Rump Roast

aka: Pants On Fire

"Hey! What's cookin'?"
"You are... stupid!"

"My biscuits are burning! Fire in the hatch! Great horny toads, that smarts!"

— Yosemite Sam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit

In slapstick and/or cartoony works, if someone is going to be on fire, chances are this fire is going to be very brief, and within that, chances that it's going to be isolated to their rear ends.

Expect them to be launched skyward at an alarming rate. It will usually be put out by the victim sitting down in the nearest body of water and breathing a sigh of relief.

Often used in games as a comical player death, but often used in artwork or animation as a precursor to exposure or any other humiliating mishap. Example being of a character trying to act cool just after getting burned only to turn around and reveal their pants have burnt up enough to expose their butt.

See also Literal Ass-Kicking. Compare Farts on Fire and Pain to the Ass. Subtrope of Amusing Injuries and Joke of the Butt; sister trope to Thumbtack on the Chair, Shot in the Ass, and Butt Biter. Not to be confused with Toasted Buns, which refers to why placing a jet pack exhaust near someone's rear end would CAUSE a rump roast.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Goku suffers this as child in Dragon Ball in the episode 'Mark of the Demon'.
• Dragon Ball Z:
  • This happened to Goku during the first episode of his fight with Freeza, after Freeza opened up a hole through Namek's crust causing lava to spew around the battlefield. Even though Goku can fly. Of course, this part was filler.
  • Goku also gets his buns cooked when he fights Princess Snake, as well as when he and Vegeta are escaping Buu's body.
• This happens to Fairy Tail's Gray Fullbuster in the second OVA when he sits on a hot rock Natsu had placed upon his chair.
• The opening of Fate/Grand Carnival has Gilgamesh as Gorgeous P. suffer this after flirting too much with a less-than-amused Jeanne D'Arc Alter.
• This happens to Onizuka in Episode 23 of Great Teacher Onizuka entitled Superstition when he stands too close to a box of burning chain letters
• Also by Ken Akamatsu, Keitaro of Love Hina suffers one, as does Shinobu later on when she activates a pair of rocket-propelled panties.
• Anya, shortly after her Attack Hello in Negima! Magister Negi Magi.
• This happens to Luffy in episode 160 of One Piece after Satori invokes this trope during their first ordeal.
  • Made even funnier by the fact that he uses a Pain-Powered Leap to put it out after jumping into the jaws of a sky shark.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Pokémon: The Original Series:
    • Ash Ketchum gets roasted in the rump in the episode "Charizard's Burning Ambition".
    • Also happens to Team Rocket at the end of the episode "Hour of the Houndour", trying to duck underneath a Houndour's Flamethrower attack.
  • Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon
    • Rockruff is forced to tearfully put out its tail while training with Turtonator in "Rocking Clawmark Hill!".
  • Pokémon Journeys: The Series
    • Happens to Goh and Ash's Lucario in ''An Adventure of Mega Proportions!" after they fall into a volcanic area and wind up with their butts stuck on the humps of a Camerupt.
• In one episode of Transformers: Cybertron, Scourge sets Thundercracker's butt on fire. It's hilarious.

Asian Animation

• GG Bond: In the first episode of Season 12, Phoebe stops a wolf thief by using a fire attack on him that causes his bottom to burn. The wolf promptly falls to the ground and rolls around to put out the flame.

Comic Books

• In a Smurfs one-page gag story, as the Smurfs are all getting excited over the presents they received from Santa, Chilly Smurf ponders why he received a pair of Santa pants with a hole burned in the seat while standing next to a roaring fireplace.

Fan Works

• In A Lump in My Throat, Bubbles uses her laser vision on the dragon she fights, this sets its butt on fire and it jumps into a lake to douse the flames.
• Referenced I Don't Cry For Me, I've Already Wilted; Hibiki sits in a seat directly under sunlight, and later she gets up and moves because she feels like her ass is on fire.
• Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged naturally has Wedge's moment, but this gem accentuates it:
  Wedge: (shrill scream) My ass! Pooping will now be a trial!
• Here Be Monsters: Apparently, Pit's rear end does not get along well with fire.
  • In the first chapter, the angel is knocked butt-first onto a running stove burner he was using to cook by an earthquake tremor caused by the primordial goddess, Lahamu, re-emerging into the multiverse. He puts out the fire in a washing basin full of cutlery.
  • The ninth chapter has him summon a Pillar of Light to ward off a pack of attacking timberwolves that have cornered him on the edge of a cliff, vaporizing the chimeric parts of his cherubim form and restoring him to his Winged Humanoid self. Unfortunately, the sheer heat of the blast also sets his butt ablaze, prompting an Oh, No... Not Again! from the poor boy as he stops, drops, and rolls right off the cliff.
    Pit, thinking to himself: I feel like a form change involving celestial flame is gonna take some getting used to.
• In the fanwork "The Price of Power", Peeves suffers this fate when the main character, Dracaena, gets her fiery revenge on the poltergeist for insulting her friend by casting a fire spell, and the seat of his pants go up in flames.
• "Remy's Valentine", an X-Men: Evolution fanfic centered around Gambit, suggests that this happened to him in the very first scene. It feels like this trope, but it's then revealed that the cause was actually Rogue accidentally shooting him in the bottom.
• In the fan made short story "Secret Santa Lynn", the main antagonist Lynn Loud from the TV show The Loud House is forced to dress up in a Miss. Clause uniform in order to make Mizuki (the child that she is babysitting ©Rokku-D) believe in Santa once more. However, in order to make her believe that she is the real Miss. Clause she has to go down the chimney which, Lynn did not realize that the fire place was still somewhat active which resulted in her falling butt first into the burning wood leading for her butt to be burning.
• Happens to Sasuke in Chapter 3 of "Shattered Eyes". Naruto gets a good laugh out of it, but Sasuke is far less amused for obvious reasons.
• Inverted in Son of the Sannin. Tamaki uses an attack named Blazing Feline Aerial Bomber, which is basically dropping herself rear-first on her opponent while set on fire.

Film — Animation

• The Amazing Maurice: After being kicked into the oven by Malicia, the Pied Piper leaps out with his rear end on fire, and jumps into the (ridiculously deep) well to put himself out.
• Balto: When Steele barges in on Jenna and Balto in the boiler room to make unwanted advances on Jenna, she tricks him into backing up against the boiler door and burning himself so she and Balto can escape. Unfortunately, they barely make it out the door before Steele crashes through it after them.
• Beauty and the Beast: Lumiere burned one of Gaston’s four stooges, Tom, this way in order to save Fifi from having her feathers (“skirt”) ripped off.
• Seen in The Chipmunk Adventure during the "Wooly Bully" number; this happens to the native tribe leader when another native accidentally sets his rear end on fire while dancing with a torch. The resulting pained scream of the tribe leader as he rockets into the air is left intact on the soundtrack version of the song.
• In the Rankin/Bass adaptation of The Hobbit, Smaug blows a jet of fire after Bilbo after their banter. Once outside, he asks if someone could "EXTINGUISH MEEEEEE!" while running around with the seat of his pants on fire until Thorin smothers it with a cloak.
• From Ice Age:
  Sid: Just call me "Sid: Lord of the Flames!"
  Manny: Hey, Lord of the Flames....your tail's on fire.
  Sid: (screams)
• In the climax of Dumbo, as the clowns flee the now-flying titular elephant, they blindly run into the burning prop building — and immediately burst out with their rears on fire.
• Early in Inside Out, Anger does this to Fear.
• During the climactic battle with Shere Khan in The Jungle Book (1967), Mowgli finds out from the Vultures that fire is the one thing Khan fears when a tree is hit by lightning and set on fire due to an impending thunderstorm, and while the Vultures distract Khan, Mowgli ties a branch from the burning tree to Khan's tail.
  Dizzy the Vulture: Look Behind You, chum!
  (Shere Khan turns to see the burning branch tied to his tail, flips out in horror, and tries to put out the fire, but is unable to, then flees just before it starts raining)
• Klaus (2019): During the montage of Jesper going down chimneys to deliver presents, the final chimney has a lit fireplace, resulting in Jesper leaping out the window crying as his rear is on fire and dousing it in snow as he moans in pain.
• The Lion King (1994): Zazu is captured by the hyenas and shoved into a geyser dubbed "the birdie boiler" during our heroes' first encounter with them, launching him through the air like a rocket. "No! Not the birdie boiler!"
• Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas:
  • Pete putting a lit cigar in his back pocket along with the money Mickey honestly earned because Mickey sold a less expensive tree to the poor family, therefore, not only was Pete on fire, so was his tree lot.
  • Suffered by Goofy in the same film when he sits on a hot stove element.
• Mulan:
  • The matchmaker accidentally sits on coals and starts running around with her dress on fire. Then Mulan adds oxygen to the fire by trying to put it out with her fan.
  • During training, Yao gets his butt set on fire by a stray flaming arrow. Also counts as Shot in the Ass.
• This occurs in 101 Dalmatians when Horace is knocked rear-first into a roaring fireplace by Perdita.
• In The Rescuers, Orville's tail feathers catch fire when Snoops sends flares up in the air to find Penny. This results in Orville having to make a crash landing in Devil's Bayou, and Bernard and Bianca having to descend with a parasol.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie features Mr. Krabs experiencing one after being shot by Neptune.
  Krabs: *runs with his butt on fire* Me pants are on fire!! *exits screen, returns only wearing underwear* Me underwear's on fire!! *exits again and returns naked and fully engulfed in flames* I'M ON FIIRE!!!
• Toy Story 2 had a clip of an old Show Within a Show segment when Prospector Pete tries to extinguish a lit dynamite fuse by sitting on it, then jumps up and exclaims "my biscuits are burnin'" in a Shout-Out to Yosemite Sam.

Film — Live-Action

• The barfight scene from The Boondock Saints ends with the Russian mobster Ivan Checkov getting his ass set on fire by Connor and Murphy. This pisses Checkov off enough to get his buddy and pay a visit to their apartment with Desert Eagles and handcuffs, setting up the first major killing of the movie.
• Near the end of Dennis the Menace, Dennis meets up with Switchblade Sam when he runs away from Mr. Wilson after the latter gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for ruining his garden party while trying to tell him that he's been robbed. When Dennis sets up the campfire, one of the cinders accidentally falls down Sam's pants, lighting them on fire. Later in the film, when Sam becomes tired after Dennis feeds him an entire can of beans, Dennis puts a blanket over him, which catches fire due to being too close to the campfire. Both times, Sam puts out the fire by jumping in the river.
• This happens to Jackie Chan's character in Drunken Master.
• Future Cops: This happens to Ah Sing in the final battle, when the General reveals his ability to breath fire and tries to incinerate the heroes. Ah Sing gets it in the butt, and for some inexplicable reason the camera needs to close-up on Simon Yam's exposed ass.
• In The Hazing, Doug shoves the Tome of Eldritch Lore he stole from Professor Kapps down the back of his pants. When the dying Kapps activates the power of the book, it heats up, causing Doug to burn his ass and shriek.
• James Bond
  • Octopussy. During the fight in an Indian marketplace, Bond has to flee across a pit of firewalking coals. Then a knife-wielding goon attacks, so Bond knocks him back onto the coals. Being more of a wuss than our hero, the goon runs off yelping in pain from his smoldering ass.
  • During the sauna room fight in Goldeneye, Xenia Onatopp gets her buns steamed when Bond slams her cheeks first into a hot radiator.
• A Kid From Tibet has this occuring to Wong La when he accidentally landed butt-first on a campfire. He then runs about shouting "My butt is on fire!", as if the audience couldn't tell.
• Laurel and Hardy: Ollie has his bum set on fire by Charlie Hall in Them Thar Hills.
• Legend (1985). Blix uses the unicorn horn to set Blunder's (one of the other goblin's) butt on fire.
• In Looney Tunes: Back in Action, the main characters set up camp in the desert and Daffy burns his tail on their campfire.
• In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this is not actually depicted but gets recited by Robin's minstrel in "Brave Sir Robin" as one of the many deaths and tortures he is definitely not afraid of.
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has this happening to Jonathon after lighting a giant firework they were trying to shoot the mummy of the day with.
• The Muppet Christmas Carol: Gonzo accidentally ignites Rizzo's tail while lighting a lamp.
  Rizzo: Hey, hey hey! Light the lamp, not the rat! Light the lamp, not the rat!
• In National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Uncle Lewis lights his cigar, unknowingly sets fire to the Christmas tree, then turns around to reveal that his toupee and the seat of his pants are also on fire.
• In The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), the Inquisition attempts to torture Antonio by strapping him to a metal chair and lighting a fire under it. Antonio resists the torture and even laughs at how feeble it is.^note Possibly Justified as Antonio is a baker and so is used to being in cramped, hot spaces. Assuming there is something wrong with the chair, Gomez unstraps to Antonio to examine it. Antonio immediately makes a break for freedom, shoving the captain of the guards into the chair as he does so. The captain immediately leaps to his feet; clutching his buttocks and yelping in pain.
• Revenge of the Pink Panther. When the Hong Kong fireworks factory starts exploding, crime boss Philippe Douvier ducks under a table and is surprised when his former mistress Simone, whom he tried to have murdered back in France, joins him.
  Douvier: Simone?! What the hell are you doing here?!
  Simone: I'm waiting for the firecrackers to go off.
  Douvier: What firecrackers?
  Simone: The ones I just stuck in your pants.
  (Douvier screams in agony and runs off yelping)
• The Three Stooges would occasionally torch each other this way.
• In The Toxic Avenger, the eponymous avenger has his revenge on Wanda Zilch, one of the villainous gang members who caused him to transform into a monster, by ambushing her in the sauna and toasting her buns on the sauna rocks (offscreen). Extended editions of the movie show her among the few criminals to survive the Avenger's rampage, albeit with serious damage to her bottom.
• Valley of the Fangs have this happening to Hu-San, the hero's sidekick, during the fammhouse battle, when Hu accidentally sat down on a burning stove during a fight. He spends the next entire minute running all over the place with his ass burning, leaving the hero fighting all alone, until he finds a water trough to sit in.
• This happens to Kirk Douglas in The Villain.
• Yosemite Sam in Who Framed Roger Rabbit: "My biscuits are burnin'!"
  • Another Who Framed Roger Rabbit example: In the "Somethin's Cookin'" short that starts off the movie, Roger is trapped in an oven set to "Volcano Heat". After he becomes "Well Done", he shoots out of the oven with his behind on fire and runs around the kitchen in circles leaving a trail of smoke.
• In The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, this happens to Miss Slighcarp near the end of the film when she falls backwards into the fireplace.

Literature

• The Canterbury Tales: Older Than Print: Nicholas from "The Miller's Tale" ends up getting his ass toasted with a hot poker when a prank on his girlfriend's unsuccessful suitor goes awry.
• It doesn't actually happen, but in Harry Potter, Mad-Eye Moody warns Harry not to put his wand in his back pocket because he might set it on fire. "Better wizards than you have lost buttocks that way!"
• Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, although it was made more explicit in the animated adaptation than the original book:
  "Three cheers for good old Bilbo!"
  "Thank you! But I'd appreciate a more pragmatic salute. In other words.. extinguish me!"
• Malachite Casket by P. Bazhov: at the copper mill, an overly cruel overseer somehow sat onto the white-hot metal ingot, leading to the instant death from his ass being incinerated. This event is also Based on a True Story.
• In Peter Pan, Captain Hook sits down on a large mushroom that turns out to be the Lost Boy's chimney.
• A variant in They're Torturing Teachers in Room 104. Finius Q. Sands, a local egomaniac politician and father to one of the problem students, is attempting to carry out revenge against Ms. Merriweather, the magical teacher of the story, after she turned his son's hair blue by destroying Sidney, her magic sentient door. He attempts to blow off Sidney's hinges with two packs of firecrackers, only for them to end up in his back pockets and reduce the back of his pants to shreds, revealing his Goofy Print Underwear.
  Finius: Uh-oh.
  Sidney: Have a blast, Finny baby.

Live-Action TV

• Alma Gêmea has Vittorio sitting Olivia down on the stove during their makeout session, setting her dress on fire and burning her ass.
• An episode of El Chavo del ocho had Don Ramón trying to prepare a glue on a stove. At the end, he was knocked onto the stove and forced to stay sitting on it by an angry Professor Jirafales.
• In a Horrible Histories sketch, a Victorian man's trousers have caught fire. The funny part isn't only that his bottom is on fire, it's that any of the words another Victorian man is trying to use to inform him of this, even "trousers" and "legs", are considered too rude, so all the man who's on fire is doing is reprimanding the other man for his language. At the end, he finally realizes what's happening and yells "My trousers! My legs! My BOTTOM!"
• In the L.A. Law episode "Smoke Gets in Your Thighs," Murray Melman (Roxanne's father, played by the late Vincent Gardenia) is hired by McKenzie-Brackman to paint the office's bathroom. After he's finished, he unwisely pours a bucket of thinner down the toilet. Douglas comes in, compliments Murray's work, sits down on the john, lights up a cigar....and Hilarity Ensues. Murray adds insult to injury when he visits Douglas in the burn unit and tries to lighten things up by telling jokes like, "You didn't blow your top....you blew your bottom!"
• In the Shining Time Station episode, "Mr. Conductor's Fourth of July", Billy catches a rabbit in a trap he set in his garden and plans to set him free. Before he does, he tells the children a very old story about a rabbit who set a trap and caught the Sun in it. When the rabbit set the Sun free, he got too close to it and it singed the fur on his tail, which is why all rabbits have short tails.
• At the end of an episode of The Woodwrights Shop featuring Williamsburg blacksmiths, one of them gets Roy Underhill in the rear end with one of his tools... which had just been sitting in a fire moments before.

Music

• In The Stringini Bros' song "Dora No More", one of the deaths involves Dora shaking her rear over an active volcano. Unsurprisingly, she catches fire and falls right in.
• Mr. Bungle's "My Ass Is on Fire".
  • Also said verbatim in "Squeeze me Macaroni."

Video Games

• In Aggressors of Dark Kombat, there's a Molotov cocktail. If you throw it and you or your opponent steps on it, you'll be hopping around with your rear on fire.
• Ape Escape 3 has this happen to both the boy and girl protagonists. This can happen from many different situations, but all with the same effect of leaping into the air while taking damage and trailing smoke from behind. They can both suffer a rump roast from lava, fire, hot water in the hot springs, freezing ice, and will also go through the same damage animation getting stabbed in the butt by spikes.
• The platform game Baby Jo: If your baby loses all her health in a fire, she launches screaming to the sky with her diaper on fire.
• When you let the fire imps in Conker's Bad Fur Day touch you, Conker's tail will catch on fire for a few seconds.
• Same for Crash Bandicoot in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
  • Also true for Coco in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
• It happens in Digimon Battle Spirits. If you get hit with the fire throw items or get hit by Impmon's fireballs, you'll get your rear set on fire.
• Same for Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.
• Getting hit by fireballs in Eryi's Action will cause Eryi to get her butt burned, during her death animation.
• This is shown happening to Meg in the background of the cover art for the Family Guy Video Game. (It even says across the bottom: "It's too HOT for TV!")
• Final Fantasy VII did this early in the game; after blowing up one of the Mako reactors, AVALANCHE makes a speedy exit. The other members make decent exits, but Wedge comically runs out with his ass on fire, trying to put it out.
• In A Hat in Time, falling in lava or getting burned by fire causes Hat Kid to bounce upwards with her butt on fire, all while taking damage and trailing smoke.
• The Flash game Kamikaze Pigs has a late-game upgrade named after this trope. It causes the pants of parachuting fighter pilots to explode on contact with the ground.
• In Kingdom Hearts, hitting Captain Hook with fire will give him a case of this. While he's weak against it, it's actually not a very good idea, as he runs around so quickly that hitting him becomes a chore, and he'll damage anyone he collides with. It becomes more viable in the future games he's fought in, as he frantically hops up and down in place instead.
  • Also, one fire spell you can use in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories has the description 'Donald flubs a fire spell'. When you use that spell, Donald came running around with his rear literally on fire, damaging enemies he touches.
  • The Meow Wow and the various Kyroo dream eaters in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] will suffer a brief case of this if they get hit with a fire attack, leaving them open to further abuse. This predictably presents issues for them if they go up against dream eaters like the Ryu Dragon that use the fire element in almost all of their attacks.
  • And now Sora himself gets to suffer from it in Kingdom Hearts III if he comes to contact with any type of fire.
• In Legend of Kay, Kay will be running around with his tail on fire for a short time when he is hit by the dragon's fire.
• From The Legend of Zelda series:
  • Some flame attacks in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap would do this to Link and force him to run around at top speed.
  • Falling into lava in The Wind Waker, A Link Between Worlds, and Skyward Sword will have Link react this way. The last is particularly hilarious since Skyward Sword has a much more serious Link compared to the others.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: When thrown into the lava during his Mini-Boss fight, Dangoro leaps every time he touches it. Even the ongoing Battle Theme Music lends itself to a Variable Mix to contribute to the comedy of the scene.
  • Jumping into lava without the Goron Locket in Cadence of Hyrule will lead to this and this time other characters like Zelda, Cadence or Impa can get their butts burned as well.
• In The LEGO Ninjago Movie Videogame, hitting an enemy with Fire Spinjitzu will set their rear on fire.
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has this apply to any Burned entities, complete with running around aimlessly with their cans on fire; if they touch any other combatant at this time, the fire spreads, potentially leading to everyone on the field getting a dose of this. Funnily enough, both this and Harmless Freezing can be applied at once, as the Freeze status is restricted to encasing the victim's head in ice.
• While only in the manual, Samus gets her butt on fire in the official art for the original Metroid. While this is an increasingly common gag in Nintendo games, Samus may very well be the first instance of a Nintendo character getting her butt burned.
• The "burnt" condition in Miitopia inflicts this to the Miis.
• Peppino from Pizza Tower gets his butt on fire when touching boiling pizza sauce.
• Happens to the Dark Prince/Satan in Puyo Puyo Sun after his Motive Rant of wanting to grow the sun to create an endless summer outrages Arle, leading her to nail him in the rump with a fire spell.
• Radiata Stories has a status effect called Blazed. Your rear will be on fire and you'll take minor damage similar to poison.
• In most of the Ratchet & Clank games, if you fall into lava you'll shoot out with your butt on fire.
• In The Secret of Monkey Island, when Guybrush launches himself out of a cannon to reach Monkey Island from his ship, he lands with his butt on fire. Herman Toothrot wanders by and remarks idly, "By the way, you might want to think about putting that fire out. Somebody could be hurt."
• Sly Cooper: With the titular character, with the tail instead of the "butt".
  • While Sly suffers from this in the trilogy, all playable characters can catch their butts on fire in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time surprisingly, even Carmelita.
• Spyro does this to some enemies on the original Spyro the Dragon. They are armored in front, but you can have Spyro toast them from behind. They'll go running off holding their bottoms and making Spyro catch up to flame them again for the kill.
  • This is how Spyro himself reacts to touching lava from the second game onwards.
  • In A Hero's Tail, this is how you defeat Gnasty Gnorc. When his weapon gets stuck in the ground and he stops to focus on pulling it out, Spyro runs up and flames his behind, causing him to jump and grab his bottom. You can also charge his behind, but it's very precise and you may run out of time, so most players simply flame him.
  • In the Cloud Temples level of Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, a Wizard sets some trolls on fire, causing them to either run around or jump in place.
• When Fox is exposed to fire in Star Fox Adventures, his tail will burn for a few seconds.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • If Mario touches lava in the New Super Mario Bros. titles (composed of New Super Mario Bros. New Super Mario Bros. 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. U, all of which being a One-Hit Kill), Super Mario 64, Super Mario RPG, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Odyssey titles, he grabs his now-smoking butt and yelps in pain. He sometimes leaps into the air comically when it happens, too. However, he will not do this when he visits Corona Mountain in Sunshine, as falling into that lava is instant death.
  • Paper Mario: Touching the lava or a Fire Bar in Paper Mario 64 and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door not only takes away one hit point, it also sends Mario back where he started. Also in The Thousand Year Door, if Mario is at one hit point left and he touches anything fiery, it's Game Over. As for Bowser, during the Chapter 6-7 interlude where he traverses a platformer castle level based on the castle levels of the very first Super Mario Bros. game, touching the lava sends him back where he started, though he carries infinite life.
  • In Galaxy, the boss fights against Bowser give him a taste of this too, with the sequence requiring Mario to get Bowser to stomp on panels of glass which then crack and expose lava, causing Bowser to burn his tail and run desperately around waiting for it to cool down, making him vulernable to a spin attack by Mario.
  • Super Mario 64: If Mario gets stuck under the rolling log or the tilting platforms in Lethal Lava Land, the moving platforms in "Bowser in the Fire Sea", or the ramp to the Ice Bully in Snowman's Land, the sound he makes when his butt is on fire plays in a rather distorted and rapid manner even during the Bowser laugh fade-out. While it's technically a glitch, it still sounds creepy.
  • This also happens to Yoshi in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island if he falls into lava.
  • Taken to the extreme in Mario vs. Donkey Kong, where touching lava causes Mario's entire body to light on fire, even charring him when he touches solid ground!
  • In Mario Sports Mix, if you get burned by a Podoboo or Bowser's special ability, this will happen.
  • In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, hitting a fire obstacle, getting hit by Mario or Luigi's fireballs or the Thunderbolt will cause the character on the back of the Kart to get their behind lit on fire and unable to use any item they're holding while they put it out.
  • One of the moves in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga involves Mario setting Luigi's pants on fire to dash at high speeds. In the sequels, the Burn status effect prevents the affected bro from jumping— he's too busy trying to put out the seat of his trousers.
  • Fire Wario of Wario Land series, before being completely engulfed in flames.
  • This is also what happens to Mario in the fangame Super Mario 63 when he touches lava or fire.
  • Mario Party loves this trope, with Mario, Peach and company frequently suffering from this countless times in every game. Notable examples include the Lava Bubble capsule in Mario Party 5, which has the characters intentionally inflict this on themselves to advance 10 spaces; and Bowser's Peculiar Peak in Mario Party: Island Tour, a board that forces everyone to run around with their butts on fire, every single turn.
  • Interestingly enough, touching Grimy Water in Super Mario 3D Land or Super Mario 3D World causes this, but with purple fire.
  • In the New Super Mario Bros. games, hitting a Prickly Goomba with a fireball will cause their shell to explode and the Goomba inside to shoot out with its butt on fire.
  • Getting hit by Mario's Hyper Strike in Mario Strikers Battle League will cause Wario, DK and Daisy to run or in Daisy's case, frantically hop around the field, with their butts on fire. Boom Boom also suffers this, when he fails to block said Hyper Strike.

Webcomics

• In The 13th Ghost of Scooby-Doo, Matches defeats Zomba and Revolta by breathing fire at their backsides.
• MegaTokyo: Setting his sleeve on fire was all part of Largo's plan to allow Yuki to get away. The pants were not part of the plan.
• There's a scene in Wapsi Square where Monica's rejection of her inner demon Doubt sets Doubt's ass on fire. Doubt eventually finds a way to get her own back on Monica. Nose flicks!
• The Whiteboard: Doc decides to give Swamp Fox a wedgie. The friction was a bit high.

Web Original

• In part 11 of Minecraft For Noobs, after burning a pile of hoes he bought out of frustration, Basya has an ember from the flame burn his ass, sending hum scooting all the way up to his treehouse.

• The website PolitiFact has "pants on fire" as their highest level of political bullshit, meaning that it's absolutely not true.

Web Videos

• The entire point of this Just For Laughs prank.
• This Reeves and Mortimer sketch.
• IGSRJ's review of Super Mario Bros. 3 shows Mario jumping and getting hit from below with a Podoboo (jumping fireball) and shrinking, and IGSRJ commenting, "Did I mention that Mario has a hot ass? Sorry, I know the joke was bad. I apologize."

Western Animation

• In American Dragon: Jake Long, Trixie and Spud are pretending to be a dragon and both are able to produce fire from the mouth. Trixie is in the front and Spud is at the end when they count down Spud follows fire which due to him being behind Trixie, causes her butt to set on fire.
• Animaniacs (1993): In the Pinky and the Brain short, "When Mice Ruled the Earth", Brain's tail catches fire when Pinky creates fire. Brain then runs to a lake to douse the fire.
• The "Git Along Lil' Duckie" episode of Baby Huey ends with the fox leaping into a water trough after getting lassoed onto a branding iron, the original episode even had him stand up to reveal the words "The End" on his rear.
• Bozo: The World's Most Famous Clown: Bozo the Clown does this as well to a sheep-stealing wolf in "Sheep Thief Grief".
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: "A Case of Stage Blight" begins with the Rescue Rangers going to an opera theater. Zipper sits too close to a spotlight and the heat sets his butt on fire.
  Monterey: Heh heh! Can't stand being in the spotlight, eh, Zip?
• Classic Disney Shorts
  • Building a Building features Mickey as a steam-shovel engineer facing off against Pete, his boss. At one point, Minnie dumps a basket of hot rivets down the back of Pete's pants.
  • In "The Whalers", Goofy's pants catch fire after he strikes a match on them. He tries to douse the flames by sitting on a pail of water, but sits on a keg of gunpowder instead.
  • Also happens to Mickey Mouse in "Mickey's Orphans" when a baby kitten puts a piece of hot coal in Mickey's shorts.
  • In the 1937 short Hawaiian Holiday, at one point Donald Duck starts dancing with a grass skirt, so naturally when he dances too close to their campfire, it sets his butt on fire, forcing him to make a run for it towards a pool to put it out.
  • In Chef Donald, Donald decides to cook some waffles after hearing a recipe for it on the radio. However, he accidentally pours in a bottle of rubber cement instead of baking powder, resulting in a sticky mess that gives him grief throughout the short. At one point, when he tries to get the sticky mess into the waffle iron, he accidentally backs into the waffle iron, which closes on his tail feathers and cooks them.
  • In "Bearly Asleep", Humphrey the Bear sneaks into Donald's cabin so he can hibernate in Donald's bed. When Donald finds out, he places his oil lamp under the bed, resulting in Humphrey's butt being torched.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: In "Operation H.O.T.S.T.U.F.F.", Numbuh 3, sick of her father leaving the house cold, turns up the thermostat, turning it into a volcano ready to blow. As Numbuhs 1, 2 and 5 enter her house to try and turn down the thermostat before it erupts, Numbuh 1 gets his butt set on fire.
  Numbuh 1: Hey, who's cooking hamburgers?
  Numbuh 5: I don't know about hamburgers, but your buns are burning!
• The Darkwing Duck episode "Can't Bayou Love" has Darkwing's rear get set on fire by a candle.
• Happens to Chris in Dan Vs. episode "Stupidity".
• The Dick Tracy Show: Happens to Sketch Paree and the Mole in "The Casbah Express." Joe Jitsu, aboard the Express, plucks the two villains from their handcar and tosses them into the engine's smokestack. They emerge from the furnace with their tails a-blazin'.
• Snotlout Jorgenson in Dragons: Riders of Berk rides a Monstrous Nightmare, a species of dragon known for coating itself in its flammable saliva and then setting itself on fire. The jokes practically write themselves.
• This happens to the bald guy at the end of one episode of Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids.
• In Here Comes the Grump, the Grump gets Toasted Buns occasionally as a form of Amusing Injuries.
• Hero108: In the episode Baboon Castle, Mystique Sonia gets her butt burned in a ring of fire during a top spinning challenge. Another baboon suffers the same fate shortly after.
• In a House of Mouse episode, Mortimer is posing as a food critic and tries to get people fired. Lumiere's response is to say "No, it is you who will be fired" and uses his candles to set Mortimer's rear ablaze.
  • In "Pete's House of Villains" Pete is on the receiving end of this with the exact same "no, you will be fired" line after getting annoyed with the other villains' work and trying to fire them.
• Hoze Houndz: In "The Hound Who Loved Me", Fontaine and James Bone go down Otamoffy's chimney, and fly out with the seats of their pants both on fire.
• Jackie is shot in the behind with lasers by a pig in Jackie Chan Adventures episode 'When Pigs Fly'
• Alexandra in the 1970s cartoon Josie and the Pussycats suffers this in the season 2 episode "The Four-Eyed Dragon of Cygnon", when she sits on a malfunctioning control panel, setting her rear aflame.
• Looney Tunes:
  • The now-rare cartoon "Mississippi Hare" has a sequence late in that short where Colonel Shuffle suffers this after chasing Bugs Bunny into a boiler on a riverboat ("YIPE!").
  • This happens in "The Oily American", but it takes the wealthy Native American protagonist a few seconds to realize it:
    Moe: Me smell Mohican burning. [pause] Me last Mohican... [another pause] Must be me! [cue scream and Pain-Powered Leap]
  • Happens to Wile E. Coyote quite a few times:
    • In "Zoom and Bored", in one of the most surreal scenes on Looney Tunes (the wall scene).
    • In "Soup Or Sonic," Wile E. survives a rocket ride apparently unscathed, so he turns around and walks away - revealing a small flame on his tail. He walks over a hill and out of sight, and then jumps up from the pain.
  • Daffy Duck suffers this from time to time, too:
    • In "Dime to Retire", where he plays the role of a sleazy motel manager where he offers 10 cents per night for the rooms, but scams his customers out of hundreds of dollars by putting annoying animals in their rooms so he can then remove them. Porky stays at his hotel and is bilked out of a total of $779, and then, not wanting the cycle to continue, leaves without paying the 10 cents for the room, at which point Daffy confiscates his bags. Porky obliges, because he is revealed to be a traveling gunpowder salesman, who sets off his wares via his car intentionally backfiring and lighting the Powder Trail leaking from his briefcases, which then destroys the hotel. Daffy closes the hotel for repairs, and then runs away yelping in pain due to his tailfeathers being on fire from the blast.
      Daffy: A little traveling music, please.
• Martin Mystery suffers this in the episode "Mystery of the Hole Creature".
• The Mixels episode "Hot Lava Shower" has this befall Krader after he sits on his toilet, which has been superheated thanks to a lava clog traveling through the pipe system (Teslo burns his mouth thanks to the same clog). When he and Teslo go to complain about it to Vulk, he treats them to ice cream to help...which culminates into Krader sticking multiple ice cream cones on his rear.
• The Monster Farm episode "State of Reunion" had Zombeef get her butt set on fire after landing backside-first onto a table that Goatasarus Rex had breathed fire at.
• "Nu, Pogodi!" Episode 12 had the Wolf notices a "no smoking" sign and begins to smoke, but thecigarette falls inside the armor and he burned his ass. In a panic, he extinguishes himself with boiling water and a fire extinguisher.
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: In "You're Everybody's Sidekick", the Alley Teens trick K.O. into getting his butt burned by lava for their own amusement. Drupe adds insult to injury by whipping K.O. with vines, while Red Action posts a video of it on social media.
• In the Pixie & Dixie short "Cousin Tex", the visiting mouse does this to Mr. Jinks with his branding iron.
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: In "Mystery Mask Mix-Up", Scooby and Shaggy are captured and tied up back-to-back by Zen Tuo and left to die in a storeroom filled with fireworks. When Scooby and Shaggy put out the fuse with their butts, they end up getting burned, and while hopping around the temple in pain during their escape, they unwittingly land on the arms of a statue that is actually the door to the secret room where the ghosts had Daphne, Fred and Velma locked in (the latter two trying to rescue the former, who was kidnapped by the ghosts so they could retrieve Zen Tuo's mask). After Shaggy and Scooby land on the statue's arms, they open the door, freeing their friends.
  Shaggy: Don't you know it's illegal to shoot off fireworks and wreck a storeroom!?
  Zen Tuo: We will build a new storeroom! (locks the tied up Shaggy and Scooby in)
  Shaggy: Like, who's going to build a new us?!
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Brother's Little Helper", Ned (unconvincingly) tries to smoke while playing a hippie during a fire safety play and sets his pants ablaze.
    Ned: Sorry to break character, but these stunt pants are getting mighty toasty!
    Maude: Uh, roll, Neddy, roll!
    Ned (starts to roll on the ground) It's not working! It just spreads the flames!
  • In "Hungry, Hungry Homer", the executives at Duff Beer try to discredit Homer as he's protesting against their plan to move the Springfield Isotopes to Albequerque:
    Kent Brockman: Are you saying Homer Simpson is a liar?
    Howard K. Duff: Well, we do have this footage of him with his pants on fire.
  • One Couch Gag involved the family with fire on their behinds running to the couch with water to get it extinguished.
  • In "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", the rock stars go berserk and chase Homer around in a giant red vehicle shaped like Satan's head, pushing a button that causes flames to shoot out from the devil's mouth and burn Homer's buns. Once they've come to their senses, the musicians apologize to Homer and offer him the vehicle as a gift - and he uses it to burn off Principal Skinner's clothes, leaving him in only his Goofy Print Underwear and frantically trying to cover himself.
• The cave child Grog got toasted tooties in The Smurfs (1981) episode "Lost in the Ages". And occasionally, Azrael's tail would catch on fire from some of Gargamel's experiments.
• In one of the trailers for The Smurfs (2021), Gargamel gets his butt singed by the robotic nanny Smurf's laser beam.
• Spongebob Squarepants: At the start of "Under the Small Top", Squidward tries to do his morning aerobics, but sticks his leg out so far it gets caught in a ceiling fan, sending him flying and causing him to sit on a hot stovetop.
  Instructor: Feel the burn!
  Squidward: I FEEL IT!
• Tex Avery MGM Cartoons: In the short One Ham's Family, Junior sets the wolf's tail on fire, and the latter tries to quickly douse it, but Junior quickly switches the bucket of water for one with gasoline.
  Junior's Telegram: Dear Mr. Wolf, don’t look now – but your tail is on fire. Love, Jr. P.S. Sucker!!
• A Thousand and One... Americas: An evil man who attempts to kidnap Chris and Lon in the twentieth episode gets roasted this way when Chris briefly chockes him and then Lon bites his butt, as that leads him to jump into a cauldron where metal is being melted. He accidentally sits on it, which puts his ass into flames until he sits in a water bucket. Chris laughs at him for this, but unfortunately this only infuriates the enemy and makes the situation far worse.
• At the end of The Three Little Pigs, the Big Bad Wolf, after realizing that he cannot blow down the house of bricks, actually decides to climb down the chimney as a last-minute attempt to kill and eat the pigs, only to end up landing inside a pot of boiling water and jumping out and running away.
• This is a regular gag in Tom and Jerry, usually causing Tom to jump high in the air and do his Stock Scream. (The page image is taken from "The Mouse That Comes to Dinner".)
• In one episode of Total Drama Island, Duncan, DJ, and Geoff play pranks on Harold because he's been leaving his underwear around the cabin. One prank involves dousing a pair of undies with hot sauce. When changing into them, it takes Harold two seconds to feel a slight sting.
  Harold: ...My biscuits are burning!!
• Transformers:
  [Thundercracker: Ow! What was that for? OW! Holy campfire! Mah biscuits are burnin'! Hot hot hot! Put me out!
• Happens to both Reekon and Mortdredd in the Visionaries episode "The Overthrow of Merklynn". Mortdredd attempts to retrieve a spellbook which is guarded by a short-tempered dragon, only to emerge moments later with his backside on fire, having been "unable to reach the book". Reekon manages to distract the dragon long enough to retrieve the book, but still gets flamed on his way out.

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