Bucket Booby Trap: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Josh''': Why was your bucket over our door?

A simple [[Practical Joke]] where an object is placed over a door, with the intent that it or the contents will fall on the person who fully opens the door. Most frequently this is a pail of water or more noxious liquid, but erasers and other messy objects can also be used. Often results in [[Covered in Gunge]] or [[Powder Gag]]. Occasionally used semi- seriously by filling the bucket with a deadly or dangerous substance.

This trope is subverted about as often as it works properly. Frequently, the intended victim will spot the trap, or come in by another way, or an unintended victim will be the one to enter (often the original prankster).

* At the beginning of ''[[Naruto]]'', it was done with erasers. [[Obfuscating Stupidity|Kakashi fell for it]].

* The eraser variant happens in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima|Negima]]'' too. When Negi comments on how uncreative it is, he takes another step forward and immediately hits another (much more creative) trap that did include a bucket.

* A more complex form than is necessary is set up ''twice'' in a ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' omake. It never hits its intended target.

* As seen in the above picture, Jimmy Olsen once did this to [[Superman]] by rigging the bucket ''over a wall'', correctly predicting that Superman would burst through it, [[There Was a Door|à la Kool-Aid Man]].

* The first Superman/[[Spider-Man]] team-up comic, made back in the 1970s, had [[Jerkass|Steve Lombard]] trying to pull this gag on Clark Kent. However, Clark ([[Clark Kenting|a.k.a. You-Know-Who]]) used his [[Super Breath]] to prevent the bucket from falling. When Steve checked out the gag, he got drenched.

* Superman's foe the Prankster once rigged up a lethal variant involving a water tank holding several hundred gallons of water suspended above an aircraft hangar door. If his kidnap victim, Perry White, managed to escape, opening the door would release the tank.

* Subverted in ''[[Horror of Party Beach]]'', when the victim turned out to be a bunch of slime monsters.

* The most recent ''[[The Parent Trap (1961 film)|The Parent Trap]]'' remake has this gag with Lindsey Lohan.

* This is done to Richard Pryor in his movie ''[[The Toy]]'' by the kid that buys him. Near the end of the movie he does it right back to the kid.

* ''[[Good Omens]]'' has Crowley do this with Holy Water, and uses it to kill a Duke of Hell. Notably, the bucket of Holy Water was treated like a bomb.

** Considering Crowley's a demon too, it would be pretty stupid of him not to treat it like a bomb.

* In a ''[[Star Trek]]'' novel, this happens to Worf at Starfleet Academy. The prankster got to spend some time in the infirmary.

* In [[Michael Jackson]]'s autobiography, ''Moonwalk'', he mentions that he and his brothers loved this prank and would set up buckets of water over the hotel room door all the time while on tour, trying to soak each other or anybody else who might come to see them. He says this even continued through the Jacksons' last tour, the Victory Tour in 1984, when Michael would have been ''twenty-six'' years old.

* Regularly attempted in the [[Billy Bunter]] stories, usually with the bucket containing a noxious mixture of ink, soot and gum. Rarely was the trap sprung by the intended victim: usually the form master Mr. Quelch ended up drenched, and always seemed to know who was responsible.

* The quote on this page comes from ''[[Drake and Josh]]'', where Megan and her mean celebrity friend decide to prank Drake and Josh with the bucket over the door. However, it backfires, and knocks the celebrity unconscious.

* Think of a show with a [[Summer Campy|summer camp]]: this gag inevitably appears. It must be a rule, or something.

* In the pilot episode of ''[[Moonlighting]]'', David Addison has an empty bucket perched over his office door, apparently on general principles. When receptionist Agnes DiPesto falls victim to the prank, David remarks, "Ms. DiPesto, you're looking a little pail."

* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' did this several times.

* As does Jason in ''[[FoxTrot]]'', it never quite works.

* Wanting to get the attention of the their leader [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] alliance members Shawn Stasiak and Stacy Keibler set one of these up for [[Kurt Angle]]. Knowing that he goes to catering to have a glass of milk before each match they put a bucket of sour rancid milk over the door before his match. Unfortunately for them Angle was not the next person to come into the room, it was Austin's buxom wife Debra who received the gungy surprise shower, Stone Cold was not amused but the audience loved it

* Mel Edison in ''[[The Prisoner Of Second Avenue]]'' gets a bucket of water dumped on him twice by his upstairs neighbors.

* Played straight in the ''[[Spy vs. Spy]]'' video game, where you could set up a bucket of something deadly (appears to be electrified water, complete with [[X-Ray Sparks]]) for your opponent...but if you forget which entrance it is in, you'd kill yourself.

* The "Tool Use" skill in ''[[Avernum]]'' is illustrated with a picture of an unfortunate individual about to spring a trap of this nature. The bucket is labeled "acid." (''Avernum'' does not take itself particularly seriously.)

* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' - not that it had no better traps, but a closed door blocks vertical movement too, thus if floor on the level above it is channeled out and something is dumped into the hole (buckets and other containers won't spill contents, but [[Hammerspace|an arbitrary number of]] anvils or e.g. pouring some ''[[Lava Adds Awesome|magma]]'' works), it won't fall until the door is opened or broken.

* ''[[Catena]]'' in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130913094429/http://catenamanor.com/2007/09/10/bear-likes-his-scars/ this strip], using a shed tarantula skin.

* ''[[Questionable Content]]'' has it subverted beautifully in [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=786 this strip].

** [[Hilarity Ensues]] when [[Troll|Kanaya]] [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004600 sees it], as buckets are involved in the Trolls' [[Bizarre Alien Reproduction]], and Trolls thus find them obscene.

* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', "Just One Patty": Squidward discovers that the Krusty Krab's security system involves a bucket full of gasoline over the front door... and a lit match... [[Fridge Logic|underwater, somehow]]... For obvious reasons, this is sometimes cut out.

* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'': in "Squeeze the Day" Bloo and Mac are alone in the house and decide to put a bucket over the front door. Only the others would not be back for hours, and Bloo wants to see it ''now'', so they try to do it to themselves, with disastrous results.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Door Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Practical Joke]]