THE INCREDIBLE HULK

List of every reason Banner HULKS
out in the classic tv series!


We are living in a golden age of superhero television and movies, but long before Marvel was a dominant force at the box office, there was the delightfully awesome 1978 Incredible Hulk TV show. In this article we provide all the reasons poor Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby) would turn into Lou Ferrigno’s green-skinned monster, the Incredible Hulk!

Turns out, the initial trigger that sparks the transformation process is often quite a bit weirder than just getting mad at something like you’d expect. Some choice excuses for going green:

-Receiving a lethal injection, and then having the person say, “Oh. I just gave you a lethal injection. Sorry, David.” -lol!

-Wandering around in the service ducts of a hotel (predating Bruce Willis) only to accidentally yank several of the pipes loose and get a full blast of hot steam!

-Being tied up and fed soup by an elderly Japanese woman who doesn’t  understand words like “You’ve GOT to cut me loose!”

-Being thrown under a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade float by a mean guy in a gorilla suit who gives David a few kicks for good measure!

-Receiving a speeding ticket!

Wow! -talk about a short fuse! Banner needs some serious anger management. There’s 131 instances in total that triggered the Hulk metamorphosis, and many are outright hilarious.


The Incredible Hulk

List of Grievances


1.  Problems with flat tire!
2.  Has a nightmare while sleeping!
3.  Thinking about either of his wives!
4.  Cut off from somebody in danger who needs his help!
5.  Being hit over the head repeatedly with a metal object!

6.  Having his cure destroyed!
7.  Caught in quicksand!
8.  Being mauled by a bear!
9.  Being bit by a dog!
10. Being placed in a car compactor!

11.  Being punched out and thrown down a flight of stairs!
12.  Being punched out and thrown over a balcony!
13.  Being punched in the face repeatedly!
14.  Being buried in a sand pit!
15.  Having a row of computers fall on him!

16.  Being hit with a blast of steam in the face while trying to turn off the nuclear  reactor that is melting down!
17.  Receiving a lethal injection, and then having the person say, "Oh.  I just gave  you a lethal injection.  Sorry, David.!"
18.  Dropping a C02 cannister on his foot after being insulted!
19.  Being pushed down a mountainside by a bigfoot impersonator!
20.  Dealing with a pesky operator in a phone booth and yelling, "I DON'T HAVE TWENTY-FIVE  CENTS!!!"

21.  Getting into a car crash!
22.  Having a burning 2x4 fall on his head while trying to get the horse out of the  burning barn!
23.  Being trampled by a crowd AND having the hot coffee spilled on his hand  while trying to get to the sniper!
24.  Being tied up and fed soup by an elderly Japanese woman who doesn't  understand words like "You've GOT to cut me loose!"
25.  Grabbing the pipe that is below freezing temperature!

26.  Falling through a rickety staircase while trying to get to the drunk girl who is  about to jump off the roof, and then finding that she's locked the rooftop door!
27.  Trying to get out of the basement cage while handcuffed to a chair only to fall  over a stack of boxed bottles and have them all fall on him!
28.  Being placed in a dumpster by the two garbagemen who think he's a thief,  and who don't believe him when he says "Hey!  There are rats in here!", and then  being bitten by the rats to add injury to insult!
29.  Having two mean football players snap wet towels at him and shove him into  the steam room which they have turned on to full blast!
30.  Being trapped inside a football stadium drunk tank while his friend is in  danger, and THEN having one of the drunks hit him over the head with a metal object!

31.  Being caught taking photos of toughs committing monkey business in the  restaurant, and then being beaten up and thrown under a table!
32.  Getting his jacket caught in the printwheels at the newspaper printing room,  and then inexplicably sticking his hand into the rollers!
33.  Yelled at by a mean cop, and then having mace sprayed in his face by same mean cop!
34.  Handcuffed to a woman who is falling over the cliff!
35.  Having a large wooden beam fall on him, and then having a heavy boulder fall  on the beam!

36.  Somehow running into a bear trap!
37.  Beaten up and placed on a car going through a car wash, and then being  dragged under the car!
38.  Placed in a small room with a ravenous black panther!
39.  Somehow locking himself in an old, dark basement, and then nearly  electrocuting himself (really has to be seen to be believed!)
40.  Falling into the churning water of a boathouse, and then inexplicably being  repeatedly carried over the paddlewheel (this one is stranger than 39!)

41.  Being trapped in the middle of a forest fire!
42.  Listening to ultrasonics!
43.  Attempting to turn off the boiling hot water for the waxmaker, only to have  the faucet break off in his hand and scald him, and then inexplicably slipping and  rolling around in same boiling hot water!
44.  Kicking over a beehive and then being surprised when the bees are mad at him!
45.  Being beaten up and thrown down a well!

46.  Having his friend tell the New York "syndicate" that David has their money,  so that their enforcers chase David back to his apartment, and then having all his  neighbors close their doors on him rather than listen to him saying "Please!   You've GOT to let me in!!!", and then being beaten up and thrown over the  balcony into the smelly trash cans by same enforcers!
47.  Being stuck in a cab in New York rush hour traffic - "You don't understand, I  have to be there by 4:00!" - "Hey, mac, it's rush hour, we ain't gettin' there til five,  so relax." - "BUT I HAVE TO BE THERE BY FOUR!!!"
48.  Helping Ray Walston out with a magic trick by allowing himself to be chained  up and put in a tank of water, only to find that drunk Ray has forgotten to leave  the escape key inside the tank!
49.  Beaten up and locked in a car trunk!
50.  Receiving a speeding ticket!

51.  Having Thor the Thunder God push him around!
52.  Locked in a drunk tank with a crazy person who insists he is Ernest  Hemingway and then beats the stuffing out of David!
53.  Being tear gassed!
54.  Buried in a mine cave-in!
55.  Injecting himself with the wrong cure!

56.  Somehow getting himself into a bellfry and then realizing that a bell is there,  just as it strikes the hour!
57.  Being pushed out of a plane at 30,000 feet by a mean guy who yells “You’re  gonna land a lot sooner than the rest of us!”
58.  Being forced to land a 747 without any training or instructions or help, at the  risk of his, the Hulk's, and everybody else on the plane's lives!
59.  Being put in a strait jacket because he's seen the videotape that proves that  the sanatarium doctor is performing unnecessary lobotomies on the patients,  and then thrashing around so much that he bangs his head on the floor!
60.  Being stuck in the police department's voice mail system when he knows his  friend is about to be the next lobotomy subject, only to have the police finally  pick up the phone after he's turning into the Hulk!

61.  Being stuck in a cabin that the police are turning into swiss cheese with their  shotguns, even though he and the pregnant woman have no guns and have  waved the white flag, only to have the police bullets start a fire in the cabin, etc.,  etc.!
62.  Beaten up by a bunch of mean cops who won't listen to him saying "Hey!   Don't touch that woman!  She's pregnant!  No!"
63.  Being grazed in the face by a bullet while running after the bus carrying his  friend's hysterical mother, and then running into the messy, overturned garbage cans!
64.  Being rear-ended fifteen times in a row by a mean bully with a bigger car than his!
65.  Buried in cement by the mob!

66.  Being showered with electrical sparks because Jack McGee has spotted him  and is running after him shouting "Hey, John Doe!"
67.  Beaten up by the rag trade mob, and having his arm placed in a press iron!
68.  Being placed in a cage with an angry gorilla!
69.  Making some Hell's Angels very angry with him!
70.  Being run over by same angry Hell's Angels!

71.  Wandering into an Army dump to get the deadly canister of army nerve gas  that has blinded his friend, only to be caught by a mean MP who knocks his gas  mask off and throws him back down the hill, knocking the canister open so that  David can frantically try to put his mask back on before looking up to see that the  MP has somehow brought in a crane and is dumping two tons of garbage on him  (this is an unusually bizarre situation!)
72.  While blinded for the episode, wandering across an Army training course,  and then veering into the training minefield (see parenthetical at #39!)
73.  Being chained to a truck while his friend for the episode has been taken  inside the trailer by the natives to be punished under the rites of La Culta de  Cabeza Chocolata!
74.  Trying to run away from the nasty prison work camp, only to fall through a  rotted bridge, and then being bitten by a rattlesnake!
75.  Beaten up by all the other prisoners in the work camp, in the middle of the  night while he is trying to sleep, when he emphatically told them not to beat him  up that particular night!

76.  Falling in a pitfall set by the crazed man who is hunting David on his private  island, and then being stung by the scorpion when trying to climb out!
77.  Being horsewhipped by same crazed man who is understandably upset that  David will not accomodate his polite requests to "turn back into that thing!"
78.  Being thrown under a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade float by a mean guy in  a gorilla suit who gives David a few kicks for good measure!
79.  Making the High Priest of the Baba Yaga voodoo cult so angry with him by  challenging a perfectly normal ritual sacrifice that several of the Priest's minions  are obliged to beat the stuffing out of David and throw a cloak over his head!
80.  Accidentally getting stuck in the department store that is being robbed, and  then having one of the thieves lock him in the bottom of an elevator shaft,  underneath a creaky old elevator that is showering sparks, and slipping off of its  cables, yelling "Hey!  You've got to get me out of here!  It's slipping!", only to  have the 5-ton elevator suddenly fall on him  (this one gets points for originality!)

81.  Being beaten up by the thieves and thrown in the store vault, having the  vault door closed on his foot, and then having the air supply cut off by the  giggling thieves!
82.  Being placed in a cargo crate with his friend for the episode because he’s  found out about the problems at the waterfront, and being hoisted onto an  outbound freighter, but having all the dockworkers ignore his screams of “Hey!  Hey! Help! HELLLLPPPP!!!”
83.  Being mistaken for mob boss Mike Cassidy, who looks exactly like him, and  who everybody wants to beat up, so that David is repeatedly beaten up for no  reason!
84.  Being placed in a room that is filled with carbon monoxide gas!
85.  Wandering around in the service ducts of a hotel (akin to Bruce Willis) only to  accidentally yank several of the steam pipes loose and get a full blast of hot  steam!

86.  Beaten up and thrown in a closet, and while thrashing around and trying to  get out, sticking his hand in a box of broken glassware!
87.  Foolishly running in and trying to help a man who brought a lit cigarette into a  room full of toxic vapors, only to have an explosion throw him across the room  and into the row of heavy C02 containers, which all fall on him!
88.  Hit in the face with a high powered beebee gun, which causes him to fall  over the balcony and plunge 40 feet into the seats below!
89.  Being trapped by McGee in a back room, and when he tries to  run away,  bashing his knee, crashing into a backboard, and doing generally clutzy things  culminating with falling down the stairs and crashing into a giant flower pot!
90.  Beaten up while trying to keep the incoherent man from stabbing the woman  who accidentally locked David in the closet, and then having same man attempt  to close the door to same closet on David's head!

91.  Being shot at close range with a silenced pistol, after standing up to the  mob's enforcers!
92.  Being trapped in the middle of a forest fire so that burning branches keep  falling on him and setting him on fire, and a giant, burning tree falls directly on  him as the last straw (Different from last forest fire predicament!)
93.  Being caught in an explosion on the edge of the fire that throws him into a  tumbling, rolling pile of large, heavy pipes!
94.  Foolishly trying to open the door to the shed of airplane propellant that is on  fire, and then being caught in the explosion!
95.  Falling out of a plane without a parachute, then being given a parachute  (which causes the person who pushed him to be told "That guy has nine lives",  to which the mean person responds by pulling out a rifle and saying "Yeah, but I  got ten rounds"), and then having the straps to his parachute shot off when he is  still 30 feet above an empty house so that he falls through the roof and hurts  himself!

96.  Deliberately going to a disco club and picking a fight with some very large  and angry men because while trying to cure himself, he injected himself with a  solution that has unleashed his "dark side!”
97.  Trapped on a platform with the worker who is having a heart attack, and  being showered with electrical sparks!
98.  Crawling through the sensitive, highly dangerous electrical service tunnel  for no apparent reason, only to accidentally kick several of the electrical cables  loose and flailing around near the hot water pipes so that he can be practically  electricuted and fried at the same time!
99.  Accidentally leaving the laser beam on in the chemical lab so that it cuts  across the room and into the highly toxic chemicals so that David is enveloped in  poisonous fumes!
100.  Trapped in a burning room in the scientific project with ten other people by  the crazed mercenary who is trying to capture the Hulk, and then trying with  everybody else to ram open the door with a jagged metal shelf set, only to get his  hand caught between the edge of the shelf set and the door during a group ram!

101.  Punched out and thrown in the cactus bed so that David can thrash around  on the cactus, even though he has plenty of avenues of escape!
102.  Coming to the aid of the gumshoe in the garage who is being beaten up for  not minding HIS own business, and getting beaten up himself, kicked under a low  riding sportscar that has been jacked up for repairs, and whose jack is removed  so that the car can fall on David.  Gumshoe's reaction, in voiceover narration:  "It  was a big green thing, and it definitely wasn't happy about something!"
103.  Being caught at the old studio backlot with same gumshoe, by same nasty  bad guys, and trying to run away so as not to get angry with them, only to have  them pull a heavy old scene facade down on top of him.  Gumshoe's reaction:  "It  was that green thing again, and it still wasn't happy!"
104.  Beaten up by a couple of punks under the Santa Monica Pier, who ask him  for his wallet, query him why he only has $5 on him, and then forcibly baptize him  several times!
105.  Tied up by same punks and left attached to a bench press machine as bait  for the bodybuilder (played by Lou Ferrigno) and his girlfriend to find and  become upset over, except that David becomes upset first!

106.  Being fed poisoned sushi!
107.  Tied up by the Japanese mob in San Francisco and thrown in his bathtub  with the shower blasting scalding hot water on him (why he doesn't simply get  out of the tub is a mystery!)
108.  Having several clay pots broken over his head in the middle of the now- burning room (why is the room always burning?), and then knocking an entire  case of same clay pots onto same head, and then, while lying very still and  struggling not to get angry, having his pants catch fire!
109. Having David rudely turn off the gamma radiation machine when he's trying to turn  himself back into the green creature he used to turn into in the 1950s!
110.  Going to a bar and deliberately picking a fight so that he can  get mad, turn into the creature and kill someone!

111.  Having David rudely inject him with a cure so that he won't  be able to turn into the monster anymore!
112.  While paralyzed for the episode, somehow getting caught in the middle of a  barroom brawl, and while trying to quietly wheel himself out of the room, being  hit by a flying body and knocked down the stairs (what David is even doing in  such a situation goes unexplained!)
113.  While still paralyzed, trying to drive a car to the bank to stop his friend for  the episode (who is going to try to obtain an immediate loan by robbing the  bank), only to drive so slowly that the big guy in the truck behind him keeps  yelling "Hurry up!  Learn to drive!", and then getting so caught up in watching his  friend wheel into the bank that he forgets to look both ways before entering the  intersection, crashes into a car trying to cross in front of him, and gets rear- ended by the big guy in the truck, who remarks as David begins turning into the  Hulk:      "You IDIOT!!"
114.  Trying to escape his apartment before Jack McGee finishes bashing in the  front door with an axe, by smashing the bathroom window, only to grievously cut  himself on the broken glass!
115.  Trying to help his friend for the episode, the midget wrestler known as "Half  Nelson", by climbing into the ring for him, only to be clobbered by a large, beefy  wrestler who practices numerous combination moves on David, in spite of David  (and Jack McGee)'s numerous cries of "Stop!  You don't know what you're doing!   You're making me ANGRY!"

116.  Somehow being caught under a rockslide, and then foolishly exposing one  of his hands on the mountainside so that a big, heavy rock smashes it!
117.  Being attacked by some mean cops who handcuff him even though he has  told them his hand is broken, and who then let him flail around so that he falls on  his bad hand!
118.   While working as a cabbie for the episode, trying to get the pregnant  woman whose water has broken to the hospital, only to find that his cab is out of  gas, and then having every gas station in town refuse to give him any gas,  having a really mean gas station attendant yell back at him “I heard that one  already!”, and then having same mean attendant slam the door on his fingers  (As  an interesting touch, after the Hulk trashes the place, he ambles over to the taxi  to find out that the woman HAS DELIVERED HER OWN BABY and is now happily  smiling at the Hulk with the baby!)
119.   While still working as a cabbie, somehow being thrown into a rock crushing  machine that sucks David through a sandpit while rocks slam into his head and  hands (Leads to a bizarre shot of the Hulk being carried along the conveyor  belt!)
120.   Trying to stop the psycho from driving off with his friend only to be dragged  by the car across the parking lot, and then having the psycho yank the wheel so  that David is thrown across the lot into a bunch of broken boxes!

121.   Being handcuffed in an office by the psycho (who turns out to be the chief  of police), and then having an angry mob break through the door and through the  makeshift barricade David tries to make (while still handcuffed), and then having  the mob proceed to throw him against the wall and beat the living daylights out of  him  (Somehow, nobody notices that he’s turning green and going from a size 5  to a size 9 until it’s way too late!)
122.   Being lassoed by the mean cowboys and dragged behind their horses  across a bunch of dirt and rocks, and then being dragged into the river!
123.   Being thrown into a holding pen with an angry bull by the mean cowboys,  hitting his head on the ground, and while he’s lying on the ground trying to  recover, having the bull literally kick his behind (and his side, and his leg, and  his gizzard, etc!)
124.   Finding out that his somewhat slow friend Ricky has locked himself in a  shed in a car with the engine running, and then trying to break the lock with a  shovel, only to have the rusty shovel snap and clobber his fingers!
125.   Driving into the demolition derby because good old Ricky has driven a  potentially explosive car into the derby, only to have his car bashed by every  other car on the field so that nobody can hear his frantic cries of “No! Ricky!  RICKY!”  (One could presumably ask why David doesn’t just have them stop the  derby!)

126.   Unknowingly having one of the other guys in the rock band crew helpfully  add some “orange sunshine” LSD to David’s orange juice, so that David has a  really bad trip!
127.   Beaten up and locked in a storage chest!
128.   Trying to help the sweet old lady with her robbery, only to have one of her  mean friends chain him up and throw him into the bay.  (Leads to an underwater  hulkout!)
129.   Wandering around inside the carnival funhouse, only to have someone turn  on the machinery so that David is somehow caught in a rolling tumbler and  flipped over a few times and then thrown down a convenient slide!
130.  Konged in the head by the crazed bible quoter in the back storeroom, and  then waking up to discover that not only has the guy set the room on fire (Again!)  but that David himself is now on fire!

131.  Going to all the houses in the neighborhood to tell them that the boy in the  house next door is being beaten by his father, only to have everyone close their  doors on him rather than help!
132.  Being caught in a gym by the mean guy who’s been beating up his son, and  then being beaten up by the guy and thrown out into the hallway!
133.  Being hit by a car and knocked twenty feet so that he tumbles down a  conveniently open manhole!

BACK to KR FRONT PAGE