Three Seashells

Confirmed 368,167

About

The Three Seashells are a mysterious set of seashells which have replaced toilet tissue in the 1993 science fiction action film Demolition Man. Online, many fan theories have arisen attempting to explain the function of the shells.

Origin

On October 8th, 1993, the film Demolition Man was released, in which the protagonist John Spartan (played by Sylvester Stallone) expresses confusion when he discovers that toilet tissue has been replaced by three seashells after awakening 36 years in the future (shown below). The proper use of the seashells is never explained in the film.

Spread

In 2007, the Internet humor site I-Mockery^[4] published an infographic with instructions on using the three seashells. On February 8th, 2008, Urban Dictionary^[8] user Tot submitted an entry for "Three Sea Shells." On April 16th, 2013, Redditor Samo1415 submitted a picture of a toilet paper holder with three seashells placed above it to /r/funny^[7] (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 1,900 votes (82% upvoted) and 120 comments.

In August, the artist Tailsteak^[5] published a blog post which speculated how the seashells could be used. In October, actress Sandra Bullock discussed the three seashells during an interview with MTV (shown below).

“Well, think of a bidet, right? There’s several processes. You have number one, you have number two, and then the cleanup.”

On October 14th, 2014, Redditor silverlil submitted a post speculating that the seashells were just buttons for futuristic toilets to the /r/FanTheories^[6] subreddit. On December 5th, Redditor Uncleluke2 created a post on /r/movies^[7] claiming he heard an explanation of the three seashells during a Q&A session with Demolition Man screenwriter Daniel Waters.

"I won't tell you the actual secret, but I'll tell you where it came from. There's a scene where Stallone has to use a restroom. I'm trying to come up with futuristic things you'd find in there. I was having trouble, so I called my buddy, another screenwriter across town, asked him if he had any ideas. Ironically enough that guy was taking a dump when he answered the phone, looked around his bathroom and said 'I have a bag of seashells on my toilet as a decoration?' I said 'Ok, I'll make something out of that.'"