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They cause diseases and you can never truly escape from them. So it is only natural that the creators of media exaggerate bacteria to make them seem even scarier than they need to be. Due to a lot of regular bacteria looking like ovals and other basic shapes, many forms of media also make germs look like actual monsters which, due to how disgusting germs can be in [[Real Life]], can lead to potential [[Nightmare Fuel]]. Many times these creatures are represented as amoeba-like [[Blob Monster]]s.
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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* 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]] ==
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* 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.
== Toys ==
* [
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[City of Heroes]]''
* 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]].
==
* 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.
▲* [http://www.giantmicrobes.sg/ 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], among other places.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Bigger Is Better]]
[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]
[[Category:Villains]]
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