History Main / HamsterWheelPower

* The episode "The Wheel Thing" of ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' involved Mario and Luigi attempting to aid the cave people by introducing cars into their society. With the internal combustion engine nowhere near feasible with their current tech, Goombas are used to power the cars.

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf - The Tiger Prowess'': Lord Japper has Weslie run on a large hamster wheel-like apparatus to power the ferris wheel at his amusement park. Wolffy plays a prank on Weslie by spinning the wheel the other way, causing Weslie to lose balance and spin along with the wheel as Wolffy laughs at him.

* Gnomes in the ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' D&D-in-space setting use giant space hamsters to power much of their goofy technology.
* Doomwheels in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' are Skaven warmachines bristling with warpstone weaponry, powered by a swarm of rats running inside.
** They are essentially rolling circular chariots, quite obviously based on a giant hamster's exercise wheel, and not merely static gun platforms powered by rats. Given that the Skaven themselves are a race of anthropomorphic rat-men, and the Doomwheels have a tendency to malfunction spectacularly and go rolling over and zapping their own side, they are more often than not played for laughs.
* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' some of the worst off Martian Principalities are forced to resort to using slaves in wheels to provide some little power to the palace. Understandably this is seen as pathetic by everyone else.
* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'' parody 'Critter-TEK'', hamster wheels are the standard power source for [=TEKs=].
* In the board game ''Euphoria: Building a Better Dystopia'' from Stonemeier Games, the titular city is shown in the board artwork to be powered by humans on giant wheels.

->'''Della:''' Is... is that a hamster wheel?
->'''Launchpad:''' [[DontBeRidiculous Yeah! Well, obviously, a gerbil couldn't spin the propeller]].

->'''Launchpad:''' [[DontBeRidiculous Yeah! Well, obviously, a gerbil couldn't spin the propeller].

->'''Launchpad:''' Yeah! Well, obviously, a gerbil couldn't spin the propeller.

* ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles': One of the locks in ''Ravenhearst'' opens when you get a ''mechanical'' mouse to enter and use a wire exercise wheel.

%%(ZCE)* [[http://kevinandkell.com/1996/kk1203.html A cost-cutting measure]] at Caliban Academy in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell''.

* [[Characters/BatmanTheRiddler The Riddler]] is subjected to this in ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'', powering the crew's mall lair for a period of time. He's not happy about it.

* Many powered devices used by the ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' were hamster-driven. One episode centered on Numbuh 3 giving all their base's hamsters a vacation, leaving the team undefended and nearly unarmed.

* [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Archchancellor Ridcully]] has one such device under his hat that may prevent baldness, powered by a hamster.

* At the end of ''Chet Gecko: The Hamster of the Baskervilles'', the titular were-hamster is defeated by luring into a science fair exhibit about perpetual motion, which features an enormous spinning wheel. The were-hamster is caught inside the wheel and remains running, rendering it harmless.
* Creator/JamesBlish's short story "Surface Tension" features genetically engineered rotifer-sized people who build a "space ship" (we would think of it as a land vehicle) to travel to another pond on the surface of their planet. It is powered by diatoms running on treadmills.
* In ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'', farm boys walking on wheels provide kinetic energy which thaumaturges then transfer into a magic-powered harvesting apparatus. Doubly cruel, in that the wheel-walkers end up with massively-overdeveloped thighs and no other skills to make a living, while the "harvesting apparatus" consists of cages with human peasants inside, steadily forced forward by mechanisms that beat them if they don't cut grain fast enough.
* Complaining about her PD's microscopic budget, police chief Arly Hanks claims in ''Merry Wives of Maggody'' that her computer is powered by squirrels running in a wheel. She tells Sheriff Dorfer that one of his deputies will have to run background checks on some suspects because her computer's on the blink: one of the squirrels died.

* In the [[Literature/HonorHarrington Honorverse]], the Solarian League is the largest, most powerful nation in the setting, but ''because'' it is so powerful it hasn't actually had to deploy its forces in literal centuries. When war breaks out between the Solarian League and the Star Kingdom of Manticore, it sends a large portion of its forces to the distant Mantirocre star system. Since the Manticoran fleet far outclasses the Solarian fleet when it comes to actual combat power, the Manticorans joke that they're amazed the Solarian ships made the journey, and joke that they didn't think the hamsters in the engine room had that much energy.

* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' has the titular boy genius attempt to power up his burned-out lab by rigging together dozens of hamsters in wheels. RealityEnsues when they all just tire out within minutes.

* The Turnspit was a breed of dog (now extinct) created for the purpose of operating wheel-powered meat spits in kitchens.

%%* ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'': The Kakamora use one of these to deploy a giant drum on their floating fortress.%%One of what?

More-plausible variants, which use large animals or human workers to turn their wheels, also appear in fiction. These aren't particularly funny, and may be PlayedForDrama if the arduousness (and boredom) of walking inside a wheel for hours on end is emphasized. (See:

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zULDfSS7h20 This nokia ad.]] Played straight and spelled out: "Hamster-powered phone charger". Genius.

* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons:'' One issue has the town nearly dragged into nuclear war between Mr. Burns and his rival, and as a result the government outright bans any nuclear technology in town for several months. As a result, power is supplied to the town by making all of Burns' employees run in giant hamster wheels.

* Jokingly suggested as the secret power-source of the AlcubierreDrive in ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier''. Plus the Kerbals did apparently look at hooking the treadmill in their first interstellar starship's fitness centre up to the power grid to cut their power consumption, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it.

* ''Fanfic/SuperRWBYSisters'': At the climax of "JINX's Star Allies", following their capture by the Shroobs, the Squeak Squad is forced run on hamster wheels. After being set free, Daroach notes how embarrassing it was.

* In ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'', farm boys walking in wheels provide kinetic energy which thaumaturges then transfer into a magic-powered harvesting apparatus. Doubly cruel, in that the wheel-walkers end up with massively-overdeveloped thighs and no other skills to make a living, while the "harvesting apparatus" consists of cages with human peasants inside, steadily forced forward by mechanisms that beat them if they don't cut grain fast enough.

* The ''Series/OddSquad'' episode "Xs and Os" has Oona pedaling a stationary bike in order to generate electricity for the lab, as a way of cutting costs from using a lot of electricity. It works for a time, but comes at a severe consequence of her not being able to repair and build gadgets, leaving Olympia and Otis defenseless when Headquarters begins falling to shambles.

* A Ray Stevens music video "Surfin' USSR" had a nuclear sub powered by a hamster in a wheel and a menacing looking Red with a bullwhip.

** They are essentially rolling circular chariots, quite obviously based on a giant hamster's exercise wheel, and not merely static gun platforms powered by rats.. Given that the Skaven themselves are a race of anthropomorphic rat-men, and the Doomwheels have a tendency to malfunction spectacularly and go rolling over and zapping their own side, they are more often than not played for laughs.
* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' some of the worst off Martian Principalities are forced to resort to using slaves in wheels to provide some little power to the palace. Understandably this is seem as pathetic by everyone else.

* In ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife'' (the video game) there's a rather convoluted puzzle wherein you put a rude French mouse in a wheel and attempt to make him run by giving him the proper motivation (not [[StockAnimalDiet cheese]]). Later on you get a small elephant who can be convinced to run if given a peanut, which result in a door being opened.

* ''VideoGame/IslandExperiment'': Yhe Sweet Kingdom archipelago's Donut Island has an irrigation system that's powered by bunnies running inside giant hamster balls. You need to trap the escaped bunnies, put them inside, and hang carrots in front of the balls so they'll go back to running.
* ''VideoGame/ShantaeHalfGenieHero'': Part of the plot is helping Mimic build a device to repel evil from Scuttle Town and using one of these as its power source. It's slightly more plausible in that the hamster is zombified and thus doesn't have need of things like eating or sleeping to keep it from running the amount of time needed.
* In ''VideoGame/OxygenNotIncluded'', the Manual Generator is your starting Power building, and your main source of power for much of the early game. It's an over-sized hamster wheel that your Duplicants run on in order to charge your batteries and provide power to your space station's machinery. Eventually, you can tech up to coal, diesel, and hydrogen power plants, but since the hamsterwheels only need a duplicant with nothing better to do, produces no waste product, and produce very little heat, it remains viable well into the late game-especially as jump-starters to power plants that require a pump of some kind to feed them with. As a bonus, whichever duplicant is on the wheel gradually improves their physical stats.

* Russian animation film ''Adventures of Captain Wrongel'' (and the novel it was based on) plays with this trope. When eponymous Captain saves a bunch of squirrels from forest fire and tries to unload them in a zoo, local ObstructiveBureaucrat tries to charge him with contraband, since the animals obviously aren't included in the ship's cargo manifest. To fend off the charge, Captain declares the squirrels to be part of his ship's propulsion system and proves it by quickly building two giant squirrel-powered paddle wheels.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode "Cyborg the Barbarian," Cyborg gets sent back in time and his drained power cells are recharged by a combination human hamster wheel/ waterfall powered dynamo.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "The Ricks Must Be Crazy," when [[MadScientist Rick's]] car power supply fails, he takes Morty inside the battery, where Rick explains to Morty that he created a "Microverse" and waited until a sentient life form evolved that he then gave gooble boxes, a device that generates electricity when used to exercise by walking in place. After Morty tries to explain that Rick essentially enslaved an entire planet, Rick responds that since the people of the Microverse created a complex society where anyone who gets old and dies is replaced by someone younger, [[SlaveRace Morty replies "that's just slavery with extra steps,"]] to which Rick just brushes him off. When they encounter Zeep, basically an {{Expy}} of Rick, Zeep reveals that to power his world, he created a "Miniverse," waited until a sentient life form evolved, to which he gave flooble cranks, a lever-based exercise devise that generates electricity, and thus render the gooble box obsolete. [[{{Hypocrite}} When Rick mentions that Zeep enslaved an entire planet,]] Zeep responds that since the people of the Miniverse created a complex society, they aren't slaves, when Rick says [[IronicEcho "that's just slavery with extra steps,"]] Zeep just brushes him off. When they go into the "Miniverse," they encounter a scientist named Kyle who created a "Teenyverse," and when a sentient life form evolves, he'll give them a blooble yank, a pulley based exercise device that will render the flooble crank obsolete. When Zeep tries to explain that he's planning to enslave an entire planet, Kyle responds that since the people of the "Teenyverse" will live in a complex society, they won't be slaves. As Zeep mentions "that's just slavery with extra steps" he attacks Rick, when he realizes why they are there. As they are arguing, Kyle realizes why he was born, climbs into his ship, and crashes it, stranding Rick, Morty, and Zeep in the Teenyverse. At the end, once they manage to exit the Teenyverse, and after [[InferredHolocaust Rick destroys Zeep's Miniverse,]] they enter the car, and when it starts, Morty asks how is that possible, to which Rick responds that Zeep would realize that either everyone needs to keep using gooble boxes, or Rick [[DeadlyEuphemism "would have to toss a broken battery."]]

* Cranes used in the construction of RealLife medieval cathedrals and castles were powered by humans walking inside giant wheels. Often the wheels would be operated by blind men, since they would not get vertigo from looking down, and this allowed even disabled people to participate in important work that was pleasing to God. They’d have been pretty helpless up there in case of an accident, though.

* There were plans after both world wars to power Europe using handcarts with generators installed on them, given that that there was a surplus of men and rail lines.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode, "the Ricks must be Crazy," when [[MadScientist Rick's]] car power supply fails, he takes Morty inside the battery, where Rick explains to Morty that he created a "Microverse" and waited until a sentient life form evolved that he then gave gooble boxes, a device that generates electricity when used to exercise by walking in place. After Morty tries to explain that Rick essentially enslaved an entire planet, Rick responds that since the people of "Microverse" created a complex society where anyone who gets old and dies is replaced by someone younger, [[SlaveRace Morty replies "that's just slavery with extra steps,"]] to which Rick just brushes off. When they encounter Zeep, basically an {{Expy}} of Rick, Zeep reveals that to power his world, he created a "Miniverse," waited until a sentient life form evolved, to which he gave flooble cranks, a lever based exercise devise that generates electricity, and thus render the gobble box obsolete. [[{{Hypocrite}} When Rick mentions that Zeep enslaved and entire planet,]] Zeep responds that since the people of the Miniverse created a complex society, they aren't slaves, when Rick says [[IronicEcho "that's just slavery with extra steps,"]] Zeep just brushes him off. When they go into the "Miniverse," they encounter a scientist named Kyle who created a "Teenyverse," and when a sentient life form evolves, he'll give them a blooble yank, a pulley based exercise device that will render the flooble crank obsolete. When Zeep tries to explain that he's planning to enslave an entire planet, Kyle responds that since the people of the "Teenyverse" will live in a complex society, they won't be slaves. As Zeep mentions "that's just slavery with extra steps" he attacks Rick, when he realizes why they are there. As they are arguing, Kyle realizes why he was born, climbs into his ship, and crashes it, stranding Rick, Morty, and Zeep in the Teenyverse. At the end, once they manage to exit the "Tenyverse," and after [[InferredHolocaust Rick destroys Zeep's "Miniverse,"]] they enter the car, and when it starts, Morty asks how is that possible, to which Rick responds that Zeep would realize that either everyone needs to keep using gooble boxes, or Rick [[DeadlyEuphemism "would have to toss a broken battery."]]

* [[http://kevinandkell.com/1996/kk1203.html A cost-cutting measure]] at Caliban Academy in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell''.

* Joked about on ''Series/{{Mash}}'' when the 4077's generator breaks down and their backup one is stolen. There's even a BrickJoke about the hamster being put out of work after Klinger swipes one from another unit.

* Joked about on ''Series/MASH'' when the 4077's generator breaks down and their backup one is stolen. There's even a BrickJoke about the hamster being put out of work after Klinger swipes one from another unit.