History Main / LowerHalfReveal

** In [[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E3TheBullyJustOneBite "Just One Bite"]], after [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsSquidwardTentacles Squidward Tentacles]] gets addicted to eating Krabby Patties [=SpongeBob=] warns him of the consequences. Squidward asks [=SpongeBob=] if he'll blow up after eating too many Krabby Patties, to which the latter responds that it will go to his thighs first. Cue Squidward's gigantic thighs showing up after being shown from the waist up in the previous scene.

* ''VideoGame/{{Ripper}}'': During Quinlan's first meeting with Soap Beattie, the latter is sitting behind the front counter of his ship, lower half out of view. During the conversation, Quinlan asks why Catherine was seeing him, hinting that he suspects that Catherine was up to something...whereupon Soap emerges from behind the desk, revealing that he's in a wheelchair.

* This happens in ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'', as Lord Farquaad's short stature is revealed to the audience, Shrek and Fiona.

* ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}:'' In "the Gallifrax Protocol", Grape, Peanut, Tarot, and Max, all four bipedal, anthropomorphic animals, travel to a different universe. After they enter it, all seems normal, aside from the characters being placed oddly low on the panels. Grape notices she's suddenly the same height as the diminutive Tarot and looks down...

* In the ''WebVideo/CollegeHumor'' parody short [[https://youtu.be/LO2aCVlnLow?si=SLKSz50umJKfjarb "Ice Age in 4D",]] an alternate timeline in the 6D segment results in one of a pair of twin girls disappearing; her distraught sister is delighted when the screen flashes and she reappears. As the sisters happily hug, the camera pans out to reveal that they now have the lower bodies of giant slugs.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'': The [[SorcerousOverlord Lunatic Magician]] captures [[spoiler:Falin Touden]] in Chapter 29; as he says he'll [[ReforgedIntoAMinion give them a new shape]] to replace their "inconvenient" body, their lower half starts to bubble with magic. When they reappear in Chapter 37, it's as [[spoiler:a giant chimera with a feathered dragon body in place of their legs.]]
* ''{{Anime/Paprika}}'': [[spoiler: Dr Chiba discovers that Chairman Inui is behind the Parade Dream infesting the dreamworld, so once she's awake again, she goes to confront him at his greenhouse in the real world. Halfway through the conversation, he inexplicably gets out of his wheelchair and appears to glide across the floor, legs hidden by dense ferns. It's not until he moves out into the open that it's discovered that his lower half has been replaced by a huge mass of roots and creepers - revealing that Chiba is still dreaming and Inui is hacking the DC Mini to prevent her from waking up.]]

* Lampshaded in a silver-age "ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}" story. Students comment that it's too bad that their professor was wounded in Vietnam and uses a wheelchair. The reader knows that the professor is Jerro, a merman, and the wheelchair conceals a tank of water in which the lower half of his body is submerged.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', in that when the Prince first sees Ariel, he only sees her from the waist up, and believes she is a beautiful human: he does not know she is a mermaid.

--->'''Richard:''' I feel peculiar when I see these terrible white things.
--->'''Hyacinth:''' What terrible white things?
--->'''Richard:''' My knees! Why the devil do I have to wear shorts?
--->'''Hyacinth:''' If shorts are good enough for the Royal Navy, I see no reason why you should complain.

* ''Series/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': When Grover shows up at the window of the Jacksons' rental cabin in the middle of a storm, Percy is at first mad at him since Grover recently got him expelled...until Grover comes inside and Percy sees Grover's legs. Percy tries to get the anxious Grover's attention, before finally blurting out, "Grover, [[WhamLine why is there half a goat in your pants]]?" The camera pans down to Grover's goat legs poking out of his shorts, revealing he's a satyr.

[[folder:Rides (Theme Park)]]
* ''Ride/TheHauntedMansion'': In the Stretching Room portion of most versions of the ride, what appear to be simple portraits [[CreepyChangingPainting turn out to be more sinister]] as the room's stretching reveals the bottom half of the pictures, showing the subjects in macabre situations. By way of example, one man is revealed to be standing atop a barrel of gunpowder holding a candle.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/Prey2006'': When Tommy finally [[spoiler:finds Jen, his girlfriend]], they're kept in some kind of medical pod, but seem to be intact. Then they complain that they can't feel their legs, and the pod bursts open. It turns out they've been fused to a monster from the waist down, and that monster wants Tommy's blood, forcing Tommy to kill them in self-defence and [[MercyKill as an act of mercy.]]

[[folder:Webcomic]]
* In ''Webcomic/BratHalla'', the young Norse gods are sent to school where the Goddess Hel is their homeroom teacher. She outwardly takes the form of a sympathetic and approachable girl at most in her early twenties. But she is also the Goddess of Death and, as she reminds her students, has a MeaningfulName. When some of the boys in her class develop the inevitable crush and begin to behave inappropriately, she employs Shock Therapy to get them out of it and shows them exactly why [[FanDisservice she never wears anything other than fully covering jeans on her lower body]]. [[note]] The Goddess Hel is half living woman and half rotting corpse. In this webcomic, Hel is fully living female ''from the waist up''. When her jeans come off, the boys are suitably horrified.[[/note]]

* Itty Bitty from ''WebComic/KidRadd'' is a shopkeeper NPC, and is thus only ever seen from behind a counter. When he first steps away from the counter, it's revealed his entire lower body isn't even rendered and he's just a floating torso.

[[folder:Web Original]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}'': Used as the FramingDevice twist of [[spoiler:Evelyn Cream's]] last appearance (at least, before the Creator/NeilGaiman continuation). The first few panels are close-ups of his face, with a completely serene expression as he [[HowWeGotHere narrates the events leading up to this point]]. The ''last'' page reveals all this internal-monologuing is happening in his last second of life after [[OffWithHisHead his head got torn clean off his body]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'': [[ShapeshiftingFailure Maui has trouble shapeshifting again]] right after reclaiming his magic hook, and at one point, he [[PartialTransformation has a shark head and fins atop his human legs]]. After some attempts to change himself back, he appears to have regained his human top-half... only for him to fall over and realise that his legs have turned into a shark tail.

* ''Film/TheCryingGame'': When Fergus and Dil become intimate and he starts to undress her, the camera pans down to Dil's groin area and the music stops as Fergus (and the audience) learn Dil's secret: [[spoiler: she has a penis]].
* ''Film/DueDate'': When trying to cash a wire transfer at Western Union, Peter explodes at the desk clerk, insulting his veteran status, only for the guy to roll from behind the desk in a wheel chair, and then proceed to beat him with a [[RetractableWeapon Telescope Baton]].

* ''Literature/CallahansCrosstimeSaloon'': In the last story of the first book, bartender Mike Callahan is moving around behind the bar as usual, getting drinks and so on. Then narrator Jake Stonebender gets an accidental look behind the bar, and sees that Callahan is sitting on thin air with his legs in the lotus position.

* ''Literature/FrogAndToad'': In "The Swim", Toad asks Frog not to look while he gets into the water, because he is wearing an OldTimeyBathingSuit. Some other animals come along, and refuse to look away when Toad wants to get out of the water, so he has to reveal his swimsuit to them, and they all laugh.

* ''Literature/WildCards'': In the story ''A Dose of Reality'', a reclusive female doctor that has been indocrinated by her bigoted, [[FantasticRacism anti-wild card family]], goes to work in the Jokertown Clinic initially just so she could get her hands into research that would allow her to craft a virus to kill all wild carders. When she first meets Dr. Bradley Finn, she sees him behind a counter and is attracted to this handsome stranger. He comes from behind the counter, and is revealed as a centaur, causing her to be appalled. The whole point of the story is how she [[DefrostingIceQueen gradually realizes]] Finn really is the marvellous, handsome man she initially thought he was.
* ''Literature/TheWorstWitch'': In the book ''The Worst Witch Strikes Again'', Enid pokes her head around Mildred's door, tells Mildred not laugh, then brings the rest of herself into the room, revealing her sports kit: a pair of vast black shorts pulled up underneath her arms, bought by her mother, who buys everything with growing room for her.

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': In "Potato" in series 2, Blackadder meets Captain Rum, who has his legs hidden, and says that he bets that Blackadder has never seen his own legs sliced clean off. When Blackadder says "neither have yours", Captain Rum reveals that his legs are two wooden stumps.

---> '''Richard:''' I feel peculiar when I see these terrible white things.
---> '''Hyacinth:''' What terrible white things?
---> '''Richard:''' My knees! Why the devil do I have to wear shorts?
---> '''Hyacinth:''' If shorts are good enough for the Royal Navy, I see no reason why you should complain.

* ''Series/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': When Grover shows up at the window of Jacksons' rental cabin in the middle of a storm, Percy is at first mad at him since Grover recently got him expelled... until Grover comes inside and Percy sees Grover's legs. Percy tries to get the anxious Grover's attention, before finally blurting out, "Grover, [[WhamLine why is there half a goat in your pants]]?" The camera pans down to Grover's goat legs poking out of his shorts, revealing he's a satyr.

* ''Ride/TheHauntedMansion'': In the Stretching Room portion of most versions of the ride, what appear to be simple portraits [[CreepyChangingPainting turn out to be more sinister]] as the room's stretching reveals the bottom half of the pictures, showing the subjects in macabre situations. By way of example, one man is revealed to be standing atop a barrel of gundpower holding a candle.

* ''Theatre/TheRockyHorrorShow'': Dr. Scott is a wheelchair using scientist who has come to the castle to investigate [=Frank-N-Furter=] and crew wishing to uncover that they are aliens. He wears a business suit and has a blanket over his legs until Frank activates a device that makes everyone join in a floor show against their will, after which he is forced to get up and dance revealing that he is wearing stockings and high heels and women's underwear.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'': The introduction to Quelaag shows off a beautiful, naked woman [[GodivaHair barely covered up by her hair]]... and then the camera pans down, revealing she's fused to a horrific spider from the waist down.

* ''VideoGame/{{Ripper}}'': During Quinlan's first meeting with Soap Beattie, the latter is sitting behind the front counter of his ship, lower half out of view. During the conversation, Quinlan asks why Catherine was seeing him, hinting that he suspects that Catherine was up to something... whereupon Soap emerges from behind the desk, revealing that he's in a wheelchair.

* ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}:'' In "the Gallifrax Protocol", Grape, Peanut, Tarot and Max, all four bipedal, anthropomorphic animals, travel to a different universe. After they enter it, all seems normal, aside from the characters being placed oddly low on the panels. Grape notices she's suddenly the same height as the diminutive Tarot and looks down...

* In ''Webcomic/TheWotch'' this is how the readers are introduced to minor character Allison "Ally" Taverner. She's a convenience store clerk and owner, in her first appearance Jason asks her if she's seen anything unusual that evening whilst on the search for a werecat (long story). Ally replies from behind her counter no it's been a quiet night... but after Jason leaves we cut to the other side of the counter [[https://www.thewotch.com/?comic=moon-over-tandy-15 revealing shes a centaur]]. A later strip reveals she's under a perception filter spell that only certain people can see through.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'': In the season one episode "[[Recap/AmericanDragonJakeLongS01E02DragonBreath Dragon Breath]]", Jake brings a girl to his school dance so he could impress his crush. One of the girls that Fu Dog introduces is Veronica, seemingly looked normal behind a food cart until it was removed to reveal her [[SpiderPeople Eight hairy spider legs]]. Jake immediately retreated.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Often a RunningGag with news anchor Chet Ubetcha. He's often shown sitting at his newsdesk before some outside force reveals his short stature.

* ''Ride/TheHauntedMansion'': In the Stretching Room portion of most versions of the ride, what appear to be simple portraits [[CreepyChangingPainting turn out to be more sinister]] as the room's stretching reveals the bottom half of the pictures, showing the subjects in macabre situations. By way of example, one man is revealed to be standing atop a barrel of gundpower holding a candle.

Subtrope of RevealShot, or PlotTwist. Often overlaps with BehindTheBlack, or BigLittleMan, if the reveal shows somebody to be unexpectedly tall or short.

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

** In [[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E3TheBullyJustOneBite "Just One Bite"]], after Squidward gets addicted to eating Krabby Patties [=SpongeBob=] warns him of the consequences. Squidward asks [=SpongeBob=] if he'll blow up after eating too many Krabby Patties, to which the latter responds that it will go to his thighs first. Cue Squidward's gigantic thighs showing up after being shown from the waist up in the previous scene.
** At the end of the episode "Clams", Mr. Krabs rises out of the sea after a vicious struggle with the clam that ate his millionth dollar. At first, only his head and his left arm (holding the money) can be seen; he claims that after much struggle, he and the clam had a deal, which is how he can get his money back. When Spongebob asks him what the clam got in return, Krabs jumps up into the ship saying "nothing important" - while he has ''lost every part of his body sans his head and left arm''.

[[folder:Films — Animated]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* ''Theatre/TheRockyHorrorShow'' Dr. Scott is a wheelchair using scientist who has come to the castle to investigate [=Frank-N-Furter=] and crew wishing to uncover that they are aliens. He wears a business suit and has a blanket over his legs until Frank activates a device that makes everyone join in a floor show against their will, after which he is forced to get up and dance revealing that he is wearing stockings and high heels and womens underwear.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

[[folder:Webcomic]]

* ''Film/TheCryingGame'', when Fergus and Dil become intimate and he starts to undress her, the camera pans down to Dil's groin area and the music stops as Fergus (and the audience) learn Dil's secret: [[spoiler: she has a penis]].
* ''Film/DueDate'' when trying to cash a wire transfer at Western Union, Peter explodes at the desk clerk, insulting his veteran status, only for the guy to roll from behind the desk in a wheel chair, and then proceed to beat him with a [[RetractableWeapon Telescope Baton]].

* In the Russian comedy sketch show ''Series/Big Difference'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOiHxMoNOyw one short]] was parodying the show ''Sex with Anfisa Chekhova''. The MsFanservice dressed actress stands up at one point, showing she is wearing plain pants and house slippers, and explains she is sitting behind the desk all the time anyway. The real Anfisa Chekhova was sitting in the audience watching it. Once it was done, she came up onto the scene and stated that part is very much TruthInTelevision.