- "Lots of things happen in cartoons that you just don't see in the real world. That's part of the fun of cartoons!"
- ― Toon
- "Cartoons don't have to make sense."
"He's right you know." - ― Bart Simpson and Ozmodiar (The Simpsons)
- "Gee, let me think. Either A: I'm losing my mind, or B: You possess superhuman powers dictated by the laws of cartoon physics."
"You're one smart cookie, Gummy." - ― Ace Ventura and Stanley Ibkiss/The Mask (The Mask: Animated Series, "The Aceman Cometh")
The power to adhere to the laws of physics in a cartoon. Sub-power of Animated Art Manipulation. Variation of Fictional Physics and Reality Warping.
Also Called[]
- Acme Law/Logic/Physics/Principles
- Animated Law/Logic/Physics/Principles
- Animation Law/Logic/Physics/Principles
- Cartoon Law/Logic/Principles
- Toon Law/Logic/Physics/Principles
- Toon Force
Capabilities[]
Users can operate under the whimsical and exaggerated rules of animated worlds, replacing the rigid laws of reality with those dictated by humor, creativity, and absurdity. This ability allows them to defy logic, manipulate their surroundings in impossible ways, and reshape the very fabric of their universe to suit their needs. Freed from the constraints of natural laws, users can bend, ignore, or rewrite physics, biology, and time itself, producing outcomes that are as hilarious as they are unpredictable.
At its core, Cartoon Physics grants unparalleled freedom and creativity. Actions defy physical and biological limitations: users might stretch like rubber, flatten without injury, or walk away from cataclysmic events entirely unharmed. They can survive being crushed by a massive object, blown up in an explosion, or falling from incredible heights, recovering moments later with only soot on their face or stars circling their head. This resilience makes them effectively immune to conventional harm, enduring scenarios that would incapacitate or destroy others.
Objects and tools can materialize from nowhere, often pulled from impossibly small spaces like a pocket or from behind the user’s back. These items, ranging from oversized mallets to anvils, are typically summoned for comedic effect but are surprisingly effective. The absurdity of these actions is heightened by exaggerated sound effects—springs, whistles, cymbals crashing—which amplify the humor and absurdity of the moment. This theatricality extends into combat, where even battles transform into chaotic and entertaining spectacles.
In combat, Cartoon Physics is both a formidable offense and a near-impenetrable defense. A user might summon a giant hammer to strike an opponent, trap them in a cage conjured from thin air, or dodge an attack by twisting and bending their body like a noodle. Environmental manipulation is key: walls can become doors, sudden obstacles can appear, and painted tunnels on a wall may transform into functioning passageways. Opponents often find themselves baffled, as the unpredictable and nonsensical nature of this power makes it almost impossible to counter effectively.
Space and time also become playthings under the user’s control. They might pause, rewind, or fast-forward events to suit their needs, sprint vast distances in an instant (leaving a puff of silhouette-shaped dust behind), or hover mid-air until they "realize" they should fall. Combat itself can pause for comedic commentary, or an enemy might suddenly find themselves ensnared in a gag-filled trap. The rules of momentum, gravity, and causality bend entirely to the user’s whims.
This power extends beyond physical manipulation into meta-awareness. Users often break the fourth wall, acknowledging their fictional nature and using it to their advantage. They might interact directly with spectators, rewrite their story mid-action, or subvert expected outcomes with comedic twists. This self-awareness, paired with the power’s flexibility, allows users to transform even the gravest dangers into opportunities for humor. Serious threats can be reduced to farcical inconveniences, and seemingly dire situations can end in absurd yet effective solutions.
Cartoon Physics, while rooted in humor, is not limited to comedic applications. Skilled users can wield it as a potent form of reality warping, turning absurdity into a creative tool to solve problems or disarm threats. Their nonsensical actions often achieve the precise outcome they desire, leaving allies and enemies alike bewildered by their chaotic ingenuity.
Despite its versatility, the effectiveness of Cartoon Physics often hinges on the "rule of funny." It thrives in contexts where humor is appropriate, but in more serious or grounded scenarios, its charm may falter, or its effects may seem out of place. Additionally, relying on comedic logic can sometimes lead to unintended consequences, especially if the humor misfires. The unpredictable nature of this power also poses challenges, as its effects can veer wildly from one extreme to another.
Applications[]
- 4th Wall Awareness: Some Cartoons have the ability to acknowledge that there is an audience or some type of people watching them, and they're working for a cartoon company.
- 4th Wall Interaction: Cartoons and users of this power can actually communicate and interact with the audience or people watching them, or the people animating them.
- Absolute Storage: store anything and manipulate anything that stores things.
- Accelerated Metabolism: Cartoons and users of this power can eat vast qualities of food but never seem to gain permanent weight as they lose it in later/certain events or shortly afterwards.
- Accelerated Rotation: The power to spin in a tornado-like manner.
- Instant Acceleration: Can instantly reposition their body in any location without moving, allowing something similar to teleportation.
- Anatomic Construct: Caricature without any life-threatening effects.
- Anatomical Liberation: Users may be able to detach their body parts.
- Animation: Create soldiers, escape portals, traps, weapons, etc. with art materials, like ink.
- Cartoon Materialization: The ability to bring cartoons to life either by creating them with the mind or using an already created cartoon as a base.
- Acme Arsenal: Cartoons and users of this power are able to be creative and use anything and everything as a weapon.
- Cartoon Constructs: Constructs out of cartoons.
- Cartoon Creature Creation: The ability to create creatures out of cartoons.
- Cartoon Constructs: Constructs out of cartoons.
- Acme Arsenal: Cartoons and users of this power are able to be creative and use anything and everything as a weapon.
- Cartoon Shapeshifting
- Comedic Strength
- Destruction: In setting off an explosive, user can destroy a larger area than planned, possibly annihilating an entire planet. This often leaves only a piece of rock and a character hanging from a root.
- Digital Form: User's may acquire this ability while going into the cartoon dimension.
- Disguise Mastery
- Dream Walking: Can see and jump straight into the dreams of other characters.
- Dynamite Action: Dynamite (ACME) and possibly other explosives cannot cause any fatal injuries, while only causing the victim to be covered in black soot and surrounded by smoke.
- Exaggeration
- Extreme Inertia: Any subject/object falls at higher speeds than terminal velocity.
- Fictional Mimicry: Cartoon characters are often seen mimicking others from different forms of media.
- Cartoon Mimicry
- Antagonal Impairment: Violent rearrangements are impermanent.
- Elasticity: Stretch limbs or any other part of one's body to absurd lengths.
- Fat Expansion/Flat Body: User may become much fatter by eating lots of food or actually two-dimensional, like a cartoon character.
- Flight: User may spread his/her arms or flap them to fly.
- Immutability: Users can survive situations that can be dangerous, like falling from a certain height or hitting hard surfaces.
- Metamorphosis: If the character is interacting with the animator, the animator can erase the body of the character and replace it with a new one - for example, Screwball Daffy.
- Metaphoric Shapeshifting: The character will turn into something depending on the metaphorical situation like a lollipop emblazoned with the word "Sucker" (the character has just been tricked) or a donkey with optional braying (the character is stupid or being a (jack)ass).
- Narrative Shapeshifting: Users often alter their form as a form of communication, such as to warn others of incoming danger or to explain a situation.
- Onomatopoeisis: Users often display onomatopoeic effects whenever they move and act.
- Pain Suppression: Users can suppress pain until they notice it or until they need to let out a scream.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Recover from damage and regenerate lost limbs, organs, and other body parts. Some almost instantly. For animal cartoons, this is mostly seen only applying to tails.
- Semi-Immortality: Cartoon characters never age. They stay exactly the same age over the years. For Example, Mickey Mouse has not biologically aged. He is the same biological age he was in the '40s as he is in the present.
- Terror Toon: Project and manifest horrifying fictional elements related to more frightening aspects of the loonyverse.
- Fiction Travel: User may freely travel between the lines of variant world faculties (i.e. picture frames, drawings, television, cyberspace, storybooks, reality, painted black dots).
- Parasol Flight: Using a mere umbrella to fly, glide, and hover to various destinations.
- Ricochet Inducement: Users can cause people or object to ricochet in a cartoonish fashion. Enemies may also cause them to bounce instead.
- Teleportation: Can go inside one tunnel or door and come out of another one. This usually results in two characters ending in different places, despite going through the same door.
- Cartoon Mimicry
- Fun Lord
- Gravity Manipulation: Body suspended in space (i.e. air) will remain suspended until made aware of the pertaining situation of gravity. Also, sometimes gravity still works in space.
- Hammered!: This is where a character is slammed by a heavy object (such as a giant POW hammer, or fat people) where they will then be slammed deep into the ground. This usually results in the character making a crater in the ground shaped just like the character and the object combined. However,...
- Flattened: In some cases, the character will be made paper-thin. However, this can also be caused by being hit by large objects, like a train.
- Helicopter Propulsion: The characters can use any part of their body to fly like a helicopter. However,...
- Wing Manifestation: In some cases, they can use two things or body parts as wings.
- Hyper Bouncing
- Information Viewing and Editing: To bring up and edit a person's information, such as removing powers, adding powers, or doing other wacky stuff with it, even edit their own.
- Injury Immunity: User's do not die and are not truly affected by injuries that would otherwise be fatal but will at least be annoyed or experience some pain from it.
- Knowledge Manipulation: User can use events to manipulate the knowledge of other characters, leading one of them to take the fall.
- Letter Generation: Just like in a comic book, in terms of using swearwords, symbols like @# or! may appear above the caricature. This may also happen in surprising situations. Words like "BLAP!" or "BOOM" can also show, just like in a comic book. In addition...
- Energy Solidification: Sometimes, this applies to kinetic or emotional energy, making it appear outside of an impact area or a sudden change in emotion for a split second.
- Luck/Jinxed: Cartoon characters can either be infinitely lucky or infinitely unlucky, to the point that impossible outcomes happen to them either way.
- Nature Manipulation: This can also apply to every aspect of nature, possibly causing volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or meteor showers when angry.
- Empathic Weather Manipulation: Manipulate the weather with your emotions, when your angry you make storms etc. However...
- Omnipresence: If the following someone, the user may happen to be anywhere the follower goes, possibly learning to fly for a moment.
- Pencil Warping: The user can grab a #2 pencil (Or other tool(s) that can write and erase) and play God.... within comical limits. (I.E., Draw Tunnels, Holes, Erase such, mess with attacks, draw attacks, ETC.)
- Physics Defiance: In the cartoon world, physics is messed within a lot of ways. Sometimes...
- Pocket Dimension: Ability to draw out large objects from seemingly nowhere, usually behind their back or in a pocket.
- Direct Anvil: Anvil will fall directly on a caricature whether they are still or in motion.
- Reality Warping: An idea that messes more with physics, and is believed to be controlling reality, can be part of the cartoon's storyline.
- Possibility Inducement: User can make impossible and illogical events happen.
- Spontaneous Musical Number: Users can break out into song and dance or cause one. As with some musicals, this can temporarily create a different world suited for the song and have a variety of physics-defying effects.
- Opening Fanfare: Appearance may cause music to be played.
- Reversed Vocifery: When saying things like, "Nothing can go wrong," something wrong can happen. The character ultimately says "I could be wrong" just to prove it.
- Randomness Inducement: User can make very random and improbable events happen for seemingly no reason.
- Sharp Jab: Slightest perforation implicates caricature to shoot skyward, screaming.
- Smoke Generation: When a fight is beginning, a gray cloud appears and covers the involved caricatures, with hands, feet and/or heads sticking out.
- Supernatural/Absolute Condition: Be physically/mentally superior to humans.
- Synchronized Movement: Cause another character to move in a way that is synchronized with that of the user, until someone secretly breaks the chain.
- Tasks: Some cartoon characters are willing to go through a lot of trouble to pull off their personal missions. If they ever put these missions aside for any reason, they come back to them at some point.
- Targeting: When discharging a firearm, user can still cut through its target, even if it looks like that they missed by a long way (but not too far).
- Technology Manipulation: User can cause technology to do bizarre things. For example, the cherries on a fruit machine can turn out to be bombs.
- Thought Warping: Can imagine and materialize whatever it is that's on their minds.
- Unnatural Shape: Cartoon characters are often portrayed in exaggerating shapes which real-life lacks.
- Noodly Body: Thin cartoon characters are unrealistically thin to the point that they can perform dexterous and flexible movements.
- Top-Heavy Body: Muscular cartoon characters are portrayed with an exaggeratedly large torso to signify their strength.
- Word Play Manipulation: User can use word play and puns to perform various abilities.
- Zip!: User may run away at very high speeds. Some cartoon characters, like Road Runner or Speedy Gonzales, have this as a natural ability.
- Cartoon Immortality: Powerful Cartoons can survive anything and everything only for humorous purposes.
Techniques[]
Variations[]
Associations[]
- Altered Physics
- Anime & Manga Physics
- Comic Physics
- Fictional Trope
- Joke Actualization
- Logic Manipulation
- Physics Manipulation
- Science Manipulation
- Self-Exertion
- Video Game Physics
Limitations[]
Essential[]
- Non-Lethal Damage, some users can't kill.
- The ability to emote is often sacrificed in return for the ability.
Optional[]
- Some are unable to adhere to real physics, some may never be able to die or get hurt.
- Physics Enforcement may affect the user.
- Useless against Real World Enforcement.
- Power is often derived from another source. A reality warper may give these powers to make the user an Enigma Force.
- The power may be limited to be used only when it's funny.
- May backfire on characters that are "unlucky".
Trivia[]
Cartoon Physics finds its most natural and intuitive users in children, whose boundless imagination and unfiltered creativity perfectly align with the power's whimsical nature. Free from the constraints of logic and practicality that often bind adult thinking, children embrace absurdity and unpredictability with astonishing ease. Their world is a playground where anything is possible, and they wield Cartoon Physics as an extension of their playful, uninhibited spirit. A child's belief in the impossible fuels their mastery, allowing them to create and manipulate with unparalleled freedom—whether it’s summoning a trampoline to leap over an obstacle, turning a fight into a chaotic pie-throwing contest, or drawing a doorway to escape a locked room.
When children engage in combat with this power, they often see it as nothing more than an elaborate game, their innocence shielding them from the gravity of the situation. Like Good Buu (Dragon Ball series), their actions are driven by a sense of fun rather than malice or intent to harm. They might laugh while dodging attacks in absurd ways, turn a dangerous situation into a game of tag, or defeat opponents with harmless-looking pranks that somehow deliver effective results. Their playful perception transforms even the most serious battles into chaotic, cartoonish spectacles, leaving enemies confused and frustrated as they are outmatched by sheer unpredictability and whimsy.
Unlike older beings, children have not yet been “contaminated” by the skepticism, self-doubt, and rigid thinking that often come with adolescence and adulthood. As they grow older, many individuals begin to internalize the rules of the world—physics, logic, social expectations—limiting their ability to think creatively and embrace absurdity. Adolescence brings a desire for conformity, often stifling the free-spirited imagination needed to wield this power to its fullest. Adults may overthink, strategize, or even question their own abilities, while children simply believe—a belief so pure and absolute that it becomes the driving force behind Cartoon Physics. For a child, the impossible is not only achievable; it’s expected, making them the perfect vessels for this power.
Known Users[]
See Also: Toon Physics.
Anime/Manga[]
- Arale Norimaki (Dr. Slump/Dragon Ball series)
- Haruko Haruharu (FLCL)
- Most Characters (Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo)
- Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece); via Gear 5
- Nui Harime (Kill la Kill)
- Most Characters (Magical Somera-chan)
- All Characters (Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt)
- Toon World (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
Comics/Cartoons[]
- The Addams Family (The Addams Family)
- All Characters (Adventure Time)
- Genie (Aladdin)
- Darwin Watterson (The Amazing World of Gumball)
- Gumball Watterson (The Amazing World of Gumball)
- Nicole Watterson (The Amazing World of Gumball)
- Averell Dalton (The Daltons) One Time
- Anne Boonchuy (Amphibia)
- Sprig Plantar (Amphibia)
- Various Characters (The Angry Beavers)
- Yakko, Wakko, & Dot (Animaniacs)
- Axe Cop (Axe Cop)
- Are and Nin (The Purples)
- Various Characters (Battle Kitty)
- The Battletoads (Battletoads)
- Betelgeuse (Beetlejuice: the Animated Series)
- Xingo (Ben 10: Reboot)
- Heatblast (Ben 10: Reboot); temporarily
- Black Dynamite (Black Dynamite)
- Bonkers D. Bobcat (Bonkers)
- Rudy Tabootie (Chalkzone); via Whitelighting Chalk while in Chalkzone
- Zoners (Chalkzone)
- Chowder (Chowder)
- Mung Daal (Chowder)
- Shnitzel (Chowder)
- Truffles (Chowder)
- Various Characters (Courage the Cowardly Dog)
- The Big Head Killer (Dark Horse)
- Bat-Mite (DC Comics)
- Mister Mxyzptlk (DC Comics)
- Patrick "Eel" O'Brien/Plastic Man (DC Comics)
- Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew (DC Comics)
- Crafty Coyote (DC Comics)
- Teen Titans (DC Comics/Teen Titans Go!)
- Wooldoor Sockbat (Drawn Together)
- All Characters (Earth 67)
- Ed (Ed, Edd, n Eddy)
- Edd/Double D (Ed, Edd, n Eddy); nowhere near as powerful as Ed's due to a lack of awareness
- Eddy (Ed, Edd, n Eddy); nowhere near as powerful as Ed's due to a lack of experience
- Felix the Cat (Felix the Cat)
- Freakazoid (Freakazoid!)
- Orson, Wade (Garfield)
- Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls)
- Spindleshanks (Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids)
- Various Characters (Hanna Barbera)
- The Grinch (How the Grinch Stole Christmas!)
- Many Characters (Imbattable)
- Bone (Johnny Test)
- Dawg (Johnny Test)
- Johnny Test (Johnny Test)
- Dukey (Johnny Test)
- Looney Tunes characters (Looney Tunes)
- Various Characters (The Loud House)
- Doreen Allen Green/Squirrel Girl (Marvel Comics)
- Steve Harmon/Slapstick (Marvel Comics)
- Impossible Man (Marvel Comics)
- Kevin Sidney/Morph (Marvel Comics)
- Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk (Marvel Comics); in older comic issues
- Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Marvel Comics)
- Spider-Ham (Marvel Comics/Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
- Happy (The Mighty B!)
- Bessie Higgenbottom (The Mighty B!)
- Cheese Sandwich (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
- Discord (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
- Iron Will (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
- Pinkie Pie (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
- Spike (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
- All Characters (Oggy & The Cockroaches)
- K.O. (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes)
- Various Characters (Pic Pic et André)
- All Characters (Piggy Tales)
- Popeye (Popeye the Sailor Cartoons)
- Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup, and Mojo Jojo (The Powerpuff Girls)
- Stimpson "Stimpy" J. Cat (The Ren & Stimpy Show)
- Ren Höek (The Ren & Stimpy Show)
- Sammy K. Ferret (The Real Ghostbusters)
- Sam & Max (Sam & Max: Freelance Police)
- Mystery Inc. (Scooby Doo)
- Scooby-Doo (Scooby-Doo)
- Sheep (Sheep in the Big City)
- All Characters (The Simpsons)
- Eric Cartman (South Park)
- All Characters (SpongeBob SquarePants)
- Sardonyx (Steven Universe)
- Spinel ("Steven Universe")
- Stacy/Brady (Stickin' Around)
- 80s Turtles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
- All residents of Acme Acres and Wackyland (Tiny Toon Adventures)
- Butch, Lightning, Meathead, and Topsy (Tom and Jerry)
- Jerry (Tom and Jerry)
- Spike and Tyke (Tom and Jerry)
- Tom (Tom and Jerry)
- Various Characters (The Twisted Whiskers Show)
- Uncle Grandpa (Uncle Grandpa)
- Wander (Wander Over Yonder)
- Bugs Bunny (Warner Bros./Looney Tunes)
- Many Characters (Walt Disney)
- Yogi and Boo Boo Bear (Yogi Bear)
- Woody Woodpecker (Woody Woodpecker/Universal Cartoons)
Literature[]
- Mad Hatter and March Hare (Alice and Wonderland)
- Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins)
- Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Stephen King's It)
Live Television/Movies[]
- Jerry Mouse (Anchors Aweigh)
- Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice)
- Crash (Crash and Bernstein)
- Lian-Chu (Dragon Hunters)
- Happy the Horse (Happy!)
- Stanley Ipkiss/The Mask (The Mask)
- Agents (The Matrix)
- Morpheus (The Matrix)
- Neo (The Matrix)
- Trinity (The Matrix)
- The Muppets (Muppets franchise)
- Pan Tau (Pan Tau)
- Paul Blart (Paul Blart: Mall Cop)
- Sgt Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. (Sgt Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.)
- Tim Avery/The Mask (Son of the Mask)
- Alvey Avery (Son of the Mask)
- Loki (Son of the Mask)
- Michael Jordan (Space Jam)
- Spider-Ham (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
- Spinel (Steven Universe: The Movie)
- Fred Jones (Supernatural)
- All Toons (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
- Judge Doom (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
- Roger Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
Video Games[]
- Bubsy (Bubsy the Bobcat)
- Crash Bandicoot (Crash Bandicoot)
- All characters (Cuphead)
- Protagonist (Drawn to Life)
- Duncan (Kaiju Combat)
- Kirby (Kirby series)
- Bayonetta (Bayonetta)
- Klaymen (The Neverhood)
- All characters (Pizza Tower)
- Patricia Watson/Peacock (Skullgirls)
- Mario (Super Mario series)
- Luigi (Super Mario series)
- Mr. Game & Watch (Super Smash Bros.)
- Klaymen (The Neverhood)
- Mercenaries (Team Fortress 2)
- Paprika (Them's Fightin' Herds)
- Various Characters (Toon)
- Various Units (Totally Accurate Battle Simulator)
- All Characters (Earthworm Jim)
- Various Characters (Dragon's Lair and Space Ace)
Other[]
- Various characters (AnimaShaun)
- Various characters (Asdfmovie)
- Entity 33 - "The King" (The Backrooms)
- Various Characters (Battle for Dream Island)
- Carrotjuice (Channel Awesome)
- Joking Jester (Creepypasta)
- Cartoon Cat (Creepypasta)
- Various Characters (Eddsworld)
- Many characters (Inanimate Insanity)
- Nevadeans (Madness Combat)
- The Sun (Madness Combat)
- Toon Gang (The Mutants and Masterminds); setting of Freedom City
- Salad Fingers (Salad Fingers)
- Sr Pelo (Sr Pelo)
- Various characters (SMG4)
- Chester Cheetah (Cheetos Commercials)
- Caine (The Amazing Digital Circus)
Gallery[]
Anime/Manga[]
Cartoons/Comics[]
Movies[]
_guns.gif "Stanley Ipkiss (The Mask) guns.gif (3.99 MB)")
Video Games[]
.jpg "Peacock (Skullgirls).jpg (302 KB)")
Other[]
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Videos[]
Fights[]
Music[]
