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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.

Background

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.

The loss of one's head is a non-survivable injury, though some stories depict its swift reappearance or replacement (as with The Cheat). 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).

An article for the philosophy journal Analysis, to be printed in April 2008, uses exploding heads as a basis to expand Logician George Boolos' 1996 title The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever. The article's authors, Brian and Landorn Rabern, expand on the original Knights and Knaves - like puzzle by introducing a type of result where the recipient of a question is unable to give the answer it logically must, which is represented by its head exploding.

Power of head explosion

In the comic Johnny The Homicidal Maniac when Johnny is in the after life, he, as well as everyone else in there, has the power to make anyone's head explode at will. The power turns out to be to great as a mass of head exploding one-upmanship and chaos ensues.

Non-fictional head explosions

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.

See also

• Cognitive dissonance
• Does not compute, the robotic version
• Scanners
• Mars Attacks!, in which the Martian invaders are finally defeated with a song which causes their heads to explode.

References

1. Brian Rabern and Landon Rabern, A Simple Solution to the Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever (Analysis, 68.2, forthcoming, April 2008).
2. ^ Mikkelson, Barbara & David P. "Explosive Thoughts" at Snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages.
3. Weiss, Jeffrey (1996-01-26). "Web page gets explosive reaction; Secret Service is nervous about volatile Dole icon". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
4. Wired magazine, issue 4.04, April 1996]

External links

• Snopes.com article debunking the HCE
• Center for the Study of Sudden Cranial Expansion
• Head explosion scene from Scanners
• Exploding heads website's reported mesage

• Articles lacking sources from November 2007
• Explosions
• Cartooning
• Comics terminology