Major Injury Underreaction / Western Animation

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Major Injury Underreactions in Western Animation.

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• Adventure Time:
  • In the episode "No One Can Hear You", Finn gets his legs snapped backwards by a rampaging deer. His reaction before passing out? "Whatever." The look on his face, however, tells a different story. Played straighter near the end of the episode, where Finn admits in a cheerful tone that his legs are still broken.
  • The Ice King in "Lady and Peebles" has been torn open by Ricardio and his living tissue used to grow a fortress of flesh. Appropriately, Princess Bubblegum is freaked out, but Ice King seems pretty nonchalant about it.
    Ice King: (calmly) It hurt, oh boy. How 'bout a hug? Please? I need it...
  • In "Escape from the Citadel", Finn has his arm torn off at the elbow, but doesn't even mention it, being far more concerned with his dad abandoning him again. Earlier in the same episode, Finn's dad Martin has his right lower leg Stripped to the Bone and calmly asks Finn and Jake to treat the injury with healing blood of the citadel's guardian; the most he says about the wound is that it "really stings."
  • In "Graybles 1000+", the Ice King is more annoyed if anything upon waking up to see that his leg is broken.
• In one episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails tries to defuse a bomb with a sledgehammer, despite the protests of Sonic, who's standing nearby. Fortunately, Tails misses the bomb... only to hit Sonic in the foot instead. Sonic doesn't even sound remotely in pain, but he is a bit snarky about it.
  Sonic: I'm just glad you missed — the bomb, that is! [lifts up his foot to reveal its injuries]
• The Amazing World of Gumball characters do this often, occasionally as part of a Medium Blending gag.
  • Richard nonchalantly mentions that he broke 5 ribs in "The Prank" when he pretended to be crazy and ran through several walls.
  • In "The Picnic", Gumball and Darwin are completely calm about their eyes being on fire, even when Darwin says "there are no words to describe the pain I feel right now".
  • In "The Bet", Bobert blows up the nurse's office with the nurse still in it, and the nurse just puts a bandage on her charred body (which is also a bandage) before passing out.
  • In "The Sock", Mr. Small keeps his usual serene tone of voice when he gets stuck in a filing cabinet and bent up so much, his knees are digging into his back.
  • Gumball casually states "now you have to take me to the infirmary" after a series of bizarre rotations of portions of his body cause his heart to end up in his stomach and his lungs to end up in his arms.
  • Double Subverted in "The Voice". Gumball accidentally knocks Sussie's eye out in an attempt to find something to apologize to her for. She screams "Aaah! Aaah! Aaah! But Sussie like this, too!"
  • One of the cutouts in "The Extras" snaps himself in half trying to reach down to get popcorn. He's just happy he got the popcorn.
  • The red construction worker in "The Butterfly" is just mildly annoyed that his head got knocked off, and the construction workers in general (all LEGO men) don't seem to care about losing limbs either, just putting themselves back together offscreen.
  • Darwin throws a lady through a window in "The Safety". She doesn't mind.
  • In "The Nobody", a pot falls off a shelf and is smashed on Gumball's head and he falls back on a chair when he tries to find a hidden room. He doesn't even flinch.
• American Dad!: Mostly happens with Stan, likely as a result of him being sturdier than average due to his CIA training, though sometimes other characters get in on it.
  • In "Tears of a Clooney", Francine doesn't seem bothered when her hand gets full of glass after she punches a window.
  • In "Stanny Boy and Frantastic", Stan gets a compound fracture in his leg after falling down a stairwell, leaving his bone visibly sticking out. He's fairly chill about it but mentions that he's about to go into shock.
  • In "Toy Whorey", Roger drives out of his cliffside estate, only to plummet to the ground below because there's nothing beyond the garage door. After the car explodes, he then calmly says that he'll take his bike instead.
  • In "Holy Shit, Jeff's Back!", when Hayley goes through the Blorpher and it shreds her like a woodchipper on one end to rebuild her on the other, she pulls Roger through it along with her. Roger flatly states that it's a very, very deep pain.
  • In "Next of Pin", when Stan admits that he stabbed Steve in his leg to end his bowling career, he stabs himself 10 times to show that it's not that painful. He doesn't flinch during any of them, but he quickly passes out.
  • In "She Swill Survive", a CIA agent whose leg gets stuck to the ground with maple syrup nonchalantly shoots said leg off and hops away.
  • "The Bitchin' Race" has Stan getting stabbed in the chest by a yak's horn. He isn't terribly phased by it and even pushes it further into his chest and out his back.
  • Similar to the first example, in "I Am the Jeans: The Gina Lavetti Story", Francine explodes a wine glass in her hand in frustration, then rubs the resulting blood in her hair.
  • In "Exquisite Corpses", Roger isn't bothered by having a knife thrown into his stomach.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: In "Sirens", when Carl is told to cut off his own nipples, he agrees and doesn't express any pain because he's too drunk to feel it.
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Iroh can't decide whether a plant he found is a type of tea leaf, or poisonous.
  Iroh: Zuko, remember that plant I thought might be tea?
  Zuko: You didn't!
  Iroh: I did. [turns around to show his face has become red and swollen] And it wasn't.
  Zuko: [repulsed] Yah!
  Iroh: When the rash spreads to my throat, I will stop breathing.
• Waspinator from Beast Wars does this a lot. He seems to care less about the excruciating pain of being crushed, impaled, blown to bits, etc. than the frequency with which it happens to him and the fact that nobody else seems to care when it does. That, and he's annoyed about having to put himself back together all the time.
• In BoJack Horseman, Sarah Lynn stabs herself with a rusty bayonet in the middle of a hardware store, mostly to call attention to herself and her breakup with Andrew Garfield. She doesn't have much of a reaction to the pain. Although BoJack drives her to a hospital, she apparently didn't get official help, as she shows up at BoJack's house with duct tape where the rusty bayonet had gone through. She proceeds to proclaim herself "Good as new." ^note Duct tape can, in fact, be used as an emergency first aid adhesive for bleeding wounds, but requires prompt, professional medical care and proper dressing as soon as possible after application.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog:
  • The titular canine's usual reaction to getting injured is to let out a weak, wheezy laugh.
  • Katz's normal reaction to getting hit? A deadpan delivery of one of his Catchphrase, "I wish you hadn't done that."
  • In the episode "Courage the Fly", Eustace attempts to trap Courage (who is...well...a fly; long story) with fly paper, but ends up sticking it to Muriel's face instead. Upon removing it, he rips her face off with it, leaving no more than a now-pissed-off skull for a face. Her reaction? To demand that Eustace put it back, lest he get "cold cuts for dinner". Eustace begrudgingly complies, but accidentally puts it back on upside-down. "Oh, you are cheeky." She says in what sounds like mild frustration before Eustace turns her face the right way.
• Occurs numerous times in Drawn Together, most notably in the montage of Captain Hero's "adult childhood" where he falls off of his bike and scrapes his knee in a stereotypically childish manner. When he reveals the scrape, a large section of his leg is missing with his bone snapped but it is treated as a scrape anyway.
• Happens all the time in Ed, Edd n Eddy. For example, when Ed's toy makes a hole in Eddy's belly, he seems more upset about the toy eating his breakfast than the hole in his stomach.
• The Fairly OddParents!: During the beginning of Abra-Catastrophe! parodying Star Wars (Timmy being Skywalker, naturally), Timmy's hand gets lightsaber'd off like in the movie, but his response is different: "Hey, I've only got two of those!"
• Family Guy:
  • A cutaway gag features Brian talking to a disfigured WWII veteran. Disfigured as in, he's only a head.
    Veteran: I'm glad I could do my part.
    Brian: I think you might have done too much.
  • Another cutaway shows what the family would be like if they were stereotypical high-class gentlemen. Halfway through the scene, Peter spontaneously combusts and calmly says "Oh dear." then describes it in an incredibly casual manner.
  • Yet another one features Peter asking Chris to turn a firehose on so he can take a drink. Chris accidentally blasts the flesh off of Peter's entire head leaving nothing but a skull.
    Peter: Nice job, Chris. You got my shirt wet.
  • One Cutaway Gag has Peter accidentally turn up the pressure in a decompression chamber so high that everyone's eyeballs burst out of their sockets. The other guys in the chamber are more annoyed than anything else ("Nice going, jackass!"), Peter gets defensive and doesn't acknowledge it at all, and then they all get into a petulant slap-fight.
  • This show (and its writers) seems to love this trope. Some more injuries include Peter having his entire face scratched off by a monkey to Meg having her face burnt off by the Ark of The Covenant.
• In the Fireman Sam episode "The Prince in Pontypandy", while trying to cross a crevasse with a rope, the rope breaks and Tom slams hard into the rock walls below before falling to a small ledge. His only reaction is to calmly inform Moose that he's injured his shoulder.
• In Frisky Dingo, Killface is somewhat concerned about the giant pipe impaling his left lung, but he insists that the doctor treat the shallow cut on his son's arm first.
  • A later episode has a rocket pierce him through the chest. He's only mildly annoyed at the whole situation. Even the gaping hole it left after the explosion doesn't faze him much.
• Futurama:
  • After Planet Express's boiler blows up, we see Fry (and Zoidberg) in a hospital, seeming rather nonchalant, then it pans down to show he's been impaled with a pipe.
    Zoidberg: Oh, the hypochondriac's back! So what is it this time?
    Fry: Well, my lead pipe hurts a little.
    Zoidberg: That's normal.
  • Fry losing limbs, or being otherwise grievously injured, and not being fazed has become a running gag at this point.
  • This is pretty typical for Zoidberg. Even his own autopsy struggles to hold his attention.
    [surgeon removes Zoid's heart]
    Zoidberg: Take, I've got four of them.
    [surgeon starts cutting something with a hacksaw]
    Zoidberg: Don't cut that! I need that to speak!
    [surgeon pauses, then resumes cutting — faster]
• G.I. Joe: Renegades has Major Bludd losing an eye to an explosion in one ep, then an arm to an alligator in another, only pausing long enough in both instances to make a Badass Boast. "Hope ya choke on it."
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  • When Billy fell off his bicycle on his way over to a lemonade stand, he scrapes his face along the pavement. When he slides up to the stand, he raises his head and reveals that his entire face has been scraped off and is now skeletal. He seemingly didn't notice. In the very next scene, his face is back to normal, with only a pair of bandages on his nose to show for it.
  • Grim falling apart and not seeming to mind at all is a running gag.
• Ray, a character on the cartoon The Head (shown on MTV's Oddities), has a lawnmower blade lodged in his skull. He's been told that he'll die if it's removed, so he's stuck with the thing.
• In Hollywood Steps Out, Harpo Marx gives Greta Garbo a hotfoot. As her shoe is burning she stays silent before letting out a very dull "Ouch".
• During a supervillain trust-building exercise in Justice League, Killer Frost is expected to use her ice powers to catch Giganta—falling from a cliff—who warns that she's heavier than she looks. We then hear a giant crash from offscreen, followed by Killer Frost saying "Ow."
• Kaeloo, being a Sadist Show that runs on Family-Unfriendly Violence, has a lot of these moments. For example, in one episode, Stumpy accidentally causes a bunch of arrows to shoot Kaeloo, Quack Quack, and Pretty. Rather than scream in pain, they just glare at him, annoyed.
• In the first season of King of the Hill, how does Dale react to being bitten by over a thousand fire ants simultaneously? A brief shudder and a quiet "Youch", before passing out.
• The Lion Guard: In the episode "The Trail to Udugu", while taking charge of the Lion Guard for the day, Simba gets his tail crushed by a large boulder. Cats' tails are usually sensitive, but Simba casually treats it with mild annoyance, saying that he's fine other than his tail being crushed.
• Looney Tunes codifies many stock treatments of Amusing Injuries in cartoons, including underreactions. In "Rabbit Fire", for example, Daffy gets repeatedly shot in the face and only responds with a disgusted "you're despicable."
• A subplot on one episode of Mission Hill had Wally attempting to persuade his boyfriend to go to the hospital after getting a knife stuck in the top of his head. Gus continues to act like everything is perfectly normal, the only concession to his injury being a giant hat so he stops frightening customers.
• In M.O.D.O.K. (2021), the main character prepares to kill an AIM agent who convinces him not to by saying that M.O.D.O.K. needs him to do his taxes. He discharges the blast at another agent whose arm is blown off, but the agent is indifferent toward it and assumes that it was done because he was getting coffee without seeing if the pot was for everyone.
• In Not Without My Handbag, Auntie considers being dead (and buried for six months) to be a minor inconvenience at worst, unlike leaving her handbag behind.
• The Oblongs: In "Father of the Bribe", Mayor Bledsoe gets hit in the groin after daring George Klimer to do so. He doesn't show any reaction other than calmly remarking that the experience is more painful than he expected it to be.
• The Owl House: In "A Lying Witch and a Warden", Eda barely acknowledges her hand coming off as a nuisance. The same goes for getting decapitated.
• In the Regular Show episode "Death Bear", after Animal Control is brought in to take on the eponymous creature, all of whom are no match for the bear, the third member gets his arms ripped off.
  Animal Control Officer #3: I wanna go home.
• Misery from Ruby Gloom often says "Ow." whenever she's randomly struck by lightning. A Friday the 13th episode revealed that she's so used to bad luck that it's quite comforting for her.
• In Sealab 2021, Sparks and Captain Murphy don't seem to mind their "mind-blowingly painful" tortures during their stay in Hell. For the record, the latter was in a lava bath, while the former allegedly had burning coals shoved up his ass.
  Sparks: Right to the rim, baby.
  Murphy: [sighs] You lucky bastard.
• The Simpsons:
  • In the "Treehouse of Horror XV" short "In the Belly of the Boss", the Simpsons drop a bomb from the ship into Mr. Burns' stomach and it goes off inside him, causing his stomach to swell momentarily. Burns' reaction was a flat "Well, that hurt like hell."
  • In "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", Lenny gets a coin embedded in his forehead. After a moment's panic "Get it out! Get it out!" it only succeeds in starting to spurt blood at an alarming rate, leading to "Put it back in! Put it back in!". He then promptly shrugs off going to a hospital and continues about his business, leading to an even more hilarious moment where he tips his hat to a passing woman, by removing the coin.
  • In "Team Homer", Hans Moleman requests 17 dollars from Mr. Burns to fix his push broom. Mr. Burns, however, is high on ether and hallucinates him as the Lucky Charms leprechaun, and in order to get "his Lucky Charms", takes a power drill to his skull.
    Moleman: Oh no, my brains.
  • At the beginning of "Bart of Darkness", Hans Moleman steps outside on a hot summer's day, and his coke-bottle glasses accidentally set his shirt on fire. His reaction? "Oh, rats..."
  • During "Realty Bites", Snake attempts to get his car Li'l Bandit back from Homer by setting up a line of piano wire to decapitate him. Homer ducks in time and the next car shown passing is Kirk Van Houten angrily complaining that his deli sandwich wasn't sliced while waving his arm overhead. The wire takes his arm off from the elbow. Kirk's response is an "Ow" in a disappointed tone.
  • In "Brother from the Same Planet", Homer falls backwards onto a fire hydrant and has his spine bent way further back than a human spine should be. He casually states, "This is even more painful than it looks."
  • In "Bart the Lover", Homer does this after training himself out of swearing. Stepping on a nail (which goes through his foot), he says "Fiddle-de-dee. That will require a tetanus shot."
  • In "D'oh-in in the Wind", when Homer, who is taking up a hippie lifestyle, leans his arm against a tree and decides to "feel the good vibrations". The view then pans back to reveal that the "good vibrations" he's feeling is his hand inside of an active bee's nest. His only reaction is drawn-out (yet relaxed-sounding) "Ouch."
  • In the "Treehouse of Horror IX" story "Hell Toupée", Homer, possessed by Snake, murders Moe by ripping his heart out with a corkscrew. Moe can only say "Aw, for crying out loud..." before dying.
    • In the following story "The Terror of Tiny Toon", when Lisa and Bart try to escape from Itchy and Scratchy, they get into a police car only to find the latter two in the front seat. While trying to dismember the kids with a chainsaw, Itchy accidentally cuts off Scratchy's arms. Scratchy isn't terribly bothered and just says "It happens" when Itchy apologizes, then drives the car with his mouth.
  • During "A Tale of Two Springfields," Homer reacts with an appropriate amount of screaming as he's brutally attacked by a badger, but the moment it's over, he goes back to being perfectly calm. After agreeing to call Animal Control, he remarks that he should also call a doctor about "this," lifting up his shirt to reveal that he's had most of his abdominal wall ripped out and his internal organs are exposed.
• When South Park's Mr. Garrison gets his first sex change (from a man to a woman) in "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina", we see live-action footage of genital surgery. He doesn't even get anesthetized and his reaction to the pain is a flat "Ooh, that stings".
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Squidward, after seeing that SpongeBob saved an exploding pie throughout the entire episode and being hit with the pie in the face, causing the entire city of Bikini Bottom to explode, just says "ouch."
  • In the episode "Dunces and Dragons", SpongeBob goes to a blacksmith for armor and the blacksmith finishes his knight look with a sword, but it's too heavy for SpongeBob to lift so he ends up tossing it into the blacksmith's chest. He shrugs it off like it's nothing saying that it'll require a few stitches.
• Steven Universe. In the episode "Steven the Sword Fighter," Steven accidentally distracts Pearl during a swordfighting demonstration, causing her to get stabbed and EXPLODE, leaving only her gem behind. Steven is naturally very distraught, but the others quickly explain that she's Only Mostly Dead and will revive as long as her gem is kept safe.
  Pearl: (stabbed) Whoopsy daisy! Steven, it's okay! I'm gonna be just— [she poofs, cutting off the sentence]
• Done very creepily in one episode of Teen Titans. While fighting Slade, Robin kicks him in the head so hard it snaps his neck. Slade's response is to stand still for a moment, then snap his neck casually back into place and keep coming, much to Robin's shock and squick. This is foreshadowing that Slade is actually undead at the time.
• Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race: The Goths are quite prone to this:
  • The episode “Brazilian Pain Forest” has the contestants putting their hands in an oven mitt filled with fire ants. While most of the contestants react how you’d expect them to, when Ennui put his hand in the mitt, he responds with a very flat “ow.”
  Crimson: Don’t be so dramatic.
  • In “El Bunny Supremo,” one of the contestants in each team has to eat peppers with varying degrees of spiciness. Based on most of the contestants’ reactions to the hottest and second hottest pepper, they do seem quite spicy. When Crimson eats the hottest pepper, she’s the one to respond with a very flat “ow.”
• In Transformers: Cyberverse, Perceptor is rather indiffrent to his eyes being destroyed. And then there's this exchange...
  Dead End: Are you carrying your own arm?
  Perceptor: Obviously.
• In The Venture Brothers, Brock's first interaction with Colonel Gathers has him getting stabbed in the hand for saluting at him. He barely reacts to it, and while this would be a fairly tame example on its own, what makes it notable is that he actually reacts more to Gathers hitting him in the knee with a rod, which is a more minor injury in comparison.

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