Four-Fingered Hands/Playing With

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Basic Trope: Four-fingered hands. A common simplification in cartoons.

  • Straight: Bob, a cartoon character, has four fingers on each hand.
  • Exaggerated: Bob only has one finger.
  • Downplayed: Bob's hands are missing part of their fifth finger.
  • Justified:
    • Bob is not of this Earth.
    • He is a finger amputee.
  • Inverted:
    • Alternatively, Bob has six fingers on each hand.
  • Subverted: Bob seems to have four fingers, but the hand was viewed at an angle that the fifth finger will seem to have been missing.
  • Double Subverted: The fifth finger is a prosthesis.
  • Parodied: Bob's world has everything modified for a four-fingered species, including five-string guitars and a base 8 counting system.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob is stated to have four fingers on each hand. He really has five, but the fifth finger is a prosthesis… but only for one hand.
  • Averted: Everyone's hands have five fingers.
  • Enforced: Low budget forces animators to draw only four fingers per hand.
  • Lampshaded: "Have you ever wondered why we have four fingers? Why not five? Why not three?"
  • Invoked: A spell is made removing the pinkies of everyone's hands.
  • Exploited: A villain uses the spell, taking advantage of everyone's unfamiliarity with four-fingered hands.
  • Defied: A four fingered genetic engineer decides to make a new life have five fingers.
  • Discussed: "I can't pick up my sword! Stupid four-fingered hands!"
  • Conversed: "I wonder who started drawing people with four fingers on each hand."

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