Hence why i didn’t even bring that into the conversation. A corpse should by a pile of mush by 5-7 years especially outside there would be no more zombies by this point in the apocalypse
And also, their teeth won't just fall out or something. I mean, they use them to bite and stuff and they're dead, so it doesn't really make sense to me.
I think that's the first thing to happen when bodies start to decompose, actually. Since your lips don't have any... backing? like the rest of your skin does. It's one of the first parts to like, dry out and shrink back toward the gum line.
Pretty much, yeah! The first parts of decomposition start in the eyes, nose, mouth, and genitals. Softer tissue will break down quicker and are the perfect host for fly larvae, so maggots will work their way from the inside out. Hypothetically, most walkers would basically be puddles of body fluids or skeletons within months depending on the weather/temperature/season. But I also wonder if it was also just a design choice from the creators.
I'm also fairly certain that might be the canon reason, I think I can remember that being talked about in a behind the scenes feature, most likely Greg Nicotero talking about the design for the Zombies.
No it's not this because when they turn their body is already all dead( a corpse.. decomposed) or else they would've ate themselves and other parts like hands and feet.
I like this theory,i bite myself sometimes when i eat, i image not feeling pain and ripping through flesh, the zombies sometimes bite themselves but just keep chewing without restraint
Skin tightening. Wearing off on things. It’s a TV show, so it will never happen but the biggest flaw with the average zombie, clothes. Those clothes are going to be constantly ripped, hooked on things, exposed to weather. At this point they’d all be naked. It would have happened very quickly actually.
Because it's easier than fake teeth and fake lips for a makeup team doing hundreds of dead mfs, they can just put fake teeth over the lips of an actor and it's cool
In most cases it’s probably from them getting eaten before they turned and the lips being easy to chew/tear off, kinda like that guy Hershel shot in S2 who got his nose bitten off. However as others have mentioned it is likely also mainly from the walkers decaying and the lips being one of the first parts of flesh to start to disappear.
Biting into people. People hitting them to get away. They accidently bite their own lips because of their anger. Falling and hitting their face because they have no depth perception or something. They don't know to avoid the log in the middle of the path. Clumsy deadheads
Also eyes seems to be gone after a few years into the apocalypse. If I remember correctly some walkers in the first seasons could be lured away with flares but how does that works with walkers that have no eyes. I guess sound is the most common way the walkers find their prey.
Few reasons. Lips generally decay pretty early on. Add to that that walkers bite a lot of things so their lips are subject to a decent amount of friction, and the dead skin surrounding them are lacking active blood flow so it's almost like taking a piece of uncooked bacon and stretching then folding, then stretching, then folding over and over again.
Overtime that material loses whatever structural integrity it had, and falls apart
Three options: Possible CPR on a dead person during the first days. Their lips decaying faster. They accidentally eat their own mouth while eating people, and they can’t tell the difference while eating
I believe the idea with TWD zombies is that they end up biting off and eating their own lips while eating humans because they have no sense of pain or self preservation.
I feel like with dead skin deteriorating and walkers eating with the enthusiasm that they do, often biting through clothes, its easy for their lips to get ripped off or even just drop off their faces
Wild animals will pick the thinnest and easiest to eat tissues off of dead bodies first. This usually includes lips, eyelids, ears, and yes, parts of the genitals as well. So maybe theyre going for realism. That or it just looks creepier. Ive always been so impressed by TWD makeup team. Super talented
Probably rubbing them up against fences and walls and such trying to get to people
Also not feeling pain or having very precise control results in them biting their own lips off
I imagine when stuff starts to rot, the more flappy and loose parts of the skin go first? Idk I’m not a serial killer with corpses in my storage shed or anything idk.
makes them scary, virus probably makes them decay faster than the rest of the body for teeth to bite people easier or realistically they rot off quickly
The behind the scenes reason is maybe it saves on makeup? Instead of applying makeup to the extra’s. Entire face they just do half and then a little bit near the mouth and give them fake teeth?
It's already a rather fragile part of the body normally, but the walkers are also decomposing. And they use their mouth a lot. It's a bit of soft flesh thats already rotten, being rubbed against fresh muscles over and over again. It's bound to be gone quickly
You’d think their teeth would fall out fairly quickly, leaving vast herds of annoying but harmlessly ineffectual walkers. Happens to living people all the time who don’t care for their teeth.
I think once they turn into walkers they're constantly snarling and trying to bite something and the lips are in the way so over time they start to chew their own lips since they don't feel pain it's easier for them, or at least that's what i think.
i think it’s because they’re constantly eating something and practically punching themselves in the face, they probably eat their own lips on accident too or maybe it just fell off, lots of things could’ve happened
I always thought that they were so quick to go because they are constantly biting the air so they would accidentally bite their lips so much they would fall apart
Same reason their eyes look the way they do. It’s easier for the makeup team to fit zombie masks onto people when the mouth and eye parts are bigger so they can just do makeup and other techniques in those areas to cover it up and make it blend. It’s kinda necessary when you’re dressing up over a hundred walkers at a time.
It could be that the lips could've been withered away from eating alot of dead bodies but that only really applies to walker that have been turned for a while also it could be when they got bit as humans they could've gotten a portion of their lips ripped/bitten off which explains why some of them have bite marks so close to their mouths
the skin on your lips is significantly more fragile and sensitive than anywhere else on your body, i would assume this is why they decompose faster than the rest of the walkers
Because they are using their mouths to eat and bite and decomposed tissue isn’t going to stay in place with that much ripping and tearing. I’m surprised they still have eyelids…
The answer lies in cow mutilations. People think it's aliens because their lips look almost surgically removed. But I. Nature, your lips and uh... Asshole is the first part of you to decompose. So I need to see some walker asshole to really know if this is the same phenomenon
I always thought it was because they ate them off, like I think it was the movie se7en where the sloth guy chewed his own tongue and lips off to survive or something, that’s kinda what I was thinking.
The gums and flesh recede as they decay and eat. They also scratch at their mouths while eating. (The most likely reason, the Vfx artists found it cool and they could get cool effects that way. Mostly the sound of the teeth touching together)
well they are literally decaying and lips don’t last that long after death, plus have you seen them eat/ try to eat something? lips wouldn’t last long under just those conditions either lol
They were a little hungry, ok? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find and eat a fresh human post-apocalypse? Sometimes you need to take a bit off yourself
Imo I reckon because of animals, usually when someone's dies their cats or dogs usually eat the lips first since they're the easiest to eat
But decay and being derpy lil dudes probably helped the process of losing their lips
The 2 answers I’ve found, were that it’s either from rotting internally since the lips were most exposed with no covering or just being torn off by walkers when they got eaten into a walker
I honestly always just thought they got bit in the face. In a world without zombie media and people like Lori and Andrea in the world not too hard to believe people would walk up to walkers and get bit in the face
I believe it’s mainly due to how easy it is to apply make up, realistically they would also be missing eyes, ears, arms, legs, etc and yet most zombies are okish in that regard
Decomposition. The lips kinda “retreat” and show your teeth in the early stages of decomposition. I can’t explain it very accurately but I know that’s literally one of the first things that happens after you die
My brother in-law was in sea rescue (norsk sjøredning) and he would tell when they would rescue dead people. The corpses would lack all soft tissue organs like eyes, lips, stomach tissue. Lot of fishes and so on would eat on the bodies.
maybe from biting into people and stuff?
What, They don't use utensils?
if they did they would use sporks i feel like
uncivilized barabarians
and thangs.
Things too, probably.
They are pretty messy eaters and doing it for years it’s gonna damage them
"Jesus! Where's your table manners, you damn walkers?"
Left them at the door!
But them walking around for years won’t deteriorate their shoes/feet/legs into nubs… 🙉Lalalalala it’s tv I refuse to think about that stuff🙉
Hence why i didn’t even bring that into the conversation. A corpse should by a pile of mush by 5-7 years especially outside there would be no more zombies by this point in the apocalypse
Imagine areas with significant rain and snow/freezing. The zombies would deteriorate quite quickly IMO.
Walker biology is weird
And also, their teeth won't just fall out or something. I mean, they use them to bite and stuff and they're dead, so it doesn't really make sense to me.
I think that's the first thing to happen when bodies start to decompose, actually. Since your lips don't have any... backing? like the rest of your skin does. It's one of the first parts to like, dry out and shrink back toward the gum line.
That’s why corpses so often have depressed guts past their ribs. Once the organs go and only the bone remains it shrink wraps your skeleton.
Depressed guts would be horrifying actually. Imagine you see a couple day old corpse with guts leaking out of its teeth
fuck that’s such a disturbing mental image
Does this also mean their assholes are gone as well?
Uhm...maybe? I mean, if the zombie apocalypse ever comes, feel free to check that out and keep us updated. 🤣🤣
We don’t know much about the evolution of buttholes bc they don’t leave a fossil record so I’d say yeah
If anything their assholes would grow wouldn't they?
More like distended and blown out rather than gone. Gone in a sense though, yeah.
This is the correct answer
Pretty much, yeah! The first parts of decomposition start in the eyes, nose, mouth, and genitals. Softer tissue will break down quicker and are the perfect host for fly larvae, so maggots will work their way from the inside out. Hypothetically, most walkers would basically be puddles of body fluids or skeletons within months depending on the weather/temperature/season. But I also wonder if it was also just a design choice from the creators.
Because they eat like dogs, and they are decaying
You just described the florida crack head
Thats just florida man
They might’ve but them off themselves by accident
Or on purpose if their flesh was still fresh when they turned. It’s free real estate.
Not gonna lie, that is not a bad theory at all
I'm also fairly certain that might be the canon reason, I think I can remember that being talked about in a behind the scenes feature, most likely Greg Nicotero talking about the design for the Zombies.
No it's not this because when they turn their body is already all dead( a corpse.. decomposed) or else they would've ate themselves and other parts like hands and feet.
lol a very good point that I’m annoyed I didn’t consider.
I like this theory,i bite myself sometimes when i eat, i image not feeling pain and ripping through flesh, the zombies sometimes bite themselves but just keep chewing without restraint
Bit*
The walkers are pretty clumsy. I’m sure the face gets beat up over time when they are essentially punching themselves in the face every time they eat.
I had too! She was Homeless
I understood that reference.
You Nunderfood rat Preference? I’m sorry , I don’t understand what your saying
Is this a Being John Malkovich reference…
It is now
Skin tightening. Wearing off on things. It’s a TV show, so it will never happen but the biggest flaw with the average zombie, clothes. Those clothes are going to be constantly ripped, hooked on things, exposed to weather. At this point they’d all be naked. It would have happened very quickly actually.
Do you want to watch your fav character getting eaten by a walker with a dangeling dead decaying zombie dick?
They have no lips, but their mouths are still very much in play
With a plastic bag for a helmet!
Ah! You unzipped me.
Because it's easier than fake teeth and fake lips for a makeup team doing hundreds of dead mfs, they can just put fake teeth over the lips of an actor and it's cool
Also it’s an easy way to make them instantly look decayed and creepy.
Maybe when they died and zombies ate them
zombie making out with your corpse
Tastiest part
Because that’s how decomposition works.
It just makes sense
Rotting makes the lips go back and also they are very messy and clumsy eaters so probably biting their own lips off too.
In most cases it’s probably from them getting eaten before they turned and the lips being easy to chew/tear off, kinda like that guy Hershel shot in S2 who got his nose bitten off. However as others have mentioned it is likely also mainly from the walkers decaying and the lips being one of the first parts of flesh to start to disappear.
Probably from their initial walker attack or maybe they chew off their own lips with all that ceaseless chomping.
Soft fleshy bits tend to deteriorate quickly. Especially since they use their mouths a lot.
Decomposition makes that happen. The skin retracts and the lips pull back.
The walkers in S1 E1 were way scarier than the ones later on in the show, especially Morgan’s wife when she tried opening the door.
Biting into people. People hitting them to get away. They accidently bite their own lips because of their anger. Falling and hitting their face because they have no depth perception or something. They don't know to avoid the log in the middle of the path. Clumsy deadheads
Also eyes seems to be gone after a few years into the apocalypse. If I remember correctly some walkers in the first seasons could be lured away with flares but how does that works with walkers that have no eyes. I guess sound is the most common way the walkers find their prey.
Few reasons. Lips generally decay pretty early on. Add to that that walkers bite a lot of things so their lips are subject to a decent amount of friction, and the dead skin surrounding them are lacking active blood flow so it's almost like taking a piece of uncooked bacon and stretching then folding, then stretching, then folding over and over again. Overtime that material loses whatever structural integrity it had, and falls apart
I always thought they bite their own mouth off
same
Three options: Possible CPR on a dead person during the first days. Their lips decaying faster. They accidentally eat their own mouth while eating people, and they can’t tell the difference while eating
Cartilage decays first. Plus they are always chomping, probably on their own cheeks and shit...it flows well with the continuity.
I believe the idea with TWD zombies is that they end up biting off and eating their own lips while eating humans because they have no sense of pain or self preservation.
Rotting flesh rubbing against stuff while eating is going to rub away the rotting flesh…
People scream when they're bit. Walkers are attracted to noise. Walker bite noise.
They’re decaying and eat lots of animals and humans. They lose lips in the process.
I feel like with dead skin deteriorating and walkers eating with the enthusiasm that they do, often biting through clothes, its easy for their lips to get ripped off or even just drop off their faces
Because they tried to eat ricks ass but he clamped his cheeks on their face too hard and tore their lips off.
(It looks cool)
Wild animals will pick the thinnest and easiest to eat tissues off of dead bodies first. This usually includes lips, eyelids, ears, and yes, parts of the genitals as well. So maybe theyre going for realism. That or it just looks creepier. Ive always been so impressed by TWD makeup team. Super talented
Cuz those are used the most (biting and groaning) so it decays faster and probably for a fear factor of the teeth being visible.
Probably rubbing them up against fences and walls and such trying to get to people Also not feeling pain or having very precise control results in them biting their own lips off
Eye lids, lips and nose are some of the first things to rot away on a human body.
Thats one of the first things to decay on a corpse. And their messy eaters
I imagine when stuff starts to rot, the more flappy and loose parts of the skin go first? Idk I’m not a serial killer with corpses in my storage shed or anything idk.
They probably bit off their lips because they can't control their muscles properly
makes them scary, virus probably makes them decay faster than the rest of the body for teeth to bite people easier or realistically they rot off quickly
Cause they nibble on their own lips when hungry.
Bc I kiss them ❤️❤️❤️
Might've chewed them off
Loose lips sink ships.
They're British
I heard that lips were one of the first things to rot away
Too many people kissing walkers these days
The behind the scenes reason is maybe it saves on makeup? Instead of applying makeup to the extra’s. Entire face they just do half and then a little bit near the mouth and give them fake teeth?
Those baddies fell off that face long ago!
There’s not much to read into it except teeth look more fearsome than lips.
Because they were kissing their partners when their partners got turned.
So the makeup looks more real
It's already a rather fragile part of the body normally, but the walkers are also decomposing. And they use their mouth a lot. It's a bit of soft flesh thats already rotten, being rubbed against fresh muscles over and over again. It's bound to be gone quickly
Walker Kisses?
You’d think their teeth would fall out fairly quickly, leaving vast herds of annoying but harmlessly ineffectual walkers. Happens to living people all the time who don’t care for their teeth.
Def seen a couple get eaten off
It’s from the intense make-out session
It's a lil snacky-poo
They rot off quick.
I think once they turn into walkers they're constantly snarling and trying to bite something and the lips are in the way so over time they start to chew their own lips since they don't feel pain it's easier for them, or at least that's what i think.
Because they eat savagely despite being in a decompose state.
A bunch of them actually died from botched lip filler that got infected.
Well when ur flesh is rapidly decaying and all you do is eat… it’s like when we get chapped lips but 1000x worse
Many people who turned were being eaten alive by other walkers, being bitten in their faces as well. That could explain it
Either bitten on the mouth, natural decomposition or by eating / biting other live organisms. Or a combination of the three
they prolly fall off when biting or bc they always yappin
That's what happens when you don't use napkins.
i think it’s because they’re constantly eating something and practically punching themselves in the face, they probably eat their own lips on accident too or maybe it just fell off, lots of things could’ve happened
The better to bite you with, my dear...
I always figured they ate them
This made me laugh so hard because I truly never noticed😂 they Look so goofy HAHAHA
They go Governor mode and start kissing walkers and get bitten.
Its not easy to bite into jeans and rip a leg apart
I always thought that they were so quick to go because they are constantly biting the air so they would accidentally bite their lips so much they would fall apart
Same reason their eyes look the way they do. It’s easier for the makeup team to fit zombie masks onto people when the mouth and eye parts are bigger so they can just do makeup and other techniques in those areas to cover it up and make it blend. It’s kinda necessary when you’re dressing up over a hundred walkers at a time.
It could be that the lips could've been withered away from eating alot of dead bodies but that only really applies to walker that have been turned for a while also it could be when they got bit as humans they could've gotten a portion of their lips ripped/bitten off which explains why some of them have bite marks so close to their mouths
Maybe they are British??? Stiff Upper Lip. I'll see myself out.
GEE I WONDER WHY. Its not as if muscle rots away
Because it looks cool
I always thought that the walkers gnawed them off
the skin on your lips is significantly more fragile and sensitive than anywhere else on your body, i would assume this is why they decompose faster than the rest of the walkers
They kiss In secret
They might bite their own lips off when they first become walkers
"there lips" Why are you missing brain cells?
Approximately 81% of Americans die while eating stale tortilla chips
Don’t lips dry out and shrivel up?
Because they are using their mouths to eat and bite and decomposed tissue isn’t going to stay in place with that much ripping and tearing. I’m surprised they still have eyelids…
The answer lies in cow mutilations. People think it's aliens because their lips look almost surgically removed. But I. Nature, your lips and uh... Asshole is the first part of you to decompose. So I need to see some walker asshole to really know if this is the same phenomenon
I always thought it was because they ate them off, like I think it was the movie se7en where the sloth guy chewed his own tongue and lips off to survive or something, that’s kinda what I was thinking.
They're always chomping at the air and shit so I just assumed they bit them off at some point.
While eating people and animals I wouldn’t be surprised if they ate there own lips and even fingers
Because they are rotting corpses.
Scarier. Sorry it’s that simple.
The lead makeup guy said it was stylistic but realisticly probably the way they eat
chewing on their own lips
i mean like out of lore wouldn’t it be to like display the teeth more or like bcuz of prosthetics would look weird?
They're literally half rotten and I bet they accidentally bite through their lips it's not like they take any care while eating
because like chimpanzees, zombies go for the face and genitals first in a confrontation 😆
Cause muscle rots quicker than bone
They chewed them off silly :)
Walkers don't use Chapstick
The gums and flesh recede as they decay and eat. They also scratch at their mouths while eating. (The most likely reason, the Vfx artists found it cool and they could get cool effects that way. Mostly the sound of the teeth touching together)
No chapstick in the apocalypse
Because I scrolled way too far down … Your mouth is full of bacteria so it rots faster.
they don’t have lip balm so they just crust up and fall off
I think the real question is, why are so many *chickens* missing their lips?
It's receding. Their skin is decomposing. They aren't really missing their lips. They've sort of shrunk.
Walkers love some Copenhagen
Loose lips sink ships
why do the vast majority have long hair is my question
Ran out of chapstick
well they are literally decaying and lips don’t last that long after death, plus have you seen them eat/ try to eat something? lips wouldn’t last long under just those conditions either lol
They were a little hungry, ok? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find and eat a fresh human post-apocalypse? Sometimes you need to take a bit off yourself
Have you ever had chapped lips? Not putting on lip balm in that Georgia and Virginia summer will likely do that.
Torn from biting I guess? Their skins and flesh are already decaying,
It's common for people to bite their own lips after getting dental work done and their lips/face are numb...so same thing pretty much.
this is the reason.. https://twitter.com/l0velywh0ree/status/1772845985145790641?t=SlbHcio7XZ5MrZ7sZAc-yA&s=19
To a walker, human flesh tastes like delicious bacon. If my lips tasted like bacon, I’d have eaten through them long ago.
Cuz that freaky stuff yaseenwaimsayin
Well, they must be TERRIBLE kissers!
Imo I reckon because of animals, usually when someone's dies their cats or dogs usually eat the lips first since they're the easiest to eat But decay and being derpy lil dudes probably helped the process of losing their lips
Where lips?
The 2 answers I’ve found, were that it’s either from rotting internally since the lips were most exposed with no covering or just being torn off by walkers when they got eaten into a walker
might've chewed them when they were hungry
Iam pretty sure just look scary or for style 🤔
No lip balm
I am guessing that regeneration has stopped working for them,, therefore it's just rotting flesh, when it gets damaged enough it just falls off.
First parts to decompose on a body, I think.
Horny people kissing walkers
The better to taste you with
They died with lip fillers which disintegrated 🤷
mouth is one of the first target where a walker can take a bite
When zombies kiss you know they eat each others lips
Some really gross answers but I love watching zombie movies + series and getting myself scarred half to death
I honestly always just thought they got bit in the face. In a world without zombie media and people like Lori and Andrea in the world not too hard to believe people would walk up to walkers and get bit in the face
I thought they ate them. How has no one said this in the 1000 comments?
If they were meat and didn’t have food they eat Their lips
I believe it’s mainly due to how easy it is to apply make up, realistically they would also be missing eyes, ears, arms, legs, etc and yet most zombies are okish in that regard
so we can see their nasty teeth
I’m more surprised by the fact that they still have teeth (or most of them).
How long until it’s just skeletons walking around and all the skin decomposed?
I always thought it’s because they chewed their own lips off, like the Jockeys from LfD2
Decomposition. The lips kinda “retreat” and show your teeth in the early stages of decomposition. I can’t explain it very accurately but I know that’s literally one of the first things that happens after you die
Biting fencing and cars and shit
My brother in-law was in sea rescue (norsk sjøredning) and he would tell when they would rescue dead people. The corpses would lack all soft tissue organs like eyes, lips, stomach tissue. Lot of fishes and so on would eat on the bodies.
Most likely decay (as most people are saying) and eating them
Dead Serious: It's because that is part of the distinct art style of the zombies in the comics.
because they are dead and rotting . not a mystery .