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To Serve Man: Difference between revisions
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They come for the food.
Humans seem to be the universe's top delicacy. On a planet covered with millions of animal and plant species, it seems that humans are the only thing here worth eating.
[[You Fail Biology Forever|Never mind that predators native to this planet tend to turn their noses up at human flesh unless nothing else is available.]] From a predator's standpoint, humans aren't really worth eating. We are frighteningly inefficient as a food source, given the amount of meat on us relative to our size (compared to other prey animals, humans are kinda bony), as well as our growth rate, and of course, our ability to fight back with weapons and the other benefits of our brains.
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A lighter version of the trope, bordering on aversion, is when the aliens can, in fact, eat just about anything... but humans just taste better. In other words, that line above - "Humans are a delicacy" - is taken literally; you wouldn't eat it every day, but when you get the chance...
This also happens in just about every [[Zombie Apocalypse|zombie movie]] - the zombies spend almost all their time and efforts attempting to feed on live humans, which is pretty strange for creatures acting on "Pure motorized instinct."
Likewise, in any given [[Wolf Man|werewolf]] horror movie, the werewolf typically preys on live humans, as opposed to raiding a butcher shop or a livestock farm. In cases where the lupine hunting instinct is said to be causing this behaviour, why doesn't the werewolf go after wild deer or rabbits? This makes no sense given that wild wolves will scavenge from an existing food source if available, rather than waste energy hunting for it, and humans behave much the same way.
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On the topic of horror genre monsters, the same could go for [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]]. It seems like all recently turned vampires just decide, "Hey, let's go kill humans!" They never once consider feeding on other animals, such as livestock, which would surely contain more blood than humans, nor does it occur to them to break into the blood bank of a hospital. A human would be more likely to fight back, and human blood would increase the risk of food-borne diseases.
(However, vampires are more likely to have [[Justified Trope|justifications]] for this behavior, since their hunger is often supernatural in origin; being dead, they aren't "feeding" in any biological sense, and often the blood ''must'' come from a living human. In other cases it's explained by sheer sadism, as vampires become [[
Can also be justified if the monsters are a result of [[The Virus]], if said virus is human-specific and spreads through a bite, since it can be altering its host's mind in order to spread itself around more effectively.
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== Film ==
* This is the premise for [[Peter Jackson]]'s (yes, ''that'' Peter Jackson) first movie, ''[[Bad Taste]]'': if the aliens have their way, our entire species will be served throughout the galaxy as "Crumb's Country Delights"...
* The sci-fi movie [[Daybreakers]] explores this trope with an interesting twist --- what if 95% of the population are now vampires, and only 5% are humans?
* Again inverted in ''[[District 9]]''- some of the Nigerians believe that by eating the aliens, they'll gain the ability to use their DNA-coded weapons (this is based on [[Truth in Television]]—albinos in Tanzania are hunted by a superstitious but dangerous few trying to gain their "power"). [[Humans Are Bastards]] ''is in full effect''.
** Also played straight with {{spoiler|Koobus's fate}}. It seems everyone's got a taste for everyone else in that universe.
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* In the 2009 film ''[[Star Trek]]'' Kirk is marooned on the planet Delta Vega where he is attacked by a large predator. That predator is killed by an even [[Always a Bigger Fish|larger]] predator which drops its huge, freshly killed prey in order to pursue the miniscule Kirk.
** The beast is probably territorial, and is chasing Kirk off of its land - notice how it uses threat displays before chasing Kirk.
* In ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', the Ewoks initially think our heroes are food. Except Leia since she ran into Wicket, a single Ewok, first.
* ''[[Troll 2]]'': The goblins try to treat the Waits family to Nilbog food so that they can turn them into "half-man, half-plant" goblin food.
{{quote|'''Arnold''': They're eating her! And then they're going to eat me! OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!}}
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* Defied in ''Tara Duncan''. A dragon states that he won't eat humans: cows taste better. The heroine wonders how he can tell.
* Played with in ''Chess With A Dragon'', in which humanity is in danger of becoming food to any of a number of predatory alien species if we can't pay off a massive debt owed to one of them. In this case, it's not that humans are particularly prized as food: it's that ''every'' newly-spaceworthy species gets conned into the same position, and it's become routine for carnivorous races at the top of the galactic pyramid-scheme to eat whichever species are indentured to them.
* In the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book ''Attack Of The Jack-O'-Lanters'', people are reported as missing around Halloween in a fairly background event. The protagonists meet two new friends who help them scare a couple of bullies, and aren't particularely phased when the duo turn out to be aliens. As they escort them back to their spaceship, the aliens reveal that [[Cruel Twist Ending|they ate all those people and that they will continue to return to Earth to do exactly that, before taking off in their spaceship]].
* In Robert Asprin's ''[[Myth Adventures|Myth-Nomers and Im-Pervections]]'', Skeeve is in disguise in a Pervish restaurant and asks for "something from [his home dimension of] Klah", and is brought what appears to be an entire cooked Klahd/human; it turns out it's a fake constructed out of other kinds of meat.
== Live-Action TV ==
* In ''[[Angel]]'', [[Big Bad]] Jasmine needs to regularly eat humans whole for nourishment. When Gunn finds out about this, he screams "''To Serve Man''! It's ''To Serve Man'' all over again!" When Angel mentions this as one of his reasons for opposing her, she quickly retorts "Like you never have?"
** In the episode "Unleased" a group of depraved culinarists catch a werewolf for her meat. Since a werewolf returns to human form when it dies, [[Squick|it has to be eaten alive.]]
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' both stays with and subvert this trope. Standard vampires in ''Buffy'' are shown to make regular runs at blood banks in an effort to stay out of Buffy's way, while Angel buys animal blood from a slaughterhouse. And when Angel becomes CEO of Wolfram & Hart, he is given a cup of blood to drink. Wondering at the taste, he is informed that "the secret ingredient is otter."
** Another episode addresses it more directly and then plays with it, without even using vampires. Buffy--working at a fast food place called "Double Meat"--notices that the managers are extremely secretive about the meat making process, and that some of the more troublesome employees disappear without question or concern. She comes to the conclusion that the meat is actually human, but when she investigates it she finds out {{spoiler|that the meat isn't even meat, it's vegetable matter and that the disappearing employees are the result of a man-eating monster.}}
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** A common joke about the second game, Terror From the Deep, is that bases undoubtably eat hearty after fending off Lobster Men attacks.
* In Tomb Raider, dinosaurs (and other various large creatures) seem to find Miss Lara Croft a delicacy, considering they attack her on sight with or without provocation, in addition, in various QTE's, Lara can get [[Swallowed Whole]] by either a T-Rex or Snake creature, with the former ignoring several Raptors to eat Lara.
* Aside from using humans or various parts thereof in their war machine, the Strogg from ''[[Quake II]]'' and ''[[Quake 4|Quake IV]]'' also reprocess humans into Stroyent to feed their troops. When {{spoiler|the player himself is Stroggified, he can also use it as a means of replenishing health.}}
* This is a required survival behavior for the player's monster in ''[[Crush Crumble and Chomp]]''; eating humans staves off hunger and heals damage. Unprotected civilians are the best, while armored tanks and infantry provide minimal benefit.
* ''[[Touhou|Touhou Project]]'''s [[Youkai]] are generally said to be man-eaters (no, not THAT kind), though this is usually kept in the background:
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* [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Triple-subverted]] in a ''[[The Simpsons|Simpsons Hallowe'en Special]]'' parodying the [[Trope Namer]]. Lisa finds a book entitled ''How to Cook Humans'', but Kang quickly wipes away some dust to reveal the true title - ''How to Cook '''for''' humans''. Lisa then wipes away some more dust, revealing that the title is in fact ''How to Cook For'''ty''' Humans''. Finally, Kang wipes away the last of the "space dust", showing that the full, complete title is ''How to Cook '''for''' Forty Humans''. After that, the aliens are so disgusted at Lisa's assumption they would eat her that they leave Earth for good... after trying everything you'd expect from a secretly "humanitarian" race, including the book that looks like a cookbook, the neverending feast, constantly saying things that sound like a [[Double Entendre]] about eating people, etc. Although it ''is'' partially justifiable, as they've probably never done this with humans before and didn't expect to be thought of as people-eaters.
** It's been said that Matt Groening wanted the title to turn out to be ''How to Cook For Forty Humans and Then Eat Them'', but he was fortunately vetoed -- having them be wrong about it is much funnier.
* In the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' episode "The Trouble With Augie", Donatello and April encounter the Brotherhood, a race of lizard-like beings who allegedly sought to reach Earth in order to share their technology. However, Donatello eventually finds that not only does the Brotherhood plan to consume every human on Earth, they had already done so with the main inhabitants of the planet they currently lived in.
* A [[What a Cartoon Show]] Short called Gramps Lampshaded this when a character runs to Gramps, exclaiming what he found before he is hit by a golf club by Gramps, exclaiming, "It's been done!"
* In ''[[Adventure Time]]'', Jake invites his rainicorn girlfriend's parents over for dinner. He tells them Finn is his goblin servant to impress them. When he finally fesses up that yes, Finn is a human, they start licking him. When they realize Jake and Finn are friends, though, they settle for artificial human.
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