History Main / BadHumorTruck

* Wiki/SCPFoundation:

* One of Creator/JeanShepherd's greatest stories on his radio show was about the price war that broke out between two stores directly across the street from one another. The group coming for the bargains kept growing and reversing direction with every competing penny drop in the price. Soon word got out and there was a rumbling on the horizon as hordes began arriving for the cheap ice cream.

* The Hub series ''Series/TheHauntingHour'' has the episode "Catching Cold." Marty, a BigEater boy who loves ice cream especially, discovers a mysterious ice cream truck called "Kreamy Kold" that drives around his neighborhood at night playing [[IronicNurseryTune "Pop Goes the Weasel" in a minor key.]] After being gifted a cone on his doorstep, he discovers that Kreamy Kold's treats are [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood so incredibly delicious]] that all other ice cream starts tasting bad. Mary gradually becomes more and more obsessed with Kreamy Kold (in a manner [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin disturbingly reminiscent of drug addiction]]), to the point where he lays out spike traps just to catch the truck. When he finally does, though, he discovers that the vehicle [[PoweredByAForsakenChild needs a human soul to fuel it]]--a fact he learns from Jimmy Jeffries, the ''last'' kid in his neighborhood who got hooked on Kreeay Kold thirty years ago, and who has since grown into a fat, [[GoMadFromTheIsolation insane]] man who's been sealed inside the truck for all that time. The episode ends with Jimmy finally getting to leave and screaming [[MadnessMantra "IT'S ALL YOU CAN EAT!"]] as a terrified Marty is locked inside the Kreamy Kold truck, which drives off into the night to find its next victim...

** [[http:www.scp-wiki.net/scp-490 SCP-490]] is an ice cream truck that operates by itself between 2 to 5 AM of local time to lure in people with the jingle it produces to the back of the truck. After this event is over, the freezer is observed to be stocked with frozen treats made of human blood and flesh.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The [[ViolentGlaswegian Glasgow]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Ice_Cream_Wars Ice Cream Wars]]. Or, more accurately, the "Glasgow gangs who liked to use ice cream vans as a front for dealing drugs and stolen property" wars. Also covered a few other kinds of MobileKiosk, since most of the more lucrative pitches were on housing projects whose designers had neglected to include any retail space, leading a few enterprising individuals to create convenience stores on wheels.
-->The conflicts, in which vendors raided one another's vans and fired shotguns into one another's windscreens, were more violent than might typically be expected between ice-cream salesmen.
* Mafia hitman Robert Pronge drove a Mister Softee truck to appear inconspicuous.
* Richard "Iceman" Kuklinski froze his victims' bodies in an ice cream truck to skew the estimated time of their death. [[http://www.nysun.com/new-york/meet-the-forrest-gump-of-mob-hits/35539/ Maybe.]] He apparently got the idea from his mentor, Pronge, listed above.
* Kenneth Bianchi, one of the Hillside Stranglers, worked as an ice cream man. A suspected victim of his disappeared when she went out one day to buy a cone.
* Fred West, another serial killer, also worked as an ice cream man. While one, he accidentally ran over a kid.
* An ice cream truck was used as a [[http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/18/middleeast/iraq-violence/a suicide car bomb.]]
* The NYC ice cream truck business [[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/nyregion/a-king-of-ice-cream-a-renegade-upstart-and-a-simmering-turf-war.html is rife with turf wars]] between rival companies, the fallout including attacking rivals' brakes with a crowbar, blowing up rivals' trucks, kidnapping rivals or getting into punch-outs or beating them with a wrench.
-->'''"Let me tell you about this business. Every truck has a bat inside." - a "thickly muscled, heavily tattooed" Mister Softee driver quoted.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]

* Yet another drug-dealing ice cream truck in "Find Your Happy Place" episode of ''Series/{{Life}}''. Crews' take-down isn't perfectly smooth:

* Music/TheRutles' song "Doubleback Alley" has a line about ''the funny man in the ice cream van who [[HaveAGayOldTime talked so queer]]...''

* ''Film/AssaultOnPrecinct131976 '' has a scene in which a violent street gang drives menacingly back and forth past a parked ice cream truck. After they've seemingly moved on, a little girl comes up and buys a cone while her father uses a phone booth up the street. [[spoiler:After she leaves, the gang ambushes the driver and knocks him unconscious; meanwhile, the little girl, unaware of all this and discovering she's been given the wrong flavor, returns to the truck and gets shot and killed point-blank]].

* Creator/JunjiIto[='s=] short story [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/itou_junji_kyoufu_manga_collection/v10/c001/1.html "Ice Cream Bus"]]. The bus looks normal and the driver is a typical handsome {{Bishonen}}, but [[spoiler: it lures children away and [[BodyHorror slowly transforms them into ice cream,]] [[AndIMustScream which/who they eat as they transform into ice cream]]]].

* The original version of ''[[Film/AssaultOnPrecinct131976 Assault on Precinct 13]]'' has a scene in which a violent street gang drives menacingly back and forth past a parked ice cream truck. After they've seemingly moved on, a little girl comes up and buys a cone while her father uses a phone booth up the street. [[spoiler:After she leaves, the gang ambushes the driver and knocks him unconscious; meanwhile, the little girl, unaware of all this and discovering she's been given the wrong flavor, returns to the truck and gets shot and killed point-blank]].

* In ''Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams'', they have an ice cream truck named "Happy Herb's Nice Dreams". Take the words, "Ice Creams" and add a "N" in front and make "Creams" into "Dreams". Naturally, they sell marijuana from the truck, along with ice cream. How "wholesome" this is depends on your views.

* There's one in ''Film/{{Legion}}''. [[spoiler:The truck's completely normal. The driver however...]]

* In ''Film/{{Friday}}'', Smokey owes weed money to the drug dealer Big Worm which he uses an ice cream truck as a cover up. Big Worm takes one customer boy's money without giving his order saying he's closed, and is incredibly rude to the kids in general.

* Mr. Snowcone, in ''Film/Freaks2018'', seems like a textbook case, hanging around outside of the house and showing an abnormal interest in Chloe. Henry encourages this myth, telling Chloe that ice cream trucks have freezers full of chopped up little children. Early in the film, Mr. Snowcone does lure Chloe into his truck and drives off with her. [[spoiler:He's her grandfather, and is trying to enlist her in the war against humanity]].

* Speaking of Stephen King, while it's not exactly an ice cream truck a couple of his short stories deal with a psychopathic milkman who plants poisonous spiders in his milk box, hands out all-purpose cream laced with highly corrosive acid and cartons of poisoned drinks, and was implied to have planted a bomb in one of his packages, which went off some time prior to the events of the story. All the stuff he needs is in his milk truck.

* A variation on this is seen in the Creator/PhilipKDick short story, "The Pre-Persons". TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, abortion is not only legal, but children up to the age of twelve can be "aborted". Parents must get a license (known as a D-card, for "desirability"), if they can afford one -- or the kid gets picked up by the abortion truck, taken to the pound and euthanized. Parents can also turn kids in if they don't want them any more. The abortion truck cruises neighborhoods looking for "strays", playing tinkly ice-cream-truck music to lure them out.

* In ''Series/VanPires'', an innocent looking ice cream truck is actually an evil vampire vehicle. Er, ItMakesSenseInContext.

* Not involving an ice cream ''vendor'' per se, but [[Recap/BrooklynNineNineS2E19Sabotage in Season 2]] of ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', [[spoiler:disgraced lawyer Geoffrey Hoytsman—former boss of Sophia Perez, onetime girlfriend of Detective Jake Peralta, who ''busted him for cocaine use''—kidnaps Peralta and keeps him in an ice cream truck]].

* In the 1940's, the Kay Kaiser Orchestra recorded a song called "The Bad Humor Man".

* In the flash game ''[[http://games.adultswim.com/cream-wolf-twitchy-online-game.html Cream Wolf]]'', the Ice Cream Truck driver is actually a Werewolf who's fattening kids up so that he can bait them back to his place when full moon arrives and proceed to "Make new flavors" out of them. It's even complete with a creepy jingle during midnight.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', the ice cream truck always drives away when Dexter comes. After Dexter goes to extreme measure to catch it, he finds out the driver has a grudge against Dexter because he once paid him with a heavy jar of pennies which caused him [[DisasterDominoes to trip and break his tooth]] which in turn made him lose his apartment, his car, his girlfriend and forced him to live under a bridge, effectively causing [[DiabolusExMachina his entire life to be ruined]].
-->'''Ice Cream Man:''' I can't even eat ice cream anymore, because of ''the pain!'' '''''All because of you and your stupid pennies!!!'''''

* [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' with an ice cream man named "The Jolly Olly Man" (voiced by Creator/DanCastellaneta, using a voice that sounds like a mix between his normal voice and a bitter, insane take on [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Arnie Pie]] [the helicopter news reporter who hates Kent Brockman]) who hated the kids he served. In one episode, he was nearly fired because his attitude was hurting sales. In another episode, he tried charging kids $20 for ice cream during a heat wave; his offer to sell rum raisin for ten dollars [[LaserGuidedKarma resulted in a mob of kids trying to turn over his truck]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart of Darkness" opens with Springfield suffering a blistering heat wave. An ice cream truck comes down the street with the driver shouting, "''Ice cream! Ice cream!''" ...but, when the children run up to it, they hear his entire sentence: "I'm all outta ''ice cream!''" And then, right after that comes another, similar truck:

* The Hub series ''Series/TheHauntingHour'' has the episode "Catching Cold." Marty, a BigEater boy who loves ice cream especially, discovers a mysterious ice cream truck called "Kreemy Kold" that drives around his neighborhood at night playing [[IronicNurseryTune "Pop Goes the Weasel" in a minor key.]] After being gifted a cone on his doorstep, he discovers that Kreemy Kold's treats are [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood so incredibly delicious]] that all other ice cream starts tasting bad. Mary gradually becomes more and more obsessed with Kreemy Kold (in a manner [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin disturbingly reminiscent of drug addiction]]), to the point where he lays out spike traps just to catch the truck. When he finally does, though, he discovers that the vehicle [[PoweredByAForsakenChild needs a human soul to fuel it]]--a fact he learns from Jimmy Jeffries, the ''last'' kid in his neighborhood who got hooked on Kreemy Kold thirty years ago, and who has since grown into a fat, [[GoMadFromTheIsolation insane]] man who's been sealed inside the truck for all that time. The episode ends with Jimmy finally getting to leave and screaming [[MadnessMantra "IT'S ALL YOU CAN EAT!"]] as a terrified Marty is locked inside the Kreemy Kold truck, which drives off into the night to find its next victim...

* Creator/GahanWilson wrote a short story called "Mr. Ice Cold", about the titular ice cream man who loves to give sweet treats to all of the children in the neighborhood. The story, which is told in the second person, has one child noticing that Mr. Ice Cold opens various doors in his truck to produce all of the cones and popsicles that kids order--but one door never opens up. Spurred by curiosity, the child can't resist sneaking a quick peek when Mr. Ice Cold is distracted...[[spoiler: and discovers that it's [[ImAHumanitarian full of the frozen corpses of other children.]] Mr. Ice Cold declares "Those are for ''me''", and the story ends with the terrified child hearing the truck's jingle late one autumn night, knowing that he's going to be taken next.]]

* Creator/GahanWilson wrote a short story called "Mr. Ice Cold". The ice cream truck and its driver look innocent enough at first. But then, a boy notices that there's one door on the truck that is never opened. One day he decides to take a quick peek inside the door and gets a nasty shock. Let's just say that Mr. Ice Cold prefers a different kind of treat besides ice cream.

* The Hub series ''Series/TheHauntingHour'' has a story called "Catching Cold," about a fat boy who's obsessed with ice cream, especially that of a mysterious truck that only appears at night. [[spoiler:Turns out the ice cream truck is haunted and traps those who are so obsessed with ice cream they'll go to any lengths for it. It was also behind the disappearance of a boy in the late 1970s/early 1980s who did the same thing as the fat boy now and is now a fat, insane man who is more than willing to let the boy of 2011 trade places with him so the ice cream truck can feed off his soul. As the man leaves, he tells the boy he can have all the ice cream he wants...]].

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1386 SCP-1386]] becomes hostile [[HappinessIsMandatory potential customers don't appear sufficiently happy and cheerful]], and downright violent if they try to get out of paying full price. Otherwise, it's a regular ice cream truck, aside from the fact that it is apparently sapient.

** Although Hoytsman mentions he got the truck from a former client whom he defended for, in his words, "a strangle-and-mangle".

* The [[ViolentGlaswegian Glasgow]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Ice_Cream_Wars Ice Cream Wars]] (or, more accurately, the Glascow Gangs Who Liked to Use Ice Cream Trucks as a Cover For Selling Heroin and Stolen Goods Wars):

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' has Crocker's van, which is often disguised as an ice cream truck.

* Skids and Mudflap of ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'' take this trope one step further, as they actually ''are'' the ice cream truck ([[CombiningMecha both of them]]). This doesn't stop them from being decidedly child-unfriendly, from yelling profanity-laced death threats through their bullhorn to posting offensive decals on their sides[[note]]i.e. ''SUCK MY POPSICLE''[[/note]]. It is, however, played for laughs.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1386 SCP-1386]] becomes this if its products aren't paid for. Otherwise, it's a regular ice cream truck, aside from the fact that it is apparently sapient.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* An episode of ''Series/{{Sesame Street}}'' has an ice cream company called "Bad Humor", run by grouches. They sell ice cream flavors that appeal exclusively to grouches, such as chocolate-covered pickle and spinach vanilla crunch, and will not stop ringing their bell until someone buys their ice cream.

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder:Web Games]]
* The intro page for ''WebGame/FreeIcecream'' features the PlayerCharacter and her friend being lured toward a dirty-looking ice cream truck with "Free Icecrem" sloppily painted on the side.
[[/folder]]

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''

* The [[ViolentGlaswegian Glasgow]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Ice_Cream_Wars Ice Cream Wars]] (or, more accurately, the Glascow Gangs Who Liked To Use Ice Cream Trucks As A Cover For Selling Heroin and Stolen Goods Wars):

* An ice cream truck was used as a [[http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/18/middleeast/iraq-violence/a suicide car bomb]].
* The NYC ice cream truck business [[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/nyregion/a-king-of-ice-cream-a-renegade-upstart-and-a-simmering-turf-war.html is rife with turf wars]] between rival companies, the fallout including attacking rivals' brakes with a crowbar, blowing up rivals' trucks, kidapping rivals or getting into punch-outs or beating them with a wrench.
-->'''"Let me tell you about this business. Every truck has a bat inside." - a "thickly muscled, heavily tattooed" Mister Softee driver quoted

* Hinted at on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''; local pedophile Herbert wanted an ice cream truck and is shown driving one in "And Then There Were Fewer".

* TheButcher, a boss in ''''VideoGame/MyFriendPedro'''' chases you in an evil hotdog truck.

* In ''Film/{{Friday}}'', Smokey owes weed money to the drug dealer Big Worm which he uses an ice cream truck as a cover up. Big Worm takes one customer boy's money without giving his order saying he's closed.