Acrofatic



""For someone who cannot see his feet, you are very light on them!""

- Prince Naveen, The Princess and the Frog

Simply put, a fat character who can maneuver like a gymnast, sprint like an Olympic runner, or kick your ass like Chuck Norris, despite being... you know... fat. These characters are also usually Lightning Bruisers, although Fragile Speedsters are not unheard of. May intersect with Stout Strength for characters who aren't actually fat, but rather very musclebound. Originally just made to subvert the idea of Mighty Glacier.

Almost always male, probably due to the media reluctance to ever depict a female of less than average mainstream attractiveness.

Sometimes Truth in Television, since body fat has little bearing on muscle or flexibility—the correlation is between fat and lack of exercise, so someone who exercises but still eats a ton can end up like this. For example, sumo wrestlers. Moreover, mass x acceleration = force, so as long as someone can move effectively, more mass means more powerful strikes when they hit you. (In fictional works, the talent will often be humorously explained by way of the fact that, well, round people "roll" really easily, and thus will be good at basic tumbling.)

Compare Kevlard, which often goes hand-in-hand with this trope. Glacier Waif is the inverse. A very good way to establish a character as Big Fun.

Anime & Manga

 * The Breaker: New Waves Right here.
 * Subverted in Dragon Ball, because every notable fighter in the series in that show are fast and agile
 * Yajirobe
 * Dodoria
 * Majin Buu
 * Pintar in the tournament arc of Dragon Ball Z. It didn't help him.
 * Mazinger Z: Boss. He was pretty fat, but he could be fast when he wanted or if he needed. Combine that with him being strong and sturdy, and he could deliver a good beating to anyone (except Kouji, much to his chagrin and disgust). He also showed up in the sequels (Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer).
 * Yu-Gi-Oh GX has Pharaoh, Daitokuji-sensei's cat. Despite his bulk, he's pretty fast and strong.
 * Another fat cat is Rhett Butler/Hercules from Sailor Moon, who saves Luna twice from a large gang of stray cats in one episode. The 3rd time was when
 * Choji Akimichi (as well as the whole Akimichi clan) from Naruto; there are definitely faster Ninja but they've never had trouble with the giant leaps or other acrobatics expected of them.
 * InBasilisk Josuke is the fattest character in the cast, but he's also a really fast, speedy ninja (mainly because he's a sort of balloon man, hence almost weightless).
 * Tongpu, a.k.a. (Mad) Pierrot from Episode 20: Pierrot le Fou of Cowboy Bebop, the maniacally grinning rogue assassin. However, it's not clear how much of it is actual fat, and how much is an anti-grav suit. Or the absurd amount of hardware he's packed into his coat, ranging from hand grenades and shotguns to a frikkin' ROCKET LAUNCHER.
 * Buccha from Air Gear. Somewhat of a subversion in which he's not actually fat; there's little fat on his body. He happens however to have a huge volume of blood, which concentrates mostly on his belly, and when required it floods his muscles; during said moments he has a leaner, more muscular body
 * Marechiyo Omaeda from Bleach. He is the lieutenant of a squad of ninjas with Super Speed, though he prefers hiding it under Obfuscating Stupidity.
 * Genma Saotome from Ranma ½. Although he's naturally outclassed by his son and his son's peers, he's unbelievably agile and fast for someone with his age and frame. Even when transformed into a panda. He is, however, not so much obese as he is a large man in general.
 * One Piece
 * Oars—he's a giant (even by giant standards) who jumps several times higher than his own height. And he's damn fast. It helps that he had Luffy's shadow animating his corpse. His descendant, Little Oars Jr., is similar but perhaps a bit slower.
 * Somewhat earlier is Yama of Skypeia. Really, a body that fat with arms and legs that small, it's a wonder the guy can even move. Yet he can move pretty damn well.
 * And then there's Sentomaru, who's built like a sumo wrestler but can keep pace with Luffy.
 * Lucky Roux, for a time fans were convinced that he's the fastest man on the OP universe, and well, he's fat.
 * Also, Chopper's Kung Fu point; in it he's almost round and has very short extremities, yet it seems to be his fastest form.
 * The Big Bad of D Gray Man, the Millennium Earl, is a fairly rotund individual, but is capable of readily fending off the protagonist in a sword fight.
 * Full Metal Panic Fumoffu. In the Beach Episode, Sôsuke battles an overweight bodyguard who does Neo's "bending over backwards to dodge bullets trick" from The Matrix.
 * Somewhat more down-to-Earth version: Mitsuyoshi Anzai from Slam Dunk is fat and old (in his mid to late 50's at least), but he can still shoot three-pointers like a pro. And he bounces a bit, too.
 * Ryu "The Owl" Nakanishi in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman can pull off all the same acrobatics as the thinner members of the team.
 * Fullmetal Alchemist has Gluttony. As the name implies, he's quite rotund, yet he can get around pretty easily. Of course, that's due to him being a Homunculus.
 * It also brings us minor character Jerso, a chimera who can turn into a blobby toad-like creature. He jumps like you'd expect, and is surprisingly fast in other ways as well.
 * Ash's Snorlax in Pokémon. It may be extremely fat and heavy, but it can also move pretty fast when it needs to and even flip through the air to land on its feet after being thrown.
 * Rin in Orange Delivery is a very short and round girl - and a legendarily graceful figure skater.
 * Goemon Ishikawa in Yaiba is quite large and plump, but he's a Lightning Bruiser when he fights.
 * Iwado the fat judoka from Holyland. The notes point out that many underestimate the speed of judoka.
 * Mr. Legend from Tiger and Bunny was the first Superhero ever and inspired the main character to become a superhero himself. Acts like Superman and has a Superman-like suit, but is fat and in his late 40s when he appears—however he's nonetheless the most badass Superhero out of all.

Card Games

 * The Ninja Burger card game, brought to you by Steve Jackson of GURPS, is about ninja who run a burger delivery service. One ninja takes full advantage of the company discount, and therefore only climbs as well as an Olympic athlete. He does have the weakest climb stat in the game, since the missions are Nintendo Hard: 30 minutes from our franchise to honorable customer's secret location in Roswell or we commit seppuku!

Comic Books
""Did someone call for Agent X, master of Kung-Fu, Tai-Kwan-Do, Jeet-Kun-Do, and apparently Sumo Wrestling? Well you got him -- 'cuz I'm back, baby! Now which dinosaur wants to get eaten first?""
 * Blob, foe of the X-Men, while in the shows and movies is a Mighty Glacier, in the comics has the athletic ability of an Olympian. He has used cartwheels and gymnastic flips to place himself precisely where he wants to be as a blockade—or on top of a foe! Remember, Fred Dukes was a circus performer before he became a supervillain.
 * A minor Western Marvel villain from Kid Colt called simply The Fat Man, who could roll and bowl people over.
 * Big Bertha of the Great Lakes Avengers.
 * Marvel's fat-with-muscle Kingpin is agile enough to fight Spider-Man and Daredevil hand to hand. However, Kingpin himself said that very little of his body mass is actually fat. Confirmed by Daredevil who compared hitting Kingpin to hitting a brick wall. Of course, he doesn't REALLY compare to to Spider-Man in terms of pure strength (Spidey, like any hero with super strength, holds back so as not to kill him with a single blow to the head). Demonstrated humiliatingly for the Kingpin during the One More Day storyline when Spider-Man broke INTO prison to beat the crap out of him in front of all the other inmates. This time, Spidey didn't hold back so much because he was 1) Super Pissed-Off and 2) making a point (back in his black costume) that if you went after his family, the "friendly" neighborhood spider-man was not the one that would come after you. However, if the Kingpin actually gets his hands on you, you will go squish.
 * Fat Cobra from Immortal Iron Fist is very fat and proves to be faster and more agile than the Hero.
 * It helps very much that Bouncing Boy can bounce.
 * Batman villains Tweedledee and Tweedledum are extremely rotund, yet also extremely agile and acrobatic, capable of launching themselves at enemies like cannonballs.
 * In Deadpool and Cable, Alex Hayden becomes obscenely obese, and prefers to sit around eating munchies than doing any actual work. However, in Deadpool vs The Marvel Universe, after a little pep talk from Outlaw while dinosaurs affected by the Venom symbiote are ravaging the town, he finally gets back into action, starting by leaping off a scyscraper and onto a dinosaur.


 * Partially subverted by Herbie The Fat Fury. On the one hand, he is a fat, bespectacled loser with a bad haircut who easily defeats bank robbers, alien invaders, and Satan. On the other hand, his abilities are not from any training or skill, but from an arsenal of magic lollipops.
 * Obelix from Asterix is very fat, but he has super-strength, is invincible in combat, and can defeat an entire Roman legion single-handed. It's canon that he fell in a cauldron of magic potion when he was little and is thus permanently under the effect of the potion. And don't call him fat. He's just well-covered.
 * Tobias Whale, an Evil Albino giant from The DCU (and Alternate Company Equivalent of the Kingpin), is regularly able to outmaneuver and outfight Black Lightning, a former Olympic athlete.
 * Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire. Buck is huge because he comes from a high-gravity planet, and yet surprisingly quick.

Comic Strips

 * Garfield. For such a fat cat, he can run like the wind when he really wants to.

Films -- Animation

 * Mr. Bobinsky from the Film of the Book Coraline.
 * Po from Kung Fu Panda, after being taught how to fight. His being fat is actually why . Po was already quite agile, so long as his objective was the acquisition of food. Shifu simply needed to use this fact to his advantage in order to train Po to be so on command.
 * In Princess Mononoke, Jigo the wandering priest is a fat old man but he can move rather quickly and skillfully as demonstrated when he jumps from rock to rock while his companions have to struggle to keep up with him. Made even more impressive by his illogical footwear...
 * In Disney's Mulan, Chin Po went from anxiously balancing on poles above water to gracefully cartwheeling over them during training. See here at 2:46 and 4:16.
 * In An Extremely Goofy Movie, Pete's rather overweight son PJ shows some surprising dexterity on a bike, a skateboard, and on the dance floor.

Films -- Live-Action

 * The Kaiju, Gamera. Just look at him working the parallel bars in Gamera vs Guiron.
 * Godzilla. Sure, he's normally content just lumbering at a relatively slow pace. But, when he decides to move fast, he does. His surprising agility even allows him to kick his enemies, with both feet, while sliding on his tail.
 * One of the brothers in Shaolin Soccer has weighless moving as his specialty... even years later, after he had stopped exercising and gained a lot of weight.
 * The title character of Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a surprisingly good fighter and very acrobatic (at times). In fact, being fat doesn't slow him down at all—suffering from hypoglycemia does, though.
 * The late John Candy proved to be agile in some of his movies, including pulling off some martial arts moves in Delirious as well as being able to ride a horse. He does a somersault in Who Is Harry Crumb and can toss his shoes with deadly precision.
 * Fat Bastard of the third Austin Powers movie is extremely agile in combat. He can even flip, though he needs a stunt wire team for that, which snaps halfway through his stunt.
 * Again, Obélix of the Asterix films, played by Gérard Depardieu.
 * Speed, one of the supervillian/bullies in Sky High, was a Flash like speedster in spite of being overweight.
 * John Travolta described his Hairspray character, Edna Turnblad, in these terms. Tracy is this trope too; a significant part of the film is focused on her mad dancing skills.
 * Chris Farley's Haru in Beverly Hills Ninja—see Real Life below; Farley himself was pretty agile and did many of his own stunts in this and other films.
 * In Mission Impossible III Philip Seymour Hoffman's Davian is seen doing some acrobatic maneuvering. Of course
 * Near the end of the direct-to-video comedy film Run Ronnie Run, an overweight kid who was kidnapped by disgruntled Reality TV stars (don't ask) and spent his entire captivity playing Dead or Alive proceeds to beat the crap out of his kidnappers using the over-the-top "martial arts" moves from the game while the song "Ass Kickin' Fat Kid" plays in the background.
 * Sammo Hung in everything he ever did.
 * Jolly U in Guest From the Future is very fat, but is fast enough to catch up to running children.
 * John Belushi as Jake Blues in The Blues Brothers. A singing, dancing, backflipping genius.
 * Eddie Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, especially in his song and dance number. Most impressive of all is when he performs several backflips across the floor of the Acme Gag Factory, despite wearing a hat, coat, and trousers!

Literature

 * Fatman of Wild Cards can jump around like man who weighs a tenth of what he actually masses—because he does. His power is gravity control, and he habitually lightens himself to get around more easily.
 * In one of the Burke novels by Andrew Vachss, Max the Silent has a brief spar with one. Although Max beats him, he is impressed with his skill. Also, in Terminal, we get introduced to Gigi, who is a perfect example of this trope. Burke may qualify; he is described as large and slippery, but lacking the knockout punch power to be a full Lightning Bruiser.
 * Sunday from The Man Who Was Thursday.
 * Hern Heslin, in The Duel of Sorcery Trilogy, is described several times as short and pudgy. The first time you see him, he's tied up...but not for long. After freeing himself, he quickly outmaneuvers and kills a bad guy who's much taller and trimmer. He ends up repeating both feats in Moonscatter.
 * In Glen Cook's Dread Empire books, Mocker is noted for being very fat—and one of the deadliest swordsmen alive. His comrade Bragi Ragnarson, described as a giant of a man from a land of Horny Vikings, flinches when Mocker threatens him.
 * In the Star Wars book The Planet of Twilight there is a Hutt who uses a lightsaber quite effectively against Leia. She even comments to herself about how fast he can move for such a massive creature. He of course loses, leading to a very squicky description of what happens to a Hutt's body when it's sliced open by a lightsaber.
 * Sergeant Garcia from the Zorro-stories is a good swordsman and strong, agile and fit enough to be a credible threat to The Fox himself. He is also a distinctly pudgy Big Eater.

Live-Action TV

 * The "Obesity" episode of Penn and Teller Bullshit—which focused on addressing common misconceptions about fat people—held a "Fat Guy Olympics" (with one skinny guy). Most of the fat guys outran the skinny guy.
 * Randy from My Name Is Earl despite being fat is actually a really talented natural gymnast. It is only brought up once a season or so though to preserve the comedy value of it.
 * On Community when Buddy is discussing what he would bring to the study group, he says they need a chubby, agile guy. Though his actual invocation of this tropes is a bit messy.
 * Who can forget Chris Farley ice-skating on Saturday Night Live?
 * Sammo in Martial Law.

Music Videos

 * Arthur the miner, from the video for The Avalanches' "Since I Left You".

Pro Wrestling

 * Pro wrestler Samoa Joe is a rare real life example. Any near-300-pounder who can run rings around TNA's X Division, which is pretty much entirely made up of Fragile Speedsters, can definitely call himself Acrofatic.
 * Along with Big Van Vader. 450 pound men usually don't do moonsaults.
 * American Balloon. Obese dude doing the sky twister press. Seriously.
 * Not to mention the late Bam Bam Bigelow, known for doing cartwheels in the ring.
 * And let's not forget Will DeMott (aka Hugh Morrus) and the Blue Meanie (before his weight loss).
 * Dusty Rhodes was so fat that he should have worn a bra, but still was amazingly agile.
 * Mark Henry was an example of this trope. He could hit a sun set flip then lift a 500 pound man off the ground and hold him in Bear Hug. Injuries severely decreased his mobility sadly, now he's only stronger than everybody else.
 * NXT Rookie Husky Harris (son of Irwin R. Schyster) is described as "an Army Tank with a Ferrari Engine," and has quite the speed and vertical leap.

Tabletop Games

 * In GURPS, having a Fat or Very Fat character give you no penalties to acrobatics and agility, at least not directly.
 * The Book of Vile Darkness from Dungeons & Dragons introduces a feat called "Deformity (Obese)" in which a character becomes "grossly overweight... now at least triple the normal weight of creatures of her kind." To be fair this feat does come with a -2 to Dexterity since someone of that size would have a harder time moving around, but really, in terms of D&D, -2 Dexterity is a very minimal penalty and doesn't do much to stop a character from performing crazy feats of acrobatics and agility if they gain them with other feats or class abilities.

Video Games
"Pandaren have a long tradition of mystic warfare and are exceedingly strong and agile. The traditional pandaren fighting style focuses upon mobility, speed and precision, as well as stunning acrobatic tricks."
 * Cheng Shin Zan of Fatal Fury.
 * E. Honda and Rufus in the Street Fighter series. Mostly Rufus though. While Honda is no slouch, he's still got elements of Mighty Glacier; conversely, Rufus is not only strong, but among the most agile characters in the game. This combination makes many complain that he's broken (after all, the whole point of the Mighty Glacier is that he's powerful, but is slow, so as to give lighter and faster characters a chance). One fan theory states that Rufus is in fact filled with Helium. The designers even gave Rufus Jiggle Physics. Yes, his body is basically treated as one giant boob. The designers said that the main reason they made Rufus fast was to subvert the typical "fat guy = Mighty Glacier" trope so common in video games, not to appease the Fat Acceptance movement.
 * Bob in Tekken 6. Justified in the fact that much of his considerable bulk is actually muscle. He's a Sammo Hung tribute, anyway.
 * The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Obesity.
 * Super Mario Bros
 * Wario in the Wario Land games and Wario World is very agile and acrobatic for somebody his size. It has gotten to a point where he is able to catapult himself up high by swinging on bars. In the Mario Strikers series, he can backflip and kick a ball in mid-air as well as celebrate by doing the splits. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, he has some very fast attacks and extreme aerial maneuverability for a heavyweight. His Final Smash form, Wario-Man, is even faster and stronger, and can jump absurdly high to boot. Oh, and don't forget The Shake King from Wario Land Shake It. He can do pretty much everything Wario can (jump across the room, charge, etc.) as well as fly while shooting laser beams and electricity at things.
 * Mario too, though not as fat as Wario, is far from a picture of physical fitness but still capable of pulling off acrobatic feats that would put real life gymnasts to shame. He wasn't originally called "Jumpman" for nothing. Shigeru Miyamoto explained that his fatness was to allow for easier collision detection in 80's hardware.
 * Bowser dips in and out of this trope, depending on the game. Bowser is typically the Mighty Glacier, living up to the "slow but powerful" character type, but in some games, Bowser can run and jump as good as Mario can.
 * Elvis from God Hand. Some of the Fat Bastard mooks are also capable of incredibly fast lunges.
 * ...up to and including literally launching themselves forward headfirst at breakneck speed as living missiles.
 * The Simpsons: Homer Simpson in almost every game where he's a selectable character.
 * One of the bosses in Super Double Dragon is a fat clown named McGuire whose special attack is an air somersault.
 * The Wall Jump is something usually given to nimble characters. Folks with, say, ninja training. Thus, the ninjas in the Samurai Shodown series tend to pull this off. Including Earthquake the Texan ninja, who lives up to his name.
 * The description of the Seeq in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 indicates that despite their rotundity, they're surprisingly agile. This is something of an Informed Ability, as three of the four Seeq jobs have below-average speed growth (on par with a Hume Soldier or Bangaa Warrior) and even the fourth one isn't very fast.
 * Mad Clown from the SNES version of Super Punch-Out!!
 * The Elven Priestesses from Overlord II.
 * Zeke from In Famous. Despite the fact that Cole jumps off a 20-story apartment building... Zeke is waiting for him at the street somehow, all while touting the biggest beer gut this side of Texas. And that's just one example. There's also the fact that his running speed is actually just slightly less than Cole's. Then there's how he falls into the harbor during the failed escape attempt, yet is waiting for Cole when he returns - even though he admits that he had a crapton of trouble with the swim.
 * Sammo, an obese child who is one of the three possible successors of the Old Master in Live a Live. Justified in that he's used to running away from restaurants without paying. And, of course, he's based loosely off of Sammo Hung.
 * Kiesha Phillips of Backyard Sports.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Dr. Eggman spends most of his time in machines, but when he gets out, he tends to display impressive feats of strength and agility. These range from keeping pace with Sonic himself and competing as an Olympic athlete, to being able to punch a moving train and knock it off its tracks in Sonic Riders.
 * Big the Cat also qualifies. He's enormously fat but also superhumanly strong, and in Sonic Heroes he has no problems navigating the loop-de-loops with his teammates.
 * Luther from the SSX games. Obese? Definitely. Capable of decatuple backflips under the right circumstances? Oh yeah.
 * Warcraft's pandaren are a whole race fitting this trope. They are large and stocky creatures, often even depicted with large bellies which by human standards would qualify as heavily overweight, yet:

- The WoWWiki


 * Executioner Smough from Dark Souls; this Boss is not only fat, he's weighed down by full plate armor, yet can still make some pretty impressive leaps and Ground Pound attacks while swinging his massive hammer. He's not as fast and agile as his slimmer partner, Ornstein, but he's still a force to be reckoned with.
 * Heavy Rain: Do not try to spring an attack on Scott Shelby.
 * Barry of Alan Wake is heavyset, double-chinned, and can keep pace with the much slimmer Alan and the toned sheriff Sarah Breaker. He occasionally complains and bends over to catch his breath, but Alan himself is a non-athletic protagonist who can only sprint a few meters before he has to do the same.
 * Baragon in Godzilla: Unleashed is, despite being the smallest monster in the game, noticeably round. However, he's also the most agile monster in the game, fighting his opponents with flips, cartwheels, jumps, and spinning.
 * Murray from the Sly Cooper series qualifies when you play as him from the second game on. He can jump through the air and sidle along walls just as sneakily as Sly can.
 * Multiple examples from Assassin's Creed series:
 * The Merchant King of Assassin's Creed runs very fast for a guy that big.
 * The Borgia messengers in Assassin's Creed II are visibly overweight, yet are among the most able freerunners in medieval Italy.
 * The Blacksmith and Engineer from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, despite being noticeably rotund, can freerun just as well as the other multiplayer characters. Their "rotundness" probably seems to come from the clothing they're wearing.
 * Helga, the pleasantly plump robot from the Ratchet and Clank series, is introduced as Captain Qwark's personal fitness trainer. Although Helga is constantly portrayed as being extremely physically fit due to her high standards, the only proof of this is the Up Your Arsenal skill point, "Beat Helga's Best Time", in which it is suggested that she conquered the VR Hacker & Hypershot training course in 0:50 seconds.
 * King Dedede from The Kirby series can fly the same way that Kirby does, despite being really fat. And a non-flying bird.
 * Pokémon has several. Slaking, while being lazy enough to only attack every other turn, is fat like Snorlax but has decent/high Speed. Also, Purugly and Scolipede are pretty fat and bulky looking Pokémon with Fragile Speedster-like stat distributions.
 * Bo Rai Cho in the Mortal Kombat series.
 * Dynamo and Alternator from Ninja Gaiden are very rotund but can swing and charge very fast.
 * Lightning Legend Daigo no Daibouken has Mokomoko, a giant furball rabbit-like creature, who can run at blazing speeds, and can pull off very fast combos.
 * Team Fortress 2: The Heavy, usually the slowest class, gains a significant speed boost when equipped with the Gloves of Running Urgently or for a brief period after eating a Buffalo Steak Sandvich.
 * King K Rool from Donkey Kong Country; even more so as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros Ultimate.
 * Dark Cloud gives us Goro, a stout little boy who can climb a tree with a few well-placed jumps. Unfortunately, this agility doesn't carry over to his gameplay abilities.
 * Tuba from Eternal Sonata falls under this banner.
 * World of Warcraft features Bear Druids. Their main role is to use their bulk to soak up damage. They also need to have a very high Agility rating, as this allows them to dodge more attacks.
 * They can also trigger a party-wide movement speed boost with Stampeding Roar. Bears can run at 30 mph.
 * Peater in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is rotund and looks incredibly out of shape, but is quick enough with his tiny sword to cut a stalk of bamboo upwards of 30 times before it falls. This odd combination is justified as he was once a top-ranked Sky Knight but has since retired—presumably, Peater was once even better than he is now.
 * Smough in Dark Souls isn't as fast as Lightning Bruiser Ornstein, but he's pretty quick for someone so huge and bulky. Of course, Smough might not actually be that bulky under the armor.
 * Typhlosion in Pokémon does not look like it should have a base 100 Speed (that's faster than some nimble Pokémon like Lucario) with those little stubs for legs, nor should Gengar, who's even faster.
 * Starmie is faster than both of those two, despite it being an echinoderm (whose movements, in Real Life, are only visible through time lapse).
 * Ballser speeds up during the last boss fight in Something. In his last phase, Ballser gains a pair of wings. He flies into the air and drops down to create earthquakes and stun-lock Mario.

Web Comics

 * Murphy from Neko the Kitty uses fat instead of muscle.
 * Butch R. Mann of Chopping Block varies between this and just plain fat, depending on the joke. In general, he gains a massive boost of strength and speed when his life is in danger.

Western Animation

 * Bat-foe The Penguin was controversially reimagined as very skilled in martial arts for The Batman.
 * With him it was less the agility and more the Wire Fu-esque jumps, especially since the character design had very stumpy legs.
 * 21 in The Venture Brothers during the fourth season, after taking several levels in Badass.
 * The Simpsons
 * Homer and Flanders have a parkour sequence in one episode. Flanders is quite fit, but Homer is, well, Homer. Then there was the time he was training for Whacking Day. He's even been shown to be able to walk with his hands.
 * In a high school flashback, Homer was shown to be a talented gymnast until his father distracted him in the middle of a competitive floor routine, cutting his career short.
 * All three members of the Super Duper Sumos.
 * Xiaolin Showdown
 * Tubbimura. Pretty agile for an overweight ninja.
 * Panda Bubba could also apply here. He's a rather bulky guy, but held his own in a Showdown with the monks.
 * Broadway from Gargoyles is agile for his bulk, though the fact that he has the largest wingspan of the Manhattan clan may have something to do with that.
 * Although TMNT's The Ancient One usually isn't the most active character, his appearance in the flashback episode "Fathers and Sons" show that this trope very much applies to him.
 * Owen, LeShawna, and Beth from the Total Drama series compete in the same physical challenges as the other contestants without any problems. While Owen and LeShawna are sometimes out of breath, it never seems to cause them any big problems. Owen's weight and/or size has occasionally posed a problem for his team when the challenge involved moving or lifting other teammates; but just about as often, he's the one doing the lifting or moving of someone else and his accompanying strength is a real asset. Plus, being fat, the smell of food can motivate him to incredible speeds.
 * Bulkhead in Transformers Prime can move really damn fast if he wants to, despite his rotund shape. He's also very strong. These combine to make him a total Badass, verging on One-Man Army.
 * Roland of Extreme Ghostbusters, despite being rather chubby, is quite limber and agile.
 * Kick Buttowski isn't huge but he's defintely pudgy and still manages amazing stunts and maneuvers.
 * Mikey Blumberg from Recess is a talented ballet dancer. T.J. Detweiler is a more subtle example. He's chubbier than the other main six (save for Mikey), but can pull off some pretty awesome stunts.
 * The overweight ninja from Kim Possible The Movie.
 * Tohru in Jackie Chan Adventures, when he has the Rabbit Talisman.
 * Fred "Twinkle Toes" Flintstone becomes surprisingly light on his feet when doing his famous winning bowling technique.
 * Peter Griffin in Family Guy is shown to be quite a good runner and jumper, and an excellent dancer, despite being extremely obese. It's very rare for Peter to actually be exhausted from any physical activity. Brutally injured maybe, but never exhausted.
 * Similarly, Cleveland in The Cleveland Show is very overweight but can still run around as if his weight doesn't hold back while under pressure.
 * Stan Smith in American Dad has a pot belly but is extremely athletic, which is most likely a requirement for his work in the C.I.A. His gut is only visible when he shirtless.

Real Life

 * The main reason fat people can be agile is because they rely on fast-twitch anaerobic muscles. This is why many of the early baseball heroes like Babe Ruth were a bit on the pudgy side. They didn't need endurance, just a quick burst of speed to get to first base.
 * Sammo Hung, a legendary action superstar and frequent collaborator with Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao in Hong Kong action cinema. He suffered an injury at 16 that left him bedridden for months, and the resulting weight gain has more or less become his calling card. Even nearing the age of sixty and not getting any thinner, he can still go toe-to-toe with the likes of much younger action stars such as Donnie Yen and Wu Jing.
 * Most female practitioners of traditional Middle Eastern and African dance are exactly this—not particularly surprising, as the dances come from places where being fat is a sign of good luck and/or affluence.
 * Heavy Impact from Americas Best Dance Crew is a group of acrofatic dancers.
 * Chris Farley, late Saturday Night Live comic, was surprisingly agile and performed some of his own stunts. His dance moves in this skit are actually pretty hard to pull off.
 * Oliver Hardy was a talented physical comedy performer and a graceful dancer, as seen in many Laurel and Hardy shorts.
 * Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle, who earned his nickname (it would later cause him health problems) was very nimble as well.
 * "Curly" Joe De Rita, in the later years of The Three Stooges.
 * Roy "Big Country" Nelson is the the only mixed martial artist to compete at a high level that could be genuinly considered "fat." He spent most of his career with a massive beer belly, which he would rub after stoppage victories. It was widely known that his entrance into the UFC was delayed considerably due to reluctance in hiring a fat fighter. On The Ultimate Fighter, Nelson fought the most-watched MMA bought in US network history against chiseled street fighter Kimbo Slice, won a lopsided stoppage, and promptly demanded a cheeseburger. Recently, however, he's come under considerably more pressure to slim down and drop to light-heavyweight.
 * John Belushi; just watch The Blues Brothers and see the acrobatics a small fat man can perform while dancing on stage. He was a starting linebacker on his high school's football team. His nickname then was "Killer".
 * Women who play roller derby often fall under this trope. While there are many players who are slender or average, some of the best are much larger.
 * Eric Esch, aka Butterbean. This guy is like steel wrapped in fat.
 * According to ESPN the Magazine's NFL Draft Glossary, this is what is scouts refer to as a "circus elephant", a big man with stunning agility, and not just for someone his size.
 * William "The Refrigerator" Perry of the Chicago Bears in the 1980's would be a prime example of the type.
 * Linebackers and linemen in football almost always fit this trope since their main role is to hit hard, but they need to be quick on their feet as well. Sure, linemen may not have the speed that a running back or a cornerback does, but when the pocket collapses and the quarterback has to run to avoid a sack, he has to run fast. To put this into perspective, the average NFL running back, normally the fastest member on the team, can run the 40 yard dash in a little over 4.3 seconds, while the average linebacker can run it in 4.6 seconds.
 * James "Lights Out" Toney, Sextuple Weight Class Champion. Could, on a slim day, be described as "chubby." Still one of the slickest, most technical boxers of the last twenty years. Hard to imagine such a hefty dude being so fast... It should be noted that he was most dominant at the lower weight classes, when he was slimmer and in shape. While he did quite well as a (fat) heavyweight, and WAS very slick and technical even after putting on the weight, it was from his sheer talent as a boxer: he did well in spite of the weight, rather than because of it.
 * Fred (Rerun) Berry was quite a dancer. Of course, this is only to be expected from a founding member of the Lockers
 * Jack Black. Although on the pudgy side, he is surprisingly agile and can perform physical comedy with the best of them. Specifically referenced in his appearance on Community, where he tries to gain access to the group by claiming they need "an agile fat guy". He then accidentally high-kicks Jeff in the face.
 * While the calorie cap certainly exists, many professional basketball players, particularly "bigs" who usually play the center position, are notably husky - including such all time greats as Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal.
 * Pablo Sandoval of the San Francisco Giants. During the 2009 season he was 5'11" tall and weighed close to 280 lbs, but showed remarkable agility despite his size. After scoring a run by jumping over the opposing catcher's tag at home plate, a teammate gave him the affectionate nickname of "Kung Fu Panda".
 * Aiden Trimble, head of the FSK, is anything but a small man. Not that you'd ever notice whilst he's moving.
 * Roman legionaries. They were professional soldiers who trained all the time with the gladius and were constantly marching with heavy loads or performing manual labor. They were also generally fattened up when not on campaign to increase survivability. As one book put it 'the most reliable supply train in their eyes was around their waists'.
 * Some historians believe that gladiators cultivated a protective layer of fat so that they could more safely get sliced up and crowd-pleasingly bloody.
 * Fighting bulls
 * Manx cats, as well as lacking tails, have a generally bulky body shape and faintly ridiculous long hind limbs that earned them the nickname 'cabbit'. However, they are still perfectly capable of the dainty athleticism cats are known for.
 * While it's up to you to decide whether or not crocodiles can be perceived as fat, they are easy to mistake for sluggish predators on land. It's really downright terrifying to see how fast they actually run.
 * Troy Jackson, aka "Escalade" was a 500 lbs professional streetballer.
 * Thais Carla, a hefty Brazilian teenager who's a skilled, graceful dancer.