Balloon Belly/Western Animation

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The Fairly Oddparents episode "Just Desserts". Timmy wishes every edible in the world was dessert, and after a month, everybody balloons to a big size, which becomes a big problem because all that combined weight causes Earth to hurtle towards the Sun!
  • SpongeBob SquarePants had this happen to Squidward when he over-indulged his new craving for Krabby Patties:

Squidward: What, am I gonna blow up?
SpongeBob: Worse! They'll go straight to your thighs!
Squidward: My thighs...? *New shot shows his tentacles have expanded to impossible proportions*
SpongeBob: And then you'll blow up!

    • This was apparently a well-known dilemma for the paramedics.
    • An earlier episode has SpongeBob accidentally feeding Squidward tons of Krabby patties... the shape his stomach acquires, however, is not that of a balloon.
      • Sandy in a recent episode.
  • This has happened to Shaggy and Scooby more times than man can count. In some cases, they can instantly shrink down to normal when they get scared soon after eating.
  • Subverted in My Gym Partner's a Monkey: Adam has the food court sell human food and all the animals quickly get addicted. Instead of the usual cartoon result, the animals gained more permanent weight. At the end of the episode they were shown jogging, trying to burn it off.
  • Predictably, a lot of "Hansel and Gretel" adaptations.
    • 2 Stupid Dogs had a trilogy of episodes where the mutts kept bumping into Little Red Riding Hood, who would then lead them on a search to find her grandmother's house. In one episode, they find themselves at the candy house from Hansel and Gretel, whereupon the witch hands the dogs various foodstuffs, demanding that they feed it to Red. One by one, the dogs toss them down her mouth into her stomach. A caption then suggests that this assembly line continues non-stop for two years and eight months, leaving Red enormously stuffed.
    • Oddly the two instances of carnivore in these episodes - Red and the dogs eaten by the witch and Granny eaten by the wolf - don't feature this, but the episode "Las Pelotas" does. Little Dog eats a compressed Big Dog, thinking it's a ball. Big Dog then returns to his normal size while inside Little Dog, seemingly filling out every part of his body.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures had this happen a few times, notably Superbabs in one episode. Her weakness was carrot cake; she couldn't resist it...
  • The Daffy Duck cartoon "Holiday For Drumsticks." Daffy convinces a turkey to starve himself to avoid becoming Thanksgiving dinner, while Daffy stuffs himself on the food meant to fatten up the turkey and becomes massively bloated.
  • This happened to Clifford and his friends when they ate too many dog treats in "Tummy Trouble", an episode of Clifford the Big Red Dog.
  • In the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "The Transplant", Courage defeats Kangaroo Eustace by feeding him croissants until he's too heavy for Eiffel Tower, and falls into the river. (Feeding it over the course of a minute, of course.)
    • This also happened in the episode "The King of Flan".
    • Eustace also gets one at the end of "Dome of Doom".
  • Drawn Together had a somewhat disturbing example, in an episode in which Toot fattened up to immobility.
  • In The Tag for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Cookie Dough", it shows Frankie eating cookies as seen earlier in the episode. Zoom out to enormous belly.
  • In the Charlie and the Chocolate Parody episode of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Ami and Yumi get a job at the "Wacky Wally" candy factory, and as soon as they're allowed on the factory floor the girls proceed to eat everything in sight. We soon see them lounging happily on a bed of chocolate, both with full, bulging stomachs. (their reprimand was not quite as strict as it should have been).
    • In the episode "Rock N Roe", Ami and Yumi eat all the sushi at an all-sushi-you-can-eat buffet and both get full, big bellies.
  • In an early Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy episode, "A Glass of Warm Ed", Ed sleepwalks and eats the other neighbor's food, giving himself a huge belly. Eddy then starts a breakfast business by retrieving the eaten food from Ed's stomach for the kids to eat.
    • In another episode, in which the Eds are pretending to be one another, Ed (pretending to be Eddy) makes Eddy (pretending to be Edd) drink enough juice to fill a swimming pool causing him to become massively bloated.

Ed: (As Eddy) Kids will pay big money to ride a blimp! You're a genius, Double-D!

    • Likewise, in an episode in which Ed and Edd are trying to make Eddy taller (due to the latter's hatred of being short), Ed convinces Eddy to eat an inflatable raft. As Edd points out-"Well, he's certainly...um...wider..."
    • Ed in "Flea Bitten Ed" due to his allergic reaction to Rolf's rabbits.
    • All 3 Eds get Balloon Bellies in a return from a commercial break after eating a huge sandwich together. Edd falls flat on his back at the end.
    • In the episode "Stop, Look and Ed" Sarah and Jimmy both get huge balloon bellies eating a mountain of ice cream while sliding down it.
  • In the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Out To Launch", the Rangers eat so much aboard the spacecraft that they all show much rounder shapes while relaxing and digesting. This does not exclude Gadget, she looks like she's pregnant.
    • This must have to do with the artificial space food. Monty can eat incredible amounts of cheese without bulging. And Bink from "Adventures in Squirrelsitting" can suck out an entire apple that's twice her size, not change her shape, and still be hungry.
  • In an early episode of The Simpsons, Bart imagined stuffing himself with chocolate until getting a balloon belly. In later episodes, this would actually happen several times with Homer.
    • Also happens to Patty and Selma after a banquet.
  • Happens several times to Garfield in Garfield and Friends. At least a couple of episodes are centered around that.
  • Played to disturbing effect in a 1937 cartoon short Pigs Is Pigs, in which a greedy piglet is strapped into a machine and force-fed until his stomach distends grotesquely. As the payoff, he can't resist just one more bite of pie on the way out...and explodes. Thankfully, it's All Just a Dream. (Not to be confused with the 1954 Pigs Is Pigs, which is a hilarious and adorable classic and not squicky at all.)
    • A Halloween episode of The Simpsons has a deliberate homage to "Pigs ...", where Homer goes to Hell and is force-fed donuts while strapped to the same "Feed-A-Matic" chair. The Devil is frustrated when a stuffed Homer happily says "More!" between mouthfuls. Matt Groening has said that the "Pigs is Pigs" scene is his favorite sequence in animation history.
  • Chuck Jones' Chow Hound leads up to this condition with a big dog who constantly bullies a cat and mouse to supply him with meat. He finally acquires all he can eat, and ends up in the hospital miserably distended, barely able to breathe. The cat and mouse reappear and utter the chilling last line "This time we didn't forget the gravy!"
  • In the Family Guy episode Da Boom, Peter eats a whole years worth of dehydrated meals, and then drinks a glass of water. Squicky hilarity ensues.

Peter: Everybody leave, I need to poop. NOW!!!

  • In Lilo & Stitch: The Series, this happens to Lilo, Pleakley and Stitch when they activate Experiment 062 (nicknamed Frenchfry), after Nani restricts Lilo's diet to health food. All the food Frenchfry makes not only blows the characters up like balloons , but never makes them feel full, leaving them always hungry. In the end, they find that he is secretly fattening them up so he can eat them (He reforms later after finding Nani's health food is just as delicious).
  • One of Inspector Gadget's less complicated technologies inflates his coat like a giant balloon, allowing him to float over obstacles.
  • An episode of Animaniacs began with Wakko drinking a huge root beer float, expanding, and floating back onto his seat afterwards. ...then he got hiccups.
    • He also did it with air in the first episode.
    • And with a meatball-eating contest in "Meatball or Consequences" (though it went away once the plot got started).
    • This happens to all three Warners in "Be Careful What You Eat" after gorging themselves on candy and ice cream.
  • The Kim Possible episode "Grande Size Me" had to do with Ron only eating food from Bueno Nacho, but then starts eating anything he sees. Over the course of the episode, he started to get much fatter.
    • Also, often played straight whenever Rufus eats at Bueno Nacho.
  • Happens to Clover in an episode of Totally Spies! due to some addictive cookies.
  • The KaBlam!! episode "Sasquatch-Ersize!" features Henry and June having to get fit due to them being overweight couch potatoes and eating too much (practically any food they saw in that episode).
  • Loona from HOOD has the power to inflate her body like a balloon. And The Inflation Fandom Rejoiced.
  • Jay Sherman from The Critic. He has one in a photo inside his girlfriend Alice's diamond locket, gets one from eating a giant bagpipe-playing potato, and turns into a giant blueberry from eating one of Willy Wonka's candies.
  • In the The Powerpuff Girls, the girls and the Mayor eat the whole candy jar and get full, big bellies in the episode "Candy is Dandy".
  • In the The Amazing Spiez episode "Operation The 50 Ft. Hacker", Davey Hacker steals a gadget that makes its target grow. When the kids are fighting the giant Davey, Megan uses it on herself, making herself as tall as Davey. After successfully defeating him, however, the gadget winds up malfunctioning, causing her to inflate like a giant balloon. Marc manages to revert her back to normal size shortly after.
  • An episode of Schnookums and Meat had the titular duo gaining these as the result of their lavish lifestyle and having to lose it before their owners get home.
  • This happened to Ned in an episode of Nightmare Ned...because two oversized little girls forced him to drink water until he had to "wet".
  • It happens to Jimmy, Beezy, and Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes after they eat too much chocolate.
  • In the Adventure Time episode Business Time, Finn and Jake get these as a result of giving all their work to the business men and becoming fat and lazy. Jake later uses his expanding belly to defeat the businessman's machine. At the end of the episode, Jake magically gets rid of the gut; unfortunately, Finn cannot do the same.
  • Lindsay gets one in the Total Drama World Tour episode "The Am-AH-zon Race" after eating too many bananas and she looks pregnant.
    • Blainley gets one in "Aftermath Aftermayhem" to relieve her bodily gas by burping and farting at the same time.
    • This seems to happen to most of the Total Drama girls at some point
  • Professor Farnsworth and Leela from Futurama all sport balloon bellies after swapping minds with Amy in the episode "The Prisoner of Benda". On Leela's fat body, Hermes remarks that she makes Fat Albert look like Normal Albert. Then Hermes swaps minds with Amy, who inverts the trope after witnessing Fry and Leela making out in Zoidberg and Farnsworth's bodies.
  • Happens to Arthur in the episode "Just Desserts" after eating a bunch of candy, followed by a big meal, followed by two slices of wedding cake. Later, in a dream sequence, it happens again in a much more exaggerated fashion.
  • The Codename: Kids Next Door episode, "Operation: N.O.-P.O.W.U.H." also had this happen to Numbuhs One, Three, Four, and Five after they were force fed Gramma Stuffem's food, before Numbuh Two showed up and proceeded to eat the food. It also happens to Numbuh Two later on in the same episode, though not quite as severe as his teammates.
  • George of the Jungle (2008): In the episode, "George Skips Breakfast", George kept his friends hungry throught the episode, and then when no one was around George ate his breakfast and got really fat (however he was more round around his body than his belly). But the others come back so hungry that they literally eat the dirt and trees around George, gaining really big bellies.
    • George also gets one when entering a pie eating contest.
  • In Batman the Brave And The Bold Plastic Man is quite prone to this, especially considering his rubbery body. One instance happens in "Terror on Dinosaur Island!", where he stuffs himself with loot during one of his kleptomania fits. In "Long Arm of the Law!", he intentionally gorged on water as a tactic to stop Rubberneck.
  • Stanley and Mary-Jane both get one in the first episode of Staines Down Drains after eating a giant, mutant, teddy-bear cookie.
  • Occurs twice in Recess: The first being "I Will Kick no More Forever" with Vince while drowning his sorrows, and the second being the DTV Grand Finale Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade with Gus as a result of him eating too much.
  • In the pilot episode of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Twilight Sparkle is overseeing preparations for the annual Summer Sun Celebration. One of the tasks on her checklists involves visiting the owners of Sweet Apple Acres, who are in charge of the food. Applejack (and her enormous family) invite her to brunch. Gilligan Cut to her walking with a bulging belly, groaning, "Ugh...I ate too much pie..."
    • Both Spike and Pinkie Pie have gained balloon bellies too.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Momo gets one of these in "The King of Omashu."
    • Sokka gets them sometimes, too.
  • In Sequel Series The Legend of Korra episode "The Spirit of Competition" Pabu, the Weasel Mascot gets one after joining his owner Bolin for a night of binging on noodles. (And while Bolin is a thickly built fellow to begin with, and wasn't seen from angles that made it any too clear, he looked a bit bloated himself.)
  • Played to comedic effect with Lulu's father in a Little Lulu episode (A Scout with the Gout). The situation is kinda hard to explain, (and believe me, I tried), so lets just say that Lulu's father ends up drinking the entire contents of a cave filled with water. Watch Here
    • This cartoon takes water sloshing to a ridiculous degree as poor Papa's belly behaves like an ocean wave, complete with breaking.
  • The Penguins of Madagascar: Skipper Gets one in the episode Action Reaction where he is accidentally doused with a mysterious chemical called Inflatium. The substance takes it's toll on him by making him inflate like a balloon when stressed.
  • Pete has a memorable one in the Goof Troop episode Calling all Goofs. Watch Here. Skip to 11:00.
  • In Take Two with Phineas and Ferb, Phineas gets one of these in a recent episode.
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