History Main / FrazettaMan

* The wendol, apparently relic Neanderthals, in ''Film/TheThirteenthWarrior''. This applies more to the [[Literature/TheThirteenthWarrior book]], though. [[spoiler:In the movie, it is eventually discovered that the wendol are [[HumanAllAlong 100% human, just dressed in bearskins]].]] However, they are described by one character as [[spoiler:looking like the mating of a man and a beast, so are presumably intended to be a physically primitive human]].

* The wendol, apparently relic Neanderthals, in Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Film/The13thWarrior''. This applies more to the [[AdaptationDisplacement book]]. [[spoiler:In the movie it is eventually discovered that the wendol are 100% human, just dressed in bearskins]]. But they are described by one character as [[spoiler:looking like the mating of a man and a beast, so are presumably intended to be a physically primitive human]].

* ''WebOriginal/HamstersParadise'': An unusual ''hamster'' version called the Frazettas are one of the races of the sapient harmsters. The harmsters are a brutal warmongering race that [[FormerlySapientSpecies enslaved and domesticated their fellow harmsters into non-sapient animals]] known as Brutes, but the Frazettas, in a quest to evolve into a superior species, attempted [[BestialityIsDepraved mating with the Brutes]] and ended up turning themselves into giant, primitive, cannibalistic savages that prey on the other harmsters.

* Eddie Jessup from ''Film/AlteredStates'' increasingly intense experiments with sensory depravation tanks and a hallucinating mushroom end up temporarily devolving him into a hairy and feral caveman.

* The cavemen in issue 6 of the ''[[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Pinhead]]'' miniseries are drawn in this manner. Notably, the cover has the tagline "The climactic Cro-Magnon clash!" despite them definitely not being Cro-Magnons (who were essentially indistinguishable from modern humans).
* In ''ComicBook/Supergirl1972'' issue #7: "The Sinister Snowman", ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} bumps into two large, hairy and apelike cavemen trapped in a large slab of ice as she is exploring a mountain in the Himalayas. Suddenly they awaken, break free and attack Supergirl, uttering unintelligible noises but showing immense strength.

--->''"A gray man-ape," he grunted. "Dumb, and man-eating. They dwell in the hills that border the eastern shore of this sea. ''

** It gets a bit more complex than that when you read [[AllThereInTheManual Howard's essay on the Hyborian Age and other related materials]] - it turns out that after the cataclysm that destroyed the previous Thurian Age, several human groups (including King Literature/{{Kull}}'s birth people, [[{{Atlantis}} Atlanteans]]), devolved into Frazetta Men shortly after falling back to savagery, and Cimmerians like Conan are explicitly descended from them. Those from Conan's time are the descendants of those who didn't re-evolve ''back'' into humans.

* The [[http://themandus.org/ theories]] of Danny Vendramini paint a picture of Neanderthals very much like this trope. According to him, they were brutal, bestial (but intelligent) savages resembling demonic gorillas with [[HellishPupils catlike vertical pupils]] more than the reconstructions seen in museums, and they preyed on ''Homo sapiens'' both [[ToServeMan carnivorously]] and [[MarsNeedsWomen carnally]]. However, this is a very fringe theory (it's really just a hypothesis). Most scientists view it as absurd, and point out that it is mostly based on conjecture and {{confirmation bias}} (and quite possibly RuleOfScary), with a lack of any hard evidence for Vendramini's more outlandish claims. For one thing, genetics has proven that Neanderthals didn't look anything like what Vendramini claims, as many individuals had traits like light hair and eyes, the pitch black skin would have been detrimental to them, since they lived in mostly cold climates with a lack of sunlight. Also, since even Vendramini believes that humans and Neanderthals interbred (though he believes this happened for sinister reasons), these monstrous traits that he described would be more apparent in modern humans.
* ''Paranthropus'' actually DID fit the physical description of a Frazetta Man, as a hairy, densely-muscled, bipedal gorilla-like entity, but existed well before modern humans did, and is believed to have fed largely upon nuts, seeds, and hard fruits, so it was hardly a savage cannibal. Even if it had hypothetically encountered humans, they most likely kept to themselves and avoided humans unless provoked. [[StatingTheObvious Neither their men nor their women would be very likely to be sexually attracted to us, either]].
** ''Paranthropus'' actually did live side by side with ''Homo erectus/ergaster'' for a while, and some think that early humans contributed to their demise. Especially since at that time, humanity was young and curious about everything, seeing how we were globetrotters who used spears and primitive fire. We may have eaten them or their food, or burned their trees in an attempt to drive away predators. It could be that both genera got along and other reasons are what caused ''Paranthropus'' to disappear.
** The recent discovery of Homo naledi, a late ''Homo'' hominin with very australopithecine features just a couple hundred thousand years before the oldest Homo sapiens fossils raises the possibility of a real-life Frazetta Man closer to the beginning of early humanity.
* We tend to take them for granted but the common chimpanzee is essentially a real-life version of this trope: aggressive hairy man-like creatures with immense strength who make simple tools and live in warlike patriarchal societies. There's a high likelihood that folklore about hairy subhuman "wild men" is rooted in traveler's tales of chimps and other great apes, and the species name ''troglodytes'' ("cave-dweller") directly references this.
** Exaggerated by Oliver, a balding, upright walking chimp (due to an anatomical defect) who was exhibited in American circuses as a "humanzee" hybrid and "missing link".
* A now ForgottenTrope of Medieval scholarly discussion, Dog-headed men, probably originated from garbled reports of baboons and macaques (i.e. they have hands and feet like humans and monkeys, but also long snouts and fangs), mixed with stories about uncontacted tribes like the Andamanese.

[[caption-width-right:300: Frazetta Man in his natural habitat, [[WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1967 doing whatever a Frazetta can]].]]

[[AllCavemenWereNeanderthals Neanderthal Man.]] Java Man. Peking Man. [[strike: Piltdown Man.]] [[strike:Nebraska Man.]] ''Film/EncinoMan.'' Our cousins or [[OriginalMan predecessors]]. What were they like? What did they eat, where did they live, how did they behave? What dreams might they have had, what primal gods did they revere? The fact is, most pulp authors just do not do the research, and lump these worthies into a mass of savage, knuckle-dragging [[{{Mooks}} thugs]]: BeastMan. ''[[SonOfAnApe Ape]]'' Man. '''[[TitleDrop Frazetta Man]]'''.

* Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith's ''Hyperborea Cycle'' of fantasy stories feature a hairy, cave-dwelling race called the voormi, who are initially presented as straddling the line between this trope and HollywoodNatives; the story "The Testament of Athammaus" revolves around the execution by beheading of a notorious voormi bandit named Knygathin Zhaum, so it's clear that the humans of Hyperborea see the voormis as more than just animals. However, as the Cycle progressed, Smith leaned more and more into the MedievalPrehistory elements of the setting, and his descriptions of the voormi begins to sound more and more [[BeastMan explicitly inhuman]], referring to them as "three-toed", suggesting they may actually be more ground sloth than hominid. A few of Smith's notes toward an unfinished story were eventually assembled by Creator/LinCarter into the posthumous collaboration "The Scroll of Morloc", which fleshed out voormi culture a bit, focusing on a feud between rival shamans, and giving them a rudimentary form of literacy, despite their primitive technology.

* Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith's pulpy MedievalPrehistory adventure stories in the ''Literature/HyperboreaCycle'' feature the cave-dwelling, roughly-humanoid voormis, although their description as "three-toed", together with their association with the [[JerkassGods god]] Tsathoggua, suggests they may be more ground sloth than ape (Tsathoggua is said to look like a mix of sloth, bat, and toad). Nevertheless, the voormis fill the role of shaggy, man-eating savages who descend from the hills with crude stone axes. One story in the cycle, "The Testament of Athammaus", focuses on the execution by beheading of a notorious voormi bandit named Knygathin Zhaum, so it's clear that the humans of Hyperborea see the voormis as more than just animals. A few of Smith's notes toward an unfinished story were eventually assembled by Creator/LinCarter into the posthumous collaboration "The Scroll of Morloc", which fleshed out voormi culture a bit, focusing on a feud between rival shamans, and giving them a rudimentary form of literacy, despite their primitive technology.

* ''Fanfic/PrehistoricParkReturnedFromExtinction'': A whole tribe of these end up at the park after the events of ''The World Outside of Time'', though as opposed to the normal ape-man appearance associatd with this trope, the narration refers to them as "monkey-men" and implies they are lither than the standard. [[spoiler:They're the hominids from ''WesternAnimation/Primal2019'', who live alongside Spear and Fang]]. Notably, the series also features a ''dinosaur'' example of this trope, in the form of the Orniths from ''Literature/{{Evolution}}''. Contrary to the [[AlwaysChaoticEvil normal depiction of this trope]], though, none of the examples in the story are portrayed as being particularly savage. The first time the "monkey-men" meet the orniths, for example, has both parties initially being cautious until a member of the hominids, [[spoiler:Spear, who is sharing their cave,]] offers the dinosaurs a piece of cooked meat as a peace offering.

* The sub-humans of ''WesternAnimation/FireAndIce'', character designs by Creator/FrankFrazetta himself. Unusually for the trope, we see a female one at some point (she appears to be some sort of shaman).

* ''Series/TheLostWorld2001'' recreates the war between ape-men and LostWorld native humans from [[Literature/TheLostWorld1912 the book]], but delves into the aftermath of the struggle a lot more. The "Indians" of the Plateau initially want to kill all of the ape-man prisoners, but Prof. Challenger tries to stop what he sees as a genocide. The story then delves into the question of whether he is right to try to impose his beliefs - even high-minded, well-intentioned ones - on the Plateau natives, showing just how seductive colonialist thinking can be. This is in contrast to the book, where the ape-men are slaughtered en masse without a second thought.

Possible modern take on this trope is BigfootSasquatchAndYeti which are speculated by some people to really be surviving prehistoric hominids, though of course their existence hasn't been proven. Though interestingly these ape-like creatures aren't something new and have existed in the mythology of the locals for thousands of years, leading some to suspect the oldest examples may be distorted accounts of now-extinct species of humanoid encountered by Early Man. Relatedly, ancestral memories of Frazetta Man may also be pitched as [[{{Demythification}} the slightly-more plausible inspiration]] behind legends of TheFairFolk, [[AllTrollsAreDifferent trolls]], and the like. In anthropology, this is referred to as the theory of "fairy euhemerism", and is generally not taken very seriously.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' has the Woses, inspired by the woodwoses from folklore. Here, they're just a tribe of technologically primitive hunter-gatherer humans who look very strange to everyone else, but they aren't aggressive, stupid, or even particularly hairy, and they show the Rohirrim the way through Drúadan Forest in time to save the day at a climactic battle. In reward King Elessar recognizes their right to the Forest in perpetuity, and they are never seen again. Interestingly, the Rohirrim say that the Woses remind them of their old legends of the Pukel-men, a word meaning the same as "woodwose". They receive an expanded backstory in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and ''Literature/UnfinishedTales''.

** The Sothoryi, the inhabitants of the southern continent of Sothoryos. They are hairy, robust, ape-like humanoids that somewhat resemble the below-mentioned ''Paranthropus''. They're famously savage and violent and are rumoured to be cannibals who eat humans and each other, and in the further reaches of the continent are said to be even more barbaric and follow some kind of ReligionOfEvil. Every attempt by Westerosi or Essosi people at settling the continent has been beset by attacks from them. However, they seem to be at least related to humans and are probably intended as an offshoot of early hominids, as they can breed with humans but not produce viable offspring, and have language; those on the coasts have learned the Trade Talk pidgin, although they're not considered smart enough to be worth taking as slaves, except for use in the [[GladiatorGames fighting pits]].

* The Medieval European folkloric image of a "woodwose", a primitive human living in the wilderness where the Christian civilization ends, has many similarities with the Frazetta Man. Shaggy hair and beard, [[CarryABigStick big club]] (which due to its stooped posture, could serve as a cane), naked or near-naked. They weren't ''evil'', but rather just the antithesis of urban life, law, religion, and everything else that the civilization of that time stood for -- occupying a mythological role not unlike that of FaunsAndSatyrs, but without the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Bacchic associations]]. One of the Italian words for woodwose was ''huorco'', which is one theory about where [[OurOrcsAreDifferent orcs]] got their name.

** Greek mythology has a few of these including the original cave men or troglodytes and the hair-covered Gorillai (yes, this is where the word "gorilla" comes from, and given their alleged location, it is very possibly the exact same creature).

* The [[http://themandus.org/ theories]] of Danny Vendramini paint a picture of Neanderthals very much like this trope. According to him, they were brutal, bestial (but intelligent) savages resembling demonic gorillas with [[HellishPupils catlike vertical pupils]] more than the reconstructions seen in museums, and they preyed on ''Homo sapiens'' both [[ToServeMan carnivorously]] and [[MarsNeedsWomen carnally]]. However, this is a very fringe theory (it's really just a hypothesis). Most scientists view it as absurd, and point out that it is mostly based on conjecture and confirmation bias (and quite possibly RuleOfScary), with a lack of any hard evidence for Vendramini's more outlandish claims. For one thing, genetics has proven that Neanderthals didn't look anything like what Vendramini claims, as many individuals had traits like light hair and eyes, the pitch black skin would have been detrimental to them, since they lived in mostly cold climates with a lack of sunlight. Also, since even Vendramini believes that humans and Neanderthals interbred (though he believes this happened for sinister reasons), these monstrous traits that he described would be more apparent in modern humans.

[[caption-width-right:300: Frazetta Man in his natural habitat.]]

-->You see, for an evolutionary throwback such as myself, a veritable cro-magnon if you will, the clothes make the iceman. A linen and silk suppression of my brutish and savage nature. A symbol that I am a cultured, sophisticated, modern man.

* ''Fanfic/PrehistoricParkReimagined'': Over the course of the woolly mammoth rescue mission ''Ice Time'', Jack and Nikolai end up encountering a particularly vicious tribe of early hominids explicitly referred to as Ape Men that even end up named after the Kzamm from ''Quest For Fire'' in the story's in-universe neanderthal language. In traditional fashion for this trope, the Ape Men of this story look very much like anthropomorphic apes and are portrayed as incredibly brutish and violent to such a degree as to be TheDreaded to multiple animals as well as to the neanderthals. But in an inversion, these beings are also ironically the most advanced of the early hominids encountered in the story by virtue of how they know how to cure meat while also possessing a basic understanding of tactics and a comparatively more advanced language then that of the neanderthals and cro-magnons (albeit, one that is [[BlackSpeech incredibly unnerving and almost evil sounding]]).

** Another sketch, "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer", is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Creator/PhilHartman plays Kiroc, a prehistoric neanderthal who was [[HumanPopsicle frozen for thousands of years]], only to be discovered and revived in the modern era, after which he apparently went to law school. The humor of the sketch comes from how Kiroc [[ExploitedTrope exploits]] this trope to win cases, thinly presenting himself as a [[ObfuscatingStupidity simple, primitive man]] who [[FishOutOfTemporalWater doesn't understand the world of the future]] to convince the jury that his arguments, being self-evident even to a "stupid caveman" like him, must be true.

Possible modern take on this trope is BigfootSasquatchAndYeti which are speculated by some people to really be surviving prehistoric hominids, though of course their existence hasn't been proven. Though interestingly these ape-like creatures aren't something new and have existed in the mythology of the locals for thousands of years, leading some to suspect the oldest examples may be distorted accounts of now-extinct species of humanoid encountered by Early Man. Relatedly, ancestral memories of Frazetta Man may also be pitched as [[{{Demythification}} the slightly-more plausible inspiration]] behind legends of TheFairFolk, [[AllTrollsAreDifferent trolls]], and the like. In anthropology, this is referred to as the theory of "fairy euhemerism".

* Dapper, a villain from ''ComicBook/TheGoon'', is a gangster who resembles a hulking, apelike caveman. He's pretty smart, though, almost a GeniusBruiser, and definitely a WickedCultured SharpDressedMan trying to compensate for his animalistic appearance.

* Moonwatcher and the gang from ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''. They were just your ordinary apes of the savannah until the SufficientlyAdvancedAlien artifact taught them basic tool-use and [[TookALevelInBadass they learned how to fight off predators as a group and use weapons against rival tribes]].

* A rare benevolent example appears in the Creator/RayHarryhausen film ''Film/SinbadAndTheEyeOfTheTiger''; called a "troglodyte", it actually looks somewhat more like an [[OurOgresAreHungrier ogre]], being an eight-foot-tall, hairy, [[AllCavemenWereNeanderthals heavy-browed caveman]] with a small horn atop its head. However, it's explicitly called out as a primitive ancestor of humanity, to the point that the [[ForcedTransformation baboonified]] Prince Kassim can communicate with it. Once it's calmed down and realizes the humans aren't a threat, it helpfully leads them to Hyperborea [[spoiler:and then makes a HeroicSacrifice against the titular [[PantheraAwesome giant saber-toothed tiger]]]].

* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'', Gurgi is a rather comedic take on this trope, described as existing somewhere between man and beast, and most illustrators have interpreted him as distinctly simian. His basis is less anthropological and more folkloric (see the woodwoses above under Folklore). He appears as a kind of comic relief sidekick to the main characters. In [[WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron the Disney movie]], however, he is portrayed as a kind of mustachioed anthropomorphic dog, and doesn't really fit this trope.

Possible modern take on this trope is BigfootSasquatchAndYeti which are speculated by some people to really be surviving prehistoric hominids, though of course their existence hasn't been proven. Though interestingly these ape-like creatures aren't something new and have existed in the mythology of the locals for thousands of years, leading some to suspect the oldest examples may be distorted accounts of now-extinct species of humanoid encountered by Early Man. Relatedly, Frazetta Man may also be pitched as [[{{Demythification}} the inspiration]] behind legends of TheFairFolk, [[AllTrollsAreDifferent trolls]], and the like. In anthropology, this is referred to as the theory of "fairy euhemerism".

Possible modern take on this trope is BigfootSasquatchAndYeti which are speculated by some people to really be surviving prehistoric hominids, though of course their existence hasn't been proven. Though interestingly these ape-like creatures aren't something new and have existed in the mythology of the locals for thousands of years, leading some to suspect the oldest examples may be distorted accounts of now-extinct species of humanoid encounted by Early Man.

* ''The Last Day of Creation'' by Wolfgang Jeschke. The time travelers stranded five million years ago in the Mediterranean are assisted by ape-like natives they call Chaps who they have taught to speak English and use their vehicles and weaponry. They are cannibals, but the time travelers can't persuade them otherwise so have learnt to live with it. The protagonist eventually befriends one of them and chooses to remain in the past with him when offered the possibility of returning to an (albiet very different) future.

Your basic Frazetta Man has the wiry build of a chimpanzee, though he is generally around human size if not larger. He'll be covered in hair (usually not fur) and will rarely wield any weapon more sophisticated than a [[PrimitiveClubs knobkerrie]]. Seldom if ever [[OneGenderRace will females]] or children of the species be seen, perhaps explaining his fixation on the NubileSavage in the FurBikini.[[note]]In some cases, the females of the species will ''be'' {{Nubile Savage}}s, in a display of BizarreSexualDimorphism.[[/note]] His language, if he has progressed beyond the grunting stage, will be [[HulkSpeak simple]] and [[BlackSpeech brutal]], and his gods will exist primarily to excuse his bloodthirsty nature.

* Creator/HPLovecraft: Used for horror in "Facts Concerning The Late Arthur Jermyn", where it's revealed that decades ago, the titular character's great-great-great-grandfather, Sir Wade Jermyn, had discovered a tribe of white-furred ape-men living in DarkestAfrica. Unusually for this trope, they're not portrayed as doing anything particularly evil. The reason he committed suicide prior to the book's opening had been due to learning that [[spoiler:Sir Wade Jermyn had fallen in love with the tribe's princess, marrying her before smuggling her out of Africa, with all the subsequent Jermyns being descendants of this union of man and ape-woman]]. It's unclear whether the story is meant to be read as an expression of Darwinian horror at our simian heritage, or if it's just [[ValuesDissonance Lovecraft's fear of race-mixing]], or even both. The story is generally considered [[NightmareRetardant one of Lovecraft's least scary]] by modern audiences, if not ''quite'' as racist as TheReveal from "Medusa's Coils".

* The Medieval European folkloric image of a "woodwose", a primitive human living in the wilderness where the Christian civilization ends, has many similarities with the Frazetta Man. Shaggy hair and beard, [[CarryABigStick big club]] (which due to its stooped posture, could serve as a cane), naked or near-naked. They weren't ''evil'', but rather just the antithesis of urban life, law, religion, and everything else that the civilization of that time stood for -- occupying a mythological role not unlike that of FaunsAndSatyrs, but without the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Bacchic associations]]. One of the Italian words for woodwose was ''huorco'', which is one theory about where orcs got their name.

** The short story ''Spear and Fang'' by the same author depicts a [[ClashOfEvolutionaryLevels conflict between a Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal]] over a Cro-Magnon woman. This trope is played so straight that [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology said Neanderthal even has fangs, as the title suggests]]!

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' has the Woses themselves. Here, they're just a tribe of technologically primitive hunter-gatherer humans who look very strange to everyone else, but they aren't aggressive, stupid, or even particularly hairy, and they show the Rohirrim the way through Drúadan Forest in time to save the day at a climactic battle. In reward King Elessar recognizes their right to the Forest in perpetuity, and they are never seen again. Interestingly, the Rohirrim say that the Woses remind them of their old legends of the Pukel-men, a word meaning the same as "woodwose". They receive an expanded backstory in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and ''Literature/UnfinishedTales''.

* A rare benevolent example appears in the Creator/RayHarryhausen film ''Film/SinbadAndTheEyeOfTheTiger''; called a "troglodyte", it actually looks somewhat more like an [[OurOgresAreHungrier ogre]], being an eight-foot-tall, hairy, [[AllCavemenWereNeanderthals heavy-browed caveman]] with a small horn atop its head. However, it's explicitly called out as a primitive ancestor of humanity, to the point that the [[BalefulPolymorph baboonified]] Prince Kassim can communicate with it. Once it's calmed down and realizes the humans aren't a threat, it helpfully leads them to Hyperborea [[spoiler:and then makes a HeroicSacrifice against the titular [[PantheraAwesome giant saber-toothed tiger]]]].

* The hostile Wagabu tribe from ''Film/QuestForFire'' are a textbook example: hairy and bestial proto-humans with superhuman strength. The apelike Kzamm that attack at the start of the film are even more primitive. Our three heroes and their own tribe, the Ulam, on the other hand, are a more sympathetic and nuanced take on Neanderthals, while the more advanced Ivaka tribe are Cro-Magnons, who know how to make their own fire.