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Creepy Cockroach: Difference between revisions
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We all know [[Everything's Worse with Bees|bees]] can be horrible, [[Creepy Centipedes|centipedes]] terrifying, and [[Fly Crazy|flies]] just annoying. But cockroaches are perhaps the biggest household pest of them all.
They crawl, they swarm, they eat leftover food, they stink, and they scatter when exposed to bright light. Roaches are also incredibly hardy—some being able to survive without food for about a month—and very adaptable to many environments, preferably those that are warm and moist. Often times this is exaggerated in fiction in that they are able to survive a nuclear war (though roaches can withstand radiation poisoning for a long period of time, they are not immune to its effects). They're also used as a symbol of filth and decay in fiction. Often the [[Arch Enemy]] of an [[Eccentric Exterminator]].
This trope is dedicated to all things roachy (no, not [[wikipedia:Roach (cannabis culture)|that]] kind of roach, or [[wikipedia:Common Roach|that]] kind of roach, or even [[Clock Roaches]]).
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* Commercials for Raid bug spray often featured cockroaches, which [[Shaped Like Itself|get killed dead]] by the product.
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* Taken [[Up to Eleven]] right past the [[Uncanny Valley]] with the cockroach martians in "Terra For Mars", who were inadvertedly brought to existance when the governments of an overpopulated Earth tried to terraform Mars by releasing a type of moss and cockroaches into its atmosphere to increase carbon dioxide emissions around the planet by having said cocroaches barely survive in the martian environment by eating the moss and expanding it across its living area and some other [[Techno Babble]]. [[Fridge Logic]] aside, somehow the cockroaches, or "black organisms", mutated into creepy, towering [[Blackface]] looking humanoids with [[Black Eyes of Evil|huge staring eyes with oversized black pupils]] whose only indications of their cockroach heritage is their antenna and cersi located on their backside. When one of a pair of cockroach exterminators (who only expected to exterminate ordinary cocroaches) attempt to make contact with one of the cockroach martians, said martian greets them by nonchalantly [http://www.mangahere.com/manga/terra_formars/c001/31.html snapping] the female [[Love Interest]]'s neck
== [[
* ''[[The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers]]'' comics had some side comics about a roach society which inevitably ended with some getting smashed, but the king laughing it off because "there's plenty more where they came from."▼
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures]]'' had the villain Scumbug, an exterminator who mutated into a roach-like being thanks to the mutagen. He eventually found his way into [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|the original cartoon]].
* Cockroach themed monsters appeared a few times in [[The Silver Age of Comic Books| the era of Marvel Monsters]]:
* In ''[[Bloom County]]'', Milo's grandfather considers the cockroaches that live in his boarding house to be annoying pests and tries to kill them whenever possible. Subverted with Milo's grandmother, who treats them like adopted grandchildren. One particular cockroach makes repeated appearances later, and while he is a well-mannered fellow, everyone tends to be disgusted by him and try to crush him.▼
** In ''Adventure Into Terror #19'', a Hungarian mystic was hired to drive cockroaches from a village. Much like the town of Hamlin, they refused to pay, so he turned their children into roaches.
** One arc involved water polluted with weird industrial waste seeping into the Binkleys' basement, where it mutated at least one of the cockroaches into a giant — with a [[Valley Girl]] speech pattern.▼
** ''Mystery Tales #1'': The Superroaches were roaches the size of elephants with human intelligence, who plotted to destroy humanity. An exterminator named Bill who was a Friend to Bugs and often tried to prevent people from squashing them found out about this plan, and was "rewarded" by them by being turned into a half-man-half-roach. He tried to alert humans of the plan by throwing notes out the window of his cell, but the ultimate result of the roaches' plan remains unknown.
** ''Mystery Tales #22'': An exterminator named Bruno develops a chemical that he hopes will make roaches slightly bigger, and thus easier to root out. He makes one much, much bigger. It crushes him with its foot and escapes, its current location unknown.
* The true antagonist of the ''[[She-Hulk]]'' graphic novel was a swarm of sentient roaches who could assume control of a human victim's body via [[Orifice Invasion]] to pose as human; they tries to use Shulkie as a host, destroying the SHIELD Helicarrier as part of their plan, but when deprived of any host at all, she smooshed them all in an [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]; the story included a [[Sequel Hook]] hinting the plot would be expanded, but it never has.
** The monstrous antagonist in the ''[[Spider-Man]]'' graphic novel Hooky is something Mandy calls a [[Eldritch Abomination| "Tordenkakerlak"]] (Norwegian for "thunder cockroach"). Initially, it does appear as a giant - flying! - roach, but once Spidey manages to squish it, it turns into [[Sequential Boss| a series of larger, more powerful monsters]], which aren't roach-like at all.
** [[Howard the Duck]] had a foe called the Cockroach in his second series, an ordinary roach who became a man-sized humanoid after exposure to [[Artifact of Doom| the Cosmic Key]]. His [[Evil Plan]] was to use the Key to create an army of roach-men like himself to [[Take Over the World]], but was outsmarted by Howard who trapped him with giant flypaper, doused him with industrial strength insecticide; after the Key was confiscated, he was he [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice| was skewered by a bladed walking stick]] thrown by Howard's ally R. L. Haney, and was presumed dead; he was not, but [[Long Bus Trip| he has yet to return.]]
== [[
* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/u/891127/Ozzallos Ozzallos]'s ''[[Ranma
== [[Film]] ==
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== [[Music]] ==
* Mexican folk song "La Cucaracha" features a cockroach who has lost two of his legs (or lacks marijuana to smoke).
* Comedian [[Kip Addotta]]'s song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWwms6KUmto "Big Cockroach"] starts off as a generalized complaint about cockroaches in the singer's home, but ends with the arrival of [[Big Creepy-Crawlies|a car-sized roach]] who insists on moving in with him.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
▲* ''[[The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers]]'' comics had some side comics about a roach society which inevitably ended with some getting smashed, but the king laughing it off because "there's plenty more where they came from."
▲* In ''[[Bloom County]]'', Milo's grandfather considers the cockroaches that live in his boarding house to be annoying pests and tries to kill them whenever possible. Subverted with Milo's grandmother, who treats them like adopted grandchildren. One particular cockroach makes repeated appearances later, and while he is a well-mannered fellow, everyone tends to be disgusted by him and try to crush him.
▲** One arc involved water polluted with weird industrial waste seeping into the Binkleys' basement, where it mutated at least one of the cockroaches into a giant — with a [[Valley Girl]] speech pattern.
* ''La Cucaracha'' stars an anthropomorphic roach named Cuco Rocha.
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* Featured in ''[[Breath of Fire III]]'' as enemies.
** ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'' also featured roachs, with a roach queen as the second boss.
* They also appear as enemies in ''[[EarthBound]]'' and ''[[Mother 3]]''. Apparently some of the ones in ''Mother 3'' are robots...
* Roaches (possibly alien) appear throughout the original ''[[Half Life]]''. Surprisingly absent in ''HL2''.
* The Creeper monster appearing in both ''[[Silent Hill 1]]'' and ''[[Silent Hill 2]]''. They are said to be a manifestation of the town itself. ''[[Silent Hill Homecoming]]'' has a variation with the Swarm, a leech/roach hybrid.
* Roaches hold the distinction of being the only monsters to appear in every entry of the ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' series, ''[[Koudelka]]'' included. As a [[Genius Bonus]], they are called [[The Metamorphosis|Gregor]] in both ''Covenant'' and ''From the New World''.
* The first Scarecrow sequence in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' features a swarm of cockroaches crawling out of the floor grates.
* The Thief Bug family of enemies in ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' are all gigantic roaches. They love to loot items and mob the player if one in its group is attacked. And if you want creepy feels, the MVP boss version is a gigantic golden roach that can cast fireballs.
== [[Web Original]] ==
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