Line #83 Main/SpermAsPeople


1	%%
2	%%
3	%%
4	%%
5	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
6	%%
7	%%
8	%%
9	%%
10	%%
11	[[quoteright:350:[[WebAnimation/DarkMatter2525 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sperm_darkmatter2525.jpg]]]]
12
13	->''"Here we see how Fortress Ovum is besieged by countless little warriors."''
14	-->-- '''The Doctor''', ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E21SomeoneToWatchOverMe Someone to Watch Over Me]]"
15
16	There has been a great many arguments that are probably best left off the wiki about when a person actually becomes a ''person''. Is it when they're born? Is it when they're still in utero but starting to look like a baby? Or is it even when they're still a zygote? Most people agree that a sperm by itself (and an ovum by itself) is not a person. In fiction, on the other hand...
17
18	This trope is, essentially, when sperm cells are anthropomorphized. Given that humans are ultimately the product of the two gametes which combined to form the zygote, it's quite easy to imagine these cells as fully sentient, human-like beings in the way they get to their target, since with the magic of genetic variation, every cell that has a chance at making someone has its own genetic quirks, comparable to actual humans. Quite often, the sperm will have attributes like facial features or personality similar to either the man they're "living" in or the man's child they will end up conceiving. They will treat conception like a big event, often a race, with the egg as the "prize".
19
20	On the subject of the egg, it is rarely anthropomorphized in the same way, possibly because ova do not move in the same way sperm do, but on the rare cases it is anthropomorphized, it will be a female, just as the sperm are nearly always portrayed as male (although the sperm might be portrayed as female if carries one of the two X chromosomes required to conceive a girl).
21
22	Another weird point is that the semen they're supposed to live in is often not visible, possibly so that the living sperm can be seen clearly, not to mention the fact that physical depictions of semen are more often than not considered NotSafeForWork.
23
24	Conception is usually portrayed as the sperm forcing its way into the egg or just sitting next to the egg, and what happens to the other sperm cells is either they get disappointed, they just disappear, they die, or it's not touched upon. It's actually much more complex in RealLife, with the egg outright developing a sort of armour plating - specifically, its zona pellucida extracellular matrix - to wall itself off from further sperm cells after fertilization, while the cells that didn't make it end up dying; even getting to the egg is a bigger hassle than popularly portrayed, as many cells die along the way due to the high acidity of a woman's... inner sanctum. The possibility of fraternal twins or triplets[[note]]which can only come about when there ''is'' more than one egg cell present[[/note]] isn't often mentioned either, which interestingly enough could be one way of reconciling this biological PlotHole. Of course, don't expect any of this to be touched upon in most instances of this trope, as real-life complexities don't exactly make for a cohesive one-off segment in a narrative.
25
26	A variation is when a person tells another person about "when you were a sperm" or mentions "when I was a sperm" or talks about "having been the fastest sperm".
27
28	Sub-trope of AnthropomorphizedAnatomy
29
30	This trope is often used to either teach kids about "the birds and the bees" or as VulgarHumour. Compare AnthropomorphicFood, LivingToys, AnimateInanimateObject, EggFolk and TalkingPoo for other anthropomorphic things, and ICallHimMrHappy for more realistic personification that has to do with male privates. Not TruthInTelevision of course, but for centuries, it was thought to be. Sperm cells were thought to contain "[[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculi]]", i.e. tiny humans who developed in the woman's body.
31	----
32
33	!!Examples
34
35	[[foldercontrol]]
36
37	[[folder:Advertising]]
38	* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2h_Y-hHTgE banned commercial for Durex condoms]] has a man meeting with a woman for a date, only to be trampled over by a bunch of anthropomorphic sperm that come racing straight towards the woman, only to be stopped by a wall of latex (presumably the condom being advertised).
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
42	* ''Manga/CellsAtWorkCodeBlack'', being a series in which all bodily cells are anthropomorphized, obviously utilizes this trope upon discussing the nature of sperm cells. Here, they're [[https://twitter.com/hatsuyoshiya/status/1019254023990308866 depicted as]] people wearing sperm-shaped mechanisms around their torsos, complete with flagella.
43	** Likewise, the spin-off ''Manga/CellsAtWorkLady'' depicts them as young, {{bishonen}} adventurers outside of their sperm-pods, which parallels the ovum being represented as a royal princess.
44	* An episode of ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' has a parody of the D Day landings with sperm as the soldiers of a man jacking off with Kleenex, which kills the sperm on contact. Their ghosts act as the MonsterOfTheWeek, who destroy stocks of tissue as revenge. The ending revisits the regular sperm, where their attempts to fertilize are again thwarted, this time by a condom.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Clothes]]
48	* Several baby onesies have writing about being sperm, with messages ranging from "Daddy's little squirt" to "I won my first race" to ''"I was nearly swallowed"''.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
52	* One ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' comic has some sperm pretending to have different occupations so that the egg will "let them in". Another has a sperm with an outboard motor.
53	* A B. Kliban cartoon titled "My Dad, the Swimming Champ", depicts a giant sperm in a necktie leaning against a fireplace mantel that holds a gigantic trophy.
54	* A frequently circulated comic of unknown origin has two recently-swallowed sperm cells talking to each other, not realizing how disappointed they're going to be. It's best known due to MemeticMutation replacing the second sperm's dialogue with a reveal that they're inside something more obscene, often [[BestialityIsDepraved an animal]].
55	-->'''Sperm 1''': God I'm getting tired! How long 'til we reach the Fallopian tubes?\
56	'''Sperm 2''': Still a long way to go... We've only passed the tonsils.
57	* A German comic by Norman Winter features two sperm cells speeding along inside a tube. One says how they think they'll be a boy, and the other replies that they won't be anything -- they're in the throat.
58	* One comic panel of unknown origin has two sperm cells talking to one another. One says, "I can't wait to be a proud white nationalist like Dad!", to which the other responds, "dude, [[BigotWithACrush we're in a Latina]]."
59	* One comic has a sperm cell swimming much faster than the others. It goes on to become Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
63	* In ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoAmerica'', Beavis has a flashback of himself as a nose-picking sperm.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
67	* ''Film/BrideOfFrankenstein'' has homunculi (tiny people thought to come from sperm in the past) living in a jar.
68	* The opening/fertilization sequence of ''Film/DieterDerFilm'' ''(Dieter: TheMovie)'', a German animated film based on Dieter Bohlen's [[note]] member of the duo ''Music/ModernTalking''[[/note]] autobiography.
69	* ''Film/{{Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask}}'': The final sequence has this, with the egg being non-sentient, and a goal for the sperm. It also has a brain trying to figure out how to make the man have an erection, and sperm talking to each other about condoms and homosexual encounters. And one of the sperm - just one - is very obviously black. The other sperm cells look curiously at this out-of-place comrade.
70	* In ''Film/GettingStraight'', the students watch a sex ed video that shows animated sperm swimming around an egg. One student yells, "Back, back, you fools! We've been tricked! It's only a wet dream!"
71	* In ''Film/TheGreatFight'', one character tells a joke about three guys bragging about their excellent memories. The first guy says he remembers having his diaper changed. The second says he remembers being born. The third says he remembers going to a party with his father, and coming home with his mother.
72	* The opening/fertilization sequence of ''Film/LookWhosTalking'' has all the sperm talking excitedly as they race each other to be the first to the egg.
73	* Played with in ''Film/TheMatingHabitsOfTheEarthboundHuman'', where humans in white outfits are used as ''{{symbolism}}'' for sperm. They then reach the end of the track and are confused at not finding an egg, get caught in a plastic tarp, and get gunned down to symbolize non-vaginal sex, condoms, and spermicide respectively.
74	* Implied in ''Film/OsmosisJones'': One scene inside Frank's brain has a likeness of a sperm cell on a pedestal, which is drawn completely realistic unlike the other cells, but is credited as "OurFounder".
75	* ''Film/SonOfTheMask'' has a scene cut from the American version. After Tim has sex with Tonya while wearing the Mask, it cuts to three green Mask-like sperm swimming towards an egg and using cartoon tricks to outlast the others until one successfully fertilizes Tonya. This scene was cut in the American version to make it more PG.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Jokes]]
79	* One joke involves a conversation between sperm.
80	-->'''Sperm 1''': I am the strongest, I will get to the egg first.\
81	'''Sperm 2''': I am the fastest, I will get to the egg first.\
82	'''Slow Sperm Who Hadn't Spoken''': Guys, are you aware we are all actually inside a condom? ''(everyone leaves except him)'' And this is how geniuses are born!
83	* Comparable setting, the OrphanedPunchline suffices: "Run for your life, it's a blowjob!"
84	* Yet another:
85	--> '''Sperm 1:''' Are we close to the ovum?
86	--> '''Sperm 2:''' Close? We haven't even passed the tonsils yet!
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Literature]]
90	* ''Literature/ItsNotTheStork'' anthropomorphizes the sperm, the egg, ''and'' the zygote.
91	* Inverted in ''Literature/{{Middlesex}}'', in which Cal imagines himself and his brother as tiny homunculi inside their eggs, waiting to be fertilized.
92	* In ''Literature/MummyLaidAnEgg'', the kids draw faces and speech bubbles on the sperm, which they call "seeds".
93	* One issue of Brazilian magazine ''Superinteressante'' had a short story about reproduction with the brain as a war room and the sperm as an army. The author, however, didn't properly research and some ArtisticLicenseBiology is present - the one that fertilizes finds an opening into the egg, when in truth sperm breaches into the egg.
94	* ''Literature/WhereWillyWent'' is about a sperm named Willy and his rival Butch. The strange thing is, Edna Browne, the girl Willy conceives, is bad at math and good at swimming, like Willy was.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
98	* The ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIIBackwards Backwards]]" is set in a dimension where time and aging works backwards. Lister dreads becoming a sperm.
99	-->'''Lister:''' And worse than that -- in 25 years I'll be a little sperm, swimming around in somebody's testicles! I mean, pardon me, but that's just not how I saw my future!
100	* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E21SomeoneToWatchOverMe Someone to Watch Over Me]]" has the Doctor try to teach Seven of Nine how to date. Seven, due to being raised by a hive mind of emotionless cyborgs known as the Borg, doesn't see the point of romance and thinks it's all about procreation. When the Doctor goes through the mating habits of various alien species, he starts [[TheTalk explaining how procreation works]], describing the ovum as a "fortress" and the sperm as "little warriors". Seven of Nine interrupts, saying that she already knows how that works.
101	* In one [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xok-XejLu3E "Party Quirks"]] game on ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'', Colin Mocherie plays a "BAD-TEMPERED SPERM TRYING TO FIND ITS EGG".
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Music]]
105	* The Music/{{Koit}} song "Egg and Sperm" is about some sperm trying to reach the egg.
106	* The Music/{{Sparks}} song "Tryouts for the Human Race."
107	-->Tryouts for the human race, from Burlington to Bonn
108	-->Ah, we are a quarter billion strong
109	-->Tryouts for the human race, from twilight time 'til dawn
110	-->We just want to be someone
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Video Games]]
114	* In ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarryMagnaCumLaude'', dialogue trees are represented as sperm cells with faces controlled by the player.
115	* In ''VideoGame/{{Spermination}}'', you play as a sperm racing other sperms and collecting armor, rocket launchers, and even the resulting baby.
116	[[/folder]]
117
118	[[folder:Webcomics]]
119	* ''Webcomic/BooItsSex'': In a section where Tara explains that it is possible to get pregnant on one's period, there is an [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/slice-of-life/boo-its-sex/ep-90/viewer?title_no=1413&episode_no=91 illustration]] of a sperm in a waiting room.
120	* ''Webcomic/NSFWComix'' in the early days has two "left-dwelling" sperm characters and their shenanigans to fertilize an egg. One is portrayed as a Soviet, the other a beatnik.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Web Original]]
124	* [[https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-shit-my-kid-says-tweets/ This]] ''Website/BoredPanda'' list of funny things said by kids and one was a boy who said that he wasn't in an old picture because he was still swimming in his daddy's balls.
125	* ''WebAnimation/DarkMatter2525'':
126	** A minor character is Holy-Ghost Money-Shot, the magical sperm of Yahweh, who wears a wizard's hat and apparently impregnated the Virgin Mary.
127	** "Lord of the Nuva Rings" is a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', in which all the characters are sperm looking for the uterus but then find a uvula instead.
128	* In the ''WebAnimation/WeeblAndBob'' music video "Babies", sperms with Weebl's face are briefly seen swimming towards an egg cell.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
132	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' presents a variation of this trope, depicting sperm as {{Space Fighter}}s piloted by miniature pilots that look like the children they would conceive, who fight to reach the ovum. Stewie mentions he reached it because of the determination he developed at "testicular boot camp".
133	* This is used in several {{Edutainment}} shows about the human body:
134	** In ''[[WesternAnimation/IlEtaitUneFois Once upon a time... Life]], sperm cells at first look like [[https://media.paperblog.fr/i/77/774064/naissance-L-2.jpeg some kind of swimming machine]], but it's later revealed that they are merely wearing a visor on their face which [[https://cdn1.booknode.com/book_cover/606/mod11/il_etait_une_fois_la_vie_tome_39_adolescence_et_sexualite-606350-264-432.jpg they lose upon entering the egg]].
135	** French sexual education series ''Le Bonheur de la Vie'' anthropomorphizes [[http://dessins-animes.com/das/713/name/bonheur_vie#http%3A%2F%2Fdessins-animes.com%2Fda%2Fbonheur_vie%2Fimages%2Fbonheur_de_la_vie18.jpg both sperm and egg cells]] -- and gives eggs [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics lipstick and long lashes]].
136	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
137	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E24BrotherCanYouSpareTwoDimes Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?]]", Homer and Smithers' sperm samples are seen with their owner's faces. Smithers' healthy sperm swim in organized swarms. Homer's swim randomly and knock into each other, demonstrating that the nuclear plant has rendered him infertile.
138	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E13AndMaggieMakesThree And Maggie Makes Three]]", Maggie's conception is depicted with a bunch of clumsy, Homer-headed sperm cells. As this was part of a WholeEpisodeFlashback recounted from Homer to his children, it leads to a cut to Homer pantomiming a wriggling sperm as the others chew him out for the [[TooMuchInformation pointless gross detail]].
139	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' has a gag where Nicole escalates a complaint at a store with ever younger people coming in. The company's CEO is an unborn baby who claims they need to consult the shareholders... cue a dude stepping in and multiple voices being heard without involvement of his own voice.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Real Life]]
143	* When Antonius van Leeuwenhoek invented the first crude working microscope in the late 17th Century, one of many things he investigated in detail was human semen. He is the first person to have seen, and accurately sketched, sperm cells. However, this did not prevent a sort of Urban Myth sprouting up, where each sperm was popularly viewed as a sort of "witch's broomstick" being "flown" by a fully developed, albeit microscopically tiny, human being called a "homunculus". Elaborations on this legend began to circulate, with some people alleging the homunculus was a perfect but tiny version of the human its conceived baby would grow up to become. Even though van Leeuwenhoek accurately explained the process of conception and that there was nothing like a homunculus involved, the fanciful version persisted, possibly because it was more imaginatively vivid than the reality.
144	[[/folder]]

Context Main / SpermAsPeople