Potty Dance

Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now!

"Step to the left, then step to the right.
Put your knees together, and squeeze real tight
Keep your arms moving, side to side.
Try to hold it in 'til it's time to ride.
Knock, Knock, let me in.
Knock, Knock, let me in, I gotta go, uh!"

— Teen Titans Go!, "The Pee-Pee Dance"

Alice gets up in front of the class and starts her speech, but something's wrong. She looks distracted, and she can't seem to stand still. Her legs and hips gently sway from side to side, and her knees turn inward. Soon Alice is drawing odd looks from her classmates as they start to realize what's wrong: Alice has gotta go! The situation grows tense as she slowly becomes more and more restless, but at last, her speech is finished, and she can dash from the classroom in search of some badly needed relief.

This dance, a combination of subtle and obvious movements, aims to resist the body's natural urges and avoid an embarrassing mishap. Sometimes, the trope might be parodied by framing it as an actual dance, complete with music, and it may lead to an Accidental Dance Craze. Most commonly observed with children or those experiencing a lengthy Potty Emergency that might just ultimately result in a Potty Failure. Like those two tropes, it is frequently Played for Laughs.

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Examples:

Advertising

• A billboard by Detroiter Travel Center has a stickman doing a potty dance right next to the words "Almost there!" and "Exit 32 East".
• Pull Ups had a commercial where kids do the Potty Dance (albeit not a dance meaning you need to go, but a dance about the potty). It has steps! You can visit their website to download the song.
• In the commercial for cat litter, it showed cats doing the potty dance, a method of leaning forward on their hind legs with their paws on their crotches, occasionally hopping.◊

Anime and Manga

• A segment of Episode 37 of Atashin'chi is dedicated to how you shouldn't wait to go because you won't be able to hide it anyway because of this inevitable trope.
• Bomberman Jetters: In episode 5 - "Underground, Go! Go! Go!", Shirobon does this throughout the episode during his Potty Emergency, while tunneling underground.
• In Case Closed: Conan fakes a Potty Emergency during a case this way (in order to Pull the Thread on the suspect).
• Maruko in one of the Chibi Maruko-chan manga issues/Episode 297, where she starts doing "the duck walk".
• Sena does this in Episode 10 of The Comic Artist and his Assistants while having a Potty Emergency in a stuck elevator.
• Referenced in one episode of Crayon Shin-chan, where Mitzi was panicking when she noticed she had a spider crawling on her hand. Her son Shin walks outside and thinks she's doing the "Pee-pee dance".
• Izzy in the second part of Digimon: The Movie (though his reason why depends on whether you're watching the dub or original — either Tai's mom's cooking kicked in or Koushiro simply drank too much).
• In Mission 3 Episode 4 of Dirty Pair Flash, Yuri does a hands-free version of this due to there being no bathroom available in her dreamhouse (don't ask, it's a long story).
• In Elfen Lied, Lucy (as Nyuu) does this, before finally just going on the floor due to being unable to communicate her needs.
• In Episode 10 of Future Diary, Minene does a one-handed version of this due to needing to go while handcuffed to Nishijima.
• G-Spot Express: Sayaka does a hands-free version of this in OVA 1 due to needing to go while on the train. Alas, thanks to the main groper, she doesn't make it...
• Here Comes the Three Angels: Jun does a hands-free (and eventually a pants grabbing) version of this in Episode 5, while out in the forest.
• High-Rise Invasion: Yuri does a squirmy sitting-down variant in Chapter 14, while at a cafe. She quickly asks where the bathroom is.
• In Episode 12 of Hybrid × Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia, Aine does a skirt-grabbing version of this, after overwhelming her body by using too much power. Unfortunately for her, Kizuna still needs more power, and since it’s derived from embarrassment…
• In the one-shot adult manga I Got Myself into a Weird Situation and Awful Things Happened to Me, Kaya Okuno does this on her walk home before finally resorting to just going in the bushes.
• Ikkitousen: Bachou does a hands-free variant of this in Episode 5 of Xtreme Xecutor while being held captive.
• In Episode 2 of Interviews with Monster Girls, Machi's body does this after drinking too much juice.
• In Episode 7 of Kodomo No Jikan, Usa does the skirt-grab variant of this when needing to go while on a hike.
• Mikan often end up doing this in many episodes of Let's Go Quintuplets!, due to her tendency to drink too much juice. She never makes it...
• Sae does a Seiza Squirm variant of this in Episode 3 of Magic User's Club while being trapped in a closet.
• Emma does a rather energetic one in Episode 4 of The Magnificent Kotobuki after exiting a plane.
• In Episode 5 of Maken-ki! Two, Aki does a one-handed version of this.
• In Episode 6 of Miami Guns, Yao does this while undercover.
• Mitsudomoe: Mitsuba does this briefly while running out of her classroom in episode 5 of Zouryouchuu!.
• Eris does the dress-grab variant in Chapter 7 of the manga of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation.
  Rudy: Ojou-sama... if you need to use the bathroom, it's over there.
  Eris: I know where it is!!
• Nekopara: Episode 1 has Cinnamon doing this while waiting for Maple to get out of the bathroom. The English dub even has Maple namedropping this trope when she gets out.
• Ojamajo Doremi:
  • In episode 7 of the original series, Pop does this when she has to take a whizz extra bad due to having a bit too much ice cream.
  • In episode 5 of Naisho, Pop does this on top of a desk while with Hana-chan's mind when suffering from a Potty Emergency, causing her classmates to panic. Luckily, Doremi takes her out before her Potty Failure ensues.
• The main Ojousama, Shizuka, does this in Chapter 2 of Ojousama wa Nigedashita! while waiting for Tooru to get out of the bathroom.
• Osomatsu-san:
  • In the "Kerosene" segment in Episode 23, Osomatsu does this, after Todomatsu gives him some spiked tea that makes him have to go.
  • In the "Super Detergent" segment in Season 2's Episode 2, Iyami briefly does this. He then rushes off to the bathroom, leaving the titular detergent behind, which leads to the Matsu brothers finding it… And mistaking it for alcohol.
• Pani Poni Dash!: Becky does a jumpy hands-free version of this in Episode 10 while holding a bomb.
• Listen to me, girls. I am your father!:
  • Miu does this in Episodes 1, 12 (while standing outside to prepare a surprise for the girls’ father (1) and then their new father (12)), and 10 (while sitting).
  • Sora does a wriggly Seiza Squirm version of this in Episode 3, when the girls first arrive at their new father’s house.
• In Episode 1 of Petopeto-san, the titular character does the Seiza Squirm variant of this, while her hand is stuck to the male lead’s hand. This leads to him standing outside an outhouse while she takes care of things.
• Prison School:
  • In Episode 2 of the live-action series, Hana does the hands-free variant from drinking too much dandelion tea.
  • In Episode 12, Meiko jumps around like crazy while trying to get her Spy Catsuit zipper unstuck during a Potty Emergency.
• Ponko Tsundere na Osananajimi: In Chapter 2, Sanae does the pee-pee dance the whole time as she's introducing Kana to Shouta, both who finally call her out on holding it near the chapter's end.
• Usagi does the wriggly sitting-down variant in Act 31.5 and the corresponding manga chapter of Sailor Moon Crystal, much to Chibiusa's embarrassment.
• Saiyuki: Goku does one in the movie while the group is staying in the mansion of Houlan's master.
• Senryu Girl: Non-verbal Nanako will do this to get her point across when she needs to go.
• In Episode 8 of Shimoneta, Anna does this while toilet paper is being confiscated.
• Eri does a Seiza Squirm version of this at the start of Episode 2 of Strange Dawn due to no available human facilities.
• Strawberry Marshmallow: Chapter 14/Episode 6: Miu does it while lying on the bed because holding it in is temporarily preferable to entering the bathroom without a Varia Suit.
• In the first chapter of Tail Chaser, the main Cat Girl does this after drinking way too much.
• Honoka does the legs-together sitting-down variant in Episode 18 of The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye, while on a plane.
• Lala does a squirming sitting-down variant in OVA 6 of To Love Ru. The bathroom/water-related commercials that play on TV do not help...
• In volume 2 of Tokyopop's Warcraft: Legends manga, a little girl does this in the story "Family Values.", while telling the knight with her not to look while she pees on some rocks.
• Yo-kai Watch: The Youkai Fidgephant causes people (and other Youkai) to do this by giving them Potty Emergencies. Fidgephant himself constantly is doing a variant of this, but by holding his trunk, which is full of water.
• In Episode 2 of Yosuga no Sora, Akira does a hands-free version of this while being unable to stop helping others.
• In Season 3's Episode 10 of YuruYuri, Akari does a hands-free version of this while visiting Yui’s house.

Asian Animation

• Happy Heroes: In season 10 episode 9, Smart S. is trying to act more like Careful S. in order to gain more popularity. At one point, he’s shown calmly striding into the bathroom at school. The moment he locks the stall door behind him though, he drops the act and starts fidgeting in discomfort before relieving himself.

Card Games

• The Green Apple Quicksteps card from Shadowrun, which removes an enemy runner from play for a turn.

Comedy

• There's a joke that the Charleston dance developed from this trope.
  • Also used by Seattle-based Almost Live! in the Green River Dance parody as the "Gotta Pee Dervish".
  • As well as Irish dancing.

Comic Books

• Deadpool does this in Issue #31 of Cable & Deadpool for a few pages, after spending a lot of time tied up.
• In the children's comic Lumberjanes, Genki Girl Ripley does one through the backgrounds of several pages.
• In the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) Spinoff Sonic Universe (Specifically Issue #56) Bean the Dynamite does this.

Fan Works

• In Benefits of Old Laws Harry does the sitting-down version after Cormac slips a dangerously-large amount of laxative into his morning pumpkin juice.
• A My Little Pony fanfiction set a year or two after Season Six when the Cake twins are about two called Pound and Pumpkin Cake's Adventures and Misadventures in Potty Training, Pumpkin does this in the chapter "Fluttershy and the Missing Potty" and later they both do this in the chapter "Two Foals, One Outhouse". Pound does this on a cloud in "The Great Cloud Flush".
• In Rainbow Dash vs the Toilet, which is a fanfiction of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic featuring the Mane Six and Luna as foals, Fluttershy does one of these at the end, while remarking that she "has to go potty really bad".
• This The Powerpuff Girls (1998) fanart has a normal-looking Bunny doing this while waiting in line with her sisters for the bathroom.
• There is a meme of Captain Kirk from Star Trek: The Original Series in a position which looks like this out of context. Spock is saying "Captain, if you need to go, go. Doing the pee-pee dance is not logical."
• The Hope of Family:
  Theo's nappy was sitting on the stairs and the two of them walked up the stairs and picked it up. They went to see Theo as he stood near the gate doing a little dance.
  "You need to go toilet?" John asked him as he got a nod, "You don't need a nappy?" he got a vigorous shake of the head for that.
• In The Loud House fanfiction A Load of Bulk, Lucy walks with her legs clenched together because she has to pee.
• Us and Them: The side story "Right Lesson, Wrong Time" has one of Aeris and Sephiroth's sons doing this while Sephiroth tries to convince his other son to let his brother into the bathroom to use the potty.
• Second Chances:
  "Dammit," Harry muttered after unsuccessfully jiggling a locked door, waiting impatiently for whoever was currently occupying the restroom and performing a dance done since his first attempts of 'potty training'.
  
  Old habits die hard.
• In Six, Revisited Harry does one after a traumatic experience causes him to mentally regress into a six-year-old.

Films — Animated

• Monsters, Inc.:
  Sulley: That's a cute little dance you got there, it's almost like you gotta...
  Boo: (squeals desperately)
  Sulley: ...Oh! (cut to Sulley standing outside a stall)
• Over the Hedge: Hammy the Squirrel does this after waking up from hibernation.
  Hammy: I gotta go wee-wee! (zooms off)
  Verne: Not in the lake we drink from!
• Toy Story 3: Bonnie does this during playtime with Woody at her house.
  Bonnie: (to Woody) Want some coffee? ("drinks" from plastic cup) It's good for you, but don't drink too much, or you'll hafta... hafta... Be right back! (runs to bathroom)

Films — Live-Action

• An outtake exists from an Abbott and Costello film of Costello stopping a take by doing the dance because he had to pee.
• Blazing Saddles: When Taggart gets an idea, he gets excited and jumps around; Hedley Lamarr thinks he's doing one of these.
• Bronson Pinchot does this in a film called Second Sight, except it's an extremely elaborate dance they call the peepee dance. He plays a psychic who is channeling someone else who has to pee.
• Mentioned in The Great Muppet Caper; Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo are developing pictures to catch a jewel thief, but they do it in the Happiness Hotel's only restroom. As Pops says, "Catch him in another room! People are dancin' up an' down on one leg out here!". This unfortunately leads to an Inconvenient Darkroom Illumination that ruins the trio's evidence.
• In this 2004 German Made-for-TV Movie Prinzessin Macht Blau, the titular character does the jiggling-up-and-down variation of this trope.

Literature

• A kid's book about the human body has the human figure doing this at the bottom of the page describing the kidneys and bladder.
  Oh, it's time to go—NOW!
• According to Robert Parrish's autobiography (he was one of the Little Rascals), they called this a European, or You're a'-Peein'.
• A scene in Darth Vader and Son, a non-canon Star Wars picture book, depicts little Luke Skywalker doing a dance that is possibly this.
  Vader: Luke, do you need to go potty?
  Luke: No.
  Vader: Well, you're kind of doing a little dance.
  Luke: I don't have to go.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
  • Fregly reportedly does this while screaming "JUICE!! JUUUUIIIICE!!!!" as part of his bizarre use of slang.
  • When Rowley is having a Potty Emergency while trick-or-treating, Greg draws him doing this.
  • When Greg has a potty emergency in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, he interprets his pig's circling motions as him also needing to go.
• In the Dinosaur Vs book "Dinosaur vs. the Potty", Dinosaur does a potty dance because he has to pee, which the narrator initially mistakes for a victory dance.
• Elmo's Potty Book: A scene has Elmo doing this while at the playground.
  Sometimes Elmo is so busy playing that he doesn't remember to use the potty. But Elmo's mommy reminds him to listen to his body.
• A variation occurs in Men at Arms The corrupt and bullying Captain Quirke kicks Gaspode The Wonder Dog. Gaspode, a dog capable of human-level speech, gets revenge by planting the suggestion in Quirke's mind that he he has an itchy bottom. Prickle, prickle, prickle. ^note Because nobody believes a dog can speak, Quirke thinks the prompts he can hear are coming from his own mind, and responds accordingly Quirke's speech of gloating triumph to the seemingly defeated heroes is deflated by his dancing and squirming while he tries to gloat. Eventually, he gives up and runs for it.
• A young prince does this while trying to find his mummy so she can help him use the bathroom in the children's book Prince Farfenugen and the Potty Dance.
• In Horatio Hornblower novel The Commodore, Hornblower desperately needs to escape a reception line at an imperial dinner because he's realized the Finnish translator provided to him plans to assassinate the Czar (using pistols stolen from Hornblower) and provides "the only excuse he could think of" to the master of ceremonies to get away. Though that excuse is not explicitly named, that Hornblower hopping from one foot to the other in his haste adds to the effect makes it pretty clear.
• I Need A Wee:
  • Alan squirms when he needs to pee, to the point where he's mistaken for actually dancing several times.
  • In the line for the boys' bathroom, there are nine toys, seven of which are squirming (the other two look unhappy but are staying still).
• Planet Earth Is Blue: On Nova's first day at Jefferson Middle School, a teacher asks her if she has to go to the bathroom after she starts squirming.
• Roys Bedoys: In “Stop Being Stubborn, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys fidgets on the couch and Loys thinks it’s because he has to pee. He turns out to be right when Roys wets his pants.
• Time To: In "Time to Pee!", two girls and one boy are seen with their knees together while a boy is seen with his knees together and his hands on his crotch.
• Wiggles' First Day at School: Wiggles has a Potty Emergency after recess, but doesn't want to miss the next activity.
  Everyone came inside and sat down, but Wiggles kept squirming! The teacher said, "Wiggles, do you need to go to the restroom?" And he said, "No, I don't want to!"
  And the children said, "No, no, Wiggles! When you're doing the Potty Dance, it's time to go!
• Zenobia July: While Zen is visiting the Martins, Melissa and her mom start talking about how tragic it is that Elijah's parents have encouraged his "delusion" that he's a boy, not knowing Zen is trans too. Zen wants to hide from everyone else but also wants to act natural, so she asks where the bathroom is while she does a potty dance on her tiptoes.

Live-Action TV

• In the Friends episode "The One with the Evil Orthodontist", Chandler does a dance after calling Danielle because he has to pee, which he clarifies to Monica after she asks if he has to pee. He says "That's why I'm dancing".
• In Episode 6 of the South Korean TV show The City Hall, the extremely cute but thoroughly obnoxious councilwoman Min Joo-hwa does the skirt-grab-leg-cross variation during her Potty Emergency, since she has foolishly repeatedly insulted the owner of the only toilet in the area, who is a lot bigger than she is and is holding the key out of reach. Despite her utmost efforts to hold her pee, she eventually suffers a humiliating Potty Failure when Shin Mi-rae smacks her hard on the bottom, and she wets her smart yellow skirt in front of journalists.
• The Love Boat: Isaac does this when forced to share a cabin (and a bathroom) with the other male crew.
• Spoofed in Malcolm in the Middle where Dewey's way of charming their babysitter is to bounce up and down singing "Poopy poopy poopy" over and over.
• The MythBusters tested whether this method was more or less effective at staving off the inevitable, with inconclusive results. It works for some people, but not for others, depending on individual biologies.
• Inverted in Tour of Duty. One of the soldiers is suffering from the runs, and has to keep going off into the bushes while on patrol to drop his pants. While he does so, a huge toad jumps onto his dropped pants. At the same time, he happens to see some Vietcong slipping out of a tunnel to evade the American soldiers; the soldier quickly yanks up his pants and Hilarity Ensues.
• In The Revenge Files Of Alistair Fury a boy does this whilst waiting outside the toilet while Alistair and his friends are holding a meeting inside it. (He doesn't make it).
• In the Unfabulous episode "The Road Trip" Addie is going through her flashbacks of her dad talking about the car, sports show. The last one shows her dad singing from behind the bathroom door, and Addie is squirming while having a potty emergency. He continues to sing as she waits impatiently in agony desperately waiting for the restroom.
• You Can't Do That on Television: A sketch in "Moving" has one of the kids come racing up to Lance while he is unpacking after a move and demanding to know where the toilet is packed: all the while doing the potty dance. Lance patiently explains that you don't take the toilet with you when you move house. The kid urgently informs him that previous occupants of this house had.

Manhua

• Shuangsheng Lingtan: Xiaoyu does a shirt-pull variant at the start of the first episode, while walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Music

• A children's songwriter named Judy Pancoast wrote a song called The Potty Dance, which is about a school child who is doing this while having trouble paying attention at school, after drinking a lot of milk and water. It is described in the intro as "swinging your hips from side to side, hopping up and down, knocking your knees together and looking really uncomfortable".
• A song on YouTube, entitled the Pee Pee Song, goes "I really have to go pee. I'm doing the pee-pee dance." as part of its lyrics.
• In the song "My Willy Won't Go" by a person known as Koit who does Toilet Humor songs, the protagonist is seen doing this at the end while queueing at the toilet stall.
• "I Need to Pee", which is a song parodying The Little Mermaid (1989)'s "Under the Sea", has the line "I do this crazy dance or else I'm gonna wet my pants."

Newspaper Comics

• Jon really needs to hurry up on cleaning that litterbox, judging by how energetic Garfield's dance is getting.

Other

• One T-shirt slogan states that "Line dancing was invented by women waiting to use the restroom."

Puppet Shows

• Bear in the Big Blue House: Tutter does in the book version of "When You've Got To Go." The book even describes him as "dancing from side to side."
• In "Accidents Can Happen" from The Pajanimals, Cowbella instructs the other Pajanimals that "Cowbella says dance like crazy," during her Cowbella Says game. Squacky points out that he only dances like Cowbella is doing when he has to go to the potty, but she insists that she just likes dancing that way and that it's part of the game. Almost immediately afterwards, she has a Potty Failure.

Video Games

• Ninjala: The "I Gotta Go!" emote is literally this. When used, the player's avatar will put their hands on their crotch and squirm around with an embarrassed expression on their face.
• Final Fantasy VII features in NPC at the Wall Market bar doing one of these while waiting for a sick bar patron to finish up.
• A special Bad Moon adventure in Kingdom of Loathing parodies Nobody Poops by having your character suddenly realize that you've never emptied your bladder, ever. The resulting effect increases item drops, because dancing always increases item drops in this game.
• Persona 4: Yosuke dances around because he has to go to the bathroom when the protagonist gets himself stuck inside a TV in the beginning.
• Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2: The boy with the bedwetting problem in the "Bambina" stage will do this if you perform poorly.
• In RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 & 2, park guests with a high enough bathroom score change their normal walking animation into a frenetic one of these, particularly if your park's bathrooms are poorly placed or if you're evil enough to charge to use the bathroom. In Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, the park guests do this when their Toilet meter is high.
• The Sims: Sims do this and yell at the player to get their attention so the player can direct them to the restroom.
• In the Tamagotchi PC Pack game, all the Tamagotchi except for Kuchipatchi and Ichigotchi do this when you say the command "Use the bathroom" through the microphone.
• An app designed to help toilet train children has the protagonists do this while saying "I really have to go".
• Children do this while standing in the bathroom line if their Restroom need is Critical in Zoo Tycoon 2. Adults do so occasionally also, but they're not as demonstrative about it.
• In The Urinal Game, trying to leave on level three has the message "don't just stand there dancing around".
• Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist: After the town's water supply is poisoned, Freddy arrives at the outhouse to find about six people waiting in line, all dancing.

Visual Novels

• Early on in ClockUp's Euphoria, Rika does the skirt-grab variant of this trope while being trapped with the others.
• In Lovely Day of Girlfriends & Me, Yuka does the skirt-grab variant of this while on a date with Shou, before finally just going on the ground.
• Sucre Portable: Sayoko does a one-handed version of this, while out on a walk with Keiichi.

Web Animation

• Chibi Jaune is stuck doing one as people get in the door ahead of him, but he doesn't want to admit to Pyrrha why he's acting like that.

Webcomics

• In in first chapter of Sunstone, Lisa does this while asking Ally where her bathroom is.
• Stand Still, Stay Silent: The Distant Prologue includes a family trying to escape The Plague with their dog, which starts doing this after being in the car for too long.

Web Original

• Neopets: In the game "Petpetsitter", the Petpets who need to pee will hold their legs together, sweat, tremble, and make whiny noises.

Web Videos

• Discussed in Diamond Axe Studios Music's Summer 2020 video, where Sean compares the "Toosie Slide" dance to squirming around like a toddler who has to pee.

Western Animation

• Wakko during the, well, Potty Emergency Trope Namer Animaniacs cartoon, after drinking too much soda.
• In the second season of the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! cartoon, the Killer Tomato Task Force had to fake one to get past the tomato guard and rescue Doctor Gangreen.
• An unnamed Water Tribe boy does this in the second episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender while Sokka is trying to training some kids for war.
• Beavis And Butthead both do this in "Take A Number" while waiting for a Port-a-Potty.
• Rosie does a wriggly sitting-down version as Mommy carries her to see Santa Claus in Caillou's Holiday Movie.
  Mommy: (trying to sit her in Santa's lap) What is it, sweetie?
  Rosie: Bafroom.
• In Camp Lazlo Lazlo beat Edward in a lemonade drinking contest and when called over for a winner picture he started to do this dance in the episode "Hold It Lazlo".
• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood:
  • Prince Wednesday in "Prince Wednesday Goes to the Potty". Teacher Harriet lampshades this. Daniel gets one in that same episode too.
    Teacher Harriet: I can see you're wiggling around a little bit. Do you have to go to the potty?
  • Daniel while at the music store in "Daniel Goes To The Potty". His father lampshades it as well.
    Daniel's Father: Is that a dance move?
• In the Fairly Oddparents episode "Crime Wave" Mom and Dad decide to have a prune juice drinking contest after they lock Timmy in the bathroom to force him to take a bath. Towards the end of the episode they are both doing a potty dance as they try to get back in.
• In the first episode of Freakazoid!, Duncan does this while Dex is holed in the bathroom after being surprised by his new Super-Powered Alter Ego; amusingly, despite being a Big Brother Bully, Duncan says "I have to make tinky!".
• Futurama: Bender does it briefly in Bender's Big Score after drinking a bunch of beers, lampshades comments on the lunacy of a robot having to go to the bathroom.
• Loopy did this in KaBlam! due to Larry being in the bathroom too long... he recently got muscular, and was admiring himself.
• Littlest Pet Shop (2012): Sunil does this in "Sweet (Truck) Ride", during the Star Trek Imagine Spot, and Zoe does this in "The Very Littlest Pet Shop", while needing to go for a walk.
• The Loud House:
  • Lincoln does this in "Bathroom Break!" and "In Tents Debate", both times at his house, while waiting for his sisters to get out of the bathroom.
  • Leni does this in "Kick The Bucket List" while at the park, asking Lincoln (actually a rock he put in his place) to watch Lola and Lana while she goes to the bathroom.
• Pinkie Pie does this in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Last Round-Up" after a long train ride.
• Nina does this in every episode of Nina Needs to Go!, where pretty much every episode, she has a Potty Emergency.
• In The Penguins of Madagascar, Mort does it in in "Friend In A Box" after drinking a lot of lemonade given to him by Kowalski and Julien. Julien remarks that he never learned "that dance." Being the king, he just goes wherever he is. Kowalski takes two steps away from Julien upon hearing that.
• Pingu does this in "Pingu's Lavatory Story", after drinking way too much.
• Recess: Mikey does a shirt-grab version in “Parent’s Night”, after T.J. makes him drink water from a hosepipe for a scheme to get inside Spinelli’s house and see what she’s trying to hide about her parents.
• Ren and Stimpy as "Fire Dogs" are awarded the sacred Golden Fire Hydrant helmets - after doffing them they discover a long line of dogs behind them doing The Dance.
• Chuckie does this at the end of the Rugrats episode "A Dose of Dil" after drinking too much ginger ale, and again at the beginning of "Potty-Training Spike", while holding it in because he’s too shy to go while the grownups are watching him.
• In the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "The Secret Serum", the whole gang fakes a Potty Emergency to sneak into a restaurant and decides to make it more convincing by Potty Dancing. ^note  The person might wonder why they were fine five seconds ago and it's urgent now
• In "Hello Doggie!" from Sid the Science Kid, Gerald does one while Gabriella is pretending to be a veterinarian and they think he's pretending to be a dog telling her that he needs to go to the bathroom, as they've been learning about animal communication. He wasn't pretending, though, he really does need to go to the bathroom.
• The Simpsons:
  • Homer Simpson needs to go to pee really badly after drinking way too much crab juice. He clutches his hands between thighs and starts hopping. Moments later he's desperately rolling about the bonnet of his car and pressing his legs together. He also hops up and down in the elevator as he tries to reach the bathroom.
  • Otto is mesmerized by Ralph's Potty Dance in "How The Test Was Won".
• 6teen:
  • Caitlin does this in "Boo, Dude!" (While seeing that the girls’ washroom at the mall is broken), "Fish And Make Up" (while rushing into the bathroom after holding it all day), and "Cheapskates" (while holding it due to not wanting to use the gross washrooms at the mall… While her friends make water sounds).
  • Jonesy does this in the beginning of "Over Exposed", while waiting for Jen to get out of the bathroom.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "SpongeBob vs. The Patty Gadget", Patrick is not celebrating SpongeBob's victory over the Patty Gadget because he has to go to the bathroom, and is visibly doing a potty dance.
• Stōked: Emma does this in "Fast Times when the Rip Tide's High" when trying to find someone to look after the surfboard exhibit for her while she runs to the bathroom.
• Beast Boy in Teen Titans does a potty dance while waiting for Starfire to get out of the bathroom as she examines a large growth on her head. It gets amusingly annoying when his dance is interspersed with various cuts to water sounds.
  • The episode "Serious Business" from the spin off Teen Titans Go! has a whole musical number about this, as quoted and linked to above.
• In Tutenstein, this is the first thing the titular character does after waking up from the dead.
• We Bare Bears:
  • Cub Panda does this in "Potty Time", while he and his brothers look for a bathroom.
  • Grizzly does this in "Planet Bears", while trying to find the bathroom at the supermarket.
• In an episode of What's with Andy?, Andy has a Potty Emergency after drinking too much grape juice and lampshades his Potty Dancing by saying and daydreaming "Hold it in, do a dance, that's the way to keep dry pants".
• In Winston's Potty Chair, Winston does this while he listens to some music playing on the radio. His mother sees this and asks him if he is just dancing or if he needs to go to the bathroom. Winston tells her, "Potty!", and she tells him to hurry and use the bathroom before he has an accident.

Real Life

• In Legoland in Windsor near one of the toilets, there are two Lego men doing this.
• Truth in Television for just about every toddler on the planet.
• There's an old joke saying that tapdancing was invented by a man called Stepan Stepanovich who was inspired by the unusual dances his family performed every time he occupied the toilet for too long.
• A How-to YouTube channel maker has a video called "How to Do the Need to Pee Dance", which has two professional dancers called Adrianne and Zach relaying the scientific theories on why some humans do this and doing a version that would be the most effective to this theory. They then combined the theories to create the "Ultimate Need to Pee Dance". It really looked like a dance!

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