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Her Child, but Not His: Difference between revisions
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Two parents, who are the same race or species, are having a child. Except when the child is born, it visibly does not resemble either of the parents.
Usually implies adultery on the woman's part. Even before [[Daddy DNA Test|DNA testing]], this can resolve the question of [[
The most well-known subtype of this is a white couple that gives birth to a black child. The title comes from a scene in the movie ''Life'' where the (white) warden of an all-black prison sees his illegitimate grandson for the first time, and is revolted to see that the kid is ethnically mixed. However, this trope can also be played for laughs when the father [[What an Idiot!|has no idea the kid isn't his]] when it's clear to everyone else.
As these are sure to be [[Three Month Old Newborn|Three Month Old Newborns]], expect the race to be completely obvious from birth, even though a black newborn's skin tone usually takes a while to darken.
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* 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.
* ''[[The Naked Gun (Film)|The Naked Gun]] 33 1/3'' had this at the very end of the movie, where Frank's wife gives birth to a black baby...or so it appears. As Frank is chasing his black partner Nordburg through the hospital, it turns out they were in the wrong delivery room, and the chief comes out of a separate room with Frank's actual wife and child (But judging from Nordburg's reaction, it seems they had an affair anyway. [[Where Da White Women At?|Cue OJ Simpson joke]])
* 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.
* In the Ron Howard film ''[[Parenthood (Film)|Parenthood]]'', ne'er do well son Tom Hulce comes home and his family is shocked -- shocked! -- to see his son Cool, because he's Black.
* [[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]].}}
* In [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]]'s ''[[Cinderella (Film)|Cinderella]]'', a white King played by the guy who designed the [[Titanic]], and his queen Constantina who is played by [[Whoopi Goldberg]] manage to have Prince Christopher, who is... Asian!
* 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."
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* Used in one of the ''[[Outlander (Literature)|Outlander]]'' books in which Claire saves a white (also possibly married) woman's abandoned child. As a doctor, she's able to identify (despite the child being recently born) that the father was black, and strongly suspects it might have been why the child was abandoned, the setting of the novel being the mid-18th century.
* 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
* The ''[[Conqueror]]'' books do this with eye colours - Chagatai, Ogedai, and Tolui all have the same [[Eyes of Gold|golden]] eyes as their father, Genghis Khan, but Jochi, the eldest brother, has brown eyes. The fact that Borte fell pregnant with him around the time of her kidnapping doesn't help matters, and Chagatai takes great pleasure in telling everybody that Jochi is a 'Tartar bastard'.
* In A.B. Guthrie's novel The Big Sky, Boone's wife gives birth to a red-headed baby, which makes him think she cheated on him with his red-haired friend. In a rage he kills his friend, beats up and abandons his wife, and goes back home to Kentucky... {{spoiler|where he finds out that red hair runs in his family. Whoops.}}
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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.
* Invoked on ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway? (TV)|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'' - one game involves enacting generic soap-opera scenes, but as [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]], and one session specifically invokes this trope, describing the child of a bull (Brad Sherwood) and a cow (Ryan Stiles) as "something unexpected". [[Crazy Awesome|Colin Mochrie]], saddled with this role, squeezes out from between Ryan's thighs... and ''baas''.
{{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.
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** 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]].
* Similarly, an episode of ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' has the boys trying to crossbreed Cartman's pig with Kyle's elephant so they'll get pig-sized elephants. When the pig finally gives birth... "Hey. It kinda looks like Mr. Garrison."
* In ''[[Batman Beyond (Animation)|Batman Beyond]]'' Mary and Warren McGinnis, both redheads, have two black-haired sons. A popular fan theory is that this is the reason for their divorce. An odd example, because while he ''is'' the father, "[[Fully
** It should be noted that this actually wasn't even intended--the creators eventually realized how implausible the family was and performed an [[
* 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]]).
* Vaguely implied in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', Cup Cake (earth pony) gives birth to a unicorn and a pegasus. Her husband Carrot Cake (also earth pony) gives an explanation involving far-back genetics and a relative who isn't even related by blood. Once he finishes the explanation he gives the audience a nervous [[Aside Glance]] and says, [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|"That makes sense, right?"]]
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