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{{trope}}
[[File:City of heroes - hamidon.jpg|link=City of Heroes|thumb|350px|You're gonna need a cold pill the size of Manhattan to cure ''that''.]]
They cause diseases and you can never
Given that [[Did Not Do the Research|the Media ''is'' the Media]], expect to see all other manner of microorganisms or even parts of the human immune system similarly depicted.<ref>And let's not even get into confusing viruses and germs.</ref>
There are four main types of larger than life germs:
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:'''1.''' A germ that is a [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever]] kind of creature that smashes buildings and the like.
:'''2.''' The second kind is usually as small as as a dog, but can be troublesome, becoming a [[Cute Bruiser]], a [[Team Pet]] (if it decides to join the hero), or an [[Adorable Evil Minion]] (if it is controlled by a
:'''3.''' "Good germs"; these are usually medicine or some kind of bacteria that can combat the other, more evil germs. these are sometimes more
:'''4.''' Germs that in-universe are, in fact, as small as real life germs are. These, like the good germs, are usually involved in a [[Fantastic Voyage Plot]] and are usually the reason the protagonist venture into another body in the first place. many times they are more inhuman-like and can merge with the second kind of germ-type, but are usually bigger than the hero.
Remember:
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Moyashimon]]'': Tadayasu - and only Tadayasu - can interact with bacteria. He sees them as insect-sized.
* Some of the ''mushi'' in ''[[Mushishi]]'' are essentially giant spirit-bacteria.
* The Giant Germ which appears in nine different episodes of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' has Solosis and its evolutions, all of which are giant cells. There's also Deoxys, a giant, humanoid space-virus.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In the [[Don Rosa]] ''[[Scrooge McDuck]]'' story "The Incredible Shrinking Tightwad", Scrooge and Donald are eventually shrunk down to microscopic size due to the effects of a malfunctioning shrinking ray, and are menaced by a horde of microbes.
* In a ''[[Goofy|Super Goof]]'' story, a villain used a ray gun to enlarge animals. In the final battle, Super Goof was pitted against a van-sized amoeba.
* Strictly speaking, both [[w:Proty|Protys]] from ''[[The Legion of Super Heroes]]'' are Type 2. Members of the same species, their bodies were undifferentiated masses of protoplasm without individual cells or even a nucleus.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Fantastic Voyage (film)|Fantastic Voyage]]'' (naturally enough) features Type 4 -- normal-sized germs (and other organisms and organelles) which end up oversized compared to the miniaturized humans who encounter them.
* ''[[Evolution (film)|Evolution]]'' used a giant microbe. Technically, it's an amoeba...
* The B-Movie ''The Flesh Eaters'' features the titular micro-organisms joining together to become one large creature.
* ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock]]'' has a set of microbes that get supersized thanks to the Genesis Effect. Later, they get so big that Captain Kruge gets to have a fight with one of them!
== [[Literature]] ==
* The oldest known example of this trope dates back to a French pulp adventure ''Une Invasion de Macrobes''/''The Invasion of the Macrobes'' published in 1909.
* The sixth volume in the ''[[The Magic School Bus|Magic School Bus]]'' spin-off book series is entitled ''The Giant Germ'' and is (as might be guessed) about the exploration of the microscopic world by Ms. Frizzle and her class.
* In some ''[[Choose Your Own Adventure]]'' books that involved some shrink-ray device, a few bad endings had microbes (e.g. paramecium, or white blood cells) attach themselves to a object which returns to normal size. In the case of a amoeba, it took Kentucky for breakfast, then [[You Fail Geography Forever|Lousiana]] for lunch. Even at their normal microscopic size, they look very large.
* The Belgian sci-fi/horror book ''La sortie est au fond de l'espace'' by Sternberg starts like this. All the microbes start growing, making the Earth uninhabitable in a series of scenes between horror and [[Black Comedy]]. For the survivors who fled in a spaceship, [[It Got Worse]].
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* The ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "The Immunity Syndrome" sets the Enterprise against a planet-sized amoeba. Which is also an [[Energy Absorption|energy vampire]].
** Also the episode [[Operation: Blank|"Operation: Annihilate!"]], in which the Deneva colony, home to Kirk's brother and his family, is attacked by flying [[Puppeteer Parasite|parasites]] that are basically basketball-sized cells.
* An episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' has the crew dealing with [[You Fail Biology Forever|Giant Basketball-sized flying viruses]].
* Used in ''[[Fringe]]'', with a single-celled cold virus grown to the size of a cucumber. Yes, they did call it a "[[Taxonomic Term Confusion|single-celled virus]]".
== [[Music]] ==
* One somewhere between type 2 and type 1 in size appears in passing in Rob Balder's song ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUi6Wb1wI-4 Muppet Laboratories]'':
{{quote|''It isn't easy working in the Muppet Laboratories.
''So maybe you could help me with this giant germ.
''Would it kill you? Okay, maybe.
''Germ enlarger seemed like a good plan.
''Beaker thought so, now it's got his head...}}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''[[Pandemic (board game)|Pandemic]]'', the disease cubes are as big as cities on the board! Though they're supposed to be more symbolic than representational.
* The [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Giant_Germ Giant Germ] card from the [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' card game]].
** And given that they're portrayed as having ''eyes'', the Vile Germs from [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Vile_Germs the card of the same name].
* Phyrexian Living Weapons in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' come into play automatically attached to a 0/0 Germ token. The germ can't survive on its own outside of the weapon, but with a few buffs to its toughness and power it's possible to beat things up with a giant Germ.
==
* [[GIANTmicrobes]] by Drew Oliver makes and sells giant-sized plushie germs, viruses and other micro-fauna and -flora. As of early 2017, you can find them [https://www.amazon.com/GIANTmicrobes-Plush-Common-Cold-Microbes/dp/B000NOC52Y on Amazon.com], [http://www.giantmicrobes.sg/ among other places.]
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has the Hamidon, a former environmental scientist gone [[One-Winged Angel]] who is now a single cell the size of a football stadium (as seen in the page image). With [[Cognizant Limbs|''cognizant mitochondria''.]]
* The third boss of ''[[El Viento]]'' is a huge single-celled organism.
* Morpha from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time]]'', whose [[Boss Subtitles]] identify it as a Giant Aquatic Amoeba.
* In ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'', these show up as enemies in the Bionis' Interior, and all possess the trait of being highly resistant to physical attacks.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The comic ''[[Irritability]]'' played with this once, with Chappy bragging about his victory over a giant plankton.
{{quote|Chappy: It was huge!
'''Tatanya:''' Like this? ''(Pictures a building-sized plankton screeching "RAR!")''
'''Chappy:''' ...for a plankton. ''(Pictures himself grasping that same plankton, now about the size of an apple, and saying "I have u now!")'' }}
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/the-bacterium-part-one This story] at the [[SCP Foundation]] site.
** And now [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-371 SCP-371].
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Osmosis Jones]]'' is filled with Type 3s and Type 4s.
* ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' episode "The Incredible Shrinking Johnny" ends with an amoeba accidentally enlarged to giant size, which proceeds to chase Johnny and Carl down the street.
* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series|Superman the Animated Series]]'' featured a brief appearance by ameoba enlarged to human size in the episode that introduced the giant ape "Titano".
* The Amoeba Boys are a gang of three dimwitted crooks in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''. They're about the size of humans, and sort of float along the ground.
* ''[[Swat Kats]]'' had a legion of [[Blob Monster|gigantic purple bacteria monsters]] in its second episode, "The Giant Bacteria". The trouble is, they didn't much look like germs, possessing eyes, mouths and a definite torso shape with arms and legs, due to the first one having originally been an ordinary guy ([[Extra Eyes|more or less]]) who gets mutated by [[Mad Scientist]] [[Complete Monster|Dr. Viper]].
== Real Life ==
* The largest known single-celled lifeforms on the planet are amoeba-like protista called [[wikipedia:Xenophyophore|xenophyophores]]. They run about ten centimeters across. Small by monster standards, but positively [[Kaiju]]-sized by cell standards. They are found exclusively in the deepest parts of the ocean.
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