Big Little Man: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A [[Visual Pun]] where an extremely short character is introduced in a manner that makes them appear much taller than they actually are. Also the inverse, where someone ([[Attack of the
A subtrope is [[Big Shadow, Little Creature]], where this is done via a large shadow cast on the wall. [[Depth Deception]] is the [[Super-Trope]] -- all examples that don't involve people should go there. May involve the use of [[Hitler Cam]]. See also [[Mister Big]].
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* Mushu from ''[[Mulan]]'' put a lot of effort into his [[Incredibly Lame Pun|big entrance]].
* ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]''. Susan Murphy is captured by the government after [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever|growing to a height of 49 feet 11 inches]] and wakes up in a large, empty room with furniture the same scale as her. At first she (and the audience) is unsure whether she is normal size or not, until she steps on a small chair and crushes it.
** The inverse happens a short time later when a vast door opens and General W. R. Monger (tiny compared to the [[Attack of the
** And it happened a third time when Dr. Cockroach is trying to shrink Susan back to normal [[Lightning Can Do Anything|with electricity]]. When she comes to, she sees the others standing over her and she thinks she's small again. Turns out they were just standing over her face.
* ''[[Shrek]]''. Our first glimpse of Lord Farquaad involves him striding dramatically along a corridor, camera focused on his face or body [[Hitler Cam|at a strange angle]], then when the camera and scenery go still, he's revealed to be maybe half the height of the guards. The gag is repeated when princess Fiona first meets Lord Faarquaad: he arrives on horseback, propped into a sort of prosthetic armour that apparently enables his controlling the horse, and makes him look like he has normal sized arms and legs. Then arrives a guard who helps his lord dismount by picking him up like a teddy bear. Her previously favourable reaction... dies.
* Finis Everglot in ''[[
== Film - Live Action ==
* Mini-Me's introduction in the second ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movie.
* In the Filipino [[James Bond]] parody ''For Your Height Only'', the dwarf secret agent tracks down the unseen Mr Big, but discovers the [[Big Bad]] is a dwarf himself.
* ''[[Men in Black (
* In ''[[
* ''[[Bad Boys]]''. A hacker is helping the heroes and gets into an argument with one of them. When he stands up to start shouting, it's revealed that he's much taller than "the short one" who's arguing with him.
* In ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'', the cowardly hero is facing down a hostile crowd, and looking for an easily beatable opponent to prove his nonexistent skills against. He calls out a runty-looking fellow who, it turns out, WAS SITTING DOWN ...
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* In the pilot episode of ''[[
* There's an episode of ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' where Sam leaps into a guy who works at a carnival. While he's checking out his new reflection in a funhouse mirror, one of the other carnies walks up and starts a conversation. At first we only see his reflection, which looks the same height as Sam, but when Sam turns to reply to him, he's revealed to be a dwarf.
* The ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Fear, Itself" had [[Monster of the Week|Gachnar the Fear Demon]]... who is 4 inches tall. Buffy stomps him like a bug.
* A specific version I've seen a couple of times is a woman is chatting up a man, sitting down, and then realizes he's very short when he stands up, thus inducing uncertainty over whether she should continue with him. It happened to Jessie in ''[[Saved
* Likewise an episode of ''[[The Golden Girls]]'' had Rose meeting a man at a bar and making a date with him, then he gets off the barstool and is revealed to be a dwarf (leading to the date becoming a huge round of [[Ignore the Disability]]).
* ''[[Star Trek:
* Done intentionally in-universe in ''[[Deep Space Nine]]''. Bashir and O'Brien are just back from a mission [[Incredible Shrinking Man|that involved them being miniaturised]]. They stand at the bar boasting about their exploits, when Quark and Odo both note that a waitress seems oddly tall next to them, sending them scurrying away to check their height in sickbay. The waitress then stands down, off the step she'd been put on by Odo and Quark, revealing the entire thing to be a gag.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' did it as a [[Cliff Hanger]] reveal in ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S21 E5 Planet of Fire|Planet of Fire]]'', where it turns out the Master has accidentally shrunk himself to a small size, and has been directing the shapeshifter robot that everyone thinks is him from a control box.
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* In the first episode of ''[[Taxi]]'', Louie (Danny DiVito) spends most of his time in the dispacher's cage. When he exits it the better to yell at someone and we see how short he really is, it's a big joke.
* In a sketch on ''[[The Benny Hill Show]]'', Benny and Jackie Wright (a small man, under 5 feet tall) see a pair of wallflowers sitting at a dance. They decide to ask the girls to dance - Benny will ask the tall one and Jackie will ask the short one. The girls accept and stand up, revealing that - due to how the chairs they were sitting on were designed - the "tall one" is short and the "short one" is tall.
* The ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[My Hero (TV)]]'', the main characters spend a while worrying about the dreaded (*glances around* *whispers*) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oTjs7msqV7E#t=444s Grand High Arbiter of Misuse of Power] coming from Ultron to punish George for cheating in a lottery. The arbiter eventually arrives preceded by an earthquake and we see a figure in a black robe, seen from below, filling the screen and taking menacingly in a booming voice. Then we see that he's two inches tall and standing on a table. Janet squashes him.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Futurama]]''. When Bender wonders what it would be like to be [[Attack of the
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'':
** In one short, Beaky Buzzard finds a small reptile peeking through some rocks. Noting that the creature seems shorter than him, Beaky tries to grab it and take it home for dinner. Turns out "Shorty" is just the small head of a '''huge''' dragon.
** The "Inki and the Mynah Bird" shorts often introduce the Mynah Bird with [[Bad Vibrations|ominous shaking]], mountains cracking, animals heading for cover... and after all the commotion, out comes a 5-inch bird hopping at a leisurely pace.
* In one episode of ''[[The Simpsons (
* The reveal at the end of the ''[[
* On the [[Goofy]] short "Double Dribble", a basketball coach is berating one of his players. At first the coach appears to be [[One Head Taller]], but as the camera pulls back it turns out he's just standing on a stool, and is in fact half the player's height.
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