h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

where the God, or giant, or some sort of powerful (probably malevolent) being appeared gigantic but actually had a rather small figure inside or at the controls?

I suspect this appears in many plots, but I'm trying to remember in which book/film I came across it.

Wizard of Oz?

Wizard of Oz definitely.

War of the Worlds

There was a Buffy episode like that...

...Season 4, episode 4, "Fear, Itself", the demon Gachnar http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Gachnar

Hey, get me! I'm more of a geek than I thought

Deb

No, that's completely wrong. That'll teach me not to read the OP properly

As you were.

Deb

If it's not Wizard of Oz, it might be a story based on, or an homage to Wizard of Oz.

For example Futurama episode S03E05 Amazon Women in the Mood. On a planet populated with Amazon women they worship a "femcomputer" which is actually a facade operated by a "fembot" inside.

If you can recall any other details, that might help narrow it down or eliminate alternatives.

My first thoughts were Wizard of Oz as well.

In Diana Wynne Jones's "Power of Three", the Dorig they meet in the swamp is enormous, but it turns out to be a thought-projection by a young child.

Ah, yes it's probably WoZ I'm thinking of.
Did it crop up in any of the Discworld books or other SF?

In The Saga of the Exiles by Julian May (The Many-Coloured Land, The Golden Torc etc, the one where modern people go on a one-way journey back six millions in time and find Europe populated by magical aliens), the species known as the Firvulag projected themselves as muscular giants but were actually small and pot-bellied.

There was something similar in the first Discworld book, where the dragon queen projected images of an army of dragons - not quite the same.

Also in one of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books were the few remaining men in a lost city could call up armies of auburn-haired bowmen by the power of the mind. Again, not quite what you were looking for.

While the little god inside a larger god doesn't directly come up in Discworld, there is some similar themes the sizes of gods in Small Gods. I also recall somewhere, maybe not in Small Gods but maybe another scene in a discworld book where the gods roll dice like D&D players to control the world below.

Baron Grim, I think you'll find it was S03E01, most commonly known as "The one where they chose Death By Snu Snu"

Nope. It was S03E05 Amazon Women in the Mood. That's the same episode you're thinking of though.

Its production code was 3ACV01 but they aired out of order.

http://www.gotfuturama.com/Information/EpisodeGuide/Season3/


I think a lot of the problem with their airing dates were caused by Fox. Fox had them on at the beginning of their primetime Sunday night schedule so episodes were often bumped by football and baseball games running long (which they invariably do). They would typically schedule a new Futurama, then a Simpsons repeat, THEN a new Simpsons. Futurama's unpredictable airing I'm sure played a big role in their poorer than expected ratings. It was like Fox didn't want the show and tried to kill it with crappy scheduling.

Seems quite a common theme.

In 'Labyrinth' a 15-foot tall robotic monster that is created from the gates of the Goblin City is revealed to be controlled by a little goblin.

Alternatively, in 'Home' the scary alien villain is really a suit piloted by a little starfish thing.

<BB<

" in 'Home' the scary alien villain is really a suit piloted by a little starfish thing" [Bluebottle]

I was first reminded of the Daleks - pretty sinister outside, wimpy little beings inside. But the trope definitely rings bells on the scale described in the OP - maybe it is the Wizard of Oz.

I too was reminded of the Daleks (and the masked dancers of West Africa)

Men in Black? http://forgetomori.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/orionbelt01.jpg

The idea seems common enough to qualify as a trope.

Yes! That's it - Men in Black -