"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.
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.
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?"
For cases of Pec Flex when the flexer has less-than-impressive pecs, see Flexing Those Non-Biceps.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Advertising
- Not surprisingly, this is part of the act for the Happy Bodybuilder Directing Traffic in this
GEICO commercial.
- This also happens in one Fruitsnackia commercial. (To be more specific. The wrestling commercial.)
- If Terry Crews appears in an Old Spice commercial, expect this to happen.
- Pretty much Terry Crews does this in general.
- Pretty much Terry Crews does
- This also happens in a Brazilian Doritos commercial.
- Happens in a personalized Valentines M&M commercial where a guy tattoos his pecs to have him and his girlfriend on his pecs.
"Look! We're dancing!"
- This also happens in a Boost Mobile commercial of Travis Barker.
- Happens in an Indonesian commercial for an energy drink with milk.
- A bodybuilder in a cow suit does this in more than one Applegate hot dog commercial.
- Gary Lineker does this in a Walkers Max potato chip commercial.
- In one of the Cadburys Smash Martians commercials, a muscular-looking martian flexes his metallic pecs after eating Cadbury's Smash mashed potatoes gives him more energy.
Anime & Manga
- In How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, Naruzo Machio will do this whenever he hears a word that sounds like a muscle or a pose, flexing so hard that his track suit explodes off of his body. His Bishōnen head, however, remains the same, making him look utterly ridiculous.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- In "The Superhero Secret", the obese Gligarman's chest shakes in surprise. Homina homina--NO.
- Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon: In "A Mission of Ultra Urgency", the Ultra Beast Buzzwole shows off by flexing every last one of its muscles, pectorals included.
- Alex Louis Armstrong of Fullmetal Alchemist. It has been ♥♥♥ PASSED DOWN THE ARMSTRONG LINE FOR GENERATIONS! ♥♥♥
- He befriended Sig Curtis, Izumi's husband, through a flex-off.
"Valor a hundredfold~! Muscle a thousandfold~!"
- Speaking of Curtis, his Pec Flex was so epic his shirt exploded.
- At one point in the 2003 anime Armstrong attempts to flex loyal soldiers into joining a coup. His argument, if it can be called that, is that his faintly ridiculous muscles pulse with loyalty.
- He befriended Sig Curtis, Izumi's husband, through a flex-off.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Jack Rakan. At one point, he even uses it to completely shatter a Pocket Dimension.
- Striker S Nano: Being one of the manliest characters in Lyrical Nanoha at the time, StrikerS Nano had this as part◊ of the Running Gag character trait of Zest.
- Bleach: Ikkaku Madarame gets his shoulder dislocated in a fight. He immediately does a Pec Flex so epic it resets his shoulder.
- Fist of the North Star: Kenshiro faces a sergeant warrior who wields hollow bamboo chutes that drain the blood out of their victims. Kenshiro nonchalantly lets himself get impaled by about eight of them, then shows off by flexing so epically that they pop out of him.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Just doing this was enough for Colonel Ulube to deflect Chibodee's ultimate technique, the Bursting Machine-Gun Punch.
- Ayakashi Triangle: As a literally inhuman embodiment of muscular strength, Masurao flexing his chest isn't only able to absorb Matsuri's punch, but launch him down the hallway. Like Armstrong, this also destroys Masurao's shirt.
- Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun: Takechi's Running Gag is that he'll lift his shirt to show his abs out of nowhere which got him labeled as a pervert.
Kaoru (in a restaurant): Stop it with the ab flexing! People call you a pervert because you do that no matter where you are.
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
- Comes up in Spice World during a video shoot involving a lot of buff men.
- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson also does this a few times, like in The Game Plan.
- Used as an intimidation move by one of the contestants in Balls of Fury (who happens to be Terry Crews).
- Drunken Master, Jackie Chan's 1978 film in which Jackie played a young troublemaker. At that point on the run from a promised brutal disciplining at the hands of an uncle he's never met, he scams a local restaurant. Jackie's character attempts a dine and dash, but the restaurant has a bouncer who easily blocks the way. The bouncer takes his title seriously, by bouncing his pecs to intimidate customers he intends to throw out.
- 'I am Iron Gorilla. See me jump.'
- In one scene from the very very early Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Hercules in New York, the titular Herc manages to alternate flexing each pectoral muscle. It can be seen in this video at the 0:17 mark. He also did it in an outtake of his documentary— "Pumping Iron".
- Similarly, Hercules Returns (a comedy dub of Samson And The Mighty Challenge) contains the legendary line: "I'll fight you on one condition... that you lower your nipples." The opponent... does.
- Similarly, Hercules Returns (a comedy dub of Samson And The Mighty Challenge) contains the legendary line
- In 100 Girls the main bad guy does that in a very intimidating and unsexy way.
- David Fine does this in Her Minor Thing.
- Bob Sapp does this in Big Stan.
- Hilariously done by an old guy in My Favorite Martian, while "Hot Hot Hot" plays in the background.
- Done by Chong Li, the Big Bad of Bloodsport as a way to intimidate his opponents before a fight.
- In The Duff, Robbie Amell's Jerk Jock with heart of gold, Wes, did this in front of Mae Whitman's character, Bianca, during a confrontation in the boy's locker room.
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.
- 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
Professional Wrestling
- Done often in Professional Wrestling, usually right before a match begins or right after executing a really awesome move.
- Lex Luger was one of the most frequent practitioners. Chris Masters did this as much, if not more than Lex Luger.
- Brock Lesnar, Scott Steiner, and Batista also did this.
- Frequently doen by Tony Atlas back in the 80's.
- Wade Barrett does it in the Season 1 finale of WWE NXT.
- Hulk Hogan does it during his posing after the main event of the first WrestleMania.
- Ron Simmons (back when he was Faarooq) once intimidated an interviewer by simply looking bored and standing still and doing this.
- Norman Smiley did this a lot and it was treated as comical.
- Elektra, a valet from the real ECW, used to do this. Yeah, it was Fanservice. Ostensibly it was to intimidate the other valets, though, since she always claimed she was more woman than they were.
- See a few of these wrestlers' pec flexing abilities here.
- An episode of WWE Monday Night Raw featured The Osbournes as guest hosts, with a parody of America's Got Talent. Chris Masters' talent? Flexing his pecs to "Crazy Train". Hilarity ensued.
- Chris Masters also did that to the tune of Boom Boom Pow in a different episode.
- Chris Masters also did that to the tune of Boom Boom Pow in a different episode.
- On the US independent circuit, Chris Masters has a rivalry with Carlito Colón, and yes, it involves flexing, though Carlito's more defined in his abs and arms and thus loses in pure pectorals.
- This is Jesse "Mr. PEC-Tacular" Godderz's main gimmick.
Theatre
- The Essgee Entertainment versions of H.M.S. Pinafore and The Mikado have David Gould doing this, as the Captain and the Big M himself respectively.
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.
- 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 Hotland, 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.
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.
Western Animation
- American Dad!:
- Steve Smith does this in "Rubberneckers", while singing to Stan about how attractive Francine is.
- Stan Smith did the same thing as well when he was celebrating.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- Many people (mostly men) that can control their muscles will do this. Heck, anyone can do this if they're good at controlling their muscles and have the muscle strength to do so. If you actually want to know how to do so, check out these two articles.
- Any pro-Bodybuilding contest will have this.
- Bigg Vinny Mack from Trailer Choir and The Biggest Loser does this in this video.
- Mark Dalton and Zeb Atlas can do some excellent pec bouncing.
- Here's a shirtless bartender for you.
- Robert Maschio who plays The Todd in Scrubs does it in this video.
- Terry Crews. It's practically a Character Tic. He even did it at the end of an episode of Family Feud where he and his family won (in spite of wearing a shirt and tie)!
