Abhorrent Admirer: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

An [[Gonk|ugly and/or overweight female]] is noticeably attracted to a male protagonist. Maybe she's even a little forward about it. The protagonist realizes this, and is profoundly uncomfortable with the whole idea, but the female character either doesn't realize he's not interested or [[Mad Love|is undeterred]]. Yet the character is not just uncomfortable; he's shocked, horrified, or disgusted. Even a wave and a smile from her will be treated as a fate worse than death for the recipient. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* One ad for Pretzel M&M's has the pretzel trying to convince the M&M to hook up with an attractive woman across the party. The M&M protests, but the pretzel points out they exist to be eaten, "and I'd rather go with her than Hungry Eyes over here." The camera then pans back, showing a very unnerving man staring at them as "Hungry Eyes" plays.

 

* The very minor Tezuka anime and manga series ''[[Don Dracula]]'' has this as a [[Running Gag]]. [[Dracula]] prefers to subsist on the blood of beautiful women, and somehow never quite manages to grab one onscreen, but a grotesque (and overweight) young woman keeps popping up, determined to offer her neck and other... charms to the foreign nobleman.

* The "Sexy Ninja Tea Ladies", the stepfamily of the ninja Konatsu in ''[[Ranma ½]]''. Of the three [https://web.archive.org/web/20130702093620/http://www.majhost.com/gallery/misterq/misc/konatsu_sisters.jpg "Sexy Ninja Tea Ladies"], the best-looking and most feminine one was modeled after American actor [http://www.google.com/images?q=Edward+G.+Robinson Edward G. Robinson].

** Lum has Rei, her ex-fiancé from the Oni world, who may looks like a gorgeous bishonen in human form, but can [[Involuntary Shapeshifter|easily turns into a bull-tiger hybrid monster whenever excited]]. Not to mention he's dumber than a sack of brick and, when not pursuing Lum, can only think about one thing: [[Big Eater|eating non-stop]]. Lum quite understandably want nothing to do with him.

** Shinobu has one too: Soban of Busumetsu High, who besides being the boss of a deliquent gang, is [[Giant Mook]]-sized and a most extreme [[Gonk]] even by [[Rumiko Takahashi|Takahashi standards]]. A running gag is how much he has trouble acting even like a human being and not an animal (toss him a ball, he'll play with it like a tamed seal). He does little beyond charge at Shinobu yelling: "Shinobu-saaaan! SUKI DAAAA!!!!" Thankfully, Shinobu is [[Waif Fu|even stronger]] than Soban and usually sends him flying.

 

== Comic Books ==

* The Mexican comic ''Simon Simonazo'' used this trope in a rather strange manner; the Admirer in question had a comically horrid face, [[Butter Face|her body on the other hand...]]

* In issue #30 of the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' series, during the story Sky Highway, Raphael gained one with a German mutated human called Hildagaard Rail. In a dimension where there is an actual highway in the sky, Raphael fell in the passenger side of her car. She wore sunglasses, had her hair wrapped up in a scarf tied behind her chin and a black dress that showed off her ample busom. Hildagaard had long legs and the body of a super model, but her [[Gag Lips|lips were so enormous]] they went from ear to ear and almost from chin to forehead taking up most of the space on her face. She openly flirted with her "dollink" turtle telling him "You're the most sexy shade of green I've ever seen." When Raphael was about to leave her car he told her "It's been funfffh!" The ninja's words were cut short because Hildagaard grabbed him by the tails of his bandana and said "Shut up and kiss me, you dumkoff!" With his head tilted all the way to the side she pulled him close to her and gave him a big passionate kiss that covered his entire beak. When he finally got away from Hilda she called out, "Auf Wiedersehen, loverboy!" Raphael referred to it as the biggest indignity he ever had to face as a hero. The turtle wiped off the giant lipstick imprint off of his face which wasn't sideways, but on straight making it seem like they locked lips for a while. At least long enough for Raphael's head to tilt.

 

== Fairy Tales ==

{{quote|''a princess with a nose which is three eels long, and she now is the one [[Arranged Marriage|whom I must marry]].''}}

* Allison Gross is a Child Ballad in which the eponymous witch, "the ugliest witch in the North Country" tries to coerce a man into becoming her lover.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* Dragon initially qualifies as this for Donkey in the first ''[[Shrek]]'' movie, but he [[Incredibly Lame Pun|warms up]] to her.

* In ''[[The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad]]'', from "[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]" segment, there is a gag involving a short, fat woman (Tilda) who wants to dance with either Ichabod or Brom Bones at the Halloween party. The underlying implication is that whichever of them fails to win the lovely Katrina van Tassel will be stuck with Tilda.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* ''[[East Is East]]'' has two young British Pakistani boys attempting to escape arranged marriages to the two hideous daughters of their father's friend.

* ''Merry Christmas [[Drake and Josh]]'' gives us Drake, dressing up as Santa at the mall. He is seen kissing a girl when all the kids are gone. Not long after, a rather large girl chases him around the mall asking Santa for a kiss.

 

== Jokes ==

** There's a similar joke about 3 women going to Heaven, and being warned to [[It Makes Sense in Context|step on the ducks]]. Of course, the first two women do so and get paired up with ugly men, while the last woman goes months without doing so, and gets a very handsome man paired up with her. When asked if he's her reward for doing well, he comments that "I have no clue - all I know is that I just stepped on a duck."

* There is an anecdote about an event said to have happened in Poland, several centuries ago: when a man was about to be hanged, the oldest whore in town ran up to the gallows, and shouted, "he is mine!", invoking an ancient custom allowing for the man to go free on the condition that they will marry. The man looked at the whore, looked at the executioner, looked at the whore, then again looked at the executioner and said, "let's hang, master".

 

== Literature ==

** Subverted with the Dolph/Electra/Nada [[Love Triangle]] that took up a couple of books. Prince Dolph finds himself engaged to two women, the beautiful Nada Naga, whom he loves, and the more ordinary Electra, who loves him. Nada considers Dolph to be this trope, as he is far too young and immature for her. Dolph thinks this of Electra, as while she is not unattractive, she can in no way compete with the knockout Nada. To compound matters, Dolph must marry Nada to ensure an alliance between two kingdoms, and he must marry Electra or she will die from a magical curse. Despite this, the three are friends, and eventually decide to [[Screw Destiny]] by having Dolph marry Electra, divorce her the next day, marry Nada, and fix the love triangle with the use of Love/Anti-Love potions. Then it gets double subverted when during their one night of marriage Dolph discovers he truly ''does'' love Electra, and they remain married.

* [[Amelia Peabody]]'s husband Emerson managed to attract the attentions of a loathsome woman who was convinced that [[Reincarnation Romance|she and Emerson had been lovers in Ancient Egypt.]] Being Emerson, he was as annoyed by the [[You Fail History Forever|historical inaccuracies in her story of their past lives]] as he was by the lady herself.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* Oleg the cook to just about every female on ''[[Two Broke Girls]]''.

* ''Gail the Snail'' on the series ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia|Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]''. Gail is seen as so abhorrent, the other characters will literally throw salt at her to thwart her advances.

 

== Music Videos ==

* The poor female lead of "Object of My Desire" by Dana Rayne. Truly, ''truly'' [[No Guy Wants to Be Chased]].

 

 

== Pro Wrestling ==

* This was Goldust's gimmick, a rare male example of the trope. Goldust was basically a pan-sexual who would flirt with his opponents to gain a psychological advantage in a match by, for example, suddenly appearing to enjoy the grapple he's been put into or caressing his opponent in a hold.

* "Exotic" Adrian Street was working this gimmick before Dustin's daddy started wrestling, and can be seen as a major influence on the Goldust character. "Gorgeous" George Wagner was doing it even earlier

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* The Nosferatu from ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' can be an interesting [[Deconstruction]] of this trope. Although their [[Red Right Hand|appearance suggests otherwise]], the Nosferatu are not as susceptible to the caprices of the [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Beast]] as the other vampires are so they can still be quite [[True Beauty Is on the Inside|human at heart]] (or not!), but this does not dismiss the fact that they can still feel attracted to (or even fall in love with!) others and when this happens they become Abhorrent Admirers. To make the situation more aggravating they are supernaturally hideous it basically means that it is simply impossible to love them. The core rulebook does point out how dramatic the experience can be, for both sides (especially if you are the receiver of the affection).

 

== Theater ==

** Rebecca, Chagal's wife, who presumably used to resemble her lovely daughter Sarah, has become one of these to her husband in the same show, driving him toward his beautiful scullery maid Magda. This is especially jarring [https://web.archive.org/web/20100722002938/http://grono.net/gallery/photo/show/11444776/obraz-008/ in productions where she's not even played as particularly obnoxious or ugly]. (However, the fact that he isn't particularly charming or attractive either renders ''him'' a genderswapped example of the same trope as far as Magda's concerned... until he bites her, at least.)

* ''The Changeling''. De Flores has a terrible skin disease. He might actually be a [[Dogged Nice Guy]].

 

== Video Games ==

* Bit of a cutesy inversion in ''[[Fat Princess]]'' if you Fridge it.

* Inverted with Laharl of ''[[Disgaea]]'', who actually gets hurt by pretty, big-busted women. Though he shows no interest either way, romantically.

** Inverted in "Chariots of the Dogs", where the titular lagomorph (Max) ends up being the object of obsession of the fairly attractive Momma Bosco. Of course, Max doesn't like girls (for the same reasons a 10 year old boy is disgusted by girls) and finds her advances on him to be gross. In the same game, a young version of Max tries to avoid going to the prom because there's a girl who has a crush on him who is apparently known for french kissing every boy she likes.

** In the "Tomb of Sammun-Mak" we have the Mole-girl, Nefertiti, who is hopelessly in love with a pre-vampire Jurgen.

 

== Visual Novels ==

** [[Punny Name|Wendy Oldbag]] is attracted to several younger male characters over the course of the series, most notably [[Deadpan Snarker]] Miles Edgeworth. Of course, part of the reason this is considered repulsive is probably the fact that Oldbag is a completely obnoxious [[Jerkass]], and that she simply [[Stalker with a Crush|refuses to leave Edgeworth alone.]] And, just to top the whole thing off, she's obscenely old and no longer attractive.

** Sal Manella, a fat, sweaty, ugly geek who speaks in internet memes and "l33t speak", is this to Maya in one case in the first game.

* [[Smug Snake|Gilgamesh]] to [[Lady of War|Saber]], from ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]''. Slightly different in that it's not Gilgamesh's [[Bishonen|apperance]] [[The Social Darwinist|that]] [[Jerkass|makes]] [[It's All About Me|him]] [[Pure Is Not Good|abhorrent...]]

 

== Web Comics ==

* [[The Nostalgia Chick]] to [[Todd in the Shadows]]. She's a pretty lady, but her [[Cute but Psycho|personality]] and [[Stalker with a Crush|behaviour]] towards him is the reason why she's seen as abhorrent.<ref>Ironically, the pair are a happy couple in [[Real Life]].</ref>

** Todd himself is this toward [[Obscurus Lupa]] (who seems to bring this out in most of the males on the site), almost to the point of [[Single-Target Sexuality]]. It's unclear whether he really dislikes the Chick, or if he's just too blinded with love for Lupa to even notice her feelings for him.

 

== Western Animation ==

** The show also has Daffy bought at a bachelor auction by Granny, though it turns out she only wanted help cleaning her attic.

* ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''

** Elmyra is this to Max Montana in a couple of episodes, one in which Max reluctantly agrees to go to the prom with her, and another in which he (also reluctantly) goes on a date with her. Subverted in the end of the latter in which he gives her an [[Accidental Kiss]] at the end of their date.

{{quote|'''Max:''' I think I'm in love...}}

* Deconstructed in an episode of ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks]]'', Alvin having organized a contest for his admirers in which the winner would get a romantic dinner with him, is utterly dismayed when the winner turns out to be an old woman, during the episode Alvin goes through great pains trying to get rid of her, but when he thinks that he might accidentally caused her death he feels a lot of remorse and [[Heel Realization|realizes that he has been a jerk]]. At the end of the episode the woman admits that she may not have been what he was expecting and she understands it, prompting Alvin make good on her prize.

* In ''[[6teen]]'', Darth is this to Nikki.

* ''[[Chowder]]'': Hey Num-Nums.

{{quote|"I'M NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND!!!"}}

* Valerie Gray in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' gets this in one episode with Nathan (another rare male example) who is portrayed as a stereotypically "ugly nerd" who wants to ask Valerie to the prom (despite it being three years away) while Valerie was a former popular girl.

* In the ''[[Duck Dodgers]]'' episode "Talent Show a Go-Go", after [[Insistent Terminology|"borrowing"]] Tom Jones's voice, Dodgers ends up attracting the attention of an ugly alien queen.

** A dress-wearing pink octopus with blonde hair and blue eyes had a crush on Simon Belmont during the episode entitled "I Wish I Was a Wombatman". This short yet shapely and well-endowed director's assistant said to him with a beautiful voice, "Ooooh! You're a dream boat!" She gave him a big hug wrapping her tentacles around him. While embracing him, the assistant gave him a giant wink and extended her enormous red lips inches away from his. Simon seemed repelled because she was of a different species. The cartoon ended with the octopus leaning forward exposing the top of her ample cleavage and asking "Uh, anyone one call for make up?" Ignoring everyone else in the room she made a beeline right to her beloved Belmont. The blonde babe had no make-up kit on hand because this was just her excuse to get Simon alone in a dressing room for some hugging and kissing. Simon ran away in terror. She slithered right after him with a big smile and open tentacles like a love-struck groupie.

** Simon Belmont had another such admirer in the episode "Queen of the Apes". After defeating the leader of a pack of gorillas a female that had a blonde beehive complete with curlers and a pink skirt fell for Simon. The muscle bound large breasted hairy ape closed her eyes and tried to kiss him with her big pink lips but he got away. The pack of gorillas carried Simon away to end the episode so there's a chance she got around to kissing him off camera.