Hollywood Dateless: Difference between revisions

← Older editNewer edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Gethbot (talk | contribs)
Bots
10,856 edits
m Mass update links
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Honestly, any guy with [[Badass Biker|a motorcycle]] that has this much trouble getting a woman to talk to him might just have to give up, but I understand this is Hollywood dramatics."''|'''[[The Agony Booth]]''' [http://www.agonybooth.com/movies/Ghost_Rider_2007.aspx?Page=3 recap] of ''[[Ghost Rider (Filmfilm)|Ghost Rider]]''}}
 
Closely related to [[Hollywood Homely]], and a subtrope of [[Informed Ability]]. This trope is a reference to those [[Sit ComSitcom]] 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.)
 
As well, in general it seems that if you don't have sex at least once a month (let alone a date) then that constitutes as a [[This Loser Is You|pathetic social life]].
Line 24:
* 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.
* ''[[Never Been Kissed]]'', where the protagonist, [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|who has never been kissed]], is played by... [[Drew Barrymore]].
 
 
Line 35:
== Live Action TV ==
* Oscar Madison on ''[[The Odd Couple]]''. It was the running gag for an entire episode where Oscar could not find someone to take to a Broadway show and the boys wind up getting arrested for ticket scalping. In another episode, Oscar uses a computer dating service. He embellishes his personal info and he is matched with Felix's ex-wife, Gloria (both used pseudonyms on their applications).
* John Dorian on ''[[Scrubs (TV)|Scrubs]]''. Yes, he is a doctor, but DAMN!
* Everyone in [[Chuck]] Bartowski's life regularly acts like him getting a date of any kind, let alone one with a good-looking woman, is a minor miracle. This continues approximately through the end of the second season, despite the fact that in that space of time he dates two beautiful women and has a third one in love with him. For the most part the third season drops the [[Hollywood Homely|facade]], though.
* Jeff in ''[[Coupling]]''.
* Chandler Bing from ''[[Friends (TV)|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.
** There's also the matter of Monica frequently vocalizing her aggravation earlier in the series over not being able to find a boyfriend. [http://images2.makefive.com/images/200833/4e58750211bd2c6a.jpg She looked like this at the time].
Line 44:
*** 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 (TV)|Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]''.
** Charlie being dateless is actually quite justified, he's borderline retarded, lives in a dilapidated apartment and is regularly called out on having terrible hygiene. The only dates we ever see him on are ones the guys set him up on. He proceeds to torpedo these spectacularly. Dee on the other hand regularly complains about having trouble finding men yet in the "Dee Gives Birth" she's shown to have several regular sexual partners, two of which are actually in excellent shape and declared by the guys to be "legitimate lays".
* Cabbage Head on ''[[Series/The Kids In The Hall|The Kids In The Hall]]''.
* In ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' there is Miles who has continuously been referred to be beyond all hope when it came to make a positive impression on the other sex (or people in general) despite looking like [https://secure.wireimage.com/ItemListings.aspx?cbi=4474&igi=1381&nbc1=1 this]. Most run away before he gets a chance to introduce himself.
* Perhaps the most notable example is George Costanza, whose role in ''[[Seinfeld (TV)|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.
** Neither of whom he wants a relationship with and neither of whom will respect or accept that. It ''is'' a problem.
Line 55:
** Then there are episodes that seem to go the other way. In one, George claims that all he has to do to get a woman to want to date him is to see her on three separate occasions. He compares it to an advertising jingle: annoying as hell the first time, but by the third time it's [[Ear Worm|stuck in your head]].
* Dorothy Zbornak on ''[[The Golden Girls]]''.
* Bud Bundy, ''[[Married... Withwith Children (TV)|Married With Children]]''.
** Worse than the George Costanza example, because Bud actually touches himself every single night out of his loneliness, always whines about being dateless, rejects girls at a higher standard than him, and still he scores repeatedly. Fail.
** But unlike the George case, there is certainly a high ratio of on-screen rejections to on-screen incidents when he does score. And when he does score with an attractive female, he quite obviously feels that he's "getting lucky" rather than "this is something that happens to him all the time." And George's women are [[Girl of the Week|(short-term)]] girlfriends, while with Bud there's usually a sense that he would have just as much trouble getting a second date as he does getting a first. As for the whining, Bud's real problem is that, when Kelly wants to insult him, she uses his involuntary celibacy as her go-to first talking point.
* Xander Harris in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' who spent most of the series in a long-term committed relationships with either Cordelia (early on) or Anya (Season 4 to the end). Also, he has a one night stand with Faith and Willow wanted him.
** In the first couple of seasons it's a running joke that he does get dates - but they're all with demons disguised as women.
** As of the Season 8 continuation-of-the-show comic series, Buffy confesses her love for Xander. He turns her down, since he's now in a relationship with Buffy's sister as he believes Buffy has just finally gotten to the settle-for-the-best-friend option (after "trying girls", mind you, so he might be right.) Earlier in the comic he was dating a Slayer named Renee, who {{spoiler|was killed during a mission in Japan}}.
* Despite the title of her show, ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' manages to have plenty of cute guys pining after her. No, she's [[Hollywood Homely|not really ugly]], but she dresses like a clown on acid.
* Brian Hackett of ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]'' dated many beautiful women over the course of the show's run. For most of the show, he was [[The Casanova]], but for some reason, the last couple of seasons seemed to have a lot of jokes about how he was having trouble scoring dates.
* [[Lampshaded]] on ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' when [[Hollywood Nerd]] Justin asks his brother "Why does everyone think I don't date; remember the centaur, the werewolf and the Goth Girl?" The "goth girl" was in fact his established girlfriend for a several-episode arc.
** This is actually creeping into [[Unwanted Harem]] territory.
** This is largely due to the [[Relationship Writing Fumble|utter inability]] of the show's writers to convincingly ship Justin with [[Brother-Sister Incest|anyone other than Alex]]. And the one time they DID manage it, they turned right around and [[Put Onon a Bus Toto Hell|put her on a bus to Hell]] within five episodes.
* Liz Lemon on ''[[30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]''. She's dated Jon Hamm, for goodness' sake.
** 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.
Line 72:
* 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.
* Malcolm and Reese on ''[[Malcolm in The Middle (TV)|Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]''
* [[Frasier (TV)|Frasier]], who despite having a [[Girl of the Week|seemingly endless supply of beautiful and sophisticated women going out with him]], is often said to be unable to get a date.
** Frasier's problem is generally that he usually has trouble holding onto a girlfriend, usually due to some [[Not What It Looks Like|contrived circumstance]] he happens to fall into in her presence.
* Carlton in ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel -Air]]''.
* Ted Mosbey's love life in ''[[How I Met Your Mother (TV)|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).
* Brooke Shields (!) in ''[[Suddenly Susan]]''.
* "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 (TV)|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 Withwith a Crush]] in the form of a nerd who even at one point blackmails her for her panties.
* Freddie on ''[[ICarly (TV)|I Carly]]'' averts this, in both ways. He is never considered to be completely inept, but neither is he constantly dating insanely hot girls. 1 date was a [[Femme Fatale]] who was using him to break up their webshow, a second was with a twin he only asked out to prove that it was a trick being played by the original twin, he went to a dance with a wizard that ended poorly, and finally a date with a girl he wasn't interested in due to being forced into a triple date. The only time he's been with a girl he ''really'' likes, it's Carly, but he had been recently hit by a truck and was stuck in bed and then hobbling around on crutches. He also ended their brief relationship because he was worried Carly only liked him because he saved her from the truck.
* Leonard from ''[[The Big Bang Theory (TV)|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 (TV)|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 (TV)|Saturday Night Live]]''.
** Also from ''Saturday Night Live'', [http://hulu.com/watch/4138/saturday-night-live-not-gettin-any ''Not Gettin' Any''].
* 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.
* Skippy Handelman on ''[[Family Ties (TV)|Family Ties]]''
* Cliff Clavin during the first 6 seasons of ''[[Cheers (TV)|Cheers]]''
 
 
Line 112:
* 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]].
* Meg Griffin on ''[[Family Guy]]''. She's very unpopular, yet manages to hook up with/date at least: Doug (Prick Up Your Ears), the nudist neighbor she liked, Mayor Adam West, Kevin Swanson, Michael, a medical student, Anthony (Go, Stewie, Go) as well as being pursued by Neil Goldman and [[Sex Asas Rite of -Of-Passage|losing her virginity]] on live national television to Jimmy Fallon during the opening of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.
** 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.
* Reverend Rod Putty on ''[[Moral Orel]]''.
** In fact, his daughter Stephanie's conception was when her mother, Gladys Foamwire impregnated herself by stealing Reverend Putty's [[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms|used tissues]].
 
{{reflist}}
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Hollywood_Dateless"