Embarrassing Statue

So flattered she's speechless...

Michelle Henke: And they won't take it down?
Honor Harrington: They won't. I told them I'd refuse to use the main entrance ever again if they left it there, and they said they were very sorry to hear it and pointed out that there's always been a private entrance for steadholders. I threatened to refuse to accept my Key back from Faith, and they told me I wasn't permitted to do that under Grayson law. I even threatened to have my armsmen sneak up on it some dark night and blow it to smithereens... and they told me it was fully insured and that the sculptor would be more than happy to recast it in case any accident befell it!

—Honor Harrington, Ashes of Victory

A common way to honor a person of note or hero of a nation is to build a statue in their honor. Often times this is done for people who are deceased, but occasionally happens to people who are alive, and those individuals are not always appreciative. Sometimes they find the very notion downright embarrassing.

Usually occurs with those who are Famed In-Story. This can be used as a mark of a Humble Hero, one who does not think their deeds are worthy of veneration. Eventually they may just resign themselves to it, or try to take more extreme actions, like tearing it down themselves. A possible scenario is for someone who was thought to be dead but suddenly returns to discover their Memorial Statue.

This can also extend to other mediums of art, provided they meet two conditions: that they are publicly exhibited or available and that it is intended as an honor, or at least with the intention of making the subject look good. If it is made as a form of satire, ridicule, or with malicious intent, it does not belong here.

Despite the subjects of statues and other public works usually being public figures themselves, it's important to keep in mind that anyone can have a statue made in their likeness. If Bob is just an average citizen but someone makes a statue of him for whatever reason and puts it on public display to his embarrassment, that counts.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• One Piece: During the Little East Blue arc (an anime Filler Arc meant as a prelude to the Strong World movie), the East Blue expatriates on the titular island include a group of young boys who are huge fans of Nami, and happily show off to her an ice statue they've carved of her... one that happens to be naked. She's understandably pissed off about this, and beats the crap out of them for it.

Comic Books

• There's a Batman: Black and White strip in which a sculptor decides to create a statue in honor of Batman and place it in one of Gotham City's public parks, to Batman's chagrin. One of Batman's many enemies tries to blow up the statue, and Batman feels duty bound to step in... then finds himself tempted to set off the charges himself and tell anybody who asks that unfortunately he arrived just too late.

Fan Works

• In the Discworld fic Gap Year Adventures, the young visitor Mariella Smith-Rhodes is doubly mortified with embarrassment to visit a country named after her family. Not only is she steeling herself to encounter people who do a double-take when she reveals her family name, she then discovers that just about every town or city she visits has a civic statue of the Founder, Sir Cecil Smith-Rhodes. Who has a clear family resemblance. Apparently, it's in the shape of the cheekbones, nose and chin. Mariella is very relieved to pass from Smith-Rhodesia into the Transvaal. then discovers Cecil left a statuary mark in the country next door, too.
  • In a later tale, Strandpiel, Mariella's older sister Johanna is approached to be advised that owing to her status as a National Heroine, there are plans to name a new settlement near to the national capital after her. Johanna winces, then reflects that rimwards Howondalandians, a laconic people, are likely to shorten the name of Johanna Smith-Rhodesburg down to something more everyday and less obvious like perhaps Johannasburg or even Joburg. She gives permission on this basis. Then she realises there are plans for a civic statue to mark its Founder... The embarrassments of both Smith-Rhodes sisters are to be found in the writings of A.A. Pessimal.
• A Tale of Two Rulers: Zig-zagged for laughs when Zelda and Ganondorf's baby shower gifts include a huge nude statue of them in a dramatic pose. Ganondorf is thrilled, but Zelda insists on a few strategic fig leaves as a compromise.
• This Bites!: The Little East Blue arc plays with the example from canon, in that Nami's fan club have based their statue on her more badass bounty poster from this universe, which she finds flattering. But then they accidentally reveal all the prototype statues, which are not only all naked (like the canon one) but also have cartoonishly bad faces. This is when she gets pissed and thrashes them.
• Us and Them ends with Aeris seemingly giving her life to save Gaia from Meteor and JENOVA. She later recovers, though since she's on another planet, all her friends aren't aware of this at the time. The author drew a scene of Aeris, Sephiroth and their young son returning to Gaia to find a statue of her posed like some saintly figure. She is not pleased.

Film - Animated

• In The Little Mermaid (1989), Prince Eric is given a statue of himself as a birthday gift, which depicts him as a mighty Warrior Prince in an over-the-top manner. It doesn't really fit Eric's personality and he's clearly unimpressed, though he tries to be polite about it. The statue ends up going down with the ship when it sinks, whereupon it ends up in Ariel's possession, who is far more appreciative of it, which doesn't last for long, as Triton destroys it upon finding her daughter saved Eric and declared she was in love with him.

Film - Live Action

• How to Steal a Million: Nicole's family heirloom, a "priceless" Cellini sculpture on display at a museum in Paris, is actually a forgery created by her grandfather when he was younger, using her grandmother as a model. Nicole bears a striking resemblance to her grandmother at that age. Nicole finds this embarrassing because the statue is nude. She is also well aware that if anyone notices the resemblance the forgery could easily come to light.
• North: To commemorate adopting North as their son, The governor of Hawaii and his wife unveil a billboard featuring North...with an octopus pulling his swimtrunks down a la the Coppertone Baby. And then they say they intend to display it at every airport and freeway on the mainland. North becomes irate and shortly after resumes his search for new parents.
• Rocky III: Early in the film, an event is held to unveil a statue of Rocky with his arms triumphantly in the air. He doesn't say anything, but his expression when he sees it shows he's pretty self-conscious about it. Later, when he's at a low point after losing the title to Clubber Lang combined with Mickey's death, he actually starts yelling and throwing things at it.
• Star Trek: First Contact: While assisting Zephram Cochrane in getting his warp ship ready for its historic flight, the Enterprise crew keep showering him with hero worship. It's when Geordi starts telling him about the statue that will be built of him in the future that Cochrane snaps and tries to escape.
  Cochrane: I don't want to be your statue!
  Riker: We don't have time for this. (stuns Cochrane with a phaser then turns to Geordi) You told him about the statue?

Literature

• Ciaphas Cain: After Cain's liberation of Perlia, a huge statue is erected in his honor. Cain himself thinks it an eyesore, and when the planet is attacked decades later, asks hopefully if the statue's been destroyed.
• The Heroes of Olympus: Piper's father is a big Hollywood star, so he gets featured in quite a few public displays, but the one they come to call simply The Poster is one of him in some Conan the Barbarian-esque movie, shirtless, oiled up chest, the works. Piper hates it, and her dad seems rather chagrined about it himself.
• Honor Harrington: After Honor returns to Alliance space following her stay on Hades, during which the entire galaxy thought she was dead, she is truly embarrassed to find that in her absence not only have they named an entire class of superdreadnoughts after her, they built a statue of her as well. And they refuse to tear it down, explaining to her with infinite patience (and suppressed laughter) that they are perfectly willing to rebuild it in the event she orders her armsmen to destroy it. Eventually she just resigns herself to it.
• Kyo Kara Maoh!: Yuri is hideously embarrassed to find a statue of himself commissioned by Gunter, including what he decries as "puffy pants" to make him look a tad more traditional regal than his normal school uniform.
• In The Redemption of Althalus, the city of Maghu has a temple to the goddess Dweia, with a statue of her based on (traditional interpretations of) the Greek Artemis of Ephesus. While Dweia is, as befits the goddess of (among others) fertility and love, the World's Most Beautiful Woman, she is most assuredly not "equipped to suckle hundreds of babies at the same time", and she considers the statue a grotesque abomination, and actually prefers to stay as far away from the temple as she can.
• The Trials of Apollo: Apollo feels embarrassed by the Colossus of Nero made in his likeness, especially because it's completely naked.

Live Action TV

• Babylon 5: The season five episodes "The Wheel of Fire" and "Objects In Motion" have G'Kar, who has become a reluctant spiritual leader, finding his devotees are becoming more and more devout, despite his protests, and have started bearing small statuettes of him. These wind up being The Last Straw, leading him to the conclusion that he must leave as the image of him represented by these statues is overtaking what he's trying to teach them.
• Firefly: "Jaynestown" plays with this a bit when the crew discovers a statue of Jayne in some backwater town. At first, since he has no idea why it would be there, he finds it quite unsettling. Later, when he finds out they put it there since the residents regard him as a town hero, he lives it up. It turns again when his former partner shows up and tells everyone what really happened. Jayne becomes so ashamed that he tears the statue down personally.
• Mortified: In "Mother in the Nude", Taylor is struck dumb when she arrives home from school with her friends to find her mother creating a nude sculpture of herself. To make matters worse, her class will attend the public unveiling at Sculpture by the Beach. However, the sculpture turns out to be an abstract that is not identifiable as human, let alone as Glenda, while Taylor's effort to upstage the reveal turns into a case of Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!.
• That's So Raven: In "Art Breaker", Chelsea makes a sculpture of Raven for an art show. However, Raven finds the sculpture offensive to her since it depicts her with bird-like features including wings and a beak.

Video Game

• After the events of Act 2, the citizens of Kirkwall in Dragon Age II erect a statue of Hawke on the docks. Various bits of party banter indicate that Hawke is severely embarrassed by the statue and didn't really want it to be made.
• Horizon Forbidden West: When Aloy returns to Meridian in the first part of the game, she finds the Sun King there with gifts in honor of her service, a War Memorial to those who fell in the Final Battle of Horizon Zero Dawn, and a statue of herself. A downplayed example, possibly because Sun King Avad manages to mollify her by talking the sculptor out of embellishing it with gold and jewels, but she's still clearly embarrassed by the thing.
• Like a Dragon: The Cabaret substory in Yakuza Kiwami 2 ends with Kiryu and Majima deciding to commision a full-size golden statue of Kiryu as a present for Club Four Shine. Over fifteen years later in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Kiryu is horrified to find out that not only did they keep the statue, but they decided to move it to the new branch of Four Shine opening in Kamurocho.
  Kiryu: (Isn't that the golden statue I gifted them? Didn't think they'd keep it around... Man, what was I thinking?)
• Project × Zone: Leanne from Resonance of Fate is embarrassed that she has a statue depicting her struggling to hold up a heavy picture frame, with her legs spread and her knees bent just so she can remain balanced. She'd rather not go into detail why the statue exists in the first place, and tries her hardest to keep focus on the enemy threat that all the heroes have to deal with. Someone comments that it makes her look constipated.
  Leanne: Can we please talk about literally anything else?

Western Animation

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: In "Rise of the Blue Beetle!", Batman and Jaime Reyes end up on a planet whose inhabitants see the Blue Beetle as a great hero, with a statue commemorating him. After the day is saved, the inhabitants honor Batman with a statue of his own... which is only half the size of the Blue Beetle statue.
  Batman: (bemused tone) They say it's the thought that counts...
• The Dating Guy: In "Statute of Limitations", Mark's Girl of the Week is an artist who makes a clay statue of his naked body as he slept and displays it in her art gallery. But the worst part is that the statue exposes he has a Teeny Weenie, and he's mocked relentlessly for it, despite his protests that "it was a cold night". He and his friends later sneak inside the museum to try to modify the statue and give it a Gag Penis instead, but they just end up breaking it.