# Since when do zombies feed on brains?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 15, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551 "2003-05-15T22:12:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/1 "2003-05-15T22:12:52Z")
Where did this get started? I do not remember ever seeing a movie where the zombies ploded around moaning “brains… BRAINS!” trying to munch on a tasty cerebral morsel, yet this has become the standard cliche of zombie behavior. Was their a movie I missed, or was this simply born out of zombie satire?
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### Author:  [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/2 "2003-05-15T22:45:14Z")
As far as I know, the first (and only, not including the sequels) instance of brain eating zombies was in Return of the Living Dead which was the brainchild, if you’ll excuse the pun, of John A. Russo, who also had a hand in Night of the Living Dead, which as far as I know was the first cinematic appearace of the modern flesh eating zombie.
As to why brain eating has become so synomimous with zombie kind, you got me. Maybe it’s just because brain eating is so much more specific and colorful than simply eating flesh, which any number of monsters are known for. It’s unique to zombies, like blood drinking with vampires.
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### Author:  [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/3 "2003-05-15T22:49:58Z")
Yep, you missed a movie.
[The Return of the Living Dead](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0089907)
It’s a spoof of Night of the Living Dead. Fairly funny, in a B-movie sort of way. The walking dead that were fresh enough to speak were moaning, “Braaaaiiiins!” all through that flick.
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### Author:  [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/4 "2003-05-15T23:22:00Z")
Oh Jesus, I remember Return of the Living Dead. That movie was hilarious, except for the ending:
Right at the climax, they detonate a nuclear bomb in the middle of the city. Talk about a deus ex machina. I think the direction either ran out of money, or just wanted to end the movie
BRAINS!!! MUST EAT BRAINS! IT EASES THE PAIN OF BEING DEAD!!!
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### Author:  [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/5 "2003-05-15T23:49:11Z")
Which was the one that had a zombie parody of Michael Jackson?
They Hunger…
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### Author:  [@Carter\_the\_Great](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carter_the_Great)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/6 "2003-05-16T00:03:02Z")
Golden Gun Man… well it’s deus ex machina that makes the problem worse since they establish that the zombie making gas cloud is localized unless it gets spread… And the ending implied the the nuclear blast spread the gas further into the atmosphere and spread the zombie plague around the planet.
Yeah bummer.
I can’t wait for “28 Days Later” to open.
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### Author:  [@teemingONE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teemingONE)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/7 "2003-05-16T00:19:09Z")
[Homer] Bbrrraaiiinnnsss, Brrains, use your brains to help! Your delicous brains… [/Homer]
It probably goes back to Night of the Living Dead. The whatever that turned people to zombies went to the brain first right? That might be where they got the idea that zombies need brains. As to where the idea that they find the brain the tastiest, can’t help you there.
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### Author:  [@Govindha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Govindha)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/8 "2003-05-16T00:51:44Z")
I just watched night of the living dead this morning on ifc. Slight hijack, but didn’t it bite that the black guy made it through the night just to get shot the next morning without question? I think that made the movie suck, in my opinion…
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2003, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/9 "2003-05-16T01:08:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Apos \*
> \*\*Which was the one that had a zombie parody of Michael Jackson?
>
> They Hunger… \*\*
That would be…
[Return of the Living Dead part II](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0095990). It’s at the climax of the film, when the Zombies are being electrocuted at a power station. A well-decomposed Zombie wearing a red Barnstormer’s jacket and a long “perm” jumps into the shot, and starts doing some “thriller” style dance moves/electricity driven writhing.
Ranchoth
(“Okay, you win! No more brains…for now!”)
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### Author:  [@Faerie\_Nuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Faerie_Nuff)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2003, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/10 "2003-05-16T13:35:08Z")
But for so long I’ve been looking for a guy who will love me for my brains.
My sweet, sweet brains…
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### Author:  [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/11 "2003-05-16T13:50:19Z")
and some more delightful Simpsons…
Kent Brockman :“Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside?”
Professor: “Yes I would, Kent.”
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### Author:  [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2003, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-do-zombies-feed-on-brains/175551/12 "2003-05-16T14:20:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Carter the Great \*
> \*\*Golden Gun Man… well it’s deus ex machina that makes the problem worse since they establish that the zombie making gas cloud is localized unless it gets spread… And the ending implied the the nuclear blast spread the gas further into the atmosphere and spread the zombie plague around the planet.
>
> Yeah bummer.
>
> and Man with the golden Gun
>
> Right at the climax, they detonate a nuclear bomb in the middle of the city. Talk about a deus ex machina. I think the direction either ran out of money, or just wanted to end the movie
>
> \*\*
That was the point. The Teenagers were supposed to represent the Nihlist punk movement. (Though Tina doesn’t seem the type to hang out with any of those losers)
The end was just an extension of that attitude. “There is nothing you can do… fuck it!”
These Nuveau “Brain Zombies” were indestructable except if you burn them up… causing more problems. There was no solution (I refuse to believe the other sequels ever existed!)