Garrulous Growth

How to Get a Head in Advertising.

Our poor characters get a sentient undesirable growth on their body. Growths like warts, zits, pimples or even tumours. They're alive, able to see or feel through their senses... and they talk.

Most people have at least some experience with unwanted, annoying skin problems like pimples or warts. They're usually not very serious medical problems but it can be very hard to get rid of them effectively and permanently. They're ugly, annoying and sometimes embarrassing (think a huge pimple on a beauty queen's pretty face that usually has no blemishes). What's even more embarrassing and annoying than a pimple? Talking pimple! Zits kind of look like disturbing little heads growing off of one's body, so they might be imagined like actual human-like heads. The Garrulous Growth often has a full human head with a face but it can be just a mouth with lips. Talking tumor might be shaped like another almost full body. These growths often resemble small fetuses.

The Garrulous Growth interacts with the character who has the boil or pimple on their body and it (or he or she) wants to desperately talk to other people, too. The growth is usually annoying and loud. It keeps embarrassing "its human" in front of other people, sharing their secrets and things that should be kept private. The protrusion usually wants to take control over the person's body, or in extreme cases, it wants to take over the whole world. Some of them like to sing, and very loudly at that because they feel the need to express themselves.

The characters who grows the protrusion usually freak out and are disgusted with it and with their body itself... because warts and zits and boils are gross, and sentient ones cross straight into the Body Horror territory. The sheer horror comes from the fact that your own body can produce something this disgusting. However, the sheer absurdity of this trope means it's more often than not Played for Laughs.

Naturally the characters try to get rid of these as soon as possible. If the boil finds out it's gonna be lanced, it will protest and call it murder. Sometimes however the character and the growth develop friendship or companionship.

See also Rise of Zitboy.

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Examples:

Advertising

• This Dr. Scholl's Freeze Away commercial features an annoying talking wart growing on a woman's finger who acts like a stubborn house guest. He scoffs at a generic wart remover that takes weeks to get rid of him, only to immediately shut up as soon as the advertised product is pressed hard into him, too frozen to even talk.

Anime & Manga

• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Nena's Stand, the Empress, takes the form of a parasite that infests a host. It starts off as a scab, but soon starts growing larger, gaining teeth, then a face and arms, allowing it to talk and manipulate objects, before finally appearing almost human-like, with a full torso.
• Thriller Restaurant: One episode involves Anko suddenly noticing a wart with her face growing on her shoulder. Eventually it gains sentience and starts talking, it seems friendly enough... until the next day where the wart's mind switches places with Anko making her the wart and reveals it's essentially all her darker impulses trying to take over her body. It nearly succeeds if not for one of her classmates, Shou, noting she's not acting like herself and manages to save Anko via a bee that stings the wart and allows Anko to regain control of her body (as after all, the best way to get rid of a wart is to lance it).

Asian Animation

• In the Simple Samosa episode "Pimple Samosa", Samosa suddenly grows a pimple on his face that turns out to be sentient and claims its name is Peter. Samosa spends the episode trying different methods to get rid of the pimple, to no avail. After deciding to volunteer to use a new pimple cream, Samosa eventually decides to let Peter off easy, and the pimple spontaneously comes off Samosa's face later; when Samosa grows another talking pimple the next morning, he decides not to treat it harshly at all.

Films — Live-Action

• Hellboy II: The Golden Army: One of the trolls at the Troll Market has something that looks like the upper body of a baby growing out of his chest. When Johann Krauss tells him that he has a nice baby, the "baby" replies "I'm not a baby, I'm a tumor."
• How to Get Ahead in Advertising: Dennis Dimbleby Bagley is a cynical advertising executive. He gets a writing block while working on an advertising campaign for a pimple cream. He has a nervous breakdown and grows a huge talking boil shaped like his own head on his right shoulder. The boil has Dennis' face and voice and is even more ruthless than Dennis himself.

Jokes

• A man goes to the doctor, removes his hat, and reveals there's a frog sitting on his head that seems fused to the scalp.
  Doctor: Mary mother of God! How the hell did that happen!?
  Frog: Well doc, a week ago it was just a boil on my ass!

Literature

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone includes The Reveal that Voldemort, who's spent a decade as The Disembodied after his Killing Curse backfired, has been clinging to corporeal existence for the past few years as a face growing out of the back of Professor Quirrell's head. Voldemort doesn't want to be noticed, so he keeps quiet and hides under Quirrell's turban for most of the book. But he gets in a few words with Harry at the novel's climax, and has even more lines during the corresponding scene in The Film of the Book.

Live-Action TV

• In a sketch from The Amanda Show, Amanda is on a date with a boy who has a large pimple on his forehead. She has a disturbing claymation fantasy about chiselling it off of his face, and it becomes sentient; she fights it and then falls in love with it.
• The Saturday Night Live sketch "Meatballs" has Sarah Sherman as a woman with semi-sentient "meatball" growths on her body that sing, dance, eat cheese, and vomit poisonous black goo.
• Wizards of Waverly Place: In "Pop Me and We Both Go Down", Justin gets a horrible, giant zit on his face. When Alex uses magic on it in an effort to help him... the zit comes to life and has its own face, and proceeds to spend the rest of the day being generally obnoxious and rude to Justin and the others.

Mythology & Folklore

• Japanese Mythology: A woman who was forced to repress herself too much might turn into a Yōkai called a futakuchi-onna (lit. "two-mouthed woman"), sprouting a second mouth on the back of her head that spilled her true feelings about others and compulsively ate all the food in the household with Prehensile Hair.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: One of the Cancer Mage Prestige Class's Lovecraftian Superpowers is an intelligent tumor. It grants them extra senses, Combat Clairvoyance, and Combat Tentacles, and eventually learns its own spellcasting.
• Pathfinder: The Alchemist Character Class has the optional ability to grow a tumor on its body. It functions as a Familiar and can detach to act autonomously for a short time.
• Black Crusade has the "intelligent cyst" mutation, one of the unambiguously detrimental ones.
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: One possible Chaos mutation causes the victim to grow an intelligent cyst that constantly fights them for control of their body. If they die, the cyst matures into a Chaos Spawn and strikes off on its own.

Video Games

• In Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, Adell's adoptive father has a VERY large pimple with a face on it on his chest. Two thirds into the game, it starts talking about how much it loves boobies. Then the consciousness of both him and the pimple switch places, with the perverted pimple being in control of the man's body.
  Pimple: Hey, I got feelings, too. Do you think I wanna grow here, baby? If it was up to me, I woulda chose to grow between the breasts of a swimsuit model, not some dull, old man. Oh, I only wish you knew what it's like to be me on a guy like you.
  
  Pimple: [after switching with Adell's dad] All hail the Boobie Kingdom!
• Time Fcuk features Steven, a growth with which the narrator claims to converse the game's story is highly ambiguous, so it's not at all clear if Steven really is a talking growth or, indeed, if he really is anything at all
• Mutant Football League features Brickhead Junior, who is often described as a mutant hobbit-head growing out of Brickhead Mulligan's shoulder. He's crude and surly, loves to heckle the players for screwing up a play, and isn't afraid to tell it like it is at Brickhead's own stupidity. Despite literally growing out of him, Jr. apparently has his own social life, completely distances himself from Brickhead when they're not doing their job as professional sportscasters, and even has a parole officer making sure he stays out of trouble. Brickhead Mulligan was allegedly kicked out of the Mutant Football League for not taking enough steroids, to which he mentions he had to stop taking them because it resulted in Brickhead Jr. forming on his shoulder in the first place.

Western Animation

• In "Krumm's Pimple" from Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Krumm gets a sentient pimple who calls himself Steve. After spending the whole episode stealing Krumm's thunder and generally being a nuisance, the pimple runs away... and gets his own talking pimple in turn.
• The Amazing World of Gumball: In "The Game", Nicole gets a Dooj card that reads "You will doubt every thought you have." She gets a growth with her face on the side of her head that contradicts everything she says.
• Dave the Barbarian's episode "Beauty and the Zit" has Candy being kidnapped by a pimple she had removed through her uncle's magic, which caused it to grow in size and develop sentience. They eventually fall in love through a song montage parodying Beauty and the Beast.
• Doug, "Doug's Huge Zit": Doug gets a pimple right before a big dance. It makes him too embarrassed to go. In his imagination, the pimple becomes sentient. It mutates and says in a gruff voice that he hopes he isn't too late for the party. He also imagines the mutated pimple to ask Patti for any request right before he — the pimple — attempts to kiss her. In another imagine spot, Doug gets three pimples who play cards and somehow manage to order pizza.
• The Fairly OddParents!: Bob the Boil is a large boil on Elmer's face who is sentient and can talk. His biggest wish is to take over the world. He also has control over Elmer, who he considers his best friend.
• Family Guy:
  • In the episode "Brian the Bachelor" , Chris develops a pimple. The pimple turns out to be sentient, calling himself Doug, and encourages Chris to do bad things. Eventually, Chris goes to a doctor to get a cortisone shot to get rid of Doug. Doug pulls out a gun and tries to shoot the doctor, but Chris manages to inject the pimple with cortisone before anyone gets hurt.
  • In "Vestigial Peter", Peter discovers a vestigial twin growing out of his neck, who is cheerier and more optimistic than Peter has ever been. So of course everyone loves him. Chip eventually gets removed and goes off on a life of his own.
• Futurama, "Attack of the Killer App": Leela is revealed to have a talking and singing boil named Susan on her right butt-cheek. Leela tries to hide it and is extremely ashamed of it. She lances her every few months, but she always grows back. Leela is a human mutant with one huge eye and the boil's another of her mutations. Fry accidentally discovers and films Susan which devastates Leela.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: In "Billy's Growth Spurt", Billy gets a sentient growth he calls "Yop-Yop" (from the sound it makes) as a side effect of one of Grim's family cures for indigestion. Yop-Yop starts growing as Billy feeds it junk food, and it eventually turns into a homonculous-like miniature Billy and jumps off Billy's back. Mandy gets rid of it by tricking it into drinking another of Grim's home remedies, causing it to dissolve into pink goo.
• Johnny Test: In the episode "Johnny's Got a... Wart!", Johnny develops a huge wart on his hand from numerous activities involving warts. The girls try to remove it, only to accidentally give it sentience. The wart at first makes Johnny's life better at school, but later tries to take over his body, but is thwarted by Dukey and spends his days living in Johnny's locker.
• The Oh Yeah! Cartoons short "Fuzzy Bunny Presents: A Kid's Life" has Suzy Cornhusk tormented by sentient blackheads appearing on her nose, who even torment her with a Villain Song called "We Are the Stinkin' Blackheads".
• In the Pickle and Peanut episode "Greg", Pickle gets a sentient pimple named Greg on his butt. Pickle and Peanut decide to give him to Lazer.
• The Simpsons, "Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife": Lenny gets a new plasma screen TV and invites his friends over. Homer is so impressed that he will watch anything at that picture quality. He watches a commercial with a dancing and laughing cold sore. It looks annoying as all hell.
  Cold Sore: Break out! Ha-ha! Hoo-hoo! Ha-ha! Break out! Ha-ha! Hoo-hoo! Ha-ha! Ha! Hoo-hoo! He-he-ha! Ha-ha!
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: In "Naysaya", Marco ends up with a miniature talking head growing out of his neck. The eponymous Naysaya is a curse placed on him by Star's ex Tom, which blurts out all of Marco's most embarrassing thoughts and secrets to anyone in earshot when Marco tries to talk to his crush Jackie Lynn.

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