Pain-Powered Leap

HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT-HOOOOOOOOOT!!!!

A common Amusing Injury in cartoons is for a character who receives an injury to the posterior to jump impossibly high into the air, usually accompanied by a drawn-out YEEEEEOOOOOWWWWW! Occasionally happens in live-action wacky comedy as well.

Though it was used in other cartoons, Looney Tunes is the one that most people recognize as the source of the popularity of this trope, as well as the reason that perhaps its most common method of execution is needle pricks to the hindquarters.

A character just jumping away from the source of pain is not this trope - the leap has to be something he or she never could have achieved if not for the painful experience. Also, it doesn't have to involve needles or cactus spines or that sort of thing - it also often coincides with a Rump Roast or a Literal Ass-Kicking, or perhaps a Butt Biter. May cause secondary effects such as Right Out of My Clothes.

Contrast with Surprise Jump and Death Throws.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Naruto, Team 7's bell test challenge against Kakashi involved the unveiling of his super secret technique, "One Thousand Years of Death". The move actually isn't what it sounds like - Kakashi simply kanchos Naruto (striking him in the rectum) propelling him several feet away into air (with much hollering from Naruto). It turns out later that the skill has a much more practical application beyond comedy. During his climactic battle with Gaara, Naruto realizes that the technique's goal is to target the blind spot of the user's opponent; Naruto decides to get behind Gaara, substitute exploding tags for his fingers, and Stuff Blowing Up ensues.
• Near the end of the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! episode with the Dedede dolls in it, Tiff buries one of the said Dedede dolls in the ground to prevent it from menacing anyone, since the doll's movements are actually based on King Dedede's own movements. This results in King Dedede nosediving into the ground as well, but then a mole shows up and bites the doll, causing King Dedede to leap back out screaming in pain, and starts menacing other people one last time using the doll as a pawn. Kirby then stops the doll once and for all by swallowing it up, and this causes King Dedede to for some reason get shot up into space and orbit a planet shaped like him.
• In a deleted scene from the (later heavily toned-down) Hot Springs Episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kamina is trying to look into the lady side of the bathhouse through the impossibly tall wall that separates both sides. While he tries to see while riding on Simon's shoulders, he asks Gimmy to "find a hole". Gimmy ends up finding Simon's..." personal hole" and sticks his finger in it, which causes Simon to jump in pain high enough to get a glimpse of the other side. When Kamina finds out what he managed, he asks Gimmy to poke him as well.
• Near the end of Jack and the Beanstalk (1974), Tulip the giant has caught Jack and prepares to smash him with his fist, at the last second Jack's dog Crosby pulls him out of Tulip's hand and replaces him with a tack, as he brings his fist down on the tack, he slowly reacts to the pain and leaps up into the air and disappears into the sky.
• Ultimate Muscle in an episode when Wally Tusket was reluctant to fight Pumpinator Kid Muscle pokes him in the butt which causes him to leap into the ring.
• Happens occasionally in the Dragon Ball franchise. A few such examples include during the Frieza fight in Dragon Ball Z, first when Goku falls into a volcano and burns his butt, and later when Goku bites Frieza's tail when he's trying to strangle him with it.
• Happens to Yuri from Dirty Pair Project Eden when she gets shot in the butt with a laser.

Asian Animation

• In Season 2 episode 50 of Happy Heroes, Big M. hires a flying shark to help him in his evil plan. The shark bites him in the behind, causing him to do a cartoonishly exaggerated jump into space and hit a moon with his head, giving him amnesia.

Comic Strips

• In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin does this moments after Hobbes assures him that there isn't a bee about to sting him—it's Opposite Day, and there was one.
  • Basically, anytime a bee lands on Calvin's back, this results. There was another time when Hobbes reassured Calvin that a bee didn't land on his back... it was a hornet. Then there was the time Hobbes told Calvin not to imagine the bee very well crawling down his shirt and into his pants, with expected results.
  • Hobbes was once on the receiving end of one of these - Calvin told him that a "big hairy caterpillar" was about to bite him, and then stomped on it for him. Given that the "caterpillar" was Hobbes's own tail, of course, the resulting leap isn't quite as extreme as the other examples in the strip.
  • Another strip had Calvin jump up screaming in pain after a fish bit him on the bum. It's the page image for the Butt Biter trope.

Fan Works

• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Duo: In chapter 6, Hippo has this reaction when Taki yanks out two of his feathers in order to tell a fortune, jumping high enough to hit the ceiling.
• In the Super Smash Bros. series, fighters get launched and set ablaze when they touch lava. That in itself doesn't qualify as this trope because they don't exhibit the comical reaction it entails in the game proper, but one fanart based on one of Alpharad's videos featuring Ultimate's Stage Builder interpreted it as such.
  "The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math." - Ren Amamiya (2019)

Films — Animation

• Disney Animated Canon: Multiple:
  • In Beauty and the Beast, when Lefou had Lumiere cornered and was about to murder him with a torch (due to his head being made of wax). Luckily, Cogsworth successfully comes to Lumiere’s rescue by sliding down the stair banister and jabs Lefou in the butt with a pair of scissors he was using like a sword, causing this to happen by making Lefou scream while painfully jumping in the air. Less than 20 seconds later, after being rescued by Cogsworth from Lefou, Lumiere rescues Fifi from having her feathers (“skirt”) plucked apart by one of Gaston’s four stooges by spewing a blast of fire from the top of his head at Tom’s butt, causing this to happen again (Tom also gets this abuse by being launched into the air while screaming in extreme pain, just like Lefou), allowing Lumiere to gracefully catch and scoop his cute Fifi, much to their delight.
  • The Lion King: Banzai jumps about 30 feet into the air after he is knocked into a bramble thicket by Shenzi and Ed.
  • This happens to Captain Hook in Peter Pan when Mr. Smee accidentally lets the water Hook is soaking his feet in get too hot while Hook is unconscious from Smee unwittingly knocking him out earlier and when the crocodile almost bit his left feet, causing him to loose his buckle shoe and long sock, during his battle with the Crocodile in Skull Rock.
• This is a plot point in the animated version of The Phantom Tollbooth. King Azaz is asking if there are any volunteers to help Milo on his quest, and at first no one comes forth. However, the Spelling Bee sneaks up and stings the Humbug in the butt, causing the Humbug to stand up suddenly and making everyone think he was volunteering. Later on, in Milo's car Humbug exhibits a delayed reaction and finally leaps up in the air with a scream (and apparently lands right back in the car).
• In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Yosemite Sam jumps all the way from Toontown to LA when his butt is lit on fire.
• An American Tail: Fievel Goes West:
  • Cat R. Waul jumps straight through the ceiling after Fievel stabs him in the behind with a fork.
  • Earlier, Fievel does this as well when he hugs a mirage of his parents, which turns out to be a cactus.
• In The Chipmunk Adventure during the "Wooley Bully" musical number when the Native Chief dances around with torches to the song he accidentally sets his butt on fire, once he realizes he leaps up into the sky howling in pain.
• In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Tiger Prowess, Weslie and Wolffy are in the temple containing the totem they are looking for and are suddenly surrounded by flames. Weslie jumps up to a pole that is hanging on the ceiling, but Wolffy cannot reach it, so he grabs a cactus and jumps on it to boost the height of his jump.

Literature

• Officer Buckle and Gloria: Gloria leaps three feet straight up into the air to illustrate the safety tip to not leave thumbtacks on sitting surfaces.

Video Games

• Super Mario Bros.:
  • This happens to Mario whenever he touches the lava in the 3D platform games, beginning with the Lethal Lava Land in Super Mario 64. Interestingly, this can be used as a Super Jump Cast from Hit Points, especially in the Galaxy games, since it goes far higher than any of Mario's moves and the damage can be healed off using Coins.
  • In the New Super Mario Bros.-style castle levels in Super Mario Maker and its sequel, Mario's Death Throws when he lands in lava (and Luigi's, Toad's, and Toadette's in 2) also happen in this manner (the standard Death Throws occur when the player dies to anything else).
  • In the Yoshi's Island series, if Yoshi falls in lava, then he will jump high with his butt on fire and fall down out of the screen losing a life.
• In the PC game Donald Duck: Goin' Qu@ckers, Donald does this if he touches lava.
• The Legend of Zelda: Link does this in The Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, and A Link Between Worlds when he lands in lava. In the latter game, he can inflict this on enemies with the Fire Rod.
• In Puyo Puyo Sun, Draco Centauros does this in her ending when she gets sunburned on the rock she's laying on, complete with red-hot skin and her being launched into the air, with her yelling out "YEEEOOOOOOOW!!".
• In Battleblock Theater, this is what happens if you step on lava blocks. Unusually, they don't actually harm you if you do this, and this feature is actually necessary to progress through the levels.
• In Mega Man & Bass, Burner Man has spikes on either side of his room. If pushed in with the Ice Wall, Burner Man will fall in. Pain-Powered Leap ensues, draining even more of his stamina.
• In Sid & Al's Incredible Toons, both Sid and Al will leap really high if they land on the pointy end of a pin.
• In Splatoon 3: Side Order, one of Marina's hacks allows Agent 8 to invoke this when their armor is shattered. The height gained can be used in conjunction with Pearl's glide to get out of a dangerous location.
• In Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time, falling into lava will have Bugs leaping into the air as his carrot health drops.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, a turtle will leap if injured on the foot (such as by floating spikes in the sewer surfing level).
• In the Ratchet & Clank, landing in any dangerous substance will get Ratchet leaping high twice, landing a third time will have him sinking in.
• The Egyptian-themed levels in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped feature spears erupting from the ground as a recurring trap. If Crash is standing above them at the wrong time, he'll get spiked on the behind and catapult straight up in true cartoon fashion, before nervously clinging to the ceiling. This technically doesn't kill him but is nonetheless counted as a death, sending you to the previous checkpoint.
• Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: Outside of Hardcore Mode, the eponymous young heroine loses some health and bounces back onto stage if she falls off during the Magic Carpet Race, holding on to her hurting butt. Surprisingly enough, while all playable characters leap back onto the stage after falling off, only the female characters grab their butts in pain on the way back up.
• In A Hat in Time, falling into lava, acid or (for some odd reason) the public at the parade, will cause Hat Kid to jump upwards, holding her butt in pain. This can be used to reach a safe platform if you time it right. Some mods even take this into account to make levels where you have to use said leap to reach a higher platform while at the same time having to monitor your remaining health.
• Team Fortress 2: While blast jumping doesn't qualify since the explosion is what propels the character, the Scout's Boston Basher's self-damage when he misses causes the scout to propel himself upward, giving him effectively a potential third or even fourth jump.
• Hugo the TV Troll: While the volcano level of Hugo: Jungle Fever has lava constantly rising under the player. If it catches up, Hugo will rocket out of the volcano, resulting in an instant Game Over regardless of extra lives.
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure: Unlike the main LittleBigPlanet games, water is a hazard, dealing one hit of damage and bouncing SackBoy upwards.
• WarioWare: Touched! has Wario perform one of these when he gets a toothache from eating too much sweets.
• Player character in Pizza Tower jumps in the air when hit by floor-based environmental hazards such as lava.

Western Animation

• In one episode of Big City Greens, while Beach Bury, Bill is threatened by a crab and when he cries to be let out, the crab buries its way to Bill's butt and pinches him, causing him to break out of the sand.
• Happens to Donald Duck in his shorts with Spike the Bee.
  • In "Window Cleaners", Donald gets himself tied up on the platform with his butt sticking out. Donald tries to blow the bee away, but he gets tired out. The bee manages to stick his stinger into Donald's rear, causing him to dive straight into the drainpipe and gets stuck at the bottom.
  • In 1949's "Slide Donald Slide" Donald plays baseball and runs around the four bases, but as he slides for home, his butt gets poked by Spike's stinger and he jumps in pain as the radio announcer tells him he's out.
  • In "Let's Stick Together", Donald gets angry at Spike the bee's girlfriend and searches for her. Spike then decides to dive right into his rear, causing Donald to literally jump out of the greenhouse screaming in pain.
• A common gag in Looney Tunes cartoons. For example:
  • Bugs Bunny:
    • "Napoleon Bunny-Part" has a number of these. One such example is on the bannister Bugs slides down with Nappy in hot pursuit.
    • In "Hare Splitter", Bugs launches romantic rival Casbah a couple of times, first with a mousetrap to the fingers, then a well-aimed arrow to the butt.
  • Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner:
    • In "To Beep or Not to Beep", the Road Runner's speed burst causes telephone poles and cactus plants beside the road to be uprooted and causes a bridge to contract just after he passes over it. When Wile E. falls through where said bridge used to be, one of the cacti falls as well. The standard top-down view of Wile E. falling is reversed with Wile E. coming back up all the way back up to the top of the cliff howling in pain.
    • In "Tired and Feathered", the Coyote attaches a motor and propeller to his back to fly, but the propeller chops his tail and causes him to jump out of the shot.
    • "Highway Runnery" has him standing behind a cactus as he prepares to dash off. Bonus: we get to hear a real coyote yowl.
    • In "Soup or Sonic", Wile E. sticks a firecracker into the center hole of a Frisbee (from the Freleng Manufacturing Co.) and throws it at his prey, but the firecracker drops out of the hole before he does so. The Coyote is left dazed after the inevitable explosion, but apparently unhurt. Wile E. then walks away; unfortunately for him, his tail is on fire. Only when he passes the horizon does he leap up with a yelp of pain.
  • Daffy Duck as The Scarlet Pumpernickel scales a high wall by pinching himself with a needle in the butt.
  • In "A Tale of Two Kitties", Babbitt gets his partner Catstello up a ladder by pricking him in the butt with a needle.
  • Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird? Try "Tweet Tweet Tweety".
• In the Andy Panda cartoon "Fish Fry", a fish bites a cat on the finger, who reacts by jumping up hundreds of feet in the air.
• In Red Hot Riding Hood, Wolfie sticks Grandma in the butt with a needle and she jumps through the roof of her penthouse, leaving an Impact Silhouette behind. The jab is implied; you just see Wolfie holding the needle and then it cuts straight to the jump.
• Many was the time in Tom and Jerry when Tom would get his butt pricked with a pin by Jerry or have something heavy fall on his tail, always resulting in one of two hilarious Stock Screams.
• Happened in an episode of Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats when Heathcliff jumps on a potted cactus placed by some mice. After he leaps off, the mice shove another cactus underneath where he lands, causing him the jump off again.
• In the What A Cartoon short Longhair and Dumbledome, the latter falls off a cliff, and out of sight. He then promptly jumps aaaaall the way back up, and attributes the sudden burst of strength to a cactus that he landed on.
  • Larry & Steve (the short that eventually became Family Guy), this happens to Steve after sitting on his new bed; amusingly, not once does he yell in pain.
    Steve (after watching the TV and lamp break): Well, at least the bed's okay.
    (spring pops out of the bed)
    Steve (calmly): Larry, we, uh, need to address this problem.
• Subverted in Adventure Time in the episode "Up a Tree." The porcupine invokes this trope for Finn as a way of trying to get the latter's frisbee from the former's tree, but Finn doesn't think that would actually work. The porcupine does it anyway and fails, but it does provide Finn with convenient climbing tools in the form of the porcupine's spines.
• Mr. Bogus:
  • The second act of the episode "Bogus to the Rescue" combined this with an inversion of Agony of the Feet, when Bogus gets his foot smashed by a mallet that pops out from the back of a toy train.
  • Bogus does this again near the end of the episode "Waterboy Bogus", due to the pain of getting his fingers smashed by the treasure chest lid, when Ratty closes up the treasure chest.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?", while combing her fur, Rarity accidentally stings Opalescence with the comb, making the kitty cat jump almost to the ceiling.
• In the 3-2-1 Penguins! episode "Practical Hoax", Midgel lets out a yelp of pain and leaps into the air the minute he fell for the old thumbtack on the chair prank.
• Kaeloo: In "Let's Play Figurines", Mr. Cat does this after Stumpy uses a sharp object to poke a voodoo doll of him.
• Samurai Jack: In "Jack, the Woolies, and the Chritchellites", Jack deliberately invokes this trope to get the Woolie he's trying to free from slavery to jump to the top of the tower where the Magitek that controls the Woolies is so Jack can destroy it. The Woolie claimed he was too weak to make the climb after his mistreatment, at which point Jack cringes apologetically before poking the Woolie's haunch with his katana.
• In the 1962 Noveltoons short "The Sheepish Wolf", a wolf tries to pass himself off as a sheepdog and prepares a stewpot to cook sheep in. When the shepherd catches him in the act, the wolf claims that he's actually fixing up a bath for himself, so the shepherd decides to light a fire to warm up the water, causing the wolf to get Stewed Alive and blast off into the air. As the shepherd tries to shoot at the mid-air wolf, he says to the audience "The best way is to get them on the rise."
• '"SpongeBob SquarePants'': When it is Squidward's turn to get stung by a jellyfish in "Cephalopod Lodge", he ends up screaming in pain and leaping so high he can be seen from outside Jellyfish Fields.

Real Life

• Some of the humor of medical students and professionals references this trope. The "ceiling sign" and "chandelier sign" are what you see when you poke a patient where it hurts and suddenly need to patch your ceiling or rehang a chandelier afterward.
• This is the source of the myth behind "jumping" cacti.
  What Kinda Cactus Izzat?: When the victim comes to earth, he may be some distance from the offending plant... and, invariably, he will swear that the piece sticking to him JUMPED across the intervening space to make the attack.

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