TV Head Robot

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. An automaton, robot or droid with a television set for a head.

Say the technology for synthetic skin has not yet been perfected and you want to avoid the Uncanny Valley. Maybe you don't have much but some spare parts, dwindling funds and a TV at your disposal. Maybe it just looks cool. For whatever reason, this is a robot or other sentient being with a monitor onto which they project images or outright words that are often snarky responses to people interacting with them.

Not to be confused with a sentient AI or a talking computer. This strictly applies to walking automatons.

Often speaks through a variant of Talking with Signs. Compare/contrast Surveillance Drone and The Blank.

Examples of TV Head Robot include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • Several of the Spider-Slayers have this, including the first.
  • Telly, the "son" of Tank and Booga, in Tank Girl.
  • Arguably, Arnim Zola could qualify. His face is displayed on a screen in his chest.

Film

Live Action TV

Video Games

  • Batman: Arkham Asylum: In one first-person area, at the end of a hallway is a Joker mannequin with a TV for a head. Aversion, because it's actually him.
  • In Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, the pentultimate boss has a TV set for a head, and the achievement for beating him is "Smash Your TV".
  • Fallout: New Vegas Securitrons
  • Everyone (except maybe player character) in Mondo Medicals and Mondo Agency fits this trope.
  • The Bruiser from Doom: Resurrection of Evil has a TV mouth.
  • The Squarians in Level Up.
  • The Drakel Freak enemy from Adventure Quest is a cyborg with a TV for its head, with an organic muzzle protruding from it.
  • One of Metalhead's costumes in Guitar Hero III is one.
  • The Shrinks, an as-of-yet unused subset of robots in the Oddworld franchise consist of a floating orb, flatscreen with a mudokon face, and a number of surgical tools. Appeared in the "Guardian Angel" Easter Egg clip.

Web Comics

Western Animation

Real Life

  • Multiple manufacturers market "telepresence robots" which use an iPad or other tablet mounted at eye level to display a live image of the person remotely controlling the robot.