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In 1950's movies, this also could be used as an actual part of the theme of the story, as the idea that these sorts of aliens could pass completely for humans made a rather handy [[Red Scare|metaphor for Communism]].
 
The bottom rung of the [[Alien Tropes|Alien ladder]], below [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]] and [[Intelligent Gerbil|Intelligent Gerbils]]. Note that, for this trope, the alien must be '''visually indistinguishable from a human'''. "Human, but with blue (or purple, orange, [[Green -Skinned Space Babe|green]], etc.) skin" falls under [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]]. Aliens with cultural rather than biological similarities fall under [[Inexplicable Cultural Ties]].
 
Technically there could be another rung below this one on the [[Alien Tropes|Alien ladder]]: [[Humans Are White|Caucasian Aliens]]. There are many fictional planets where the aliens not only look human, they are all Caucasian-looking. This is rife with [[Unfortunate Implications]]. The opposite situation, where the alien race is genuinely alien, but they are all African-looking, or Asian-looking, etc., is vanishingly rare (and would probably carry a ''different'' batch of [[Unfortunate Implications]]).
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** Well, technically they are all born neuter with external female traits, like ant drones, and only get actual gender-properties at the age of 17, namely the ability to procreate, either as males or females.
* The natives of ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]'' seem almost indistinguishable from humans of Earth stock, but in fact have a [[Bizarre Alien Biology|bizarre life cycle]] that includes {{spoiler|being born from large fruit that grows on special trees.}}
* Barring their monkey-esque tails (which can be permanently removed), Saiyans from ''[[Dragonball]] Z'' look exactly like humans, and can even [[Half -Human Hybrid|interbreed with them with ease]]. Of course, the "Earth" of ''[[Dragonball]]'' is also inhabited by five foot tall talking foxes, dogs, cats, pigs, sea turtles... and [[Weirdness Censor|nobody ever thinks any of it is strange]].
** Also, [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Ginyu Force]] member Recoom, who looks almost exactly like a human, unlike the rest of his team. A filler arc also had some that were fleeing from a world attacked by Frieza.
** Some of Freeza's [[Mook|mooks]] look human, as well.
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* The S and Stars seasons of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' brought '''so''' many Human Aliens (or at least aliens that were ''originally'' human in appearance) from across the galaxy [[Tokyo Is the Center of The Universe|to Tokyo]] that one could wonder if non-humanoid intelligent lifeforms really existed at all! Even the [[Talking Animal|talking cats]] Luna and Artemis, who were aliens from the planet Mau in the manga, could assume human forms. (Rei's crows Phobos and Deimos were also revealed to be aliens who could take human form in the manga.) The filler arc villains Eiru and An from the start of the second season were also aliens who could assume human form, though the villains from the first season and the rest of the second season were originally from Earth.
** The Moon Kingdom inhabitants and the Senshi of the past could also count, since they're technically not from Earth. This also means {{spoiler|Queen Nehelenia/Zirconia}}, the [[Big Bad]] from SuperS, would count, even though the rest of her minions are either from Earth originally (animals given human form, some girls from the rainforest given powers) or are dream-monsters (the Lemures).
* The Arume in ''[[Blue Drop]]'' are human in every way, although their whole race [[One -Gender Race|consists of females only]], leading to [[Girls Love|certain kinds of behavior]].
* The Plants in ''[[Trigun]]'' look exactly like humans, all to various degrees. The ones used as power look semi-humanoid with wings and other assorted appendages, while Vash and Knives can easily pass for human. This is because plants were made by humans.
** In the manga however they are {{spoiler|beings from another dimension with different laws of physics}} which is why they can generate power from seemingly nowhere. In their default state they also look something like a {{spoiler|human glued to a bunch of baby corpses, tumors, and angel wings.}}
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* In ''[[Houshin Engi]]'', Taikoubou (later known as {{spoiler|Fukki}}) is later revealed to be one of the {{spoiler|"First Humans", which are actually an ancient race of aliens}}, although he looks exactly like a human.
** Somewhat justified, in that {{spoiler|the "First Humans" actually merged with the planet and indirectly influenced the course of nature and evolution. So technically, humans look like THEM.}}
* The [[One -Gender Race|all-female]] Alpha Cygnans in ''[[Project a Ko]]''.
* In the series ''[[Inuyasha]]'', it's the Yokai who look human who are considered most powerful.
* A similar notion extends to ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', as quite nearly all of the show's most powerful demons appear human.
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* In [[Asobi Ni Iku Yo (Light Novel)|Asobi Ni Iku Yo]], not only do the Catians look exactly like humans except for the [[Catgirl|cat ears and tail,]] they even called THEIR planet "Earth" until they decided to make contact with us, then re-named it to Catia for our convenience. This seriously ticks off Beautiful Contact, a group of hardcore sci-fi fans who insist that humanity's [[First Contact]] with an alien species should be with a race that looks more dignified and unearthly.
** There's also an antagonistic race of dog-eared humanoid Dogisians.
* Mizuho Kazami and her family from ''[[Please Teacher]]'' look like humans with weird [[Hair Colors]]. She is herself a [[Half -Human Hybrid]], but her [[Hot Mom]] isn't.
** Not surprisingly, the same trope is in effect for Ichika Takatsuki in the "remake," ''[[Ano Natsu De Matteru]]''.
* The Yato from ''[[Gintama (Manga)|Gintama]]'' appear very human, although they do have super strength and are weak to the sun. Even their coloring isn't unnatural -- Kagura and Kamui's orange hair and blue eyes would be uncommon in Japan, but have been seen elsewhere. Other Yato characters are shown with even plainer coloring.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Superman]], [[Supergirl]], and all other Kryptonians are outwardly indistinguishable from humans, despite obvious biological differences. Exactly ''how'' close or distant humans and Kryptonians are can vary [[Depending On the Writer|depending on the work]]:
** According to some [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] stories, Kryptonians were descendants of humans plucked from Earth by a more technologically advanced race. Some [[Post -Crisis]] stories imply this as well.
*** One Superman/Flash story has the duo facing a mysterious alien race that apparently seeded both Earth and Krypton with life, at around the same time, serving as a possible explanation for this trope.
*** It is mentioned that Jor-El chooses Earth ''because'' humans looks exactly like Kryptonians, so Kar-El could live among them without detection.
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** Krypton dodges the [[Caucasian Aliens]] trap via "Vathlo Island", home to "a highly developed black race" of Kryptonians, first mentioned in 1971.
* There's a very strong tendency for aliens in [[The DCU]] to look exactly like humans:
** In ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'', most of the alien races are perfectly humanoid in appearance, although they possess various additional abilities. [[Post Crisis|Post-Crisis]], this was [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] by having them be descendants of humans who were given superpowers in alien experiments (this explanation was later [[Ret Conned]] out of existence by the 2010 "New Krypton" storyline, which tells us they were, in fact, alien races to begin with.)
** Natives of Rann seem to be entirely indistinguishable from humans. Indeed, human hero [[Adam Strange]] had a child with his Rannian wife Alanna.
** Likewise, [[Hawkman|Thanagarians]] and humans look exactly alike, though in [[The DCAU|the DC Animated Universe]] Thanagarians like Hawkgirl are significantly stronger and tougher than humans.
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** The Kree are divided into two races: the pink Kree, who look just like Caucasian humans, and the blue Kree, who look just like humans, save for their [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|blue skin]].
** Karolina Dean of ''[[Runaways (Comic Book)|Runaways]]'' looks exactly like a normal human as long as she wears a bracelet made from a special material that dampens her powers. When she takes the bracelet off, she looks more like a human-shaped beam of multicolored light. It turns out that her parents come from the planet Majesdane.
* In a similar manner to Superman, the Viltrumites of ''[[Invincible (Comic Book)|Invincible]]'', of whom main character Mark is a [[Half -Human Hybrid|human hybrid]], are basically humans with superpowers, and, if they're male, mustaches. All of them. And that's it.
* The Wildstorm Comics [[The Verse|'Verse]] has Kherubim, super-powered humanlike [[Immortality|immortals]] who can even interbreed with homo sapiens. It's eventually [[Retcon|revealed]] that this is because Earth and other planets were {{spoiler|seeded with devices designed to spread the Kherubim genome}} across the universe in a form of bloodless conquest. Not that they were averse to the bloody kind on occasion either, being [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|a Warrior Race]].
* The title character from [[Omega the Unknown]], who was [[Creating Life|created]] by another alien race to be the perfect [[Ubermensch]].
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* [[Robert Rankin]] shamelessly [[Lampshade|lampshades]] this in one of his stories (''Armageddon, the Musical'' I think) where it is advanced as proof that there is a [[God]] who designs dominant species in his own image. "As any [[Science Fiction]] fan knows, the basic human shape, Head at the top, two feet at the bottom, wedding tackle about halfway down, is the standard for intelligent life the universe over. They often speak good English with a noticeable American accent, too. Facts that should serve up friend Atheist with a workload of eggs, faces for the use of."
* In one [[Discworld]] book (though it was referring to gods, the spirit's the same), it's mentioned that if you ask someone to come up with an alien-looking being, it would basically be a man in an animal mask.
* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] did this all over the place starting back in [[Older Than Radio|1912]] with ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Princess_of_Mars A Princess of Mars]''. Everybody on Mars except the Green men looked human, but [[Green -Skinned Space Babe|hotter]]. The earth born hero [[John Carter of Mars|John Carter]] and his Martian Princess wife have two kids, despite massive [[Bizarre Alien Biology|biological differences]] including Martians being oviparous. This doesn't even begin to cover some of the [[Bizarre Alien Biology|wild biology]] that shows up in the Land that Time Forgot stories.
* The Takisians of the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series. In fact, that's what leads to the entire plot of the series; the Takisians note how biologically similar they are to humans, believe they must be the descendants of a "lost colony," and drop the wild card virus on Earth to test out its purpose as a biological weapon.
* The various biological species of [[The Culture]] are mostly human-looking, although they have various additional internal glands and bits. Given the degree of casual genetic modification in the universe though, it's anyone's guess as to whether they were all always like that.
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*** Oddly this is inverted by a species encountered by Voyager that look sufficiently [[Lizard Folk|lizard like]] but turn out to be, while not human, from Earth!
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', the "humans" in Pegasus and the Ori galaxy were seeded by the Ancients through genetic engineering, and are not directly descended from them, despite the use of the term "ancestors" in Pegasus. The humans on Earth presumably came about the same way. Humans were not seeded on any other Milky Way planet, the Goa'uld brought them to those worlds from Earth.
* The four alien kids from ''[[Roswell]]'' who looked human, [[Dawson Casting|but prettier]]. It's gradually established that they are actually traditional Roswell [[The Greys|greys]] in [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|human form]]. The thing is, they assumed these forms before exploring outside their crashed spaceship as children. The reason they knew to do so was later [[Hand Wave|Handwaved]] by explaining they are [[Half -Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]]. Whew!
* On ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'', the Sebaceans.
** There were several races that basically looked like humans or Sebaceans, except with strange colored eyes or hair or (sometimes) skin. They could be Sebacean renegades (like the ones in "Look At the Princess"), but it's rarely clarified. It is rather strange that John is constantly mistaken for a Sebacean, and not, say, a Litigaran.
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* A nice [[Hand Wave]] comes from the TV show ''[[Something Is Out There]]''. "God created human beings in his image, right? How many images do you think he has?"
* Pax and Crona from ''[[Vintergatan|At The End Of The Milky Way]]'' both look human, but with three differences -- they constantly crave sugar, their hair changes color depending on their emotions, and they make quick, pig-like noises when they're upset. Strangely enough, only Pax shows the two last signs, leading one to believe that it's either an [[Informed Ability]] for Crona, or he's just so slick he never changes emotion from 'groovy'.
* The aliens in ''[[The Event]]'' are distinguished from humans only by their longer lifespans and certain undescribed "skeletal and serological abnormalities". The latter are pronounced enough that a blood test will reveal them, and one plants himself with a tube of human blood to avoid arousing suspicions during a blood test. A DNA test will also reveal them, and [[Evil -Detecting Dog|dogs sometimes bark at them]].
* So you're watching ''[[BlakesBlake's Seven (TV)|Blake's 7]]'' and you find yourself wondering whether the very-human looking primitive tribe on this episode's guest planet are alien humanoids or descendants of a lost human colony? Don't bother thinking about it that hard. The series itself even lampshaded this in the 4th season:
{{quote| '''Vila''': Everyone came from Earth originally. That's a well-known fact.<br />
'''Soolin''': It's a well-known opinion, actually.<br />
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** That being said, the game makes it clear they are two separate species, and unlikely to be compatible for reproduction (no one has really tried).
* [[Toejam and Earl]] 2: Panic on Funkitron plays with this by having the hero's planes being invaded by ''humans''. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* ''[[Star Control II]]'' is mostly pretty good about making its aliens different from humans, though there are still a suspiciously large number of bipeds with heads on the top. However, one species, the Syreen, are your typical [[Green -Skinned Space Babe|blue-skinned space babes]] - and they comment on the perplexing similarity between their species (the big difference being matriarchal rather than patriarchal). They're so close, in fact, that they're apparently sexually compatible, capable of producing fertile offspring. It is implied in the game's rich backstory, however, that it's because a [[Little Green Men|certain other alien species]] transplanted some ancient Syreen to Earth as part of an extremely long-term experiment.
* The Lunarians in [[Touhou]] are basically this. But then again, they might be [[Epileptic Trees|merely ascended humans]] after all, and the ending of ''Imperishable Night'' describes them as having aspects of [[Half -Human Hybrid|both humans and youkai]].
** To be fair, Gensokyo is pretty much a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] [[Planet Eris]] inhabited by a variety of mythological creatures that all look quite human and rather attractive, [[Cute Monster Girl|even at their most bizarre]]. A lot of the youkai themselves could qualify for this trope.
* Similarly, the Lunarians in ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' don't look too different from humans other than slightly different skin tones and hair colors. They can even interbreed with humans and the two major characters are [[Half -Human Hybrid|Half-Lunarian]].
* The vast majority of the alien races in ''[[Star Ocean]]'' are human or [[Petting Zoo People]]. This may be [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the third game's [[Shocking Swerve]] if [[Fridge Brilliance|the player thinks about it]].
* The ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' series takes place [[A Long Time Ago in A Galaxy Far Far Away]], and their equivalent of humans have long [[Pointy Ears]], but for all intents and purposes, they are human, and are even called "humans" in-game.
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* The Theians of ''[[Iron Grip]]''.
* Niles Van Roekel in [[Marvel Nemesis]].
* Going along with ''[[Star Wars]]'' above, ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' has several. Juhani looks like a human with tattoos and an odd accent, the Handmaiden (and by extension the entire Echani species) look like humans with [[White -Haired Pretty Girl|white]] [[White -Haired Pretty Boy|hair]] and silver eyes (and can interbreed with humans), Visas and Miraluka in general look exactly like humans until you remove their hoods (they don't have eyes), and there is a Zeltron minor character on Telos near the beginning.
** Note that many ''[[Star Wars]]'' species are actually 'near-Humans', meaning that they are descended from Humans but evolved into something else because of long-term genetic isolation. This is because before the Hyperdrive was invented, people traveled around in generation ships or sleeper vessels; some limited interspecies contact occurred, but no organization on the scale of the Republic or Empire was possible. Also, not all isolated Human populations diverged genetically if their new environment was benign enough; for example, the inhabitants of Naboo stayed well within the Human genetic range, but diverged from mainstream humanity culturally. Apparently, [[Unfortunate Implications|Indians are an aberration]].
* While not referred to as aliens, many of the demons from ''[[Disgaea]]'' fall under this, since we see that they do inhabitant different planets throughout space.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[Ben 10 Alien Force (Animation)|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'', Alan is a [[Half -Human Hybrid|Pyronite crossbreed]] who looks human except for when he's using his powers, and it's revealed that {{spoiler|Gwen is a [[Half -Human Hybrid]]}} and gets her powers from her alien grandmother (the logical extension is, of course, that anyone without an Omnitrix strapped to their wrist who has powers is an alien or part-alien. The fans have had fun with this).
* [[Word Girl|WordGirl]] is an alien from the planet Lexicon, but looks nothing remotely exotic.
 
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== [[Anime]] ==
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', oddly enough several of the Angels are roughly humanoid, others are more... [[Eldritch Abomination|interesting.]] Notably, the two most powerful ones are basically cloned [[Half -Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]].
** But it's not surprising considering that in the Eva universe, {{spoiler|humans were descended from the 2nd Angel, Lilith. As such, one of the aforementioned [[Half -Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]] (Kaworu) refers to humanity as "Lilim". Then in ''End of Evangelion'' Misato puts forth the theory that humanity, collectively, is the 18th Angel.}}
 
 
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* In [[Larry Niven]]'s [[Ring World]] series, there are various humanoid races who all turn out to be {{spoiler|descended from the same race of [[Precursors]] who are the ancestors of Earth humans}}.
* The Martians and Venusians of [[SM Stirling]]'s ''[[The Lords of Creation]]'' novels look human because they are (more or less); the eponymous beings, in prehistoric times, Terraformed Mars and Venus and seeded them with Earth life (repeating the process several times, so that on Venus you have humans sharing the planet with dinosaurs and mammalian megafauna).
* The aliens in Robert Zubrin's [[The Holy Land]] consider themselves the humans, and the Earthlings merely 'proto-humans'. Given their superior senses, telepathic ability, superior physiques, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|superlative hygiene]], they're probably right. However, they themselves originated on Earth, about twenty thousand years ago.
* ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy|The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy]]'' has a subversion in the book version with Trillian. When she's introduced, she's built up to be one of these. {{spoiler|She's from Earth.}}
* In the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series, two of the four alien species involved in the wizardly cultural exchange program look human. And there's a guest appearance by a [[Doctor Who (TV)|Time Lord]]. A few of the [[Mooks]] are [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]]. All the rest of the aliens are definetly not human, with a few of them being [[Starfish Aliens]].
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* ''[[Dead Space (Franchise)|Dead Space]]'' has an ironic subversion, since all the Necromorphs are made from human corpses and several of them look pretty damn close to a plain old human.
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' has many races that are distinctly non-human. The Elcor look like a cross between small elephants and gorillas, and the Hanar look like floating jellyfish.
** Played entirely straight with the asari, a [[One -Gender Race]] of [[Green -Skinned Space Babe|Blue Skinned Space Babes]] whose only immediate physical difference from human women are the folds of skin at the back of their skull.
*** Lampshaded when a Turian, Salarian, and Human are having an Asari dance for them at a bachelor party. The Turian and Human wonder why they both find Asari attractive even though turians and humans look so different. The human says that asari resemble humans very closely, but the turian points out their head ridges and comments that he thinks asari look like blue turians to him. The human wonders if the asari are using their innate biotic powers to subconsciously mind control the other races into finding them more attractive, and the turain shoots this down with a simple "Shut up, you'll ruin asari for me." Even the Salarian is interested (and again notes the similarity to his own race), which is especially notable since Salarians have no sex drive.
**** Salarians may have no sex drive, but it ''is'' shown (mostly in the second game, where the race is more prominent) that Salarians do understand and show love. Of particular note is the Salarian with an Asari daughter in one of the games market hubs.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* [[Inverted]] [[Played for Laughs|For Laughs]] in ''[[Invader Zim]]''. [[Villain Protagonist|Zim]] looks nothing like a human (having green skin, antennae and no nose or ears), but with a minimum of effort absolutely nobody on Earth notices except for [[Hero Antagonist|Dib]].
** But he has [[Paper -Thin Disguise|his human disguise]]! He puts in his contacts and wears a wig - INGENIOUS!!! [http://www.quizilla.com/user_images/P/PorkCow/1042793471_InvaderZim.jpg evidence]
* Captain Crandall of ''[[Teamo Supremo]]'' claims to be from another planet, despite the fact that he looks too much like his "Earth-mom" to possibly not be her child.
* In ''[[Winx Club]]'', most of the people there are like this except with the notable exception of the [[Big Bad]] of Season 2, Lord Darkar.
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