Ribcage Stomach

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This Is Gonna Suck

Well, it looks as though our heroes have been Swallowed Whole and must find a way to escape. The predator in question may be a whale, a dinosaur, a dragon, an Eldritch Abomination, or... Wait, why is the creature hollowed out? And why are we seeing ribs in their stomach?

The Ribcage Stomach is an arguably stock trope employed whenever one or more characters finds themselves eaten, and a subtrope of Artistic License Biology - the interior of a predator that eats someone looks like the inside of the ribcage, devoid of any internal organs. In video games, this is a common trait of the Womb Level.

A common aversion of this trope is a depiction of the inside of the stomach as the inside of a meaty balloon, with acid dripping down the walls for good measure.

Compare Just Eat Him.

Examples of Ribcage Stomach include:

Advertising

• This Mountain Dew commercial.

Anime and Manga

• Fullmetal Alchemist has an interesting variation: After Lust dies, Gluttony goes on a rampage. He gets a ribcage mouth.
  • Partially justified in that he's a Homunculus to start with, and in the middle of a Philosopher Stone powered transformation. It also doesn't lead to his stomach but some sort of Pocket Dimension.

Film

• In Disney's Pinocchio, the inside of Monstro is depicted like this.
• Averted in Finding Nemo, where Dory and Marlin are both trapped inside the whale's mouth.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

• Paintings of Jonah and the whale usually play this trope straight.

Video Games

• The Womb Level in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.
• Another Game Boy game, Balloon Kid, also has a stage set inside a whale.

Web Original

• In Homestar Runner, this trope is played straight in the Teen Girl Squad Decemberween special. It is later averted in the Stinkoman Thanksgiving special.
• The eighth item in Cracked.com's Real Old-Timey Photograph That Will Give You Nightmares is of an amusement park's souvenir shop themed this way.

Western Animation

• In an episode of Xiaolin Showdown, Dojo is accidentally let out of his cage during the periodic hour when he becomes evil, and then he swallows the four Xiaolin Monks whole. They eventually escape, and Dojo got better.
• In the "Game of Peril" episode of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, this trope is in play when the Ant Hill Mob are swallowed by a whale.
• The shark in the House of Mouse short "Mickey and the Seagull".
• Dragon Tales did this with a rhinoceros.
• Camp Lazlo takes this trope even further by incorporating a ribcage and a uvula into a giant bird's stomach. The latter has some plot relevance.