Brain Food: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"All we wanna do is eat your brains''

 

An amazingly large number of monsters enjoy eating human ''BRAAAAAAINS!''

The subtrope of brain-eating zombies seems to have originated with 1985's ''[[Return of the Living Dead]]'', and most of the time when it appears it is either a reference to that film, or [[Popcultural Osmosis|unknowingly influenced by]] [[Memetic Mutation|other references to that film]]. Before Romero, zombies were not expected to eat people at all, except in some fringe Haitian legends which included anthrophagy as part of a general rampage on the part of the normally passive zombies whose controlling voudun priest had died.

 

 

A subtrope of [[Picky People Eater]]. See also: [[Zombie Gait]]. Not to be confused with [[Brainless Beauty]] (although being one may [[Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal|have its advantages]].)

 

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In one of the weirder scenes in the film, the apes in ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'' ask San to give Ashitaka's (unconscious) body to them so that they can eat his brain. They believe that, in eating a human's brain, they will become as strong and as smart as the humans are.

* One of the numerous [[Serial Killer|serial killers]] in ''[[MPD Psycho]]'' uses brains as plant food for his favorite flowers... by cutting open their skulls and using them as flower pots. While they're still alive.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Rhona Burchill, the Mad Thinker, in ''Ultimate [[Fantastic Four]]'' {{spoiler|devised a way to increase her brain's "processing power" by grafting someone else's brain tissue onto her brain, so she killed her little brother because he "wasn't using it anyway" -- the implications are roughly equal that he was genuinely mentally deficient and that he simply had a lower IQ then his already-a-genius-but-psychotic sister.}}

** Wasn't the implication that {{spoiler|Her brother constituted some part of the Ultimate Awesome Android?}}

 

== Film ==

* ''Fiend Without a Face'' had invisible brain-like creatures that sucked the brains out of the skull.

* ''Faces of Death'' had people eating monkey brains right after having to kill the monkey by beating it on the head with mallets which resemble a pestle.

* ''The Brainiac'' revolves around a magician who was to be executed in 1661, who then used his magic to get on a passing comet and returns to earth 300 years later as a brain-sucking monster. It also brought us the page image.

* ''The Outpost'' (aka ''Mind Ripper'') had a mutant who fed on brains to get his fix of [[wikipedia:Sterol|sterols]].

== Literature ==

* In ''Hannibal'', Lecter stirfried up some guy's brain. Thomas Harris lovingly describes how Lecter prepared it, table side, fresh from the source (he literally scooped out the slices of brains from the victim's skull at the table, in front of Starling). He gently coated it with breadcrumbs then sauteed it, serving with caper-berries and black truffle brown butter sauce. Just the way that Harris described it is enough to make the reader hungry, especially since he is a foodie and the recipe would actually be delicious (except the obvious part, of course).

* In the short story ''A Midwinter's Tale'', eating brains passes on the memories of the dead creature.

* In ''[[Nation]]'' one of the cannibal chiefs mentions he would like to eat Daphne's brains. It's a sort of compliment, it means he thinks she's very intelligent.

* One of the short stories in the book ''My Zombie Valentine'' focuses on a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] originating on the set of a zombie apocalypse film. The [[Alpha Bitch]] seems to be immune to zombie attack, and they speculate that she doesn't have any brains. However, it turns out that she's wearing a perfume that repels zombies.

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: The tale of the ''[[Greek Mythology|Seven Against Thebes]]'' (adapted into the play of the same name by [[Aeschylus]]) includes Tydeus, a favourite of Athena and father of ''[[The Iliad]]'''s [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|God-Puncher]], Diomedes. Apparently, Athena wanted to make Tydeus immortal after he was heavily wounded, but [[Squick|changed her mind]] after she caught him eating his slain attacker's brains. [[Too Dumb to Live|Congratulations, Tydeus.]] [[Completely Missing the Point|You're supposed to eat the brains]] ''[[Completely Missing the Point|after]]'' [[Completely Missing the Point|you're dead.]]

* In ''[[Nightside|Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth]]'', a group of sentient zombies raised by the [[Big Bad]] and sent to slaughter the living reference this trope, debating whether or not they should eat brains and, if so, whether condiments will be required.

* The [[Rodents of Unusual Size]] from James Herbert's ''The Rats'' and its sequels have a preference for brains, and often chew their way [[Eye Scream|through the eyes]] of their human victims to reach this tasty treat.

* In ''Terminal World'', by Alastair Reynolds, there are bio-mechanical creatures called "Carnivorgs" that survive by eating the brains of the people they capture. The front of their heads [[Nightmare Fuel|end in a drill]], which they use to punch through their victims forheads. The worst part? This process ''[[Fate Worse Than Death|doesn't]]'' [[Fate Worse Than Death|kill the victim]].

 

* The Psirens from ''[[Red Dwarf]]''.

** The only brain-eaters to use a ''straw''.

*** This is actually [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the first episode of Season 3: {{spoiler|we cut back to Sylar and Claire after last having seen Sylar cutting the top off of Claire's head, and he is indeed doing something - poking at Claire's brain, occasionally stopping as though examining something. Claire asks, "Aren't you going to eat it?" His response?}}

{{quote|'''Sylar''': {{spoiler|Claire,}} that's disgusting.}}

* In the ''[[Angel]]'' episode "Bachelor Party", a demon tries to eat Doyle's brain so that his family will let him marry Doyle's ex-wife.

* In ''[[Farscape]]'' the cyborg Kaarvok had a habit of removing the brains of his victims with a straw- which would them be fed into a slot in his head.

** After removing the neurochip from Crichton's brain, [[Magnificent Bastard|Scorpius]] finds that there's a large chunk of cerebral tissue clinging to it. [[Slasher Smile|Grinning wickedly]], he eats the piece of brain matter in a single bite.

** Glory sucks the sanity out of people's brains.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Hungry" is told from the point of view of a [[Monster of the Week]] who tries to resist his cravings for human brains.

* When Data has nightmares in a ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode, one of his visions is of Dr. Crusher drinking from Riker's head through a straw. It's unclear if she's supposed to be drinking his blood, cerebrospinal fluid, or (liquified) brains.

{{quote|"Mm, it's a delicious memory!"}}

 

== Music ==

* Jonathan Coulton's ''Re: Your Brains''. It's told as a memo from an office worker who's become a zombie to one who is not yet zombified, and the chorus says "All we wanna do is eat your brains. We're not unreasonable. I mean, [[Even Evil Has Standards|no one's gonna]] [[Eye Scream|eat your eyes]]."

* In several of the ''[[Rhapsody of Fire]]'' songs, is often stated that demons feed on brains. In a moment of extreme wrath, the [[The Hero|Warrior of Ice]] threatens to come back from the dead to eat [[Big Bad|Akron's]] brains.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** And the Lovecraftian coelocanth Aboleths want to eat your brain and gain your knowledge.

** Inverted by the Chuuls, who are allergic to brains and will instead peel the flesh and bone from around it and eat that. In an aversion of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], this often means that Illithids will train them as garbage disposals for brainless corpses.

** Can't forget the [[Killer Rabbit|Brain Mole]].

*** Though, in reality, the brain mole doesn't eat the brain, merely absorb psionic energy from it. There's little to no physical harm.

** Should be noted that brain-eating is one of the Illithids' greatest weaknesses, because killing a humanoid per illithid per month (any less and they'll die, and more is preferable) draws a LOT of attention.

** Actually averted by zombies for a change; they don't eat people at all, just kill them because as mindless undead they hate all living creatures. Ghouls and Ghasts fit Hollywood's conception of cannibalistic undead better, but they just eat flesh in general, and don't seem to have any particular fondness for brains.

** The vat-spawned Grit stormers of ''[[SLA Industries]]'' are created with a similar ability.

* ''[[All Flesh Must Be Eaten]]'', a game entirely about zombies, has "Braaaaaaaains" as an option for a zombie's diet. Because this takes effort and means the zombie needs to eat more people to stay active (as opposed to "All Flesh Must Be Eaten", where they can eat any part), it reduces the zombie's power level.

* In [[White Wolf]]'s ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'', one secret society of werewolves has discovered that they can gain spiritual power by eating the brains of other supernatural people. Doing so rapidly makes them insane pawns of the Wyrm, however.

 

== Video Games ==

* The main character of ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'' does get information from his meal's brains, but he doesn't just eat the brain, [[I'm a Humanitarian|he eats the entire person]].

** By ''beating them into a fine paste and absorbing it with his Cthulhu-tendrils.'' It is awesome.

* Parodied in ''[[Dragon Fable]]'' by the Bread Zombies in the Necropolis' cafeteria who want "GRAINS...GRAINS..."

* In ''[[Office Jerk|Office Zombie]]'', the Zombie leans back and says "Braaaaaains!" as one of his taunts. Also, several brains-related voice clips play in the background like intercom announcements, such as "Brains, line 1" or "Need brains in cafeteria."

 

* Annabelle in ''[[The Spider Cliff Mysteries]]'' must eat brains to prevent the decay of her own.

* Parodied in ''[[Narbonic]]'' when Zombie Dave keeps saying "Braaains", even though Helen informs him there's no reason he needs to eat brains.

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', one of Gwynn's jobs in recent arcs was as a waitress at Zomblebees. The daily special? "BRAAAAAINS".

** One of her co-workers was revealed to be an actual zombie. She explained that while zombies don't have a particular preference for brains, you are what you eat, and that to keep command of her mental faculties, that's exactly what she eats. Biting into Sam's brain later left her feeling stupider (being a vampire who doesn't much use his brain, he felt just fine.)

* ''[[Xkcd]]'' presents [http://www.xkcd.com/397/ Zombie Feynman], who desires brains and therefore does not want [[Take That|to eat string theorists.]]

** Also a [[wikipedia:P-brane|Stealth]] [[Stealth Pun|Pun]]

** The Mind Flayer's [[Meat-O-Vision]] sees Elan's brain as Diet Coke ("No thanks!"), Haley's brain as a sundae ("Too sweet"), Belkar's brain as a taco ("Too spicy"), Vaarsuvius' brain as a cheeseburger ("Now we're getting somewhere..."), and Roy's brain as a roast turkey with all the trimmings ("Mmmm...").

** Zombies in OOTS also seem capable of saying nothing but "Brains...". When Xykon re-animates his dead dog in one of the prequel books, the first thing it does is kill a bird and eat its brain.

* One ''[[Brawl in the Family]]'' comic has most of the main cast turn into brain-eating zombies. [[Metroid|Mother Brain]] looks [[Oh Crap|awfully nervous]].

 

== Web Original ==

* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' (a special feature), the blue team pretends to be zombies. Caboose does the Zombie Gait with everyone else, but moans "Brians! Brians!", as he read the script wrong.

* ''[http://www.theonion.com/articles/zombie-nutritionist-recommends-allbrain-diet,1391/ Zombie Nutritionist Recommends All-Brain Diet]'', on ''[[The Onion]]''

** "he has the voice of a zombie-angel"

** It turns out Zombie Boy is in fact capable of regular speech.

 

== Western Animation ==

{{quote|'''Bart:''' Braaaaains... braaaaains...

'''Homer:''' Use your brains to help us! Your delicious brains... }}

** And then there was Billy's pet chupacabra...

{{quote|'''Grim:''' I think it's trying to suck his brains out!

'''Mandy:''' Poor thing's gonna starve. }}

* In the ''[[Invader Zim]]'' episode "Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars", ZIM is simultaneously trying to keep his Robo-Parents from eating a child, pilot the (incredibly large) ship of his alien leaders to come to Earth to see his "progress" while trying to keep his rival Dib from crashing said ship, and keep a creature in a containment chamber's status stable. The creature is a giant brain-sucking parasite. No reason is give as to why it sucks the brain right out of your skull or even how ZIM managed to obtain such a thing in the first place (but this ''is Invader ZIM'' after all...)

* ''[[Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles]]'' has the Brain Bugs doing this to obtain information from prisoners (the bug absorbs the knowledge from the brain it eats).

* Subverted on ''[[Phineas and Ferb]].'' The zombies moan for brains, spleens, pancreases, kidneys, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|cucumber sandwiches.]]

 

== Real Life ==

* Eating human brain is (or was) a practice of several cultures, either as a funeral rite or just part of eating people. It's usually for the purpose of taking knowledge, gaining immortality, or whatever.

* There's an account of a rogue baboon killing people and eating their brains.

** A cryptid, the Nandi Bear, is alleged to do this as well.

 

----

''<small> ...BRAAAAAAINS...</small>''

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tropes of the Living Dead]]

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Food Tropes]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]