Ridiculously-Human Robots: Difference between revisions

[[File:bender_smoking_3778bender smoking 3778.png|link=Futurama|frame|He needs the alcohol for powering his batteries, but [[Good Smoking, Evil Smoking|the smoking]] [[Rule of Cool|just makes him look cool]].]]

{{quote|"''Being a robot's great, but we don't have emotions [[Hypocritical Humor|and sometimes that makes me very sad.]]''"|'''Bender''', ''[[Futurama]]''}}

Robots in television -- particularlytelevision—particularly comedic television -- aretelevision—are usually human-like in ways that very few sane programmers would deem useful. It can be something as simple as being philosophical (wanting to understand human emotion, wondering if they [[Our Souls Are Different|have a soul]], etc.), but can extend to such things as robot social cliques, robot food, robot entertainment, robot religion, and even robot sex. It doesn't matter if it makes no sense in the context of a mechanical servant, or even if it's truly undesirable, the designers have [[Personality Chip|put it in there]] for [[Mad Scientist|some twisted reason]]. This will often take the form of having an [[Artificial Human]], a robot that looks ''exactly'' like a human.

The degree to which this is actually "ridiculous" varies depending on the setting. In some cases they get a free pass - it may be that an intelligence, artificial or not, ''needs'' to be vaguely human-like in its basic outlines, with emotions, interests, motivations, et cetera simply to be functional for certain tasks, such as those requiring a great deal of long-term autonomy. On the other hand, perhaps humans prefer sex bots [[Personality Chip|not to behave like automated teller machines]]. Or it may be, if human intelligence itself is merely an evolved set of functions held together in an evolved psychological architecture, that any society with sufficiently ubiquitous and flexible automation [[Mechanical Evolution|will necessarily have the means to produce something human-like]]. Whatever serves the needs of the well-reasoned plot or setting. In these cases, [['''Ridiculously-Human Robots]]''' make sense. Also, a few illogical design choices are a small price to pay for keeping robotic characters out of the [[Uncanny Valley]]. However, it's rare that a series explicitly spells this out, and often, these [[Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence|human-like]] [[AI|AIs]]s are put right up next to similar, yet [[The Stoic|emotionless equivalents]] that function perfectly.

[[Tin Can Robot|Tin Can Robots]]s cannot by definition have a Ridiculously Human Appearance like some examples, but may fit on the "Ridiculously Human Personality" part of the equation.

* Sexaroids Sylvie and Anri, in ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]''. However, given their [[Kiss Me I Am Virtual|intended function]], this isn't so strange. Perhaps more unusual (and disturbing) is the fact that, of the two Boomer models designed to resemble women, only those purposely designed for sexual use appear to be sentient. And then there's Anri, who's apparently built to look permanently underage...

** This also applies to ''[[Real Drive]]'', where android Holon is so human-like that one of the main characters falls in love with her--andher—and dumps his girlfriend who is the one ''after which Holon has been modeled''. Interestingly, Holon mentions that she has no gender identity; she's a sexually neutral sentient AI - but does seem capable of falling in love with a human, or at least forming a strong emotional attachment.

** And besides the fact that spiders couldn't perform any of the household chores for which persocoms are shown to be used, or be employed in stores, or provide "companionship" (in any sense of the word) equivalent to that provided by a human...I mean, I guess you could program a robotic spider to perform calculations and access the internet, but I can't exactly see a spider dressed up in a frilly costume handing out pastries in front of a bakery, or working as a waitress in a restaurant, or serving as a replacement daughter/sister/wife.

* Good old ''[[Astro Boy]]'' inspired an entire country's culture with regards to this trope. Despite varying levels of humanoid physical appearance, robots have their own society and culture and even actual robot churches.

** And it's also good that they need someone "spacialspecial" to awake them up.

** Don't forget that... Eh... if the one that is givingiving them orders gives them the order to conquer the world... The world is doomed, right?

* ''[[Cutey Honey]]:'' Different revival versions are different of course, but if not for her abilities, it'd often be hard to tell that Honey Hisaragi wasn't completely human from the way she acts, and in the original anime she bled and got choked repeatedly. ''With'' them, it just looks like her necklace is a [[Transformation Trinket]]. Most episodes would change little if she weren't a human character with a necklace of awesome.

* Doombots, programmed to act like the real [[Doctor Doom]] in his absence. Arguably, it's not very difficult to achieve perfect resemblance to the real thing when the template himself dresses like a robot with a hood and cape... One thing that helps, a Doombot is programmed to believe itself to actually be Doom, except when in the presence of the real Doom or another Doombot.

* Arguably justified to the point of deconstruction by Machine Man, in various [[Marvel Comics]] tales. The X-series robots are supposed to be, essentially, Terminators, but Abel Stack is convinced that a robot that can think as well as a human needs to think like a human; when the other fifty robots develop bizarre psychoses and X-51 remains sane, he's proven right, but X-51 also proves useless as a military device. Much later, in ''[[Earth X]]'', Uatu the Watcher claims Abel made "Aaron" as an extension of himself, hoping to "live forever" in this way.

* Both versions of [[The Vision]] from ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'': the original was married to the [[Scarlet Witch]]; it was even believed, for a while, that he was able to sire children, but it turned out Wanda's two sons were actually two soul-shards of the newvillainous Master Pandemonium. ([[It Makes Sense In Context]], seriously.) The second one spent a year traveling around the world finding himself, likes to be called Jonas in private, and is now dating Stature.

** The Vision's "brother", {{spoiler|[[Runaways|Victor Mancha]]}}, looks and acts so much like a normal teenager that ''he himself didn't know he was a robot for years''. This was justified considering that {{spoiler|he was built as part of an elaborate plot that required him to pass as human for a while.}}

* The ''[[Terminator|Terminators]]s'' from the titular movies are made of human skin stretched over a robotic skeleton. As robots that are meant to infiltrate human camps and slaughter them from inside, the only thing that seems to tell them from a normal human is their [[Nigh Invulnerability]]; putting that aside, they look, smell, sweat, bleed and walk like an actual human. [[Evil-Detecting Dog|Dogs, however, aren't fooled.]]

*** There is a deleted scene in ''Terminator 2'' (restored in the extended release) that clarifies that most Terminators have their learning switch turned off before being sent out on the field. The reason being that SkyNet fears (or whatever) the Terminators learning -''too-'' much and becoming sentient and self-aware like itself or otherwise troublesome to control. This switch is turned on for the T-800 in the movie in the scene and thus why it was able to eventually learn such things. Assuming higher numbers mean later models, it can also be assumed that SkyNet incorporates better research into the later models - the T-1000 was much much better at being an infiltrator though it seemed to kill most anyone within a few minutes of meeting them. It maybe also that those Terminators that are on a specific mission of infiltration rather than a mission where it'll kill anything that gets in its way are given more learning time and/or directive to act human; this is suggested in the ''Sarah Connor Chronicles'' where the resident Terminator has a flashback to the time when it interrogated the human it's based on as it was intending to access a heavily defended base. Strangely, the flashback occurs because the Terminator gets hit on the head (or something) and gets amnesia.

*** Though it's never explained why [[Sky Net]]SkyNet continually thinks like a human and keeps sending Terminators back to different points in time AFTER''after'' the first Terminator (allowing the humans to become better and better prepared) rather than sending a robot back to a point BEFORE''before'' the first Terminator appeared (thus adding the element of surprise AND''and'' less advanced technology), or just continually sending the same Terminator to the same point in time to increase the odds of the proper timeline taking place.

*** This can be Fanwanked away; presumably sending Terminators further backwards in time costs more resources, and as Future!John destroys more and more of SkynetSkyNet, it can no longer afford to send Terminators back as far.

** It is, however, a plot point in ''<nowiki>~[[2001: A Space Odyssey~</nowiki>]]'', in which HAL becomes paranoid and psychotic after being given conflicting commands of equal importance. (At least, that is explanation offered outside of the film for his actions.)

* The problems inherent in programming ridiculously human robots is explored in ''<nowiki>~[[A.I.: Artificial Intelligence~</nowiki>]]'', in which the robot David is programmed with genuine love, rather than the simulated love of previous models (like Gigolo Joe). This leads to a [[Become a Real Boy|Pinocchio-like plot]] later on.

* The droids in ''[[Star Wars]]''. The [[Expanded Universe]] takes this further with "Human Replica Droids" such as ''[[Shadows of the Empire]]''{{'}}s Guri. It takes special equipment to recognize that they aren't human. Guri shows they can indeed function as a [[Sex Bot]].

*** Talking about protocol droids... why bother making a droid designed to communicate with thousands of species look humanoid at all? Especially considering [[C 3 PO]]-3PO doesn't seem all that mobile compared to other droids like R2-D2.

*** The ''X-wing'' series also introduces perhaps the most independent of droids a 3PO unit called Squeaky. Squeaky managed to subvert its programing and steal a ship to lead an escape from the prison/spice mine planet Kessel. For his actions he was freed from any present and future ownership. By the time of the ''X-Wing'' series he has a highly developed personality that goes in contrast to the standard demeanor of most 3PO units who are programmed to be courteous and polite to everyone. Squeaky routinely insults those around him and despite being originally a translator, has worked as a bartender and later as a quartermaster for the New Republic.

* The "replicants" in ''[[Blade Runner]]'' are very difficult to distinguish from humans -- ithumans—it's very possible that {{spoiler|protagonist Rick Deckard is, himself, a replicant. In fact, Ridley Scott has [[Word of God|stated]] that Deckard ''is'' a replicant in at least one of the movie's two edited versions.}}

* In ''[[Westworld]]'' (and its ~[[So Bad It's Horrible~]] sequel, ''Futureworld''), the robots are ridiculously human ''precisely because'' they're supposed to entertain the human Guests. Some robots are even "sex models" for people who want to swing that way. Of course, [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot]]...

{{quote| '''HELENA:''' Doctor, has Radius a soul?<br />

* In ''~[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy~]]'', there is the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's "Genuine People Personalities" feature.

** The short story "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" argues that [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]] would be incredibly dangerous. The Sirius corporation's "Designer People" product were robots that were sort of super-sociopaths - some of them were built to look like people, and unlike most Genuine People Personalities they could act totally convincing if they wanted, but they lack certain normal thought processes of natural organisms like consciences or even sanity. One of them is described as being as dangerous as planet-killing weapons of mass destruction. In some editions of the story, its name is revealed as {{spoiler|Reagan}}.

* Doubly parodied and [[Lampshade|lampshadedlampshade]]d in ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'', where an Electric Monk from an alien planet finds itself on Earth. Physically, it resembles a human being so closely that no one catches on that it's a robot ... even though, on its planet of origin, it was given such ridiculous features as two legs, two arms, and a single nose so it couldn't possibly be mistaken for a person. Mentally, it had been designed with a human-like ability to ''believe'' things -- eventhings—even quite ridiculous or self-contradictory things -- whichthings—which is something nobody's figured out how ''we'' do, let alone how to make a machine do it. The Electric Monk was given this ability so that it could listen to door-to-door evangelists in its owners' stead.

* [[Keith Laumer]]'s [[Bolo]] combat units don't look even remotely human -- theyhuman—they're [[Tank Goodness|tanks]] the size of large buildings -- butbuildings—but their personalities:

{{quote| "What made you risk everything on a hopeless attack? Why did you do it?"<br />

''"For the honor of the regiment."''<br />

----<br />

* [[Robert A. Heinlein]] examines this trope in ''Friday''. A conversation about genetically engineered [[Artificial HumansHuman]]s and "Living Artifacts" (artificial non-human lifeforms) being used as airline pilots brings up the point that a non-human artificial pilot, organic or AI, might go suicidally or [[Kill All Humans|homicidally]] insane because of its lack of ties to a human world it can never belong to. [[ArtificalArtificial HumansHuman]]s like the titular Friday have to face [[Fantastic Racism]] and alienation issues, but are able to pass as human. With luck, they can even possibly find acceptance in human society without hiding what they are.

* In the Culture of [[Iain Banks]], the Minds certainly qualify.

** In terms of their personalities for story purposes, at least... justified in-universe in that all civilizations are obliged to build tendencies into AIs, because "perfect [unconstrained] [[A Is]]AIs always Sublime," so presumably the Culture makes [[A Is]]AIs which are naturally going to like its members and want to help them. Still, they are unfathomably mighty intellects, so there's always the suspicion in the Culture that the ridiculously human-like part of them is just the tip of the iceberg.

* Twiki and Crichton in ''[[Buck Rogers in Thethe 25th Century]]'' Crichton at least in behavior if not appearance.

* The humanoid Cylons in the [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|remake of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'']] are the definition of robots being ridiculously human -- mosthuman—most notably, "robot religion". And robots having robot or [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-robot]] kids. Justified in that the series then asks ''all'' the philosophical questions about the nature of both sides.

** Given his older brother, Lore, had basic emotional intelligence and [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|was a sociopath]]; it was easier to mold a working wang than create a stable emotion matrix.

{{quote| '''Rimmer''' (to Kryten): Well, if he's an earlier model, how come he looks so much more sophisticated than you?<br />

'''Kryten''': Sir, just because I have a head shaped like a freak formation of mashed potato does not mean I am unsophisticated!<br />

'''Rimmer''': Well, all right, how come he looks more realistically human?<br />

{{quote| '''Lister''': Kryten, I'm going to teach you how to lie and cheat if it's the last thing I do. I'm going to teach you how to be unpleasant, cruel, and sarcastic. It's the only way to break your programming, man. Make you ''independent''.<br />

*** This may have been intended as a [[Take That]] to Christianity, considering Lister's revulsion and horror when he hears about it. Also has elements of [[Hypocritical Humor|hypocrisy]] because Lister, when Kryten tells him about it, insists that the idea of Silicon Heaven is "completely wacko" but then asks Kryten if it's the same place as human Heaven -- toHeaven—to which Kryten answers, "Don't be silly! Humans don't go to Heaven! No, someone just made that up to prevent you from all going nuts!"

** Red Dwarf actually plays with this concept -- andconcept—and the [[Uncanny Valley]] -- quite—quite a lot. Kryten (along with Holly, and Hudzen-10) have suffered a bit of silicon rot and gone a bit crazy after 3 million years of existence... but all in very human ways, e.g. a quivering pile of neuroses (Kryten), general senility (Holly), homicidal psychopathy (Hudzen). The design of Kryten's head (and in a lesser way Hudzen, though he wears a helmet and mask most of the time) was apparently based upon that of his in-series creator's ex-husband (presumably the guy on the sales video introducing his replacement Hudzen), as she found him "ridiculous," but then further corrupted to look distinctly artificial and non-human (largely flat panels and angles) to avoid the creepiness effect (and we can probably assume his "funny walk" is for the same reason). During an episode where their perception of reality is being altered, and it is "discovered" that Lister is an android, Kryten reveals that the model series prior to his own actually looked completely human, Terminator style, and were withdrawn for being just too darn creepy. This therefore makes Lister, technically speaking, an inferior model (and subordinate) to the more angular "novelty condom head" Kryten, as well as a fugitive from the recall. (This turns out to be untrue, as it was only their perception and Lister still is human). They also play a bit with various personality-related parts burning out, like guilt/conscience chips (several times, as it's Kryten's main trait, including on purpose by Lister and via the wholly ridiculous action of a Polymorph "sucking" it out of him, with reactions such as him smoking cigarettes or "clearing his exhaust tubes in public"), negative emotion drives, and even a "metaphysical dichotomy" over the "lie" of Silicon Heaven existing... when as we all know, even calculators and talking toasters have sufficient quasi-human AI to be allowed entry.

*** Actually, Talkie Toaster fits this trope almost to a T -- the toaster can sing, expresses opinions on religion, and several times appears to be more intelligent than the actual ''crew'' -- eg—eg having a better understanding of the effects of lightspeed travel than the crew does and calling them "bozos" and such. The downside to having such an intelligent toaster is that it drives Lister up the wall, and he ends up [[Bumbling Sidekick|hitting it in a few episodes]] -- including—including once fatally. Based on the above criteria, it probably ''does'' genuinely have enough intelligence to get into Silicon Heaven. Why it needs to, however, is another question entirely.

* In ''[[Super Sentai|Gekiranger]]'''s fourth episode, Geki Red, Jan, gets poisoned. In a rare case of a [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|Ridiculously Human Robot]] that is not sentient, the antidote to the poison is administered by ''injecting it into the arm of the giant robot'' that everyone is piloting.

** It's a dangerous step to go from "Robots should be free" to "I must kill all my fellow humans to free the robots", but that villain takes it.

** She even develops humanlike possessiveness. In "The Brothers of Nablus" she gets upset [[Emotionless Girl|(well, as upset as she can get)]] when her leather jacket gets stolen, and even goes so far as to single out the thief who stole said jacket.

** John Henry qualifies even more so, since he doesn't have Cameron's baggage of being originally designed as a killing machine, and is actively being groomed to be as human as possible. He is shown capable of imaginative play, and loves to play with legos, among other things, and holds genuine affection for the people close to him.

*** And the BuffyBot was milked for all kinds of humor even after they took out the sexbot programming, but her 'death' was carefully designed to have an emotional kick--onkick—on the other hand, Buffy's friends treated her ''terribly'' when they thought she was the 'bot.

* From ''[[Metal Heart (Manhwa)|Metal Heart]]'' Sia and the other EA units. They think they are the characters from the game and don't even know that they themselves are robots.

* All [[Vocaloid|Vocaloids]]s are such excellent examples of this, and it doesn't help that their personality varies with their song writers.

* Warforged in [[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'s [[Eberron]] setting apply, though they're half-robot-half-golem... thingies. They were originally created to be warriors, and unexpectedly developed the capacity for emotion and self-awareness.

{{quote| '''Muro:''' "Curious. Why bother programming you to feel pain so intensely? Of course pain is a necessary response to certain stimuli, but they could have dulled the sensation or given you a threshold that would limit the extent and depth of your agony... I'm glad they didn't."}}

*:* [[Justified Trope|Justified]], sort of, by Shinatama's original purpose of monitoring Konoko. ("I've seen everything you've seen, felt everything you've felt...")

* Mostly in homage to the ''[[Terminator]]'' example, the titular robots in ''[[Snatcher]]'' are insanely powerful robotic skeletons covered in artificial skin - their [[Achilles' Heel]], in that it turns cancerous far too quickly when exposed to sunlight. While they are incapable of perceiving things which require actual human perception (such as identifying optical illusions), they appear to feel emotions and act quite a lot like human religious fanatics. They run their own hospitals and biotechnology institutions on the sly, while imitating a real human perfectly to the point of being able to bleed and (it is implied) have sex. They even have a religious obsession with the Kremlin, and herald Dr. Modnar, their inventor, as their god.

* The [[Mecha-Mooks]] in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl'', the R.O.B. Squad. They're very clearly distressed when {{spoiler|they and their comrades are torn apart by a Subspace Bomb.}} It's quite [[Tear Jerker]]-y. It also leads to [[Moral Dissonance]] sometimes.

** The Geth have even developed a religion on their own. One revolving around mechanical [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s, but a religion nonetheless.

* [[Portal (series)|GLaDOS]] is a perfectly clinical android that also has a personality and even has multiple cores to define all of them. These include such things as "Anger", which definitely makes little sense. Then again, as this is the ''same'' company that came up with such brilliant ideas as the "Heimlich Counter-Manuever" and the "Take A Wish Foundation", it's obvious that they're not terribly practical people; and given that it's suggested GLaDOS was developed as an attempt to develop a fuel line de-icing system that somehow ended up also being "a fully funtional disc-operating system" and "arguably alive", they apparently didn't know when to stop adding on additional features. She also has an obsession with cake.

{{quote| '''Wheatley:''' I shouldn't laugh; they do feel pain. All simulated of course, but, uh, real enough to them, I suppose.}}

**:* A particular hilarious lampshading is how, according to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=GGPIQ72-2Vg#t=15s a diagram in trailer], they have a device specifically made to suppress the empathy they feel from another device that '''gives''' them empathy ''[[Rule of Funny|for no reason whatsoever.]]'' The result is an [[Apologetic Attacker]].

*:* On a technical note, [[G La DOSGLaDOS]] {{spoiler|has some variety of human consciousness inside her somewhere, in the form of Caroline. As to why? Recordings made by Aperture's founder Cave Johnson imply that [[G La DOSGLaDOS]] was supposed to maintain the facility after Johnson's death and pursue portal gun testing with an almost single-minded intensity. Plus, it's implied that Personality Cores were somehow connected to Johnson's desire to upload his mind into a computer system so...}}

*:* Wheatley is also a perfect example. In fact, [[Up to Eleven|he's even ''more'' realistic than GLaDOS]] because his voice isn't [[Robo Speak|monotone and computerized]] like hers. (Helps that his voice actor is British funnyman [[Stephen Merchant]].) He also possesses a very human brand of stupidity, and apparently experiences more varied and realistic emotions than she does.

*:* ATLAS and P-Body (Blue and Orange), the robots from the multiplayer, were designed to have genders, masculine and feminine respectively; (although Wheatley and [[G La DOSGLaDOS]] have a male and female voice respectively, there's no evidence they particularly see themselves as anything but genderless robots).

*:* If this makes any sense, the automated repair functions of the Aperture Testing Facility. There's an almost organic quality to the movements of the panels; it's most obvious in spots where debris is blocking them, as the system tries to force them into place.

* Curly Brace from ''[[Cave Story]]'' is an elite combat android, and as revealed partway through the game, {{spoiler|so is the protagonist himself}}. They drown if left underwater too long. This is explained as their shutting down to prevent short-circuiting. No explanation is given for how eating a mushroom restores Curly's memories, or how {{spoiler|Quote}} is able to have implied off-screen sex with one of the Mimigas.<ref>not really, but [[Most Gamers Are Male]] was invoked so hard that he might as well have</ref>. NPCs mention how, years ago, various groups sent squads of similar robots from the surface to {{spoiler|claim the demon crown and kill the Mimigas. Rescuing Curly and restoring her memory reveals that she and Quote were sent to ''destroy'' the crown.}}

* ''[[Starship Titanic]]'': Nicely avoided, several of the robots look distinctly Art Deco, others look like furniture.

* The robots produced by [[Dreamfall]]'s WATICorp tend to have this quality, as revealed during the protagonists' visit to their museum, where it's revealed that previous models of their trademark talking-animal toys had been programmed with features such as the ability to pee themselves and ADHD.

* {{spoiler|Popola and Devola}} in ''[[Nie RNieR]]''.

* Some of the Dolls in ''[[Katahane]]'' count; Belle in particular stands out because her appearance and emotions are basically identical to any other human.

* Ping from ''[[Megatokyo]]'' sleeps like an actual human when she's in idle mode, can use the chemical energy from sugar to recharge her batteries, and in one chapter, she angrily tells Piro that she has ''real'' feelings even though these feelings are simulated. However, she does have a couple of robotic quirks: when she sees Piro all mopey because he couldn't wind up the courage to call Kimiko, Ping misrecognizes his posture and attitude as being rejected by Kimiko, and suddenly goes into [[Genki Girl]] mode. Not bad for a [[Play StationPlayStation 2]] accessory.

* Warmech from [[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]] is convinced it is an example of this, despite being a walking tank.

{{quote| '''Robot News Anchor:''' A massive search party is searching for the missing Secret Angel Princess-Princess as well as GOFOTRON's right arm. Our prayers go out for them both. But more for Secret Angel since she's a person and GOFOTRON's arm is a thing. But then again, I'm a thing, so who cares. Nobody cares about us things.<br />

''(beat)''<br />

{{quote| '''Master Payne:''' The Muses were renowned as miraculous, beautiful machines -- but few would believe they were truly ''aware''. And maybe they're ''not''. It would certainly be ''easier'' to create machines that merely ''simulate'' emotion. However ... even if her grief is artificial, it is ''destroying'' her.}}

{{quote| "Pain will help us cut maintenance costs." You didn't mention how much it would ''hurt''.}}

* ''[[Never Mind the Gap]]'' is an unusually [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness|hard]] and [[Justified Trope|justified]] example. The comic is about a town inhabited by a mix of humans and [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]], which are almost ''exactly'' like humans personality-wise (though obviously robotic in appearance). They have to go through a very human-like childhood as they mature, and can become romantically involved with each other and with humans. The explanation is that in this universe, AI researchers found no way to make an AI with human-level intelligence ''except'' for modelling the AI very closely on the human mind, and also giving it a fairly humanoid body. Every attempt to make a less human-like AI either failed or resulted in insanity. Intelligent robots were initially found to be useful for a variety of tasks, which explains why people bothered to build them, but eventually, predictably, they wanted to be treated as people; the comic is set in a time and place where they've largely won this fight, and so now they no longer need to be "useful," as such, other than as equal members of society. It's notable that there ''are'' also non-human-like "smart" devices and non-humanoid robots in this setting, but their intelligence and abilities are limited. The [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]] are realistic in other ways -- forways—for instance, the complexities and limitations of their humanoid bodies, and the associated maintenance costs, are explicitly addressed.

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20140209190445/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2252 a woman talking to Slick malfunctions, and Satan shows up to repair her. She's once again apparently human at the end.]

* Parodied by ''[[Cracked]].com|Cracked TV]]''. The host is an android but Michael Swaim does nothing to indicate this except introduce himself as "your host-droid MichalMichael Swaim."

* The main example is the robot society in ''[[Futurama]]'', which peddles this trope to the point of comic redundancy, complete with separate-from-human Robot Hospitals, Robot Pornography and even Robot Insane Asylums for Robot Criminals. In a show that's ostensibly a science fiction satire, it fits in quite well as a subtle [[Running Gag]]. In the DVD commentary, the writers kind of lampshade it, pointing out that the funniest things about Hedonism-bot and Tinny Tim (see below) is that someone, for some reason, decided to build and program them that way.

** It also bears mentioning that, despite what [[Fanfic]] writers would tell you, they diverge from humans in that two transformers reproducing isn't exactly as exciting or pleasurable as it is for us -- whatus—what we evolved sex to accomplish, they accomplish by drawing up blueprints and maybe filling out forms for [[MacGuffin]] use, which doesn't exactly scream "hot eroticism."

** ''Revenge of the Fallen'' raised questions: [https://web.archive.org/web/20121118101831/http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/06/bonus_robs_transformers_2_faqs.php?page=2 "Why would a robot need to fart, pee, or vomit? And why would it need testicles?"]

{{quote| (''removing robot's head'') I really wish they wouldn't scream.}}

{{quote| '''Announcer #1:''' Can robots actually feel pain?<br />

** the apathetic and lazy "Computer," Zim's house AI. Though the least humanoid of robots -- herobots—he's a glowing green house, after all -- heall—he ironically seems to be the most rational of Zim's servants, and thus one of the most "normal" characters on the show.

** While Butters is fooled by the disguise, he never sees AWESOM-O eating and knows that robots don't drink or need money.

** Meh. Call me when it can execute the [[Zoolander|Blue Steel]] maneuver.