Pain-Powered Leap

A common Amusing Injury in cartoons is for a character receiving an injury -- especially to the posterior -- to jump impossibly high into the air, usually accompanied by a drawn-out "YEEEEEOOOOOWWWWW!" Occasionally happens in live-action wacky comedy as well.

Looney Tunes is the Trope Codifier for Pain-Powered Leaps. Though it was used in other cartoons, Looney Tunes is the one that most people recognize as the source of the popularity of this trope, as well as the reason that perhaps its most common method of execution is needle pricks to the hindquarters.

But it doesn't have to involve needles -- among other things it also often coincides with a Rump Roast or a Literal Ass-Kicking. See also Surprise Jump and Death Throws for similar effects.

Examples of Pain-Powered Leap include:

Anime and Manga

• In Naruto, Team 7's bell test challenge against Kakashi involved the unveiling of his secret technique, "One Thousand Years of Death". The move actually isn't what it sounds like - Kakashi simply strikes Naruto in the rectum before propelling him several feet away into air (with much hollering from Naruto). It turns out later that the skill has a much more practical application beyond comedy. During his climactic battle with Gaara, Naruto realizes that the technique's goal is to target the blind spot of the user's opponent; Naruto decides to get behind Gaara, substitute exploding tags for his fingers, and Stuff Blowing Up ensues.
• Near the end of the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! episode with the Dedede dolls in it, Tiff buries one of the said Dedede dolls in the ground to prevent it from menacing anyone, since the doll's movements are actually based on King Dedede's own movements. This results in King Dedede nosediving into the ground as well, but then a mole shows up and bites the doll, causing King Dedede to leap back out screaming in pain, and starts menacing other people one last time using the doll as a pawn. Kirby then stops the doll once and for all by swallowing it up, and this causes King Dedede to for some reason get shot up into space and orbit a planet shaped like him.
• In the Hot Springs Episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kamina is trying to look into the lady side of the bathouse through the impossibly tall wall that separates both sides. While he tries to see while riding on Simon's shoulders, he asks Gimmy to "find a hole". Gimmy ends up finding Simon's..." personal hole" and sticks his finger in it, which causes Simon to jump in pain high enough to get a glimpse of the other side. When Kamina finds out what he managed, he asks Gimmy to poke him as well.
• In One Piece, this was used as part of a way to get some people to a high location in a very short amount of time (because the heroes were dealing with something time sensitive).

Film

• In the Disney film version of Beauty and the Beast, Cogsworth slides down the stair banister and jabs Lefou in the butt with a sword, causing this to happen.
• Banzai the hyena in Disney's The Lion King jumps about 30 feet into the air after he is knocked into a bramble thicket by the other hyenas.
• This is a plot point in the animated version of The Phantom Tollbooth. King Azaz is asking if there are any volunteers to help Milo on his quest, and at first no one comes forth. However, the Spelling Bee sneaks up and stings the Humbug in the butt, causing the Humbug to stand up suddenly and making everyone think he was volunteering. Later on, in Milo's car Humbug exhibits a delayed reaction and finally leaps up in the air with a scream (and apparently lands right back in the car).
• In Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Yosemite Sam jumps all the way from Toontown when his butt is lit on fire.
• In An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, Cat R. Waul jumps straight through the ceiling after Fievel stabs him in the behind with a fork.

Newspaper Comics

• In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin does this moments after Hobbes assures him that there isn't a bee about to sting him—it's Opposite Day, and there was one.

Video Games

• This happens to Mario whenever he touches the lava in Mario 3D platform games, beginning with the Lethal Lava Land in Super Mario 64.
• In the PC game Donald Duck Goin' Quackers, Donald does this if he touches lava.
• Link does this in The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword and The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker when he lands in lava.

Western Animation

• Happens to Wile E. Coyote in a few of the Looney Tunes shorts. In "To Beep or Not To Beep", the roadrunner's speed causes telephone poles and cacti beside the road to be uprooted and causes a bridge to contract just after he passes over it. When Wile E. falls through where said bridge used to be, one of the cacti falls as well. The standard top-down view of Wile E. falling is reversed with Wile E. coming back up all the way back up to the top of the cliff howling in pain.
  • In "Tired and Feathered" the Coyote attaches a motor and propeller to his back to fly, but the propeller chops his tail and causes him to jump off the screen.
  • Daffy Duck as The Scarlet Pumpernickel scales a high wall by pinching himself with a needle in the butt.
  • In the Looney Tunes short "A Tale Of Two Kitties", Babbitt gets his partner Catstello up a ladder by pricking him in the butt with a needle.
• On the Andy Panda cartoon "Fish Fry", a fish bites a cat on the finger, who reacts by jumping up hundreds of feet in the air.
• In "Red Hot Riding Hood", Wolfie sticks Grandma in the butt with a needle and she jumps through the roof of her penthouse. The sticking is usually edited out when shown on television, so you just see Wolfie holding the needle and then it cuts straight to the jump.
• Many was the time in Tom and Jerry when Tom would get his butt pricked with a pin by Jerry or have something heavy fall on his tail, always resulting in one of two hilarious Stock Screams.