Fire-Breathing Diner: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Excessively spicy food invariably results in a (usually metaphorical) [[Breath Weapon|blast of flame from the mouth]] of the diner, often after he or she has quickly turned red from feet to top of head (in the manner of a rising thermometer, sometimes with a distinctive rising "boooOOOP!" or whistling kettle sound effect).

 

Not to be confused with the [[Unsatisfiable Customer]], for whom the fire breathing is verbal, rather than metaphorical or literal.

{{examples}}

== [[Advertising]] ==

* A [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=J31hjRbC3SA Dairy Queen Flamethrower] commercial uses this, sort of a live-action [[Memetic Mutation|Spicy burger is spicy]]. [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=zuk4uHzk25M Another with three unfortunate customers.]

* Don't forgot [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3s9WvoTtxc Red Robin], okay okay so only smoke in this case, but hey where there's smoke...

 

* In ''[[Sister Princess]],'' the first breakfast at Welcome House turns out to be horrendously spicy, prompting a classic fire-breathing act from Wataru.

* ''[[Project A-ko]]'': [[Lethal Chef]] C-Ko breathes fire for a few seconds after eating her own cooking.

** This has happened a few other times as well: In one episode, Ash ate a Tamato berry (a ''spicy'' berry that looks like a tomato with spikes on it) and breathed fire. He was later shown with lips swollen from that. It's also happened to Team Rocket a few times.

* In ''[[Kirby: Right Back at Ya!]]'', an entire episode had an [[Escalating War]] between two restaurants in making spicier and spicier foods. Everybody ended up doing this, except Kirby. Finally food spicy enough to affect him was found, just in time, as the flame spewing Kirby did allowed him to beat the [[Monster of the Week]].

* In one episode of ''[[Super GALS!]]'', Ran accidentally becomes a meek girly-girl. Her rival, Mami Honda, tries to crack Ran's unflappable smile by spiking a couple of fast food burgers with Tabasco sauce and hot mustard, which Ran eats without even breaking a sweat. Mami tries a burger herself and suffers from this effect, even after taking a drink. However, Ran does notice a burning in her mouth (though no fire) after turning back to normal.

* Pandaikon of ''[[Nerima Daikon Brothers]]'' suffers from this after biting a bok choy soaking in kimchee sauce.

* The ''[[Naruto]]'' fillers have a particularly infamous arc named for the Curry of Life. Even though it is the titular character who truly invokes the trope, the only part that makes it truly worth watching is [[The Comically Serious|Neji's]] reaction to tasting it. [[Masochist's Meal|On]] ''both'' [[Ship Tease|occasions]].

** Completely averted by Rock Lee, who has a fondness for the stuff... He and Neji at a contest would play out akin to [[The Lord of the Rings (film)|Legolas and Gimli drinking]].

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Played straight in ''[[Dumb and Dumber]]'', when Harry and Lloyd laced their traveling companion's diner burger with "atomic" peppers. The result was so intense that it nearly killed him by making his stomach ulcer flare up. Then Harry fed him rat poison - thinking it was his ulcer medication - and actually killed him.

* In ''[[Rango]]'' the title character belches flame on an outlaw's face after ingesting both fermented cactus juice and a lit cigar. The outlaw seems annoyed more than anything else.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* The SF short story ''Buck and the Gents from Space'' features a young boy from the Southwest US serving a group of aliens a meal made primarily of chili peppers. Their reaction is described as being "sort of like the Apache snake dance, except they didn't have no snakes in their mouths. Maybe they would've ''preferred'' a snake, at that." He then offers them some of the hired hand's rotgut tequila to wash it down with, prompting much the same reaction.

 

* Lampshaded in a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch with Christian Slater. He and Victoria Jackson go to a restaurant to try the Buffalo wings, available in mild, medium, hot, or "super fire hot'. Slater says he wants to try the super fire hot. The waiter tries to talk him out of it -- "They're very hot"—it escalates, the manager is called out to explain "They're very hot"—finally he has to sign release forms—he bites one, freeze-frame, and then the conventional effects of the trope are narrated in detail by a voice-over. The final joke is that he did all that, and they had secretly given him the medium-hot wings.

* Done in ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'' to break a [[Big Eater]] of his habit of eating other peoples' food.

* In one episode of ''[[Bottom]]'', Richie invents a dish called "sprouts Mexicaine" which turns people into Fire ''Farting'' Diners.

* In an episode of ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'', at a dinner party at Leslie's house Ron eats a whole red pepper which impresses his date, who happens to be Tom's ex-wife. A jealous Tom tries a pepper as well, despite Ron's warning. Immediately after popping it into his mouth he has to leave the table. He spends the rest of the party in Leslie's bedroom with sucking a pillow, because his mouth feels like it's on fire.

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* A magic item available in ''Forged By Dragon's Fire'', an ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' supplement, is the "ginger dragon", a small candy most often produced in rural China. They produce real fire.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Kirby]]'s Dream Land'' had a Super Spicy Curry item that let you breathe fire.

** The same item appears in ''[[Super Smash Bros.|Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', with much the same effect.

* One of the mini-games in ''[[Rayman]]: [[Raving Rabbids]] 2'' has the titular Rabbids using this as a means to cook chicken.

* There's a craftable food in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' called Dragonbreath Chili. Eating it will cause the player to occasionally breathe fire that does minor damage to nearby enemies. During the Midsummer Fire Festival, some vendors sell a drink that causes the player to breathe fire, although unlike the chili it doesn't harm enemies.

* Doppel Nanase pulls this trope using ramen for one of her attacks in ''[[Eternal Fighter Zero]]''.

* The Spicy Curry from ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl''. The fireballs are actually a weapon that are difficult to defend against.

* In ''[[Nancy Drew (video game)|Legend of the Crystal Skull]]'', feeding Bess Marvin several servings of hot-sauce-drenched Cajun cooking will cause the screen to turn reddish as she belches a puff of flame.

* In ''[[Super Sentai Battle Dice O]]'', one of [[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger|Gokai Yellow's]] special attacks involves inflicting this on her opponents. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEVCPvVVTj0 Seriously.]

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Played straight earlier in the same episode, as Homer's uninsulated tongue glows neon red when it comes in contact with a Guatemalan Insanity Pepper. It evaporates anything less than an armful of liquid on contact.

** Also played straight in ''[[The Simpsons Movie]]'', when Homer is revived by the Inuit woman.

* In ''[[Garfield Specials|A Garfield Christmas Special]]'', Grandma spikes Mom Arbuckle's sausage gravy with chili powder ("Who am ''I'' to tell you how to make gravy? The Green Country gravy champion, that's who!"), and Garfield ends up spewing a gout of flame as a result. ("Perfect.")

* An early example comes in the Walt Disney cartoon ''Donald's Nephews'' (1938), when Huey, Dewey, and Louie feed [[Donald Duck]] a slice of pie that's been doctored with mustard.

* In an episode of ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'', Dojo (a dragon) needs two bottles of Clay's family-recipe hot sauce to breathe enough flame to beat the [[Artifact of Doom|Sapphire Dragon]]. Normally he can only breathe small soot clouds.

* A variation is played in ''[[Saludos Amigos]]'', where Donald drinks a glass of Brazilian ''cacha?'' (saying it's an ''extremely strong'' sugarcane spirit is a very great understatement) that causes him to spout flames. José then uses Donald's flame breath to light a cigar.

* In the ''[[Sushi Pack]]'' episode "Red Hot Chili Planet," Ben had to pass along a message from Wasabi to the others, but since Wasabi [[The Unintelligible|speaks "mustard"]], Ben has trouble getting the inflection right. Ikura suggests he drink some hot sauce to get it right, and with one drop, Ben is breathing fire (and starts speaking "mustard")!

* In one episode of ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'', Elmyra accidentally feeds Dizzy Devil a can of hot chili instead of dog food. Cue the eyes watering up, breaths of flame, then running to the shower to put out the fire.

** A major problem for Cat whenever Dog uses too much hot sauce on his tacos. Because they're conjoined, the hot sauce passes from Dog's stomach to his, causing him to belch fire out of his mouth.

* Done realistically in one of the ''[[Rugrats]]''' earlier episodes, "Waiter, there's a Baby In My Soup!", where Stu has no choice but to bring Tommy with him to an important business dinner with the president of Mucklehoney industries (a toy factory). Tommy wriggles out of his baby crib under their notice, and wanders into the kitchen where he pours garlic powder, pepper, and hot sauce into a chef's soup prepared for the president. Upon sampling the concoction, the president struggles all over the floor, gasping for water while Tommy returns inside a bowl of spaghetti.

** Played straighter in the episode "Griffon the Brush-Off," when Gilda eats some lemon drops tainted with pepper. Pinkie Pie even whips out a marshmallow to roast using her breath.

** Even Pinkie Pie herself falls victim to this; she breathes fire for a moment after literally tasting a rainbow in "Sonic Rainboom". The fire even turns multiple colors. Keep in mind that Pinkie is seen eating a cupcake drenched in hot sauce in the pilot episodes.

* When Heffer eats Hot Tamales in the ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' episode "Spitballs" and is about to do this, Rocko points him to the opposite direction. The duck that was sitting next to him becomes a cooked goose.

* ''[[Taz-Mania]]'': Happens in "Francis takes a Stand" when Francis switches Taz's lemonade recipe for a hot sauce recipe. Taz's resulting fire breath scorches Francis like a flamethrower. When Francis tries to turn the tables on Taz and takes a swig of the lemonade/hot sauce, his fire breath acts like a jet engine and propels him into a cliff.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Spicy foods really do make you feel hot due to a substance called capsaicin. One of the reasons hot peppers are so popular in hot countries is that they make the consumer break out in a sweat.

* The method of food preparation known as ''flambé'', in which the meal is doused with alcohol and set alight. Although the flames are usually extinguished fairly quickly, some dishes, such as Bombe Alaska, can remain ablaze for several minutes.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stock Visual Metaphors]]

[[Category:This Index Is On Fire]]