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Invisible Anatomy (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:Professor_Homestar.png|link=Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|frame|[[Elmuh Fudd Syndwome|Don't ask how I'm holding the pointaw. Just admiaw my mowtowboawd.]]]]
 
 
{{quote|'''Edgar:''' Ah, you see, the poor dumb beasts have no thumbs, so I ask you... how are they holding their cards?<br />
'''Raz:''' St--St--Sticky paws?<br />
'''Edgar:''' It should be impossible, and yet somehow they go on... playing the game.|''[[Psychonauts (Video Game)|Psychonauts]]''}}
 
Many animated characters, especially [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]], are missing certain anthropomorphic features- perhaps the art style is stylized to the point where [[Powerpuff Girl Hands|hands lack fingers]], some characters simply [[Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|don't have arms]], or [[Veggie Tales (Animation)|nobody is of a species that has appendages]].
 
This will not impact their functioning in any meaningful way- they interact with the world as anybody else would, as though the missing elements were simply invisible. Salt shakers and boxing gloves will simply float in midair by their torso, dumpster lids will spring open in their presence, and they'll hover next to the pull-up bar.
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== Anime & Manga ==
* Krillin of ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'' fame was drawn without a nose, which was a plot point when he was in a fight with a large, hairy man who deliberately didn't bathe so no one would be able to stand being around him long enough to actually fight him. He suffered horribly from the odor during the fight, until Goku reminded Krillin that he didn't have a nose...
** Of course, next arc had him sniffing a jewel Bulma hid in [[Trouser Space|her bikini bottom front]] because "it might smell bad". This was more [[Rule of Funny]] than lack of consistency.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Brook is a [[Applied Phlebotinum|Devil-Fruit]] [[Back From the Dead|reincarnated]] [[Dem Bones|skeleton]], who nonetheless can see, hear, talk, move around, digest food, urinate and [[Nobody Poops|poop.]] (Luffy made sure to ask) Not only that, but his anatomy is also [[Intangible Man|intangible]], as he weighs so little that he can run on water. Also a case of [[Required Secondary Powers]].
* In ''[[Pani Poni Dash!]]'', anthropomorphic rabbit Mesousa isn't drawn with hands, and is frequently depressed when reminded that he can't hold anything.
 
 
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== Films -- Animation ==
* All the characters in ''[[Cars (Animation)|Cars]]'' are... well, cars. With no hands. So how do they grip things like power tools or flags? There are foot (wheel?) pedals that they use to activate some things, and some of the cars have special attachments for holding things, but the question remains: ''how was all this stuff built?''
* Many Monsters in Monsters Inc. A lot of the stock monsters are shown without hands, feet, or are just toothy heads walking around on little nub limbs. So how do these monsters operate the machinery, let alone drive cars? In fact, how can Wazowski drive a car himself so effectively when he doesn't have binocular vision?
** Possibly [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-04-29 this] could provide an answer of sorts.
* ''[[SurfsSurf's Up]]'': Justified with Chicken Joe because he can at least use his feather fingers to manipulate objects, but it becomes stranger when it shows the main character, Cody, somehow using a Shaka sign (which consists of extending the thumb and smallest finger while keeping the three middle fingers curled, and raising the hand as in salutation with the back of the hand facing the person that is being greeted) despite having flippers.
 
 
== Literature ==
* The shapes in ''[[Flatland]]''.
* The oysters in "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Literature)|Through the Looking Glass]]'':
{{quote| ''Their shoes were clean and neat--<br />
And this was odd, because, you know,<br />
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== Live Action TV ==
* [[Mystery Science TheatreTheater 3000]] parodies this; Tom Servo's lack of arms doesn't prevent him from playing a bass for [[Notable Original Music|"Hike Up Your Pants"]]... nor does it stop him from actually ''twirling it around''.
 
 
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** Creature without arms in Spore wield tools with their mouths.
** You actually get an achievement for finishing the creature stage without ever having given your creature legs. There's no similar achievement for arms, and you can add legs in the post-creature stage/pre-tribal stage final creature editor, because you get the achievement before that editor.
* Many species in the ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|Paper Mario]]'' games, such as Goombas and Bob-Ombs.
** And in ''Mario Baseball'', the same species can swing a baseball bat with no hands.
** Goombella, introduced in ''[[Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door (Video Game)|Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door]]'', especially stands out, as (to get information on the opponent you're facing in a battle) she frequently takes out a green book and turns the pages, despite her lack of visible arms. And despite the fact that a lot of tropes are [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the game, neither she nor anyone else comments on this.
* The Mii characters built on Nintendo's Wii console have arms when created, but in ''[[Wii Sports]]'', they don't have them. They just have floating sphere hands or boxing gloves. Any non-player Miis in the background will also lack ''legs''. Most games that use them in gameplay just reproduce the head on a single style of body anyway, and ignore the user-defined height and weight sliders.
** Referred to in [http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=702 this] ''[[Brawl in The Family (Webcomic)|Brawl in Thethe Family]]'' strip.
* In ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (Franchise)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', characters have been shown that, without shoes on, they don't have toes. Eggman, a human, doesn't even seem to have ears.
*** That has more to do with the fact that if they'll always have their shoes ''on'', [[Hands in Pockets|why waste the time modeling or animating what's inside them?]]
** Though in [[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Sonic '06]] and [[Sonic Unleashed (Video Game)|Sonic Unleashed]], Eggman ''does'' have ears.
** It seems that Eggman's always had ears, but it's rare that one can see them past his moustache.
* Even weirder in games like ''[[Half-Life 2 (Video Game)|Half-Life 2]]'', where the characters ''have'' arms and hands, and do use them to hold weapons, but when they do anything else (like push a button or lift a small object) their arm is not shown. As pointed out in ''Concerned'', a small object just hovers in front of the character. Also, you can't see your feet.
** This is only for the ''player'' character; everyone else uses their hands normally. The Half-Life series does allow you to see your hands (usually while holding a weapon), but not how they connect to your body.
** Averted in ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' , where your arms and legs are visible. Played straight in Left 4 Dead 2 with your legs.
* [[FEARF.E.A.R.]] nearly avoids the 'invisible third hand' and 'floating torso' phenomenon found in many shooters, arms and legs are required to climb ladders, swim and are seen flailing when the player is thrown though a window. Doors and buttons, however are used without physical contact.
* The characters of ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' do not have noses on their faces. (Though sometimes in the PSP [[FM Vs]] if you're shown a profile you'll see a small bump between their mouth and eyes.) In fact, no noses is something of a recurring style in a lot of Akihiko Yoshida's work like the artwork for ''[[Final Fantasy III (Video Game)|Final Fantasy III]] DS''.
* Yeta from ''[[Twilight Princess]]'' doesn't have arms. Or maybe they're just hidden under her snow coat. Luckily she has Yeto to do the cooking for her.
** It's a blanket. She is wrapping it around herself for warmth, because she is sick. At least she was when we first saw her. This troper often wondered why she still kept it wrapped around herself even when she was feeling better. Maybe her sickness caused the fur in that area to fall off.
* [[Dizzy (Video Gameseries)|Dizzy]] from the eponymous games is an egg with a face, and apparently unattached boxing gloves and boots.
* ''[[Fallout 3 (Video Game)|Fallout 3]]'' and ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' lets you pick up objects in front of you without putting them in your inventory. The effect is the same like in ''[[Half-Life 2 (Video Game)|Half-Life 2]]'', except since you can change the camera to a third person view, you can see the object is literally floating in front of your character while your arms can be holding something else or nothing at all.
* Dragon Overlord Babylon in ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' has no arms. He can still hold a pencil and write, and states that it's "none of your damn business" how he can do it.
* ''[[Worms (Video Game)|Worms]]'' hold weapons in hands that mysteriously appear when they're not moving. Let's ignore for the moment that worms don't have hands, mouths, or eyes and can't jump or backflip. Said hands don't appear to be connected to their bodies in any physical way, just floating a set distance away.
* The birds in ''[[Angry Birds]]'' have no visible wings or legs. Their anatomical lack became particularly noticeable when developers of the game were ask to design a mascot for the 2012 Ice Hockey World Championships, resulting in [[media:hockeybird_4515.jpg|Hockeybird]], a creature that can play ice hockey with no limbs at all.
* In a ''[[Super Mario World (Videovideo Gamegame)|Super Mario World]]'' [[Level Editor|hack]], [[A Super Mario Thing]], the main character, Demo, has invisible limbs. However, she can still lift shells and such just like Mario could.
* In ''[[Stinkoman 20 X 6 (Video Game)|Stinkoman 20 X 6]]'', 1-up, like his counterpart Homestar Runner, lacks visible arms, yet he can still climb ladders. So can Stinkoman, who has no fingers.
* As proven in [[YouTube]] videos (cheats were involved), the lower half of Headmaster Gaepora from ''[[Skyward Sword]]'' apparently disappears when he bathes at night.
 
 
== Web Animation ==
* [[Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|Homestar Runner]] lacks visible arms, as do Marzipan and the King of Town. Depictions of this vary between seeming like the characters have invisible arms (one time Homestar, wearing a long-sleeved coat, picked something up and the coat's arm moved as if there were something in it) or just having some sort of telekinetic power (another time, Homestar held four objects at once).
** One humorous example is when Strong Bad and Pom Pom demonstrate their favourite ways of flipping the bird. When Homestar walks by, Strong Bad lifts up his hand (which lacks fingers, because his hands are boxing gloves). Homestar just smiles and says "Wight back atcha, Stwong Bad!" Strong Bad is taken aback, and exclaims, "He just gave me the bird!"
** Most likely invisible arms. At the end of "8-Bit is Enough", {{spoiler|you see him chained up as if he had arms.}}
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* In [[A Moment of Peace]], only gods have visible fingers.
* [[Rice Boy]], despite being the only character in his [[Verse]] with no obvious limbs, has comparatively little trouble picking up and carrying small objects.
* The Monster in the Darkness of ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' is always hidden in impenetrable shadows; when he interacts with his surroundings nothing of him is seen, leading to situations like a bucket of stew seemingly floating in midair when he is eating.
* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', one of the many ways that Dr. Disaster [[Rule of Cool|completely disregarded realism]] in designing the scenario of his [[Space Opera|space battle]] [[Hard Light|simulation]] is the fact that the terrible Enigmarons are somehow able to build a [[Death Ray]] and tie people up (all off-screen) in spite of their lack of arms.
* Bob and other beholders from ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'' sometimes give off this effect, carrying or manipulating things despite a lack of prehensile appendage. [[Justified Trope|Justified]], though, since [[Dungeons and Dragons|beholders]] are gifted with telekinesis.
* The Beta Shlumpys from [[Vexxarr]]. [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=011306 This] comic shows as much of their anatomy as apparently exists; a blob and three eyes on stalks, as Vexxarr explains that they can't take him away, because they have no hands. They are apparently surprised by this, but in the [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=011606 next comic] they have rioted and destroyed their city.
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* This is how the two tooth characters, Lardee and ickle, from ''[[My Milk Tooth]]'' are able to do anything like when they go fishing.
* Wally the Whale and his fishy friends of [[Fruit Incest]] tend to just float and move objects without any limbs or even flippers. [http://fruitincest.com/archives/win/ Lampshaded] a couple of times, as even they don't seem to know how they do it.
* In ''[[The Adventures of Joe the Circle (Webcomic)|The Adventures of Joe the Circle]]'' the three main characters are respectively a circle, triangle and pair of ovals, with no other features except faces. [[Word of God]] establishes that they're all telekinetic.
 
 
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** The titular girls also lack noses for some reason, and yet are still able to smell things. As with their hands, every other character in the show has a nose. They also don't have feet in the same sense that other characters do- instead they have vaguely defined areas on the rounded ends of their legs that serve as feet and they somehow wear shoes on. They look rather bizarre [[Fridge Logic|when you think about it,]] which raises the question of why anyone in the PPG universe finds them cute.
*** The movie actually has a character point out how freakish the girls looked while the entire town tells them what an awful jobs they're doing.
* The characters from ''[[Veggie Tales (Animation)|Veggie Tales]]'' are all sentient vegetables with no limbs, yet they frequently brandish devices or perform tasks that would require some form of manual dexterity to operate -- some examples are driving, wearing, eating, and wear boxing gloves. [[Lampshaded]] for further comedic effect where Larry the cucumber says he can't play a guitar because he has no hands. He ends up playing the theme with a sousaphone.
** On another occasion, Buzz-saw Louie, a living action figure character uttered the classic lines: "Alright! Everybody who's got hands, start tying!" And, after a pause, "That would be me."
** In ''Josh And The Big Wall'', there is thunderous applause for Jerry's [[BFG]], which leads to Tom Grape looking around and then asking Pa Grape "How are we clapping?"
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** They started out avoiding any manipulation, then slowly warmed up to it. Early instances of the trope conveniently hide the fact that they are levitating the object.
*** Interesting fact: According to the DVD commentary for ''The Star of Christmas'', they still have a strict rule that objects "held" by the characters should always be partly in front of or behind the character, and never "break the silhouette."
** An ad for the series [[Three Two One Penguins (Animation)|3-2-1 Penguins!]], made by the same studio, had Larry enter, look at one of the penguins, and yell offscreen, "Bob! They've got arms!"
*** Another episode has the Scottish Carrot character knocking on a door -- and showing a human hand in the close-up. The carrot reacts with understandable shock. The same thing later happens with his feet while walking...
*** The [[Spin-Off]] series ''The Animated Adventures of Larry-Boy'' seemed to be deathly afraid of this trope. The title character had a [[Utility Belt]] that had hammerspace claws and other manipulating devices, and characters had levitating gloves, gauntlets, and sleeves at every opportunity.
* Phantom Limb on ''[[The Venture Brothers]]''. Technically, his limbs were just rendered invisible (and dangerous to the touch), but he still looked like nothing more than a floating torso.
* [[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants|Patrick Star]] has neither ears nor a nose, which is [[Lampshaded]] on occasion. ("I cannot believe what I'm hearing!" "How can you hear it? You don't have any ears!") This is actually a plot point in at least one episode, where Pat doesn't realize SpongeBob has bad breath on account of his noselessness.
** There's also an episode where Patrick get's a nose surgically grafted to his face and he begins to enjoy all the wonderful smells of the world (before the conflict rears it's ugly head). He later gets ears at the end of the episode (we never learn how that turns out).
* ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'': Kawolski, the smart man of the group, is capable of building eye-popping inventions and machinery despite the fact he only has finglerless flippers for hands.
* ''[[My Little Pony]]'' does this all the time. They are ''ponies''--they are unquestionably quadrupedal and have no fingers to boot. Yet they cook, dress up, decorate, etc. Now, the [[Real Life|actual toys]] have magnets in their hooves to help them manipulate stuff, [[Epileptic Trees|so.....]]
** A large part of the art direction in [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]] is dedicated to averting this, with manipulation mostly occurring using their mouths, tails, and telekinesis for unicorns. There is the odd case of things mysteriously sticking to hooves, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
*** Basically, hooves do pretty much what real hooves do, unless [[Rule of Funny|Pinkie Pie happens]].
*** But that raises the issue of the tails - while horse tails do have a base called the dock which can be moved, it's very short and the rest of the tail is just pure hair. Said dock doesn't even appear in the show's character designs... and yet Applejack can [[Prehensile Hair|grip and use a lasso with the end of her tail]]?
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