Living Apart

Living Apart is any bodily division.

Sub Tropes include:

Appendage Assimilation: When they get back missing parts through regeneration.
Brain in a Jar: Sometimes.
Cranium Chase: A character's body chases after their severed or separated head.
Detachment Combat: Basically the battle form of this.
Detachable Lower Half: When split in half horizontally.
Eye Spy: Sometimes
Head Turned Backwards: When someone's head is reattached wrong.
Helping Hands: Pretty much a result when used on hands.
LEGO Body Parts: When the parts are switched around and one's parts end up with the others and the others with theirs.
Losing Your Head: When the head is separated.
One to Million to One: Similar to Pulling Themselves Together below, except that this one is always preceded by getting separated.
Pulling Themselves Together: This is the more common way of reattachment.
Who Needs Their Whole Body?: One of many reasons for this.

Any Sub Tropes mentioned in the index above are not going to be in the list below.

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Nose

Someone whose nose is detached but still moving and breathing.

Examples:

Happens in a Cinnamon Toast Crunch commercial where some girl's nose pops off and runs towards the cereal.
The first few Puff's Tissue Stop Motion commercial has this happen where some kid's nose runs from the regular tissue.

Literature

Kovaliov's nose in Nikolai Gogol's "The Nose".

Live Action TV

Sesame Street: Ernie has upon occasion pulled Burt's nose off. Burt is usually annoyed by this, and talks like he has a cold until his nose is put back on, but is otherwise unharmed. Ernie's nose is also removable.

Western Animation

Happens in Fanboy and Chum Chum episode "Pick a Nose" where they even go as far as to switch noses.
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy had an entire episode, "Wild Parts" revolving around a "nasal-mancer", or nose wizard, enchanting the noses of the city, including Billy's, into removing themselves from their owners' faces and forming a parade to the shopping mall where the nasal-mancer tries to find noses to replace the one he lost. Throughout the episode, Billy's nose is shown to have a personality of its own, slapping his owner with a steak for making a pun after Billy decides to give half of his nose to the nasal-mancer after losing his real nose during a nose-balloon chase It Makes Sense in Context.

Eyes

Not to be confused for Eye Spy this time their eyes come off and can sill see although not attached for other reasons.

Examples:

An ad for Vrak TV involves a kid named Tommy sneezing off his eyeballs as a result of a girl giving him flowers which results in him slowly pursuing his literally rolling eyeballs.

Video Games

In The Binding of Isaac level boss Peep has his eyes go around the room after he's taken enough damage.

Western Animation

In The Ren & Stimpy Show episode "Robin Hoek" it happens to Ren in his dream where his eyes run away from vicious monks (don't ask).
Happens in some Spongebob Squarepants episodes, with the first time it happens being in the episode "The Smoking Peanut" where Spongebob's eyes fall out in fear.
- Another notable time it happens is in the episode "Pranks a Lot" where this time it's a random fish instead of Spongebob and his eyeballs can run and drive away.

Mouth

A case someones mouth is detached but can still move and talk.

Examples:

In an Unlimited calling Virgin Mobile phone ad some girl talking on the phone moves her phone to the bench with her mouth detaching from her face and following the phone and still talking on it. The video is here.

Live Action TV

On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the demon "Sweet" is able to pull off his mouth, which keeps singing to Dawn in the episode "Once More, With Feeling."

Western Animation

Happens to Spongebob in the episode "Slimy Dancing" where Squidward removes his mouth for talking back at him.
In Ed, Edd n Eddy, at point in One Plus One Equals Ed, Eddy pulls Sarah's mouth off because she wouldn't stop yelling. Her disembodied mouth then bites Eddy.

Tongue

The lesser variant of Mouth where the tongue detaches from the mouth but can still move despite not being attached.

Examples:

Happen in an ad for Doritos Chili Heatwave where some guy has those chips and his tongue is got so hot the guy spits out his tongue into the water, then his girlfriend picks up his tongue which is seen shaking from the heat and then places it back into his mouth.
Tooheys Extra Dry is this mixed with Animate Body Parts.

Western Animation

The Legend of Vox Machina has this happen briefly when Percy shoots off Professor Byron Anders' magical tongue, it attempts to crawl off on it's own but is stabbed to bits with an arrow by Grog.

Teeth

This is a less noticeable but more common version of mouth where every part of the mouth except lips is detached or just simply teeth and gums are detached. Does not count if the teeth are fake or cannot be reattached. Teeth can sometimes still move and/or talk.

Examples:

Films — Live-Action

Beetlejuice has Adams teeth with gums, tongue, uvula and the rest of the mouth anatomy excluding lips detached from him in the climax of the film and can still move and talk.

Western Animation

Happen in the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Yarn Benders" where the Old Lady Giant removes her teeth and instead of her toothless mouth talking her teeth (which are just Gums and Teeth) move and talk instead.
- Another episode had Rocko's tooth turn into a mutant giant due to Filbert's attempts to be a dentist.
Futurama: Stopping at a diner in Florida while searching for his escaped gargoyle Pazuzu, Professor Farnsworth uses a remote control on his detachable teeth to help chew his food. Said teeth develops a taste for blood after biting Fry, culminating in it flying around the room biting people while Farnsworth slurps his slop through a straw obliviously.

Face

This is all the above combined where someones face is removed from their body but the face can still breathe, see, talk, feel and move despite not being attached to the head. While the face becomes like a living mask when not attached the bodies head becomes The Blank.

Examples:

Films — Live-Action

In Son of the Mask Dr. Arthur Neuman has his face removed from his head by Loki.
Barbara from Beetlejuice removes her face to scare the living folk out of their house. This portion of the trope is played in a particularly gruesome manner.

Live Action TV

Sabrina the Teenage Witch has this.

Music Video

Ariana Grande in "No Tears Left To Cry" removes her face in an upside down room of containing her other faces faces.

Western Animnation

Happens to Spongebob in the episode "Squids on Strike" the second time Squidward pulls off his face by pulling him away from the window.
Ren's Face gets ripped off by a baboon and thrown into a tree in the episode "Travelogue" with his face reattached not long after.
CatDog has Cat lose his face in the episode that probably never happened called "Movin' On Up".

Ears

Someone gets their ear detached from their body but they can still hear and possibly move if the can wiggle their ears.

Examples:

Live Action TV

The Amanda Show has this happen to the character played by Drake Bell in the Barber Shop sketch where his ear gets cut off and the barber shouts in his disembodied ear and then he runs away and his ear is then put in a trash can full of ears (Implying it happened before).

Western Animation

Possible Subversion with Wilbur Cobb has his ear fall off in the episode "Stimpy's Cartoon" where it seems to be attached only by what appears to be bubblegum.

Upper Head

Someone who has the forehead, scalp and all the hair on it and occasionally ears detached from the rest of their head usually exposing their brain but can feel it.

Examples:

Western Animation

In The Fairly OddParents! Timmy Turner has this happen quite a few times.
Patrick loses this portion of his head as a plot point in the episode "Patrick SmartPants".

Neck

This is a rare case of someones neck being detached from their head and body but can still feel and move.

Examples:

Live Action TV

MADtv (1995)'s Grey's Anatomy parody has a patient who's neck is separated from her body.

Hands

When a hand is separated from the arms or the more minor fingers and/or thumbs are separated from palms of hand. Either way the hand(s) or hand part can still move and feel under the persons control but if the hands have a mind of their own then it falls under Helping Hands.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

Migi from Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki partly qualifies, being a shapeshifting symbiote occupying and taking the form of Shinichi's hand. Beside the ability to morph itself into various weapons like its more parasitic kind, it is also able to separate from his host's body for a short time, as it did when it tried to hunt down a human who saw its true form (before Shinichi convinced it to stop).

Films — Animation

The Iron Giant: The titular Nigh-Invulnerable giant is able to detach and reattach his mobile limbs, including his hand, which causes a bit of trouble around the house for Kid Hero Hogarth who tries to hide it from his mother.

Films — Live-Action

The 1999 movie Idle Hands had a teenager whose forced to cut off his right hand after it becomes possessed by an evil spirit and goes on a killing spree.
The second half of the 1997 dual horror anthology Quicksilver Highway had a man whose hands tried to foment a rebellion, based on Clive Barker's short story "The Body Politic".
The 1988 movie Waxwork had an exhibit filled with wax monsters and famous psychopaths come to life with the souls of 18 victims. After the heroes manage to escape exhibit with the wax effigies burned inside, they begin to walk home, not noticing that a hand from the Zombie display scuttling away from the rubble.

Live Action TV

In Supernatural this happens to Abbadon in an episode called "Clip Show" after being reassembled everywhere except her hands to which she then takes advantage of by controlling her disembodied right hand to get a bullet out of her head.

Tabletop RPG

Dungeons & Dragons obviously has this in many forms. The most infamous being the Crawling Claw which are disembodied hands, which are often used to strangle its original owner.

Web Original

This YouTube Video
The SCP Foundation has this happen to SCP-418 during one of the tests that involves cutting off one of his hands at the wrist with a combat knife, which apparently caused him mild discomfort and then later reattaches his hand to his body.

Western Animation

Spongebob in the episode "Artist Unknown" detaches his hand from his body because of Squidward upsetting him by insulting his art skills.

Arms

The ability to detach arms from torso with arms still being able to move and feel under the persons control.

Examples:

This commercial for RC Cola has a girl with a removable forearm that has an RC Cola in it that also comes off and is shown later in the commercial being able to control her wrist and fingers of the disembodied forearm. In the same commercial it also reveals her band mates have no eyes but instead have ice dispensers where their eyes should be.
Yet another ad for Vrak TV that involves a kid named Tommy having his arms rip off his body from spinning too much while holding hands with a girl.

Comics

Arm-Fall-Off-Boy is pretty self explanatory.

Films — Live-Action

In The Last Starfighter an alien gets its arm which was holding the blaster cut off which not long after continues shooting through its severed arm.
May have happened to Esther from In My Skin with her left arm (below the elbow) after "subduing" her arm after it started moving on its own. Though considering this scene is both a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment and how people the are reacting to it this scene is most likely a case of it being seen from her point of view.

Literature

The entire plot of Yasunari Kawabata's novel "One Arm" revolves around the protagonist's girlfriend's detached right arm for him to spend the night with it.

Western Animation

Spongebob has his arm come off in many episodes but especially "MuscleBob BuffPants" and "Graveyard Shift".
Reboot has Gigabyte who gets his arm cut off and then reattaches it moments later.
The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius has The Magician's disembodied floating arm in the episode "Vanishing Act".

Breasts

The female only ability to detach breasts from chest while still being able to feel and use to feed babies. This one tends to only appear in stuff that is Not Safe for Work.

Chest

This is a theoretical ability to detach someone's chest from their head, arms, and abdomen while still being able to move, feel, respond to breathing and have a heartbeat.

Abdomen

Another rare ability to detach someone's abdomen from their chest and hips while still being able to move, feel, have the capability of getting bloated, grumble when hungry, and carry a baby if the belly belongs to a pregnant woman.

Examples:

Real Life

Some variants of the cutting in 3rds magic trick have only the abdomen cut from the rest of the body.

Butt

The rare case of the butt detaching from their hip while still being able to move, feel, and release waste. Can appear in stuff that is Not Safe for Work but any that aren't tend to be used for Rule of Funny.

Examples:

In a commercial for the "Laugh Your Butt Off" marathon on Disney XD, it features peoples butt's flying off their bodies from laughing so hard.

Reproductive Organs

When the reproductive organ's or their components are detached from the hip. Either way the reproductive organs or parts of the reproductive organs can still be able to move, feel, release waste, react to situations, be used to mate, and be used to reproduce. Whenever this ability is shown in any way it is Not Safe for Work and can at times overlap with Exotic Equipment if said reproductive organ's have additional "inhuman" attributes.

Examples:

Music

King Missile's song "Detachable Penis" is a song about a guy who has a detachable penis.

Literature

In Greg Egan's book "Oceanic", there is a single gendered race that is able to detach their reproductive organ's by passing it on to another person.

Real Life

A male Argonaut (also called a Paper Nautilus) is able to detach its third left arm after it becomes a hectocotylus.
Some species of spiders can detach their genitals.
There is a species of Nudibranch can detach its penis and just as easily regenerate it.

Hips

Yet another rare case of being able to detach someone's hip from their abdomen and legs while still being able to move, feel, release waste from both ends, react to situations on front end, be used to mate and be used to reproduce. Due to being the region that carries 2 private parts it has a heavy potential of appearing in stuff that is Not Safe for Work.

Examples:

Real Life

Some variants of the cutting in 3rds magic trick have only the hip cut from the rest of the body.

Torso

Once again another rare variation of being able to detach their entire torso from their head, arms, and legs while still having all the capabilities mentioned in the Breast (for females), Chest, Abdomen, and Hip folders.

Examples:

Real Life

Some variations of the vivisection magic trick have only the assistant's torso separated from the rest of their body.

Legs

The ability to detach legs from torso with legs still being able to move and feel under the persons control. Not to be confused for Detachable Lower Half in which the legs are still connected to the hips.

Examples:

This commercial for AXE spot has a girl who appears to be dating some dude's disembodied leg, though it is unknown who it belongs to and if it does belong to someone where the owner of the leg is.

Films — Live-Action

In a deleted scene from Scary Movie 2 one of Cindy's leg appears to detach from her body when she's trying to get help from a farther distance when all the attempts to rescue herself from drowning in the tub using nearby methods fail.

Real Life

Some variations of the Saw a Woman in Half trick such as Brett Daniel's version are sawn in the upper thighs just below the hip and are made very clear that that's the case.

Feet

When a foot is separated from the legs or the more minor toes are separated from soles of the feet. Either way the feet/foot or foot part can still move and feel under the persons control.

Examples:

At the end of this commercial for OSIM Foot Messager the apparent mom appears to have had her feet teleport away from her judging by her shocked expression.
A commercial for OTO Bigfoot Messager's whole story seems to be after an office worker abuses his feet when rushing to his office his feet detach from his legs, then upon falling as a result he witnesses fist hand his detached feet undress in front of him and then jump on the windowsill appearing to threaten to jump off the building until he shows them the advertised item, which persuades them to reattach to him to get messaged.

Live Action TV

In the 1989 Pilot of a show that never went any further than that called Shivers has a ghost of pig feeder named Silas who detaches his left foot in his introduction to scratch it and then later detaches his right foot along with his head when betting with a more regal fellow ghost called Jack Marlowe in a game that is obviously rigged in Jack's favor.

Vertical Split

When someone splits in half vertically as opposed to horizontally (if it's horizontal, that falls under Detachable Lower Half).

Examples:

Disassembly Applied

When someone is dismantled piece by piece and still has control over each detached body part.

Examples:

In this variation of the Levis Twisted to Fit Ad it has a leg, a foot, an arm, a hand and 2 heads detached.
A large scale case of this division happens in a commercial for EASTPAK Backpacks, where the Tetris style alignment using anyone or anything to line up perfectly in the middle results on the mixer sucking them up and spitting out the dismembered body parts on the other side.
In a commercial for Erroca a magician does a more extreme version of the zig-zag magic trick on a girl that separates her into 3 pieces (Head, upper body ^noteupper torso and arms , and lower body ^notelower torso and legs)

Films — Live-Action

In Death Becomes Her This happens to Madeline and Helen upon falling down the stairs after Ernest's funeral.
The Fireys from Labyrinth have this as one of their distinct abilities along with their namesake in their musical number alone they are seen being able to detach their hands, eyes, legs, arms, and most infamously their heads.
In Mars Attacks! the martians experiment on Donald Kessler by dismembering him while keeping all his severed body parts alive.

Live Action TV

Implied to happen in the Gabby Duran & the Unsittables episode "Extreme Ruckus" to Jeremy and at the end of the episode, Ziggy, after both explode offscreen from drinking a carbonated beverage. Though it only shows the aftermath with both their heads in human form and the former's body in a canister in its true form as a result of the shopkeeper gathering up the pieces, while the latter's pieces are offscreen.

Music Videos

In the music video for Oceanator's song "January 21st" this happen to Elise with first her head, then her arms, and then apparently her feet separating and drifting away from the rest of her body.

Web Originals

SCP Foundation:
- Basically the abilities of SCP-418 which not only causes him to survive mutilation, but also can control his severed limbs, have the detached appendages still function as if they aren't severed, and have a regenerative healing factor. A more straight example of this is in one of the tests of SCP-418 which involves him getting his limbs blasted off with an assault rifle, which very understandably gave him extreme amounts of pain and caused him to go into shock, fortunately for him, he recovers after being put back together.
- Downplayed with SCP-3484 despite granting anyone who reads page 87 of it the ability to do this to themselves and others along with the ability to reattach them, due to body parts that aren't attached to the brain not being able to be controlled or be able to feel when detached.

Western Animation

Commonly happens whenever Toon Physics is applied, usually as a form of Amusing Injuries.

Real Life

Pretty much every cutting magic trick that involves cutting someone in anything more than 2 pieces is a form of this.
- Mismade is about cutting someone into usually 4 sections (Head, upper torso, legs (which contain hips and thighs), and feet).
- Crazy Lady is a trick that has slight similarities to Mismade only with 3 boxes (the sections are head, torso, and legs) being put in separate locations.
- Shadow Vision is a trick where a person's torso with arms still attached is separated from their head and legs.

Some Assembly Required

The exact opposite of Disassembly Applied where a someone is put together piece by piece. Unlike Pulling Themselves Together they are being created this way instead of reassembled.

Examples:

Implied to happen in 2 different commercials that advertise Citroen with one being the Male version, while the other is the Female version.
Happens in a commercial for VO5 Extreme Style that features the construction of living mannequins.

Literature

Frankenstein's Monster from Frankenstein due to being made of body parts from various corpses making it a possible Ur-Example of this variant due to being Older Than Television.
- Pretty much most if not all expies of Frankenstein's Monster from every media is an example of this trope due to being made of various body parts.

Live Action TV

Sabrina the Teenage Witch has the episode "Dream Date" Sabrina, Hilda and Zelda manually build perfect dates using something called Man Dough.

Music Videos

This happens to an android Gary Go in a music video for the song "Engines".
In A-Studio's music video of the song "Fashion Girl" this happen to an android girl.
Happens to an android girl in Apocalyptica's music video for "How Far"
Has this happen to what appears to be a very human looking android girl in a music video for the song "Time Of You Life" by Alex Day.
In Bella Poarch's music video for her song "Build A B*tch" this trope variant is seen to be used in a factory for a place called Match Made where a perfect date is supposed to be created.

Web Originals

The short movie "#Lilith" has this happen to the titular robot's body.

Nose

Eyes

Mouth

Tongue

Teeth

Face

Ears

Upper Head

Neck

Hands

Arms

Breasts

Chest

Abdomen

Butt

Reproductive Organs

Hips

Torso

Legs

Feet

Vertical Split

Disassembly Applied

Some Assembly Required

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Index

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Living Apart

Edit Locked

Nose

Eyes

Mouth

Tongue

Teeth

Face

Ears

Upper Head

Neck

Hands

Arms

Breasts

Chest

Abdomen

Butt

Reproductive Organs

Hips

Torso

Legs

Feet

Vertical Split

Disassembly Applied

Some Assembly Required

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