History Main / RubberForeheadAliens

Another more scientific explanation of this is the theory that most advanced alien species will look roughly similar to humans due to the theory that our physical layout is the most efficient one for an oxygen-breathing carbon-based life form.

Rubber foreheads also tend to be paired up with HumansAreWhite for some reason, likely the fact that back in the 60s/70s it was easier to get a black, Latino, or Asian actor on TV by gluing something to their heads and claiming that they were [[{{Mukokuseki}} raceless]] otherworldly beings instead. You will virtually never see a Caucasian-coloured Klingon, which means that the makeup department actually has to do a lot more work when a white actor plays one.

Another more scientific explanation of this is the theory that most advanced alien species will look roughly similar to humans due to the [[Film/KPax soap bubble theory]] that our physical layout is the most efficient one for an oxygen-breathing carbon-based life form. Indeed, Star Trek eventually stated that all of the human-like species in their universe originated from a common ancestor species that seeded life on other planets to encourage similar evolutionary roots, with an image of the ancestors being generally ''lacking'' in any notable features themselves.

* In the original novel of ''Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth'', Thomas Newton is described as having albino-white, curly hair, fair, hairless skin, pale blue eyes, thin and long fingers, and an "elfin"-looking face with wide, "boyish"-looking eyes; but he only have 4 toes on each feet, no appendix and no wisdom tooth, and a more well-built respiratory system that makes him "impossible ... to develop hiccups". This makes him look more human in his true form, compared with his true form in the movie adaptation (see Films -- Live-Action section above), which forces him to make a more human guise.

* {{Justified|Trope}} in ''Literature/{{Anathem}}'': the Urnudans, Latierrans etc are [[spoiler:humans from [[TheMultiverse the universe next door]].]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' generally tries to avoid relying on this trope by including a number of BeastMan, StarfishAliens and HumanoidAliens that require full body costumes, puppetry, animatronics and later SerkisFolk to do. However, there are quite a few species that look almost human; the most famous example is probably the head-tentacled Twi'leks, who are often considered sexually appealing to Humans and can interbreed with them. In contrast to ''Franchise/StarTrek'', even with just layering latex on an actor ''Star Wars'' tends to go a lot more elaborate with exotic eyes, bigger headpieces and unusual appendages.
** The original trilogy leaned a little bit more on human characters for a lot of supporting and background characters, but they gradually worked to include more alien characters for important roles, famously Yoda. In a DeletedScene Jabba the Hutt was originally played by a human in ''Film/ANewHope'', only to become a slug-like FatBastard in a later movie. The humanoid squid Admiral Akbar in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' had a back-up human character filmed in case watching a squid talk battle tactics didn't work tonally for the movie.
** Interestingly, the 1999-2005 prequels shifted the focus away from animal-like aliens and toward this trope (Zabraks, Togrutas, Cereans, etc.), presumably because of the difficulty of having a serious conversation with an oversized, latex slug.

** The original novel's Newton has a more human look; see the Literature section.

* Averted in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. Not only do ''all'' the other alien races look nothing like humans, but it turns out that humans are the only civilization in the universe that walks upright on two legs.
** Well, Hork-Bajir have two legs, but they have their tails for balance, and generally look like dinosaurs.
** WordOfGod is that Applegate originally intended to use these just in case the series got a LiveActionAdaptation. Then Scholastic rejected the idea and told Applegate to be more creative. So she did and made the aliens damn-near IMPOSSIBLE to adapt to live-action (at the time). Then the TV series was made and we all know how that turned out.
** This trope is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d and mocked countless times in the books. Due to the book's tendency to describe what the same aliens look like each book, the number of times the Animorphs have said something to the effect of "REAL aliens aren't just humans with rubber foreheads and putty on their faces" could fill an entire page on it's own.
** That being said, it's mentioned once that the seldom-mentioned and never-seen Ongachic race resemble Klingons; specifically, Ax sees Worf in a movie and says that he's "clearly" an Ongachic [[GenderBender female]].
* Played with in Creator/AlastairReynolds novel ''Literature/HouseOfSuns''; All of the civilizations in the Milky Way originally came from Earth, but over millions years (the novel is in 6.3 million AD) they have diverged somewhat. One of the characters seen in the story has a elephant-like trunk, and other humans are mentioned as having scales or full body hair.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'' has a ''lot'' of humanoid aliens, most of which find the nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere found on human-inhabited planets tolerable, if not comfortable (there are exceptions to this rule, such as the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kel_Dor Kel Dor]], who must wear goggles and breather masks at all times on human-habitable worlds). There are also, however, several non-humanoids, including a handful of insectoids, a lobster-like species, more than a few quadrapeds or hexapeds... and one that looks like nothing so much as a floating brain. The most human-like aliens are called [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Near-Human near-human]], and are considered to have descended from humans (the blue-skinned, red-eyed but otherwise human Chiss are a typical example).

** Lampshaded when the Bajoran Ro Laren, who has something of a chip on her shoulder, refers to herself as "the token bumpy-forehead". Behind the scenes, Bajoran makeup was specifically designed to be minimal so that Michelle Forbes would remain attractive.

** Lampshaded when the Bajoran Ro Laren, who has something of a chip on her shoulder, refers to herself as "the token bumpy-forehead".

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' does this with many inhabitants of the magic world; they look like normal people, but with horns or weird shaped ears or something. The rest are {{Beast M|an}}en.

** The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E18TheChase}} The Chase]]" provides a tidy explanation (part {{retcon}}, part LampshadeHanging) for the prevalence of these in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe. All the main races in the universe (humans included) were created from "seeds" placed in their respective worlds' primordial oceans by an even more ancient humanoid race.

** Another LampshadeHanging occurs in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E14Chimera}} Chimera]]" in this conversation between two changelings, Odo and Laas:

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone''

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}:''

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', if a male Shepard romanced Tali and aved the quarian fleet, Tali will leave a photo of herself without mask or helmet on his nightstand. It turns out that were it not for the skin markings, purple-tinted skin, the three-digited hands and feet, and the avian legs, she could pass for human. It helps that her "photo" is literally [[spoiler: [[http://x1.fjcdn.com/comments/Pic+related+it+s+her+unmasked+_9632f0ef344f6b921bde9f50649ed03e.jpg a photoshopped stock image of a model]]]]

* The majority of alien species ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' are more or less humanoid, including all the main cast. That being said, the show does have a wide array of odd aliens (sentient nebulae, sludge monsters, swarms of flies, etc) and robots who are either minor recurring characters or the focus of individual episodes. Subverted with Leela, who is revealed in an early season to be a remarkably minimally mutated human mutant who was raised to think she was a LastOfHerKind alien.

* In ''Franchise/StarTrek'', Klingons, Vulcans, Bajorans, Ferengi, and Cardassians, just to name a few. In fact, the majority of all races encountered in every Star Trek series has two arms, two legs, a head, and a general chest area. The exceptions are usually MonsterOfTheWeek types. Most common is a small latex prosthetic on the bridge of the nose or eyebrow. It's no wonder that ''Series/StargateSG1'' (''Voyager'''s contemporary) gave up on all pretense and filled the universe with plain humans.
* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E18TheChase}} The Chase]]" provides a tidy explanation (part {{retcon}}, part LampshadeHanging) for the prevalence of these in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe. All the main races in the universe (humans included) were created from "seeds" placed in their respective worlds' primordial oceans by an even more ancient humanoid race.
** There's another LampshadeHanging when the Bajoran Ro Laren, who has something of a chip on her shoulder, refers to herself as "the token bumpy-forehead".

** For example, the Bajorans. Small ridges on the nose are the only ''visible'' differences between fully-clothed Bajorans and fully clothed Humans. There is [[EnforcedTrope a reason for this]]: the Bajoran makeup was designed the way it is specifically to make sure that the (numerous) Bajoran females who would appear in the franchise [[RuleOfSexy would all still be good-looking]]. The Bajorans were also planned from the outset [[PlanetOfHats to be refugees]]. The minimal makeup was convenient for costuming large crowds and child actors.
** The producers tended to do a good job of giving the Bajorans distinctive (albeit uniform) features in other respects, though. Bajorans almost always have short hair, regardless of sex, and they are normally always short and of thin build. Clothing is pretty much always either burgundy red or light beige, and both sexes almost always wear elaborate earrings. This had to do with the religion of the Prophets; a Bajoran psychic could gain information about a person's "pagh," or soul, by holding onto their left ear. The earrings are also distinctive enough (apparently of a unique design for each individual) that they were once used to identify the skeletal remains of prisoners who died in a transport crash.
** Parodied [[https://entertainment.theonion.com/star-trek-introduces-alien-character-with-totally-diffe-1819564328 in this article]] from Website/TheOnion.
** Klingons only gained their rubber foreheads when the movies' increased budget permitted it. Prior to the {{retcon}}, they were Entire Bottle of Bronzer and Upswept Eyebrows Aliens. In fact, until attention was called to it in ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'', DirectLineToTheAuthor was the official explanation: in-universe, they weren't considered to look exactly like humans. There just wasn't the budget to portray them as they actually looked. (There's actually an onscreen reference, sort of: a Klingon posing as a human was said to have been ''surgically altered'' to appear human. If we take what's onscreen at face value, it wouldn't take surgery, just a haircut.)
** One of the most offensive Klingon insults is "Hab [=SoSlI'=] Quch!", which translates to "[[YourMom Your mother]] has a smooth forehead!"
** The [[Film/StarTrek2009 2009 movie]] seems to be going out of its way to give us a new variation with the large eyed aliens.
*** It also makes the Romulans ''worse'' than the Klingons in the "where'd the foreheads come from?" department. They went from [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise having ridges]] to [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries to not having them]] to [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration having them again]] to [[Film/StarTrek2009 having lost them again]]. [[ContinuitySnarl What?]] Also, while Klingons' gaining ridges after TOS has been referenced, and explained much later, there has never been any onscreen acknowledgment of the changes in Romulans. Some ExpandedUniverse stories pass it off as forehead ridges as just being something that some Romulans have and others don't, though this does nothing to explain why ridged and ridgeless Romulans have never been seen on-screen together. There's also never been an explanation for why Vulcans never have them, even though they're supposed to be different cultures of the same race.
*** The Romulan forehead thing is particularly weird because the TOS movies and TNG were being produced at the same time for a few years (the last TOS movie, ''The Undiscovered Country'', came out during TNG's fifth season). The movies portray the Romulans with smooth forehead, while TNG at the same time portrayed them with ridged foreheads. Finally ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' resolved the issue by including ''both'' flavors of Romulans, with varying prominence of forehead ridges, and the only acknowledgement of the difference being an implication that the ridges are a trait of "Northerners." The same show also poked fun at this trope by having Romulans derisively refer to humans as "Round-Ears".
*** The Klingons' appearance in a deleted scene of the movie is actually something of a LampshadeHanging of this issue, as the Klingons we see have ridged... [[FacelessGoons masks]] (as in what the ''characters'' are wearing). We don't actually see their faces.
*** Even more curiously, photos of Victor Garber with his Klingon helmet off show that he had been given a ridged nose... even though it would have not been visible onscreen.
** The ''Star Trek'' franchise has racked up several nominations (and wins) for awards in makeup because of how often they have had to pull some crazy stunts with the rubber. One nomination, for instance, was for a Ferengi who [[spoiler:put bigger earlobes over her own to look male]]. That's right, prosthetics ''on top of other prosthetics''.
** When a character disguises himself as alien from a different species, this usually happens within the story via [[HandWave super-advanced, easily reversible 24th century surgery]]. In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' though, taking place in the less advanced 22nd century, the glued on rubber foreheads of disguised NX-01 crewmen are even really [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall just glued on rubber foreheads]] ''in-universe''!
** Betazoids are notable in that their One Facial Feature is so subtle that they have an entry on the HumanAliens page: they have all-black irises.
** All of this was parodied by the production staff on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': when they had a test printout of their episode script formatting and needed a fake episode title for it, they went with "ATTACK OF THE ALIENS WITH BUMPS ON THEIR FOREHEADS!"

* ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'': Justified. In addition to some aliens that ''are'' humans with some minor modifications (enough humans have been abducted that they have a stable population in space, and they have access to genemods), [[https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-759-its-evolutionary-my-dear-washington-post/ Dabbler explains]] that the humanoid form is evolutionary advantageous in most areas. Two arms, two legs, and two eyes are an improvement over anything with fewer arms/legs/eyes, but adding more produces diminishing returns for increased calorie requirements. There definitely are really strange alien races out there, but a very noticeable percentage are humanoid.

* ''Webcomic/TheScumthorpeFiles'': Davina Midwich, a telepathic alien classmate of the Scumthorpe triplets. Davina looks like a pre-teen human girl, barring her grey hair and [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing yellow eyes]]. Justified, in that she's half-human (and inspired by the children from ''[[Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960 Village of the Damned]]'').

* The movie ''Trail of the Screaming Forehead'' takes this to the logical extreme. The aliens ''are'' foreheads that attach themselves to humans. The movie is pure, high quality B grade.

* Unlike ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Franchise/StarWars'' generally tries to avoid relying on this trope by striking a balance between Rubber Forehead Aliens and StarfishAliens, making most alien species look like bizarrely tweaked, [[HumanoidAliens vaguely humanoid]] versions of non-primate animals. However, there are quite a few species that look almost human; the most famous example is probably the head-tentacled Twi'leks, who are often considered sexually appealing to Humans and can interbreed with them. Interestingly, the 1999-2005 prequels shifted the focus away from animal-like aliens and toward this trope (Zabraks, Togrutas, Cereans, etc.), presumably because the prequels were meant to be [[CerebusSyndrome more serious in tone than the 1977-1983 originals]], and too many {{Beast M|an}}en could have made Anakin Skywalker's story too campy to take seriously.

* The Saiyans in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' are just humans with tails in appearance; that turn into giant monkeys during a full moon. ''Dragon Ball Z'' is ''very'' bad about this. There's even a whole race of "humans but skin is different color"; the Brench-seijin, which Jeice and Salza belong to.

The next step past Rubber Forehead Aliens (catlike or buglike or lizardlike aliens that can still sit in chairs and hold weapons) is HumanoidAliens, possibly overlapping with {{Intelligent Gerbil}}s. Contrast with StarfishAliens. The UncannyValley can result if your RF Alien looks a little ''too'' human. Possible sister trope to BizarreAlienLimbs, if the make-up crew opts for weird rubber hands instead of facial appliances.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', if a male Shepard romanced Tali and [[spoiler: saved the quarian fleet]], Tali will leave a photo of herself without mask or helmet on his nightstand. It turns out that [[spoiler: were it not for the skin markings, the three-fingered hands, and the avian legs, she could pass for human.]] It helps that her "photo" is literally [[spoiler: [[http://x1.fjcdn.com/comments/Pic+related+it+s+her+unmasked+_9632f0ef344f6b921bde9f50649ed03e.jpg a photoshopped stock image of a model]]]]

* ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'': The Abh were distinguished by their blue hair though some of them also had pointy ears. This one ''does'' get {{justified|Trope}}, though, in that the Abh are in fact ''genetically altered humans'', who even call their stellar nation the "Humankind Empire Abh" (or a variant, [[SpellMyNameWithAnS depending on how you translate it]]); the Abh see themselves as humans with a few different traits, while their (non-modded) enemies tend to see them as vile aliens, wholly different from humanity. One of the narrative thrusts of the work is examining just how human they really are - or aren't.

* Practically all aliens in Anime/{{Leijiverse}}. Mazone, Illumidas, Tokarga... they're all humans with slightly different skin colour, even the Mazone who are plants. Miime's race is unrevealed, but she's also fully humanoid apart from not having visible mouth in most? story versions.

** The Zolans in ''Anime/{{Macross 7}}'' are another Protoculture-influenced species who appear mostly similar to humans, except for very PointyEars, two-toned brightly-colored hair, and prominent fur on the forearms of the men. They are also implied to be marsupials, like most of the lifeforms on their homeworld.

* Elves in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' are humans with pointy ears and four fingers. This is because their shapeshifting alien ancestors deliberately took on a human-resembling form before landing (they even reshaped their spaceship to look like a palace). But even before that (flashbacks), said ancestors already looked fairly human in shape, and would have qualified as HumanoidAliens at least.
* Though technically HumanAliens, Viltrumites from ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' are also Hairy Upper Lip Aliens. All Viltrumites have black hair, and all male Viltrumites have mustaches, which makes it pretty easy to tell them apart from humans. In fact, one character simply removed his fake beard, showing his Viltrumite mustache, in a pretty hilarious [[TheReveal reveal]].

** Tau are much better fit to this trope, as they are humanoid, but are distinctive enough. They have hooves for feet, hands with four fingers apiece, have skin tones that vary between blue to grey, have solid red eyes, and have a single slit in their head for a nose. Certain castes have differing builds, but the only real outlier are the Ethereal caste, who have a bony protrusion on their forehead, and it's speculated to be related to why the other castes are so fanatically and blindly loyal to them. Oh, and despite what the [[AdaptationalAttractiveness countless pieces of fanart]] would tell you, female Tau aren't very attractive by human standards.

** Parodied [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/32439 in this article]] from Website/TheOnion.

** On the technical side, the developers of ''Mass Effect'' admit that when it comes to fighting their alien designs were limited to [[HumanoidAliens bipeds with human proportions]] because of the Unreal engine's combat system. That's the reason you never see any of the more alien races such as the Elcor or Hanar in-combat; each race would require whole new skeleton rigs of their own.

** His chief henchman, Korath, is a Kree cyborg who otherwise looks like a human male with unusually pale blue eyes.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The kreel, who are the ruling people of the Sangtee Empire, look like humans wearing red contacts, purple paint, fake pointy ears with incised helixes and some prosthetic makeup bits covering up their hair and giving them barbels and flattish hair substitutes.

* Subverted in Creator/DavidBrin's [[Literature/{{Uplift}} ''Uplift Storm Trilogy'']] novel ''Brightness Reef''. The Rothen, a human-like alien race trying to con human beings, wear artificial foreheads and other facial prosthetics to make themselves appear more human-like. The Tymbrimi are genuine Rubber Forehead Aliens, mostly-human looking though with different proportions and facial features, granted they're minor shapeshifters who can gradually change their features over time. All the other aliens in the series are {{Intelligent Gerbil}}s or StarfishAliens.

* Subverted in Creator/DavidBrin's Literature/{{Uplift}} novel ''Brightness Reef''. The Rothen, a human-like alien race trying to con human beings, wear artificial foreheads and other facial prosthetics to make themselves appear more human-like. The Tymbrimi are genuine Rubber Forehead Aliens, mostly-human looking though with different proportions and facial features, granted they're minor shapeshifters who can gradually change their features over time. All the other aliens in the series are {{Intelligent Gerbil}}s or StarfishAliens.

* OlderThanFeudalism: The very first "science fiction" novel, ''Literature/ATrueStory'' by the {{Ancient Rom|e}}an author Lucian, has rubber forehead aliens living on the Moon... and the Sun and several stars. A Moon-person looks basically human but has one toe on each foot, a marsupial pouch in his belly, a leaf growing out of his butt, and leaves for ears. They do have a lot of BizarreAlienBiology (removable eyes and genitals, hermaphroditic/all-male reproduction, the ability to grow people on trees, etc.)

* Warhok and Warmonga, the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race]] aliens who appear in season four of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' are an animated version of this. They're nine feet tall and have green skin.
* In another animated example, the cast of ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' is virtually all two-arms two-legs one-head humanoid (for most of the time). This is probably more [[RuleOfFunny to make it easier to animate jokes for them]] than anything else, as the show has otherwise shown a fair amount of ingenuity in depicting odd aliens (sentient nebulae, swarms of flies, etc). Subverted with Leela, who is revealed in an early season to be a human mutant who was raised to think she was a LastOfHerKind alien (and in one episode she briefly becomes a two-eyed creature instead of a cyclopoid).
* Starlee from ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward]]''. Her race look almost exactly like humans, except for having blue skin and pointy ears.
* [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Starfire]] of the WesternAnimation/TeenTitans has orange skin and BizarreAlienBiology, but looks otherwise human enough to have a relationship with the resident BadassNormal. She also has superpowers.

** The show's BigBad, Ming the Merciless, has acid green skin and pointed ears, traits shared by his children, Kro-Tan and Castra. In the original "Flash Gordon" comic strips, Ming resembles an oriental warlord, but he was given a more obviously alien appearance in the Defendersverse to avoid any UnfortunateImplications.

* The Gems in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' generally look like human [[OneGenderRace women]] except for their [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation skin tones]], [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair hair colors]], [[ImprobableHairstyle hairstyle]], and having a gemstone embedded somewhere in their bodies. That said, their figures are often drawn more exaggerated than humans, and the series increasingly shows types of gems [[HumanoidAliens that are still humanoid but with blatantly inhuman features]] (Nephrite is a {{Cyclops}} whose gem functions as an eye; Sapphires, Aquamarines, and Rutiles are TheNoseless; many types are inhumanly large or small), and that's before getting into [[FusionDance gem fusions]] (which are usually gigantic, frequently possess ExtraEyes and [[MultiArmedAndDangerous limbs]], and sometimes only partially humanoid). Technically, their gemstones is their HeartDrive and ''actual'' form, while their bodies are a HardLight projection.