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Never the Selves Shall Meet (view source)

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* The ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force]]'' episode "Paradox" has Kevin's car turned into a literal rust bucket by a time monster that ages anything it touches. At the end of the episode, Paradox gives them a new (old?) car, with the warning that it will "explode like antimatter" if it comes into contact with anything else from 1976. However, earlier in the episode, Paradox spoke to an alternate universe version of himself without any ill effects - granted, they did not shake hands or anything, but still...<ref>[[Word of God]] is that Paradox was joking about Kevin's car.</ref>
* One episode of ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' has the heroes encounter their alternates from another dimension (where the biggest difference was that Buzz himself was evil). XR warns the team to avoid touching their counterparts—just as the two Boosters greet each other with a hug. When nothing happens, XR remarks on the trope not applying.
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' movie ''Bender's Big Score'', we learn that duplicates of persons or objects created by time travel are automatically doomed, as a form of [[Equivalent Exchange]]. This becomes a plot point as we learn that {{spoiler|Leela's new fiancee is another version of Fry, and calls off the wedding rather than subject Leela to the grief caused by his ultimate demise.}}. At the end, hundreds of Bender duplicates appear and {{spoiler|as they explode one by one, the sheer volume of temporal anomalies leadsleading to a rupture in the universe - and a [[Sequel Hook]] for the next movie.}}. This is ''almost'' a subversion as, until time corrects the paradox by destroying the duplicate, duplicates are free to touch and interact with each other.
{{quote|'''Scammer Alien:''' I met my past self in a bar for a drink, one thing led to another, and [[Screw Yourself|we ended up back at my place]]. Or should I say 'our' place. (passionately embraces duplicate)
'''Everyone Else:''' Ewwwww!!!
'''Scammer Alien:''' Oh come on, you prudes!. }}
* In the season finale of ''[[Superjail]]'', the Warden goes back in time to his own trial to save himself, and- by the simple act of hugging his past self, he causes the very fabric of reality to completely and utterly fall apart. Cue [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]] - which is [[Death Is Cheap|pretty much the standard]] for any given episode.
{{quote|''"Stop touching yourself!"''}}
* On ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', Kowalski invents a time machine, but a future Kowalski has come to get Private to stop him, warning him that if both Kowalskis were to ever meet, it would cause a rip in the space-time continuum. Also, a ''third'' Kowalski has come to get Skipper to keep the time machine from being destroyed. When the two future Kowaslkis meet, they reassure the others that it's okay, [[Tempting Fate|as long as the ''original'' Kowalski doesn't see them]]. And that's when the original Kowalski sees them, causing the space-time rupture that led them all here in the first place.▼
:: Cue [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]] - which is [[Death Is Cheap|pretty much the standard]] for any given episode.
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'':
▲* On ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', Kowalski invents a time machine, but a future Kowalski has come to get Private to stop him, warning him that if both Kowalskis were to ever meet, it would cause a rip in the space-time continuum. Also, a ''third'' Kowalski has come to get Skipper to keep the time machine from being destroyed. When the two future Kowaslkis meet, they reassure the others that it's okay, as long as the ''original'' Kowalski doesn't see them. And that's when original Kowalski sees them, causing the space-time rupture that led them all here in the first place.
** Played for laughs in the [[Foghorn Leghorn]] cartoon "Little Boy Boo". While playing hide-and-seek with Junior, Foghorn Leghorn hides in a feed box, [[Tempting Fate|claiming the kid would need a slide rule to find him]]. Junior writes out some equations, using a slide rule no less, then marks a spot before digging Foghorn up from it. This leaves Foghorn irate, at which point the child shows him the equations; forced to admit that "figures don't lie", Foghorn is nevertheless curious and makes to open the lid, but stops himself midway through.
* In ''[[Taz-Mania]]'', Marvin the Martian's team-up with Taz. For whatever reason, hooking Taz up to some big gyroscope thing allows him to spin them through time. Marvin is always cautioning him not to meet himself, as "It results in an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]." Of course, he forgets this advice.▼
{{quote|'''Foghorn:''' ...No, I'd better not look. - [[Logic Bomb|I just ''might'' be in there! ]]}}▼
* Another ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short has a humorous non-time travel invocation of the trope. Playing hide and seek with Prissy's little "egghead" son, Foghorn Leghorn hides in a storage bin. The young genius plays with a slide rule, scribbles down some calculations, marks an "X" on the ground, and proceeds to extract Foggy from that very spot with a shovel. Foghorn protests, but the little Einstein just points to his calculations. As the scene ends, Foggy passes the bin in which he had hidden, and starts to curiously lift the lid, but stops himself.
▲* In ''[[Taz-Mania]]'', Marvin the Martian's team-up with Taz in ''[[Taz-Mania]]''. For whatever reason, hooking Taz up to some big gyroscope thing allows him to spin them through time. Marvin is always cautioning him not to meet himself, as "It results in an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]].". Of course, he forgets this advice.
▲{{quote|'''Foghorn:''' No, I'd better not look. I just ''might'' be in there! }}
* In the DCAU, specifically in ''[[Justice League]]'', this is the explanation used by Vandal Savage for why he doesn't go to the past and stop himself from destroying the world; considering that Vandal Savage is an immortal caveman who has lived out virtually all of human history, that means he effectively can't time travel at all. He specifically says that it's a result of his particular time machine's design rather than an immutable law of the universe. In fact, Batman travels to the future and meets the ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' version of himself in a later episode, with no consequences. Admittedly, time outright ''collapsed'' in that episode, so "no consequences" is a bit of a relative term. In the short term, at least, it turned out fine.
** Other than the alterations Vandal wanted to cause, his meeting of his past self didn't seem to cause any major damage.
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** "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker" had Timmy and his fairies going back to 1972 and Timmy found out Cosmo and Wanda were Crocker's fairy godparents back then. It's unknown if past Cosmo and Wanda recognized their present selves but there were two Jorgens who even danced together.
** "Channel Chasers": Coming from a [[Bad Future]], an adult Timmy went back to his childhood to prevent Vicky from taking over the world.
* Inverted in ''[[Totally Spies!]]'' , where the three Spies are jaunted twenty-years into the future, and can interact with their adult selves safely, - and good thing too, because they have to rescue them from the now-villainous Mandy.
* In the ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' episode "Operation: F.U.T.U.R.E.", this is Zigzagged. The villain was apparently able to create the [[Bad Future]] not only by doing this intentionally, but by keeping in regular contact with her future self. On the other hand, Numbuh Four's future self did speak to him after giving the rest of the team vital information needed to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], but he never told them who he was. {{spoiler|And given what is revealed in the [[Series Finale]], it would seem that this future timeline is undone completely, and Numbuh Four's future is changed.}}
* This Trope is ''defied'' in the ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' movie ''Ego Trip'', where the Dexter everyone's familiar with uses his [[Time Machine]] to form a team consisting of himself and his Teenage, Adult, and Elderly selves to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], courtesy of Mandark's tampering. There was no [[Earthshattering Kaboom]], {{spoiler| despite the fact that Mandark used the same trick to fight them. In fact, after Dee Dee intervenes, she accidentally cratessaves athe future and turns it into utopia., which annoys all four Dexters enough to build robots that seek her out in the present and [[Stable Time Loop|causing them to attack that Dexter in the first place]]}}.
* The ''[[Miraculous Ladybug]]'' episode "Timebreaker" defies it twice-over. Not only is Ladybug easily able to safely interact with - and form a team with - her past self, but Hawk Moth gets the smart idea to double his pawn's power by sending a second akuma to corrupt the past one, so ''they'' can also form a team. [[Fridge Brilliance]] kicks in here, as two Ladybugs were likely needed to purify two akumas.
 
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