Line #96 Main/PunBasedCreature


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7	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pun_based_creatures_9.jpg]]
8	[[caption-width-right:350:Clockwise from top left: [[WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}} a caterpillar]], [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fruit bats]], [[WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs2 a shrimpanzee]], and [[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb a tiger shark]].]]
9
10	->''"Oh, don't tell me: the TARDIS was attacked by a randy sheep with a clock for a face!"''
11	-->-- '''Sarah Jane Smith''''s impression of a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster time ram]], ''Radio/TheParadiseOfDeath''
12
13	A Pun-Based Creature is a fictional critter designed to embody some sort of witticism, which can happen in as many ways as puns themselves do. Often, this occurs when a real-life creature has a name describing its environment or habits that in a work of fiction is taken literally -- for example, a forest- or desert-dwelling animal named "wood" or "sand [something]" may be shown as a version of its real counterpart literally made out of wood or sand. Similarly, a syllable or word in a name may be replaced with another, similar-sounding word, with either the base or inserted term being an animal name, to create a beast based on this wordplay.
14
15	This is typically done simply as a form of visual humor, exaggerating minor misunderstandings to create absurd creatures based on overly literal interpretations of common phrases.
16
17	See also PunnyName. Subtrope of OurMonstersAreWeird and VisualPun. Supertrope to LiteralBookworm, LivingConstellation, SeahorseSteed, and SwordfishSabre. Can overlap with MixAndMatchCritters if the pun happens to combine names from two or more creatures.
18	----
19	!!Examples
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21	[[folder:Advertising]]
22	* A television commercial for a metropolitan fiberoptic internet service in the NYC Metro area (possibly Optimum Lightpath?) pretended to be an ad "from the future", where high-speed internet allowed a biotech company to lead the industry in designer hybrid pets such as the gazellephant, the platypussycat, and the Golden [=ReBeaver=].
23	* Canberra, Australia is occasionally [[NationalAnimalStereotypes represented by]] a burly griffin, since the city's main water feature is Lake Berley-Griffin.
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
27	* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Pappag is [[TalkingAnimal a sea star that can talk]], not for any supernatural reason like Chopper does, but because in Japanese "hitode (starfish)" sounds like "hito desu (is/be human)". To clarify, [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum the pun itself is literally why he exists]], as it caused Pappag [[AchievementsInIgnorance to mistake himself for a human and learn how to talk]].
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Art]]
31	* [[https://www.deviantart.com/cryptid-creations Cryptid-Creations]]' Website/DeviantArt gallery is filled chiefly with creatures based on wordplay in real animals' names or portmanteaus of the same, such as dragonfruit flies, avocatos and apricats, literal snake plants and leopard geckos and tree pythons and mountain lions, drakes halfway between a dragon and a male mallard, lamplike lampreys, dark blue indingos, and the like.
32	[[/folder]]
33
34	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
35	* ''Animation/BoBoiBoyGalaxy'': The green alien feline from Planet Gurunda, a desert planet, is named Cattus. Each of his kind has [[MultipleTailedBeast three tails]] that allow them to camouflage themselves, appearing as cacti.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Comic Books]]
39	* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'':
40	** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue85 No Fear!... Except One]]": The wolf flyder is a further iteration of the flyders, fly-winged spiders from the cartoon, that plays off of the real life wolf spider by being a fly-winged spider with a wolf's head.
41	** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue89To92 The Farasian Shore]]": The characters encounter a {{Roc Bird\|s}} literally made out of living rock.
42	** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue93 Day at the Museum]]": During their expedition, Snap and Mane encounter a family of bush babies that resemble actual bushes with faces, arms and legs.
43	* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'': Fire ants can breathe fire.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
47	* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'':
48	** In one strip, a pair of picnickers are attacked by army ants who deploy heavy artillery.
49	** In another strip, a couple who are LostAtSea in a raft are attacked by a pair of tiny longboats crewed by navy ants.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Fan Works]]
53	* ''VideoGame/CreateAPokemon'': Kerfluffle is a humanoid pillow wearing smaller pillows as boxing gloves -- that is, a pillow fighter.
54	* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomverse'':
55	** ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainKnightOfTheOrangeLily'' has a Doormouse Car filled with wooden mice that can transform into doors to other cars. Grace and Simon manage to collect a few of them in order to get to White Gestalt's locations to fight them off.
56	** ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus'': The Red Lotus Trio once visited the Nightmares car, and a flashback reveals it's a car that has ghoulish-looking horses.
57	* Many ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfics expand on the show's own pun-based creatures, often by introducing their own.
58	** ''Fanfic/ThePalaververse'': {{Roc\|Birds}}s are giant birds literally made out of living rock.
59	** ''Fanfic/RainboomsAndRoyalty'': ''Hot Heads, Cold Hearts and Nerves of Steel'' features snow leopards made out of actual snow, with icicles for teeth and claws.
60	* ''VideoGame/PokemonUranium'':
61	** Baashaun and its evolutions are literal black sheep, with black wool and the amoral dispositions of Dark-type Pokémon.
62	** Cocaran is a literal coconut crab -- as in, a crab hiding inside a coconut shell, which eventually becomes a giant crab with a coconut palm growing from its back.[[note]]Real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_crab coconut crabs]], being hermit crabs, [[TruthInTelevision actually do hide inside coconut shells]], at least [[GiantEnemyCrab before they outgrow them]]; the only thing not TruthInTelevision is the palm tree, so this is arguably an [[InvertedTrope inversion of the trope]].[[/note]]
63	* ''VideoGame/{{Reverie}}'':
64	** The Tapeworm is a living, worm-like tape reel.
65	** The Mouse is a living computer mouse with mouse-like traits.
66	** Shooting Stars are flying little stars, encountered immediately once they fall. Unlike Fallen Stars, they're armed with {{Ray Gun}}s.
67	** Crocodile Clips are wires with crocodilian alligator clips.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
71	* ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'':
72	** One of the two caterpillars behaves like a cat, and has AnimalJingoism with the fictitious "dogerpillar".
73	** One of the strange animals that Alice encounters in the woods is a bird with a cage for a body -- that is, a literal cagebird.
74	* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest'': When Tiger gets flung from a train and lands in a lake, he encounters what he identifies as a "dogfish", which has a dog's face and starts barking at him. Later, he's caught by a fisherman along with some catfish, which, while looking like real catfish, can be heard meowing.
75	* ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' had fireflies that literally burn everything they touch.
76	* ''WesternAnimation/BabesInToyland'': At one point, Jill and Jack encounter a monkey wrench that looks and acts like an actual monkey.
77	* ''Franchise/{{Cars}}'': The FantasticFaunaCounterpart of insects are tiny VW Beetles with insect wings.
78	* ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs2'': After Swallow Falls is abandoned and the FLDSMDFR left to run unchecked, the machine creates an entire ecosystem of living food items that [[FantasticFaunaCounterpart often resemble real-world creatures]], mostly with PunnyNames. There are flamingo-like mangos ("flamangos"), chimpanzee-like shrimps ("shrimpanzees"), elephant-like watermelons ("watermelophants"), hippopotamus-like potatoes ("hippotatomuses") and so forth.
79	* ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'': Pitch Black, the Boogeyman and embodiment of fear, is served by nightmares in the form of shadowy {{Hellish Horse}}s.
80	* ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'': The food items are anthropomorphized, but the only ones that are treated like animals are horseradish, which act and are ridden on like horses.
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
84	* In ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'', [[KingofBeasts King Leonidas']] assistant is a literal secretary bird.
85	* ''Film/SpyKids2IslandOfLostDreams'': Romero's MixAndMatchCritters are named after animal puns or {{portmanteau}}s. Juni befriends a Spider Monkey, a centaur-like creature with a primate's upper body and a spider's lower body. Other animals named after puns include a catfish (a cat with a fish's head and tailfin), a tiger shark (a tiger with a shark's head and fin), a horse-fly (a horse with a fly's head and wings) and a bullfrog (a bull with the hind legs of a frog).
86	* In ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', when Dorothy and her companions reach the Emerald City, they take a ride on a carriage pulled by a horse that changes hue every time it goes off-screen. It's the "Horse of a Different Color".
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Gamebooks]]
90	* In the French series ''Literature/LesMessagersDuTemps'', MadScientist monk Mimol has stitched different animals together to create weird hybrid creatures... some that are based on French puns. So, you have a "cerf-veau" (stag-calf, sounds like "cerveau" which means "brain"), a rat-porc (rat-pig, sounds like "rapport" which means "report") and a rat-daim (rat-deer, sounds like "radin" which means "stingy".)
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Literature]]
94	* ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'':
95	** The Gnat tells Alice about three Looking Glass Land insects. The rocking-horse fly looks like a winged hobbyhorse and lives on sap and sawdust. The bread-and-butterfly looks like what it sounds like and lives on weak tea with milk. The snap-dragonfly has a body of plum pudding and a raisin burning in brandy for a head. It lives on mince pie and frumenty and nests in a Christmas box. This last is the most obscure to contemporary readers, the pun being based on a popular Victorian Christmas game.
96	** The Mock Turtle is stated to be what mock turtle soup is made of. Mock turtle soup is traditionally made with a calf's head, so the John Tenniel illustrations depict it as a [[MixAndMatchCritters sea turtle with a bovine head]].
97	* ''Literature/CatbirdsAndDogfish'' depicts animals with portmanteau names as MixAndMatchCritters. For example, catbirds are portrayed as cats with wings and dogfish as fish with bulldog heads, instead of medium-sized gray birds and small, speckled sharks like in real life.
98	* ''Literature/FredTheVampireAccountant'': In ''Undeading Bells'', when Fred and Krystal need a boost [[spoiler:to make it to their wedding in time]], Amy whips up a potion to help them out. [[spoiler:Poured into their truck's gas tank, the potion turns the truck into a massive, drooling, hairy metal beast with [[LightningBruiser increased strength and speed]] -- a ''monster truck'' to carry them to their destination.]]
99	* ''[[Literature/TheButterflyBallAndTheGrasshoppersFeast The Lion's Cavalcade]]'' by Alan Aldridge and Harry Wilcock:
100	** Captain Ali Gator's Gorilla Circus consists of ''Catbird and Dogfish'' style MixAndMatchCritters, apparently to save on space when travelling. These include ''two'' Dogfish (one with a fish tail and a dog's head, the other reversed) a Turtle Dove (a dove with a shell), a Sea Lion (a seal with the head of a lion) and a Tiger Moth (a moth with the head and forepaws of a tiger), as well as more esoteric creatures such as a black horse with a stars and moon pattern (a Night Mare) and an empty wooden cabinet with the limbs and head of a bear, described as "a cupboard perpetually Bear".
101	** Chameleon's Flora Zoologica is a similar array of plants sprouting animal heads, including Tiger Lily, Dandy Lion, Dog Rose, Crab Apples, Goose Berries, Monkey Flowers, Crocodillia and Horse Chestnuts.
102	* Used intermittently in "Literature/NoNeedForACore" for the naming of some of the dungeon creatures, whether as species names or individual names. "Rabbats" are part rabbit and part bat, while a pair of definitely not-owlbears are named Owlbert and Owliver.
103	* ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'': Several of these appear, since the whole book is a HurricaneOfPuns. The protagonist's traveling companions include a watchdog, which is a dog with the body of a clock whose job is to keep people from wasting time, and the Humbug, who is an insectoid person who is dishonest about his accomplishments. Another character, the Spelling Bee, is a giant bee who likes to spell out words.
104	* ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'': If you can think of an animal pun, it exists somewhere. Rock doves made of stone, catapult cats, self-immolating fireflies... a prominent reoccurring one are the nickelpedes, which are larger and more deadly centipedes. There are also other varieties like the smaller but more dangerous dimepedes, gigantic quarterpedes, and [[BigCreepyCrawlies horse-sized dollarpedes]].
105	[[/folder]]
106
107	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
108	* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS40E1SpaceBabies Space Babies]]" features [[spoiler:a bogeyman, that is, a man (of a sort) made of bogeys.[[note]]That's snot to all us non-Brits.[[/note]]]]
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Radio]]
112	* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' radio drama ''Radio/TheParadiseOfDeath'', the Third Doctor relates the events of the TV series episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster The Time Monster]]" to Sarah Jane Smith, and how he almost fell victim to a time ram. He clarifies to her that it was ''not'' a clock-faced ram headbutting the TARDIS, but two [=TARDISes=] materializing in the same time and place, destroying both.
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder:Sports]]
116	* The [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball Boston Red Sox]]'s home field, Fenway Park, has a large green wall in left field that has been nicknamed "the Green Monster". In 1997, the Red Sox introduced their first {{Mascot}}: a ''literal'' green monster named Wally.
117	* The [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague Buffalo Sabres]] have a ''sabre''tooth tiger as their mascot.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
121	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
122	** Nightmares are [[HellishHorse evil supernatural horses]] named after bad dreams, as a riff on the last half of "nightmare" sounding like the word for a female horse.
123	** The game's take on the sea lion, present in bestiaries since first edition, is quite literally a lion with the back end of a fish, mermaid style.
124	** Wolf-spiders resemble giant spiders with the heads of wolves.
125	** Rock lobsters and rock crabs are crustaceans that are made of stone.
126	** Ring-worms are worms that disguise themselves as golden ''rings of protection +1'', but, when worn, [[ManaDrain leech magic from their hosts]].
127	** Elsewhales are indeed whales who can ''plane shift'' you elsewhere, if you're willing to ride in their mouth.
128	** Dandylions, OfficialFanSubmittedContent from the 5th Edition ''Misplaced Monsters'' supplement, are fey lions with plant traits, a GreenThumb, and sport a puffy dandelion seedhead instead of a tuft of hair at the end of their tail. They're also somewhat dandy lions, boastful of their sunny manes, and they often weave petal necklaces from their gardens' flowers.
129	* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
130	** The ''Unglued'' joke set has the [[https://scryfall.com/card/ugl/73/clay-pigeon Clay Pigeon]] (a 1/1 flying bird that has an effect when thrown), the [[https://scryfall.com/card/und/82/rock-lobster Rock Lobster]] (it isn't a rock, but many take it for granite), the [[https://scryfall.com/card/und/80/paper-tiger Paper Tiger]] (who burns bright and folds easily), and the [[https://scryfall.com/card/und/83/scissors-lizard Scissors Lizard]] (who has a lot of shear power). The last three also form a literal rock-paper-scissors dynamic.
131	** The ''Outlaws of Thunder Junction'' set includes the [[https://scryfall.com/card/otj/16/holy-cow Holy Cow]], an Ox Angel creature with wings and a halo.
132	* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Nightmares are evil horse-like creatures that inhabit the plane of Abaddon and are used as mounts by the NeutralEvil race of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent fiends]], daemons.
133	* ''TabletopGame/TailsOfEquestria'':
134	** Mohawks are rebellious, noise-loving birds of prey with flamboyant, brightly colored crests.
135	** Bookwyrms are dragons made out of paper, ink, and book bindings, and summoned in a ritual conducted using books or scrolls.
136	** The Clearcall Forest is home to literal pine martens, with wooden legs, pine needles for fur, and pinecones for ears.
137	** {{Roc\|Birds}}s are made out of living rock, with stone slabs for feathers.
138	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'':
139	** The Vampire counts use mounts created by cobbling corpses together into a more-or-less equine shape, which they call Nightmares.
140	** The Beastmen of Bretonnia sometimes deal with fortified positions by goading massive, forest-dwelling beasts known as ramhorns into charging at their gates, smashing them open so that the Beastmen can surge through -- in other words, they use literal battering rams.
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Video Games]]
144	* ''VideoGame/BackpackHero'': The default PC is a pack rat, here meaning a ''literal'' rat who carries a pack on her back.
145	* ''VideoGame/BeeSwarmSimulator'': The Ant Challenge, a mini-game where your bees fight against a horde of enemy ants, includes fire ants that leave a trail of flames and army ants wearing army helmets.
146	* ''VideoGame/{{Bug\|1995}}'':
147	** Bug's mount is a dragonfly with the head of a dragon.
148	** Splot! has Lightning Bugs that fly around shooting streams of electricity.
149	** One enemy is a fish with a doglike head and collar. It's a dogfish.
150	** Reptilia features army ants that wear soldier helmets, attack by throwing bouncy grenades, and drop via flower parachutes.
151	** Arachnia has fire ants that use [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrowers]] to breathe fire and wear fireman helmets.
152	** ''VideoGame/BugToo'':
153	*** Flea-Wee's Big Adventure contain lions that are actually a cross between a bug with huge mandibles and a lion. In other words, they're antlions.
154	*** Swatterworld is full of punny enemies such as sea monkeys (cross between a monkey and a fish), hammerhead sharks (sharks with hammers on their head)s, and saw-nosed sharks (sharks with a chainsaw attached to their face).
155	* ''VideoGame/{{Bugdom}}'': The main antagonists are fire ants. True to their name, starting from Level 8, you encounter flying red ants that literally breathe fire at you. Their leader, King Thorax, is a wizard that uses fire magic, and you beat him by [[BossArenaIdiocy hitting the water pipes]] to douse his flames.
156	* ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'':
157	** The ladybugs seen in "Treetop Troubles" are rolling or bouncing down the ramps during the first area of the level. In other words, they're literal "tumble bugs". Later, the level's giant insect miniboss spits {{fireballs}} like a dragon. It's a dragon-fly.
158	** During Ribby & Croaks' boss fight, Croaks spits out glowing bugs on fire that fly at you. They're literal fireflies. Additionally, the flies watching the fight from the bar in the background are literal barflies.
159	* ''VideoGame/DontStarve'':
160	** One of the bosses in the ''Reign of Giants'' DLC, the Dragonfly, is a giant fire-breathing reptile with the eyes, proboscis and wings of a fly.
161	** The ''Shipwrecked'' DLC adds dogfish and swordfish -- that is, fish that literally have canine heads and sabers growing from their noses, respectively. Additionally, one of the bosses introduced in it is the Tiger Shark, a creature resembling a tiger with a bullet-shaped body, stumpy fin-like legs, and a shark's jaws, teeth, and dorsal fin.
162	** The ''Hamlet'' DLC adds spider monkeys, gorilla-like apes with four spider legs growing from their backs and which nest in trees covered in their webbing.
163	** ''Don't Starve Together'':
164	*** The Toadstool is a gigantic toad with mushrooms growing from its back.
165	*** The Antlion is a gigantic, burrow-dwelling insect with a lion's mane.
166	* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': Fire ants, a stronger variety of the giant ant enemies, can spit fire -- or, more specifically, a flammable secretion from their former acid glands that they ignite by clicking their mandibles.
167	* ''VideoGame/FreddiFish'':
168	** The Junkyard Dogfish from "The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds" and Old Soggy from "The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell" are dogfish with dog's heads. "The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove" has a dogfish that looks like a shark (somewhat closer to the real animal), but behaves like a dog and wears a collar.
169	** The Squidfather's pet catfish has a cat's head.
170	** Hammerhead and Sawfish, the two construction workers from "The Hogfish Rustlers From Briny Gulch". The former has a head shaped like a claw hammer, while latter has a snout shaped like a saw.
171	** Rollo from "The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove" is a fish who is dressed as a clown (a clownfish).
172	* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'':
173	** The denizens of the Bat Hole include baseball bats (baseballs with bat wings) and fruit bats (random fruit with bat wings).
174	** During a ''Bees Hate You'' challenge path, you may randomly be set upon by a pair bees carrying a rifle (a beebee gun), a bee that mumbles and mutters while buzzing (a mumblebee), or a very aggressive bee in a viking helmet (a buzzerker; the battle intro tells you that you can also call it a beeserker if you think that that's funnier).
175	* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'': [[SdrawkcabName Tacs]] are small feline enemies notable for two things: they dress like bandits and try to steal your copy ability (they're cat burglars) and they also possess the Copy ability (they're copy-cats).
176	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]'' feature a type of enemy resembling a hopping flower with reptilian jaws and legs, which is referred to as a Snap Dragon.
177	* ''VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar'' has overworld enemies that look like shrubs until they attack. They're called Ambushes.
178	* ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'': Among the various monsters in the game are butt-shaking turkeys called "Twerkeys" ("Shiritori", butt-birds, in Japanese, also punning off a children's word game) and [[AnimateBodyParts animate noses]] called "Running Noses".
179	* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'':
180	** Mushroom Island biomes are home to an unusual variety of cows with fungi growing from their backs, called mooshrooms.
181	** ''VideoGame/MinecraftDungeons'': The PiggyBank enemy is an actual pig that carries a chest full of gems and valuable items.
182	* ''VideoGame/Mother3'': Fireflies -- and their stronger variant, pyreflies -- are flies that breathe fire.
183	* ''VideoGame/NetHack'': Fire ants [[PlayingWithFire can set the character on fire]].
184	* ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'':
185	** By interacting with bookshelves in two specific locations, you can encounter the dust bunny, a {{Living Dust Bunn\|ies}}y that takes the form of a bunny made out of dust.
186	** Wormholes are found in Otherworld, and appear as vortexes with literal worms coming out of them. The Junkyard area of Otherworld also has the doombox, a living, antagonist boombox.
187	** Pyrefly Forest has the [[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny bug bunny]], a bunny with the legs of a spider.
188	** Orange Oasis has several enemies with pun-based names. In the Arrow Cave area, you can encounter the Gingerdead Man, a zombie-like gingerbread man. By using the summoning circle in the Breaven, you can fight a {{Creepypasta}} (a living rigatoni pasta tube that constantly turns into a creepy version of itself), copypastas (living rigatoni pasta tubes that can clone themselves), and hushpuppies (literally poorly-drawn, screaming dog faces). The Dino's Dig area also has the porcupie, a fusion between a porcupine and a cupcake.
189	** Underwater Highway contains mussels, which are mussle shells with muscular arms coming out of them. There are also the squizzards, which are squids with wizard hats and beards.
190	** Within Humphrey, you can randomly encounter watermimics, creatures that disguise themselves as regular watermelons.
191	* ''VideoGame/PajamaSam2ThunderAndLightningArentSoFrightening'': The chairman of World Wide Weather's board of directors is an actual chair, while the board members are planks of wood.
192	* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' uses this trope in spades: Wallnuts are used as walls, Peashooters shoot peas, Sunflowers produce sun, Squashes squash enemies flat, Marigolds produce coins, Planterns are lantern-shaped plants that give off light, Blovers are clover that blow fog away, Cattails have a cat face... most of the exceptions are the mushrooms and the catapult plants, due to them being restricted by including "shroom" and "pult" in their names. ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2'' continues the trend. Iceberg Lettuces freeze enemies, Snapdragons have dragon heads and breathe fire at enemies, Guacodiles are avocado crocodiles (which is a pun on the fruit's old name, "alligator pear"), Citrons are robotic citrus fruits (hence "-tron") that fire plasma energy, and so on.
193	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': This is a common naming and design element, and several of these creatures' names (such as Charmeleon, Squirtle, Feraligatr, etc.) are based around a pun that has to do with their appearance. Many are LostInTranslation, though.
194	** Farfetch'd resembles a duck always holding a stalk of green onion and is a joke on a Japanese saying literally translating to "a duck comes bearing green onions". It describes fortunate but unlikely scenarios, such as a meal freely walking up to you while carrying its own seasoning. Farfetch'd embodies both the literal aspect of this saying, as it's noted to be a very popular food in-universe, and the metaphorical one, as in a few games it turns up precisely at a point where it's the kind of Pokémon the player would find it useful to have.
195	** Exeggcute is a Grass-type Pokémon made up of six large seeds that resemble eggs -- in other words, an eggplant.
196	** Stantler's Japanese name is Odoshishi, from ''shishi-odoshi'' (literally "deer scarer"), the term for a variety of contraptions that scare away animals such as deer and birds. Its antlers look like a pair of eyes and are said to be mesmerising, and one kind of ''shishi-odoshi'' are eyeball-like balloons that birds find extremely unnerving.
197	** Flygon is an insectoid Dragon-type. In other words, a dragonfly.
198	** Empoleon is an emperor penguin modelled after an actual emperor, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte.
199	** Alolan Exeggutor is a Grass/Dragon type that looks like a tall palm tree... or a dracaena plant, whose name means "female dragon" in Greek.
200	** The Applin line are dragons -- or ''wyrms'' -- [[WormInAnApple that live in an apple]].
201	** Wobbuffet's Japanese name is "Sonans", which is Japanese for "That's the way it is" and it's based on a comedian who used that as his tag line. It makes all those times when Wobbuffet pops out of its Poké Ball during Team Rocket's motto basically this. Wobbuffet is saying "That's the way it is". Some scenes have also had it and its pre-evolution Wynaut doing this, as Wynaut's name in Japanese means "Is that so?"
202	** Thanks to convergent evolution, Toedscool and Toedscruel have a similar appearance to the jellyfish-based Pokémon Tentacool and Tentacruel. They're also based on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_ear wood ear fungi]] -- otherwise known as the ''tree jellyfish''.
203	* ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' has an acorn frog named Donguri Gaeru, whose name means "acorn frog" in Japanese, but is also a pun on "dengurigaeri", meaning rolling forward. This is his method of locomotion.
204	* ''VideoGame/{{Skylanders}}'': ''Trap Team'' gives us High Five, who's a dragon with the wings of an insect. A literal dragonfly.
205	* ''VideoGame/SlimeRancher2'' has Cotton Slimes, which have rabbit-like ears, tails, and whiskers. Rabbits have ''cotton''tails, get it?
206	* ''VideoGame/{{Temtem}}'': Zizare is quite literally a wyrm; it's a giant earthworm with draconic features.
207	* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'': An enemy that only appears when fishing during Blood Moons is the Hemogoblin Shark (a pun on hemoglobin, the substance that binds oxygen in blood; and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_shark goblin shark]]). True to its name, it has the appearance of a goblin SharkMan (plus it vomits blood).
208	* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': One of the characters, Snowdrake, is a monster that looks like a drake (a male duck), with a snowflake-shaped plumage on his face. There's also Aaron the seahorse, which is a muscular, horse-headed [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent merfolk]].
209	* ''VideoGame/Vectorman2'': The sixteenth level, "Recycle or Die", has giant fire ants as enemies, which attack by shooting fireballs. When Vectorman defeats them, they leave behind power-ups that temporarily allow him to shoot fireballs as well.
210	[[/folder]]
211
212	[[folder:Webcomics]]
213	* ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'': Alvin-Braxton-Calvin is a literal silverfish. It's a silver-colored fish with bug legs and antennae.
214	* ''Webcomic/DragonMango:'' The hippogriff summoned by Candy is mostly hippopotamus.
215	* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': One of the creatures brought to the siege of Mechanicsburg is a literal [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20120917 battering ram]] used to try to break down the city's gates.
216	* ''Webcomic/{{Huckleberry}}'': The Diamondback is a desert snake with [[GemTissue literal diamonds growing on its back]]. Its name is a play on the real life diamondback rattlesnake.
217	* Early in its career, ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' promoted itself on webcomic sites using mini-comics featuring [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/Incentives.html misspelled versions of various TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons magic items, spells, and creatures]], for example the Misplacer Beast[[note]]displacer beast[[/note]] and the Lumber Hulk[[note]]umber hulk[[/note]].
218	[[/folder]]
219
220	[[folder:Web Original]]
221	* ''Art/BeastFables'': Some chimeras, animals capable of limited shapeshifting, are based to various degrees on wordplay on their names.
222	** Splendid bullfrogs are common bullfrogs who develop the ability to grow actual bull horns.
223	** Drakonflies are dragonflies who develop reptilian traits in the form of vertebrate-like feet and claws, flexible serpentine bodies, and teeth along their mandibles, resulting in something rather like an insectoid dragon. They also get big enough to hunt good-sized birds.
224	[[/folder]]
225
226	[[folder:Western Animation]]
227	* ''WesternAnimation/AfricanDiary'': An auditory example. The tick bird can be heard ticking when it first appears.
228	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': The frog world's {{Fantastic Fauna Counterpart}}s include caterpillars, insect larvae that look and behave like cats.
229	* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': In "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheTalesOfBaSingSe Tales of Ba Sing Se]]", the escaped zoo animals include a swarm of dragonflies, depicted as lizards with insect wings.
230	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'': The Neitherworld is full of these, including timberwolves (wolves with logs for torsos) and horseradishes (horses with radish-like rumps).
231	** In one episode, Beetlejuice got a pair of pants (faces on legs that pant).
232	** Another episode has Beetlejuice posing as a HandyMan for... [[ItMakesSenseInContext reasons]], with the assistance of a few [[AnimateInanimateObject living tools]] he picked up from the Neitherworld Hardware Store. Said tools include a Creator/JackNicholson jackhammer, a DrillSergeantNasty power drill, and a [[MischiefMakingMonkey Mischief-Making Monkey Wrench]].
233	* ''WesternAnimation/BrandyAndMrWhiskers'': In "Private Antics, Major Problems", the main duo get drafted into an army of army ants dressed in military outfits.
234	* ''WesternAnimation/DonaldInMathmagicLand'': A plant-based example. Some of the trees in Mathemagic land have exposed roots that split off from one another at right angles to create nested box-like shapes -- that is, they're square roots.
235	-->''"Well, what do you know! Square roots!"''
236	* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'':
237	** Mr. Zee, the former richest man in the world who appears in the ColdOpen of "The Richest Duck in the World!", is a go-away-bird. He was also inflicted with a curse that he wants to go away, and he was last seen going away because the curse is now Scrooge's problem.
238	** "The Trickening!" has a character named Nosferatu, a vampire bat who is an actual vampire.
239	** "How Santa Stole Christmas!" features a giant killer snowman, or an abominable snowman.
240	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': "[[Recap/FuturamaS8E2ChildrenOfALesserBog Children of a Lesser Bog]]" features giant tardigrades that behave like bears, since tardigrades are also known as "water bears".
241	* ''WesternAnimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries'': The sea god Poseidon is shown creating a Catfish and a Dogfish: fish that literally meow or bark.
242	* ''WesternAnimation/InsideJob2021'': The sheeple are human-sheep hybrids.
243	* ''WesternAnimation/KipoAndTheAgeOfWonderbeasts'': Tardigrades are sometimes nicknamed "water bears". Mulholland, a hive-minded tardigrade colony, is literally made out of water.
244	* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'':
245	** "WesternAnimation/ADayAtTheZoo": The zoo's animals include a pack of cigarette-smoking camels, a black-and-white striped "jailbird" who babbles desperately about having been framed, and [[TheStoolPigeon a stool-perching pigeon who snitches on the jailbird]].
246	** "WesternAnimation/DimeToRetire": The dog is a Boxer, and also a ''boxer'' who starts punching Porky when a bell is rung.
247	** "WesternAnimation/DetouringAmerica": A prairie dog is depicted as an actual dog, rather than as a rodent.
248	** "WesternAnimation/PorkyTheRainmaker": Eggplants break apart in the heat, revealing that they have yolks like real eggs.
249	** "The Abominable Snow Rabbit": Hugo the Abominable Snowman ends up melting in the heat, leading Bugs to quip that he really was a snowman.
250	** The Tasmanian Devil's head hair is shaped like a pair of devil horns. When he wants to move fast he spins around like a whirlwind -- i.e., a dust devil.
251	** "WesternAnimation/WhosWhoAtTheZoo" has a cottontail rabbit whose tail is a literal cotton swab, a bald eagle who covers his head with a wig, and an Indian elephant in a Native American feathered headdress.
252	** ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadRunner'': The Road Runner is always depicted running along motorways, making it a literal "road runner".
253	* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicKey'': In “The Sound Monster”, Woofer unleashes “sound bites”, which take the form of semitransparent floating orbs with giant mouths that seemingly move forward by chomping the air, to chase after the children.
254	* ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'':
255	** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyAndFriendsE15TheGreatRainbowCaper The Great Rainbow Caper]]" features as villains a pair of MadScientist monkeys obsessed with technology, inventions, and assorted gizmos, which are called the gizmonks.
256	** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Over its run, the show introduced multiple pun-based creatures derived from literal interpretations of real-life animals' names.
257	*** Fruit bats are {{Planimal}} bats with bodies resembling plump fruits and leaves for ears.
258	*** Cragadiles are crocodiles made out of craggy stone.
259	*** Timberwolves are literally made out of timber, logs, and branches in a roughly lupine shape.
260	*** When a bugbear appears, it's a panda-like, bee-striped beast with insectoid wings, eyes, antennae and a stinger.
261	*** The changelings' original forms resemble black ponies with a single pair of transparent wings, and their larvae look like maggots. In other words, they're horseflies.
262	*** [[LivingConstellation The Ursa Major and Ursa Minor]] are giant bears literally made out of stars and the night sky and marked with the constellations that they represent.
263	*** Windigos are spirits named after the {{Wendigo}} and best-known for producing freezing winds.
264	*** Poison joke is a vegetable example of this: it's a flower named after poison oak, but instead of causing a rash it causes people who touch it to undergo maliciously humorous transformations.
265	* ''WesternAnimation/TheOctonauts'': The dogfish look like normal dogfish, but they bark.
266	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Oswald}}'': Oswald's dog Weenie is a Dachshund whose shape and coloration resemble a hot dog in a bun--in other words, a wiener dog.
267	* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Luz uses a jar of literal lightning bugs to charge her phone. It's also mentioned that in the Demon Realm fireflies actually catch fire.
268	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
269	** The music video for the song "Today Is Gonna Be a Great Day" by Music/BowlingForSoup has the brothers taming a tiger shark, a shark with black and orange stripes.
270	** "[[Recap/PhineasAndFerbWizardOfOdd Wizard of Odd]]": One of Witch Doofenshmirtz's minions is a spider monkey, a MixAndMatchCritter between a spider and a monkey.
271	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'':
272	** The titular character is a sea sponge who looks like a kitchen sponge.
273	** Kevin the sea cucumber from "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic" is drawn looking like an actual cucumber, with Patrick calling him a "nerdy pickle".
274	** Lionfishes are depicted as lions with fish fins, rather than the actual venomous and prickly species of lionfish.
275	** "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS7E20TheAbrasiveSideEarworm Earworm]]" involves Spongebob having a [[EarWorm song stuck in his head]]. In his ear, a worm is playing a record of the song over and over.
276	** "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS11E8SanitationInsanityBunnyHunt Bunny Hunt]]": Sea bunnies are depicted as looking and behaving like rabbits.
277	* ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'': Wendal T. Wolf is a thylacine or Tasmanian wolf. He is drawn as resembling a gray wolf, rather than the yellow and black-striped dog-like animal the real thylacine was.
278	* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'': The "Pasadena Jones" segment of "Cinemaniacs" portrays the Abominable Snowman as a giant snowman, rather than an ape-like creature (like Hugo the Abominable Snowman).
279	* ''WesternAnimation/TheWuzzles'', being set on a world of MixAndMatchCritters, naturally has some examples. One episode has a character named Tycoon, who aside from being a tycoon (that is, a very rich person), is also a combination of tiger and raccoon. He also invests in stox -- storks with ox horns. Another episode has the cast dealing with a Brahma bullfinch, a Brahma bull with bird wings.
280	[[/folder]]

Context Main / PunBasedCreature