Oh dear...
Animated characters in Non-Fatal Explosions usually just get charred, but a really big boom (or really hot fire) will do more.
The victim's entire body turns to ash and crumbles into a dozen pieces, except for the eyeballs, which bounce into the mess. Then another character will produce a broom and dustpan, and sweep up the ashes, eyeballs and all. Or a (relatively intact) arm reaches from the ash, produces a broom and dustpan, and the character sweeps himself up. Of course, all will be well a few seconds later.
Also see Ash Face, where the explosion leaves the victim with a blackened face.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- The Vampire Dies in No Time: Any kind of physical hit or shock (and sometimes just emotional damage from an insult) is enough to turn Draluc into a pile of sand.
Comic Books
- Léonard le Génie: This happens very often to Basile, the clumsy assistant to Léonard.
Films
- Done in a dream sequence in Joe Dirt.
- In Looney Tunes: Back in Action, this happens twice in Area 52 — once to Daffy, who's reduced to a puddle of goo, and once to Marvin the Martian when zapped by an escaped Dalek.
Literature
- Discworld:
- In The Truth, this has to be done for Otto several times. He's a vampire photographer. The light from the device is enough to turn him to dust.
- It's mentioned in Small Gods that anyone who says gods don't exist is usually struck by lightning on a clear day, leaving only ashes, a pair of shoes, and a sign that says, "YES, WE DO".
- Happens in Left Behind after Hattie Durham gets incinerated by the Anti-Christ with a lightning bolt. Her friends sweep what's left of her into a jar to take back.
Tabletop Games
- Bizarrely shown in many Paranoia illustrations. The "nothing left but a smoking pair of boots and a laser pistol" variation is so prominent a Running Gag that it's trademarked.
Video Games
- This is one of the many, many death animations in Atomic Bomberman.
- Dr. Brain: In The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain, Rathbone has four different ways of getting Inside a Computer System, one of which involves this. (He gets restored with a single drop of water.)
- Dweep: Happens to Dweep (sans the "sweeping" part) if he's incinerated by a laser or a bomb (or the player, with a torch).
- In Earthworm Jim, this happens to the titular Jim when you lose a life.
- The Lost Vikings: When one of the Vikings fall in lava or die from a fire attack, this will happen.
- Happens if you take a nasty enough fall in Marble Madness.
- Mouse: P.I. for Hire: Enemies turn into a pile of ash when killed with an exploding barrel.
- In Plants vs. Zombies 1 and Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time, this happens to most zombies that are destroyed by fire damage, sans the sweeping part (they just fade away instead).
Western Animation
- In the Animaniacs episode "La La Law", after Yakko brings in the Mime as a surprise witness, he drops an anvil on his head, which somehow reduces him to a pile of dust, Wakko then sweeps up his remains, with his eyes and tongue visible.
- This happens in one of Winslow's Home Videos about CatDog: at breakfast time, Dog eats his tacos with too much hot sauce, making Cat breathe fire and burn him into ashes by liking the taste.
- Eustace falls victim to this at the end of the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "Forbidden Hat of Gold" when he finally obtains the titular headwear and puts it on, only to crumble up into ashes immediately afterwards.
Eustace: [groans in annoyance] Stupid hat!
- The title character of Dave the Barbarian does this frequently.
- In the Earthworm Jim episode "The Eggbeater", when Jim throws a moldy cheese grenade, it hits Professor Monkeyforahead and reduces him to a pile of ashes and eyeballs; a hand then comes out of the ashes and sweeps them up.
- In The Fairly OddParents!, Fairies need to grant wishes; otherwise, they suffer from "magical backup" and explode into a pile of confetti (complete with eyes and their little crowns on top).
- Kaeloo: This happens to Quack Quack twice, both times because of Mr. Cat's inventions.
- This has happened to several Looney Tunes characters:
- Wile E. Coyote sweeps up his own ashes in almost every Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon.
- Daffy Duck sometimes does this with his feathers. He also does the full-on ashes version during the disintegrator pistol duel in "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century".
- Also, Foghorn Leghorn, when he gets his feathers blasted off for one reason or another.
- One cartoon has Porky Pig getting so angry at Daffy that he burns himself up to ashes; the smoke from the ashes then condenses and transforms into Porky once again.
- Happened to Candace after getting zapped by Cyborg in the MAD sketch ''DolPhineas and Ferb Tale''
, which also parodies Dolphin Tale.
- The Simpsons: Groundskeeper Willie's ghost does this as part of his Freddy Krueger impression in "Treehouse of Horror VI", handily sweeping himself into a dustpan and throwing himself away.
- Spliced has a variation without the dustpan and brush. In "Entrée's Cookoff", the segment in-between "One Joe Wingus" and "Poosh and the Quest for the Blargy Parble", Entrée sets up a food contest for no other reason than to eat everybody's food. When the contestants, Peri, Patricia, and Two-Legs Joe, realize they were tricked, they cook a bunch of desserts laced with explosives to get revenge on Entrée, and he eats them all, leading to him burping fire and turning the three contestants into piles of ashes.
- Occurrs in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V": Squidward (as volcano-powered Captain Magma) becomes a pile of ashes after getting hit with Mermaid Man's water ball.
- This has happened to Tom of Tom and Jerry a few times, though more so in the Chuck Jones shorts. This must have been a favorite trope of his.