Putting the Pee in Pool

Weak!

"Welcome to our 'ool. Notice there is no 'P' in it. Please keep it that way."

— sign commonly erected at public pools

Someone urinates (or, occasionally, defecates) in a swimming pool, either by accident or on purpose. If it's an accident, it's also a Potty Failure. Usually in cases of urinating on purpose, the offender believes that because the water is chlorinated it will clean itself... or they're that much of a jerkass that they just don't care. This is almost always Played for Laughs, but it can be Played for Drama if needed. This is one way to put some Toilet Humor into a work.

Fish, whether in tanks, aquariums, lakes, rivers, oceans, and ponds, relieve themselves in the water they live in by default. Ducks and other waterfowl swimming in ponds and lakes naturally relieve themselves in water. These animals can also use the trope to put some Toilet Humor in a work.

Compare Urine Trouble, or Excrement Statement. See also Underwater Fart Gag for another toilet joke involving water. If it's in a lake, river, or the ocean, it counts as Nature Tinkling. See Foul Ball Pit if someone's peeing in the ball pit.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Dropkick on My Devil sees the main protagonist do this near the end of Chapter Chitose. She goes back to the hot spring, and while she’s there, relieves herself it in. Cue punishment from Yurine.
• SPY×FAMILY: A Volume 2 omake sees Loid and Yor taking their child Anya (who unbeknownst to them is a telepath) to the pool at her request. The latter excitedly rushes into the water, but is later horrified when she reads the other children's minds and finds out that several of them have secretly peed near her. Afterward she sits in the Corner of Woe and vows to never go to the pool again, much to her parents' confusion.

Advertising

• Eveybody Pees, which is an ad encouraging getting a kidney checkup, has a song all about peeing. It is laden with Toilet Humor and lists all kinds of weird places to pee. The first few lyrics go "I can do it in a lake and I have to when I wake, maybe in a local pool, or in a bath will do, but everybody pees, everybody pees, so let's be sure to keep our kidneys healthy.
• Occurs in this commercial for tax preparation software, after a metaphor-laden Potty Emergency.

Comic Books

• In Love and Rockets, the Nouveau Riche Norma Luna's pool party for her new neighbours is ruined when her drunken boyfriend skinny-dips and then pees in the water, which had been treated with a chemical that turns urine red (as per the urban legend; see below).
• In Le Petit Spirou, Spirou and his friends are in a pool at a public bath and discuss if such a chemical is used that marks urine in the water with a color. One of them says something like, "Maybe elsewhere, but definitely not here." Cue Spirou deciding to stay outside the pool.

Film - Animated

• The Mighty Eagle's Lake of Wisdom from The Angry Birds Movie. Apparently, this is why no one is allowed to swim in there: this is where the Eagle uses the bathroom.
• In Finding Nemo, when the Tank Gang purposely clog the filter to trick the owner into putting them into bags so he can clean the tank manually, Neat Freak Gurgle gets severely bothered by the results and says "Don't you realize we are swimming in our own—-?!" but was interrupted. Of course, being fish, that's exactly how they relieve themselves and why the water filter existed in the first place.
• In Moana, Moana puts her hand in the ocean during her wayfinding lesson from Maui, and exclaims "[The water]'s getting warmer!" And then she looks in horror at Maui's relieved smirking face.
  Moana: EWW! That is disgusting! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!

Film - Live-Action

• Subverted in Caddyshack. When a child throws a chocolate bar into the pool, everyone assumes that it is a large turd, causing a major overreaction from everyone.
• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Manny pees in the pool as a joke.
• In Grown Ups, Eric causes chaos at a waterpark when he discovers that they really do put a chemical into the water that turns urine blue.
• One of the most memorable scenes in The Inbetweeners 2 features Neil accidentally defecating down a waterslide as a result of irritable bowel syndrome. The turd chases Will down the slide and hits him in the face at the bottom.
• The pre-title sequence of the Australian comedy You and Your Stupid Mate culminates with Jeffrey relieving himself in the pool. The pee reacts with a chemical causing the water for several feet around them to turn yellow. Other swimmers flee for the sides, and the lifeguard yells at them both, delivering a Title Drop in the process.
• In Strange Brew, Bob and Doug are trapped in a big brewery tank while it is filling with cold beer. They are complaining of the cold, when suddenly Bob says, "Hey, I feel something warm!" Doug denies feeling anything warm, but he's probably where the warm liquid came from.
• In Moving Violation, Cam tells Eddie how, every graduation at the local high school, the football team pees into the pool from the diving boards.
• Joked about in Poltergeist III, which has teenager Donna sneaking into her apartment complex's public pool after hours with her friends. While observing them swimming around through the security cameras, one of the boys tells another to stop pissing in it.

Literature

• Bud, Not Buddy: At the YMCA, one of the employees announces that the pool has been treated with a chemical that turns urine red and burns the user as a punishment. The employee warns that anyone who pees in the pool will be sent to the hospital, then jail, and will be banned from using any swimming pool in the world for the rest of their life. Bud is offended that the employee would even assume that he would pee in the pool in the first place.
• In one of Dave Barry's books, he mentions the fact that people pee in pools. Paraphrased:

"Okay, I haven't done so, and you probably haven't either, but somebody does, which leads to bacterial growth, and chemicals to combat said bacteria. Eventually, it'll get to the point that there's no actual WATER in the pool, just urine, bacteria and chemicals. This is why you never see the owner of the pool swimming."

• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Greg mentions that he used to swim in the baby pool until a kid said "I'm peeing" while in it, which put him off. His reason for not liking the ocean is because "All the world's fish and turtles and whales go to the bathroom right there in the ocean."
• In A Drowned Maiden's Hair, Maud sleeps on the beach after the House Fire that destroys Victoria's house in Cape Calypso. When she wakes up the next morning, she desperately needs to pee, and ends up going in the ocean, to her embarrassment. She feels sorry for everyone who will go swimming that day.

Jokes

• A lifeguard yelling at a poolgoer:
  Sir! Please stop peeing in the pool!
  Come on, man everyone does that!
  Not from the diving board!
• The water was so cold that day, that the toilets on the beach had queues.

Live-Action TV

• In one Crank Yankers sketch, Special Ed calls up a health club and tearfully apologizes to the manager for having peed in the pool.
• Implied (but probably not actually done) in this prank from The Jamey Kennedy Experiment.
• On Friends, Monica was once making out with Richard when she blurted out, "I can't believe I'm kissing the man whose pool I once peed in." This gets a Too Much Information response from him.
• In one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jonathan Levinson admits to peeing in the swim team's pool as revenge for the swim team bullying him. Willow reports this back to Buffy and Cordelia just as Xander, who's gone undercover on the team, dives into said swimming pool.
• The Adventures of Pete & Pete episode "Splashdown" had the urban legend of a urine-detecting pool chemical come to life via "Wee-Wee See", which is used to bust a peeing perpetrator.
• Invoked in The Worst Year of My Life, Again. The urban legend of a chemical that turns purple in contact with urine being added to pool water is mentioned, with Simon pointing out that it is a urban legend. Later Sam dumps a purple drink on Simon while he is in the pool, leaving him surrounded by a rapidly spreading circle of purple. Simon tries desperately to tell everyone around him that he has not peed in the pool.
• On The Goldbergs, Adam is self-conscious at having to take swimming classes in school, so, inspired by Caddyshack, he throws a chocolate bar in the pool so that class might be canceled. This leads to the pool being drained and the coach punishing everyone until the real culprit confesses.
• Played with on an episode of America's Funniest Home Videos. When Tom is introducing a series of pool clips he warns "Don't make the water around where you're swimming suddenly, mysteriously, curiously, warm..."
• For one punishment on Impractical Jokers, Joe had to go into a swimming pool and loudly announce to everyone there that he's peeing in the pool. Not that he peed in the pool. That he is currently peeing in the pool.
  • In the intro to the punishment, Sal even invokes the trope name: "Joe, you usually put the C in 'cool', but today, you're gonna be putting the P in 'pool!'"
• Little Britain:
  • When Vicky Pollard is in a pool and is ordered by a lifeguard to go and get changed, she says she'll just have a wee first; which she does right there and then, in the pool.
  • Andy pees in a hotel swimming pool in Little Britain USA.

Music

• Singer-songwriter Jim Croce mentions this between songs on a live concert recording (Jim Croce Live: The Final Tour from Saja Records): "It's like peein' in the pool. Everybody's done it."
• Bryant Oden writes children's songs. One of them is titled Please Don't Pee in the Pool.

Newspaper Comics

• Calvin and Hobbes: When Calvin refuses to allow Hobbes to share his swimming pool, Hobbes retaliates by deliberately shedding fur in the water, prompting Calvin to get out in disgust. Hobbes' victory is short-lived when Calvin implies that he invoked the trope before getting out.
• This◊ Dennis the Menace (US) strip features Dennis getting in trouble with his parents for doing this. Henry tries to vouch for him, but to no avail.
  Henry: All kids tinkle in the pool.
  Alice: From the diving board?
• In a Stone Soup comic, Alix is in her kiddie pool with Max. Holly points out she's in the pool with a kid wearing a diaper, and Alix mentions it's a swim diaper...then questions if they actually work. She is understandably horrified at the realization. (This is Truth in Television, swim diapers are only made to keep poop out of the water, they do not hold pee at all)
• Zits uses this when Jeremy and Hector spend a summer working as lifeguards and swimming instructors at the local pool.
  Jeremy: Look at the kids Hector! They're swimming! I feel accomplished! I feel great!
  Hector: I feel a warm spot.
  Jeremy: I quit.

Professional Wrestling

• An early Pro Wrestling Guerrilla event was named "Kee The ee Out Of Our ool".

Stand-Up Comedy

• Jim Gaffigan made this joke in his album Mr. Universe in an extended bit on hotels, stating that anytime you are in a hotel pool with children you are "swimming in a toilet"
  The first time a kid can multitask. "I can play and pee?"

Urban Legends

• There is a legend commonly told by parents to their children of a chemical that turns urine a cloudy purple (sometimes red) when mixed with it, pointing out the offender to the pool owner and the other patrons. This story fooled a lot of kids before the advent of the internet, and continues to do so today.

Video Games

• Brought up by Nora in HuniePop 2 if you take her to the Secret Grotto, where she'll mention that it's probably the only pool around that hasn't been peed in.
• Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!: You can use the zipper icon in the pool. Larry obviously does pee there, judging by his "Ahhhhh."
• Referenced by an achievement in Plants vs. Zombies, called "Don't Pea in the Pool". You get it by beating a daytime Pool level without using any Pea plants.
• One of many ways to mess with your Sims is to put them in a swimming pool, delete the ladder that the game treats as the only possible exit, and leave them there until they wet themselves and/or starve or die of exhaustion.
  • In The Sims 4, Sims that wet themselves in a swimming pool get a special positive moodlet instead of the usual "embarrassed" one.
• One mission in Tony Hawk's Underground invokes this, as it requires you to try and empty a pool through a rather convoluted means involving wallplanting off a vending machine three times to drop a candy bar for a nearby security guard to pick up, then doing an acid drop off a ledge into the pool. Doing so will spook the security guard into dropping his bar into the pool, causing the people inside to mistake it for crap, which then leads to the pool being closed for decontamination.

Web Animation

• Sam & Mickey: In "The Return", it's revealed that Barbie is banned from a mall for 5 years thanks to an incident where she allegedly urinated in the water fountain. The Stinger gives credence to it via security camera footage.
• An interesting variant occurs in Episode 17 of Dr. Havoc's Diary; first, we have Brock shooting Havoc's henchmen dead, but No Dead Body Poops is averted. Then the submarine begins flooding and sinking thanks to Brock cutting a hole in the side of said submarine in order to get inside in the first place, which leads right to...
  Havoc: (both cling onto the metal pipes on the ceiling) Well, this is great, Brock. Now, we have to escape from what is essentially a giant, unflushed toilet. (sighs) So, you wanna swim through the shit first, or should I?
  Brock: I'm gonna be honest. I-I’d kinda rather be here than at home with that nightmare on wheels you call a wife (Kim). (points to a floating corpse.) Ahh, poopy body! Poopy body!
  Havoc: Shut up.
• The poster up top is parodied in the Strong Bad Email "keep cool": "Welcome to our 'ool. Notice there is no 'take a crap in it' in it. Please keep it that way." Strong Bad proceeds to ban the Poopsmith (who is still wearing his poop-coated gloves) from even getting in the pool.
• Talking Tom Shorts: In "We Destroyed the Toilet!", Tom, Ben, Ginger and Hank all pee in the pool at the end.

Webcomics

• In this Penny Arcade, the two main characters are in a swimming pool with children, and one of them ponders just how much of the swimming pool's water is actually baby pee. The other responds that they're actually in a play structure.
• In this Cyanide and Happiness, two guys are in a pool, and one finds a "candy bar" floating in the water. It really was a candy bar... Once.

Web Video

• A Ryan George sketch centers around the first guy to ever take a swim. Naturally, he's also the first person to ever pee while swimming, though he tries to deny it.

Western Animation

• In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius episode "Who Framed Jimmy Neutron?", Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen attempt to escape from jail and hide inside a pool during the night. When they lose the guards, Jimmy tells Carl that he can use the restroom, only for Carl to say that he doesn't have to go anymore.
• Almost Naked Animals: This exchange from "The Rotation Situation":
  Howie: Oh Bunny! You and your rules. 'No bathing in the pool'. Next you'll be saying you're not allowed to relieve yourself in the pool.
  Bunny: (angrily) You're not!
  Howie and Duck: (in unison) Oh.
• In the American Dad! episode "An Incident at Owl Creek" Stan cannonballs into a pool and accidentally craps himself in front of everyone.
• Beavis And Butthead:
  • "Balloon" has Beavis accidentally fall into a pool of sharks. He pees in the pool, setting off an alarm, ensuring he'll be rescued before the sharks eat him. Later, Butt-Head asks Beavis if he peed because he was smart or because he was scared. Beavis says he did it because it feels good. Butt-Head agrees; "That's why I pee in the pool!"
  • "River" starts its plot with the boys going to a public pool in hopes of attracting women, and being turned away because their photos are at the top of a board listing "known urinators".
• Bob's Burgers: In "Synchronized Swimming", a pool is cleared when a turd is seen floating in the water. Bob thinks Louise pulled a Caddyshack and put a chocolate bar in the pool... only Louise hasn't seen Caddyshack; she was just that desperate to get out of doing a synchronized swimming routine she hadn't practiced for.
• Camp Lazlo has Edward preventing Lazlo from using any signs of restrooms after the latter beats the former in a lemon drinking contest. One of the places in question is in the middle of Leaky Lake, which Lazlo raises by twice its height when relieving himself. A fish, really Edward in a fish suit, asks Lazlo not to pee in the lake, so Lazlo sucks the large amount of urine back into his bladder before apologizing to the fish and leaving the lake. Ouch.
• Chowder: One episode has Chowder suffering a Potty Emergency that's eventually resolved when he, Mung Daal, and Schnitzel land in the water at the beach. Mung Daal and Schnitzel proceed to swim away screaming, followed by a school of fish doing the same.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: In "No P in the Ool", adults take over the main pool, so the KND is forced to go to the kiddie pool. Numbuh 3 mentions that the water is "nice and warm" and the others look suspiciously at the little kids surrounding them.
• Family Guy:
  • In "Mind over Murder", Peter talks about some of the "crimes" he's committed in his life, like loitering, peeing in the pool, and sneaking into Wimbledon (the joke being that all three scenes use the same animation of Peter standing still while his eyes nervously dart left and right). Later on he wonders what Cleveland and Quagmire are up to; cut to the two men at the swimming pool, with Quagmire's eyes darting left and right.
    Cleveland: Oh, that's nasty!
  • Subverted in "Peter's Daughter", when the Griffins' house gets flooded:
    Peter: Hey, Chris, did the water just get warmer all of a sudden?
    Chris: Uh, no, Dad.
    Peter: Oh, that's right. It's pee that's makes it warmer.
  • Stewie's List Song includes "... the fat kid smiling warmly while he's peeing in the pool..."
• In Futurama, Fry meets and dates a mermaid named Umbriel when the crew is dragged underwater by a Colossal-Mouthed Bass. He then relieves himself right in front of her, prompting her to ask if the water got warmer. They then rest near a volcanic vent, where Fry relieves himself once again. This then prompts Umbriel to ask if the water got colder. Later lampshaded when Zoidberg tracks Fry down.
• The main protagonist of the Disney short Inner Workings pees in the water at the beach when he sees a big wave.
• In The Loud House episode "Linc or Swim", the Louds are thrown out of several different public pools for various reason, including a "fecal incident" courtesy of Lily. Later, Lincoln gets a pool for himself, but his sisters start using it. Lisa uses a formula that eliminates urine in the pool; when all the water evaporates, the rest of Lincoln's sisters blush in embarrassment.
• In the Rick and Morty episode "Mortyplicity", a group of clones of the main cast are waiting for their inevitable deaths in the middle of a scenic ocean. While they wait, they tell each other their bucket list items, in which Summer says, after sighing suspiciously, "Well, peeing in the ocean was my bucket list item" strongly implying the fully clothed Summer just purposely peed her pants in the ocean.
• Played with in Rugrats (1991). In the episode "The Big Flush", none of the Rugrats actually go potty or use their diapers while swimming, but they do reckon the swimming pool is a "giant potty" and when Chuckie says the pool water tastes funny, Tommy says "Of course it tastes bad, Chuckie! It's potty water!"
• The Simpsons
  • Implied in "Crook and Ladder" as part of a Noodle Incident when Marge and the kids are seen leaving a public pool:
    Marge: Next time Maggie does that in a pool, tell me quietly. Don't announce it.
    Lisa: But Mom, the lifeguards have to know.
    Marge: Just let the chemicals deal with it.
  • "Lisa the Veterinarian": When Bart sneaks into the control room of an indoor water park, there is a gauge labeled "Urine Concentration".
• South Park:
  • In the aptly named episode "Pee", the entire plot revolves around this when a waterpark (aptly named "Pi Pi's") reaches critical urine mass and turns into a massive pee tsunami, trapping everyone inside the park.
  • In "Summer Sucks", Cartman is forced to take swimming lessons with first graders, and is mocked by Stan who claims the first graders all pee in the pool. True to Stan's prediction, whenever Cartman must pass by them, the water turns yellow as the children pee in the pool. Many "Oh, weak!" comments from Cartman ensue. When the pool reopens after the giant ash snake is put out, the first graders return and immediately turn the entire pool yellow, much to the anger of Cartman who had been using the closed pool to practice swimming in peace.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Mid-Life Crustacean", one of the "wild and crazy hot-blooded" things SpongeBob and Patrick make Mr. Krabs do is sit in an inflatable kiddy pool. They ask him if he's "feeling it", and he says he's not but he's "feeling a warm spot."
  Patrick: Sorry.
• In the Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode "Mewberty", the swim team is shown training in the hallway and mention that someone pooped in the pool.
• Alluded to in the Steven Universe episode "Keystone Motel". Steven tries to get an irate Ruby to join him in the motel pool, but all she does is pace back and forth along the bottom of the pool while grumbling. Since she's literally Burning with Anger, Steven teasingly comments that she "made a warm spot", though the water quickly turns hot enough that Steven has to get out to avoid getting scalded.
• Total Drama:
  • In "Haute Camp-ture", Izzy outright announces she's putting an end to a conversation in the pool because she has to pee. To the horror of everyone she was talking to, she doesn't get out of the pool. They call her out on how gross she's being and she argues it's okay because the water is chlorinated.
  • Owen relieves himself in an icy river in "Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better", partly because he has to, partly to warm up a little. Cody, who's in the water with him, is horrified and can barely outswim the yellow stain.
  • In "Evil Dread", Sam gets stung by a jellyfish and runs into Lake Wawanakwa to pee on himself to alleviate the pain.

Real Life

• Sign on the wall at Lower Wick swimming pool, Worcester, England: "WE DO NOT SWIM IN YOUR TOILET SO PLEASE DO NOT WEE IN OUR POOL"
• Another popular found around the US is "WELCOME TO THE OOL. YOU'LL NOTICE THAT THERE'S NO P IN IT AND WE'D LIKE YOU TO KEEP IT THAT WAY."
• A PSA from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went viral with how it asked parents to keep their kids out of the pool if they have diarrhea.
• A once-popular poster had a frame-blowup of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, with the caption, "Alright, who peed in the pool?"

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