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Instant Bandages

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Characters who suffer Amusing Injuries, or emerge from a Big Ball of Violence, will immediately sport bandages, even if they couldn't possibly have received medical attention. Sometimes, the bandages spontaneously appear in the very next shot, in the immediate aftermath of the blow, as if they had been stamped there by the force of whatever hit the character.

The standard example is a crossed pair of Band-Aids on the forehead, but the Instant Bandages may be more elaborate. Wrapped gauze dressings covering entire limbs, arm slings, and plaster casts complete with crutches from hammerspace are also fairly common.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • In a Cheerios ad, Bullwinkle crashes through a wall, leaving an Impact Silhouette. When he sticks his head back through the hole, his snout sports two bandages in the shape of an X.

    Anime & Manga 
  • In both the Love Hina manga and OAV, Keitaro is sent to the hospital with a broken leg, much to the surprise of the cast; Keitaro's ability to recover from numerous injuries with Instant Bandages had become a running joke at this point.
  • Sakaki in Azumanga Daioh seems to have this occur right after most of her attempts to pet cats, all of whom save for one who bite her automatically. After a gang of cats attacked her, she even required a sling for her arm.
  • All over the place in Midori Days. In the pilot, Instant Bandages appear on a cat.
  • One of the characters in Zombie Loan has the power to summon Instant Bandages for healing. She pays of her loan by selling this service to the other Zombies.
  • Lucky Star:
    • Konata makes a remark about her teacher, Nanako Kuroi. Kuroi hears her, brings a clipboard down on her head, a "THWAK" sound is heard, and the next scene shows Konata with an enormously comical bandage on her head. Oddly enough, the bandage disappears in the next shot.
    • In episode 16, the characters remember Miyuki walking right into a door. After Miyuki opens it and walks in shyly, the bandages disappear in the next shot.
  • In Hidamari Sketch, Miyako gets one after misinterpreting the invitation to their welcoming party as a letter of challenge, and attempting to punish Hiro for the surprise attack; she's hit on the head by Sae. She gets another after being hit by a strong tennis serve by Sae that went into the bamboo grove, and another when she and Yuno are called by Sae, and she jumps the railing to get down. (In the anime, Yuno follows, and gets one, too. Nori gets a couple when sharing a bed with Nazuna, who moves around in her sleep a lot.
  • In Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi episode 3, Tsubasa makes a Face Plant. When she looks up immediately after, her face has manifested a bandage over her nose. A few seconds later, her nose is healed and the bandage is gone. Given that she is a ninja, these things are entirely plausible.
  • In Sekirei, Minato sports a couple after Tsukiumi does a Crash-Into Hello on him.
  • Cocoa sports one after she bumps into a cabinet in episode 3 of Is the Order a Rabbit? while shopping for mugs.
  • While it's not instantaneous, Thrust is injured in Transformers: Armada and shows up in the next scene with his arm in a sling and his head covered in bandages. In the Decepticon moon base. Where did a robot on the moon get bandages? For that matter, why does a robot have bandages?
  • Tamagotchi Friends:
    • In GO-GO Tamagotchi! episode 7a, Miraitchi finds a staircase in the maze that is the Tama-Friends' school and goes up it, believing it's possibly a way out. She finds that it doesn't go anywhere and has a ceiling at the top that she bumps into, and in the next shot where she is on-screen, she has bandages covering the top of her head, where her decorative flower is.
    • In GO-GO Tamagotchi! episode 35, Himespetchi and Neenetchi deliberately collide into each other several times in an attempt to reverse their "Freaky Friday" Flip. They hit each other enough times that bandages spontaneously appear all over them.
  • Happens several times in Doraemon. For example, in "The Action Planner", Doraemon suddenly gets bandages on his head after the Action Planner attacks him while trying to get him to stick to Noby's schedule.
  • Photon: The Idiot Adventures: Aun generates a large stasis field when desert pirates are about to execute her. Everyone is frozen in place, including Aun. Photon, however, is immune to her stasis field, and disables it by whonking Aun on the noggin with his staff. Aun falls over prone, and a large lump appears with criss-crossed bandages already in place. The stasis field fades away a moment later.
  • Nichijou: In episode 24, Yuuko spins an elaborate lie to Mio about her crush Sasahara being romantically involved with Nano. After Mio learns the truth from Nano, Yuuko is abruptly seen slumping with a bandage on her head.

    Asian Animation 
  • Happens several times in Canimals. For example, near the end of the episode "Super Can", Fizzy falls to the ground and suddenly gains a couple of bandages throughout his body from the collision.
  • In Happy Friends, it's common for characters to suddenly sport bandages after being physically injured. Including the eponymous Kid Heroes, who are robots and don't really need bandages.
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, sometimes Wolffy will immediately get bandages on his head after being hit by Wolnie's frying pan.

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • In Madagascar 1, the animators/modelers couldn't make Marty's wound to look like an actual wound without making it creepy or disgusting. So they slapped on some bandages instead.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Live-Action TV 
  • Sesame Street: In one sketch, Grover is giving a talk on how to follow a "ONE WAY" sign. After asking if the viewer understands, Grover says, "You do? Oh, boy, I am going to tell everybody you understand 'ONE WAY'! Hey, everybodeeee!" He runs off, but in the direction opposite the way the sign is pointing. There's an Offscreen Crash, and Grover stumbles back onscreen with criss-crossed bandages on his head and an empty picture frame around his neck.

    Video Games 
  • In Angry Birds 2, the boss pigs gain two crossed bandages at 50% health and a head cast at 15%.
  • In Vs. Duck Hunt, it's possible to shoot the dog (and if you've played the home version of Duck Hunt enough, you just might want to) during the bonus round. If you do, the bonus round ends immediately and the dog shows up on the score screen with an Ash Face and a cast on his leg, saying "OUCH! SHOOT THE DUCKS, NOT ME!"
  • In Theme Hospital, broken bones never have to be set. Patients enter already wearing bandages or casts, and the only service the hospital performs is to remove them.
  • This happens to a hill in Super Mario World; the giant bandage is instantly applied upon impact. The shot doesn't cut away at all; there's a small cloud of dust and the bandage is there after. (Presumably the bandage is huge because the impact was caused by a sizable fortress crashing down on the hill).
  • When you get a game over in Donkey Kong Country, you are treated to Donkey and Diddy Kong beaten up in a black void.
  • Happens a lot to Mid-Boss in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, usually after you beat him up.
  • It happens constantly in LocoRoco where bandages just appear instantly on bigger enemies and bosses without even needing ball of violence or next cut.
  • In Punch-Out!!, everyone will get bandages after the first Knock Down (including you) and will get more after the second one.
  • The first time Chibi-Robo! runs out of energy, the Trauma Suit is basically this. Plus, it can be worn.
  • Tielle from Recettear appears with them on her head anytime she gets hit by a monster.
  • Sly Cooper series:
  • In Kirby Super Star, Kirby gets these in the sub-game "The Great Cave Offensive" after falling down a hole in the ground in the opening cutscene.
  • Lord Monarch: Sega version: In story mode, some enemy kings get this with dizzy look after being defeated.
  • Some bosses in Cuphead receive bandages when getting damaged or defeated. Examples include Werner Wermann or Security Bee in the first phase of Rumor Honeybottoms fight.

    Webcomics 
  • Some evil advisors show up in bandages like this in Cwen's Quest next we see them after some of them were set on fire. Though at least one of them still suffered from some disfiguring burn marks after the bandages came off.

    Western Animation 
  • We all know Oggy and the Cockroaches has done this a few times, but the most prominent one has to be "Deep End" where after Jack crashlands into the pool floor, the next time we see him he is covered in bandages everywherenote .
  • Looney Tunes, the Trope Codifier. Just so you are not underwhelmed but what that implies, let us spell it out. Over the past 70 or 80 years a rolling stock of characters have repeatedly used this trope, almost once an episode in some cases, to generates hundreds upons thousands of examples that have probably been the introducer for the concept of triangular bandages for hundreds of millions of children. However, we just can't think of one yet. Try Wile E Coyote, he gets hurt a lot; it will probably come up. Funnily enough you can now get most of those cartoon characters on band-aids for kids.
  • Happens a few times in The Mr. Men Show, usually to Mr. Bump (who's always bandaged up), Little Miss Whoops, and Little Miss Calamity. Like one time in "Superstore", after retrieving a snowglobe from a trolley, Miss Calamity gets swept away by another one, where she ends up crashing offscreen for a few seconds. Immediately afterwards, she arrives with many bandages on her body, even though she couldn't have possibly put that many on herself in such a short time.
  • In one episode of Quack Pack, Donald has a bandage on his beak after getting tossed through a wall.
  • A bunch of times in T.U.F.F. Puppy such as when Kitty gets beat up by Dudley along with everyone else in F.L.O.P.P.
  • In the pilot of Kaeloo, bandages suddenly appear on Mr. Cat while he's getting beaten up. Averted in the actual show where the characters actually require first aid to get bandages.

 
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Video Example(s):

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Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot

Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot get sent to a pet hotel and when the other dogs discover Pussyfoot wanders into the dog side, Marc Anthony fakes being beaten up by her.

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