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Bug-eyed monster

Stock character; a staple evil alien From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bug-eyed monster
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The bug-eyed monster (BEM) is an early convention of the science fiction genre.[1] Extraterrestrials in science fiction of the 1930s were often described (or pictured on covers of pulp magazines) as grotesque creatures with huge, oversized or compound eyes and a lust for women, blood or general destruction.

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The Titanian Threadworm of Stanley Weinbaum's Flight on Titan, a type of BEM, cover, Avon Fantasy Reader, 1951

In the contactee/abductee mythology, which grew up quickly beginning in 1952, the blond, blue-eyed, and friendly Nordic aliens of the 1950s were quickly replaced by small, unfriendly bug-eyed creatures, closely matching in many respects the pulp cover clichés of the 1930s which have remained the abductor norm since the 1960s.

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