History Main / ClownCarBase

* In Jim Davis' ''USAcres'' [[note]]later adapted as segments of the animated ''GarfieldAndFriends'' show[[/note]], one-off mentions of things like his TV show add up to make the inside of Sheldon's eggshell downright palatial. No wonder he doesn't want to fully hatch.

* Snoopy's doghouse from ''{{Peanuts}}'' is much larger than it seems. Sometimes implied (or even stated) to be an [[ElaborateUndergroundBase elaborate basement]], but whenever the (tiny) visible structure is destroyed, he behaves as if the entire house is gone. And, perversely, he chooses to sleep on ''top'' of the thing, even in the rain or cold!

* A recurring gag in ''FunkyWinkerbean'' involved Funky doing things inside his locker that should have been impossible, like roasting hot dogs on a fire.

* In ''{{Monsterpocalypse}}'', some units have the "transport" ability while others have "cargo," with the former able to drop off infinite numbers of the latter. This can be explained with UnitsNotToScale for the pods or {{Sizeshifter}} for the Shinobi, but the 60-ft tall Mechacthugrosh storing that many of the 15-ft tall Mecha Taskmasters?

[-[[caption-width-right:350:How do they all fit in there? [[Film/MoulinRouge Because they can-can-can!]]]]-]

* In "{{Superman}} & Franchise/{{Batman}} vs Franchise/{{Alien}}s & {{Predator}}" Superman brings his fortress of solitude to a volcano to evacuate the Aliens and Predators who have been stranded there for thousands of years, along with the predator ship. On the outside the fortress is roughly 4 meters in diameter and spherical, but the inside is an entire dead universe he is free to decorate as he choose.

->'''Martha:''' It's... BiggerOnTheInside!
->'''Doctor:''' [[SarcasmMode Is it? I hadn't noticed.]]
-->-- '''Series/DoctorWho'''

* Used liberally in ''[[{{Gauntlet}} Gauntlet Legends]]''. The bases have three sizes each, and the size determines the toughness of the monsters that come out.

* In TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete, Artie lives in a porta-potty, but has hosted barbecue parties out of it, though the interior is never shown.

So you've got a Toyota Prius sitting by the side of the road. Two guys get out. Then another four guys. Then another six guys...

No, there is no way all of them could possibly fit into that thing. It is a Clown Car Base.[[labelnote:...]] [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Actually the Prius is quite roomy on the inside what is this?..]][[/labelnote]]

Primarily a comedy trope. When we actually see the inside of the thing, it is BiggerOnTheInside. See also SpaceCompression, ClownCar. Compare UnitsNotToScale and TheStateroomSketch. The equivalent trope for containers is HammerSpace / BagOfHolding.

* In one scene of ''YouDontMessWithTheZohan'', over a dozen Arabs get out of a regular New York taxi cab.
* In the Creator/MelBrooks ''To Be or Not to Be'' movie, [[spoiler:the Jews who had been hiding in the theater]] emerge in front of an audience of Nazi officers, as an endless stream of clowns from an actual clown car on stage, and walk out unhindered through the front door.
* In ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife'', over eighty children of all ages come out of a small apartment in one continuous cut. Of course it's all the more impressive how they all must have come out of the same mother. . .
* In ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'', a group of few dozen roman soldiers are inspecting apartment so small it couldn't possibly fit half of the group in. And still they manage not to find any of the dozen Jewish revolutionaries hidden inside the place. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Not even after re-checking.]]
* In the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle / BusterKeaton two-reeler ''Moonshine'', forty-five revenooers get out of a model-T (at 0:59 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQG4f3e3-_k here]])

** This also seems to be a fairly common thing to do with cars. Both Mr. Weasley's Ford Anglia and a couple cars used by the Ministry of Magic are magically enlarged on the inside to comfortably seat over twice as many people as could be squeezed in normally.

** Also in the show, an actual clown car was used in a counting lesson. A mini hatchback (with a police siren) came in driving around in circles, then came to a stop to let out 10 clowns (each counting 1 to 10 as the came out) before they all went back into it (counting backwards this time), after which the hatchback took off.
* Used with an actual clown car in ''PushingDaisies'': a number of clowns were driving away from the circus when they were forced off the road and into the lake. When their car is dragged up from it and they start pulling the bodies out, it starts out with only one clown...and then another one is pulled out and another one and another one, including a clown wearing ''stilts'', and it [[OverlyLongGag keeps going until it's]] ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice hilarious]]''.

* ''Series/{{Batman}}'s'' Batmobile turns out to have some serious Clown Car carrying capacity. In an attempt to infiltrate the Batcave, SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker, the Penguin, ''and six of their henchmen'' can all fit in the Batmobile's trunk.
** Since that particular Batmobile is based on a Lincoln from the 1950s, fitting eight people in the trunk is not entirely impossible...

[[folder:Theatre]]
* In ''Crazy For You'', the choreography for "I Can't Be Bothered Now" has more ChorusGirls emerging from a smallish car than could possibly fit in it.
[[/folder]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Age of Empires|I}}'' provides an egregious example in Transport Ships. You can pile up to 10 ''elephants'' in a Transport Ship, and it looks like it would have difficulty carrying ''one''.
*** Its ''StarWars'' adaptation, ''Galactic Battlegrounds'', has a similar issue. A transport ship with a storage compartment the size of a rental truck can hold ''[[HumongousMecha multiple AT-AT walkers]]''.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'', especially the first one. How do they fit into those tiny little wagons?
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' invokes the trope often. Depending on the base capital ship and robots you have. A typical situation would be the Ra Calium from ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' with a standard load of twelve roughly eighteen metre Mobile Suits plus another dozen super robots in the 30+ meter range. Probably at it when the 100m {{Daitarn 3}} is on board. Occasionally possibly averted when {{Macross}} or its descendants are available.
** This gets REALLY bad in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsDestiny'', where you get permanent control of [[GetterRobo Shin Dragon]], which is roughly the size of an entire CITY, fitting in one of the battleships. This is averted somewhat in its next appearance, ''VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}}2: Saisei-Hen'' when it is designated as a battleship on its own.

** Actually subverted, because the Pokémon get turned into a compressed energy state. This explains why they can be stored in this way for years (James' Carnivine was stored in its ball since he was a child) and has suffer no ill effects.

* ''AceCombat'' games have from time to time bases or carriers that can keep spawning enemies until destroyed.
* ''HaloWars'' There is no way a infantry transport vehicle the size of three dump trucks can carry 240 Marines, and look empty from your view over the battlefield.
* The [[TropeNamer Koopa Clown Car]] (actually some kind of reverse helicopter) from [[SuperMarioBros Super Mario World]] is able to carry Bowser, an infinite amout of {{Mecha| Mooks}}koopas, Princess Peach, two Super Mushrooms, and an infinite amount of enormous cannonballs inside itself without running out of room, and the cannonballs are ''at least as big as the car itself''.
** Bowser Jr. also has one that can carry an infinite amount of Bob-ombs.
* Done in the ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' series, the first one and its expansions featured vehicles which were much smaller than the ones you would find on the [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} tabletop]], yet still able to fit about 30 troops, on average, while the tabletop version could fit a single squad of about 10 or so. The second Dawn of War had vehicles that still followed this trope.
** The second game's unit proportions are about equal to the tabletop models, actually.
* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'', at one point Travis walks into a parking lot with two vans in it. He has to fight the thugs coming out of those vans, who seem to keep pouring out for a good 20 minutes.
** Actually, several more vans (about eight more) pull up. Albeit those vans seem to have come from Hammerspace.

* ''VideoGame/MiniRobotWars'' has the Transporter and its AquaticMook equivalent the Killer Whale, both of which are MookMaker units that can spawn a huge amount of enemies for something its size.

* In the NES version of ''[[VideoGame/DoubleDragon Double Dragon II: The Revenge]]'', Mission 3 is set entirely inside the confides of a chopper. The player fights against a total of seven or eight enemies in this stage (two right hand-men, three or four Williams and two Bolos), all coming out from the helicopter's cockpit.

* True to the name of the trope, during the credits of ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'', [[TheBumblebee Bumblebee]] drives on screen in his scout car mode and screeches to a halt...before unloading half a dozen Autobots from his passenger compartment before transforming and running offscreen himself. Since the lineup of people who were riding him includes Sideswipe, Ironhide, Ratchet, Scattershot, and Optimus Prime, all of whom are demonstrably larger than Bumblebee in both mode, this makes Bumblebee a car full of cars through the magic of clown car technology and RuleOfFunny.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/TheWhiteboard'': Red asks Doc if his truck was bought from a circus clown after seeing a bunch of players and gear being unloaded. Doc says no, but notes that [[http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autowb448.html it uses the same technology]].

* Subverted on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Krusty the Clown emerges from a stretch limo and a bunch of other clowns follow him out.
--> '''Krusty:''' Get back in! It's only funny with the small car.
** In another episode, when Bart was about to crush a clown car, Krusty and several other clowns quickly got out of it.
* Another older example is in ''Trolley Troubles'', an [[OswaldTheLuckyRabbit Oswald]] short. Oswald's trolley seems to be fairly small, but it can hold ''hundreds'' of riders!
* The buses from ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} Cars 2]]'', which for some reason can actually carry cars inside them!

* A late second-season episode of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' had the Autobots intercept a newly-fallen ship containing more Decepticon troops than they believed could possibly fit inside. Ratchet says that humans refer to the phenomenon as a "clown car".

[[folder:Web Original]]
* As revealed in the animation "Where's The Cheat?", The Cheat from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' actually lives in the King of Town's grill. Occasionally, we actually get to see Strong Sad be stuffed inside the grill, and in one Strong Bad Email, there is actually a pizza parlor inside the grill, and both Strong Bad and The Cheat actually fit inside the grill.
* Many looped animations circulating the Internet have carefully crafted to make mundane objects in real life appear to act this way (for example, [[http://dagobah.net/flash/tothetrash.swf to the trash!]] [note: contains audio]).
* Parodied by WebVideo/{{Dormtainment}} in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IElzeOPcZCA 6 Guys 1 Honda]]".
[[/folder]]

* There is a joke that Mexican people have the superpower of making any van they enter into a ClownCarBase. If you live near the US/Mexican border, you could see they can fit 40-50 people in an 8-person van. It is kinda freaky. Made fun of specifically [[http://wannabemustangjockey.deviantart.com/art/el-Campeonato-Mundial-mas-Loco-20694079 here]].
** An amusement park in México City used to have a promotion called "auto sardina" (sardine car) where you pay the entry fee based in the size of the car, not the number of people in it, so you usually have two families jammed in a really small car.
** In Spain this joke is made with the Chinese instead.

* Operation Solomon, an airlift operation by the Israeli Government to rescue thousands of Ethiopian Jews from a collapsing Ethiopian government in 1991, set a record by airlifting 1122 passengers in a single Boeing 747 (of which the highest official capacity, for the 747-400 in single-class configuration, is 624 passengers; even the personnel involved in the operation expected not to be able to fit more than 760 people in the aircraft). They landed with 1123 passengers, as a baby was born during the flight.
* Filipino jeepneys are notorious for trying to fit in as much passengers as possible. If the city's rules don't allow them to get away with putting people on the roof, they will stuff the internal benches (even if it means people are "sitting" on an area that's a few square inches large) and the floor.
* Common in Afghanistan where you often see people crammed into buses and cars oftentimes with people or another vehicle on the roof which in turn is full of people.

Primarily a comedy trope. When we actually see the inside of the thing, it is BiggerOnTheInside. See also SpaceCompression. Compare UnitsNotToScale and TheStateroomSketch. The equivalent trope for containers is HammerSpace / BagOfHolding.

* In "{{Superman}} & {{Batman}} vs Franchise/{{Alien}}s & {{Predator}}" Superman brings his fortress of solitude to a volcano to evacuate the Aliens and Predators who have been stranded there for thousands of years, along with the predator ship. On the outside the fortress is roughly 4 meters in diameter and spherical, but the inside is an entire dead universe he is free to decorate as he choose.

** This gets REALLY bad in SuperRobotWarsDestiny, where you get permanent control of [[GetterRobo Shin Dragon]], which is roughly the size of an entire CITY, fitting in one of the battleships. This is averted somewhat in its next appearance, ''VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}}2: Saisei-Hen'' when it is designated as a battleship on its own.

** This gets REALLY bad in SuperRobotWarsDestiny, where you get permanent control of [[GetterRobo Shin Dragon]], which is roughly the size of an entire CITY, fitting in one of the battleships. This is averted somewhat in its next appearance, [[SuperRobotWarsZ Super Robot Wars Z2: Saisei-Hen]] when it is designated as a battleship on its own.

No, there is no way all of them could possibly fit into that thing. It is a Clown Car Base.[[labelnote:explaination]] [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Actually the Prius is quite roomy on the inside what is this?..[[/labelnote]]

No, there is no way all of them could possibly fit into that thing. It is a Clown Car Base.

* A sketch on ''Series/Laugh-In'' had an absurdly large number of people getting out of a bathtub.

* A late second-season episode of ''TransformersPrime'' had the Autobots intercept a newly-fallen ship containing more Decepticon troops than they believed could possibly fit inside. Ratchet says that humans refer to the phenomenon as a "clown car".

* In ''{{Pikmin}}'', only [[ArbitraryHeadcountLimit 100]] Pikmin can venture onto the surface at any given time as a survival mechanism so only up to 100 can be lost at one time. However, the Onions themselves can have an enormous number of them inside (up to 999 in the first game, ''99,999'' in the second, which is far more Pikmin then you'll ever need in either game).

** Actually subverted, because the Pokemon get turned into a compressed energy state. This explains why they can be stored in this way for years (James' Carnivine was stored in its ball since he was a child) and has suffer no ill effects.

* The [[TropeNamer Koopa Clown Car]] (actually some kind of reverse helicopter) from [[SuperMarioBros Super Mario World]] is able to carry Bowser, an infinite amout of {{Mecha| Mooks}}koopas, Princess Peach, two mushrooms, and an infinite amount of enormous cannonballs inside itself without running out of room, and the cannonballs are ''at least as big as the car itself''.

* A key element of Franchise/{{Pokemon}}. Poke Balls, roughly the size of a baseball or a hand grenade, [[BiggerOnTheInside can fit a 40' long whale or an 11' long, 2094 lb. dinosaur/earth god without changing size or weight whatsoever.]] They hinge open when capturing or releasing a Pokemon, but they don't change otherwise. It's even crazier in the anime, where they can shrink down to the size of a [[UpToEleven large marble]] until needed.

* The [[TropeNamer Koopa Clown Car]] (actually some kind of reverse helicopter) from [[SuperMarioBros Super Mario World]] is able to carry Bowser, several {{Mecha| Mooks}}koopas and an infinite amount of enormous cannonballs inside itself without running out of room, and the cannonballs are ''at least as big as the car itself''.

Primarily a comedy trope. When we actually see the inside of the thing, it is BiggerOnTheInside. See also SpaceCompression. Compare UnitsNotToScale. The equivalent trope for containers is HammerSpace / BagOfHolding.