Beauty Contest: Difference between revisions

In which people are judged by their physical appearance. Expect a swimsuit round -- orround—or it could be the entire contest.

== Anime &and Manga ==

* ''[[Omamori Himari]]'' has a chapter with a beauty contest. Surprisingly, the title character does not win. She spends most of the chapter talking with Yuuto, and therefore is not present to be judged, despite having entered. As a result, Lizlet wins the contest.

* Beauty contests, often of an impromptu sort, were a staple of stand-alone ''[[Archie Comics]]'' stories during [[The Seventies]] and [[The Eighties]] in particular. Most often, they took place at the [[Beach Episode|beach]]. A frequently-used premise had the contestants -- whichcontestants—which nearly always included [[Betty and Veronica]] -- attempt—attempt to sweet-talk the judge(s) -- usually Archie, and sometimes Reggie as well -- intowell—into voting for them. If Midge was a contestant, this inevitably meant her [[Dumb Muscle]] boyfriend Moose threatening the judge(s) into voting for her (a reversal of the usual [[Green-Eyed Monster]] Moose plots where merely glancing at Midge from a distance would earn Archie or Reggie a [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb stomp]]).

* ''[[Drop-Dead Gorgeous]]'' is a darkly comedic [[Satire]] of beauty pageants in general.

* [[EllenElliot Page]]'s character in ''[[Whip It]]'' starts out a (reluctant) pageant girl.

* A rather [[Squick|disturbing]] child beauty contest is featured in ''[[Little Miss Sunshine]]'' -- and—and apparently it's not that unlike actual child beauty pageants.

* ''[[Sleeper (film)|Sleeper]]'': Woody Allen's fugitive in the future is captured and made to assimilate through mental manipulation, put in a beauty contest scenario in a lab. It works, as a switch is thrown and he breathily spouts a banal speech about using the title to promote peace and brotherhood.

* Book 4 of ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'': [[Half-Human Hybrid|Satyrane]] holds a tournament to determine the strongest, most-skilled knight, followed by a beauty contest for the knights' ladies. The prizes for the winners would be... each other! The beauty contest entrants are judged not only for their beauty but their [[My Girl Is Not a Slut|purity]] and are tested by a magic girdle that can [[Virgin Power|only be worn by a virgin]]. The judges apparently don't share the author's views on chastity, however, and stubbornly declare a princess (who's really a clone -- longclone—long, sad story) the winner over the one girl the girdle will fit. The winning knight passes up the prize due to being secretly a [[Sweet Polly Oliver]].

* The book ''[[Beauty Queens]]'' is about a plane of girls going to compete in the Miss Teen Dream pageant.

* There seems to be an explosion of [[Reality Show|reality TV]] featuring particularly [[Egregious]] examples of how terrible beauty pageants can be -- abe—a notable example being ''[[Toddlers and Tiaras]]'' -- though—though, to the participants, it's [[Serious Business]].

{{quote| '''Kate:''' Give him 5 seconds...<br />

'''McGee:''' Until what?<br />

'''Kate:''' Until he notices there's a ...<br />

'''Tony:''' ''Bikini contest''?!<br />

* ''[[The Steve Harvey Show]]'' has Bullethead entering (and winning!) the Miss Booker T. Pageant to spite Lydia and win a computer.

* ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'': "The Beauty Contest."

* ''[[Happy Days]]'', "Beauty Contest". Richie, Ralph and Potsie put on a fake "Miss Arnold's" beauty pageant.

* One episode of ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' has Sam leaping into a young (female) beauty pageant contestant. His mission is to prevent the life of another contestant from being ruined by a sleazy photographer.

* [[Conflict Ball|Want to make any wedding instantly more fun?]] Just take [[How Do You Like Them Apples?|one golden apple,]] write on it "For the Fairest" and throw it in the middle of a wedding attended by the most beautiful and vain goddesses in the world. When Eris threw the Apple of Discord into Thetis' wedding, it took more than ''twenty years'' for this conflict to be resolved. Eventually it came down to [[The Three Faces of Eve|three of the most powerful goddesses you could name]] -- [[The High Queen|Hera, queen of the gods,]] [[Lady of War|Athena, goddess of war,]] and [[Femme Fatale|Aphrodite, the goddess of love.]] Zeus, not wanting any of the gods to face the wrath of the losers, picked the handsomest human man he could find to make the choice (because being beautiful makes you a great judge of beauty). They each tried to bribe him -- onehim—one with wisdom, one with all of Asia, and one with the most beautiful woman in the world. Being a young fool, Paris chose Aphrodite. [[Hilarity Ensues|The Trojan War ensues.]]

* Incredibly for the medium, [[Howard Stern]] has hosted multiple beauty contests on his show over the years. Interns, [[Playboy Bunny|Playboy Bunnies]], amputees, and he once even had three of Tiger Woods' dozen plus mistresses compete against one another.

** According to her trophy description in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl'', Jody Summer from ''F-Zero'' was "chosen as Miss Galactic Space Federation" after ''F-Zero X''. But Miss Galactic Space Federation equates more to "being the [[Reasonable Authority Figure|spokeswoman]] for [[The Federation|a para-militaristic organization that works to ensure law, order, peace, and harmony throughout the cosmos and holds control over seven galaxies]]" than "being a bikini model" (although, don't get us wrong, [http://fzero.wikia.com/wiki/File:061.jpg she could definitely pull it off]).

* ''[[RPG World]]'' did one combining it with [[Beach Episode]], and of course Hero turns out to be the [[Attractive Bent Gender|attractive redhead who received a third of the votes to win]].

* ''[[The Perpetual Aquarium]]'' did a "Petpets in Tiaras" spoof of the current trend in reality shows to show children's pageants.

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Lisa the Beauty Queen". Homer enters Lisa in the Little Miss Springfield pageant to improve her self-image; she gets second place, but then the winner is struck by lightning and Lisa gets the (melted) crown and scepter by default. After she starts railing against Laramie Cigarettes (a major sponsor of the contest, who wanted to use her to help market their products to kids), they get Lisa disqualified on a technicality.<ref>On the entry form, in the space that said "Do Not Write Here", Homer wrote "Okay"</ref>.

** "A Streetcar Named Marge" opens with the family watching a pageant which cleverly re-purposes Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" as its theme.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' episode "Beauty Marked" where [[Soapbox Sadie]] Sam Manson joins the Beauty Pageant in her school to undermine it. The pageant is all just an elaborate ruse for the host to find a [[Arranged Marriage|perfect bride]] for her [[The Evil Prince|jerk of a brother]]. Sam wins the contest either way, but refuses to take the tiara, stating its "stupid".

* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' episode "Peggy's Pageant Fever" had Peggy enter the Mrs. Heimlich County beauty pageant to win a new white pickup truck, only to find out that she was not as attractive, talented, or prolific at childbearing as her fellow contestants. Though her friend Nancy was a judge, they stop speaking to each other when Peggy implies that obvious blonde beauties don't deserve to win. Peggy hires a coach to help her succeed, but in the end Hank paints his truck white so that Peggy does not need to go through with the pageant (and ultimately humiliate herself.)

* ''[[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]'' has an episode based around this. Timmy's dad entered, despite it being an all-female contest. {{spoiler|He won.}}

* In the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Dead Celebrities", Ike was possessed by [[Michael Jackson]]. The boys realize Jackson would only leave the body by gaining the acceptance he wanted in life. They figure they can achieve this by taking him to a children's beauty pageant.