History Main / ExpectingSomeoneTaller

* In ''Webcomic/TrueVillains'', it is a RunningGag when someone meets Sebastian. He never seems to live up to the tales they've heard, including a story of him being [[https://www.truevillains.com/comic.php?P=2007-08-30~N-Word%20on%20the%20Street-jpg six foot three.]]

* In ''Webcomic/TrueVillains'', it is a running gag when someone meets Sebastian. He never seems to live up to the tales they've heard, including a story of him being [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2007-08-30~N-Word%20on%20the%20Street-jpg.htm six foot three.]]

* Inverted in Creator/DickFrancis's ''Break In''. Most people who meet steeplechase jockey Kit Fielding for the first time admit that they were expecting someone ''shorter''. Kit is shorter than average, but he's nowhere near the stereotypical midget most people picture when they think of a jockey.

* [[TheyCallHimSword Sword]] in Attanasio's ''The Last Legends of Earth'', where the population of a village were expecting him to look more like a badass and less like a schoolteacher. Then he proceeds to overhaul their defenses against monsters, and then kills the biggest monster in the area single-handedly. The moral of this story? Don't judge a book by its cover, wait until the pages have finished beating the shit out of gargantuan freaks of "nature" to make your decision.

** Vegeta does the same thing again after Majin Buu is hatched, after the Supreme Kai described him as an ultimate evil power-- Vegeta senses that both he and Goku have a higher energy than the newly hatched Buu. Goku knows that he is hiding something, though.

* When a fat acceptance blogger made a post about meeting a famous fat activist Ragen Chastain in person, she offhandedly mentioned that at first she had a hard time recognizing her since she looked much different in real life than in the pictures on her official website, all of which were taken a few years before, back when she weighed considerably less.

* Happens constantly with Franchise/{{Batman}}. It's not so much that he's not as imposing or impressive as expected, just everyone seems to mention it. Even [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim Drake]] and [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] get told this on occasion! It's even funnier after Dick Grayson becomes Batman... he's actually four inches shorter than Bruce Wayne, so for once it's actually accurate.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher gets this from time to time (The current Marvel universe stats list him as 6'1" while the [[ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX MAX version]] was 6'6"). Not surprising given [[TheDreaded the legend]] that surrounds him as "8 feet tall and bulletproof with a million guns and a giant skull for a head" and the fact that most gangsters who see what he really looks like [[VigilanteMan don't live to talk about it]].

** Inverted in ''ComicBook/SpiderMen'' when ComicBook/MilesMorales of Ultimate-verse and [[Franchise/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] of 616 meet: Miles blurts out, during a bout of giddy fanboy babbling, that he was expecting Peter to be ''shorter''. Made especially hilarious by the fact that Miles himself is thirteen and quite frankly tiny.

* ComicBook/WallyWest as Franchise/TheFlash got this from people in ''ComicBook/{{Legends|DCComics}}'' when [[TakingUpTheMantle he took on the role]] after [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Barry Allen's death]].
* Dragon, the star of the eponymous ComicBook/SavageDragon, is superstrong, super-durable, and has arms larger than most people's torso. His teamate turned girlfriend was surprised that, if you discount the fin on his head, he's 5'10'', completely average for an American male.

* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} to [[ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan Ultimate]] Spidey in ''VideoGame/SpiderManShatteredDimensions''. [[spoiler: Mysterio takes it a step further, and openly mocks him for it with recycled Yo Mamma jokes.]]

* Inverted in ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' with Commander Krutz (a very tall and muscular and, as this is a FurryComic, fierce looking dog), everyone that sees him and his bodyguard (much shorter than him) always tries to shake the hand fo the bodyguard.

* In the ''Anime/DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Once Upon A Time", the demon of the week comments that Dante is a lot smaller and less impressive looking than he expected for a Son of Sparda.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'': When you save Kolima, people are slightly disappointed that they got four teenage adventurers instead of[[RatedMForManly huge, bearded, muscular warriors]]. Turns into a BrickJoke in ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' when Isaac has become just that (Garet only got a mustache).

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E6TheSeedsOfDoom "The Seeds of Doom"]], the scientists who discover the Krynoid pod expect the UNIT specialist to some old crank who's been dug out of retirement. When Creator/TomBaker turns up...

-->'''Moberley:''' We were expecting someone much older.\\

* In a ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' Christmas special, Pooh fears he has made it impossible for the letter he and his friends wrote for Santa Claus to reach him, so he disguises himself as Santa in an attempt to rectify his mistake and get his friends the presents they wished for. Unlike Santa, Pooh isn't very stealthy; Tigger, Rabbit and Eeyore each notice him coming into their houses, and each comment on how they thought Santa would be taller. Of course, this is justified as Pooh is obviously not the real Santa and, being a teddy bear, can't be more than a foot or so tall.

* In the reality TV show ''Series/IGetThatALot'' where famous persons pretend to be ordinary citizens who just happen to look like a famous person, the late Creator/LarryHagman was on and someone told him he wasn't "Larry Hagman" because the real Larry Hagman was taller.

* UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, The General Secretary of the Soviet Union, was only 5'4 in height, and a combination of a propaganda-driven cult of personality prone to hyperbolic exaggeration, an iron-clad grip on information coming and going out of the country and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the use of heights in his shoes]] meant that foreigners were often surprised to discover that he was shorter than they thought when meeting him in person. President UsefulNotes/HarryTruman was reportedly one of them.

* During Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, he was often mistaken as the subordinate to the huge and athletic General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (father of Creator/AlexandreDumas), Dumas being half-black not being an issue there.

-->'''Fiona:''' ''(disappointed)'' You're... an Ogre\\

* ''Film/TheRoom's'' Creator/TommyWiseau. Given his broad shoulders and overall musculature, you'd be surprised to find out he's no more than 5'5".

** In the sequel ''Ghosts of the Past'', you get this snark gem of Harry's [[spoiler: cousin Joshua a.k.a. Jesus]] - who looks like an ordinary guy of below average height (by modern standards) - commenting on Renaissance paintings of himself:

** Also played by Prince Caspian when meeting the Pevensies, thinking they'd be older. Then again, [[YearInsideHourOutside time goes faster in Narnia]], so his expectations were somewhat {{justified|Trope}}.

* This is nearly a RunningGag in ''the Literature/TheCattleRaidOfCooley'', as legendary warrior Cuchulain is a teenaged PrettyBoy who routinely kills fighters taller (and older) than him. Several incarnations of the tale even include a conversation between Medb and Fergus which suspiciously mirrors the one in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' between King Arthur and Tim the Enchanter.

* There is an abstract version in the ''Literature/TheSharingKnife'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/22085221 Envoi]]''. Several generations after the events of the novels; where drones, artificial scanners, and aerial surveys have taken over the searches for emerging [[EldritchAbomination Malices]]; one character is taken aback when another opens a case she had under her jacket to reveal a bone knife with her name burned onto the blade (alongside the '[[HumanSacrifice primed]]' one still required to put the creature they located down) because of this trope[[note]](Mallard 'Mal' Bluefield's great grandmother was a particularly sawed-off [[{{Muggles}} Farmer]], and despite the full compliment of [[MageSpecies Lakewalker]] powers[=/=]lifespan[=/=]ability-to-empower-Sharing-Knives-with-her-own-death she missed out on their noticeably-taller-than-average height in favor of said matriarch's outright runt status)[[/note]].

* Sanae from ''LightNovel/LoveChunibyoAndOtherDelusions'' refuses to acknowledge [[spoiler:Shinka]] as the girl behind "Mori Summer" because the former was expecting the philosopher from ''[[GreatBigBookOfEverything Mabinogion]]'', not the jaded high-schooler desperate to purge her [[OldShame past delusions]].

* ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'' has Mahiro, a fan of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, remark that he expected Nyarlathotep to look like a giant tentacled beast (or any of the other forms described in Cthulhu lore), rather than a cute teen girl with silver hair and green eyes. Nyarko offers to show Mahiro one of those more horrible forms, but says it'll probably drive him insane, so he declines. The gag is repeated in the second season, except that Nyarko's response is to offer to show Mahiro her "original form" -- [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl and start undressing]], claiming that it's the form she was in when she was born.

* The French comics publisher Creator/ReneGoscinny often got this from fans due to his enduring portrayal as a [[three-foot-tall TheNapoleon]] DaEditor with [[AmusingInjuries a very direct policy]] towards ScheduleSlip in the ''ComicBook/AchilleTalon'' series.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'':

* In ''WesternAnimation/SonOfBatman'', the first thing Damian says to Batman when they're introduced to each other is "Don't look so stunned, father. I thought you'd be taller."

** In the sequel ''Ghosts of the Past'', you get this snark gem of Harry's cousin Joshua - who ''actually'' looks more or less as if a TV series would cast a young ''Creator/DannyDevito'' for the part - commenting on Renaissance paintings of himself: