History Main / HollywoodGenetics

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* Two works of the RebornAsVillainessStory genre--''Literature/VillainessLevel99'' and ''Manga/IGotMyWishAndReincarantedAsTheVillainessLastBoss''--have black-haired protagonists (and are both subjected to FantasticRacism for it). The problem is that their parents are all ''blonde''. In real life, it would be impossible for a blonde couple to have a child with jet-black hair.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'': Omega, in addition to being an OppositeSexClone, has blond hair, while all the other Jango Fett clones have black hair (save for some such as Rex who likely dye their hair). It should be noted that Creator/TemueraMorrison's late sister Tiani [[RealityIsUnrealistic was a natural blond]].

** According to ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIIArielsBeginning'' both King Triton and his deceased wife Queen Athena are redheads. Despite this only one of their daughters is a redhead (Ariel). They have two blondes, one raven, and three brunettes. Their children should only have red hair. Either merpeople's dominant and recessive genes are different from humans, or...

** Redheaded “PatchworkKids Patchwork Kid” Universal Kids (formerly Sprout) has a dark blue-haired father and a brunet-haired mother.

** Kenny is green, his parents have brown hair (his mother) and brunet hair (his father), and his siblings, TeenNick has Golden Yellow Hair, Nick at Nite have Grey-ish Black hair, NickToons is Ginger and Nick Jr. has Orange hair with Blue/Turquoise Ponytail.

* In ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', the eponymous character has spiky blond hair while his father's is black and his mother's is brown. Nothing is made of the issue in-story, apart from Calvin's dad occasionally theorizing that a nurse switched the basin, though this is in response to Calvin's nature. It's not impossible if both his parents were recessive carriers, but it's still fairly unlikely. Some kids at first also have light hair before it darkens.

* A plot point in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. King Robert Baratheon had black hair and blue eyes and Queen Cersei Lannister is blond with green eyes and all three of their children are blond with green eyes as well. [[spoiler:But all of Robert's known bastards are black-haired and every other time their houses have intermarried the children have had black hair so Ned Stark figures out that Cersei's kids were actually sired by [[BrotherSisterIncest her brother]]. It's plausible to put the Baratheon children's paternity in doubt, since having three children in a row with the same recessive trait only expressed by one parent is unlikely, but having a trait stick so tenaciously to one family after centuries of mixed breeding is extremely unlikely. A child has to inherit one allele or another from each parent, even if it isn't expressed.]]

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'': Cilan, Chili, and Cress are ''triplets'' with different hair and eye colors. Bonus points for each of them having their hair and eyes [[CurtainsMatchTheWindow match each other]] AND their specialty Type all in one.

* Park and Josh from ''Literature/EleanorAndPark'' are both half Irish and half Korean. Park is described as looking fully Asian except with green eyes, while Josh is described as being completely white-passing.

* Played oh-so-straight in ''VideoGame/{{Solatorobo}}'', where not only can vastly different races within the species breed freely (foxes with wolves and housecats with lions, for example), but Caninu and Felineko can have children with no problems as well. To top off the Hollywood Genetics, their offspring will be ''either'' Caninu ''or'' Felineko, not some sort of dog-cat hybrid.

* DependingOnTheArtist, ''Franchise/SpiderMan'''s Mary Jane Watson inherited her red hair from her father. Her mother is blonde... which means her mother either dyes her hair or there is a huge elephant in the room, as the older daughter Gayle is a dark brunette. You know, Gayle being the product of an extramarital affair [[WildMassGuessing could partially explain]] why their father was such an AbusiveParent...
* Despite being a clone of Wolverine, Laura Kinney, a.k.a ComicBook/{{X 23}} of ''Franchise/XMen'' is portrayed as having similar features to her mother Dr. Sarah Kinney, who, while not genetically related to her, carried her to term. Some stories claim that Dr. Kinney used some of her own DNA to stabilize the sample they had from Wolverine since it was damaged (which is the canon reason she's an OppositeSexClone, since the original sample of Wolverine's DNA was apparently missing its Y chromosome), which would partially justify it. Eventually it was retconned that Laura was in act the biological daughter of Dr Kinney and Wolverine rather than being a clone.
* Also from ''Franchise/XMen'', [[SuperVillain supervillain]] Vulcan is the black-haired son of brown-haired Corsair and blonde Katherine Summers. The black hair could be part of his mutation, though.

* In the {{Elseworlds}} series ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', both Superman and Lois Lane are black-haired, but their daughter Kara is blond (though both Kara Jor-El and Lucy Lane are blonde, so it's possible that both parents carry the recessive gene). Whether the usual rules of Mendelian inheritance apply due to Clark being an alien isn't discussed.
* Irey West, the daughter of the third ''[[ComicBook/TheFlash Flash]]'' ComicBook/WallyWest inherited his red hair, which is caused by a recessive gene. Therefore her mother Linda Park, who is Asian and has black hair, would have to be a carrier for the gene. The red hair gene does exist in some Asian populations but is extremely rare.
* In various continuities, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and Mera's children have been either blonde-haired boys or, more recently, red-headed girls. Blonde and red hair are both recessive traits, meaning Arthur[[labelnote:*]](blonde mother, brown haired father)[[/labelnote]] has two blonde alleles, and Mera[[labelnote:*]](both parents were redheads)[[/labelnote]] has two red alleles, and any child of theirs would have one of each. Their children could realistically have any shade of auburn or strawberry blonde hair, but are always drawn as [[StrongFamilyResemblance younger versions]] of their [[GenerationXerox corresponding-gender]] parents with bright yellow or red hair. Then again who knows how Atlantean genes work.

Compare IdenticalGrandson, UncannyFamilyResemblance, WTHCastingAgency, and PatchworkKids, which can veer too far in the opposite direction. When done intentionally, the dissimilar child is a ChocolateBaby. Compare also RandomSpeciesOffspring when even the ''species'' of the offspring is different from the parents. Also see LegoGenetics, for the ScienceFiction take.

** [=SpongeBob=] is square-shaped and yellow, looking more like a kitchen sponge than a sea sponge. His parents and other relatives (save for his cousin Stanley) are round and either brown or tan in color, much like actual sea sponges.

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'': Star, a girl Tim befriends while skateboarding, has light skin and blue eyes while her parents and brother are all AmbiguouslyBrown and seem to have latino or Filipino heritage.

These facts are sometimes ignored in Hollywood casting, which can end up having (biological) families looking like just a random group of people. As a result, you'll see blondes having [[ImplausibleHairColor black-haired]] children, biracial people [[FakeMixedRace who look more black/Asian/etc.]] than their black/Asian/etc. parent, [[TeensAreShort inexplicably large discrepancies in height between parents and children]], and so on.

** According to ''Literature/PocketMonstersTheAnimation'', Brock and his siblings are the result of his mother's multiple marriages, yet they all look exactly like Brock's father Flint. The ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime itself [[CanonDiscontinuity ignores]] the novel (for what it's worth, the book was written by Creator/TakeshiShudo, the anime's original head writer, and is fairly revisionist in its depiction of events).

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Cilan, Chili, and Cress are triplets who have green, red, and blue hair, respectively. Their eye colors match their hair colors.

* Baby JJ of ''WebAnimation/Cocomelon'' is blonde, even though his parents are, respectively, a brunette and a redhead. While JJ's mom could be hiding a recessive blonde hair gene, the fact that JJ's sister is a redhead like their dad suggests she must have a recessive red hair gene instead.

* Baby JJ of ''Cocomelon'' is blonde, even though his parents are, respectively, a brunette and a redhead. While JJ's mom could be hiding a recessive blonde hair gene, the fact that JJ's sister is a redhead like their dad suggests she must have a recessive red hair gene instead.

** A lampshaded case, which currently provides the page image, happens in the episode "Ginger Kids". Stan and Kyle visit the home of three ginger kids and discover that the kids' parents are brunettes. The couple explains that they both had recessive genes for red hair and that's why their kids look the way they do,[[note]]Which, as noted in the image caption above, it would still be extremely unlikely for two brunettes with recessive genes for red hair to produce three children in a row who are gingers.[[/note]] though they seem quite disappointed about that.

** Actually ''invoked'' in the main continuity with [[spoiler: Aeka. She was born with curly aqua-green hair like her mother and sister, but later underwent gene manipulation to activate her father's genes for straight purple hair. She wanted her hair to be darker to look more like her black-haired ''step''mother Funaho so she could win the affections of her half-brother/fiancé, Yosho.]]

** In ''ComicBook/{{Injustice Gods Among Us}}'' ComicBook/BlackCanary's and Green Arrow's son is a blond, like them. The problem is, Black Canary dyes her hair blonde. She actually has black hair. It's possible the colorists forgot that and [[AdaptationDyeJob made her a natural blonde]]

* Parodied in this ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' [[https://www.reddit.com/r/grandorder/comments/qoiu0s/genes_kamaparva/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share fan comic]], where the male Ritsuka marries Mash, though their daughter has the same orange hair as his sister. When Ritsuka wonders why the child looks like a love child between Mash and his sister, his sister points out the girl could have inherited the orange hair from their father[[note]]In the comic, male Ritsuka is the son of Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' while the female Ritsuka is the daughter of Shirou and Sakura Matou[[/note]]. [[spoiler:The male Ritsuka then says he was talking about ''his niece'', who has the same purple hair as his wife]].

* All over the place in ''Film/TheAddamsFamily''. Then again, they are AmbiguouslyHuman after all. (That's not even going into Cousin Itt...).

* ''Film/JudgeDredd'': Dredd is convicted of murder because bullets from a Lawgiver pistol are tagged with the DNA of the Judge who fired them, and forensic examination revealed the tag to match up with Dredd [[spoiler: and were actually from his twin brother Rico. It doesn't seem like the DNA should match to begin with, as Rico is clearly not an ''identical'' twin of Dredd, which is the only case where they'd have the same DNA]].

* A plot point in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. King Robert Baratheon had black hair and blue eyes and Queen Cersei Lannister is blond with green eyes and all three of their children are blond with green eyes as well. [[spoiler: But all of Robert's known bastards are black-haired and every other time their houses have intermarried the children have had black hair so Ned Stark figures out that Cersei's kids were actually sired by [[BrotherSisterIncest her brother]]. It's plausible to put the Baratheon children's paternity in doubt, since having three children in a row with the same recessive trait only expressed by one parent is unlikely, but having a trait stick so tenaciously to one family after centuries of mixed breeding is extremely unlikely. A child has to inherit one allele or another from each parent, even if it isn't expressed.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' plays with this--because both of her parents are blond (as is everyone else on the FloatingContinent Solaris) and she's a redhead, Elly feels like a literal RedHeadedStepchild to her mother, thinking that her real mother was her red-haired nanny. However, this is both plausible (the way red hair works genetically allows for blonds to be recessive for it) and [[spoiler: a moot point anyway, since the reason she looks like she does is because she is a {{Reincarnation}} of The Anti-Type.]]

* In the ''Fanfic/TheAFRUniverse'', Ryuji and Hifumi's daughter Natsumi has blonde hair (the exact same shade of blonde that Ryuji dyed his hair) despite both of them being brunettes. Both of their parents suggest that their ancestors might have had a kid with a Dutch missionary, leading both families to carry the recessive blonde gene until the two meet up.