History Main / SkullCups

* Referenced in the Creator/FilmCow animation [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRX0AQKFtwU "The Interview"]], in which one of the questions Sam is "Have you ever taken a human skull and sipped blood from it in the glorious name of Satan?"

* Wiki/TheOtherWiki has an article about these [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_cup here]]. They range from the classical "barbarians drinking from the skulls of their enemies" (the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus cites the Scythians as doing this) to Indian and Tibetan ritual goblets.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "Fraudcast News", Kearney is seen drinking beer from a random skull he originally thought was Mr. Burns' until it was later found out he was still alive. He doesn't know who's skull it was.

** Possibly the most famous (allegedly) historical instance of this is the story of how the skull of the [[UsefulNotes/TheByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Nikephoros I ended up lined with silver and presented to the Bulgar Khan Krum as a drinking cup after Nikephoros was killed at the Battle of Pliska in 811.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. Karl Tanner drinks from the skull of Lord Commander Mormont, whom he killed in TheMutiny.

Drinking or eating brains from a skull is [[BrainFood a different thing]], and MySkullRunnethOver does not combine this trope with JabbaTableManners. Compare CreepySouvenir.

Drinking or eating brains from a skull is [[BrainFood a different thing]], and MySkullRunnethOver does not combine this trope with JabbaTheHuttTableManners. Compare CreepySouvenir.

Drinking or eating brains from a skull is [[BrainFood a different thing]]. Compare CreepySouvenir.

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* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'''s ''Holy Fury'' expansion redoes personal combat. If you beheaded an enemy commander in a battlefield duel, you may get an event later where a soldier asks you if you really drink from the skulls of your enemies. Your character ruefully laughs it off and says something like [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun "I'm never living that one down, am I?"]] Eventually, the inventory system was added so you really ''can'' get a skull cup.

* Near the end of the ''Mitchell and Webb'' "Nazis" sketch, Hans moves for his ashtray and ''realizes'' it's skull-shaped, starts looking around and sees skulls ''everywhere'' in their fortification, including another soldier with a skull-themed mug, and with this it apparently sets in that his buddy is right about them (here, Nazis) being the "baddies".

* Myth/ClassicalMythology had the Anthrophagi, a tribe of northern cannibals that were said to not only keep skulls decorated with gold, but also occasionally made drinking cup out of them. To add to the NauseaFuel, they were also said to use human scalps as napkins.

* ''Film/TheBluesBrothers2000'': After the title characters rudely interrupt the funeral of a Russian mobster's nephew, an associate assures that they will become this. Filled with vodka, of course.

-->-- '''Timeandahaf''', ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and the Normans''

* In ''[[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} Asterix and the Normans]]'' the skull cups are used by said Normans.

* ''Film/TheBluesBrothers 2000'': After the titular characters rudely interrupt the funeral of a Russian mobster's nephew, an associate assures that they will become this. Filled with vodka, of course.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{TheSimpsons}}'': In "Fraudcast News", Kearney is seen drinking beer from a random skull he originally thought was Mr. Burns' until it was later found out he was still alive. He doesn't know who's skull it was.

** The Mapuche people of Chile did this ''twice'':

*** Martín García Óñez de Loyola, whom the Spanish Crown believed to be the most apt governor to finish the Arauco War, ended up dying during the Battle of Curalaba, after him and his peerage were ambushed by Mapuche forces led by Pelantaro. His skull was also kept as a trophy and occasionally used as a drinking cup.

** An apocryphal and most likely made-up story about UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga is that he had the skull of his former [[HonorBeforeReason ally-turned-enemy]] Azai Nagamasa turned into a sake cup and drank from it in at least one public setting. This tale tends to become truth for fictional depictions of the character, as seen under the anime and manga section.

* In the second ''Literature/DrGretaHelsing'' novel, self-proclaimed "king of the vampires" Corwin guzzles a blend of fine wine and blood from a cup fashioned from a human skull. Played with in that Corwin is a slimy edgelord wannabee who had the cup made from a random, centuries-dead skull from the Paris catacombs ... although it'd be entirely in-character if he were to ''pretend'' it was that of an enemy.

* In ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'', Detritus has the cranium of a human's skull as an heirloom from his grandmother, which he shows to Vimes after they arrive at an embassy with a troll's head on a trophy wall. Evidently she used it as a bowl to keep small items in.

* ClassicalMythology had the Anthrophagi, a tribe of northern cannibals that were said to not only keep skulls decorated with gold, but also occasionally made drinking cup out of them. To add to the NauseaFuel, they were also said to use human scalps as napkins.