History Main / ButNotTooWhite

** Considering the silly things some goths have gotten up to trying to make themselves more pale, changing the unrealistic beauty goal is not necessarily going to make people healthier. Also, many other people have said that they both look pretty unhealthy. Pattinson in particular looks like he's terminally ill.
** Most of that is just movie makeup. [[http://popularbiographies.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/robert-pattinson.jpg He's still pretty fair]], but nothing strange.

* ''BurnNotice'' features Gabrielle Anwar [[FakeNationality playing]] a tanned, sun-worshiping ''Irishwoman'' living in Miami. The odds are pretty good that any ''real'' Irishwoman living in sun-soaked Miami and wearing the clothes she wears would look like an overgrown lobster.

** Bob Dornan mentioned Clinton's pasty white thighs. He also said homosexuals have an obsession with men's thighs. I figured out something about the gentleman from California in...about five minutes.

** Which is an InformedDisformity of course, since the whole cartoon [[StylisticSuck looks like uncolored stick figures on white paper]].

** Considering the silly things some goths have gotten up to trying to make themselves more pale, changing the unrealistic beauty goal is not necessarily going to make people healthier.
** Also, many other people have said that they both look pretty unhealthy. Pattinson in particular looks like he's terminally ill.
*** Isn't he supposed to be playing a walking corpse?
**** Most of that is just movie makeup. He looks like an average Caucasian any other time.
***** Actually, [[http://popularbiographies.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/robert-pattinson.jpg he's still pretty fair]]. PALE might be a stretch, but if he were a girl, he'd probably be called peaches and cream, which is fairly light on the spectrum.
** [[FridgeLogic But bleach gives you skin cancer too, soo...]]

[[AC:{{Television}}]]
* On DegrassiTheNextGeneration, Paige and her boyfriend (who is also [[HotForStudent her teacher]]) are in the park enjoying themselves and they ridicule a guy's pale white legs -- and then they later find out it's her other teacher Mr. Simpson.
* ''{{Cheers}}''. Carla used to mock Diane Chambers for being white-bred, and mocked her as "whitey". Diane would defend her pale skin as "alabaster". Then came Lilith (who was played by Bebe Neuwirth, whose real skin tone was very pale.)
* ''{{Frasier}}''. Lilith's paleness was often mocked, and even {{lampshaded}} by Lilith herself late in the series in the episode "Lilith Needs a Favor".
-->'''Albert (played by the ultra-pale Brent Spiner, aka [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Data]]):''' No, actually, I'm always this pale. My ex-wife used to say she could tell when I was embarrassed because I'd turn off-white.
-->'''Lilith:''' I can empathize. Sometimes after a late night, I cover my under-eye circles with Liquid Paper.
* A big part of [[TheTonightShow Conan O'Brien's]] self-deprecating humor is the act of mocking his porcelain skin.
** Taken {{up to eleven}} in the ''Pale Force'' cartoons shown in ''[[ConanOBrien Late Night with Conan O'Brien]]'', where O'Brien and comic Jim Gaffigan are superheroes whose powers derive from their blinding pastiness.
* The BBC comedy sketch show ''GoodnessGraciousMe'' had a sketch which poked fun at the Indian idealisation of pale skin, with a deathly pale but quite obviously Indian shop assistant touting cosmetics to make skin look paler. When the customer asked what she used she indignantly insisted she was that pale naturally. Like several other sketches on the show, it was poking fun at Indians who basically didn't want to be Indian, but wanted to be white (see also the Kapoors, sorry, Coopers).
* ''BurnNotice'' features Gabrielle Anwar [[FakeNationality playing]] a tanned, sun-worshiping ''Irishwoman'' living in Miami. The odds are pretty good that any ''real'' Irishwoman living in sun-soaked Miami and wearing the clothes she wears would look like an overgrown lobster.
* More as a way of venting her disgust, Deb uses Lilah's paleness as one way of insulting her, asking {{Dexter}} what kind of person is pale in Miami. "A pale, English, titty vampire."
** Dexter, of course, being Dexter, says, "You just described my ideal woman," in that voice. You know the one.

A surprising number of people have no idea that many (perhaps most) redheads are physically incapable of tanning because they don't have enough eumelanin in their skin to tan. Time and again characters will comment that someone would look better "if they only got off their ass and got some colour". A pale redhead could burn himself lobster red, but once the burn goes away he'll be as white as he was before.

* Nicola Roberts of the British pop group GirlsAloud was often derided as "the ugly one" in the press because her extremely pale skin and bright red hair, [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l8vq6xzZyS1qzypn8o1_500.png in contrast]] to her bandmates' tanner complexions. It's mostly abated by now as she has used her paleness as the basis for starting and marketing a fairly successful make up range for pale women.

[[AC:{{Music}}]]
* Nicola Roberts of the British pop group GirlsAloud was often derided as "the ugly one" because she is a very pale skinned red head, standing out in particular contrast to the other members. It's mostly abated by now, but she did use it as the basis for starting and marketing a fairly successful make up range for pale women.

* Nicola Roberts of the British girl band "Girls Aloud" was often derided as "the ugly one" because she is a very pale skinned red head, standing out in particular contrast to the other members. It's mostly abated by now, but she did use it as the basis for starting and marketing a fairly successful make up range for pale women.

[[quoteright:300:[[JimGaffigan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jimgaffigan-small_9200.jpg]]]]
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[[JimGaffigan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jimgaffigan-small_9200.jpg]]
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[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:{{ProfessionalWrestling}}]]

[[AC:{{WesternAnimation}}]]

* Even when not wearing their onstage corpse makeup, the members of [[Metalocalypse Dethklok]] are implied to be pale-skinned, as two of them are Scandinavians, the red-headed drummer is "very Irish...American", and they rarely step outside their poorly lit castle. This trope is averted in the "Bluesklok" episode, where they all burn to a bright pink because blues is about suffering.

<<|CharactersAndCasting|>>

A surprising number of people have no idea that many (perhaps most) redheads are physically incapable of tanning because they don't have enough eumelanin in their skin to tan. Time and again characters will comment that someone would look better "if they only got off their ass and got some colour". A pale redhead could burn himself beet red, but once the burn goes away he'll be as white as he was before.

[[quoteleft:200:[[JimGaffigan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jimgaffigan_6933.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width:200:Do not attempt to adjust your display's contrast.]]

[[{{WWE}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sheamus003.jpg]]
[[caption-width:296:One of the toughest wrestlers around, just don't get him out in the sun too long.]]

Also see PaleSkinnedBrunette, EvilAlbino. Contrast ButNotTooBlack.

Also see PaleSkinnedBrunette. Contrast ButNotTooBlack.