Basic Trope: An animal is drawn with an unrealistic tail.
- Straight: A platypus in a cartoon has a flat, hairless, beaver-like tail.note
- Exaggerated:
- None of the animals' tails look the way they're supposed to.
- The platypus has a cat's tail, for some reason.
- Downplayed: A wolf's tail is notably more bushy than it should be.
- Justified:
- This particular platypus is a beaver-platypus hybrid.
- Alternatively, it was involved in an incident that resulted in its tail being squished flat and shaved.
- Inverted: The platypus is Inexplicably Tailless.
- Subverted: The platypus was actually wearing the tail part of a beaver costume.
- Double Subverted: But upon taking it off, his tail is revealed to still be abnormal looking.
- Parodied:
- This platypus turns out to be a beaver wearing a duck bill.
- A squirrel shaves its tail to blend in with a group of rats.
- Zig-Zagged: Some animals have cartoony tails and others have realistic tails.
- Averted: All animals have realistic tails.
- Enforced:
- The animal in question just looks better with this sort of tail.
- The producers already have six stock tails for the animators to use and don't want to spend a dime on yet another one.
- Lampshaded: "I don't think platypi have tails like that."
- Invoked: The animal had its original tail surgically replaced with another animal's, likely by a Mad Scientist trying to create an army of Mix-and-Match Critters.
- Exploited: The platypus uses Tail Slap on an opponent.
- Defied: The animators decided to just give the platypus a normal tail for realistic accuracy.
- Discussed: "I sure hope that creature doesn't trip over its ridiculously long tail."
- Conversed: "Have they even seen what those creatures' tails actually look like?"
Back to Cartoony Tail
