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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