Starfire, hurry up! You've been in there for twenty minutes! And I'm not paper-trained!
— Beast Boy, Teen Titans, "Transformation"
Someone takes their sweet time in a bathroom while another person (or several people) is yelling at them through the door to hurry up and finish. The offender may be taking an absurdly long bath or shower, adjusting their hair or makeup, being picky about what clothes to wear, reading on the toilet, or anything else that takes a comically long amount of time and annoys other people desperately needing to go #1.
This trope is pretty common with young siblings, due to their tendency to fight over every little thing and a mutual need to get ready for school in the morning. (The more siblings there are, the funnier it is. A family with Massive Numbered Siblings might end up forming a queue outside the bathroom.) One sibling might even hog the bathroom on purpose just to annoy the other(s).
This does not count if someone has legitimate reasons to be using the bathroom for a lengthy amount of time, for example, if they have a medical condition.
Variations:
- Someone hogs a public single-use bathroom to do something private that has nothing to do with actual bathroom activities, hoping the unwritten rule of "don't bother someone on the toilet" will keep people from interrupting what they're doing. It usually doesn't.
Related:
- Bathroom Control: Not letting someone else use the bathroom as a punishment.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Is likely to hog the bathroom to do her hair and makeup, locking the rest of the family out.
- I'll Be in My Bunk: Someone might be occupying the bathroom to masturbate. Usually a Hormone-Addled Teenager or adult.
- Jar Potty: Someone might try using one of these when the bathroom is occupied.
- Nature Tinkling: Sometimes, the one who's waiting will opt to do their business outside.
- Potty Emergency: Someone really needs to use the bathroom, but can't. Guess what might be causing that.
- Potty Failure: The possible end result.
- Right on Queue: What may happen if multiple people are waiting for the bathroom.
- Vanity Is Feminine: A female character might be hogging the bathroom because she's taking too long to do her makeup and hair.
- Wait for Your Date: A female character takes hours to put on her makeup, to the frustration of the man who's ready to go.
Examples:
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Advertising
- A series of commercials for Charmin toilet paper features an animated family of bears.
- In one ad, the father is enjoying the softness of the paper so much that he hogs the bathroom while the rest of the family line up outside the door. The son calls out, "C'mon, Dad, you've been in there forever!"
- In a different ad, the family has run out of it and are using an unnamed brand. The father refuses to leave the bathroom until the mother returns with more Charmin.
- Vrbo extols the advantages of renting a house instead of a hotel room by asking if the girls out group would *really* want to share the bathroom, implying that this trope would have happen if they don't rent a multi-bath house instead.
Anime & Manga
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: In Stone Ocean, after a Jerkass prisoner refuses to pay back the money she owed, Jolyne discretely uses her Stone Free to drop pieces of metal into her drink to force a Potty Emergency while Jolyne holds up the bathroom until the prisoner pays her back.
- Monster Musume: In one episode, Papi is seen doing a Potty Dance in front of the bathroom door while Suu is in there. Judging by the time jumps, Suu is in there for quite a while, as Papi's squirming gets more frantic.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Invoked in chapter 31 when the Big Bad captures Konoka and puts a talking decoy in the bathroom to make it seem like she's been in there for a while. A very desperate Yue kicks the door in and discovers the ruse.
Audio Plays
- Sonic the Hedgehog Presents: The Chaotix Casefiles: Episode 0 opens with Vector practicing his “cool, hard-boiled detective” voice in the bathroom, much to Charmy’s annoyance.
Comic Books
- Incandescence: Dustin tries to take a shower before he goes to the movies, but his mom’s in the bathroom. She belligerently tells him to go away and takes so long to leave the bathroom that Dustin ends up late for his bus and the movie.
Comic Strips
- Marvin: In one comic, Roy's been in the bathroom for twenty minutes, much to the annoyance of his family members. Marvin says that having to wait on other people is another reason he never wants to be toilet-trained.
- Zits: One strip by Jim Borgman has Walt Duncan bang on the bathroom door of his house, complaining that his son, Jeremy, has been showering for a half hour. To his surprise, Jeremy walks up to him, remarking that he'd almost forgotten he'd started the shower to get the water temperature stabilized. Jeremy then enters the bathroom to begin his shower.
Fan Works
- In the Gullfriend31 fic Flush Photography
(which is a PAW Patrol story), Cap'n Turbot is at a family reunion and he's using Tilly's only bathroom as a darkroom to develop photos of the merpups. His relatives get tired of waiting, and Francois kicks the door open, causing his pictures to blacken.
- In an art piece called Toilet Fight, Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls is hogging the bathroom so she can look pretty. Blossom and Buttercup are very annoyed because they want to take a bath, and Bunny does the Potty Dance while Breeze has fallen asleep while standing up.
- Our Week Off Together!: On the first night, Amity does some Mirror Monologue in The Owl House's bathroom. King interrupts her with:
King: Hey! Quit hogging the bathroom with external monologuing! I need to take my bubble bath!
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe fic The Storms of War begins with Steve, Wanda, Sam, and Natasha hiding out at a motel where the latter is currently showering, which, according to Steve, takes the entire morning. This keeps her from answering her phone, which Steve eventually answers, thinking it's one of her contacts. The caller turns out to be Sharon who, not knowing she's talking to Steve, expresses her sexual frustrations and that she's tired of waiting for Steve to come around. After the initial embarrassment, Steve, feeling guilty for leaving her behind during the events of Captain America: Civil War, becomes more motivated to reunite with her and rekindle their relationship.
Films — Animated
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2022): Rodrick gives Greg advice on how to get out of doing chores, claiming that he should hide in the bathroom until some poor sap finishes the work first.
Films — Live-Action
- Boogie Nights: Eddie Adams as Dirk Diggler spends a lot of time in the bathroom trying to achieve an erection. This is not so easy, as he's been on a cocaine binge. When Dirk finally appears on set, he learns that producer Jack Horner has replaced him with another actor, so Dirk storms off in a pique.
- Implied in Caddyshack, Danny stands in line with his other siblings while waiting to use the bathroom while his younger sister Kathleen takes a shower.
- In the opening scene of Cheaper by the Dozen, second oldest sister Lorraine holds up the bathroom by brushing her hair and applying makeup, annoying her Tomboy sister Sarah.
- In Cheaper by the Dozen 2, when Sarah nervously prepares for a date with Elliot to the movie theater, her sisters Nora, Jessica, and Kim bang on the door and scream at her to hurry up because Nora is very pregnant and has to pee really bad. Nora gives up waiting and decides to go in the bushes instead.
- A Christmas Story: Ralphie locks himself in the bathroom for privacy while he decodes the secret message in the Little Orphan Annie broadcast. He continues working at it despite his younger brother Randy pounding on the door and begging him to hurry up because he has to go.
- Eve's Bayou: Eve needs the bathroom, however her elder sister Cicely is busy taking a bath. An impatient Eve bangs on the door demanding to use the bathroom.
- Gosford Park: When the maids are in an orderly queue to use the bathroom, Elsie as the head housemaid goes straight to the front, ignoring the protests behind her, and spends a lot of time chatting with Mary while she takes her bath.
- The Great Muppet Caper: Kermit, Gonzo, and Fozzie use Pops's only bathroom as a darkroom to develop photos of the jewel thief. Pops yells at them to hurry it up, as a line of very frantic people is outside. They try to finish developing the pictures, only for the guests to break the door down and ruin the photos due to the bright light.
- The Hand of God: Fabietto's older sister Daniela is The Voice for most of the film, as people are always yelling at her to get out of the bathroom. She has multiple conversations with Fabietto from inside the bathroom, which, it seems, she never leaves.
- In Overboard, when Dean and his wife Annie argue over Dean's absence from the house and inattentiveness to his kids, Annie complains that their eldest son Travis only reads smut magazines and that she can't get him out of the bathroom.
- 16 Wishes: Abby is doing her hair and makeup on the morning of her 16th birthday. Her brother tries to force her out after she's been in there for 32 minutes, but she doesn't care.
- Wish You Were Here: Just before the scene where Dave has sex with Lynda, she hammers on the bathroom door, muttering that he has been in there getting himself ready for "bloody hours". When he finally emerges, he is in yellow pyjamas and has a cigarette in a holder.
- Mentioned as a gag in Young Frankenstein when Igor recounts the things his father would say when he suffered a failure:
Igor: What the hell are you doing in the bathroom all day and night? Why don't you get out of there and give someone else a chance?
- Yours, Mine, and Ours: In the 2005 remake, Frank Beardsley decides to defy the trope by only allowing each member of his newly blended family 7 minutes each in the bathroom to do whatever they need to do.
Jokes
- At Sunday school, the teacher asks the class where they think Jesus lives.
Little Timmy: At church.
Little Susie: In our hearts.
Little Johnny: In the bathroom.
Teacher: Why the bathroom?
Little Johnny: Every morning, my sister takes forever to get ready in the bathroom and my dad bangs on the door and yells, "Jesus Christ, are you still in there?!?"
Literature
- Adrian Mole: In True Confessions, Adrian describes a typical day in which he runs into the bathroom before his parents get up, and lies in the bath ignoring demands for entry, insisting on a period of quiet before he starts his day. He adds that it's not his fault that the only lavatory is in the bathroom.
- Andy Griffiths' Just Series: In the story "In the Shower with Andy", Andy uses a caulking gun to fill in the cracks in the shower so he can fill it up for a swim. His older sister Jen yells at him to get out of there because he's been in there for thirty minutes, but he lies that he's just washing his hair.
- Arthur: In "Arthur's Tooth", it's noted that Arthur tends to spend a long time in the bathroom, trying to get his loose tooth out. Jane, David, and DW are standing outside, looking annoyed.
- The Berenstain Bears: Brother and Sister are usually good about sharing the bathroom. However, in Get in a Fight, Sister goes into the bathroom before Brother and takes a very long time brushing her teeth, washing up, and brushing her fur, causing Brother to bang loudly on the door and shout at her to come out. This gets the attention of Papa, who reprimands him for doing so. Brother tells Papa that Sister is taking too long in the bathroom and is doing so on purpose.
- Big Nate: In one book, Nate says that his older sister Ellen often hogs the bathroom, and there is an illustration of her plucking her eyebrows while Nate yells at her to hurry up in there.
- Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín: Played for Drama when the Irish Country Mouse Eilis sails to America and learns that each bathroom is shared by two cabins in third class. Moreover, there's a storm that leaves everyone seasick. The other cabin just locks her out of the bathroom for the first day, forcing her to resort to a bucket, so her roommate breaks in and locks them out for the next day. They agree to share after that, but it casts a definite pall on her immigration.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
- In Rodrick Rules, Greg mentions that Rodrick often hides in the bathroom for an hour to get out of having to wash the dishes. Greg is annoyed by this, as he has to do this all himself, and when he complains to his parents, Rodrick defends himself by claiming that, "My body is on a schedule."
- In The Third Wheel, Manny has a bunch of imaginary friends. When they "go to the bathroom" with him, he won't let anyone else use it until they're all finished. The accompanying illustration shows Greg doing a Potty Dance while banging on the bathroom door and yelling, "Hurry it up in there!"
- In Hard Luck, Greg says that whenever there is a family get-together, he just hides in the bathroom for a while so he won't have to talk to anybody until it's time to eat.
- Subverted in The Long Haul. Greg rushes to a gas station bathroom and thinks someone's taking their time in there, but as it turns out, nobody's in there and he just needs the key.
- In The Getaway, Greg discovers the plane's bathroom and hides in there so he can have more legroom. Whenever anyone knocks on the door, he blows raspberries to make it seem like he's taking a long dump.
- In the Rosemary Wells book Fiona's Little Accident, Fiona needs to pee at school, but someone is taking too long in the bathroom. By the time the person leaves, she's called up to present her volcano to the class and she does not make it.
- Fudge: In Superfudge, Peter has a Potty Emergency due to having too much punch at a party earlier, but his mother is taking forever in the shower and Fudge is on the can. He's briefly tempted to use a potted plant until Fudge says he's done.
- Howl's Moving Castle: Howl's daily routine involves taking up the bathroom for two hours every morning doing his hair and general primping, much to his housemates' irritation. We therefore know that things are getting very serious near the book's climax when he rushes out of the castle looking like utter bedraggled hell rather than his usual elegant self.
- In a Minute, Mom: To let Rory know how it feels to not be punctual, his older sister Tina deliberately takes forever in the bathroom. He's so desperate that he does a Potty Dance.
- I Really Have to Go! by Fiona Rempt is all about Bram the protagonist going through a Potty Emergency. He finally gets home, but his older brother Tom is on the toilet and taking his time, and his mother is taking a long shower in the upstairs bathroom.
- In Mother of Learning, Zorian's sister typically does this at the start of the time loop, on purpose, to force him to speak to his mother about taking her with him to the academy. Zorian acknowledges she is a kid and doesn't understand that it would be counter-productive.
- In the kids' book Potty Animals: What to Know When You've Gotta Go!, it's noted that Helga always takes forever in the bathroom because she reads on the toilet and makes funny faces in the mirror, causing her friends to get angry at her for "lollygagging".
- Ratburger: When Zoe takes her secret pet rat into the girls' toilet at school to feed him a "bread sandwich" and name him, Tina complains that she's taking a long time.
- Who's in the Loo? is all about this. Someone is taking a long time in the zoo's bathroom and holding up the line, and two kids wonder which animal it could be. It turns out to be an octopus, who's washing his eight hands.
- The Witches: Grandma and the mouse-boy make a plan for him to sneak into the Grand High Witch's hotel room and steal a sample of Mousemaker. When the Grand High Witch hears Grandma calling for him to hurry up and come out quickly, she asks who the old woman is talking to. Grandma uses the excuse that her grandson has been spending hours in the bathroom because he's reading a book and lost track of time.
Live-Action TV
- The A-Team: In "There Goes the Neighborhood", the team are hiding out in suburbia while bodyguarding a singer and one scene features B.A. hammering on the bathroom door, yelling at Face to come out before he breaks it in. Face emerges after a few seconds, looking perfectly groomed as usual, and loftily tells B.A. that perfection takes a while.
- The Brittas Empire: In "Reviewing the Situation", Colin is given the opportunity to produce a review of Gavin's performance at work, which he uses to fixate on every mistake that Gavin does. This includes the fact that Gavin apparently takes 23 minutes to go to the bathroom, which Colin believes that Gavin is deliberately doing to shirk work.
- Charmed: In one episode of Season 1, Prue casts a spell to triple her power, which ends up creating two clones of her. She thus ends up hogging both bathrooms in the manor at once along with the kitchen sink the next morning to get ready, and all the hot water's gone when she's done.
- 8 Simple Rules: After learning that Kerry lost her virginity, Bridget decides to lord it over her. When Kerry complains that Bridget was taking too long in their shared bathroom, Bridget retorts that she was doing "virgin stuff". In an episode of the first season, when Paul asks what is Bridget doing in the bathroom that is taking so long, Kerry then sarcastically says "we could rule out reading".
- Everybody Loves Raymond: An entire episode revolves around the domestic politics of who gets priority bathroom access. Ray discovers that even in a household with two bathrooms, he's still at the end of the queue behind his wife and three children. All of whom take their time, for various reasons.
- Full House: The conflict of "A House Divided" kicks off when Joey spends an hour in the only accessible bathroom in the house, much to everyone else's frustration. Dialogue reveals that, given the large amount of people living under one roof and the relative lack of toilet space, the family has actually had to make a schedule about who uses the bathroom when to prevent this very problem.
- Full Frontal parodied a toilet paper advert where a kid keeps knocking on the bathroom door, but his dad's using it. In the parody, the kid eventually explodes from the pressure.
- Home Improvement: When the Taylors have relatives over for Christmas in "T'was the Night Before Chaos," Randy and Mark race from upstairs to the downstairs bathroom because Aunt Nancy is giving the twins a bath in one, and, according to Randy, Uncle Marty is in the other and "took five magazines with him."
- Joan of Arcadia: The first season episode "Drive, He Said" opens with Kevin and Luke trying to get into the bathroom, which is locked. They both assume it's Joan who's merely hogging the bathroom to get ready (Kevin even claims she already looks good) when it's actually Helen, who's locked herself in the bathroom because she thinks she might be pregnant (though it turns out not to be the case).
- Legends of Tomorrow: The Waverider only has one bathroom for the entire crew. It's never an issue until a change in the timeline turns Zari into a stereotypical social media-obsessed influencer Womanchild who tends to spend a lot of time in the bathroom to make herself look pretty, while the rest of the team is lining up outside waiting for her to finish.
- Malcolm in the Middle: After Lois and Hal accidentally burn down Craig's house, they ask him to stay at their house until his house is rebuilt, which they immediately regret as he uses the fact that they burned down his house to get what he wants, including using the bathroom for a long time, and leaving a mess when he finally finishes.
- In My Wife and Kids, Junior takes up the habit of hogging the bathroom due to him going through puberty. His parents notice that he takes cookbooks and magazines into the bathroom and his sisters bang on the door and complain because they really need to use the bathroom. It comes back to bite Junior in the end when he injures himself and his doctors tell him to stop masturbating so much.
- On Our Own: One stinger featured the various family members starting to line up outside the bathroom, until they all realize that all of them are out of the bathroom, leading to the question of who's in it? At that point, the toilet is heard flushing, the door unlocks... and reveals the family's dog.
- The Really Loud House: In "Get Out of Dodgeball", Rip Hardcore showers all day, resulting in Lisa having to pee in a bucket.
- Unfabulous: In "The Road Trip", Addie's dad is singing in the bathroom and he won't come out, much to a very frantic Addie's chagrin. She squirms as he continues to sing in there.
Magazines
- Highlights for Children: In the short story "No One Ever Listens To Me!", Patty Jo is frustrated when her brother Matt is taking too long in the bathroom and yells at him to hurry up because she's going to be late for school. He just says, "Too bad," and takes even longer.
Music
- At the end of "I'm Not Gay" by J Pee, we see the singer in the shower as his roommates demand he gets out. They complain that he takes too long, and he defends himself by claiming that it's because he's gay. This leads to the twist that all of the men in the house are gay, with the singer in particular just being particularly flamboyant — and, as shown, rather inconsiderate. They then threaten to burn his pink socks if he doesn't get out, but he's currently wearing them, which is where the video ends.
- In I Gotta Poop by Gamble, a guy in a bathrobe is seen taking up the bathroom to read about physics, clip his toenails, take selfies, cut fruit, and play Operation.
Puppet Shows
- Dinosaurs: In "Nature Calls", Earl mistakenly believes that Baby has flushed himself down the toilet, so he spends the whole night trying to plunge him back out. By the next morning, he's still at it, and an impatient Charlene and Robbie are standing outside the bathroom. Charlene then whacks the door open with her tail, revealing that Earl has pried the toilet off the floor in his search for his youngest son.
- Parodied in Under the Umbrella Tree. Iggy, who sleeps on a shelf in a bookcase in the living room, is frustrated with the lack of privacy. In a desperate attempt to get some peace and quiet, he moves into the bathroom, using the tub as a bed. This doesn't go well, due to Holly needing to use the bathroom, Gloria wanting to brush her teeth, and Jacob forgetting to remove Iggy's bedding from the tub when he turns on the water for a bath. Iggy moves back to the shelf, installing some curtains, which remain for the rest of the series.
Theatre
- Avenue Q: The preview showings and final performance of the British production featured an intermission video called "Time", in which Nicky is in the bathroom during the show's intermission using the restroom's only toilet stall and, as the song title says, takes his time. As the song goes on, the people waiting for the toilet become angry, and Nicky asks for the audience's help to help drown out their complaining by singing along to the song.
- Be More Chill: Michael is accused of this by the chorus during "Michael in the Bathroom" where Michael sings about hiding out in the bathroom during the party because he doesn't have anyone to hang out with.
Video Games
- EarthBound: It happens from the VERY BEGINNING when you go into a building where the bathroom is located at. A man suddenly rushes into the nearest men's bathroom, and stays there THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE GAME. Upon the near-end of the game, entering the place where he has been holed up comes out, apologizing for taking so long.
- A sidequest in Wall Market in Final Fantasy VII involves a woman who is having terrible stomach problems and is hogging the bathroom in a bar there, someone else doing a Potty Dance outside. You can get a Pharmacy Coupon elsewhere and exchange it for either a Disinfectant, Deodorant or Digestive. Digestive gives the best reward, but surprisingly any of them will get her off the toilet, at which point the guy doing the dance races in.
- Mass Effect 3: After the party in the Citadel DLC, Garrus remarks that it's a good thing Shepard's new apartment has so many bathrooms, because Miranda takes forever to do her hair in the morning.
- Super Paper Mario: Chapter 4-2 largely revolves around Squirps suddenly having the adventure halted with his Potty Emergency, with the sole source of a bathroom on the planet occupied by the pixel Fleep, who (in a sing-song tone) refuses to leave said bathroom until he gets some toilet paper.
- Tomodachi Life (2013): In one news report, a Mii locks themselves in a public bathroom when everyone laughs at them for belchingnote loudly. The ones who made fun of them soon have to go, but the Mii refuses to open the door for what is said to be a "leg-crossingly long time".
- A Weekend In Puzzleburg: The town's bathrooms for females are usually occupied, at least on the first day:
Hotel Bathroom: It's already occupied. Why must there always be a line for the ladies' room?
Arcade Bathroom: Occupied. Just once can there not be a line for the women's room?
Web Animation
- GoAnimate:
- In "Little Jimmy Needs to Go Pee", a boy named Jimmy wets his pants because his mother, Nancy, is on the toilet. She outright states that she's "gonna be a while".
- In Elmo Poops and Swears on Sesame Street/Fired/Grounded, Elmo has been watching videos in the bathroom for forty minutes. Outside, a woman orders him to hurry up since the show starts in just a few minutes, much to his annoyance.
- In Karen Takes Too Long on the Toilet, Karen the Obnoxious Entitled Housewife stays in a public restroom for two hours straight. A three-year-old boy named Leo then pees his pants and his parents call the cops on Karen for this.
- In I Need the Loo, two guys named Jim and Chris argue over who should use the bathroom first. Jim then says he'll take a long time on purpose just to get revenge on Chris.
- In Drunk in the Toilet Again- GoAnimate Version, a woman yells at her heavily inebriated husband to hurry up because he's been in the bathroom forever.
- In "Little Jimmy Needs to Go Pee
Webcomics
- MoringMark - TOH Comics: In one comic, an annoyed Gus tells Hunter to hurry up when the latter is in the bathroom. Hunter claims to have an upset stomach, but when Gus asks him if he's just washing his hair, Hunter pauses and says no.
- Pocket Princesses: One strip features Ariel frustrating three other princesses (Belle, Rapunzel and Snow White, the last of whom is definitely Not a Morning Person) by spending 40 minutes in the bathroom singing. In the continuity (such as it has any) of the comics, this is because Ariel can only speak when she's a mermaid and in water (instead of just when Ursula took her voice in the film), so presumably she's trying to make the most of her voice while she can. Still doesn't excuse her behaviour.
Rapunzel: ARIEL!! Magical hair needs washing TOO!
Web Videos
- SuperMarioLogan:
- Show Within a Show example; in "Bowser Junior's Punishment!", Bowser watches an episode of Charleyyy & Friends where Charleyyy is suffering from a Potty Emergency while someone (implied to be Shrek) is hogging the bathroom. Charleyyy ultimately settles on pooping in a litter box, saying that if cats can do it, then so can he.
- In "Junior's Embarrassing Video!", Junior finds himself needing to poop, but can't use the bathroom since Chef Pee Pee is already in there. Chef Pee Pee tells Junior to hold it, but Junior tells him that he doesn't think that he can. Sure enough, Junior ends up pooping his pants. When Chef Pee Pee gets out of the bathroom, he makes Junior wear a diaper. When Bully, who is Junior's partner for a school assignment, comes to Junior's house, he films Junior in a diaper with his phone and threatens to show the video to everyone in class unless Junior does as he says.
- In Toad's music video "I Gotta Pee", Toad spends a long time in the bathroom, much to Ray Cheesy's dismay, as he urgently has to pee. Then it's revealed that the reason Toad's been taking so long is that he has clogged the toilet. Cue the Big "WHY?!" from Ray.
- Tales Unwritten: While Karna is playing a concert at The Lucky Break, Maud decides to use the opportunity to break into the Jack of Aces' office by using the single bathroom's window and scaling the building from the outside. Maud does it twice, which by the time she returns to the bathroom, someone outside the bathroom is banging on the door, asking her to hurry up. Maud can only excuse herself by saying she's taking a really bad shit because of some bad fish she ate.
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball: "The Curse" starts with the Watterson family waiting outside the bathroom while Gumball takes his sweet time in the shower.
- Angry Beavers: In "Too Loose Latrine", Dag has a Potty Emergency after clogging the toilet in his bathroom (he was flushing down random things earlier), but Norb refuses to leave his own bathroom, as he's testing out new hairstyles. Dag spends the rest of the episode trying to distract himself, only to run into things that keep reminding him of his urge.
- Bob's Burgers:
- At the start of "Beefsquatch", Gene asks Linda if he can pee in the sink since Bob is taking a long shower. She says he can as long as he moves the dishes out of the way (and apparently, she has let him do this before).
- In "Beach, Please", Teddy keeps going into the restaurant's bathroom to admire his new mustache in the mirror, much to Bob's annoyance.
- In "Sleeping with the Frenemy", Tammy is staying at the Belcher household, and her general brattiness is a real test of patience for them. One of the ways she annoys them is by taking a very long shower and squandering all the hot water. The rest of the Belchers are waiting outside impatiently and Tina in particular is doing a Potty Dance.
- Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese: The plot of "Game of Throne" is jumpstarted by this. At the beginning of the episode, the girls have been in the bathroom for an hour doing their hair. As such, the guys stage a plan to break in and take it back. After this, both the guys and the girls split off the bathroom into two sides.
- The Casagrandes: In "Cursed!", Ronnie Anne learns that one of the bad things about living in the Loud House is that there's always a long bathroom line. In this case, it was held up by Lori and Bobby arguing about who should use the bathroom first.
- Casper's Scare School: At the beginning of "Fang Decay", there is a very long line of students for the men's room doing a Potty Dance, as Thatch is having trouble brushing his teeth due to a toothache.
Casper: Maybe he fell asleep.Ra: Ew, what's he using for a pillow?
- Cow and Chicken: In "Chicken in the Bathroom", Chicken, who Hates Baths, procrastinates taking one by lying in the bathtub and only filling it drop by drop. His family complains through a Hurricane of Euphemisms that he should hurry up because they need to use the bathroom (the parents because they have to pee and Cow because she needs to be milked), and eventually, Cow produces a tsunami of milk.
- The Cramp Twins: "The Great Bowl of Fear" centers around Wayne fishing in the toilet and refusing to get out, which inconveniences Lucien, who has to poop. Lucien spends the rest of the episode trying to find ways to get him out of there, and in the end, he finally scares Wayne out of there by tricking him into catching frogs and leeches.
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In "Jackie Khones and the Case of the Overdue Library Crook", Jackie Khones and Mac are in a bathroom stall, discussing the missing library book. A rather desperate Bloo has no choice but to wait for them to leave, and when they do, he rushes into the stall.
- Garbage Pail Kids (Cartoon): The criminal warned about in the Wanted segment for the eighth episode is The Bathroom Hog, a blonde teenage girl who hogs the bathroom constantly and is eventually defeated when a wrecking ball is used on the door, revealing the Bathroom Hog screaming in fright while covering herself with a towel.
- KaBlam!: In the Life with Loopy short "Mr. Macho", Larry gets muscular after a workout and flexes in front of the bathroom mirror. His family members are seen doing the Potty Dance, and his father tells him to hurry up because he's been in there for three hours.
- Kamp Koral: In the opening of "Night of the Living Stench", a long line of campers are waiting for SpongeBob to finish showering. Squidward, at the front of the line, tells him to hurry up, but he wants to make sure every part of his body is clean first.
- Kaeloo: Episode 125 is all about this. Stumpy turns the bathroom into a kingdom and declares the toilet his new throne. This causes Kaeloo much distress, especially since Stumpy refuses to leave, and spends the rest of the episode trying to find ways to get him out of there.
- Little Princess:
- In "I Don't Like Thunderstorms", the Admiral, who is afraid of thunder, is hiding from a storm in the bathroom. The King, Gardener, and General impatiently wait outside the bathroom doing a Potty Dance. The Queen also looks quite annoyed, but it's unknown if she has to go or if she just wants to take a bath.
- At the end of "I Don't Want a Bath", the Princess has come to enjoy bathing, but is now taking too long in the bath. This greatly annoys the adults, who are waiting to take their own baths, and at one point the Chef wants to wash in the kitchen sink and the others want to wash in the pond instead.
- Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own: In one episode, Jade hides in the bathroom and says she's never coming out again. This distresses Roxie, as she's doing the Potty Dance and claiming she guzzled a gallon of water earlier.
- Looney Tunes: In "From Hare To Heir", Bugs Bunny annoys Yosemite Sam to no end by declaring that he'll be in the bathroom all day. Sam manages to push him out (so as to fall through the trap door he cut in the floor), but Sam falls through the hole instead.
- The Loud House:
- In the pilot episode "Bathroom Break", Lori enters the bathroom before Lincoln and insists that being the oldest gives her the right to be first at everything. Lincoln nervously does a Potty Dance as Lucy reads a poem about comparing love to water, which stresses him out even more. Lincoln gets tired of waiting and chases Lori out of there with a soiled diaper.
- In "In Tents Debate", half of Lincoln's sisters want to go to the beach and the other half want to go to an amusement park called Dairyland, and they're using him as a tiebreaker. "Team Beach" tries to put him off Dairyland by deliberately taking a long time in the bathroom and putting a sign reading, "Sorry, this ride is temporarily closed" on the toilet.
- In "Racing Hearts", a group of siblings complain that Luna is taking way too long in the bath.
- In one episode, Lola takes a four-hour bath, meaning that Rita (who needs to pee because she drank too much coffee) has to use Mr. Grouse's bathroom.
- In "Pipe Dreams", the Louds are waiting in line to use the toilet (or in Lily's case, have her diaper changed) for an annoyingly long time because Leni is having trouble using the mirror.
- In "Everybody Loves Leni", Leni repeatedly hides in the bathroom so she can have a private call with her other group of friends, much to Sebastian's dismay, as she keeps getting in there ahead of him when he has to pee. The others then get suspicious and they are not pleased when they find that she's been contacting her work friends.
- At the start of "Brawl in the Family", Lana tells Lincoln that Leni is hiding in the bathroom to calm down after an argument with Lori and that he'll just have to use a bucket.
- In the Miraculous Ladybug episode "Backwarder", Hawk Moth resorts to operating out of the bathroom on a train, which not only ties up the bathroom but also prevents the train from leaving.
- Monk Little Dog: In "Monk Has Really Got to Go", Monk has a Potty Emergency due to overeating and rushes into a public restroom. Ding, his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis, opens a stall door, but upon seeing Monk there, he slams the door in his face and deliberately takes ages to spite him.
- Muppet Babies: Animal spends the entirety of "Animal and the Little Accident" with a Potty Emergency. One of the many roadblocks is Gonzo taking a long time in the ship's bathroom. At this point, he can no longer stand it, and he frantically goes back to the school, only to pee his pants just inches away from the bathroom door.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Sonic Rainboom," while backstage at the Best Young Flyers' Competition, Rarity hogs the changing room to prepare her outfit and makeup, complete with a facial and mane rollers. When she finally comes out wearing an absurdly elaborate costume with foot-long eyelashes, the competition is nearly over and there's only time for one more performance, so she and Rainbow Dash have to do their acts at the same time.
- The Oblongs: Debbie hogs the Oblongs' bathroom while she's staying with them in the episode "Disfigured Debbie," which leads to Biff, Chip, Milo, and Bob all waiting outside for their turn. When Bob tells her to hurry up, she says she's in the middle of a "procedure," and that she needs lots of cotton balls.
- Nickelodeon Animated Shorts Program: "Pam & Sid's Port-a-Party" is about two meerkats throwing a party inside a port-a-potty, while a construction worker desperately needs to pee outside.
- Oggy and the Cockroaches: In "Occupied"note , the cockroaches lock themselves in the bathroom to take a bath in the toilet. Oggy, who desperately needs to pee, spends the rest of the episode trying to find ways to sneak in.
- Pat & Stan:
- In "Peeing 1", Pat is reading in the bathroom, and Stan shouts at him to finish up in there. When Pat comes out with a stack of books, Stan rushes in behind him.
- Subverted in "Peeing 2". Pat, who has to pee really badly, mistakenly believes Pat is in the bathroom fixing up his hair. Cue the reveal that he's been standing outside the closet door all this time when Pat fixes the broken doorknob for him.
- Pingu: In "Lavatory Story"note , Pingu has to pee after drinking too much at a stand. He rushes home, but his father is on the can and tells him to wait. Pingu manages to get him to leave by ringing the doorbell.
- The Powerpuff Girls (2016): Mentioned in "Rainy Day"; when Blossom turns into a robot, she complains that Buttercup always takes too long in the bathroom. Buttercup retorts that it takes a while to get her hair this good.
- The Real Ghostbusters: The Last-Second Joke Problem at the end of "Something's Going Around" is that Janine's apartment was trashed so she must live at the firehouse. The firehouse's occupants wait impatiently outside the bathroom while she takes a very long shower.
- The Ren & Stimpy Show: At the start of "Pixie King", Stimpy is in an outhouse, and Ren begs him to hurry up because he has to pee. Stimpy refuses to leave unless Ren reads to him, so Ren takes out a book of fairy tales. True to Stimpy's word, at the end of the episode, he lets Ren go inside the outhouse once the story is over. Ren flushes the pages down the toilet in retaliation.
- Road Rovers: Played for laughs in "A Day in the Life", where a Running Gag has Shag hogging the bathroom (and getting a drink) whenever the other Rovers need to use it.
- Rugrats: In "Murmur on the Ornery Express", Charlotte hides in the train's bathroom to have a private work call. There is a long line of people outside, and one little girl in particular is doing a Potty Dance.
- The Simpsons:
- The episode "Moaning Lisa" opens with a depressed Lisa at the bathroom mirror, examining herself as if checking to see if she's sick, while Homer pounds on the door. After Lisa exits, Bart swoops in saying "Women and children first!", angering Homer further.
- At the beginning of "Today, I Am a Clown", the Simpsons are outside the bathroom waiting for one of them to come out. After taking a moment to count heads, they realize that baby Maggie is locked in the bathroom and try to get her out before she hurts herself.
- In "My Mother the Carjacker", during a montage of Homer spending time with his mother Mona, while she scrubs his head while he's taking a bath, there's a knock at the door and it's Maggie, wearing only a pair of towels around her waist and head while tapping her foot impatiently.
- 6teen:
- At the start of "Over Exposed", Jonesy is doing the Potty Dance because Jen is taking a long shower in the bathroom and still needs to brush her teeth. He yells at her to hurry up, resulting in the two of them bickering and then Jen's towel falls off. She runs off screaming in horror, but then one of Jonesy's kid brothers gets in before he can.
- In "Silent But Deadly", Nikki starts to feel some intestinal distress and is too shy to use the bathroom right next to Jonesy's bedroom. To her dismay, Jen's mother is taking a bath in the downstairs bathroom, leaving her with no choice but to use the bathroom next to Jonesy's room. Cringe Comedy ensues as he tries to block out the sound of her very loud farts.
- South Park: In the episode "Cock Magic", Shelley Marsh complains to her mother, Sharon, about Randy being in the bathroom for over an hour. When Sharon goes to investigate what her husband is doing, Randy initially says that he's just going the bathroom, but then Sharon learns that Randy has actually been practicing cock magic the whole time — and not the kind that involves roosters playing Magic: The Gathering.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Bubble Buddy", SpongeBob causes mayhem at both the Krusty Krab and Goo Lagoon with the titular Bubble Buddy. The final straw is when SpongeBob leaves Bubble Buddy in the bathroom for two hours, at which point all of Bikini Bottom unite in their hatred of Bubble Buddy and decide to pop him.
- Teen Titans: In "Transformation", Starfire is annoyed by a lump that's grown out of her forehead (which turns out to be a part of alien puberty) and is looking at it in the bathroom mirror. Beast Boy does the Potty Dance and yells at her to hurry up because she's been in there for twenty minutes. It's subsequently implied he ended up using a potted plant after running water keeps reminding him of his urge.
- Teen Titans Go!: This is what jumpstarts the plot of "Serious Business". At the start of the episode, Raven is taking too long in the bathroom, much to Robin's dismay. The others then break into a musical number about the Potty Dance. This incident causes Robin to set a time limit to prevent this from happening again.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: In the "Henny Youngman Day" segment "The Potty Years" (which is a Whole Episode Flashback to the time Plucky was being toilet-trained), a toddler version of Plucky finds it fascinating to flush random things down the toilet and ends up flooding the bathroom. His parents wonder why he's been taking so long and say they'll check on him, so he frantically tries to get rid of the water before they get there.
- Total Drama: In "Paintball Deer Hunter", Heather is taking so long showering in the girls' bathroom that there's a huge line of all the other girls standing outside, looking like they're about to have a collective Potty Emergency. Gwen gives up and decides to go lumberjack-style in the woods.
- We Bare Bears: The episode "Rooms" opens with Grizz getting bored while waiting for Panda to finish showering so he can use the bathroom. Later, Panda learns that Grizz made his own action movie featuring a parody character called "Pando" who takes 40 years to use the bathroom, implying that this is a constant source of frustration for him.
Real Life
- In this infamous story (colloquially referred to as the "Homestuck Sharpie Bath Story"), a group of cosplayers attending Anime Expo were getting ready for the day in their hotel room, and one girl who was cosplaying Terezi Pyrope from Homestuck went to the bathroom to put on her makeup. She didn't come out for a while, but they didn't think this was unusual, as convention costumes and makeup can be very elaborate and sometimes take a long time to put on and apply. But after 2 hours, the others started to notice a strange smell coming from the bathroom. After 15 more minutes, they opened the door and found her sitting naked in the bathtub in a mixture of 70% alcohol and Sharpie dye, which she had used to try and dye her skin grey. The mixture was splattered everywhere in the bathroom, and they kicked her out and made her pay the resulting $700 in damage fees. She also allegedly got skin poisoning.