A Cup Angst / Live-Action TV

• Angel
  • In "Spin the Bottle", a mistaken spell has all of the characters reverting to their teenage minds, but realizing they are in their adult bodies:
    Cordelia: (looks down at her chest) I've filled out!
    Fred: (looks down at hers) And I'm... apparently not gonna.
  • Gunn plays on Fred's potential for this trope when he breaks up with her to protect her in "Double or Nothing".
• Come Back, Mister: In the third episode; Gin-Tak is not happy to be reincarnated as a woman, furthermore if his new body doesn't have big enough assets.
  Young-Soo: You have something that I don't have.You have two of them.
  Gin-Tak: (looking down at his chest) What's the use ? Why couldn't they make it just a little bit bigger ? (looking above him, addressing gods) Why are you guys so stingy ?
• In a later episode of The Cosby Show, youngest child Rudy enters puberty but she's upset that she hasn't developed as some other girls in her grade. Hilarious in Hindsight because Keshia Knight Pulliam has become quite curvy as an adult.
• In the Colombian telenovela Decisiones Extremas Lali from "Tren delantero" (Front Train) is bullied for not being as well endowed as other girls, driving her to begging her dad to get her breast implants.
• Degrassi: The Next Generation
  • Manny has this despite being at least a D cup.
  • In season 12, Maya has this and buys a push-up bra and later buys bra inserts in order to impress a band she is auditioning for. She uses them wrong and they end up falling out during the audition.
• Mary Jo Shively from Designing Women falls prey to this on occasion although she is simultaneously fascinated by Suzanne's large cup size. In one episode she receives an unexpected inheritance and contemplates getting breast implants.
• “Charlene’s Tail” in Dinosaurs is a reptile version of this. In the dinosaurs’ world, having a long tail is the same thing as big breasts, and Charlene is unhappy that hers hasn’t grown yet and the other girls are picking on her for it. She even orders a prosthetic tail to disguise it. It does grow out shortly after for real.
• In "A Reunion ...", the second-season premiere of Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, June laments that all the stress she's endured since coming to New York has probably cost her a cup size.
• In the Taiwanese Series Drunken to Love You, Xiao Ru gets in a size argument with her boss. Later, she wears a bustier to a club, inciting her husband to cover her with his jacket...backwards.
• Eun Bi from Flower Boy Ramyun Shop gets upset when Chi Soo justifies touching her chest as it's not much different from his.
• The George Lopez Show: Angie's 34B bust size is a very sore spot for her. So naturally, Benny makes fun of it as often as possible. Even George does in a few episodes.
• On Good Day America small busted reporter Anna Gilligan, in this segment when she strips down to a bikini at Action Park to try out the Tarzan rope scene quips:
  Anna: I'm going to de-robe here. I don't know what's scarier, the ride or taking off my clothes.
• The Heirs: Eun-sang, a Korean woman, finds herself on the Santa Monica Pier. She looks down and sees several busty white women in bikinis. She then looks down her own shirt, frustrated.
  Eun-sang: Is it because we eat different food?
• iCarly: Carly's "flat-chestedness" during early (in Season 1) and middle (season 2 or 3) puberty has been humorously referenced in a few episodes.
  • In "iSaw Him First":
    Carly: What's that supposed to mean?
    Sam: Why don't you ask your new helping bra!?
    Carly: (gasps) That's it! I'm out of here!
    (Carly walks out, walks back in)
    Carly: This is my house.
    (Sam walks out)
    Carly: (defensively) There's nothing wrong with a little help.
  • And in "iFight Shelby Marx":
    Carly: I'm not a twig. I'm getting curvier every day.
    Freddie: I know.
    Carly: Eyes up, dude.
• iCarly (2021): When Carly is reminiscing about her old web show in "iStart Over", she rediscovers George, the bra that told ghost stories. She sighs and says "I never did grow into you."
• When Sophie (rather inappropriately) lifts her top to show Paul her rash on In Treatment, and then taunts him for being scared of her "titties", she then immediately disparages them as underdeveloped due to her years of gymnastics training.
• For the first few seasons of Life Goes On, the introduction featured the family's teenage daughter Becca gazing at herself in the mirror and whining, "Come on, where are you guys already?"
• Apparently, Lizzie McGuire, Kate ditched Lizzie and Miranda as friends once she "developed", only adding to Lizzie's insecurity regarding her size. Many episodes made reference to bras, Lizzie's lack of curves, etc., which seemed unlikely towards the end of the show when Hilary Duff got older and obviously well-endowed.
• An episode of Mahou Sentai Magiranger has Kai and Houka swapping bodies. As they're feeling their new bodeis, Kai!Houka says "a little something" when feeling their chest. Houka!Kai doesn't appreciate that at all.
• A running gag in Married... with Children is Marcy being mistaken for an adolescent boy due to her flat chest and short hair.
• In early episodes of Modern Family, Haley makes fun of her younger sister Alex for a lack of a chest. This became Hilarious in Hindsight in later seasons, as it quickly became clear that while Haley was retaining her petite figure, Alex was becoming very curvy.
• Nip/Tuck: Well, yes, there are several characters who have gotten breast implants on the show due to not liking their old ones, but it didn't happen as often as you might think for a show that focused on plastic surgery. Primarily because it's such a common procedure for the two main characters, and more bizarre cases were usually the subject of the week.
• In One Day at a Time (1975): Julie, embarrassed that her younger sister Barbara is more endowed than she is, resorts to stuffing her bra with tissues.
• This, along with her short stature, is one of Claudia's main insecurities in Party of Five.
• An episode of Popular involves the character Sam wearing an inflatable bra to a dance due to feeling insecure about the size of her breasts.
• Done as a joke in the Sam & Cat episode "Twinfection".
  Cat: When I say Aybra Kadaybra...
  Sam: I thought you wanted me to stop making fun of your A-bra.
  Cat: [covers her breasts]
• In the Nerds sketches on Saturday Night Live Lisa Loopner (Gilda Radner) is extremely insecure about her flat chest, and Todd Dilamuca (Bill Murray) doesn't help teasing her about it:
  Todd: You might want to put some calamine lotion on those mosquito bites on your chest.
• An episode of Smart Guy involves TJ's sister, Yvette, wanting to have a breast augmentation done as she isn't happy with her size. When TJ complains about getting bullied for his big ears, she quips, "Well, at least you have something that sticks out!"
• In That '70s Show, when Eric and Laurie are trying to roast each other in "Jackie Moves On":
  Eric: You stuffed in high school.
  Laurie: So did you!
• From an episode of Three's Company:
  Jack: Do we have any more money?
  Janet: I'm sorry, Jack, I'm flat.
  Jack: Never mind that. Do you have any money?
• Yamada Naoko in the live-action Japanese dorama Trick is constantly teased about her flat chest by all the male characters and is quite bitter about it.
• In the True Life episode, "I Hate My Small Breasts", they had a woman who was an A-cup but worked as a go-go dancer and pole dancer. Of course, this led to her wanting to get breast implants.
• WXII traffic reporter Jennie Stencel learns that she's been wearing the wrong size bra.
• Dialog from the Veronica Mars episode "Meet John Smith", where Veronica is trying to change her flat tire:
  Troy: Flat?
  Veronica: As God made me.
• An odd example appears in Victorious. In one episode, Trina mentions she wants some minor cosmetic surgery. While it's not stated what procedure she wanted, she looks down at her chest as she says this, implying she thinks her breasts are too small. The odd part is that the show has also made several comments about how busty Trina is.
• We Are Who We Are: Caitlin is unhappy at having small breasts, asking Fraser hopefully if he thinks they're growing and later feels herself while she's looking in the mirror forlornly. It's possible she notices and desires it more because her best friend is quite busty. Or, given that Caitlin later is questioning her gender identity, it could be anxiety.
• The Wilds: It's downplayed by being an offhand remark, but Fatin expresses her desire for D-cups at one point.
• Grace in Will & Grace is insecure about her bust size which isn't helped by the fact that she works with the much bustier Karen. In one episode a guy from high school contacts Grace after a photograph of her appears in the newspaper. She's excited until the others point out the picture makes her look more endowed than she actually is. Out of insecurity she buys a water-filled bra that then starts leaking everywhere. After admitting what she did the guy dismisses her as shallow and says he doesn't care about looks...but then he turns around and starts hitting on Karen.

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