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* In ''WebAnimation/TheTrashPack'' webseries, computer viruses are treated like ''actual'' viruses to Scummy Screen, being a living computer himself. [[TooDumbToLive Of course, Trash-A-Pillar gives him one thanks to a link that said to click on it to download a virus and get one million dollars]]. Hey, it seems like a good deal at the time to both of them.

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* In ''WebAnimation/TheTrashPack'' webseries, computer viruses are [[ComputerVirusesAreComputerIllnesses treated like ''actual'' viruses viruses]] to Scummy Screen, being a living computer himself. [[TooDumbToLive Of course, Trash-A-Pillar gives him one thanks to a link that said to click on it to download a virus and get one million dollars]]. Hey, it seems like a good deal at the time to both of them.



* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Karen's Virus", as its title suggests, involves Plankton's computer wife Karen getting a virus from a friend of hers that is treated like a human illness and makes her delirious. Plankton seeks [=SpongeBob=]'s help to expel the virus before it eats her entire hard drive.

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* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Karen's Virus", as its title suggests, involves Plankton's computer wife Karen getting a virus from a friend of hers that is [[ComputerVirusesAreComputerIllnesses treated like a human illness illness]] and makes her delirious. Plankton seeks [=SpongeBob=]'s help to expel the virus before it eats her entire hard drive.
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* In various ''Website/GoAnimate'' videos, there's the "Barney Error", which traps a person's computer on a screen mentioning how [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]] was killed by a random person and had a bomb placed in their lair. They are told not to touch their computer for 24 hours lest the bomb goes off. Attempts to circumvent this tend to lead to the countdown speeding up quickly to the final ten seconds, where they must put in a code or they lose everything. It depends on the creator on how successful the infected is on stopping it.

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* In various ''Website/GoAnimate'' ''Platform/GoAnimate'' videos, there's the "Barney Error", which traps a person's computer on a screen mentioning how [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]] was killed by a random person and had a bomb placed in their lair. They are told not to touch their computer for 24 hours lest the bomb goes off. Attempts to circumvent this tend to lead to the countdown speeding up quickly to the final ten seconds, where they must put in a code or they lose everything. It depends on the creator on how successful the infected is on stopping it.

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* In ''Film/IndependenceDay'' a computer genius from MIT writes a computer virus overnight that wipes out the defense shield of the attacking (and technologically superior) alien fleet. A lot of people found it implausible that a human computer could interface with alien technology and that the virus just happens to be compatible with the alien system. A deleted scene would have shown the guy studying the aliens' computer system in a crashed ship. It's also implied that human technology has been largely reverse-engineered from alien tech. The aliens were also established to be using Earth's satellites to relay messages, so their systems must have been compatible to some degree.
** He also assumes that the aliens would figure out the virus within a few minutes and counter it, which is why part of the plan involved blowing up the mothership from the inside with a nuke. Having their command center wiped out would sow huge amounts of confusion among the alien attackers, preventing them from concentrating on the virus and delaying action on their part.

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* In ''Film/IndependenceDay'' a computer genius from MIT writes a computer virus overnight that wipes out the defense shield of the attacking (and technologically superior) alien fleet. A lot of people found it implausible that a human computer could interface with alien technology and that the virus just happens to be compatible with the alien system. A deleted scene would have shown the guy studying the aliens' computer system in a crashed ship. It's also implied that human technology has been largely reverse-engineered from alien tech. The aliens were also established to be using Earth's satellites to relay messages, so their systems must have been compatible to some degree.
**
degree. He also assumes that the aliens would figure out the virus within a few minutes and counter it, which is why part of the plan involved blowing up the mothership from the inside with a nuke. Having their command center wiped out would sow huge amounts of confusion among the alien attackers, preventing them from concentrating on the virus and delaying action on their part.
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** An actual computer virus is, however, used in ''Valley of Darkness'' and gives the Fleet quite a lot of headaches in the following episodes before being purged.

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** An actual computer virus is, however, used is placed on ''Galactica'''s computers when Gaeta temporarily networks them in ''Valley of Darkness'' and gives the Fleet quite "[[Recap/BattlestarGalactica2003S02E01Scattered Scattered]]". It remains dormant for a lot of headaches in the following few episodes and when it finally activates it acts as a LogicBomb that causes the systems to overload. The ship is almost disabled before being purged.[[HeelFaceTurn Sharon Agathon]] is able turn it back on the Cylons.
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* Malvirai, in the novel ''Literature/{{Caffeine}}'', are artificially intelligent viruses that can see complex patterns as easily as people see colors. They can spawn and infect and pass through encryptions easily, even posing as people in Dynamic Reality. When most people sleep InsideAComputerSystem, there are occasions where they don't wake up.
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* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]] in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', when the gang decides to make a viral video to advertise Paddy's, Frank misinterprets this as making a "virus video." What ensues is a video that reeks of StylisticSuck. Concluding with Frank claiming the video is a virus, much to the gang's dismay.
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* In ''[[Literature/TheShipWho PartnerShip]]'' Polyon manufactures a superior "chip" that's rapidly adopted across Central space and put into everything from prosthetics to the systems of {{Living Ship}}s. There's a virus on them that can do anything Polyon wants them to do after he activates it - spread and corrupt data, transmit itself into untouched systems, scramble sensor input, let him remote control prosthetic function - and with which he wants to conquer known space. Fortunately, he's arrested a few years before his plans are complete, and when he activates the virus he's in [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Singularity]], so the other chips aren't activated and the virus can't spread.
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* [[https://malware.wikia.org/wiki/MEMZ MEMZ]] is a trojan that, unlike many kinds of viruses, was not created with malicious intent and was instead intended to be shown off on [=YouTube=]. The effects it can have on the computer when launched, however, are still very devastating: over the next several minutes, it will cause the cursor to move on its own, open various Google searches, play error messages, taunt the user, and eventually cause the screen to flash before creating a collapsing tunnel effect. Attempting to halt the program once it is activated will cause it to bluescreen the computer. Furthermore, once the program is activated, it will automatically overwrite the computer's boot sector: even if the trojan's other payloads can be stopped, the computer will be rendered completely unusable upon being rebooted, with only a looping image of "Nyan Cat" playing on start-up.

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* [[https://malware.wikia.[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEMZ MEMZ]] is a trojan that, unlike many kinds of viruses, was not created with malicious intent and was instead intended to be shown off on [=YouTube=]. The effects it can have on the computer when launched, however, are still very devastating: over the next several minutes, it will cause the cursor to move on its own, open various Google searches, play error messages, taunt the user, and eventually cause the screen to flash before creating a collapsing tunnel effect. Attempting to halt the program once it is activated will cause it to bluescreen the computer. Furthermore, once the program is activated, it will automatically overwrite the computer's boot sector: even if the trojan's other payloads can be stopped, the computer will be rendered completely unusable upon being rebooted, with only a looping image of "Nyan Cat" playing on start-up.

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There's no point in sub-bulleting this example if it's the only one from this series


* ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' series:
** The main antagonist of ''VideoGame/WarioWareGetItTogether'' infects Wario's game. Localised, however, since it did not get to spread to any other in-universe medium. It is not known how these virī made their way into the game, but it happened after Wario programmed his game, and when he found out, he was [[OhCrap scared]].

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* ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' series:
**
The main antagonist of ''VideoGame/WarioWareGetItTogether'' infects Wario's game. Localised, however, since it did not get to spread to any other in-universe medium. It is not known how these virī made their way into the game, but it happened after Wario programmed his game, and when he found out, he was [[OhCrap scared]].

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* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheTinLabyrinth'' has Nobita and the heroes saving Planet Chamocha, whose robots have enslaved humanity under the control of their robotic leader, Professor Napogistra. Their only way of defeating him is by installing a disc containing a powerful virus inside Napogistra's brain, since he's neurally linked with the robots of the planet, and they succeed thanks to Doraemon firing the disc into Napogistra's mouth.
* These are the main 'villains' which Dual and Dorothy must 'compress and delete' in ''Anime/GarakowaRestoreTheWorld''. [[spoiler:Partially subverted. Mother released updates to view fragments of programs as viruses. Deleting worlds has created more of these.]]


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* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheTinLabyrinth'' has Nobita and the heroes saving Planet Chamocha, whose robots have enslaved humanity under the control of their robotic leader, Professor Napogistra. Their only way of defeating him is by installing a disc containing a powerful virus inside Napogistra's brain, since he's neurally linked with the robots of the planet, and they succeed thanks to Doraemon firing the disc into Napogistra's mouth.
* These are the main 'villains' which Dual and Dorothy must 'compress and delete' in ''Anime/GarakowaRestoreTheWorld''. [[spoiler:Partially subverted. Mother released updates to view fragments of programs as viruses. Deleting worlds has created more of these.]]
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* ''Film/SydneyWhite'': Sydney is running for student-body president of her college. The day before the election, current president and AlphaBitch Rachel hires a hacker to destroy Sydney's files using a virus called "The Poison Apple". Sydney is then forced to stay up all night in the library doing her work. When Sydney finishes, she falls asleep and is almost disqualified for not showing up, but Tyler wakes her with a kiss just in time.
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[[caption-width-right:350:[[WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "Alright Edgar, now drop a train on 'em!"]]]]

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* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Ireul, the 11th Angel, turns out not to be a {{kaiju}} but instead a nano-entity that quickly turns into a virus infecting the MAGI supercomputer, threatening the whole place with self-destruction. The combination of the computing genius of Ritsuko Akagi and the particular conception of the third part of MAGI (made by Ritsuko's own mother) saves the day, by setting Ireul on a course to "evolve" into annihilating himself.

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* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Ireul, the 11th Angel, turns out not to be a {{kaiju}} like many of his predecessors but instead a nano-entity that quickly turns into a virus infecting the MAGI supercomputer, threatening the whole place with self-destruction. The combination of the computing genius of Ritsuko Akagi and the particular conception of Casper, the third part of MAGI (made (conceived by Ritsuko's own mother) mother), saves the day, by setting Ireul on a course to "evolve" into annihilating himself.
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* In ''Film/IndependenceDay'' a computer genius from MIT writes a computer virus overnight that wipes out the attacking technologically superior alien fleet. A lot of people found it implausible that a human computer could interface with alien technology and that the virus just happens to be compatible with the alien system. A deleted scene would have shown the guy studying the aliens' computer system in a crashed ship. It's also implied that human technology has been largely reverse-engineered from alien tech. The aliens were also established to be using Earth's satellites to relay messages, so their systems must have been compatible to some degree.
** He also assumes that the aliens would figure out the virus within a few minutes and counter it, which is why part of the plan involved blowing up the mothership with a nuke. Having their command center wiped out would sow huge amounts of confusion among the alien attackers, preventing them from concentrating on the virus and delaying action on their part.
* In ''Franchise/TheMatrix Trilogy'', Agent Smith goes from being a program created to police the Matrix to being able to copy himself over other programs and even people after being killed by Neo at the end of the first movie. It's ironic considering his "humans are a virus" rant to Morpheus earlier in the same film.

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* In ''Film/IndependenceDay'' a computer genius from MIT writes a computer virus overnight that wipes out the defense shield of the attacking (and technologically superior superior) alien fleet. A lot of people found it implausible that a human computer could interface with alien technology and that the virus just happens to be compatible with the alien system. A deleted scene would have shown the guy studying the aliens' computer system in a crashed ship. It's also implied that human technology has been largely reverse-engineered from alien tech. The aliens were also established to be using Earth's satellites to relay messages, so their systems must have been compatible to some degree.
** He also assumes that the aliens would figure out the virus within a few minutes and counter it, which is why part of the plan involved blowing up the mothership from the inside with a nuke. Having their command center wiped out would sow huge amounts of confusion among the alien attackers, preventing them from concentrating on the virus and delaying action on their part.
* In ''Franchise/TheMatrix Trilogy'', the ''[[Franchise/TheMatrix Matrix]]'' sequels ''[[Film/TheMatrixReloaded Reloaded]]'' and ''[[Film/TheMatrixRevolutions Revolutions]]'', Agent Smith goes from being a program created to police the Matrix to being able to copy himself over other programs and even people ''people'' after being killed by Neo at the end of the [[Film/TheMatrix first movie. movie]]. By the time of his FinalBattle against Neo, he's taken over ''everything and everyone'' in the Matrix. It's quite ironic considering his "humans are a virus" rant to Morpheus earlier in the same film.
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* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Ireul, the 11th Angel turns out not to be a {{kaiju}} but instead a nano-entity that quickly turns into a virus infecting the MAGI supercomputer, threatening the whole place with self-destruction. The combination of the computing genius of Ritsuko Akagi and the particular conception of the third part of MAGI (made by Ritsuko's own mother) saves the day, by setting Ireul on a course to "evolve" into annihilating himself.

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* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Ireul, the 11th Angel Angel, turns out not to be a {{kaiju}} but instead a nano-entity that quickly turns into a virus infecting the MAGI supercomputer, threatening the whole place with self-destruction. The combination of the computing genius of Ritsuko Akagi and the particular conception of the third part of MAGI (made by Ritsuko's own mother) saves the day, by setting Ireul on a course to "evolve" into annihilating himself.
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* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Ireul, the 11th Angel turns out not to be a {{kaiju}} but instead a nano-entity that quickly turns into a virus infecting the MAGI supercomputer, threatening the whole place with self-destruction. The combination of the computing genius of Ritsuko Akagi and the particular conception of the third part of MAGI (made by Ritsuko's own mother) saves the day, by setting Ireul on a course to "evolve" into annihilating himself.
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* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "Contagion", the Iconian probes scan ships and try to reprogram them with Iconian software, [[HanlonsRazor possibly by complete accident]]. Unfortunately, said ships tend to get destroyed when the alien software overwrites the programs that keep things like the antimatter fuel safely contained in magnetic fields. The ''Enterprise'''s sister ship, the ''Yamato'' suffers that fate, and both the ''Enterprise'' and a Romulan warbird nearly go the same way.
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* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': In "A Virus, Heartbreak and a World of Possibilities", Sheldon's computer gets one after Sheldon plays a bootleg copy of a video game.
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* ''Anime/PatlaborTheMovie'': The Hyper Operating System contains self-replicating sabotage code that causes computer systems infected with it to go nuts--meaning a rampaging KillerRobot in the case of Labors.
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* The creature mentioned in the title of ''Literature/ItCameFromTheInternet'' is a Spyder, a wholly sentient computer virus who assumed a physical form and literally emerges from the protagonist's computer screen in the first few pages. Before trying to turn the protagonist and everyone else into Spyder viruses.
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* The main villain of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'', [[spoiler:Z, turns out to be a living computer virus that has infected a reality-warping computer, known as Origin, that was intended to preserve and rebuild the worlds of ''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1 Xenoblade Chronicles 1]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 2]]''. Z in fact combines this trope with TheHeartless, as he was formed out of the fear of the unknown and twisted desire for order from the masses of souls contained in Origin.]]

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* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS5E15AGlitchIsAGlitch A Glitch is a Glitch]]" has Ice King upload a virus to the Universal Source Code of Ooo, deleting everything so that he and Princess Bubblegum are the last two people in the universe. The virus looks like a glitchy Ice King head with cursor arrows for eyebrows, and it physically eats bits of code. Finn and Jake defeat it by [[spoiler: grossing it out and causing it to throw up the code.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode "The Virus", an actual virus seeks {{revenge}} on Gumball for destroying the former's army by simply washing his hands. In the second half of the episode, it evolves and gains the ability to take control of electronic devices, making it both types of virus.
* In "Hard Drive Courage" in ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', the Computer Virus is the MonsterOfTheWeek, causing the Computer to spark up in smokes, kidnapping Muriel into the Computer's hard drive, and attacking Courage when he enters the hard drive as well to save her. They feed it Muriel's special gelatin, causing its illness to go away and make it leave.
* Personified with Megabyte of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot''. His "sister" Hexadecimal is a little more unpredictable but less actively malicious.

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* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS5E15AGlitchIsAGlitch A Glitch is a Glitch]]" has Ice King upload a virus to the Universal Source Code of Ooo, deleting everything so that he and Princess Bubblegum are the last two people in the universe. The virus looks like a glitchy Ice King head with cursor arrows for eyebrows, and it physically eats bits of code. Finn and Jake defeat it by [[spoiler: grossing it out and causing it to throw up the code.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode "The Virus", an actual virus seeks {{revenge}} on Gumball for destroying the former's army by simply washing his hands. In the second half of the episode, it evolves and gains the ability to take control of electronic devices, making it both types of virus.
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': In "Hard Drive Courage" in ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', Courage", the Computer Virus is the MonsterOfTheWeek, causing the Computer to spark up in smokes, kidnapping Muriel into the Computer's hard drive, and attacking Courage when he enters the hard drive as well to save her. They feed it Muriel's special gelatin, causing its illness to go away and make it leave.
* %%* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'': Personified with Megabyte of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot''.Megabyte. His "sister" Hexadecimal is a little more unpredictable but less actively malicious.%%How are they examples?



* Also personified with Swayzak in the Creator/{{Toonami}} TIE ''WesternAnimation/TrappedInHyperspace''. He infects the Absolution and other ships in the area ForTheEvulz. [[spoiler:At the end, he infects TOM.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/WabbitALooneyTunesProduction'' short "Computer Bugs" has Bugs entering his computer to stop a virus from eating all of his files.
* A segment of ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears''' second HalloweenEpisode combined this with DigitalPiracyIsEvil when an attempt to watch a new movie for free unleashes a {{Reality Warp|er}}ing virus on the bears' cave.

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* Also personified ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E10NoSmallParts No Small Parts]]", Rutherford has Badgey whip up a computer virus to disable the Pakled ship, after Boimler realizes that they must have next to no security protocols in order to keep their mismatched tech functioning in unison. Badgey complies, but sets it up so Rutherford will be killed with the Pakleds.
* ''WesternAnimation/TrappedInHyperspace'':
Swayzak in the Creator/{{Toonami}} TIE ''WesternAnimation/TrappedInHyperspace''. He infects the Absolution and other ships in the area ForTheEvulz. [[spoiler:At the end, he infects TOM.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/WabbitALooneyTunesProduction'' short ''WesternAnimation/WabbitALooneyTunesProduction'': "Computer Bugs" has Bugs entering his computer to stop a virus from eating all of his files.
* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': A segment of ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears''' the second HalloweenEpisode combined this with DigitalPiracyIsEvil when an attempt to watch a new movie for free unleashes a {{Reality Warp|er}}ing virus on the bears' cave.
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* Viciously parodied in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. When Simmons is attempting to gain control of an enemy computer system and explaining the complications of doing so, Griff says "try uploading a virus into the mainframe, I find one with a laughing skull works the best."

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* Viciously parodied in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''.''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue''. When Simmons is attempting to gain control of an enemy computer system and explaining the complications of doing so, Griff says "try uploading a virus into the mainframe, I find one with a laughing skull works the best."

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