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[[quoteright:300:[[Series/JaneTheVirgin https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rt2012_0.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[SoUnfunnyItsFunny Sick burn, dude!]]]]
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-> ''"Am I missing... an eyebrow?"''
-->-- '''Adam Savage,''' ''Series/MythBusters'' [[note]]He was.[[/note]]

Whenever [[IncendiaryExponent fire]] or [[StuffBlowingUp explosions]] are involved, the first thing to go is inevitably the eyebrows. This is nearly always PlayedForLaughs. This is usually a good way to have people hit by fire come away [[AmusingInjuries without true injuries]] in comedic works.

In RealLife, eyebrows do get singed off fairly readily in the case of flame, due to being fairly prominent on the face and thinner than normal hair. However, singed eyebrows may accompany more serious burns as well, so DontTryThisAtHome.

See also PlayingWithFire, KillItWithFire, or AshFace. Compare CloseCallHaircut.

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!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In an ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' story, the gang holds a contest at school to see who can come up with the most bizarre eyebrow shape. Jughead wins by sporting no eyebrows at all. Never mind that he'd accidentally singed them off in a [[EducationThroughPyrotechnics chemistry lab explosion]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}'': Roger, in true BumblingDad style, [[DoomItYourself decides he can fix the furnace without needing to call the repairman, turning the valve so it keeps emitting gas and applying a lit match.]] Once the repairman shows up to fix it, he wonders if Roger managed to singe off both his eyebrows ''and'' hair, though Andy quickly corrects him on [[BaldnessAngst that last point.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Happens to Seamus Finnigan in the movie adaptation of ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone''. Also tends to happen to Finnigan in the books.
* In ''Film/ThePacifier'', one of the bad guys tries to get through a booby-trapped room. Flamethrowers come out of the walls and shoot a wall of fire right in front of her. When she turns around, she has no eyebrows left, and irritably says that she'd just had them done.
* The titular antagonist in ''Film/TheTerminator'' tries rushing after Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese even when Reese puts up a wall of fire between them. The terminator immediately has his hair burned down to a crew cut and his eyebrows disappear completely. This turns out to be the ''least'' unsettling disfigurement he sustains throughout the movie.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Cheery the forensics expert and alchemist in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'s'' Ankh-Morpork City Watch is frequently seen without eyebrows. This is a universal trait of most alchemists in Ankh-Morpork.
* In ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'', a character tries fire-breathing and manages to set himself on fire.
-->All he suffered was a bit of singed beard and a slightly bruised pride. He recovered quickly under Ben's tender ministrations, a mug of mead, and a reminder that not everyone was cut out to have eyebrows.
* In the memoir ''Literature/TheGlassCastle'', Jeannette ends up doing this as a result of trying to cook hot dogs, although unlike other examples she also gets severely burned, requiring skin grafts.
* In one of his short stories, humorist Creator/PatrickMcManus talks about losing his eyebrows as a youth while experimenting with black powder.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Part of Sheldon's {{backstory}} in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''. When he was a child one of his "experiments" exploded and blew his sister's eyebrows off. True to form Sheldon never noticed until he was told twenty years later.
* A noodle incident on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' cost Marshall his eyebrows.
* A noodle incident involving a bazaar in ''Series/ILoveLucy'' resulted in Ricky's eyebrows taking weeks to grow back.
* ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'': In an attempt to curry favor with River, Rogelio orders [[YourFavorite her favorite]], bananas foster. The flambe burns her eyebrows off, which makes her slightly less amenable the next time they meet. She does assure him they are insured, however.
* In an episode of ''Series/LondonsBurning'', John Hallam burns his eyebrows off when he lights the Christmas pudding, unaware that his elderly father-in-law has drenched it in brandy.
* In ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', this happened offscreen as a result of the Krelboynes' previous secret project.
-->''"I thought we agreed: no more secret projects. Some of you are still missing your eyebrows after your last secret project!"''
* In ''Series/TheMoodys'' Dan gets too close to one of his brother's rocket launchers and has his eyebrows wiped clean off his face. His brother takes advantage of this by drawing angry eyebrows on his face in permanent ink while Dan sleeps, forcing Dan to wear a tennis headband for the entire day.
* In an early episode of ''Series/MythBusters'', host Adam Savage stood too close to a box full of gas fumes he was trying to light when it exploded, leading to the page quote above. Adam later claimed that he had said the line as a joke, only to find that his eyebrow (and a good chunk of his hair) had indeed been singed off. To make it worse, that night he had a date and was planning to propose! ([[spoiler:She said yes.]])
** The line would later be repeated several years later by Build Team member Tory Belleci during an experiment involving copious amounts of popcorn, particularly when he makes forehead contact with the popcorn machine's hopper.
* ''Series/{{Psych}}'': Buzz [=McNab=] loses an eyebrow and a couple toes after a bomb explodes in his mailbox.
* There was a joke on ''Series/RescueMe'' about someone losing their eyebrows because his friend lit a fart.
* In the live episode of ''Series/WillAndGrace'', self-obsessed showman Jack lost an eyebrow trying to finish singing a song as the stage burned around him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/NoFX have a song called "We Threw Gasoline On The Fire and Now We Have Stumps For Arms And No Eyebrows". The song is better than it sounds.
* In Music/KevinBloodyWilson's song "The Apprentice", one of the pranks the tradesmen pull on the apprentice is burning his eyebrows off with a welding torch.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead Virtual Stupidity'', if you try to interact with the burner in the science classroom, Daria will tell Beavis to remember what happened the last time he messed with it and Butt-Head will comment that Beavis looked cool without eyebrows.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', there's a note on how to use the Atronach Forge. According to the note's writer, he was only able to understand its function after going through "blind experimentation and a few singed eyebrows".
* In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'', Ellis brags about how he was in the front row of a Midnite Riders concert and lost his eyebrows from the pyrotechnics.
* [[YouAreNumberSix RC-1262]] from ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando'' got his nickname "Scorch" after an incident where he managed to blow both his ''and'' his training sergeant's eyebrows off at the same time.
--> '''[[SergeantRock Walon Vau]]:''' Minor burns and injuries incurred today during anti-armor weapons training with RC-1262. New nickname: "Scorch."
* In ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'', if you try to use the metal detector indoors, Strong Bad will comment that the last time he tried it he singed off Strong Mad's eyebrows and they couldn't tell how mad he was for weeks.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob:'' In his debut appearance, Hibachi the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon]] [[http://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/33/ does this to FBI Agent Jerry.]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': Hetr ends up with one eyebrow and half of his mutton chops and mustache thing burnt off. His eye on that side is also swollen and red from being burned.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': The Mechanist has patchy eyebrows, which he claims is the result of finding a natural gas pocket while holding a torch.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Bart and Milhouse decide to do their own version of ''[=MythBusters=]''. The first myth is that cell phones make gas pumps explode. (The same myth that resulted in Adam's eyebrow singe.) After the explosion, Milhouse is ''sans'' eyebrows.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E6SheOfLittleFaith She of Little Faith]]", Milhouse's eyebrows get blown off and fly onto Bart's head, which he wears like sideburns.
--->'''Milhouse:''' My eyebrows! My beautiful eyebrows!\\
'''Bart:''' Over 'ere, gov'nah.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E2SomethingSmellsBossyBoots Something Smells]]", the fumes from [=SpongeBob's=] rancid ketchup and onion "sundae" burn off Patrick's eyebrows.
* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Total Drama Island]]'' episode "[[Recap/TotalDramaIfYouCantTakeTheHeat If You Can't Take the Heat]]", the teams are in a cooking competition. The Screaming Gophers attempt to make a flambé but Heather lights it after Lindsay used the whole bottle of starter fluid, and the resulting explosion burns off Heather's eyebrows.
[[/folder]]
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