The Grotesque: Difference between revisions

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[[File:quasimodo_whipped_closeup.jpg|link=The Hunchback of Notre Dame (~~Film~~)|frame|[[The Woobie|Poor, Poor Quasimodo...]]]]

[[File:quasimodo_whipped_closeup.jpg|link=The Hunchback of Notre Dame (film)|frame|[[The Woobie|Poor, Poor Quasimodo...]]]]

{{quote|''"On the eighth day, God created Mankind... Why was He having such a bad day? Why did He create all of you normal, and forget so many important parts of me?"''|''[[WWF]]: The Music, Vol. 2'', "Ode to Freud (Mankind's Theme)"}}

{{quote|''"You are deformed. And you are ugly. And these are crimes for which the world shows little pity."''|'''Frollo''', ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''}}

{{quote|''"You are deformed. And you are ugly. And these are crimes for which the world shows little pity."''|'''Frollo''', ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''}}

A character that induces both [[Uncanny Valley|fear]] and [[The Woobie|pity]] in viewers because his deformities belie a perfectly normal, if not noble, personality. The pathos associated with The Grotesque is the implication that he could easily have become a well-adjusted member of society if not for the hideousness that he is powerless to remedy.

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== Anime and Manga ==

* Jinenji from the ''[[Inuyasha]]'' episode "Jinenji, Kind yet Sad" is a huge monster with bulging eyes, but all he wants to do is farm medicinal herbs. The episode even had a mob of villagers with [[Torches and Pitchforks]] as a [[Shout Out]].

* Jinenji from the ''[[Inuyasha]]'' episode "Jinenji, Kind yet Sad" is a huge monster with bulging eyes, but all he wants to do is farm medicinal herbs. The episode even had a mob of villagers with [[Torches and Pitchforks]] as a [[Shout-Out]].

* Oniwakamaru from the third episode of ''[[Samurai Champloo]]''. And really, he wasn't all that ugly, just had a swollen eye, liver lips, and a paunch.

** And weird rough brown skin, and he was three times the size of a normal person....

* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' has a number of examples. Pretty much all of the Oniwabanshuu are this, shunned by society but taken in by Aoshi and therefore totally loyal to him. Hannya is a particularly good example, since he was partly modeled on Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man". There's also Fuji, one of Shishio's minions, who is about twenty-feet tall and has been treated his entire life like a monster or a living weapon. Yatsume, who works for Enishi also likely qualifies since for poorly justified reasons, his family [[Captain Ersatz|turned him into]] [[Spider Man|Venom]], which entailed stretching his limbs so they were freakishly long and doing something that gave him fangs and a long, lolling tongue.

* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' has a number of examples. Pretty much all of the Oniwabanshuu are this, shunned by society but taken in by Aoshi and therefore totally loyal to him. Hannya is a particularly good example, since he was partly modeled on Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man". There's also Fuji, one of Shishio's minions, who is about twenty-feet tall and has been treated his entire life like a monster or a living weapon. Yatsume, who works for Enishi also likely qualifies since for poorly justified reasons, his family [[Captain Ersatz|turned him into]] [[Spider-Man|Venom]], which entailed stretching his limbs so they were freakishly long and doing something that gave him fangs and a long, lolling tongue.

* Two cases pop up in ''[[Berserk]]''. First, there is the Child of Guts and Casca, who was conceived as a normal baby when {{spoiler|the two made love}}, but then everything took a tragic turn for the worse when {{spoiler|his mother was viciously raped by Griffith when he turned into Femto, thus tainting her womb with his demonic essence and turning the developing child into misshapen and deformed fetus, [[Fetus Terrible|compelling him to take up a nature of evil]] [[Touched By Vorlons|and giving him supernatural powers at the same time]].}} However, while instinctively "evil", the [[Love Redeems|Child loves his parents to much to actually be evil]]. Sadly, his father does not feel much sympathy for what happened to him, [[That Thing Is Not My Child|seeing him as nothing more than a byproduct of a horrible event]] [[My Greatest Failure|that he failed to prevent]], and Guts would have even [[Offing the Offspring|killed him]] had [[Mama Bear|Casca]] not interfered. Nevertheless, the Child strives to [[Parents in Distress|help his parents]] whenever possible, up until the point of the mock Eclipse {{spoiler|where the Child expends the last of his energy and powers to save his mother}}...

* Two cases pop up in ''[[Berserk]]''. First, there is the Child of Guts and Casca, who was conceived as a normal baby when {{spoiler|the two made love}}, but then everything took a tragic turn for the worse when {{spoiler|his mother was viciously raped by Griffith when he turned into Femto, thus tainting her womb with his demonic essence and turning the developing child into misshapen and deformed fetus, [[Fetus Terrible|compelling him to take up a nature of evil]] [[Touched by Vorlons|and giving him supernatural powers at the same time]].}} However, while instinctively "evil", the [[Love Redeems|Child loves his parents to much to actually be evil]]. Sadly, his father does not feel much sympathy for what happened to him, [[That Thing Is Not My Child|seeing him as nothing more than a byproduct of a horrible event]] [[My Greatest Failure|that he failed to prevent]], and Guts would have even [[Offing the Offspring|killed him]] had [[Mama Bear|Casca]] not interfered. Nevertheless, the Child strives to [[Parents in Distress|help his parents]] whenever possible, up until the point of the mock Eclipse {{spoiler|where the Child expends the last of his energy and powers to save his mother}}...

** ... Where we enter the second example: The Egg of the Perfect World (or the Behelit Apostle). During his life as a human, he was a nameless [[Loners Are Freaks|outcast of society]] who [[The Collector of the Strange|collected dead bodies]] at the base of the Tower of Conviction. When he came across a [[Egg MacGuffin|Behelit]] and sacrificed the world so that it may become perfected, he became the Behelit-shaped apostle that was in the present, though no one knew of his existence. The Egg of the Perfect World, though an Apostle, is one of the first to be introduced that wasn't a [[Complete Monster]] or just batshit crazy. In the final events at the Tower of Conviction, {{spoiler|he comes across the weakened Child, whom he saw as kindred for being deformed, forgotten, and unloved. As an act of pity, he consumes the Child so that he could have one moment of tenderness in his life before he and the Egg of the Perfect World were killed during the mock eclipse, when Griffith reincarnates himself into the human world.}}

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* Arseface from ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]''. After blowing the left half of his face off imitating Kurt Cobain, he realizes the error of his self-pitying ways and vows to be a good person. Once he encounters the heroes, he ends up becoming a chart-topping singer despite the fact that no one can understand a word he says outside of Jesse. [[Earn Your Happy Ending|At the end of the story he meets up with a one-eyed girl who constantly hallucinates people's appearances, and sees him as a beautiful blond man]].

** Arseface is also [[The Unintelligible]] and Lorrie Bobs is a one eyed girl due to her inbred family, and also has a visual disorder that makes her see everything as something else. They both are magnificent subversions of this trope: These two hideous beings are the only two truly decent human beings who wil [[Earn Your Happy Ending]] [[Dysfunction Junction|in pretty much all the cast]] (Jessie, Tulip and Cassidy have heavy [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]]): Arseface [[Rescue Romance|rescued Lorrie from some bullies]], and Lorrie’s visual disorder is a virtual rose colored glass (she seems Arseface as handsome) . In Preacher,[[An Aesop|everyone is a grotesque freak. Except the guy with an arse for a face and the one eyed girl]].

* Ephialtes from ''[[~~Three Hundred|~~300]]''. Looks almost exactly like the Hunchback picture (top), showed the Spartan army the 'goats trail' that the Persians could use to flank them at the pass of Thermopylae, and asked to join the fight. King Leonidas's given reason for rejecting his aid is that his deformity makes him unable to form part of the Spartans' highly effective phalanx strategy ([[Fridge Logic|which is plausible up until the point]] where [[Hollywood Tactics|everyone immediately breaks ranks to leap into single combat]]). After being denied the right to fight alongside the Spartans, he went to Xerxes and told him of the goat pass and switched sides - which, one supposes, means [[Beauty Equals Goodness|his outer deformity eventually reflected his inner feelings of rejection and jealousy]]. That certainly fits with the ideology of [[Master Race|the Spartans]], who [[Truth in Television|did in real life]] kill any children that were born deformed.

* Ephialtes from ''[[300]]''. Looks almost exactly like the Hunchback picture (top), showed the Spartan army the 'goats trail' that the Persians could use to flank them at the pass of Thermopylae, and asked to join the fight. King Leonidas's given reason for rejecting his aid is that his deformity makes him unable to form part of the Spartans' highly effective phalanx strategy ([[Fridge Logic|which is plausible up until the point]] where [[Hollywood Tactics|everyone immediately breaks ranks to leap into single combat]]). After being denied the right to fight alongside the Spartans, he went to Xerxes and told him of the goat pass and switched sides - which, one supposes, means [[Beauty Equals Goodness|his outer deformity eventually reflected his inner feelings of rejection and jealousy]]. That certainly fits with the ideology of [[Master Race|the Spartans]], who [[Truth in Television|did in real life]] kill any children that were born deformed.

* Ben Grimm, the Thing, from the [[Fantastic Four]] (at least at first-- by now, he's the idol o' millions.).

* Vlad from [[Hack Slash]] plays with this trope, albeit with much less active persecution. (Except in Chicago, where, as the "Meat Man", he's blamed for a slasher's murders.) Most recurring characters get used to his appearance fairly quickly.

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* ''[[Freaks]]'' mostly subverts this. We do not pity them, because they're all so damned cheerful, except for those tied up in the romantic plot (because [[Love Hurts]] ''everyone''), but even they get a happy ending.

* The title character in ''[[Edward Scissorhands]]''. A bit of a twist, though, in that - being played by [[Johnny Depp]] - he's quite handsome. He simply has [[No Social Skills]], and has the unfortunate tendency to cut things up by accident.

* Subverted in ''[[~~Batman Returns (Film)|~~Batman Returns]]'' with The Penguin, who wants revenge on Gotham City for his parents abandoning him at birth due to his deformity. He blackmails [[Shout Out|Max]] [[Nosferatu ~~(Film)~~|Shreck]], a [[Villain ~~With~~ Good Publicity]], into making him appear to be kind and gentle so the citizens will elect him Mayor. When Batman reveals that the Penguin holds them in contempt, they immediately turn upon him, so he decides to forgo any pretense of humanity ("I am not a human being! I am an animal! Cold-blooded!", a sort of dark spoof of the above ''Elephant Man'') as he proceeds with his master plan to kill all of the first-born sons in the city - a plan he had used the city's sympathy to further without their knowing it ("researching" his parents' identities, he picked up the information about all the other parents who had sons from birth records). When Batman foils this plan, Penguin goes over the edge, instructing his penguins to kill everyone in the city, which Batman foils with the same electronic technique that he used to reveal the Penguin's villainy to the public.

* Subverted in ''[[Batman Returns]]'' with The Penguin, who wants revenge on Gotham City for his parents abandoning him at birth due to his deformity. He blackmails [[Shout-Out|Max]] [[Nosferatu|Shreck]], a [[Villain with Good Publicity]], into making him appear to be kind and gentle so the citizens will elect him Mayor. When Batman reveals that the Penguin holds them in contempt, they immediately turn upon him, so he decides to forgo any pretense of humanity ("I am not a human being! I am an animal! Cold-blooded!", a sort of dark spoof of the above ''Elephant Man'') as he proceeds with his master plan to kill all of the first-born sons in the city - a plan he had used the city's sympathy to further without their knowing it ("researching" his parents' identities, he picked up the information about all the other parents who had sons from birth records). When Batman foils this plan, Penguin goes over the edge, instructing his penguins to kill everyone in the city, which Batman foils with the same electronic technique that he used to reveal the Penguin's villainy to the public.

* Jaws, from the ''[[James Bond (~~Film~~)|James Bond]] movies'', becomes this after his [[Heel Face Turn]] in ''[[~~Moonraker (Film)|~~Moonraker]]''. The actor who played him, Richard Kiel, has acromegaly like Rondo Hatton, below. In a twist, not only does Redemption NOT Equal Death, but he manages to get himself a girlfriend out of the deal (and a [[Meganekko]] who's [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse|almost as strong as he is]], to boot. Lucky bastard.).

* Jaws, from the ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] movies'', becomes this after his [[Heel Face Turn]] in ''[[Moonraker]]''. The actor who played him, Richard Kiel, has acromegaly like Rondo Hatton, below. In a twist, not only does Redemption NOT Equal Death, but he manages to get himself a girlfriend out of the deal (and a [[Meganekko]] who's [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse|almost as strong as he is]], to boot. Lucky bastard.).

** Especially when said girl saves Jaws while he was pinned by debris {{spoiler|after chasing Bond in a car that went over a cliff}}!

* Sloth in ''[[The Goonies]]'' is deformed, dimwitted, very strong, and kept as a [[Bertha in The Attic]] by his family. Once he makes friends with Chunk, however, it's clear he's a good guy.

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* [[Frankenstein's Monster]] (''not'' Frankenstein the [[Mad Scientist]]!); however, it is worth noting that in the original novel, rejection by his creator and society truly turns him into the monster he outwardly resembles, as sorrow turns to hatred and lust for vengeance.

* Quasimodo of [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (~~Literature~~)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' is an archetypal example, so this is [[Older Than Radio]].

* Quasimodo of [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (novel)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' is an archetypal example, so this is [[Older Than Radio]].

* Gwynplaine, of ''[[The Man Who Laughs]]'', was, due to a bizarre torture inflicted upon him, not so much ugly as [[Slasher Smile|unbelievably disturbing-looking.]] This being another Victor Hugo novel, he didn't end too well.

* ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]''; while he's supposed to be the villain, the book humanizes him after his act of mercy; the [[Draco in Leather Pants|increasingly sympathetic view]] of the motives behind his actions in later film adaptations has largely overridden his villainous role. It doesn't help that the transfer from book to play and movie has the level of his deformity lowered from "Skeletor" to [[Hollywood Homely|"Gerry Butler fell asleep while sunbathing, so his face is a little red"]].

** In the original book by Gaston Leroux, Erik (the titular phantom) subverts this trope in two ways: First: He is not a [[Gentle Giant]], but a as [[Psychopathic Manchild]] [[Bastard Boyfriend]]. Second: Ironically, his [[Beyond Good ~~and~~ Evil (~~Video~~ ~~Game~~)|Beyond Good and Evil]] attitude lets him fit into society very well, as a [[Torture Technician]], [[Carrer Killer]] and succesful [[Blackmail|BlackMailer]], because [[Humans Are Bastards]]. The [[Narrator]] lampshades in the Epilogue that Erik, with an ordinary face, ''would have been one of the most distinguished of mankind''. However, even after his [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|act of mercy]] he doesn’t value human life, and talks casually about Count Phillipe’s murder.

** In the original book by Gaston Leroux, Erik (the titular phantom) subverts this trope in two ways: First: He is not a [[Gentle Giant]], but a as [[Psychopathic Manchild]] [[Bastard Boyfriend]]. Second: Ironically, his [[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]] attitude lets him fit into society very well, as a [[Torture Technician]], [[Carrer Killer]] and succesful [[Blackmail|BlackMailer]], because [[Humans Are Bastards]]. The [[Narrator]] lampshades in the Epilogue that Erik, with an ordinary face, ''would have been one of the most distinguished of mankind''. However, even after his [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|act of mercy]] he doesn’t value human life, and talks casually about Count Phillipe’s murder.

** [[Discworld]]'s version of the Phantom, namely {{spoiler|Walter Plinge}} is deformed mentally, but he ends happily.

* Gollum from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', although differing in being a morally flawed character, has the pity-inducing aspect and is presented with the potential to better himself. In the end, the good in him doesn't triumph, making him a [[Tragic Hero]] of sorts.

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* Beldin from the ''[[Belgariad]]'' is a self-aware form of this. He's a hideously ugly hunchback, but he's also one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world. Nobody outside of his allies and enemies knows what he's capable of, though, because as he puts it, "They can't see past the hump on my back." He isn't ''nice'' by any means, being a horrifically crude and tactless jerk, but a certain percentage of that is a front, as he's firmly on the side of the heroes.

** Although in the ''Malloreon'' he breaks out of this trope by ''getting'' a happy ending. {{spoiler|''Vella'' falls in love with him because of the whole "turns into a hawk" thing, and they are last seen, as hawks, disappearing into the sky}}.

* ''[[~~The Pilo Family Circus (Literature)|~~The Pilo Family Circus]]'' has its own freakshow, which is led by the human-shark hybrid Fishboy, a textbook example of The Grotesque. Being the only performer who is consistently polite and welcoming, he is probably the only member of the Circus that doesn't have any rivalries with his fellow performers, and even [[Monster Clown|Gonko, head of the Clown Division]] refers to Fishboy as "the nicest bastard in this place." However, like all the Freaks, Fishboy wasn't born deformed: he was mutated by the Matter Manipulator (a flesh-sculpting sorcerer who lives in the Circus Funhouse) and forced to live out his life with the others as an object of disgust and mockery. In fact, this is why he {{spoiler|starts an underground resistance movement against the Circus and it's managers, and why he and the other Freaks are the first to die when Kurt Pilo starts hunting for traitors.}}

* ''[[The Pilo Family Circus]]'' has its own freakshow, which is led by the human-shark hybrid Fishboy, a textbook example of The Grotesque. Being the only performer who is consistently polite and welcoming, he is probably the only member of the Circus that doesn't have any rivalries with his fellow performers, and even [[Monster Clown|Gonko, head of the Clown Division]] refers to Fishboy as "the nicest bastard in this place." However, like all the Freaks, Fishboy wasn't born deformed: he was mutated by the Matter Manipulator (a flesh-sculpting sorcerer who lives in the Circus Funhouse) and forced to live out his life with the others as an object of disgust and mockery. In fact, this is why he {{spoiler|starts an underground resistance movement against the Circus and it's managers, and why he and the other Freaks are the first to die when Kurt Pilo starts hunting for traitors.}}

* {{spoiler|Grim's Grotesques}} from ''[[~~Keys to The Kingdom|~~Keys to the Kingdom]]'' ultimately end up being this, although they play villain for most of Grim Tuesday.

* {{spoiler|Grim's Grotesques}} from ''[[Keys to the Kingdom]]'' ultimately end up being this, although they play villain for most of Grim Tuesday.

* Ellie May in ''Tobacco Road'', who would be easily marriageable if not for her harelip.

* ''The Book of the Grotesque'' was the original title of, and the title of the preface to, Sherwood Anderson's ''Winesburg, Ohio''. Basically, everyone in the town takes ownership of a truth, turning them grotesque and the truths themselves into falsehoods.

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== Live Action TV ==

* The shapeshifters from ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]''. Three episodes have focused on them as the [[Monster of the Week]] ("Skin," "Nightshifter," and {{spoiler|"Monster Movie"}}) and in two of them, each shapeshifter gets a speech about why he is what he is. Most of what we know about them are implied and hinted at in these two speeches: they are born to human parents, but they are supernaturally mutated and very hideous in appearance; they face physical abuse and then run away, but of course, no one will take them in, and they're driven out of every community they go to; they then learn to harness their power of shapeshifting and take revenge upon the world, usually embodying some extreme form of a human flaw (such as aggression or greed). While they are probably the most tragic monsters on the show, the shapeshifters still [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|break the one rule]], so the [[Beauty Equals Goodness|handsome and heroic]] Winchester brothers must put a silver bullet through their hearts every time.

* The shapeshifters from ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. Three episodes have focused on them as the [[Monster of the Week]] ("Skin," "Nightshifter," and {{spoiler|"Monster Movie"}}) and in two of them, each shapeshifter gets a speech about why he is what he is. Most of what we know about them are implied and hinted at in these two speeches: they are born to human parents, but they are supernaturally mutated and very hideous in appearance; they face physical abuse and then run away, but of course, no one will take them in, and they're driven out of every community they go to; they then learn to harness their power of shapeshifting and take revenge upon the world, usually embodying some extreme form of a human flaw (such as aggression or greed). While they are probably the most tragic monsters on the show, the shapeshifters still [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|break the one rule]], so the [[Beauty Equals Goodness|handsome and heroic]] Winchester brothers must put a silver bullet through their hearts every time.

* Several examples in ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' TOS episodes, such as Andro the mutant in "The Man Who Was Never Born" and the scientist changed into an alien in "The Architects of Fear".

* Sharaz Jek in ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'' turns out to be horribly deformed by the mud bursts that nearly killed him, but covers it for almost the entirety of the one serial he's in by wearing a black mask (and kinky leather) and living amongst androids "because androids do not see as we see!". Evidently the mud didn't manage to destroy his vanity.

* Sharaz Jek in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' turns out to be horribly deformed by the mud bursts that nearly killed him, but covers it for almost the entirety of the one serial he's in by wearing a black mask (and kinky leather) and living amongst androids "because androids do not see as we see!". Evidently the mud didn't manage to destroy his vanity.

* In the New Series episode 'Silence in the Library', Miss Evangelista fills this role...eventually.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "The Post-Modern Prometheus" is about a man with two (more or less fully functional) faces, who gets treated a monster and almost lynched by the local populace. In the culmination of the episode, Mutato [[You Can Talk|suddenly]] delivers a heartfelt monologue to the [[Torches and Pitchforks|angry mob]], revealing how he lived, suffered, and longed to be with other people, prompting one of the townspeople to exclaim "He is not a monster, he is alright!"

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== Tabletop Games ==

* The Nosferatu clan of both of ''[[~~The World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|~~The World of Darkness]]'' Vampire games have this as a defining trait.

* The Nosferatu clan of both of ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' Vampire games have this as a defining trait.

** In ''[[~~Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|~~Vampire: The Masquerade]] Masquerade'', the Nosferatu are all horribly disfigured; most of them [[Looks Like Orlok|look like their namesake]], but a good number of them "just" have hideous growths and scar tissue that could stop a tank shell. It usually reaches the point that merely going in public uncloaked as a Nosferatu breaks the [[Masquerade]].

** In ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]] Masquerade'', the Nosferatu are all horribly disfigured; most of them [[Looks Like Orlok|look like their namesake]], but a good number of them "just" have hideous growths and scar tissue that could stop a tank shell. It usually reaches the point that merely going in public uncloaked as a Nosferatu breaks the [[Masquerade]].

** In ''[[~~Vampire: The Requiem (Tabletop Game)|~~Vampire: The Requiem]]'', they can still look butt ugly, but the "wrongness" about them is more of a floating quality not tied directly to appearance. One of them can be as pretty as a supermodel, but still disquiet people because they smell strongly of embalming fluid.

** In ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'', they can still look butt ugly, but the "wrongness" about them is more of a floating quality not tied directly to appearance. One of them can be as pretty as a supermodel, but still disquiet people because they smell strongly of embalming fluid.

** ''Requiem'' also features the Carnival, a bloodline founded by "the Andalusan Mermaid", a circus freak who was saved from her sadistic owner by a passing vampire. Every last one of the Carnival is deformed in some way or another. The book discussing them specifically warns that they tend not to be as nice as traditional freaks were. Their clan of origin, for irony's sake, are [[The Beautiful Elite|the Daeva]].

* The ''[[Serial Killer|Slasher]]'' [[Sourcebook]] for ''[[~~New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|~~New World of Darkness]]'' features Freaks and Mutants as Slasher archetypes. The Freaks draw from sources like ''[[~~The Hills Have Eyes (Film)|~~The Hills Have Eyes]]'' -- individuals who've turned reclusive and atavistic due to their deformities. The Mutants, their natural progression, draw more from sources like ''[[The Descent (Film)|The Descent]]'', as their mutations have caused them to become something other than human.

* The ''[[Serial Killer|Slasher]]'' [[Sourcebook]] for ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' features Freaks and Mutants as Slasher archetypes. The Freaks draw from sources like ''[[The Hills Have Eyes]]'' -- individuals who've turned reclusive and atavistic due to their deformities. The Mutants, their natural progression, draw more from sources like ''[[The Descent (Film)|The Descent]]'', as their mutations have caused them to become something other than human.

== Video Games ==

* Klungo, Gruntilda's henchman in ''Banjo-Kazooie''.

* Dr. Jaming from ''[[Dark Cloud ~~(Video Game)~~|Dark Cloud 2]]'' is described as a "Tragic Figure". He starts out as a bad guy, but is later said to {{spoiler|[[Heel Face Turn|have a change in heart]] shortly after you beat him. His grandson, who is just as ugly as he was, develops Ixion at his request to do something good and just.}}

* Dr. Jaming from ''[[Dark Cloud|Dark Cloud 2]]'' is described as a "Tragic Figure". He starts out as a bad guy, but is later said to {{spoiler|[[Heel Face Turn|have a change in heart]] shortly after you beat him. His grandson, who is just as ugly as he was, develops Ixion at his request to do something good and just.}}

== Webcomics ==

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{{quote| "'''I'''! AM NOT! AN '''ELEPHANT! I''' AM NOT! AN '''ANIMAL!''' I! AM A '''HUMAN! BEING!''' I! AM! ...a man.}}

* Rondo Hatton (April 22, 1894 – February 2, 1946) was an American actor who had a brief, but prolific career playing thuggish bit parts in many Hollywood B-movies. He was known for his brutish facial features which were the result of acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland. His primary role was 'The Creeper', a killer who crushed his victim's spines in a bearhug. However, the Creeper was played as a deformed, dim-witted character that acted as a foil to some other villain's ambitions. Some person would befriend this pathetic, angry hulk of a man, and then use him as a weapon. So partial subversion here.

** The appearance of Lothar from ''[[The Rocketeer (~~Film~~)|The Rocketeer]]'' was based on him.

** The appearance of Lothar from ''[[The Rocketeer (film)|The Rocketeer]]'' was based on him.

* One of the better examples of the "Horrid outside, beautiful inside" would be Grace McDaniel, the "Mule Woman", so-called due to facial tumors distorting the lower half of her face into a long "muzzle". She is remembered as being one of the kindest people to ever work the carnival circuit.