Why did villains in older cartoons lift their stomachs up before fighting someone?

Cafe Society
1

So I was watching a Disney cartoon earlier (although I forget the name of it) that starred good ol’ Mickey Mouse and longtime foe Pirate Pete. As usual, right before they go to combat, Pete lifts his belly up and then lets it boink right back down, hitting the floor.

This made me remember the dozens upon dozens of times I’ve seen this in other cartoons. Someone gets thier manhood challenged and so they first thing they do is turn around, lift up their stomach with two hands and let it fall down again and then march into the fight.
What was the purpose of this move? Was it just a manly way of showing how big one was? Was this where the literal phrase of “throwing ones weight around” came from? Did people in real life used to do this? Was it just a way to get all the fat stomach out of the way before a tussle?

Inquiring minds (well, mind) want to know.

I tried to find a video of someone doing it in a cartoon but couldn’t. It’s hard to search “lifting up belly” and get the hits you want.

2

They’re trying to make themselves look like they have pecs. It’s the same thing as flexing your arm and then using your other hand to pinch the sides of the bicep so it sticks up further.

Or at least that was always the impression I had.

3

Since this is about cartoons, let’s go over to Cafe Society.

samclem GQ moderator

4

Obviously (I hope), the actions of cartoon characters are not necessarily designed to mimic actual human behavior. The idea was simply to make the character look muscular. The fact that the stomach fell to the ground is what’s known as a joke.

5

I don’t know the answer, but I did find a video for it. About the 1:20 mark.

For the record, I searched for “mickey mouse pirate pete fight”.

6

He does the same thing before going over to Minnie Mouse so it’s not a fighting thing. It looks to me more like someone with dunlop* disease adjusting their paunch.

*as in “muh belly done lopped over mah belt buckle”.

7

It’s not just him, though…I’ve seen a LOT of cartoon characters do it over the years. I agree it’s most likely they’re just trying to buff their stomach up so it looks muscular/they look bigger, but it just strikes me as a strange way to go about it.

8

Might it be just an exaggerated pulling-up of the pants?

9

I think you’re right, that it’s a caricature of someone trying to look fitter. Hitching up their belt and belly to prepare - I think there’s often a shot of someone ‘rolling/pushing up their sleeves’, too, where the ‘sleeves’ include the skin and muscles of their arms.

It’s an extreme exaggeration for humorous effect.

10

Yeah, but usually it’s very clear that they’re lifting their belly up and nowhere near their pants. Sometimes they’re not even wearing pants.

Yeah, maggenpie, makes sense.

11

I take it as adjusting their clothing before they are about to do something physical. Similar to rolling up your sleeves.

12

Probably just because it became something of a standard joke that was copied from one cartoon to another, like having a 500 pound anvil fall on you.