History Main / ViciousVac

* ''The Magic Key'': In the episode "Zandoodle and the Wheezlebang", a wizard (Zandoodle) attempts to bring a vacuum cleaner to life in order to avoid having to vacuum his lab himself, only to turn it into the titular monster by mistake.

There's something about vacuum cleaners. Maybe it's the [[HellIsThatNoise disproportionately loud shriek they make]], Maybe it's the fact that the stuff that goes into them just ''disappears''. Whatever it is, they're often seen as frightening by small children and pets in a way that other household appliances aren't.

* The vacuum in ''Literature/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', which seems like a normal vacuum, but can shout "CYCLONE!!" for some reason.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Invoked in "Get Your Rotom Running!," where Ash, Dawn, and Brock explore the Old Chateau and get pursued by kitchen appliances being controlled by a Pokémon named Rotom, one of them being a vacuum cleaner.

* ''WesternAnimation/ZekesPad'': In "Gifted Artist", it's Mom's birthday and Zeke has forgotten to get her a birthday gift....again! He desperately attempts to draw her a gift. His first effort is the ultimate vacuum cleaner, which proceeds to go wildly out of control and wreak havoc in the house.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

So in fiction, they're often made out to be menacing, especially in works focusing on children or animals. In animated works especially, vacuum cleaners often display a much greater suction range and strength than real life vacuum cleaners could ever hope to achieve as well as the uncanny ability to suck up items far larger than could fit down their nozzles, [[BlackHoleBelly rarely changing size no matter how much they consume.]]

* Some animated commercials for Eureka vacuum cleaners were like this. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtLETb17B8o This early-70s ad]] has "dirt blobs" on patrol against the Eureka.

* In this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad3n1wo2-qo advert for "Red Energy Sweets"]], the vacuum starts out as an ordinary one, but when it sucks up one of the Red Energy Sweets, it comes alive, and begins pursuing the woman with an extremely powerful suction force, sucking up her nightgown and leaving her naked.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Invoked in "Get Your Rotom Running!," where Ash, Dawn and Brock explore the Old Chateau and get pursued by kitchen appliances being controlled by a Pokémon named Rotom, one of them being a vacuum cleaner.

* ''The Ambitious Vacuum Cleaner'' by George Carlson (1915) is one of the earliest examples on record. It depicts a Edwardian style vacuum cleaner going on a rampage when left unattended, sucking up the entire contents of the owner's home in seconds, including the cat! Fortunately a strong gentleman friend of the owner manages to open the cleaner up, restoring the items. (It's unclear whether the vacuum is alive or not, but 'ambition' is not usually something associated with inanimate objects.)

* ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'': Joy and Sadness go to a containment unit of Riley's darkest fears to free Bing Bong. They encounter [[KidsHateVegetables giant stalks of broccoli]], a dark doorway with "stairs to the basement," [[RuleOfThree and]] "Grandma's vacuum cleaner," which Joy and Sadness run out of the way of to avoid getting sucked up by it.

* In the one-season wonder TV series ''Series/{{Testees}}'', wherein the protagonists are employed as product testers for a weird range of products, episode 4, "Vac Attack," has them testing out a military vacuum cleaner imbued with artificial intelligence, which becomes more and more aggressive as it deals with their slovenliness, until it sets out to kill them and must be destroyed with their giant collected hairball.

* Series 3 of ''Toys/TheGrosseryGang'' introduced the villainous Clean Team, led by Vac Attack, an anthromorphic vacuum robot. As the leader of a team focused on cleanliness, he is automatically put at odds with the Grosseries, naturally disgusting food mutants, and is willing to destroy them to bring Cheap Town to his uncomfortable levels of clean.

* In ''[[VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet Little Big Planet 2]]'', the intro movie features a close up of a vacuum cleaner sucking up the small floating images that represent imagination. Also, the Negativitron resembles a vacuum cleaner.

--> '''Puck:''' If a vacuum cleaner appears, seek shelter ''immediately.'' Remember: "If it's not a broom, leave the room."

* ''Westernanimation/ChalkZone'': Rudy hides an advanced vacuum cleaner inside [=ChalkZone=], which the Zoners accidentally activate. The vacuum's AI sees chalk dust everywhere, and proceeds to suck up ''99% of the entire dimension'' (population included), leaving behind a white void before Rudy is able to rip open the bag.
* In "Dough Ray Me", an episode of ''Westernanimation/DuckTales1987'', Huey, Dewey and Louie vacuum up a hall carpet and suck in a good many other objects.

* The second act of the ''WesternAnimation/MrBogus'' episode "[[Recap/MrBogusS1E1MeetMrBogus Meet Mr. Bogus]]" had Bogus rewiring the TV remote so that it could control other appliances other than the TV, but unfortunately, when Kevin the family bulldog takes the remote from him, this also causes a broom vacuum to bust out from the closet and start going on a rampage, even pestering the repairman hired by Mrs. Anybody.
* ''The Magic Key'': In the episode "Zandoodle and the Wheezlebang", a wizard (Zandoodle) attempts to bring a vacuum cleaner to life in order to avoid having to vacuum his lab himself, only to turn it in to the titular monster by mistake.

* In an episode of ''Westernanimation/TheSimpsons'' Bart causes mayhem at Lenny's birthday party by switching all the Roombas (which Lenny had given everyone as party favors) from "off" to "[[InventionalWisdom Malevolent Sentience]]."
* On ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Brian, being a dog, is scared of the vacuum cleaner. At one point Peter shoots the vacuum (for unrelated reasons); Brian comes in and sees the "dead" vacuum and says "whoever did this, thank you."

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FetchWithRuffRuffman'', the kids are sent to the island of Dogtopia[=/=]Catlantis, where cats and dogs used to live in harmony until a civil war broke out between them. They use their clue finding skills to solve the mystery of what caused the conflict, eventually finding that both sides blamed each other for a horrible howling that was terrifying everyone. On a smaller island nearby, the kids find the answer: the howling was caused by evil vacuum cleaners living there.

* The vacuum in ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', which seems like a normal vacuum, but can shout "CYCLONE!!" for some reason.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Invoked in "Get Your Rotom Running!," where Ash, Dawn and Brock explore the Old Chateau and get pursued by kitchen appliances being controlled by a Pokemon named Rotom, one of them being a vacuum cleaner.

* In ''Anime/{{HunterXHunter}}'', Shizuku's power is creating a vacuum cleaner that bark, has teeth and can dispose of hundres of corpses without changing size. She calls it "[[ICallItVera Deme-chan]]" ("[[DubNameChange Blinky]]" in the translated manga).

* In the one-season wonder TV series ''Testees'', wherein the protagonists are employed as product testers for a weird range of products, episode 4, "Vac Attack," has them testing out a military vacuum cleaner imbued with artificial intelligence, which becomes more and more aggressive as it deals with their slovenliness, until it sets out to kill them and must be destroyed with their giant collected hairball.

* The Martians have one in ''[[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry Tom & Jerry: Blast Off to Mars]]''.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': PlayedForLaughs with [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-5972-j SCP-5972-J]], a sentient, predatory vacuum cleaner that specializes in the GroinAttack.

* In [[VideoGame/SuperMonkeyBall Super Monkey Ball 2]], Dr. Bad-Boon uses a blimp-mounted vacuum to suck up every banana from Monkey Island.

* The plot of ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161988/ Stardust]]'' involves a microchip that is ''somehow'' evil being sucked up by the titular vacuum cleaner (yes it had a name), somehow turning it animate and, well, evil.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster''. Kirby the vacuum cleaner is the GrumpyBear of the group, but he turns out to be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and a [[SourSupporter reliable teammate]], rather than a villain.

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': "A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" had the titular Suck-O-Matic, a vacuum cleaner that was as huge as a truck and literally had [[AIIsACrapshoot a mind of its own.]]

* Used for a VisualPun in ''Film/AirplaneIITheSequel''. Our hero opens a hatch on the spacecraft marked DANGER: VACUUM and is attacked by a vacuum cleaner.

* In ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'', Pisard has a Zakenna possess a vacuum cleaner, turning it into a huge monster.

There's something about vacuum cleaners. Maybe it's the [[HellIsThatNoise disproportionately loud shriek they make]], or the fact that the stuff that goes into them just ''disappears'', but for whatever reason, they're often seen as frightening by small children and pets.