No, it's more like steamed corn dough with filling in the middle. Corn husks are on the outside, you peel those and eat the dough/innards.
Had a cousin with a boyfriend who had never seen one I guess and tried to eat it whole, corn husk and all.
Hilarious.
Innards are usually beef, chicken... maybe pork I guess.
Red or Green are most common, but you can make them sweet instead with no filling and just sweeten the dough to eat as a snack.
Also, there are tamales with banana tree leafs instead of corn husk. Fuck it, there are lots of variations of tamales in Mexico that even living here I haven't had all the variations.
There are probably variations for every state in Mexico:
-Norteño: Mostly in the north of the country, those are small tamales and you could eat like a dozen or more
-Veracruzanos: From the state of Veracruz, those use banana tree leafs:
-Oaxaqueños: Like Veracruzanos, but with a different taste. My mother in law makes a variation of this, called "costeños" with lots of chile and mole:
-Chiapanecos: I haven't had these, but some say they are really tasty(and big!) with lots of stuff for filling(sorry, couldn't find an image)
-DF style: From the capital of Mexico, lots of corn, very little meat to my tastes:
Also, it seems like every latin-american country has its own delicious variations of tamales, I hope one day to taste them
(Also my mom makes some vegetarian-maybe even vegan?-tamales, can't wait for new year)