History Main / UnscrewedSaltShaker

* Done with a pepper shaker in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'', as a nervous Ichabod is sprinkling it on a hard-boiled egg. After he eats it, [[FireBreathingDiner fire and smoke comes out of his mouth]].

* The sugar variation happens in ''Film/TheBrothersBloom'': Bloom tries to shake some sugar into his coffee and it won't pour. In disgust, he puts it back down on the table. The sugar jar is instantly picked up by Stephen, who taps it twice on the table, then pours sugar into ''his'' cup of coffee. Still disgusted, Bloom picks up the jar after Stephen puts it down and pours... and the entire jar of sugar pours into his coffee.
* Done by Creator/LaurelAndHardy in ''You're Darn Tootin[='=]''. Stan, unable to get any salt out of the shaker, unscrews the top. Then Ollie tries to use the shaker, not realising what has happened, and the entire contents end up in his soup. He promptly changes plates with Stan, only for the whole process to be [[HereWeGoAgain repeated]] with the pepper.
* Used to a lethal effect in the Polish comedy ''Film/{{Kiler}}''. The titular protagonist tries to salt his soup in the prison cafeteria, but the lid falls into the bowl. The prison bully, Uszat, [[EnemyEatsYourLunch promptly grabs the bowl and pours the entire contents into his mouth]], then dies by choking on the lid. This promptly elevates Kiler to LivingLegend status among the prisoners.
* In ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'', Matt's colleague is irritated with him and hands him the mustard instead of honey. Matt plays along, squirting the mustard into his cup, but promptly swaps them as soon as Franklin is looking elsewhere.

* [[ComicBook/ThePowerpuffGirls Powerpuff Girls]] #41's lead story, "Pizza My Heart," has Buttercup and a faulty garlic shaker, which pours a mound of garlic salt on her pizza slice. She proceeds to gross out Blossom and Bubbles by eating the slice, mound of garlic salt and all.

* Done in an early ''Series/HappyDays'' at Arnold's by Ralph Malph to some random extra. Ralph found this hilarious. Less than two minutes later, Ralph is eating and starts to shake some salt and gets a pile himself, presumably courtesy the same guy.
%% * Series/MrBean does this in one of the episodes. Bonus points as the guy he does it to looks like he can break Bean in half.
%% * Done on ''Series/FullHouse'' by a friend of Stephanie's. Everyone blames Joey because he pulled the same stunt at Sizzler.
* On ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', September inflicts this trope on himself when he deliberately unscrews the top of the pepper shaker, and then proceeds to dump the contents onto his plate of food. Apparently the Observers have extremely dulled taste buds and iron cast stomachs.

* Done in one episode of ''Series/TheSopranos'' to Tony by one of his girlfriends.

* ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}: In [[https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1988/10/09 this comic]], Garfield pulls a series of pranks on Jon during breakfast, including the old unscrew-the-salt-shaker trick, as well as the SodaCanShakeup.

* ''[[Franchise/HelloKitty Hello Kitty: Happy Party Pals]]'': Tracy, Kitty's raccoon friend, apparently loosened the salt shaker lids in the Sushi restaurant. He tells Kitty not to use the salt shakers at the Sushi Restaurant because of this, and Kathy (the rabbit) had noticed, as well.

* The "Pepper" variant happens in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AngelaAnaconda''. However, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Angela accidentally gets herself with it]].
* A CutawayGag in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' showed [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Pinhead]] using this prank to raise some hell.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', this is shown to have been one of [[StingyJack Jack O'Lantern]]'s tricks when he was human.
* In the ''Literature/RottenRalph'' animated series episode "Ralph's Rival", Ralph unscrews the salt shaker when Sarah's new friend Linda comes over for dinner. He watches with unabashed glee as Linda ends up spilling salt all over her food.

** In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E11FearOfFlying One episode]], Homer pranks Moe with this, as everyone else is joking around, too (by lighting him on fire, or hiding a cobra in his till). [[SelectiveEnforcement He's banned]] for the rest of the episode for [[DeliberateValuesDissonance taking things too far]].[[note]]And used to be the TropeNamer for ''that'' trope.[[/note]]
** In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS30E12TheGirlOnTheBus another episode]], Bart pulls this prank on Homer during dinner. Homer doesn't want to give Bart the satisfaction, and tries to finish his meal with all the salt included.

* Done with a pepper shaker in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'', as a nervous Ichabod is sprinkling it on a hard-boiled egg, and after he eats it [[FireBreathingDiner fire and smoke comes out of his mouth]].

* In ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'', Matt's colleague is irritated with him and hands him the mustard instead of honey. Matt plays along squirting the mustard into his cup, but promptly swaps them as soon as Franklin is looking elsewhere.

* Done in an early ''Series/HappyDays'' at Arnold's by Ralph Malph to some random extra. Ralph found this hilarious. Less than two minutes later Ralph is eating and starts to shake some salt and gets a pile himself, presumably courtesy the same guy.

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': This happens to Niles with a sugar shaker while he's getting coffee. He notices some teenage girls sitting at the next table and laughing so he loudly tells them off for being so childish. The girls then tell him they weren't the ones who unscrewed the cap, which is when a pair of middle-aged men at another table burst into laughter indicating they played the prank. One of the girls asks if Niles is going to yell at them too but Niles sheepishly claims the men probably heard him the first time.

* ''VideoGame/CragneManor'': A clipping near the library has a child saying that his uncle taught him to unscrew the salt shaker so people get salt on their food. The kid finds it amusing, so he starts [[DeadlyPrank putting laundry detergent and broken glass in the shaker instead.]]

--> "[[DontExplainTheJoke Ha ha! You got more salt than you wanted!]]"

* In the ''Literature/RottenRalph'' animated series episode "Ralph's Rival", Ralph unscrews the salt shaker when his owner Sarah's new friend Linda comes over for dinner, then watches with unabashed glee as Linda ends up spilling salt all over her food.

** In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E11FearOfFlying One episode]], Homer pranks Moe with this, as everyone else is joking around too (by lighting him on fire, or hiding a cobra in his till). [[SelectiveEnforcement He's banned]] for the rest of the episode for [[DeliberateValuesDissonance taking things too far]].[[note]]And used to be the TropeNamer for ''that'' trope.[[/note]]

An annoying prank in restaurants, wherein the top of a salt shaker is unscrewed and left loosely sitting on top. The next person to attempt to use it will unexpectedly get an entire jar-full of salt all over their food. On occasion, it might be done with a pepper shaker - causing a PepperSneeze.

* Done in an early ''Series/HappyDays'' at Arnold's by Ralph Malph to some random extra. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b8nfkDv4t0#t=2m0s Ralph found this hilarious.]] Less than two minutes later Ralph is eating and starts to shake some salt and gets a pile himself, presumably courtesy the same guy.