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Sink 6094

And now, this Trope is complete.


Every time someone refers to the expression 'everything but the kitchen sink' in any way, shape or fashion, an actual, literal kitchen sink will inevitably appear. This trope is almost always Played for Laughs, especially in cartoons.

The original expression is an idiom of unknown origin but originating in the early 20th century, meaning "everything that wasn't bolted down". Kitchen sinks are not only bolted down, but connected to the plumbing.

Examples of Kitchen Sink Included include:


Advertising[]

  • A Vonage commercial showed a couple discussing how their current phone company's fees are robbing them blind, while black-clad and domino-masked thieves steal everything they own, kitchen sink included.

Comic Books[]

  • A Disney Adventures comic about the Mighty Ducks cartoon series used this line when a brainwashed hockey crowd was attacking the team. "They're throwing everything at us but... [clang] The kitchen sink?"
  • Demon #25, one of the many, many origins of Etrigan. Advertised as including an unneeded Lobo poster. The Demon and Lobo were beating the tar out of each other with every single weapon imaginable, including said sink.
  • Mad Magazine's Return of the Jedi parody has an unseen crewman on a spacecraft pointing out that the battle around the Death Star has everything but the kitchen sink. The person he's speaking to points out that there is indeed a kitchen sink in the battle (which you can even see in the panel) but not to worry because "The sink's on our side!"
    • Their Lost in Space parody also featured this, although there the sink simply crashed nearby.
  • Negaduck and Magica Da Spell spend 'Crisis on Infinite Darkwings', the second Darkwing Duck comic arc, 'recruiting' various Darkwings; all they can find. In one big splash panel showing off their work, you can see ... Darkwing Sink.
  • In a Carl Barks story, Uncle Scrooge and a Brutopian try to outbid each other at an auction. The competition escalates to the point where the Brutopian has to bid all the kitchen sinks of his country.
  • During the disturbance between dimensions in JLA: Another Nail, a kitchen sink is seen floating.

Film[]

  • The opening battle in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Specifically the shot where we fly by a CIS ship as it breaks apart and a piece of debris smashes into a nearby Republic ship. That's the kitchen sink.
  • When the big Power Armor brawl between Tony and Rhodey in Iron Man 2 moves into the kitchen of Tony's house, one of them rips the kitchen sink right off the counter and hits the other with it.
  • In Abbott and Costello: Lost in Alaska, while throwing things at the bad guys to keep them from advancing, Abbott says they've thrown everything but the kitchen sink. Guess what Costello does.

Literature[]

  • Occurs in Garfield's Pet Force. When Binky the magician declared "found it!" after a comment about the kitchen sink, it was the sink that he found, not the object he was looking for.
  • Averted in Once Upon a Marigold. The cover says "Part comedy, part love story, part everything-but-the-kitchen-sink," and a kitchen sink never does make an appearence.
  • In one of the Vlad Taltos novels, a barricade assembled by Easterners to seal off South Adrilankha incorporates all sorts of furnishings, including a kitchen washbasin. Actual sinks haven't been invented yet.

Live Action TV[]

  • A rare but beloved Running Gag in WWE: When weapons are allowed, just once, occasionally...someone will come up from underneath the ring with a kitchen sink.
  • In the Mash episode "Sticky Wicket", Hawkeye is repeatedly disturbed while hiding in a tent. When two orderlies enter carrying something, he loses his temper:
Cquote1

 Hawkeye: What's going on here? Just because I want some privacy there's everything in here but the kitchen sink! What's in there?

Orderly: Kitchen sink, sir.

Hawkeye: Out! Out!

Cquote2
  • In the "April Fools" episode of Mama's Family, Thelma Harper plays a prank on her family by filling the front lawn with junk from the garage. Shocked at the sight, Vinton says, "Mama, you've got everything out here but the kitchen sink!" Just then, Iola wheels out said sink, asking Thelma, "Where do you want it?"
  • The Red Green Show: Red attempts to show us how to build a perpetual-motion machine.
Cquote1

 Red: So all you need is stuff you probably have lyin' around: A gas lawnmower, a downspout, a car alternator, 45-gallon drum, ceiling fan, chunk of garden hose, and some corn stalks. Now you're probably saying, "Geeze, Red, you're using everything but the kitchen sink!" Well, you're wrong! [reaches behind drum, pulls out kitchen sink]

Cquote2
  • Invoked Trope in a Dirty Jobs segment set in a scrapyard; since kitchen sinks are all stainless(and weigh several pounds), they're actually not all that rare in context.
  • One time on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, as they were going about demolition Ty Pennington says "We're throwing out everything...." cue kitchen sink flying out the first floor window "...and the kitchen sink!"
  • One time on Clean House Niecy goes "We're throwing out everything but the kitchen sink!" Gilligan Cut to Trish Suhr throwing a kitchen sink to which Niecy responds "Well shut my mouth!"
  • One episode of the Monkees show had them under fire from a pack of rustic, gun-wielding maniacs. They do indeed throw the kitchen sink at the Monkees... or rather, they wheel over a sink with a lit stick of dynamite on it. One Monkee responds by turning on the faucet of the sink (which still works, somehow) to drown the dynamite.
  • Storage Wars, yes, they've found them at least once.
  • Not necessarily deliberate, but in Aftermath: Population Zero, a stainless-steel kitchen sink is one of the last discernible remnants from a collapsed and vanished house.

Music[]

Cquote1

 Triceratops and T-Rex are on the brink

Goldar destroyed everything except the kitchen sink — (crash) — Uh-oh.

Cquote2


Newspaper Comics[]

  • The newspaper adaptation of Rugrats had Stu complaining about packing too much when they went on vacation. Didi says he's exaggerating. Cue Stu holding a kitchen sink in the last panel.
  • Beetle Bailey: Cookie can't even get it right when he uses the kithen sink expression about what's in his food, as Beetle finds a tap in his stew right after that.

Software[]

  • This Mozilla Firefox extension adds an ASCII art kitchen sink.
  • Some versions of emacs — a text editor at heart, that has gained a bewildering array of non-text-editing functions over the decades — use a picture of a kitchen sink as the program's icon.
  • Some versions of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulator ZSNES include the KitchenSync, a VSync option specifically calibrated for monitors that refresh at 120 Hz.

Theater[]

  • Used as a sight gag in Hellzapoppin', an anarchic precursor to Mel Brooks' Hurricane of Puns and the Muppets' "getting a Variety Show ready" format: After reciting the prop list,"...we've got everything here but the kitchen sink!". Cue sink,carried by Ole.
  • The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad show at Universal Islands of Adventure has two characters fighting and pulling out various objects. Eventually, one of them pulls out a kitchen sink, causing them both to get a confused look.

Video Games[]

  • This is present in one of the Timon and Pumbaa Spin-Off video games.
  • Somebody somewhere must have incautiously described Nethack as possessing everything but the kitchen sink, because in the very next version... yeah.
  • In Mother 3, one of Mr. Passion's attacks has him sending "everything but the kitchen sink flying" at the party.
  • In Command and Conquer, General Sheppard actually gets away with describing Kane as "throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us." At the rate the series is coming up with increasingly bizarre new technology, though, it's probably only a matter of time.
    • Considering Red Alert, the next sequel/expansion is likely to feature a kitchen sink towed by a War Bear, plus the sink boasts Tesla coils.
  • In La Pucelle Culotte, who carries all the luggage, has a move called Kitchen Sink where he throws all of said luggage finishing with a Bomb.
  • Breath of Fire III has the 'blitz' skill. It involves throwing a lot of seemingly random objects at the target, including a kitchen sink.
  • Unsurprisingly, Scribblenauts includes the ability to summon a kitchen sink.
  • Kingdom of Loathing provides. In a parody of Swiss Army knife.

Web Comics[]

Web Original[]

  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged, Dio stops time and throws more and more knives at the frozen Jotaro until there are too many for him to block or avoid. Before starting time up again, he adds, "And for comedic effect..." and a kitchen sink gets photoshopped into the scene.

Western Animation[]

  • In the Looney Tunes cartoon "Hare Trimmed," Yosemite Sam says that Granny (actually Bugs in disguise) is taking everything but the kitchen sink, and the sink drops into view.
  • The Screwy Squirrel cartoon The Screwy Truant:
Cquote1

 Dog: Gee whiz! He hit me with everything but the kitchen sink.

Screwy: Well, don't want to disappoint ya, chum. (hits him with kitchen sink)

Cquote2
    • That joke was the capper for a scene which featured Screwy hitting Meathead (the dog) with a bunch of items found in a steamer trunk labeled "Assorted Swell Things To Hit Dog On Head."
  • Hey Arnold has an episode in which the kids are in a tree and trying to prevent a bulldozer from cutting it down by throwing stuff in its way, without success. Sid comments that they've "thrown everything but the kitchen sink," then promptly throws the kitchen sink. Which also fails.
  • One episode of the Beetlejuice cartoon series had the Ghost with the Most in an Escalating War of sight gags with a rival, which boiled down in the end to the two of them facing each other and dropping larger and larger objects on each others' heads. After the final salvo includes, of course, a kitchen sink, Lydia remarks, "Well, I guess that's everything."
  • It also happened in She Ra Princess of Power.
  • In the Mickey Mouse adaption of The Prince and the Pauper, When The Prince, Donald Duck and Goofy are escaping from the dungeon, the weasel guards throw various assorted weapons at Goofy, one of them being a kitchen sink.
  • Yellow Submarine — Old Fred opens up a cupboard door and lots of unlikely objects fall out, including a kitchen sink.
  • In an episode of Tale Spin, when Baloo and the others are on the run from the law and being chased through the sewers, the police try to stop them by stuffing things from stop signs and lights to a tree down manholes. Baloo then comments that the police used everything but the kitchen sink. They then dodge a kitchen sink, after which Rebbecca comments on Baloo not giving them ideas. Baloo replies at least it wasn't a bathtub. One then falls on top of the Sea Duck and Rebbecca yells at Baloo to stop talking.
    • Another episode has pirate Don Carnage send his two main henchmen into the city, telling them to plunder everything even the kitchen sink. Later on, the heroes have a confrontation with a giant squid who accidentally ripped a sink out of the kitchen and dropped into the henchmens' submarine. Don Carnage is not amused when they bring it to him.
  • An episode of Aladdin features Genie fighting a magical demon named Aziz who was a Big Eater, eating everything Genie throws at him. Finally Genie comments "It's come to this" as he materializes a kitchen sink.
  • In part 3 of The Fairly Odd Parents trilogy Wishology, the Military Extraterrestrial Research Facility (MERF) comes in to stop the Destructinator. They can't. Among the many weapons they fire at it is a giant kitchen sink.
  • In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, "Suited for Success", bigwig fashion designer Hoity Toity calls the dresses at Rarity's first fashion show a "piled-on mishmash of everything but the kitchen sink". Cue a thoroughly-embarrassed Rarity hiding a kitchen sink behind the curtains.
    • One of Spike's presents in "The Secret of My Excess" is a kitchen sink... for no reason other than this trope.
  • The episode "The Contender" of The Adventures Of T-Rex had one of the titular T-Rexes in a boxing tournament. One of the villain's mooks begins to throw various objects at him, causing the referee to yell "Foul!" The mook's coach then runs in and says "My boy's hitting him with everything but the kitchen sink!" In the background, the mook then picks up a kitchen sink and tosses it at the T-Rex.
  • The episode of Rocko's Modern Life where Filburt is Mistaken for Aliens, Rocko and Heffer build a blockade in front of the door using every heavy object they can possibly find, including the kitchen sink.
  • In Bad Luck Blackie, one of the many items that fall from the sky is a kitchen sink.

Real Life[]

  • The ice cream parlor at Disney World's Yacht and Beach Club resort, Beaches and Cream, serves a "Kitchen Sink" sundae that includes a little bit of everything there and is served in a kitchen sink shaped dish.
  • Some things do indeed include kitchen sinks. Houses usually include them, as does having your kitchen remodeled.

Other[]

  • One issue of Dragon magazine had for its cover a picture of a dragon's hoard, which contained gold, jewels, and many, many less conventional objects. A kitchen sink was among them.