Potty Procrastination - TV Tropes

Grover: Sometimes, you're just not sure if you should go to the potty or play some more.
Elmo: But if you wait too late, you'll have to run through the door, and then you might go on the floor!

• Blockbuster Video once advertised their gaming services by showing gaming tips and players acting on them. One of them is followed by a gamer who obviously is in desperate need of a bathroom but won't stop playing, saying "Can't break the seal!" His companion asks, "Am I gonna have to get a towel?"

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: Kusuri has this habit when working on experiments, to the point where she routinely wears diapers so she doesn't have to leave when she can no longer hold it in.
• A segment of Episode 72 of Atashin'chi is dedicated to how you shouldn't wait to go because you won't be able to hide it anyway.
• The Growing Up With Hello Kitty short "Going to the Bathroom" is all about this trope. First, Kitty refuses to go to the bathroom while playing house and has an off-screen Potty Failure. Later, Hello Kitty and her family are driving to go out to dinner and Kitty realizes she needs to go, which causes them to turn around and go home. Over the course of the short, Kitty learns how to prevent Potty Procrastination from happening.
• MegaMan NT Warrior (2002): In episode 3, Yai starts having to use the bathroom before her butler picks her up from school, but she hates having to use the school facilities, so she opts to wait till she gets home. This turns out to be a horrible idea, as there is a massive traffic jam and she ends up having to jump out the window to find a bathroom.
• Nontan to Issho: "Oshikko Denai Mon" ("I Don't Want To Pee" in English) is about Nontan not wanting to stop playing to go to the bathroom, which winds up ending in Potty Failure once Nontan finds out the bathroom is occupied.
• ONIMAI: I'm Now Your Sister!:
  • The chapter "Mahiro and the Toilet", which was adapted into a scene in the first anime episode "Mahiro's Confusing New Body", involves Mahiro having to pee while playing an MMO, but not wanting to leave. She tries to use a bottle before remembering she's not a boy, which causes her to step out and use the toilet.
  • The chapter "Mahiro's First Day", adapted into the anime as "Mahiro Goes Back to Middle School", has Mahiro decide not to use the bathroom after school when she learns that girls usually use the restroom together. Mahiro thinks to herself that holding it in is the right decision, but as soon as she reaches home, she wets herself after crashing into Mihari.
• Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō:
  • In one Kodomo Challenge short, Shimajiro is at the department store and is too excited to look around to listen to his bladder (depicted as a red bucket). While he plays with a toy train, he realizes he really has to pee and probably won't make it in time. Thankfully, he makes it to a urinal, and this is when the pee bucket reminds him to use the bathroom before an emergency happens.
  • Another short involves Shimajiro going on a road trip and having the Pee Bucket remind him to go before he leaves. He ignores it, and later has a Potty Emergency in the car. Thankfully, his mom takes him to a restroom inside a rest stop.
• Parodied in Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure episode 33, where we learn in one segment that the thing that the Queen of Delays has been putting off for so long is using the toilet.
• SPY×FAMILY CODE: White: When aboard a ship, Anya is forced to poop because the people holding her captive know that she swallowed a chocolate containing an important microfilm inside. However, she doesn't want to because she knows she will be killed for stealing the microfilm, so she disguises the fact she needs to go by doing "the school dance". As she struggles to hold it in, she has hallucinations about meeting a poop god. Soon enough, she can't hold it anymore and uses the toilet on the ship. We later learn that said microfilm was not in her poop, but it was stuck in her teeth the whole time.
• Yosuga no Sora: In episode 2, people keep asking Akira for favors when she has to pee. Because she can't resist helping anyone else, she puts off a bathroom break for a while until Kazuha practically has to drag her off to the women's room.

• Lincoln's Memories: At one point, an imperfectly toilet-trained Lincoln watches TV with his sisters, and as such, he forgets to use the bathroom and pees on the couch (much to Leni's horror).

• Flushed Away: During the World Cup Final, Sid comments that he's holding in his pee until half-time, so he doesn't miss anything. This causes Roddy to realize the Big Bad's plan: everyone else watching the match is likely doing the same thing, and when they all flush their toilets at once at half-time, the ensuing tidal wave would be enough to obliterate the sewer city of Ratropolis. The city does have a floodgate, but if someone were to sabotage it...

• Anpanman: The book Ikeru To Iine Toire ("It's Good to Go to The Toilet" in English) has everyone use the bathroom before going on an outing, except for Baikinman, who refuses to do so, even though he clearly has to pee. While riding to their destination, Bakinman suffers a Potty Emergency and asks SL-Man, a living train, to make a bathroom stop, and he makes it just in time.
• In the Argentinean picture book Federico se hizo pis, the title character has fun at a park. He needs to pee, but holds it so that he can keep playing on the slide, and he ends up wetting himself, as the title states. He later has to go again, but this time, he solves the problem by peeing on a tree.
• In the Rosemary Wells book Fiona's Little Accident, Fiona forgets to use the bathroom before getting on the bus to school because she's too excited to show off her homemade volcano. Because of this oversight, she spends the next part of the book trying to find a bathroom, only to be thwarted in some way. Just as her volcano erupts, she ends up peeing her pants, much to her dismay.
• In the Robert Munsch book I Have to Go!, a boy named Andrew is prone to doing this, always saying no when he is asked to use the bathroom before doing a certain activity, always having a Potty Emergency shortly afterward. This happens up until he goes to bed where he ends up having a Potty Failure in bed.
• In the book I Need a Wee!, a blue bear named Alan is reminded to use the bathroom at the fair by the people he's with, but he's insistent on doing the other activities there. By the time he's done, the bathroom has a really long line, and he cannot wait in it, beginning a search for a bathroom.
• Pip and Posy: In "The Little Puddle", Pip and Posy pretend to be lions, and Pip finds that he has to use the bathroom. It isn't long before he pees on the floor by mistake, so he learns not to put it off.
• Potty Animals: What to Know When You've Gotta Go:
  • It's said that Wilma never wants to miss out on any fun her friends are having, so she sticks around as long as she can when the urge to use the bathroom strikes her.

    And when it's time, she has to race, but sometimes she's too late!

  • Stanley doesn't want to interrupt his outdoor play, so he pees outside instead.
• Raj's Rule (for the Bathroom at School): The eponymous rule is not to use the bathroom at school, which naturally results in Raj needing to use it but waiting until he gets home.
• Roys Bedoys: In "Stop Being Stubborn, Roys Bedoys!", Roys is playing a video game and Loys asks him why he's squirming so much. Roys insists that he's fine, only to end up peeing on the couch.
• Sesame Street books:
  • This happens twice in Elmo's Potty Book. It's noted that sometimes Elmo is too busy playing at the park to use the bathroom, but his mother Mae makes sure to remind him to take a pee break. Later, he soils himself when he gets too occupied with having fun with Zoe to go to the bathroom.
  • In Potty Time with Abby, Abby states in her narration that occasionally, she has too much fun with her friends to stop to use the bathroom, but she remembers her mother's advice that they'll still be waiting for her when she gets back. Despite this, though, she ends up not making it anyway when she accidentally turns the toilet into a pumpkin.
• VTuber Legend: In Episode 7 of the anime adaptation, Chami explains to Awayuki that she has to pee, but she says she can hold it in because it's not that bad. To that, they go full speed on the spinning cups. The next scene has Chami suffer a Potty Emergency, Potty Dance and stumble to the bathroom as quickly as she could before it all turned to a Potty Failure.
• In Wiggles' First Day at School, a puppy named Wiggles keeps pacing in circles, so the teacher asks him if he has to use the bathroom. He says he doesn't want to miss out on story time, so his classmates tell him they'll wait for him.

• Euphoria: Played for Drama in "The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Pee While Depressed". Rue has a Heroic BSoD and is much too lethargic to get up to use the bathroom, so she spends many hours watching TV. She begins to feel pain from holding it all day and her narration notes that she could easily get a kidney infection if this goes on too long (complete with shots of the inside of her body). Eventually, she stumbles her way to the bathroom, only to piss herself on the way there.
• In the Friends episode "The One With the Evil Orthodontist", Chandler has been staring at a phone waiting for a girl to respond to his message. He asks Monica to take over for a minute while he goes to the bathroom. She distracts him by convincing him to call her again. He does and it goes relatively well, but then starts doing the potty dance before rushing out of the room.
• iCarly: In "iStage an Intervention", Spencer finds a Pak-Rat arcade machine in the junkyard and plays it, becoming addicted to it to the point where he played it for seven hours straight. When Carly asks Spencer what happened to him when he needed to pee, he tells her that he taped a plastic bottle to his ankle and ran a tube up his pants. Carly is disgusted upon hearing this.
• In the New Girl episode "Parking Spot", Nick, Jess, and Schmidt are competing to see who gets the extra parking spot that comes with their apartment by seeing who can tolerate sitting in it the longest. Schmidt starts to feel the urge to pee, but then declares that he has "absorbed it".

  Jess: Did you just pee inside your body?

• Scrubs: There's a joke where the Todd decides to poop after working out. This backfires as he has a Potty Emergency while he's in the middle of lifting weights.

• Bad Arnie: The music video "The Potty Dance" has the singer mention that the listener is four years old and would rather play with toys than go to the bathroom.

• The beginning of the Bear in the Big Blue House episode "When You've Got to Go!" has Tutter refuse to stop playing checkers with Bear to go to the bathroom. Bear tells him that they can go back to it after he's done, so Tutter rushes off.
• In the Inai Inai Baa! segment "Toire de Su", U-Tan is playing tag with Omarun and has to go to the bathroom. When Omarun notices this, U-Tan refuses to stop to go and says she wants to continue playing tag. Omarun solves this by singing a little song to lead U-Tan to the bathroom, where Benki is waiting.
• The Pajanimals:
  • At the start of "Accidents Happen", the gang plays a game of "Cowbella Says", with Cowbella as the leader. She starts doing a Potty Dance when she instructs the guys to "dance like crazy", which Squacky takes note of, but she claims that she's fine and that this is all part of the game. She then excuses herself out of shame and distress when she wets her pants.
  • In "Oops", Squacky suddenly wakes up with the urge to pee, but he's too lazy to get out of bed. This results in him wetting the bed.
• Sesame Street: Discussed in "Elmo's Potty Time" when Elmo and Grover note that it can sometimes be hard to stop what you're doing to use the bathroom. The song "Accidents Happen" has a part that discusses that this trope may be one of the causes of someone having a Potty Failure.

• Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: Near Dewford Town, there's a fisherman named Ned who complains that he has to use the bathroom, but doesn't want to leave because he doesn't want to miss out on any good catches. When you defeat him, he blames his loss on the fact that he was holding it.
• Tomodachi Life: One news report has a Mii participating in a bike race. They get a stomach cramp, but they refuse to stop their bike and this urge motivates them to finish the race as quickly as possible before rushing into the nearest bathroom.

• Dayum: In "Types of People on the Airplane Portrayed by Minecraft", Josh refuses to use the airplane's bathroom, so he ends up soiling himself.
• Often occurs in the GoAnimate "Wets His Pants at the Movies" videos. The video will often begin with the parents telling their kids they are going to the movies. When asked if the family needs to go to the bathroom before leaving, the character who wets their pants later on in the video will say no. On the car ride there, the character will then tell their parents that they need to use the bathroom.
• In The Plight of Penelope Peabody, the titular protagonist overindulges herself on some soda while she's at a theater and soon feels the urge to pee. She initially tries to hold it, but the movie then shows many scenes featuring running water, prompting her to run off to find a restroom. To her dismay, the women's room has a line that's at least a mile long.

• Bing: In "Hide and Seek", Bing is determined to keep himself hidden during the titular game, even when he has to pee. Flop tells him he can easily pause the game for a moment, but Bing insists he can wait. He ends up being the last to be found, but thanks to Sula hugging him, he ends up not making it.
• Bob's Burgers:
  • Mentioned in "Turkey in a Can" when Gayle says Linda told her about the time Bob peed into a bottle at the theater during a showing of Jerry Maguire.

    Bob: I didn't want to miss any of it!

  • In "Easy Com-mercial, Easy Go-mercial", Gene opts to hold it until the halftime showing of the Super Bowl, calling it a "super bowel". He ultimately can't wait anymore and uses Jimmy Pesto Sr.'s bathroom, only to clog the toilet.
  • In "Sexy Dance Fighting", it's revealed Bob always defecates at 4:30, and he refers to them as his "meetings". When he's mad at Jairo, he says he's postponing this meeting to confront him. He pisses off Jairo by comparing capoeira to jazzercise, and Jairo trips him, causing him to fall on his ass and then crap himself.
• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood:
  • This sets up the plot of "Prince Wednesday Goes to the Potty". Prince Wednesday is building a block tower and realizes he needs to go to the bathroom, but doesn't want to stop building. After a reminder from Teacher Harriet and her solution of putting up a sign to not touch his blocks, he uses the bathroom.
  • In "Daniel Doesn't Want to Go Potty", Daniel is so excited to meet Katerina at the market that he forgets to use the bathroom. As a result of his sudden emergency, Trolley has to turn back home. By the time Mom and Daniel return, Katerina has already left.
  • In "Daniel Doesn't Want To Miss Out", Daniel refuses to go to the bathroom until he finishes a mural for school.
• Dexter's Laboratory: In "Dad is Disturbed", Dexter's father is watching a golf game on TV, when he starts to have to pee. He attempts to wait until his show is over, but the announcer saying things that remind him of his urge (as well as a fountain spraying water) do not help him with that. He ends up ditching the show to use the bathroom.
• Family Guy: The episode "Roads to the Multiverse" features a universe where "everyone has to take a poop right just now", as shown by a boardroom full of businessmen struggling to do their work while trying desperately to hold it in. Whether this means that everyone has to use it at the same time or that this is a one-time moment for them is unclear.
• Jelly Jamm: In "My Turn", Bello makes Rita have to pee by pouring a glass of water into an empty cup in the hopes that she'll finally get off the trampoline and let someone else have a chance with it. She initially tries to ignore him, but he won't stop and it becomes too much for her to take. She seems like she's about to give up, but then she rides on the trampoline on its side like a hamster wheel to the castle. After she crashes it and impales it on a rock, she uses her own bathroom offscreen.
• The Life and Times of Juniper Lee: "The World According to L.A.R.P." has Juniper, Ray Ray, and Monroe watch a movie at the theater when Ray Ray needs to use the restroom but refuses to do so because he wants to see the best part and tells himself that he can hold it. When June reminds him of the "Jungle Gym" incident, Ray Ray reluctantly does so, which leads him to discover the Pirado Demons.
• The Little People (Egmont) episode "Potty Ahoy!" is all about this. Jack forgets to use the bathroom before the kids get on a boat, and he keeps putting off a bathroom break because he doesn't want to miss out on their adventure. When they get on a submarine, a whale named Wayne is about to sing for them. Upon noticing Jack's Potty Dance, Wayne tells him that he'll start his musical number after Jack finishes using the bathroom.
• The Loud House:
  • Implied in the pilot episode "Bathroom Break"; Lincoln says that having such a crowded house and only one bathroom can be difficult: "Especially when you wait till the very last second to go!"
  • Lynn has a superstition that you must not poop before a sports game. This often leads to her and her teammates deciding it's "time for number two" after the games.
  • In "The Loudest Thanksgiving", Lynn doesn't want to miss any of a sports game, so she invents baggy pants so that she wouldn't feel it if she ended up peeing her pants.
  • In "Predict Ability", Lincoln is trying not to be predictable. Since his sister Lisa told him that he always needs to pee at 7:03 in the morning, when he finds himself needing to pee then again, he decides to hold it in until his sisters and parents have used the bathroom.
• In the Muppet Babies (2018) episode "Animal and the Little Accident", Animal chooses to go to Ratlantis with the other babies instead of stopping to use the bathroom first. At one point, the urge becomes too difficult for him to control, which leads to the ship having to turn back to the playroom. As one can guess from the title, Animal doesn't make it in time.
• Nina Needs to Go!: Each episode ends with Nina stating, "That'll never happen again; cuz now I know, don't wait to go!" after an action-packed adventure to the latrine. Despite this, though, she does the exact same thing in the next short.
• Poochini: In one episode, Billy is so into a video game that he won't stop playing it to use the bathroom. He then pees on the floor, which Poochini gets blamed for.
• 6teen: In "Cheapskates", Caitlin does not like having to use the mall's bathrooms because she thinks they're gross. She tries to hold it, only to end up going anyway when the others keep talking about running water to mess with her.
• South Park: In the episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft", the kids are shown playing World of Warcraft for extremely long periods of time in order to defeat a Griefer who keeps killing everyone's characters. The issue of how they go to the bathroom is brought up when Cartman has a Potty Emergency seventeen hours into the Final Battle — when he realizes he's too far into the battle to take a break to use the bathroom, he asks his mom over an intercom device to bring him a bedpan to use instead.
• Subverted in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Ditchin'", where SpongeBob pretends to have a Potty Emergency so he can ditch class to go to a Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy book signing. He does not really go to the bathroom, but before he leaves, Mrs. Puff gives him the key to the bathroom which he must return upon leaving otherwise he'll be punished. Said key turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun when he is sinking in the tar pits, and the thought of it causes him to emerge from the tar and escape.
• Winston's Potty Chair: At one point, Winston has an Imagine Spot where he falls into a lake. It then cuts back to reality, and it's revealed that he was so occupied with reading a book about dinosaurs that he ended up peeing his pants.
• Wonderoos: In the episode "First Potty Accident", Hazzy has to use the bathroom, but doesn't want to miss his turn to lead a game of "follow the leader". his results in him having an accident (as the title states), but this is later undone when he goes back in time and chooses the other option of going to the park's bathroom.