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Non-Human Head

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Cassius has really got a good head for music.

A being, almost always a humanoid with at least human intelligence, with an inanimate object or an animal head in place of a human head. Depictions of these types of creatures go back at least to Egyptian Mythology, where many deities were depicted with animal heads and human bodies to show their divine natures.

These days, they sometimes appear in Urban Fantasy stories, either as 'living technology' or as explicitly magical beings; for some reason, electronics are particularly popular choices for these characters. What exactly they are varies by depiction — they can be human in all but appearance, Mechanical Lifeforms built for specific functions, Anthropomorphic Personifications who outright embody what they're shown as having for heads, or simply as odd but normal people in a Fantasy Kitchen Sink.

Because of how off-putting a non-human head on a human body is, this is also a common design in works dabbling in surrealism in some way, especially if the head is metaphorical.

They're often shown with their heads floating above their shoulders rather than having necks, in order to save the artist from trying to make the join between a human body and non-human head seem natural; having non-human characteristics other than their heads (odd skin colors or materials, powers thematically relating to their heads, etc.) is also common. They're also always able to talk without the use of a mouth.

Subtropes include:

Compare The Blank for other types of creatures that lack facial features or with Symbol Face for when the face is unusual instead of the whole head, Half-Human Hybrid if the result is from genetic engineering, and Beast Man for the characterization trope (zoomorphism). Beast with a Human Face is the inverse, where it's a non-human body with a human head. Sometimes the subjects of Animorphism fall into this trope, if their transformation is only of their head; Skull for a Head can also sometimes overlap if the skull is not of the being's species.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • The Japanese anti-piracy PSA series No More Movie Theft features two of these - one is a comical camera-headed man, and another is a police siren-man. You can see them here.
  • This is often seen on beer labels, especially for India Pale Ale.
    • The label for Sierra Nevada's Hoptimum Imperial IPA features a portrait of a figure in 18th-century clothing, with a hop cone for a head.
    • The can for Revolution's Anti-Hero IPA shows a hop-headed figure in fictional military uniform, complete with Commissar Cap and Eyepatch of Power.
    • Melvin Brewery's can designs all feature humanoid figures made out of objects, including at least two different IPAs with hop-headed people.
  • One bicycle safety poster shows a human neck and torso topped by a head of cabbage. The poster reads, "You can't substitute a cabbage for your head. Don't be a cabbage-head: wear your helmet."
  • Mac Tonight was a mascot of McDonalds; he was a singer/piano player with a crescent moon for a head and a pair of Cool Shades.
    • Speaking of McDonalds two old mascots were Officer Big Mac, with a big mac head, and Mayor McCheese, with a cheeseburger head.
  • The Pepsi ad "Emoticons" is about a man getting kicked off an beach where only people with monitors for heads are allowed.
  • Several ads for Sky Mexico feature people with TVs for heads. One is a couple arguing about their relationship (and his cable service), another is a group of TV-headed people at a pool party enjoying themselves.
  • Subverted in this Pepsi Max advert. Towards the end, the boss sees one of the office workers with a horse's head and assumes that he's hallucinating. But that's just what the workers want him to think; the horse's head is fake and the workers are looking for an excuse to goof off.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Anpanman: A majority of the characters have things such as food, flowers, or musical instruments as their heads. The title character, for instance, has a red bean paste bun for a head, and other major characters have a curry bun, a slice of white bread, a cream roll and similar things instead of regular craniums.
  • Chainsaw Man: Whenever he transforms, Denji's head turns into a chainsaw, with all the properties it entails. Notably, his head is now made of metal, giving him the ability to resist bullets aimed at his face.
  • In Heat Guy J, Boma has the head of a black wolf, but the body of a human. He did once have a human head, but was transformed into a "werewolf" as a Cool and Unusual Punishment for murder in his home city-state. He wears a holographic mask to cover it up in public, but removes the mask before doing battle with his katana.
  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: JoJolion, Doremifasolati Do is a Rock Human who can move like a tank while his head is entirely made of stone.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen: Master Tengen's head has an inhuman appearance closer to that of a cursed spirit's rather than a human, a result of aging 511 years without being able to merge with his proper vessel.
  • Having a non-human head is a common Quirk/Mutation in My Hero Academia:
    • Fumikage Tokoyami has a human body, but the head of a bird. Which is something his "Dark Shadow" inherits because well, he is Tokoyami's shadow.
    • Just like Tokoyami, Chief of Police Kenji Tsuragamae. Has a dog head but a human body. Although compared to Tokoyami his stands out a bit more due to being more realistic in design compared to the more stylized bird head.
    • Fukidashi Manga's head is a speech bubble, as part of his power to make onomatopoeias manifest.
  • Natomatos: Toma and Nasuta are both humans cursed with having vegetables for heads. The former has a tomato for a head, while the latter has an eggplant for a head.
  • One Piece:
    • The manga's author Eiichiro Oda occasionally portrays himself as a guy with a fish for a head.
    • A Recurring Extra referred to as "Pandaman" appears to be a muscular man with a panda's head. Maybe it's a mask, maybe it's not.
  • Petit iDOLM@STER: The Producer is depicted with having a yellow letter P for a head.
  • In Space Patrol Luluco, the Big Bad is a Blackholian, with an Unrealistic Black Hole where his head should be.
  • Schoolgirls with winged insects for heads appear in the dream world of Wonder Egg Priority after the girls "revive" their friends. They're the only enemies in the series that remain undefeated, and all of their encounters leave the main characters shaken.

    Asian Animation 
  • In Season 8 of Happy Heroes, among the recurring inhabitants of the fantasy town is a man whose is made to look like a flower pot.
  • Motu Patlu: The episode "Onions" features aliens who have onions for heads.

    Art 
  • Amy Judd often creates realistic pieces depicting women with flowers or wings for heads.
  • David Nutter, who appeared on Cats 101, photoshops the faces of his Cornish Rex cats into famous paintings, turning the human figures into this trope.
  • Peter Mohrbacher's Angelarium series by (which often toe the line of looking like Monstrous Humanoids) have various symbolic objects in place of heads. For starters, "Sahaquiel", "Eistibus", "Uriel", and "Matariel".
  • Marc Scheff's painting "Engulfment and Abandonment" shows a person with a large, frilled fish for a head.
  • Many of Ru Xiaofan's sculptures (his series Ode de la méditation, Song’s cups normalized Ode, and Ode de la jeunesse) are of human figures with elaborate bunches of flowers in place of their heads.
  • Several pieces by renowned surrealist painter Salvador Dali show people who have things other than human heads. These include "Printemps Necrophilique", "Three Women With Heads of Flowers Finding the Skin of a Grand Piano on the Beach", "Female Figure With Head of Flowers", and "Woman With a Head of Roses".
  • "The Pleasure Principle" by René Magritte is a portrait of a business man with a glowing ball of light in place of his head.

    Card Games 
  • Magic: The Gathering: The gods of Amonkhet, like their Egyptian counterparts, have animal heads — cat for Oketra, ibis for Kefnet, crocodile for Bontu, jackal for Hazoret and cobra for Rhonas. The three gods corrupted by Nicol Bolas, the Locust God, the Scarab God and the Scorpion God, likewise have arthropod heads — the Locust God just has a locust head in addition to locust wings on his back, but the Scarab God and the Scorpion God have an entire scarab and scorpion sprouting from their necks instead.

    Comic Books 
  • The Headmen are a team of Marvel Comics supervillains first appearing in The Defenders who have "strange heads" as their theme. However, only Ruby Thursday qualifies as this trope, as she has replaced her head with a featureless sphere of red plastic that can change shape. Of the other members, Gorilla-Man and Chondu have normal heads on non-human bodies, while Shrunken Bones' whole body is deformed (although his head is his most immediately notable feature).
  • Doom Patrol:
    • Several of Dorothy Spinner's imaginary friends and enemies take this form. Damn All has a newspaper with multiple eyes and a broad smile, his 'wife' Darling-Come-Home's face is a portrait of a light bulb, and their ghost baby Flying Robert has the head of a balloon.
    • Many agents of the Cult of the Unwritten Book have similar appearances. The Weeping Blades are flayed, beheaded corpses with blades for heads. The assassin group Fear the Sky all have celestial objects as heads.
  • Supers with strange heads are a fairly common sight in Empowered, with some examples including Anglerfish (an anglerfish), Hand Cholo (a giant hand), Heavy Artillery (a cannon), and Syndablokk (a cinder block).
  • Invincible has Machine Head, whose head is a machine.
  • Prez:
    • In the original series, Prez Rickard, teen president of the United States, has a few run-ins with Boss Smiley, the physical embodiment of political corruption, whose head is a bald sphere with Black Bead Eyes, a tiny nose, a broad smiling mouth — basically, a flesh-toned version of the classic "Have a Nice Day" Smile.
    • Boss Smiley makes another appearance as his slimy eerie self in The Sandman (1989).
    • In the 21st-century reboot, the character is given a disturbing twist where — due to corporations achieving full personhood under the law — all CEOs have become de facto mascots, disguising their true faces behind holographic "masks" and being referred to by their company names; Smiley, befitting his origins, has established himself as the most powerful simply because, by getting everything to the consumer as quickly and cheaply as possible, he sells the most valuable commodity of all: time.
  • Saga: There's an entire race of people with televisions for heads.
  • In Top 10, Officer Pete Luhan has a TV set for a head, which allows him to beam hypnotic images at other people. He uses this talent to get information out of uncooperative suspects.
  • The Wicked + The Divine: Thoth has an avian head as in myth, but due to his in-universe connection to Edgar Allan Poe it's a raven head rather than the traditional ibis one.
  • Zot!: The Blotch's head is a blob of protoplasm that looks like a splash of spilled liquid with a more or less normal face in the middle.

    Comic Strips 
  • Curtis: Wilkins likes to read comics featuring Supercaptaincoolman, a kind of African Superman Substitute, whose nemesis is Doctor Horsehead, a Mad Scientist with the body of man in a nicely tailored suit and a horse's head that whinnies when he laughs maniacally. Doctor Horsehead routinely snares The Hero in situations where Only the Author Can Save Them Now, which go unresolved, because Curtis gets his comic books confiscated for reading them in class.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In The Bed Sitting Room, a post-apocalyptic comedy in which radiation-induced mutations cause people to simply turn into things, there exists a character with a TV for a head. He speaks in the manner of a TV announcer.
  • In Being John Malkovich, when John Malkovich is inside his own head (long story), every other person's head is replaced by his own head, and all they can say is "Malkovich."
  • Donnie Darko has recurring visions of 'Frank', a man with the head of a creepy rabbit, giving him warnings about the future. Frank turns out to be a real person wearing a rabbit mask, whom Donnie has never met before... which doesn't actually explain much.
  • As the name of the film might suggest, Eraserhead has heads as its Body Motif. Henry Spencer and his girlfriend Mary X are stuck with tending to a disfigured child with a horrible, chickenlike head. In a Dream Sequence, the baby's head sprouts under Henry's, beheading him. The result is a body of an adult man with a Fetus Terrible for a head.
  • I'm Here (2010): The protagonist has a desktop for a head.
  • In Ink, bad guys from the monochromatic dreamland carry the teleimage of smiling faces on shoulders.

    Literature 
  • Bas-Lag Cycle: Khepri women have entire scarab beetles for heads; Khepri are just giant scarabs.
  • Discworld: The gods are often noted as looking like humans wearing cheap Halloween masks. Offler the Crocodile-Headed God is the one seen most often, but in Pyramids the equivalent of the entire ancient Egyptian pantheon shows up, complete with bird-headed gods, dog-headed gods, horse-headed gods and so on.
  • The Kane Chronicles: The gods sometimes appear with animal heads, and most demons have objects — typically weapons, but sometimes weirder things like corkscrews — for their heads.
  • Every human in Katabasis has the head of an animal, which is called their "aspect".
  • In The Last Battle, Tash is revealed to have a (mostly) human body with a bird-like head.
  • In the First Book of MARZENA, while in Dr. Sam's Virtual Dream World, Kristen gets attacked by a plumber wielding a circular saw and who has a Model House instead of a head. The monster appears to be linked to some tragedy that happened in Dr. Sam's house.
  • Part of the mythos in The Stormlight Archive revolves around visions of strange creatures who are humanoid in shape, but have strange symbols for heads. It is revealed in Words of Radiance that these are the Cryptics, essentially the idea of lying given sentience. Despite being creepy, they aren't evil, just strange.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Danger 5 has an eagle-headed colonel commanding the show's elite Nazi-fighting team. A later episode has a Swiss gangster with a tiger's head challenge Tucker to a duel. No explanation for any of this is given.
  • Doctor Who: In the story "City of Death", the villain's true form seems to be an elegantly dressed humanoid with the head of a one-eyed, green alien that resembles pasta. (He was worshipped in ancient Egypt as a god.)
  • Jigsaw (1979): One episode has a villain by the name of Ray Cathode, with a TV for a head.
  • Several cyborgs in Lexx are modified humans from the neck up such as Cluster Drones, notably 790 a main character; Moth-breeders play with this concept by not replacing the entire head.
  • A The Two Ronnies sketch showed a man seeing a doctor, who has been replaced by a video system, and has trouble with the silly instructions and system failures until he starts banging on the door demanding to see a real doctor... who may be this trope, as he enters the room speaking in the same manner as the video doctor, with the hollowed-out shell of a TV over his head.

    Music 
  • Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy". The video includes cuts to a character with a TV head, with only static showing on the screen.
  • Foster the People's album Torches features a person with a burning matchstick for a head on the forefront of the cover.
  • In the music video for Kesha's "Blow", everyone but James Van der Beek and Kesha herself has a unicorn head on a human body.
  • The cover of Minor Threat's Bottled Violence single depicts a man with the top of a beer bottle for a head, who is clad in a leather jacket and Sex Pistols shirt, and is also holding a beer in one hand and making a raised fist with the other. It Makes Sense In Context because the title song is an Ode to Sobriety dealing with those who get drunk as an excuse to pick fights.
  • The liner notes from Project 86's album Truthless Heroes includes a man with a television monitor for a head. The cover art is a close-up of his "face".
  • In the music video for "Get Involved" by Raphael Saadiq and Q-Tip, everyone has a monitor for a head. At one point, a bird messes up the antenna of a man with a TV head, causing his face to be briefly replaced with footage from The PJs.
  • The British band The Shapes had the cover of their album Songs For Sensible People show the five members of the band with actual shapes (a square, a half-circle, a circle, a triangle, and a star) replacing their heads.
  • The music video for Sumo Cyco's "Who Do You Want To Be" follows a woman with a TV for a head, which shows things like a yawning mouth, a blinking eye, or footage of the band at various points.
  • The video for 'Cause I'm a Man by Tame Impala features an invisible man in a suit. Throughout the video, various objects appear in place of his head.
  • The album art of the Jaymes Young EP Habits of My Heart is a greyscale picture of a man with a cloud for a head sitting in a car.

    Mythology 
  • Classical Mythology: In the original myths, the Minotaur only had the head of a bull, and the rest of its body was human.
  • There have long been stories of people with cynocephaly — that is, dog/jackal-headed people — such as Anubis, the giant St. Christopher, or the dog-people that Marco Polo and John Mandeville allegedly met on their travels.
  • Many gods in Egyptian Mythology can be shown with animal heads. Here are just some of the more notable examples:
    • Ra, sun god and king of the gods, has a falcon or a ram.
    • Horus, one of the main sun gods, has the head of a hawk; the sun and moon are his eyes.
    • Bastet, a warrior goddess/goddess of cats, has the head of a lioness (or, later, a domestic cat).
    • Thoth, god of knowledge, has the head of an ibis (or sometimes a baboon when he's being A'an, the god of equilibrium).
    • Anubis, one of the most famous gods of the underworld, has the head of a jackal, a known scavenger of the dead.
    • Set, god of storms and the desert, is an interesting example because people can't figure out what his head is supposed to be; some have theorized that the animal, which looks vaguely like an anteater, may be extinct or imaginary. Scholars simply refer to it as the "Set animal."
  • Hindu Mythology: Ganesha is depicted with the head of an elephant; the reasons for this vary, but the most commonly accepted version is that Shiva struck off his head and had to get him a new one to appease Ganesha's mother Parvati, who was rather understandably furious about her son being beheaded.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Call of Cthulhu
    • Supplement Curse of the Chthonians, adventure "Thoth's Dagger". One of the Investigators who touches the title magic item will fall under its curse. He sees visions of ancient Egypt that include a guard with the head of a baboon and a priest with the head of an ibis.
    • Supplement The Fungi from Yuggoth, adventure "Sands of Time". While the Investigators are trapped in an underground area they have a vision of two men with the heads of crocodiles.
  • Chaosium's supplement All the Worlds' Monsters. The wind witch monster has a human body but the head of a crocodile.
  • Don't Rest Your Head: Some of the nightmares have objects in the place of a head, such as the Officer Tock (a clock) or the Tacks Man (a tack).
  • Games Workshop games:
    • Worshipers of Khorne the Blood God from Warhammer, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 most commonly depict their master as a heavily muscled humanoid in full armour with the head of a mighty hound. Many of Khorne's most powerful daemons share this monstrous visage and it is also a mutation that the Blood God sometimes grants to favoured mortal followers.
    • Warhammer 40,000: In the background material, the Fallen Daemon Prince Marbas sports the head of a lion of Caliban. The Dark Angels and their successors view this mutation as a mockery of their lost homeworld and their missing Primarch, Lion El'Jonson.
    • Warhammer: The Tomb Kings give their ushabti the skeletal heads of assorted animals, such as birds or crocodiles.
  • Godforsaken: Grave behemoths are towering giants whose heads have been replaced by gravestones.
  • Gods of the Fall: The Librarian of the Library of Memory and the seven guardians of the Tower of Wishes have human bodies, but the heads of various beasts and birds — the Librarian has a water buffalo head, for instance.
  • Lamentations of the Flame Princess: One possible consequence of resurrecting a character with the Electric Grave spell is that the resurrectee's head is replaced by "some cosmically appropriate object". Some of the art in the sourcebook the spell comes from features a character whose head has been replaced by a large ornate clock.
  • Pathfinder:
    • Erastil, the god of tradition and hunting, has the head of a bull elk.
    • A number of empyreal lords have animal heads, including Bharnarol (elephant), Rowdrosh (ram) and Shei (ibis).
    • Hound archons have canine heads.
    • Apollyon, the Horseman of Plague, has a ram's skull for a head, while Trelmarixian, the Horseman of Famine, has three jackal heads.
    • Trelmarixian's meladaemon servitors have jackal heads to match their lords, although in the past they had different animal heads to match previous Horsemen of Famine, while the purrodaemons who serve the Horseman of War have vulture heads on humanoid bodies. Among other fiends, raja rakshasas have the heads of various types of animals, while whisaak sahkils have entire locusts for heads.
    • Deeplits, undead who arise from miners who died trapped underground, have eerily glowing flames instead of heads.
    • Ardoc moilants, constructs built to perform heavy labor, have serrated shovel blades in place of their heads.
    • The actual Ancient Egyptian pantheon, as described above, also appear in the form of the Osirian deities, and are illustrated appropriately, with just a few more touches (for instance, Bastet's stripes continue down her human body).

    Toys 

    Video Games 
  • In ANNO: Mutationem, Ann comes across an individual speaking from a manhole cover asking her to bring food. At a later time, she finds it's a person called Hapi who has an actual sewer cover for a head. There's also Jos van Corn and his brother who have heads of corn.
  • Banjo-Tooie: Master Jiggywiggy's head is a Jiggy. The rest of his body, however, appears to be fairly human.
  • One of the first-person areas in Batman: Arkham Asylum contains a mannequin of the Joker, with a television head that plays a message. Actually, it's the Joker himself.
  • The Beginner's Guide features numerous NPCs who, given the abstract and prototypical nature of many of the game's segments, have their heads replaced with brightly-colored squares. The squares have words on them, and they are sometimes able to rotate them when talking.
  • Bendy and the Ink Machine has the projectionist, an inky humanoid with a projector for a head.
  • Cloud Master have the shopkeeper you visit in-between levels, where she has a Chinese dumpling in place for her head. She can even move the edges of her dumpling hair, somehow.
  • Civilization: Call to Power: The Televangelist units have TV sets for heads.
  • The titular character in Clam Man has a mostly humanlike body with a clam for a head. Enforced because clams are hard to make anthropomorphic.
  • Cuphead: Right there in the title, folks. Cuphead and his brother Mugman have drinking cups for heads, and the villainous King Dice's head is (naturally) a die.
  • DARQ features a number of bizarre creatures of this kind, unsurprisingly considering its nightmare setting. These include gun-toting humanoids with lampshades for heads, who periodically turn the lightbulbs inside them on and off and shoot you if you step into the pool of light they cast, and a wheelchair-bound creature with what appears to be a tuba for a head which propels itself around backwards by the sheer force of its off-key notes.
  • The Evil Within:
    • The Keeper has a safe wrapped in barbed wire for a head. Not only that, it can regenerate itself from other safes scattered throughout the game.
    • The DLC missions The Assignment and The Consequence have Shade/Spotlight, a monster that's just a lumpy torso mounted on a pair of human legs with a searchlight for a head.
  • Halflight: The slug-man, whose head is that of a banana slug. The rest of his body is human.
  • Friday Night Funkin' and its mods have some weird ones.
    • The revolting yet terrifying Monster of Weeks 2 and 5 is a gangly black biped with a bleeding lemon for a head.
    • Game Mod Vs Whitty has the titular Whitty, who has a Cartoon Bomb for a head. To absolutely no one's surprise, the guy with a bomb for a head has a terrible temper. The same game features Updike, who has a cloud for a head.
    • V.S. TABI Ex Boyfriend has Tabi, a former human who now has been cursed to have his head turn into a goat skull.
    • V.S Zardy - Foolhardy has Zardy, who has a jack-o'-lantern for a head. He is a scarecrow, after all.
  • Gingiva: The title character was born a normal woman, but had her head chopped off and replaced with a turnkey.
  • Just Dance 3: The dancer for "Video Killed the Radio Star" is a person with a television for a head, which alternates between showing footage of the older games and various cheerful expressions.
  • The Player Character of Limbus Company, Dante, has what appears to be a burning clock for a head.
  • Little King's Story: King TV Dinnah looks like an ordinary man in a suit... except for his head, which is an old-fashioned television, with the screen displaying a large eye.
  • Lost Smile and Strange Circus: Several of the game's characters have this, including:
    • Jack, who has a box head.
    • Billy, with a cat head.
    • Rebecca, whose head seems to be some kind of dessert on a cup.
    • Alphonse, who has a sheep head.
    • Oscar, who has what seems to be a tv for a face.
  • Blade Man from Mega Man 10 has a sword for a head and Jupiter from Mega Man V has a bird head with his mouth having eyes.
  • METAGAL: Buster, one of the bosses in the game, resembles a human female soldier with a bomb-launcher for a head. Downplayed since it has a ridiculously human Robot Girl's face on the front.
    • Averted in her death animation, however. Her bomb launcher head's outer layer gets turned into standard green hair, complete with Instant Bandages.
  • All the characters in Mondo Medicals have televisions for faces - with a blank screen, simple faces, or a gnashing mouth. Mondo Agency uses the same idea, only now the screens are four-sided and spin!
  • In OFF, Elsens, who are almost indistinguishable from humans, transform into Burnts when they become stressed; this causes their heads to transform into pillars of smoke, which further freaks them out. The higher leveled ones have more non-human characteristics, gaining smoky claws and/or fangs as well.
  • PaRappa the Rapper and features this for some of its characters, such as Sunny Funny's father having a potted plant for a head and Chop Chop Master Onion's head being, well... an Onion.
  • From a really bizarre Android game, Poop Killer, a survival-horror parody where you fight humanoid enemies with toilets for heads. And makes farting sounds when they're shot at. Stuff that NEEDS to be seen to believe.
  • Psychonauts 2: In the level Hollis' Hot Streak, there are various NPCs roaming about that have card suits, cartoon skulls or dice for heads. The nurses in the level have a syringe, a speculum and a urine cup for a head.
  • Runescape:
    • Several Menaphite deities have animal heads, much like their Egyptian inspiration. Icthlarin has jackal head, Crondis has a crocodile head and Amascut used to appear as a lion-headed woman, but no longer uses that form due to having developed a fear of cats.
    • Akthanakos appears in the form of a human with a camel's head, imitating the appearance of the desert gods.
  • Shantae and the Seven Sirens: Slime Wizes have a fish head on a buff man's body. Thankfully wearing a loincloth.
  • Sugary Spire: The Painter, an ally of Player Character Pizzelle, has a human body with a Top-Heavy Guy budy type, but his head is a paintbrush with a face and only one eye.
  • One of the main antagonists of Super Lesbian Animal RPG is Javis, a reality-warping sorcerer with a VHS tape for a head. He has a single eye in the center of his VHS tape head which is described as being rather soul piercing.
  • Team Fortress 2 : During Halloween, these come out in full force. Besides "hats" that replace merc heads with different animals, the Merasmus fight will periodically turn the heads of players on both teams into bombs.
  • Ultraverse Prime have an Action Bomb mook whose head is literally a Cartoon Bomb. Which they'll detonate to hurt you.
  • Undertale: Several of the NPCs , including the receptionist at the MTT lobby who has a giant hand for a head and a few nameless NPCs with black and pink or yellow diamond-patterned squares for heads.
    • Deltarune: Malius has a giant squeaky toy hammer for a head and Hacker has a mouse cursor for a head, complete with Cool Shades.
  • In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Horsehead resembles an armored human with, as its name states, a horse's head.

    Visual Novels 
  • The Duenkhy: Cassius, one of the main romanceable characters, has a keyboard for a head; it's noted that even among for the discriminated-against non-human community that these types of beings in particular have What Measure Is a Non-Human? applied to them, and aren't seen as people.
  • Marco & the Galaxy Dragon has Calen, a mysterious girl with a tear-away calendar for a head.

    Web Animation 
  • Bugbo: Gradient Joe has a sphere with a black-to-white gradient for a head, but otherwise looks like a human in business casual clothing.
  • Homestar Runner:
    • Keyboard Strong Bad from the Strong Bad Email "crazy cartoon" is a version of Strong Bad who, as the name implies, has an electronic keyboard for a head. He appears as a character in Strong Bad's "crazy cartoon" Sweet Cuppin' Cakes; when he gets angry, his head plays "Unterlanders Heimweh".
    • One episode of "Marzipan's Answering Machine" has Strong Bad leaving a message claiming to be a guy named "Goat Face", whose explains that he's called that not because he has a face like a goat, or a goat's head, but "my face is an entire goat."

    Webcomics 
  • Awful Hospital:
    • Chip, the barista of Fluid State Comestibles Incorporated, has a badly cracked coffee mug for a head. Notably, this isn't actually attached to his body — he manually holds it a bit above where his neck would be. After the Q-36 Procedure, he's replaced by Joe, who has a styrofoam cup head attached to his body with a neck brace.
    • Dr. Mizer has a rusty syringe as a head, containing his eyes and expressive bugs.
    • BBQ Girll has a grill with a cartoony face for a head. It can even open and close, and has a little meatlet inside.
    • Gardenia's head is the shape of a gardening can.
    • Urologist Cathy's head is a portable medical urinal full of abnormally thick urine.
    • The entirety of the Blindtrain is, as it turns out, the head of a disturbingly lanky, long-limbed humanoid.
  • Ben And Winslow: A Running Gag involves Winslow replacing his head with random objects, including (but not limited to) a gumball machine, a head-sized apple, and a live pig.
  • Flint the Box Head Boy from The Dreamwalker Chronicles who can open up his box head to pull out flashlights and other useful items, when he eventually loses the box his true face is identical to Kyle's revealing that he is the spirit of Kyle's dead twin. Interestingly, the Box Head Boy in its entirety was the borrowed disguise as the character continues to exist separately and creeps out the human characters when eating bad dreams.
  • Five Nights at Freddy's: Mx Bones's interpretation of the Phone Guy was a literal phone guy, as in a human with a telephone for a head.
  • Homestuck:
    • After the god-hound Becquerel is prototyped, the heads of all carapacians who wear the Black or White Queen's rings transmute into those of wolf-like hounds with a scar over one eye.
    • Doc Scratch has a large cue ball for a head; when he dies it cracks open, allowing something far, far worse to enter the universe through it.
  • I'm the Grim Reaper has an example in a flashback, narrated by Ana. her parents' heads are replaced by a megaphone and a stapler respectively, and her ex-husband's face is permanently covered by a paper bag. He's referred to as "Paper Bag" as well.
  • In Kill Six Billion Demons, the Geas Knight INGSVLD has a leather-bound book with an eyeball in the cover floating over his shoulders — in his case, this is due to the book being his original self, and his humanoid body being something he obtained later. After losing a fight, he's left holding his "head" disconsolately.
  • My Senior, IE-kun: The characters are the anthropomorphic personifications of various internet browsers, and are just as often shown with those browsers' logos as they are with human heads.
  • Nebula: Anthropomorphic Personifications of the solar system are all shown as humanoids with small versions of the celestial bodies they represent are replacing their heads and floating slightly above their necks. Most of them do tend look more like Monstrous Humanoids than actual humans, with Mars being an outright Rock Monster and Sun being constantly Wreathed in Flames.
  • The Perry Bible Fellowship:
    • People with musical instruments for heads are the characters of "Harmony"; the bassoon's father is not pleased at her settling to marry a lowly whistle.
    • People with rock, paper, or a pair of scissors for heads get into an argument over seating in "Shotgun", which they decide can only be decided one way... gladiatorial combat.
    • "Mrs. Hammer" is about a hammer-headed man discovering that his wife (a plank of wood) has a screw embedded in her.
    • While at first the characters are angled so it isn't obvious, the twist in "Sweet Deal" is that the people all have teeth for heads and can be murdered with excess sugar.
    • "Hard Read" is centered around two people with books for heads.
    • "Preserves" has a peanut butter-headed man marrying a jelly-headed woman, only to be disgusted when her 'will pop if seal is broken' doesn't pop when he takes her veil off.
    • The characters in "Bad Apple" are gangs of fruit-headed people and rival vegetable-headed people.
    • "Genius Sir" shows a war between soldiers with dice for heads and dominoes for heads.
  • Pilot: The Objectheads all have various pieces of technology in place of heads. TVs are the most common, though radios and iPhones aren't unheard of.
  • The Property of Hate:
    • RGB has a floating television for a head and no actual physical body otherwise; he animates a set of clothes that appear to be empty below the television.
    • Dial is a lanky, metallic humanoid with a retro broadcasting microphone for a head.
    • RGB's old friend Magnus has a prism for a head.
  • Rice Boy: T-O-E is a robot with a circular screen for a head; it tends to show scenes from films and cartoons from the 1920s to the 1940s.
  • Steve Loves Internet: The Anthropomorphic Personification of the internet is a man with a computer monitor for a head.
  • A few background characters In the world of Demon Street have heads such as screens. Or in the case of Celene's boss, a lantern.

    Web Original 
  • One of the unexplained screens in the NES Godzilla Creepypasta shows a figure in a pinstriped business suit, whose head is a dripping faucet.
  • SCP Foundation:
    • SCP-527 ("Mr. Fish") has a human body, except for his head which is that of a gold barb fish. Despite this, he can think and speak as well as a human being.
    • Dr. Clef's head comes out like this in pictures, usually replaced with an animal's.
  • There's an entire blog of art of these types of characters.
  • Artist Trever Henderson has recurring character Siren Head in his work, a gigantic Monstrous Humanoid with two loudspeakers instead of a head. It's since become the subject of a few creepypastas.
  • Brick Whartley, a character created by Tumblr for April Fools' Day 2022, is a suit-wearing businessman with a brick for a head.

    Web Videos 
  • Bedtime Stories (YouTube Channel) has creatures allegedly created by the SS, with one of these beings apparently having a goat's head attached to it in place of a human head.
  • "Idiot Box" is a short film in a world where everyone has TV sets for heads, though they always display faces.
  • ProZD: Cowboy Cow and Groin Puncher (from the cow card game) have humanlike bodies and cow heads.
  • Skibidi Toilet Series has interesting case of this. While toilets all have human heads, the Alliance opposing them is made of humanoids with cameras, speakers and TVs for heads.

    Western Animation 
  • The Amazing World of Gumball:
    • Juke is a humanoid with a boombox for a head who speaks in beatboxing noises, though he could speak regularly if he could get someone to hit the switch on his back. His skin is the same shade of grey as the boombox.
    • Julius, the leader of a Gang of Bullies, has a bomb for a head on a humanoid body in the style and color of a 1920s cartoon character. If he's very mad, his head explodes and shrinks.
  • Beetlejuice: One of the recurring characters is a Neitherworld television executive named Mr. Monitor, who has four television screens for heads, each with their own face.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Minor villain Potty Mouth appears to have a toilet for a head.
  • Drawn Together has The Jew Producer. He looks like a man in a suit, except with a speaker where his head should be; this is a reference the fact that prior to his first physical appearance, he was just The Voice heard on the intercom, the speaker of which looks like his head.
  • Hazbin Hotel: Vox's head is a giant flat-screen TV.
  • Infinity Train: Nancy looks perfectly human in every regard save her head, which is a giant rose.
  • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: Joe Cuppa is a stand-up comic with a coffee mug for a head.
  • The Owl House: Celine's head is a moon crescent. May also qualify as Horned Humanoid if the crescent is viewed as a pair of horns.
  • Regular Show:
    • Pops has a giant lollipop for a head. His father Mr. Maellard has a head shaped like a cratered moon.
    • Happy Birthday is a man with an enormous birthday cake for a head, and is possibly the personification of birthdays.
    • "Camping Can Be Cool" features an antagonistic character called Stag-man, a partially naked man with a deer head (with one of his legs being deer's). From his lines, he appears to be a Half-Human Hybrid who was left by his mother to fend for himself in the woods after a certain age.
    • "Slam Dunk" introduces the God of Basketball, a humanoid with a basketball for a head.
    • The Toilet Keeper from the episode "The Garage Door" has a toilet for a head.
  • Teen Titans (2003) features a minor villain called Fang who has a spider for a head. No, he doesn't just have the head of a spider, he has an actual entire spider (albeit with only four legs) where his head should be.
  • The Tick: Chairface Chippendale, a recurring villain, has a wooden chair leaning on its back legs in place of a face. During a brief time when Chairface swapped bodies with Chrome Dome (roll with it), Chrome Dome pointed out how logically horrifying it must be, and wonders how Chairface even talks.
    • There's also his bodyguard Dean, who has a wingnut screw for a head.
  • In WordGirl, Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy has a sandwich for a head, as does his brother Brent.

 
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Video Example(s):

Alternative Title(s): Object Head, Surreal Symbolic Heads

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Incubi

Creepy, nightmare-inflicting entities that live only in the dreamworld, Incubi all sport screens suspended in front of their heads - screens that seem to distort their already eerie-looking faces. It's hard to say if they speak with their own face, or with what's projected on the screen...

How well does it match the trope?

4.33 (3 votes)

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Main / NonHumanHead

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