An exploding sheep in the video game Revenge of the Mutant Camels.

Speculated to have originated in popular culture media, the exploding sheep is a feature found in numerous American and British video games. Image File history File links Revengeofthemutantcamels. ... Image File history File links Revengeofthemutantcamels. ... Screenshot from the Amiga version of Revenge of the Mutant Camels. ... Popular culture, sometimes called pop culture, consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ... Species See text. ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ...

History

The earliest well-known reference to exploding sheep in popular culture was made by Johnny Carson, in the role of psychic Carnac the Magnificent on The Tonight Show, in which Carnac predicted "Sss boom bah" and opened a sealed envelope to read "the sound of a sheep exploding." (a video of the skit). Popular culture, sometimes called pop culture, consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ... For other persons named John Carson, see John Carson (disambiguation). ... Parapsychology is the study of evidence for paranormal psychological phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis (Parapsychology, n. ... Carson as Carnac the Magnificent Carnac the Magnificent was a role played by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and later continued on Late Show with David Letterman, occasionally by Paul Shaffer. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Another early reference was in Godmonster of Indian Flats, a 1973 science fiction movie made by Fredric Hobbs. It featured a mutated sheep as the titular monster, which grew larger throughout the movie, until it exploded in the climactic scene. A more recent source for the exploding-sheep meme is the 1987 cult film Bad Taste directed by Peter Jackson.^{[1] [2][3]}The movie features a scene in which a sheep explodes after being hit with an errant RPG. Jackson's work is well-known in science fiction and fantasy fandom, a subculture which intersects heavily with gaming fans. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Fredric Hobbs is an American filmmaker who made several bizarre, experimental films in the early 70s. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Bad Taste is a low-budget 1987 cult film, one of the first directed by Peter Jackson, in which aliens invade the fictional New Zealand village of Kaihoro (population 78) in order to harvest human beings for their intergalactic fast food franchise but are repelled by a four-man paramilitary... Peter Jackson CNZM (born October 31, 1961) is a three-time Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning New Zealand filmmaker best known as the director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which he, along with his long time partner, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens adapted from the novels... An RPG-7 captured by the US Army RPG, or Rocket propelled grenade is a loose term describing hand-held, shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons capable of firing an unguided rocket equipped with an explosive warhead. ... Smaug in his lair: an illustration for the fantasy The Hobbit Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. ... Fandom (from the noun fan and the affix -dom, as in kingdom, dukedom, etc. ... In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with distinct sets of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. ... Historically, a gamer was usually someone who played role-playing games or war games but more recently the term includes computer and video game players as well. ... Fans of Janet Jackson, at Much Music in Toronto The word fan refers to someone who has an intense, occasionally overwhelming liking of a person, group of persons, work of art, idea, or trend. ...

In 1998, the second volume of Jon Hasting's comic book Smith Brown Jones: Alien Accountant posited that sheep that explode are actually vampiric sheep that do not understand their transformation and therefore do not know that they should avoid sunlight. A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Philip Burne-Jones, The Vampire, 1897 Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings that subsist on human and/or animal lifeforce. ...

The plot of the 1999 science fiction novel Before and After by Matthew Thomas features exploding sheep in such significance that the book's cover features a sheep and the tagline "A novel featuring exploding sheep, Nostradamus, and the end of the world". Matt Thomas is theelectric guitarist in the New Zealand band Black Letter Band. ... Nostradamus: original portrait by his son Cesar Michel de Nostredame (December 14, 1503 – July 2, 1566), usually Latinized to Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous world-wide. ...

In the years following the 1999 Kosovo War, in empty fields near Belgrade and Batajnica, unexploded NATO bombs have been triggered by herds of sheep.^{[citation needed]} The term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is often used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts (a civil war followed by an international war) in the southern Serbian province called Kosovo (officially Kosovo and Metohia), part of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. ... Location of Belgrade within Serbia Coordinates: Country Serbia District City of Belgrade Municipalities 17 Government  - Mayor Nenad Bogdanović (DS) (since 2004)  - Ruling parties DS/DSS/G17+ Area  - City 3,222. ... Batajnica is an urban neighborhood in Belgrade, Serbia. ... NATO 2002 Summit in Prague. ... Species See text. ...

Examples in video games

Video games featuring exploding sheep do so either as a primary element of gameplay, or as a diversion or Easter egg. The former case occurs most commonly in games which already have a large comedic element, while the latter tends to occur in games featuring a serious tone. Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ... A virtual Easter egg is a hidden message or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, or video game. ...

• Armed and Dangerous (Planet Moon Studios)^[4] — during one mission, a drunken explosives expert trying to defuse a bomb attached to a kidnapped prize sheep accidentally sets it off.

• Cannon Fodder (Sensible Software) — on later missions, sheep are booby-trapped with explosives.

• No One Lives Forever (Sierra Entertainment) — the GDR research lab level holds (exploding) sheep and goat pens

• Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (Insomniac Games) — one weapon turns enemies into sheep; its upgrade turns enemies into exploding sheep

• Revenge of the Mutant Camels (Jeff Minter) — one stage (called "Through Pastures Blue...") features sheep that spontaneously and gratuitously explode into lethal chunks of wool.

• Sheep — many of the hazards will cause the sheep to explode.

• SimGolf — turn the balls into exploding sheep by pressing CTRL and S and letting go, then typing BOMBSHEEP

• Spyro the Dragon (Insomniac Games) — sheep are dragon fodder in Artisans world; at the end of the game, dragons use a sheep as a basketball; the closing credits assure us that "no sheep were harmed in making this game".

• Worms series (Team17)^[5][6][7][8] — the exploding sheep is a special weapon found in powerup crates, albeit rarely. Later sequels of the game made it a standard weapon, and introduced different variations on this weapon, such as the Super Sheep, which can be flown to their target.

• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and StarCraft (Blizzard Entertainment) — click on the scenery sheep (or other neutral animals) enough times and they will explode. One of the levels in the WC3 single-player campaign also contains a subgame involving exploding sheep and the movie Babe. A MMORPG based on the aftermath of these games and their expansions, World of Warcraft, also features exploding robot drones in the shape of sheep.

• World of Warcraft — In the Undercity's Apocatherium, there is an underground section where with an area where people are held in cages, meant to be used as experiments of undeath. There is an Undead NPC who tests a "viscous fluid" upon one particular human male, which turns him into a rabbit, then a squirrel, and finally a sheep. Then, the NPC pokes the sheep repeatedly, and the sheep explodes. Additionally, characters that practice the Engineering profession can create Explosive Sheep once they achieve a skill of 150.

Exploding Sheep font

There is also a screensaver, Sheep vs Gravity 1.08, which features exploding sheep, and a font named Exploding Sheep (pictured at right). Both are available as freeware. That the Exploding Sheep typeface does not signify exploding sheep except in name suggests that the meme has established itself in the software subculture beyond video games. Planet Moon Studios is a game development studio based in San Francisco, California founded by ex-Shiny Entertainment developers Nick Bruty (President) and Bob Stevenson (CEO) in 1997. ... Cannon Fodder is an expression used to denote the treatment of armed forces as a worthless commodity to be expended. ... Logo Sensible Software was a highly regarded software house in the nineties from the United Kingdom that released several games, amongst those the popular Sensible Soccer series and Cannon Fodder. ... No One Lives Forever, commonly abbreviated NOLF, is the name of a computer game and video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Disambiguation Page Global Depositary Receipt East Germany ... Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando is a 3D platformer game for the Playstation 2. ... Insomniac Games is an American video game developer. ... Screenshot from the Amiga version of Revenge of the Mutant Camels. ... Jeff Minter at Assembly 2004 Jeff Yak Minter (born in Reading, April 22, 1962) is a British computer/video game designer and programmer. ... Sheep is a puzzle game developed by Minds Eye Productions and published by Empire Interactive for the PC and PlayStation. ... SimGolf is a computer game created by Maxis in 1996. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Insomniac Games is an American video game developer. ... Worms is a series of turn-based computer games with the common theme of players each controlling a small platoon of cartoon-style worms across a two-dimensional, deformable landscape. ... Team17 Software is a video game company, which grew from 17Bit Software, an Amiga PD/Demo user-group in the late 1980s. ... Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (usually simply called Warcraft II; sometimes abbreviated to WCII or WC2) is a sequel to the popular real-time strategy game Warcraft, published by Blizzard Entertainment in December 1995. ... Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2002, is a real-time strategy computer game and the second sequel to Warcraft. ... StarCraft is a real-time strategy game by Blizzard Entertainment. ... Blizzard Entertainment is an American based computer game developer and publisher. ... Babe is an Academy Award-winning 1995 Australian film that tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheep dog. ... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ... An NPC from the video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. ... Image File history File links Exploding Sheep example File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Exploding Sheep example File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A screensaver is a computer program originally designed to conserve the image quality of computer displays by blanking the screen or filling them with moving images or patterns when the computers are not in use. ... For the origin and evolution of fonts, see History of western typography. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The term meme (IPA: , rhyming with theme; commonly pronounced in the US as , rhyming with gem), coined/popularized in 1976[1] by the biologist Richard Dawkins, refers to a unit of cultural information which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes (i. ... In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with distinct sets of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. ...

There was a London based rock band named Exploding Sheep which formed in 1997 and broke up in 2001. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ...

There is a US Company named Exploding Sheep Productions which produces engineering models.; and an amateur British Technical Crew called Exploding Sheep Productions who work on not-for-profit sci-fi events.

References

The Daily Tar Heel (commonly referred to as the DTH) is the independent student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 62 days remaining. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (127th in leap years). ... The Calgary Sun is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (127th in leap years). ... The Xbox 360 is the successor to Microsofts Xbox video game console, developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, Samsung and SiS. Information on the console first came through viral marketing campaigns and it was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year (117th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Digital Trends is a popular technology-related website offering a wide range of written reviews, video profiles of new products, editorials, shopping guides, how-to guides, etc. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (127th in leap years). ... Wired News, online at Wired. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (127th in leap years). ... USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 24 is the 83rd day of the year (84th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (127th in leap years). ... The San Diego Union-Tribune is a daily newspaper published in San Diego, California by the Copley Press. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... April 17 is the 107th day of the year (108th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (127th in leap years). ...

External links

• Bad Taste at the Peter Jackson Fan Club

Exploding animals and other exploding organisms
Bat | Bird | Chicken | Dog | Donkey | Human Rat | Sheep | Snake | Termite | Toad | Tree | Whale