Hammerspace
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Hammerspace (also known as malletspace) is a fan-envisioned extradimensional, instantly accessible storage area in fiction, which is used to explain how animated, comic, and game characters can produce objects out of thin air. Typically, when multiple items are available, the desired item is available on the first try or within a handful of tries.
This phenomenon dates back to early Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies animated cartoons during the Golden Age of American animation.[1]
Origins
The phenomenon of a character producing plot-dependent items seemingly out of thin air dates back to the beginning of animated shorts during The Golden Age of American animation. Warner Bros. cartoon characters are particularly well known for often pulling all sorts of things—hammers, guns, disguises, matches, bombs, anvils, mallets—from behind their backs or just off-screen. However, this phenomenon was mostly just left to suspension of disbelief. Only decades later was the term hammerspace jokingly coined to describe the phenomenon.[citation needed]
The term itself originates from a gag common in some anime and manga. A typical example would be when a male character would anger or otherwise offend a female character, who would proceed to produce, out of thin air, an over-sized wooden rice mallet (okine) and hit him on the head with it in an exaggerated manner. The strike would be purely for comic effect, and would not have any long-lasting effects. The term was largely popularized first by fans of Urusei Yatsura and later by fans of Ranma ½. It is believed by some that the term "Hammerspace" itself was coined based on the Ranma ½ character Akane Tendo due to the fan perception that she has a tendency to produce large hammers from nowhere. In the original manga she much more frequently uses her fists and/or objects that were pictured in the nearby scenery. The anime makes more use of hammers as a comedic tool than the manga.[citation needed]
Another series that may have contributed to the term is City Hunter. One of the lead characters in City Hunter—Kaori—makes extensive use of the "transdimensional hammers" as they are sometimes called, as they are one of the two main running gags in the series; the other is the extreme lecherousness of the other main character—Ryo—which almost invariably leads to the use of said hammers. The City Hunter hammers also require more explaining in terms of storage, as they are often considerably larger than the characters themselves, and thus more likely to inspire questions like, "Where did she get that from!?" At the very least, City Hunter predates Ranma ½ by two years, and already had an extensive fanbase.[where?]
Another series that made extensive use of hammerspace was Kodomo no Omocha, where the mother of the main character would pull toy hammers of varying sizes to tap her daughter on the head to forge breaks in her ranting and offer a chance to glean understanding and wisdom. Trope-laden webcomic Okashina Okashi – Strange Candy also features Hammerspace, this time named directly as such, accessible by the weapons nut Petra.[2]
In games
The theory of Hammerspace can also be applied to many video games, as game mechanics often defy those of the real world: for instance, a character might be able to carry a sword larger than themselves without any sign of it before use, and most video game characters can carry an implausible number of tools or other objects. This is particularly visible in traditional adventure games and RPGs, an example being The Legend of Zelda. Early first person shooters tend to have the player character carry an entire arsenal of weapons (with full ammunition) without any visible drawback such as loss of pace or fatigue. In the Grand Theft Auto game series, players are capable of holding an arsenal of weaponry and multiple items and equipment in Hammerspace. This capability has more significant appearance in Grand Theft Auto V, where the characters are able to carry multiple pistols, SMGs, LMGs, assault rifles, carbines, sniper and marksman rifles, melee weaponry, throwables, rocket and grenade launchers, and a minigun all at once on themselves. In Fallout the NPCs and player use hammerspaces where they take weapons out of nowhere.
Many humorous adventures make gags on space in item inventories. In Space Quest series (III and VI), its protagonist Roger Wilco crams a full-sized ladder into his pocket. In Simon the Sorcerer, Simon similarly obtains a ladder at one point, which he stores in his hat. In The Secret of Monkey Island, as a recurring gag, Guybrush Threepwood usually barely fits an oversized item in his clothes, from a 6 foot long q-tip to a huge figurehead, or even a monkey (which is shown moving underneath his coat). At one point early in The Curse of Monkey Island, he makes a "yikes" face after sheathing a bread knife down his pants. A similar concept is evident in Sonic the Hedgehog, most notably in the person of Amy Rose, who actually materializes hammers from Hammerspace. Characters from the Kingdom Hearts series are also capable of materializing weapons from thin air and making them disappear again, notably in the case of main character Sora and his Keyblade. In Crashlands, Flux seems to have endless space to put her stuff. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the player has endless space to put their items. In many Super Mario games, the Hammer Bros. are capable of throwing an infinite supply of hammers from hammerspace.
Although there are numerous examples from the genre, Hammerspace usage is not just limited to adventure games. In The Sims 2,The Sims 3 and The Sims 4, the Sims make extensive use of Hammerspace, regularly pulling items out of their back pockets which could not possibly fit there. Examples include rakes, hairdryers, watering cans and bags of flour. In addition they have seemingly limitless personal inventories in which they can carry around almost anything, from a mobile phone to a sports car, without actually having anywhere to store it. These items are also occasionally pulled from the back pocket when used in game (as in the case of mobile phones). Although both games are supposed to mimic reality in many ways, they do still retain cartoon-like elements; Hammerspace was probably implemented to prevent Sims having to trek to a storage shed/closet/drawer etc. every time they wanted to use a certain item, something which would no doubt have been both boring for the player and impractical in terms of gameplay.
Similarly, in the sandbox game Minecraft, a player character can carry thousands of tonnes of material such as gold in the character's inventory without encumbrance, as if an empty inventory were the same as a full one. In reality, even one block of most materials in Minecraft would weigh hundreds or thousands of kilograms, and the player can carry up to 2304 blocks in their inventory. Since some blocks can be converted into multiple blocks of another type, it is possible to carry enough material to build an entire city in one's inventory invisibly.
Hammerspace is also used frequently in fighting games. In the Super Smash Bros. games, Princess Peach is said to pull a Toad out of hammerspace for a blocking move. In the Punch-Out!! series many characters can pull out objects from hammerspace.
Television
- A Kit Kat advertising campaign from the late 1980s involved a man and a woman in two separate commercials deciding they wanted something to eat. The woman pulls food items out of her purse, while the man pulls them out of his pocket, and the items they pull out before pulling out a Kit Kat bar were items that, in real life, could not easily be stored there (e.g. the woman pulls a fully intact birthday cake out of her purse, while the man pulls a large hamburger out of his pocket).
- The character of Bill Smith from The Red Green Show is often seen pulling large objects and other assorted tools out of his coveralls during the Adventures with Bill segments.
- The television series version of the Highlander franchise frequently had Duncan MacCleod produce a large samurai sword seemingly from nowhere.
- The show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic regularly has the character, Pinkie Pie appearing from behind objects much smaller than she, as well as having the ability to pull objects from seemingly out of nowhere, most notably, her party cannon.
- In an episode of Steven Universe, Steven pulls a juice box out of the hammerspace.
- On multiple occasions, Phineas and Ferb characters pull things out of nowhere. A few examples: Buford pulls out a velvet rope from hammerspace. Meap pulls out pictures. In some instances, other characters even question where these items came from.
- Milo's Backpack from the animated series Milo Murphy's Law contains whatever is needed. Objects have included helmets, seat belts, and an anchor.
- Ashi from Samurai Jack in season 5 demonstrates this ability along with the other Daughters of Aku with their weapons
- Cody from Total Drama demonstrates in two episodes to have pants with hammerspace properties. He pulls out a loaf of bread and a soda in Up The Creek, and in The Am-AH-Zon Race, was able to fit mints, hair gel, body spray, an EpiPen, X-ray glasses, and a flashlight in his pockets.
Film
- The character of Harpo Marx is often seen retrieving large numbers of items from his seemingly bottomless coat pockets.[3]
- The character of Jerry Steiner in the TV show Parker Lewis Can't Lose possessed the same capacity, often using it to feed Larry Kubiac with raw fish he pulls out of his infinite pockets.
- In Pirates! Band of Misfits, the Pirate Captain is known to stash various items inside his beard, including an umbrella, an alarm clock and his pet dodo, Polly.
- In The Mask film, Jim Carrey's character The Mask produces numerous items from pockets during a fight scene for comic effect.
- Mary Poppins's carpetbag easily holds a floor lamp, a hat stand, and other such outlandish items, and their removal from the bag is used for comic effect, and to establish her as a somewhat magical entity.
- In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Ramona Flowers pulls a hammer from Hammerspace to fight.
- The Niffler, a creature prominently featured in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), can store excessive amounts of loot in its pouch, in a manner somewhat akin to hammerspace.
Notes
- The term Hammerspace is often used synonymously with magic satchel; however, Hammerspace is an actual extra dimension where items are stored, whereas a magic satchel uses magic to either contain these items or to access Hammerspace itself.
- More often than not, non-animated occurrences in film or television are explained as a plot hole rather than Hammerspace access, and dismissed due to suspension of disbelief. Examples include the live-action Highlander TV series, where the sword-wielding Immortals often have their weapons readily available despite their lack of a suitable container or article of clothing in which to carry a concealed sword.
See also
- Bag of holding
- Bat-Mite
- Cartoon physics
- L-Space (Discworld series)
- Magic satchel
- Portable hole
- Super-Sargasso Sea
References
- Hidden Objects: The Hammerspace Phenomenon. Retrieved on October 23, 2006.
