History Main / NothingButSkinAndBones

* Six's legs and severe starvation in ''[[Videogame/LittleNightmares Little Nightmares]] leave no doubt the she is extremely skinny.

* The Sheikah Shrine Monks in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', who have spent 10,000 years meditating in their chambers to give Link their Spirit Orbs, are portrayed this way. What with Sheikah culture having a [[{{Wutai}} fantasy Japan]] inspiration, they are meant to be a reference to real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu Sokushinbutsu]] monks who starved themselves to death while meditating and underwent self-mummification.

* The Sheikah Shrine Monks in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', who have spent 10,000 years meditating in their chambers to give Link their Spirit Orbs, are portrayed this way. What with Sheikah culture having a [[{{Wutai}} fantasy Japan]] inspiration, they are meant to be a reference to real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu Sokushinbutsu]] monks who starved themselves to death while meditating and underwent self-mummification.

* The Sheikah Shrine Monks in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', who have spent 10,000 years meditating in their chambers to give Link their Spirit Orbs, are portrayed this way. What with Sheikah culture having a [[{{Wutai}} fantasy Japan]] inspiration, they are meant to be a reference to real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu Sokushinbutsu]] monks who starved themselves to death while meditating and underwent self-mummification.

* In ''Film/{{Se7en}}'' one of the serial killer's victims has been reduced to this after a year spent [[ChainedToABed strapped to a bed.]] The worst part? [[spoiler: [[AndIMustScream He's still alive!]] MorganFreeman's character speculates that the poor bastard [[{{Autocannibalism}} ate his own tongue to sustain himself.]] ]]

* Nagato, a villain of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', is horribly skinny because of a DangerousForbiddenTechnique of his, which drained his energy. His legs were burned useless just before that. And overall, he uses nothing but techniques that consume huge amounts of Chakra. [[http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110830163111/villains/images/5/57/Nagato_in_his_walking_machine.png Here is the result]].

[[caption-width-right:250:Don't worry too much about [[ChristianBale him]]--after all, [[Film/TheDarkKnightSaga he's Batman.]]]]

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* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', the heroes look like this after traveling in a country where they are so disliked that no one will give them food, and fighting bandits on top of it. Not played for drama, as they get something to eat in time, but no one finds it funny, either.
* In the German novel ''Gottes Bodenpersonal: Eine unwahrscheinliche Liebesgeschichte'' (God's Ground Personnel: An unlikely lovestory), this is played for drama; one of the characters steps out of the shower in nothing but a towel, and is described as very, very skinny. His lover is concerned about his health, as he's been neglecting self-care in general.

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* In the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Splat book ''The Book of Vile Darkness'', there are several Willing Deformity Feats that the evilest of characters can take, including Gaunt, which makes the character disturbingly thin (and actually grants a few benefits, but a few liabilities too).
* In the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' setting, Chosen Ones are humans transformed into humanoid monsters by the [[TheMagocracy Red Wizards of Thay]]. They are downright [[http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mof_gallery/MonFaePG28.jpg morbidly thin]], to the point where basically look like flesh-colored skeletons.
* In the ''TabletopGames/ScarredLands'' campaign setting, worshippers of [[VillainousGlutton Gaurak the Glutton]] become fatling, obese abominations reflecting the titan's appearance. However, fatlings who prove failures turn into gauntlings, which are even more hideous, tall, impossibly thin and gaunt, nearly mindless beings who more successful fatlings use as slaves.

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* [[Literature/GauntsGhosts Gaunt]] notices that Curth looks emaciated after her return from the Gereon mission, where she had suffered many hardships while fighting the Chaos occupational forces. He still finds her attractive, though.

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'': [[spoiler:Theon]] '''was''' a tall, good-looking youth of a healthy weight. After [[LockedInTheDungeon spending a little]] [[FlayingAlive vacation time in]] [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace the Dreadfort]], he comes out some 3 stone (that's ''42 pounds or 19 kilograms'') lighter both due to muscle atrophy and starvation.

->''"He was very tall and as skinny as a beanpole--so alarmingly thin, in fact, that it looked as if his bones were about to break through his skin."''

* Fans were a bit surprised when a trailer for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' showed Cloud, who's normally depicted as being fairly well-built, had been redesigned to look unsettlingly thin, sinewy and sickly. Considering the fact that his character has only recently escaped years of horrific medical experimentation that left him insane, it suits.

** When [[spoiler: Al is given the chance to get it back (but unable to fight in the final battle as a consequence) he says this line verbatim]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' has redesigned Cloud to look unsettlingly thin, sinewy and sickly. Considering the fact that his character has only recently escaped years of horrific medical experimentation that left him insane, it suits.

* In ''[[{{Deryni}} The Quest for Saint Camber]]'', Nigel is described as wasted and frail some two weeks after [[spoiler: Conall attacked him with magic and left him in a coma]]. Since Nigel got no solid food for that period, it's entirely plot justified and not pretty. Morgan and Duncan leave Rhemuth to search for Kelson and Dhugal partly to avoid watching Nigel starve to death.

->''He was very tall and as skinny as a beanpole--so alarmingly thin, in fact, that it looked as if his bones were about to break through his skin.''

[[quoteright:292:[[Film/TheMachinist http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/machinist_bale.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:292:Don't worry too much about [[ChristianBale him]]--after all, [[Film/TheDarkKnightSaga he's Batman.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:292:Don't worry too much about [[ChristianBale him]] - after all, [[Film/TheDarkKnightSaga he's Batman.]]]]

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'': [[spoiler:Theon]] is (well, ''was'') a tall, good-looking youth. After [[LockedInTheDungeon spending a little]] [[FlayingAlive vacation time in]] [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace the Dreadfort]], he comes out some three stone lighter both due to muscle atrophy and starvation. That's forty-two pounds or nineteen kilograms for someone who wasn't even least bit overweight to begin with.

* A serious example: By the time the Golden Ticket tour day arrives in ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', Charlie and his family have been subsisting on so little food for weeks on end that the boy is described as this in the narration and other characters notice -- including Grandpa Joe, who along with the other grandparents was this at the start of the story ("They were as shriveled as prunes, and as bony as skeletons"). Another character who notices is Willy Wonka; during the trip down the chocolate river in the CoolBoat, he gives each of them a mugful of the melted chocolate precisely because they "looked starved to death!" This trope is dropped in adaptations, probably because it's hard to visualize with live actors (especially child actors).

->''"I knew a girl called Jeannie Jones.\\
She was nothin' but skin and bones..."''
-->-- '''[[Series/TheTwoRonnies Ronnie Barker]]''', as "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ifyHBSW6xg Lightweight Louie Danvers]]"

* The victims of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and other notorious nations throughout history have been found in this condition.

* Seen on ''{{Intervention}}'' either because the person has been consuming mostly drugs and little food, or has an eating disorder.
* {{Subverted}} in an episode of ''TheDrewCareyShow''. Drew is on a hunger strike and when Mr. Wick comes to see him at home, Wick finds Drew lying on the couch due to lack of energy and is now extremely skinny. But it turns out that Drew knew Wick was coming over and he got an assist from a pizza delivery man who is naturally extremely skinny. The pizza guy is willing to help because Drew on a hunger strike is costing him business. They lay on the couch together, covered by a blanket, arranged in a way that it looks like Drew's head is on the other guy's body. Wick is initially suspicious that Drew's head is still as fat as always, which is brushed off by explaining [[BlatantLies head fat is the last thing you lose]], which he falls for.

* ''4st 7lb'' by ManicStreetPreachers.

* In ''{{Peanuts}}'', Snoopy's desert-dwelling brother Spike was like this initially. [[http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1975/08/13 In the first strip where he appeared]], he woke up after traveling a long time, and Snoopy announced, "Eggs benedict for my brother Spike!" To which Lucy replied, "Better make that ten pounds of buffalo steak" before he was actually seen. (In later stories, Spike was simply thin.)

* In one ''QuickDrawMcGraw'' cartoon, a wild mountain lion (an early version of Snagglepuss) steals one of Quick-Draw's biggest, fattest sheep, then shears it down to prepare it for dinner. It is then that he discovers that the sheep is rail thin underneath its wool.

* In the ''BrandyAndMrWhiskers'' episode "Wolfie: Prince of the Jungle" Brandy has a bunch of fashion magazines on the floor. One of them has a literal skeleton on it.

* A very unfortunate case of TruthInTelevision, victims of prolonged starvation or illness will really wither away down to a flap of skin over a malnourished skeleton. This is also the case of people with anorexia.