Fun with Flushing



Babies are naturally curious about a lot of things, and at some point or another, they'll want to know about the toilet. However, they won't really know what it does—at least not at first. They find more enjoyment in flushing stuff down the toilet, no doubt losing some of your precious possessions if it's within reach of the baby—or perhaps clogging it up and overflow... or both! This is Truth in Television for anyone taking care of a small child or baby.

However, several other scenarios can also happen from this as well, say, for example, a character decides to pull a plug in the earth, draining the ocean and turning it into a whirlpool. Other times, it may lead to strange worlds after getting sucked in.

Do not confuse with Down the Drain, as it covers underwater sewer levels in Video Games.

Anime and Manga

 * The first episode of Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt involved a ghost who flushes people down toilets whenever they're used. This happens to Panty midway through the episode, though she breaks free. In a later episode, they travel underground by getting flushed down a toilet to discover a ghost machine they need to destroy.
 * Early in Dragon Ball, Master Roshi got accidently flushed down the toilet while using a shrinking gadget to peep on Bulma.
 * A Pucca episode had Pucca pull a drain under the lake after saving Garu from a shark. They get stuck in the pipes and Dada inadvertently saves them while unclogging one of the toilets, freeing them both.

Advertising

 * An old Pepsi commercial had two kids with a pet goldfish who would play dead, where it was given a drop of Pepsi that the fish would jump out of. When the father thinks the fish is dead, he flushes it down the toilet by accident.

Comic Books

 * When Gorsky and Butch do The Matrix parody, the party is cornered by police in a disused toilet. They escape down the drain, all except Morphinius (Gorsky) who has to stay behind to flush them.

Film

 * This happens to Roddy in Flushed Away.
 * In Monsters, Inc., Sulley gets some of Boo's toys tangled up on him when he reenters the monster world. He tries to get rid of them by flushing them down the toilet, but it gets clogged up and overflows. He then has to dump them in someone's locker, where they reappear later as a Brick Joke.
 * Finding Nemo: Nemo's escape plan is to play dead and get flushed, because "all drains lead to the ocean". Many have pointed out that in reality, a fish would not survive the trip as it would be ground up during the sewage treatment process, leading some to joke that the title should have been "Grinding Nemo".
 * Weaponized in the Polish comedy Kingsajz, where the hero (a leprechaun) uses the toilet to flush the Big Bad and his cronies.
 * In The Thief and the Cobbler, the titular thief's first attempt to break into King Nod's palace bring him in the royal toilet. While trying to get out he accidentally pulls the rope and is flushed back into the castle moat.
 * Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: While trying to sneak into the Acme factory, Roger falls on the toilet and gets flushed down. He later comes out a drain pipe in the factory floor for a (failed) Big Damn Heroes moment.

Literature

 * Love You Forever: A baby boy flushes his mom's watch down the toilet.
 * In Carl Hiaasen's Flush, Noah and his sister flush dyes down a polluting ship's toilets in attempt to expose them.

Live Action TV

 * Dinosaurs had a Very Special Episode where baby learned to use the toilet which had some of this.
 * Bill Nye the Science Guy: In the episode on digestion, every time Bill says "all the way" a toilet flushes off-screen.
 * The Secret World of Alex Mack had the title character travel through plumbing pipes in puddle form.

Music

 * Keith Moon of the band The Who had a documented habit of flushing firecrackers down the toilets of hotel bathrooms.

Newspaper Comics

 * Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin has an elaborate strip where he flushes a toy boat down the toilet. In another one, he and Hobbes dip the dangling paper from the roll into the toilet and flush it. At one point, Calvin himself got into the toilet bowl, flushed himself around in circles, and then informed his mother that he'd finished his "bath."
 * In For Better or For Worse, April flushed something, probably a toy boat, down the toilet when she was a toddler. It was the punchline of a strip where they define the word "goomby" or something similar (that's what April says upon flushing it; rhymes with "good-bye"). The following strip shows the father with a plunger, and eventually picking the commode up off the base, saying "Whoever called that thing a convenience never had small children!"

Video Games

 * Toilet Kids: In this Japanese only Shoot'Em Up, for the Turbografx16, a boy gets sucked into the toilet to battle all sorts of poo related enemies.
 * The Adventures Of Willy Beamish: Weaponized in finale. Willy gets rid of the two antagonists by flushing them down a giant toilet full of sludge.
 * MadWorld: One of the ways your enemies can be defeated is by stuffing or throwing them in the toilet. They get flushed seconds later.
 * A stage in Clay Fighter 63 1/3 took place above a toilet where it was possible to knock your opponent into.
 * The NES Tom and Jerry game had a stage where Jerry had to navigate a drain pipe maze to get to the kitchen sink while dodging flows of water.
 * Boogerman: This platformer had the title character flush himself down toilets to enter a sewer loaded with powerups and enemies. It's also how the Big Bad is defated-Boogerman burps him into the toilet and he's flushed away.

Western Animation

 * Tiny Toon Adventures
 * A baby version of Plucky Duck is learning how to use the toilet for the first time. He gets a lot of enjoyment flushing various items down it, such as toilet paper, Furrball, his toys, even his own diaper! He even climbed into it himself and tried to flush himself down the hole! The toilet gets clogged up as a result.
 * This gag was repeated in two more episodes, which consisted of a trip to the mall where he plays with the elevator controls, and a miniature golf course with Plucky struggling to knock the ball in, going as far as to cheat (He gets better at it, though). It was also done in several Animaniacs episodes whenever he made a cameo.
 * "The Undersea World Of Fifi" had Elmyra searching for sea monkeys, and it ends with her draining it and having her say the exact same line as baby Plucky did.
 * The Kon Ducki episode had Plucky flushing a boat down the toilet as part of the "special effects" during the behind the scenes portion of the episode.
 * Rugrats
 * The pilot episode had Tommy inspecting the toilet to find out what it does. He accidentally ends up flushing some toilet paper and making a mess in the bathroom, causing the toilet to overflow.
 * In another episode, he also flushes jewels down a toilet while he was kidnapped by robbers.
 * Another episode had Angelica scaring Tommy and Chuckie by saying they'll get sucked down the drain (After an incident where Tommy accidentally loses one of his toys this way) whenever they take a bath, and throughout the episode they try to find ways to get out of it, which includes flushing anything bathtime related down the toilet. Ironically, she accidentally flushes her own doll, Cynthia, down the toilet. The plumber recovers it, but the doll is ruined.
 * Baby Looney Tunes: The main characters wonder about the toilet in the bathroom and form their own theories about how dangerous it is, while Petunia assures them nothing is wrong. In the process, they panic when Petunia accidentally flushes it, and puts toilet paper to "Feed the monster," clogging it up. They accidentally leave her in and she comes out wet with toilet paper on her. When Granny shows her what the toilet is really for, and Petunia tells them, they don't believe her.
 * The Simpsons
 * A Flash Back episode had baby Bart flush Homer's wallet, then his keys down the toilet - but he knew exactly what he was doing.
 * An early episode had Bart flushing a cherry bomb down a toilet, which blows Principal Skinner's mother off of her seat while using it.
 * "Deep Space Homer" featured a literal toilet joke and a jab at Married... with Children rolled into one.
 * Family Guy: In a cutaway gag, this was used as an explaination for the Lindburg Baby kidnapping.
 * Dexter's Laboratory: Spirits from the dead hold Dee Dee hostage unless the dead Goldfish is flushed down the toilet.
 * Rocko's Modern Life: Rocko's pet goldfish is accidentally flushed down the toilet, and gets stuck in the drain pipe for few years, clogging it up.
 * Futurama: Bender finally got fed up with (or more accurately, jealous of) Nibbler and flushed him down the toilet. This prompted them to install a chip that forced him to feel Leela's emotions, causing him to flush himself (in pieces) so he could rescue it.
 * Phineas and Ferb had Perry go to his lair by flushing himself down a toilet in one episode.
 * The Magic School Bus: Happens twice in two episodes, one where they go through the water cycle and travels through drain pipes to reach the girls bathroom where the water overflows, and in another episode, they cross over an open toilet bowl which has an alligator swimming in it.
 * Mucha Lucha had Ricochet, Buena Girl and the Flea fight a masked toilet twice in the series. Also, The Flea swam in it at one point.
 * One Strong Bad Email from Homestar Runner has Bubs turn into a large Godzilla-like monster after accidentally flushing himself down the toilet while shaving.
 * In Fish Hooks, swimming in a flushing toilet is an extreme sport.
 * On The Powerpuff Girls, the class hamster gets flushed down by Mitch, the schoolyard bully. In the sewer, the hamster gets exposed to chemical waste and comes back a mutated monster out for revenge.
 * An episode of SpongeBob SquarePants has SpongeBob and Patrick hearing a story about a drain that two kids pulled long ago and that flushed away all of Bikini Bottom. They become obsessed with finding "The Big Drain" and making sure no one pulls it again.