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Pec Flex

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Pec Flex (trope)
"Women want me, shirts fear me!"
LaBarbara: You can't argue with those luscious pecs!
Hermes: No I can't. But I can ask him to stop wiggling them in my face!
Barbados Slim: I'm not wigglin' them. They do that by themselves.
Futurama, "Bender's Big Score"

Where a male character's pectoral muscles jiggle and bounce, except that they flex them to make it happen. However, generally it is used not so much for Fanservice as it is used as an often comedic demonstration of "manliness". Other names for it are the "Pec Bounce", the "Pec Dance" (usually this name is used if people flex their pecs in time to music), and the "Pec Pop". A character with a Bodybuilding background would probably do this while hitting some variation of either a "side chest" or a "most muscular" pose, since those are the ones which most emphasize the pecs. This is kinda the male equivalent of Gainaxing.

Another variant is the "Ab Wave", where a character with a well defined six pack will flex their stomach muscles like a wave. Generally, this isn't so much saying "look how strong I am" as it is "aren't I sexy?". In other words, the inverse of how the Pec Flex is usually used.

For cases of Pec Flex when the flexer has less-than-impressive pecs, see Flexing Those Non-Biceps. Also compare Fat Flex, where a more weighty character will suck in their gut to give the appearance pf pecs.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 

    Anime & Manga 

    Asian Animation 
  • Lamput: In "Boxing", Mr. Moustache flexes his pecs while showing off before attacking Skinny Doc.

    Fan Works 
  • Dragon Ball Z Elsewhere: King Cold challenges Olibu to a showdown, offering to surrender if he wins but enabling the villains trapped in Hell to go free if Cold wins. Everybody thinks that this will be a straight fight, but it's actually a ritual "combat" of both participants doing the best muscle man poses they can. All the other heroes and villains just watch in awkward silence except for Frieza, who's mortified when King Cold loses.

    Films — Animation 
  • This is done by Young Macintosh in Brave, in his attempt to impress Merida during the suitor presentation. (here's the clip in question.)
  • In Moana, Maui does this at the beginning of his "I Am Great!" Song. Even better, he flexes each pec one after the other, bouncing his Animated Tattoo across his chest! "I know it's a lot, the hair the bod / When you're staring at a demigod!"
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: In one of Puss' previous lives, he worked out extensively, gaining a very muscular bod. When he encounters a representation of this life in the "Cave of Lost Souls", said representation briefly flexes his pectorals.
  • Rio 2: While boasting about how he built his hollow with his "strength... and brawn", Roberto wiggles his pecs (which Jewel can't help but stare at).
  • In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Donkey Kong is shown doing a pec flex heralded by him saying "Dancing pecs!" While Cranky Kong doesn't like it, female kongs in the audience enjoy it. He does this again at the end of the movie where he becomes part of the team with Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Slayers: Lina Inverse sees the "Dragon Blood Macho Battlers", a gang of bandits whose STANDARD GREETING apparently is to flex and twitch their pecs. Her response:
    Lina: I wanna do that! But I can't!

    Live-Action TV 
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Terry loves this trope!
    • Terry vigorously flexes his right pec (nicknamed Eugene) while bluffing.
  • Doom Patrol (2019): Flex Mentallo can activate different superpowers by flexing different muscles.
  • Supernatural. Sam Winchester, season one, episode seventeen. You're welcome.
    • ... It looks like... it's winking.
  • A Charles Atlas parody in Monty Python's Flying Circus.
  • On Scrubs, the Janitor claims that he ran into J.D. encouraging a muscular guy to do this is what made him suspect he was gay. Being a consummate liar, the Imagine Spot story is complete fiction.
  • John Enos does this five times in four separate episodes of truTV Presents: World's Dumbest... He usually does it when he has his shirt off.
  • From Opportunity Knocks, we have Tony Holland, who won for 6 consecutive weeks by doing this.
  • Dylan Yeandle does this in the Semi finals of Australias Got Talent.
  • Two men did this as their act on America's Got Talent.
  • Blake Jenner does this in the sneak peek of the of the Glee episode, "Naked".
  • Pete Lattimer from Warehouse 13 rarely misses a chance to doff his shirt and pop his pecs. He once did so without prompting in front of newly-arrived gay Agent Jinks, along with comments on how glad he is to have someone around to appreciate his body and an offer to strip anytime Jinks wants.
  • From Bewitched season 5 episode 22 "Going Ape" Happens when Miss Tucker come into Mr. Tate's office to advertise her new "Brawn Cologne" with muscle men to use in the commercial.
  • One of the gags on Saturday Night Live were the faux bodybuilders, Hans and Franz, who did this, albeit with the help of a mechanical prosthesis in their costumes.
    • Britney Spears is shown doing it during a sketch when she hosted. Like Hans & Franz, she had a device under her top to make them go up and down.
    • Prior to this, during the lead up to the original WrestleMania, Hulk Hogan and Mr. T guest starred, often doing a Pec Flex, while all the while claiming that they weren't going to laugh during the show. Early on, they appeared in Billy Crystal's 'Fernaldo' skit, with Fernaldo gushing about the pecs. Then a comment by Crystal caused Mr. T to giggle for a moment, and as soon as he got a serious face back on, Crystal pointed out that his laugh caused his pecs to wiggle. Mr. T and Hogan lost it at that point.
  • Ultraman Taiga has Taiga's companion and partner, Ultraman Titas, a Boisterous Bruiser with rippling muscles, who flexes his pecs to intimidate kaijus and aliens before every battle. The camera even zooms up close to his abs during his debut in episode 2!

    Music 
  • Approximately 30 seconds into the music video for Rammstein's Mann gegen Mann.
  • Done approximately 1:27 in the LMFAO music video of Sexy And I Know It.
  • Demonstrated in the video for Joan Jett's "Do You Wanna Touch Me." Not demonstrated by Joan, sadly.

    Professional Wrestling 

    Theatre 

    Video Games 
  • Heroes of the Storm: Mal'Ganis' dance animation has him flexing his pecs and popping his wings with each flex.
  • Nakamura the musclebound mercenary boss from The Legend of Tian-ding is introduced flaunting his abs during his introductory cutscene. And does it again to taunt your titular hero prior to the boss battle.
  • Larry can do this after hitting the gym (a lot) in Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals. Look at the subtitle, after all.
  • Nobody Saves the World: The Bodybuilder will constantly flex his chest when facing forward.
  • Pokémon:
    • Slaking's Diamond/Pearl animation has it Pec Flex. Of course, they don't necessarily have to be male....
    • Machoke in Crystal, too. And Machamp in Black/White. Once again, one out of four is female...
    • Buzzwole in Sun/Moon is even more flex-happy than the above. It even starts flexing when hurt. Researchers in the Aether foundation theorize it has an entire language composed of different flexing poses.
  • Punch-Out!!: Super Macho Man introduces himself before a fight with a Pec Flex. He also does it when Mac is knocked down. And when he wins... He steps it up a notch in the Wii version by doing just this before the match, and turning around and flexing his ass at the screen too.
  • Zangief did it in several iterations of Street Fighter, even the chibi-Zangief in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (or Pocket Fighter, depending on locale). And in Street Fighter V's story mode, he breaks a Psycho-powered sword in two just by doing this trope.
  • A Super Robot Wars 4koma parodying Ibis Douglas having the least bouncy chest in the series gets epically ridiculous when Sanger Zonvolt shows up barechested and does this trope after having already shown one of the bustiest characters in the series and a loli outdoing her.
  • Undertale: Aaron, one of the random encounters in Waterfall, is a horse-headed monster who is always flexing. It's possible to end battles against him non-violently by engaging in a flex-off with him until he flexes himself right out of the battle screen.

    Webcomics 
  • My Bigger Boyfriend: With his new muscles, Ocean has fun bouncing his pecs. He oftenly uses it to tease Pride.
    Pride: Well I did pick up stuff to make clam linguine last night... [Ocean bounces his pecs] What are you—
    Ocean: Hey, these are a lot of fun now! Do you wanna play with 'em?
    Pride: I, uh, gotta go get those clams started!

    Web Original 
  • Gaia Online's Halloween 2007 vampire attack event had the Von Helson Twins ordered to kill Liam. Liam seduced the twins by flexing and spouting hilariously bad come-ons, which saved his life (and scored him a threesome) but left him a couple of stalkers.
  • From the Planet Fitness Clunk-A-Lunk game, we have Pecadoodledude.
    Meet Pecadoodledude! You know this guy. He's the narcissistic nimrod who's always parked in front of the mirror, pausing between sets to lift up his shirt and peep his almighty pecs! He'll make 'em bounce! He'll make just the right one go! And then just the left! And then he'll juggle them back and forth! You'll wish that he'd knock himself out with one of his considerable chesticles! But he won't. He'll just keep checking himself out. So clunk away, my friend. Clunk away.
  • In this video, two guys use this trope as a form of morse code.
  • One guy turned this trope into a language.
  • Marc Lobliner from Tiger Fitness does this in almost every video.
  • One guy bounced his pecs to the Harlem Shake for about 7 minutes.

    Web Video 

    Western Animation 
  • American Dad!:
    • Steve Smith does this in "Rubberneckers", while singing to Stan about how attractive Francine is, in an oddly romantic shirtless song.
    • Stan Smith did the same thing as well when he was celebrating.
  • Atomic Puppet: Cavalier does this a lot in the show but here are the highlights: In Bend it like Joey, He’s in the locker room of the stadium where he’s warming up by flexing his pecs. He also does this when was introduced and seen bouncing a soccer ball with his pecs, and he does this a final time when he use this trick to distract the alien queen from eating his friends by showing her that Cavalier is a better and tastier meal.
    Cavalier: Drop the old jersey, come get the main course!
  • Bluey: In "Stories", Indy narrates events from earlier in the day. Winton requests that he be depicted with big muscles, which she complies with. The newly muscular Flashback Winton subsequently flexes his pectorals.
  • Camp Lazlo: Commander Hoo Ha does this in the Valentine’s Day episode. He flex his pecs to show he was serious about kicking Lazlo’s butt.
  • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2017): Earl does while doing a pop quiz or explaining what pecs are by flexing them in front of his students.
    Earl: Left Pec, Left Pec, Right Pec, Right Pec.
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • There are two characters that do this. Juandissimo Magnifico, Wanda's ex-boyfriend, does this along with his constant magic shirt ripping. Also, in the Made-for-TV Movie Abra-Catastrophe, Cosmo gains massive pecs from a workout video, and he Pec Flexes to absorb Crocker's magic.
    • Who could forget Jorgen Von Strangle, toughest fairy in the universe. He loves to flex his muscles in the faces of anyone he can. He even refers to them as another sentient being (ex: "My muscles and I are still laughing!" Muscles: "Ha...haha...ha!"
    Crocker: Those are some massive pecs.
  • Futurama has Barbados Slim, and his luscious pecs. They apparently wiggle by themselves.
  • Lord Pain does this in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy to show off his tattoos of Grim right in front of him.
  • Johnny Bravo can juggle with his pecs as a party trick. The show's intro even features him flexing them.
    Johnny: Check the pecs! He-ha-huh!
  • Happens precisely once in Meet the Robinsons.
  • In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode Rainbow Falls, Bulk Biceps does this between training sessions. Fluttershy seems to think it's cute.
  • Rainbow Butterfly Unicorn Kitty: In "Fountain of Too Much Youth", eating too much of the Wheel of Aged Cheese turns Miguel into a buff adult. He proceeds to flex every single one of his muscles to a ridiculous extent.
  • This happens a few times in Regular Show.
    • Twice in "Rigby's Body", once by the bodybuilder that jumped into Rigby's body and again by Skips. His nipples light up.
    • Mordecai gets one too when he daydreams in "Meat Your Maker".
    • The episode "Bald Spot" features Muscle Man doing thisas a plot point. Specifically, he kept flexing his pecs (which translates in this case to jiggling his manboobs) throughout the entire episode in order to distract Starla from his bald spot on his head. He ends up forcing it so hard that they begin vibrating and glowing, mesmerizing every woman that sees them and moving so fast they friction burn a man's cheek when he accidentally falls face first on them.
    • Rigby does this after he gets buffed up in "One Pull Up".
    • This also happens in two Cartoon Network bumpers of Regular Show where one's a fusion of Mordecai and Skips, and the other is two clips of "Rigby's Body" with Skips and "Meat Your Maker" with Mordecai when he daydreams back to back.
  • The Simpsons: Homer Simpson imagine himself doing this once while under the influence of Duff. Flexing them in time to the Can Can, too.
  • An odd mechanical version done by Adonis in his Powered Armor in the Teen Titans episode "The Beast Within", right after he knocks Cyborg out at the beginning of the episode.
  • Time Squad: Buck bounced his pecs in a cartoon cartoon Friday crossover with Johnny Bravo.
  • Total Drama:
    • In the confessional in "Chinese Fake-Out", Alejandro discloses that he's been dreading the inevitable eating competition, because his body is too flawless to contaminate with gross food. To illustrate his assertion, he rips off his shirt and flexes his pecs.
    • In "Backstabbers Ahoy!", Vito tells Anne Maria and Zoey not to fight over him as there's enough of him to go around. As he speaks, he lifts his arms behind his head and flexes his pecs seductively.
  • Teen Titans Go!: "TV Knight 6", In the "Tamaranian Bachelorette" segment when the announcer was introducing a purple hot alien called L'Quaseus N, he started to bounce his pecs to charm Starefire into choosing him. But his plan blew up in his face when She chose Robin instead.
  • Xiaolin Showdown: In "The Life and Times of Hannibal Roy Bean", Wuya falsely compliments Raimundo's strength. This prompts him to show off by flexing - leaving him wide open for a sucker punch from Wuya.

    Real Life 

 
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Snake (Bad Guys 2)

While Wolf, Tarantula, Shark, and Piranha are down in the dumps in their almost barren hideout with the kitten from the first movie after failing to get jobs, Snake visits his friends in an unusually perky mood compared to his negative cynic mood while listening to Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter and tells them he's doing fitness and yoga, such as Vinyasa, even showing off his new abs before leaving for Lucha Night. The film also takes a swipe at health foods when Snake mentions that his kombucha has wheatgrass, moss, and dandelion, which Shark mentions they're not supposed to be eaten by humans and/or animals.

How well does it match the trope?

3.67 (3 votes)

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