Inappropriate Hunger

""Everybody, gather 'round. Let's pray. Dear Lord, see us safely through our time of trial in this mall. And please Lord... let the food court be okay.""

- Coach, Left 4 Dead 2, while inside a mall filled with zombies

The characters are in a disgusting situation. Maybe they're looking at dead bodies, maybe it's alien goo. Everyone will be disgusted... except the one guy who suddenly wants a burger. A surprisingly common Real Life trope, as well. Who hasn't watched a movie about cannibals and felt a sudden urge to get some McDonald's?

Contrast Lost My Appetite. See also Autopsy Snack Time.

Advertising

 * There's a commercial for...Boost Mobile?...where a morgue worker's breakfast burrito falls into the cadaver he's working on, and he blithely picks it up and continues eating it. "What, you think this is wrong? What's wrong is paying too much for cell phone service."

Anime

 * Yu Yu Hakusho:Koema is often scolded for chowing down whilst Yusuke fights for his life.
 * In the first season of Slayers, Dilgear's eulogy for a fallen fishman is marred by the rest of his men eating the body. When he finishes the eulogy he gets upset because they didn't leave any for him.

Film

 * In Zombieland, looking at a zombie chowing down on a corpse makes Columbus sick and sad. But it makes Tallahassee hungry.
 * In Thor, after, the Warriors Three's discussion on what to do starts with Fandral calling Volstagg out for chowing down. Volstagg shouts back that Fandral should not "mistake my appetite for apathy."
 * In Gone in Sixty Seconds the not-really-mute character played by Vinnie Jones first appears when he's contacted by phone. He is shown in a morgue, his work place, and when notified that he's been called, he leaves his sandwich on a dead man.

Literature

 * One Animorphs book involves a horrific visit to a slaughterhouse for the main characters. Once they save the day they end up in the mall food court...and all decide to order burgers.
 * As in the TV series (below), the main character of the Dexter novels by Jeff Lindsay is rarely ever put off his food, due to his hobby of slicing up murderers and his job analyzing blood spatters. His lack of most normal emotions also helps. He usually mopes about any missed meal, noting that his high metabolism requires regular fueling.

Live Action TV
"Uniform on scene: What now?
 * Fringe: Walter Bishop is well known for this, to the point of it being a Running Gag. Somewhat justified, in that he'd been in a mental institution with terrible food for 17 years straight.
 * Psych: An ad for this show shows Shawn snacking on a donut that he took from the corpse at the crime scene he's investigating. It ends with him licking something red off his finger and nonchalantly saying "That wasn't a jelly donut."
 * Bones: Temperance Brennan is so used to dealing with gruesome dead bodies that her appetite isn't put off by it. Of course, Agent Booth does not have the same (lack of) reaction.
 * During an episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor feels he wants a hotdog. While running from Cybermen.
 * In the X-Files episode "Bad Blood", Scully's autopsy of a victim reveals his last meal was pizza. Scully thinks that sounds pretty good.
 * One episode of House had him ordering his team to get a stool sample (with unnecessarily graphic detail), then muttering "That reminds me, I want a bagel..."
 * Eureka: While watching an autopsy on a mystery body found burned and fused into a metal door, Allison comments that she's "craving rib meat...beef jerky". Even though her weird cravings might be justified by her pregnancy, it's still enough to make Jack want to throw up.
 * One episode of Dexter has Dexter explaining his forensic analysis of a bloody crime scene, with details on exactly how the victims were killed, then gleefully announces that he's going to lunch.

Dexter: Now I eat!"


 * On Misfits, after a mild breakdown during the season finale, Simon relaxes in a deserted back room, eating pizza while gazing at the frozen corpse of.

Meta

 * All video games with Health Food. After butchering their way through hundreds of Mooks, our hero noms a Pep Bar and some garbage-can turkey and washes it down with some Nuka Cola.

Video Games
""Man, if I find a Burger Turk Tank in this place, Im'a be a one-man cheeseburger apocalypse!"
 * Mass Effect 2: During the Omega Quarantine Zone mission, you come across a pile of diseased bodies being burned in the street. If you brought Grunt along, he'll comment "Anyone else hungry?" Depending on who you have in your party, he'll be called out on this.
 * Becomes a Running Gag for him, lampshaded by Zaeed at least once.
 * Coach from Left 4 Dead 2 IS this trope.

"I could roll up a whole pizza right now and eat it sub style!"

"Elephant ears...corn dogs...this is bringing back some memories!"

"Ah, cotton candy. The wise pharaoh of food, sittin' atop the food pyramid, passing judgment on all the lesser foods.""

""If you can eat your food, while everybody's losing theirs and blaming you, you straight, homie!""
 * In one of the early missions of San Andreas, Big Smoke quietly eats his and his friends' takeout meals in the backseat while the rest are caught in a drive-by shootout with a Balla gangcar.

"SABIN: Food! Food! Bring me everything ya got!
 * Adopting one the Little Sisters in Bio Shock 2 usually results in some interesting battle commentary; for example, if you use the Incinerate Plasmid to set an enemy on fire, the Little Sister will start asking for marshmallows.
 * In Final Fantasy VI, when the party is trying to stop the Phantom Train from taking them to The Other Side, Sabin stops for a full course meal of ghost food.

CYAN: A... are you going to be okay if you eat THIS?

SABIN: Worried? Can't wage war on an empty stomach!

CYAN: Hmmm... Sir! I won't hear any more of this kind of talk!

Gobble... snarf... snap...

SABIN: Well! I've stuffed down all I can... Let's go!

HP and MP recovered, and status ailments, like Poison, cured!"

Web Comics

 * One of the Jagermonsters in Girl Genius gets hungy while traipsing through a sewer.

Western Animation
"Pam: (standing over two burning bodies) Is it weird that I'm kind of hungry now?
 * South Park: When the boys visit a farm and see all the baby cows in constricitive pens because they're destined to become veal, everyone is Squicked except Cartman, who says they all look delicious.
 * Archer: Pam, as the show's Big Eater, had a moment like this.

Malory: It would be weirder if you weren't."


 * One of the Twelve Tiny Christmas Tales is described as "too scary" by the grandmother reading to her grandchildren. The children ask for it anyway, and it turns out to be a version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that ends with the true love and his lady killing and eating all the birds. This ending makes two of the children burst into tears, but the third licks his lips and declares, "I'm hungry!"
 * In a first season episode of Metalocalypse, the band gets hungry while watching a pack of wolves eat their evil therapist's arms.