[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Caddyshack}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/caddyshack_explosion.jpg]] ]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[TropesThatGoBoom Because every golf tournament should end with a pyrotechnics display.]]]]

->''"Or does it explode?"''
-->-- '''Langston Hughes''', "A Dream Deferred" (last line)

Sometimes a comedic piece, rather than a punchline, will have everything suddenly explode instead. The randomness combined with the coolness factor of explosions is guaranteed to get some laughs.

This is a subtrope of StuffBlowingUp. Also compare DropTheCow.

!!As this is an {{Ending Trope|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]].
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!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Advertising]]
* Some [[Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike Old Spice]] commercials played with this trope.
* A recent (as of June 2017) ad for Johnsonville Brats featured an ad guy discussing his new ad campaign. At the end he comments on this trope:
--> "I don't know haw it ends. Maybe an explosion." *BOOM*
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''WebAnimation/TheMarionetteTriesToListenToHisMusicbox'' ends with the Marionette suddenly throwing a nuclear bomb at Balloon Boy while frenzied electronic music plays, creating an explosion. The credits acknowledge the randomness of this ending:
-->You as the one who is probably confused about what just happened and why everything exploded
* [[http://safebooru.donmai.us/posts/747138 This]] ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' doujin explains how to wrap up your story if you run out of ideas.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Near the end of ''Film/{{Caddyshack}}'', Carl Spackler uses a bunch of plastic explosives as a last resort against the gopher. (Never mind that there's a crucial golf game going on.)
* Film/TheThreeStooges used this ending in quite a few shorts.
* ''Film/DrStrangelove'' ends in this precise manner, in a very BlackComedy sense.
* Creator/LuisBunuel's last film, ''Film/ThatObscureObjectOfDesire'', ends with an unexpected explosion (foreshadowed by terrorist attacks alluded to during the film) apparently killing the main characters as they seem to be working toward some resolution of their differences.
* The film adaptation of ''Film/VForVendetta'' ends with Evey blowing up Parliament with V's Subway Train filled with Explosives, both to honor his last wish to avenge the years of torture he had suffered from their experiments, and to help free London from its corrupt government. Doubles as a {{Book End|s}} since the film started with an early explosion as well, with V blowing up the ''Old Bailey''.
* ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'', which as shown by ''Film/EdWood'', was a request by the film's new financial backer - which certainly raises questions as for why the mad scientist being attacked by an octopus suddenly leads to a nuclear explosion.
* ''Film/{{Doppelganger}}'' ends with Ross crashing the replacement lander into a parked spacecraft, killing him and causing a chain reaction that destroys most of the Space Centre and all records of his presence on the counter-Earth.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/TheGoodies'' episode "Earthansia" ends with the Creator/{{BBC}}1 [[EarthShatteringKaboom spinning Earth logo blowing up]].
* Several skits end that way in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''.
** The "Penguin on the Telly" sketch begins with: "that was episode two of "The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots", specially adapted for radio by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgmkNitQJYs Gracie Fields]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQhFhdmW6Vs Joe Frazier]]. And now, Radio Four will explode." BLAM! So the old ladies watch a TV show instead, which ends with a presenter announcing "It's just gone 8 o'clock, and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode." Cue the penguin exploding violently.
--->'''Pepperpot:''' How did he know that was going to happen?!\\
'''Presenter:''' [[TheTelevisionTalksBack It was an inspired guess.]]
** "Le Fromage Grande", a parody of [[LeFilmArtistique French arthouse films]], ends with a head of lettuce turning out to be a ticking bomb, which explodes.
* Many, many episodes of ''Series/MythBusters''. If it's a montage of explosions (as used in several specials), expect the climax of [[StandardSnippet The 1812 Overture]] to accompany the montage.
* The end of the pilot and the end of the series finale of ''Series/TheYoungOnes''.
* The punchline to the [=MacGruber=] skits on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', where the room that the eponymous character and his partners are trapped with always explodes, due to [=MacGruber=]'s incompetence.
* ''Series/TheSecretLifeOfMachines''' ending sequence is usually a bunch of the machines du jour exploding while "Take Five" plays.
* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': The episode “[[Recap/TheBrittasEmpireS6E1BackWithABang Back With A Bang]]” ends with Gavin's car getting blown up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* On the Music/PDQBach album ''The Short-Tempered Clavier and other dysfunctional works for keyboard'', the final chord of "Sonata da Circo" is followed by a track of sounds of the steam calliope exploding.
* In Creator/StanFreberg's version of "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise", the music gets faster and faster until the point where the equipment is smoking. Freberg tells everyone to run for their lives and screams before it explodes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* A favorite of ''Series/TheMuppetShow''. Creator/JimHenson was on record stating that whenever he can't think of an ending for a skit he just has everything explode.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* Many episodes of ''Radio/TheGoonShow''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Entirely possible in the TabletopGame/{{Chess}} variant [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_chess atomic chess]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* {{Exaggerated|Trope}} in the best ending of ''VideoGame/HyperPrincessPitch''. After defeating Mecha-Santa, you [[spoiler:crash him head-first into the moon; then piledrive him ''and'' the moon into his polar base, causing it to explode; ''then'' the explosion hurls the earth into the sun, causing ''that'' to explode; THEN that explosion (somehow) causes the ''entire galaxy'' to explode. This move is called Galactic Princess BusTAAH for a reason!]]
-->'''Pitch:''' ''Awesome.''
* In the Flash puzzle game ''[[VideoGame/{{Shift}} Shift 4]]'', [[spoiler:taking the escape rocket]] somehow causes the universe to explode.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ashLeHqCt_w This]] ''WebAnimation/{{Eddsworld}}'' cartoon, [[spoiler: at least before TheStinger]].
* Everything that sings in ''WebAnimation/CharlieTheUnicorn''.
* ''WebAnimation/TheDementedCartoonMovie'' has multiple skits end this way. Not to mention the movie as a whole ends with [[GreekChorus those two stick figures on the chairs]] being stuck to their faces and their chairs, falling apart, causing their city to collapse, and finally unleashes a missile that knocks the Moon out of the sky, which destroys the Earth.
* The result of the GainaxEnding [[CriticalExistenceFailure existence failure]] in the Creator/JamesRolfe parody film ''Film/TheWizardOfOz [[Film/ReturnToOz 3:]] [[http://www.cinemassacre.com/2006/06/11/wizard-of-oz-3-dorothy-goes-to-hell-2006/ Dorothy Goes to Hell]]''.
* The ''Recap/HappyTreeFriends'' episode "[[Recap/HTFClassAct Class Act]]" ends with the burning school theater blowing up, [[EverybodyDiesEnding killing everyone]].
* The ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'' episode "[=SM64=]: Meet the Steve" ends with the castle blowing up. Apparently this is subverted because Steve was responsible for it.
-->'''Bomb:''' ''(in female robot voice)'' Bomb deactivated.
-->'''Mario:''' Yaaaaaay!
-->'''[=SMG4=]:''' Yaaaaaay!
-->''[[{{beat}} Short beat]]''
-->'''Bomb:''' JUST KIDDING ME!
-->''The entire castle explodes, while Steve in his Evil Steve costume walks out.''
-->'''Steve:''' Yay.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Used to the point of a RunningJoke on ''Webcomic/BiggerThanCheeses''.
* Chapter 12 of ''Webcomic/YouveLostRitsukaFujimaru'' features Maid Artoria Alter showing up and exploding everything as [[DeadlyEuphemism cleanup]] for all of Fujimaru's unused inventory. Fujimaru then complains that endings where everything explodes are the worse.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The [[SeriesFauxnale initial Series Finale]] of ''WebVideo/ArbyNTheChief'' ended this way for Season 7. Chief, [[AnArmAndALeg after being ripped apart by Arbiter]] [[AccidentalMurder for murdering Cortana]], announces his plan to end their suffering by blowing up Jon's Apartment, while they're still inside. Arbiter, having already crossed the DespairEventHorizon [[DrivenToSuicide by attempting to kill himself earlier]], solemnly agrees and doesn't resist. Allowing him and Chief to be killed in the ensuing explosion. [[spoiler:[[BackFromTheDead Season 8 however soon rectified this]]]].
* Seen in many, many, {{Youtube Poop}}s, usually in the form of a [[MemeticMutation 'WTF Bomb']]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL8hJTJHzLs This]] episode of ''WebVideo/SMBCTheater''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2021}}'' ends many episode with Sealab exploding, sometimes justified by the plot, sometimes purely for OnceAnEpisode RuleOfFunny.
* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Dying For Pie" ends with the exploding pie completely destroying Bikini Bottom, using footage from the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests as said explosion.
* ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy'':
** "Ren's Brain" is such a MindScrew that the audience is seen [[YourHeadASplode with their heads exploding]], and eventually the Earth itself explodes.
--->'''Narrator:''' [[GainaxEnding Thus endeth the Republican party as we know it.]]\\
'''Ren's Brain:''' You ''eediot!''
** "Sven Hoek" ends with Ren, Stimpy and Sven being [[LiteralMetaphor blown straight to Hell]] after Ren pees on a board game named "Don't Whiz On The Electric Fence".
** Inverted in "Black Hole", which ends with Ren and Stimpy ''imploding''.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon "The Missing Mouse" has Tom scared by a lab mouse that swallowed a powerful explosive. By the end a radio announcement declares that the mouse will not explode and Tom gives it a good kick. It explodes anyway.
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' has the episode "Hothead", which ends with Eustace blowing himself up (his first death in the series), as well as the whole house, from his anger (courtesy of a hair growth toxin he used excessively), and Muriel, rocking in her chair with Courage on her lap, reminds said dog to remind Eustace to fix the chair.
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''
** ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury'' ends with Dodgers and Marvin blowing up Planet X.
*** Similarly, ''WesternAnimation/HaredevilHare'' has Bugs blowing up the moon after handing Marvin a new explosive space modulator[[note]]which was actually a stick of dynamite[[/note]].
** "Captain Hareblower" has WesternAnimation/BugsBunny blowing up Yosemite Sam's ship by throwing a lit match into the gunpowder room. Sam tries to get even by doing the same to Bugs' ship, but Bugs doesn't even try to stop him and Sam makes a hasty retreat. Turns out it was the ''other'' kind of powder room (the ladies' bathroom), yet it explodes anyway.[[note]]Which is [[FridgeBrilliance rather clever if you know your physics]], by the way, because [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion talcum powder totally can explode under the right conditions]].[[/note]]
--->'''Bugs:''' I don't know what he's so worried about... [[TemptingFate talcum powder doesn't explode]].\\
(''cue big explosion'')\\
'''Bugs:''' Uh, I guess I could be wrong, you know...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* A lot more things can explode than one would expect. For instance, there is such a thing as a "dust explosion," which can happen where there is a sufficient particulate density in the air of an enclosed space of any combustible substance like sawdust, flour or talcum powder and there is a sufficient large spark to ignite it.
[[/folder]]
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