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"Sometimes I guess there just aren't enough rocks."
Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump

Basically, this is when enraged characters start throwing objects around to express their frustration. They're throwing a tantrum, and throwing objects in the process. Normally, this is done by very young children who are angry, though sufficiently angered grown teenagers and adults have also been known to do this, usually during an Anger Montage along with a good bout of Percussive Therapy.

Not to be confused with just being about tantrums in general; the title is a pun.

See also Agitated Item Stomping, Anger Montage, Trash the Set, Punch a Wall, Flipping the Table, Desk Sweep of Rage, Percussive Maintenance, Percussive Therapy, and Troubled Toybreaker.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • The Panda from the Never Say No to Panda campaign throws a worker's keyboard, after smashing it against his desk.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Baccano!: It's a running joke that mob bosses throw ashtrays at their underlings in a tantrum, with identical camera angles.
  • Berserk: When Guts and Casca fall down a cliff into a river, he drags her unconscious body into a cave and has to strip her down so she won't die of hypothermia. When Casca wakes up naked and realizes that it was Guts who undressed her, she has a Naked Freak-Out and drives him out by throwing bits of their equipment and armor at him in a rather cartoonish fashion.
  • Index throws things at Touma a number of times in A Certain Magical Index, often because of things that weren't really his fault to begin with.
  • The novelization of Code Geass says that Nunnally has temper tantrums and breaks stuff whenever Lelouch is gone, but doesn't remember doing so and is confused by the mysterious cuts on her hands. This behavior is exclusive to the novels and is apparently intended to further suggest how screwed up everyone in the universe is.
  • Dance in the Vampire Bund: After an argument with Akira over some ethical compromises, note  Mina does not grab something off her desk and throw it across the room when he storms out. She grabs the (massive hardwood) desk and throws it across the room.
  • Durarara!!: Heiwajima Shizuo often throws impossibly heavy things when somebody makes him mad. Vending machines are pretty popular with him. He first discovered his super strength while attempting to throw a refrigerator at his brother.
  • Fresh Pretty Cure!: In Episode 8, when Chiffon gets angry, she uses her psychic powers to throw books at Love.
  • Hanaukyō Maid Team episode 13 (OVA). When Taro goes to talk to Grace, she asks what he wants. When he can't tell her immediately, she starts throwing things at him and tells him that if he doesn't want anything he should get out.
  • My Monster Secret does it its own way: when Akane throws a tantrum, she doesn't throw little rocks. No, she sends giant asteroids to destroy the Earth, unless she's given candy or a good scolding by her great-granddaughter Akari.
  • One Piece: The Pirate Lord Big Mom is known for throwing epic tantrums whenever she gets a craving for a particular food, and can only be stopped when said food is given to her.
  • In one of the Wonder Egg Priority episodes, when Ai attempts to throw her smartphone forcefully during a rainy day, she hesitates to do so at first, but eventually does so anyway.

    Comic Books 
  • The Sandman: At the end of the "Preludes and Nocturnes" arc, as Death is listening to Dream moping about everything that's happened to him, she gets frustrated with him and throws a loaf of bread at his head, which shocks Dream.
  • Tintin: In "Tintin and the Picaros", upon realizing that he and his friends have been conned into living in a Gilded Cage, Captain Haddock hurls his hat across the room. It lands on Calculus's head as he coincidentally enters.
  • A minor Running Gag in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye is that Prowl, normally almost Vulcan-like in his pragmatic but cold behavior, tends to lose his temper when pushed too far and flings the table in his office. Believe it or not, this becomes a Chekhov's Gun; in a late issue of the series a massive switch needs to be thrown, and even a stronger Transformer like Fortress Maximus can't do it. Prowl is able to, however, and the panel is even drawn to look exactly like him flipping his table.

    Fan Works 
  • A Chance Meeting of Two Moons: Both Luna and Artemis start hurling plates and other things at their respective siblings when they start acting overprotective due to not being familiar with the other pony their younger sibling has just met.
  • A Diplomatic Visit: Chapter 8 of the sequel Diplomat at Large notes that Squirk, the gigantic and monstrous octopus who once ruled what is now Aquastria, does this in his cage almost every single day. It typically involves lots of swearing, though the prison's enchantments mean nobody outside can hear his words (the sounds he makes from pounding on the walls and floor are another story).
  • In Don't Cry For Me, I've Already Wilted, when Nagisa comes home angry over her failed confrontation with Saki, Ryouta gives her a pillow to throw at the wall, which she promptly does.
  • In Eleutherophobia: Ghost in the Shell, Tom throws a plate towards Jake during his rant about how much he suffered as a Controller.
  • Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: After Chloe chews out her father, Goh and Ash and then leaves the lab, she finds herself in an alleyway where she tears off posters and beats up trash cans with a pipe as she vents at how she hates Pokémon, her dad, her friend, Ash, her classmates and mostly herself.
  • The Power of the Equinox: After Dimmed Star's attempt to apologise to Pinkie Pie for nearly killing her (under the Entity's influence) fails, she telekinetically sends the mug of cocoa she prepared for Pinkie to crash against a wall.
  • Scarlet Lady: After her half-sister Zoé accidentally hits her Berserk Button, Chloé drives her out of her room in this fashion. Critically, among the objects she lobs at her is the jewelry case containing the Ladybug Earrings.
    • Later in the same episode, Chloé sees that Nadja has a camera pointed at her while she interviews her mother Audrey over her tablet, asking her what she thinks of her daughter's akumatization. Chloé grabs the tablet and chucks it straight into the Seine.
  • The Weaver Option: Xerxes Vandire has a habit of this when enraged, often destroying artifacts worth billions of Throne gelt.
  • You Are (Not) At Fault: Discussed. Asuka ponders she needs to find a calmer way to deal with her issues because past methods like throwing her possessions at people did not really help.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Fantastic Mr. Fox when Boggis, Bunce, and Bean learn that Mr. Fox and the other animals have dug under their farms and stole all their farm goods, Bean proceeds to trash everything inside his trailer and even some of the things outside.
  • Bad Cop from The LEGO Movie; whenever he gets angry, he throws around an office swivel chair. He seems to have... issues with rolling chairs. At one point, he throws a minute long tantrum (a rather long time considering how the humor of the film is paced) all the while juggling that poor chair. He manages to brain a poor robo-cop in the background with it by accident. Mind you, it was right after a police chase, so it seems he brings chairs around just to abuse them.
  • There's a hilarious one in Megamind with Roxie hurling things at Metro Man, and since he's Nigh Invulnerable he doesn't even blink as the stuff she throws keeps shattering against his face.
  • In Ratatouille, Rémy starts throwing things around in the restaurant backyard after Linguini spurns him. It doesn't go very far since he's rather small, but he manages to break a wine bottle.
  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse:
    • The first thing Miguel O'Hara does on meeting Miles is throw a piece of equipment in Miles's direction. It turns out he has a very severe dislike for Miles.
    • After Gwen is cast out of the Spider-Society and sent back to her birth universe, she takes out her frustration on a large container first by punching it, and then throwing it away with her Super-Strength.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Aaron Loves Angela, Ike smashes a glass against the wall while drunkenly ranting against Aaron's mother for leaving them.
  • About Scout: When Scout thinks that Sam has abandoned her and Lulu, she angrily smashes empty beer bottles against the wall near the bus stop.
  • In Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter does this in the Red Queen's Castle.
  • Lester in American Beauty, throwing a plate of food against the wall.
  • In ...And Your Name Is Jonah, Jenny throws a party plate at Danny for saying their deaf son Jonah isn't normal.
  • In Backstreet Dreams, Dean is so annoyed by the whistling of a kettle that he throws a baseball to silence it.
  • Charlie from The Black Balloon is rewarded with gold stars for good behavior. When Thomas angrily threatens him with no stars forever, he becomes so upset that he throws a stool through the window.
  • In Bound for Glory, after being forced by his radio station to provide a set list of non-controversial, non-political songs, Woody Guthrie trashes a storeroom.
  • In Busting, a Dirty Cop is bribed to replace a prostitute's trick book with a blank notebook. Keneely angrily throws the notebook down the hall.
  • In Change of Habit, Michelle tries to get Amanda to put colored blocks in the right holes. Amanda throws the first block she gives her across the room.
  • Citizen Kane: Upon his wife leaving him, Kane goes in her room and smashes/throws everything he sees.
  • Color Me Perfect features a formula that increases intelligence, with side effects that include aggression and irritability. One night the two uplifted chimps go berserk, ransack the lab, and throw things around. Later Dina, who is also on the treatment, becomes frustrated with her cassette player and throws it to the ground, breaking it.
  • Michael from Cries from the Heart does this often when he's frustrated or scared, especially with blocks.
  • In The Dark Knight, after the Joker slides down the huge pile of cash, he picks up a couple of bundles of bills and hurls them at Lau, who's tied up and sitting at the top of the pile, in contempt for snitching on the mob's operations.
  • Downplayed in Downfall; despite having several explosive Villainous Breakdowns, Adolf Hitler has only one instance of Tantrum Throwing, when he chucks some pencils at a map in the midst of his rant over Steiner's failure to counterattack.
  • In John Waters' Female Trouble, Divine as a teenage girl goes into an angry fit on Christmas when she doesn't get the shoes she wanted and hurls the Christmas tree down on her mother.
  • In Fighting Mad, Tom throws a wine glass against the wall with rage over Crabtree's murders of Charlie and Carolee.
  • In Fly Away, Mandy throws things around the room when she's upset about not getting ice cream. Later, she gets in trouble at school for throwing a desk at a boy.
  • Late in Forrest Gump, Jenny returns to what's left of the house where she was sexually abused by her father and starts throwing rocks at it. Forrest later has the house bulldozed.
  • He's Just Not That into You: Janine, whose husband Ben had recently owned up to having slept with another woman, finds a packet of cigarettes inside the pocket of one of his pairs of pants, this despite his assuring her since the beginning of the movie that he doesn't smoke. Janine realizes just how much Ben has lied to her about everything and loses it, furiously throwing out any item of clothing of his that she can find, culminating in a scene where she ends up smashing a mirror onto the floor in her furious rampage.
  • In House of Cards, Sally becomes frustrated in therapy and flings the small plastic cups she was lining up against the mirror.
  • I'm Your Woman: In the house where she and Harry are hiding out, Jean becomes so frustrated while trying to fry eggs that she starts throwing them against the wall instead.
  • In The Innocent, Barlow's office is decorated with pictures drawn by his dead son Joey. While flipping through the sketchbook of Gregory, a living child, he becomes upset and throws the book at one of the pictures, breaking the glass.
  • In Journey of the Heart, Tony throws a bunch of utensils across the kitchen because he thinks he's ugly, and that's why Julia doesn't like him.
  • Dodgson has one when he learns his locust plan is in jeopardy in Jurassic World Dominion.
  • Keep Off My Grass!: When You Know finds out that his beloved pot plant is just an ordinary weed, he kicks down the small fence he's built around it, rips the plant out of the ground and throws it down, and throws a piece of the fence to the side.
  • Roger from Like Normal People becomes so frustrated while attempting to mop his apartment floor that he throws the bucket against the wall.
  • The deeply satisfying climax of Miss Lulu Bett has Lulu stalk out of the Deacon home after contemptuously refusing Dwight's "forgiveness", but not before wrecking a lot of his dishes and shouting that all her years of unpaid work will pay for them.
  • Mad Love: After a fight with her parents, who want to send her to boarding school, Casey storms to her room and throws things around.
  • In Man of Steel, Zod's reaction to finding out the Codex isn't in Kal-El's pod is to angrily toss Martha Kent's truck into the Kent farmhouse.
  • In Mario, Mario throws his stuffed coyote against the wall because he's angry about his brother Simon's neglect of him.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Thor: The Dark World: Loki, after he learns of the death of Frigga, his adoptive mother, throws around the furniture of his cell with his magic.
    • Thor: Ragnarok: During an argument between Hulk and Thor, Hulk just grabs whatever's nearest and throws it at Thor, such as a shield he was using as a plate, and an axe.
    • Avengers: Endgame: After coming back from the Time Heist and learning that Natasha had to sacrifice herself for the Soul Stone, Bruce grabs a bench and throws it over the lake with all of his Hulk strength.
  • In The Odd Way Home, Maya's abusive boyfriend takes short breaks from beating her to smash glasses against the walls.
  • When Mildred leaves Phillip for the last time in Of Human Bondage (1934), she wrecks his room, slices up his paintings, and burns the railroad bonds that constitute his life savings.
  • Detective Loki from Prisoners throws his stuff off his desk then smashes his keyboard in frustration, because his interrogation of Bob Taylor (the suspect) ends in the suspect's suicide.
  • Pulp Fiction: When Butch finds out that his girlfriend did not pack his father's golden watch, he goes absolutely berserk and throws a TV set across their hotel room.
  • During his tantrum at the end of The Room (2003), Johnny at one point throws a television set out his window.
  • The Shawshank Redemption: Norton throwing rocks around during his "it's a conspiracy" rant made a hole in a poster on the wall, revealing Andy's escape from prison.
  • In Shredder Orpheus, after almost getting killed in a failed attempt to break into the EBN garage, Orpheus loses control on seeing Hades dancing with Eurydice on TV and trashes his room, tearing down posters, knocking over lamps, and breaking things.
  • Implied in The Silence of Adultery. When Rachel arrives at the Harvott home after Steven has had a massive meltdown, everything is knocked over and there are plants smashed on the floor.
  • In Silent Fall, another child at Tim's new home pours peas onto his plate while he's eating, knowing he hates round foods. Tim screams, flips the tablecloth, and throws dishes against the walls.
  • Star Wars:
    • In Attack of the Clones, Anakin does this while ranting about how Obi-Wan's "holding him back."
    • His grandson Kylo Ren has a habit of reacting to bad news by throwing violent tantrums and smashing whatever's nearby, often using his lightsaber to do it. In The Force Awakens he does this after discovering Rey has escaped from her containment cell. As he's smashing up the room the film cuts to two Stormtroopers who start to walk past only to turn around and walk away when they realize what's happening.
  • In Summer School, when Mr. Shoop tells his students that they need to study for the upcoming aptitude test, they tell him he'll need to keep bribing them in order to study when he tells them he's serious, they laugh him off and ask for more favors. He then picks up a textbook, throws it up against the wall, while telling them he has done more than enough for them up until that point, and storms off, saying he's quitting teaching and that he doesn't care if they flunk out of school.
  • Timequest: Vice President Lyndon Johnson has a fit when he learns President Kennedy is planning to pull out of Vietnam (for JFK survived the assassination attempt). Throwing a newspaper on the Oval Office desk, he tells JFK that he'll be seen as a "communist appeaser". JFK replies that he really doesn't care. LBJ tries to have him persuaded to continue the war but JFK will not have it, for the Time Traveler that saved his life had shown him that 57,000 Americans would die for nothing there.
  • In Voyage of the Rock Aliens, Frankie is so angry to see Dee Dee singing with the Pack that he snatches a glass from someone and throws it away, smashing it.
  • White Frog: When Nick sees that his parents have emptied his dead brother Chaz's room and gotten rid of all his belongings, he angrily knocks over the trash cans outside and throws clothing over the railing.
  • In When Time Got Louder, Kayden tries to call Abbie. When she doesn't pick up, he throws his phone at Mark.
  • The Wild Child: Frustrated with his inability to match carved wooden letters with letters written on paper, Victor throws a fistful of wooden letters across the room. Itard tells him to pick them up, which he does, but then he throws them again.
  • Wonderwall: Irritated by the sitar music coming from Penny's flat, Oscar throws an alarm clock at their shared wall, knocking over a butterfly display and revealing the hole through which he starts to spy on her.
  • The Words: After the Old Man reads his wife's "Dear John" Letter, he rage-swipes his bookshelf, then grabs his typewriter and throws it to the floor.

    Literature 
  • Gustav Adolf does this in 1632. It's stated that he does this so often his quarters are deliberately stocked with cheap furniture.
  • In the book and animated adaptation of Angelina's Baby Sister, Angelina throws all of the items in her room around in a jealous rage over Polly getting all of the attention.
  • Apollo Autism: When the Strongs play Mouse Trap, Tommy takes the game very seriously. He throws his yellow mouse whenever anyone steals his cheese.
  • In Asperger Sunset, a doctor gives Russ an Asperger's checklist where every question begins with "Does your child…" Russ feels like he's being treated as a broken child and is so offended that he throws the clipboard against the wall.
  • Polgara does this at least twice in The Belgariad/Mallorean prequel novels. In Castle of Wizardry, she and Ce'Nedra go Trash the Set instead.
  • In A Brother's Price Ren's first husband, Keifer, threw violent item-smashing tantrums, called names, and withheld sex whenever he didn't get what he wanted. When she gets engaged to Jerin and later sees that he's made a mess of the suite she put him in, she worries that he's prone to these too. Then she realizes it's a lot neater than a tantrum would leave. Jerin was doing a very detailed search of his quarters to find out who Kiefer was cheating on his wives with, and along the way finds evidence that Keifer murdered his father-in-law.
  • Can You See Me?: In Ways to Be Me, Tally has a habit of throwing things around when she is really upset. She becomes somewhat calmer by the next two books.
  • Children Of The Dust by British author Louise Lawrence contains a scene where five-year-old William Harnden starts demanding things which, because the world has recently been devastated by a nuclear war, his mother, Veronica, is unable to give him. In the end, he throws Lego bricks at her and yells at her to "buy him a Mars bar", at which point Veronica (the only member of the Harnden family who has ventured out of their house and seen the aftereffects of the war) crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
  • Circleverse: In a notable instance in The Will of the Empress, after Daja finds out her love interest isn't going to come with her when they leave Namorn, she locks herself up in her room, crying. Tris comes in to yell at her for tossing a fit and snapping at Zhegorz and Daja throws a dish at her, which Tris ducks away from. The next thing Daja throws, Tris bats away with her wind magic.
  • In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Frank has a tendency to throw whatever he's holding when he gets mad enough. Greg actually has a picture noting a good time to make him mad (when he's reading a newspaper) and a bad time (when he's laying bricks).
  • In Dogsbody, Sirius is accused of angrily throwing a dangerous stellar weapon while in a temper, and aiming to kill.
  • In Emil gets into Mischief from Emil of Lönneberga: When the villagers present Emil's mother with money to send Emil to America, his mother is furious, and flings the money all over the place.
  • Warren from Eye of a Fly once threw a TV at his sister Tiffany.
  • In Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing from Judy Blume's Fudge series:
    • When Peter Warren Hatcher gets upset by his brother Fudge ruining his school project poster on transportation, and he couldn't get his parents to listen to him due to their (assumed) indifference to the situation, Peter goes to his room and throws his shoe against a wall, leaving a black mark on the wall.
    • Also from the same book, Fudge gets upset when his father ends up throwing out the omelet he cooked for himself and his two sons that he threw a fork against a potted plant and knocked some dirt out of it.
  • Half Life (2006): Blanche, a conjoined twin who's long been unconscious, starts to show signs of life by randomly throwing things, much to the disturbance of her other half Nora.
  • Harmony (2016): When Scott takes Iris into his office to reprimand her for intentionally scaring the guest campers, he gets so mad that he throws a stapler at the wall, chipping the paint.
  • The Harry Potter books have a few examples.
    • In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, upon discovering that Fred and George have engorged Dudley's tongue, Uncle Vernon begins throwing things at the Weasleys and Harry, who flee the house via Floo Powder.
    • In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry begins throwing and smashing random objects in Dumbledore's office, overwhelmed with grief and anger over Sirius Black's death and wanting an explanation about everything that's been going on from Dumbledore, who realizes that he must finally tell Harry the Awful Truth.
  • In In Two Worlds, Anthony becomes so frustrated from yet another fruitless speech therapy session that he picks up a handful of marbles and throws them around the office. He's disappointed when his mother starts picking them up, as he wanted the therapist to have to do it herself.
  • In Joey: A 'Mechanical Boy', Joey's machinery sometimes "explodes," causing him to scream "Crash, crash!" while throwing light bulbs and radio tubes.
  • A Kind of Spark: When Keedie was eleven, an abusive babysitter once threw a plate before pinning her to the ground and screaming at her because she couldn't stomach the disgusting dinner. At that point a neighbor heard the screams and intervened, but Keedie didn't come out of her room for days.
  • Mindblind: During a meltdown, Nathaniel throws a Rubik's cube at a closet door, doing minor damage to the door and major damage to the cube. His rage disappears while he's crawling around picking up pieces of the cube.
  • The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly: When Jonathon realizes than forgiveness won't undo the Ret-Gone like he thought, meaning he, Charlie, and Ana are stuck in the Asylum forever, he throws the king from a chess set across the room so hard it hits the wall and breaks in two. The Asylum's magic quickly repairs it.
  • In The Outside, Dr Talirr throws a fork and a water glass at Yasira during an argument about the morality of hurting people.
  • Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers: Rimmer's Better Than Life fantasy wife, Juanita, apparently does this every time she loses her temper, which is often. Her Establishing Character Moment has her throwing a Louis XIV grand piano out of the window because the pool boy won't sleep with her any more.
  • Rogue: When Kiara's mami tells her that she'll have to spend the summer in Montreal, meaning she won't be able to hang out with her new friends, she screams, "I hate you! I never want to see you again!" and throws the flip phone across the kitchen, breaking it in two. Her father takes away her computer privileges after that.
  • The Roosevelt: In Carry the Ocean, Emmet throws his foam hammer at his bookshelf, throws his bedsheets around, and smashes his pillow against the doorknob until it breaks open because he thinks David is going to steal Jeremey from him.
  • Safehold:
    • While Vicar Zhaspahr Clyntahn is not quite as hotheaded as his Hair-Trigger Temper reputation suggests, he is known to go into some serious rages when things go badly. In How Firm a Foundation he flies into such a rage when informed that one of their main fleets has been destroyed and its commanding officers defected rather than face him. He goes so far as to hurl his desk away.
    • This is topped in Like a Mighty Army by the trashing he gives his quarters when he is delivered an epically insulting letter addressed to "Zhaspahr Clyntahn, Grand Fornicator" from one Seijin Dialydd Mab.
  • Jeremy from The Silence of Murder collects Mason jars. Once, during one of the family's moves, a box of his jars got left behind. Jeremy was so upset that he threw glasses and plates, causing his mother to hide under the table.
  • Small as an Elephant: After Jack's mom abandons him at a campsite, he heads to a library, hoping he can contact her online, only to find that it's closed for labor day. He throws his backpack against a tree.
  • In the Underdogs novel Tooth and Nail, Ewan and Shannon use a GPS tracker to learn the location where Grant will be testing his new technology. When Ewan learns that it's Oakenfold Special School, which he and much of La Résistance used to attend, he throws the tracker against the wall, shattering it, then throws a cardboard box and engages in Agitated Item Stomping when it doesn't go as far as he wanted.
  • In Unidentified Suburban Object, Chloe and Shelley fall way behind on an assignment and struggle to catch up. Overwhelmed by the huge about of work ahead of her, Chloe throws her pencil onto the desk so hard that it bounces, hits the wall, and falls behind the desk.
  • Wicked Good: After learning that his biological father was a fisherman on a swordfish boat, meaning he probably trapped and killed birds and turtles, Rory goes into his room and rips apart a black wooden fan, throwing the blades against the wall. Later, Archer becomes so frustrated during an argument with him that she throws her water glass against the wall, shattering it.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Heavy Is the Head", Fitz, stressed and angered that he can't come up with a Power Nullifier to stop Carl Creel or rather, his inability to explain that he's already got a device capable of doing the job due to his brain damage, angrily sweeps everything off a lab table in frustration.
  • Another Period: "Lillian's Birthday" starts with a flashback to her previous birthday's epic Trash the Set/Flipping the Table meltdown, then fast-forwards to the present, as the rest of the cast hope this year's celebration will be problem-free. As befits a comedy about spoiled heiresses, it predictably isn't.
  • At the very beginning of As Time Goes By, a woman dismissed from the agency throws a shoe at the window on her way out.
  • Awaken: Byeong-cheol throws a tennis ball at Jung-woo. He misses and hits his favourite potted plant instead.
  • Bar Rescue: Jon Taffer throws bottles, glasses and plates of food when ranting against incompetent owners or employees. To a smaller extent, some of his experts do the same. Ami from the ZanZBar episode throws plates against a wall when Jon tells him how much money he's been losing.
  • In The Big Bang Theory episode where the gang goes to a resort and spa to attend a science symposium, minus Penny who was Amy's plus one, has at the very end Howard and Bernadette driving home together, but are not speaking to one another because of Howard's jealous tirade. During the drive, Sheldon radios Howard, and tries to break the monotony of the long trip by playing a round of "Eye Spy", but Howard silently opens the car window and tosses the radio onto the side of the road.
  • Breaking Bad: In "Caballo Sin Nombre", after Walt confessed to Skyler to he's cooking meth to make extra money in the previous episode, leading to her demanding a divorce, he tries to reason with her by bringing a pizza over to their house as he's dropping their son off. Skyler just slams the door in his face, and Walt angrily hurls the pizza on the roof as he leaves. Skyler notices the pizza by the next morning, ordering to come back and get rid of it or else she'll get a restraining order against him. Later that day, when Mike comes over to plant bugs around the Whites' house, he stops for a moment when he notices the pizza.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Xander bouncing a tennis ball at a chalkboard after Buffy rejects him. ("Prophecy Girl")
    • The Master throws a few candelabra around his prison after Darla bites it. ("Angel")
    • In "Becoming Part 1", after Angelus' ritual goes awry, he grabs the nearest stone pot and smashes it.
      Spike: Someone wasn't worthy...
    • When Willow is held ransom for an artifact, Wesley plays devil's advocate, saying the artifact must be destroyed. A shouting match ensues, which Oz wordlessly puts an end to by getting out of his chair and shoving an urn (which was the vital ingredient in the spell to destroy said artifact) across the room, smashing it. ("Choices")
  • In El Chavo del ocho, Don Ramón does this every time Doña Florinda slaps him and Quico calls him "Chusma" and pushes him away; he takes out his frustration by throwing his hat to the floor and stomping on it.
  • Cheers: Lilith nearly throws a bowl at Frasier when he foolishly tries to dump her. He's able to persuade her not to, simply on the grounds that what she wants to throw is expensive.
  • Classics Dark and Dangerous: "The Ugly Little Boy": After a particularly painful testing session, the titular boy begins crawling up a wall with cubbyholes and smashing the glass bottles that he can reach on the ground until Nurse Fellows can calm him down.
  • In The Crown, Queen Elizabeth throws a tumbler and a tennis racket at Prince Philip when he mocks her need for posthumous fatherly approval by imitating George VI's stammer. He flees from the room right into a BBC camera crew, to their horror.
  • Doctor Who: Early in "The Woman Who Fell to Earth", Ryan Sinclair gets so frustrated about his inability to ride a bicycle that he throws the bike in question over a cliff.
  • The Eternal Love: Xiao Tan throws things around when she hears Lian Cheng is going to marry another woman.
  • Frasier:
    • When he finally hits his Rage Breaking Point with Maris, Niles starts throwing all manner of nick-nacks in his living room around.
    • At a much later point, Niles offhandedly mentions Maris would throw stuff at him when angry, and he'd have to apologize for it afterward.
  • Frontier: When Samuel Grant is curtly rejected by a successful fur trader who tells him point-blank that he doesn't need his business at all, Grant starts throwing around stuff from his desk like a spoiled child who has just been told "no" for the first time.
  • Sue Sylvester from Glee has done this twice when she gets especially annoyed. For the record, her projectile of choice tends to be students.
  • In The Good Doctor episode "Heartfelt", a fourteen-year-old is told she'll have to wait four more years for surgery to fix her ectopia cordis. She starts to cry and throws her phone across the room.
  • In Happy Days, when Fonzie gets pissed off at the garage he works at, he kicks a car, throws a towel, and then pulls himself together. It's in some versions of the opening credits.
  • Mohinder Suresh on Heroes has a bit of a habit of throwing things (for instance, his laptop, a folder...) when he's especially frustrated. This usually leads to a "Eureka!" Moment when he manages to find what he's looking for by throwing things around.
  • This is a stock gag in Last of the Summer Wine where crockery is the projectile of choice. Which is often Truth in Television, since when domestic tensions boil over it is the closest thing to hand.
  • In The Late Late Show, in preparation for an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role from Halloween the camera finds the interviewee's room with all the furniture knocked over and the Shape standing at the other door.
  • The King Loves: The king throws ornaments around when he has an argument with Won.
  • The King's Woman:
    • Lady Chu throws everything she can get her hands on, including a bowl of oranges, when she learns Gongsun Li has been given a higher rank.
    • Ying Zheng throws objects around the room when Gongsun Li tells him she sent Tian Ming away.
  • In Mad Men, a number of instances:
    • Long-suffering secretary Allison throws a brass ashtray/cigarette...thingnote ...at Don in "The Rejected" when he engages in a Rage Breaking Point and suggests she write her own reference letter.
    • After being dumped by Glo-Coat, Don throws his CLIO award across the office in "Chinese Wall." Megan later fishes it out of the trash and repairs it.
    • Megan throws a plate of pasta against the wall when Don comes home late in "Christmas Waltz".
    • "Surprise, there's an airplane here to see you!" in "Christmas Waltz"
    • Don throws money in Peggy's face in "The Other Woman".
    • An angry Don throws his office phone into the bar cart in "The Crash".
  • A variation is seen in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle. In that episode, Malcolm is on spring break, and tells the audience he's actually looking forward to working during his vacation from school because he will be working next to a coworker he has a crush on during the day, and will hang out with her at night. The next scene shows Hal and Lois in the kitchen discussing when she's going to tell Malcolm that she went behind his back and changed his work schedule to the night shift so she can keep a close eye on him at home during the day and at night at work, thus wrecking his plan to talk to the girl. Malcolm comes in, angrily takes some items from a cabinnet, and shuffles them into different place, slams the cabinet doors shut, and storms out. Lois said she told him about an hour before.
  • On M*A*S*H, Col. Potter began trashing his office after he began to believe his wife bought a houseboat. Klinger stopped him just before he was about to throw a picture of his wife.
  • In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "Drawn in Blood", when Murdoch interviews a city councilor about a newspaper cartoon drawn by the murder victim which showed him sneaking out of the mayor's wife's bedroom, there's the sound of things being smashed in the other room. He explains that his wife saw the cartoon.
  • Pyramid: In The $20,000 Pyramid, William Shatner had 14 seconds to communicate the final category "Blessed Things" to his partner for $20,000. Unfortunately, he blurted out "The blessed..." which immediately meant game over. As the buzzer sounded, Shatner screamed "KHAN!" and threw his chair in frustration.
  • In Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Lucretia wrecks a room that way after Ilithyia expresses a desire to fork Crixus.
  • In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Unending", SG-1 is trapped on a spaceship for fifty years; during one Time-Compression Montage, Cam gets frustrated and demolishes his room.
  • In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time", the first sign that something is seriously wrong with Spock is when he angrily throws a bowl of plomeek soup across a hall.
  • Apparently, according to Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation, this is a stock feature in Klingon Courtship.
  • Succession:
    • In the very first episode, after hearing some unwelcome news, Kendall has a major crying fit and thoroughly trashes his father's bathroom (and then cleans it up after calming down).
    • Tom flies into a rage and pelts Greg with water bottles after Greg decides to "break up" with him.
  • This Country: Kerry and Kurtan are best friends but also cousins, so it's not surprising that their friendship is a tad vitriolic. Their arguments often end with objects being thrown, from phones to vases to golf clubs.
  • Supernanny: In "The Young Family", Shelby throws books all over the floor twice while being placed in time-out, and at one point throws a doll at her mother.
  • In the Victorious episode "Tori Gets Stuck", Jade throws something at the wall when she finds out Tori got the lead role in the school play instead of her.

    Podcasts 
  • This is a staple of True Capitalist radio: Piss off the host to the point he throws cans (and sometimes his microphone) all over the studio.

    Theatre 
  • In La Bohème, at the Café Momus, Musetta complains to the waiter about her food and hurls her plate against the floor. She succeeds at getting the waiter to pick up the pieces, but not at attracting Marcello's attention.
  • In Leonard Bernstein's Mass, the Celebrant breaks the Host by dashing the bread and wine on the floor. This leads to more destruction of holy objects and a Heroic BSoD.
  • In The Odd Couple, one of Oscar and Felix's quarrels leads Felix to clench a cup in anger. Oscar challenges him to stop sulking, let loose and just throw the cup. Felix finally gives in and throws the cup against the front door, shattering it and hurting his arm. During a later argument, Oscar, offended by Felix eating spaghetti (which Felix points out is actually linguini) on his poker table, picks up the plate, throws it against the kitchen wall, and says, "Now, it's garbage!" The two proceed to argue over who ought to clean up the mess.

    Video Games 
  • In Dwarf Fortress, if a dwarf becomes depressed enough they might take it out in a drunken frenzy and start smashing or throwing things. If one dwarf is that depressed then it's likely that there's lots of other dwarves who are almost that depressed, such that the first tantrum will push some of them over the line into tantruming themselves, who will push even more dwarves into tantruming, and so on. This sort of fortress-destroying event is known as a "tantrum spiral".
  • It's a small Running Gag in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City that every mission mission for coke baron Ricardo Diaz begins with him in the middle of smashing, shooting and/or threatening something in a rage. He clearly doesn't mind the collateral damage his Hair-Trigger Temper creates since he's rich enough in drug money he can replace anything he breaks a hundred times over.
  • Gnar in League of Legends. His kit revolves around his rage bar which, when filled, will transform him from a cute little yordle with ranged capabilities into a raging hulking beast with devastating melee attacks for a few seconds.
  • In Episode 1 of Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, when Rachel leaves Chloe in the junkyard, Chloe gets angry and smashes objects with a baseball bat.
  • In Little Dragons Café, when Ipanema's Berserk Button (Billy's laziness) is triggered, she flies into a rage and pelts him with a barrage of plates until the protagonists can get her to calm down.
  • Mass Effect: Saren's or perhaps Sovereign's reaction when he learns about that Shepard may have used the Prothean beacon.
  • Syndicate (1993): Whenever you fail a mission, the scene cuts to you (an unnamed executive) letting out a Big "NO!" and throwing a lamp at his holographic vid screen.
  • In Worlds Apart, this is how the crystal imager was damaged. Lyesh threw it against a tree in anger and grief after Lashiaran let her mother die.

    Visual Novels 
  • In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Celeste smashes a tea cup against the wall when Hifumi fails to prepare her tea the way she likes it.
  • In SHUFFLE!, when Rin walks on changing Primula, she starts throwing pillows at him. He mentally notes that if he doesn't leave, she will start throwing heavier things. And when she runs out of heavy things, she will start throwing magic.

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner: In the Strong Bad Email "strong badathlon", one of the events is the "Remote Put", which involves contestants throwing the remote as hard as they can in reaction to annoying things on television such as "cute little girl from sitcom sings patriotic song".

    Webcomics 
  • In Family Man (Dylan Meconis), Luther upended a table after his thesis was unfairly rejected.
  • Freefall: This is a huge problem for Dr. Bowman, to the point the entirety of his lab has to be padded, up to and including the datapads. Rather justifiable, in that chimpanzees aren't known for their impulse control, uplifted or otherwise.
    Dr. Bowman: At some point, I'm going to throw the datapad. I don't have control over this. If my arm goes back, get out of the way.
  • In The Order of the Stick, Sabine hurls a couch through a demonic television screen after watching Nale's death on said TV.
  • Sandra on the Rocks: Eloise's jealous rage at Sandra's success is tough on her girlfriend's tablet computer.
  • In Spinnerette, when Sahira briefly gets Spinnerette's powers, complete with extra arms, she throws an object-throwing fit which culminates in accidentally defenestrating Spinnerette herself.

    Web Videos 
  • When he gets the news that his mom died and he doesn't even get to hear her last word, The Nostalgia Critic screams in rage and throws his phone on the floor.

    Western Animation 
  • The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: Kootie Pie often does this whenever she loses her temper. In the episode "Reptiles in the Rose Garden" for example, she throws her birthday presents out the window, followed by her birthday cake.
  • Angelina Ballerina: Angelina throws one in "Angelina's Baby Sister" when her jealousy of everyone around Polly gets the better of her. This alerts the adults downstairs, and her mother comes into her room to resolve the conflict.
  • Arthur: In "Arthur's Perfect Christmas", DW is devastated when she does not get Tina the Talking Tabby for Christmas, but instead a talking duck; this causes her to go berserk and call out Santa for not listening to her. But then she activates the duck while crying, and she quickly calms down and accepts it.
  • Bob and Margaret: In "Shopping", Bob and Margaret are met with the uncomfortable scene of a child throwing a tantrum at the supermarket, because his mother won't buy him chocolate biscuits. Things escalate when the mother proceeds to smack him hard on the behind, prompting Margaret to step in and confront her.
  • The Boondocks: In "Guess Hoe's Coming to Dinner", a boy makes a scene in the grocery store because his mother won't buy him candy. Granddad suggests she try "beating his ass" and lets her borrow his belt. She proceeds to do so, to the applause of all the customers watching.
  • Caillou throws one in the episode "Caillou Joins the Circus" when one of the wheels from his toy car fell off, even after his daddy reminded him that the circus isn't until the next day.
  • The Dragon Prince: Explodes when things stop going his way, as Viren is incapable of seeing any other viewpoints that don't align with his own, resorting to insults and dismissal even towards Queen Aanya when she refuses to senselessly sacrifice her armies in a war he is intent on starting because he refuses to acknowledge that she has a point.
  • Kaeloo: Mr. Cat sometimes does this when angry. In one episode, he gets angry while eating, so he picks up a bunch of knives and throws them.
  • The titular character of Llama Llama does this with the things in the grocery cart in the episode (and the book it was based on) "Llama Llama Shopping Drama".
  • In one episode of The Looney Tunes Show, Daffy Duck makes Porky Pig a servant in his own house and wants dinner made his own way. When Porky tries (and fails), Daffy starts throwing things at him while ranting on what was done wrong.
  • Played for laughs in Metalocalypse, where when Pickles starts smashing lamps on Charles's table in a fit of rage, Charles directs him to a bunch of cheap lamps at the back of the room while also calling in workers to bring in more cheap lamps to smash. Later on, Toki barges into the meeting and joins in on the smashing for no particular reason other than it looks fun.
  • Miraculous Ladybug: Invoked Trope by Gabriel Agreste in "The Collector". He does trash his office, throwing down paintings and sculptures around, but if he is furious toward Adrien for stealing his spellbook, the real reason is to make it look more believable to Ladybug and Cat Noir that he was overrun by negative emotions and thus akumatized.
  • The Simpsons: In "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish", Mr. Burns, upon losing the race for governor, trashes the Simpsons' living room. At one point, he finds that he is too frail to flip a table over and orders Smithers to do it for him.
  • South Park: In "Damien", Kyle gives Cartman an Ants in the Pants board game as a birthday present. Cartman throws a fit over not getting what he wanted which leads to him canceling his birthday party. While shooing everyone away, Cartman throws the Ants in the Pants game back at Kyle.
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks: Beckett Mariner throws one in the first episode of Season 3 as she watches a news broadcast of her mother's incarceration and trial for "allegedly" planting a bomb that destroyed the Pakled Homeworld. Her father is less than pleased, not only because she refuses to trust the legal system of the Federation, but also because she's taking it out on his collection of plants.
  • Star Wars Resistance: In "The Children from Tehar", Tam gets so furious about Kaz accidentally breaking a rare and expensive part she was installing on the Fireball that she hurls tools at him until he flees the repair shop with BB-8.
  • Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race: Josee, whenever things don't go her way. She usually does this after finding out about not placing first in a leg.
  • Work It Out Wombats!: In "Zoom in Zadie", Mr. E keeps throwing tantrums like a child when he can't draw perfect squares, including tossing his failed squares all over the place.

Alternative Title(s): Literal Tantrum Throwing

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The X-Files S11 E04

Mulder wants answers and the truth to every conceivable X-File. But he can't handle the truth.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (5 votes)

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