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Spontaneous Human Combustion: Difference between revisions
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A person’s body inexplicably catches fire or explodes without the aid of any external ignition sources. There's often no warning and not much in the way of an explanation.
A classic [[Urban Legends|Urban Legend]], hundreds of [[
As such, works of fiction tend to explore this subject in a few ways. Comedic works, more often than not, tend to let such occurrences happen without a clear explanation of how it happened being given. On the other hand, more serious stories—especially [[Speculative Fiction]] works or strange tales about the paranormal—may reveal some kind of explanation and may even reveal an external cause (likely one that is pseudoscientific and even more bizarre than '''Spontaneous Human Combustion''' already is on its own—possibly involving anything from aliens or ghosts causing it, an uncontrolled [[Pyrokinesis|Pyrokinetic]] ability, or something even weirder).
(In reality, it appears that most if not all alleged cases of '''Spontaneous Human Combustion''' were actually incidents of a slow-burning fire fed by melting body fat and consuming the body of a smoker after they die in their sleep and drop their cigarette onto their chair or bed. The [[
See Also: [[Made of Explodium]], [[Man On Fire]].
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In the original ''[[X 1999]]'' manga, Kamui's mom Tohru spontaneously combusted in the [[Backstory]]. The reason for this, however, was made pretty clear: She made herself a shadow sacrifice of the entire planet Earth and, by burning to death, delayed its destruction by [[Hollywood Global Warming]]. [[It Makes Sense in Context]].
** In [[The Movie]], Tohru is seen bursting in flames in Kamui's dream at the beginning. We don't know if she truly died like that, however.
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' villain Makoto Shishio meets his end this way. The story indicates that after being badly burned, he lost all of his sweat glands and can only stay in the sun for limited periods. The guy also has a [[Flaming Sword]] supposedly powered by the fat of people he's killed, which probably contributed to his end. While that detail is also totally pseudoscience, if you go with the assumption that spontaneous human combustion is possible, it's not ''that'' hard to believe it would happen to a guy wrapped in bandages covered in oil.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* A ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' story centered around a person who compulsively always had to one-up anyone around him who got more attention than him. One such person who got more attention than him was someone who spontaneously burst into flames at a dinner party, "and everyone figured that was about the coolest thing ever." The jealous main character of the piece did eventually do one better and went out with a nuclear bang... but he had to expose himself to radiation and get struck by lightning to do it after vain attempts to will himself to explode were complete failures.
* In the ''[[Strikeforce: Morituri]]'' "Electric Undertow" limited series, this happens to random people due to {{spoiler|1=psychic harvesting by the alien VXX199.}}
* In the final issue of ''[[Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja|Nth Man the Ultimate Ninja]]'', a character begins to combust soon after she arrives in the past. This is because [[Never the Selves Shall Meet|she's being born at the same moment, and cannot exist in two places simultaneously.]]
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'''Mulder:''' [grinning] Scully!
'''Scully:''' Well, isn't that where you were going with this?
'''Mulder:''' "Dear Diary, today my heart leapt when [[Agent Scully]] [[Mulder Moment|suggested spontaneous human combustion]]."
'''Scully:''' Mulder, there are one or two somewhat well-documented cases.
'''[Mulder nods, grinning]'''
'''Scully:''' Mulder, shut up. }}
* In the ''[[Bones]]'' episode "The Foot in the Foreclosure" they find ashes of a pair of lovers; Booth suspects SHC but Brennan says it's just an Urban Legend.
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Stuff Blowing Up]]
[[Category:Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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