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Changed my mind about cartoon falls after my nephew pointed out one thing in Tom and Jerry
I used to roll my eyes at how Tom survives a 50 foot drop off a cliff and just walks away with a flat body, figured it was lazy writing. Then last Saturday my nephew Marcus, who is 9, said Tom only gets hurt when the fall is part of the joke setup, like when a piano lands on him after. I went back and checked about 12 episodes and he is kind of right, the plain falls almost never do damage, it is the stuff that lands on top that counts. So is the rule actually about gravity or about what happens after the landing?
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iris_schmidt6d ago
There's a video on YouTube called "The Physics of Cartoon Falls" that breaks down like 40 different cartoons and the guy says the gag only works if the fall sets up a second punchline. He showed a Bugs Bunny clip where Bugs drops maybe 100 feet and nothing happens, but then a boulder bounces down after him and that's when he gets flattened. The drop itself is just setup, the damage comes from whatever follows it. So your nephew basically figured out the same rule a bunch of grown adults made a whole video about.
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