Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,199
edits
My Beloved Smother: Difference between revisions
moved new example to end of section per standard guidelines
m (update links) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (moved new example to end of section per standard guidelines) |
||
| (15 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''I have some issues with my beloved [[Freudian Slip|smother]]'' -- '''[[Trope Namer|mother!!]]'''
|'''Principal Seymour Skinner''', ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''}}
Mothers who are a bit too... controlling. Usually (but not always), they are the mothers of sons, and for whatever reasons can have a bit of trouble cutting the apron strings; as a result, no matter how old the boy (or, for added humor value, man) is, he'll be [[Meddling Parents|mothered relentlessly]], his mother absolutely smothering him with parental affection... and authority. Using either carrot or stick, his mother will go to any lengths to make sure that, whether he wants to or not, he's not going to be leaving his mother's embrace any time soon. Any attempts on his part will usually result in a passive-aggressive guilt trip for trying to break away and do his own thing. Her poor son, as a result of such domination and badgering, usually ends up a [[Momma's Boy]]. For some reason, a lot of these mothers are [[Jewish Mother|Jewish]]. (Although they are also oftentimes Catholic, serving double-duty as a conduit for Catholic Guilt.)
Any [[Love Interest]] that her son may attract will be immediately regarded as a threat and a rival for the son's love by the '''Beloved Smother''', and the woman will be belittled, harassed and spied-on to varying degrees of obsession. If her son happens to break free and marry the woman he loves, then that unfortunate woman will find herself coping with the Mother-In-Law From Hell, who will be hyper-critical, dismissive and condemning of everything she does to the point where it may even break the marriage apart if her son doesn't do something to curtail his mother's interference.
In the most favorable depiction, the '''Beloved Smother''' genuinely does love her son and wants him to be happy; she just has a little bit of trouble letting him go, and her plot arc usually revolves around the gradual realization that he's his own man and that she needs to cut the apron strings for his own good (and, usually, hers as well), and that his moving away from her doesn't equal that he doesn't love her in return. At worst, she's a [[Control Freak]] [[Evil Matriarch]] who will stop at nothing -- [[Ax Crazy|not even murder]]
It is rarer for daughters in fiction to have trouble with the Smother, but not unheard of; if the girl is unlucky enough to have a Smother, then things will be much the same (although rather than actively preventing their children from having a life outside of her, a Smother who has a daughter will usually instead start badgering her about why they aren't married and [[I Want Grandkids|providing her with grandchildren]] on a constant basis). With daughters, however, the dominance may sometimes have an edge of competition as well, as ''they'' tend to view their ''own daughters'' as rivals. Smothers of daughters are often ex-[[Alpha Bitch
Like most tropes, it's a [[Truth in Television]]; Psychiatrist Carl Jung identified this archetype as the Terrible Mother, an over-nurturer who, in smothering her child, ends up stifling them to the point of hampering individuation and personal growth.
Line 23 ⟶ 24:
{{examples}}
* By contrast to [["What the Hell?" Dad|Patrick Zala]], Ezaria Joule from ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' is this to her son Yzak. Ironically, despite the fact she has similiar beliefs to Patrick, this actually humanizes her, mostly because she does care about her flesh and blood beyond a means to her projected ends.▼
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* By contrast to [["What the Hell?" Dad|Patrick Zala]], Ezaria Joule from [[Gundam Seed]] is this to her son Yzak. Ironically, despite the fact she has similiar beliefs to Patrick, this actually humanizes her, mostly because she does care about her flesh and blood beyond a means to her projected ends.
* One ''[[Slayers]]'' OVA is based around Lina and Naga being hired by a rich, horrifically controlling noblewoman to help her son Jeffrey become a knight. Jeffrey has delusions of being a [[Knight in Shining Armor]], but is immensely sickly and kind of a dip. Insult him, however, and his (masked) mother will crush you with a giant hammer. While yelling about [[Mama Bear|how you dared insult her boy]]. {{spoiler|Ultimately, Jeffrey confronts a local [[Evil Overlord]]... his long-lost father, who just couldn't put up with that woman anymore.}}
* Meshou, Ritsu Sohma's mother in ''[[Fruits Basket]]''. She's one of the few Sohma parents [[Abusive Parents|who doesn't abuse or neglect their cursed kids]], [[Parents as People|but despite her good intentions]] she's a [[Shrinking Violet]] who apologizes for everything, thus Ritsu ends up just as insecure and prone to ditziness and apologies as his mom.
** Kyo Sohma's mother counts, too, in an even ''less'' healthy way. She basically kept him indoors 90% of his life, claiming it was "because he was so cute she didn't want anybody else to see him," constantly checked to make sure {{spoiler|the beads that keep him from transforming were still in place}}, and in general kept up a very [[Stepford Smiler|forced display of motherly love]] towards him. {{spoiler|This only compounded his issues later on since he could ''tell'' even as a child that she was faking and in actuality was terrified of him. Thankfully {{ [[Character Development]] got over it}}.}}
* In ''[[Spirited Away]]'', Yubaba keeps her baby sheltered in a room, telling him he must never leave because of germs, and relentlessly indulges him, producing a [[Spoiled Brat]]. {{spoiler|When he is transformed into a mouse and his mother does not recognize him, he goes with Chihiro, becoming her friend, and on their return, shows his mother that he can stand on his own and demands that she be nice to Chihiro.}}
* ''[[RahXephon]]'': Maya Kamina is well-intentioned but extremely smothering of her son Ayato. {{spoiler|Or better said, her nephew, since Ayato's biological mom is actually her twin sister Quon.}}
* Furoku Tsukumo, mother of [[Teen Genius]] Susumu on ''[[Wandaba Style]]'' falls into this. She's the [[Designated Villain]] of the series because she wants Susumu, who left home to conduct his eco-friendly space experiments, to acknowledge that [[Conspiracy Theorist|the 1969 moon landing wasn't faked]] and to recognize her maternal authority. He '''is''' [[Teen Genius|only thirteen]], after all.
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': Yui, in a benign sense - it's pretty much a given that if Yui shows up in any ''NGE'' work as an actual character (games, fanfic, Episode 26), it's abundantly clear that she wears the pants in the Ikari household and Gendō and Shinji simply follow her lead.
** [[Nobody Dies|'''BABIES!!''']]
* ''[[Skip Beat!]]'': Ren's mother is very overprotective to the point that {{spoiler|Kuon, as he was called by birth, runs away to Japan and becomes Ren Tsuraga to escape her influence}}
* Chichi in ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' ends up as this to Gohan. She mellows out a bit with Goten.
* In a ''[[Detective Conan]]'' case, Akio's mother was this. So much that {{spoiler|she wants to save her beloved Akio from being imprisoned after [[Self-Made Orphan|killing his apparently abusive dad]]... by [[Madwoman in the Attic|locking him in the basement of their home]]. Akio ends up crossing the [[Despair Event Horizon]] since he ''does'' want to turn himself in, and it's up to Conan to help him convince his mother to let him atone.}}
==
* Used many times by cartoonist [[Will Eisner]], to the highest degree imaginable in the story "Mortal Combat" in his graphic novel "Invisible People".
* Chas's very domineering (and supernaturally charged) bed-ridden mother in ''[[Hellblazer]]''. {{spoiler|It's implied that she killed her husband, and Chas is only free of her domination after John kills her familiar.}} Naturally, his own wife is just as controlling, albeit ambulatory, neater in dress and habit, and a [[Muggle]].
* Flash Forward's mother in ''[[Doom Patrol]]''. It's telling that he, an irreverent braggart and smart alec, is immediately cowed when he realizes his mom has his phone number. She also corrects his grammar over the phone.
* The ''[[Batman]]'' villain Hush's mother was like this, in addition to having a drunken and abusive father. When, as a child, he attempted to kill them by cutting their brakes, his mother not only survived, but the incident made her even ''more'' clinging and controlling, demanding her son's constant presence. When he heard Bruce Wayne's parents were killed and he wouldn't have to deal with that, his main thought was "That lucky bastard.".
* The title character in Mel Lazarus' ''[[Momma]]'' could be the poster <s>child</s> mother for this trope.▼
* Jeremy's mom in ''[[Zits]]'' sometimes these exhibits these tendencies, although whether this is actually how she is or merely how he ''sees'' her is typically open to question.▼
* Almost every mother that appears at length in ''[[Bloom County]]'' fits this trope: Bobbi's mother, Steve's mother, Lola's mother, Opus' mother... (In fact, Opus' mother issues are ''so'' severe that one series of strips depicted his imaginary feminine ideal as the embodiment of this trope.)▼
* Grossout's mother from ''[[Scare Tactics (comics)|Scare Tactics]]'' was definitely one of these.
* "Mummy's Boy" was a strip that ran in the British comic ''Monster Fun'' (and later ''[[Buster]]''). The title character was forced to wear a bonnet and baby clothes and was pushed around in a pram by his overbearing mother, even though he was almost a teenager. Everything Boy wanted to do was "too dangerous", or "for bigger boys". The latest gadgets and games he yearned for were "too sharp" or "too difficult" for him - he was hopelessly swaddled.
Line 55 ⟶ 52:
** Somewhat subverted by the fact that Gothel is not Rapunzel's birth mother and that her original reason for taking her as a child was her life-restoring hair.
* The Other Mother in [[The Film of the Book]] ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]''.
* In ''[[Turning Red]]'', Ming is a mix of this and [[Education Mama]] to her daughter Meilin, for the latter's increasing embarrassment.
== Film -- Live-action ==
* Arguably, Violet's mother in ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)|Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]''
** To be fair, Violet seems to enjoy it.
* The mom from ''[[A Christmas Story]]''. Especially with the younger kid. She wraps him in so many layers for the walk to school, he can't put his arms down. Even his freak out fear-crying doesn't faze her. Plus, the tolerance of his bizarre eating habits. Ralphie gets the smothering too, but to a lesser extent ("You'll shoot your eye out!").
Line 65 ⟶ 62:
* Lionel's mother in ''[[Braindead]]''. Even when she turns into a zombie, her son is unable to confront her until the very end.
* ''[[Ice Princess]]''. Both the main character's mother and [[The Rival]]'s mother are forcing their own ambitions upon their daughters. Even the parents of [[Dysfunction Junction|secondary and background characters]] seem to follow this trope.
* Jack Spade's mother in ''[[I'm Gonna Git You Sucka]]'', who insists that he put on a sweater before he goes out and fights against men twice her size to protect him. When he goes up against Mr. Big, she shows up with a shotgun to join in. Her son eventually breaks free by locking her in a closet until the fight's
* [[God Save Us From the Queen|The Black Queen]] in ''[[Mirror Mask]]''. Her smothering behaviour is why the [[Rebellious Princess]] ran away, and used for one hell of a [[Brainwashed]] sequence.
{{quote|'''Black Queen:''' You mean, let her choose her own food... her own clothes, make her own decisions. Love her, don't try to possess her?
'''Helena:''' That's exactly what I mean
'''Black Queen:''' ''([[Beat]])'' Absolutely out of the question. }}
* ''[[Monster-in-Law]]'' pits a Beloved Smother played by [[Jane Fonda]] against the woman her son is engaged to, played by [[Jennifer Lopez]]. However
* In
* Billy Bibbit in ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'' is a particularly dark example, as {{spoiler|the Big Nurse's threat of telling his mom about his sexual escapades in the final part [[Driven to Suicide|drives him to suicide]]}}
** To be fair, we don't see or hear his mother in the story; we only know that Billy is terrified of her finding out about his sex life. We don't know why - perhaps she really is smothering, but then perhaps Nurse Ratched has been spreading lies and false insinuations about her.
* There's a Smother in the 1987 indie comedy ''[[Nice Girls Don't Explode]]'', who fakes a bizarre form of [[Spontaneous Combustion]]/[[Pyrokinesis]] afflicting her daughter to keep her from meeting men.
* In ''[[Now, Voyager]]'', Charlotte Vale's mother is a particularly nasty version of this trope, controlling her daughter and keeping her from being independent through emotional abuse.
* The mother of John Candy's policeman character in ''Only The Lonely'', right up to the guilt trips and the relentless tormenting of the son's shy, withdrawn [[Love Interest]]. Many of the guilt trips even occurred within her own son's imagination, as he'd guilt-trip ''himself'' with vivid fantasies of all the horrible things that might happen to her without him around (inevitably ending with a close-up of her ironically wishing him a good time with whatever he was doing at that moment).
** The film
* Mrs Bates from ''[[Psycho]]'' who manages to smother Norman throughout the story {{spoiler|even though she's dead}}.
** It is actually suggested that {{spoiler|the relationship between Norman and his real mother was something of an inversion of this trope, with him being obsessively dependent on and possessive of her despite her wish for him to be more independent, ultimately leading him to murder her and her lover as he did not want to share her.}}
* Hitchcock gives us another nightmare mother in ''[[Notorious]]''. Alex's mother not only seems to be instrumental in his Nazi activities, but she responds very badly to his falling for Alicia.
* There's an actual movie called ''Smother''. Care to guess what the mother's like?
* ''[[
* Owen's mother from ''[[Throw Momma from the Train]]''.
* The mother of Bobby Boucher ([[Adam Sandler]]'s character) in ''[[The Waterboy]]''. She eventually realizes that Bobby needs to have his own life, and even helps him get to the big game at the end.
* In ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (novel)|The Manchurian Candidate]]'' Raymond Shaw, a war hero, is dominated by his mother Eleanor to the point where she's able to force him to break up with the girl he's fallen in love with. This winds up central to the plot as {{spoiler|being so conditioned to obey his mother leaves him ripe for Soviet brainwashing. His trigger is even a Queen Of Diamonds playing card because it reminds him of his mother. Oh, and his mother is the Communist agent who's feeding him his orders.}}
* Sam Witwicky's mom in the ''[[Transformers]]'' movies.
* The Mexican [[Mind Screw]] ''[[Santa Sangre]]'' (''Holy Blood''), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, is about an armless
* The mother of Vicente in the
* In the movie ''[[Heartbreakers]]'', [[Sigourney Weaver]] plays a Smother, although quite tame by the rest of the examples on this page. She sincerely doesn't want her daughter's heart to be broken. However, she will con and lie to her daughter to achieve this. But near the end, {{spoiler|when she sees that her daughter truly was in love with their last con, the con that the Smother drugged, she comes clean, and lets her daughter live her life.}}
* Howard Hughes' mother in ''[[The Aviator]]'', who caused his [[Super OCD]].
Line 95 ⟶ 91:
{{quote|'''Gordon/Fester:''' ''(before opening the book, 'The Hurricane')'' "You were a terrible mother! ''(laughs)'' THERE! I SAID IT!!!}}
* Nina's mother in ''[[Black Swan]]'' who cripples her daughter's development by her overbearing parenting style and interference.
* Jessica Lange plays Martha, a [[Complete Monster]] ''and'' [[Evil Matriarch]] version of the trope in the movie ''Hush'', opposite Gwyneth Paltrow as her daughter in law Helen. Not only
* ''[[Awake (film)|Awake]]'': Clayton's mother Lillith's over-protective nature is the main reason that he is afraid of telling her about his engagement, as he knows she would never accept Sam. She also tries to get him to drop Jack, his best friend, as his heart surgeon in favor of an acquaintance of hers who is at the top of the field. {{spoiler|As it turns out, she was right on both counts.}}
* ''Almost'' the premise of ''[[J. Edgar]]''.
* Rose DeWitt Bukater's mother in ''[[Titanic]]'' is a patronizing bitch who wants to make sure that her daughter is a [[Proper Lady]].
== Literature ==
Line 104 ⟶ 100:
* A variation on this character regularly crops up in [[Stephen King]]'s work.
** Eddie Kaspbrak's mother from [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[IT]]'' was like this. He eventually [[Like Parent, Like Spouse|married a woman who was the exact same way]].
** Frannie Goldsmith has one in ''[[The Stand]]'', as does Susan Norton in ''[['Salem's Lot]]'', John Leandro in ''[[The Tommyknockers]]'', there's another in ''Rage'', yet another in his ''Rose Red'' TV miniseries, and the crazy-mother stand-in in ''[[Misery]]'', not to mention ''[[Carrie]]'''s own crazy religious fanatic mother.
** In ''[[The Dead Zone]]'', Frank Dodd's mother is a particularly horrible example. In a flashback, when he had his first erection, she was so appalled that she attached a clothespin to it for hours.
* ''[[Discworld]]'' example with Nanny Ogg. She is ''very much'' like this with most of the Ogg family, especially her own sons. Including Jason, the blacksmith who is built like a troll and is the greatest farrier in the world. She also seems incapable of seeing her cat, Greebo, as anything other than a tiny ball of fluff, despite Greebo being the meanest, nastiest creature within several hundred miles of Nanny's house. To her unlucky daughters-in-law, however, she verges on [[Evil Matriarch]].
Line 111 ⟶ 107:
* In [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[Till We Have Faces]]'', a [[Twice-Told Tale|retelling]] of Cupid and Psyche, Orual, Psyche's sister, raised her since [[Death by Childbirth|their mother's death]], and is a [[Promotion to Parent|rather zealous mother figure]].
* Many of Saki's stories, the best probably being [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/sk-vashtar.html "Sredni Vashtar"]. Interestingly, the Smother is not always the biological mother (in the aforementioned "Sredni Vashtar", it's the protagonist's adult cousin, appointed his guardian).
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' features, among other iffy mother figures, Lysa Arryn, the widow of Jon II Arryn. She's afraid the same assassins who killed her husband will come after her
** Not to mention that {{spoiler|it eventually comes out that ''she'' was the one who killed her husband, so even that justifiable reason for her over-protectiveness isn't actually justified. Hell, she killed Jon ''because'' he wanted Robert to be fostered with another lord, and she couldn't stand the thought of her baby going anywhere else...}}
** Then there's Cersei Lannister, [[God Save Us From the Queen|Queen Regent of Westeros]], who's lived her entire life under the proverbial Sword of Damocles in the form of a prophecy that says she'll have three children, they'll each be crowned and die shortly thereafter and she herself will be strangled to death by her own younger brother. It's little wonder she goes into [[Mama Bear]] overdrive from that point on, but it looks like [[You Can't Fight Fate|she can't fight fate]], as everything in the prophecy is starting to come true, right down to {{spoiler|her two younger brothers nursing the thought of killing her eventually, and her eldest son Joffrey
* Caroline Compson in ''[[The Sound and
* Kareen to Pat Rin in the ''[[Liaden Universe]]'' novels.
* There is actually a book ''entitled'' ''My Beloved Smother''. It's a mother-daughter case.
* Norman Page's mother in ''[[Peyton Place]]'', who controls every aspect of his life and forbids him to spend time with girls. (Her harsh punishments have disturbing [[Parental Incest|sexual]] connotations as well.) Her overbearing treatment is implied to contribute to Norman's nervous breakdown when he's away from her for the first time, as a soldier in [[World War Two]].
* [[The Belgariad|Polgara the Sorceress]] seems to teeter on the edge of this in her relationships with the Heirs of Irongrip, the ''entire country'' of Arendia, and just about everybody else who crosses her path. She keeps calling people 'dear' and telling them they're 'good boys'.
Line 122 ⟶ 118:
* [[Complete Monster|Isabel Kabra]] in ''[[The 39 Clues]]'', {{spoiler|to the point of threatening to KILL her kids if they won't do what she says}}.
* Naturally enough for a [[Mama Bear]], [[Harry Potter|Molly Weasley]] has moments of this, particularly with regards to her eldest son Bill's relationship with Fleur Delacour. Unusually for this trope, she gets over her initial doubts about Fleur and the two subsequently get along quite well.
* The ''[[Codex Alera
* ''[[In Death]]'': A number of female villains are this, like in the books ''Memory In Death'' and ''Born In Death''. At least one of these villains have created [[Mommy Issues]]. [[Squick]].
* In [[L. M. Montgomery]]'s ''[[Jane of Lantern Hill]]'', Jane's grandmother meddled with her mother's life to keep her with her.
** In another series by her, ''[[Emily of New Moon]]'', Terry's mother loves her son to the point of hating anything that she feels he might love more, even going so far as to poison his dog.
* Madame Raquin in ''[[Therese Raquin]]'', though she doesn't really mean to be. But she babies Camille and rules over Thérèse.
* In [[P. G.
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Mother And Son]]''
* On ''[[Angel]]'', Phantom Dennis's mother walled him up rather than let him run off & get married. {{spoiler|His spirit destroys her ghost}}.
* Lucille Bluth of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' with her youngest son, Buster.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has a mother-daughter variant, where Catherine Madison pressures her daughter to be just like her. When Amy refuses, Catherine uses magic to [[Grand Theft Me|switch places with her daughter]].
** See Spike, from the same show. Smothering went sideways into sick, evil-land when newly minted vampire Spike turns his own mother.
*** Not really evil given that he did it to stop her from dying. (Really a surprisingly heroic thing for a vampire to do); the sick and wrong comes when Spike's mother, who is of course now possessed by a demon, tries to shag him. Yeah, he's got family issues.
*** She claims she couldn't wait to get rid of him.
* Michael Westen's mom Madeleine in ''[[Burn Notice]]'', at least in season 1. She eventually becomes a low-action sort of [[Mama Bear]], to the point of standing up to the FBI to protect him. It's a thoroughly suitable retirement for [[Cagney and Lacey|Christine Cagney]].
* Pike's mum in ''[[Dad's
* ''[[Jon and Kate Plus Eight]]'': Kate Gosselin.
** [[Real Life Comics]] says it [
* Most American sitcoms from the late 90's to nowadays have at least one of these:
** It seems to be an American thing! Over here we used to read about how American culture is 'Mom (sic) and Apple Pie'. That would be true if it was all about '''hating''' Mom! It's on the far side of unlikely that mothers actually are smothers in the proportion that's true of film and TV.
Line 147 ⟶ 143:
** George and Jerry's moms from ''[[Seinfeld]]''.
** Marie from ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]''
*** Marie scares me so much that I have decided that once married, I will move somewhere that requires my in-laws to take a train, plane, and boat (in that order) to get to me.
**** Seriously, this trope could've easily been named "The Marie".
** Lois from ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]''... sorta. The 'Beloved' part is questionable, but there is a line of dialog that I don't want to paraphrase stating that he's not escaping her influence for a
*** 'When I pick you a wife I'll let her give you your precious space.'
*** You really think that Lois is bad? Dabney's mother is absolutely horrible. She's conditioned him to be outside of her shower with a towel ready for when she comes out. A lot of their dialogue really cranks up the creepiness-factor, with all of the unresolved sexual tension it sometimes seems they have.
Line 157 ⟶ 153:
**** Let's not forget Stevie's mom. 'Stevie! Stevie! Stevie! Stevie! Stevie! Stevie!!
** Carl Winslow of ''[[Family Matters]]'' accuses Harriet of being like this, which she shoots down with, "Take a long look at me. And a long look at you. Now, which of us looks more likely to ''smother'' somebody?"
** Al's mom on ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' is said to be one, though she never appears onscreen.
* An episode of ''[[My So-Called Life]]'' has the mother-daughter variant, where Patty is competing with her mother throughout.
* Freddie's mom on ''[[iCarly]].'' She entirely subverted the type with her eager approval of the first girl to show interest in him...and then whipsawed back to type by saying "..this may ''never'' happen again!". He was in [[Junior High|eighth grade]] when this all happened.
** She also pulls out a "With a Girl!" stinger, and screamed "Why won't you love my son!" at Carly (his crush). [[Butt Monkey|Poor Freddie]].
*** Not to mention that she repeatedly treats him for things that he doesn't need treatment for (in an earlier season she was giving him tick baths because they "grew in [his] leg hair," to which Freddie responds "I don't
*** And wouldn't you know it, in Season 3 Freddie finally has a shot at the girl of his dreams, Carly Shay. Of course, Mrs. Benson has flip flopped her opinion on Carly, thinking she's ruined Freddie's "Boy Chemistry" and doesn't want them together.
*** Not to mention the fact that she blamed Carly for Freddy getting hurt when he saved her of his own volition, even wishing that ''she'' had gotten hit by the truck he'd pushed her out of the way of in "iSaved Your Life".
* One episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' is about a pair of newlyweds who initially plan on selling the husband's old house where he used to live with his mother. However, when they go back to give the house a last check-over, the wife discovers that the mother's spirit is so strong that the house is being gradually transported back to the time of her husband's childhood. At the end, the mother's ghost appears and tells the wife that it's her son who's unwilling to let go...and he reverts back to the form of a child and tells her to get out. Takes jilting to a whole new level!
* Shows up frequently in ''[[Law
** One episode of ''SVU'' from Season 2 had [[Margot Kidder]] star as the Smother to [[Chad Lowe]]'s unbalanced son. Turns out that not only was she too controlling, she
*** In another episode in Season 5 an overprotective mother who has convinced his older son to kill his younger brother, because she doesn't want them to go into foster care. She claims that she was protecting them, and considers foster care hellish, but wants nothing more than to control their lives.
** Olivia's mother doesn't take it to homicidal levels, but she's pretty awful too, being an abusive alcoholic. Olivia once recounted an incident when she wanted to leave home and move in with her
** In Season 12, Episode 1, the little girl sends an IM referring to her "smother" explicitly, it is later revealed that {{spoiler|her mother and father had lost another little girl 10 years ago and had adopted this one to look, dress, and act just like her, going so far as to get her a nose job and dye her hair}}
* Stephanie Forrester on ''[[The Bold And The Beautiful]]'', though only with Ridge, her eldest son. Her smothering affection and desire to control his life has lead to numerous characters suggesting that she's actually in love with her own son. At one point she went as far as to frame Ridge's paternal half brother for a murder Ridge committed - and justifying it.
* Ted the lawyer from ''[[Scrubs]]''. Many, many times he would be overheard giving lovey-dovey
** And how they share a bed.
*** And how they ride on the same bicycle. And it's not a tandem.
Line 178 ⟶ 174:
* Jack Donaghy's mother in ''[[30 Rock]]''.
* Rhoda's mother Ida, on ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'' (and later ''Rhoda'').
* Mrs. B on ''[[
* Donna's mum in ''[[Doctor Who]]''. Jackie Tyler could be a bit like this as well, but she was ''nothing'' compared to Sylvia Noble, who wanted her to apply for a job she didn't want to improve her chances of getting married, assumed she was playing a silly trick when she disappeared from her wedding, and kept putting her down while she was trying to put her life back together. The season finale, though, made it quite clear [[Tear Jerker|that she really did care for Donna]].
* Becoming a sociopathic killer? Blame being raised by your smothering {{spoiler|(adoptive)(?)}} mother. It's what Sylar realized in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''.
* Heylia in ''[[Weeds]]''.
* Eric Forman's mother, Kitty, in ''[[That '70s Show]].'' She went into a depression after learning her son had sex.
* In ''[[That's So Raven]]'', Victor Baxter, the father of Raven's family, is like a male version of this. He repeatedly signs he and Cory up for father-son whatever classes, which normally turn out bad. He also once opened up a mobile restaurant called "Baxter and Son" because he thought it was what Cory wanted. He apparently forgot that it was HIM that put up the sign.
* Eli's deceased mother (to some extent) in ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]''. Whatever her behavior was like in life it seem to have amped up since she's discovered her son can communicate with the dead.
Line 189 ⟶ 185:
* Debbie Novotny of ''[[Queer as Folk]] '' behaved like this not only to her son Michael, but to her son's best friend Brian, and her own younger brother Vic. Come to think of it, she did this to the entire population of Liberty Avenue.
** Interestingly, Brian's own mother Joanie is the exact opposite of this and coupled with Brian's father being an abusive alcoholic, it's implied that the only reason Brian didn't turn out more screwed up than he did is because Debbie cared for him when he was a teenager.
** Also her taking care of her "sunshine" Justin after he got kicked out home after coming out - not to mention she did quite a bit for Justin and his mom to
** And her still lingering
* ''[[Degrassi]]'' brings us Mrs. Torres, mother to Drew and Adam Torres. She is the representative of the school board, but those duties come after running Drew's life and lamenting Adam's choices. Well, that's on a nice day, on a mean day she uses the school board's power to help control Drew's life and lament Adam's choices.
* Erica Kane of ''[[All My Children]]'' could sometimes be smothering and overbearing with her daughter Bianca.
* ''[[Sex and the City]]''{{'}}s Bunny, mother of Charlotte's first husband Trey. To the point where she saw nothing wrong with barging into their bedroom in the middle of the night to rub Vick's on his chest (he had a cold), or in the morning to wake him up as though he were ten years old instead of thirty-something. (It gets even worse when you realize that she had to get out of her own bed, leave her place and drive over to their place to do this
* Characters played by Kyle MacLachlan seem to attract these moms. Orson Hodges's "crazy mother" Gloria from ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' was both this ''and'' an [[Evil Matriarch]], completely obsessed with controlling
* The Swedish sitcom ''[[Solsidan]]'' has an example of this. The main character Alexander Lövström buys his mothers' house in the first episode and then she just won't let go leading his pregnant girlfriend Anna to become very annoyed at Alexander for not telling her off. She keeps doing this for the entire series at the moment of this edit. This may change if more seasons are produced.
* Greg Sanders in ''[[CSI]]''. Since he was an only child, his mother became so overprotective she never let him play sports in high school and once took him to the ER for a bloody nose. After he was savagely beaten trying to stop a crime, he was worried at how she would react considering he never told her he transferred from the lab to field work.
** And speaking of ''[[CSI]]'', lest we forget ruthless attorney Diana Chase from season six's
* This was a running gag with one of Sally Rogers' recurring dates, Herman Glimpshire, on ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]''.
== Music ==
* [[Played for Laughs]] with Andy Summers's dissonant "Mother
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* The title character in Mel Lazarus' ''[[Momma]]'' could be the poster <s>child</s> mother for this trope.
▲* Jeremy's mom in ''[[Zits]]'' sometimes
▲* Almost every mother that appears at length in ''[[Bloom County]]'' fits this trope: Bobbi's mother, Steve's mother, Lola's mother, Opus' mother... (In fact, Opus' mother issues are ''so'' severe that one series of strips depicted his imaginary feminine ideal as the embodiment of this trope.)
== Rock Opera ==
* Mother from [[Pink Floyd]]'s ''[[The Wall]]'', who has a song devoted to her and this kind of thing.
{{quote|''Mama's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you.
''Mama wont let anyone dirty get through.
''Mama's gonna wait up until you get in.
''Mama will always find out where you've been.
''Mama's gonna keep baby healthy and clean.
''Ooooh babe oooh babe ooh babe,
''You'll always be baby to me. }}
* The Queen in [[The Decemberists]]'
** Which ends up being a major driving force in his decision to sacrifice his own life to save Margaret. Mothers beware.
* The mother from [[The Who]]'s ''[[Tommy]]'' can be interpreted as one. Man, those rock stars have [[Freudian Excuse|mommy-issues!]]
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''Advanced [[Dungeons
* The Qedeshah from ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'', an [[Always Female|all female]] Bloodline that incorporates the scariest aspects of motherhood.
** [[Completely Missing the Point|I always thought that they were sweet old vampire ladies.]]
** To various degrees, members of the Circle of The Crone are like this. They celebrate their "[[Mother of a Thousand Young|mother of monsters]]" nature, and even possesses a ritual that allows a vampire to give birth. [[Nausea Fuel|The details... aren't for the faint of the heart]]. Ironically, the Qedeshahs are ''not'' part of the Crones.
*
** Also a defining quality of the Yozi Kimbery. Her most well known jouten (an ocean) was based around the symbolism of literally drowning people in her affection. She constantly breeds all manner of creatures that she'll either love obsessively or hate for not returning her affections to the degree that she considers suitable. This also tends to be rather cyclic; it's implied that Kimbery births and loves purely for the sake of having a reason to hate and kill the things she creates that cannot satisfy her desires.
** A particularly comprehensive fan interpretation of the [[Wild Mass Guessing|maybe-Yozi]] [http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?title=Cytherea_(FrivYeti) Cytherea]{{Dead link}} portrays her this way.
Line 236 ⟶ 238:
{{quote|"So, it's come at last. At last it's come, the day I knew would come at last has come, at last. My sonny-boy doesn't need me any longer."}}
::and it only gets more over-the-top from there.
* ''[[Gypsy]]'', along with the memoirs of [[Gypsy Rose Lee]] that it is based on, exemplifies this one. Made worse in that the Smother in question is also a [[Stage Mom]].
* In ''[[Once Upon a Mattress]]'', Queen Aggravain tells her son she wants him to get married, but only to a ''real'' princess, and she keeps creating impossible tests for the princesses who want to marry her son so he never has to leave. The King can hardly argue with her, as he [[The Speechless|can't speak]].
* Lady Bracknell from [[Oscar Wilde]]'s ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]''.
* One of the main plot points of Leonard Gershe's ''Butterflies Are Free'', in which the mother (played brilliantly by Eileen Heckart, both on stage and in the 1972 film adaptation, for which she won the Oscar) fights desperately against her blind twenty-something son's desire for independence after he moves out. {{spoiler|It all works out okay.}}
== Video Games ==
Line 257 ⟶ 258:
* The Witch in ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest for The Wicked]]'' wanted to keep her children so safe {{spoiler|that [http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03-50.html she killed and ate them, to keep them safe inside]. Then she started to kidnap children under the delusion that they were hers and had [http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03-51.html sneaked off somehow].}} When the heroes are defeating her, she begs for mercy because [[I Have a Family|I have children!]].
* In one ''[[Chopping Block]]'' strip, Butch offered his mother a pillow with "Happy Smother Day" written on it. His relationship with her is mostly a parody of ''Psycho'', with Norman's timid obedience replaced with not-giving-a-crap.
{{quote|It was midnight: An hour past curfew. Butch knew he was going to catch hell from Mother when he got home. You'd think fourteen years of being a mummified corpse hidden away in the
* Hazel Green from ''[[
* [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1568#comic This] ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' strip.
== Web Original ==
* Another mother-daughter
* Zaboo's mom in ''[[The Guild]]''. She breast fed him till he was eleven, made him go with her into the ladies' room until he was fifteen, and ''still'' [[Squick|gives him baths]]. You know I'm not kidding.
* Demeter to Persephone in ''[[
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]]'s abusive mother has made him think she's his world. And while his twin [[Ask That Guy With The Glasses]] fantasizes about killing her regularly, he still calls out for her when his usual music doesn't play and freaks him out.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[American Dad]]'': Francine in the episode
* Agnes Skinner in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', the [[Trope Namer]].
** Agnes actually plays around with the trope rather darkly when it was revealed Seymour is an impostor, and she actually disowned her real son primarily because [[Control Freak|he wasn't
** Marge gets tips of such magazine based on this, which has a picture of a mother holding a baby, [[Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You|with a gun aimed at the cover]].
* Cosmo's mother in ''[[The Fairly
* Todd from ''[[Code Monkeys]]''. Recently, it's become a full-blown [[Oedipus Rex|Oedipus Complex]] (as he has implied and outright stated that he is literally having sex with his own mother).
* Gazpacho's mother from ''[[Chowder]]'', even though we never see her onscreen. Gazpacho always complains about her though- albeit cautiously, since she might hear him.
* Morgan La Fey towards her son Mordred in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', especially after he breaks the eternal youth spell. As if the [[Brother-Sister Incest]] which lead to his birth hadn't been bad enough.
* Myra in regards to the titular [[The Venture Bros|Venture Bros]]. Nothing says motherly love like tying up a pair of pubescent boys and shoving your breasts in their face, screaming "LET MOMMY LOVE YOU". Although it's worth mentioning it was never totally confirmed she was the boys' mother.
** "Colonel Bud Manstrong, listen to your mother!". Bonus points for the episode she appears in being a parody of ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (novel)|The Manchurian Candidate]]'', with the movie being mentioned by name.
* Dr. Barber of ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]'' has a terrifying relationship with his tiny, unseen mother who lives in his dresser drawer.
* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' had a bird who had been held hostage by Lucius returned to his mother...who immediately ran right back into Lucius' grip when her mother proved way to annoying to deal with.
* In an episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'', "Lucky's" sister Myrna was like this -- she was very strict and disciplinary to her children; she wouldn't let them watch
* Early seasons of ''[[South Park]]'' did this a lot with
* ''[[Archer]]''. Picture [[Arrested Development (TV series)|Lucille Bluth]] above if she were not only your mother, but your spy-master as well.
== Real Life ==
* Ed Gein (in reference to his
* [http://eotd.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/8-august-1962-elizabeth-duncan/ Elizabeth Ann Duncan] loved her lawyer son, Frank. She loved him ''so'' much that she first tried to kill herself with meds when he tried to move away from home, then hired two men to murder Olga Kupczyk, her former nurse and the woman who dared marry him, take him away from her ''and'' be pregnant with Frank's child. After poor Olga suffered a [[Family-Unfriendly Death]] ([[Nightmare Fuel|pistol-whipped to almost death, then]] [[Buried Alive]]), Elizabeth was quickly arrested and charged; Frank spent many hours in the courtroom and filed many appeals on her behalf, trying to save her. He failed, and in
* [[Peter Sellers]]' mother Peg was so indulgent with her son (to be fair, she had lost her first child shortly after giving birth) that even as a young man, he was used to having her do things for him, much to the fascination of his friends/colleagues. His father Bill by contrast was quiet and meek. Her notable lack of discipline, even when he was bad, is largely seen as a (if not the) key reason Peter was often prone to childish, selfish behavior as an adult. She also was prone to interfering with Peter's love life, including his first two marriages. For all this, he never stopped loving her. He conducted seances to ask her advice after her death, while rejecting undergoing psychological analysis in part because it cast her in a bad light. In the biopic ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'', she gets a [[Historical Villain Upgrade]].
* Kate Gosselin from ''[[Jon and Kate Plus Eight]]''. Her children are too young for this trope to be in full effect, but given time...
Line 304 ⟶ 305:
[[Category:Just for Pun]]
[[Category:Always Female]]
[[Category:
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
| |||