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My life is a big, dead rose...
—Seen as graffiti in an art school classroom
It can't be emphasized enough the fact that Hollywood really does not understand the myriad and various subcultures of young people and the many subtleties to be found within. Hence, this trope, which refers to stereotyped Goths in popular culture.
There are, generally speaking, three major Goth stereotypes:
- The Lone Psycho Goth: At best, this character may have an obnoxious level of Wangst. At worst, this character will be well off the deep end of Loners Are Freaks, a card-carrying Nietzsche Wannabe, and may even be Ax Crazy.
- It's worth pointing out that this formerly obscure stereotype was pounced upon and dragged into the spotlight after the Columbine tragedy, simply because the shooters wore black and were erroneously reported to have listened to Marilyn Manson (who, in any case, is generally treated as a joke in the actual Goth community).
- Perky Goths: At the exact opposite of the spectrum from the Lone Psycho. They get their own entry.
- Gloomy Goths: We see these most often in fiction. Sometimes, this character is a Deadpan Snarker and/or the sympathetic version of The Daria. S/he may have trace personality traits of the Wangsty type or the more dedicated Nihilist. More often, s/he's The Eeyore. Almost guaranteed in either case to have some kind of family-related drama, usually used as a "justification" for their personality — you will never see a fictional Goth who just happens to be the way they are without reasons.
- Unless, of course, it's played for laughs by making him the black sheep in a The Brady Bunch-style family with no real psychological beef. In this case, they're generally "cosmetic" goths who are in it just to rebel against their parents, or as "posers" who only want in on the fashion statement. They usually grow out of their "existential depression" with the flip of a switch.
Typically, Goths are also portrayed as being big on the BDSM side of life ... this is not always an entirely unjustified cliche, but then it's not like it's a core part of being a Goth either.
As it happens, real Goths are mostly harmless and tend to have a (frequently dark or self-deprecating) sense of humor and irony (the Deadpan Snarker without the Deadpan part); which their fictional counterparts largely lack.
Most goths in fiction will be presented as Pale Skinned Brunettes who wear only black, leather getups and listen to loud depressing music. It's worth noting that goth is neither a skin tone nor a fashion statement, so most media tend to treat goth characters almost as if it were a fashion or fad for a darker Cutie to go after. Of course, thanks to Hot Topic and its ilk, Goth has been hijacked by a large number of people who think it's nothing but a fashion statement, making for a sort of Truth In Television that utterly infuriates (or nihilistically amuses, see above) "true" Goths. There is also a tendency to equate Goths with vampire wannabees and the vampire-obsessed. While, like BDSM, there is some overlap between the two subcultures, and the post-Victorian vampire can be considered a Goth icon; equating the two in the presence of a Goth can be hazardous to your health.
And just to keep things clear, Goths are markedly different from emo people. Woe betide the person who gets these cultures confused in real life... (And let it be mentioned again: don't bring up Poseurland Hot Topic if you value your life.)
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Examples
Anime and Manga
- Legato Bluesummers from Trigun could very well be the personification of the The Lone Psycho Goth. Keep in mind, he wears a human skull as an accessory on his shoulder.
- Sunako in The Wallflower is an example of the Lone Psycho Goth.
- Re-l Mayer, the heroine of Ergo Proxy is something of the Deadpan Snarker gloomy goth, dressing in all black and wearing lots of eye liner.
- Sawyer the Cleaner of Black Lagoon dresses as a goth when not "on the job". She's basically the Lone Psycho Goth, although she's more lone, due to having her vocal cords cut, and psycho, because everyone in this series is, than because she is a goth.
Comics
- Death of the Endless from The Sandman; though she qualifies as a Perky Goth, she's a favorite of the entire community. Her brother Dream is much more of a Gloomy Goth.
- Anne Gwish from Johnny The Homicidal Maniac is a (somewhat) Affectionate Parody of the "gother than thou" scene.
- Pretty much everyone from Gloom Cookie.
- To be fair, Gloom Cookie is, or at least started out as, a social Satire of the (mainly San Francisco) goth scene; written by someone who has a more than passing familiarity with it.
- In the Final Crisis Sketchbook, a tie-in for the 2008 Crisis Crossover showing some of the artist's concept sketches with notes from the author, Grant Morrison apparently redesigned the Forever People (a subset of the New Gods who were basically space hippies) as cynical goths thinking that that's more common of American youth today. He was arguably missing the point of the Forever People, since in their creator's original mythos they represented youthful idealism, which is still around in spades.
- They eventually appeared as not goths at all, but as Japanese teen superheroes- a bizarre cross between the classic JLA and anime...
- This troper saw an absolutely awful arc from the '90s run of Titans where Aqualad — I'm sorry, Tempest — becomes a big fan of a slasher star named... Goth. Yeah, Goth. Oh, and it turns out Goth is actually a demon who uses his fell powers to convince his fans to kill themselves and shoot up schools. Oh, and Goth also fronts as a Marilyn Manson-style singer, so all the late '90s hysteria basis are covered.
- Screamqueen from Scare Tactics in The DCU.
- Cassie, the protagonist from Hack/Slash. She's a Lone Psycho Stripperiffic Monster Slaying Goth Badass Action Girl. Yes, it's as awesome as it sounds. And apart from being very snarky, she's also The Ladette.
- Most of the cast of Wet Moon, a Graphic Novel series by Ross Campbell. The author has considerable knowledge and experience with the scene, which helps.
Fan Fiction
- My Immortal is written by either a brain-dead wannabe goth or an expert troll trying to make real goths foam at the mouth with rage.
- ... Or make them fall out of their chairs laughing.
- In The Return getting turned into a succubus seems to mean all your clothes turn goth-y. No one knows why. Generally it's on the Perky Goth side, especially Yuki's new look.
Film
- Lydia in Beetlejuice; her animated counterpart was more of a Perky Goth. "My life is a darkroom. One. Big. Dark. Room."
- Ghost Rider rescues a rather ample girl who is a stereotypical goth. She mostly accurately describes him as a really thin guy with his hair on fire, but since she looks like a loony nobody believes her. Right before the camera pans away from her, she makes a gesture which some have identified as a gesture from a vampire LARP.
- In the Hilary Duff film Raise Your Voice, a gloomy goth girl (Kat Dennings) and a Hollywood Nerd (Johnny Lewis) were paired as the Beta Couple.
- Tosh from Urban Legend.
- Sinaed Laren from But I'm a Cheerleader, including stereotyped speech and an obsession with self-inflicted pain.
- Series 7: The Contender has a hilariously accurate Parody of a artsy-fartsy student films, in this case a music video to "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division. This establishes that two of the main characters, in their Backstory went through a goth phase together. The hilarious music video stands out as the Crowning Moment Of Awesome for the film.
- Harold from Harold And Maude dresses and acts not unlike a kind of proto-Gloomy Goth, though mostly during the earlier part of the film.
Literature
- One of the earlier literary examples of the Gloomy Goth as a social fad can be found in, of all places, War And Peace. See Julia's thoughts on the smile of melancholy in Chapter V.
- Another early example is in Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. See Huck's description of (the late) Emmeline Grangerford in Chapter XVII.
- While Susan Sto Helit may be sarcastic about "idiots who write poetry in their rooms and dress like vampires and are vegetarians really", she certainly fits elements of the trope herself. The young witches of
Lucy Diamanda Tockley's coven in Lords and Ladies (referred to as "necro-nerds" in the Companion) might count, although they seem to be more the "fashion statement" type.
- And let's not forget the young vampires in Carpe Jugulum, who try to freak out their elders by wearing bright clothes, stay up til noon, and call themselves names like "Henry" or "Pam". They even pretend to drink... wine, although only "real weirdos who file their teeth blunt" actually do.
- Similar to the above example, the rebellious kids of the vampire dimension in Robert Asprin's Myth series express themselves by wearing bright colors and partying in brightly lit clubs. There's also a market for plastic-human teeth, if you want to scare somebody.
Live Action TV
- One of our favorite stereotyped Goths here in Troperland is the main character of The Haunting Hour (a Made For TV Movie aired, curiously, on the Cartoon Network). At one point in the movie, she sat in her room and listen to depressing music all day long. The reason? Well, she dropped food on herself at school. Oh, the inanity!
- Abby The Lab Rat from NCIS is the quintessential Perky Goth.
- Merton J. Dingle from Big Wolf On Campus was a rather pathetic but strangely endearing simulacrum of a goth.
- Apparently, nobody told him that you can be a goth and a nerd at the same time. This Editor is living proof of the fact.
- Goths before the subculture existed: Morticia and Wednesday Addams and Lily Munster.
- Morticia and Lily Munster only dressed the part. But Wednesday had the attitude down perfectly.
- Which version of Wendesday you mean? The perky but morbid little girl from the old TV series, or the expressionless Creepy Child from the movies?
- This troper sees no reason to differentiate the two for these purposes.
- One episode of This Is Wonderland had Elliot defending a goth man who had gotten into a fight with a car dealer who had made fun of him. The goth character was treated much more sympathetically than it sounds, and the judge eventually agreed that the provocation was sufficient. Along the way, they commented upon the unfair stereotypes associated therewith. Elliot even went goth for a few episodes.
- Parodied on The Morgan Waters Show with Trent, the badminton-playing Goth.
- The Blood Ties TV show has Coreen, a fairly well adjusted Goth, as assistant to the main character Vicki. She even has an episode where she gets Vicki to solve murders at her Goth club.
- Richmond from The IT Crowd is either a parody of actual goths or (more likely, given his portrayal by pop culture barometer Noel Fielding) a parody of the goth stereotypes listed above.
- Parodied on Saturday Night Live's recurring "Goth Talk" sketch, starring Chris Kattan as Azrael Abyss, Prince of Darkness, and Molly Shannon as Circe Nightshade. The show's sponsor was a store called "The Gloom Room"... "It's an orgy of the macabre... located right next to the Pizza Hut on Hibiscus Road."
- Nadine from Girls In Love was normally a gloomy goth, although she would occasionally slip into Perky Goth territory depending on what was happening in her private life.
- Two words: Vampire Willow. Three more: Willow's Halloween costume.
- And another two: Dark Willow. Though there's quite a few who'd like to purge season six from existence, her included.
- On 3rd Rock From The Sun, Tommy once dated a gloomy goth named Lorna (played by Linda Cardellini) and read her poetry:
Tommy: "Death signed my yearbook. 'Have a good summer,' he wrote, 'see ya next year.' And then I noticed it wasn't my yearbook he signed, it was my tombstone."
Lorna: What d'you think?
Tommy: [lying] I like it. I especially like the surprise ending here.
Lorna: You're the first one to get the irony.
- This Troper distinctly remembers part of a Home Improvement episode where the family's at a poetry reading for Wilson, and a goth girl goes up to read/recite her poetry....
Goth Girl: Die... Die... Go on, Die! Randy: You first.
- Nadine from Girls In Love is a Gloomy Goth.
- Vivian Wu from Naturally Sadie.
Tabletop Games
- The card game Gother Than Thou includes cards such as "Fun with eyeliner," "That wasted look," and "Crying yourself to sleep on the fresh grave of your lifelong love who died of consumption and being found the next morning unconscious, naked, and nearly frozen to death by the groundskeeper."
Video Games
- Henry from the Nancy Drew game Legend of the Crystal Skull seems like an attempt at a gloomy-but-harmless Goth character, but comes across as more fashion-Goth/emo than genuine.
Web Comics
Web Original
- There are plenty of Goths at the Super Hero School Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe. Some are that way for superpowered Raven-like reasons. Some are just magic wannabes who are trying to steal real magic from some of the wizards on campus. Some, like Bloodworm, are actively using Dark Magic to get boons right up until he suffered a fate way worse than death.
Western Animation
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