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Toon Physics - TV Tropes
"Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation. Daffy Duck steps off a cliff, expecting further pastureland. He loiters in midair, soliloquizing flippantly, until he chances to look down. At this point, the familiar principle of 32 feet per second takes over."
Animation Tropes, of course, occur in most Western cartoons of the classic era. Like any genre trope, they became consistent enough to be considered the "natural laws" of that setting.
Toon Physics hangs a lampshade on those tropes, by explicitly and consistently pointing out how creatures of ink and paint operate under different rules from those of flesh and blood, while coexisting in the same setting. Toons living in or visiting a flesh-and-blood world will still operate under their own unique laws of nature.
Humans visiting a cartoon world may operate according to the local laws — or may not. This doesn't have to be consistent even within a given work. In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for example, Eddie experiences many Animation Tropes first hand — but his brother was killed by a falling piano (admittedly this may have been a real piano that was dropped by a toon; it was also presumably dropped outside of Toon Town, onto a normal human).
Seen in any Trapped in TV Land tale that includes a jaunt into a cartoon.
Contrast Refugee from TV Land and Real-World Episode, where characters from a "fictional" milieu enter the "real" world and, more often than not, find that the world doesn't work the same way anymore.
Sister Trope to Artistic License – Physics, when things in the "real" world seemingly obey Toon Physics laws (ostensibly for the Rule of Cool).
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Chibikko Rémi to Meiken Kapi (1970): When Capi and the purple cocker spaniel are having a Dance of Romance, he's so engrossed in it he doesn't notice he's not on the ship anymore - and only notices that he's in mid-air above the waters when he looks down.
- Igano Kabamaru: Any time the titular Kabamaru needs to ingest in a lot of food, he stretches open his mouth comically wide. And that's not even mentioning how he turns into Usain Bolt any time there's a sport event.
- In Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta becomes Genre Savvy enough to realize Arale runs on this, identifying her as a "gag manga character" and tries to counter it by using unconventional techniques like the classic Look Behind You. The only person capable of posing a threat to her was Beerus, but even then she's saved by a Deus ex Machina.
- One Piece: Between Zoro being able to speak clearly with a sword in his mouth because "his heart lets him," or Nami being able to damage Rubber Man Luffy with blunt force because she "hurts his spirit", much of the One Piece world already runs on Nonsense. However, this trope most actively applies when it comes to the abilities of Luffy's Devil Fruit the Gomu Gomu no Mii (Gum-Gum Fruit). Normally, the fruit simply grants its user a body of rubber, which allows Luffy to stretch his body, but it also allows Luffy to come up with some unique techniques by taking advantage of the fact that every part of his body is made of rubber. The best examples are Luffy's Gear Second form, where Luffy increases his speed by manually pumping his blood and increasing his body's blood flow, and his Gear Third form, where Luffy gains increased power by inflating his bones to turn his hands and feet into those of a giant. This is expanded upon even further when it's revealed that Luffy's Devil fruit, which everyone thought was a simple Paramecia class, is actually a rare Mythical Zoan Fruit that the World Government have been hunting for 800 years. The fruits true name is the Hito Hito no Mii Model: Nika (Human Human Fruit Model: Nika) and its true strength lies in its Awakening which grants its user a brand-new transformation. This transformation, that Luffy refers to as Gear Fifth, grants the user the ability to freely alter their shape, as well as imbue surrounding objects with the properties of rubber. When Luffy incorporates these new abilities into his moveset, it results in an unpredictable fighting style that highly resembles something out of old theatrical cartoons form the 30s and 40s.
- Ouran High School Host Club occasionally takes advantage of this. Mostly in the anime, though.
- Haré+Guu does this almost all the time.
- Kill la Kill has Mako Mankanshoku and Nui Harime, who operate by this while everybody else uses standard shonen anime physics. The former of the two uses them for their traditional comic relief purpose, while the latter weaponizes them.
- Pokémon the Series: The Team Rocket trio seem to operate on Toon Physics more than other characters. Especially when they put up with abuse that would grievously harm other characters like being electrocuted and "Blasting Off". Ash himself may also count as he's also been shocked by Pikachu many times over the course of the anime, although humans in the franchise tend to be more durable than us.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pegasus plays a Toon Deck where the monsters essentially weaponize toon physics to run absolute rings around his opponent's monsters, which are bound by realistic (In-Universe) physics. Stuff like Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon bending its body out of the way of its normal counterpart’s Burst Stream of Destruction and having Toon Mermaid’s clam sprout arms to catch a sword and outright break the game's rules are just par for the course when these silly, but deadly creatures pop out of his deck.
Comic Books
- The Awesome Slapstick: Slapstick a.k.a. Steve Harmon. After being transformed into "living electroplasm" from an accident with an alien portal, Slapstick is essentially a Toon — he is able to freely abuse Toon Physics, making him a Nigh-Invulnerable minor Reality Warper. He can recover from all injuries almost instantly with no damage, and has performed otherwise impossible feats, such as swallowing a box of bullets and rapidly firing them by spitting them out like a machine gun. Specifically, Slapstick is a character in the 616 Marvel Universe, just like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. However, he has super powers that just happen to make him resemble a cartoon. He has a normal human form, but when he transforms to his Slapstick form, he has Rubber Man powers, meaning that he can be stretched harmlessly and turn into an accordion when crushed, and a very powerful Healing Factor, meaning that he can be riddled with bullets, and burned to ash and leave his eyes unharmed long enough for a few blinks. He also has gloves which can access a "sub-spacial storage pocket," or, in layman's terms, Hammerspace. Finally, he has the personality of a practical joker. Put it together, and he's a cartoon character who could reasonably interact with the X-Men.
- Batman: In the DC Black Label Elseworld series Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham, the villain Crytoon is obsessed with the cartoon character of the same name and reenacts the character's antics. While the injuries are easy to brush off in a cartoon thanks to Toon Physics, it's much worse in real life.
- Dastardly & Muttley: The comic has this in spades, due to being a comic about the real world suddenly having people gain powers related to cartoon physics and being transformed into cartoon characters themselves. However, unlike most examples of this trope, this is not portrayed in a comedic manner... well, at least not for the most part. It's deconstructed and portrayed horrifically, because it's a comic that shows what would actually happen if this trope existed in real life. And the results aren't pretty. And it makes sense when you consider that a), it's a Darker, Edgier and somewhat more realistic reboot/interpretation (emphasis on the "somewhat") of Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines and b), it's written by Garth Ennis. Granted, the way cartoon physics is portrayed in this story isn't as dark as some of Ennis's other works, but it's still pretty ghastly.
- The Mask: Like the film it inspired, The Mask grants its wearer the use of Toon Physics. Unlike the film, though, victims of The Mask's shenanigans are not subject to the same, so things like Squashed Flat and Torso with a View end up as brutally gory deaths instead of Amusing Injuries. For example, the scene where Ipkiss stuck car parts into the mechanics who ripped him off? In the movie, they survive but are in desperate need of a proctologist. In the comic, they're left as bloody corpses. Or how about the scene where he makes a Tommy gun out of a balloon? In the movie, he scares away the thugs. In the comic, he blasts them into hamburger meat.
- The Multiversity:
- In The Multiversity #1, Captain Carrot invokes this in a fight with a HULK MASH!-Up on Earth-8, a fight he won by the way. Being squashed flat doesn't do anything to him, because he can just pop back up again.
- The Multiversity Guidebook #1 notes that this is true for all of Earth-26. Being destroyed apparently isn't much of a problem for it, either.
- Superman: In The Adventures of Superman #441, Mister Mxyzptlk makes cartoon characters real and attacks Superman with them. The creatures (expies of, among others, Fred Flintstone, The Smurfs, and Mighty Mouse) obey this and are thus somewhat of a chore, but when Superman himself is turned toony by Mxy, he exploits it (pulling a cat from Hammerspace in his cloak to scare the Mighty Mouse expy, for instance).
Comic Strips
- Sam's Strip: The lead characters had almost Seinfeldian conversations about the physical laws in their comic strip world.
Fan Works
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
- In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the toons naturally have this power, but live humans do not outside of Toon Town, which means even though the vast majority of them are benign and friendly, it's entirely possible for a toon to kill a human using cartoon rules. This is what makes Judge Doom so scary, because he can and does kill people with Toon Physics. Furthermore, he found a way to kill the supposedly immortal toons with the Dip, made out of turpentine, acetone and benzene (i.e. oil remover, paint thinner and film dissolver). Humans' and Toons' being able to survive things is further explained as being based on Rule of Funny. A human or toon can survive having a piano dropped on them if it'd be funny to any observers. If it's not, like when Eddie Valiant's brother was murdered by Judge Doom, then the very real consequences apply.
- Cool World has a comic character emerging into the real world and alternating between the two, with all the associated physical effects.
- The Mask (1994): Those who wear the mask are given superpowers that amount to classic cartoon physics. Some justification is given in that the first wearer is a fan of them. The sequel elaborates that the mask is a creation of the Norse trickster god, Loki.
- Twilight Zone: The Movie includes a sequence where the Omnipotent Child both brings a cartoon character into real life, and sends Nancy Cartwright into a cartoon. It ends VERY badly for her.
- Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Special note in the former, as it turns out that normal humans can also use Toon Physics in "Looney Tunes Land", setting up an awesome moment for Michael Jordan.
- The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle showed this as the characters were in the real world with a Shout-Out to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- Kung Fu Hustle is a rare live-action example that doesn't involve the Roger Rabbit Effect. The back cover of the DVD aptly describes the film as Looney Tunes meets Quentin Tarantino.
- Lampshaded in Ernest Rides Again when Ernest thanks cartoon physics for how he manages to survive all manner of crazy things like a nail gun shooting him in the head:
Abner: Ernest! Are you dead?!
Ernest: No... I guess I would be if I weren't just that close to being an actual cartoon.
- Played with in Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022). Chip at one point is able to blow into his thumb to restore a lost ear, but Dale, who has undergone CGI-surgery, is no longer capable of exploiting Toon Physics when he gets stuck in a restraint.
Dale: This body is meant to be looked at, not touched!
- Hundreds of Beavers completly runs on Toon Physics and the Rule of Funny. While some objects and sequences are animated, the movie's protagonist is clearly human - and most of the animals, while acting cartoony, are played by actors in silly costumes.
Live-Action TV
- The basis of the season 8 Supernatural episode "Hunteri Heroici". A powerful telekinetic loses his grip on reality and retreats into a dream-world made up of his childhood cartoons. His abilities go full-on Reality Warper and apply Toon Physics to everything in his vicinity.
- One episode of Farscape had stuff like a cartoon bomb going off in one cast member's face.
- The Animated Episode "Yabba Dabba Do Me" of Lucifer (2016) sees Lucifer and Chloe visiting a place in Hell that's basically an Alternate Tooniverse - naturally, everything runs on Toon Physics or - how Lucifer calls it - "bloody cartoon logic".
Tabletop Games
- Steve Jackson Games published a roleplaying system called Toon. It obeys this trope to the letter; characters are unkillable (though they can Fall Down for a few rounds), failing an intelligence roll can allow one to ignore gravity, and sawing through a tree branch has a fifty percent chance of causing the tree to fall with the branch suspended in midair. The entire point of the game is to be as funny as possible.
Video Games
Webcomics
- Project 0: One of the powers afforded by modding. It's only been used sparsely.
- The Cartoon Chronicles of Conroy Cat breaks up cartoon physics into two factors: the Funny Bone, where toons can withstand things like Amusing Injuries, and the Fourth Wall, as seen here.
- It happens in The Order of the Stick when Vaarsuvius disintegrates the horse of the death knight. The usual lampshade is hung.
Vaarsuvius: W. E. Coyote's Law of Cartoon Inertia: "Objects in motion tend to stay at the same altitude until gravity is noticed.".
- In a The Hero of Three Faces strip, when discussing how Star Trek universe physics makes perfect sense to Trek characters, even though from the Doctor's perspective it's total nonsense, Data points out that physics are bound to be consistant within a fictional plane, and offers the analogy that, were they to visit the Looney Tunes universe, Wile E. Coyote physics would apply to them. Cut to the Doctor blindfolding Data on top of a cliff.
Data: I fail to understand why I have been selected for this experiment.
Doctor: Because it was your idea!
- Sergeant Acme of Kong Tower has this as a Superpower, complete with Hammerspace and Wheel o' Feet.
- In The Bird Feeder #224, "Rain protection," it's used by Josh to torment Lewis. The bill of his cap extends to stop the rain from hitting Lewis, though the effect only works due to the perspective.
- The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! tends to follow Rule of Funny or Rule of Drama depending on the needs of the scene. On the one hand, people can survive dragonfire and explosions with no more than singed eyebrows, spaceships can routinely crash into Bob's roof without obliterating his house, and the thousands-of-tons heavy Snookums can hop around like a bunny without doing any worse than cracking the sidewalk. On the other hand, Bob himself gets banged up surprisingly seriously on a pretty regular basis. It was a major plot point that he was lastingly spooked by how close the Cone story arc came to killing him.
Web Originals
Western Animation
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