History Main / WaferThinMint

[[quoteright:201:[[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/garfield_ornament_christmas_tree_9942.gif]]]]
[[caption-width-right:201:One more ornament is the final tipping point.]]

First, fill something to the nick of overfilling. It just doesn't matter what it is: a bag almost bursting with stuff; an ominously creaking cliff; an elevator nearing its maximum occupancy; [[Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife a morbidly obese gourmand's stuffed stomach]]; you name it. When you've finished, add just a teeny, tiny bit more. Watch your recipient blow/crack/shatter instantly and/or loudly.

This trope applies to situations where maximal capacity is reached, and even an infinitesimal quantity surpassing it causes effects far more massive than common sense could predict.

Often preceded by a character [[TemptingFate declaring how nothing could go wrong]] before the proverbial mint is added.

Although the most common variation of this is when a group of people/stuff is at a ledge and a light feather/dust powder lands and it simply breaks apart instantly (and painfully), it's not only restricted to those cases. Also, it's not restricted to animation only, as the TropeNamer proves.

Known in popular culture as "the last straw" or "the straw that broke the camel's back," which also has a metaphorical meaning: the RantInducingSlight. Compare DeathOfAThousandCuts, CriticalExistenceFailure, CriticalEncumbranceFailure, ExplodingCloset, and TheStateroomSketch.

And yes, you may pronounce it "[[JustAStupidAccent waffer theen meent]]".

----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In CarlBarks' ''DonaldDuck'' comics story "A Christmas For Shacktown", Scrooge's money bin has become so full that when he drops in just one more dime, the ground under the bin caves in and all of his money falls into a ''deep'' pit with a thin floor -right over a lake of lava. We don't find out [[SnapBack how he got it all out]] until DonRosa's story "Gyro's First Invention".
* ''FoxTrot'' did a variation as a ShoutOut to the TropeNamer, with Peter and Paige's heads bloated from an all-night cram session (and a viewing of ''Meaning of Life'') and Jason offering them "onlee a wafer-theen formula".
* An issue of ''TheBatmanAdventures'' had Mastermind, Mr. Nice, and The Professor escaping from Gotham City State Penitentiary ridiculously easily. As Mastermind and Nice try to think of some way to [[WeNeedADistraction create a diversion]] in the cafeteria (which is at the moment occupied by hundreds of violent, sociopathic, could-snap-at-any-moment hardened criminals having dinner), the Professor simply stands up, clears his throat, and calmly announces: "Fire." ''All'' the convicts panic, the guards (thinking they're trying to start a riot) retaliate, and then a ''real'' riot breaks out, during which the trio slip away unnoticed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Commercials]]
* The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-fbWgDwUKY US commercial]] for ''[[SuperMarioBros Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island]]'' is similar to the scene from ''The Meaning of Life'', with a man eating a huge amount of food to represent everything that was crammed into the game. When he's full, he has a bit of whipped cream or something (to represent a bonus level) and ... kablooie. Which soon got censored after it first aired. In the original versions of it the dude is seen exploding. Censored versions had him exploding off screen.
* A 90's commercial for a car had a man on a step ladder pouring soda into a very fragile bucket to represent the amount of gasoline needed to power other brand cars. He continuously pours more soda in to represent every stop he makes to get gas. When the bucket is about to overflow, the narrator tells him to get some gas "for the trip back home". Guess what happens next?
* Two Australian men have loaded a pick-up truck to capacity with Castlemaine XXXX beer. They add a couple of bottles of sherry for the ladies, and the truck's groaning suspension finally collapses. Of course, they conclude it was too much sherry.
* In an Allstate insurance ad, the "mayhem" pitchman is lying on a garage roof in winter, representing a growing load of snow. At the end, he blows air at a snowy tree branch, causing a few ounces of snow to fall on him and the roof to immediately collapse under the additional weight.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Eastern Animation]]
* In one of the episodes of ''NuPogodi'', the Wolf had barely managed to lift a very heavy barbell, when a butterfly lands on it, with predictable results.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife''. A literal mint was used in this one, and effectively makes this the TropeNamer. See the dialog on Quotes.WaferThinMint.
* In the movie ''Film/{{Jack|1996}}'', the treehouse where a bunch of kids, RobinWilliams as [[OvernightAgeUp a forty-year-old adult that's actually a kid with severe growth problems]] and Bill Cosby singing and stomping feet falls down when a butterfly lands on not even the treehouse itself but a ''splinter'', which slowly bends until it touches the treehouse, and then everything falls apart.
* In ''Film/TrueLies'' the bad guys' truck is hanging off the edge of the bridge and they sigh in relief that it didn't go over. [[spoiler:Then a pelican lands on it...]]
* Film/JamesBond movie ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'': Car [[spoiler:with baddie who killed Bond's buddy]] is poised on edge of cliff; [[spoiler:Bond]] walks up and tosses [[spoiler:(the baddie's own calling card)]] a pin at the car. Expected results, but the car doesn't fall. In a subversion of sorts, [[spoiler:Bond]] gives the car a kick for good measure.
* Used twice with Pip in ''{{Enchanted}}''. Once by accident, the second as a kind of HeroicSacrifice. ([[DisneyDeath But it was a Disney movie]], so...).
* In ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'', Adam and Barbara are driving over a covered bridge and swerve to avoid a dog. They crash through the wall of the bridge and end up poised on the edge, teetering above a river. They look back and see the dog standing on a broken plank, panting happily at them. The dog hops off the plank, and over they go.
* In ''Film/BlackSheep'' -- the David Spade/Chris Farley comedy, not the horror-comedy with mutant sheep -- a huge boulder behind the cabin in which the two main characters are staying is loosened by, among other things, David Spade's character standing on it and a rodent digging under it. Finally, a bird flying overhead poops on it, and...
* ''Film/SpyHard'': In a flashback, Steele makes a false presidential rescue thinking there's a threat. He ends up having his feet hanging over the ledge of a bridge along with the president's car. He stretched his arms out with his wallet to keep himself from falling.
* In the film of ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' Justin has to make a bridge. He's very proud of it and taunts Alex until she wordlessly takes a pebble and tosses it on the bridge. The GenreSavvy can guess what happens.
* ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'': A truck adds to a [[DownInTheDumps massive pile of garbage]]. It gets compressed, but stays intact; Then a single can falls out of the truck, triggering an avalanche dozens of meters high.
* ''RoadTrip'': Seann Scott's character demonstrates he can spit across a ten-foot wide broken bridge. He did, but causing the other end of the bridge to collapse from his spit.
* In ''Film/TheHobbit'', [[AcroFatic Bombur]] is sitting on a bench that's audibly creaking under his weight. So one of the other dwarves decides to toss him a sausage, and the bench promptly collapses.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Interesting Times'', Rincewind is dangling above a giant fall, barely supported by a few rotting logs. A [[ButterflyOfDoom quantum butterfly]] lands on his hat, and, [[GenreSavvy wary of this exact trope]], Rincewind tries to blow it off - so it starts making it rain just over his head, which is enough to drop him. It also stings him with a very small lightning bolt.
* OlderThanRadio: In ''Literature/DombeyAndSon'', Creator/CharlesDickens says, 'As the last straw breaks the laden camel's back.
* The children's book ''The Mitten'' is about a small boy's mitten that gets dropped in the woods. First a little mouse finds the mitten and finds it a cozy nest. Then along comes a small frog, and then a rabbit, and the mitten is pretty much big enough for them, and quite warm. Then things start to get out of hand when a fox, then a wolf, and then a ''bear'' arrive and clamber for space in the mitten. Finally a doddering granny grasshopper comes along and blows off their cries of "No room! No room!" by saying, "There's always room for one more!" She nudges in one foot and the mitten goes plooie.
** In the Jan Brett version, the animals start with rabbit, and the mitten doesn't explode until a mouse snuggles herself on the bear's nose.
** Similarly, in the picture book "Who Sank the Boat", every time an animal gets in we're asked "Do you know who sank the boat?" The answer, of course, isn't one of the big animals but the little mouse, the last to get in, the smallest of all.
* The Annie M.G. Schmidt poem ''De brug bij Breukelen'' (''The Bridge Near Breukelen'') has everyone and everything going over a bridge safely, until a mosquito lands on it...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/EightSimpleRules'': CJ stands on the trap door to the attic, holding a bowling ball and a teddy bear. He drops the bowling ball so the trap door would go up. Nothing happens. He drops the teddy bear, and '''then''' the trap door goes up.
* In the ''Series/ICarly'' episode "iDate a Bad Boy" Spencer buys a pressure sensitive alarm in front of the door to prevent Carly from sneaking out. Carly jumps up and down on it, and it doesn't go off. Later, an obese postman comes to give a package to Spencer, telling him that it needed one more stamp. The postman steps on the sensor with the package. Nothing. Spencer gives him the stamp to complete the postage, and ''then'' alarm goes off.
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': George's wallet. The "mint" is a phone tab from an ad (a strip of paper just big enough to fit a phone number).
* ''Series/{{House}}'': Played with; the team has to diagnose a morbidly obese man in a coma. They eventually get to the point that they ''need'' to get an MRI. Only problem? The weight limit for the MRI is 450. The man in question weighs over 600.
-->'''Cameron''': The weight limit's obviously just an estimation. It's not like it can hold 450 pounds fine and then collapse under 451.
-->'''Chase''': He's not 1 pound over, he's 150 pounds over.
** Surprisingly, the MRI machine held until the patient woke up whereupon he promptly broke it via struggling to get out.
* The Series/MythBusters have tested the "bird landing on a car making it fall" scenario. (Busted.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Happens in [[http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1988/ga881221.gif this]] ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' strip (pictured above).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* According to [[{{WWE}} World Wrestling Entertainment]], the rings used for (among other things) the massive Royal Rumble Match held every January can bear the weight of approximately five non-metric tons, or 10,000 pounds - enough to bear the weight of about 40 standard-sized male wrestlers (the average male WWE Superstar weighing about 250 pounds). But if even a cruiserweight (wrestler weighing less than 200 pounds) jumped in after them, the whole thing would presumably collapse. Fortunately, 40 is the absolute maximum number of Superstars ever allowed in the Royal Rumble Match over its two-and-a-half decades of existence, and no more than 15 of those guys at the most are ever in the ring all at once (the overwhelming majority of the contestants being unable to stay in the match for 60 minutes, which is the average length of a Royal Rumble), so the chances of such a thing happening are practically nonexistent. When a superheavyweight (400 pounds or more) performs a top-rope maneuver on another superheavyweight, [[HilarityEnsues however...]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', once you've eaten enough to become satiated, eating (almost) ''anything'' will give you a warning. If you keep trying, you may choke to death. This includes the corpses left by wraiths, which are ''incorporeal''. Note that it's only possible to survive if you're wearing an amulet of magical breathing. This is referenced on "[[http://www.nethackwiki.com/wiki/Lessons_learned_the_hard_way Lessons Learned the Hard Way]]": "Don't eat wraith corpses when satiated. You don't get a warning."
* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'': "You eat the piece of after eight. Despite the wafer-thinness of the mint, you explode in a shower of gore." This happens if you eat it while full, which you can do because it doesn't actually contribute to your fullness [[DeathIsCheap (you can keep eating wafer-thin coins and exploding all day if you feel like it)]].
* All but [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 4'', when Dante explodes a huge towering Boss with [[CriticalExistenceFailure one hit point left]] with a single pistol bullet. Twice.
* CJ in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' [[BigEater can eat up to eleven super-size fast food meals]] perfectly comfortably. [[VomitDiscretionShot Try finishing it off with a salad though]]...
* In ''The VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', you can run at full speed while being 0.1 weight units under your limit and preform stunning feats of acrobatics if your level is high enough, but if, in that state, you get hit by a 0.1 weight arrow, you are instantly immobilized.
* While not quite the same thing, in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' the GodEmperor [[AntiVillain Fou-Lu]] has spent the entire game with a target on his head by the very empire that resurrected him. Near the end of the game, they decide to go all out [[spoiler: and drop a FantasticNuke on him. He survives this, only to notice the hair accessory of his love interest near him. They'd used her for ammo]]. This act effectively convinces him to go from HumansAreBastards but he can live with it to KillEmAll and then burn the world down.
* In ''GodHand'', when a demonic enemy is both down to their last bit of health and stunned, a prompt appears for "Poke of God", which causes Gene to finish the enemy with a light poke.
* It's possible to drain the patient's blood level in ''VideoGame/SurgeonSimulator2013'' to an incredibly minuscule amount via whichever tools you decide to use, then finish him off with something seemingly inconsequential. This happens in an Creator/AchievementHunter RageQuit video; the patient is stabilized at 1 mL of blood (out of 5600), then is killed by a jab from a syringe.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' Galatea is eating at a posh French restaurant and making her usual complete pig of herself. In a shout out to ''[[Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife Monty Python,]]'' it turns out the long-suffering waiter fed her The Wafer Thin Mint some time ago, to no effect, and she orders another ''plate-full'' of them, just to emphasize what a bottomless pit her stomach truly is. After the meal, she skips out on the check.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', Franchise/{{Superman}} memorably pushed a giant robot off the ledge of a roof with a small puff.
* More than once in classical WB, MGM and Disney cartoons.
** "Frigid Hare": [[Characters/BugsBunny Bugs]] and the big bad Eskimo are hanging onto a broken off ledge that is literally swinging in the wind. The penguin looks down at them, accidentally dislodging a single snowflake which drifts down onto the ledge...
** The classic Goofy bodybuilding sketch in ''Goofy Gymnastics''. He's holding up a weight that he can barely hold. A fly lands on one end, he starts to tumble, but stays up. The fly walks across the barbell, and at that time he falls through the floor.
** An example of the explosion version: In the early ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short ''Pigs is Pigs'', a young pig (not Porky) dreams he is being overfed by a MadScientist. As he leaves, [[BalloonBelly stuffed to the gills,]] he takes a bite off a drumstick and...Kaboom!
** Implied at the end of Creator/ChuckJones' ''Chow Hound'': "[[LaserGuidedKarma This time, we didn't forget the gravy!]]"
** Bugs Bunny sets it up in ''LittleRedRidingRabbit'', by piling a bunch of goods on top of the big bad wolf, who's straddled right over a bunch of hot coals, but just as he's climbing up a ladder to invoke the trope with a feather... LRRH shows up. Red is, in this case, a [[GenreSavvy Genre (or at least Story) Savvy]] teenager with a loud, obnoxious voice and a fairly clear idea of how things go. She's been spending the entire short harassing Bugs and the wolf ("Hey Grandmaaaaa!"), and her barging in while Bugs is busy is a Wafer Thin Mint all on its own. Bugs abandons his attempt to roast the wolf in favor of leaving ''Red'' at the bottom of the pile, while standing off to one side sharing a carrot with the wolf! That seems a bit harsh, even for [[TheScrappy Red.]]
--->'''Bugs:''' I'll do it, but I'll probably hate myself in the morning.
* This gag happened frequently on both ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}},'' possibly in reference to its frequent use in ''Looney Tunes''. In one of many examples from Tiny Toons, Babs adds "I just can't help myself" as she delicately places a single rose on top of a gigantic pile someone is carrying. Guess what happens.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** Used to great effect in the "Mr. Plow" episode, when a vehicle is peering off the edge of a road, about to topple in sideways. The saving gesture? Turning the ''radio dial'' to the left, causing the vehicle to flop back onto the road.
** In the beginning of "Poppa's Got A Brand New Badge" with a heatwave occurring causing the power plant to reach full capacity. What causes the city-wide blackout? [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Homer plugging in the dancing Santa Claus]].
** Bart gets sent to military school in "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson" as punishment for pulling a literally disastrous prank at the police station while he and his class were on a field trip there. The prank involved stealing every bullhorn in the station and lining them up end to end, creating a mega-mega-''mega''-megaphone the length of an entire room. A fly buzzes right past the speaker of the bullhorn nearest Bart's mouth, creating an [[HellIsThatNoise ominous rumble]] that sounds like a distant earthquake. Ignoring this, Bart puts his lips right up to the speaker and softly says, "Testing..." - and the result is a sonic shockwave that ripples across all of Springfield and levels half the town atomic-bomb style!
** Another episode had Moe the Bartender open a family restaurant called Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag. Not wanting to hire any waiters or waitresses, Moe takes all the orders himself, causing himself to become extremely stressed out and slowly go to pieces as the customers' demanding, insensitive, and sometimes rude behavior get the better of Moe. Krusty notices a throbbing vein of rage building up on Moe's forehead and points it out to the other diners, saying, "That guy's gonna blow." Sure enough, Moe finally reaches his breaking point when a [[TastesLikeDiabetes sickeningly cute]] little girl calls out to him that [[FunetikAksent "My sodie's too cold" and "My teef hurt."]] Moe explodes in a colossal temper tantrum: "WELL, THAT'S JUST TOO FREAKIN' BAD! I CAN TELL YOU WHERE TO PUT YOUR FREAKIN' 'SODIE', TOO!" The little girl starts crying, the customers all react with outrage at Moe's ClusterFBomb, and everyone files out of the restaurant as Moe desperately tries to apologize.
* An animated segment on ''Series/SesameStreet'' featured an elevator where first the operator, a fairy, soldier, witch, kangaroo, taxicab, fireman, clown, gorilla, and a mouse get on board. (The point of the sketch is to teach children how to count to ten.) When the mouse gets on board, the elevator shakes and then explodes, sending the operator falling to the bottom of the shaft.
** Another example: a kid yanks the bottom can of a stack and the whole store collapses.
* Stitch of ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'' can lift three thousand times his own weight, but collapses under even a little bit more.
** In ''WesternAnimation/StitchTheMovie'', Hamsterviel restrains Stitch with his weight "times three thousand and one!"
** This was dramatically demonstrated in one scene in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' where he is lifting ten girders and two bulldozers. The bad guy comments, "You can lift three thousand times your own weight and not an ounce more." He then proceeds to throw his backstage pass on the pile, causing a total collapse.
* ''Gone Nutty'', a short starring Scrat from ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'': Scrat has filled a log full of acorns and is just putting in the last one. But the log is so full that that last acorn keeps popping out. In trying to push it back in, the bottom collapses, sending all the nuts - and Scrat - tumbling down a cliff.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' has the [[TerribleTrio Beagle Boys]] mounting a full-scale offensive on Scrooge [=McDuck's=] Money Bin. Bigtime Beagle shows up wearing a full suit of armor; Scrooge shows up driving a ''tank''. Bigtime crows that his armor can withstand a 60mm shell; Scrooge responds by saying that his tank fires ''61''mm shells, and after counting on his fingers Bigtime figures out "That's one millimeter too many!" True to the trope, he takes the shell full-on and gets sent flying out of the Money Bin.
** Thanks to the SquareCubeLaw, this wafer's slightly more than wafer-thin; assuming it's the same shape, the thing would be about 11,000 mm^3 larger.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' episode ''Madame Blueberry'', the titular character goes on a major shopping spree and has everything she purchases sent to her opulent treehouse mansion while she keeps shopping. Unbeknownst to her, the stuff she's buying is overloading the tree, causing her house to teeter closer and closer to destruction. Eventually she catches on and manages to stop the deliveries, just as the last item has fortuitously stabilized the house. And then, a butterfly lands on the roof, tipping the treehouse and making everything inside it fall into the nearby lake. Then [[TreeBuchet the tree snaps back upright, catapulting her house]] off into the distance.
* ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'': the dam holding back the mountain of leftover food gives way when a single cherry falls on top of a scoop of ice cream.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': Boris and Natasha overloaded the raft with supplies from Moosylvania. Fearless Leader shows up from his sub awarding Boris with a one ounce medal, enough to sink their raft.
* In a song in the 3D children's cartoon ''WesternAnimation/WordWorld'', Pig makes a pizza with toppings that all start with the letter P. He stacks the pizza up with "toppings" ranging from popcorn to pickles, creating a tower of various foods. Finally, he adds a single peanut, causing the entire tower to fall.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'', Doug and Mr. Dink are aboard a fishing boat overloading with all sorts of mostly unnecessary equipment. Not until Mr. Dink needed the keys in which his wife tossed them to him enough to sink the boat with them on board.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In the episode "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", Amy takes Fry for a ride in her new car on Mercury. They proceed to run the fuel down by turning on all the appliances (including turning on the heater to counteract the air conditioning). The final straw is ''not'' when Fry puts Pop-Tarts™ in the toaster but rather when he ''turns up the darkness control'' on the toaster.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'': In one episode, a tree that has been growing since the time of the dinosaurs teeters on the edge of a cliff due to millions of years of erosion. Finally, a single fly lands on an exposed root-sending it toppling right into the protagonists' house.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' did a cliff-side variant in "Delorean Story-an". During a father and son road trip, Stan overinflated and burst his bubblegum at his face losing control and causing his car to nearly fall off a cliff. They manage to get out safely while the car is still in balance, until a Japanese motorist from an earlier encounter arrives and slightly adjusts their crooked side mirror causing the car to fall off the cliff.
--> '''Japanese Man''': "You askew my mirror. I askew yours." [he adjusts their mirror] "There. [[{{Irony}} Balance]]. Yin. Yang." [car falls off cliff] "Ooh... That was not my intent."
* True to its ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' origins, this trope shows up in ''WesternAnimation/TazMania''. In the first appearance of the Kiwi, Taz and Buddy Boar end up tied to a tree dangling over the edge of a cliff. The Kiwi returns Buddy's lucky coin, which it had stolen earlier, and the extra weight is enough to cause the tree to snap.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'', a hackey sack that Jenny launched into space adds enough mass to a meteor to make it a threat.
* In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E9PinkieApplePie Pinkie Apple Pie]]" from ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', the Apple family and Pinkie Pie, sailing down a river in a make-shift boat weakly held together by vines and tree sap, fall over a waterfall. The boat manages to safely survive, and just as Granny Smith [[TemptingFate is amazed that the boat is still in one piece]], Pinkie, held aloft by balloons, lands on the boat. Cue the boat splitting in two and sinking immediately.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox The Paradox of the Heap]] intentionally takes advantage of most people's tendencies to ''ignore'' the WaferThinMint.
* A riddle features a clever aversion of this. Suppose a truck weighing one tonne at the start of its journey (including the driver) is driving across a bridge with a weight limit of exactly one tonne. Halfway across the bridge, a robin weighing 75 grams lands on the bridge. What happens? [[spoiler: Nothing: the truck now weighs less than a tonne, as it has burnt up some of the fuel which makes up some of its mass.]]
** Other riddles play it straight. One man weighing 248 pounds is carrying three 1-pound coconuts, and needs to cross a bridge with a weight limit of 250 pounds. How does he do it? [[spoiler:He juggles, but this is a case of YouFailPhysicsForever since throwing up a coconut results in additional downward weight.]]
*** Alternatively, [[spoiler:cross with only one coconut at a time]].
** Regardless of which riddle is chosen, in reality bridges are posted with a weight limit below their actual maximum load - [[DefiedTrope in order to ensure that bridges won't snap simply by adding a straw to the load.]]
*** While the weight limit is usually a catch-all, it's also possible to drive a vehicle that may weigh more than the weight limit if it has enough pressure distributed across the bridge (rather than at one point). For instance, there are tables that claim can hold up a ton... if it's spread out across the table.
**** Can only work with supported bridges (but doesn't necessarily have to), if it's a hanging construction you have all the strain exerted length-wise.
* If you supersaturate a solution--dissolve something into a solvent (e.g. water) so that there is more of the solute (e.g. sugar) present than there could be under normal conditions--adding the tiniest amount of the solute into the apparently clear liquid will cause it to crystallize, as the added crystal provides a seed for the excess solute to grow upon. This is ''beyond'' annoying, among other things, when you are trying to make toffee.
** Useful, though, in chemical heat packs. Just snap the enclosed metal disc inside out, the mechanical shock seeds crystallization, and the pack releases the stored heat of the solution.
** To those more chemistry-savvy, the action described above is referred to as "falling out."
** Analogously, homogeneous fluids in clean, smooth containers can under some circumstances be heated beyond their normal boiling point without boiling. Disturbing the fluid sufficiently, or introducing nucleation points, can then cause flash-boiling and potentially a small steam explosion.
*** Also, changing its pressure can cause it to boil. This, combined with the fact that evaporating liquids absorb heat, is very useful for refrigeration.
*** This was shown on ''Series/MythBusters'', it happens most often in everyday life by somebody trying to boil purified water, usually in a microwave, will explode if you put anything into it.
** Equivalent to the superheating described above, you can also supercool a fluid below the freezing point in a clean, smooth, container. Adding a nucleation site (or even just jolting the container) can cause it to instantly freeze.
*** Also examined on ''Series/MythBusters'', by supercooling beer and then rapping the bottle on a solid surface to cause it to freeze.
* As listed on the page introduction, another title for this could be "The straw that broke the camel's back". This refers to a folk-tale that was persistent in both the Middle East and North Africa. According to the tale a camel could only carry XX kilograms[[note]]Of course, back then they didn't use kilograms; they used imperial cubit ells or something[[/note]] of supplies, and anything more would be too much. While the story is obviously not 100% true, like many folk-tales, it has a grain of truth to it. Apparently, caravan drivers ''were'' able to figure out close to the max weight that a camel could conceivably carry.
[[/folder]]

[[hardline]]
----

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' used it to great effect in the "Mr. Plow" episode, when a vehicle is peering off the edge of a road, about to topple in sideways. The saving gesture? Turning the ''radio dial'' to the left, causing the vehicle to flop back onto the road.

* An animated segment on ''Series/SesameStreet'' featured an elevator where first the operator, a fairy, soldier, witch, kangaroo, taxicab, fireman, clown, gorilla, and a mouse get on board. When the mouse gets on board, the elevator shakes and then explodes, sending the operator falling to the bottom of the shaft.

* According to [[{{WWE}} World Wrestling Entertainment]], the rings used for (among other things) the massive Royal Rumble Match held every January can bear the weight of approximately five non-metric tons, or 10,000 pounds - enough to bear the weight of about 40 standard-sized male wrestlers (the average male WWE Superstar weighing about 250 pounds). But if even a cruiserweight (wrestler weighing less than 200 pounds) jumped in after them, the whole thing would presumably collapse. Fortunately, 40 is the absolute maximum number of Superstars ever allowed in the Royal Rumble Match over its two-and-a-half decades of existence and no more than 15 of those guys at the most are ever in the ring all at once (the overwhelming majority of the contestants being unable to stay in the match for 60 minutes, which is the average length of a Royal Rumble), so the chances of such a thing happening are practically nonexistent. When a superheavyweight (400 pounds or more) performs a top-rope maneuver on another superheavyweight, [[HilarityEnsues however...]]

* An issue of ''TheBatmanAdventures'' had Mastermind, Mr. Nice, and The Professor escaping from Gotham City State Penitentiary ridiculously easily. As Mastermind and Nice try to think of some way to [[WeNeedADistraction create a diversion]] in the cafeteria (which is at the moment occupied by hundreds of violent, sociopathic inmates having dinner), the Professor simply stands up, clears his throat, and calmly announces: "Fire." ''All'' the inmates panic, the guards (thinking they're trying to start a riot) retaliate, and then a ''real'' riot breaks out, during which the trio slip away unnoticed.

* An issue of ''TheBatmanAdventures'' had Mastermind, Mr. Nice, and The Professor escaping from Gotham City State Penitentiary ridiculously easily. As Mastermind and Nice try to think of some way to [[WeNeedADistraction create a diversion]] in the cafeteria, the Professor simply stands up, clears his throat, and calmly announces: "Fire." ''All'' the inmates panic, the guards (thinking they're trying to start a riot) retaliate, and then a ''real'' riot breaks out, during which the trio slip away unnoticed.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' episode ''Madame Blueberry'', the titular character goes on a major shopping spree and has everything she purchases sent to her opulent treehouse mansion while she keeps shopping, unaware of how much she is really buying, and that each item is sending her house closer to its demise. Eventually she catches on, and manages to stop the deliveries, but only once the house has just enough stuff in it to stabilize. And then, a butterfly lands on the roof, tipping the treehouse and depositing all the stuff she bought into the lake. And then the tree [[TreeBuchet catapults]] her house off into the distance.

And yes, you may pronounce if "waffer theen meent"

Known in popular culture as "the last straw" or "the straw that broke the camel's back," which also has a metaphorical meaning: the RantInducingSlight. Compare DeathOfAThousandCuts, CriticalExistenceFailure, CriticalEncumbranceFailure and TheStateroomSketch.

* In the movie ''Film/{{Jack}}'', the treehouse where a bunch of kids, RobinWilliams as [[OvernightAgeUp a forty-year-old adult that's actually a kid with severe growth problems]] and Bill Cosby singing and stomping feet falls down when a butterfly lands on not even the treehouse itself but a ''splinter'', which slowly bends until it touches the treehouse, and then everything falls apart.