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Rubber Forehead Aliens: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Worf2375.jpg|link=Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|
▲{{quote|''I'd buy a big prosthetic forehead''<br />
▲''And wear it on my real head''<br />
▲''Everybody wants prosthetic''<br />
''Foreheads on their real heads''|[[They Might Be Giants]], "We Want a Rock"}}
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Sometimes they're not even that far away. They look totally human and sound human. In some cases, this may well be a disguise, but in others this appears to be their natural appearance. See [[Human Aliens]].
You'd think that alien species would be radically
[[Gene Roddenberry]] gave more reasons for this in an interview once. Budget constraints aside, if you try to make aliens look completely alien, you'll firstly make them look ridiculous (cf. ''[[
The [[Anime]] equivalent is the alien with [[Pointy Ears]], [[Facial Markings|colorful facial markings]], or [[Little Bit Beastly|cutesy animal-like traits]].
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Rubber foreheads also tend to be paired up with [[Humans Are White]] for some reason, likely the fact that back in the 60s/70s it was easier to get a black, Latino, or Asian actor on TV by gluing something to their heads and claiming that were [[Mukokuseki|raceless]] otherworldly beings instead.
The next step past
{{noreallife|at least, not until we actually meet aliens.}}
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* In UK advertising, the Tefal Eggheads. Later parodied by Ant
== Anime and Manga ==
*
** This one ''does'' get [[Justified Trope|justified]], though, in that the Abh are in fact ''genetically altered humans'', who even call their stellar nation the "Humankind Empire Abh" (or a variant, [[Spell My Name
*
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' does this with many inhabitants of the magic world; they look like normal people, but with horns or weird shaped ears or something. The rest are [[Petting Zoo People]].
* The Saiyans in [[Dragonball Z]] are pretty much just humans with tails in appearance; that turn into giant monkeys during a full moon.
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* Practically all aliens in [[Leijiverse]]. Mazone, Illumidas, Tokarga... they're all basically humans with slightly different skin colour, even the Mazone who are plants. Miime's race is unrevealed, but she's also fully humanoid apart from not having visible mouth in most? story versions.
== Comic Books ==
* Elves in ''[[Elf Quest]]'' are basically humans with pointy ears and four fingers. This is because their shapeshifting alien ancestors deliberately took on a human-resembling form before landing (they even reshaped their spaceship to look like a palace). But even before that (flashbacks), said ancestors already looked fairly human in shape, and would have qualified as [[Humanoid Aliens]] at least.
* Though technically [[Human Aliens]], Viltrumites from ''[[
* Lampshaded in some Space Agent [[Valerian]] book. There are quite a few non-human aliens but also a multitude of practically humans, to the point where it's mentioned that "one head, two hands, two feet, two eyes, could be anyone".
▲== Films -- Live-Action ==
* The movie ''[[This Island Earth]]'''s aliens were similar to humans except for huge foreheads and white hair. The actors literally wore rubber foreheads.
** [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|...but I'm not an alien!]]
* In ''[[
** The Thermians themselves are a subversion of this: on first appearance, they look like short-ish humans who have Vulcans for hair stylists. However, it turns out it's just an illusion
* The movie ''[[Trail of the Screaming Forehead]]'' takes this to the logical extreme. The aliens ''are'' foreheads that attach themselves to humans. The movie is pure, high quality B grade.
* ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' has a variety of particularly tacky examples. The alien opera-singer sort of looked like a hybrid between an [[Mass Effect|Asari]], a [[Star Wars|Twi'lek]] and a [[Alien (
* The ''[[Battlefield Earth (
== Literature ==
* Played with in [[Alastair Reynolds]] novel ''[[House of Suns]]''; All of the civilizations in the Milky Way originally came from Earth, but over millions years (the novel is in 6.3 million AD) they have diverged somewhat. One of the characters seen in the story has a elephant-like trunk, and other humans are mentioned as having scales or full body hair.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' has a ''lot'' of humanoid aliens, most of which find the nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere found on human-inhabited planets tolerable, if not comfortable (there are of course exceptions to this rule, such as the Kel Dor, who must wear goggles and breather masks at all times on human-habitable worlds). There are also, however, several non-humanoids, including a handful of insectoids, a lobster-like species, more than a few quadrapeds or hexapeds... and one that looks like nothing so much as a floating brain. The most human-like aliens are called [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Near-Human near-human], and are considered to have descended from humans (the blue-skinned, red-eyed but otherwise human Chiss are a typical example).
** [[New Jedi Order|The Yuuzhan Vong]] basically look like big, muscle-y humans with a few deliberate errors- their skin tones are varying shades of grey rather than brown, they have talons instead of fingernails, their foreheads are prominent and sloped, and their hair is almost always black when they're not bald (which is more common among them than it is among humans). Artists also commonly depict them with pointed ears, though this is never described i the novels. Of course, since they treat ritualized [[Body Horror]] as a mark of high status, the higher-ranked a Vong is, the less humanoid they usually look.
* The Psychlos in the book version of ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'' are vaguely-described, but come across as big, hairy humans, save for inexplicable "eyebones" and "mouthbones" instead of eyelids or lips.
* [[Justified Trope]] in ''[[Anathem]]'': the Urnudans, Latierrans etc are {{spoiler|humans from [[The Multiverse|the universe next door]].}}
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* A large number of [[The Culture]] alien species are near human. It was explained as a convergent evolution thing.
* C. J. Cherryh's series [[Foreigner]] deals with the deceptively humanoid alien race known as the Atevi. While they look similar to us, they think entirely different then Humans.
== Live-Action TV ==
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*** Of course, there is [[Justified Trope|a reason for this]], as noted above: the Bajoran makeup was designed the way it is specifically to make sure that the (numerous) Bajoran females who would appear in the franchise [[Rule of Sexy|would all still be good-looking]].
*** The Bajorans were also planned from the outset [[Planet of Hats|to be refugees]]. The minimal makeup was convenient for costuming large crowds and child actors.
** The ''[[Star Trek:
** There's another [[Lampshade Hanging]] when the Bajoran Ro Laren, who has something of a chip on her shoulder, refers to herself as "the token bumpy-forehead".
** Parodied [https://web.archive.org/web/20100223083833/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/32439 in this article] from ''[[The Onion]]''.
** Of course, Klingons only gained their rubber foreheads when the movies' increased budget permitted it. Prior to the [[Retcon]], they were "Entire Bottle of Bronzer and Upswept Eyebrows" Aliens. In fact, until attention was called to it in ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'', the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] was the official explanation: in-universe, they weren't considered to look exactly like humans. There just wasn't the budget to portray them as they actually looked. (There's actually an onscreen reference, sort of: a Klingon posing as a human was said to have been ''surgically altered'' to appear human (if we take what's onscreen at face value, it wouldn't take surgery, just a haircut).
** The [[Star Trek (
*** It also makes the Romulans ''worse'' than the Klingons in the "where'd the foreheads come from?" department. They went from [[Star Trek: Enterprise|having ridges]] to [[Star Trek:
*** The Klingon's appearance in a deleted scene of the movie is actually something of a [[Lampshade Hanging]] of this issue, as the Klingon's we see have ridged... [[Faceless Goons|masks]] (as in what the ''characters'' are wearing). We don't actually see their faces.
**** Even more curiously, photos of Victor Garber with his Klingon helmet off show that he had been given a ridged nose... even though it would have not been visible onscreen.
** The ''Star Trek'' franchise has racked up several nominations (and wins) for awards in makeup because of how often they have had to pull some crazy stunts with the rubber. One nomination, for instance, was for a Ferengi who {{spoiler|put bigger earlobes over her own to look male}}. That's right, prosthetics ''on top of other prosthetics''.
** When a character disguises himself as alien from a different species, this usually happens within the story via [[Hand Wave|super-advanced, easily reversible 24th century surgery]]. In ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' though, taking place in the less advanced 22nd century, the glued on rubber foreheads of disguised NX-01 crewmen are even really [[Leaning
* The early 1970s Roddenberry production ''Genesis II'' had post-humans with ''two navels'' as their "distinguishing characteristic". That was mostly a "screw you" towards the censors. For some reason, up until then navels were considered taboo.
* ''[[
** The Centauri are closer to being [[Human Aliens]] thanks to the only real (visible and exterior) difference being the pointed teeth, ridiculous haircuts aside. The Narn are closer to [[Humanoid Aliens]] thanks to a more clearly alien look to them, despite a similar biological configuration (curiously, the Narn are one of the few species with eyes that aren't exactly the same as human eyes). A majority of ''B5'' aliens, however, do fit this trope.
*** Straczynski had a lot of fun with this concerning the Centauri: when they made first contact with Earth, they actually claimed that Earth was a long-lost colony, due to the external similarities between the two species! Once the humans gave the Centauri a physical, however...
*** It is suggested at many points in the series that there are many less humanoid aliens both in the galaxy and on the station, but that they don't interact with the humanoid races as much.
** The episode "There All the Honor Lies" lampshades and inverts this trope: an official Babylon 5 gift shop is opened in the station, and they sell very high quality alien species masks but also ''human'' masks for aliens to wear!
* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode titled "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up". The setting of this episode is a rural restaurant. During the 25 minute episode, we wonder which one among a group of people is the alien. It turns out, we were seeing the alien all along, and that there were two of them. One alien has an extra arm (this one is from Mars). The other one has a third eye (he's from Venus).
* Most "aliens" in the [[Stargate Verse]] are just humans, [[Transplanted Humans|transported]] from Earth in antiquity. But of those that don't, some - particularly other species used as hosts by the Goa'uld - still fit this Trope. The Unas are just Humans with Scales, for example.
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* Parodied by Bill Bailey in ''[[Space Cadets]]''. Interlock fingers of both hands. Place palms on foreheads. Voila! Instant Klingon.
* ''[[Space Precinct]]'' loves it some actors with rubber heads on. The sheer contrast between big rubber head and undisguised human body gives the whole thing a farcical charm.
* ''[[Alien Nation (TV series)|Alien Nation]]''
* Used in [[Power Rangers]] on those rare occasions when aliens aren't either people in full-body rubber suits or [[Human Aliens|regular actors using a silly name]]. [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|Aquitians]], for example, have a purple... thing on their head (external braincase?), and [[Power Rangers Time Force|Xybrians]] have [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|green hair]] and a gem embedded in their forehead.
** [[Super Sentai]] is known for being far less elaborate with theirs - ''[[Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger]]'' has the Ryujin, who merely have four tiny claws over their cheekbones. ''[[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]]'' in particular spammed the use of full-head rubber masks (over very mundane clothing too), unlike ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' which relied a lot on prosthetics.
* In spite of its subversions of this trope, ''[[
** Nebari look basically human except for their monotone grey skin and the fact that their hair colour depends entirely on their gender.
** Delvians look like hairless, blue, scaly humans.
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* In the ''[[Cousin Skeeter]]'' TV movie "New Kids on the Planet"
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' have a lot of demonic races that are essentially humans in various different colors of facepaint. However, this is partially justified because almost all demons that appear are possessing or have interbred or been contaminated by humans. The few Pure Demons that have appeared didn't look remotely human:
{{quote|
The demon below the Hellgate, a mass of tentacles with a never seen "true face".
Illyria, a metal-clad, taloned mass of tentacles. }}
* Likewise, most of the demons on ''[[Charmed]]'' looked like humans decked out in heavy makeup, ear extensions and snaggle-teeth.
* The Coneheads from ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' were conceived as a parody of the '50s B-movie Rubber Forehead Alien.
* Played straight in '' [[Hyperdrive]]''.
* Some of the aliens in ''[[
== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[Warhammer
** The in-universe setting book Xenology references this; while the Eldar and Tau, and to a lesser extent the Orks, look outwardly like slightly modified humans inside the races are nothing alike. The Tech-Priest doing the dissections is extremely confused by this, especially since his other subjects aren't remotely humanoid.
* ''Space [[Munchkin]] the RPG'' parodies this trope with the "Bumpy Headed Alien" racial choice. You choose, among other things, your facial bumps, the [[Planet of Hats|concept your entire species is devoted to]], and the one aspect of human culture your species doesn't understand ("we do not have a word for this thing you call 'hygiene'")
* ''[[Teenagers From Outer Space]]'' divides aliens into
== Video Games ==
* The Split race in the ''[[X (
▲* The Split race in the ''[[X (Video Game)|X]]-Universe'' games are tall human-like aliens with very rough looking narrow faces, and odd colored skin.
* The dominant race in the ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' series are basically humans with excessively long pointy ears.
* Subverted in ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' with Newmans/Numans, and later Beasts in Phantasy Star Universe. Sure, they look human enough, save for their ears and (in the case of Beasts) their harelips and eyes ... but they aren't actually aliens at all. They're actually genetically engineered ''humans.''
** Played straight, though: The three planets' humanoid species are Parmanian/Palmanian (humans), Motavian ([[Humanoid Aliens|furred, beaked humanoids]]), and Dezolisian/Dezorisian (
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'': Asari fit the trope perfectly, being [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|blue-skinned alien space babes]]. Although their tentacles are actually on the ''back'' of their heads, where a human would have hair. It should be noted that, while they wear the same armor as humans in-game, ''every'' race sees them as their equivalent of [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|blue-skinned alien space babes]] except possibly the Krogan, who still see them as attractive.
** In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', if a male Shepard romanced Tali and {{spoiler|saved the quarian fleet}}, Tali will leave a photo of herself without mask or helmet on his nightstand. It turns out that {{spoiler|were it not for the skin markings, the three-fingered hands, and the avian legs, she could pass for human.}}
** On the technical side, the developers of Mass Effect admit that their alien designs were limited to bipeds with human proportions because of the Unreal engine's combat system. In fact, even the tridactyl, digitigrade Turians are still built on a human skeleton.
* In the ''[[Star Ocean]]'' games, Nedians and Expellians are identical to humans, while Roakians all have tails (and there are "Lesser Fellpool" who are more similar to cats, including [[Catgirl|cat ears]]. Interestingly, Roddick makes sure the Earthlings know that they're related to cats rather than monkeys, seeming to indicate that they descended from them. The third game introduced a bunch more alien species, some of which are humanoid dolphins, dwarves and such, others of which look practically identical to humans.
* Miriam in ''[[Shining Force]] Feather'' might be a living [[Lampshade Hanging]]. She meets our protagonists and is immediately amazed, as she hasn't ever seen a human before. Never mind that Miriam is an elf, and that the only difference between her and Jin are her pointy ears, slanted eyes, and skinnier build. One scene later, she meets Alfin and is equally wowed, as she's never seen a Core Unit before, despite that Core Units are... [[Ridiculously
* [[[Subverted]] in ''[[Freefall (Webcomic)|Freefall]]'': Sam Starfall ''looks'' humanoid, but it's really a suit to let him operate in an Earth-like environment. We don't get to see his true appearance, but it involves tentacles, and humans apparently find it disgusting.▼
* The [[All Trolls Are Different|trolls]] in ''[[Homestuck]]'' make reference to a ''lot'' of [[Bizarre Alien Biology]] endemic to their species, like "chitinous windholes", "auricular sponge clots", "porous cranial plates", and various colors of blood, but outwardly just look like grey-skinned humans with [[Eyes of Gold|yellow-orange eyes]], horns, and fangs. ▼
== Web Comics ==
▲*
▲* The [[All Trolls Are Different|trolls]] in ''[[Homestuck]]'' make reference to a ''lot'' of [[Bizarre Alien Biology]] endemic to their species, like "chitinous windholes", "auricular sponge clots", "porous cranial plates", and various colors of blood, but outwardly just look like grey-skinned humans with [[Eyes of Gold|yellow-orange eyes]], horns, and fangs.
== Web Originals ==
* The Pelkons from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' are humanoid, and have the right number of fingers and toes and such, but their eyes are pure milk-white, their hair is thicker and more brush-like, and they have spots like a leopard. on their forehead that run down the back of their necks and across their shoulders.
* In the [[Homestar Runner]] episode "buried", Strong Bad unearths what he believes to be an alien artifact. He states that the earth was colonized by extraterrestrials, and that it explains "why all beings look the same except for slight differences of our foreheads!"
== Western Animation ==
* Warhok and Warmonga, the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race]] aliens who appear in season four of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' are an animated version of this. They're nine feet tall and have green skin.
* In another animated example, the cast of ''[[Futurama]]'' is virtually all two-arms two-legs one-head humanoid (for most of the time). This is probably more [[Rule of Funny|to make it easier to animate jokes for them]] than anything else, as the show has otherwise shown a fair amount of ingenuity in depicting odd aliens (sentient nebulae, swarms of flies, etc). Subverted with Leela, who is revealed in an early season to be a human mutant who was raised to think she was a [[Last of Her Kind]] alien.
* Starlee from ''[[
* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Starfire]] of the [[Teen Titans (
{{reflist}}
{{Alien Continuum}}
{{Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism}}
[[Category:Bizarre Alien Biology]]
[[Category:Alien Tropes]]
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[[Category:Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes]]
[[Category:Personal Appearance Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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