Conjoined Twins: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{quote|''We're like brothers...[[Body Horror|only closer.]]''|'''SpongeBob''', ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''}}

Conjoined Twins combine [[Creepy Twins]] with [[Body Horror]]: Imagine being attached to another person, the same one person, for your entire life. Freaky stuff. As such, they are a staple of horror and any show that wants to unsettle its viewers. They are a must at carnival freak shows.

 

 

For our purposes, people who aren't born twins but somehow still get fused together apply. With the exception of such artificial fusions, depictions of this trope which connect in places other than the body's axis (head, neck, or torso) are a [[Did Not Do the Research]]. Conjoined twins are also [[Always Identical Twins]]; those that aren't are likely running on [[Rule of Funny]].

 

Conjoined Twins are a real phenomenon, and have been around pretty well forever. They became prominent in the 1800s, with the rise of carnival freak shows; the most famous pair was Chang and Eng Bunker, the original "Siamese twins," who were connected at the sternum. Most of the examples below are taken from [[wikipedia:Conjoined twins#Conjoined twins in popular culture|The Other Wiki's page]].

 

== Advertising ==

* Advertisements for the 2008 Howl-O-Scream in Tampa, Florida, featured the Raven Twins: twin sisters conjoined at the face who performed crude surgery to separate themselves. They date men in order to steal their face tissue and repair the damage done to the once-conjoined sides of their faces.

* One of the [[Lost Episode|"sealed chapters"]] of ''[[Black Jack]]'', "The Two Jans", had Black Jack operate on a little boy with two brains and two faces, but only one body.

** Also, this is {{spoiler|Pinoco's origin... sorta. She was supposed to be the twin sister of a young girl but her body was absorbed into her in the womb, thus becoming a sort-of ''parasitic'' twin - basically, a sentient tumor in her body. Black Jack removes the "tumor" but senses Pinoco's wish to live, thus he builds her a small body an adopts her after her "sister" rejects her.}}

* The sisters Raphaela and Luciella end up turning themselves into this in ''Claymore''. [[Eldritch Abomination|Until they wake up]].

 

* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]: Origin'' comic, Buffy fought a set of [[Did Not Do the Research|opposite sex conjoined twins]] who were running a casino-cum-vampire factory in Las Vegas. The brother was a vampire, and the sister was a good shot with her guns, making them a potent enemy. At the end, {{spoiler|Buffy put holy water in the sprinkler system, then activating it, killing every vampire in the casino - including the brother. The human sister was left alive.}}

* Charles Rodrigues had "The Aesop Brothers", a regular strip in the ''[[National Lampoon]]'', starring siamese twins George and Alex (who curiously don't look alike), and their constant travails.

* In ''[[The Metabarons]]'', there are Janus-Jana, the Sacred Androgyne and Emperoress of the Galaxy.

* In ''[[Transformers]],'' two of the Wreckers are Rack'n'Ruin, two Autobots who were fused to save their lives.

 

 

== Film ==

* The independent film ''Sisters'', an early [[Brian De Palma]] effort, features conjoined twins who were previously separated.

* The 1983 splatter film ''Basket Case'' and the two sequels center on conjoined twins Duane and Belial Bradley, who were separated by back-alley doctors against their will at a young age.

* ''The Girls'' by Lori Lansens, which is a fictional autobiography of craniopagus twins

* Unsurprisingly, the [[Mark Twain]] story "The Siamese Twins" was based on the Bunkers.

* Flora and Fauna (again) from ''Love Will Tear Us Apart''. The idea of the novel is "What if the Hilton sisters were in the modern era, and kinda like Britney?"

* Amongst the various medical miracles in [[John Varley]]'s ''Eight Worlds'' future history is a brief mention of a passing fad for voluntary conjoinment amongst jaded thrill seekers

* Two of the Binewski siblings in Katherine Dunn's ''[[wikipedia:Geek Love|Geek Love]]'' are a set of beautiful conjoined twins named Electra and Iphigenia.

* Joe-Jim, the mutant leaders from Heinlein's ''Orphans Of The Sky'', are two heads that share the same body.

* Flint Murtaugh, a bounty hunter from Robert McCammon's ''Gone South'', has a parasitic twin (Clint) embedded in his torso.

* Not biologically conjoined, but close enough; the "three-headed dragon" in the [[Redwall]] book ''Triss'' is actually three large adder siblings (two males and a female) joined by a mace and chain which looped around their bodies and was embedded in their flesh during an attack in their childhood. Since they lack hands, they couldn't untie it, and they were forced to grow up bound together, learning to co-ordinate their movements.

* Ellery Queen's mystery novel ''The Siamese Twin Mystery'' features a pair of male conjoined twins.

* Margaret Lea in ''[[The Thirteenth Tale]]'' was born a conjoined twin, which draws her to write about twins. {{spoiler|Her sister didn't survive the operation to separate them}}.

* The 2009 TLC episode ''Conjoined Twins after Separation'' about the Iesha and Teisha Turner after separation *

* The ''[[Bones]]'' episode "Double Trouble in the Panhandle" had a pair of conjoined twins as the [[Victim of the Week|Victim(s) Of The Week]]. The statistics on conjoined twins are mentioned by Mr. Vincent Nigel-Murray, a compulsive trivia-mentioner.

'''Vincent:''' Well, all facts are useful. It's just the context that shifts. }}

* Teen Angel episode 10 ''Steve & Marty & Jordan & Uncle Lou'' Marty feels left out so he conjoins himself to Steve for a little bit, after Steve comments how "It's not like we're joined at the hip or anything."

* ''[[Carnivale]]'' has a female pair in Samson's travelling carnie show.

 

* The Marcel-Moreso Brothers in [[Freaky Flyers]], are not just conjoined twins (skinny twin growing out of pudgy twin's back), but they're also ''mimes''. They toy with the idea of being surgically seperated (Which is shot down when the Narrator points out that they only have one pair of legs), and in the end, marry a woman with a split personality.

* The carnival sideshow in ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'' features a pair of conjoined twin girls.

* [[Batman: Arkham City]] features the Abramovici twins, who have recently surgically separated themselves due to political differences (one being a Communist and one being a Capitalist) and went to work as Elite Mooks for Joker and Penguin respectively.

* In the circus chapter of ''[[Sanitarium]]'', the freakshow has two opposite-sex cojoined twins.

* In ''[[Baroque]]'', the protagonist was once a conjoined twin, and the ghost he occasionally encounters in the Neuro Tower is that of his brother, who did not survive their separation.

* In ''[[Xenosaga]]: Episode II'', it's revealed that {{spoiler|Jr. and Albedo were once joined at the spine.}}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[The Oblongs]]'' features Biff Oblong and Chip Oblong as conjoined twin brothers with a particularly odd variant of sharing a leg and butt cheek (giving them a grand total of 3 legs and 3 butt cheeks)

** To make things even more awkward than usual, Biff is gay and Chip is straight.

* ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'' featured one episode where the two of them suffer a terrible bus accident and have to undergo a drastic plan to survive: being sewn together into one body. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* One episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' had the three of them getting conjoined into one, all facing outward, with control of their limbs randomly shuffled. This was a plot by Mojo Jojo to ruin their ability to thwart him. This backfired when they discovered a super attack because of it and Mojo Jojo decided to seperate them than deal with even stronger PPG.

*** The episode "Can You Spare A Dime?" features a brief moment of horror in which Spongebob tells Squidward, "We're like brothers...''only closer''." (This, incidentally, is also one of the page quotes.) Cut to Spongebob and Squidward ''[http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/K-VonDahl/Untitled-1-1.jpg fused together by a band of flesh]''. (WARNING! Not for the faint of heart.) Fortunately, [[Negative Continuity]] makes things better after the next cut.

* Zak and Wheezie from ''[[Dragon Tales]]''.

* An episode of ''[[I Am Weasel]]'' took place in a "correctional facility". Several of the inmates were outfitted with massive iron devices that were meant to correct certain deformities. One of them had a "Fred" device on his backside that when removed, revealed a full twin somehow forced under it. Pretty morbid.

* In one ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' cartoon, our intrepid heroes wind up in the freak show of a travelling carnival as siamese chicken-head-biting geeks by unspecified means, after their inexpert attempts to chat up a female contortionist draws the ire of their Ape Man. Stitches are mentioned.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* As mentioned above, Chang and Eng Bunker, the original "Siamese twins". They actually were from Siam (actual Thailand), and were connected at the sternum. It's an oft-cited fact that they could easily have been separated if they were born today. These guys toured around America and [[Trope Codifier|helped shape the popular notion about what a conjoined twin is]], before settling down, marrying a set of sisters, and becoming slave owners. Seriously. Their sons fought in the [[American Civil War]]. When Chang died in his sleep, Eng chose not to be separated from him, and [[Together in Death|followed him within three hours]].

* [[wikipedia:Abigail and Brittany Hensel|Abigail and Brittany Hensel]] look like a woman with two heads, but are actually conjoined twins. A segment on the [[Discovery Channel]] related the interesting level of cooperation required, as each girl controls the arm and leg on that side. They can legally drive, too (presumably, only automatic cars).

* A conjoined frog (or frogs) was found near a children's day nursery in Britain. Unlike the other instances of this tropes, it wasn't just two conjoined beings but THREE - including three heads, three pairs of legs, and multiple other organs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySRd_FYs8N0&feature=relmfu.