History Main / ItKindOfLooksLikeAFace

* Owing to the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanbase's habit of slapping a name and characterization on every single background character, we finally got [[https://derpibooru.org/45024 Frowny]]. As it turns out, [[https://derpibooru.org/390972 Frowny likes to read]].

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* Exploited in ''Film/{{Chronicle}}'', where Andrew uses his telekinesis to create a visage of the Virgin Mary in his pancake syrup to freak out a passing waitress.
* The doctor in ''Film/ReturnToOz'' tries to convince Dorothy of this trope applying to a symmetrically wired electroshock machine.

* [[Music/DanielAmos The Swirling Eddies]] reference it in "Urban Legends": "The face of Saint Paul in this butt roast / assures me that I�m going up to Heaven".

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* There are plenty of optical illusions that take advantage of this.

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* [[Music/DanielAmos The Swirling Eddies]] reference it in "Urban Legends": "The face of Saint Paul in this butt roast / assures me that I’m going up to Heaven".

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* A RunningGag in ''Discworld/TheTruth'' involves a man who keeps bringing vegetables from his garden that resemble human faces (and sometimes [[FreudWasRight other body parts]]) in to the newspaper in the hope that they will find it newsworthy and perhaps print a picture.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' films the landscapes have car-shaped formations in keeping with this trope as aplied to a world populated by sentient cars. The same concept applies in ''WesternAnimation/{{Planes}}'', but with airplanes instead.

* ''Website/TheOnion'' has a slideshow entitled [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/10-sandwiches-that-look-like-british-novelist-mart,34240/#1 "Ten Sandwiches That Look Like British Novelist Martin Amis"]]. [[spoiler:The joke is that they're all photos Martin Amis himself, with captions claiming that they're sandwiches.]]

* Shake and Carl on ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' once tried to make a money-making venture out of an oil stain on Carl's drive way that looked like Jesus. It didn't take off.

* A guest on ''TheTonightShow Starring Johnny Carson'' was a woman who worked at a potato chip factory. She collected potato chips which looked like famous people. At one point while showing her collection, she turned away from Johnny and he took a big '''crunch'''; but it was from a bowl of chips he had stashed behind his desk.

* An episode of ''FullHouse'' involves a partially peeled potato that looks like Joe Pesci.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/ReturnToOz http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/return_to_oz_-_doctor__machine_5858.jpg]]]]

* TheManInTheMoon, as well as the MoonRabbit.

** A newspaper article features a squirrel resembling Abraham Lincoln.
** A bunch of beans are said to resemble The Leader, a stand-in for Jesus.

Compare the InkblotTest, where a patient is judged by what they may see in incoherent stains. Contrast TheBlank, when someone who should have a face doesn't have one, and RushmoreRefacement, where someone commits an act of graffiti by carving their own face in the side of a mountain.

* A story arc in ''{{Dilbert}}'' featured the cynical Wally deliberately creating - and nurturing - a coffee stain in the cafeteria that looks like the face of Jesus to exploit the credulous. He is seen adding to it with judicious drips and drizzles...

* In ''Homestuck'', Jade tries out her Pictionary Modus (which creates an item based on what it thinks her drawing is) by drawing a casual, loopy doodle. The Modus interprets it as being the face of actor Charles Dutton. This becomes a RunningGag.

This trope is in effect only when the object doesn't intentionally look like a face (or is, but isn't supposed to be recognized as such), but people swear it does. Weathering on a rock counts, but not a statue, a carved coin, or RushmoreRefacement. Seeing a face in a potato, burnt toast or cornchip counts, but not a [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons miniature gummi of the Venus De Milo]].

* TheManInTheMoon, as well as the MoonRabbit.