Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Main / MeatgrinderSurgery

Go To

1[[quoteright:350:[[WebAnimation/TeamFortress2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meet_the_medic_surgery_1705.jpg]]]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:"[[FunetikAksent Anyvay]], [[NoodleIncident zat's how I lost my medical license]]."]]
3
4->''"Right, first I'll take those teef out for yer, dat should help ease da pain in yer leg. Grokkit, 'and me dat wrench. Now then... Open wide, an' say... AAARGH!"''
5-->-- '''Ork Dok [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Gutslash]]''', ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''
6
7Surgeries are dangerous and delicate things. There's a reason why "[[ThisAintRocketSurgery brain surgeon]]" is a byword for "genius" -- they have to spend hours carefully maneuvering minute instruments and a millimeter's error can kill their patient [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse]].
8
9Naturally, expect this aspect of medicine to be thrown away in the name of [[RuleOfFunny comedy]]: the nurse will give the surgeon a [[CarryABigStick hammer]] and he'll immediately proceed to whack away violently, then an axe and proceed to hack away, then a [[ThisIsADrill drill]], then a [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]], then [[NoodleImplements an eggbeater]], then...
10
11If anaesthesia is administered, it's either by a [[TapOnTheHead sledgehammer to the head]] or [[DrFeelgood copious amounts of booze]]. For an extra gag, the booze may turn out to be [[DrunkenMaster for the surgeon]]. But most of the time, this type of surgery will SkipTheAnesthetic. And in the rare instance that anesthetic is involved, [[GRatedDrug expect the surgeon to use it all on themselves]].
12
13[[TakeOurWordForIt Don't expect to see]] what's [[GoryDiscretionShot going on with the patient]] during the operation, or [[RuleOfFunny an explanation]] as to why piercing his head is going to help with his HiccupHijinks, but he'll likely step away from the operation room completely healthy and his medical problem will be gone (or at least, he won't be horribly mutilated). However, agonised screaming and [[CameraAbuse blood splattering across the screen]] are par for the course.
14
15More rarely, this ''can'' also be PlayedForDrama. The trope might be justified if the surgery takes place before the 20th century, for instance, or [[RoadsideSurgery under field conditions]], or ''both''. In the absolute worst-case scenario, you'll be in the tender hands of a MadDoctor PlayingWithSyringes, where the strange and brutal violations of medical ethics (and your bodily integrity) are entirely the point -- either ForScience or just because they're a great big {{sadist}}. Whatever the reason, it's never pretty-- ''pray'' they'll go for a DiscretionShot.
16
17Common culprits for the comedy version are the {{Morally Ambiguous Doctor|ate}}, MadDoctor, or DepravedDentist, while the dramatic version will more likely involve TheMedic or the FrontierDoctor. A BackAlleyDoctor might be used for either. This trope might be one of the reasons for a DoctorsDisgracefulDemotion.
18
19Compare with ComicallyIneptHealing and WorstAid. This may often result in a MajorInjuryUnderreaction.
20----
21!!Examples:
22
23[[foldercontrol]]
24
25[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
26* In ''Anime/AfroSamurai'', when [[spoiler: Jinno is turned into a cyborg]]. This might qualify as BlackComedy, or the cartoonish nature of the scene might make it worse.
27* ''Batting Female Doctor Saori'' is about a female doctor[[note]]named Saori[[/note]] who heals her patients by hitting them. With a baseball bat. [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom Usually across the room]]. Not only that, she can repair cars, tame panthers and win baseball games with her skill.
28* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'' has the Ayla-Vijnana system; a BrainComputerInterface where a pilot can control a machine (such as a mobile suit) primarily through thought via a port embedded in their spine. The surgery is stated to be very painful, usually being done with no anaesthesia, leaves a grotesque steel and flesh tube sticking out of the patient's back, and has an absurdly high failure rate (around 40%, in which case the patient is usually permanently crippled if they survive) and is exclusively performed on children.
29* In ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' magic has been specialized into treating injuries, not curing illnesses. When a mother and son come to the protagonist for medical treatment, she's momentarily at a loss because the two of them are suffering from organ failure after being forced to live off of garbage. Then she puts them to sleep, ''rips out their failing innards'' and uses magic to quickly grow them new ones. They then presumably wake up none the worse for wear and unaware of how they were "cured."
30[[/folder]]
31
32[[folder:Board Games]]
33* The board game ''Operation'', naturally. The game's implication is made obvious during commercials.
34** Don't be absurd. [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment If you do it badly, you lose the game and have to listen to a buzzer make an awful sound.]]
35** Players who are already losing anyway will take their frustration out on the patient, who's already screaming anyway.
36[[/folder]]
37
38[[folder:Comic Strips]]
39* ''ComicStrip/LibertyMeadows'':
40** Frank tries to be professional, but occasionally falls into this trope, usually helped along by keeping Leslie (who has had ''no'' medical training) as his assistant. One notable example is when Frank is performing an operation but has no anesthesia thanks to budget cuts. When he asks what painkillers they have left, Leslie offers up a six-pack of beer and a copy of James Joyce's ''Ulysses''. When Frank opts to use the latter, Leslie gets several sentences in before everyone (Frank included) falls asleep from boredom. The next comic shows that the patient has begun to wake up mid-surgery, so Leslie is preparing to knock him out with a sledgehammer.
41** Another time Ralph the MadScientist circus bear and Leslie tried to perform liposuction on Dean (Frank refused to do it). They anesthetized him with a mallet and tried to use an ordinary vacuum for the liposuction, it caved his head in so they tried reversing the flow causing his head to overinflate. Next thing they show Frank has tried to undo the damage they did, resulting in Dean resembling Jabba the Hutt.
42* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' makes carving a pumpkin sound like this:
43-->'''Calvin:''' OK, JACK, TIME FOR YOUR LOBOTOMY!! Hand me a big spoon, will you, Hobbes?\
44'''Hobbes:''' Ugh! No anesthetic even.
45[[/folder]]
46
47[[folder:Fan Works]]
48%%(ZCE) * PlayedForDrama in chapter 4 of ''Fanfic/AKingdomDivided''.
49* PlayedForDrama in ''FanFic/{{Webwork}}'' when the Jorogumo Queen transplants the Vessel [[spoiler: filled with hundreds of spider eggs]] into Jade with the only comfort being a rock to bite into, with the whole process given in ''horrifying'' detail, to the point that the author actually interrupts the story with a warning to squeamish readers to skip over that section altogether.
50* PlayedForDrama in ''Fanfic/AloneTogether'': Kim and Shego have been stranded in an otherwise [[GhostPlanet unpopulated]] [[AlternateUniverse world]] long enough to become friends when Kim develops [[RupturedAppendix appendicitis]]. Shego manages to perform an appendectomy guided by a frantic review of medical texts, constantly terrified that one wrong move will kill Kim and leave her [[GoMadFromTheIsolation utterly alone]].
51* Since the cyborgs in ''Fanfic/LeftBeyond'' are unable to feel pain and very difficult to kill beyond hope of reanimation short of getting blown up or burned, the Omega's doctors occasionally do this in the name of efficiency.
52* ''[[http://fav.me/dd5rggt Spice Fortress: Is there a Medic in The House]]'', [[Music/MelanieC Melanie The Fighter]] is subjected to this, never mind the fact she [[SkipTheAnesthetic wasn’t given any kind of pain killers]]. At least, she was [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction pretty chill about it]].
53%%(ZCE)* In the ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheGreatRedPandaRescue'', Mei is kidnapped and gets her appendix removed after being knocked out by a blow to the head.
54[[/folder]]
55
56[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
57* Wilbur in ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'' is threatened with this by a group of mice before he decides he feels fine and decides to check out early.
58* Kenny gets one of these in ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', after his attempt to set his [[FartsOnFire fart on fire]] literally backfires. They end up replacing his heart with a baked potato.
59* Sadly, this is the fate of the hapless protagonist of ''WebVideo/MadGod''. And if the scenery indicates anything, [[spoiler: this isn't the first time this has happened to someone like him]]
60[[/folder]]
61
62[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
63* ''Film/HitchhikerMassacre'': At one point, the killer harvests a victim's organs in his basement by cutting her side open with an exact-o knife, pulling out the organ with his hands, and then sawing it off.
64* ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife'' features two "surgeons" forcibly harvesting organs from a man just because he's got an organ donor card. Mostly offscreen but obviously Meat Grinder Surgery.
65-->'''Man:''' "Mr. Jones? We've come for you liver."
66-->'''Mr. Jones:''' "But I'm using it right now."
67* This trope is common in Film/TheThreeStooges shorts, especially the hammer anesthetic.
68* PlayedForDrama in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': After his near-fatal duel with Obi-Wan on Mustafar, Darth Vader is rushed to Coruscant for emergency surgery to turn him into a {{cyborg}}. Vader is [[SkipTheAnesthetic fully conscious and screaming in pain]] throughout the procedure; in fact, Palpatine had specifically ''ordered'' the medical droids to keep him awake during the surgery, knowing that the pain would fuel his rage, and thus his power.
69* ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' presents 1980's medicine as this, from the perspective of 23rd-century Starfleet surgeon Dr. Leonard "Bones" [=McCoy=], along with a subplot to rescue Chekhov from such ''primitive'' attempts at medicine.
70* PlayedForDrama in ''Film/SawIII''. Lynn Denlon is abducted and held hostage by Amanda Young under the threat of death so she'll provide medical attention to John Kramer, whose health is rapidly declining due to his advanced cancer reaching his brain. Without a surgical theater or any real operating tools, she's forced to use a power drill and small circular saw to cut away a piece of John's skull and relieve the cranial pressure.
71* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
72** In ''Film/IronMan'', Tony Stark is given major thoracic surgery in a cave with a box of scraps. He wakes up with a car battery wired into his chest. Justified as the Ten Rings are hardly going to let the guy they just abducted go to a hospital.
73** In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3'', Rocket is confirmed to be an UpliftedAnimal created by Orgocrop cybernetically enhancing him. The surgery was apparently performed while he was still awake and struggling, before he was tossed in a cage while still bleeding. Nebula says what was done to him was worse than what Thanos did to her, even though her own cybernetic surgeries were explicitly a form of torture.
74* Done in the SubStory ''Film/DestinationTokyo''. Based on a real incident aboard USS ''Seadragon'', a pharmacist's mate performs an emergency appendectomy on one of his crewmates.
75* Following the disastrous first battle of Klendatu in ''Film/StarshipTroopers'', Carmen and Zander walk by a one-legged soldier who pleads: "Just give me something, doc!"
76* In ''Film/{{Downfall}}'', the only way to treat any serious injury during the battle of Berlin is to knock out the patient and amputate a limb, which has filled up the buckets used to collect them. And medicine, including painkillers, are becoming desperately rare.
77* In ''Film/SleepyHollow1999'', Icabod is tasked with analyzing Emily's then-decapitated remains. As soon as he pokes around with it, the bloody-stump squirts a bit of blood onto his glasses. By the time he is done, he is ''completely covered in blood''.
78* In ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'', a worldwide pandemic of organ failures means surgery is now sexy and you can refinance your essential organs. The Repo Man will make sure you are current on payments or reclaim those organs via this trope. Naturally, the results are BloodyHilarious with no survivors - the Repo Man is trying to reclaim the ''organ'', not save the ''patient''.
79--> Because the claims medic gives no anesthetic.
80* In ''Film/LeComiche2'' (an Italian movie from the 90s) there are a couple of examples:
81** A man is hospitalized against his will. He ends up in a surgery room and mixed up with a female patient waiting for a breast augmentation. Bewildered by the situation, he only realises what is about to happen when the surgeon feels his chest mentioning he will give the patient a "couple of nice boobs". At that point he is already wearing the mask with flowing anesthetic. In a desperate attempt to avert the operation he screams through the mask and tries to get up. The medical personnel holds him down until he is sound asleep.
82** The same man ends up in a second hospital. He was stripped to his underwear that comprehends a bra supporting the breasts previously received. Mistaken for a transgender, he is taken to a surgery room where a surgeon displays a big pair of scissors that will be used to cut off his genitals and give him "a nice pussy" (his words). The poor man faints while the operation starts.
83[[/folder]]
84
85[[folder:Literature]]
86* Played for [[SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfAwesome Awesomeness]] in ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant Runes Of The Earth]]''. After Stave gets subjected to a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, Linden has to perform surgery on him to save his life. However, the only "tool" she has is wild magic, which is more normally used for things like blowing up mountains or battling powerful sorcerors. She ''still'' manages to seal Stave's wounds, and he eventually recovers.
87* Standard medical practice in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'''s Ankh-Morpork involves hitting the patient over the head with a hammer to anesthetize them. The only real doctor in the city (Dr. Lawn from ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'') is seen as crazy for worrying about things like sanitation, sterilization, and the survival of his patients... until Sam Vimes rewarded him for [[spoiler: saving his wife and newborn son]] by helping him open his own hospital. This is one of the reasons that, prior to ''Night Watch'', the most employed physician in the city was "Doughnut Jimmy" Folsom, a horse vet. The reasoning goes, a good racehorse is expensive and a big earner, so Jimmy could choose between keeping his patients alive or having the last words he hears be something like "Da boss is ''very'' unhappy."
88** Ankh-Morpork is also the home of the delightful new form of medicine known as [[http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Retrophrenology "retrophrenology."]]
89* Eric Flint's book ''[[Literature/TrailOfGlory 1812: The Rivers of War]]'' provides an excellent example of this, which was TruthInTelevision at the time. The patient denies the issued anesthetic, which is raw Navy rum (he has a bottle of emergency laudanum packed away, which he uses), but he knows that refusing the anesthetic the surgeon tried to give him would be good for his reputation regardless. Also, a quote:
90--> "Few lumberjacks wielded a saw as vigorously as an Army surgeon after a major battle."
91* The ''Literature/{{MASH}}'' surgeons referred to what they were doing as "meatball surgery" -- doing quick (but hopefully not too dirty) surgery, keeping the patient alive but leaving follow-ups to the better-equipped Evac hospitals. Naturally, many of the plots involved the protagonists trying to avert or subvert this trope, but it still arose from time to time.
92--> '''Hawkeye:''' Our general attitude around here is that we want to play par surgery on this course. Par is a live patient. We're not sweet swingers, and if we've gotta kick it in with our knees to get a par that's how we do it.
93* This trope is zig-zagged in the ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series. Human medical treatment is standard for UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars, however, the tools used by dragon surgeons could easily pass for melee weapons... but then given the [[{{Pun}} scale]] of their patients most of the injuries that can be treated by human physicians are relatively superficial.
94* Touched upon in the Creator/TomClancy novel ''[[Literature/JackRyan Without Remorse]]'', whose protagonist has some rather ugly scars from "meatball surgery" of the sort touched upon in the entry for ''M*A*S*H'' below.
95* Lauchlan of ''Literature/MixBeerWithLiquorAndYouWillGetSicker'' was subjected to this sort of surgery as a child, [[spoiler:having had his right eye gouged by an angry jackdaw, and a serious compound fracture from the subsequent fall that both had to be tended to right then and there. He was given alcohol but that didn't quite do the trick, his family members actually had to ''hold him down'' so that the surgeon could work.]] It was justified in that it was set in the 1800s, and Lauchlan would have likely bled to death in the time taken to get him to any proper anesthetics. As you can imagine, Lauchlan was, and remains, rather traumatized by the incident.
96* ''Literature/NakedLunch'': Oh, [[MadDoctor Doctor Benway]]-- and really, ''any'' medical procedure in the novel is deeply fucked up.
97* ''Literature/DeadMensTrousers'': [[spoiler:Spud]] ends up having his kidney removed under the supervision of both [[OpenHeartDentistry a podiatrist and an ex-veterinary anaesthetist]] being guided by a Platform/YouTube video. [[spoiler:This unsurprisingly contributes to his fatal heart attack]].
98[[/folder]]
99
100[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
101* The realistic version is PlayedForDrama in ''Series/CodeBlack'' on a very regular basis, given that time is frequently short and resources often scarce at best. Drs. Leanne Rorish and Ethan Willis, in particular, have turned the "splash-and-slash"[[note]]splash on some antiseptic, then slash the patient open[[/note]] into a bona fide art form.
102* ''Series/DrDeath'':
103** Christopher Duntsch's surgeries are gruesome, his strategies and choices of equipment are bizarre, and every onlooker in his operating rooms is horrified watching him work.
104** He mistakes part of a patient's ''neck muscle'' for a tumor, cuts the muscle out for a biopsy, aborts the surgery without having even attempted the cervical repair that he'd promised the patient, and then sews the patient back up... with a sponge still inside. The patient develops a life-threatening infection. Kirby, who is called in to salvage things, likens the surgery to an "attempted murder."
105** He embeds surgical hardware, that was supposed to go into bone, in ''muscle''. Henderson and Kirby point out that this mistake is just as unbelievable in a human body as it would be in a T-bone steak.
106** Instead of cutting a disc with a scalpel, he tries to yank it out with a surgical pliers. Kirby compares this to cutting up a pizza with a pliers instead of a pizza slicer.
107** Another disc surgery sees him amputating a nerve root, leaving the patient's left leg paralyzed.
108** When Henderson performs a revision surgery on one of Duntsch's patients, he notes (with disbelief) the mess Duntsch made, including the dura mater (protective sheath around the spinal cord) dissected, offering no protection to the nerves. Ligaments cut and just hanging loose, bone fragments piercing nerves and otherwise messily smashed into the spinal canal "like putty".
109** The worst part of all this? It's actually ''downplaying'' the [[HistoricalVillainDowngrade real Duntsch's actions]] that led to him going to prison for the death and pain he bestowed on patients.
110* A realistic depiction takes place in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', emphasizing that this is a LowFantasy pseudo-Medieval world where surgical knowledge is generally... not very advanced. One of the most gruesome surgeries seen yet appears in Season 7, where an attempt to treat the fantastical leprosy-equivalent called grayscale involves [[FlayedAlive slicing away the scabrous infected epidermal layers with knives]] and painting the raw skin beneath with some kind of healing ointment.
111* Played with in ''Series/IntoTheBadlands'': While Veil and her father provide relatively good surgical care given the post-apocalyptic setting, they are the only doctors around. A Badlands combat medic's only option for an injured leg is immediate above-the-knee amputation with no pain medication. Apparently; that's the standard of care, since Veil needs to make a lot of prosthetic limbs.
112* Surgery in ''Series/{{MASH}}'' is generally not as bad as this trope, but the various characters regard it that way since it is a lot rougher than it would be in a proper hospital. The general term used in the show is "Meatball Surgery" because MASH units are meant to simply to save the patient and make sure they stay alive long enough to get sent to an evac hospital where they can be further treated before being sent to a hospital either in Tokyo or Stateside. However, the show hangs a lampshade on all this and makes very clear none of the situation is ideal and that most characters are taking all the care the would under trying circumstances.
113** The work they have to do frustrates the characters in different ways. Hawkeye, Trapper, BJ, Henry, and Potter are compassionate and don't like treating young men knowing that many will just be sent back to the front, get wounded again, and wind back up at the 4077. Charles is an exacting cardio-thoracic specialist who finds needing to perform crude general surgery demeaning. Burns, on the other hand, is the straightest example of this trope, being an incompetent surgeon who is in way over his head and rushes through procedures without any real thought for the patient -- in one episode he tries to remove the kidney of a soldier who only has one left and in another he gets berated for neglecting to feel around for shrapnel and fragments that could cause sepsis if left inside a patient.
114** Characters would occasionally help out at front line aid stations or at Korean field hospitals where they had to conduct even cruder procedures than at the 4077.
115--->''Observing a Korean field hospital''\
116'''Hawkeye:''' I wouldn't operate on your horse under these conditions.\
117'''Col. Potter:''' My horse wouldn't be caught dead in here.
118* This was used quite a bit in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''.
119** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M68GeL8PafE Gumby Brain Surgery.]] Complete with a blow-to-the-head anesthetic.
120** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n19vHS5_WVk#t=4m17s another sketch]] the surgeon character asks a nurse for something more substantial than a scalpel, is given a bread knife and starts sharpening it with gusto ("Ooh, I do enjoy this!"). Then he makes a bold incision ''along the entire patient''.
121* In ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', Rowlf occasionally gets to begin such an operation in the "Veterinarian's Hospital" sketches.
122* [[CuteAndPsycho Helena]] from ''Series/OrphanBlack'' actually does this on herself to remove a piece of rebar from her ''liver.'' No discretion shot for you.
123* One medical sketch on ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' involved the new techniques of hitting patients with sledgehammers and frying pans.
124* On ''Series/{{Rome}}'', after Titus gets a skull fracture from being struck on the head in a tavern brawl, he's tied into place, gagged, and the surgeon removes the piece of skull that got loose, then fits a small metal plate in. Titus passed out from the pain early on, thankfully.
125* ''Series/{{Sharpe}}'': Comes up once or twice, set as it is in the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe himself removes a man's shattered arm with a sword (it's easier to stop the bleeding from one large wound than lots of little ones) and Harper pulls out one of his own teeth with pliers.
126* The events of one episode of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' forced Dr. Keller to perform brain surgery on [=McKay=] with a power drill in a dank cave.
127* One ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode involved Colonel Mitchell (who is NOT a doctor) performing surgery on a severely injured Carter while hiding out from bad guys.
128
129[[/folder]]
130
131[[folder:Jokes]]
132* The doctor walks into the surgery ward, followed by a bloke with a huge axe. The doctor reads from the list:
133--> Patient A - amputate right arm
134--> *Whack*
135--> Patient B - amputate left arm
136--> *Whack*
137--> Patient c - amputate left leg
138--> *Whack*
139--> I said "leg"
140--> *Whack*
141--> I said "left"
142--> *Whack*
143[[/folder]]
144
145[[folder:Music]]
146* ''Music/TheyMightBeGiants'': "Dr. Sy Fly" is about a mutant fly-headed doctor with questionable medical practices. The music video shows him with a compulsive desire to cut things in half with his bonesaw.
147-->''He's going to have to amputate\
148He's going to chop off all that you got\
149Yank out the stuff inside of you\
150After which he'll play nine holes of golf''
151%%* This video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyrXy1TUDlw Aberinkula]] by Music/TheMarsVolta.
152* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXROnzpsrlg The Drugs Song]] by the British comedy duo Music/AmateurTransplants is a PatterSong that lists an impossibly long sequence of various drugs that need to be known by a GP doctor, and then ends in this gem of a quote:
153--> Or fuck 'em all and [[StealthInsult get a job in orthopedic surgery]].
154* Music/{{Eminem}}: The music video for "Godzilla" ends with a scene of Music/DrDre (who is NotThatKindOfDoctor) and Slim Shady ([[SerialKiller armed with a rusty cleaver]]) operating on Eminem after anaesthetising him with whisky. They detach Em's mouth from his body, where it [[MotorMouth flops around rapping uncontrollably]] as Eminem scrabbles around after it.
155* Music/WeirdAlYankovic: "Like a Surgeon" stars Al as a comically incompetent surgeon who fumbles organs to the ground, uses medical equipment such as chainsaws and power drills, and eats lunch over the patient's open chest, while his orderlies huff sedative gas and a goldfish winds up in the IV.
156[[/folder]]
157
158[[folder:Pinball]]
159* ''Pinball/WeirdAlsMuseumOfNaturalHilarity'': The launch trailer and the deep dive both show that the surgical instruments in "Like a Surgeon" include a chainsaw and kitchen knives.
160[[/folder]]
161
162[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
163* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
164** [[https://scryfall.com/card/me1/94/goblin-chirurgeon Goblin Chirurgeon]] ("Chirurgeon" is a middle English term for surgeon), who kills live goblins to make sure other creatures can live. One art has one sawing away at a goblin's leg to give to another goblin who has lost theirs. The goblin getting his leg hacked off is awake at the time.
165** [[https://scryfall.com/card/moc/283/goblin-medics Goblin Medics]] simply deal damage to other creatures, but this trope is specifically involved in the card's flavor text. The original text is a perversion of the Hippocratic Oath ("First, do some harm."), while the later version mentions that the medic in question learned his trade "from the finest butcher shops in Yotia".
166* ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'': It's implied that this is the sort of "surgery" used by Frantisek Markov, the Darklord of Markovia, to turn victims into Broken Ones, although there is at least some magic involved as well. {{Justified|Trope}} as he was actually an uneducated butcher prior to his JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope into becoming a Darklord. He uses no anesthetic, in any case.
167* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': If you're really unlucky in choosing a BackalleyDoctor, this is what you wind up with. The result tends to be less "medicine" and more "[[OrganTheft chop out your organs]] and cyberware, then sell your corpse to [[ToServeMan ghouls]]."
168* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
169** Ork doctors, known as Painboyz, Doks, or Mad Doks. Their idea of "anesthesia" is giving the patient a violent concussion. Some don't even bother to use anesthetic at all, preferring to have their patient squirming and kicking so they know he's still alive. Orks are so inhumanly tough that they not only survive but usually fully recover very quickly -- which to the doks means they have plenty of leeway for [[PlayingWithSyringes experimentation and personal amusement]] (successful ork ''head transplants'' are entirely possible). Having a Painboy in a unit gives all of its members a chance of ignoring damage -- it's unclear whether this is because the dok [[YouWontFeelAThing treats the injuries]], or if the nearby [[FateWorseThanDeath reminder of what awaits the injured]] encourages Orks to ignore little things like [[TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain bullets to the head]] and [[YouCallThatAWound missing limbs]].
170--->'''[[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Mad Dok:]]''' [[HarmfulHealing This is gonna 'urt]] ''[[HarmfulHealing a lot!]]'' [[HarmfulHealing But you'll be bettah, you'll see!...]]
171*** ''TabletopGame/{{Gorkamorka}}'' has somewhere in the neighbourhood of six pages of rules for visiting the Dok after a scrap (usually several scraps after the injury is sustained, in fact, since it'd take that long for the injured Ork's comrades to convince him to go). Particularly notable results on the tables for this included replacing the patient's brain with that of a face-eater squig, bolting a thruster pack to the unfortunate Ork's spine, and the Dok ''forgetting what he was doing'' and operating on the wrong part of the body.
172*** This type of surgery is why the famed Dok Grotsnik is totally insane. In an attempt to save him after an attack by some angry patients, his Gretchin "nurses" went to work. Before it was over, they had vomited in his open skull, a spider had found a comfy spot to rest in his head and he died half-a-dozen times on the table. When he came to, what little sanity he originally had was ''long'' gone.
173** The World Eaters are a group of WarGod-worshipping lunatics who don't care whose blood they spill (the enemy's, their allies', their ''own''...) who have lobes of their brain removed so as to no longer feel fear. The individuals to whom this delicate task is trusted are, of course, known as ''berserker surgeons''.
174** The Haemonculi, the MadScientist caste of the Dark Eldar, approach this trope from the opposite direction. They're the foremost medical geniuses of an incredibly advanced culture built around the artistic application of pain, meaning that they see surgery and ColdBloodedTorture as essentially the same thing, and take pride in how messy and bizarre they can make their medical treatments while still fixing whatever ails their patient. As a result, they're amongst the most respected and dreaded people in the WretchedHive of Commorragh, where almost everyone needs their services and almost nobody wants them.
175[[/folder]]
176
177[[folder:Theater]]
178* A skit frequently used at summer camps is all about this, with everyone standing behind a sheet so only the shadows can be seen. There are several variations depending on who is performing it and where, but some include:
179** The doctors (a normal stethoscope/lab coat doctor and a tribal witch-doctor) initially stated that neither had performed surgery before. It was clear that they had no idea what they were doing.
180** The patient was knocked out by being [[TapOnTheHead hit over the head]] with a sledgehammer and woken up by being hit again.
181** The [[ChainsawGood chainsaw]]-as-surgical-instrument subtrope made an appearance.
182** The doctors accidentally removed the patient's heart, which bounced around for a few seconds and then exploded.
183** Despite the doctors making a huge mess and accomplishing nothing, the patient exclaimed, "I feel much better now!" at the end.
184[[/folder]]
185
186[[folder:Video Games]]
187* The ''VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon'' series is based all around this since the main character is a BackAlleyDoctor with a talent for improvising. Why use a scalpel when you have a pizza cutter? Lighters can cauterize pretty well, can't they? Surely a [[ChainsawGood Chainsaw]] would make for a perfect bone saw, right? And yet, plot-wise, every successful amateur surgery ''works.''
188* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate3'': If you tell Volo about being implanted with a mind flayer parasite you've been infected with after he joins your camp, you'll then be able to ask him to try getting it out of you. Which he does by shoving a knitting needle followed by an ice pick into your eye socket, without even using any sort of anesthetic. Unsurprisingly, this results in you losing the eye when he accidentally yanks it out of the socket. [[spoiler: He gives you a magic eye that grants permanent See Invisibility to you as a replacement]].
189* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'': [[BackAlleyDoctor Doctor Zed]], a recurring character, frequently displays why he lacks a medical license.
190** In ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'', the first time players see him, Zed's giving a malevolent look to a fellow who is either not long for the world or already expired... and his introduction pauses juuust as he's about to violently swing a buzz axe (a buzz saw crossbred with a fire axe, and the main weapon of the game's Psycho enemies) and carve his victim like an ugly, graying turkey. It's heavily implied that Zed's idea of general medical care isn't any better and outright explicit that he's not even a doctor, especially after he sends players out on a FetchQuest to repair the medical vending machine.
191--->'''Zed:''' Who needs a ''real'' doctor when you got my machines and their scary needles?
192** In ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', he repeats the intro from the previous game, except this time he drives a needle into a man's sternum by ''slamming it in''. In full view of the camera. He then asks the protagonists (crazy gun-toting badasses) to assist in the operation to mend a captured Hyperion engineer's lungs. He asks the player to carefully make a small incision below the sternum, and pressing the button to "Perform surgery" causes you to do your melee attack, which includes things like slashing the man in the chest with a bladed melee weapon, or punching his chest open. The same task only requires you to damage him, so it's perfectly valid to ''blow up the patient with a grenade''. You can also hop on the guy's body, which somehow achieves the same effect thanks to the ScratchDamage dealt by [[GoombaStomp jumping on enemies]].
193--->'''Zed:''' Eh, close enough.
194* The freeware Flash ''[[http://jayisgames.com/tag/darkcut Dark Cut]]'' series features this trope as a deliberate DarkerAndEdgier version of ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter''. Pretty much every operation is a medieval, battlefield, or otherwise non-standard surgery center PlayedForDrama with lots of grit and blood and creepiness.
195* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'': While the medical camping skills ''work'', at least unless the character is Afflicted and doesn't cooperate, some of the dialogue accompanying their use is...less than encouraging. In the Warrens there may even be a meatgrinder present (although it's more likely to be the cause for the treatment than the methodology).
196-->'''Occultist:''' [[ClosestThingWeGot Anatomy is hardly my specialty, I'll admit.]]\
197'''Hellion:''' That's a bad cut. Let me lick it clean.\
198'''Grave Robber:''' Lucky thing for you I have dabbled in crochet.\
199'''Highwayman:''' Did I wash this needle? Well, too late now.\
200'''Abomination:''' I know just enough to be dangerous, now keep still.\
201'''Hellion again:''' I have packed your wounds with dung. Feel better?
202* ''VideoGame/DungeonMunchies'' has "Forced Surgery," a part of your "health plan" from your boss, Simmer. Your zombie player character is operated on by a fellow undead "employee," attaching brand new feet under your own that grants permanent DoubleJump; an extra pair of smaller arms around your waist for climbing; and later on, a new butt with a compressed-air tank built in. While the operations themselves are not shown, you do see the new parts being grafted on you, and all the blood splatter and the literal back-alley set-up aren't very pleasant, either.
203* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'':
204** ''VideoGame/Fallout3'': When Vault 101's Mr. Handy is assigned to be the vault's doctor, he ends up amputating a patient's leg instead of treating her sprained big toe ([[EpicFail on the opposite foot]]), killing her. In ''Point Lookout'', the Lone Wanderer undergoes a lobotomy at the hands of a BackAlleyDoctor [[MushroomSamba while under the influence of psychedelics]].
205** While helping Argyll, the Boomers' doctor in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', a low-Intelligence character has the option to "CHOP CHOP CHOP" a patient, which saves them through "dumb luck".
206** Also in ''New Vegas'', one of the quests, [[spoiler: 'Et Tumor, Brute?', requires removal of Caesar's brain tumor]]. You can do it if you have a Medicine Skill of at least 75 and acquire a pretty expensive quest item plus one very useful rare item (especially on Hardcore mode)... or just have a Luck at 9, at which moment the Courier just wings it.
207--->'''Vulpes:''' That was... incredible. How did you do that?\
208'''Courier:''' I have no idea whatsoever.
209** Implied in a loading screen for ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', where the loading tip directing players to the Mega Surgery Center in Diamond City if they want to redo their character's appearance is accompanied by an image of [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/b/be/FO4_Baseball_bat_Loading_Screen.png a bladed aluminum baseball bat]].
210* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'': A non-comedic example occurs in ''FEAR 2: Project Origin''. While [[PlayerCharacter Michael Beckett]] is undergoing surgery to awaken his Harbinger powers, he has a hallucination in which demonic creatures in surgical uniforms claw and hack at his flesh.
211* In ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry5PassionatePattiDoesALittleUndercoverWork'', Passionate Patti gets this treatment with a drill during a TrackingDevice implantation.
212* PlayedForDrama in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'', where the surgery to extract Paz's stomach bomb is pretty much a matter of cutting her open and digging around in her intestines while Big Boss holds her down, all while Paz is fully conscious and screaming her lungs out. It's actually a justified case since the bomb is on a timer and they're performing it in a moving helicopter near an enemy base, so they simply don't have the time for a legitimate surgery or the luxury of being able to just take cover in case it goes off. [[spoiler:They get that bomb out, only to find a ''second'' bomb too late to do anything about it.]]
213* The Stroggification process in ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'' includes the victim's legs being amputated with a giant buzzsaw, needles thrust into them from a full meter away and riveting of the new body parts not unlike what's seen at a car factory, culminating in the implantation of a neurocyte in the victim's brain, apparently by ''punching it through the forehead''. The most vaguely hygienic part of it is the cauterization of these wounds. Nonetheless, it leaves [[PlayerCharacter corporal Matthew Kane]] 40% faster and 25% tougher than when he came in, as well as capable of understanding the {{Wingdinglish}} that is the Strogg language despite his neurocyte not being activated.
214* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'': Ethan Winters gets his left hand cut off with a chainsaw very early on, and gets it ''stapled'' back on. The only reason it still functions as well as it did before it was cut off is because Ethan's mold infection gives him accelerated healing.
215* ''VideoGame/SpaceStation13'': A patient can come in after being attacked with a chainsaw, and they can be fixed with nothing but a bedsheet as surgical drapes, a shard of glass as a scalpel, a coil of electrical wiring to tie together their wounds, and a cigarette lighter to cauterize them once the surgery is done. Even when proper surgical tools are used, anesthetic is completely [[SkipTheAnesthetic ignored]].
216* ''VideoGame/TheSurge'' opens with a paraplegic named Warren undergoing an automated surgery to get a rig that will allow him to walk again for his new job at CREO. Everything seems fine, and Warren looks a bit nervous but otherwise calm. His body is scanned... and then we hear "Patient sedated", but ''[[SkipTheAnesthetic Warren is still awake]]''. What ensues is a nightmarish sequence where the various plates and tubes of his exoskeleton get bolted and screwed onto his body, blood gushing from the screwholes, all while Warren screams in pure agony. Other audio diaries that he finds show he's not the only one this happened to, and it continued in its sequel, ''VideoGame/TheSurge2''.
217* The game ''VideoGame/SurgeonSimulator2013'' can be described as "''VideoGame/{{QWOP}}'' gets his medical license". And it is just as darkly hilarious as it sounds. Even if the patient has their lungs on the floor, their ribcage smashed beyond repair, and about five milliliters of blood left, [[InstantWinCondition as long as you fulfill the given objective the operation will end successfully]].
218--> [[BlatantLies "Looks fine to me, I'm sure he'll live..."]]
219** It has been given a DLC in the form of a 'level' where you play [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 the Medic performing his first Ubercharge heart transplant]], as seen in "Meet the Medic". He still controls like a drunk on amphetamines. Two memetic meatgrinder surgeons for the price of one!
220* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'':
221** Roughly half the [[WebAnimation/TeamFortress2 tie-in video animation]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc "Meet the Medic"]] involves the RED Medic performing surgery on the Heavy, in a procedure involving a device (which, as it turns out, enables the Übercharge in-game) getting shoved onto Heavy's still-beating heart, said heart ''exploding'' and being replaced with a "Mega Baboon" heart, and Medic pushing the organ into the Heavy's chest cavity so hard he breaks off a rib. All while the Heavy is awake, mind you. Mind you, the Medic's nigh-magical Medigun, plus the CartoonPhysics of the ''Team Fortress 2'' universe, allow him to throw caution out the window.
222--->'''Heavy:''' Should I be awake for this?\
223'''Medic:''' ''[laughs]'' Well, no. But as long as you are, ''[[BodyHorror could you hold your rib cage open a bit]]?''
224** Not to mention he allows his pet doves to roam the room during operations. [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous Archimedes]], pictured above, even likes to hang out inside patients' ribcages. The only thing the Medic finds objectionable about this is that "It's filthy in there!". At the end of "Meet the Medic", it turns out that he accidentally sewed Scout's chest with Archimedes still inside. In gameplay, occasionally it will pop out of a gibbed Scout and fly away.
225** Even the opening NoodleIncident qualifies:
226--->'''Medic:''' When the patient woke up, his skeleton was missing, and the doctor was never heard from again! ''[laughs]'' Anyway, that's how I lost my medical license.
227** The Medic's idea of "proper surgical garb" is whatever he happens to be wearing at the time. In "Meet the Medic", "surgical garb" is a sweater vest and shirt. Oddly enough, he only puts on a lab coat and gloves when he's preparing for battle.
228** In the promo [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbOBcHGwWDg "The Sound of Medicine"]], the Medic develops a device for reviving people in the middle of the battlefield. This process apparently uses the Medigun's normal healing ability while telekinetically reassembling the victim back to normal. ''That last part was not a metaphor'', it literally lifts the gibs back into a holographic template.
229** During the [[Webcomic/TeamFortress2 webcomic tie-in]] ''The Naked and the Dead'', a meatgrinder ''transfusion'' is shown, with Medic simply scooping the blood out of puddles with any available cloth (including underwear) and pouring it back into his exsanguinated team's wounds, getting them back in order instantly (albeit causing [[HighPressureBlood blood to spurt violently out of their eyes]] if squeezed). The ensuing conversation between Ms. Pauling and the Medic lampshades it, with him joking about medical school being useless, then telling her as a TwoFacedAside that worrying about blood types is the ''least'' of her problems. It'd seem he's plenty aware none of what he does makes much sense, but it works anyways; why should he bother? [[spoiler:Then again, it's later revealed that he received his nonsensical but functional techniques through a DealWithTheDevil, which pretty much gives him the ability to think up whatever stupid solution he can think of that's impossible in reality, but it'll work in his favor regardless. ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard He even got the ability to surgically implant others' souls into him]]'', which allowed him to outsmart ''Satan'' and get a few extra decades alive until the latter thinks up a way to outsmart him then.]]
230* ''VideoGame/VGAMiner'': Asking for a surgery at the hospital does heal you slightly, even though Woody's (the surgeon's) razor is rusty.
231[[/folder]]
232
233[[folder:Web Animation]]
234* ''WebAnimation/DoctorLollipop'' performs surgery on the raptor by having a woodsman perform the incision with an axe, and then kicking the raptor's TalkingAnimal filled belly.
235[[/folder]]
236
237[[folder:Webcomics]]
238* When Tavros in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' gets bionic legs, the first step is removing his old ones. His friend Kanaya Maryam takes care of this. With her chainsaw.
239* In ''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFoxhound'' during the Normandy invasion The Boss (then known a The Joy) went into labor while on the battlefield and performed a c-section on herself. She and the baby were both fine, while the baby's father The Sorrow passed out pretty much immediately when she made the first cut.
240* ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'': Head surgeon Circula Tori operates on Fern with a spork and drops her ID card into her chest cavity... but nonetheless restores her to life. In an unusually literal example, she once does so after Fern falls into a living meat grinder. [[spoiler:Except it wasn't really Tori, it was her fellow surgeons Scissie and Scissane.]]
241* ''Webcomic/DeepRise'': Deep Nobles are a walking combination of meat grinders, eldritch tentacles, and genius bioengineers. Any surgery they perform is almost guaranteed to maximize invasive pain and grotesque assimilation. On the plus side, they've developed cures to world hunger and aging.
242* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': Neeka is an Esspererin, a species renowned for their engineering abilities. She is a rarity in that she chose to be a field medic instead. You know how mechanics fix cars - by ripping out the damaged part, fiddling with it, then bolting it back in? Neeka does that to ''organs and limbs''. The surgery always occurs [[GoryDiscretionShot off-panel]], but is typically accompanied by [[PaintingTheMedium blood-spattered speech bubbles]], shocked or disgusted onlookers, and occasionally the screams of unsuspecting "patients" who want to know where she is going with their leg. She's an absolute miracle worker, but she's been mistaken for an automated blender more than once.
243-->'''Chelle:''' At least we got her to start offering anesthetic.
244* ''Webcomic/Level30Psychiatry'', being a video game MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, has both [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 the Medic]] and [[VideoGame/SurgeonSimulator2013 the surgeon]]. The Medic gets stopped before he can start the surgery because he was [[LargeHam hamming it up]], but the surgeon gets a crack at the patient and it goes about as well as it does in Surgeon Simulator. [[https://lvl30psy.thecomicseries.com/comics/129/ The results]] are covered by a GoryDiscretionShot, but a horrified Roll says she's seen cleaner kills in VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}.
245[[/folder]]
246
247[[folder:Web Originals]]
248* Ashton from ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' was severely injured during a burglary gone wrong, leaving him with cracks all over his left side and a gaping hole in his skull that exposed a sizable chunk of his brain, a lethal injury even for an [[SiliconBasedLife earth genasi]]. Without access to healing magic and knowing Ashton would die if they did nothing, Milo used molten gold to fill the cracks in his body, patched the hole in his skull with slag glass, and bound it all together with chaos magic. Ashton did survive, but the injury and unprofessional patch job did leave him with chronic pain, memory issues, and blindness in one eye.
249* PlayedForLaughs in the [[WebVideo/HydraulicPressChannel Beyond the Press channel]] video "Wife vs. husband air cannon challenge"- the challenge in question was to shoot a secondhand clothing mannequin affectionately named Johnny using the aforementioned homemade air cannon. When Lauri lands a hit on Johnny with a zucchini halfway through the video, Johnny's left arm and right hand pop off, so his wife repairs him using duct tape and they go back to shooting him.
250--> '''Lauri:''' "First aid, Finnish way."
251* Deliberately invoked by a cancer patient in [[https://notalwaysright.com/a-very-special-brain/31925/ this]] ''Website/NotAlwaysFriendly'' story, as part of his quest to make the nurses laugh every time he goes in for radiation treatment.
252* As shown in [[https://youtu.be/B9UVp-OgkVU "I Made My Viewers Perform Real Surgery"]], streamer [=PointCrow=] had his chat perform medical procedures on a dummy. In classic "Twitch Plays" fashion, chat messages were used to control a robot equipped with various surgical tools. Highlights include the use of Elmer's glue to close wounds, and repeated attempts to stab the patient in the balls.
253* In ''WebVideo/Sorry2023'', one of the videos has Tommy, Phil, and Ranboo cut Charlie down the middle in order to find "the funny" inside him. Vital organs, as well as many other bizarre items, are torn out of his body, thrown everywhere, and stuffed back in, and Charlie (who is very conscious throughout all this) is perfectly... well, mostly fine throughout it. In fact, Charlie being... well, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Charlie]] only makes the experience even weirder.
254[[/folder]]
255
256[[folder:Western Animation]]
257* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': [[LethallyStupid Stan]]'s horrific attempt to reconstruct Hayley's face in her sleep in "The Mural of the Story".
258* Used for ''amateur'' plastic surgery in the ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' episode "Super Model".
259* The times [[MadScientist Krieger]] is depicted performing surgery in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' are shown to be a gruesome affair. The least of which is that he doesn't sterilize the environment, doesn't know the names of any of the parts he's operating on (and in fact still follows Humorism) and has assistants who know even less than him, who often misplace their beers within the patients.
260* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': In the episode "The Transplant," after Eustace twists his spine falling off of a roof, he gets a "disk transplant" from Dr. Vindaloo, using the kangaroo monster bone Courage dug up. Said transplant involves the doctor literally hammering the bone into Eustace's body with a mallet, and then duct-taping it in place, all while Eustace is fully conscious.
261-->'''Eustace''': Durn doctor don't know what he's doin'!
262* Used in ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' for plastic surgery during a plastic surgery contest.
263* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "American Giggo-lo", Brian suffers a hernia attack. Because it's too late, Stewie decides to operate on him. But because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome he's a baby with little-to-no medical experience]], Stewie has to look up how to perform a hernia surgery on Brian's phone. It goes about as well as you'd expect it to.
264* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
265** Professor Farnsworth decides the best way to carry out Bender's delicate gender reassignment is with ''a sledgehammer''. Even with the latter being a robot, it was still a dangerous tool to use.
266** This is also what happens when you see Zoidberg for treatment. Although it's shown that he's actually a very good doctor when it comes to BizarreAlienBiology, it's just that, unfortunately, ''human'' anatomy is something he doesn't have nailed down just yet. He is, however, somewhat capable at reattaching severed limbs. Even if he ''was'' the one who severed them in the first place. And if the limb in question ends up on the wrong side.
267** In the episode “[[Recap/FuturamaS3E19RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell That Ends Well]]”, the government gives an AlienAutopsy to a still-conscious Zoidberg. [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction He’s very nonchalant about being dissected]], and even offers one of his hearts to them since [[BizarreAlienBiology he’s got four]].
268* In ''WesternAnimation/InsideJob2021'', Brett and Glenn's face change operation performed by [[FunctionalAddict Andre]] is [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome a horrible failure]]. The brain change operation, [[BaitAndSwitch however]]...
269* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'':
270** [[spoiler: Stumpy winds up being a victim of this in Episode 78 when Olaf tries to turn him into a cyborg by giving him surgery with no anesthetic using a drill and a chainsaw. Miraculously, he survives it, but his cyborganic implants suck. Fortunately, NegativeContinuity has him back to normal by the next episode.]]
271** Stumpy again winds up being a victim of this when he asks [[{{Jerkass}} Mr. Cat]] to help him when he has a toothache. Mr. Cat uses a chainsaw, a jackhammer, and other things and somehow turns Stumpy's head into a fire extinguisher. Stumpy is back to normal in a few minutes.
272* This trope was the subject of the first skit of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Madballs}}'' episode "Gross Jokes", where Screamin' Meemie plays an incompetent surgeon named Dr. Ghastly and there are many jokes revolving around him having no idea what he's doing, such as going through with the surgery even though no one is certain if the patient has been anesthetized, Slobulus remarking that Dr. Ghastly kills most of his patients, and Dr. Ghastly coming to the conclusion that the patient's problem can be solved by removing his brain.
273* ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'': [[HeroicComedicSociopath Doctor Barber]] is never shown performing such surgeries onscreen (for obvious reasons), but don't think that'll stop the series from reminding you as often as humanly possible that this is what he -- a 19th century doctor/barber -- does for a living. It's all PlayedForLaughs, of course.
274* In the WesternAnimation/RogerRabbitShort "Tummy Trouble", Roger is sent to the ER by mistake and is about to be operated on with a ''chainsaw'' when the twelve-o'clock whistle sounds and the surgeons pause for lunch. Roger also administers his own anesthetic by HyperspaceMallet.
275* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
276** [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr. Nick Riviera]] is basically the living avatar of this trope. He was once brought before a malpractice committee for over 100 heinous charges, including performing surgery with a knife and fork from a seafood restaurant ("But I cleaned them with my napkin!")
277*** There's also his old friend Mr. [=McGreg=], with a leg for an arm, and an arm for a leg.
278** Moe is also revealed to be an unlicensed and unhygienic surgeon in one episode.
279* Pretty much any surgery depicted in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' is guaranteed to be this. Besides the Kenny example listed above in Bigger, Longer & Uncut, examples include the gruesome surgeries the patients are subjected to in "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", the boy's bootleg liposuction on a fat Butters (sucking the fat out into a bucket, when all of a sudden it and blood start violently painting Butters' house) in "Jared Has Aides", Wendy getting breast implants (consisting of cutting/ripping open her armpit and then having the implant violently shoved in, squirting gallons of Wendy's blood everywhere) in "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society. But the crowner would be "Mr Garrison's Fancy New Vagina", depicting Mr. Garrison having a sex change by way of live action footage of an animal being neutered...and he's not sedated through the procedure!!
280* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
281** In the episode "Dying For Pie", [=SpongeBob=] "performs" open-heart surgery on Squidward by opening his chest cavity and poking his heart with his finger. This causes '''blood to come squirting out''', though Squidward is alive and well in the next scene.
282** The episode “Code Yellow” is about [=SpongeBob=] being mistaken for a surgeon. This eventually leads to him giving Squidward a nose job. Although Squidward ''is'' put under anesthetics, the procedure itself involves [=SpongeBob=] ''violently chopping up his limbs over and over again'' until he gets it right. Eventually [=SpongeBob=] ''does'' succeed… but it comes at the cost of all of Squidward’s limbs.
283* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'': Knock Out usually goes a more painless route (as painless as a Decepticon opts to be anyway), and his surgically [[spoiler:inserting a new T-cog into Starscream]] went off without a hitch. However when Megatron asks him to graft a new arm onto him in his pursuit of power, Knock Out wants to put him in stasis, only for Megatron to inform Knock Out that he wishes to be awake to witness it. Knock Out just shrugs, whips out his buzz saw and starts cutting away.
284[[/folder]]

Top