episode 31, Big M. dreams that he's got a big dinner layed out in front of him. In the real world, Big M. is chewing on Little M.'s foot.
37	* The title card of ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf: Joys of Seasons'' episode 2 shows Paddi dreaming that he is eating a grass cake. He wakes up to find he was eating his own pillow while he was sleeping.
38	* One ''Zhu Bajie'' cartoon has a gag where Bajie is hungry and dreaming about various foods, culminating into stumbling upon a giant hamburger and waking up realizing that he is eating his own pillow when he tries to bite into it.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Comic Books]]
42	* On one cover of [[ComicBook/TheSimpsons Simpsons Comics]], Homer is seen eating his pillow while dreaming of eating a pizza.
43	* The 7th issue of ''ComicBook/ScareTacticsDCComics'' has Grossout wake up with a pillow in his mouth and feathers everywhere, implying he tried to eat the pillow in his sleep.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
47	* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' had this as a minor RunningGag. Hobbes would be having a dream about being in a vicious fight with a ferocious weasel... only to awaken and discover that he had really been ripping his pillow to shreds. Or, occasionally, Calvin.
48	* One ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' strip had Wally dreaming about taking the PointyHairedBoss's "Work smarter, not harder" slogan literally and making himself smarter simply by concentrating, which also makes [[MyBrainIsBig his head swell]]. In the last panel Wally is at work, his head still swollen, telling Dilbert "And when I woke up my pillow was gone", to which Dilbert responds "[[OrphanedPunchline Oh wow, you woke up in the wrong punchline.]]"
49	* Naturally, this has happened to ''Comicstrip/{{Garfield}}''.
50	** In the January 24, 1982 strip, he dreams of being in the land of giant breakfasts, eats a pancake, and wakes up wondering where his blanket went.
51	** Another time, he thought he got up in the middle of the night and ate some jawbreakers, only to find that his marbles were missing.
52	** The December 16, 2005 strip has Garfield take a bite out of his bed while dreaming about a chocolate chip cookie.
53	* In ''The Better Half'', Stanley tells Harriet that he dreamed about eating a very large piece of lasagna; when he woke up, their red comforter was gone.
54	* A wolf tries CountingSheep, with [[http://ruthe.de/cartoon/3082/datum/asc/ predictable results.]]
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Fan Works]]
58	* A somewhat [[NotSafeForWork NSFW]] fanfic which has been ([[http://www.mediafire.com/?w6jaiiy97ziejf9 almost]]) lost to time titled "Mr. Fuzzywumpus" gives us a variant. [[ItMakesSenseInContext Through a chain of events]] a girl thinks that [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic, Shadow and Silver]] are her pets, and she ends up "letting them" sleep in her bed. Shadow wakes up to find Sonic (with EasyAmnesia) cuddling up to him, and Silver ends up in a compromising position trying to separate them.
59	--> Sonic gave a little nudge. Silver's left foot lost traction, as his right went sliding over Sonic's far shoulder. His rear end landed quite squarely on Sonic's chest, with his back towards Sonic's feet, and his front towards his pillow. That put something important right in front of Sonic's face.
60	** And the next morning:
61	-->"I don't know about you guys, but I had a wonderful dream last night..." He turned back to the bed. "It was like being inside a giant ball of cotton candy, only it wasn't all sugary. And talk about soft...ummm...[[BlackComedyRape are you two quite all right?]]"
62	* [[Fanfic/BecomingPonies The Pony Earthverse]] has turned this into a running gag; whenever characters talk with their ponies for the first time, they end up with a pillow in their mouth.
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Literature]]
66	* This trope is OlderThanPrint; one of Literature/AesopsFables is about a milkmaid who dreams about getting rich and arrogantly tossing her hair at the fair, only to find that she's knocked over her milk buckets in real life.
67	* Similarly, the ''Literature/ArabianNights'' tale of the Barber and his Brothers has one of the barber's brothers working in a glass shop, imagine himself opening successively bigger shops and getting rich, then attempting to court the Vizier's daughter and being met with the Vizier's refusal. He attacks the Vizier in his dream and wakes up to find he's knocked over his glass.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
71	* Subverted on ''Series/TheColbertReport''
72	-->'''Colbert:''' I dreamt I was eating a giant marshmallow, and when I woke up, my giant marshmallow was gone.
73	* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'':
74	** Subverted in an episode:
75	--->'''Carol:''' Last night, I dreamt I was eating a giant marshmallow, and when I woke up my boyfriend was gone.\
76	'''Man:''' I don't get it.\
77	'''Carol:''' It's not a joke.
78	** Played straight in an episode of AfterShow ''Series/GoldenPalace'', when Chuy -- under the guise of "Corny Castillos" -- plans on putting this exact joke in his act for the hotel talent show.
79	* Conversed (in a hoedown!) by Colin Mochrie in the UK ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway''. When he has to sing about his worst nightmare, he tells about eating cotton candy and it ends with him waking up with the pillow gone.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Music]]
83	* In the American children's song "Boom, Boom, Ain't It Great to Be Crazy?" this trope is the subject of the second verse:
84	-->''Late last night I had a real strange dream\
85	Ate a nine pound marshmallow Mama gave me\
86	When I woke up\
87	I knew something was wrong\
88	I looked around, saw my pillow was gone''
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Video Games]]
92	* Referenced twice in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'':
93	** The [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Comfy_pillow comfy pillow]] item has this description:
94	--->"If you dream that you're eating a giant marshmallow, you'll probably wake up and find this gone, [[SubvertedTrope provided you're in a place where people steal your pillow while you're asleep.]]" (This also serves as a {{justifi\|ed}}cation as to why the item is consumed upon using it.)
95	** This is also inverted in the description for the [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Giant_marshmallow giant marshmallow]] item:
96	--->"If you have a dream that you're eating a pillow, you'll probably wake up and find that this is gone."
97	[[/folder]]
98
99	[[folder:Web Comics]]
100	* ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'' gave us an excellent [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1191.php example]] followed by [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1196.php waking up]].
101	* ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'' combines this with RealDreamsAreWeirder [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/todays-comic-768/ here]]; Unity responds to the Abbess's description of her prophetic dream with an inversion of the trope ("I dreamed I ate all the pillows in the house! And when I woke up, all the marshmallows were gone!")
102	* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'' gives us a textbook, same-page, same-panel, non-marshmallow [[http://www.sdamned.com/comic/434 example]]. It's currently the page image.
103	* ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}''
104	** Tiger {{inverted}} the concept. He bought a [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/06/07/stale-jokes-for-stale-mallows/ giant unstamped sheet of Peeps marshamallow]] he wanted to carve. Instead he ate it while dreaming he was eating his pillow.
105	** Also happens in a [[https://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2021/07/16/hungry-dream/ guest comic]] where Jessica is having a wonderful dream about a huge feast and wakes up to find she was chewing on Zach's ear.
106	* In the Busybee Comics series ''Womble'', [[http://beesbuzz.biz/d/20080830.php one comic]] has the [[MadScientist Duchess]] telling the Womble about a succession of [[RealDreamsAreWeirder strange dreams]], after each of which she awoke to discover her pillow was gone. The comic ends with [[spoiler:the Womble lounging on a pile of stolen pillows]].
107	* ''Webcomic/SandraOnTheRocks'' manages to combine this with MarshmallowHell in one comic, although we only hear about it afterwards. Slightly [[https://pixietrixcomix.com/sandra-on-the-rocks/eating-steamed-buns-all-night NSFW]].
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Web Videos]]
111	* WebVideo/StuartAshen: "Once, I had a dream I was eating a giant marshmallow. When I woke up, ''my wife was missing and everything was covered in blood!''"
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Western Animation]]
115	* One of the [[OlderThanYouThink earliest animated examples]] of this trope was in a ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' theatrical cartoon from 1939 called "Wotta Nitemare." As the title suggests, Popeye is having an absolutely hellish nightmare involving a demonic Bluto making a complete fool out of the sailor man in front of Olive. Popeye finally finds a can of spinach in his dream and commences guzzling the contents of said can. We then back out of the dream to see the sleeping Popeye on his bed, having punched a hole in his mattress and currently in the process of pulling out the stuffing and eating it, handful by handful. It's even worse when you notice that the mattress appears to have been [[NauseaFuel stuffed with horsehair]].
116	* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''; Peter initially can't find his pillow, but he was just lying on it. We then see a half-eaten sheep in his room trying to crawl to safety.
117	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
118	** In the episode "Suds", [=SpongeBob=] dreams of eating Krabby Patties and wakes up chewing on his pillow. This encourages him to make himself a seanut butter and jellyfish jelly sandwich.
119	** Also referred to on "Sleepy Time". When [=SpongeBob=] meets Gary in the dreamworld, the now erudite Gary tries to explain to him the concept of dreams as a view to another world. When an Creator/EmilyDickinson poem goes over SB's head, Gary recites a {{Limerick}} more his speed:
120	--->''There once was an old man from Peru\
121	Who dreamed he was eating his shoe\
122	He woke with a fright\
123	In the middle of the night\
124	To find that his dream had come true.''
125	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Chester wakes up eating his pillow, says "You're not the giant marshmallow. Oh well!" and continues eating.
126	* In an ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' short, that one kid comes out of his house and says "One time, OK, see, one time Randy Beaman's mom had a dream that she ate a big marshmallow and it was really good, and she, and when she woke up...her pillow was gone. [[DontExplainTheJoke 'Cause she ate it.]] 'K, bye."
127	* This has happened a couple of times to Homer in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
128	* In the ''WesternAnimation/CareBearsWelcomeToCareALot'' episode ''Night Bears'', Grumpy dreams that he has a bottomless pantry, and he starts feasting on the food in the pantry. The scene then fades back to reality, showing that Grumpy is actually invoking this trope.
129	* A non-sleeping example occurs in the ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984'' episode, "The Great Cookie Robbery". Nanny tasks Gonzo with sharing a box of cookies with his friends to tide them over until lunch, and an ImagineSpot occurs where Piggy has to marry Gonzo to get one of his cookies. Just as Piggy is about to say yes, a wedding cake is brought in, and she chows down on it. As the imagine spot ends, Piggy is revealed to be chewing on a pillow.
130	* Bridget, the child protagonist from one episode of ''WesternAnimation/SylvanianFamilies'' talks in her sleep and reveals she's dreaming of cookies. She takes a chomp out of her pillow before spitting a feather out.
131	* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': In the episode, “Sweet Dreams,” Star has a dream about eating flying hot dogs, only to wake up eating her pillow. In a slight subversion, she actually was eating hot dogs in her sleep, with hot dog wrappers on her bed and even spitting out a receipt.
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:Real Life]]
135	* This is very unlikely to happen during regular sleep because of the phenomenon known as sleep paralysis, wherein the body deactivates most voluntary motor nerves specifically to keep stuff like this from happening.
136	* Creator/SylvesterStallone claims that this happened while he was gaining weight for his role in ''Film/CopLand''.
137	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MarshmallowDream