It Came From the Fridge: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
<!-- %%Image copyright Jessica Lanan, used with permission. -->
[[File:
''Then mister, you're a better man than I...''
▲{{quote|''There's something weird in the fridge today, It's green and growing hair.''<br />
▲''It's been there since July!''<br />
▲''If you can name the object in that baggie over there,''<br />
▲''Then mister, you're a better man than I...''|'''[["Weird Al" Yankovic (Music)|Weird Al Yankovic]]''', "Livin' In The Fridge" }}
Interesting things breed in the depth of the refrigerator. Anyone who has ever had to clean one out can attest to that: foul-smelling, congealed mac 'n' cheese, shrivelled carrots and "furry" meat. The TV fridge, however, is another beast entirely. On TV, when life grows on your food, it is more than just life: it is sentient, multicellular, intelligent life. The back of your average comedy fridge is a breeding ground for all kinds of biological
▲Something hideous is lurking in the dark, eldritch depths of... your crisper drawer.
Some shows may extend this trope to other flagrant displays of bad housekeeping, creating life from unwashed underwear and the dust under the bed. We honor them here as well. They obey the spirit of
▲Interesting things breed in the depth of the refrigerator. Anyone who has ever had to clean one out can attest to that: foul-smelling, congealed mac 'n' cheese, shrivelled carrots and "furry" meat. The TV fridge, however, is another beast entirely. On TV, when life grows on your food, it is more than just life: it is sentient, multicellular, intelligent life. The back of your average comedy fridge is a breeding ground for all kinds of biological horrors -- from oozing green slime to entire sapient races of leftover lasagna people to [[Flying Spaghetti Monster|pasta-tentacled]] [[Eldritch Abominations]]. Creatures bred in the depths of an old Tupperware container make excellent [[Monster of the Week]] fodder.
Subtrope of [[Creating Life Is Unforeseen]]. [[Literal
▲Some shows may extend this trope to other flagrant displays of bad housekeeping, creating life from unwashed underwear and the dust under the bed. We honor them here as well. They obey the spirit of [[It Came From the Fridge]], if not the letter. When the filth has conquered entire rooms or even the house itself, you have [[Trash of the Titans]].
▲Subtrope of [[Creating Life Is Unforeseen]]. [[Literal Minded|Not to be confused with]] [[Fridge Horror]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'''s episode "Toys In The Attic" {{spoiler|features a crawling, slimy fridge monster, born from an old fridge with a rock lobster in it that was left abandoned for so long it managed to breed complex organisms. The fridge was unplugged and in storage. The [[An Aesop|lesson of the story]] is probably the most useful ever to come from TV: Don't leave stuff in broken refrigerators, or it will go bad.}}
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* Tonjit from ''[[One Piece]]'' is soo happy to have been knocked down from the stilts where he spent the last 10 years that he offers the strawhats some <s> milk</s> cheese that was left in the fridge. He then promptly contracts food poisoning when he's the only one <s> brave</s> dumb enough to eat it.
** Pagaya from the Skypiea saga also has some rather extremly leftovers in his kitchen.
* While it does not produce an actual creature, Riku in ''[[Blood
== Fan Fiction ==▼
* The series of fan fic about Darth Maul, known as ''[[Sith Academy (Fanfic)|The Sith Academy]]''. One of the running jokes/subplots was that use of the Dark Side always results in some visible sign of corruption for the user; for Sidious, it was his appearance, while for Maul it was his surroundings - just living in a room for a day or so could cause it to become a disaster area. There were at least two on-screen mentions (possibly three) where the contents of his fridge not only became alive and developed sentience, but actually developed whole civilizations; it was implied that this ended when he started actually cooking, in an effort to kill Sidious with cholesterol.▼
* There is a ''[[Teen Titans (Animation)|Teen Titans]]'' [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3362802/1/One_Thing_Leads_to_Another fic], "One Thing Leads to Another", where Robin is looking through the fridge: "Let's see, tofu, pudding of uncontainable joy, steak, mustard, gelatinous unidentified objects, a sock-Hey! The remote control!-mold... is that... Silkie?? Later, Alfred comes over (with [[Batman]]), and asks "Uh? Master Robin? Do you have any food that hasn't expired two months ago, isn't covered in a strange blue substance, or is an unusually large worm?"▼
** It's a stock trope in ''[[Teen Titans (Animation)|Teen Titans]]'' fanfic, one had a passing mention of discovering a bronze age civilization of sentient chickpeas in said fridge.▼
* In [[Peter Chimaera]]'s ''[[Digimon]] SAVES THE WROLD!!111'', the titular character is ambushed while etnig breffist by the evil digimon, who leaps from the fridge. This is made a bit frightening when you realize that a good few of the things he's eating ought to have come out of the fridge...▼
* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2476535/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_World_That_Went_Bloody_Insane Harry Potter and the World that Went Bloody Insane], [[Harry Potter|Harry]] and Ron move into a really crappy apartment. It has a closet which they are afraid to open the door to because they are fairly certain there's something living in there.▼
* In [http://hpfandom.net/eff/viewstory.php?sid=23179 Maybe], [[Harry Potter|Harry]] and George live together. Their fridge is really disgusting and Hermione makes them promise to do something about it. They end up buying a new fridge and throwing out the old one with all the disgusting things still inside.▼
▲* The series of fan fic about Darth Maul, known as ''[[Sith Academy
▲* There is a ''[[Teen Titans (
▲** It's a stock trope in ''[[Teen Titans (
▲* In [[Peter Chimaera]]'s ''[[Digimon]]'' fic ''DIGIMON SAVES THE WROLD!!111'', the titular character is ambushed while
▲* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2476535/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_World_That_Went_Bloody_Insane Harry Potter and the World that Went Bloody Insane]'', [[Harry Potter|Harry]] and Ron move into a really crappy apartment. It has a closet which they are afraid to open the door to because they are fairly certain there's something living in there.
▲* In ''[http://hpfandom.net/eff/viewstory.php?sid=23179 Maybe]''{{Dead link}}, [[Harry Potter|Harry]] and George live together. Their fridge is really disgusting and Hermione makes them promise to do something about it. They end up buying a new fridge and throwing out the old one with all the disgusting things still inside.
* When Lisa "Tattletale" Wilbourn finally can return to her apartment after living for several weeks at the DWU compound, she finds her fridge is now borderline toxic, in the ''[[Worm]]/[[Luna Varga]]'' crossover ''[[Taylor Varga]]''.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[
* It wasn't caused by poor housekeeping, but ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' had a demon god and hell dimension hidden in Sigourney Weaver's fridge. There are no cold cuts, only ZUUL!!
* ''[[The Odd Couple]]'':
{{quote|
'''Oscar:''' It's either very new cheese or very old meat. }}
* ''[[What's New Pussycat?]]'':
{{quote|
'''Victor :''' I have some Fig Newtons, Hershey bars, some cough drops...
'''Carol:''' You have any tuna fish?
'''Victor :''' I have some salmon salad left...
'''Carol:''' What do you mean 'left', when did you make it?
'''Victor:''' In April, but if you smother it with pepper it's fine. }}
* The fifth ''[[Nightmare On Elm Street]]'' movie has a pretty gross scene. After one girl has been force-fed to death in her dream, we cut to the movie's heroine going to fetch her father a drink in the fridge. When she opens it, the food rots in front of her eyes (and an eyeball even shows up on them) before her dead friend suddenly bursts out of the fridge, only to be dragged back inside by Freddy Krueger. The fridge closes, is opened again, and everything is back to normal.
* In the 2011 ''[[The Muppets (
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[Harry Potter and
* Douglas Adams' novel ''[[The Long Dark Tea
** The entire story maintains a subplot of Gently playing a game
* In somewhat of a subversion, in a later ''[[
* As with [[Trope Overdosed|so many other tropes]], this one is represented multiple times in ''[[Discworld]]''.
** In ''[[
== [[Live
* The first episode of the 1983 British sketch show ''[[Alfresco]]'' has a song about a couple who are so lazy they haven't cleaned the house for decades and there are alien lifeforms in possession of the fridge and kitchen. Never mind - the house is on fire so all they have to do is wait and their problems will all be over.
* Several points in ''[[The Young Ones]]'' reference dirty laundry or unwashed dishes acting sentient. The line that sums it up best is "Guys! Guys! One of Vyvyan's socks has escaped!"
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* Subverted in ''[[Good Eats]]''; recent episodes sometimes feature the lovely "Lady of the Refrigerator", who dispenses nutritional information about the featured food. That said, he does occasionally get into arguments with his foodstuffs.
* ''[[Bottom]]'': Yoghurt that needs a shave, a sausage that's already been digested, solid milk...
* ''[[
** There is the "curry monster," created from some old vindaloo.
** In the novelization Lister realizes he's actually in a computer simulation when he looks in his fridge and it's ''not'' a grotesque chamber of horrors.
** When Kryten is first introduced, he cleans up Lister's room in an attempt to do him a favour. Lister is horrified; Kryten has thrown out his pet mould. "His name was Albert! I was tryin' to get 'im two foot high!"
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** Upon their defeat and return to the fridge, the leader of the food ([[Punny Name|General Chow]]) turns around and warns them: "Old food never dies... It just... goes... bad!"
* ''[[Even Stevens]]'' did this twice, although not really in the fridge for both examples. One was some old food under Louis' bed which mutated badly enough to have to call in a hazmat crew. Another was an old sandwich in his locker which was alive and fierce enough to shred the tennis racket Louis tried to scoop it out with.
* The great [[Fan Nickname|Mini Me]] episode of ''[[Stargate SG
{{quote|
'''Young!Jack:''' Hey! That salsa's still good! }}
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' - Olivia looking in Giles' fridge - "Rupert, is this blue cheese, or cheese that's gone blue?"
* In an episode of ''[[Married...
* ''[[All That]]'' had a sketch in a parody of B-Horror movies and crime shows where the "father" went for a midnight snack. cuts to a chalk outline with weird gunk, the police quizzing when the meatloaf was last served (four different answers) while an ambulance wails. When one of the family asked about it, the cop said they didn't call, and went to investigate. Open the closet, and the father is making the sounds - implying that the ''Meatloaf ate his brain''.
* On ''[[Friends]]'', Joey is cleaning out his broken fridge (which means eating everything in it), which prompts this exchange:
{{quote|
'''Chandler''': That's still in there?
'''Joey''': Not anymore. }}
* In one episode of ''[[Chuck]]'', the entire workforce at the BuyMore watched Morgan eat some brown goo out of a tupperware container from the "Mystery Crisper".
* ''[[Hoarders]]'' - Some Hoarders kept food way after it expired.
* [[
* ''[[CSI]]'''s Gil Grissom also [[Nausea Fuel|keeps experimental human body parts]] [[No OSHA Compliance|in the communal refrigerator designated for food.]]
* Throughout the duration of ''[[Malcolm in
** Once more, when Reese and Malcolm are shown having a competition to see who can eat the most expired perishables.
{{quote|
'''Malcolm''': I think before Dewey was born. }}
** And again, when Francis tricks Dewey into drinking the filthy liquid that has accumulated in the drip tray.
* ''[[Black Books]]'' has more than one example. When they call a cleaner (after a scene of Bernard: "I was gonna warm it [a frozen pizza] and eat it later. Everybody does that, that's normal! You are looking for things to complain about!" Manny: "What do you call these?" Bernard: "Wasps!"), he does the trick of putting on a white glove, streaking it across something, and the fingertip comes away black. The thing he chooses to sweep across? The air.
* There was a brilliant running gag in one episode of the original ''[[Roseanne]]'' involving a carton of milk that's been left in the fridge too long.
== [[Music]] ==
* [["Weird Al"
** Quoted above is "Livin' in the Fridge". The line "It's been there since July!" becomes doubly gross if you're listening to the song in the middle of the year.
** "Trash Day" goes quite over-the-top in places, but is not as memorable.
* A more
*
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]'' has used this trope more than once. [[Lethal Chef]] (aside from his Lasagna, of course) Jon must be using some ''weird'' ingredients; one of them even held him and Odie at gunpoint.
** He also apparently doesn't clean the fridge out [https://web.archive.org/web/20110811013147/http://garfield.nfshost.com/2003/01/30/ anywhere near frequently enough].
** One ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' short, from the ''Garfield's Tales of Scary Stuff'' sub-series, was known as ''[[Long Title|The Creature That Lived in the Refrigerator, Behind the Mayonnaise, Next to the Ketchup, and to the Left of the Cole Slaw.]]'' It's [[Exactly What It Says
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20110811015725/http://garfield.nfshost.com/1987/07/19/ The Coleslaw That Time Forgot]. Deep within the frozen wastes it lurks...
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20110811001753/http://garfield.nfshost.com/1990/11/15/ Cleaning out the fridge] in Jon's household apparently takes some [[Kill It
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20110816154148/http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=2011&addr=110626 And sometimes it get really out of hand.]
* ''[[The Far Side]]'' shows what violence can ensue "when potato salad goes bad."
* ''[[
== [[Stand Up Comedy]] ==▼
* [[George Carlin]]'s bit on "meatcake"▼
▲== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
▲* [[George Carlin]]'s bit on "meatcake".
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* One of the sample monsters in the [[Mon]] sourcebook for ''[[Big Eyes, Small Mouth]]'' is an ancient jar of mayonnaise that mutated into a sentient, poisonous ooze-monster. Its trainer found it while cleaning out the fridge in his uncle's auto shop.
* One of the cards in ''[[Munchkin (
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* Leftovers of Indeterminate Origin from ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]''.
* ''[[Fun Orb]]'''s "Bachelor Fridge" allows players to grow and mutate little food-monsters and make them fight each other.
* One of the computers you can hack in ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20030204 This strip] from ''[[Ctrl
* ''[[General Protection Fault]]'' has two characters who are sentient slime molds. Fred achieved sentience as a result of a human character's horrible (lack of) housekeeping, then later produced Persephone.
* ''[[User Friendly]]'' mascot character Dust Puppy was born from a Linux server with less-than-adequate cleaning. His evil counterpart Crud Puppy was born from congealed coffee in a keyboard.
* Appears in [https://web.archive.org/web/20150910150526/http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=041128 this] ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' strip. Riff correctly realizes that, once the lifeforms developing in your refrigerator have been killed with a flamethrower, they're food again.
* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Molly the Peanut Butter Monster is, more or less, [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[Real Life Comics]]'' had a gag about this where Greg bemoaned cleaning out the fridge as it would force them to throw away "Chuck", which we can only assume was a sentient chuck steak.
* ''[[
** The guys ended up using siege explosives to deal with the tentacled monstrosity that spawned from old leftovers.
** It happened ''again'' when Doc rummaged around in the break room fridge, surprising him. He went to war against it, with him eventually trying to use explosives to kill it. But it surprised him on [http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autowb999.html Halloween Day].
** Eventually he installed a device that automatically crushes his fridge and replaces it with an empty one every week.
* Fox and Collin of ''[[Friendly Hostility]]'' once had an actual human-sized demon living in the back of their refrigerator. He moved out eventually and became a recurring cast member. Another example would be the mass of clutter and filth on Fox's desk:
{{quote|
"I have not."
"See? Two against one." }}
* ''[[
** They had ''two'' storylines based around cleaning out the fridge. The time they required liquid nitrogen to stop The Thing That Spawned In Our Fridge, which they then sold as modern art after freezing.
* ''[[Bunny]]'' - The Bunny's fridge is [http://www.bunny-comic.com/1329.html not the most pleasant of places].
* ''[http://www.maliki.com Maliki]'' plays a variation: no French required to understand what happens with [http://www.maliki.com/strip.php?strip=253 "maturing" French cheese].
* ''[[Sequential Art (
* ''[[
* ''[[Devil Bear]]'' had [http://www.thedevilbear.com/comics.php?p=577 this] happen. Though that one turned out to be some sort of a portal.
* ''[[Angel Moxie]]'' has forgotten lunch in [http://www.venisproductions.com/angelmoxie/archives/0/9/097.html Sampson's drawer].
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In the ''[[
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The plot of the first episode of the ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police (
* In the ''[[Teen Titans (
** In "Employee of the Month", an interesting variation of this occurs when Beast Boy imprisons a villain (made out of alien tofu) in the fridge. At the end of the episode, Cyborg accidentally eats him.
* In the ''[[
* ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' has an archetypal example in the pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness": This green nondescript blob thing in the fridge doesn't seem too alive, but it sticks to everything, and it expands exponentially when it absorbs water. [[Hilarity Ensues]] as Spunky the [[Extreme Omnivore]] pet dog is obsessed with trying to eat it.
* In one episode of ''The New Adventures of [[Winnie the Pooh]]'', Christopher Robin finds a kingdom of filth under his bed, where his lost toys were enslaved.
* The cartoon ''Klutter'' is about a pile of clutter brought to life by static electricity.
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** Homer, digging around for a lost peanut under the couch in season 5's "Boy-Scoutz N the Hood": "Ow, pointy! Eww, slimy! [Scream]! Moving!"
** In "24 Minutes", Homer keeps a pungent container of yogurt in the employee fridge. The stench is so bad, experts in hazmat suits are called.
** When Homer plays Every Man and has let himself slip after his personal trainer has left him, goes to Apu asking for something to make him throw up. Apu promptly says "I think there is some expired milk in the back of the refrigerator. But do not chew the lumps" It was too late.
* During an [[Imagine Spot]] on ''[[The Replacements]]'', Riley imagines Buzz's science project to be 'What Happens to Pizza Left Under a bed for Six Months'. The answer? It comes alive and starts attacking people.
* One episode of the 1980s ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987
* Honorable mention: ''[[
* In ''[[Magic School Bus]]'' one episode has a competition about the most spoiled food. Wanda brings some green bubbling mass that stood in the fridge for years. Nobody even remembers what it is. She won.
* The title of one sub-episode of ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' says it all: "The Creature that Lived in the Refrigerator, behind the Mayonnaise, next to the Ketchup, and to the Left of the Cole Slaw!" [[Title Drop|That full description]] [[Running Gag|was used]] [[Overly Long Gag|each time it was identified.]]
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* In the 1st episode of ''[[Total Drama Island]]'', Gwen said that her hamburger just moved. Twenty seconds later you would see some sloppy joes <ref>A sloppy joe is an American dish of ground beef, onions, sweetened tomato sauce or ketchup and other seasonings, served on a hamburger bun</ref> across the floor.
* In ''[[The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs]]'' Ralph rummages through his owners' fridge disposing of all the bad products they are too lazy to throw away. When he encounters a can of jelly that had already evolved into a small blob monster, he decides that "it'll do for a little longer" and puts it back into the fridge.
* One episode of ''[[The Critic]]'' has Jay looking for something to eat in the fridge and exclaiming, "What's that sulfur smell coming from the egg bin? Ah it must mean the eggs have ripened. Wait a minute! Eggs don't ripen! ''eggs don't ripen''!" At which point some vicious little lizards/velociraptors burst out and try to break through the door as he slams it shut. He goes to eat at his parents house.
* ''[[
* Ed from ''[[Ed, Edd
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/weird/Pee-Yew-Get-Out-of-the-Building.html This office fridge] sat for a few months unplugged and stuffed full of leftovers; when someone finally opened it and started cleaning it out, the food reacted with cleaning agents creating poisonous fumes and sent twenty eight people to the hospital. They had to call in a ''hazmat team'' to finish the job.
* Danish stand-up comedian Thomas Wivel once joked that when he was a bachelor he only opened the fridge to feed the cheese.
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** In the New Orleans episode of ''[[No Reservations]]'', there's footage of someone cleaning out a walk in freezer after returning from Katrina. Imagine the above, ''but room sized.''
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OePmQQ9pfGY Some people hoard multiple refrigerators of rotten food].
* According to Roma folk legends, watermelons and pumpkins become vampires after being kept for a certain period of time.
* [[Travis Willingham]], the voice of Roy Mustang from [[Fullmetal Alchemist]], reached into his fridge and pulled out some pudding, stuck a spoon in it, and tried eating it. It was crunchy, so he turned on the light to see why, since he didn't recall buying tapioca pudding. It ''wasn't'' tapioca; once upon a time it was ''chocolate''. Travis now checks his pudding before he eats it.
* Historic example from the days before fridges: an entire American village once decided to pool milk from all the cows in town to make [[wikipedia:Cheshire Mammoth Cheese|a giant wheel of cheese for Thomas Jefferson]]. The resulting cheese took weeks to transport, and reportedly by the time it arrived, it was "strong enough to walk there by itself."
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Food Tropes]]
[[Category:Creating Life]]
[[Category:Furniture Tropes]]
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