I spent years thinking cartoon falls were just bad writing, then I counted the frames in a Tom and Jerry drop

Troy Chen · 2026-10-06T10:35:03.598204+00:00

Last month I was rewatching the episode where Tom falls off a cliff and I finally paused it frame by frame on my laptop, and he drops for 11 full seconds before hitting the ground. That would mean he fell around 1,900 feet if it was real gravity, which is way higher than the cliff even looks in the wide shot. So is the rule that cartoon characters fall in slow motion, or do they just fall at whatever speed makes the gag funnier?

Vivisector

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I spent years thinking cartoon falls were just bad writing, then I counted the frames in a Tom and Jerry drop | Cartoon Logic Fails - Vivisector