Her Child, but Not His: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'' has a variation of this: while Prince Chid is supposedly the son of an interracial couple between Marlene and the Duke of Fried, even complete strangers pick up on the fact that the very Anglo-Saxon Chid has ''no'' physical resemblance to the father. {{spoiler|It's then quickly revealed that not only is Chid's real father actually Allen, but that the Duke of Fried ''knows'' this despite his vocal insistence that Chid is his own son}}.

** According to the [[Abridged Series]] Duke of Fried, however, his genes just happen to be recessive. ''[[Crowning Moment of Funny|All of them.]]''

== Fan Fiction ==

* Done in ''The Brothers Solomon'' where we are led to believe that one of the brother's sperm was used to impregnate the surrogate mother but as it turns out the baby was actually her black boyfriend's, but they were so clueless they didn't care.

* In ''Angelitos Negros'', an old Mexican movie, a white couple has a little girl... and she looks black. I don't remember the details very well, but the wife accuses the husband of being of black ancestry and is going to leave but... cue revelation. The black woman whom she thought to be here nanny was in fact her mother. After lots of melodrama the woman realizes what a dick she has been the whole film to her family and they all have a happy ending.

* In the 1994 Drew Barrymore film ''Boys on the Side'', Drew's character finds out she's pregnant while on the run for killing her abusive boyfriend. Her new [[Cop Boyfriend]] has fallen in love with her and is there when the baby is born...a black baby, from her cheating on her then-boyfriend.

* In an recent Russian movie, roughly translated into English as "Stop Fooling Around", this trope is invoked with a white Siberian couple having a black son. It is immediately explained, though, that the mother's father was an American WWII sailor, resulting in a black grandson.

* [[Subverted Trope|Bait-and-switched]] in ''[[The Constant Gardener]]''. The protagonist's wife has an [[Mistaken for Cheating|ambiguous relationship]] with her black coworker throughout the film, and after she goes into labour we see her nursing a black baby. {{spoiler|Turns out she miscarried, and is looking after the child of a single teenage mother on the same ward who's dying of TB.}}

* Parodied (but of COURSE!) in ''[[Scary Movie]] 4'', where Brenda gets with the Amish guy from not-''[[The Village]]'', and in the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]], is shown giving birth to a baby that is very obviously sired by {{spoiler|[[Saw|not-Jigsaw]].}}

* Happens in ''Barney's Version'' with his first wife Clara: Barney [[Shotgun Wedding|marries her because she's pregnant]] even though they don't really love each other. [[Dead Baby Comedy|When the baby is stillborn]], the doctor asks who the father was, and when Barney replies it was his child, he says "then you must be...an albino."

* Hilariously subverted in ''[[Due Date]]''. Ethan continuously hints at his suspicions of Peter's wife cheating on him with his [[Black Best Friend]], Darryl. Towards the end of the film, Peter walks into a delivery room and stares in horror at a newborn black baby; thankfully, he just walked in the wrong room.

* In the second ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' movie, Ian Malcolm has a daughter whose strong African features and very dark skin make it improbable at best that [[Jeff Goldblum]] fathered her. This is, however, never discussed in the movie.

** Although her mother is never seen either. It's entirely possible she is the black parent. It's also never stated that the girl is his biological child.

* In ''[[Stilyagi]]'', the father of Polly's son John is not Mel, but a nameless visiting black man from America.

* In ''[[Superman Returns]]'' Superman is upset to learn that Lois Lane has had a son with her fiance. Then the kid starts tossing furniture around.

== Literature ==

* In the short story "Désirée's Baby" by Kate Chopin, a foundling girl who appears to be white marries, and has a baby who's obviously mixed. {{spoiler|After her husband turns her out, Désirée apparently kills herself and the child. At the end of the story, it's revealed—in a letter written by his mother—that the ''husband'' is the one who's mixed. He burns the letter to protect his good name.}}

* Variant in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': King Robert Baratheon has black hair. Queen Cersei is blonde. All three of their children are blonde. It's explained that every other time Robert sired a child (illegitimately), the child had black hair, leading to the discovery that the royal kids aren't his. {{spoiler|They were fathered by her [[Brother-Sister Incest|brother]], Jaime}}

* In ''Passing'', Nella Larson's exploration of black women who engage in or resist passing themselves off as white, the fear passing women have of giving birth to children who could not pass comes up in conversation.

* In ''The Sacrifice of Tamar,'' Tamar's grandchild is born with dark skin. Her Orthodox Jewish son is filled with righteous wrath, believing his wife cheated on him; the daughter-in-law can only cry and deny it. Then Tamar confesses to her son that he was conceived when she was raped by a black man. She never told anyone, because she had made love to her husband that same night and always hoped the baby was his.

** There are also Oakheart and Crookedstar. They're both brown, and {{spoiler|their parents, Shellheart and Rainflower, are gray.}}

* In ''Family Tree'' by Barbara Delinsky, Clair, the wife of a man, Hugh, from a very upper-crust white family gives birth to a <s>son</s> daughter that has caramel skin. The husband's family (except the grandmother) immediately disowns the child and the husband accuses the wife of cheating and leaves her for a short time, even though a DNA test proves that he is the father <s>and a lie detector test proves that the wife never cheated</s>. It turns out that {{spoiler|the husband's family ''supposedly'' has black ancestry due to the rumor that the man's grandmother had an affair with her (half) black groundskeeper(?) and became pregnant. When her son was born, he had white features and she promptly passes him off as her husband's child. The <s>grandmother</s> grandfather reveals the secret of the alleged affair to his son and he reconciles with his wife and daughter.}}

* In explaining the [[Redheaded Stepchild]] idea (literally), the backstory of ''[[The Prisoner of Zenda]]'' also falls into [[Chocolate Baby]]. In the 18th century, The prince of [[Ruritania]] visited England and met the beautiful wife of a certain English nobleman. The two men fought a duel, the prince leaving the country with serious wounds and the Englishman later dying of a chill. Some months later, the wife gave birth to a red-headed child and it wasn't much of a mystery who his real father was. Thus, it's been an embarrassment to their family since then whenever someone is born with red hair.

* A rare example of a central character intentionally cheating on her (white) husband with a man of a different race comes from Andrea Levy's most popular novel, ''Small Island''. Also notable in that {{spoiler|Despite his racist beliefs, her husband Bernard wants to keep the baby and raise him together.}}

* The original ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' novel ended with Jenny giving birth to one of these, lying to Forrest that it's his, and he's stupid enough to believe it. In the film the son is white and obviously Forrest's.

** It eventually devolves into a fairly transparent ploy to keep the pure-white baby from his horrible racist grandparents.

* On ''Sophie'', the titular character is devastated when her boyfriend Rick leaves her for her best friend Melissa, especially since Sophie is pregnant with what they all thought was Rick's baby. It turns out Rick wasn't the only one cheating when Sophie gives birth to a black baby. The father is a black man named Andre whom Sophie had a one night stand with.

** A bit for [[You Fail Biology Forever]] here -- while two mixed-race parents can definitely have a baby darker than either of them, the new wife here was Swedish.

* Referenced in an ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' episode -- a suspect's alibi rests on his having been there when the police came to break up the domestic dispute resulting from one of these.

* Done on ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' where Gul Dukat (modified with future surgery to look, and pretending to be, Bajoran) leads a Pah-Wraith cult, which includes a pregnant woman and her husband. She gives birth to an obviously half-Cardassian baby, and everyone believes Dukat when [[From a Certain Point of View|he says it's a miracle]]...at least, until they find out he doesn't intend to commit suicide with the rest of them.

* Done implicitly due to actor selection in ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]]''. Udonna, who looks Irish, has a son with Leanbow, who looks Spanish. The kid, Bowen, looks Arabian, with skin about eight shades darker than either of theirs- a shade fairly close to that of his parents' close friend Daggeron. No comment is made on this matter.

* Waynetta Slob in ''[[Harry Enfield and Chums]]'' feels that she's failing to keep up with the other families in the neighbourhood as she lacks a 'Brown Baby'. So Wayne steals one for her.

Kendra: Oh my god. Is the baby black? }}

*** Probably an [[Actor Allusion]] -- the actress who plays Terri also played Gina in the ''Nip/Tuck'' example above and both shows were created by Ryan Murphy.

{{quote| "You've been sleeping with Carl!... after [[Incredibly Lame Pun|the Rams game?!]]... He's covered in WOOL you ''HARLOT!!!''"}}

* In the Lifetime series ''Any Day Now'', main character Renee had an aunt who was half-white and had married a white man. In the present day, Renee had to meet up with her cousin and the man's wife was shown as a little taken aback to see this lily-white man and black woman being cousins.

* On ''Sisters'', Teddy's (yes, female) fiance Dr. Sorenson has an ex-girlfriend who is pregnant with "his" baby. When the baby comes out, it's part-Asian. Dr. Sorenson is relieved, and doesn't hold a grudge.

* In the miniseries adaptation of Armistead Maupin's ''[[Tales of the City]],'' society wife DeDe has cheated on her husband, Beauchamp, with a Chinese grocery boy -- and gotten pregnant. Though she goes to great lengths to keep the secret, she breaks down and confesses to a friend during a visit to an art gallery that she's got good reason to fear that the betrayal will be obvious once everyone sees the baby. The friend assumes this means the baby will be brown, but DeDe, increasingly upset, says no, it won't be brown. When the friend asks what color the baby ''will'' be, DeDe, now too upset to speak, points at a nearby painting -- a solid yellow canvas.

* On ''The Practice'', a woman was accused of murdering her husband. Her neighbor alibied her, and she was acquitted. This trope comes in because {{spoiler|the woman was nine months pregnant and insisted on going through the trial even when she was in labor. She would not take a plea deal. She was white, as was her dead husband. The neighbor who alibied her was African-American. The acquittal happened just before she was rushed to the hospital, where she delivered a dark-skinned baby.}}

* A variation in [[Roots]]. When Kunta Kinte finds Fanta as an adult, she refuses to have sex with him since she is her master's bedmate and any children she has have to be brown (indicating that they are the product of a mixed race couple.)

* Harry Belafonte's song "Man Smart (Women Smarter)" contains a mini-story about a Jamaican man who goes with his wife to the hospital, but when the baby is born, its eyes are blue - meaning it's not his child.

* The song by Mecano ''Hijo de la Luna'' tells the sad story of a gypsy woman who prays to the moon for a husband. The moon says she will have a gypsy husband, but that she must sacrifice her firstborn child to the moon. When the child is born, it is entirely white, like an albino - not olive-colored like either of its parents. The father thinks he has been tricked, and stabs his wife to death, [[Changeling Fantasy|and abandons the baby on the hillside]]. [[The Chessmaster|The moon happily adopts the baby.]]

* In [[Ray Stevens]]' "Fred", the title dog (whom Ray treats as a human friend) brings home a female dog who is pregnant. In the final verse, Fred gets hit by a car just before the female dog gives birth. Ray then remarks, "Now old Fred's gone and I'm kinda glad / 'Cause if he were here now he'd sure be mad / 'Cause ain't one of them pups looks anything like him."

== Radio ==

== Theatre ==

* An old Venezuelan play, ''Salto Atras'', plays with this: The baby from the marriage between a very white upper-class girl and her very white and German husband is born dark-skinned. The girl swears that she didn't commit adultery, so her stiff and [[Values Dissonance|comically bigoted parents]] try to dispose of the baby and [[Switched At Birth|find a whiter one to replace him]] before her husband finds out, while they try to discover if there are any "dark secrets" in the family tree who can explain their prerogative. They couldn't made the switcharoo, but when the husband meets the baby his woman birthed he is delighted. Turns out that his grandmother was a [[Sassy Black Woman]] from the coastal town of Barlovento who was imported to Germany by his Grandfather out of love, so the baby reminded him of the mulatto relatives his in-laws hasn't met yet.

* In one production of ''Goldilocks and the Three Bears'', the adult bear costumes were brown, but Baby Bear's costume was white. When Papa Bear asked, "Who's been sleeping in my bed?", a man in the audience said, "Well might he ask."

== Webcomics ==

* In one of the ''[[Something Positive]]'' 1930s strips ([http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp1937010.shtml this one], to be exact), where black midwife Hetty is delivering a white girl's illegitimate baby, and the girl's parents freak out when it's a black child, ''blaming her'' for "getting the black all over that baby" when she delivered it. As she replied: "Woman, I pull 'em out. I don't put 'em in."

** It's also heavily insinuated that this is the case with Devin, since his father [http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Abel_50.php took one look at him and walked out the door]. This has naturally led to [[Epileptic Trees|rampant speculation]] among fans.

* Implied in [[The Kenny Chronicles]] with Death Golden, her parents are baboons and she's a lemming. Her name comes from the heart attack she gave her "dad".

* Pre-empted in [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1993#comic this] [[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]] strip.

* Very...odd example in Dueling Analogs [http://www.duelinganalogs.com/comic/2010/11/24/other-m-part-iii/ here].

** In this case, it's because Samus is part Metroid. The bigger question is: what is she doing with ''[[Shotacon|Mega Man]]''?

* Justified in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' with the backstory of [[Hospital Hottie|Dr. Edward Bunnigus]]. Because her parents were of questionable breeding and intelligence, eugenics laws mandated that they have [[Designer Babies|genetically-tailored]] children instead of natural. As a result, their daughter is black, but they don't seem to mind.

* A particularly warped version turns up on ''[[Family Guy]],'' in which Brian is thought to have impregnated Carter Pewterschmidt's prize-winning greyhound -- but when the puppies are born, they all look like ''Ted Turner.'' TBS and [[Adult Swim]] [[Biting the Hand Humor|syndicate Family Guy.]]

** Though, to be fair, when the episode first aired, they were not yet syndicated, and Turner was already in the midst of the arguments that would lead to his 2003 ouster from the network management. So maybe more [[Hilarious in Hindsight]].

** It should be noted that this actually wasn't even intended--the creators eventually realized how implausible the family was and performed an [[Author's Saving Throw]].

* Mumble from ''[[Happy Feet]]'' not only was born without the ability to sing like the other penguins (it's the main reason he tap-dances instead), but was also born with [[Blue Eyes]], something real penguins do not have (even his own parents both have [[Brown Eyes]]).