Hollywood Dateless: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Closely related to [[Hollywood Homely]], and a subtrope of [[Informed Ability]]. This trope is a reference to those [[Sitcom]] characters who are [[Informed Flaw|constantly referred to as being totally inept with their preferred sex and never scoring]], when [[Chick Magnet|we've seen them with more beautiful people on their arm than most people have ever met]], and are sometimes quite attractive themselves. (A 2007 survey indicated that the average American man has seven sexual partners in his entire lifetime. The average American woman? Four.)

 

The flip side of the [[Cool Loser]] and [[Attractiveness Isolation]]. Often results from [[Negative Continuity]]. Contrast [[Urban Legend Love Life]]. Can be used quizzically in combination with [[Everybody Has Lots of Sex]], [[Failure Is the Only Option]], [[Moment Killer]], [[Derailing Love Interests]] and [[This Loser Is You]].

 

== Comic Books ==

* Peter Parker (a.k.a. [[Spider-Man]]). He was married to one of the most beautiful women in the Marvel Universe (before [[Executive Meddling]] kicked in). And before MJ, he dated Gwen Stacy and the Black Cat. This despite him being a poor nebbish nerd. His friend the Human Torch even called him on it, as did the Chameleon while impersonating him ("Does Parker know anyone who ''isn't'' a stunningly beautiful woman?").

* Jennifer Lopez' titular character in ''The Wedding Planner'', who is depicted as so lonely that she's willing to settle for marrying a man she doesn't love to save herself from [[Christmas Cake|spinsterhood]]. This is ''[[Jennifer Lopez]]'' we're talking about. Hell, her fiance could count too. Sure, he's no Matthew [[Mc Conaughey]], but he's hardly so ugly that ''he'' would need to settle for a woman who doesn't love him just so he won't be alone.

* Melvin Udall ([[Jack Nicholson]]) in ''As Good as It Gets'' is an incel due to his misanthropy.

 

 

* Chandler Bing from ''[[Friends]]'', despite being good-looking and [[Tough Room|incredibly witty]], is constantly knocked by himself and others for having very little in the way of a love life. Gunther and Ross also count if you really get down to it.

** One episode, a while after he became {{spoiler|engaged to Monica}}, involved him not even being able to TALK to a women because she was beautiful, only being able to bashfully mutter a few whispers, and the characters acting like this had always been the case with him. Over the course of the past six or so seasons, Chandler had been shown successfully making some of the boldest and most hilariously charming pick-ups anywhere on television, to complete, gorgeous strangers.

** Another time, Rachel mentions that Monica "stumbles down the hall and sleeps with the first guy she finds." It may be that she's having trouble finding a ''committed'' relationship.

*** Of course, that was just in reference to the other holder of this Trope, Chandler.

* Commandant Klink from ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]''. The irony of it is that the women he has the most success with are actually enemy agents seeking to use him in some plot. Otherwise they would run a mile.

* Charlie in ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia|Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]''.

* Cabbage Head on ''[[Series/The Kids In The Hall|The Kids In The Hall]]''.

* Perhaps the most notable example is George Costanza, whose role in ''[[Seinfeld]]'' is a slow-witted, self-centered, ugly failure who repulses women and can't get them to go out with him... except for, oh, the forty or fifty gorgeous women he dated over the course of the show. He even got a model whom he suspected was bulimic. He winds up getting engaged to the attractive daughter of a rich, Upper East Side, WASPy, old money couple- Susan Ross. Even if they were evenly-matched looks-wise, it's completely far-fetched status, class and money-wise.

** The worst episode for this is "The Strongbox" when George wants to break-up with a gorgeous woman because she talks to her food but she refuses to end the relationship. Finally, he sets it up so she'll catch him on a date with another gorgeous woman (who we learn had pursued George in the past but he had rejected for being "too tan") in the hopes that both women will dump him. However, they both take his infidelity in stride and announce that neither are ending their respective relationships with him and the episode ends with George having the "problem" of two hotties refusing to let him go no matter what.

** The show does make it out to seem more like she doesn't have a problem finding men to date, but rather that everyone she does date turns out to be completely insane in the end so she's forced to end all her relationships.

*** Also, Liz has plenty of her own problems to sort out so her trust issues/childhood trauma involving posters/etc. might have some effect.

* Alex Reiger was [[Flanderized]] into this at the beginning of ''[[Taxi]]'''s final season. To be fair, though, the writers got back on the ball pretty quickly and Alex went back to being his normal self.

* Goober Pyle on ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'' is shy and awkward with women.

* Carlton in ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]]''.

* Ted Mosbey's love life in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' is generally unsatisfactory to him (to be fair, he is looking for true love, so it'll take a lot to satisfy him), and is often teased by his friends as being awkward and shy around women. Still he has several hot women per season, (minus season II when he's in a committed relationship with Robin).

* "Lowered Expectations" on ''[[Mad TV]]'' their video library allows you to choose from thousands of [[This Loser Is You|chronically rejected singles just as hard up and pathetic as you]]. Their motto: "Lowered Expectations, when you've been blown off by the rest, settle for what you can get!"

* Rachel Berry on ''[[Glee]]''. It sort of makes sense at first since she's established as very obnoxious and the two guys she is romantically involved with in the first half of the season are in a [[Love Triangle]] over a more popular girl. But by the second half she's in the center of her own [[Betty and Veronica]] and throughout the entire series she's had a huge [[Stalker with a Crush]] in the form of a nerd who even at one point blackmails her for her panties.

* Leonard from ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', though a lot of this comes from his experience before he became friends with the pretty [[Girl Next Door]] who gave him a lot more confidence. It was said the only girl of real significance in his life (not counting minor flings) before Penny came around was Joyce Kim, later revealed to have been a North Korean spy pushing him for government secrets. The few times he is seen in a social situation he ''is'' shown to be shy and awkward, but starting in the second season he briefly dated Leslie Winkle and Stephanie Barrett, dated Penny for the majority of the third season and had a long term relationship with Priya Koothrapali that crossed the fourth and fifth seasons. In between those girls, though, it's clear that he doesn't have that great of a social life.

* Timothy McGee from ''[[NCIS]]'', who, while being a geek, manages to get quite a few dates, and still is told that he needs to get out more.

* Alan on ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' is often depicted as a pathetic loser yet he's dated a number of attractive women and was even married to a couple of them.

* [[Girl Watching|Girl watchers]] [[Tom Hanks]] and Jon Lovitz on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.

* Christine of ''[[The New Adventures of Old Christine]]'' is perpetually lonely and treated like a loser, except that she's dated the likes of Tim [[De Kay]], Eric [[Mc Cormack]] and freakin' BLAIR UNDERWOOD. SHUT IT DOWN.

* Dobie Gillis on ''[[The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis]]'', pursues beautiful and unattainable girls when he should be going for Zelda Gilroy.

 

== Webcomics ==

* Marten of ''[[Questionable Content]]''. Something of a subversion in that he only acts this way because he's often oblivious of people's attraction to him.

** Also tends to suffer from the [[Cartwright Curse]].

 

* Moe Syzlak, Selma Bouvier, Comic Book Guy, Milhouse van Houten, and Principal Seymour Skinner on ''[[The Simpsons]]''.

** Moe got 600 no's in 1.8 seconds. All the others except Skinner haven't had much better luck. Edna Crabapple used to be portrayed as unable to get a date, but now she's [[My Girl Is a Slut|promiscuous]].

** And when a cute, popular lesbian thinks she has a chance with Meg, she's so excited she immediately strips.

** To be fair, Meg didn't become super unpopular within the show's universe until later on in the series. Most of her dates were prior to her uber-[[Butt Monkey]] status.

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Hollywood Style]]