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Do we know the first, or at least possibly the most influential, occurrence of zombies targeting humans for our delicious brains?

And do we know why they go for that organ specifically?

AncientSwordRage
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Daft
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    Because braaaaaainss – Valorum Mar 10 '16 at 08:18
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    @Richard you make a good point. – Daft Mar 10 '16 at 08:48
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    Zombies are particularly fastidious. Your brains are the farthest thing from your feet, which zombies find to be unquestionably the most disgusting portion of their food. Feet! Ewwwww! Brains? YUMMMMMMMM!!!!!! :-) – Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні Mar 10 '16 at 14:25
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    Because brains is the most important meal of the day. Because brains is good food. Because 7 out of 10 doctors recommend it. Because brains help a body grow in 8 different ways. Because they are doctor recommended and mother approved. Great taste, less filling. – Major Stackings Mar 10 '16 at 15:49
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    "I don't want to nitpick Tom, but is this really your plan? Spend your whole life locked inside a mall?" – corsiKa Mar 10 '16 at 19:29
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    I would suggest that the most influential on the modern day belief that zombies eat brains would be the Simpson's episode "Dial Z for Zombies" where the zombies are heard moaning "Braaaaiiiiinnnns..." and I would suggest that their need for brains stems back to their earliest beginning, in that they are "brainless" and are driven by a need to take what they do not and cannot ever posses. – Rick Henderson Mar 10 '16 at 20:49
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    @RickHenderson As someone who does not watch a lot of the Simpsons and who lives in Asia, I would tend to disagree. The Simpsons' portrayal of Zombies was already well established, otherwise the reference to brain eating would be difficult to comprehend. Further, modern non-US movies, TV Shows and tropes follow the same portrayal and have followed it since before the Simpsons episode you quote. – The Wandering Coder Mar 11 '16 at 01:11
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    @corsiKa Well, they're not unreasonable. I mean, no one's gonna eat our eyes. – Reinstate Monica -- notmaynard Mar 11 '16 at 14:16
  • @MajorStackings On the other hand, brains are quite rich in cholesterol. – Zenadix Mar 11 '16 at 15:14
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    Zombies eat flesh. Ghouls eat brains. – Dan Henderson Mar 11 '16 at 15:30
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    the great thing about fiction is that you just make shit up and it doesn't have to have any bearing on reality except when someone questions you later on it then you can fill in the gaps – zoplonix Mar 11 '16 at 18:53
  • @user1886419 exactly :) – Daft Mar 11 '16 at 18:54
  • There's also the iZombie version of zombies - who remain fully sentient as long as they have a steady intake of human brains, and only degenerate into feral beasts when starved of this. The mechanics of this aren't fully explained on the TV show though, and I'm not familiar with the comics. – millimoose Mar 11 '16 at 22:11
  • The communicable disease kuru might be a precedent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease) – MackTuesday Mar 12 '16 at 16:42
  • Fish gotta swim. Bird gotta fly. – Paul D. Waite Mar 13 '16 at 00:20
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    Their teeth are falling out. Their jaws are missing. They want something they don't need to chew. – Misha R Mar 14 '16 at 06:53
  • Zombies have very refined palates, and each portion of the human brain represents a different delicacy. The cerebellum is akin to a meal of rare roast beef and yorkshire pudding to a zombie, while the pineal gland is said to taste vaguely of beluga caviar. – Helbent IV Mar 20 '18 at 19:16
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    Of course, there's also the very rare vegan zombies. Naturally, they go for graaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnnssssss.... – Paul Mar 21 '18 at 02:16
  • The zombies in 1985's "Return of the Living Dead" ate brains because this eased the pain of being dead. (According to a captured dead lady.) – Stanley Webb Oct 29 '22 at 17:11

3 Answers3

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In regards to why the zombies feed on brains, there is an official explanation is a quote from Return of the Living Dead’s writer and director, Dan O’Bannon, who suggested that the undead felt the need to feed on the brains of the recently living because it somehow made them feel better by easing their pain.

Night of Living Dead (1968, directed by George A. Romero) is the first movie about modern day zombie understanding in the history of film making.

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While it’s true that zombies have been around in various forms before the release of Night of the Living Dead in 1968, Romero’s film is largely considered to have introduced the concept of the modern zombie to the world and almost all media involving them draws from his film in some way.

Although Romero is noted as the source for many of the common zombie tropes, shambolic movement and a hunger for human flesh being the most prominent, zombies don’t actually eat brains in any of the six “Of the Dead” series of films he directed. In fact, Romero himself has no idea where the brain-eating idea came from and in a 2010 interview with Vanity Fair, when asked about the link between zombies and brains, Romero very bluntly explained that:

Whenever I sign autographs, they always ask me, “Write ‘Eat Brains’!” I don’t understand what that means. I’ve never had a zombie eat a brain. But it’s become this landmark thing.

The origins of the “zombies eating brains” trope didn’t actually appear in media until well after Romero’s film debuted in the 60’s, first being featured in the 1985 movie, Return of the Living Dead.

After the release of Night of the Living Dead in ’68, Romero and his co-writer, John Russo parted ways and reached the agreement that Russo would retain the rights to the “living dead” suffix whilst Romero agreed to use “of the dead” in any subsequent media he produced.

Avid fans of the zombie genre have tried to expand on this reasoning by asserting that zombies eat brains and guts because of the high levels of serotonin they contain, but this suggestion was never confirmed by other creators and directors.

burcu
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  • Very good answer! – Daft Mar 10 '16 at 10:29
  • You had me going there at first. I was all ready to get all need ragey at seeing the answer begin with Night of the Living Dead but now I'm deflated. – Broklynite Mar 10 '16 at 11:48
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    You should cite gizmodo for this answer. This part important: The Simpsons are believed to be the main culprit. The 1992 classic Treehouse of Horror segment Dial Z for Zombies, which itself was a spoof of Return of the Living Dead is the one of the earliest pieces of media with the exception of Return of the Living Dead itself to feature brain eating zombies. – James Mar 10 '16 at 13:14
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    @James My source is different. And it seems gizmodo shares my source as well. Look at the datetime tag of their post. Also, I didn't include The Simpsons part because they didn't create flesh-eating zombie concept. They simply used what the populer culture was talking about. Which is brain-eating zombies. You can also see (above answer) how original creators thought about all of this. – burcu Mar 10 '16 at 14:20
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    TVTropes suggests Return of the Living Dead as the source: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrainFood – Tim B Mar 10 '16 at 17:32
  • If you reword the first sentence which reads "is the first zombie movie in the history of cinema" then I might upvote this otherwise great answer. This wikipedia page lists some 30+ movies which predate it. – Octopus Mar 10 '16 at 18:53
  • @Octopus That bothered me too but couldn't work something out about it. Take a look at it. – burcu Mar 10 '16 at 18:58
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    @Octopus he does include "modern day zombie understanding" in the post now does that make it better? Detailed knowledge of the early movies is beyond me. – Rick Henderson Mar 10 '16 at 20:45
  • @WadCheber The answer already explains that bit in the second to the last. – burcu Mar 13 '16 at 09:08
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White Zombie (1932) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943) are the more traditional zombie movies. The zombies in these are based on the traditions of Haitian voodoo. The Romero zombies were introduced in The Night of the Living Dead (1968) and are more like reanimated ghouls than the mindless slaves of the Haitian tradition.

Night of the Living Dead zombies killed and ate victims but did not have a tropism toward brains. Brain-eating was introduced in the parody Return of the Living Dead (1985).

Bill Ritch
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  • You can call it a parody but I found it introduced some interesting ideas -- explicit zombie sentience for one thing. – Jeff Mar 13 '16 at 09:08
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According to TVTropes and the Living Dead Wiki the most likely source is "Return of the Living Dead", specifically the character Tarman.

Tarman

The Tarman climbed out and went to look for fresh brains instead. However, since Frank and Freddy were knocked out, they never knew Tarman reanimated. They assumed he melted when he hit the air. He actually spends most of the film hiding down in the basement until Tina goes down there. He snuck up behind her and attempted to eat her brain. Luckily for her, she hid inside of a locker but since Tarman was desperate for her brain, he tried to rip off the door with a winch. While she was trapped in the cellar, the other punks heard her screams and ran through the door and down the steps. In the process of finding Tina, Tarman got a hold of Suicide and devoured his brains.

Brain Food

Ken Graham
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Tim B
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