Show-and-Tell Antics

"I'll carry my secret to the grave! It's the show and tell that was never shown or told! Ha ha ha! AH HA HA HA HA!"

At the academy, "show and tell" too often becomes "run and hide."

— Show and Tell card Flavor Text, Magic: The Gathering

Show-and-tell is a classroom activity where a student brings something to school and describes it to their class. This is often done as a way to get to know the student better and develop communication skills. Since the possibilities for what a student can show and tell are endless, this can lead to all sorts of stories. Bringing something wacky to school often gives a good indication of a child's personality.

Common variations of this trope include:

• The protagonist going to great lengths to obtain something impressive for show-and-tell, only for their rival to show up with something even more amazing that blows the class away.
• The protagonist bringing something strange to show-and-tell that they think is cool, only for everyone to be weirded out or disgusted by it.
• Someone bringing a living thing (such as a pet) to show-and-tell, only for it to run away, cause chaos, get lost, or fail to perform on command.
• A young student bringing something dirty or inappropriate to show-and-tell, without understanding what it really is.
• If a student brings in something valuable or fragile for show-and-tell, there's a good chance it will end up destroyed (accidentally or otherwise) for the sake of drama.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• My Daemon: The first episode starts with Kento bringing a baby Daemon, which he named Anna, for a show-and-tell at school, while explaining to his class how he met her and decided to take her home to study her growth out of innocent curiosity. Unfortunately for him, because of Daemons’ bad rap, he accidentally freaks out the entire class, and becomes a bullying target as result.

Comic Books

• Archie Comics: In an Archie Comic, Li'l Jinx is told she may not bring an expensive vase to school for show-and-tell; it's fragile, and there is really nothing exciting about it. So instead, she brings a bent golf club she found in the trash — she recalls how "excited" dad was when he jumped up and down on it after missing an important putt!
• Clarence: In Issue #3 of the comic series from KaBOOM! Comics, Clarence brings a bowling ball he found in the trash to school for show and tell. Kimby brings her big, gothic dollhouse, which ends up destroyed when Clarence accidentally throws the bowling ball at it during recess, so he, Jeff, and Sumo raise money to buy her a new one.

Comic Strips

• A Running Gag in Calvin and Hobbes is for Calvin to bring something to school for show-and-tell. The gag tends to focus more on the telling than the showing, sometimes using it to brag about himself and/or insult the other students.
  • In one strip, Calvin is holding a paper bag and he says: "For "Show and tell" today, I have something that will astound and amaze you! This little guy can... (looks into the bag, looks around) Have you all had your shots?"
  • In another strip, he refuses to show what he brought or tell anything about it.
    Calvin: It's a mystery that will haunt you all your miserable lives! You'll never, ever know what I brought! You can beg and plead, but I'll never end your torment! I'll carry my secret to the grave! It's the show and tell that was never shown or told! (Evil Laugh)
  • In another strip, he claims that he brought an "invisible cretinizer":
    Calvin: One shot will render the victim a babbling simp, a dolt, an utter moron!
    Ronald: Oh, sure, Calvin! Give us a break!
    Calvin: As Ronald proves, it's quite effective even at long range.
  • One strip had Calvin bring what he claims was an alien he caught to show and tell. He shows them what he claims is a zarnium-coated bag (a paper bag) he kept the alien in while he fed it pure ammonia. When he reveals the alien, we see it's basically a sock puppet.
  • In another, he brings a charcoal briquette, which he claims is the result of a UFO landing in his yard.
  • Calvin brings a set of flashcards designed to teach swear words.
  • One time he brings a snowflake, and goes on a monologue about how bringing the unique ice crystal into school makes it melt into a drop of water just like any other. He then tries to leave the classroom while the analogy sinks in.
  • Another time, he pretends to be invisible, and starts taking off his clothes. Thankfully, Miss Wormwood stops him before he can take off his pants.
  • In yet another, he remembers at the last minute that it's show-and-tell day, and searches desperately for something to bring. It's implied he decides to take the snot from his sneeze.
  • One time, Calvin claims that he had an out-of-body experience after dying of boredom from his homework. He shows a yo-yo he supposedly brought back from the afterlife.
  • One time he has nothing to show, but claims that his mom dresses up in a leotard and fights crime.
  • Calvin brings "an utterly amazing whistle", but another classmate complains that it sounds normal. Calvin responds that it can only be heard by ugly cretins.
  • Calvin brings a toy airplane. The presentation starts out fairly normal this time, but then he starts declaring that he'll be getting on a real airplane as soon as he can to get away from "you chumps", earning him a visit to the principal's office.
  • Calvin and Susie compare the show and tell items they're bringing. Suzie has a letter she wrote to their Congressman, while Calvin has a bag of dead bugs he collected from windowsills.
    Best of all, this way Mom didn't have to pack me a lunch!
  • Calvin pretends to be an alien conqueror out to subjugate humanity, with his "show and tell" presentation demonstrating terrifying weaponry. Outside of his imagination, the rest of the class just sees him speaking gibberish.
    Offscreen student: Miss Wormwood, shouldn't he be in some special school or something?
  • One time, Calvin interrupts class to hype up his show and tell presentation the next day.
    That's called a teaser, by the way.
• The Far Side: In one early cartoon, a boy brings in a severed head in a jar which he just found on some beach for show and tell. In The PreHistory of the Far Side, Gary Larson says that he feared readers would complain when it ran and attempts to explain why none did:
  The point of the humor, I felt, was the innocent fascination children have for things they find almost anywhere—the beach, the woods, etc.—and the fact that this "innocence" was about to come crashing down on top of this pleasant-looking schoolteacher. I was careful, however, to make the head in the jar look sort of silly and benign...
• One FoxTrot Sunday strip saw Jason's class do show and tell; his teacher tells him afterwards that she's not letting him sign up for it again because all he ever brings is his old math tests.
• Peanuts: Sally is almost as bad for this as Calvin:
  • She once brought Snoopy for Show-and-tell, but was less than pleased that the beagle was flirting with a girl in the front row.
  • On another occasion she brought something that would "thrill you, chill you, and fill you with fear". She was still doing the build-up when she was told to sit down, and complained "all the drama has gone out of show-and-tell".
  • She brought her "famous leaf collection", stopped her discussion for her "sponsors", the sun and the rain, and was again sent back to her seat, muttering "First they want you to show-and-tell, then they don't want you to show-and-tell."
  • She once brought in a turtle she saved when it was trying to cross the road. After a word from the teacher, she amended this to "For show-and-tell I have a hubcap I saved when it was trying to cross the road."
  • She brought in an "authentic bird's nest", and explained that they're difficult to build, so she'd also brought the owner himself to describe this. After Woodstock's usual " ' ' ' ' ' ", she asked him what happened after the fight with the planning commission.
  • A non-Sally example: Linus once brought his own duplicates of the Dead Sea Scrolls to show-and-tell. On the way to school he explained to Charlie Brown and Lucy how they were found and their theological significance. Lucy then asked if Charlie Brown had brought anything:
    Charlie Brown: Well, I had a little red fire engine here, but I think maybe I'll just forget it.

Fan Works

• With Pearl and Ruby Glowing: When Alice was five years old, her great uncle Buck gave her some teeth that he got when he knocked out a communist's teeth in a Soviet gulag, so she showed them to her kindergarten class for show and tell. Unfortunately, she was under the impression that a communist was a monster and told everyone that Buck killed a communist, which upsets Mirabel because her Abuelo Pedro was a part of Los Communistas.

Film — Animated

• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius: The first scene at Jimmy's school takes place on show-and-tell day. Sheen shows off one of his Ultra Lord figures (for the seventh week in a row), Carl shows his inhaler, and Jimmy his shrink ray, which malfunctions in front of the class until it shrinks Miss Fowl as class is dismissed.
  Miss Fowl: Sheen, this is the seventh week in a row you've shown Ultra Lord in class.

Film — Live-Action

• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Downplayed. Scott's daughter Cassie secretly brings his "World's Greatest Grandma" trophy to show-and-tell, which unbeknownst to her has his Ant Man suit in a hidden compartment. This requires Scott and Hope to sneak into the school and retrieve the suit.
• Discussed in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) when Kate Baker tells one of her sons, Mike, that he has show and tell at school while reminding him that "body parts do not count."
• In the first The Santa Clause movie, young Charlie brings his dad Scott Calvin to a Dads Day at school, and insists his dad is Santa! Scott tries to explain that as a toy distributor, he's only like Santa Claus, but Charlie saw the North Pole, and isn't buying this.

Literature

• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: In first grade, Claude Herdman brings his wild pet cat in a box for show-and-tell after not feeding it for two days. When he opens the box, it jumps out and starts hissing and running around, clawing everything in sight. The teacher yells for her students to run out into the hall, grabs a broom, and puts a coat over her head, trying to corner the cat. She completely destroys the classroom in the process, knocking over a dollhouse, a globe, and an aquarium full of goldfish. The cat ends up eating most of the goldfish and two pet mice that another girl brought to show-and-tell. Later, she asks Claude why he didn't come and get his cat, to which he simply replies that she told him to go out and wait outside the classroom with the other children.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: In the first book, Manny comes across a heavy metal magazine that his big brother Rodrick owns and takes it to his school for show-and-tell, much to his teacher's horror, as the cover has a photo of a bikini-clad woman lying across the hood of a car. Rodrick gets in trouble with his mom for this, as she is a Moral Guardian who doesn't approve of such things.
• Ellen and Otis: At one point, Ellen is jealous of her classmate Otis, since he brought Mexican jumping beans to school for show and tell, whereas all she brought was a beet. She stated that he was always one-upping her, and complained that if she had brought jumping beans, he would have brought a kangaroo.
• Judy Moody: In Judy Moody M.D.: The Doctor Is In!, Judy's class is having a unit on the human body. When her little brother Stink shows her his outie belly button in a jar, Judy steals it when he isn't looking to bring to show and tell. The actual show and tell goes fine, but a very angry Stink is waiting for her outside the classroom immediately after.
• In the kids' book Odd Velvet, the eponymous Cloudcuckoolander brings a mouldy piece of food to school for show-and-tell, since she's interested in mycology.
• Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse: More like Pre-Show-and-Tell Antics, but Lilly gets in trouble when she keeps trying to show off her purse, glasses, and quarters before Sharing Time. Mr. Slinger confiscates them as a result.
• Ramona Quimby: In "Ramona the Pest", Howie doesn't have anything for kindergarten's first show-and-tell. At her mother's urging, Ramona runs to her house and grabs a stuffed rabbit her cat, Picky Picky, has been using for a hunting target so that Howie will have something to share. When their teacher, Miss Binney, can't coax Howie to tell the class much of anything about the toy, she ties a red ribbon around the rabbit's neck. Howie insists that Miss Binney gave him the ribbon, but Ramona keeps insisting it's hers because her rabbit is wearing it. The fight over the ribbon is only settled when Howie offers to turn Ramona's tricycle into a two-wheeler by removing one of the rear wheels. Ramona is delighted and decides to weave the ribbon through the spokes of one wheel so it will make a red blur when she rides.
• We Need to Talk About Kevin: Played for Drama — one of the earliest signs of Kevin's cruelty involves his classmate "Muffet's" show-and-tell in kindergarten. She brings an heirloom tea set and passes out teacups so the class can have a tea party. When Kevin drops his teacup on the floor and it smashes into bits, all the other children do too, and then they smash the saucers and spoons before the teacher can do anything. By the time Muffet's mother picks up her sobbing daughter, the only thing left intact is the teapot.
• In Yoko's Show-and-Tell by Rosemary Wells, Yoko wants to bring her china doll, Miki, to show-and-tell, but her mother says no because the doll is fragile. Yoko secretly brings her anyway, but Miki becomes damaged and dirty after the Franks grab her and toss her around on the bus. Fortunately, she is able to be repaired at the doll hospital.

Live-Action TV

• Titus has a bit where young Titus brings an answering machine tape to class. On it? His manic-depressive schizophrenic mother ranting and raving at his father. It traumatizes the class and drives most of them to tears, but Titus just taunts another kid who brought her gerbil.

Magazines

• In a MAD Magazine "Lighter Side", a boy brings in his father's favorite magazine. After he explains that it has articles by some of the best authors in the world, he yells out,
  But I like the pictures! (as a middle page folds out)

Music

• Songdrops:
  • In "I Got a Pea", a boy brings some vegetables from his grandmother's garden to school. When he sings, "I got a pea", his classmates laugh because it sounds like "I gotta pee". He remains oblivious and asks why they're all laughing.
  • In "The Teacher Song", the singer mentions bringing some snakes to school for show and tell, and that his teacher didn't like it when he lost them.

Poetry

• If You're Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand: In the poem "I Brought a Worm", Jane brings a ball and baseball bat, Rich brings a goldfish bowl which he puts the class turtle in, Lizzy brings an egg and shows the class how to remove the yolk, and Joe brings an eraser shaped like a knife and tries to use it to cut his sandwich. Finally, the narrator brings a worm and eats it in front of everyone, which grosses out the entire class. The last sentence reveals that it was a candy worm.

Tabletop Games

• Magic: The Gathering has a card named Show and Tell that lets each player put something onto the board for free. Since cards are usually balanced around having a mana cost, things tend to get interesting.

Video Games

• Kindergarten: Show and tell occurs at the end of the day and each student has to present something (though to keep the day from dragging, only the protagonist is shown presenting something). What happens after depends on what is presented.
  • If the principal's bomb is presented, the bomb detonates, killing the player.
  • If you present a monstermon card, Ms. Applegate will consider your presentation unoriginal and boring before saying that you are skipped.
  • Presenting a love letter to Lilly that nugget wrote results in Nugget triggering a bomb he handed you earlier in retaliation.
  • Presenting a hall pass, a knife, or having nothing to present gets you sent to the Principal's office, where you are shot as punishment. Yes, that is even for not having anything to present.
  • There are some items that should get you in trouble but don't for one reason or another. These items include a bucket of blood, Principal's Key, a Severed Finger, and a flask. If you present any of these items, Ms. Applegate will either disregard them (bucket of blood and flask) or fail to recognize them as actually being a problem (Principal's Key and severed finger).
  • Bringing Cindy's bloody shoe will lead to Applegate giving you a Monstermon card for reminding her of the 'incident'.

Webcomics

• Questionable Content: Referenced. Marten mentions having gotten in trouble for bringing some of his mother's (a professional dominatrix and fetish model) professional gear to school for show-and-tell.

Web Video

• SuperMarioLogan: In "Bowser Junior's Summer School, Part 3", Junior wants to bring a cool toy to show and tell to impress his classmates, but he doesn't think any of his toys are cool enough, so he asks Chef Pee Pee, Bowser's personal chef, to come with him. At Summer School, Cody shows off his numerous medications (which takes over thirty minutes), Cecelia shows off a taco she bought from Taco Bell, Junior shows off Chef Pee Pee, Black Yoshi shows off his copy of Call of Duty: Ghosts, Pixie Goblin shows off his sword (and Officer Goodman arrests him for bringing a weapon to school as a result), Chris the Cucumber shares a "fact" that isn't true (Hawaii is a planet), Joseph shows off his phone (which is cracked from all the times he dropped it), and Toad shows an "educational" music video, which depicts him twerking with a woman. Paul and Tanner didn't bring anything, due to the former having no arms, and the latter claiming he was too cool to bring something.

Web Animation

• In the Happy Tree Friends episode "Something Fishy", Russell brings his pet piranha to show and tell. Naturally, it ends up causing most of the bloodshed in this episode when it escapes from its bowl.

Web Original

• Neopets: Sally the Usul's show-and-tell goes horribly wrong when she decides to present her dung cake collection to the class, which naturally smells god-awful.

Western Animation

• 2 Stupid Dogs: In "Show and Tell", Kenny brings the dogs to school for show and tell. During his presentation, Kenny mentions that the dogs are male, and to prove it he picks up Little Dog by the hind legs and pretty much flashes the whole classroom.
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: One episode has Jimmy bringing in a genetically-engineered prehistoric plant for show-and-tell. However, things go awry when its seeds are launched into Ms. Fowl's mouth and mutates her into a kaiju-sized plant monster.
• Arthur:
  • In "Binky Barnes, Wingman", during show and tell presentations for Bug Week, George does a presentation on stink bugs. The stink bugs smelled up the classroom and everybody leaves while pinching their noses. Buster uses termites on a log to show to the class but ended up wasting everyone's time.
  • In Arthur's Perfect Christmas, George brought a tin of smelly fishes for show and tell just before Christmas vacation. The fishes he has were part of a Swedish holiday and passes it to his classmates. Everyone in class was disgusted by the fishes except for Buster who seems to enjoy them.
• In the Caillou episode "Show and Tell," Caillou thought about bringing one of his toys to show and tell but decides to bring his little sister Rosie instead because she's more fun to play with than his toys.
• Clarence:
  • In "Detention", Clarence purposely rips a huge fart for show-and-tell so he can get detention.
  • In the Cold Opening of "Lil' Buddy", Clarence shows the class a commercial for the Lil' Buddy doll for show-and-tell and then shows them his own Lil' Buddy, which is all dirty, torn, and missing some hair. The students and Ms. Baker are too unnerved by the commercial and the state of Clarence's doll to comment.
• The Fairly OddParents!: In "Transparents!", Timmy wishes his fairy godparents to create a dinosaur for him to bring to show-and-tell.
• The Hazbin Hotel episode "Masquerade" begins with the guests taking part in a show-and-tell exercise hosted by Charlie. Angel shows a porn flick he starred in involving an interrogator threatening to rape him, which everyone is appropriately disgusted by except for Niffty (who enjoys it) and Husk (who is not impressed and calls Angel "fake").
• Kiff: At Table Town School, Show and Tell is called “Bring a Thing Day”, in which the one who brings the best thing is showered with praise. In “Hat”, Barry (who has a history of bringing boring things, like the color beige) brings his lucky hat, which not only earns him the win but gives him the chance to show off his hat at a presentation in front of the school. Unfortunately, Kiff winds up losing the hat before the ceremony, and her efforts to get it back attract a bunch of people trying to steal the hat before it’s ultimately destroyed. Kiff then poses as Barry’s hat at the ceremony, leading Barry to realize the real treasure wasn’t the hat, but the confidence it brought him.
• Little Bill: In "The Promise", Little Bill wants to take his Cat's Eye Marble to school for show-and-tell, only for Alice the Great to remind him that he did that last week. Little Bill needs something new to bring to school for show-and-tell, and when he sees April's basketball trophy, he wants to borrow it. April lets Little Bill borrow the trophy under the condition that he promises not to break it. The next day, Little Bill's friends don't listen to his warnings not to touch the trophy, and end up breaking it, with the basketball getting lost. Little Bill's promise to April also ends up broken, resulting in April yelling at Little Bill and slamming her door in his face. To make it up to April, Little Bill, with Bobby's help, fixes the trophy, using his marble to replace the missing basketball.
• The Loud House:
  • In "Tails of Woe", Zach's Last-Minute Project is to bring a take-out menu to show and tell.
  • "Small Blunder", Lily brings a Shrink Ray to preschool for show and tell, after previous show-and-tells had other students bringing fancier toys than hers. Trouble arises when she accidentally shrinks herself and the other toddlers.
• The Magic School Bus: In the episode "Shows and Tells," Arnold brings an ancient hoop he got from his aunt Arizona Joan to class, leading Ms. Frizzle and the kids to try and figure out what it was used for.
• Rugrats (1991):
  • In "Educating Angelica", after Charlotte gets a note from Mrs. Appleby informing her that Angelica is not sharing in preschool, she finds out that one of Mrs. Appleby's suggestions is to have Angelica bring her favorite toy to school for show-and-tell to share it with the class. Not wanting to share Cynthia with her classmates, she takes Tommy, her baby cousin to school and tries to pass him off as a doll. Mrs. Appleby and the other students are not fooled, but it's Tommy who ends up having all the fun playing with the students when he shows them how to use their imaginations.
  • In "Hello Dilly", Angelica gets a new baby doll who bears a striking resemblance to Dil, her baby cousin. She tries to bring it to show-and-tell, but Cassie, one of her classmates, is chosen before her. Cassie shows off her Teething Teresa doll, which can grow hair and teeth, neither of which Angelica's own baby doll can do. When Susie claims to Angelica that the only thing better than Teething Teresa would be a real baby, this gives Angelica the idea to bring with Dil her to their preschool and pass him off as a doll called "Drooling Billy." Susie, having seen Dil before, is the only of Angelica's classmates not fooled by this, so she encourages Angelica to show the class what "Drooling Billy" can do. Dil ends up throwing up on their classmates, tossing his rattle, and pooping his diaper, and Angelica is forced to deal with it all.
• The Simpsons:
  • In the episode "Brother From the Same Planet", Bart brings his "big brother" Tom's military "neural disruptor" gun to show-and-tell, and he stuns Martin with it. It proves to be a tough act to follow for Milhouse's toy horse.
    Mrs. Krabappel: He's not dead, is he, Bart?
    Bart: Nah, but I wouldn't give him any homework for a while.
  • At the beginning of "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", Bart scrambles to find something to bring to show-and-tell before the bus comes, and he ends up bringing his dog Santa's Little Helper.
    Milhouse: I knew the dog before he came to class!
  • In "Stop, Or My Dog Will Shoot!", Bart brings his new pet python to school for Show and Tell, and it ends up eating Martin Prince's own pet rabbit, complete with it fully digesting the poor thing. Mrs. Krabappel calls him out over it.
    Bart: Hey, don't ask me to show if you can't handle the tell.
  • During the credits of the short Welcome to the Club, Lisa, who has joined the Disney Villains, is seen holding a show and tell about volcanoes, for which she brought Hades — who frightens the students with his flame powers — with her to school.
• Teacher's Pet: Principal Strickler remembers when he was in the 4th grade when a boy brought a puppy to school for show and tell. The puppy bit off half of Strickler's thumb which resulted in his hatred for dogs.

---