History Main / MidasTouch

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': "Operation C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E." features Henrich von Marzipan, who after falling into chocolate lava got turned into a chocolate monster that turns everything he touches into chocolate. This turned out bad for him when he got sick of chocolate and wanted a cheeseburger.

* ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'' adapted this episode, but turned Midas into an AdaptationalNiceGuy by realizing what he did after accidentally turning a servant into gold when the latter was trying to feed him grapes. He starts praying to the gods, but it's not until his wife and daughter are turned as well that the gods take mercy and give him a solution.

* The comic book series ''The Midas Flesh'' carries this to an extreme level. Not only does anything Midas touch turn to gold, but anything that touches something he is touching turns to gold as well. This causes him to suffocate when the air in his lungs turns to gold, and eventually the entire planet changes as well, but his body continues to affect everything, slowly turning even the atmosphere into gold. Then a few thousand years later, aliens show up, figure out how the "touch" works, and try to use parts of his body as a weapon.

* UsefulNotes/McDonalds and [[https://youtu.be/nv3y4ceOn1Q The Hamburglar Touch]], in which Hamburglar can turn anything he touches into a burger. It all goes well for him at first, until [[ThisIsGonnaSuck he touches his face]]! Thankfully, it's all just an ImagineSpot.

* In Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia: Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', the heroes' voyage takes them to a volcanic isle where Edmund and Caspian discover a magic pool that transforms ordinary things to gold -- including one of the Telmar lords who fell (or perhaps was pushed) into it. Evil forces spark an argument between Edmund and Caspian over potential uses for it, but Lucy breaks it up before they can come to harm.

* ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'' has the Lancre Morris Men discuss the legend.[[note]]A more conventional version than the dyslexic variant mentioned in ''Literature/WitchesAbroad''.[[/note]] When the one of them asks how the king went to the lavatory, the others say that's the point; you could be holding a fortune in your hands and have nothing to spend it on.

A character is given a [[TheMagicTouch special ability so that everything they touch]] turns into a certain substance of superficial value to the character that gets it, such as gold or candy. However, that character soon finds out that this ability is actually undesirable. At the very least, the side effects of their ability are just plain annoying, but at worst, something [[GoneHorriblyWrong Goes Horribly Wrong]] with this new ability and they have to reverse it. [[AnAesop The lesson]] is often that {{Greed}} is bad.

* The Myth/{{Greek myth|ology}} of King Midas is the TropeCodifier. Midas is obsessed with gold but is nonetheless a [[SacredHospitality good host]]. When he hosts Silenus, the foster father of Dionysus, the god of wine, Dionysus himself grants Midas a boon, and Midas asks for the ability to turn everything he touches into gold (some versions of the story go so far as to have Dionysus warn Midas that his wish is probably a bad idea). However, he finds eating and drinking is nearly impossible with this ability (in later versions written after the fall of UsefulNotes/AncientGreece [[AesopCollateralDamage he turns his daughter into gold after hugging her]]). Dionysus instructs Midas to wash his hands or anything he turned to gold in the Pactolus river to reverse it, which transferred the ability to the river and caused its sands to turn gold, [[JustSoStory thus explaining why the Pactolus river had a lot of electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) in it in preceding centuries]].
** In most versions, Midas is given the golden touch as a reward for helping Dionysus's foster father Silenus while he was hung over, but in others he actually kidnapped Silenus and the touch was implicitly or explicitly a curse.

** If the Midas touch rearranged atoms into gold without adding any mass, then Earth would implode with enough speed to splatter its inhabitants across its surface, then the resulting shockwave would boil everyone's remains into plasma, resulting in Earth glowing brighter and hotter than the Sun for a short time before finally cooling down into a small, shiny sphere of pure gold.

* In a ''Creator/ChuckECheese'' commercial during the Avenger era, Chuck E. shows his "Chuck Touch" which involves turning anything he comes into contact with into something fun.

* The Myth/{{Greek myth|ology}} of King Midas is the TropeCodifier. Midas is obsessed with gold but is nonetheless a [[SacredHospitality good host]]. When he hosts Silenus, the foster farther of Dionysus, the god of wine, Dionysus himself grants Midas a boon, and Midas asks for the ability to turn everything he touches into gold (some versions of the story go so far as to have Dionysus warn Midas that his wish is probably a bad idea). However, he finds eating and drinking is nearly impossible with this ability (in later versions written after the fall of UsefulNotes/AncientGreece [[AesopCollateralDamage he turns his daughter into gold after hugging her]]). Dionysus instructs Midas to wash his hands or anything he turned to gold in the Pactolus river to reverse it, which transferred the ability to the river and caused its sands to turn gold, [[JustSoStory thus explaining why the Pactolus river had a lot of electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) in it in preceding centuries]].

* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'', the band of thieves is after a [[{{MacGuffin}} legendary artifact]], the "Hand of Midas" which can turn things to gold. The villain Saluk is turned to gold when Aladdin's father tosses the artifact to him and he catches it barehanded. When escaping the ruins, he is also forced to leave behind his turned-to-gold cape because the weight was slowing him down. Eventually, he decides the hand was not the ultimate treasure he truly wanted, and throws it into the ocean...but not before it lands in the boat of the other thieves first, turning it to gold and causing it to sink.

* The Myth/{{Greek myth|ology}} of King Midas is the TropeCodifier. Midas is obsessed with gold but is nonetheless a [[SacredHospitality good host]]. When he hosts Silenus, the foster farther of Dionysis, the god of wine, Dionysis himself grants Midas a boon, and Midas asks for the ability to turn everything he touches into gold (some versions of the story go so far as to have Dionysis warn Midas that his wish is probably a bad idea). However, he finds eating and drinking is nearly impossible with this ability (in later versions written after the fall of UsefulNotes/AncientGreece [[AesopCollateralDamage he turns his daughter into gold after hugging her]]). Dionysus instructs Midas to wash his hands or anything he turned to gold in the Pactolus river to reverse it, which transferred the ability to the river and caused its sands to turn gold, [[JustSoStory thus explaining why the Pactolus river had a lot of electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) in it in preceding centuries]].

* The Myth/{{Greek myth|ology}} of King Midas is the TropeCodifier. Midas is obsessed with gold but is nonetheless a [[SacredHospitality good host]]. When he hosts Silenus, the foster farther of Dionysis, the god of wine, Dionysis himself grants Midas a boon, and Midas asks for the ability to turn everything he touches into gold. However, he finds eating and drinking is nearly impossible with this ability (in later versions written after the fall of UsefulNotes/AncientGreece [[AesopCollateralDamage he turns his daughter into gold after hugging her]]). Dionysus instructs Midas to wash his hands or anything he turned to gold in the Pactolus river to reverse it, which transferred the ability to the river and caused its sands to turn gold, [[JustSoStory thus explaining why the Pactolus river had a lot of electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) in it in preceding centuries]].

* The Myth/{{Greek myth|ology}} of King Midas is the TropeCodifier. Midas is obsessed with gold but is nonetheless a [[SacredHospitality good host]]. When he hosts Silenus, the foster farther of Dionysis, the god of wine, Dionysis himself grants Midas a boon, and Midas asks for the ability to turn everything he touches into gold. However, he finds eating and drinking is nearly impossible with this ability (in later versions written after the fall of AncientGreece [[AesopCollateralDamage he turns his daughter into gold after hugging her]]). Dionysus instructs Midas to wash his hands or anything he turned to gold in the Pactolus river to reverse it, which transferred the ability to the river and caused its sands to turn gold, [[JustSoStory thus explaining why the Pactolus river had a lot of electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) in it in preceding centuries]].

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' has the aptly named Midas Touch, which causes any enemies the player touches (even bosses!) to turn to gold, freezing them in place and causing them to drop coins when they die, as well as [[spoiler: negating most of the damage scaling on Ultra Greed, allowing the player to kill them much easier.]]
** [[spoiler: [[BonusBoss Ultra Greedier]], being a statue made of gold, turns the entire boss room into gold when he dies.]]

The [[Myth/ClassicalMythology myth]] of King Midas is the TropeCodifier. It tells of a king who [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor wished everything he touches would turn to gold]]. The Greek god of wine Dionysus gives him this ability, which he [[BlessedWithSuck enjoys at first but finds it has its drawbacks]], such as when he can't really eat anything and [[TakenForGranite turns his daughter into gold]] by hugging her.

* The Myth/{{Greek myth|ology}} of King Midas is the TropeCodifier. Midas is obsessed with gold and so Dionysus, the god of wine, grants him the ability to turn everything he touches into gold. However, he finds eating and drinking is nearly impossible with this ability (in another version [[AesopCollateralDamage he turns his daughter into gold after hugging her]]). Dionysus instructs Midas to wash his hands or anything he turned to gold in the Pactolus river to reverse it, which transferred the ability to the river and caused its sands to turn gold, [[JustSoStory thus explaining why the Pactolus river had a lot of electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) in it in preceding centuries]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'' episode "New Gods on the Block!", the children use Zeus's laurel to prove they can become a god. Louie wishes to have MidasTouch (or the "Louie Touch" as he calls it) to give people gold at the park, except he accidentally causes chaos turning people into gold and is disqualified for the mess he caused.

** A Deleted Scene for the "Live Action" ''[[Film/Aladdin2019 Aladdin]]'' has the Genie explain that one of his previous masters wished for this. Unfortunately, in their excitement, they rub their hands together, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard causing them to be turned to gold themselves]]!

* Referenced in the first ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' game in the "Palace of Midas", where turning bars of lead into gold is the level's central puzzle. Although the game doesn't allow the player to [[CombinatorialExplosion turn other inventory items to gold]], they ''can'' [[ShmuckBait climb on top of Midas's hand]] and watch Lara herself be turned to gold. [[NonstandardGameOver Oops!]]

Subtrope of TheMagicTouch, MadeOGold, and BlessedWithSuck. Compare to TouchOfDeath.