Editing Spontaneous human combustion (section)

== In popular culture ==
{{In popular culture|date=March 2025}}
* Charles Brockden Brown's 1798 novel ''[[Wieland (novel)|Wieland: or, The Transformation: An American Tale]]'' features the death of the Wieland family's patriarch via spontaneous human combustion during prayer within his property's temple.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Croft |first=Lee B. |date=1989 |title=Spontaneous Human Combustion in Literature: Some Examples of the Literary Use of Popular Mythology |journal=CLA Journal |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=335–347 |jstor=44322033 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44322033 |publisher=College Language Association}}</ref>
* In the novel ''[[Redburn]]'' by [[Herman Melville]] published in 1849, a sailor, Miguel Saveda, is consumed by "animal combustion" while in a drunken stupor on the return voyage from Liverpool to New York.<ref>{{cite book|title=Redburn: His First Voyage|first=Herman|last=Melville|publisher=[[Harper & Brothers]]|location=New York|date=1849|chapter=Chapter 48: A Living Corpse|url=http://www.online-literature.com/melville/redburn/48}}</ref>
* In the novel ''[[Bleak House]]'' by [[Charles Dickens]], the character Mr. Krook dies of spontaneous combustion at the end of Part X. Dickens researched the details of a number of contemporary accounts of spontaneous human combustion before writing that part of the novel and, after receiving criticism from a scientist friend suggesting he was perpetuating a "vulgar error", cites some of these cases in Part XI and again in the preface to the one-volume edition.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Haight |first1=Gordon S. |date=June 1955 |title=Dickens and Lewes on Spontaneous Combustion |journal=Nineteenth-Century Fiction |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=53–63 |doi=10.2307/3044373 |jstor=3044373}}</ref> The death of Mr. Krook has been described as "the most famous case in literature" of spontaneous human combustion.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dalrymple |first1=Theodore |date=8 September 2012 |title=Burning up |journal=British Medical Journal |volume=345 |issue=7873 |pages=34 |doi=10.1136/bmj.e5858 |jstor=23278432|s2cid=220083324 }}</ref>
* In the comic story "The Glenmutchkin Railway" by [[William Edmondstoune Aytoun]], published in 1845 in  ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'', one of the railway directors, Sir Polloxfen Tremens, is said to have died of spontaneous combustion.<ref>{{cite news | title = Collective hallucinations and inefficient markets: The British Railway Mania of the 1840s | author = Andrew Odlyzko | url = http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/doc/hallucinations.pdf}}</ref>
* In the 1984 [[mockumentary]] ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]'', about the fictional heavy metal band [[Spinal Tap (band)|Spinal Tap]], two of the band's former drummers are said to have died in separate on-stage spontaneous human combustion incidents.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.seeker.com/mysterious-death-ruled-spontaneous-combustion-1765446824.html|title=Mysterious Death Ruled Spontaneous Combustion|website=Seeker|date=26 September 2011|last=Radford|first=Ben|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210121000/https://www.seeker.com/mysterious-death-ruled-spontaneous-combustion-1765446824.html}}</ref>
* In the episode "Confidence and Paranoia" of British science fiction series ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', a character called the Mayor of Warsaw is said to have spontaneously exploded in the 16th century and briefly appears in a vision by an unconscious Lister (the main protagonist of the series) where he explodes in front of Rimmer (his hologram bunkmate).<ref>{{Citation |title="Red Dwarf" Confidence and Paranoia (TV Episode 1988) - IMDb |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0684151/plotsummary |access-date=2022-08-08}}</ref>
* In the beginning of the 1998 video game ''[[Parasite Eve (video game)|Parasite Eve]]'', an entire audience in [[Carnegie Hall]] spontaneously combusts (except for Aya Brea, the protagonist of the game) during an opera presentation as the main actress Melissa Pierce starts to sing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/parasite-eve-bottles-the-eerie-feeling-of-not-celebrati-1798287536|title=Parasite Eve bottles the eerie feeling of not celebrating Christmas|first=Anthony John|last=Agnello|date=18 December 2015|work=[[The A.V. Club]]|access-date=21 January 2019}}</ref>
* This phenomenon is mentioned in the TV series ''[[The X-Files]]''.<ref>{{cite news |author=Liz Shannon Miller |title=Review: 'The X-Files' Season 10 Episode 5 'Babylon': The Weirdest Double Date Ever |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2016/02/review-the-x-files-season-10-episode-5-babylon-the-weirdest-double-date-ever-22028/ |work=IndieWire |date=2016-02-15}}</ref> 
* In the episode "Heart Break" of the second season of the American action police procedural television series ''[[NCIS (television series)|NCIS]]'', a case is investigated where the victim at first glance seems to have been killed by spontaneous human combustion.<ref>{{Citation |last=Smith |first=Dennis |title=Heart Break |date=2004-11-30 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0657997/?ref_=ttep_ep8 |series=NCIS |access-date=2022-08-08}}</ref>
* In episode "Duty Free Rome" of the second season of the TV series ''[[Picket Fences]]'', the town's mayor is shown to have been killed by spontaneous combustion.<ref>{{Citation |title=Picket Fences 2x02 "Duty Free Rome" |url=https://trakt.tv/shows/picket-fences/seasons/2/episodes/2 |access-date=2022-08-08}}</ref>
* In the seventh season episode “Mars Attacks” of the American TV medical drama [[ER (TV series)|''ER'']], a patient is treated for “spontaneous human combustion” and subsequently catches fire.<ref>{{Citation |title=ER, S7 E3: Mars Attacks |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/er/season-7/episode-3-mars-attacks |work=metacritic.com |access-date=2023-03-24}}</ref>
* The manga and anime series ''[[Fire Force]] (En'en no Shōbōtai)'' focuses on the main protagonists fighting humans who have this phenomenon.<ref>{{Citation |title=Enen no Shouboutai |url=https://myanimelist.net/anime/38671/Enen_no_Shouboutai |language=en |access-date=2022-08-08}}</ref>
* In the fourth episode of the first season of the English comedic drama series ''[[Toast of London]]'', Toast decides to finish his book by having the main character spontaneously combust. When bringing it to his literary agent, the laziness of his ending enrages her to the point of spontaneous combustion in front of Toast.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-19 |title=It's Not That Steven Toast Is a Total Failure, PopMatters |url=https://www.popmatters.com/190663-toast-of-london-its-not-that-steven-toast-is-a-total-failure-2495560381.html |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=PopMatters |language=en-US}}</ref>
* The adult animated series ''[[South Park]]'' devoted a whole episode, titled "[[Spontaneous Combustion (South Park)|Spontaneous Combustion]]", to spontaneous human combustion.<ref>{{cite web |first=Ritwik |last=Mitra |title=South Park: 15 Best Randy Episodes, Ranked |url=https://gamerant.com/south-park-best-randy-episodes-ranked/ |work=gamerant.com |date=2022-05-22}}</ref>
*In [[Kevin Wilson (writer)|Kevin Wilson]]'s short story "Blowing Up on the Spot" (from his collection ''[[Tunneling to the Center of the Earth]]''), the protagonist's parents died from a "double spontaneous human combustion."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Romm |first=Robin |date=2009-04-03 |title=The Little Explosions of Man |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/books/review/Romm-t.html |access-date=2022-08-08 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
*In the 2020 American [[black comedy]] [[Horror film|horror]] film ''[[Spontaneous (film)|Spontaneous]]'', high school students at Covington High begin to inexplicably explode.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-29 |title=Spontaneous Ending Explained: Why The Teens Were Exploding |url=https://screenrant.com/spontaneous-ending-explained-meaning/ |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=ScreenRant |language=en-US}}</ref>
*In the fifth and sixth episode of the anime ''[[Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective]]'', Takao investigates a case in which two of the victims seem to have died of spontaneous combustion, due to "Enzou's curse".<ref>{{Citation | title=Ameku Takao no Suiri Karte | url=https://myanimelist.net/anime/58600/Ameku_Takao_no_Suiri_Karte | language=en | access-date=2025-01-29}}</ref>
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