Cone of Shame

"I do not like the Cone of Shame."

"Can you please take off the cone of shame now?"

— Skye, PAW Patrol

Tropey, stop biting that! You're going to pull out the stitches! I mean it! C'mere you!

In veterinary practice, the Elizabethan Collar (known colloquially as an "e-collar," "lampshade," "cone of shame," or "pet radar dish") has the purpose of promoting healing of a wound or lesion by preventing the animal from messing with it. It's very effective. However, there is one big problem with this device...

It looks absolutely ridiculous.

These devices often take the form of a large white plastic cone, though a variety of alternatives to this design are on the market. The typical "funnel" design is preferred in fiction because it's... well, funny. Not only does it make the wearer look pathetic and reduce their peripheral vision, it also opens the door for slapstick gags like bouncing off chairs, getting stuck in the pet door, or simply battering their owners' shins.

Just like neutering, it is one of the fates that animals despise. If the show features talking pets or funny animals, expect this to pop up at least once.

Not to be confused with Dunce Cap. If you are looking for actual Elizabethan collars (i.e. those worn by nobility in the 16th century), see Regal Ruff.

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Examples:

Advertising

• In an Audi commercial that aired during Superbowl 2014, one of the "Doberhuahuas" wears one. Since it has a big head on a small body, it topples forward, landing on the cone and staying stuck.

Anime & Manga

• Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon SM007 has Litten end up in a Cone of Shame after a fight with an Alolan Persian. In-Universe, it is referred to as a "Heliolisk Collar" (Heliolisk being a lizard-like Pokemon with an expandable frill on its neck). When it tries to escape still wearing the cone, it's foiled by a fence which has bars the cone cannot fit through.

Comic Books

• Deadpool: After bringing a wounded Bob from HYDRA to a shady mercenary clinic, Deadpool decides to prank him while he's under sedation.
  Deadpool: When he passes out, please put one of those dog cones around his neck.
  Doctor: You paid cash, so sure.

Comic Strips

• Dilbert:
  • Wally arrives at work wearing one, having injured himself pressing two buttons at once on his TV remote.
  • In a series of strips that were printed several years later, Wally is again in one (this time a traditionally-attached cone that surrounded his entire head). He asks for coffee and donuts to be poured in.
• Garfield:
  • One strip has Odie dream about the rest of the main cast wearing one and being inconvenienced by the cones they're wearing.
  • The July 7, 2023 strip has Arlene see both Garfield and Odie wearing these cones, with Garfield stating that he and Odie don't want to talk about it.
• Get Fuzzy uses this a few times. It's called "cone of shame" by name. Rob is seen feeding Bucky in one strip by tossing food in the top of the cone, a la the Dilbert example.
• In Liberty Meadows Oscar wears one briefly after being neutered. Though when he first came out of anaesthesia Leslie couldn't find any so he improvised. And Dean gets a collar too after making fun of him in front of Brandy, to stop him from smoking.
• Mother Goose and Grimm:
  • Worn by Grimmy in some stories of. At times, he's tried to keep people from recognizing him with it by wearing a black cloak, only for him to be mistaken for a nun.
  • Chewbacca wears one in another strip.◊
    Han Solo: Stop complaining, the vet said to keep your collar on and don't ride with your head out the window anymore.
• Off the Mark: One strip features a dog who wears a cone on his butt. He doesn't want to talk about it.
• In Zits, Pierce wears one to try to cut down his mobile phone usage.

Fan Works

• The Bolt Chronicles: After Bolt goes to the veterinarian to have a bite on his nose treated in "The Service Dog," he is depicted as wearing a cone around his neck during the subsequent TV courtroom show trial so he doesn't reopen the wounds. It actually comes in handy when Bolt turns his head to face Carmen, the chihuahua that attacked him, and (with the cone obscuring the judge's line of sight) sticks his tongue out derisively at her. Carmen explodes in yapping fury, helping disprove her owner's contention that Carmen couldn't have instigated the attack.
• One Inuyasha fanfiction has Inu-Yasha getting ear mites and being forced to wear a cone collar. With illustration.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • A piece of fan-art sums up best one of the risks with this trope:
    Rarity: [to Fluttershy] Which do you think will heal first: Opal's injuries or the one she will no doubt be giving me for making her wear that dreadful cone?
  • In the story The Cone of Shame, Rainbow Dash is forced to wear one despite not being a pet, since she can't help reflexively pawing at her stitches.
  • For that matter, "Elizabethan Collar" is a whole tag on Derpibooru.

Films — Animation

• Up is the Trope Namer.
  • The page image comes from when Dug is forced to wear it as punishment for losing the bird he was ordered to capture.
  • In the climax, Alpha gets a loudspeaker funnel stuffed onto his head that causes him to look like he's wearing one too. Subsequently he loses control of the pack.
• Grandsanta's reindeer in Arthur Christmas wears one.
• In the Lascars movie, the judge's dog wears a cone about as big as itself.
• Madagascar: The first time we see Melman the Giraffe, he's wearing a cone and claims to be sick. It's just the first sign that he's a big hypochondriac.
• In Monsters, Inc., monsters who undergo decontamination by the CDA end up wearing one. In addition to wearing one herself, each of Celia's hair-snakes have to wear their own individual cones.
• The Secret Life of Pets 2:
  • A promotional poster for the film depicts the lead character, the dog Max, wearing one of these and a sign reading "Don't laugh."
  • In the film itself, Max wears a cone for his compulsive scratching caused by all the stress of worrying about Liam. He finds it uncomfortable and makes things difficult for him, like keeping him from reaching Busy Bee from under the table. Rooster eventually takes it off for him, saying that he's "cured." Neither Katie nor Chuck seem to notice or care. Then again, the scratching tic that required him to wear it in the first place is soon cured for real.

Films — Live-Action

• A deleted scene from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them shows one of the heads of a runespoor, a three-headed snake, wearing one of these.
  Newt: You know exactly why you're wearing it. You stop biting the others and it'll come off.
• In One Crazy Summer, Squid Calamari's deformed dog, who wears the Cone of Shame, ends up having puppies wearing the same thing.
• In Strays (2023), Hunter usually wears one. It comes off at the end of the movie during the dogs' confrontation with Doug..
• In Underdog, Shoeshine is forced to wear one in order to prevent people from recognizing him as the title superhero.

Literature

• The protagonist of A Dog's Purpose is put into one several times during his several lives. He finds it very embarrassing.
• Timmy the Dog had to wear one of these in The Famous Five adventure Five on a Secret Trail.
• In the Warrior Cats book Crowfeather's Trial, Nightcloud is wearing one of these when her Clanmates find her in a Twoleg home. She has them remove it at the first opportunity, and is scornful of the idea that she'd be so stupid as to mess with her wound.

Live-Action TV

• Stephen Colbert does this on The Colbert Report while recovering from a broken wrist. He attempts to pour drugs into his mouth.
• In "The Cone Ranger" on Cutthroat Kitchen, the final challenge is to make ice cream cones and one of the sabotages involves making the opposing chef wear this. It sells for only $500 because the other chef is determined to leave with $25,000, even though he's already been sabotaged by having to mix his ice cream in traffic cones. He, Kyle, wins and becomes the first ever to leave with $25,000!
• The Cone of Shame makes an appearance in the third season of Frasier, after Eddie gets into a dogfight.
  Martin: Aw, look at him! He's humiliated!
  Daphne: True. Although I've noticed that if you put him on top of the telly, Channel 5 comes in clear as a bell.^note  This becomes a Brick Joke that reaches its payoff in The Tag.
• In the Henry Danger and The Thundermans Crossover "Danger & Thunder", Piper gets "Text Neck" from staring down at her phone for too long, requiring her to wear a cone around her head. Since she can't text with it on, she gets Jasper to do it. Unfortunately, when she asks him to invite a boy named Steven to a party being hosted by her friend Emily, Jasper sends an invite to "Booger Steven" instead of "Super Cute Steven" by mistake, which causes all of Piper's friends to hate her.
• Stephen Colbert again in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he complains that Donald Trump's constant reversals are making him suffer for whiplash, demonstrating it first with a neck brace, and then with a cone of shame.
  Stephen Colbert: Doctor says I have to wear this till election's over, so I, hu... so I don't claw my eyes out.
• Played for Laughs during a MythBusters build — after cutting down a large metal funnel, the leftover piece (which looked just like one of these cones) was plopped on Scottie's head.
  Scottie: I can't gnaw on my arm!
• In Sabrina the Teenage Witch, after one of his attempts to get kissed by someone that loves him in order to get back to normal, Salem is given a collar. He complains that it makes him look like a Victrola... which only prompts Hilda and Zelda to cast a spell on him to make him play music while his mouth is open.
• A Saturday Night Live sketch parodying The Force Awakens trailer by having the first trilogy's stars showing their age puts a collar on Chewbacca.
• One of the new interns in Scrubs tries putting one of these on a mentally ill patient to stop him biting the bandages on his hands. She is told to stop it. She did this because she considered it more humane than tying the man down, which she eventually resorts too.
• In FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, Ruff has to wear one when he breaks his leg while dancing on a fence in a attempt to imitate his "Action to the Maxion" action figure, to prove that the toy is based on him. At the end of the episode, he's force to wear an even BIGGER cone that covers his entire face.

Music

• Faith No More have a song called "Cone of Shame" in reference to this trope.
• The artwork for the Queens of the Stone Age song "Domesticated Animals" shows a human man in one.
• The dog in the video for The Offspring's "Hit That" ends up in one of these, presumably after being neutered.

Puppet Shows

• Rowlf wears one in his first appearance in The Muppets (2015) (episode 3 "Bear Left Then Bear Right"). Since he has hands, he's later shown having removed it so he can bite his stitches.

Tabletop Games

• The Exploding Kittens expansion introduces changing the direction of play...and includes a full size cone with arrows to depict turn rotation, called the Exploding Kittens Cone of Shame. The first player to lose track of whose turn it is has to wear the Cone for the rest of the game.

Video Games

• One of the items sold at the Kimbara Outback medical center in Animal Jam is a cone. Though in this case, it's worn as a cosmetic accessory.
• BlazBlue: Relius Clover's Astral Heat has him capture his enemy in a Tailor-Made Prison. When used on Jubei, he has him struggle while wearing one of these. It should be noted that Jubei is not only an anthropomorphic house cat but also Famed In-Story as possibly the strongest warrior in the entire world.
• One of the joke gifts available as DLC for Dragon Age: Origins is one of these. It's the only thing that will lower the Mabari hound's approval rating for the Warden, and lowers his morale when equipped. On the other hand, it also gives a really big armor bonus.
• Rock of Ages has the sequel's Sphinx boss. Getting in a couple of hits to the face breaks off the boss's nose, causing Cleopatra to slap a cone onto it, to its dismay. This actually works against you by acting as a shield of sorts, blocking attacks from all but the very front and giving the sphinx a few new moves to work with.
• Runescape: When the Player Character infiltrates the Decadent Court of Meiyerditch's Vampire Monarchy, they can advise one noblewoman to punish an underperforming werewolf lackey with humiliation rather than death. When the werewolf is seen next, it's wearing a cone of shame — with silver barbs.

Web Animation

• Simon's Cat dons one in the "Pug Life" short.

Webcomics

• Breaking Cat News: "The People Dressed Elvis Up Like a Lamp." This causes the other two cats great hilarity. Elvis is really not amused.
• C'est la Vie: A human character, Michael, is forced to wear one as he cannot help picking at an operation site... Michael, we should add, is a little bit "strange" anyway; the author may be building him up into somebody asocial and undersocialized.
• In Housepets!, Bino ends up in the cone of shame after taking a big fall at the Milton mansion trying to earn a prize.
• In one episode of Marvel's webcomic It's Jeff!, Jeff the baby land shark is put in a cone of shame (referred to as a 'cone of doom' in the title) after injuring his tail. Predictably, he hates it, but can't escape. He's a little happier after a garden hose is used to fill the cone with water.
• Cricket, one of the cats in Johnny Wander, once had to wear one after getting spayed. The Alt Text even reads "but seriously, the thing is bright pink and covered in glitter."
• Appears in a couple of gags in Kevin & Kell after a character lives through Amusing Injuries.
• Mohagen has the title character (a goldfish) forced to wear such a cone for a few strips because of ichthyophthirius (it's kind of like a rash). He encounters problem like reduced vision field, sneezing propelling him backward, the cone working as a receiver from a nearby Xbox chatter, and getting feedback on his phone.
• Oglaf: At a sorcerous abominations and pet show, the winner of the "best rideable" category is a giant lizard with a cone of shame. Considering the wounds sported by the rider, said cone is justified.
• Something*Positive features the Cone on the catgirl in the "Spay your catgirl" poster.
• Two Lumps: Snooch had to wear a cone, and was using it as a megaphone.
• The Whiteboard: Miki is shown wearing a cone that leaves only her Furry Female Mane visible after a "good date" with a fire dog.

Web Videos

• Kittisaurus:
  • Lala wears one in "Cats vs. Glass Dome". Sadly it interferes with her ability to push the glass off the plate so Claire removes the dome and gives her the food anyway. In another video, Lala complains because the cone stops her from jumping on the kitchen counter where she likes to "watch" Claire make food.
  • Toto and Dodo wear one after being neutered, although Claire does cut the cone down and tape it so they will be more comfortable and will be able to eat and drink more easily. Toto doesn't take too kindly to it but not only does it take three attempts to get it on Dodo, he goes into a huge, angry sulk afterward.
  • Turns out Claire has quite a collection of these, usually in novelty form. She has them in the shape of donuts, flowers, animals and food. When the cats have to wear them Lulu usually gets the lemon shaped one, DD gets the bread, Lala gets the lion and TT gets the elephant.
• The SciShow video "Why Your Dog Has an Anti-Tick Pill and You Don't?" has a promo picture featuring a dog wearing an Elizabethan Collar... as well as its master.
• In Super Therapy!, Catwoman wears one in the teaser preceding her dedicated episode. She explains that she got into another fight with Batman.

Western Animation

• Lucky in 101 Dalmatians: The Series has to wear a cone after falling from a high tree branch and getting stitches. Cue humiliation from the other dogs (especially Mooch, who dared him in the first place). At the end of the episode, Lucky decides it's not so bad, compared to the doggie-wheelchair Mooch is put in after getting Laser-Guided Karma from daring Lucky again.
• In 101 Dalmatian Street, Diesel wears one during the episode "Poetry Scam".
• In the Bluey episode "Muffin Cone", Bluey's cousin Muffin is put in one to keep from sucking her thumb. Like Mr Peanutbutter, the dogs in Bluey are anthropomorphic, and Muffin has trouble seeing with the cone on too. Bluey and Bingo make her feel better about it by incorporating the cone into their games, like having Muffin pretend to be a traffic cone.
• In Bojack Horseman, Mr. Peanutbutter wears one at the beginning of season 2, due to drunkenly punching a mirror thinking it was another dog. He has an additional problem other than the cone making him look ridiculous; because he's anthromorphic, and doesn't walk on all fours like a normal dog, the cone blocks off pretty much his whole field of vision, leaving him with what little he can see over the top edge of the cone.
• In the CatDog episode "Cone Dog", Dog gets one of these, and Cat discovers that he can hear people at a distance due to it. He uses this ability to outsmart Winslow at first, but is soon blackmailing everyone in Nearburg about their secrets, and then getting Drunk with Power and becoming emperor of Nearburg, then the world, using the citizens of Nearburg as slaves to build his empire under the threat of revealing their secrets. All the while, Dog is put into cones of ever-increasing size, and by the end of the episode, the cone around his neck is gigantic. He eventually gets out of the cone when he can take no more and joins the people of Nearburg in an uprising against Cat (which involves revealing their secrets - they all wear pink bunny suits. Yes, it's a bizarre episode).
• Cleo gets to wear one in the Clifford the Big Red Dog episode "Cleo Gets a Cone".
• In "Take Your Pet to the Vet" on Doc McStuffins, a dog in the vet's office can be seen wearing one of these. Additionally, in "Liv Long and Pawsper," Doc puts Luna's Robot Dog rover, Liv, in one of these after he starts scratching when she glues his antenna back on. She also mentions that her friend Emmy's dog had wear one once for a few days.
• Family Guy:
  • The episode "Brian Sings and Swings" has Brian wearing one after being hit by Peter's car. He passes out after Peter fills it up with kibble and then turns it to mush with water.
  • Quagmire has to wear one around his crotch to ease his sexual urges.
  • A Cutaway Gag has Brian wear one of these after he got neutered. Stewie uses it as a mock basketball hoop.
    Brian: God, I feel like biting my crotch.
• In Father of the Pride Hunter wore one all the time. Why isn't explained aside from one throwaway line in the unaired pilot about a rash.
• In the Futurama episode "Parasites Regained," Hermes puts a cone on Nibbler (whose brain is being affected by worms) after he tears apart one of Professor Farnsworth's slippers.
  Nibbler: Not the cone of shame!
• In the HouseBroken episode "Who's The Cat-Chlorette" Honey has to wear one after having surgery to remove a fatty muscle on her thigh. She ends up using it to communicate with what she thinks is another dog wearing one, which turns out to have been a crocodile all along.
• King of the Hill: Dale gets one of these after going berserk from head lice, even falling on the ground and scratching his head like a dog in a circle.
  Hank: Dang it, Dale, don't make me get the plastic cone again.
• In "I Want My Plaster" on Little Princess, Scruff is seen in the cone of shame after hurting his foot. Puss takes it as an opportunity for an amusing game, throwing various colored balls inside the cone. At the end of the episode, he gets a cone too after he and Princess have an accident.
• In an episode of Martha Speaks, the main character has to wear one of these to prevent her from scratching her ear mites. She hates it, as it makes things "sound funny", and scares away Baby Jake.
• The Mickey Mouse short "Coned!" has Pluto being forced to wear one as well as Mickey attempting to make Pluto feel better about it by wearing one himself.
• In Episode 6 of Monster Beach, the werewolf Mutt is put in one for not resisting the urge to bite his wounded leg, much to his chagrin. The cone intensifies his canine hearing, making him able to read the radio signals of alien invaders... which is actually just an advertisment for a sci-fi convention.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In the episode "A Bird in the Hoof", Celestia's pet bird Philomena gets one to stop her from plucking her feathers.
  • "Leap of Faith" shows the background pony Sea Swirl wearing a Cone of Shame.
• The Patrick Star Show: In "Chum Bucket List", Patrick is fitted with a cone to prevent him from eating more chum after he gets sick from it. He just orders Plankton to fill the cone with chum and eats from there.
• PAW Patrol:
  • In "Pups Save Skye", when Marshall tells Skye she only hurt her paw, Skye asks, "Can you please take off the cone of shame now?"
  • In "Pups Save an Ace", an overzealous EMT Marshall puts one on Ace Sorensen along with a cast on her foot, while treating a teeny scratch on her arm, causing Rocky to ask "Don't you think you overdid it just a little?"
• Phineas and Ferb: Even platypuses aren't immune. Perry has to wear one in "Hail Doofania!", which is so big that it keeps him from entering his lair, and subsequently, from thwarting Doofenshmirtz.
• In an episode of The Powerpuff Girls (1998), Bubbles is reduced to having to wear one of these after being stung in the throat by a bee.
• Buster had to wear one in the Puppy Dog Pals episode, "Buster Bluster".
• In The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs it is revealed that the device was designed by dogs themselves — it is used by the communication teams for voice amplification.
• Bitzer from Shaun the Sheep found himself wearing wearing this twice in "Pig Trouble" and the appropriately titled "Cone of Shame"- both times because he couldn't stop chewing the bandages- or in the former episode's case- his leg cast- the doctor made him wear.
• The Simpsons: When Mr. Burns' slant oil drill ruins Bart's tree house (with him & Santa's Little Helper inside), SLH is reduced to wearing one of these while in a doggie-wheelchair. Grampa mistakes him for a lamp.
• On ToddWorld, Todd's friend Sophie places Benny in this in "Itchy Itch" after both he and Todd get the titular itchy itch from itchy itch plants, a Fantastic Flora version of poison ivy.
• T.U.F.F. Puppy: Dudley has to wear a cone in "Dog Dish" so he won't scratch at the horrible red rash on his butt.
• In Tupu, Shoobz's bulldog Dandruff wears a Cone of Shame at all time to prevent him from scratching himself and gnawing at his fur.

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