Exploding head

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For the medical condition, see exploding head syndrome.

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.

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).

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 Bob Dole.