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Fat Flex

 Fat Flex
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FeatureClass
 Fat Flex
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Fat Flex
 Fat Flex
page
FatFlex
 Fat Flex
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A fairly common trope in animated works, this happens when a plump character tries to make themself look strong and athletic. They'll often do this by grabbing their fat waists and pushing them up, for the illusion of a narrow waist and barrel chest. The fat then drops back down into place for comedic effect — often accompanied by the sound of a deep timpani hit. If they are stout and strong, Acrofatic, Fat and Proud, a Big Beautiful Man, a Big Beautiful Woman, or any combination of the above, they might just flex with both their fat and muscles on display.
There's a tiny bit of Truth in Television to this, as posing technique can significantly transform how someone looks depending on the circumstance. In the sport of Bodybuilding, where having a V-shaped upper body is rewarded, contestants who tend to have a blocky waist — or worse, are suffering from a distended midsection — can make themselves look more streamlined by sucking their gut in, which at the same time inflates the thorax and improves their taper. It’s difficult to keep it sucked in through an entire show, however, especially since bodybuilders compete while depleted of water and calories, and posing is more strenuous than it looks. Therefore, even if someone's midsection looks pretty respectable while they're locked into the pose, the moments when they relax or try to catch their breath can be very unflattering if they've got a bad case of bloating. Also note that this kind of abdominal control is only effective at hiding gut distension and visceral fat, i.e. problems contained within the abdominal wall; since subcutaneous fat is located outside the muscles that do the cinching in, belly fat and especially love handles can't be sucked in anywhere near as much.
Compare Of Corsets Funny. See also Fake Muscles. Sister Trope to Flexing Those Non-Biceps, where the character doesn't even have fat to flex.
 Fat Flex
fetched
2024-03-03T22:16:37Z
 Fat Flex
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2024-03-03T22:16:37Z
 Fat Flex
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Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Fat Flex
processingComment
Dropped link to FlexingThoseNonBiceps: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Fat Flex
processingComment
Dropped link to IdleAnimation: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Fat Flex
isPartOf
DBTropes
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Fat Flex
 Fat Flex / int_12ffd3e9
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The climax of a Megas XLR episode involves a detonator being teleported inside Coop's car. The detonator initially lands safely on Coop's big gut, but the moment he exhales in relief, a roll of fat presses the button.
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Fat Flex
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The Simpsons
In the episode "Sunday Cruddy Sunday", most of the guys are going off to watch the Super Bowl. When they notice there isn't a single girl in sight, Homer exclaims that he can finally stop holding it in, and exhales revealing that his big gut is actually even bigger, and all the other guys follow suit, only to have to suck it back in once they discover that their bus driver is a gorgeous woman.
In the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled", after exercising to lose all the extra weight he put on, Krusty flexes in front of the mirror, showing off a impressive physique. He then stops flexing and his body returns to its normal, flabby state.
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Fat Flex
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One cartoon panel from Playboy has a man at the beach notice two shapely bikini bunnies approaching, and promptly moves his rounded gut into his torso. The good news: he succeeds in attaining the classic superhero shape. The bad news: without that large gut securing the waistband, his swim trunks end up around his ankles.
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Fat Flex / int_283a2ee
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Fat Flex
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A variation in Vectorman; the titular character is an Orbot (a robot made of Floating Limbs), and sometimes when he does his Victory Pose, his chest falls and he pulls it back up.
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Fat Flex
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In the Ninja Turtles episode "Return of the Justice Force", Old Superhero Stainless Steel Steve/Stephen, former leader of the Justice Force, has gained a bit of weight since his last fight. After meeting the Turtles and his former allies, he puts on his costume and seemingly regains his Heroic Build — at which point his gut regains its normal girth.
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In Cuphead, Grim Matchstick's tell for spitting a fireball is sucking in and lifting his gut. He drops it to spit the flame, and it plops back into place.
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One of Pete's henchmen in Quackshot attacks by constantly running back and forth. Sometimes, they'll stop and pose with a muscular body, before breathing out to their normal physique.
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Fat Flex
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Garfield: Repeatedly.
February 17, 1986: Garfield does it to try and impress Arlene. As soon as she says "You may dispense with the vanity", he drops it.
August 7, 1988: When Jon is Flexing Those Non-Biceps, Garfield gives himself a Heroic Build before commenting "Did you know you can flex fat?".
The August 11, 1988 strip has Garfield actually flex his tail. Jon, who was trying to flex his arms, is not amused.
February 22, 1993: Garfield flexes his fat, again for Arlene.
One of the stories in the spin-off book, Stupid Cupid, has Garfield attempt to do this, again, for Arlene to show up her new, muscular male friend Rex, obviously to no avail.
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Fat Flex
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In Epic Mickey, when Oswald gets mad at Mickey after learning that he's the one responsible for creating the Shadow Blot, he lifts up his waist, puffing up his chest, and challenges him to a fight. However, his waist fat goes back down when he realizes that he's accidentally broken the giant cork sealing the Blot's bottle.
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In one episode of Marsupilami, Maurice attempts to impress a female gorilla by puffing up his chest and doing a Primal Chest-Pound. When the female looks completely unimpressed, Maurice's fat drops back in disappointment.
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Fat Flex
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Happens on Ultimate Muscle when Kid Muscle finally meets his father King Muscle again at the conclusion of the Hercules Factory arc. King Muscle still looks as buff as he did in his prime (aside from having a bald patch on his head, which is odd because he didn't have hair in the first place), which is lampshaded by the other older wrestlers who complain about how easily out of shape they get these days. Then it turns out that King Muscle had just rearranged all his fat to look like muscles, which is why he wasn't moving from his badass pose, and once everything slips back into place, it turns out he's gotten a huge gut and scrawny arms in the past few decades.
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Fat Flex
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Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost: Both Shaggy and Scooby gain a massive amount of weight early in the film. When coming across the Hex Girls, the two try to impress them by pushing up their weight, but it immediately flops down in fear when the Girls reveal their (fake) vampire teeth.
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Fat Flex
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In the CatDog episode "Dog the Mighty," Dog's first appearance as the superhero Dog the Mighty involves him stepping out the front door in a heroic pose with his chest puffed, then immediately exhaling with a relieved expression as his stomach drops onto Cat.
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Fat Flex
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Three old, overweight men flex their large guts at certain points in the "bad guy" music video from Billie Eilish, sometimes to the beat of the music.
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Dinosaurs For Hire have you playing as three dinosaurs, a T-Rex, a Triceratops, and a Stegosaurus, the latter being the chubbiest of the trio. After completing a stage, the Stegosaurus will perform a victory pose by sucking in his belly to turn his torso into abs, before he suddenly gives way and turning it back to a tubby stomach.
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Fat Flex
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Gargoyles had Broadway lift up his belly to show off in the very first episode, which flops back down predictably a second later.
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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Peter B. Parker post his mid-life crisis ended up getting a huge gut thanks to all the Comfort Food he is addicted to, but when he wears his suit, he looks as muscular as any other Spider-Man would. To be fair, he only has a a bit of a gut and his rest of the body is quite muscular, unlike Thor, and a little amount of gut can be sucked in if the muscle mass is still underneath and look fit.
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In an episode of M*A*S*H, Col. Blake ends up falling for a young girl named Nancy, and every time she's within proximity, he would suck in his gut. When she leaves by the end of the episode, he says that he's actually glad she's gone, causing Hawkeye to joke "If you sucked your gut in one more time, your bellybutton would've fallen out your backside."
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Fat Flex
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My Hero Academia: All Might describes his superpower to be similar to this. Just like a normal human can puff their chest to look stronger, he too can redistribute his body's energy output to turn from a skinny bloke to a superhuman form. However, doing so puts heavy strain on his body, even more so after he got a lung ripped out in battle and so has had his transformational time halved.
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Fat Flex
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During the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, Bloodlust, Mike and the Bots mock Robert Reed's character for clearly doing this throughout the movie in order to appear to have a more Heroic Build, making straining and grunting noises when he's on screen.
 Fat Flex / int_976efc02
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Fat Flex / int_976efc02
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Fat Flex
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Dragon Ball Super has this happen to Toppo. He normally has a large midsection, but still manages to be one of the stronger fighters. He loses the gut once he becomes a God of Destruction, and gains it back after being defeated.
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Fat Flex
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In the Being Ian episode "What's Combover You?", Ken Kelly was flexing his muscles in the bathroom, and all of a sudden, it turns into a middle age pot belly, much to his shock!
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Fat Flex
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Zapp Brannigan of Futurama wears a girdle, but it still isn't enough to hide his prominent beer belly. In the episode "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela," Zapp salutes to Nixon and sucks in his gut, but when given the "at ease" command, he exhales and his gut, now twice as big, flops over his belt.
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Fat Flex
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In the beach episode of The Man Show, Jimmy Kimmel shows his son how to properly suck in his stomach when a girl walks past (note this was back when Jimmy was much heavier).
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Fat Flex / int_a2c9fa2d
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Fat Flex
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Living Books: In Arthur's Birthday, there is a rotund man at the party store. Clicking on him causes him to turn into a superhero, complete with the Heroic Build. But then his fat quickly plops down, prompting an embarrassed look on his face.
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Fat Flex
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This is a common way for fat heel wrestlers to get heat, which is to say a negative reaction, from the fans for the sheer absurdity and arrogance of the flex. John Tenta was especially noted for doing this.
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The Incredibles: Mr. Incredible (in the teaser trailer) tries sucking his gut in an attempt to put his belt on. It works... for a few seconds.
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Fat Flex
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In episode 9 of Ballmastrz: 9009, Gaz used a forbidden spell to help her lose weight before the next game, but the spell wore off, making Gaz's stomach flabby again.
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Fat Flex
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Fred from Betty Boop in "There's Something about a Soldier." In the cartoony military prep, he's laid down on a table while a machine pushes his stomach up so he'll have a more hero-ish physique.
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Fat Flex
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A commercial bumper for Cartoon Network features Johnny Bravo shirtless and doing a photography shoot. Once the cameras are off, he exhales, revealing a huge gut.
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Scooby-Doo: In the middle of Scrappy Doo's transformation near the end, he flexes and poses before suddenly gaining a muscle gut.
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Fat Flex
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Family Guy had a Cut Away Gag gag with a movie called "In-Shape Out Of Shape Guy from The 50's", which is about a tough guy character, played by Robert Mitchum, who just holds in his gut while he tries to intimidate troublemakers, but as soon as he exhales, his gut pours over his waistband.
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Fat Flex
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The Ursa Circus in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] does this if you pet/feed it enough. It first shows off its muscles, then decides to do a "strongman" pose, making it look comically buff. Then its body fat suddenly sags to the floor, giving it the appearance of a beanbag. The giant bear stands there looking confused for a few seconds.
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The Nightmare Before Christmas: In one part of "The Shadow Dance", a deleted short clip of Oogie Boogie dancing in silhouette, he raises up his girth for a few seconds before it drops back down.
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Di-Jun Huang from Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2 looks extremely ripped, but after destroying his arguments and making him lose his composure, it's revealed that he's actually fat and has just been sucking it all in this whole time. And then, much later, it's revealed that he's actually an imposter who had the real Huang murdered 10 years ago. The real one's muscles were presumably genuine.
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In the Gravity Falls episode "Dipper vs. Manliness," two separate clips from a montage form a fat flex: a clip of Mabel showing Stan how to suck in his gut for the ladies is immediately followed by a clip of Dipper and the Manotaurs relaxing and letting their bellies drop.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Fat Flex
processingCategory2
Animation Tropes
 Fat Flex
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Body Language
 Fat Flex
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Can't Stomach This Index
 Fat Flex
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Comedy Tropes
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High Fat Index
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Muscular Index
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Fat Flex
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Fat Flex
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Fat Flex
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Fat Flex
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Fat Flex