False Teeth Tomfoolery

False teeth, generally a sign of age, poor dental care or both, are not really something to laugh at in Real Life.

But in fiction—false teeth are hilarious, scary or gross.

Old people have no problem letting you know their teeth are false, and spitting or whipping them out to show you, still dripping with saliva.

Or because old people are forgetful, they'll bite something too tough for their false teeth and leave the teeth in the item bitten.

Or the old person will loan their false teeth to somebody else to use. Or someone will borrow them, leaving the perplexed senior gumming in wonderment.

False teeth make good castanettes, apparently.

Occasionally, someone will have different sets of false teeth for different occasions. There are the ones for smiling, or the big chompy set for eating steak or other tough foods, or for intimidating people.

Examples of False Teeth Tomfoolery include:

Film

• Carl Fredrickson from Up has dentures. During his fight with Charles Muntz, he spits them out at him.
• Ed Wood: Ed scares some trick-or-treating kids who mock Bela Lugosi's attempts to frighten them by yanking out his partial.

"Lost my pearlies in the war!"

• James Bond villain "Jaws" subverts the trope by using false teeth in a non-humorous manner. Sharp metal ones.
• In Monsters, Inc., one of the monsters puts in a pair of giant comic clackety false teeth once the factory uses laugh power instead of scream power.

Literature

• In Worldwar, Sam Yeager is always making jokes involving his dental plates. He does it when he's in his seventies, but because he had Spanish Influenza as a kid and lost his teeth very young, he's been doing it his whole life.
• One Encyclopedia Brown story involved Bugs Meany stealing someone's collection of false teeth and using them as castanets, like the Tom and Jerry example below.

Live Action TV

• Sophia from The Golden Girls only occasionally mentions her false teeth. An instance when she does:

Sophia: Dorothy, have you seen my teeth?
Dorothy: They're in your mouth, Ma.
Sophia: I know that. Don't they look good today? I ran them through the dishwasher.

• Pair of Kings: Boomer's false teeth fall out onto the floor while he and Brady are on the walking wheel.

Newspaper Comics

• This is a common theme in The Broons.

Truth in Television

• Classic Limerick:

An elderly fellow called Keith
Mislaid his set of false teeth.
They'd been laid on a chair,
He'd forgot they were there,
Sat down, and was bitten beneath!

• There's an old joke about a bar bet where a customer bets he can't bite his own eye. ...then of course takes out his false teeth.
• A diver discovered an octopus that was clutching a set of human dentures. http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/the-octopus-the-diver-and-the-dentures/

Live Action TV

• Kickin It: one of the dojo's students recounts dancing. He kicks off a shoe which lands in a senior citizen's mouth. When he retrieves the shoe, the senior's teeth come out with it.

Web Comics

• Spud Comics does it here.

Western Animation

• Classic Betty Boop cartoon "Ha! Ha! Ha!" includes anthropomorphic false teeth when she and Koko dabble in dentistry.
• On Futurama Prof. Farnsworth has nuclear-powered dentures, which prechew his food before putting it in his mouth. They go berserk in a diner after accidentally biting Fry and getting a taste for human flesh.
• Disney:
  • Kick Buttowski: Kick's grandfather explains that his false teeth are why he tends to eat "mush".
  • Steamboat Willie has the false teeth behaving anthropomorphically.
• Fairly Oddparents has a cartoon in which George Washington's false teeth are made fun of.
• Looney Tunes: Daffy Duck sings the following in "Daffy Doodles":

She was an acrobat's daughter
She swung by her teeth from a noose
But one matinée, her bridgework gave 'way
And she flew through the air like a goose!

• My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: "Family Appreciation Day" has Granny Smith doing a Tasty Gold sort of test on cooking pot, and then walking away, displeased with what she finds. Her teeth are left on the edge of the pot, and Apple Bloom has to retrieve them for her.
• The Simpsons: Grandpa has false teeth and occasionally takes them out; plus one time he was babysitting and Bart pulled them out of Grandpa's mouth and put them in his own mouth, and took a ride on the ceiling fan with them. When Homer & Marge came home Bart taped them up real quick and shoved them back into Grandpa's mouth.
  • In the episode which crosses over with The X-Files a turtle has somehow captured Grandpa's teeth and is making off with them. Grandpa can't catch the turtle.
• Tom and Jerry:
  • "Love That Pup" has an instance of false teeth being used as castanets.
  • There's a cartoon in which Spike the bulldog takes out his everyday normal canine dog teeth, and puts in a much bigger set with larger, sharper teeth.
• Rugrats: Grandpa loses his false teeth at a picnic in an episode, where he needs them to play correctly in a brass band.
• Johnny Bravo: Johnny is convinced he is getting old. Somebody hands him a pair of false teeth, and he shoves them into his mouth, inside of his real, perfect teeth.
• Dexters Laboratory: "The Laughing" - A clown takes a hard fall, knocking his false teeth loose. They go flying across the yard and bite Dexter, turning him into a wereclown.
• Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness: "Has Been Hero" Kwan the Unkillable accidentally spits out his false teeth—repeatedly—in his meeting with Po.

Video Games

• Day of the Tentacle features George Washington as a character, so naturally fun is made of his false teeth.