Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}[[File:Kimurasfamily.jpg|thumb|320px|link=Azumanga Daioh|Ugly guy, hot wife, and [[The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter|the ugly guy's cute daughter]].]]

 

A very common trope, particularly in animation and sitcoms, is for a woman to be far more attractive than her significant other. This is largely a result of Hollywood-style casting for women's roles in which average-looking women are virtually unknown, leaving a large number of hotties needing work. Therefore even [[Hollywood Homely]] women who aren't supposed to be gorgeous are portrayed by supermodel-class women. Similar cases are almost unheard of for men. Since "average joes" and "funny fat guys" can still get work (especially when they're the producer as well as the lead), this pervades almost all forms of media, making this one of the most wide-spread cases of a [[Double Standard]] around.

See also [[Beast and Beauty]], [[Give Geeks a Chance]], [[Nerd Nanny]], [[No Accounting for Taste]], [[Hot Consort]], [[Attractiveness Isolation]], and [[Kavorka Man]]; and don't forget that [[Most Writers Are Male]]. May overlap with [[May-December Romance]], if the man is old on top of being ugly (or is ugly simply as a result of being old). This trope often gives birth to [[The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter]]. Contrast [[Model Couple]] and [[Hot Guy, Ugly Wife]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and celebrated in an ad campaign for fast-food chain Del Taco: "Here's to every 4 who married a 10."

* In a line of beer commercials featuring football referees, one poor guy was penalized for "Disproportionately hot girlfriend!"

 

 

* ''[[One Piece]]''

** Wapol is a short, fat and generally absurdly looking guy (and that's only his appearance, not speaking of his personality) who marries with the One Piece world's equivalent of freakin' Miss Universe {{spoiler|(might just be her name, though, as Boa Hancock later proves to be the One Piece world's true [[World's Most Beautiful Woman|Miss Universe]])}} after becoming a rich corporate business executive.

*** Adding to the fishmen and merfolk concept; Keimi and Hachi. They aren't technically a couple, but Keimi - a cute mermaid - does seem to have a crush on Hachi, who is a six armed octopus fishman and far older than her. This is one of the [[No Hugging, No Kissing|few canon crushes]], by the way.

*** Pretty much every fishman/mermaid and so far merman/mermaid couple falls under this. Also considering the almost random nature of seafolk genetics, and the fact that Queen Otohime was somehow able to give birth to Shirahoshi, this might also fall under [[Bizarre Alien Reproduction]] and [[Bizarre Alien Biology]].

** "Ugly" might be the wrong word to describe Vinsmoke Judge (after all, he's never been seen without his helmet, which covers the upper half of his face), but he's a brutish and ferocious-looking man. His wife Sora (now deceased) was a beautiful woman with perfect skin, dark blue eyes, and wavy shoulder-length blonde hair. This was clearly a case of [[Beauty Equals Goodness]], for while Sanji despises his father [[Abusive Parent|(for good reason)]] he was very close to his mother.

** Don Sai isn't as ugly as some other [[Gonk]]s in the series, but he's not good-looking either, with an oversized mouth, unkempt sideburns and a potbelly with no defined abs on his usually-shirtless torso (despite being ''very'' strong). As of chapter 881, he and Baby-5 (the [[Ms. Fanservice]] of the Dressrosa Arc) have married, and are very much in love.

* In just about every single work by Adachi Mitsuru, the heroine's parents are this. The heroine gets all of her looks from her mom since it just wouldn't make sense for anything male to want to get in your pants when you get your looks from "that." Heck, sometimes it would only make sense if the mom had cheated somewhere in their marriage. This would, of course, make the heroine [[The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter]].

* Played with in [[Tenjho Tenge]]. While Souchiro's mother Makiko Natsume is [[Hot Mom|naturally beautiful]], [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|the horrible scars]] [[Scars Are Forever|marring her face]] make for a strange inversion of the trope since {{spoiler|her ex-husband Sohaku}} is now more attractive than her.

* ''Any'' movie with Seth Rogen in it. Voodoo is probably involved. (Although ''Knocked Up'' played it for laughs.) He quite recently lost weight and toned up, though, so time will tell how he looks compared to his next female costar.

** Superbad was probably the earliest example of Seth Rogen looking good (despite the cop mustache). Ironically this was one of his roles where he did ''not'' play a lead and did ''not'' hook up with a gorgeous blond.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] all the time in the case of [[Austin Powers]]. Austin is probably one of the least attractive male characters in all of the films, but is apparently seen as highly attractive by almost all female characters.

** When his former partner's daughter questioned her about this, she explained that in [[The Sixties]] he was cock of the walk because of attitude rather than looks. As to why he still is in the present day....

* ''The Postman Always Rings Twice'' in both the original and the 1981 remake. Beautiful Cora, the main female character, was married to an ugly, old, boring husband. She was played by Lana Turner (1946) and Jessica Lange (1981) respectively, arguably two of the most sexy women of their time.

* Not quite the same since they're not married, but Riff-Raff in ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' has the smoking hot Magenta as his lover, though by conventional standards he's unattractive himself (very thin, balding, hunchbacked etc).

 

== Literature ==

* [[John Le Carre]]'s [[The Quest for Karla|George Smiley]] (described in his earliest appearances as a "frog" or a "toad") and his [[May–December Romance|much younger wife]], Lady Ann. As things turn out, Ann spends most of the marriage [[Really Gets Around|sleeping with other men.]]

* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' books presents petite, sweet faced, and generally harmless-looking Queen's Own Herald Talia; and the love of her life Herald Dirk who is big, strong, has a lovely voice and (at least in Talia's opinion) beautiful eyes... but beyond that is explicitly described as homely at best. A major complication during ''Arrow's Fall'' was his [[Poor Communication Kills|inability to realize]] that she would prefer him over his far more handsome highborn friend Herald Kris.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Will and Grace]]'' poke fun at this, with Jack and Karen searching for a new sitcom after the finale of [[Sex and the City]]. Whilst they are channel hopping, they spin through several "Fat guy, skinny wife" shows before hitting upon a "Ugly guy, skinny wife" show.

{{quote|'''Karen:''' "Ugly guy, skinny wife? * shakes head* No, America is not ready for that just yet."}}

* A show about women's sex lives and the toys they used to enhance it featured one couple that seemed to be a middle-aged British woman who was probably rather pretty ten years ago and a Spanish or Italian male underwear model in his early to mid twenties.

* This trope gets [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] quite heavily in an episode of [[Rescue Me]], when Billy (one of the firefighters) {{spoiler|dies. At his funeral, they find out that he'd}} had 2 ex-wives, both of supermodel quality. The episode had a sub-plot of a measurement contest, which Billy had declined to take part in. After having talked with the ex-wives, the chief declared Billy the {{spoiler|posthumous}} winner, stating "Our friend Billy... was packing 10."

** Chandler receives the same treatment (despite being played by the handsome Matthew Perry) in his relationships and throughout the course of his relationship with Monica—in one of the early episodes Phoebe even mentions this trope in conversation with him:

{{quote|'''Phoebe:''' "You know how you always see these gorgeous women with these really nothing guys? You could be one of those guys!"}}

* From ''[[Mad About You]]'', the beautiful Leila Kenzle with Richard Kind, who bears a marked resemblance to [[Magilla Gorilla]].

* Seen in ''[[Homicide: Life on the Street]]'', even though interestingly enough, we never see the man in question. When a beautiful woman reports her husband's disappearance and presumed murder, suspects include his equally gorgeous mistress (who's innocent). One of the detectives expresses complete shock and confusion as to how a "2", as he describes the victim, was able to not only snag two "10's", as he describes the women, but was also able to string them both along when they both could have easily dumped the cheating lout.

** It's also implied with the Veals, but since Mr. Veal is played by [[Firefly|Alan]] [[Perverse Sexual Lust|Tudyk]]...

* ''[[Scrubs]]'' discusses the trope with the [[Patient of the Week]] being a smoking hot woman married to a rather large guy. What does she see in him? He was the only guy there after she dated the attractive jerky guys. J.D. often gets accused of this by watchers of the show, but he's not actually ugly—it's just Hollywood casting for hot girls that makes everyone a model.

** Of course, Lily sees Herman as gorgeous and worries about other women stealing him away due to this. And considering how they all consider their pretty niece as 'odd-looking', their view of beauty is skewed from the cultural norm.

* Examined in a sketch on ''[[Mad TV]]'', where [[Dr. Phil]] asks the fugly husband of a beautiful ([[The Ditz|but dumb]], [[Unfortunate Implications|though that was presented as a positive]]) how it happened: "[[Money, Dear Boy|Are you crazy rich?]] [[Hypno Fool|Are you a registered hypnotist?]] [[Biggus Dickus|Do you have a freakishly large penis?]]"

* ''[[Mr. Belvedere]]'' has George Owens, played by Bob Uecker, who frequently jokes about his homely appearance in real life, paired with gorgeous Marsha played by Ilene Graff. She is beautiful and appears to be a generation his junior.

* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' introduced Tristan and Isolde at the end of the fourth series. Isolde was young and hot. Tristan looked at least ten years her senior and was rather small and shaggy looking.

 

== Music ==

== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

* [[Diamond Dallas Page]] and his (now ex) wife Kimberly. She was a Nitro Girl (cheerleader), fitness model, and appeared in Playboy, and was packing an amazing rear end, lots of toned muscle and a nice face. He was big, flabby, wrinkly, and covered with "green mess" style tattoos.

* [[The Undertaker]]: Both his ex wife Sara and current wife Michelle McCool are hot, while he...isn't. [http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/8400000/Michelle-and-the-Undertaker-michelle-mccool-8430370-288-288.jpg Michelle McCool-Callaway and Mark Callaway are a different story, though.]

** Taker and McCool are really more of a real life example; they were never an onscreen couple.

** Also, Rufus and Candy, though not married, probably count as well. Apparently he saved her from an angry waiter and according to a win quote she likes his belly.

*** Necro and Effie too.

* [[Interspecies Romance]] example: A minor [[NPC]] in ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]: [[Revenant Wings]]'' is a Seeq married to a Viera. Seeq are hideous pig like things, Viera are [[Cute Monster Girl|beautiful]] [[Petting Zoo People|bunny girls]].

** The Seeq is also quite friendly and supportive of the party's quest to save the Aegyl. OTOH, his wife is as cold and aloof as most of her race and just wishes her husband would leave the ship already. Which just raises more questions about how the hell they hooked up in the first place.

* Hades and Persephone in the ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'' series. Even though Hades ''isn't'' portrayed as an evil god, he's pretty dumpy, covered in spikes and hides his disfigured face with an intimidating helmet. Persephone, meanwhile, is a beautiful queen {{spoiler|who tries to destroy the world in revenge for being stuck as Hades' wife}}.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'': [[Blood Knight|Bartolomeo]] [[Hot-Blooded|D'Alviano]] has seen many battles in his lifetime, and his heavily scarred face - and scratchy voice that sounds like he's been gargling sand - reflect that. Ezio is understandably surprised when he sees that his wife Pantasilea; A) is a woman and not a sword and B) is very attractive.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Luk River and Hala from "Irregular Elis", a lucky man married with a hot mom alien.

** Davan with just about any girl he's dated, though this is largely [[Informed Deformity]].

 

* Quasimodo and Madellaine from [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|''The Hunchback of Notre Dame II'']].

* Subverted with Donna in ''[[The Cleveland Show]]''. Cleveland is very overweight and has a child-like demeanor while Donna appears to be pretty with a very pronounced butt. However, on several occasions, it was shown that Donna does a lot to make herself look pretty. Donna wears a wig to cover her short and gray hair, wears make up, wears a push up bra that keeps her breasts from sagging, and wears certain clothing to smooth her figure, to which she would look very overweight without it.

 

{{reflist}}