# Why female tentacles in parody cartoons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 26, 2017, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061 "2017-03-26T05:34:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![catweasel1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3da27b/32.png) [@catweasel1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catweasel1)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/1 "2017-03-26T05:34:07Z")
Sorry this is NSFW but I was curious. In this Family Guy Disney cartoon parody, Meg has tentacles for her lower half: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-AUf3gPBn8) In Drawn Together, in “Clara’s Dirty Little Secret” the parody of a Disney princess, Clara, has long tentacles coming out of her crotch. [http://drawntogether.wikia.com](http://drawntogether.wikia.com) says it is “a reference to tentacle rape, a theme found in a number of hentai films. The monster might be more directly a reference to the anime Urotsukidoji [“Legend of the Overfiend”], which is probably the most famous film dealing with the subject.” I think tentacles coming from the girl and tentacles going into the girl is a different concept (from what I remember of Legend of the Overfiend the girls were normal?). Also that doesn’t explain Meg. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/2 "2017-03-26T06:13:11Z")
Ursula, the Sea Witch, from the Little Mermaid. ---
**Author:** ![catweasel1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3da27b/32.png) [@catweasel1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catweasel1)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/3 "2017-03-26T06:17:25Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Ursula, the Sea Witch, from the Little Mermaid. Yeah that explains Meg and why she looks uglier than normal ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/4 "2017-03-26T10:33:22Z")
Isn’t this just a variant of a mermaid or siren, like the original appearance of the Starbucks logo? Link to Mental Floss bit with SB trivia, see #2:[10 Things You Don't Know About Starbucks | Mental Floss](http://mentalfloss.com/article/24322/10-things-you-dont-know-about-starbucks-should) Has nothing to do with Japanese tentacle porn. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/5 "2017-03-26T11:33:29Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Has nothing to do with Japanese tentacle porn. > > 😕 Not until I get to my DeviantArt account, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/6 "2017-03-26T15:16:28Z")
The basic premise is that women look good on the surface and they attract men towards them but they’re secretly monsters who want to destroy men via sex. Tentacles are the chosen metaphor because women will supposedly trap a man and not let him escape. It’s a belief that reveals a lot about the believer. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/7 "2017-03-26T15:40:12Z")
Huh. I always assumed tentacles were chosen because they looked sufficiently scary, alien or monstrous and are easier to draw than insectoid claws. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/8 "2017-03-26T16:32:11Z")
I was thinking about Medusa being the origin of this imagery. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/9 "2017-03-26T19:21:15Z")
1.) Tentacles are creepy. 2.) Possibly a Lovecraft reference ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/10 "2017-03-26T19:50:52Z")
> [@catweasel1](#): > > I think tentacles coming from the girl and tentacles going into the girl is a different concept Yeah, I think the former is more of a riff on vagina dentata. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/11 "2017-03-26T19:52:00Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > 1.) Tentacles are creepy. > 2.) Possibly a Lovecraft reference 1. Unhygienic lady-parts can [smell like fish](https://www.bustle.com/articles/64679-does-my-vagina-smell-healthy-5-common-vaginal-odors-explained). ---
**Author:** ![Unpronounceable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de0a6/32.png) [@Unpronounceable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unpronounceable)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/12 "2017-03-26T22:46:03Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Isn’t this just a variant of a mermaid or siren, like the original appearance of the Starbucks logo? FYI: Sirens were basically harpies, not mermaids. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/13 "2017-03-27T01:13:54Z")
IIRC, the original Japanese woodcuts are pretty female friendly. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/14 "2017-03-27T01:34:33Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > I was thinking about Medusa being the origin of this imagery. Medusa being snake the waist down was an invention by Ray Harryhausen for the 1981 Clash of the Titans. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/15 "2017-03-27T13:30:58Z")
A melusine is a term for a two-tailed mermaid (or, more correctly, the singlular Melusine is often depicted as a two-tailed mermaid- it’s like the Pegasus=all winged horses thing) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/16 "2017-03-27T14:16:15Z")
> [@Trancephalic](#): > > Medusa being snake the waist down was an invention by Ray Harryhausen for the 1981 Clash of the Titans. Quite right, although it seems to have permeated the rest of our culture – I see a lot of half-serpentine Medusas these days. Harryhausen arguably got the look by plagiarizing himself – he had a half-serpentine belly dancer in **The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad** > **[Seventh Voyage of Sinbad snake dancer - Bing](https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=NnSjHr61&id=003FE07B4DBDB170A0B9768BD01960D14C6C8DE9&q=Seventh%2BVoyage%2Bof%2BSinbad%2Bsnake%2Bdancer&simid=608013443188787602&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0)** > > Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you. Although you can find half-snake people on ancient Greek pottery, so Harryhausen didn’t invent that part of it. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/17 "2017-03-27T14:40:40Z")
Eh. Stewie also got tentacles in an episode (as did Maggie Simpson). There’s no need to get Freudian about it - sometimes a tentacle is just a tentacle. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/18 "2017-03-27T14:45:45Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > IIRC, the original Japanese woodcuts are pretty female friendly. Not sure what you mean by that, but tentacle porn goes [way back](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman's_Wife). ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/19 "2017-03-31T02:39:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Not sure what you mean by that, but tentacle porn goes [way back](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman's_Wife). That’s exactly what I mean by that > [@](#): > > In the text above the image the woman and the creatures express their mutual sexual pleasure from the encounter ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-female-tentacles-in-parody-cartoons/783061/20 "2017-03-31T10:37:10Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > In the text above the image the woman and the creatures express their mutual sexual pleasure from the encounter Yeah, the art is better than [the dialogue](https://adoxoblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/your-bobo-is-ripe-and-full-how-wonderful/).