History Main / OutOfControlPopcorn

* Invoked in ''Film/RealGenius''. The heroes hijack the test of the giant space laser, redirecting it to Dr. Hathaway's house, which they had previously filled with unpopped popcorn kernels, turning it into a giant Jiffy-Pop. The popcorn all pops and explodes out of the house. Dr. Hathaway, who hates popcorn, comes home during the beginning of the end credits to find his whole house full of the stuff.

* On ''Series/MythBusters'', the scene from Real Genius was tested where a house is destroyed by having a massive amount of popcorn cooked inside of it. Sadly, real life popcorn will fail to pop if it is not under pressure during cooking, so it's not actually possible.

* In an ''[[ComicStrip/USAcres Orson's Farm]]'' skit on ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', Orson can't seem to finish the corn inventory because corn, somehow, keeps disappearing. He imagines himself as Agent Double-O Orson dealing with nemesis Pinfeather (Roy Rooster) who was doing corn robberies. In the fight, Double-O Orson's invention goes off under Pinfeather's limousine and popcorn, formed by the stolen corn, pops the hood right off. This gives the real Orson an idea; he brings a battery powered heater into Roy's coop; soon revealing what happened to the missing ears.
* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': When Launchpad, Gosalyn, and Honker get trapped in a popping popcorn machine, Honker knocks over another pack of it inside; causing so much popcorn to pop that it breaks the glass of the machine, allowing them to escape.

* While preparing the food in ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownThanksgiving'', Snoopy was in charge of the popcorn. But there was one time he forgot to put the lid on the pot when throwing in the next batch of kernels...
* ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi:'' In the segment "Talent Suckers Return", the Talent Suckers tried making popcorn for the popcorn stand and put tons of kernels into the machine. Vlad forgot to plug it in and the arena was destroyed by all of the popped popcorn.

* Near the end of the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode, "Popcorn Pandemonium", Filburt, who works as the projectionist for the Googa Plex cinema, accidentally falls over and leaves his glasses in front of the projector. This causes the projector to set the screen on fire, and the fire makes its way to the popcorn storage room, causing the popcorn to fill up the entire theater, destroying it and making it look like a drive-in. At the end of the episode, as Rocko and Heffer eat the popcorn from the pile that buries them, two of the rat garbagemen from the trailer for ''Garbage Strike: The Musical'' refuse to clean up the mess, [[MemeticMutation and why is that? 'Cause they're on strike!]]

[[quoteright:332:[[Literature/Popcorn https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20190516_203612911_9.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:332:[[Literature/BabyBear https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20190516_203612911_9.jpg]]]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': In one daily, the duo decides to see what happens when you pop a normal amount of corn with the lid off, and it fills up the entire kitchen.
-->'''Calvin:''' That's more fun than exploding a potato in the microwave!
* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1989/01/27 A January 1989 strip]] has Garfield cooking so much popcorn that it spills out of the kitchen and into the living room, to Jon's surprise when he sees it.
[[/folder]]

* In an episode of ''Series/ThePuzzlePlace'', Leon brings a package of popcorn, but when he turns on the popper, the corn doesn't pop. Later, after everyone else has left, Sizzle and Nuzzle come across it, and it finally starts to pop... and pop... and pop, getting bigger than the pets. Eventually the popper explodes and rains popcorn all over the room.

[[folder:Print Comics]]
* In one ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' daily, the duo decides to see what happens when you pop a normal amount of corn with the lid off, and it fills up the entire kitchen.

* In the children's book ''Popcorn'' by Frank Asch (provider of the trope image), a mother and father bear leave their son, Sam, to go to a Halloween party. The young bear takes the opportunity to call his friends for a party of his own. He tells them to bring something good to eat and they all end up bringing popcorn, so they decide to pop it all at once. It goes as you expect and they all have to eat it up before Sam's parents get home.

Expect a [[StuffBlowingUp a big explosion]] if the popcorn is contained inside something as it's popping. Compare ImpossibleLeavening which is also about food going all over the place; and PassThePopcorn, where a character is seen eating popcorn as they watch something happen. May even overlap if the popcorn they're eating is part of the mess.

* ''WesternAnimation/Pingu'': In the episode "Pingu the Chef", after Pingu and his sister Pinga snack on some popcorn while their parents are out, Pingu decides to make more by filling the stove with kernels. But he puts in too many and after making a huge mess, he and Pinga decide to share it with their neighbours.

[[caption-width-right:332:I hope they have a lot of butter...]]

[[caption-width-right:332:I hope they have a of butter...]]

[[caption-width-right:332:Uh oh!]]

* ''WesternAnimation/RoliePolieOlie:'' When Olie and Billy were making popcorn for the monster movie marathon on tv, they accidentally forgot about the popcorn maker and soon Olie's kitchen is full of popcorn.

* In the children's book ''Popcorn'' by Frank Asch (provider of the trope image), a mother and father bear leave their son, Sam, to go to a Halloween party. The young bear takes the opportunity to call his friends for a party of his own. He tells them to bring something good to eat and they all end up bringing popcorn; so they decide to pop it all at once. It goes as you expect and they all have to eat it up before Sam's parents get home.

* ''WesternAnimation/FetchWithRuffRuffman'': Happens at the Cold Open of "I'm Okay, You're Okra" as Ruff tries to make some gumbo, he think he has put some corn in, but instead realizes he put popcorn in, and the entire kitchen is flooded with popcorn.

** In one episode, Lionel and Leona pull a magical popcorn popper out of a book to make popcorn; however, they lose the instructions and don't know how to turn it off, resulting in a popcorn flood.

* In the children's book ''Popcorn'' by Frank Asch (provider of the trope image), a mother and father bear leave their son Sam to go to a party. The young bear takes the opportunity to call his friends for a party of his own. He tells them to bring something good to eat and they all end up bringing popcorn; so they decide to pop it all at once. It goes as you expect and they all have to eat it up before Sam's parents get home.

* ''WesternAnimation/RoliePolieOlie:'' When Olie and Billy were making popcorn for the monster movie marathon on tv, they accidentally forgot about the popcorn and soon Olie's kitchen is full of popcorn.

* In an episode of ''Series/ThePuzzlePlace'', Leon brings a package of popcorn, but when he turns on the popper, the corn doesn't pop. Later, after everyone else has left, Sizzle and Nuzzle come across it, and it finally starts to pop... and pop... and pop, getting bigger than the pets. Eventually it explodes and rains popcorn all over the room.

* In an episode of ''Series/ThePuzzlePlace'', Leon brings a package of popcorn, but when he turned it on to pop it, it doesn't pop. Later after they left, Sizzle and Nuzzle come across it and it finally starts to pop....and pop.....and pop; getting much bigger than the pets. Eventually, it explodes and rains popcorn all over the room.
* ''Series/BetweenTheLions'':
** One of Arty Smartypant's tricks has him put the words "Popping" and "Popcorn" in his smarty pants. After he says the magic word and does his magic dance, popcorn starts popping right out of his pants.
** In one episode, Lionel and Leona pull a magical popcorn popper out of a book to make popcorn; however, they lose the instructions and don't know how to turn it off, resulting in a popcorn flood.
* ''WebVideo/MuppetViralVideos:'' In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7UmUX68KtE "Popcorn"]], the Swedish Chef tries to make popcorn shrimp, and starts by microwaving a few dozen bags of popcorn at once. At the end of the song, the microwave door explodes off, and enough popcorn spills out to fill the kitchen and bury the Swedish Chef.
* ''Series/SesameStreet'': In Episode 4007, Grover runs a popcorn stand, and has difficulty getting the popcorn to pop. Emily suggests that Grover turn the machine on, and when Grover does, the popcorn begins to pop faster than he can fill the boxes, eventually engulfing him. After Bob shuts the machine off, several chickens dig into the popcorn to free Grover.

* This happens in TomieDepaola's ''The Popcorn Book''. Throughout the book, Tony makes some popcorn while Tiny reads facts all about popcorn. At the end, it is mentioned that once in the Midwest, it was so hot, that popcorn started to pop in the fields, and there was so much flying popcorn everywhere, that it looked like a blizzard. As the popcorn fills up, Tony starts to cry out that it's like a blizzard here.