History Main / SmallParentHugeChild

A character is noticeably larger than one or more of their parents. Often PlayedForLaughs, but can sometimes be PlayedForDrama. Either way, it's often used for irony since we expect younger characters to be smaller than older characters. Can be justified if the child is the result of InterspeciesAdoption.

* ''Film/{{Bumblebee}}'': Charlie Watson (played by Creator/HaileySteinfeld, who is [=5'8"=]) is around 8 inches taller than her mother, Sally (played by Creator/PamelaAdlon, who is [=5'0"=]).

* Buddy in ''Film/{{Elf}}'' is a human raised by {{Christmas elves}}, and is gigantic compared to his adoptive father figure Papa Elf.

** In Richard Matheson's The Incredible Shrinking Man, Scott Carey's 5 year old daughter Beth is said to be 4 foot 1 at one point. When he's doll sized, she carries him to his dollhouse, squeezing him. She doesn't quite understand having a powerful, authoritative father who is dwindling in size.

* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'': In almost every incarnation of the comics, movies and shows (except the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 2012 animated series]]), the turtles tower over their father/sensei, Splinter.

* WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends: In "Cubtron Z", Cub becomes a robot who is way bigger than Pop.

* WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends In "Cubtron Z", Cub becomes a robot who is way bigger than Pop.

* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'': One strip features [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} a big bulky Nidoking venting to his base form, a male Nidoran]], about how he feels he grew up too quickly by taking the Moon Stone and how now he'll never do things he could have done before. The punchline is that the Nidoran is actually the Nidoking's father.

* Downplayed with Comicbook/{{Daken}}. He is a whole head taller than his famously-short father Comicbook/{{Wolverine}}, but this merely places Daken at 5'9, and Wolvie is ''still'' a good deal stockier.

Can overlap with TinyGuyHugeGirl for father-daughter pairings, and HugeGuyTinyGirl for mother-son pairings. See BigLittleBrother for a sibling variation. Contrast PintSizedKid, TeensAreShort, and GiganticAdultsTinyBabies.

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': One of Sovereign's children was born with extreme gigantism due to his mother sabotaging her egg cycle in protest of being kidnapped and forced to bear Sovereign's offspring. The child grew larger than both his parents when he was still a small child, and Sovereign banished him when he couldn't fit in the nursery. He is now known as Mr. Kraken due to being often mistaken for one due to his massive size, and protects a deepwater tribe from a real kraken that's been prophesied to attack them one day.

* ''WesternAnimation/AlfredJKwak'': The titular duck grows up a lot bigger than his adoptive father Hank, who is a mole.

[[quoteright:306:[[Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bitf_nidoking.png]]]]

This is a lot more common in real life than you'd expect for various reasons--younger generations having access to better nutrition than their parents, a recessive tall gene in the family, etc. So much so that [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease listing real-life examples would be pointless]]. As many children reach their adult height as teens, it's not uncommon to see a mother with a teenage son who's OneHeadTaller than her.

* Comicbook/{{Daken}} is a whole head taller than his famously-short father Comicbook/{{Wolverine}}, though "huge" is an overstatement since this simply places Daken at 5'9.

This is a lot more common in real life than you'd expect -- so much so that [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease listing real-life examples would be pointless]]. As many children reach their adult height as teens, it's not uncommon to see a mother with a teenage son who's OneHeadTaller than her.

* Wrestling/DominikMysterio, at 6 feet 1 inch and 200 pounds, is on the small side of average size for a pro wrestler. Nonetheless he towers over his 5 foot 6 father Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr.

* A (very) downplayed case in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters''. [[TheHero Kyo Kusanagi]], who stands at 181cm[[note]] 5'11" [[/note]] is slightly taller than his father Saisyu, who is 177cm[[note]] 5'10" [[/note]]. It's not that much of a difference, but it doesn't change the fact that Kyo ''is'' slightly taller than his father.

* On ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'', Dorothy is at least a foot taller than her mother Sophia. While this can be partly attributed to Sophia being a {{Miniature Senior Citizen|s}}, flashback episodes show that Dorothy has always been considerably taller than Sophia. Dorothy's younger sister Gloria is nearly as tall as Dorothy, and their brother Phil is noted to be over 6 feet, so they qualify too. Even stranger is that Sophia's late husband was also very short, raising more questions about how the two of them consistently produced such tall children.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Marvin, according to Future-Ted, grew up to be bigger than his mother Lily. Creator/AlysonHannigan is 5'4". Future-Ted noted Marvin grew up to be 6'7", even taller than his father Marshall, the "runt" of the Eriksen family at 6'4".

* Wrestling/DominikMysterio, at 6 foot 1 and 200 lbs, is on the small side of average size for a pro wrestler. Nonetheless he towers over his 5 foot 6 father Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr.

* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'': In almost every incarnation in both the comics, movies and shows (except the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 2012 animated series]]), the turtles tower over their father/sensei, Splinter.