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Invisible Stomach, Visible Food

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Invisible Stomach, Visible Food (trope)

"There are details
That I haven't worked out
Like when I eat my lunch
Does it disappear
Or do you see it going all the way down?"
They Might Be Giants, "I Am Invisible"

What happens when an invisible character eats lunch? One possibility is that the food disappears as soon as it enters their mouths. The other possibility is this trope: the food remains visible, even as the character chews and swallows it. This can also apply to translucent or partially-invisible characters.

The food usually doesn't stay visible past the stomach stage. This is partly justified; logic suggests that the food must become invisible as the character absorbs it fully into their body, or else the character wouldn't stay invisible for very long. Then again, the same logic also suggests that the portion of the food that isn't absorbed should remain visible all the way down, but this would be too disgusting for most audiences.

Even with the stomach restriction, the trope is often played for Squick in live-action works. In drawn or animated works it may be Played for Laughs instead. Squick can also be reduced by downplaying the trope, so that the food disappears on the way down the esophagus.

One effect of this trope is to illustrate the mechanics of a character's invisibility. Visible food suggests that their body is made of a completely transparent material, as opposed to ordinary material that is "hidden" by an Invisibility Cloak (or something similar).

Can be used as a form of Visible Invisibility. Compare Invisible Streaker, where invisible people have to worry about the visible objects on their body.

This trope presumes the character's stomach can hold physical objects. If a ghost eats something, and it immediately falls through their body down to the floor, it's not related to this trope.


Examples

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    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin imagines being turned into "a living x-ray" which makes his mealtimes "a disgusting ordeal" for everyone, given that they can see the chewed food. The comic ends in the real world with Calvin's dad yelling at him to close his mouth when he chews. "You think we want to see that?"

    Film — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • In Brian Patten's poem "Cousin Lesley" (collected in Gargling with Jelly), Lesley takes a pill that turns her almost invisible. The contents of her stomach remain visible, and the poem lists various examples of partially-digested food the sight of which puts the rest of her family off their own food.
  • Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser: Ghouls are humanoid beings whose flesh and organs are transparent and colourless, making them appear to be walking skeletons. When they eat, their food is visible through the transparent flesh.
  • The Invisible Man: Food eaten by someone invisible is visible until it is digested. If an invisible person smokes, the smoke can be seen swirling around inside their mouth and nasal passages.
  • Soon I Will Be Invincible: Lily isn't invisible but made from transparent crystal. The food she eats "goes transparent almost as soon as she bites down on it". She also exhibits the trope with cigarette smoke, which "curl[s] in her lungs like a genie in a smoked-glass bottle".

    Music 

    Western Animation 
  • Courage the Cowardly Dog: "Invisible Muriel": Muriel turns invisible because of a stone Courage dug up for her that she wears as a necklace. Eustace doesn't seem to notice that Muriel is invisible, but can clearly see her swallowing a mouthful of pancakes, prompting him to tell her to close her mouth when she chews.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • "Porky's Movie Mystery": The Invisible Man eats an apple. Thanks to Cartoon Physics, the chewed-up apple reassembles itself in his stomach, where it remains for the rest of the scene.
    • "Water, Water Every Hare": Bugs Bunny turns himself invisible with a bottle of "Vanishing Fluid". While invisible, he chews and swallows a carrot, and the audience can see it being ground to orange meal with his teeth and falling down his throat after gulping and into his digestive system.

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