Mundane Utility / Western Animation

• Adventure Time:
  • Jake the Dog gets enormous use out of his stretchy powers, and there are few episodes where he doesn't find some new application. His hands morph into a bottle opener or a key, he shrinks so Finn can carry him, he enlarges to provide an impromptu rain shield or simply to make walking large distances easier, extending limbs mean nothing is out of his reach, and the pranks he can play are quite elaborate, to name just several examples.
  • Marceline the Vampire Queen uses her flight power almost solely to surpass the tedious issue of standing and walking, while her shapeshifting is only used for scaring people.
  • In "Five Short Graybles", Princess Bubblegum uses all of her scientific technology from growth formulas, teleportation devices, and even magic to make a cheese and tomato sandwich. Though in her defense it was the "perfect sandwich".
• In an episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario and co. get in a fight with the Koopalings over a wizard's lost wand. When the wizard retrieves it at the end, he reveals that he only uses it to roast weenies.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra:
  • Almost every bender with a decent amount of screen time has done this. Keep in mind that elemental bending is something that a large portion of this world's population can do, and having it applied to mundane use is hardly surprising. On one occasion Iroh blew his cover by Firebending a cup of tea to warm it up.
  • Earthbending is used for a soccer-like game called Earthball, and Toph uses it to make a tent and, in one episode, cheat at gambling. Omashu uses it to power a mail system and Ba Sing Se uses it to fashion together a train system. Aang would also use it to build a new zoo for Ba Sing Se to replace the old, decaying one with larger habitats for the animals.
  • Firebending makes a handy torch, and is useful for metalworking. Although the Fire Nation's Steampunk tech is usually powered by coal-based fire, in a pinch, you can also Firebend it directly. When Firebenders steal the hot air balloon technology from The Mechanist, they actually outright remove the heat generation technology he worked so hard to create and instead simply have two Firebender operators, one to generate heat for flight and one to throw fire offensively.
  • Waterbending makes sailing a breeze. Surfing, too. And makes practical submarines possible almost a hundred years before their time. It also has potential industrial cutting applications, though we've only seen that once, when Aang and Katara used a very fast-moving stream of water to cut through what appeared to be an inch-thick steel I-beam.
  • Airbending finds use for everything from launching cakes to providing every single Air Nomad with the ability to use their gliders for flight.
  • Over the course of the show, we see a special technique for each of the types of bending. Fire is lightning, Water is bloodbending, and Earth is metalbending. What's the special new air technique, you ask? It's the Air Scooter. That ball Aang uses just to get around all the time.
  • A combination of water and earthbending provides liquid filtration.
  • Lightningbending (something that only three characters in the original series were ever shown doing) has become so commonplace in the sequel that it is now used to run power plants. Metalbending, which only Toph could perform in the original series as she has just recently discovered it was possible, is now used ubiquitously by the police as a means of restraint and quick transportation via steel cables.
  • Firebending is mentioned to be used in the making of car engines.
  • Korra once uses the Avatar state as a "booster rocket" in an airbending race. Granted, Tenzin calls it out as a gross misuse of power.
  • Outside of bending, the mecha-tanks leftover from the Equalist coup of Republic City are used to load cargo. To their credit, they were based on Future Industries' forklifts (which would be designed for that express purpose).
  • Season 3 featured a society of metalbenders under the leadership of Suyin Beifong, Toph's other daughter and Lin's half-sister, which has a city made of metal from construction by the bending itself, as well as using the bending for arts and acupuncture.
• Avengers Assemble got a lot of mileage out of this trope.
  • The third episode of the series opens with the Falcon using his high-tech combat flight suit to arrive at a mission briefing on time.
  • Thor and the Hulk made microwave popcorn with Mjolnir's lightning summoning, and in another episode went to the Moon to wrestle after breaking too many things in Avengers Tower during their weekly sparring matches.
  • Hawkeye uses his Improbable Aiming Skills to annoy his teammates by bouncing things off their heads, build sandwiches by tossing ingredients back over his shoulder without looking, and clean house at boardwalk carnival games.
• In Barbie: The Pearl Princess, Lumina uses her color-changing pearl powers to style hair and tails, and Madame Ruckus uses her tentacles to style hair.
• Robin in The Batman.
  Robin: He gave you a radiation detector? Why don't I get a radiation detector?
  Batgirl: Anyone using the Bat-computer for something other than downloading video game cheat codes? (raises her hand) Hm?
• Ian Peek in Batman Beyond has a belt that makes him immaterial and partially invisible. He uses it to spy on celebrities for his gossipy TV show. Well, used it, at least...
• The eponymous character of Ben 10 uses his Voluntary Shapeshifting powers courtesy of Imported Alien Phlebotinum for this almost as much as he uses them for superheroism, mostly to pull pranks on his cousin Gwen. Of course, as a large part of the series consists of Ben failing to use his powers properly, this rarely works the way he wants. Other examples include using Grey Matter's Super-Intelligence to win a game, Xlr8's Super-Speed to put away stuff in his grandfather's rustbucket and repair said rustbucket, Fourarms' stature and Super-Strength to run a catch tournament, and even once several alien forms to handle multiple tasks in a farm.
  • It happened less so in Ben 10: Alien Force, but he starts doing it again in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, where he is seen using Brainstorm's Super-Intelligence to win a golf match.
• A crossover episode between Codename: Kids Next Door and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy featured a group of KND operatives using a laser to cut bratwurst. Mandy, who wanted the laser for her giant robot, was not amused.
• Danny from Danny Phantom once used his ghost powers to clean up the messy basement (and his flight to vacuum the walls). We have to ignore the fact that Ghost Rays push the objects in their proper place instead of blowing it up. On occasion he also used them to get to school early and enter the girl's locker room.
• In the Dan Vs. episode "Parents", Elise uses her sword-fighting skills to chop lettuce.
• Ever After High:
  • Raven uses her fearsome sorceress powers to carry luggage.
  • The most prominent effect of Bunny's supernatural luck is that she is never late for anything, ever. Fate just conspires to make it that way. Naturally, she has gotten very zen about making appointments.
  • In Poppy's diary, she describes using a shrinking potion to fit everything she owns in one suitcase.
• In Family Guy, Aquaman uses his "talking to fish" powers to get a soda. The fish wasn't pleased.
  • And God has lightning bolts and telekinesis. He uses these powers to get chicks. Or at least tries to.
  • Jesus used his powers to turn water into funk and improve his golf game.
• Futurama:
  • In "I, Roommate", one of the many annoying things Fry does while living at Planet Express is using the starship's engines to dry his hair.
    Leela: You're getting a massive dose of radiation!
    Fry: ...and great lift.
  • In the episode "Brannigan Begin Again", the Planet Express crew arrives at the new Democratic Order of Planets (D.O.O.P.) headquarters in orbit around the Neutral Planet, in order to deliver the oversized scissors for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Zapp Brannigan attempts to use his ship the Nimbus' laser to cut the ribbon, instead of using the scissors, and destroys the entire station, getting himself and Kif fired.
  • In "Fry and the Slurm Factory", the professor builds a device that can see through anything. What does it get used for? Winning product contests.
  • In "The Cryonic Woman," Fry gets a job at the cryogenics lab where he became a Human Popsicle, where he uses the cryogenic chambers to take power naps and store snacks.
  • And, of course, in "Less Than Hero" in which they gain actual superhero-like superpowers, Leela's reaction is to say that "I'll be able to pack my day with twice as many humdrum activities!" Later in the episode, Fry, Leela, and Bender are forced to steal a gem for a supervillain to rescue Leela's parents. After delivering it, the villain, the Zookeeper, has his hawk fetch the gem from Bender's hands and bring it to him... from a distance of about five feet. Fry lampshades the trope.
    Fry: That seemed unnecessary.
  • The Hypnotoad is arguably the most powerful being on the planet, and could rule the world if he so chose. Instead, he uses his Mind Control powers to get himself a sitcom and win pet contests.
• Everyone in Galactik Football uses their incredible superpowers to play soccer. This is rigidly enforced by a Jedi Council, who are worried Galactic war will break out otherwise.
• In the second season of Hilda, Hilda's mother convinces her house's Nisse to let her use Nowhere Space as extra cupboard space.
• Before being recruited by the Hulk to get back in the hero game, Jennifer "She-Hulk" Walters was working as a stuntwoman. Aside from her powers making it possible for her to trivially perform stunts that would be extremely dangerous or even fatal for a normal human, a director noted that since she had green skin and hair it was easy to digitally mask her out and replace her with whatever actress she was standing in for.
• In "Runaway Robot" from the animated If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, it's revealed that Cat has invented a mobile robot with a vaguely human-like appearance, which is powered by cupcakes and can be controlled by remote control. It... makes breakfast, then washes the dishes, and can also dance.
• Professor Membrane of Invader Zim, who invented scores of wonderful and useful devices, is often shown working on the most mundane and/or ridiculous of things. One episode had him welding a fork for some reason.
  • Professor Membrane, at his workbench: "Not now, son! I'm making...<electricity fills the air>...toast!"
  • Not to mention Zim himself, who put Dib into a complete virtual reality world and allowed him to virtually grow to old age...in order to get Dib to admit to having thrown a muffin at him. And then he uses a massive cannon with a barrel nearly as big as Dib's head... to shoot another muffin (albeit at enough force that it left him limping) as revenge.
  • Zim's robotic legs, very useful in battle, have lasers and energy shields build in, are first used to...get up to the sofa.
• In Jackie Chan Adventures, the Pig Talisman is found in Bavaria, where its Eye Beam power was used to melt chocolate.
  • Jade often used the Talismans for normal problems, such as using the Rabbit Talisman to get to school on time.
• Justice League:
  • In the Christmas episode "Comfort and Joy", Green Lantern uses his Ring to snowboard and make snowmen. Then Hawkgirl gets in on the act, using her Energy Mace to snowball fight with GL.
  • Same episode: Superman uses his x-ray vision to...peek in the presents and see what he got for Christmas. Which is why his parents have used lead foil for gift-wrapping since he was a kid.
    Superman: You mean Santa did.
  • Also in that same episode, The Flash and Ultra-Humanite team up and combine their Super-Speed and Super-Intelligence to... repair a toy he bought for some orphans and deliver it to them in time for Christmas.
  • As mentioned above, Wally is very well known for using his super speed for comparatively mundane things. Such as painting houses. No wonder he's so loved in the Central/Keystone area.
  • At one point, Clark uses his super strength to retrieve a pen he dropped by lifting his desk.
  • A Hugh Hefner Expy got his hands on the Philosopher's Stone. Yes, that one. What does he use this mythical stone, that can manipulate time and reality itself, to do? Get rich and pick up chicks. Wonder Woman is not amused.
    Wonder Woman: Let me understand this. You possess the most powerful object in the world. And all you wished for is money and women?
    Harv Hickman: What else is there?
• While not super-powers per se, Kim Possible often uses Wade's super-techno crime-fighting gadgets for mundane things like homework. One example that had to be pre-emptively defied was the super suit from So The Drama, which had to be written out because it was a complete Story-Breaker Power, and Kim had every intention of using it for everything from foiling her normal rogue's gallery (which would be complete overkill) to saving cats up trees.
• In Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Lilo attempts to get all of Jumba's experiments to use their powers like this. For example, an experiment with freezing breath makes snow cones, an experiment that can melt solid objects is sent to a recycling plant, and most bizarrely, an experiment which eats mucus ends up helping a kid with her sinus problems.
• The eponymous heroes of Loonatics Unleashed use their powers for convenience on a regular basis - like Ace using his laser vision to reheat pizza.
• Valerie Frizzle has an apparently-sentient magic school bus that can fly through space at FTL speeds (to Pluto and back within a single school day!) while supporting human passengers, maintain operating temperatures and breathable atmosphere while submerged in lava or stomach acid, travel through time without causing nasty paradoxes, shapeshift, shrink to microbial or molecular levels, turn into Hard Light, etc., and always automatically transforms or supports its passengers safely. She uses it to teach third-grade science class at a public school.
• An episode of Martha Speaks involved a scientist who had invented a mind-control device. So he opened a dog obedience school.
• Megas XLR: Coop abused his mecha's abilities at every possible opportunity, usually just for rather mundane things. That's not counting all the times he's just showing off because he's bored. The show also used this trope from the other direction. Even though he's in a giant mech with enough firepower to destroy planets and can fly at interstellar speeds, he still has to deal with things like traffic and annoying drivers. In one episode, Megas got towed and Coop had to jump through all the hoops, including retaking the driver's exam, to get back a giant robot that could smite the world with the press of a button.
  • To a lesser extent, Megas's "control center" was made from a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, which is still fully functional. Jamie uses it to pick up chicks.
• Milo Murphy's Law: All the Murphy men are cursed with absolutely horrible luck; anything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Milo's father puts this to work in his job as a safety inspector. All he has to do is walk into a place, and any safety violations will immediately and violently reveal themselves.
• In the end titles of Milton the Monster, Milton uses a guillotine to slice lunch meat for his pet pirahnas.
• In Mixels, thanks to their Fusion Dance abilities, Mixels have a tendency to Mix for fixing any problem they have, be it assembling sandwiches, changing a light bulb, or performing in a talent show.
  • Select other characters use their base abilities for mundane reasons as well. Zorch uses his Super-Speed for his job as a mailman, and the Electroids use their electric-tipped body parts as flashlights in blackouts.
• In My Adventures with Superman, Clark's Super-Speed is great for dodging attacks, saving people, and getting to the scene on time. It's also great for when Clark's apartment is a mess and he needs to tidy up in the literal second before guests walk in. Tellingly, despite his Power Incontinence issues in the beginning, it's the one power that Clark seems to fully have a handle on, because it's just so useful in letting him perform his small heroics whilst staying out of sight.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, all unicorns can use their magic for telekinesis. It effectively gives them an extra pair of hands, which is especially useful since ponies don't have hands. This makes tasks like turning pages, writing letters, carrying shopping bags, and eating sandwiches much easier for them than they are for other ponies. Twilight Sparkle in particular can learn any magical spell, and being in the universe this is, a lot of what she has learned is mundane utility spells. That doesn't stop her from being a one-pony magical arsenal of destruction as well, though.
  • Unicorn horns glow when they use their magic, and this has been repeatedly used an as impromptu flashlight.
  • Pegasi can use their wings to hold light things underarm. Rainbow Dash once held a ball with her wing this way, and in "Putting Your Hoof Down," Fluttershy even demonstrated feather-based dexterity comparable to that of human fingers (justified a few episodes earlier, where an X-ray shows that pegasi have small bones in the largest of their feathers).
    • Scootaloo, a pegasus who can't fly properly, uses her wings to give herself extra speed when on her scooter, rather like a propeller. She also uses this to get some sweet air to pull off tricks.
  • In "Lesson Zero," Rainbow Dash has apparently managed to master the Sonic Rainboom — a difficult flying stunt which was initially presumed to be a myth — to the point of using it in demolition.
  • Spike's magic fire breath essentially makes him a living fax machine, since any letter he burns is sent to Celestia in a puff of smoke and he can receive incoming letters by belching. He can also use his fire to bake cupcakes and make popcorn too.
  • Fluttershy's Stare, which seems to break the will of any creature on the receiving end of it - up to and including full-grown dragons - has been used to round up disobedient chickens and get her pet bunny, Angel, to eat his vegetables.
  • In Power Ponies, the comic book super villain The Mane-iac posses Prehensile Hair that act as Combat Tentacles and tentacle-like limbs for her. At one point early on though, when the Mane Six are struggling to use their new super powers as the Power Ponies for the first time, Mane-iac makes a lounge chair out of her mane and slouches on it to relax and watch the chaos in entertainment.
    • In the same episode, Pinkie Pie gains Super-Speed when she is cast as the hero Filly-Second, and she mainly uses her speed to run around town and grab some snacks, even grabbing some cupcakes from across town before she and her friends are pulled out of the comic world.
  • Inspiration Manifestation: Unicorn magic is great for puppeteering.
  • In The Break-Up Break-Down, Spike and Big Mac summon Discord, the reality-warping Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, to have him use his abilities to cook a pie faster. Discord is naturally peeved at his abilities being invoked for such a minor task.
• In the first Peabody and Sherman segment, Peabody reveals that he built the Wayback Machine because his apartment wasn't big enough for Sherman to run around in.
  • In the film, he built it to teach his son Sherman about history.
  • And in the Rocky and Bullwinkle story Rue Brittania, Boris Badenov uses a guillotine to slice bread.
• The title characters of The Powerpuff Girls frequently use their powers for other things when they're not fighting crime or monsters, such as cleaning their room. However, the most frequent use of their ability of flight is used to simply get around. There is hardly a time they aren't floating around rather than walking.
• In Ralph Breaks the Internet Elsa uses her ice powers to make and chill a milkshake when off duty.
• ReBoot occasionally had characters use zipboards as chairs.
• Rick and Morty: Rick Sanchez created a miniature universe and taught its first sentient inhabitants the ability to generate electricity, then mooched off their electricity generation... to power his car.
  • In an earlier episode, Rick is eating breakfast and the butter for his pancakes is a few inches out of reach, so he builds a robot with enough sentience to have an existential crisis when Rick tells it what it was built for.
    Butter robot: What is my purpose?
    Rick: You pass butter.
    Butter robot: [looks down at hands] Oh my god.
  • For that matter, Rick often uses his portal gun for mundane purposes, like going to a universe where daylight savings time was never invented so he could grab some pizza before the pizza joint closed, or fetching more Fig Newtons for Ice-T.
  • He uses a dimension where time moves much faster to age his wine stash quickly.
  • His crowning moment is probably turning himself into a sentient pickle... to get out of going to family therapy. Naturally, all manner of antics ensue, culminating in him fighting off Renegade Russians and Danny Trejo, and finally ending in an Enemy Mine with a huge explosion and helicopter escape. He still ends up at therapy.
• There exists a giant toy store in the show Rugrats called Toy Palace. Among its stock of toys for sale is a working time machine.
• She-Ra: Princess of Power:
  • Hordak once turned his arm into a vacuum cleaner.
  • Defied Trope with the Rebellion's white witch Madame Razz, who apparently frowns on using magic when your own muscles will do the job too. It was actually something of a plot point for a couple of the episodes centered around her.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
  • When not in the field, Glimmer uses her powers of teleportation all the time. She frequently uses it as a way to get out of an embarrassing or awkward situation (such as a conversation with her mother), and it allows her to move about Bright Moon essentially at will. She's been known to Teleport Spam as an alternative to walking. She even has her bed hanging about 5 meters in the air, which becomes a problem in one episode when she loses her powers. The intro shows her and Bow running up to Adora, only for Glimmer to teleport the last 3 meters.
  • Bow's Establishing Character Moment sees him firing an arrow into Glimmer's bedroom... containing a message for her to look outside her window.
  • While Adora normally only turns into She-Ra during combat or training, she also does so to impress people. And while she's She-Ra, she'll happily make mundane use of her enhanced strength and size. And after mastering the ability to transform her sword into other objects, she sometimes does so for mundane purposes.
  • Perfuma primarily uses her powers of plant control to make flowery decorations or a topiary memorial to Entrapta.
  • Frosta is very good at creating ice sculptures with her ice powers.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "The Springfield Connection", where Marge joined the Springfield police department, Homer used her pepper spray to season his food. He enjoys it even though it causes his eyes to swell and tear up in pain.
  • In the "Treehouse Of Horror VIII" segment "Fly vs. Fly", Homer uses a pair of telepods to allow him to get beer from the fridge without having to get off the couch. Marge draws the line when he tries to use it so that he doesn't need to actually go to the bathroom to relieve himself.
  • In "The Cartridge Family" Homer likes his new gun so much he uses to do mundane things such as shooting lightbulbs to "turn off" the light and the television's dials to turn it off, all without having to get off the couch.
  • In the "Treehouse Of Horror X" segment "Desperately Xeeking Xena", Bart and Lisa gain superpowers (Bart gains stretching powers and Lisa has Super-Strength), which they use for household chores, e.g. Bart turns his hand into a rake and Lisa lifts up the Simpsons house for Bart to sweep the leaves into the basement.
• In Sofia the First, Crackle the dragon uses her fire to roast Clover's food for him.
• Every episode that is now created for South Park is done with incredibly advanced computer technology. Lampshaded by the creators of the show when they said: "It's like building a sandcastle with a bulldozer."
  • One aspect of Kenny's immortality means that he wakes up in his bed every time he is killed, with no one having any memory of his death. At the end of the episode, he decides to use it for Fast Travelling.
    Kenny: Well, I'm tired. I think I'll go to bed. (pulls out a pistol and shoots himself in the head)
• On Special Agent Oso, Oso's array of vehicles and special agent gadgets are employed during his training assignments helping children with mundane tasks such as folding laundry, washing the dishes or picking berries from a garden.
• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Sandman used his powers to build a magnificent sand castle for a little girl.
  • Peter himself uses his webs for relatively mundane tasks, like quickly cleaning his room (and, of course, the whole photography thing). For that matter, Harry uses his father's Psycho Serum just to improve his grades and football skills.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
  • Star often uses her magic for this, such as summoning a sapient cloud to ride on, having the same cloud take the trash out for her, blasting a magical narwhal at doors to open them, and using her Mewberty Super Mode for casual flight (despite, again, already having a flying cloud). This seems common for her family; Eclipsa invented Black Magic partly to to erase the memories of guards who caught her sneaking out of the castle, and Moon mentions at one point a spell to convince her husband to make the bed.
  • Pony Head's horn was used as a screwdriver and a drill to help rescue Marco from being brainwashed.
  • In the episode "Running With Scissors", Marco borrows Star's dimensional scissors and starts making small portals everywhere so that he doesn't have to get up from his bed. He makes a portal to the dog park, to the fridge, and to the beach. This turns out to be a bad thing when Hekapoo, the creator of dimensional scissors, kidnaps him and confiscates the scissors. He has to go on a sixteen-year quest to earn a new pair.
• Static Shock: Static uses his electromagnetic powers to grab his keys and charge his father's razor. He can also listen to CDs without a CD player; how that works is never explained.
• Steven Universe
  • Steven uses Lion's Pocket Dimension to store things, including canned drinks.
  • In "Steven and the Stevens", Steven uses a time-travel hourglass to recruit other Stevens from different time periods to form a band.
    • In the Pilot, Steven uses this same hourglass to make witty comebacks he thought of too late. And because of the way the hourglass works, it could then only be used by him, only for making comebacks.
  • In the episode "Open Book", Steven and Connie use Rose's Room (which is like a holodeck, creating things out of clouds) to basically dress up and play.
  • Pearl likes to use holograms as a visual aide when she goes into Ms. Exposition mode, and uses her gemstone to store things like police tape and bandages.
  • The Gems also typically use their shapeshifting powers to change their clothes, and to give themselves digestive tracts in order to eat and drink (which they don't need to do). While going to Funland in "Too Short to Ride", Amethyst and Steven use their shapeshifting powers to make themselves taller to rise a rollercoaster they're too short to ride and Amethyst later uses it to cheat on a rigged ring toss game. Amethyst also uses hers to play pranks, make jokes, look in a direction she's facing away from by turning her feet into eyes, become a secret underground wrestler, become an impromptu baby seat for a car, and turn into things just for fun or out of curiosity (including becoming a toilet for several months because she thought it was funny).
  • Garnet can generate electricity, but has rarely done so on screen, even in combat. She was first shown using it to power an arcade game, and has also used it to recharge the battery in Greg's van.
  • Steven used a magic wand in "Onion Trade" to make extra figurines to trade. It was also used, in Amethyst's case, to conjure a whole heap of garbage in Pearl's room.
  • Peridot uses her ferrokinesis to land ten rings on a ring toss game, as well as to play musical instruments without touching them.
  • Lapis Lazuli uses her water powers to water plants.
  • Rose Quartz used her plant powers to grow unusual magic plants, like the moss seen in "Lars And The Cool Kids".
  • Discussed in one episode, where Steven asks Garnet if she could unfuse to make folding laundry go faster. She politely declines.
    • Peridot sees Garnet's existence as a mundane utility, since from her upbringing fusions are supposed to be temporary power boosts used in battle or other things, while she's a "permafusion" that doesn't use her combined size and strength.
  • The first time we see three of the Crystal Gems combined into the giant Fusion Alexandrite is when that pose as Steven's mom during a dinner with Connie's family. The second time is to chase down Steven and Connie after they tried to run away from the disaster dinner.
• Superman: The Animated Series:
  • In one episode, Clark accidentally drops his pencil under his desk and, after making sure no one's looking, quickly lifts the entire desk over his head to retrieve it.
  • Another instance, he has heat vision that can melt any form of metal, which he uses to shave. Justified though, as his hair is probably stronger than any Earth metal (that's why he's always so well-coiffed).
• Team Umizoomi could be considered living versions of this with things like delivering mail, making milk, or grocery shopping.
  • When he's not solving mighty math problems, Geo is making food or toys out of shapes.
• In Teen Titans (2003), the Titans regularly use their powers for whatever reason.
  • Raven is so comfortable with her telekinesis that she's never seen physically opening a door, sometimes skipping the door altogether and just phasing through the wall. She also once used her epic magic powers, which could destroy the universe if used incorrectly, to give Beast Boy a wedgie.
  • Starfire flies everywhere, usually when excited she'll just forgo walking to dance in the air.
  • Cyborg used his superhuman strength to pick up a sofa so he could find the remote once.
  • Beast Boy has tried to use his powers to pick up chicks, with negative results. He's also turned into a dog just to nap on the sofa.
  • While Robin himself never does, the others take advantage of his absence during a training trip to raid his room so that they can check out all his cool gadgets. He comes home to find the Titans using his weapons to cut a pizza.
• Raven's habit of using her powers for everything is exaggerated in Teen Titans Go!, where she does things like magically duplicating toiletries instead of buying new ones. The episode Nose Mouth deconstructs this: As Raven uses her powers for stupid reasons like stopping Robin's sleep-fighting, she becomes eviler and eviler as her dark magic corrupts her. Furthermore, along with its addictive properties, dark magic solves each problem in the meanest/most destructive way possible; Robin gets smacked awake by demonic forces, Cyborg loses his mouth so he cannot speak, etc.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Leonardo's swords, in addition to slicing up bad guys, are also used to slice up pizza. In the original movie, he does so in such a manner that each slice lands on one of the Turtles' plates — except for the last one, which lands on Splinter's head.
• In the first season of Transformers: Animated, Sari used her key for fixing/powering up anything she thought might be amusing. This tapered off during the second season, although she still used it to pirate cable.
  • The Autobots themselves frequently use their abilities to repair the city, and once took out a bunch of trash. This is a debatable example, as civilian usage was more or less what they were made for.
  • Bulkhead, in several episodes, shows that he can use the Kibbles and Bits on his back to form a chair, which he then sits in.
• The titular character on Uncle Grandpa uses a Flaming Sword as a letter opener.
• The Venture Bros.:
  • Dr. Orpheus has used his magical powers to cook frittatas.
  • Orpheus's master sometimes uses his powers of transformation for this. For example, he once made himself look like Orpheus's ex-wife so he could stare at her ample cleavage in the mirror (also to mess with Orpheus but mostly the first thing). He also prefers the form of a three-headed dog because it allows him to enjoy triple autofellatio.
• On Wallykazam, Wally has a magic stick that can make anything so long as it begins with the particular letter of the day. While the stick can create some fantastic things, it's just as often used for practical stuff like making a ladder, dressing someone up in a jumpsuit, or making a bathtub to give a dragon a bath.
• Magic in Winx Club is used for the mundane all the time, such as levitating objects, cutting or cleaning a dress, cleaning trash and pollution, or painting a room.
• In the season 2 intro of W.I.T.C.H., we see what the Guardians use their power for;
  • Cornelia uses her Powers of Earth to cheer up her little sis by making a flower bloom.
  • Hay Lin uses her Powers of Air to clean her room.
  • Taranee uses her Powers of Fire to light candles.
  • Irma amuses herself with her Powers of Water while bathing.
• WordGirl villain Tobey, who makes robots the size of skyscrapers for the sole purpose of destruction, finds that his creations apparently also like to paint. And play hopscotch. And shield the elderly from the sun.
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: The Secret Museum uses its time travel powers to teach Xavier, Yadina, and Brad valuable life lessons, but sometimes the life lesson seems a bit too mundane to warrant time travel. For example, the Museum sends the trio to meet the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong... for the purpose of getting Yadina to try marmalade.
• In Xiaolin Showdown, the Xiaolin Dragons occasionally use their Shen Gong Wu to do their chores. For example, Clay using the Third Arm Sash for sweeping. The monks also use their elemental powers at one point for the arduous and life-affirming task of...cleaning the dishes. And then there's the time they used their powers to throw a pool party.
  • Played with when they gain the Shard of Lightning, an item that stops time around the users, allowing them to accomplish many tasks in the blink of an eye. They do all their chores in about five seconds. When Master Fung sees them finished, he wipes the smiles off their faces by saying that they're so efficient, they can do even more chores today.
• X-Men: The Animated Series:
  • In one episode, Wolverine uses his claws to slice cold cuts for his sandwich.
  • Colossus is introduced earning a quick buck doing demolition work.
• X-Men: Evolution has the team using their powers to rebuild the mansion, as seen here.
• In Young Justice (2010), we see members of the Flash family using their powers for tasks such as clearing the dishes (Barry) and cleaning out the ice cream when nobody's looking (Wally). Zatanna and Megan both can also use their powers (magic and shapeshifting, respectively) to change their outfits.

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