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[[File:sweet-tooth-concept-art.jpg|link=Twisted Metal|frame|This truck serves 41 flavors of ''TERROR AND CHAOS!'']]
 
{{quote|''"SUCK'' ''my'' ''POPSICLE!"''|Decal on Skids's/Mudflap's ice-cream truck mode in ''[[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Film)|Transformers Revenge of the Fallen]]'' }}
 
Ah, the ice cream truck. An all-American staple of childhood. But what's this? The truck's driver is a [[Child-Hater]] who's doing this as a front to sell drugs? Or maybe he's a pedophile who can't keep his Mr. Softie in his pants? Or, worse yet, he's an uncaptured serial killer who's keeping the bodies between the fudge pops and the Creamsicles? And his truck is either an [[Alleged Car]] (either played straight or exaggerated), redesigned from a paddy wagon or a discarded military vehicle, or looks as if it was featured on an episode of ''Pimp My Ride''.
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== [[Film]] ==
* The ''[[Sesame Street (TV)|Sesame Street]]'' [[The Movie|movie]], ''The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland'', features the Bad Humor Man ([[Steve Whitmire]]), who is the [[Trope Namer]].
* ''[[wikipedia:Ice Cream Man (film)|Ice Cream Man]]'', a horror film starring Clint Howard as a killer ice cream man.
** And there's also ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323307/ Mr. Ice Cream Man]''.
* The original version of ''[[Assault On Precinct 13 (Film)|Assault Onon Precinct 13]]'' has a scene in which a violent street gang drives menacingly back and forth past a parked ice cream truck. After they've (seemingly) moved on, a little girl comes up and buys a cone while her father uses a phone booth up the street. {{spoiler|After she leaves, the gang ambushes the driver and knocks him unconscious; meanwhile, the little girl, unaware of all this and discovering she's been given the wrong flavor, returns to the truck and gets shot and killed point-blank}}. Perhaps more significantly, it then turns out that the ice-cream vendor keeps a sizable revolver stashed in his cab.
* ''[[Max KeeblesKeeble's Big Move]]'' featured one of the antagonists as a rather maniacal ice cream driver who would love to torture the protagonist while on his newspaper route. He even modified his truck to have an ice cream cannon (at least in the opening dream sequence).
* The [[Stephen King]]-directed ''[[Maximum Overdrive (Film)|Maximum Overdrive]]'' includes an ice cream truck among the [[Attack of the Killer Whatever|killer machines]] that menace its human characters.
* In ''Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams'', they have an ice cream truck named "Happy Herb's Nice Dreams". Take the words, "Ice Creams" and add a "N" in front and make "Creams" into "Dreams". Naturally, they sell marijuana from the truck, along with ice cream. How "wholesome" this is depends on your views.
* The heroes of ''[[Killer Klowns From Outer Space (Film)|Killer Klowns From Outer Space]]'' are "helped" by two idiots who "work" by driving an ice-cream truck.
* In Bill Forsyth's ''[[Comfort And Joy]]'', a radio personality is shaken from his post-breakup funk when he gets in the middle of a mob-grade territory war between rival ice-cream vendors.
* ''[[Help|Help!]]'' - the Eastern death cult tails Ringo in a "Yippee! It's Mister Whippy!" ice-cream van. As thugs exit from the truck, one is eating a cone.
* A Mister Whippy van also appears in ''[[Twenty Eight Weeks Later|28 Weeks Later]]''. The trope is teasingly hinted at and then averted.
* Skids and Mudflap of ''[[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Film)|Transformers Revenge of the Fallen]]'' take this trope one step further, as they actually ''are'' the ice cream truck ([[Combining Mecha|both of them]]). This doesn't stop them from being decidedly child-unfriendly, from yelling profanity-laced death threats through their bullhorn to posting offensive decals on their sides<ref>i.e. ''SUCK MY POPSICLE''</ref>. It is, however, played for laughs.
* There's one in ''[[Legion]]''. {{spoiler|The truck's completely normal. The driver however...}}
* Dr. Claw's henchmen Brick and McKible drive an ice-cream delivery truck in ''[[Inspector Gadget]] 2.'' Oddly enough, its trunk is large enough to accommodate Claw's escape jet.
* In ''[[Friday (Filmfilm)|Friday]]'', Smokey owes money to the drug dealer Big Worm which he uses an ice cream truck as a cover up. Big Worm takes the boy's money without giving his order by saying it's closed.
* In ''[[Borat]]'', Borat and Azamat acquire an ice cream truck for transportation, and after some thought they also acquire an animal to guard the truck. So naturally there is a scene where a bunch of kids run up expecting ice cream, and instead find a ''[[Everything's Worse Withwith Bears|black bear]]''.
* An ice cream truck is home to an illegal gun dealer in ''[[Southland Tales]]''. [[The Agony Booth (Website)|The Agony Booth]] called this out, pointing out that an ice cream truck would bring attention that an illegal gun dealer would not want.
* Psychotic clown Javier in ''[[The Last Circus]]'' drives one.
* The detective's informant in ''[[Hellraiser Inferno]]'' is a sleazy ex-con ice cream man who has covered the inside of his truck with pornographic images.
* In ''Killjoy'' the titular [[Monster Clown]] uses an ice cream truck that acts as a gateway to an [[Abandoned Warehouse]].
* The third ''[[Prom Night (Film)|Prom Night]]'' has Mary Lou Maloney appear as an ice cream vendor to a teacher, who she kills with a pair of cones and an electric mixer.
* The beginning of [[Act of Valor]] has the Chechen terrorist Abu Shabal driving what looks like an ice cream truck in the Phillipines to a school. Said Ice Cream Truck turns out to be a suicide car bomb, which kills the US Ambassador, his son, and several Phillipino schoolchildren.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* There's a Wallace Stevens poem called ''The Emperor of Ice Cream'' that's sort of hard to interpret, but the first stanza is definitely talking about an ice cream man, and the second is definitely talking about a dead body. Whether the first is the cause of the second can't be determined, but it's all rather creepy. [http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides4/emperor.html Critics] seem to favor the theory that it's about the wake of the old lady who's lying dead in the second stanza. In that case, the partying in the first stanza might be seen as life-affirming or callous.
** The poem is quoted by a character in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[SalemsSalem's Lot|'Salem's Lot]]''.
*** Also quoted in ''[[Kingdom Hospital]]''. Apparently King really likes this poem.
* In the novel ''The Clairvoyant Countess'' by [[Dorothy Gilman]] there is a significant ice cream truck company run by a very scary bad guy.
* [[Gahan Wilson]] wrote a short story called "Mr. Ice Cold". The ice cream truck and its driver look innocent enough at first. But then, a boy notices that there's one door on the truck that is never opened. One day he decides to take a quick peek inside the door and gets a nasty shock. Let's just say that Mr. Ice Cold prefers a different kind of treat besides ice cream.
* Not exactly ice cream truck, but a couple of [[Stephen King|Stephen King's]] short stories deal with a psychopathic milkman who plants poisonous spiders in his milk box, hands out all-purpose cream laced with highly corrosive acid and cartons of poisoned drinks, and was implied to have planted a bomb in one of his packages, which went off some time prior to the events of the story. All the stuff he needs is in his milk truck.
* Subverted in an ''[[Encyclopedia Brown (Literature)|Encyclopedia Brown]]'' story, where a clown who drove an ice cream truck disappeared along with a young boy and was accused of kidnapping him. Turned out they'd both been kidnapped.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The ''[[MIM.I. High]]'' episode "Animal Spies" had a SKUL agent basing himself out of an ice cream truck.
* A ''[[Tales From the Crypt (TV)|Tales Fromfrom the Crypt]]'' episode ("People Who Live In Brass Hearses") featured an ex-con trying to get revenge on an ice cream truck driver {{spoiler|who, unbeknownst to the ex-con and his brother, was actually Siamese twins joined at the back. By the end, one twin has been murdered and the other continues to drive around in the truck with his dead, decaying twin still attached}}.
* One episode of ''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'' featured a cranky, sadistic ice cream man who refused to sell any ice cream to the kids despite all of them being stuck for hours on a blocked road in the desert... yet let the kids watch ''him'' eat an ice cream bar inside the refrigerated truck.
* Subverted in ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'': The ice truck driver was a good guy, while [[Enfant Terrible|the children were demons]].
* ''[[Shameless]]'': the Maguires use an ice cream van as a front for dealing drugs and give Frank a job on it. ("If someone asks for a smartie...give them a pill. If someone asks for a polo...give them a pill.") Backfires somewhat when Frank takes some himself and ends up giving pills to an old woman who wanted some actual smarties.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' - Ice-cream truck driver is just one of a series of loser jobs for Xander.
* ''[[Law and& Order (TV)|Law and Order]]'':
** In the original show, the pedophile celebrity in "Smoke" has an assistant drive an ice cream truck to playgrounds; he hides inside to scout out potential "playmates".
** In an episode of ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' the victim of the week is living in an ice cream truck, and using it as a base to sell bootleg DVDs.
* The short-lived '80s sitcom ''Jennifer Slept Here'' starred Ann Jillian as the title character, an old movie actress who had been run over by an ice cream truck and haunts her former home as a ghost.
* In ''[[Vanpires]]'', an innocent looking ice cream truck is actually an evil vampire vehicle. Er, [[It Makes Sense in Context]].
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* ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'' has an old ice-cream truck being used to distribute Buzz Beer. Disappointing when kids find out they don't have any ice cream, and rude when they keep getting asked, but not actively evil.
* In the second episode of the original ''[[Life On Mars]],'' Sam Tyler drives a witness incognito in an ice cream truck, hoping to spot a suspect. Unfortunately for the kids, Gene Hunt tags along too.
* Freddy Krueger in ''[[FreddysFreddy's Nightmares]]'' had one for luring in kids stored in his power plant base.
* In an episode of ''[[Happy Days]]'', Fonzie quits his vehicle-repair job and must find a new way to make a living. He tries driving an ice cream truck, but he hates it because "Whenever I got it up to speed, some kid started chasin' after me wavin' a dime!"
* A ''[[Get Smart (TV)|Get Smart]]'' episode has a KAOS agent driving an ice-cream truck - he abducts Hymie the robot by asking him to reach way inside for a fudgesicle, then shoving him in. Hymie's first words when he's released - "Here's your fudgesicle."
* The Hub series ''[[The Haunting Hour the Series]]'' has a story called "Catching Cold," about a fat boy who pursues an ice cream truck and how the ice cream truck seems to favor him. {{spoiler|Turns out the ice cream truck is haunted and traps those who are so obsessed with ice cream that they are willing to actively chase down the truck. It was also behind the disappearance of a boy in the late 1970s/early 1980s who did the same thing as the fat boy now and is now a fat, insane man who is more than willing to let the boy of 2011 trade places with him so the ice cream truck can feed off his soul}}.
 
== [[Music]] ==
* [[The Rutles]]' song "Doubleback Alley" has a line about ''the funny man in the ice cream van who [[Have a Gay Old Time|talked so queer]]...''
* [[Strapping Young Lad]]'s secret song from their album ''Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing'', "Satan's Ice Cream Truck" about [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]].
** The song was actualized into a real demonic ice cream truck by a fan of the band from Minnesota. The truck is referred to as Hell General. General because it is made from an AM General postal truck and Hell because of where it supposedly comes from.
* Steve Taylor's "I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good" is about an ice cream truck driver who bombs an abortion clinic.
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* ''[[The Far Side]]'' plays with this several times.
** ''I cuss, you cuss, we all cuss for asparagus!''
** There's another strip with the [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|self-explanatory]] Liver-And-Onions Truck. And kids are hiding from the truck, implying they'll get the treats whether they like it or not.
** There's also the Vaccination Truck.
* A ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'' comic has Pig getting hit by an ice cream truck.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In an episode of ''[[DextersDexter's Laboratory (Animation)|Dexters Laboratory]]'', the ice cream truck driver has a grudge against Dexter because he once paid him with a heavy jar of pennies which caused him [[Disaster Dominoes|to trip and break his tooth]] which in turn made him lose his apartment, his car, his girlfriend and forced him to live under a bridge, effectively causing [[Diabolus Ex Machina|his entire life to be ruined]]; and thus refuses to stop for him.
{{quote| '''Ice Cream Man:''' I can't even eat ice cream anymore, because of ''the pain!'' '''''All because of you and your stupid pennies!!!'''''}}
* ''[[Moral Orel (Animation)|Moral Orel]]'' has [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Mr. Creepler]], a pedophile and serial rapist. Fortunately by the third season he's been put through the Electric Chair, though he's left some lasting trauma on one of his victims. Sadly, he's only one of the several [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] of the series.
* ''[[Hey Arnold (Animation)|Hey Arnold]]'' had an ice cream man named "The Jolly Olly Man" (voiced by [[The Simpsons|Dan Castellaneta]], using a voice that sounds like a mix between his normal voice and a bitter, insane take on Arnie Pie [the helicopter news reporter who hates Kent Brockman]) who hated kids and in one episode was on the verge of getting fired because his attitude was hurting sales. In another episode, he tried charging kids $20 for ice cream during a heat wave.
* ''[[Codename Kids Next Door (Animation)|Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' had an entire organization of ice cream men that were keeping all the ice cream for the adults.
** Ice cream men are often used as Mooks for various villains.
* There's one in the first episode of ''[[My Life As a Teenage Robot (Animation)|My Life Asas a Teenage Robot]]''.
* The ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'' [[The Movie|movie]] has one of the villains steal an ice cream cart and use it as his vehicle in the finale. There's even a shot from the cart's point of view of him [[Memetic Molester|stalking towards it with an evil grin on his face]].
* In an episode of ''[[The Mighty B]]'', there's one of these: the driver gets pissed off at Bessie because she reports him to his manager {{spoiler|(just because he accidentally ran ''ONE'' stop sign in ten years of driving the truck)}}.
** In Bessie's defense, she thought she was calling the actual driver; she didn't know it was the phone number of his manager's office.
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