History Main / LittlePeopleAreSurreal

** Dinklage's appearance in ''Film/{{Elf}}'' as a children's author named Miles Finch inverts this trope. Instead of highlighting the surreal nature of a situation, Miles's presence highlights just how out of touch Creator/WillFerrell's character is with [[RealityEnsues the real world]]. Ferrell's character Buddy was raised by ChristmasElves, so he assumes that Miles is also an elf and makes some InnocentlyInsensitive comments during a business meeting. Miles proceeds to run across the table and kick Buddy's ass in [[https://youtu.be/cQ_dL_IMPP4 a scene that you really have to see to believe]].

-->-- [[Creator/PeterDinklage]] as '''Tito''', ''Film/LivingInOblivion'' (1995)

-->-- '''[[Creator/PeterDinklage Tito]]''', ''Film/LivingInOblivion'' (1995)

%%* Weebo from ''Film/{{Flubber}}''.

%%* Tangina Barrons in ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}''.

** Ginny Weedon who, despite playing the same kind of character that she did in ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', [[BrokenAesop kept complaining about "little people" stereotypes]].

* The design on the cover of Music/FleetwoodMac's SelfTitledAlbum exaggerates the BigGuyLittleGuy dynamic between Mick Fleetwood and John [=McVie=] to the point of this trope. Fleetwood (6'5"/195 cm) is already significantly taller than [=McVie=] (5'8.5"/174 cm), but as you can see on this wiki's page for [[Music/FleetwoodMacWhiteAlbum the album in question]], the cover art parodies this by depicting [=McVie=] as a dwarf.

* The design on the cover of Music/FleetwoodMac's SelfTitledAlbum exaggerates the BigGuyLittleGuy dynamic between Mick Fleetwood and John [=McVie=] to the point of this. Fleetwood (6'5"/195 cm) is already significantly taller than [=McVie=] (5'8.5"/174 cm), but as you can see on the trope page for [[Music/FleetwoodMacWhiteAlbum the album in question]], the cover art parodies this by depicting [=McVie=] as a dwarf.

* The 1967 Creator/RogerCorman film ''The Trip''. As part of the lead character's LSD experience, he sees a little person on a merry-go-round who shouts [[UsefulNotes/BayOfPigsInvasion "Bay of Pigs!"]]

* ''Film/TheTrip1967'': A dwarf appears in the forest, helping his much larger friend prepare a stew. Later, he reappears during the carousel scene, where he yells "Bay of Pigs!"

Compare and contrast with DepravedDwarf.

* The Mad Midget Five from ''VideoGame/GodHand'' are a ridiculous-looking {{sentai}} team with chipmunk voices, and they're mostly treated as comic relief. Averting MookChivalry, they attack you all at once. They are hard to beat the first time and even tougher the second. The game also features a psychic midget who is also ridiculous and difficult.

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** PlayedWith in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', where Dinklage ''does'' play a Dwarf... [[spoiler: but it's one who's roughly three times the size of Thor. So basically, in the Marvelmovieverse Dwarves are just [[OurGiantsAreBigger giants]].]]

* Played with in ''Series/{{Jackass}} 3D'': an all-little-person barroom brawl is [[spoiler: broken up by dwarf cops and dwarf [=EMTs=].]]

* At the ball scene in ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1973'', the King of France is eating hors d'oeuvres off plates balanced on the heads of dwarf servants. This is mainly to emphasize the decadence of his court, and is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_dwarf Truth In Television]].

** The ''Film/TimeBandits'' are all little people to minimise the height difference between them and the KidHero, so that audiences would be more inclined to accept a child as an equal member in their gang. Jack Purvis, one of the actors who played the bandits, would go on to act in Gilliam's next movies -- ''Film/{{Brazil}}'' and ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'' -- but in both movies, he's one of the least surreal elements (and in ''Baron Munchausen'', nobody treats him any differently from the Baron's other TrueCompanions).

* In ''Film/BladeRunner'', two of the genetically-engineered 'toy-friends' created by J.F. Sebastian are dwarfs in outlandish outfits, one of which has an extremely long nose. Their presence certainly makes the already-surreal clutter of Sebastian's apartment seem even more bizarre.

* Very unusual variation in ''Film/MulhollandDrive'' with the character of Mr. Roque, played by Michael J. Anderson of ''Series/TwinPeaks'' fame. The 3 foot 7 inch tall actor was given prosthetic limbs to make him look like an average-height person with an UncannyValley effect. So basically, the character is made stranger by ''not'' looking like a dwarf.
** Though played straight (to the extent that there's anything "straight" about the movie anyway) in the ending, with cartoonish little versions of [[spoiler:Diane Selwyn's]] grandparents [[spoiler:driving her to suicide.]]

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* French gameshow ''Series/FortBoyard'' has dwarfs Passe-Partout, Passe-Temps and Passe-Muraille as mysterious silent assistants in an abandoned mystical-looking fort.
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* On ''{{Series/SCTV}}'', ''Whispers of the Wolf'', a (parody of a) surreal Ingmar Bergman film run by mistake on ''Monster Chiller Horror Theater'', features a dwarf -- about whom the "[[PoirotSpeak Swedish]]"-speaking heroine remarks, "Hmmm...shrimpkin."

--> '''Samson:''' Do I look simple to you, Hawkins?
--> '''Ben:''' No.
--> '''Samson:''' Well, that's good, because I'm not. I been to New York City. I been to Chi-town and the Big Easy. I met Caruso and Dempsey. I made eyes with Theda Bara. On a bad day, I've cracked tougher nuts than you.

* Subverted in a few episodes of ''{{Series/NCIS}}'': Abby dates a dwarf who looks and acts positively button-down compared to [[PerkyGoth Abby]].

* Ginny Weedon from ''Series/PicketFences'' who, despite playing the same kind of character that she did in ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', [[BrokenAesop kept complaining about "little people" stereotypes]].

* ''Series/{{Rome}}''.

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--> ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall Now pause the movie]] 'cause what I'm about to say to y'all [[LemonyNarrator is so damn twisted]] - \\

* Music/RandyNewman's "Short People." Although not specifically about dwarfism, it definitely qualifies.

* The [[http://hipgnosiscovers.com/images/gravytrain_lp_germany_front.jpg outer gatefold]] of ProgressiveRock band Gravy Train's [[SelfTitledAlbum self-titled debut album]] shows a little person in 1930s clothing alone at a train station. Storm Thorgerson of Creator/{{Hipgnosis}}, the studio that designed the cover, wrote that "the dwarf waits endlessly at the deserted station for the train that never comes. The Gravy Train."

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* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'': The Slurm factory is manned by the Grunka Lunkas.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/ForbiddenZone https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/forbiddenzone-3_659.jpg]]]]

** PlayedWith in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', where Dinklage ''does'' play a Dwarf... [[spoiler: but it's one who's roughly three times the size of Thor]].

* ''Film/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau1996'' features [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_de_la_Rosa Nelson de la Rosa]], one of the shortest men of the twentieth century, as a creation of Dr. Moreau.

* The 1996 version of ''Film/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'' features [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_de_la_Rosa Nelson de la Rosa]], one of the shortest men of the twentieth century, as a creation of Dr. Moreau.

** Though played straight (to the extent that there's anything "straight" about the movie anyway) in the ending, with "dwarfish" versions of [[spoiler:Diane Selwyn's]] grandparents [[spoiler:driving her to suicide.]]

* In ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', the Munchkins are the first people that Dorothy meets in [[DreamLand Oz]] after Glinda. All the Munchkins were played by little people -- who got paid less than the dog who played Toto. No, [[http://news.nationalpost.com/arts/movies/the-actors-who-played-the-munchkins-in-the-wizard-of-oz-were-paid-less-than-toto really]]. ([[ValuesDissonance Contrast that with the 2010s]], when the aforementioned Peter Dinklage became one of the highest-paid stars [[note]]along with Creator/KitHarington, Creator/EmiliaClarke, Creator/LenaHeadey, and Creator/NikolajCosterWaldau[[/note]] on ''Series/GameOfThrones'', and you'll see that [[SocietyMarchesOn we really have come a long way]].)

* The [[http://hipgnosiscovers.com/images/gravytrain_lp_germany_front.jpg outer gatefold]] of ProgresiveRock band Gravy Train's [[SelfTitledAlbum self-titled debut album]] shows a little person in 1930s clothing alone at a train station. Storm Thorgerson of Creator/{{Hipgnosis}}, the studio that designed the cover, wrote that "the dwarf waits endlessly at the deserted station for the train that never comes. The Gravy Train."

* In ''Series/NightCourt'', Dan's boss, Vincent Daniels (Daniel Frishman) at least for a few episodes:

* ''Series/TheLoneGunmen'': Part of the convoluted plot of "Madam I'm Adam" involved a female wrestler in a midget wrestling league, but it turns out her role in the whole thing is quite ordinary. [[spoiler: Driven away by her husband's anger management issues, she starts an affair with a appliance store pitchman. (Both gents are normal-sized) Her husband gets a drastic procedure to curb his anger so he could try to repair his marriage, which caused him temporary amnesia, and the pitchman reveals himself as a first-rate {{Jerkass}} by making a creepy, fetishizing comment about the lady's height.]] The Gunmen, who are very used to the unusual (after all, Agent Mulder is a regular client), take the whole situation with barely a raised eyebrow.

%%** ''{{Series/Bonanza}}''
%%** ''Run For Your Life''

* %%* ''The Werewolf Of Washington''

** There's an infamous anecdote of Music/FreddieMercury hiring a troupe of little people to carry trays of cocaine on their heads at the party celebrating Music/{{Queen}}'s 1978 album ''Jazz''.