Warm Water Whiz

Well, this is embarrassing.

"How did you ever learn that you can make someone wet the bed by putting their fingers in water?"

— Miranda, As Told by Ginger, "Sleep On It".

It's an old trick often done by The Prankster. You put someone's hand in warm water while they are asleep and they pee themselves. Simple as that.

This may or may not be Truth in Television. There is such a thing called Immersion Diuresis, which is urination brought on by temperature and pressure changes from immersing the body in water. However, research suggests that whole limbs or the whole body needs to go underwater for this mechanism to work, and a single hand isn't enough. The prank was actually tested by MythBusters, but they didn't find any evidence that it works. However, very rarely for very few people, it may possibly work.

A sub-trope of Potty Failure. May result in Embarrassing Damp Sheets. Compare Water Wake-up.

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Examples

Fan Works

• Subverted in The Loud House fanfiction Lucy's Secret where Lucy thinks that Luan or Lynn put her hand in warm water, but really Lucy just has a hereditary bedwetting problem. Played with later when Lucy wets the bed during the sleepover and Luan, to help Lucy save face, deliberately makes it seem like she pranked Lucy with a bowl of water by making puns on the words "hand", "water", and "bowl".

Literature

• In Bud, Not Buddy, Bud gets revenge on his foster Big Brother Bully by pulling a variation of this prank on him (the boy's hand wouldn't fit in the jar Bud put the water in, so he simply dumped it on his crotch and got the wanted results). The prank is made funnier because Bud's foster mother visibly hates bed wetters and was convinced Bud would do it. We don't see how she reacts to her son's condition the next morning, but sometimes Nothing Is Funnier.
• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, one of the books has Greg in a sleepover with Rowley and a bunch of younger (around six to eight years old) boys. Some of the boys sneak up on Greg with a bowl of warm water, but he's actually awake so he runs away.
• Who Wet My Pants: The reason Reuben wet his pants is because he fell asleep with his paw in his tropical fish's tank.

Live-Action TV

• Discussed in one episode of A.N.T. Farm where Chyna makes Cameron believe he's a medium. After Cameron "predicts" Angus will have an accident, Sierra suggests putting his hand in warm water, to which Chyna responds that they're not going to give Angus that kind of accident.
• In one episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jake notices Hitchcock sleeping in the breakroom and tries to pull this prank on him. When he goes back to check, he finds that Hitchcock has somehow put his face in the bowl of water and nearly drowns.
• In one episode of House, House pulls this prank on his friend Wilson, who's crashing on his couch at the time. When House goes to sit on the couch at the end of the episode, Wilson advises him to move.
• M*A*S*H: Hawkeye and Trapper pull this bit on Frank Burns in an early episode of the series. Just one of the many pranks they've played on him.
• In Mystery Science Theater 3000:
  • In the first host segment of "Zombie Nightmare", the Mads send the SOL crew a voodoo kit. Mike however uses it to make a Voodoo Doll of Dr. Forrester, and puts the dolls' hand in water, resulting in Dr. Forrester peeing his pants while he is in the middle of announcing the movie of the week.
  • In "Secret Agent Super Dragon": While Dr. Forrester is giving his lecture at the end of the episode, he takes the time to quietly place Frank's hand into a coffee cup full of water after noticing he fell asleep.
• That 70s Show: The episode 'Jackie Moves On' ends with Laurie pulling this prank on Eric.

Video Games

• The Glass of Warm Water item in Kingdom of Loathing is a Joke Item that gives the target a joke Status Buff. This notoriously ruined someone's Hobopolis run when it was used on them right before a boss that deletes all buffs if you have more than four.
• Little Nightmares: There's a guest sleeping in a room upstairs. His hand has been submerged in a bucket of water. It's too dark to see whether or not the prank has succeeded.

Web Animation

• In the Homestar Runner Halloween Toon "Halloween-Potion-Ma-Jig", Homestar is sent to collect ingredients for Marzipan's Halloween potion and has to get essence from Strong Bad, Strong Mad, and The Cheat. If he tells them he is trying to ruin her Halloween potion, them give him "Essence of Putting Strong Mad's hand in warm water while he's asleep".
  Strong Mad: MY SECRET SHAME!

Webcomics

• One Perry Bible Fellowship comic shows people hauling a cauldron of steaming water up a mountain to a sleeping dragon. Dipping the dragon's forepaw in the cauldron floods the village below.

Western Animation

• American Dad! had an episode where Steve and his friends are throwing a slumber party. Flashbacks show them putting Barry's hand in warm water and making him pee himself. Another variation in the flashback shows them putting Toshi's hand in warm water, but Toshi doesn't pee himself, but Barry does instead.
• In the As Told by Ginger episode "Sleep On It", Miranda and Mipsy plan to put Ginger's hand in warm water during a sleepover at Courtney's house. It fails because Hoodsey, who was also there to steal the petrified eyeball back from Blake, overhears their plan, and takes the water from the sleeping Ginger. He then drinks it and promptly falls asleep, resulting in him wetting himself.
• The Beavis and Butt-Head episode "The Most Dangerous Game" has the pair trying to pull this off on each other, both waiting for the other to fall asleep. After staying up for several days, they call a truce and empty their bowls. Butt-Head then pulls out a second bowl he hid behind the couch, only to see that Beavis had the same idea. The next day, Beavis finally falls asleep in school and passes out on the teacher's desk. Butt-Head puts Beavis's hand in the bowl and then passes out, with his hand also landing in the bowl causing them both to urinate.
• Family Guy
  • In "The Thin White Line", Peter and Brian, who are staying at a rehab center, pull this prank on a room full of pregnant teenagers, causing all their waters to break.
    Doctor: Well, I hope you're proud of yourselves! Fourteen premature births!
  • In "Hannah Banana", Chris videotapes what happens when he is asleep, and Peter puts Chris' hand in a bowl of warm water to make him pee.
• The Hotel Transylvania: The Series episode "Cape Boss" shows a flashback where Mavis' sentient cape plays a trick on her by dipping her hand in a bowl of water while she's sleeping.
• In The Loud House episode "Feast or Family", it's revealed that Luna and Luan have an agreement: the former is not allowed to play her gong at night, and the latter is not allowed to put the former's hand in warm water.
• One Robot Chicken sketch has the Nerd telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood to his niece and nephew and falling asleep to dream about being the wolf and attempting to follow the story to score with an attractive Red Riding Hood, only to get raped by Red's grandma. While their uncle is sleeping, the kids consider doing this prank before instead deciding to just pee on him. When the Nerd wakes up, he thinks that they pranked him with the hand-in-the-water prank... before wondering where the cup of water is.
• In one South Park episode, Butters falls asleep and Cartman puts his hand in a cup of water, but gets what's supposed to happen next wrong and pees on him instead.
• Total Drama: On the final morning of the awake-a-thon in "The Big Sleep", Duncan, who is still standing, entertains himself by placing the left fingers of Harold, who already has fallen asleep, in a mug of warm water. Duncan didn't know if it would work and is delighted when Harold does pee his pants and wakes up in embarrassment.
• Extreme Ghostbusters: In the episode "Grundelesque", Roland's little brother Casey plays some pranks at the Firehouse, including placing a sleeping Egon's hand in warm water. Whether it worked or not is unknown, as Egon did not react or even mention the prank.

Real Life

• This article provides some information about some of the science behind this prank.

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