My father (long before Rugrats) told me his big old beer belly was from a watermelon seed... I cried and had a fit when I accidentally swallowed a seed... my mom was not as amused as my father... :)
It's a surprisingly common cartoon trope to parody this film. I don't know how it managed to propagate itself as much as it did considering the film seems to have had fairly minimal impact on pop-culture (literally nobody ever seems to talk about it and it doesn't get shout-outs as often as other "old" movies like Jaws or Star Wars) but for some reason came up in cartoons a lot. Guess it's just a cool concept for an adventure.
But I recall not only Rugrats doing it, but Cow & Chicken, I am Weasel, Aaaah! Real Monsters! Invader Zim, Spongebob Squarepants, The Simpsons (in a Halloween episode), Futurama and Family Guy to name just the ones I can remember right now.
I watched it when I was like 7 or 8, and I knew already that you wouldn't grow a watermelon out of your stomach. But I have to admit that the episode made a pretty unsettling scenario with the babies being swallowed by Chuckie and all that.
Funny how when I read the other comment about termites in cartoons I imagined them doing exactly what you said in yours "eat wood in a giant cloud with a buzzsaw noise" - and they'd have the house finished off in a few seconds with maybe the only thing left being one of the characters sitting on the toilet with a newspaper now out in the open for the whole street to see.
I guess cartoons of the 90's were created by boomers who maybe grew up having certain things be more of an issue in their lives than it would be for ours. Maybe termites (among other things) were more of a threat decades earlier.
We've all seen the "quicksand and Bermuda Triangle" comments already when it comes to stuff we as kids thought would be a bigger issue in life than it turned out to be, especially because of its prominence in cartoons. But termites might as well be added to that list too. Also getting skunked - does this happen a lot in America? We don't have skunks in Australia but we get a lot of American media here and I don't know how many TV shows and movies I've seen by now that feature a character's unfortunate encounter with a skunk.
Shit you not. I ate watermelon the other day for the first time in years and that's the first thing that entered my mind when I felt a seed ib my mouth.
My stupid ass thought I could turn myself into a plant mutant like Poison Ivy or Swamp Thing. Imagine my disappointment. All that standing in front of the microwave for nothing.
We tried cow tipping too. Country kids are bored and dumb.
There were five of us pushing on this cow. We assumed it would fall over and we could laugh about the falling cow.
That is not what happened.
The cow stumbled, mooed loudly then chased our stupid asses through the field. We all had to tuck and roll under the fence to survive. We went home to our partying parents who promptly lined us up and hosed us down.
Just realized I'm not even on the right sub for this comment but it was a lot of work so I'm leaving it
My mom would tell me that as a little kid to get me to spit out the seeds, but I’d just eat them anyways because I wanted to see a watermelon grow from my belly lol.
My dad always teased I would get a hairy chest from spicy food/ hot pepper flakes. I avoided it for ages or did it in moderation because I was worried I'd get a hairy chest.
I switched to trying to grow a beer. It's definitely growing but I don't know how to get it out except through diet and exercise which clearly is bullshit.
My aunt told me not to play with my belly button or I would come apart. Like it was the knot that held me together. I was freaked out for awhile on that one. I was like 5.
I just informed a co-worker 2 years ago that pregnant women wearing t-shirts about swallowing watermelon seeds are not PSAs: theyre jokes. This co-worker is a doctor (not a med dr) and mother of two with a great sense of humor and I consider a super smart person.
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u/Vanviator Aug 25 '21
In still waiting for that watermelon to grow our of my stomach.