Exactly What It Says on the Tin. An automaton, robot or droid with a television set for a head.
Say the technology for synthetic skin has not yet been perfected and you want to avoid the
Uncanny Valley. Maybe you don't have much but some spare parts, dwindling funds and a TV at your disposal. Maybe it just
looks cool. For whatever reason, this is a robot or other sentient being with a monitor onto which they project images or outright words that are
often snarky responses to people interacting with them.
Not to be confused with a sentient AI or a talking computer. This strictly applies to walking automatons.
Often speaks through a variant of
Talking With Signs. Compare/contrast
Surveillance Drone and
The Blank.
Examples
Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- Several of the Spider-Slayers
have this, including the first.
- Telly, the "son" of Tank and Booga, in Tank Girl.
- Arguably, Arnim Zola could qualify. His face is displayed on a screen in his chest.
- Prince Robot IV (and several others of his race) from Brian K. Vaughan's Saga .
- Walter from Judge Dredd. When he's distressed, his face projects static.
Film
Live-Action TV
Music
- One of these appears in the music video for the Muse song "The 2nd Law: Unsustainable" from their album The 2nd Law. It's kinda creepy-looking◊.
Video Games
- Batman Arkham Asylum: In one first-person area, at the end of a hallway is a Joker mannequin with a TV for a head. Aversion, because it's actually him.
- In The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, the pentultimate boss has a TV set for a head, and the achievement for beating him is "Smash Your TV".
- Fallout New Vegas Securitrons
- Everyone (except maybe player character) in Mondo Medicals and Mondo Agency fits this trope.
- The Bruiser from Doom: Resurrection of Evil has a TV mouth.
- The Squarians in Level Up.
- The Drakel Freak enemy from Adventure Quest is a cyborg with a TV for its head, with an organic muzzle protruding from it.
- One of Metalhead's costumes in Guitar Hero III is one.
- These show up as an enemy in the N64 South Park game.
- Robots in Might and Magic III: The Isles Of Terra.
Webcomics
Western Animation
Other
