Accordion Man

A character crushed by an Anvil on Head or other large object (e.g. piano) will often stumble away, being squashed into a pleated and flexing shape like an accordion, frequently accompanied by accordion music.

Compare to Squashed Flat.

And no, it's not a new and bizarre Robot Master.

Examples of Accordion Man include:

Advertising

• Chester Cheetah of Cheetos fame got that way from falling into a sewer.

Video Games

• Wario, when he gets slammed by a massive hammer, turns into one of these; it gives him super bouncing powers.
• Space Quest, in the falling death pictures in the third and fifth episodes.

Western Animation

• Happens to Monterey Jack in the third part of the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Five Episode Pilot "To the Rescue". When Fat Cat accidentally steps on him while running, he turns into an Accordion Mouse for a second before stumbling on along his way.
• Happens to Peter in Family Guy when, true to form, a piano falls on him.
• The Mickey Mouse cartoon The Cactus Kid (happens to Pegleg Pete, pictured at right) and others.
  • Discussed in the Walt Disney Presents episode "The Plausible Impossible", where Walt demonstrates this trope by having Donald Duck suffer this after being squashed by a falling safe.
• Frequented a lot of Tex Avery cartoons, played straight on "The Cat Who Hated People".
• Several Tom and Jerry cartoons, one time in which the Italian dog that gave Tom that injury promptly proceeded to play Tom like an actual accordion.
• And plenty of Looney Tunes shorts. A certain Coyote, Wile E. is occasionally subject to this, with appropriate sounds. On a couple of occasions, a crashing piano gives him piano keys for teeth which began spontaneously playing a song, instead of turning his body into an accordion.
  • Shout-Out: "Look at the new Dick Tracy character: Accordion Head."
  • Happened to Daffy (as Duck Dodgers) on Duck Dodgers where Porky (as Cadet) crushes him while in a small spaceship.
• It happened a couple of times in Rocko's Modern Life most notably after Rocko and Heffer crash into the ground on a cheaply made roller coaster.
• It happened to Eddy in the Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy episode "Tag, Yer Ed", after Lee Kanker slammed him head first into a wrestling mat. She then starts playing him like an actual accordion.
  • Edd suffers a similar gag in "Laugh, Ed, Laugh", getting smacked into a street lamp while trying to subdue a scam-deprived Eddy. When Ed picks him up off the ground, he's scrunched flat and has a hilarious dazed look on his face.
• An episode of KaBlam!! had Henry and June bring in the guy who invented it, but then his thank-you list was too long, so June sent down an anvil on him...and he performed the trope.
• Happened to Lucius on Jimmy Two-Shoes.
• The Jungle Book featured a variation of this: whenever Kaa gets his tail caught in some bamboo, when he frees it his tail flies back at him causing himself to recoil instantly (he is a snake), making an accordion noise as he does so.
• Happens to Scooby-Doo a couple of times, like after getting stomped on by a kangaroo.
• Happens to Wakko on Animaniacs after eating a whole stack of pizza boxes which morphs him into an accordion like shape.
• Happened to Stimpy on The Ren and Stimpy Show at least once.
• Happens a couple of times on Popeye the Sailor, mainly the ones produced by Famous Studios such as "Safari So Good" where Bluto as Tarzan crushes a crocodile and plays it like an accordion before throwing it at Popeye.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Naughty Nautical Neighbors," Patrick angrily slams his rock house closed, hitting his head in the progress. All to Squidward's joy and complete with accordion sound effects.
• The Real Ghostbusters used this gag in the episode "Stay Tooned", where Sammy K. Ferrett drops an anvil on his guest and plays her like a real accordion after she becomes flattened and folded up.
• Timon and Pumbaa featured this gag occasionally, like when the titular duo got head-butted by a goat guard when trying to get to the border of France.
• Played straight on the Woody Woodpecker cartoon "The Woody Woodpecker Polka".