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alt title(s): Lena Hyena 
An ugly and/or overweight female (or perhaps just a Hollywood Homely one) is noticeably attracted to a male protagonist. Maybe she's even a little forward about it. The protagonist realizes this, and is profoundly uncomfortable with the whole idea, but the female character either doesn't realize he's not interested or is undeterred. Yet the character is not just uncomfortable: he's shocked, horrified, and disgusted. Even a wave and a smile from her will be treated as a fate worse than death for the recipient; if she flirts or acts coquettish, she's treated as if she had the moral standing of a serial baby rapist. Dubious hilarity ensues.
In some cases, the point of the joke is that the protagonist is too nice to say anything, thus allowing the situation to come up repeatedly. In others, just portraying the protagonist's reaction — which may be closer to mortal terror than awkwardness — is considered enough of a punchline on its own.
Ten years ago, gender reversals were rarely seen. Recently, though, gender reversals are becoming slightly more common, with hygiene-challenged and obsessive nerds ( not a Hollywood Nerd but the visibly obvious kind) hitting on the disinterested and aloof The Chick and receiving a much more blatant "Not a chance in Fire And Brimstone Hell" response. But most of these guys fit the Stalker With A Crush trope, and the overwhelmingly vast majority of Abhorrent Admirers are still female. The main difference is that the straight male Abhorrent Admirer must be unattractive, unclean, *and* socially transgressive (a stalker, a criminal, or a harasser), but the female Abhorrent Admirer only needs to be Hollywood Homely or average (although many of them do exhibit Stalker With A Crush-type behaviour).
The Abhorrent Admirer differs from more sympathetic characters in one key respect: the audience is supposed to find her both unattractive and extremely unsympathetic, and is supposed to feel sorry for the protagonist because she has dared to be attracted to him. Abhorrent Admirers exist to be the butt of jokes about their outrageous homeliness and supposedly inappropriate desires for attractive or even merely average people. She shows up, repulsive and horny, and is laughed at by the audience rather than laughed with. By comparison, the Hollywood Nerd has to be abnormally tenacious in order to be a problem, and usually it's an annoying personality that's the issue as much as looks. (Otherwise, they often get a polite " I just don't see you that way" brush-off.) And of course, the nerd gets the girl or boy in the end. Abhorrent Admirers, by contrast, send the objects of their affection running for the hills or, if they somehow manage to score, off to vomit or scrub themselves furiously.
Incidentally, there's no need for the Abhorrent Admirer to be less attractive than her object of affection. She can even be objectively more attractive; the point is that she isn't perfect, and that makes her a disgusting, repulsive piece of garbage.
The trope carries not one but two Unfortunate Implications; women who are not superficially "perfect" should be sexually neuter so as not to threaten men, and men are so shallow and stupid that they can't stand to be around a woman unless she is both superficially "perfect" and sexually passive.
The original for this trope might be the medieval legend of the "loathly lady", which is the basis of the Wife of Bath's Tale in that thing by Geoffrey Chaucer...making this Older Than Print. Loathly ladies also figure in several Child Ballads.
The most prominent modern example might be Sadie Hawkins, whom few people remember started as a character in Al Capp's Newspaper Comic Li'l Abner. A homely spinster at 35, she had a wealthy father who invented "Sadie Hawkins Day," on which women could propose to men. The character was so popular that the tradition caught on in real life, and outlived the strip character's fame entirely in the form of Sadie Hawkins dances. Capp liked this trope: he also created Lena the Hyena, who was described as "the ugliest woman in Lower Slobbovia" and initially left undepicted. Cartoonist Basil Wolverton famously won a contest to portray Lena.
May or may not overlap with Stalker With A Crush, though that one usually isn't Played For Laughs. Compare The Urkel, Hollywood Nerd, Beauty And The Beast. Contrast Ugly Guy Hot Wife. For versions where only the personality is a problem, see No Guy Wants To Be Chased, Romantic Runner Up and The Leisure Suit Larry. Kavorka Man is an inversion... and generally male. Provides a dubious Aesop in series where Be Yourself is a strong theme.
Sometimes a gay man (attractive or not) can be substituted for the woman, in which case the result tends to put the "phobia" back in "homophobia".
- Actually, this is closer to justifying the trope than anything else; whereas it's possible for a straight man to just say "fuck it" and go after a less attractive woman, it's highly unlikely that a straight man will suddenly change his sexual orientation just because a gay man keeps offering himself up.
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Examples
Anime and Manga
- The very minor Tezuka anime series Don Dracula had this as a Running Gag. Dracula prefers to subsist on the blood of beautiful women, and somehow never quite manages to grab one onscreen, but a grotesque (and overweight) young woman keeps popping up, determined to offer her neck and other... charms to the foreign nobleman.
- The "Sexy Ninja Tea Ladies", the stepfamily of the ninja Konatsu in Ranma ½. Of the three "Sexy Ninja Tea Ladies"
 ◊, the best-looking and most feminine one was modeled after American actor Edward G. Robinson◊.
- In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, there's the "Bowling" chapter, where Longchamp invites Tsuna and Gokudera to go on a three person blind date. Of course, Longchamp's idea of a "cute" girl has always been... unique. So the three girls he invited were absolutely hideous (one of them even being Reborn in an ugly drag). The whole chapter pretty much consists of Tsuna and all of his Bishonen guardians / male friends coming by, being horrified by how ugly these women are, and then trying to run away from them as the women aggressively pursue them.
- In Houshin Engi, Venus, one of Chou Koumei's hideous three sisters, is head over heels in love with Anti Hero protagonist Taikoubou. He literally spit up blood from seeing her strike a "sexy pose." Of course, being the Manipulative Bastard he is, he did fake being slightly friendly towards her just so he could immediately distract her and defeat them. His disgust and horror towards her constant aggressive advances toward him are played for laughs.
- If you're an elderly woman in One Piece, you're given a license to bug Sanji.
- And according to Luffy, Alvida. Subverted by how he still wasn't interested after she became drop dead gorgeous.
- The most prominent example in One Piece is the warthog zombie Lola, whose entire fighting style revolves around stealing kisses from her beloved Absalom. She's also a subversion however, as she turns out to be a very sympathetic character, while Absalom is portrayed as a perverted Jerk Ass.
- Dama from ''Hale + Guu''. Usually a nice elderly hair dresser, but whenever she sees any male with white hair, she becomes so strongly reminded of her dead husband that she moves straight past insanity levels of obsession and right into nightmare land. Enjoy.
- In the Fushigi Yuugi novel Seiran Den (chronicling Nakago's history), Tomo (then known as Ragun) got himself a rather ardent female admirer, the leader of the palace girls, Ba Hinhin. She is described as having a "horse-like face," and tends to "snort fiercely through her nose" when she's making advances on him. He, of course, finds her intensely annoying, and tries to distract her away from him.
- In Inu Yasha, Miroku is always chasing beautiful girls, whose reactions vary from schoolgirl glee to violent backlash, but always with the same result: no one of them is interested in him. However, he's oftenly chased by the old, the overweight or the funny-featured, much to his horror and chagrin.
Comics
- Ethel Muggs from Archie comics was originally created to facilitate this punchline.
- Something else about Ethel from Archie and this trope is that she was attracted to Jughead, who was notoriously uninterested in anything but food. She would have been unwanted anyway, so maybe they figured they'd make her unattractive just to underscore it, or perhaps they deliberately went with an ugly girl because it's one thing for him to say he's not interested in women (note how no other girl tries to so much as ask him out except under extraordinary circumstances), but if he turns down a hot one routinely he must be gay.
- Subverted in the Live Action Adaptation Return To Riverdale. Set at and around the cast's 15th high school reunion, it reveals the Ethel was actually Beautiful All Along and is now a world-famous supermodel.
- Massive Fridge Logic, when you consider she appears to have rapid aging disorder in the comics (i.e. she looks 80 when she's technically only 16). Did she age in reverse after high school or something?
- Well, to be fair, Betty and Veronica don't look like any 16 year olds i know. They could easily pass for being in their 20s or 30s. Ethel is interesting because although she is usually characterized by her intense crush on Jughead, there are occasionally stories where the focus is on her. One notable strip dealt with her overhearing some boys make snide comments about her rather mannish looks and she breaks down and begins to cry. She notes that it is difficult to get noticed when you look like her, and girls like Betty and Veronica are sitting next to you. The strip then goes on to show her positive qualities (in which she outgirlscouts Betty) and saves someones life. She's normally used for these kinds of gags, but It Depends On The Writer.
- Subverted via the extended introduction of Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man. Peter assumed that anyone his aunt was trying to set him up with must be hideous, and spent years dodging MJ. (The readers were shown earlier on that she was gorgeous, well before her face was finally seen.)
- One might say Peter just hit the jackpot with that one.
- This was the original role of Gravel Gerty in the Dick Tracy comic strip; even grotesque villain the Brow was repulsed by Gertie's affections. She eventually met and married the equally grotesque B.O. Plenty, though B.O. was never used as an Abhorrent Admirer, just as a side villain and then a comic relief hillbilly.
- Naturally B.O. and Gertie's daughter, Sparkle, is a stunner.
- Shautieh Ley has four chasing after him in Bowling King, Maya (everyone who meets her mistakes her for an alien initially) and the pint-sized, overweight, fanatical, Stalker With A Crush Maruko triplets.
- Mark, the protagonist of Invincible was once almost forced to marry the princess of Atlantis (in this version of Atlantis, merpeople are half-fish all over their bodies, like a Lovecraftian horror). Subverted in that the princess would rather marry one of her race and with a cunning plan, Mark escapes to the surface and she happily marries a more suitable groom.
- In Zits, Jeremy gets one of these in the form of Amber, a girl who obsesses about him for a week or so before she breaks up with him (via the Posse) and disappears. In a rare case, she is somewhat sympathetic and not the butt of the joke (one strip had Hector pondering why of all people she'd obsess over Jeremy)
Films
- Films with Wayans brothers in them are very likely to invoke this trope before the credits roll.
- Disney's Aladdin has one of these (after he encountered attractive female admirers) during his song "One Jump Ahead", the one whose line is "Still I think he's rather tasty!"
- Used in Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla.
- Ricky Smith, the obese, obnoxious neighbor in Better Off Dead who (with his equally grotesque mother) pursues in hideous fashion the gorgeous French exchange student Monique and with whom the audience is never meant to sympathize. By contrast, Hollywood Nerd Lane Meyer (John Cusack) in the same movie is treated like a loser by most of the characters, but is the hero of the film and gets Monique at the end.
- The film offers a subversion in that Ricky is granted a happy ending as well, meeting a girl who is a little more his speed.
- The corrupt, obese principal in Billy Madison overlaps with the Depraved Homosexual for the sake of a single gag during Billy's graduation.
- The execrable The Hottie And The Nottie is about this trope - an unattractive woman tries to find a date, unaware that she inhabits a universe where everyone is either a self-obsessed pig, Paris Hilton, or both.
- Virtually every woman in the Deuce Bigalow movies.
- The titular Norbit (played by Eddie Murphy) is chased and lusted after by a grotesquely obese woman who looks like... Eddie Murphy.
- The fat, acne-ridden Eleanor Skepple in Good Luck Chuck.
- Inversion in, of all things, Epic Movie, where a character gets a shapeshifter played by Carmen Electra to transform into an overweight grotesque with a monobrow because he prefers her that way.
- Played straight in Robin Hood: Men in Tights with the
witch cook Latrine.
- The Spleen in the film version of Mystery Men comes off this way in one scene when he attempts to flirt with Janeane Garofalo's character.
- The plump, voracious doorwoman in Mel Gibson's What Women Want. Even her thinking about Mel sexually is enough for him to flee in the opposite direction.
- May be justified; she seems to have an advantage over him, phisycally, and ready to use it.
- Doubly Subverted in Brazil when the, ah, orthodonture-gifted young woman Sam's mother wants him to date eventually tells him "It's alright- I don't like you either."
- There's Something About Mary does the male version with Chris Elliot's character, since he erupts into grotesque boils when he finally confronts the titular Mary. However, as befits the usual gendering of this trope, Chris Elliot's character already has an attractive, entirely subservient wife who does things like spontaneously bake him cookies and give him blowjobs while he watches football. ("Keep your head down, honey!").
- Used as a throwaway gag in Johnny Dangerously, when Maureen Stapleton's heavyset, matronly character tells Marilu Henner, "I go both ways." Unusually, this is an unattractive female admirer of another female.
- In the Rudy Ray Moore film Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-in-Law, the title character dies and is given a chance to come back to life by Satan. The catch: he has to marry the Devil's daughter. Who was described by one reviewer as "having fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down". Needless to say, Petey goes out of his way to try to weasel out of his end of the bargain.
- Played with in Shallow Hal, in which the title character has been hypnotized into seeing the "inner beauty" of an obese woman. She's so used to being treated like this that at first she thinks he's mocking her.
- In Friday, Craig's girlfriend hooks Smokey up with a friend of hers who claims to look like Janet Jackson. She doesn't.
- A hilarious scene in The Nutty Professor 2 shows the grandmother lusting after Buddy Love, thinking he's the stripper hired for Denise's bachelorette party. Buddy's reaction when she drops her dress, and panties with it, is priceless.
- Porkys Revenge: Porky's daughter is a butterface (if I may say so) who jumps Meat's bones, and who then gets her father to force Meat to marry her.
- You can bet that, Bollywood being what it is, has done this many a time. Ridiculous when the Abhorrent Admirer is Madhuri Dixit whom even the parents of the hero love, as seen in Pukar...
- Subverted in Hairspray. Tracy Turnblad's crush on Link, the hot male lead of The Corny Collins Show, is not only reciprocated, she also quickly becomes the show's most popular dancer.
Jokes
- Once a young man went to visit his pastor. He was very depressed because he was overweight. In particular he felt doomed to never marry, because he was so unattractive due to being overweight. The pastor listened, and then told the young man he would take care of it. The next morning, the young man awoke to a knock on the door. There was this gorgeous single woman from the congregation. She said: "I don't know what this means, but the pastor told me to tell you that if you can catch me you can keep me," and then took off running. The young man ran after her, but could not catch her. This happened every morning for several months. The young man came closer and closer each day. Boy was he motivated. Then the day came, he knew he would catch her today. But when the knock came at his door, there was Lena Hyena. "I don't know what this means," she said, "but the pastor said that if I can catch you, I get to keep you." Immediately the young man began running. Boy was he motivated.
- Another version replaces the pastor with a gym trainer, and the woman with an attractive gym buddy and sexual favors...and also replaces Lena Hyena with a very large man, who is very intent on rape.
- And the French version of that version makes their first name rhyme with the sex act to boot.
Literature
- A variant in Tom Holt's H. W. Wells & Co series - Rosie Tanner, who plays this kind of role to Paul Carpenter. She's a goblin.
- However, she does have the ability to shapeshift into a beautiful young human woman. It's just that Paul can't forget her real form, not to mention that she's also the mother of his sadistic boss.
- The aging, overweight Hepzibah Smith is this to Tom Riddle, future Big Bad, in a flashback in ''Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Tom plays up to this by flirting with her just enough to stay in her good graces until he can get what he wants. Then he poisons her. (Note that this pairing is a legitimate 'ship — H.M.S. Antique Lover)
- Unlike most of the other examples, we really, really aren't supposed to sympathise with Tom.
- HBP was packed with these. Along with Riddle, each of the main trio had one. Though none of them were physically unattractive; it was mainly their personalities. Harry had Romilda Vane, who stalked Harry and at one point gave him cauldron cakes laced with love potion, which Ron ate with tragic results. Ron, in a slight subversion, had an Abhorrent Admirer in his girlfriend. At first he returned her affection, but soon found that he was becoming more and more frightened of her, and her displays of affection got more and more crazy. Hermione had the incredibly attractive and talented, but slightly deranged and QUITE egotistical Cormac McLaggen following her. Being a nerd, she wasn't really blinded by his attractiveness, and saw him as the horrible, arrogant person he is.
- "Being a nerd, she wasn't really blinded by his attractiveness, and saw him as the horrible, arrogant person he is." CoughLockhartCough
- Being a nerd who is no longer twelve?
- A gender-flipped version happens in Fablehaven, where Verl the satyr obsesses over (human and technically underage) Kendra. He does sort of realize the hopelessness, but that doesn't stop him from carving a marble statue of her likeness to give to her as a Christmas present.
- Both used and subverted in Diana Wynne Jones's Castle in the Air (a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle. Abdullah is facing an arranged marriage to "two fat brides" and while he has the standard reaction, he frantically tries to justify marrying them anyway so they'll shut up and not cry. He eventually decides not to for different reasons. Subverted because the brides eventually find someone who finds them attractive though he is a half-djinn, half-demon.
- Narcissa in Montmorency - here, it's mostly a hygiene issue.
- Creepella Von Cacklefur is this to Geronimo Stilton, although she is actually acknowledged to be drop-dead gorgeous. What makes her so abhorrent to Geronimo, however, is that she is a Perky Goth Nightmare Fetishist who lives in a crypt, while Geronimo is a major Cowardly Lion known for fainting at least once a book.
Live Action TV
- In the Seinfeld episode "The Strike" (aka The One With Festivus), Elaine gains the attentions of three repulsive males: Kevin McDonald's denim-vest-wearing character and two sleazoids from an OTB parlor. (Elaine herself briefly becomes one too thanks to a hairdo-ruining steam bath, and Jerry is dating a woman who flips from ugly to pretty depending on the lighting.)
- An episode of Malcolm In The Middle had the boys getting a hot babysitter who had been a girl like this to Francis before he went to military school and back when she was overweight. Francis hadn't wanted to hurt her feelings, but towards the end of the episode, told her over the phone that he didn't find her attractive at all (Not knowing that she had lost a considerable amount of weight and had gained the aforementioned hotness). It made him sound gay.
- We need a link to that clip here...
- Mrs. Carruthers was like this to Joey in Full House as a Running Gag.
- Kimmy Gibler was like this towards several of the men on the show as well.
- Married With Children was fond of the "mortal terror" angle. Bud in particular was often an Abhorrent Admirer's victim as a Running Gag of sorts.
- This trope made up the entirety of the recurring "Wanda Wayne" and "Vera de Milo" sketches on In Living Color.
- The IT Crowd also did this, although I can't remember the specifics.
- That would be Judy from series one, who had a thing for Roy. she had "hair on her eyes" and "three rows of teeth"
- One episode of The Jamie Foxx Show had Jamie the victim of an Abhorrent Admirer named DAMN!!!
- Jamie Foxx is no stranger to this trope. He played this character himself, Ugly Wanda, when he was on In Living Color. The episode might have been a Shout Out to that.
- Honoriah Glossop of Jeeves And Wooster. Not particularly good-looking, but more importantly, large and violent. Not exactly well-suited to Bertie.
- Family Matters has a male example in (Who else?) Steve Urkel, who's undying devotion to Laura is not received well at all. But that has just as much (Or more) to do with his outrageously weird personality than the way he looks.
- There was also his cousin Myrtle Urkel, a Southern Belle with a crush on Eddie.
- On Friends, Chandler was repeatedly plagued by the unwanted advances of Janice, who (while not unattractive) sported a gaudy wardrobe, a loud and nasal voice, and an ugly, honking laugh.
- Not entirely unwanted, as he did (eventually) develop some feelings for her. The two were actually in a seemingly stable relationship for a few episodes before she went back to her husband.
- In The Office, Meredith occasionally hits on Jim. For example, when she breaks her hip she asks him to sign her pelvis cast and singles him out in particular to thank for visiting her in the hospital. Jim seems disturbed, but too polite to say anything.
- Played with on Top Gear, where Richard Hammond gets a fan letter, ostensibly from a mentally-disturbed prisoner about to be released on parole..... named Stuart.
- Subverted on Arrested Development, as the plain, overweight Ann is considered an Abhorrent Admirer to George Michael — by his father. George Michael himself adores her.
- The eponymous Zack and Cody have, on separate occasions, and despite their best efforts, attracted the affections of Agnes.
- Harper and Justin from Wizards of Waverly Place are a good example of this. In earlier episodes, she was portrayed and Alex's weird friend who was convinced she was going to marry Justin despite his complete disinterest. Although in later episodes, Harper starts acting a little more calm around him and they become friends, Justin still seems highly uncomfortable when the subject of Harper's feelings for him come up.
Theatre
Video Games
Western Animation
- The Kanker Sisters in Ed Eddn Eddy.
- Mr. Barkin in Kim Possible spends one episode being (clumsily) hit upon by an unattractive woman and reacts with outraged disgust (admittedly, Mr Barkin reacts with outraged disgust to almost everything, but still...). And the woman in question later turns out to be the villain of the week.
- It may have been less about her being unattractive and more about her annoying, over-cutesy personality.
- It's personality. She returns and does the same thing to another of the male villains.
- And then rejected him! Ouch! Way to lead a guy on.
- In The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, there is a gag involving a short, fat woman (Tilda) who wants to dance with either Ichabod or Brom Bones at the Halloween party. The underlying implication is that whichever of them fails to win the lovely Katrina van Tassel will be stuck with Tilda.
- Tex Avery's cartoon The Chump Champ has Droopy and Spike competing for the title of "King of Sports", with the prize being a kiss from the "Queen of Sports". After Spike cheats his way to victory, he goes to kiss the Queen, who appears to be a knockout...until her face is revealed. She chases the horrified Spike into the distance, as Droopy informs the audience that "cheaters never win".
- Tex Avery was fond of this trope. In Red Hot Riding Hood, Red's grandmother is very forward in trying to catch the Wolf, who reacts with utter panic. Pretty much the same thing happens with the fairy godmother in Swing Shift Cinderella.
- Mama Bear turns into one of these at the end of Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears.
- Arguably, the single greatest Abhorrent Admirer in the history of animation is Pepé Le Pew of Looney Tunes fame. Not because of his looks, as he is very handsome for a skunk (it seems the cartoon cats with the accidental white stripes seem to dig his groove after they have been rendered stinky or he had been rendered unstinky) but because of his unique, flower-wilting scent.
- Trope continued with his female counterpart/sucesor Fifi La Fume in The Adventures of Tiny Toons. It was more poignant in the sense that Fifi was blatantly portrayed as being extremely beautiful, but admirers were quickly turned off by her particular scent.
- Family Guy has one off jokes about a few women like this (including a few moderately attractive celebrities), but the most recurring one is the Butt Monkey, Meg Griffin. Boys would rather set themselves on fire and kill their siblings than go to a dance with her. Strangely enough, Quagmire apparently thought she was at least somewhat attractive, since he kept asking when she turned 18. He's more or less alone in thinking that though.
- She was able to attract some males in the pre-cancellation era, before her "ugliness" was played up, not to mention she has her own recurring Abhorrent Admirer in the form of Neil Goldman. Quagmire himself seems to swing between Abhorrent Admirer and Kavorka Man.
- Velda acts as one of these for Crash in the short-lived Stunt Dawgs.
- A number of these featured in The Beatles Cartoon.
Webcomics
- Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic features an interesting take on Abhorrent Admirer in one story arc-it revolves around a queen with a trio of daughters who is making arrangements with another king to have his son marry one of her daughters to cement an alliance, with intent to betray him later and become absolute ruler of both kingdoms. The prince in question, however, is in every possible way disinterested. Not because the daughters are necessarily ugly, but because they're gnolls, and he's just plain not interested in an interspecies relationship (by gnoll standards they're actually pretty hot catches). Two of the daughters are incredibly forward and eager; it's never shown onscreen but when the middle daughter tries to actually use sex to win him over, it's implied he reacts badly. When he succumbs to the fact that he's not going to get out of this, he chooses the third daughter, who's surly and completely unwilling. When his father asks why he chose her over her cheerful, willing sisters, he points out that if he has to marry one of them he might as well choose the one he agrees with.
- Torg's blind date from Sluggy Freelance. May or may not actually be a woman.
Web Original
- Another unconventional example is SamBakZa's "There She Is", a story in five "steps" about a relationship between Doki, a rabbit, and Nabi, a cat. In their society, friendly intermingling of felis and lepus is perfectly fine, but a romance between the two is afforded about the same respect as one between a white man and a black woman circa the American Civil War. In the first step, Nabi flees Doki's attentions more because of social norms than actual disinterest (although Doki's enthusiasm probably intimidates Nabi a bit, as well). The rest of the shorts are more about Doki and Nabi's attempts to cope with society's opinion of their relationship.
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