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An exploding head is a surreal, involuntary gesture in fiction. It is sometimes found in cartoons and comics, from South Park to Dilbert. Its graphicality ranges from the comically distorted to a "blood, gore and eyes" look. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Exploding head syndrome is a rare condition first reported by a British physician in 1988[1] that causes the sufferer to occasionally experience a tremendously loud noise as if from within his or her own head, usually described as an explosion or a roar. ... For other uses, see Fiction (disambiguation). ... For the band, see Cartoons (band). ... See comedian Stand up comedian List of Comedians List of British comedians comics comic book comic strip underground comics alternative comics web comic sprite comics manga graphic novel List of comic characters This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the... This article is about the TV series. ... Dilbert (first published April 16, 1989) is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. ...

The phenomenon is triggered by extreme cognitive "overload" — the incoming stimuli far outstripping the capacity of processing them — typically of utter nonsense, but anger and various other causes are not unknown. The implication is that the unfortunate sufferer placed too much pressure on his brain, trying to figure out something unsolvable or otherwise overexerting it. Nonsense is an utterance or written text in what appears to be a human language or other symbolic system, that does not in fact carry any identifiable meaning. ... This article is about the emotion. ... The human brain In animals, the brain (enkephalos) (Greek for in the skull), is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behavior. ...

A prominent example is in the Chappelle's Show skit "Frontline: Blind Supremacy", which tells the story of a blind black man who is raised without knowledge of his race, and becomes a white supremacist author. He appears at a book-signing event, wearing a KKK robe and hood, with gloves covering his hands. A member of the audience asks him to take off the hood; the rest of the crowd eggs him on, and when he complies, the person who asked for the hood to be removed begins to shake for a few seconds, after which his head explodes. Another example occurs in the series Red Dwarf, where Kryten's head explodes after crewmate David Lister presents food that does not compute, although this is explained as a fault in one of Kryten's components. The following is a list of skits performed on the Comedy Central series Chappelles Show. ... Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s. ... For the type of star, see Red dwarf. ... This article is about the Red Dwarf character. ... Character descriptions and casting details for the Red Dwarf BBC sitcom and series of novels by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. ... Does not compute, and variations on it, was a phrase often spoken by computers, robots and other artificial intelligences in science fiction works of the 1960s to 1980s. ...

The loss of one's head is, naturally, a non-survivable injury, though some stories depict its swift reappearance or replacement (as with The Cheat); if the victim is not alive to begin with, replacement is possible, as with Kryten mentioned above. As such, exploding heads are typically restricted to minor and insignificant characters, in addition to those whose authors have very little regard for continuity (as with the creators of South Park, who have repeatedly killed Kenny McCormick). The Cheat is a character in the Homestar Runner animated cartoon series, and is Strong Bads sidekick and primary partner in crime. ... In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer. ... This article is about the TV series. ... Kenneth Kenny McCormick is a fictional character in the animated series South Park. ...

While non-fictional head explosions are not possible without the aid of advanced weaponry or demolition tools, a persistent urban legend tells of a condition known as Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis which essentially has the same effect. Claims of the condition are known to have been made by the less-than-scrupulous Weekly World News in the 1990s. In 1996 the Secret Service paid a visit to Daniel Burford, the creator of a website that animated exploding heads of several politicians, including Republican Presidential candidate Bob Dole. For other uses, see Weapon (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Demolition (disambiguation). ... An urban legend or urban myth is similar to a modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. ... Hillary Rodham Clinton on the cover of the Weekly World News. ... Because of both the secrecy of secret services and the controversial nature of the issues involved, there is some difficulty in separating the definitions of secret service, secret police, intelligence agency etc. ... This article is about the modern United States Republican Party. ... § Robert Joseph Dole (born July 22, 1923) was a United States Senator from Kansas from 1969-1996, serving part of that time as United States Senate Majority Leader. ...

See also

• Cognitive dissonance
• Does not compute, the robotic version; this in an android may result in an exploding head as mentioned above
• Scanners
• Fist of the North Star - Japanese anime featuring fights with exploding body parts, especially heads
• Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, which features a Heaven whose denizens have powers of unlimited, reversible "head-explody".
• Mars Attacks!, in which the Martian invaders are finally defeated with a song which causes their heads to explode.
• Albedo Piazzolla from the video game series Xenosaga, a character with accelerated regenerative abilities.

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term describing the uncomfortable tension that may result from having two conflicting thoughts at the same time, or from engaging in behavior that conflicts with ones beliefs, or from experiencing apparently conflicting phenomena. ... Does not compute, and variations on it, was a phrase often spoken by computers, robots and other artificial intelligences in science fiction works of the 1960s to 1980s. ... Scanners is a 1981 action / science fiction / horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg. ... This article is about the manga and anime franchise. ... “Animé” redirects here. ... Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. ... This article is about the film. ... Albedo, U.R.T.V. Unit 667 Albedo Piazzolla ) is a main antagonist of the Monolithsoft RPG Series Xenosaga. ... It has been suggested that List of Xenosaga cast members be merged into this article or section. ...

External links

• Snopes.com article debunking the HCE
• Wired article on the Secret Service reaction to the Exploding Heads website
• Center for the Study of Sudden Cranial Expansion