[[quoteright:150:[[WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/150px-Wave_of_Babies.PNG]]]][[caption-width-right:150:[[RightBehindMe Don't look now]], but there's a giant wave of babies.]]

->''"No more a rake and no more a bachelor''\\
''I was wedded and it whetted my thirst''\\
''Until her womb started spilling out babies''\\
''Only then did I reckon my curse!''
-->-- '''The Rake''', "The Rake's Song" from Music/TheDecemberists' ''The Hazards of Love''

An [[LiteralMetaphor actual wave of literal babies]]. In massive amounts, unstoppable, they sweep over all. Possibly gurgling the whole time. It can be of any species, especially ones that [[ExplosiveBreeder reproduce at an alarming rate.]] Usually a metaphor for the anxiety of parenthood, or the world’s overpopulation problems, but sometimes it’s just thrown in for random humor. See also TooManyBabies.
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!!Examples:
%%Note: this page suffered some mild trope decay. Before adding an example, please make sure it is actually a -wave- of babies. Large numbers of babies are not this trope. It has to be an actual wave.

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[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ComicBook/MonsieurJean once dreams that he's the lord of a castle being bombarded with babies, to the point where all his soldiers are overwhelmed with them.
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[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* In ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' Opus (after getting knocked out at his wedding) had a FlashForward DreamSequence nightmare about married life in the future, in which his wife left him with 100 of their test-tube babies, leading to his [[CatapultNightmare waking up screaming]].
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[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* A running joke about Wayne, the Wolf Man in Franchise/HotelTransylvania, is that he's constantly being swarmed by puppies. When he turns human in the fourth film, the first thing he does is pretend that he's not their father, forcing his wife to deal with the problem.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird'', Shrek has a nightmare about becoming a father, and in the middle of it a flood of baby ogres pours in through the window and chases him into the next scene.
* In ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', when the ship is [[spoiler:hijacked by Auto]] and tilting at a dangerous angle, a very large group of babies spill out of their hover-cribs and slide across the floor. They are saved by Mary and John.
-->'''Mary:''' John, get ready to [[{{Pun}} have some kids!]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Storks}}'': Junior in anger causes the baby machine at Stork Mountain to go at max speed, leading to a very large amount of babies being created that overwhelms the conveyor belt system.
* The giant demonic entity that [[BigBad Mok]] summons up from hell in ''WesternAnimation/RockAndRule'' briefly morphs into a mass of hideous baby-like creatures that fly towards the audience.
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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/NoroiTheCurse'' the wave is made of [[spoiler:ghost fetuses]].
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[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheCyberiad'': Trurl, a Constructor (one who can more or less build anything) is called to a planet by its king to resolve a StarcrossedLovers situation between the prince and princess of two rival countries. After his first attempt fails, Trurl's plan B is to create a network of huge cannons that flood the empire with babies until they surrender. The two countries reconcile, the prince and princess marry, and Trurl goes home well-paid. The end.
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[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' had the classic instance in "The Trouble With Tribbles", when Captain Kirk opens the door to an overhead cargo bay and is pelted with the eponymous Tribbles falling out.
* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' has expectant father Monroe having a nightmare about this. He and Rosalee ''do'' have triplets.
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'' has waves of unbaptized babies.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'', in endings D and E, [[spoiler:a wave of babies eats the world.]]
* The third level of ''VideoGame/UmJammerLammy.''
* In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', you'll occasionally face waves of ''[[ActionBomb exploding]] zombie babies'' known as the Crawler.
* ''Creator/FromSoftware''
** ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' had a swamp filled with "Plague Babies."
** ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' had a respawning [[DemBones skeleton babies]] at Gravelord Nito's hideout.
** ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' had the Celestial Larve, [[EldritchAbomination incomprehensible alien babies]] who can cause people to go insane.
%%* The CreepyDoll haunting in ''VideoGame/SilentHill4: The Room''. '''Administrivia/ZeroContextExample'''
* In ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'', the final level of world 5 has you chased by one of these... comprised of baby ''[[BigCreepyCrawlies spi]][[SpiderSwarm ders]]''. They serve as an AdvancingWallOfDoom, which, unlike most examples, is fast as hell.
* ''[[Franchise/{{Halo}} Halo's]]'' Carrier Form Flood presumably incubate the Infection Forms they spew out on their destruction, making it a wave of '' '''alien''' exploding zombie babies''.
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[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'' is the TropeNamer. In one episode, after What's Her Face refuses to jump into a lion's mouth, [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext a guy with a ukulele appears and sings "Wave o' babies!" as a wave of babies crashes into her]]. An Easter Egg reveals she survives, which is rather amazing considering Strong Bad's usual formula.
%%* [[http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Babies/ "Babies"]] by [[WebAnimation/WeeblAndBob Weebl]] '''Administrivia/WebLinksAreNotExamples]]
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[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Girly}}'' has a baby sidekick who makes babies at a disturbingly fast rate and shoots them out at the titular girls, like in [[http://girlyyy.com/go/641 this strip.]]
* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' has an [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/unintended-consequences ocean of babies]] in one strip.
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[[folder:Web Original]]
* Among the monsters that populate Website/{{Mortasheen}} is [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/ovulooge.htm Ovulooge]], which is basically the living embodiment of this trope, doing nothing but pumping out eggs that form a massive HiveMind and cling together in a huge colony.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
%%* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' had this as the ending. '''Administrivia/ZeroContextExample'''
* The ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' episode "Plague O' Babies" revolves around an alien platoon that looks like babies attacking Zim in an effort to take his ship. At the climax they merge their bodies into a walking, monstrous wave of babies.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'': One of the members of Snakes N' Barrels thinks he is being attacked by a wave of evil, floating babies while high on Totally Awesome Sweet Alabama Liquid Snake (a drug so potent that it will cause you to get so high that your brain will blow chunks into the Milky Way).
* In one episode ''WesternAnimation/BumpInTheNight'', the main character ends up literally swimming in an ocean of babies (well, baby dolls), even going to the extent of surfing on them.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', the Eds have opened a pet shop in Ed's garage to try and make some money for jawbreakers, as usual. Ed places two rabbits together, not knowing that one is a male and the other female. Baby rabbits cover the garage floor in mere seconds and, by the end of the episode, [[ExplosiveBreeder rabbits have quite literally flooded the cul-de-sac]].
%%* ''Mickey's Nightmare''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has an episode which features a riot in the form of a wave of angry babies at a Roofi concert, who converge on police officers and are beaten off with batons. This is referred to in the episode as the [[{{Pun}} Tot Offensive]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Fuzzle Trouble", at the end of the episode, has Gargamel opening a box that he thinks contains Smurfs, only to find himself swarmed by lots of hungry little fuzzles all looking for something to eat.
* ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls'' episode ''[=#AdventuresInBunnysitting=]'', ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}'s magic rabbits reproduce so quickly that they produce a massive flood of baby bunnies that they knock ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} out of her house and carry her down the street.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'' episode "[[Recap/TheAngryBeaversE8SalmonSez Salmon Sez]]", Daggett and Norbert find out that their dam is in the way of salmon heading upstream to spawn. After the beavers come up with a way for the salmon to pass through, the episode ends with baby salmon flooding the dam.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* Salmons. They may be the UrExample of semelparous ExplosiveBreeders. They make salmon runs on humongous schools to the river where they have themselves born, and lay their roe and milt there. Once the larvae hatch, they spend some time at the river and head to the ocean. Pacific salmons (genus ''Orchorynchus'') die after they have bred, but Atlantic salmons (genus ''Salmo'') will return back to the ocean. They may make 3 to 4 salmon runs during their lives.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o2J2fI59so Happens once a year]] with red crabs on Christmas Island.
* Also happens with sea turtles, who need to hatch in such quantities because hundreds of them will be picked off and eaten within the first three minutes alone.
* The surge in births in the Western world immediately post-[=WW2=], due to peace, social stability and rising prosperity, lasted from approximately 1946 to around 1963.[[note]]After about 1964, the birth-rate in the USA and United Kingdom slumped noticeably. This is attributed to a rising sense of insecurity brought about by economic stagnation, which became economic recession in the 1970s, coupled with the historically unprecedented easier availability of contraception and liberalisation of abortion.[[/note]] For this reason, the generation born during this peak of births is universally known as ''The Baby Boomers''.
* In introductory biology course lectures on the theory of evolution, Malthusian population growth is often illustrated with examples of how one breeding pair of, e.g., sparrows, could hypothetically cover the Earth if allowed to reproduce without limit, in the absence of competition, predation, disease, or lack of resources.
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