Barney Springboro (Baio) is a science nerd who gains telekinetic powers in a freak high school science lab experiment. Barney's new powers are known about only by his best friend Peyton (Willie Aames) and class president Bernadette (Felice Schachter). Over the course of the film, he uses these powers to win baseball games, control roulette wheels, convince his mother he's possessed, and, of course, make women's clothes fly off, particularly those of senior class beauty queen Jane Mitchell (Heather Thomas). Several elements of the plot borrow from Carrie (1976), with some additional spoofing of The Exorcist and even Star Trek: The Original Series.
The film developed somewhat of a cult following, due in no small part to the large amounts of Fanservice it provides, and did well enough in video rentals and cable TV showings for a direct-to-video sequel, Zapped Again, to be released in 1990.
Not to be confused with the 2014 Disney Channel Original Movie Zapped, with British TV fantasy fiction comic parody Zapped, or with the wiki term for 'speedy deletion' per TV Tropes Glossary
This film includes examples of:
- All Men Are Perverts: Many scenes have Barney using his powers to undress girls, and Peyton enjoys taking racy pictures of them, particularly when they're not expecting it.
- Alpha Bitch: Jane; her first scene has here talking to who seem to be other popular girls.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: The chemical which explodes and gives Barney his powers seems to be a combination of plant fertilizer, cannabis extract, whiskey, and beer.
- Avoid The Dreaded PG Rating: Originally the movie was shot for a PG rating in mind, but when Porky's got huge, several scenes were reshot to secure an R rating.
- Cool Old Guy: Baseball coach Dexter Jones, played by Scatman Crothers.
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Ms. Burnhart Lampshades this when insisting her personal ad said joie de vivre instead of "joy for living".
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Barney and Bernadette, to David Pomeranz's "Got to Believe in Magic".
- Fanservice: Tons of it, most commonly with Jane.
- Fanservice Extra:
- The two girls in the convertible who get their tops zapped off.
- The redhaired girl who gets her tube top zapped off after the baseball game. She's played by Jewel Shepard, who had a steady career in the 80s and 90s with Fanservice parts in sex comedies and as a Scream Queen in horror films.
- Loads and loads of them at the prom of both genders, when the telekinetic windstorm makes everyone's clothes fly off.
- Going Commando: Some of the girls at the prom stripping scene, presumably to help give the film its intended R-rating.
- Gold Digger: Jane only puts up with her self-centered, possessive boyfriend because he's a rich college brat, and begins to become interested in Peyton when he spins her a line about having to choose between pre-med, pre-law, and business school.
- Hot Wind: Jane, as Barney fantasizes about her in Ms. Burnhart's class.
- Innocent Innuendo: Coach Jones hears this while Barney and Bernadette are stuffing marijuana into the incinerator.
- Jerk Jock: Greg Bradford, a rich, boisterous, and self-centered frat boy.
- Marijuana Is LSD: Inhaling the smoke from the marijuana in the incinerator causes Coach Jones to have a Mushroom Samba.
- Marilyn Maneuver: One of the Fanservice Extras at the prom tries this, only to have her dress get blown completely off.
- Mind over Matter: Barney's telekinesis.
- Mooning: Two guys from a rival school do this to Barney after their baseball team loses. They end up regretting it, as do the two Fanservice Extras in the car with them.
- Ms. Fanservice: Jane, who thanks to Barney ends up topless rather frequently.
- Mushroom Samba: Coach Jones has a wild one-bike riding with Albert Einstein while Coach's wife chases them on a chariot and shoots explosive salami rolls at them from a bazooka-after Barney and Bernadette put the marijuana in the incinerator.
- Naked Freak-Out: Jane, after Barney pulls her entire prom dress off. Also, a number of Fanservice Extras at the prom.
- Naughty Under the Table: Walter Coolidge and Rose Burnhart, first at the restaurant and later at the prom.
- The Nudifier: Barney's powers when used to undress women.
- Put Me In, Coach!: Barney plays on the school baseball team but hasn't been picked to play until the end of a game, when he uses his powers to cheat.
- Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Strictly speaking, any girl that finds herself suddenly stripped by Barney's powers; it's not like they're actually volunteering to end up topless in front of the entire senior class. More specifically Jane, not only when Barney strips her on more than one occasion, but also when Peyton takes a topless photo of her without her consent and is prepared to distribute 500 copies of it.
- Sexy Secretary: Miss Updike, who goes so far as to do a cheesecake photo shoot and to make out with Peyton.
- Tan Lines: On a number of Fanservice Extras in the prom stripping scene.
- Verbed Title: "Zapped" is one word in the past perfect tense.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: The effect of Barney using his powers on girls frequently looks like this trope, what with skirts flying up and blouses popping open inexplicably.
- Where No Parody Has Gone Before: A short Star Trek: The Original Series parody while Barney uses his powers to make his model spaceship fly around his bedroom. Ironically, the saucer section of the model ship looks a lot like a backwards Millenium Falcon.
