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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roger_rabbit.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Two toons and the comedy immune.]]
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->''"Tonight's forecast: Partly cloudy with a chance of safes, pianos, and anvils."''

On the Internet, "toon" is usually a short qualifier for any animated character done in a North American style.

More specifically, a Toon is a character whose personality (and usually appearance) is greatly exaggerated. Even for the TheComicallySerious, comedy colors everything the character does and he is often unable to complete the most basic tasks without falling victim to a number of improbable variables. A probable reason is that many thrive on a consistent, tolerated kind of chaos. The whole idea is often clearly represented by having the characters acknowledge themselves as Toons and BreakingTheFourthWall.

The few animated shows in the West that attempt drama, such as ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', shy away from using certain tropes associated with Toons in an effort to be taken seriously. After all the animation is merely a medium of showing the story and doesn't necessarily mean that the characters are considered animated in-universe. See AnimationAgeGhetto. For obvious reasons, this is a lot more capricious in anime.

The most famous example is probably the universe portrayed in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit''.

The word "Toon" may be used interchangeably with "Character" in some [=MMORPGs=]. As in, "Which toon do you want me to play for this raid, my fighter or my cleric?". This especially applies to ''VideoGame/ToontownOnline'', in which this is actually what the players are officially called in-game.

Not to be confused with [[TabletopGame/{{Toon}} the tabletop game]] by Steve Jackson, or [[UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague Newcastle United]].

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', American character Pegasus uses a card called "Toon World" which turns his monsters into toons. They also do this to other player's monsters, if Pegasus takes hold of them... which infuriates Kaiba when it happens to his Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
** Made even worse in the manga and anime in that they can abuse ToonPhysics to do things like contort to dodge attacks, or quite frankly do the impossible (such as a BarehandedBladeBlock from an armless clamshell in Toon Mermaid's case in the anime).
** Also made worse in the actual card game in that they have the fantastic ability to, no matter how powerful, be able to hop right over the enemy monsters and attack the opponent directly, provided there isn't a Toon on their side of the field. The fact that Toon monsters are typically Special Summoned, meaning you can easily get the biggest monsters ([[DemBones Toon Summoned Skull]], and [[BlackMagicianGirl Toon Dark Magician Girl]], and [[OhCrap Blue Eyes Toon Dragon]]) out in ONE TURN. Offset by the fact that they (usually) need to wait a turn before they can attack . . . with the notable exception of 2000 ATK [[MundaneUtility Toon Dark Magician Girl]].
*** However, the effects of the official card game's Toons are more than offset by the numerous costs, drawbacks, and restrictions on them, to the point that they're considered useless to most competent duelists.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': This movie has realistic animation (although highly stylized), but also features the clearly cartoon-inspired ComicBook/SpiderHam, hailing from an AlternateTooniverse, who can still use ToonPhysics to great effect in this different AlternateUniverse. He's also the only character to be called a cartoon in-universe.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' has toons living in the same world as humans and [[FantasticRacism being treated poorly by them]]. ''Film/ChipNDaleRescueRangers2022'' features a similar premise in the modern day and is implied to be a StealthSequel.
* The above is subverted in ''Film/LastActionHero'', in which Jack Slater describes the cartoon cat Whiskers as one of the best guys on the force. He has a few overexaggerated mannerisms, but nothing that wouldn't fit on a human. Whiskers later [[spoiler:saves his life by shooting the bad guy threatening him.]]
* The Creator/RalphBakshi film ''Film/CoolWorld'' is an example of a blend of different styles from traditional goofy types to extremely grotesque and realistically drawn abominations. Most of the cartoon characters (referred to as "Doodles" in-universe) fall under this distinction, with the exception of Holli Wood and other more human characters.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit'' is the TropeNamer.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music]]
* Music/{{Eminem}}'s Slim Shady character is this on ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP'', using a SubvertedKidsShow aesthetic, a cartoonish CreepyHighPitchedVoice and constantly rattling around through physically impossible, violent situations (complete with sound effects and silly voices from appalled bystanders), using cartoon tropes like TheyKilledKennyAgain, AmusingInjuries and MajorInjuryUnderreaction. Promotional photographs for the album show Slim Shady smiling and waving in front of a cartoon backdrop, and at one point in "Role Model" Slim "jump[s] into a Chickenhawk cartoon with a cape on and beat[s] up WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn with an acorn". In later albums, these elements are toned down, Slim's voice [[VocalEvolution drops in pitch]], and the character starts taking more influence from HorrorTropes, but they're never gone entirely. (Think of the verse in ''Relapse'''s "Insane" where Slim [[WildTake eats his chainsaw, shoots himself in the face with a slingshot, pops his eyeball out, plays ping-pong with it...]])
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The characters in the RPG ''TabletopGame/{{Toon}}'', as the name of the game suggests, although the game itself carefully avoids calling the ''characters'' that.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The ''[[VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine Bendy]]'' franchise is this played for horror.
** Known characters in ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheDarkRevival'' has known characters Bendy, who is a cartoon demon, and Charley, who is a cartoon humanoid thing. It also has its PlayerCharacter [[BodyHorror turning to ink]].
** ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'', as the first game released in the franchise, introduced this concept into ''Bendy.'' From the first chapter, there are at least two Toons: a vivisected Boris the Wolf, and a twisted version of Bendy. Other chapters contain living versions of Alice Angel and the Butcher Gang: Charley, Barley, and Edgar. There's even a dead Chester that can be spotted from ''[[VideoGame/BendyInNightmareRun Nightmare Run]]''.
* All the characters in ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' are this as an homage to the animation from the Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer cartoons back in the 1930s.
* ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'' features the titular protagonist as well as other Disney Toons, most of which are either animatronic replicas or long-forgotten Disney Toons who were sent to live in Yen Sid's Wasteland after being forgotten and losing their Hearts, the most notable forgotten Toon being WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit, Mickey's predecessor and his [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]], [[TheResenter resentful]] [[LongLostRelative older half-brother]].
* The Cel-Shaded variation of Link from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' is given the moniker "Toon Link" in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' and has a more, pardon the pun, animated and comical personality than the "main" ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' inspired Link. His actual design however is more {{animesque}}.
* Peacock from ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' is inspired by this trope. Her backstory explains that in the past, she loved watching cartoons, but she was later {{made a slave}} and then freed by the Anti-Skullgirl Labs, who made her into a {{cyborg}}. Due to her love of cartoons mixed with the trauma of being tortured as a slave, the experimental [[RealityWarper reality-altering]] weapons she has take the form of things like a CartoonBomb, a BangFlagGun (which also comes with sword and real gun versions) and the ability to summon a ShadowOfImpendingDoom.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* After being transformed, the characters in ''WebVideo/TheCartoonMan'' remain live-action (aside from Roy's eyes), but start acting like toons, and operating under toon logic.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccm3_j6J8FE Toon Wolf]] is a webseries about a man who turns into a cartoon werewolf.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Most of the cartoons that came out during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation qualify, such as Warner Brothers' ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'', and the [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts classic Disney characters]].
* WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, and WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} proved to be [[UniversalAdaptorCast versatile enough]] characters that they can be used to tell stories that are more than just simple comedies, being more adventurous or dramatic, instead, without feeling out of place or out of character.
* The Disney series ''WesternAnimation/{{Bonkers}}'' was about a cartoon bobcat who joined an all-human police force, and drove his human partner to distraction with his zany cartoon antics, in a fairly obvious pastiche of ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit''. However, since the show itself was animated, the proper effect was achieved by giving all the normal human characters subdued and muted color schemes.
* ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'' features a whole world of toons made of chalk, with many of its inhabitants being originally cartoons drawn in a chalkboard.
* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'''s Wooldor Sockbat represents the classic Toon. Everything he does is zany (including masturbation) and explained as a desperate need to be liked.
* Some Creator/{{Nicktoons}} (Such as ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' and most notoriously ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', which was the main inspiration for Wooldor Sockbat from ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'') fall into this category.
* Creator/ToonDisney, in its heyday, aired exclusively WesternAnimation, mainly from Creator/{{Disney}}, and in its promos featured the word "toon." Except the word "toon" can come off as ambiguous in them; it can mean the programming featured, as in "around the clock toons," or the characters in said programming, as in its slogan "built from the best toons." It's one of the few cases where the word Toon was used without the notion that the Toon are made of paint, and without the idea of AnimatedActors.
* Though it's never said directly on the show the characters in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' are all clearly these.
[[/folder]]
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