Humans Are Ugly: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:humans-are-
▲[[File:humans-are-ugly_1x2_7149.jpg|link=Star Trek Generations|right|"How repulsive! It has a [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|smooth forehead]]!"]]
{{quote|"Tell you what, if you think it's wrong for you to think of them as ugly, just think of how you look to them. Short, squat, unlined skin, a nose that puffs up like a rodent, tiny little mouth with jagged white things in it, a horrible shrub-like growth on your head."
"This, from the man who's worn a bowl-cut hairstyle almost all his adult life."
▲{{quote|"Tell you what, if you think it's wrong for you to think of them as ugly, just think of how you look to them. Short, squat, unlined skin, a nose that puffs up like a rodent, tiny little mouth with jagged white things in it, a horrible shrub-like growth on your head."<br />
Ever notice how, when [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|aliens look at humans]], they can't help but be repulsed? Even though the only visible difference between humans and the aliens is usually [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|a bunch of forehead ridges?]] Who knew forehead ridges were the sexiest thing in the universe? Or is the lack of them enough to put humans in the [[Uncanny Valley]]?
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Overlord]]'', the [[Torture Technician]] Neuronist Painkill is a hideous [[Cthulhumanoid]]. Despite this, she is ''very'' vain and considers herself to be more beautiful than both [[Vampires Are Sex Gods|Shalltear]] and [[Horny Devils|Albedo]], both of which are very beautiful by human standards.
==
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Zits]]'', a fly declares Jeremy ugly just as he declares the fly ugly.
* Blind [[Green Lantern]] Rot Lop Fan, who himself looks a bit like a cave salamander, was kind enough to sympathize to fellow Green Lantern [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Katma Tui]] on how hideous she felt to him, despite her lovely voice. This is a bit of a subversion however, in that Katma ''isn't'' human, she just [[Human Alien|looks human]] (albeit with pink skin).
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* Bast, the Egyptian Goddess of Cats doesn't exactly say Morpheus is ''ugly'', but in ''[[The Sandman]]'' issue "Season of Mists", she says she finds him much more attractive in cat form. Bast ''is'' an anthropomorphic cat.
== [[Film]] ==
== Films -- Animation ==▼
* In ''[[Spirited Away]]'', the spirits seem to have this opinion of humans, or at least of <s>Chihiro</s> Sen. Likely because, despite many taking humanoid forms, they're not actually human spirits, but creatures like weasels, etc..
* In the original ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'', Dr. Zira has to get over her human revulsion when Taylor asks for a goodbye kiss. She also remarks how ugly he looks after shaving off his beard.
* ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'': The first thing the Duras sisters see through LaForge's VISOR is Dr. Crusher. Their response? "Human females are so repulsive!"
* ''[[Halloweentown]] III: Halloweentown High'' has the main character's brother falling for a troll. At the end, they are about to share a kiss, but they both say that it is too weird/gross, and decide to stay as friends.
* From the film ''[[Enemy Mine (
{{quote|
'''Jerry:''' Maybe I need to look at another face... even one as ugly as yours.
'''Davidge:''' So you still think humans are ugly?
'''Jerry:''' Compared to a Drac? VERY ugly. But that thing out there... is even more ugly than you.
'''Davidge:''' ''(sarcastic)'' Thank you.
'''Jerry:''' ''(grinning)'' You... are... welcome. }}
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* Discussed in ''[[Ender's Game]]'', when Ender muses that the aliens (nicknamed "Buggers" by humans, [[Captain Obvious|presumably because they resemble giant bugs]]) probably refer to humans as "Slimies" owing to their soft oily exteriors rather than hard exoskeletons.▼
▲== Literature ==
▲* Discussed in [[Ender's Game]], when Ender muses that the aliens (nicknamed "Buggers" by humans, [[Captain Obvious|presumably because they resemble giant bugs]]) probably refer to humans as "Slimies" owing to their soft oily exteriors rather than hard exoskeletons.
* In [[Robert Silverberg]]'s ''Ishmael in Love'', the dolphin narrator, despite being [[Mars Needs Women|in love with a human woman]], often describes the human body as being ugly and ungainly.
* In [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''[[Humanx Commonwealth|Nor Crystal Tears]]'', the Thranx are deeply unnerved and revolted by humanity's endoskeletal bodies and bizarre upright posture. Of course, humans return the favor, as Thranx are essentially four-foot-tall praying mantises. Fortunately, both sides largely get over those gut reactions with a lot of work.
** Played with a bit also, as many thranx find humans' ''flexibility'' remarkably graceful, even if they're ugly otherwise. Likewise, even the most insect-phobic of humans have to admit that thranx smell lovely.
* In [[Stanislaw Lem]]'s ''[[
** One of Ijon Tichy's voyages in ''[[
* In ''[[His Dark Materials|The Amber Spyglass]]'', Mary Malone stays with a village of ''mulefa'', wheeled antelope/elephant-like creatures. They're intelligent and kindly and adopt her
* In [[Stephen King]]'s short story ''I Am the Doorway'' (appears in the collection ''[[Night Shift]]''), aliens infect an astronaut, and eyes appear on his fingers. Those eyes see everything in the
* Grendelkin, a race of monsters from ''[[
* In the novel ''[[Transformers Film Series|Transformers: The Vieled Threat]]'', the Decepticons wax at length about how ugly they find humans. Even an Autobot comments to a swimming human ally that he likes her better when she wears her goggles, as they give her head a more robotic look. Of course, they are giant, mechanoid, robotic aliens, so their perspective on what is attractive is very different to say the least.
* In ''Le jour des fourmis'' (i.e. ''[[Empire of the Ants]]''), Arthur Ramirez uses a small TV screen in order to show the human world to the ant 103th. Afther seeing some models, the soldier ant said in her head that she find the human females very ugly!
* In the ''[[Worldwar
* Variant: While the Auditors of ''[[Discworld]]'' have no concept of beauty or ugliness, they find the human form repugnant due to its possession of (Ewwww!) ''orifices'', with all the messiness and inefficiency such features entail.
* In ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' the novel, the human protagonist Ulysse and female ape scientist Zira feel mutual intellectual attraction. Once they [[Almost Kiss]]... but Zira can't bring herself to it, as Ulysse is too ugly in her eyes.
* In Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski's ''[[
* In ''[[
{{quote|
'''Ben''': "This, from the man who's worn a bowl-cut hairstyle almost all his adult life." }}
* In one of the [[Star Trek:
* The conquering aliens in the ''Pandora's Planet'' series of short stories (later anthologized under that title) seek to play up this trope after capturing Earth, to limit pro-human empathy by members of the alien race.
* In the novelizations of the [[Alien vs. Predator|Alien Vs Predator]] world, when the point of view is [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|from a Predator,]] if they are looking at a "ooman," they refer to him/her as "ugly," "pale," or "sickly."
* Terry Bisson's short story ''[[
* In ''[[
* In ''Chess With A Dragon'', humans are one of only a dozen mammalian races in a galaxy dominated by thousands of reptilian and invertebrate civilizations. The only races that don't think we're unspeakably disgusting are the ones that think mammals like us belong on a plate.
* ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]] Saves the Universe'' has humanity involved in a genocidal war with slimy tentacled aliens, simply because they find us so repulsive. The protagonist discovers that the Grey Men (villains from a previous novel) are using brainwashing to engineer the war, and so he uses the same technology to make the aliens see the positive aspects of humanity. Like our slimy sweat and flickering red tongues.
* Invoked in ''[[Who Goes There
{{quote|
* ''[[In the Courts of The Crimson Kings]]''. A Martian biologist examines a captive human, and despite his similar bipedal form is squicked by such things as body hair and sweat.
* In [[
* In the ''[[Myth Adventures]]'' short story "Myth Congeniality", the drop-dead-gorgeous Bunny is rated lowest in a cross-dimensional beauty contest, competing against females from hundreds of nonhuman and non-humanoid species. {{spoiler|But she wins the prize anyway, being the only contestant who wasn't disqualified for cheating.}}
* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]''; in the episode "Devil in the Dark", the horta claims it finds humans "revolting".
▲== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Star Trek:
** The Ferengi tend to find humans (and human-looking aliens) repulsive, and think those members who believe otherwise to be deviants.
{{quote|
'''Deanna:''' Why have you removed our clothing?
'''Guard:''' Females do not deserve the honor of clothing.
'''Lwaxana:''' They're as bad as humans. Look at that leer on his face.
'''Daimon Tog:''' Actually, ''his'' is a look of revulsion. But it is not a feeling that I share. ''(stares at them pervertedly)'' }}
** The first lines we hear from a Ferengi (whose [[Hypocritical Humor|ugly face is filling the viewscreen]]) is that the hideousness of humans has clearly not been exaggerated.
* In the same vein, the Founders of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' take this view among their more general [[Fantastic Racism]] against "solids".
* And in ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', although humans aren't necessarily unattractive to Vulcans, they do smell terrible.
* ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' has an alien say "Boy, humans are ugly!"
* This was the [[Karmic Twist Ending]] of a ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' episode called "The Eye of the Beholder", and to say anything else would be a spoiler.
* In ''[[
{{quote|
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* [[Trope Overdosed|Naturally]], ''[[Warhammer
** Of course, Orks tend to shut up when the [[Warrior Monk|Space]] [[Super Soldier|Marines]] are deployed in combat. Eldar continue their view of us as clumsy, inelegant beasts however. At least they do up until the point aformentioned [[Space Marine]] buries a [[Chainsaw Good|chainsword]] in their face.
* In ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', Juiblex is regarded by most mortal beings as one of the most loathsome, disgusting, and vile beings in existence, being a demon lord with dominance over slimes, oozes, jellies, and puddings. What does Juiblex think of humans?
{{quote|'''Juiblex:''' The most fearsome monster I ever saw had two arms, two legs, and one head, and on its head was a face with two eyes, two ears, one nose, and one mouth, and above this face grew a mop of hair. Everywhere else, the creature’s flesh was mostly pink and bare. Mostly. Makes my slime crawl thinking about it.}}<ref>4th Edition reprint of ''The Book of Vile Darkness''.</ref>
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* The VUX from ''[[Star Control]] II'' think humans are so ugly and repulsive that they can't help but want them exterminated. Ironically, when the game starts, humanity thinks they're on bad terms with the VUX because, on first contact, the human captain involved insulted ''their'' looks, not knowing how advanced VUX [[Translator Microbes]] are. You have to pry the real reason out of them. Except for Admiral ZEX... who [[Nightmare Fetishist|finds them rather attractive]]...
** Or remember the dialog when you first find a Spathi ship and you haven't allied with them yet.
* In ''[[Warcraft III]]'', in the first orc mission, when encountering the [[Pig Man|quillboars]] in Kalimdor for the first time, one of the orcs commented on the curiosity of the new beings with, "At least they're prettier than the humans".
* In the prehistoric era of ''[[
* HK-47, the [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] (and sociopathic droid) of ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' calls humans "meatbags" and wonders how they can stand to walk around as sloshing bags of organs. He can even cause the player character to feel a moment of self-doubt.
* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has Garrus as a romance option for a female Shepard. He outright states that he finds humans ugly, but he's far more attracted to Shepard's personality than her face.
== [[Web Comics]] ==▼
▲== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'', Quentyn reacts to his new sidekick's, Sam, demands to respect her modesty when she is forced to bathe by him by noting that he finds nothing attractive in beings like Humans and Elves who look like naked rodents to him. However, when Sam emerges, Quentyn notes that her now clean bright blonde hair looks nice, and that if she had proper body fur someone could come after her for her pelt.
* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'', one of Princess Voluptua's subordinates criticizes her for [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|disguising herself as a human.]] "'Tis undignified for the heir apparent to dress like a monkey!"
* On the ''[[
* In the ''[[
▲* On the ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' episode "The Mirror", Goliath mentions that he never realized Elisa was beautiful until she was turned into a gargoyle. She replies "You mean you thought I was ugly?" Goliath quickly changes the subject.
▲* In the ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' episode "Band Geeks", Squidward's band ends up playing at a human football game.
▲{{quote| '''Patrick:''' These are some ugly looking fish.<br />
▲'''Spongebob:''' Maybe we're near one of those toxic waste dumps.<br />
'''Mr. Krabs:''' I think I'm gonna be sick... }}
* The animated ''[[Earthworm Jim (
* What the bugs from ''[[Thumbelina]]'' think of the title character after she's accidentally stripped of her bug disguise.
* ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'':
** This is Granamyr the Dragon King's opinion of humans
** In another episode, He-Man allies himself with some bug-people who find humans "hideous". One of them is rather offended when Beastman and Mer-Man call him a monster, as [[Hypocrite| they look pretty monstrous themselves.]]
* In the ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' episode "Twitching Channels", he and Megavolt are transported into [[Welcome to The Real World|our world]] and shrieks in terror at the "beakless mutants".
** He had a similar reaction to meeting Comet Guy for the first time, calling him a "bizarre alien being"; Comet Guy (and everyone from his planet) look pretty human.
* More along the lines of "Earthlings are ugly", one episode of [[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]] sees Dale encounter a trio of shapeshifting aliens; when two of them assume he's the third one, they tell him to "change out of that ''ridiculous'' form and start acting serious!"
* In an episode of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'', Eric is turned into a bog beast, an ugly, toad-like creature with a low, guttural voice. Eventually the heroes meet some actual bog beasts (actually pretty nice guys) and Eric is able to turn himself human again. However, the bog beasts feel sorry for him, seeing as now he's so ugly! (To them.)
* In ''[[Amphibia (TV series)|Amphibia]]'' this is the general opinion the frog-like residents of Wartwood have; even the ones who ''like'' Anne call her "ugly", while most townsfolk think she's some sort of monster. Until the episode "Breakout Star", when she wakes up with bad acne, and everyone thinks they're warts, which to their eyes, makes her ''beautiful''.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
▲== Real Life ==
* Koko, the gorilla who knows sign language, dismissed the idea that humans are better than gorillas because the humans are so much uglier. In the same conversation, she said she doesn't think that humans are smarter, either, since Koko was the one who figured out how to talk to humans with sign language.
* Deconstructed by humanity's attitude to earthbound "alien" species, like
* Otherkin, Therians, Na'vi-kin and other people with body identity disorders who believe themselves to belong to species other than the [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|human race]] tend toward this. It's played for laughs in public, but...
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]
[[Category:
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