It's-a face you can-a play with!
Tropes dealing with the heads on living things, or artificial life forms. Whether it's the entire head, the face, the brain, other parts, or things relating to the head, they are all covered here.
Compare Memory Tropes (as those are of course stored in the brain), Kissing Tropes.
Contrast These Tropes Are Made for Walking.
Not to be confused with Just a Face and a Caption, Face Heel Index, or Chase Scene.
Tropes:
Categories:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head
- Alas, Poor Yorick: Holding a dead person's skull or detached head while lamenting their passing.
- Ash Face: Someone's face gets covered in ash for comedic effect.
- Bandaged Face: Someone's face is hidden by being wrapped in bandages.
- Big Head Mode
- Blackface: A racist performance done by having Caucasians wear make-up to look like stereotypical depictions of black people.
- Brownface: The same thing as above, but replace black people with Native Americans or Hispanics.
- Yellowface: The same thing as above, but replace black people with Asians.
- Blank Face of Shame
- Boom, Headshot!: Killing someone by shooting them in the head.
- Brain in a Jar: A person's disembodied brain is kept alive in a jar.
- Brain Monster
- Brain Transplant: Removing a person's brain and putting it into someone else's body.
- Brain Theft: The far less consenting version, and not always as a direct transplant.
- Butter Face: Their body looks great but there's something not right about their face.
- Can-Crushing Cranium: Someone crushes a can by pressing it against their forehead.
- Cephalothorax: A being who is essentially a head with arms and legs.
- Childhood Brain Damage: It's established that a dumb or eccentric character is the way they are because of suffering head trauma in the past.
- Coconut Meets Cranium: Someone gets hit in the head with a coconut.
- Cranial Processing Unit
- Cranium Chase: A character loses their head, resulting in the body groping around in an attempt to recover the head and reattach it.
- Cranium Compartment
- Cranium Ride
- Crown-Shaped Head
- Decapitation Presentation: Proving you killed a person by showing their severed head.
- Decapitation Required: Cutting off the head is the only way to kill them.
- Demanding Their Head: Unpleasant people putting a bounty on a severed head.
- Demon Head
- Exorcist Head
- Facepalm: Reacting to seeing people do stupid or embarrassing things by pressing the palm of your hand against your face.
- Facial Horror: Someone's face is horribly scarred.
- Flaming Skulls
- Flying Face
- Forehead of Doom
- Gotta Get Your Head Together
- Hard Head
- A Head at Each End: A four-legged creature has a head at both ends of its body.
- Headbutt of Love
- Headbutt Thermometer
- Headdesk: A person reacts to something by slamming their head against the desk they are sitting at.
- Head Turned Backwards
- Holy Halo
- Human Head on the Wall: Someone mounts a human being's head on their wall as they would with an animal.
- Human Jack-O-Lantern: A "festive" version of Decapitation Presentation.
- Hypnotic Head
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Good guys who have huge chins.
- Losing Your Head: Non-fatal decapitations.
- Mercury's Wings
- Multiple Head Case: A being with more than one head whose different heads don't get along well.
- My Brain Is Big: A character whose brain extends out their skull.
- My Skull Runneth Over
- No-Neck Chump: A character who has no neck.
- Non-Human Head: A being who has an inanimate object for a head.
- Nothing but Skulls
- Oculothorax: A creature who is basically a floating eyeball.
- Odd Organ Up Top: A being who has a different body part in place of a head.
- Off with His Head!: Decapitating someone.
- One Head Taller
- Oracular Head
- Pie in the Face: Someone gets hit in the face with a pie.
- Pretty Little Headshots
- Pumpkin Person: A being who has a pumpkin for a head.
- Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Something can only be killed by cutting of its head or destroying it's brain.
- Severed Head Sports
- Shadowed Face, Glowing Eyes
- Shrunken Head
- Skull for a Head
- Thin Chin of Sin
- Tiny-Headed Behemoth: A large, brutish creature has a comically small head.
- Unusual Halo
- Use Your Head
- Villainous Cheekbones
- Waddling Head
- Your Head Asplode