Humans Are Cthulhu: Difference between revisions

''The chill of an ancient fear?

''Do you shudder and say, when you pass this way,

 

Humanity isn't always on the [[Puny Earthlings|low end of the cosmic totem pole]]. If a story takes the point of view of [[Talking Animal|animals]] or relatively weak or primitive non-humans, there'll be a [[Perspective Flip]] related to [[Clarke's Third Law]] where [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|modern humans]]—excuse us; '''''MAN''''' -- shall be seen as unnaturally and [[Humans Are Ugly|nauseatingly]] ''[[Eldritch Abomination|inconceivable]]''.

 

 

To meet this trope, the non-humans must consider either individual (completely normal) Man or the Man's civilization as a whole to be:

* ''[[Lotte no Omocha]]'': Because humans are extinct in the Monster Realm, almost everyone in Ygvarland have no idea what a human looks like, so when a human was reported walking around in the schoolgrounds, the students imagined him as a long necked monster covered in fur.

 

* One of [[Alan Moore]]'s "Future Shocks" from ''[[2000 AD|Two Thousand AD]]'' features alien nomads in search of "The Chariot of the Gods". When their leader insists that they've found it, they wait for the Chariot to descend to the ground from above them... and then they all get crushed by Neil Armstrong as he makes his first step on the Moon.

* A good 1950/60's comic(maybe from ''Crypt''?) tolds a story when a group of earthling(and American) scientists encounter an alien spaceship that come to [[Offing the Offspring|dispose some of their ugly mutants caused by radiation]]. When the scientists opened the hibernation pod containing the mutants, it turns out that the mutants are {{spoiler|Homo Sapiens}}. And quite good-looking by earth standards. The aliens' real appearance is left for the readers to imagine.

** Don't forget that in addition to that, Professor X modified Cerebro to link the minds of every human on Earth together to [[Mind Rape]] Gah Lakh Tus. After that double whammy, Gah Lakh Tus decides that trying to eat Earth isn't worth it and flees.

 

 

== Film ==

** Perhaps Shell City is in [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|Germany]].

* Played straight and subverted in ''[[Finding Nemo]]'': the fish on the reef regard humans as terrifying, otherworldly beings (especially since they're wearing scuba masks, as seen in the picture above) and a source of fear and awe. The fish in a human's ''fish-tank'', however, are sufficiently used to them to regard them more as a source of free entertainment, except the one [[And Call Him George|that accidentally keeps killing fish.]]

 

== Literature ==

** Of course, the third book of the trilogy reveals that the talking box the nomes have been carrying around for thousands of generations is actually {{spoiler|an artificial intelligence inhabiting the command module of the main computer of the huge starship that the space-faring ancestors of modern day nomes arrived in on Earth. A ship that is still "parked" under the surface of the moon. Which makes the nomes of old an alien species.}}

** Fray, the destructive force of nature of which ''[[The Carpet People]]'' (by [[Terry Pratchett]]) live in constant fear, is presumably some human activity. Most likely footsteps, but it might be a hoover. Beyond that, humans are [[The Precursors]], given the entire world is inside a shaggy carpet and the major resources are metal from a dropped penny, wood and ash from a matchstick and rare varnish from the distant Achairleg.

** The fact that most '''actual''' ''[[Discworld]]'' gods can barely find their own noses without a mirror makes Wuffles' faith in his master even more justified.

* Alan Dean Foster's science fiction trilogy ''[[The Damned]]'' has two vast coalitions of aliens at war with each other for millenia across the Milky Way. One faction (the good-guy underdogs) discovers Earth and finds that compared to every other known intelligent species modern-day humans are unbelievably fast and strong and savage, both physically and psychologically (none of the other species is particularly good at the concept of "waging war"). They ultimately decide they have no choice but to recruit humanity to their cause anyway, knowing that once the war is won they'll have a very dangerous situation on their hands trying to figure out how to live safely with their allies.

** His short story ''With Friends Like These...'' takes a look at the theme from another angle. Ages ago, the old galactic civilization deemed humanity too dangerous and [[The Wall Around the World|sealed off Earth]] until it became a myth, but now aliens needs Mankind's skill at battle against another alien race. So a few representatives go to Earth, see a quiet pastoral culture relaxing in a hammock, and ask the "mythical creatures" to help. Cue the [[Freak-Out|little shock]] when aliens see {{spoiler|that humans are so calm because their hammock is [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|too high]] on [[Abusing the Kardashev Scale For Fun and Profit|The Kardashev Scale]] to worry. Not only have humans evolved psionic powers and are in telepathic contact with various other mammalian species (which presumably they [[Uplift]]ed), not only is the whole planet filled with machinery and computers for miles below the surface, but ''the entire freaking planet Earth (with moon) breaks orbit to follow the aliens' starship''!}}.

* In ''[[Chronicles of Narnia|The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe]]'', Mr. Tumnus has a shelf full of books that describe humans as purely mythical, or potentially so.

* Stanisław [[Stanislaw Lem|Lem]]’s ''Bajki robotów'' (“Robot Tales”) is a collection of bedtime stories robots tell their kids. Most of them avoid mentioning humans, but those that don’t treat them as eldritch horror: whatever they touch starts to rust and mold, they can topple whole civilizations, and they are mind-bendingly ugly. Although they are considered extinct, legends predict that one day they will rise again to take revenge at their creation. Luckily, they are probably just a myth and never existed in the first place…

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Gowan's ''(You're a) Strange Animal'' is from the perspective of a wild animal who is told to be wary of humans, but finds them fascinating.

* ''The Forest King'' by [[3 Inches of Blood]]. It doesn't last. The trees [[When Trees Attack|get pissed]] and [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|set humanity back by a million years.]]

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* The "Eyeballs in the Sky" [[Running Gag]] from ''[[The Perishers]]'', in which a society of crabs in a rockpool worship a pair of giant eyes that appear once every year (when the gang goes to the seaside). Not ''exactly'' this trope, though, as the eyes don't belong to a human but to a dog.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[The Chronicles of Fate]]''. By way of [[Evolutionary Levels]], humanity has evolved into an empire of ''literal'' Cthulhus (or beings so [[A God Am I|divinely powerful]] they might as well be) called The Union. These humans, now called "Unians", have become so terrifyingly [[Time Abyss|powerful and ancient and alien]] they would seem like Cthulhus not just to rabbits or dogs or bats, but to 21st-century humans as well, even good ol' [[H.P. Lovecraft|Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, and Nyarlathotep]] would crap their non-existent, [[Alien Geometries|infini-dimensional]] trousers at the prospect of messing with them. Know what the younger races call us? [[Eldritch Abomination|"Old Ones"]].

{{quote|"An empire vast, greater than the infinite, older than the time before time, the immaculate embodiment of might, Gods to the gods, power and radiance and grace and terror and grandeur pure, love and hate and ecstasy and death, walking the worlds as they please, striding time as others would walk across a room, conquering as others would breathe, endlessly, feared and beloved as no others are. The Union is of humanity in only the same sense as humanity is of the bacteria that its cells are evolved from. They are Precursors to all that now is, Elder things, with knowledge and wisdom reclaimed each time from an infinitude of past cycles. They are children to none but Josh, Source-Of-All, younger than none, older than all, firstborn and greatest."}}

* In ''[[Traveller]]'' the Vargr think this about humans because the human organizational ability is beyond the comprehension of the Vargr. Vargr [[Space Pirate]] s might "only" sack one colony and an armada containing people from dozens of parsecs away might set out in a machine like manner to [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|pay them a visit]]. Zhodani, of course, are the spookiest of all humans-even [[Fantastic Racism|to other humans]]. When one of ''their'' outposts is raided, they prefer to go the [[Best Served Cold]] route, carefully searching out the perps for years then when they find them, taking [[Revenge]] in a variety of ways, which could involve the ever-popular standby, [[Death From Above]], but might also involve such subtle means as kidnapping and [[Mind Manipulation|brainwashing]] the Vargr's leader. In general, in the Traveller universe you [[Humans Are Warriors|do not want to mess with humaniti]].

* In ''[[Kult]]'', Humans are immortal superbeings, they are just slumbering and are unaware of their power. The powers that be try to make sure that they don't learn how to change this.

 

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[SimAnt]]'', one of your objectives as an ant is to drive away the human (whose feet and lawnmower are the greatest threats ants face while above ground). Once this is done, a "For Sale - Any Price" sign appears on the overworld view.

* In the point and click adventure game ''[[Inherit the Earth]]'', the various inhabitants of the world are uplifted animals who revere humanity as gods, complete with a creation myth at the end of which humanity dissapears into the heavans.

** While Lavos was using humans for it's own ends, the idea that humans are enemies of nature is dubious and given only by biased sources, like the dwarves (who pollute and construct giant toxin spewing steam tanks) and the dragons (who are part of an [[Evil Plan]] against humanity and are probably just upset that the technology of Chronopolis utterly kicked the ass of it's hippy dinosaur equivalent).

{{quote|''"How do I put this... Humans have become such dreadful beings."''}}

 

 

* In ''[[Kid Radd]]'', somebody uses the term "humanlike power" as we might say "godlike power." They're treated as gods, and many characters spend a good deal of time contemplating the implications and cruelty of what most videogames are created for. {{spoiler|Though it's the villains who try to [[Rage Against the Heavens]]}}. Pretty accurate, really, except when they assume the humans know what they're doing (and that all humans are programmers).

* Referenced in [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1335 this] ''[[Questionable Content]]'' strip:

* In ''[[Twokinds]]'', Humans regularly show up and enslave the [[Petting Zoo People]] after completely wrecking their towns. Humans also live about four times as long as they do (80–90 years to their 20-30), and can use Magic without relying on its crystallized form. The [[Petting Zoo People]] think that humans are devoid of mercy or compassion, and that they eat the ones who can't be used for slave labour. A Keidran's reaction to an average human is, understandably, just short of pants-shitting terror. However, some have figured out that humans are really just sparsely-furred sentient apes with a slow metabolism and [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|a mean streak]], and thus die just as good as anything else when you shoot them with poisoned arrows.

* ''[[Off White]]'': The wolf Gebo, upon seeing a human with a gun on a horse, interprets this as a two headed elk with a voice like thunder.

 

== Web Original ==

* [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2709630/ "Humans are insane."] from /tg/'s archive. Also try [http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2911901/ "We Made A Mistake"] for a case study. [[NSFW]] for the usual 4chan flavor.

* Another /tg/ original, [[The Veil of Madness]], tells of how when humans finally achieved interstellar travel, they came across the remnants of countless alien civilizations, all of them having succumbed to madness and self destruction. Finally, when the make contact with non-insane aliens, they learn the truth. Humanity resides in a pocket of space that makes all sentient lifeforms within it go insane, yet humans are somehow immune. When the non-insane aliens see human ships coming out of their equivalent of the Bermuda triangle, they virtually crap their pants. The humans decide to play up their Cthulhu status, noting that it makes negotiations very easy and deters the aliens from attacking them. Funnily enough, humanity notes that the fact that they're essentially playing a galaxy-sized practical joke lends credence to the idea that they're actually a little crazy.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSER3yml1iM&feature=feedu This video.]

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Peace on Earth]]'', the classic MGM animated short.

** To be fair, the User probably doesn't know that winning a video game would reduce the entire sector it landed in to rubble and its inhabitants to mindless leech things.

* ''[[South Park]]'' combined this with [[Gaia's Vengeance]] in the episode "Lice Capades", where we see the head lice of Clyde being warned by one of them that their "planet" is alive and rejecting their presence after seeing a gigantic eye looking down upon him from the sky (a school nurse, discovering Clyde's lice to begin with) before they are massacred by a liquid which dissolves their bodies (anti-lice shampoo) followed by a hurricane which decimates the survivors (caused by a hair dryer). At one point, one of the lice (still rejecting the idea that the world is alive) shoots several times into Clyde's skin, causing him to obliviously reach back and pluck him off and throw him to the ground. [[Inferred Holocaust|And given the fact that we're told that]] {{spoiler|''[[Inferred Holocaust|all]]'' of the kids in the class had lice...}}

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* There's a theory that Centaurs (half-men, half-horses) were inspired by sights of the first horse-riding peoples who tore through Greece and terrorized the locals.

* Some Native Americans had legends about "pale skinned people who would come from the sea foam". As such, the European invaders were mistaken for these mythological people.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Cosmic Horror Tropes]]

[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]

[[Category:Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant]]

[[Category:Tropes of Hats]]