Basic Trope: A character is literally flattened by an external force, mostly for comedic effect.
- Straight: Veronica Vixen is hit and crushed by a steamroller. She is reduced to less than an inch in thickness, but gets up, seemingly none the worse for wear.
- Exaggerated:
- Veronica is somehow reduced to a molecule in thickness. Inexplicably, she survives.
- Veronica is trampled, run over, and steamrolled ...and stepped on by a little old lady with a cane.
- Downplayed: Veronica is only slightly squished—still, that would have killed a normal human.
- Justified: Veronica has super-elasticity.
- Inverted: Balloon Belly or Pain-Powered Leap
- Subverted: At first it looks like the steamroller flattened Veronica, but a subsequent change in camera angle reveals she was just driven into a vixen-shaped hole in the ground.
- Double Subverted: Dazed, Veronica climbs out of the hole and stumbles onto a firmer patch of road, just as the steamroller returns to retrieve the driver's forgotten lunchbox...
- Parodied:
- Veronica is flattened so thin she seems to have disappeared into thin air.
- Veronica is squashed, plastered to the rolls, and furiously protesting.
- Zig-Zagged: Veronica is trying to cross the street. It looks clear so she steps out and is immediately run down by a semi. After she pops back into shape she is more cautious and checks both ways twice. She gingerly puts one foot on the street and nothing happens. Thinking it's safe she takes another step and a semi runs her down again. Frustrated, she runs across the street as traffic buzzes by her on all sides. Miraculously she makes it to the other side and pats herself down. She made it. Defiant, she points at the street and shouts "Hah!"...then a semi runs her over on the sidewalk.
- Averted: Veronica is never harmed.
- Enforced: This is a studio executive's favorite gag so the writers have to find a way to work it in at least once an episode, much to Veronica's chagrin.
- Implied: Veronica, after declaring she's finally getting revenge on that steamroller driver, is seen grumpily walking away from a construction site before turning to her side and revealing she is paper-thin.
- Lampshaded: "Oof... hey, what the heck? I know I've been trying to lose weight, but this is ridiculous!"
- Invoked: Veronica's kid brother Floyd deliberately pushes her in front of the steamroller so it'll squash her...
- Exploited: ...after which he folds her flattened body into a paper crane and puts her on display on the living room table.
- Defied: Veronica is flattened and killed.
- Discussed: Veronica is teaching a class of new toons the ins and outs of Toon Physics and gives the class a demonstration of being flattened by a steamroller.
- Conversed: Alice and Bob watch Veronica as she is plowed over by a steamroller.Alice: "A bit played out, don't you think?"Bob: "Yeah, the steamroller is old hat. Why not try something more creative?"Veronica: [peeling herself off the asphalt] "Right, next time I want to get run over, I'll pick something else."
- Deconstructed: The compression forces all the air out of Veronica's lungs and renders her windpipe far too narrow to function properly. She dies of asphyxiation so quickly her physical state is irrelevant.
- Reconstructed: The moment Veronica's soul comes out, she quicky gives her body mouth-to-mouth, inflating it like a balloon, before diving back in and letting out all the extra air.
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