History Main / YouCantKillWhatsAlreadyDead

** Parodied in "Make Love, Not Warcraft" where one player is dominating the title game and going around whacking players to their recognized detriment -- visually represented in person as an obese nerd whose sole focus is the game before him -- and the question about how to stop him is phrased (with a JapaneseRanguage accent) as "How do you kill what has no life?"

** You can't kill Cortez in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' as he just keeps coming back with new flashy forms and finally just ends the fight to gloat that nothing you can throw at him will kill a ghost. It leads to one of the game's funnier moments where Mario just politely informs him that all they want is the Crystal Heart and asks if they can have it, and Cortez ''just gives it to them'' after brief consideration because "what's one jewel to a guy like him?" Even the flavor text of the Crystal Heart in the status menu tells you it was earned "by not really defeating Cortez".

** In earlier ''Super Mario'' games, there are the Dry Bones, [[NightOfTheLivingMooks skeletal versions of Koopa Troopas]] mainly found in towers and castles. These undead Koopas often collapse when attacked, but they soon revive themselves and become normal once again (however there are some methods to permanently defeat them). Dry Bones first appeared in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', in which sprites of them are edited Koopa Troopa sprites.

** In earlier ''Super Mario'' games, there're the Dry Bones, [[NightOfTheLivingMooks skeletal versions of Koopa Troopas]] mainly found in towers and castles. These undead Koopas often collapse when attacked, but they soon revive themselves and become normal once again (however there are some methods to permanently defeat them). Dry Bones first appeared in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', in which sprites of them are edited Koopa Troopa sprites.

* Becomes a recurring theme in a two-part episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' when, after the events of [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkTheMovie the movie]], Satan has dumped Saddam Hussein and killed him ([[ItMakesSenseInContext don't ask]]). Of course, since Saddam was already dead and in Hell, he pops up the very next day right as rain, much to Satan's chagrin:

* ''Film/TheMummy2017'': ZigzaggedTrope. The mummies in the film are actually far more vulnerable than human mooks, as one might expect from a decaying body. However, they still ignore all pain and [[WhoNeedsTheirWholeBody keep coming after losing one or more limbs]].

* Tubal Cain from ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae'' can be ridiculously difficult to put down as he is just a hollow corpse being controlled by the souls in the [[EvilWeapon false lance of Longinus]] that he wields. Chopping off his head of cutting him to pieces will just slow him down a little at most. Even completely disintegrating him will technically not kill him as long as his weapon is still intact, as it will just look for a new host and repeat the process.

* PlayedForLaughs in the manual for ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' in the description for Zombies: "Thou canst not kill that which doth not live. But you can blast it into chunky kibbles." In practical terms, this meant that only blasting a zombie into LudicrousGibs would kill it for good -- if it went down with its body intact, it'd just get back up later.

* In ''VideoGame/QuakeI'', the zombies are unkillable by simply shooting them until they drop(they will get back up). The only way to kill them permanently is to gib them with an explosive, hazard, or otherwise.

* ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfWonderWoman2016'': The Duke of Deception's NaziZombies are unaffected by small arms fire and all shown attempts to repel them outside of Wonder Woman's lasso of truth, which causes the spirits possessing the bodies to flee them.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': There are invincible undead soldiers, but of course this is subject to GameplayAndStorySegregation, or they would just be a GameBreaker on the tabletop.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':

** In ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'', Teppic's father notes that the mummification process seems to have made him stronger, due to the extra weight provided by the straw.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': The Dark Judges are incredibly hard to destroy for this reason. They tend to ignore Lawgiver gunfire completely (unless appropriately severe, like a hundred Judges at a time firing at will) and even incinerating their undead bodies inadvertently causes [[FightingAShadow their spirits to break free]]. One of their {{Catch Phrase}}s is "You cannot kill what does not live!"
* ''ComicBook/FiendsOfTheEasternFront'': Constanta and his fellow vampires use their status as living dead to partake in numerous wars in search of prey, since most regular weapons are incapable of harming them or even slowing them down.

* ''Franchise/EvilDead'': Deadites as ''very'' tough, and generally shake off wounds like gunshots and loss of limbs. In general, it takes something major, like RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain or outright dismembering the body, to put them down for good; on multiple occasions in ''Series/AshVsEvilDead'', Ash and co. chop up the bodies of slain Deadites to [[MakeSureHesDead make sure they stay down]].

* In the ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' games, the protagonist is [[WhoWantsToLiveForever cursed with a form of]] ResurrectiveImmortality that means that they revert to their undead "[[RevenantZombie Hollow]]" form and teleport to the last [[CheckPoint Bonfire]] they used. They cannot be killed in a way that matters, although [[GameplayAndStorySegregation canonically,]] they'll go insane if it happens too often.

* In the ''Franchise/DarkSouls'' games, the protagonist is [[WhoWantsToLiveForever cursed with a form of]] RessurrectiveImmortality that means that they revert to their undead "[[RevenantZombie Hollow]]" form and teleport to the last [[CheckPoint Bonfire]] they used. They cannot be killed in a way that matters, although [[GameplayAndStorySegregation canonically,]] they'll go insane if it happens too often.

* A non-zombie version is used in metallurgy to prevent some metals (notably titanium and aluminum) from oxidizing. By deliberately oxidizing a thin layer of metal on the surface, further corrosion is greatly slowed: the oxide, being, well, already oxided, won't react to further oxygen atoms, and even a few microns is thick enough to make it difficult for the oxygen to get through and bond with the metal behind (and the oxide has sufficiently similar properties to the metal that the overall performance remains the same). While the same principle applies to iron, iron oxide has nowhere near the same properties, so different measures involving inserting more reactive atoms like chromium to deflect the oxygen need to be used.

* In ''VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice'', the Headless, due to [[LosingYourHead having already lost their head]], cannot be decapitated again, resulting in their NighInvulnerability and a [[TheDreaded dreadful presence throughout Ashina]].
--> '''Temple Posting''': ""Turn back if you value your life. You can't behead the headless, our swords and pikes do nothing."

--> '''Saddam:''' Hello, Satan! Did you miss me, Buttercup?
--> '''Satan:''' Saddam?! How?! I killed you!
--> '''Saddam:''' Yeah, you killed me! So? Where was I gonna go? Detroit?
** This culminates in Saddam and Chris, Satan's new boyfriend, repeatedly killing each other because if a dead person in Hell dies they just come back the very next day. When Satan dumps them both, Chris takes it well but Saddam taunts him, saying he won't let him no matter how many times he's killed for it. Satan has him [[DraggedOffToHell Dragged Off To]] ''[[InvertedTrope Heaven]]'' to get rid of him, as since Heaven is full of Mormons it's a [[TakeThat fate worse than Hell for a non-Mormon]].