so is thing from the addams family the ghost of someone whose hand got cut off, or a hand-shaped monster?
oh i know the actual explanation to this! so if you look through the original charles addams cartoons, pretty soon you’ll find a random guy in the background, just watching the family
so originally that was thing, he was just like a guy that nobody interacted with or acknowledged.
but when the 60s show was trying to adapt things, they figured since you already don’t see much of the thing, why not see even less of him, and have him just be a hand that can pop out of boxes, now they don’t need to have another regular cast member, they can just get ted cassidy to do it. but the implication was supposed to be that there was more of the thing you just weren’t seeing.
anyways then the whole disembodied hand thing became very recognizable, so by the time the 90s movies rolled around thing was known not for being a guy we see only the hands of, but a guy who is only a hand
so technically there was originally more of the thing that he was connected to and later removed from, but i think in later media they just go with the idea that he was always a hand
