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They say this line every time in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 cartoon opening:

However, what does heroes in a half shell really mean? A tortoise has a shell all around its body, and the teenage mutant ninja turtles seem to have the part of their shell on their back as well as on their front. So why are they heroes in a half shell?

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    Turtle power! (Sorry, you can't just end your question with those lyrics and not prompt that response) From wiktionary, "Any half of a roughly spherical-like object; any dome-shaped object." en.wiktionary.org/wiki/half_shell
    – n_b
    Sep 23, 2017 at 3:39
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    @n_b but he turtles have their full shell
    – user13267
    Sep 23, 2017 at 3:44
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    I'm going to suggest poetic license. It is a kids' tv show theme song, after all. It's also possible the song writer doesn't know the bottom of a turtle is also protected by a shell.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Sep 23, 2017 at 13:56
  • Now I'm wondering what lyrical benefit "half-shell" has over "hard shell"...
    – Engineer Toast
    Sep 25, 2017 at 13:12

5 Answers 5

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This is a reference to (or pun on) the idiom "on the half shell", which is a way of serving shellfish (but not turtles). For example:

on the half shell
of raw shellfish, served in the bottom shell, chilled and with condiments

—Dictionary.com

on the half shell
served raw, with seasonings, on a half shell
said of oysters, etc.

—Collins English Dictionary

It seems likely to me that the writer of the theme song identified this idiom with the old-fashioned practice of serving turtle soup in the turtle's shell. For example:

Accounts in the 18th and 19th centuries of massive parties known as “turtle frolics” suggest they were more popular than hog barbecues and oyster roasts, with descriptions of servants bearing three-foot-long upturned turtle shells filled with hot turtle stew for large crowds.

—Jack Hitt, What Ever Happened to Turtle Soup?, Saveur, 2015

Since Shredder often vowed to turn the Ninja Turtles into turtle soup, it seems likely to me that the two culinary references are related. While the idiom "on the half shell" is not applied to turtle cuisine in real life, turtle soup served in the upper part of the turtle's shell would indeed be "in a half shell" in literal terms. So, to me, the line is effectively winking at Shredder's failed threat that he would dine on soup made of his enemies.

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    Sorry seems a bit far-fetched to me... Reminded me of my highschool English teacher who sought the most far-fetched social symbolism in the literature we had to read
    – nluigi
    Sep 23, 2017 at 7:42
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    @nluigi But this isn't science; the most logically simple answer is not the correct one. This song-lyric and story-writing art, where any answer that could make sense to the audiences at the time is a good answer. So recognizer is completely correct; but there may be additional correct answer too. It seems your literature teachers failed to teach you that basic principle of art: that the spectrum of understandings that any and all audience members will have is the point.
    – Slipp D. Thompson
    Sep 23, 2017 at 8:41
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    @SlippD.Thompson - On the contrary, in this case the most logical and simple answer is the correct one. And this is the most simple answer. On this site, we generally do believe in a single correct answer, and do our best to discern the author’s intent. Sometimes, of course, it isn’t clear…but this doesn’t appear to be one of those times.
    – Adamant
    Sep 23, 2017 at 8:55
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    @Adamant Sorry, that's not how art works. If there is a “correct” answer, it would be up to the writers of the song and them alone. Unless you can find a quote from them, you can't define any answer as the correct answer. But as a whole, art is subjective; any applicable solution is correct. This SE Answer covers 1 solution, and other answers below cover other solutions. Considering how likely it is that the lyric is a pun, it's plausible that all of the solutions brought up in the SE Answers here were all intended by the author.
    – Slipp D. Thompson
    Sep 23, 2017 at 9:01
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    Even as a 10 year old I thought the meaning of the lyrics was pretty obviously this. I'm a bit surprised there's any dispute.
    – KutuluMike
    Sep 24, 2017 at 3:42
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Their shell doesn't go all the way around their body though, at least not in this show. Look:

enter image description here

This is from this same theme song. They have some yellow shell-type surface in the front, but it isn't connected to what is clearly a half-shell on their back.

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  • I always thought the reason they looked like this in the cartoon was only for aesthetic purposes and they were supposed to have their full shells. After all, they have the ability to hide inside their shells in the movie
    – user13267
    Sep 23, 2017 at 11:10
  • @user13267 I've never seen the movie, but I'm guessing it doesn't sing about them being on a half-shell :) Plus there is more than one movie. Here is a shot from the 2016 movie (frontrowcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/IMG_1304.png), where they have the same shell type. I think it's perfectly possible that the animated series' character artist's reasoning for the design was aesthetic. Plus there is the shellfish / soup joke. But, in the end, that's the character design,
    – Misha R
    Sep 23, 2017 at 14:25
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The best explanation I can offer is that regular turtles can withdraw their bodies into their shells to virtually eliminate all exposure

Since the TMNT are more humanoid, they can't do this. So they have a shell that essentially protects half their body. A "half shell", if you will

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    aren't the supposed to be able to inside their shells?
    – user13267
    Sep 23, 2017 at 3:55
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    @user13267 Seems to depend on what version you're talking about. While there's some visual gags with it, the most they seem to be able to do is withdraw their heads. I don't recall them doing it to protect their limbs (but, then again, kids shows don't show cuts or blood)
    – Machavity
    Sep 23, 2017 at 4:01
  • they did it in the movie I think, but did they ever do that in the cartoon?
    – user13267
    Sep 23, 2017 at 4:02
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    The turtle in this picture has a half-shell, plus a breastplate sort of thing. A turtle with a full shell (i.e., a spherical one) wouldn't be able to walk, not unless it had very long legs.
    – Harry Johnston
    Sep 23, 2017 at 5:54
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    @Machavity, a turtle's shell can be described either as a shell or as a half shell - English is funny that way. The phrase "half shell" doesn't mean "half of the amount of shell that is normal for turtles" it means "forming half of a sphere".
    – Harry Johnston
    Sep 23, 2017 at 21:34
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Biology aside, I'm pretty sure the lyrics are just a nod to the existing hipness of the surfer/skateboard culture at the time (late 80's) where the use of surfer slang is spreading by the kids/turtles.

bummer", "dude", "bogus", "radical", "far-out", "tubuloso", "bodacious", and possibly the most recognized, "cowabunga"

These catch-words are surfer slang.

The phrase "heroes in a half-shell" is their way of incorporating this culture (or being a part of it) in replacing "half-pipe" with "half-shell".

TL;DR version: It's cool and hip jive from the late 80's.

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I think that the reference "heroes in a half shell” refers to their mutation, being half humanoid and half turtle.

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    Welcome to the site. If you have another question, please ask it by clicking the Ask Question button.
    – amflare
    Feb 13, 2018 at 16:45
  • This seems like an attempt to answer the question. It would be best to edit it so that it reads like an answer and not a question.
    – Blackwood
    Feb 13, 2018 at 17:06

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