Cartoon physics

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Cartoon physics is a joking reference to the fact that animation allows regular laws of physics to be ignored in humorous ways for dramatic effects. For example, when a cartoon character runs off a cliff, gravity has no effect until the character notices and reacts.<ref name="coyotusinterruptus">In a neologism contest held by New Scientist, a winning entry coined the term "coyotus interruptus" for this phenomenon—a pun on coitus interruptus and Wile E. Coyote, who fell to his doom this way particularly often.</ref>

In words attributed to Art Babbitt: "Animation follows the laws of physics - unless it is funnier otherwise."

The phrase also reflects the fact that many of the most famous American animated films, particularly those from Warner Brothers and MGM studios, unconsciously developed a relatively consistent set of such "laws" that have become regularly applied in comic animation.

1 History of the phrase
2 Why is it funny?
3 Examples
4 Anvilology
5 Cartoon collision physics
6 Laws of Cartoon Dynamics
7 Anime physics
8 Notes
9 See also
10 External links

[edit] History of the phrase

The idea that cartoons behave differently, but not randomly, than the real world is virtually as old as animation. Walt Disney, for example, spoke of the plausible impossible (see The Plausible Impossible, 1956), deliberately mispronouncing the second word so it rhymed with the first.

Specific reference to cartoon physics extends back at least to June of 1980, when an article "O'Donnell's Laws of Cartoon Motion"<ref>O'Donnell's Laws of Cartoon Motion", Esquire, 6/80, reprinted in IEEE Institute, 10/94; V.18 #7 p.12. Copy on Web</ref> appeared in Esquire magazine. A version printed in 1994 by the IEEE in a journal for engineers helped spread the word among the technical crowd, which has expanded and refined the idea. Dozens of websites exist outlining these laws.

The situation is so well-understood that it has been used as the topic of jokes for decades, as in the 1949 Looney Tunes short High Diving Hare, in which Bugs Bunny explains, "I know this defies the law of gravity; but you see, I never studied law!"

More recently, the cartoon characters Roger Rabbit and Bonkers D. Bobcat have their own variations on the theme, explaining that toons are allowed to bend or break natural laws for the purposes of comedy. Doing this is extremely tricky, so toons have a natural sense of comedic timing, giving them inherently funny properties. Bonkers also warns that the loss of this sense can lead to unfunny and even dangerous situations, perhaps explaining why cartoon violence, but not the real variety, is always funny.

In 1993, Stephen R. Gould, writing in New Scientist noted that "... new, looney toon analysis reveals that these, seemingly nonsensical, phenomena can be described by logical laws similar to those in our world. Nonsensical events are by no means limited to the Looniverse. Laws that govern our own Universe often seem contrary to common sense."<ref>Stephen R. Gould, Looney Tuniverse: There is a crazy kind of physics at work in the world of cartoons (1993) New Scientist</ref>. This theme is further described by Dr. Alan Cholodenko in his article, "The Nutty Universe of Animation" <ref>Dr. Alan Cholodenko, "The Nutty Universe of Animation, The “Discipline” of All “Disciplines”, And That’s Not All, Folks!" International Journal of Baudrillard Studies Volume 3, Number 1 (January 2006)</ref>

[edit] Why is it funny?

Adherents of evolutionary psychology have suggested that the humorous effect of cartoon physics is due to the interplay of intuitions between physics (objective) and psychology (self-perception). The physics module predicts that the cartoon character will fall over the cliff immediately, while the psychology module anthropomorphizes the force of gravity and thus see it as vulnerable to deception, as long as the actor is self-deceived ^{[citation needed]}.

In short, it can lead to the humorous situation where a cartoon's logic is governed by what "makes sense" (is consistent) rather than what "is" (natural law).

[edit] Examples

Commonly cited cartoon physics "laws" include:

No matter what happens to cats, they always return to their default shapes.
Any body passing through solid matter will leave a dent or cutout conforming to the shape of its perimeter.
Explosives, even if detonated close to a character's face, will cause only scorching of the skin. (Prior to the efforts of the American Civil Rights Movement, characters would often take on the appearance of blackface and sometimes briefly sing a short song such as Way Down Upon the Swanee River.) Similarly, a gun discharged directly into the face will not fire an actual bullet. Often a gun will malfunction and instead produce a small flag reading "BANG!" rather than discharging.
If characters walk off a cliff, they will continue to walk on thin air until they notice they have walked off the cliff. In some cases characters can avoid falling, even if they are aware there is no ground below them, by not actually looking down.
When the character does notice that it is about to fall, it will not accellerate smoothly under gravity - but instead go directly from being stationary to moving at their terminal velocity. Some parts of their body (typically head and ears) may 'notice' a little later than the rest - resulting in significant stretching until everything catches up.
If a character falls from a tall building, another character from the same floor will be able to run all the way down to ground level in order to catch the falling character before he/she hits the ground.
Characters are allowed to "swim" or blow themselves upwards a short distance in the air before falling normally to gravity.
An explosive device taken by one character will not explode until it is given back to the original character who triggered the device. Also applies to booby traps.
Motion reference frames are arbitrary. For instance, an outboard motor in a pan of water on wheels causes the motor and pan to move together. Likewise, a fan and a sail attached to a wheeled platform will cause the platform to move.
Holes can be physically picked up and moved. This also applies to mouths and to roadways that might conveniently be redirected off the edge of a cliff or into a wall.
Tunnels and doors can be created merely by painting them on the surface where they are desired. Frequently a train will egress from tunnels, trailing freshly rolled railway tracks behind it.
The reference frame can loop, where a character disappearing into one edge (or door way) can appear from another.
No matter how dark it is, eyes will be perfectly visible.
Grappling hooks can be attached to the sky. The term Skyhook has come to be used in many real-world situations where something is lifted into the sky by a hook lowered from aircraft of some kind.
Magnets do not obey Newton's third law - a tiny mouse can pull an entire car across the street using a sufficiently large magnet - yet the mouse himself feels no opposite reaction. Yellow lightning bolts accompany all magnetic fields - which tend to be highly directional.
A toon's tongue can be stretched to almost any length - and when released it may roll up like a tape measure (with a similar sound) or perhaps just land in a large pile at the characters' feet.

[edit] Anvilology

Anvilology^{[citation needed]} is the study of (cartoon) physical principles of anvils, as studied at "Acme Looniversity" in the animated series, Tiny Toons.

Everything falls faster than an anvil (so that the evil character can hit the ground first and then be crushed, but not killed, by the anvil).
Anvils are readily available.
Anvils have mass but not much weight, so that they are very hard to push around, but it is possible to jump out of a plane with an anvil instead of a parachute and not notice until the parachute is opened while airborne.
Anvils can stay in the air until noticed by a character, at which point they fall on the character.
If a character moves out of the way of a falling anvil, the anvil will shift its position over the character before falling, so that it crushes (but does not kill) the character. The anvil's shadow does not reflect this shift and will stay in its original position until the anvil strikes the character.

[edit] Cartoon collision physics

Cartoon collision physics are a subset of cartoon physics regarding the laws of collisions.

For a given cartoon character C:

If C runs into a wall,
a: If the wall is too thick, C will strike it and flatten out like dough, often regardless of clothing.
b: If the wall is thin enough, C will leave a hole in the wall in the shape of his full silhouette.
If C runs into something made of metal, C will dent it in the shape of his or her body.
If C runs off a cliff, the impact crater C leaves will conform with Rule 1b.
If C has a fragile body,
a: Running into any wall will cause C to be squashed into a musical instrument (usually an accordion), or
b: Any collision or fall will fracture C into a zillion pieces.This is especially true when said character is frozen and hits said collision.
If C runs into a wall which has been painted to look like part of the landscape or a tunnel:
a: If the "camera" angle blends the painting with the actual landscape, C will enter the landscape or tunnel as though it were real.
b: If C was the one who painted the wall, C will just run into the wall — see Rule 1.
c: If the "camera" views the painting at an angle such that it is, without doubt, a painting on a wall, C will just run into the wall — see Rule 1. There are exceptions to this rule.
d: Trains or large trucks are often known to drive out of walls painted in this way, usually just after the painter has slammed into the wall and is feeling sheepish for having fallen for his or her own ruse. However, if the view of the oncoming vehicle is blocked, then the vehicle will apparently stop.

[edit] Laws of Cartoon Dynamics

The Laws of Cartoon Dynamics are physical laws in the cartoon universe identified by Trevor Paquette and Lt. Justin D. Baldwin and popularized by film critic Roger Ebert. They overlap greatly with the older concept of "laws of cartoon physics".

Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation (plus an interval for live falling bodies to express an appropriate emotion).
Any body in motion will tend to remain in motion until solid matter intervenes suddenly.
Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation conforming to its perimeter.
The time required for an object to fall twenty stories is greater than or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it off the ledge to spiral down twenty flights to attempt to capture it unbroken.
All principles of gravity are negated by fear.
As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once.
Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot.
Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent.
Everything falls faster than an anvil.
Guns, no matter how powerful, or no matter where aimed, will do nothing more than char flesh, blow away feathers, or rearrange beaks. In certain occasions, they leave a perfectly circular hole that goes completely through the body of the character being shot, but this does not affect his/her health in any way.
Any given amount of explosives will propel a body miles away, but still in one piece, charred and extremely peeved.
Arms holding large falling weights are infinitely elastic, but will eventually drag the holder along.

[edit] Anime physics

Anime physics can be considered a subset of cartoon physics - a set of rules used in cartoons to twist or ignore the laws of physics for humorous or dramatic effect. These are commonly seen in anime but not so common in cartoons. Normally, these are referenced from popular series in the past. Note that many of these laws only apply to shounen series.

Examples include:

Dramatic moments tend to distort time, either by slowing it down (usually long enough to call out the name of an attacker or the name of the "special move" used in the attack, or for bystanders to comment on the situation), or by looping three times.
- Similarly, transformations (especially those animated with stock footage) also seem to stop time until completed, allowing them to be used to counter attacks, or not allowing the person to be attacked while performing them.
- Death is not instantaneous to significant characters.
Attacks strong enough to shred entire planets will not destroy anyone's pants or hair. Conversely, certain explosions can destroy a female character's clothing without significantly harming her body—in some cases, without her initially noticing this.
Any fire-based attack on a character will not completely burn his/her clothes but will leave black stains instead.
A single cut can be made swiftly, cleanly. This is possible with any object, particularly with hands, paper, swords, and even air.
- A sword, especially a katana, can cleanly cut through anything, even including large objects (such as ships) and hair, but not through other swords.
- Wooden katanas (bokken) can cut just as well as the real thing, if not better (see Tatewaki Kuno from Ranma ½ or Twilight Suzuka from Outlaw Star)
Faster than light travel is possible with many characters, particularly those engaged in martial art battles; and so a vehicle is not required.
Trains and other unlikely forms of transportation can fly, through either technology or magic.
Any female can, if angered by someone, pull out a wooden rice mallet (saizuchi), of any proportions, from hammerspace and hit the offender with it to let go of some aggressions. It should be noted that, no matter how large the mallet is, or how flat the offender gets after the pounding, s/he will always revert to original shape without having to experience any significant health detoriation from the whole ordeal.
Death can be suspended until it is appropriate, suspenseful, or ironic. During the end part of some battles, characters may opt to charge at one another with their sword, meaning to chop the other in half. at the point of contact, all that will be seen is a bright white slash going across the screen, but it will remain unclear who is hurt. the two characters will then stay, knelt on the floor, facing away from each other, until the evil character falls into pieces, having been killed minutes earlier.