Object Ceiling Cling



""Aww... you stuck to the ceiling.""

- Carly, iCarly, "iGo Nuclear"

Something gets launched or is stuck to the ceiling, usually something sticky, and often some kind of food item. Sometimes it comes down, sometimes it doesn't.

May later fall on someone who has no idea it's up there.

Film

 * He Died with a Felafel in His Hand: A beef patty that's been on the kitchen ceiling for years is pointed out to new housemate Anya... who is a vegetarian.
 * Return of the Killer Tomatoes: Pizza.
 * At VERY least once in The Three Stooges, when a pie is thrown to the ceiling. At a fancy party. Pompous woman: "Why, young man, you act as if the Sword of Damocles was hanging over your head." Moe: "Lady, you must be psychic!"
 * In the short Movie Maniacs, Curly's flapjack sticks to the boxcar ceiling long enough for it to land on Moe's face.
 * Dude, Where's My Car?A pizza is hidden by throwing it so it sticks to the ceiling. Later, the pieces fall one by one.
 * The famous piece of balogna in The Breakfast Club
 * "Not many people know this, but the turtle is nature's suction cup!"
 * Played for horror rather than comedy in Damnatus, where Nira pancakes a cultist who surprises her against the ceiling.
 * Early in Holiday Inn, Jim provides his friends with homemade peach preserves -- which promptly explode, sticking several peach halves to the ceiling above them. A couple fall back down into him and friend/former partner Ted.

Literature

 * In one of Marissa Moss' Amelia books, Amelia describes a game she used to play with her sister where they threw marshmallows at the ceiling.
 * In book 3 of the Star Wars X Wing Series, Corran Horn uses this to figure out that.
 * In The Real Animal House (a book of stories by Chris Miller that inspired—and were too rude for—the movie), the, uh, hero manages to hit the ceiling of his bedroom with ejaculate after a particularly frenzied bout of masturbation due to sexual frustration. Since the lights are off, he doesn't realize what he's done 'til it drips back down on him.

Newspaper Comics

 * Used to great effect in this Garfield strip

Live Action TV

 * The Big Bang Theory: Howard's faulty space toilet malfunctions, and during the attempt to fix it, he launches a piece of meatloaf onto the apartment ceiling. It falls later when Penny is there.
 * Black Books: Pictured above. Manny sees a piece of toast on the ceiling whilst he is calling a cleaner. Curiously, the toast is stuck to the ceiling despite the fact that the jam side is showing. This is probably a comment as to how filthy the shop is (sticky ceiling). Later in the same episode, Bernard launches a piece of toast with jam onto the ceiling, illustrating the futility of the cleaning process. The second piece of toast eventually falls on Manny's head.
 * iCarly: Carly flings a live worm onto the ceiling while trying to compost for a science project. It sticks. It falls back down on Spencer's head.
 * In another episode, Spencer flings a tray of "cucumber cups" onto the ceiling.
 * Friends: Monica is making a milkshake, but Rachel says something that surprises her, making her lid hand slip, splattering bananas on the ceiling. It doesn't come down until Monica mops it up.
 * An episode of Coach featured Luther in Hayden's office throwing and sticking pencils up into the ceiling to the point it was literally covered in them. When Hayden kicks Luther out of his office he slammed the door causing all the pencils to fall down.
 * How I Met Your Mother: Marshall, Barney and Ted are throwing pencils at the ceiling. One falls and bounces up Barney's nose, which Marshall calls a miracle.
 * In Fries With That?, two burger flippers get into a burger flip off, where they show off increasingly complex moves, some require the patty to stick to the ceiling for a few seconds in order to do two at once. Alex mentions that he's attempted to do it with a cheeseburger, but the cheese caused it to get stuck permanently.
 * In a season 3.5 episode of Eureka, a person gets stuck to the ceiling as a result of a mishap involving a magnetic explosion. Of course, the person is Fargo.
 * In a classic episode of I Love Lucy Ricky was cooking a couple of chickens in a pressure cooker. He put it on too high and the lid blew off. Ricky looks in to see the chickens are gone. A few seconds later, one chicken fell down and then the other.
 * In one of the Swedish Chef sketches on The Muppet Show he flips pancakes that go up but don't come down again. After a couple have disappeared this way, he takes out his trusty "boomstick" and shoots up at the ceiling... and a dozen pancakes fall on his head.
 * X-Files: episode "Chinga", Mulder spends his spare time throwing pencils into the ceiling over his desk.
 * In Drake and Josh, one episode had the titular duo working in a sushi store with a conveyor belt a la I Love Lucy, the sushi came in must too fast and they tried to throw them on the ceiling. They did stick, but they all came down a bit later.

Video Games

 * In the Lucas Arts adventure game Day of the Tentacle there's a slab of fake vomit stuck to the ceiling of the hotel lobby. The characters comment on it with varying shades of distaste. Eventually you have to get it loose to solve a puzzle.

Web Comics

 * Torg and Riff occasionally play a game known as "Gravity-Defying Ceiling Ninja". This involves lying on the floor and throwing darts at a dartboard attached to the ceiling- gravity-defying because the darts stick and stay up. The ninja part? That's what you need if the darts don't stick...
 * Related: In Zero G, this happens when things move toward air vents, as noted in Freefall here.
 * Wapsi Square uses the pencils in the office ceiling variant to show Monica's boredom.

Web Original

 * In the Strong Bad Email "couch patch", Homestar has a flashback in which he is spitting Teddy Grahams around Strong Bad's basement. One ends up sticking to the ceiling, and Homestar then starts trying to knock it down by spitting more at it (and catching them back in his mouth each time he fails; it's not indicated whether he ever succeeds).

Western Animation
"Homer Simpson: Oh, Lord! Why do You mock me? Marge: Homer, that's not God. That's a waffle Bart stuck to the ceiling. [Marge pries the waffle off the ceiling.] Homer Simpson: Lord, I know I shouldn't eat thee, but...(munch munch munch)...mmm...sacrilicious."
 * The Simpsons: Bart sticks a waffle onto the ceiling, which Homer mistakes for God, Marge pries the waffle off the ceiling. Homer eats it.


 * Recess: Gretchen gave advice to a girl in the bathroom when trying make a wet paper towel stay stuck on the ceiling.
 * Coraline: The ancient taffy Miss Spink and Miss Forcible offer Coraline. The whole bowl gets launched and glued to the ceiling when she struggles to get one loose (and comes down when Spink scolds Forcible that "Giraffes don't just fall from the sky, Miriam!")

Real Life
""There was a stain on the roof when I walked in, and I remember saying, 'What the hell is that?" And someone said, 'Oh, I think that's where Conan threw a slice of pizza on the ceiling.' And I had two simultaneous thoughts. The first was, Holy shit, I am in one of the Stations of the Cross of comedy--I've really arrived. And the second one was, Wait a second, Conan left five years ago.""
 * At Cyan, the studio behind Myst, they'll often use their own offices for a Nerf Gun war. When they finished building their world headquarters building in '96, they played a Nerf war before moving furniture in. One of the darts was shot up on the ceiling, where it remains to this day.
 * Kids in school launch pencils up at ceilings which have small holes just small enough for the pencil to stick in.
 * A common school prank is to do this with glue sticks.
 * Or wet bog roll. Although, we once used a piece of cucumber, which remained on the ceiling for upwards of six years.
 * Office workers who work in buildings with fake ceilings often throw pencils into the ceiling, as the fake ceilings are often as weak as cardboard.
 * Hilariously done here
 * In Russia, some kids smeared (or still do) matches with whitewash, lighted them and throw them at the ceiling. The trick is for it to stick and burn until it leaves a smear.
 * John Ortved's book Simpsons Confidential features the following quote from Tim Long discussing the first time he entered the Simpsons writers' room:


 * Any restaurant that hands out those little fringed toothpicks (you know, with the colored plastic ribbon stuff on one end) will likely have several of them stuck in the ceiling, since they're perfect for loading into a drinking straw and turning it into a miniature blowgun.