History Main / TheGrotesque

* Subverted in ''Film/BatmanReturns'' with the Penguin, who wants revenge on Gotham City for his parents abandoning him at birth due to his deformity. He blackmails Max Shreck, a VillainWithGoodPublicity, into making him appear to be kind and gentle so the citizens will elect him Mayor. When Batman reveals that the Penguin holds them in contempt, they immediately turn upon him, so he decides to forgo any pretense of humanity ("I am not a human being! I am an animal! Cold-blooded!", a sort of dark spoof of the above ''Elephant Man'') as he proceeds with his master plan to kill all of the first-born sons in the city -- a plan he had used the city's sympathy to further without their knowing it: "researching" his parents' identities (it's implied in the {{novelization}} that [[spoiler:he actually killed them many years before "finding" their graves]]), he picked up the information about all the other parents who had sons from birth records. When Batman foils this plan, Penguin goes over the edge, instructing his penguins to kill everyone in the city, which Batman foils with the same electronic technique that he used to reveal the Penguin's villainy to the public.

* Ephialtes the hunchback from ''Film/ThreeHundred'' survived where other malformed Spartan babies were killed at birth and still wants to help the 300 fight the Persians. He shows the Spartan army the 'goats trail' that the Persians could use to flank them at the pass of Thermopylae, and asks to join the fight. However, King Leonidas rejects his aid, saying that he his deformity makes him unable to form part of the Spartans' highly effective phalanx strategy ([[FridgeLogic which is plausible up until the point]] where [[HollywoodTactics everyone immediately breaks ranks to leap into single combat]]) but sparing him out of pity [[spoiler:After being denied the right to fight alongside the Spartans, he goes to Xerxes and tells him of the goat pass and switches sides -- which, one supposes, means [[BeautyEqualsGoodness his outer deformity eventually reflects his inner feelings of rejection and jealousy]]. That certainly fits with the ideology of [[MasterRace the Spartans]], who [[TruthInTelevision did in real life]] kill any children that were born deformed.]]

* Jinenji from the ''Anime/InuYasha'' episode "Jinenji, Kind yet Sad" is a huge monster with bulging eyes, but all he wants to do is farm medicinal herbs. The episode even had a mob of villagers with TorchesAndPitchforks as a ShoutOut.
* Oniwakamaru from the third episode of ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo''. He wasn't just ugly, he was also ''huge'', and like Jinenji faced constant harassment by villagers with TorchesAndPitchforks. Fuu befriends him, being perhaps the only person to ever look at him and not see a monster, but [[spoiler:Mugen still kills him in the end.]]

* ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'':
** The Child of Guts and Casca was conceived as a normal baby when [[spoiler: the two made love]], but then everything took a tragic turn for the worse when [[spoiler: his mother was viciously raped by Griffith when he turned into Femto, thus tainting her womb with his demonic essence and turning the developing child into misshapen and deformed fetus, [[FetusTerrible compelling him to take up a nature of evil]] [[TouchedByVorlons and giving him supernatural powers at the same time]].]] However, while instinctively "evil", the [[LoveRedeems Child loves his parents too much to actually be evil]]. Sadly, his father does not feel much sympathy for what happened to him, [[ThatThingIsNotMyChild seeing him as nothing more than a byproduct of a horrible event]] [[MyGreatestFailure that he failed to prevent]], and Guts would have even [[OffingTheOffspring killed him]] had [[MamaBear Casca]] not interfered. Nevertheless, the Child strives to [[ParentsInDistress help his parents]] whenever possible, up until the point of the mock Eclipse [[spoiler: where the Child expends the last of his energy and powers to save his mother…]]
** The Egg of the Perfect World (or the Behelit Apostle). During his life as a human, he was a nameless [[LonersAreFreaks outcast of society]] who [[TheCollectorOfTheStrange collected dead bodies]] at the base of the Tower of Conviction. When he came across a [[EggMacGuffin Behelit]] and sacrificed the world so that it may become perfect, he became the Behelit-shaped apostle that was in the present, though no one knew of his existence. The Egg of the Perfect World, though an Apostle, is one of the first to be introduced that wasn't evil or just crazy. In the final events at the Tower of Conviction, [[spoiler: he comes across the weakened Child, whom he saw as kindred for being deformed, forgotten, and unloved. As an act of pity, he consumes the Child so that he could have one moment of tenderness in his life before he and the Egg of the Perfect World were killed during the mock eclipse when Griffith reincarnates himself into the human world.]]
* Thanks to a severe childhood accident, Manga/BlackJack has poliosis, a huge number of very visible surgical scars all over his body, and a mismatched skin graft covering half his face. This did not do him any favors in school, which is part of why he grew up to be such a bitter jerk.

* Arseface from ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''. After blowing the left half of his face off imitating Music/KurtCobain, he realizes the error of his self-pitying ways and vows to be a good person. Once he encounters the heroes, he ends up becoming a chart-topping singer even though no one can understand a word he says outside of Jesse. [[EarnYourHappyEnding At the end of the story he meets up with a one-eyed girl who constantly hallucinates people's appearances, and sees him as a beautiful blond man]].
** Arseface is also TheUnintelligible and Lorrie Bobs is a one-eyed girl due to her inbred family, and also has a visual disorder that makes her see everything as something else. They both are magnificent subversions of this trope: These two hideous beings are the only two truly decent human beings who will EarnYourHappyEnding [[DysfunctionJunction in all the cast]] (Jessie, Tulip, and Cassidy have heavy ProtagonistCenteredMorality): Arseface [[RescueRomance rescued Lorrie from some bullies]], and Lorrie’s visual disorder is a virtual rose colored glass (she seems Arseface as handsome) . In Preacher, [[AnAesop everyone is a grotesque freak. Except the guy with an arse for a face and the one-eyed girl]].
* Ephialtes from ''ComicBook/ThreeHundred''. Looks almost exactly like the Hunchback picture (top), showed the Spartan army the 'goats trail' that the Persians could use to flank them at the pass of Thermopylae, and asked to join the fight. King Leonidas's given reason for rejecting his aid is that his deformity makes him unable to form part of the Spartans' highly effective phalanx strategy ([[FridgeLogic which is plausible up until the point]] where [[HollywoodTactics everyone immediately breaks ranks to leap into single combat]]). After being denied the right to fight alongside the Spartans, he went to Xerxes and told him of the goat pass and switched sides -- which, one supposes, means [[BeautyEqualsGoodness his outer deformity eventually reflected his inner feelings of rejection and jealousy]]. That certainly fits with the ideology of [[MasterRace the Spartans]], who [[TruthInTelevision did in real life]] kill any children that were born deformed.
* Ben Grimm, the Thing, from the ComicBook/FantasticFour (at least at first -- by now, he's the idol o' millions.).

* In ComicBook/XMen, any mutant whose mutation affects their outer appearance. And, as part of the FridgeLogic inherent in X-Men, The Thing mentioned above is a celebrity while Nightcrawler is forced to use a holographic disguise to avoid attention.
** Invoked with the Morlocks, a group of sewer-dwelling mutants whose mutation also incured [[PowerUpgradingDeformation a more or less severe physical deformity]].
* The [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] character, ComicBook/BetaRayBill, was a warrior who was genetically modified to into a mighty, if ugly, monster to protect his people. During Bill and Thor's first encounter, each thought was a monster meaning to do harm. However, when Bill accidentally struck Thor's hammer when it was in its walking stick form, he was transformed into a variant of Thor himself yielding the hammer, a feat that could only be accomplished by the noblest of heroes.
* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperheroes'': The tomb of "Hate Face" tells his story in this manner. "The face of a devil, the soul of an angel. He rescued millions, yet none could bear his revolting visage. Some say he died in battle--Others say it was his broken heart that killed him!"
* Roger the [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent Homunculus]] from ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}''. He sees himself as an inhuman abomination and is considered "expendable" by the BPRD due to being an artificial being, but he's one of the [[GentleGiant nicest]] characters in the series and willing to [[spoiler: kill his own brother]] in ''Almost Colossus'' to save humanity.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Ziggy}}''. He doesn't cause fear in the audience, but pity. He's also pretty deformed compared to everyone else he interacts with. He's also [[TheWoobie tragic]] as [[CrapsackWorld mishap after mishap]] befalls him, as the comic's punchline.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'':

* ''Film/{{Darkman}}'': Dr. Peyton Westlake, a.k.a. Darkman, is somewhere between a [[Franchise/UniversalHorror Universal Monster]] and a SuperHero. His [[Creator/LiamNeeson good looks]] were ruined by a laboratory fire set by malicious gangsters. Luckily, his [[ScienceHero research]] into synthetic skin allows him to grow new faces, making him a MasterOfDisguise - though in his natural form he's a classic instance of this trope, a bloody mess covered in {{mummy}}-like bandages.

* The title character in ''Film/EdwardScissorhands''. A bit of a twist, though, in that -- being played by Creator/JohnnyDepp -- he's quite handsome. He simply has NoSocialSkills, and has the unfortunate tendency to cut things up by accident, due to being a golem with scissors instead of fingers.
* ''Film/TheElephantMan'' stars Creator/JohnHurt under a lot of prosthetics as the kind-hearted, intelligent, and severely-deformed John Merrick. It's a very loose biopic (taking a few liberties with the order of events), telling the story of how he left the freak show circus to move into permanent care in a London hospital. See below under RealLife for more information.
* Subverted in ''Film/BatmanReturns'' with The Penguin, who wants revenge on Gotham City for his parents abandoning him at birth due to his deformity. He blackmails [[ShoutOut Max]] [[Film/{{Nosferatu}} Shreck]], a VillainWithGoodPublicity, into making him appear to be kind and gentle so the citizens will elect him Mayor. When Batman reveals that the Penguin holds them in contempt, they immediately turn upon him, so he decides to forgo any pretense of humanity ("I am not a human being! I am an animal! Cold-blooded!", a sort of dark spoof of the above ''Elephant Man'') as he proceeds with his master plan to kill all of the first-born sons in the city - a plan he had used the city's sympathy to further without their knowing it: "researching" his parents' identities (it's implied in the novelization that [[spoiler: he actually killed them many years before "finding" their graves]]), he picked up the information about all the other parents who had sons from birth records. When Batman foils this plan, Penguin goes over the edge, instructing his penguins to kill everyone in the city, which Batman foils with the same electronic technique that he used to reveal the Penguin's villainy to the public.
* Jaws, from the ''Film/JamesBond movies'', becomes this after his HeelFaceTurn in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}''. The actor who played him, Creator/RichardKiel, has acromegaly. In a twist, not only does Redemption ''not'' Equal Death, but he manages to get himself a girlfriend out of the deal (and a BespectacledCutie who's [[PintsizedPowerhouse almost as strong as he is]], to boot). Especially when said girl saves Jaws while he was pinned by debris [[spoiler:after chasing Bond in a car that went over a cliff]]!
* Sloth in ''Film/TheGoonies'' is deformed, dimwitted, very strong, and kept as a MadmanInTheAttic by his family. Once he makes friends with Chunk, however, it's clear he's a good guy.
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow''. The sole survivor of Dr. Totenkopf's uranium mining and experiments, presumably because of radiation poisoning and Totenkopf's genetics experiments.
* Rocky Dennis from ''Film/{{Mask|1985}}'', whose entire life is a ShaggyDogStory (with a few good [[YankTheDogsChain yanks]] for good measure).
* Creator/RondoHatton was an American actor who had a brief, but prolific career playing thuggish bit parts in many Hollywood B-movies. He was known for his brutish facial features which were the result of acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland. His primary role was 'The Creeper', a killer who crushed his victim's spines in a bearhug, but who was all the same desperate for any form of acceptance, a grace rarely bestowed upon him because of his appearance.

* The hunchback from ''Film/ThreeHundred'' is one of those cases. He survived where other malformed Spartan babies were killed at birth and still wants to help the 300 fight the Persians. He gets rejected however, because Leonidas points out that he isn't really fit for battle but is spared out of pity, making it this trope. [[spoiler:Rejected, he goes to accept the Persians' offer.]].
* ''Film/QueenOfOuterSpace''. The eponymous queen [[MysteriousVeil keeps her face hidden behind]] a WhiteMaskOfDoom despite her form-fitting dress that [[ButterFace reveals a rather attractive body]]. When TheCaptain of the Earthmen tries to [[BoldlyComing seduce her into a more friendly frame of mind]], he gets a nasty shock when he removes the mask to find her face hideously scarred by radiation poisoning. She does not take his rejection well.
* Seth Brundle in ''Film/TheFly1986'' is TallDarkAndHandsome. After a TeleporterAccident genetically fuses him with a fly he undergoes a SlowTransformation into a HalfHumanHybrid from the inside out; at first the SuperStrength, virility, and stamina this grants him makes him DrunkWithPower, culminating in him tossing his lover Veronica out of his loft/lab because she's worried about the changes, which also include strange hairs and facial blotches. Then he learns what's actually happening to him and loses his haughtiness. A month later, terrified and lonely, he asks her to visit him -- [[BodyHorror whereupon she and the audience see that his entire body is horrifically disfigured]], and he now has to vomit on his food in order to consume it. His right ear even ''falls off'' before her eyes! Embarrassed and upset, he reaches out to her for an embrace...and, in a moment notorious for eliciting '''screams''' from audience members, she hugs him ''without hesitation'', even resting her head against the spot where the ear just molted away. Although Seth's transformation into an insectoid beast continues apace and his mind ultimately undergoes a SplitPersonalityTakeover that leads to him becoming a danger to her and others despite his best efforts, Veronica's love for him remains intact to the DownerEnding, in which [[spoiler: she mercy kills him at his request]].
* Frankenstein's Monster from ''Film/VanHelsing'' may look horrific and monstrous, and may have been created to effectively be the AntiChrist by Dracula manipulating the good doctor, but the worst thing he ever does is violently lash out in self-defense against those who would harm him for being a monster. Van Helsing however can sense that he is not evil and adamantly refuses to harm him, even to prevent him from being used by Dracula to bring about the end of the world.
-->'''Van Helsing:''' My life, my job is to vanquish evil. I can sense evil. This thing, man, whatever it is, evil may have created it, may have left its mark on it, but evil does not rule it, so I cannot kill it.
-->'''Anna:''' I can.
-->'''Van Helsing:''' Not while I'm here.
* Patrick in the aptly-named Creator/LindaBlair film ''Film/{{Grotesque}}'' is a hideous monstrosity of a man, but despite developmental disabilities he can still tell right from wrong. When a pack of bikers lay waste to his foster family, we're treated to a MookHorrorShow of epic proportions.

* In Creator/MaryShelley's novel ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', rejection by his MadScientist creator and the rest of society truly turns [[FrankensteinsMonster the creature]] into the monster he outwardly resembles, as sorrow turns to hatred and lust for vengeance.
* OlderThanRadio: Quasimodo, the title character of Creator/VictorHugo's ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' is an archetypal example, suffering from severe kyphosis and being mostly deaf due to the clanging of the cathedral bells. In the original book he's actually a grouchy, resentful character who nonetheless retains the reader's sympathy through his basic humanity and essential nobility, [[KnightInSourArmor deeply buried though it is]]. Most adaptations soften him up, making him more of a naive, sweet-natured kinda guy.
* Gwynplaine, of ''Literature/TheManWhoLaughs'', was, due to a bizarre torture inflicted upon him, had his face permanently stretched into a hideous SlasherSmile, but was basically a decent guy. This being another Victor Hugo novel, he didn't end too well.
* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'':
** While he's supposed to be the villain, the book humanizes the Phantom after his act of mercy; the [[DracoInLeatherPants increasingly sympathetic view]] of the motives behind his actions in later film adaptations and the Creator/AndrewLloydWebber stage version has largely overridden his villainous role. It doesn't help that the transfer from book to play and movie has the level of his deformity lowered from "Skeletor" to [[HollywoodHomely "Gerard Butler fell asleep while sunbathing, so his face is a little red"]].
** In the original book by Gaston Leroux, Erik (the titular phantom) subverts this trope in two ways: First: He is not a GentleGiant, but a PsychopathicManChild. Second: Ironically, his NietzscheWannabe attitude lets him fit into society very well, as a TortureTechnician, ProfessionalKiller and succesful {{Blackmail}}er, because HumansAreBastards. The {{Narrator}} lampshades in the Epilogue that Erik, with an ordinary face, ''would have been one of the most distinguished of mankind''. However, even after his [[EvilCannotComprehendGood act of mercy]] he doesn't value human life, and talks casually about Count Phillipe's murder.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'''s version of the Phantom of the Opera, namely [[spoiler:Walter Plinge]] is deformed mentally, but he ends happily.
* Tyrion "The Imp" Lannister from ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' definitely fits the bill, due to his dwarfism and other deformities. You can't help feel sorry for him in one scene where he tells his henchman Bronn to find him a prostitute but to make sure to tell her beforehand what he is and how he looks, so she isn't repulsed by his appearance. And then it gets eve worse: [[spoiler: he takes a sword slash across his face in the battle of King's Landing, losing a large chunk of his nose, twisting his lips, and very nearly costing him an eye]].
%%** The Hound suffers a milder version of this trope due to his horribly scarred face; he's certainly not ''gentle'', but he's increasingly been shown to be a better person than most suppose, and he's certainly pitiable (I defy your heart not to twinge any time he cries). It's implied, however, that one of the reasons he's grown up so hard (his brother's horrible presence aside) is that people would immediately be repulsed due to his burns, assuming that [[BeautyEqualsGoodness such a frightening appearance must be indicative of a bad person]]. He once remarks, "Why believe them and not me? Couldn't be my face, could it?"
%%** Brienne of Tarth is a female example. You won't read a chapter she's featured in without someone mentioning what an ugly freak she is. They mockingly call her [[IronicNickname Brienne the Beauty]].
* Beldin from ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is a self-aware form of this. He's a hideously ugly hunchback, but he's also one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world. Nobody outside of his allies and enemies knows what he's capable of, though, because as he puts it, "They can't see past the hump on my back." He isn't ''nice'' by any means, being a horrifically crude and tactless jerk, but a certain percentage of that is a front, as he's firmly on the side of the heroes. Although in the ''Malloreon'' he breaks out of this trope by ''getting'' a happy ending. [[spoiler: ''Vella'' falls in love with him because of the whole "turns into a hawk" thing, and they are last seen, as hawks, disappearing into the sky]].
* ''Literature/ThePiloFamilyCircus'' has its own freakshow, led by the human-shark hybrid Fishboy, a textbook example of The Grotesque. Being the only performer who is consistently polite and welcoming, he is probably the only member of the Circus that doesn't have any rivalries with his fellow performers, and [[MonsterClown Gonko, head of the Clown Division]] refers to Fishboy as "the nicest bastard in this place." However, like all the Freaks, Fishboy wasn't born deformed: he was mutated by the Matter Manipulator (a flesh-sculpting sorcerer who lives in the Circus Funhouse) and forced to live out his life with the others as an object of disgust and mockery. In fact, this is why he [[spoiler: starts an underground resistance movement against the Circus and it's managers, and why he and the other Freaks are the first to die when Kurt Pilo starts hunting for traitors.]]

* Quite a bit of this in the Harlan Ellison story ''Literature/TheAbnormals'', (titled in its television version as 'The Discards'). A group of people is living aboard a spacecraft after a virus causes them all to mutate and afterward be exiled to try and contain the virus. The leader, Sanswope, has an extra head. Another guy has a deformed chest and oversized arm. Many were described in the story and more were added for television.
* In ''Literature/{{Masques}}'', Wolf is, well, a wolf, most of the time, and as such feared by most. Aralorn is unimpressed and still saves him from a pit trap. When he is later seen in human form, his face is disfigured, and he wears a mask over it. When Aralorn finds him, he is rather morally neutral, [[spoiler: having fled from his evil father who made him torture people]], he doesn't hurt anyone, but doesn't help, either. Over the course of the book, with Aralorn to steer him in the right direction, he becomes more and more heroic, and integrated into normal society.
* Giraldus from Creator/RobinJarvis' ''[[Literature/DeptfordMice The Oaken Throne]]'' is a blind, leprous mole who is a kindhearted pilgrim. His disfigured features cause others to feel revulsion and/or pity at the sight of him.
* Lancelot from ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' is a PlayedWith example. Unlike his traditional depiction as a {{Hunk}}, he is ugly to the point of disfigurement, explicitly compared to the modern-day TropeMaker Quasimodo and implied to have limited facial expressions from the extent of his deformity. However, he’s liked and admired by nearly everyone he meets for his prowess as a knight, which ends up giving him BlessedWithSuck that emulates SoBeautifulItsACurse anyway (including being [[RapeAsDrama raped by a young woman he rescues]]- [[MoralEventHorizon twice]]!- and being handed quests left and right, meaning he has to live completely indoors for a few years to stay incognito because his ugliness makes him instantly recognizable). Being liked in general- and loved by the beautiful Guenever- doesn’t assuage his fear that his ugly exterior reflects an equally corrupt interior, either, and the fact that Arthur cares for him so badly contributes directly to the fall of Camelot anyway.
* Boo Radley in ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'', a classic MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold, is an [[AlbinosAreFreaks albino take]] on this trope, feared and hated by most of the community. When we finally meet him at the end, he's definitely a little odd but he's unambiguously a good guy.
* The genetically engineered super soldiers in ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown'' are called "Tesks," short for "Grotesque." They defied the government that created them, ending the war they'd been made for, but they and their descendants have had a very hard time being accepted by normal humanity in the years since.
* The title character in Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's "Hop-Frog" is a long-suffering court jester with deformed legs (hence his nickname) and [[LittlePeopleAreSurreal dwarfism]]. [[TheDogBitesBack He gets his revenge on the king and his courtiers in a chilling but satisfying manner.]]
* ''Literature/VenusPrime'':
** The Commander's hands and face are unnaturally dark, the result of years of traveling in space and getting soaked in ultraviolet radiation.
** After altering herself so that she can thrive on Amalthea, Sparta looks and acts increasingly less human.

* Several examples in ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' episodes, such as the scientist changed into a fake alien in "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S1E3TheArchitectsOfFear The Architects of Fear]]", Andro the mutant in "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S1E6TheManWhoWasNeverBorn The Man Who Was Never Born]]", and the Chromoite alien (a blob on legs) from "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S1E15TheMice The Mice]]".
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Sharaz Jek from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]" turns out to be horribly deformed by the mud bursts that nearly killed him but covers it for almost the entirety of the serial by wearing a black mask (and kinky leather) and living amongst androids "because androids do not see as we see!". Evidently, the mud didn't manage to destroy his vanity.
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary Silence in the Library]]", Miss Evangelista fills this role... eventually.

* In ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' the intern Ryan was a [[HeroicWannabe wannabe Grimm]] who believed that all Wesen must be killed. It's eventually revealed that he's in fact a Wesen himself, and a very hideous one.
* In ''Series/TheWitcher2019'', Yennefer starts off as a rather pitiful character whose hunched back and crooked face lead her family to treat her as a slave. After becoming a sorceress, she undergoes a [[MagicPlasticSurgery transformation]] to become outwardly beautiful.

* The Squonk, a Pennsylvanian cryptid, is a piglike creature whose baggy skin is covered in warts and moles. It is described as so pitifully ugly that it constantly cries over its hideous, unlovable appearance, maintaining a nocturnal lifestyle purely to reduce the chance of seeing its own visage in the water's reflection.

%%* The Nosferatu clan of both of ''TabletopGame/TheWorldOfDarkness'' Vampire games have this as a defining trait.%%This trope is about characters whose ugliness belies a noble and sympathetic nature, not just any character who is hideous%%
%%** In ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade Masquerade'', the Nosferatu are all horribly disfigured; most of them [[LooksLikeOrlok look like their namesake]], but a good number of them "just" have hideous growths and scar tissue that could stop a tank shell. It usually reaches the point that merely going in public uncloaked as a Nosferatu breaks the {{Masquerade}}.%%
%%** In ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'', they can still look butt ugly, but the "wrongness" about them is more of a floating quality not tied directly to appearance. One of them can be as pretty as a supermodel, but still disquiet people because they smell strongly of embalming fluid.%%
%%** ''Requiem'' also features the Carnival, a bloodline founded by "the Andalusan Mermaid", a circus freak who was saved from her sadistic owner by a passing vampire. Every last one of the Carnival is deformed in some way or another. The book discussing them specifically warns that they tend not to be as nice as traditional freaks were. Their clan of origin, for irony's sake, are [[TheBeautifulElite the Daeva]].%%If they tend not to be as nice as traditional freaks are, then they probably don't qualify as this trope%%

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' adventure ''Trial of the Beast'' features a Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}} ShoutOut called the Beast of Lepidstadt, a flesh golem that has achieved sentience. Although its first act upon awaking was killing its creator, this was an accident caused by the periodic rages flesh golems experience against their will. The Beast has attempted peaceful contact with humanity at multiple points, even teaching itself to speak and recite poetry in an attempt to seem like more of a person, but is always rejected due to its horrific appearance. It isolates itself in a swamp, partly for its own safety, and partly to protect others from the effects of its rages; it has recently acquired a Flesh Golem creation manual, and is studying it in an attempt to control its behavior better.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', because [[CrapsackWorld of course]]. The Unfleshed were a race of giant, skinless humanoids who were the rejected results of the Daemonculaba (an extremely {{Squick}}-y science/magic experiment). They lived in the sewers, hunting for meat wherever it could be found, and instinctively seeing the GodEmperor as their father (despite being created by enemies of the Emperor). In the book ''[[Literature/{{Ultramarines}} The Killing Ground]]'', they are rescued by a group of [[SpaceMarine Ultramarines]] who hid them from the wider Imperium. But, [[spoiler:in the end, it [[MercyKill didn't last long]] for the Unfleshed]].

* Rigoletto, the protagonist from Verdi's opera of the same name, is a hunchback who works as a jester for the Duke of Mantua. In the scene he shares with his daughter, Gilda, in the first act ("Figlia!... Mio Padre!"), we are shown his gentler side when he declares his devotion to his daughter, saying "Culto, famiglia, la patria, il mio universo è in te!" (translation: "My faith, my family, my homeland, my universe is in you!"). Throughout the opera, he is portrayed in a sympathetic light and also meets a tragic end, as is typical of The Grotesque.

* Dr. Jaming from ''[[VideoGame/DarkChronicle Dark Cloud 2]]'' is described as a "Tragic Figure". He starts out as a bad guy, but is later said to [[spoiler: [[HeelFaceTurn have a change of heart]] shortly after you beat him. His grandson, who is just as ugly as he was, develops Ixion at his request to do something good and just.]]
* Subverted with ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'''s Necro. He's a young Russian man turned into a freakish mutant by unethical experiments out for revenge against those who did it...but he is mostly an easygoing, unangsty fellow who kinda likes the powers that came with the looks, and he even has a loving girlfriend.
* Gonzales from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'' is a recruitable axe fighter who is very ugly and has a twisted, childlike mind even by [[ObviouslyEvil bandit standards]]. Like a classic Grotesque character, Gonzales is a GentleGiant who is bullied by people who judge him for his looks and is sent into battle even though he doesn't want to hurt a fly. His traits are acknowledged by [[AllLovingHero Lilina]] as she befriends him.
* Implied in the backstory of ''VideoGame/LayersOfFear''. You play as a MadArtist fallen hard from grace, following his wife's severe disfigurement in a fire that crippled her hands. The majority of the game then follows the artist's own descent into madness within his house, while pursued by his wife as a mangled figure with nearly all her skin burnt off. [[spoiler: One of the game's endings zigzags this trope, when the artist finishes a portrait of his wife of how she looked before the fire, which then '' [[CreepyChangingPainting changes on its own ]] '' to look like her burnt self. After it ends up discarded with dozens of other attempted portraits, the player can see that the artist actually did paint his wife as a normal person, at worst with a small scar, but [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness the artist's own insanity]] made her look like this trope.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has [[spoiler: the tragic Amalgamates, hideous, invincible {{Eldritch Abomination}}s generated from multiple monster corpses fused together with Determination that pursue you through the [[AbandonedLaboratory True Lab]] on your way to the true ending of the game. Most of them, however, retain some of their former intelligence, and none really want you dead: they just smelled the [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext popato chisps]] on you and hadn't been fed in a while. (It's actually impossible to solve an altercation with them with violence: As stated above, they're all invincible, except one that has incredibly high health and regeneration, and in ''Undertale'' you can solve monster fights peacefully. This is the intended solution, as you're working toward an ending you can only achieve without killing any monsters.)]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' has the Ghouls, who are essentially an entire race of The Grotesque. Victims of a mutation that can happen to survivors of extreme radiation poisoning, Ghouls face severe prejudice due to resembling undead, made even worse due to ordinary people's paranoia that they could turn into mindlessly aggressive feral ghouls without warning.
* ''VideoGame/{{ResidentEvil}}'' has Lisa Trevor. Lisa was a fourteen year old girl who was subjected to torturous experiments for decades by the Umbrella Corporation. The experiments have twisted her body into a nightmarish and nearly invulnerable form. Worse still, she retains a [[AndIMustScream shred of consciousness]] and still searches for her long dead mother.

* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': There's a [[OurLichesAreDifferent very good reason]] Duane keeps his glamour up every waking moment.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Creator/UrsulaVernon's [[http://ursulav.deviantart.com/art/Bog-Unicorn-14403629 Bog Unicorn]].

%%** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-191 SCP-191]]
* Bruno from the ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' ''Tale of Woe'' was handsome before being [[ForcedTransformation transformed by a potion]] [[BeautyToBeast into a deformed monster]]. He still is as goodhearted inside as he was prior to this, though now his appearance could be described as UglyCute at best.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', which took many cues from the Creator/TimBurton ''Batman'' films, the Penguin is ''almost'' this trope played straight. He's nowhere near as evil as, say, ComicBook/TheJoker, but then again he's not even all that ugly (he's certainly less freaky-looking than the Tim Burton film version, though he also has deformed hands). Deep down he really wants to go straight, [[ChronicVillainy but he just enjoys stealing priceless artifacts too much]], just can't keep from lashing out at people who make fun of him when he ''does'' try to reform, and is just terrible at being good.
** In "Birds of a Feather", he goes straight and actually means it, even when [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand this leaves him alone on the outside]] (a real-life phenomenon for those trying to change their lives upon leaving prison). Then he meets a beautiful woman who, unbeknownst to him, is only dating him for the thrill and attention she'll get from dating a former super criminal (She secretly finds him ''repulsive''). He is head-over-heels for her, buys expensive gifts for her, and even saves her life from muggers, all the while so happy to be an accepted member of society that crime is the last thing on his mind. Like this he is surprisingly good-natured, brave, and kind. [[spoiler:Too bad the truth comes out and he is so hurt and shocked by it that he dives head first back into supervillainy.]]
** He eventually finds a good proper balance when he opens the Iceberg Lounge, a VillainBar of sorts which is, on the surface, a legitimate nightclub that serves Gotham's elite, but beneath it all secretly deals in fencing and trafficking stolen goods and contraband. On the surface he gets to be the suave, straight, law-abiding member of high society he's always wanted to be, complete with (presumably) getting some work done to appear less grotesque, while beneath it all he gets to engage in the subterfuge and sleaze of the criminal underworld that he just loves to be a part of.
** Zigzagged with one-shot character "Calendar Girl" in "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE13MeanSeasons Mean Seasons]]" - she was a former supermodel who underwent plastic surgery when her popularity waned, but the results horrified her to the point of seeking revenge on those that drove her to it to begin with. At the climax, though, [[spoiler: her mask shatters, revealing that she's drop-dead gorgeous - but she could only see the flaws [[HollywoodHomely due to what those in her career put her through]].]]
* Used a few times in ''WesternAnimation/CyberSix'' with a few of [[BigBad Von Richter's]] creations.
** Terra, a massive blob monster made of mud, essentially has the mind of a child thanks to [[TheDragon Jose]] messing up its creation. Even after being hit with a dose of PsychoSerum it ultimately [[HeelFaceTurn saves Cyber Six's life]] with a [[TearJerker heartbreaking]] HeroicSacrifice.
** Grizelda from ''Daylight Devil'', a lizard-fish woman that can turn invisible, is seemingly just following orders until she ultimately decides not to kill Cyber Six after the titular character tries to save her life.
** [[spoiler:Von Richter's monsters, the ones from the intro, are unleashed on Cyber Six in the finale. They all immediately attack Von Richter while one smiles at Cyber Six and points to the exit.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', which took many cues from the Creator/TimBurton ''Batman'' films, the Penguin is ''almost'' this trope played straight. He's nowhere near as evil as, say, ComicBook/TheJoker, but then again he's not even all that ugly (he's certainly less freaky-looking than the Tim Burton film version, though he also has deformed hands). It's implied that deep down he really wants to go straight, [[ChronicVillainy but he just enjoys stealing priceless artifacts too much]] -- and he just can't keep from lashing out at people who make fun of him when he ''does'' try to reform.
** Not just implied. In "Birds of a Feather", he goes straight and actually means it, even when [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand this leaves him alone on the outside]] (a real-life phenomenon for those trying to change their lives upon leaving prison). Then he meets a beautiful woman who, unbeknownst to him, is only dating him for the thrill and attention she'll get from dating a former super criminal (She secretly finds him ''repulsive''). He is head-over-heels for her, buys expensive gifts for her, and even saves her life from muggers, all the while so happy to be an accepted member of society that crime is the last thing on his mind. Like this he is surprisingly good-natured, brave, and kind. [[spoiler:Too bad the truth comes out and he is so hurt and shocked by it that he dives head first back into supervillainy.]]

He is very rarely presented as the villain and frequently overlaps with the ReluctantMonster and TragicHero. The defining trait of The Grotesque is that his [[GentleGiant hideous appearance belies a gentle personality]] that is doomed to mistreatment because of society's shallowness. We, the viewers, are left feeling like the only ones who can see him for who he truly is, and [[TheWoobie want to comfort him]] with the knowledge that he's not alone in his quiet suffering.

* ''VideoGame/{{ResidentEvil}} has Lisa Trevor. Lisa was a fourteen year old girl who was subjected to torturous experiments for decades by the Umbrella Corporation. The experiments have twisted her body into a nightmarish and nearly invulnerable form. Worse still, she still retains a [[AndIMustScream shred of consciousness]] and still searches for her long dead mother.