Cartoon Physics 101: What is Hammerspace?

It's time for a little lesson in cartoon physics. You probably don't know what hammerspace is, or at least you aren't familiar with the term. However, you will probably know what I'm talking about once I explain it. The definition of hammerspace is "a fan-envisioned, extradimensional, instantly accessible storage area in fiction." Or in simple terms it's when a cartoon character, like let's say Bugs Bunny, somehow pulls a mallet out of his pocket, even though the mallet is too big to fit in his pocket. Bugs Bunny didn't actually reach into his pocket, he actually reached into another dimension, hammerspace, to grab the item.

You've probably seen the use of hammerspace quite often in cartoons, especially in Warner Brother cartoons. Cartoon characters are often pulling guns, disguises, bombs, anvils and mallets out of nowhere. However, hammerspace is not just found in Loony Tunes.

Hammerspace can also be found in the popular cartoon Transformers. One of the most well known characters on Transformers is the leader of the Decepticons Megatron. Megatron in his human-like form is the size of a giant robot but he can then transform into a gun small enough to fit in one of the other Decepticons' hands. The reason this is possible is because when Megatron transforms the additional mass goes into hammerspace.

Hammerspace is also useful in explaining many video game aspects. In the video game Final Fantasy VII Cloud carries a sword that is pretty much bigger than he is. So when Cloud isn't wielding his sword where can he possibly put it? Cloud doesn't have a place on him that a sword that big could actually fit so the only possible explanation is that when Cloud isn't wielding his sword it is in hammerspace.

Hammerspace is also how you can explain the amount of items you can carry in video games, especially role-playing games. In one of my favorite games, Final Fantasy III, you can have up to 99 potions, 99 hi-potions, 99 phoenix downs, and 99 antidotes and so on. But in reality one character, or even the entire group of four, wouldn't be able to carry that many items on them. The reason they are allowed to have so many items and have them all readily available is because the items are in hammerspace where the characters can just reach in and get them.

First person shooters also are very famous for using hammerspace. In many first person shooters you can accumulate many weapons as you progress in the game. For example in Metroid Prime, Samus can acquire a Wave beam, a Charge Beam, a Super Missle, a Power Beam, an Ice Beam, a Power Beam and a Plasma Beam and yet when you see a third person shot of Samus you don't see seven beams hanging off her back. That is because when a character in a first person shooter switches from one weapon to the other they put one weapon into hammerspace and retrieve another one in its place. .

Hammerspace isn't only found in cartoons, video games or other animated things. It can also be found in live action instances too. For example hammerspace can be found on none other than Sesame Street. Oscar the Grouch lives in a garbage can that is seemingly just a normal garbage can. However, inside the garbage can Oscar the Grouch somehow has enough room for swimming pool, Oscar's pet elephant, a hippopotamus, a fire-breathing dragon, a goat, a pig, and other farm animals.

Nobody has determined a certain set of rules for Hammerspace though. Is there a limit to how many items you can put in Hammerspace? In Final Fantasy III there is a limit of 99 of one item but that is clearly just a rule of the game and not Hammerspace. After all if you're allowed 99 potions and 99 Hi-Potions then why wouldn't hammerspace allow you to have 98 potions and 100 Hi-Potions instead?

It is also unclear if the items in hammerspace have to belong to a certain person in order to be removed. If Bugs Bunny wants to pull out a mallet and hit somebody with it then does he have to plan ahead of time and put a mallet in hammerspace? Or can he just reach into hammerspace and take a mallet that Daffy Duck left there? Could Bugs Bunny reach into hammerspace and take Megatron's additional mass and hit Daffy Duck with a huge chunk of metal? Could Daffy Duck retaliate by reaching into hammerspace and grabbing a Final Fantasy potion and Samus' Power Beam? There is still a lot that is unknown about hammerspace.