History Main / PaperBagPopping

** In another strip, Calvin uses this ploy to simulate a gunshot to get out of talking to a telemarketer, except it was used with a balloon instead of a paper bag in this case.

-->Mr. O'Toole recalls walking into a room at age 3 or 4. His parents, obviously in their cups, are trying to put up the family Christmas tree. "Is Father Christmas coming?" he demands. Gales of laughter. Marching up to his father, he repeats: "Is Father Christmas coming?" Whereupon his father picks up a brown paper bag and leaves the room. There's a bang. The door opens, and Pat O'Toole returns. "He stands above me," Mr. O'Toole writes, "and looks solemnly down at me before pronouncing very clearly: 'Father Christmas has [[DrivenToSuicide just shot himself.]]' "

** Bogus does this to Ratty and Mole with a balloon in the episode "[[Recap/MrBogusS2E5BadLuckBogus Bad Luck Bogus]]", while they were preparing a potion to use on him. The ensuing popping of the balloon surprises Ratty and Mole, culminating in a SurpriseJump from Mole who then lands in the potion. HilarityEnsues afterwards when the effects of the potion cause Mole to have a spastic reaction and also causes him to rocket all around the attic.

[[quoteright:275:[[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/garfield_paperbagpopping.jpg]]]]

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* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': A comic has a rocket scientist carefully hammering rivets into a missile while another scientist behind him is about to pop a paper bag.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'' did this to her husband, Dagwood, to get him to wake up for work. It was usually [[RuleOfFunny played for comedy]]. She did it quite a few times in the comic strip and at least once in an animated TV special.

* Series/MrBean once tries to cheer up a kid on a plane by blowing up an airsickness bag and popping it to wake a sleeping passenger. While he tries in vain to blow up the bag, the kid gets sick and throws up in his bag. Bean sees the full bag, thinks the kid blew it up for him, and pops it. [[VomitDiscretionShot Fortunately the episode ends before we see the results.]] The gag was reused on ''Film/{{Bean}}'', only this time we see Bean's reaction as the bag pops offscreen, along with some of the vomit as it splashes out.

* ''Series/ICarly'': In the episode "iBeat The Heat", Sam does this to get everyone's attention when Carly is giving a speech that no-one will listen to at first.

* In the WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck cartoon ''Dragon Around'', Donald tries to blow up Chip and Dale's tree with dynamite, but they put the sticks out and trick Donald by popping a bag to simulate an explosion.

* There was an ''Franchise/ArchieComics'' story where Archie is being hounded by Mr. Weatherbee, because of the former's sleeping in class, prompting the latter to send him to his office to wait for him. When Mr. Weatherbee gets to his office, he finds Archie sleeping at his desk, which prompts him to blow up a paper bag while stating that everyone has a weakness, then pops it, which surprises Archie so much. At the end, Mr. Weatherbee then says, "[[JerkWithAHeartOfGold That's my only weakness, I'm too softhearted.]]"

* The balloon version is used in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove''. When Kuzco finds himself surrounded by sleeping jaguars, Bucky the squirrel, as payback for how Kuzco treated him earlier, blows up a balloon, bends it in the form of a llama, and pops it. The pop doesn't wake up the jaguars... but Kuzco laughing at Bucky does.

** Calvin pops a paper bag while his dad is reading a newspaper. Having startled his dad, Calvin says "Pay attention to me." This comic is also the current page image for AttentionWhore.

[[quoteright:197:[[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a4fc01409a025a4efb3aee0fb3b48a9d.png]]]]

* In Episode 4 of the ''Anime/LittleLulu'' anime, Tubby does this after eating the peanuts that were in the paper bag that he was given. One of the examples that does not involve waking up someone.

* Oddball webtoon ''Krentz and the Hand of Shame'' has an instance of this. In this case it doesn't work -- largely because the target is in a coma rather than merely being asleep.

** Bogus does this to Ratty and Mole with a balloon in the episode "[[Recap/MrBogusS2E5BadLuckBogus Bad Luck Bogus]]", while they were preparing a potion to use on him. The ensuing popping of the balloon surprises Ratty and Mole, culiminating in a SurpriseJump from Mole who then lands in the potion. HilarityEnsues afterwards when the effects of the potion causes Mole to have a spastic reaction and also causes him to rocket all around the attic.

* ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'': A flashback panel shows that a young Maxima discovered her power to shoot blasts of energy with her hand when her brother woke her up by popping a paper bag as a joke, resulting in a large, burning hole in the wall of their house.

* In ''Series/{{Icarly}}'' in the episode "iBeat The Heat" Sam does this to get everyone's attention when Carly is giving a speech that no one will listen to at first.

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

[[folder:Film - Animated]]
* The balloon version is used in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove''. When Kuzco finds himself surrounded by sleeping jaguars, Bucky the squirrel, as payback for how Kuzco treated him earlier, blows up a balloon, bends it in the form of a llama, and pops it. The pop doesn't wake up the jaguars...but Kuzco laughing at Bucky does.

* Series/MrBean once tried to cheer up a kid on a plane by blowing up an airsickness bag and popping it to wake a sleeping passenger. While he tries in vain to blow up the bag, the kid gets sick and throws up in his bag. Bean sees the full bag, thinks the kid blew it up for him, and pops it. [[VomitDiscretionShot Fortunately the episode ends before we see the results.]] The gag was reused on ''Film/{{Bean}}'', only this time we see Bean's reaction as the bag pops offscreen, along with some of the vomit as it splashes out.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* A ''[[ComicStrip/TheFarSide Far Side]]'' comic has a rocket scientist carefully hammering rivets into a missile while another scientist behind him is about to pop a paper bag.
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'':
** Calvin pops a paper bag while his dad is reading a newspaper. Having startled his dad, Calvin says "Pay attention to me." This comic is also the current page image for AttentionWhore.
** One Sunday strip has Calvin ask Dad if people ever [[SpontaneousHumanCombustion spontaneously combust]]. Dad says no. There's a BeatPanel, then Calvin pops a paper bag around the corner and scares the living daylights out of Dad.
** In another strip, Calvin uses this ploy to simulate a gunshot to get out of talking to a telemarketer, except it was used with a balloon instead of a paper bag in this case.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'' did this to her husband, Dagwood, to get him to wake up for work. It was usually [[RuleOfFunny played for comedy]]. She did it quite a few times in the comic strip and at least once in an animated TV special.
* Jon does this to Odie in [[http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1983/ga831231.gif this]] ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' strip. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, Garfield had been in the bag the whole time it happened.]]
-->'''Jon:''' I didn't know you were in the bag, Garfield. I was playing a trick on Odie.
-->'''Garfield:''' At least I died for a good cause.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Oddball webtoon ''Krentz and the Hand of Shame'' has an instance of this. In this case it doesn't work - largely because the target is in a coma rather than merely being asleep.
[[/folder]]

* The balloon version is used in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove''. When Kuzco finds himself surrounded by sleeping jaguars, Bucky the squirrel, as payback for how Kuzco treated him earlier, blows up a balloon, bends it in the form of a llama, and pops it. The pop doesn't wake up the jaguars...but Kuzco laughing at Bucky does.

* In one ''[[CorruptPolitician Baxter Basics]]'' strip in ''{{Viz}}'', Baxter loses his seat in a general election, and his plan to be re-elected involves murdering an elderly Tory MP by popping a paper bag behind him to cause a [[HollywoodHeartAttack heart attack]] and getting selected for his safe Tory seat in the by-election.

* There was an ''ArchieComics'' story where Archie is being hounded by Mr. Weatherbee, because of the former's sleeping in class, prompting the latter to send him to his office to wait for him. When Mr. Weatherbee gets to his office, he finds Archie sleeping at his desk, which prompts him to blow up a paper bag while stating that everyone has a weakness, then pops it, which surprises Archie so much. At the end, Mr. Weatherbee then says, "[[JerkWithAHeartOfGold That's my only weakness, I'm too softhearted.]]"

* The balloon version is used in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove''. When Kuzco finds himself surrounded by sleeping jaguars, Bucky the squirrel, as payback for how Kuzco treated him earlier, blows up a balloon, bends it in the form of a llama, and pops it. The pop doesn't wake up the jaguars... but Kuzco laughing at Bucky does.

!'''Examples'''

* ''CalvinAndHobbes'':

* Series/MrBean once tried to cheer up a kid on a plane by blowing up an airsickness bag and popping it to wake a sleeping passenger. While he tries in vain to blow up the bag, the kid gets sick and throws up in his bag. Bean sees the full bag, thinks the kid blew it up for him, and pops it. [[GoryDiscretionShot Fortunately the episode ends before we see the results.]] The gag was reused on ''Film/{{Bean}}'', only this time we see Bean's reaction as the bag pops offscreen, along with some of the vomit as it splashes out.

* MrBean once tried to cheer up a kid on a plane by blowing up an airsickness bag and popping it to wake a sleeping passenger. While he tries in vain to blow up the bag, the kid gets sick and throws up in his bag. Bean sees the full bag, thinks the kid blew it up for him, and pops it. [[GoryDiscretionShot Fortunately the episode ends before we see the results.]] The gag was reused on ''Bean'', only this time we see Bean's reaction as the bag pops offscreen, along with some of the vomit as it splashes out.

[[quoteright:250:http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab99/manniefold/Unsafe-Bomb-Disposal-830.jpg http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Unsafe-Bomb-Disposal]]
[[caption-width-right:250:[[TooDumbToLive This is not gonna end well.]]]]