Sorry, Billy, But You Just Don't Have Legs: Difference between revisions

[[File:lb.jpg|link=Homestar Runner|thumb|320px|"I'm gonna be a quarterback when I grow up! I'm gonna throw for 2,000 yards!"]]

 

 

Related to [[I Coulda Been a Contender]]. Subversions and aversions can lead to a [[Handicapped Badass]]. Inversions can be [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]] or have a [[Disability Superpower]]. If the character gains the defect during their life, then it's a [[Career-Ending Injury]].

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Full Moon o Sagashite]]'' Mitsuki wants to become an [[Idol Singer]] but can't because she has throat cancer and to live she'll have to have her larynx removed... she puts this off so she can still sing, but it means she'll die before she's really going to be old enough to achieve her dream. But then she gets to do it via magic.

* Rock Lee from ''[[Naruto]]'' wants to continue his career and become a successful ninja. He faces not being able to perform any ninjutsu or genjutsu, but gets around it by solely focusing on Taijutsu with [[Training from Hell]]. Later on, he suffers a [[Game-Breaking Injury]] during his fight with Gaara from using his [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]] and having one of his arms and legs crushed, but a surgery manages to restore him to fighting condition.

** Filler character Yakumo wants to become a ninja, but [[Ill Girl|tires easily after routine exercises]]. She says she wants to become a ninja who can use genjutsu, but Kurenai refuses to let her, as she would have to rely on the Id within her, and seals away her ability to use genjutsu. After Yakumo's Id kills her parents when they try to console her that there are other paths to take in life, she seeks revenge on Kurenai, believing her to be responsible, but the two eventually reconcile.

* Subverted with Kyousuke in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''; at first he was a crippled violinist whose right hand couldn't be used anymore but thanks to Sayaka's wish, he is able to soon make a full recovery.

 

* [[The Flash]] villain Rainbow Raider, was a gifted painter, but was also, unfortunately, colorblind.

** Someone [[Did Not Do the Research]], as colorblind artists [http://www.human-existence.com/blog/?p=488 can be and are successful]. [[Take a Third Option|Black and white artwork]], alternate color palates, and abstract art are just a few examples of how to bypass this limitation.

 

* In ''[[Little Miss Sunshine]]'', {{spoiler|Dwayne discovers he's color-blind and can't become a pilot.}}

* Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon in ''[[Stuck On You]]''. Kinnear's character wants to be a movie star despite him and Damon being conjoined twins.

* From ''[[Life of Brian|Monty Python's Life of Brian]]'':

* ''[[Everest]]'': one of the kids had braces, whose tendency to contract in extreme cold would become a problem on the high altitudes of Everest. As a result, he was sent home.

* Parodied in ''[[The Onion Movie]]''. We are introduced to the "inspirational portrait of the week", which involves a man with no legs (and then no arms) first declaring that he wanted to do ballet since he was a child. After maybe 15 seconds, what he wanted to do all his life was hockey. A sequence of him follows being tackled harshly.

* In ''[[From Russia with Love]]'', Tatiana Romanova explains that she wanted to be a ballerina, but was rejected for being too tall.

 

* ''[[Ender's Game]]'' tries to justify [[The Smurfette Principle]] through evolutionary psychology (though several girls get into Battle School, and one makes it all the way to the final exam).

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''

** Snowkit is born deaf. His mother refuses to accept that he won't be able to become a warrior, and even tries training him herself. Then Snowkit gets carried off by a hawk because he couldn't hear it coming.

 

* Peter Cook and [[Dudley Moore]]'s famous sketch about a one-legged man auditioning for the role of [[Tarzan]].

* An episode of ''[[Baywatch]]'' had a wannabe-lifeguard rejected because he wore contacts (and thus had bad eyesight). The plot ended with them changing that rule when the candidate pointed out the hypocrisy that once you passed the test you never had to retake it and that several of the older lifeguards may have once had perfect eyesight, but now wore contacts, but were considered perfectly capable lifeguards.

** A similar incident happened to [[Cloudcuckoolander|Kaidou]] in ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz]]'', although it takes place before the series. He's seen coming to terms with it, but it's implied that this is the reason for his [[Jerkass]] attitude.

 

* [http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=127681&songID=860041 "Frank's Not in the Band Anymore"] by Worm Quartet describes a man who desperately tries to keep drumming despite loss of limbs.

 

* One ''[[Bloom County]]'' strip has the following exchange between Opus the Penguin and the strip's narrator:

{{quote|'''Opus:''' "She said that all she needs from a boyfriend is 'Lips to kiss and a shoulder to cry on.'"

'''Opus:''' "I'm short on both counts!" }}

 

* An episode of ''[[Adventures in Odyssey]]'' has a wheelchair bound boy come into the class saying that his aspiration is to become captain of the football team. He didn't mean it seriously; partly he was [[Jerkass|being bitter]] about the wheelchair thing, and partly he was fed up with being made to introduce himself to his classes, as teachers often make you do when you're a new kid. Also, besides saying he wanted to be captain of the football team (or possibly soccer), he also said he wanted to break the school's high jump record. He managed to mortify just about everybody, including the teacher.

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has a few examples, given that the setting has hardwired rules about [[Magic A Is Magic A|what certain Exalts can or cannot do]], and [[Beyond the Impossible|a steady subtext of, "...but feel free to ignore it if your players are sufficiently awesome."]] One of the more frightening examples, though, is [[Ax Crazy|Raksi]]. She's one of the most skilled Lunar sorcerers in all of Creation - but as a Lunar, she's inherently limited to the first two circles of sorcery, and not the top circle that's reserved for the Solar Exalted. But she's got her hands on a book that covers all three circles, and she's been spending centuries trying to find ''some way'' to unlock the third circle... no matter who she has to hurt to do it. Anyone who knows of her ambition devoutly hopes she never achieves it, considering that she's [[Ax Crazy|completely]] [[I'm a Humanitarian|out]] [[But You Screw One Goat!|of]] [[Depraved Bisexual|her]] mind.

 

 

* ''[[Makai Kingdom]]''

** Overlord Zetta confines himself into The Sacred Tome to avert the total destruction of his Netherworld. Anyone with sufficient Mana can write a wish in The Tome and it will become reality. Zetta has the Mana for it, but being a book, he no longer has arms to write with. Oops!

* Coach Oleander in ''[[Psychonauts]]''. A memory vault flashback shows him denied entrance into multiple branches of the military due to his short stature.

 

 

* Subverted in ''Mr Square'', in which [http://revfitz.com/msi184.html Mr Square gets a limbless dog]{{Dead link}} that lives a perfectly happy life...except the also limbless Square is unable to open its food.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090429062619/http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000068.html T-rex's desire to play the piano, thwarted.]

* ''[[Cyanide & Happiness]]'', [http://www.explosm.net/comics/727/ here.] "I'm sorry, Joey. Your legs just don't work" was originally suspected of influencing the trope name.

* One of the basic concepts behind ''[[Warbot in Accounting]]'' is the titular character's [[The Woobie|tragic]] ([[Black Comedy|yet hilarious]]) inability to perform many of the functions of daily life because he's a huge freaking robot with claws instead of hands.

* Zigzagged in ''[[Homestuck]]'' with Tavros, the paraplegic troll. Early in his story he's almost unable to enter the Medium, not because of the monsters but because Vriska [[Kick the Dog|deliberately built him a path made mostly of stairs.]] He eventually manages to escape by [[Cool Chair|upgrading his wheelchair with rocket boosters]] and becoming more or less a [[Handicapped Badass]].

** He did dream of joining some sort of beast-riding lancer squadron, if he wasn't culled for defects first.

 

* ''[[Family Guy]]'': Kid in Iron Lung: "I'm gonna play baseball!'

* ''[[Veggie Tales]]'' opening (paraphrased); note, all the characters are fruits or vegetables, none of them with hands, arms, or legs.:

** In an audio-only Christmas special, Larry brings along his friend [[Meaningful Name|Manuel]] to play the maracas, because he's got hands. We never find out ''what'' Manuel is, but Bob sounds very bitter about him having appendages.

* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', Lisa can't become a saxophone virtuoso because of her stubby fingers.

* In ''[[Futurama]]'', Bender's inability to taste has often been cited as a handicap to his aspirations as a chef, not that he lets that stop him from trying.

* This trope is often the entire premise behind ''[[The Oblongs]]''.

 

* Supermodeling. You could be the most attractive person in the world but you must be above 5 ft 8 ins. There are some exceptions, but most supermodels below 5 ft 8ins are something else as well like an actor or singer. Also, you usually [[Hollywood Pudgy|can't be above a certain weight]].

* In some cases, sperm donation. Clinics receive so many requests for tall donors that men under 6 feet are turned away.

* Subverted by Jim Abbott, former MLB pitcher who was born without a right hand. To get around this, Abbott would rest a right-handed thrower's glove on the end of his right forearm. After releasing the ball, he would quickly slip his hand into the glove, usually in time to field any balls that a two-handed pitcher would be able to field. Then he would remove the glove by securing it between his right forearm and torso, slip his hand out of the glove, and remove the ball from the glove, usually in time to throw out the runner.

* Subverted by [[wikipedia:Rick Allen (drummer)|Rick Allen]], drummer of [[Def Leppard]], who lost his left arm, but continues to drum for the group using a combination of rapid armwork and a custom drum setup to let him play the snares with his left foot.

 

{{reflist}}