Casanova Wannabe: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

He wants to be [[Casanova]], but he fails horribly. Maybe it's the polyester suit. Or the gold medallion around his neck. Or the phony "hey babe". Or the obvious hair plugs. Or maybe he's a klutz or uncomfortable, despite his dedication to pursuing the ladies. Whatever it is, though, the girls see it from a mile away and give him a wide berth.

Generally he's bound to succeed once or twice, by law of averages if nothing else. These relationships usually don't last long.

Compare [[Nerds Are Virgins]] and [[Extraverted Nerd]]. Contrast [[Kavorka Man]], [[Even the Guys Want Him]]. For a female version, see [[Abhorrent Admirer]].

== Anime and Manga ==

* In the Disney dub of ''[[Castle in The Sky]]'', Papa (the engineer on the [[Tiger Moth]]) gets to say this in a one-liner cut from the 2010 DVD release:

{{quote| "I need someone who's ''mechanically'' minded, not some half-baked, swashbuckling Casanova wannabe!"}}

* Ataru from ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' has a face only a mother could love (and even she sometimes regrets having him), and the worst luck possible. Nevertheless, he is always ready to ask a random girl off the street for her address and phone number. Or maybe he'll just grope her. This despite having a hot alien babe for a fiancée.

* Sena in ''[[Cross Game]]''

* To some degree, Captain Kyouraku Shunsui from ''[[Bleach]]''.

* Taniguchi, one of [[Those Two Guys]] in ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]''.

* Masomi Kida from ''[[Durarara]]''. His attempts at wooing women fail to the point where even his [[Heterosexual Life Partners|partner]] [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|Mikado]] lampshades his failures. However he stops when {{spoiler|he gets back with his former girlfriend, Saki Miyajima.}}

* ''[[Viz]]'' (the comic book, not the [[Viz Media|Anime distributor]]) gives us Sid the Sexist, who, while not wearing a leisure suit, is very much a virgin despite his claims to the contrary and his attempts to change that situation. His friends could also possibly come under the same category - while they have occasionally been shown having success with women, usually they appear to look up to Sid for his 'studliness'.<br /><br />One strip even featured the brother of one of Sid's friends, who wore a leisure suit and claimed to be a massive hit with the ladies. Sid attempts to one-up him by getting several love bites - with the aid of a bicycle pump. He is, of course, caught and mocked by his friends. But then the last panel shows the friend's brother, alone in a tiny bedroom, doing the same trick, surrounded by porn magazines, used tissues, inflatable dolls and other sexual paraphernalia, making him possibly the only character to have ever been made to look even more pathetic and lonely than Sid in the strip.

* Jonny Kizinski from ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]''. Jonny is actually married, but that doesn't stop him from hitting on every female gamer to cross his path (and failing miserably).

* Jay from ''[[The View Askewniverse]]''

* Ron Burgundy of ''[[Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy]]''. Though he does wind up getting the girl, then losing her, then getting her again. But the news team's attempts to woo Veronica fit pretty much exactly into this Trope, complete with leisure suits. [[Ted Baxter|Most of the characters]] [[Typecasting|Will Ferrell's played recently tend to be this]].

* ''[[Brain Donors]]'': Roland T. Flakfizer talks a great game.

{{quote| "Please, call me what everyone else calls me: 'Your Royal Sex Machine.'"}}

== Literature ==

* Carlos Ramirez from ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' fits this. He's a young, somewhat cocky, warden who is constantly bragging about his sexual exploits. None of which have ever happened, seeing that he's a virgin. Revealed hilariously by [[Stripperiffic|Lara Wraith]].

== Live Action TV ==

* Howard Wolowitz from ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' embodies this trope to a full 100%.

* Herb Tarlek of ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'' is on the fringe of Larry-dom since he's married and has kids. However, he does have the bad suit, attitude, and lack of success necessary to play the part.

* ''[[The Young Ones]]'': Mike, the self-proclaimed stud, was revealed in one episode to be a virgin. But given the show's [[Negative Continuity]] it's hard to say whether that really counts.

* The Todd from ''[[Scrubs]]'' may be the ultimate [[Casanova Wannabe]], especially after he comes to terms with his [[Anything That Moves|bisexuality]]. And possible anything-sexuality:

{{quote| '''The Todd:''' Whoa, these are hot. [referring to two pieces of broccoli]<br />

'''Todd:''' I wasn't. }}

* Col in ''[[The Adventures of Lano and Woodley]]''.

** This is debatable however. As Ted McGinley points out in the Reunion Special: "Bud ''was'' pretty successful because he had the greatest looking girls, week to week." This just isn't acknowledged in the series because of its [[Negative Continuity]]. It's just his success rate that's low, which isn't surprising considering he tries to [[All Men Are Perverts|get some in every episode.]]

** In an episode where Al and Peggy split up, Al and his buddies tried to hit the club scene. Al got a makeover and became the definition of Casanova Wannabe. He also got a prosthetic ass.

** To be fair, Julian does sleep with Ezri Dax at the end of the series. After 7 years of trying to get together with Jadzia Dax.

** He has had notable success, perhaps too much to be considered the Cananova Wannabe; besides the Daxii, there's a long but not deep relationship with [[Ms. Fanservice|Leeta]], and briefer affairs with the mute genius girl and that weightless chick.

** Are you kidding? He's so far out, even his grandmother is setting him up with guys! (as he himself put it.)

** ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' also toyed with the idea in "Teacher's Pet"; one of the victims was very embarrassed when told that the mantis only attacked virgins.

* Kirk St. Moritz (a.k.a. Eric Morris) from ''[[Dear John]]''.

* On ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' Barney flips back and forth between this and [[Casanova]], with a bit of [[Handsome Lech]] thrown in. On the one hand, he is quite handsome, dresses in legitimately stylish suits, and the notches on his bedpost are well into the triple digits. However, a lot of his pickup attempts can be pretty darn cheesy, it's clear that he's not always truthful about his sexual conquests, and, since the entire series is a story told by a potentially [[Unreliable Narrator]], separating the lies from the truth isn't so easy.

** At one point, Marshall actually calculates that, given the number of women Barney's slept with, compared to the sheer number of women he hits on, his success rate is actually only a little over 1%, despite having slept with more people than the rest of the main characters combined.

** His buddy Jean-Ralphio qualifies as well.

* Jackson Stewart of ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' has tried every cheesy pickup line and [[Zany Scheme|hare-brained scheme]] in the book to get girls. Mild subversion in that he has a fair amount of success, but rarely makes it past the first date.

* Henry and Dave compete for the title in ''[[Drop the Dead Donkey]]''. Henry is closer, though, probably because he turns 60 during the series' run and Dave is supposed to be in his early to mid thirties.

* Richard Richard in ''[[Bottom]]'' is a particularly obnoxious example.

* Manny from ''[[Modern Family]]'' is a [[Kidanova]] wannabe.

* Whenever Winston Rothchild plays the Possum Lodge Word Game on ''[[The Red Green Show]]'', Red gets the correct answer out of him by mentioning one of his past dates. Winston's words, for the record, are usually along the lines of "disaster" (in fact, that ''was'' one of his words).

* Jon from ''[[Garfield]]'', although he finally [[Relationship Upgrade|had success]] with Liz, after 28 years.

* Dean the pig from ''[[Liberty Meadows]]'', where all the animals are anthropopathic, if not anthropomorphic.

* Steve Dallas from ''[[Bloom County]]'', who apparently thinks a box of obscenely-shaped chocolates will win a woman's heart (or at least get her to sleep with him). Though apparently he ''did'' eventually have sex with a woman, as his son Augie shows up in the sequel comic ''Opus''.

* Nate Wright, the titular character from ''[[Big Nate]]'' is a [[Kidanova]] [[Casanova Wannabe|Wannabe]]. His combination of utter cluelessness and unwaning self-confidence when it comes to girls is a central theme in the comic.

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon]]'': Of all people, [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|Rasp]][[Ridiculously Human Robot|utin]].

** To be fair, some of the ladies in the red light district seem to be quite impressed with his, er, talents. It's just that this doesn't get him anywhere with the women whose affections are not for sale.

* Greg, one of the colonists in ''[[Space Colony]]''. With the voice of a late night radio personality and pick-up lines out of a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch, Rick is an utter failure when it comes to women, even when compared to [[Mad Scientist]] Nicolai and [[Disco Dan]] Charles. He's a flagrant misogynist and is regarded with unmasked contempt by main character Venus; Even his ''official company profile'' paints him in an unflattering light. He's also one of the least useful colonists, having high standards for happiness and few strong skills.

** Greg, as it happens, appears to be based on a similar character from ''MADTV''.

** An elf called Salvanas found a bar -- a minor character whose only function is to try to hit on every female character that talks to him (though they apparently forgot to give him any dialogue for Imoen) so blatantly shamelessly he's inevitably rejected angrily. If a female ''player'' character chooses NOT to reject him, he gets scared and runs away.

** Imoen was pretty much added in at the last minute as a party member

* ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'': Daxter is like this. He flirts with ''every'' attractive female in the series, despite the fact that he's [[Baleful Polymorph|been turned into]] a three-foot-tall ''rodent''. He seems to have [[Character Development|grown out of it]] by ''Jak X'', though it might just be because he finally has a girlfriend.

* Junpei from ''[[Persona 3]]'', who tries to make up for with sheer bravado what he utterly lacks in everything else when it comes to women. The ladies still aren't impressed.

* Rock from ''[[Harvest Moon|Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life]]'' is this, to the point of even wearing a leisure suit and calling the main character "babe". He fails miserably at romance (though he fancies himself quite the catch) which is lampshaded by his mother, who questions your mental health should you pursue him.

* ''[[Dragon Age|Dragon Age: Origins]]'': Oghren imagines himself as being quite the ladies' man, though most of the females he hits on find him utterly repulsive. He was married, though his first wife left him and then fell in love with another woman. He then started up a relationship with Felsi, who was quite a looker … and also dumped him. In truth, there is some hint that Oghren's lecherous behaviour is a cover for his crippling insecurities.

== Web Animation ==

* In ''[[Misfile]]'' this trope is filled by Colin the Counter Guy in the local autoparts store.

* Sam "da Man" Sein from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.

* Eastwood in ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'', who regularly suffers great physical harm from hilariously crude attempts at hitting on anything with a skirt. Probably the reason why he has the biggest [[Porn Stash]] in the world.

** On such a scale that he's begun to acclimatize to pepper spray.

* In ''[[The Specialists]]'', [http://thespecialistscomic.com/page-85/ Henry brags that he has lots of chances, just no time.]

* Eridan Ampora from [[Homestuck]] is practically the classic example. Being from a [[Bi the Way|naturally bisexual species]], his options are a bit more widely-ranging than most. Doesn't do him any good, though - not only is he rejected every time he tries, but by the time {{spoiler|he dies}}, he doesn't have any romantic relationships at all. Even his moirail has dumped him, fed up with his [[Narcissist|narcissism]] and his [[Makes Sense in Context|constant threats of genocide]].

** Brian is also this, usually with more failures. Not only he acts like a tool just to impress women, he's also known to date really stupid women so he can feel smarter than them and have an easier time to get in their pants, along with hitting on Lois several times. He has been called out on this as well.

* Like Quagmire above, Boomhauer from ''[[King of the Hill]]'' is a partial example: he manages to have sex with lots of women, but one episode reveals that his method is to just hit on every woman he can find, usually with lame pick-up lines, until he finds one that will give him the time of day. Bobby points this out to him, but Boomhauer's basic philosophy apparently is that one shouldn't let rejection get you down, though one episode had Boomhauer fall in love with a woman who only saw Boomhauer as a one-night stand and rejected his offer to marry her.

** Though he hasn't gotten laid in nineteen years.

** Shake is quite similar, to the extent that he ''vastly'' overestimates his own sex appeal. Oddly enough, Frylock has accidentally given himself away, a few times, as depressingly incompetent with women even when Shake and Meatwad aren't around to kill the moment.

* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'': Pepe Le Pew, with the joke being that his mates tend to be [[Interspecies Romance|cats with stripes painted on them]], some rather violent.

* ''[[Futurama]]'': Zapp Brannigan. He sure acts like a stud. But on first meeting Leela in "Love's Labours Lost in Space" she ends up having pity sex with him; This is later revealed to be his first, and for some time after, only sexual encounter.

* Butt-Head from ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]''. "Hey baby..."

* Pam from ''[[Archer]]''. Ultra-rare female example, although, unlike most male counterparts, she is [[Bi the Way|equal opportunity.]]

* Fruity from ''[[Downtown]]'', much to the annoyance of his best friend Matt, who often has to prevent Fruity from getting both of them into trouble.