Do popcorn machines overflow?

So that's the question: DO they do that? First, watch this video, because we BELIEVE this guy is for real. We'll check back in after.

Wild, right?

Okay, so as you saw in the video with Captain Personality up there, popcorn makers (particularly those in movie theaters) have a drum which holds the kernels, for the popping. Two things are important here: there is a filling line for kernel addition, which reflects the capacity of the drum. Second, there is a sealed lid on top of the drum, to stop the popping corn from flying everywhere.

So. You MIGHT overflow the drum if you overfilled the filling line, and had too many kernels. BUT: what would be much more likely would be rather than popping all the corn, they would overheat and get all funky, leaving you with a ton of unpopped kernels at the bottom: the popcorn needs room to expand into and once that stops, you're going to spoil the popcorn. The other element is important, because if there's a lid on top of the drum, nothing's overflowing. These things are designed to be able to pop some corn without having to watch it, while the concession person goes about the rest of their work.

So: the only way to really overflow a movie popcorn maker is to run it without the lid, which would explode them down into the vat underneath. Often movie theaters will do this for the fun effect: this isn't a failing of the worker, since the popped corn is designed to be kept in the underneath storage heater.

So, yes: popcorn makers CAN overflow in the right conditions, but it's not a bad thing.