History Main / MultiarmedMultitasking

* Elzar in ''{{Futurama}}''. The DVD commentary mentions that the animators went out of their way to have each arm work independently rather than have each arm on either side move in the same way.
* ''SpongeBob'' does this taking care of the baby scallop, probably other times as well.

* One episode of ''DragonTales'' featured a dragon with six limbs running a concession stand.

* In the cancelled series ''{{Stripperella}}'', a supervillainess with six arms pilots a blimp all on her own, with two hands on the wheel and the remaining four on switches and buttons. She also utilised six pistols at one go in the earlier portion of the episode, allowing her to use them as a makeshift machine gun.

You look in the mirror and see [[MultipleHeadCase three heads]] looking back at yourselves with [[ExtraEyes five eyes]] and [[MultiArmedAndDangerous seven arms]] and think to yourselves, how do we [[DualWielding septo-wield]]? Or better yet, how can we write our book, cradle our baby, and make paper airplanes at the same time? Practice, that's how.

* ''Fanwork/ZanyToTheMax'': Sekoila Zarner has four arms and four legs, and she is a great example of this trope.
** Usually subverted with [[ConjoinedTwins Wacka and Wakka]]. They have two arms each, so if the arms on Wacka's side are doing one thing, and the arms on Wakka's side are doing another, it doesn't count.
*** However, if one of Wakka's (or Wacka's, it doesn't matter) arms is holding a book, while her other arm is holding a glass of water, it ''does'' count.

[[AC: FanFiction]]

* Snap Fahrenheit, the titular main character of ''HowToRaiseYourTeenageDragon'', is a four-armed dragon.

* In ''TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', Arthur's extreme UnknownRival Agrajag has built a Temple of Hate devoted to him, the centrepiece of which is a giant statue of Arthur with multiple arms. He discovers that each one of them depicts one of the many, many times he has (unwittingly) caused the death of one of Agrajag's former incarnations.

* The short-lived 1970s sci-fi sitcom ''{{Quark}}'' featured Interface, a four-armed alien woman who worked as an intergalactic switchboard operator connecting calls between ships.

* [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Pilot]] from ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. One episode notes that having the ''mental capacity'' for multitasking is very uncommon, and more important than the multiple arms themselves.

* In ''{{Ironwood}}'', first mate Tif makes full use of all four of her hands while having a threesome with a jinn and a crewmate.

* Techpriests in the ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe can do that.

** Subverted with Zaphod Beeblebrox, who gave himself a third arm and then does nothing at all with it.

** Similarly there's a sushi chef in ''MonstersInc''.

You look in the mirror and see [[MultipleHeadCase three heads]] looking back at yourselves with [[ExtraEyes five eyes]] and [[MultiArmedAndDangerous seven arms]] and think to yourselves, how do we [[DualWielding septo-wield]]? Or better yet, how can we write our book, cradle our baby, and make paper airplanes at the same time? Practice, that's how.

Please note this has surprisingly little to do with ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask, if you're thinking about wielding weapons with many arms you [[RequiredSecondaryPowers still need some form]] of Multiarmed Multitasking; it just belongs in MultiArmedAndDangerous. If your extra limbs are for walking, they belong in SpiderLimbs.

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!! Examples:

[[AC: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* Ceres from ''ObanStarRacers'' an Animesque racing series co-produced by French and Japanese animation studios.
* In ''ShinryakuIkaMusume'', Ika appears to specialise in this with her tentacle hair.
* ''SpiritedAway'' - Kamaji operates the bathhouse boiler room. He has six spidery arms, which he uses to multitask: reaching into the hundreds of herb cabinets, pouring boiling water, grinding potions with his yagen (related to a mortar a pestle, but using a wheel in a narrow trough) and responding to wooden tags on ropes signalling requests from the bathhouse above.

[[AC: {{Film}}]]
* The bar-tending octopus cartoon from ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit''.
** Similarly there's a sushi chef in ''MonstersInc''.
** And the guy in the octopus costume from ''ThePrincessAndTheFrog''.
* The twin {{Mission Control}}s from ''Film/MenInBlack''.
** the mail-sorting alien in ''[=MIB=] 2''.
* Long John Silver in ''TreasurePlanet'' isn't multiarmed but still manages to pull off this trope in the kitchen, thanks to his multi-purpose cybernetic arm with little armlets.
* From ''[[{{Film/SpiderMan}} Spider-Man 2]]'', Dr. Octopus does this when he built the new sun-generator machine, with his long metallic tentacles.

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: {{Mythology}}]]
* HinduMythology several gods (Shiva for one) are usually depicted with multiple arms each holding symbolic instruments like scales and scythes and swords.
* Different Buddhas are sometimes depicted with many arms.

[[AC: {{Webcomics}}]]
* Played with and subverted - and then played straight for good measure - in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary''. One of the mercs, a guy named Andy, belongs to a race of four-armed aliens. During his initial interview, he bragged about quad-wielding handguns, but Thurl just pointed out that he still only had two eyes, so no matter how many weapons he's got, he'll only hit one target. There has been incidents where he HAS used it, though - including wielding a two-handed assault-rifle and two handguns at the same time - but it's been purely for intimidation-value. Or sometimes just for fun.

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* Elzar in ''{{Futurama}}''. The DVD commentary mentions that the animators went out of their way to have each arm work independently rather than have each arm on either side move in the same way.
* ''{{Sponge Bob}}'' does this taking care of the baby scallop, probably other times as well.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squiddly_Diddly Squiddly Diddly]]'' did this sometimes. (In fact his pic on TheOtherWiki shows him playing three musical instruments at once.)

* In the cancelled series ''{{Stripperella}}'', a supervillainess with six arms pilots a blimp all on her own, with two hands on the wheel and the remaining four on switches and buttons. She also utilised six pistols at one go in the earlier portion of the episode, allowing her to use them as a makeshift machine gun.

* In an episode of ''{{Arthur}}'', the titular character has to clean a room, and his dad tells him "Many hands make light work." He imagines it literally. Buster does the same later in the episode.

* ''KamenRiderFourze'' has the Hand Switch, which equips Fourze with an extra arm (attached to his ''leg'') that's outright stated to be for this. While he works on solving a math problem, it ''disassembles a bicycle''. Thus far its not been shown to have any type of combat potential.

* In ''TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', Arthur's extreme UnknownRival Agrajag has built a Temple of Hate devoted to him, the centrepiece of which is a giant statue of Arthur with multiple arms. He discovers that each one of them depicts one of the many, many times he has (unwittingly) caused the death of one of Agrajag's former incarnations.

* [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Pilot]] from ''Series/{{Farscape}}''.

* In ''Ironwood}}'', first mate Tif makes full use of all four of her hands while having a threesome with a jinn and a crewmate.

* different Buddhas are sometimes depicted with many arms.

* {{GURPS}} has the Multiple Arms [[PointBuildSystem advantage]] available for player characters, but you also need to buy special coordination to use them fully- otherwise they are only good for holding things, not performing more than one task at a time.

* In ''TheSimpsons'', a cutaway shot of the Earth shows a vaguely Hindu-esque being frantically pressing buttons in the core, apparently to keep the world working. He pauses briefly to wipe his forehead with one of his hands and sigh with exhaustion.

* In an episode of ''{{Arthur}}'', the titular character has to clean a room, and his dad tells him "Many hands make light work." He imagines it literally. Buster does the same later in the episode.

* One episode of ''DragonTales'' featured a dragon with six limbs running a concession stand.

* In ''TheSimpsons'', a cutaway shot of the Earth shows a vaguely Hindu-esque being frantically pressing buttons in the core, apparently to keep the world working. He pauses briefly to wipe his forehead with one of his hands and sigh with exhaustion.

* The twin {{Mission Control}}s from ''MenInBlack''.