Hollywood Homely - Television Tropes & Idioms

In Howl's Moving Castle, Sophie is considered plain compared to her sister. That said, her sister seems to be a garish parody plastered with makeup, while Sophie's features are more normal. In the book, mind, Sophie's moderately attractive and aware of it, but has different reasons for being a shut-in; as the oldest of three sisters, she's doomed to fail first and hardest at any task.
- Then again, this is Studio Ghibli. Howl is convinced she is beautiful. Sophie subtly changes back-and-forth between an wrinkly old women with a huge nose to a young girl (with everything in between) depending on the situation. Sophie's personality perks up quite a bit after she's cursed. Notably, no one ever calls her ugly when she cursed, just "old."
  - Also, it seemed to be more that she had self-esteem issues which was why she felt more comfortable as an old woman (she felt that it didn't matter if she wasn't attractive, which in her mind she wasn't). When she saves Howl's life at the end and he compliments her hair, the fact that she agrees that she likes it is a sign that she's gotten over her issues.
In the Scold's Bridle story arc in Godchild, Drew is supposedly so plain that other upper-class girls won't give her the time of day - something which the mangaka illustrates by giving her quite good-looking round glasses, freckles and a braid. The art style may be partly at fault, but the fact remains that she looks no less pretty than any other girl in the manga. In the same story arc, Viola wears a mask because she is disfigured, but when she takes it off it turns out that her face is perfectly fine apart from a finger-sized acid burn on one cheek. Justified in that she is completely insane and is probably exaggerating the extent of her scarring.
Arguably, L. It takes more to make a character ugly than make them a Pale Skinned Brunette with baggy eyes, hunched over constantly, and who has no fashion sense. Just ask the Estrogen Brigade.
- Word Of God says he was meant to be attractive to an extent.
In Ursula Le Guin's novel Tehanu, young girl Therru is so disfigured by third-degree burns that people avoid looking at her. In the animé adaptation Tales from Earthsea, she's a sweet young girl who appears to suffer from a bad sunburn.
An arguable male example is Ganju Shiba from Bleach.
Ouran High School Host Club's Haruhi is mistaken for a boy upon her first appearance. Granted, the first thing we see her in is rather unflattering; an oversized, ugly sweater, disheveled hair, and clunky glasses. Even after her "beautification" many characters still mistake her for a boy. At the same time, Haruhi is also called a very cute girl (or boy), albeit very plain and rather dull; the fact she doesn't really care about fashion probably helps. The Host club boys seem to find her plainness endearing, rather than a flaw. Compared to some of the other female characters introduced Haruhi could be considered "average" looking, but the art style certainly doesn't help to illustrate this. Then again, it is a shoujo series.
When Mayu is introduced in Elfen Lied, in both manga and anime she is derided/described as looking every inch the homeless child she has been for perhaps several weeks at that point. Problem is, virtually nothing about her physical appearance suggests this. Even a week's time would have her looking a lot worse than she comes across as.
Makoto Kino (aka Sailor Jupiter) and Minako Aino (aka Sailor Venus) may fit this trope, judging from at least a couple of episodes involving one or both of them lamenting their apparant inability to find dates.

In the graphic novel Wanted, Wesley Gibson's girlfriend is repeatedly described as fat, and implied to be fairly unattractive, though she is not drawn this way at all. Seeing that she's knowingly cheating on him, this might be his way of expressing his anger with her.

Janeane Garofalo was the queen of this trope in the ninties. Despite being very cute, she was almost always cast as unattractive and caustic characters. In particular, she was cast as The Cyrano in The Truth About Cats And Dogs in comparison to the more conventionally attractive, tall, blonde, skinny Uma Thurman. Many fans actually preferred Garofalo. She was outspoken about her frustration with the typecasting and eventually lost a lot of weight so that she could get other roles.
Actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, while no centerfold, is not unattractive by conventional standards, but seems to have made a career out of this trope, playing specifically unattractive characters in some of her biggest roles:
- In 21 Grams, she plays a cuckolded wife whose sick husband acquires a more attractive mistress.
- In The Science Of Sleep she plays the plain womam whom the main character initially ignores in favor of her more attractive roommate.
- She plays the title character in Jayne Eyre, whose plainness is a major aspect of her character.
This is a famous problem with screen adaptations of Jane Eyre. The unattractiveness of Jane and Rochester is a major aspect of their characters, so unlike other instances of Adaptational Attractiveness, references to their appearance always remain intact. Charlotte Gainsbourg in the 1996 film comes closest to being plausibly "plain," but only in comparison to actresses like Joan Fontaine or Susannah York. Actors who play Rochester are not generally known for their dashing good looks, but are otherwise not nearly as ugly as the character is described.
The Winona Ryder version of Little Women, with inhumanly gorgeous Ryder as Jo March, has her declare that she is "ugly and awkward."
Refreshingly averted in Adam Carolla's The Hammer, where the love interest is very realistically attractive as opposed to the "plain-jane supermodel" that comedians are usually paired with. The actress was actually the director's wife, who filled in at the last minute.
- Who, Heather Juergensen? No she isn't. She co-wrote the movie with Carolla and is married to a sportswriter.
Sam Witwicky in the live-action Transformers movie. At least his girlfriend Mikaela Banes was supposed to be gorgeous. Mind you, Sam acts like a grasping dork, so that might have something to do with it all.
Dogfight, starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, is about a crew of Marines who challenge each other to a 'dogfight' — finding the ugliest girl they can and bringing her to a party. Phoenix's character selects Taylor's character in order to win this 'dogfight'. By Hollywood standards, she's hideous. By any real world standards, she's a reasonably attractive woman.
Melonie Diaz's Alma in Be Kind Rewind is played up as ugly when the male film-makers are forced to take her over her (apparently) more attractive sister. This is achieved by... having her sniff and rub her nose a couple of times. (Then immediately forgotten about - she's the hot girl for the rest of the movie!)
Jamie Sullivan in A Walk to Remember. Although the character was never intended to be unattractive (merely unconcerned with her appearance) the audience has a hard time believing the shock of the other characters during her Beautiful All Along moment given actress Mandy Moore's natural beauty.
The House Bunny looks set to play this straight, if the poster is anything to go by. Apparently being ugly just means being a brunette.
Played straight in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom Of The Opera. The title character, who is supposedly so hideously deformed that he is rejected by his mother, exhibited in a freak show, mocked by society, and driven to live as a recluse below the earth, turns out to look like...Gerard Butler with a skin rash on one cheek.
- Tracing The Phantom Of The Opera over the years offers great insight to how this trope has grown in popularity over time. In the original silent film version, the title character really is gruesome and deformed◊ and (being played by the great Lon Chaney) essentially is one of the famed movie monsters of the silent era. But with each successive adaptation, the character is made more attractive until we reach the extreme noted above, which applies Adaptational Attractiveness to the stage version.
  - An interesting look at the evolution of the Phantom's portrayal in movies can be seen here.
- It has reached the point where many viewer s of the Phantom movie consider the "ugly" character to be more attractive than the "good looking" character, and think movie!Christine is a moron for picking the Viscomte. The fact that the Phantom is an obsessive, murderous psychopath makes no never mind to them. Which provides a (most likely) unintentional example of this trope, since the worst that can be said about Patrick Wilson's appearance in that film is the rather unflattering wig they saddled him with.
- Slightly justified in the fact that originally for the stage version, they planned on giving Michael Crawford a more hideous design; but he couldn't sing right with all the makeup they had to put on, so they toned it down (or risk having the title character in the musical sound incoherent). Still doesn't explain why in the more recent film version all he has wrong with him is a little sunburn.
  - According to the IMDb FAQ question, the production team made that decision and Joel Schumacher (yes, that Joel Schumacher) said ""Even though the make-up in the stage show is grotesque, and very much a copy of the Lon Chaney make-up, I felt the audience is smarter than a lot of obvious prosthetics. The Phantom is very disfigured and the right side of his face is quite tragic. Christine, however, always looks past that and views him with compassion...I did not want to bring you "Freddy Krueger Goes to the Opera!"" So basically, they wanted to make it more "real" than "grotesque". This is still undermined as it was then pointed out that there were sideshow freaks and people in that time period who had far worse disfigurements, so it still doesn't make sense.
- Did Schumacher grow up his entire life in Hollywood and have no idea what real people look like, and think a scar is "very disfigured" and "tragic"? Would explain a lot of Batman And Robin, actually...
Jennifer's Body, stars Megan Fox as a beautiful cheerleader (certainly plausible) and Amanda Seyfried as her "plain jane" best friend. Amanda Seyfried!◊ In case fans couldn't tell that she's unattractive and unwanted, they named her Needy. Arguably a subversion, however, since it is explicit in the film that Anita deliberately dresses down so as not to distract from Jennifer.
- It's also parodied, with Jennifer getting "ugly" from not feeding enough. Needy points out that it just looks like she didn't put on makeup.
Kate Winslet in Enigma is a good example, too - even anti-dolled to look ordinary, she's still prettier than the "hot chick".
The Hottie And The Nottie. Christine Lakin is supposed to be the Nottie, though she's actually fairly attractive out of makeup. Arguably though, as the movie basically follows a typical "makeover" movie plot, this was precisely their intent.
Averted in Date Movie, of all things. Though the girl in question is played by Alyson Hannigan, the character does look really ugly before "uplifting."
In The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Tilda Swinton's character is described as "plain as paper." Uh...right.
A particularly egregious example is the movie Frankie and Johnny. In the stage original, the plain girl was played, to great acclaim, by Kathy Bates, who fits the casting requirement by being not particularly physically attractive. For the movie version, the part was recast. Michelle "Catwoman" Pfeiffer. Again: uh... right.
Used blatantly in Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. Iris is supposed to be unattractive as part of the plot, yet she is played by Azura Skye, who is very (albeit unconventionally) pretty.
Minnie Driver's character in Circle of Friends is supposed to be dowdy and heavyset. (At one point she refers to herself as a "heifer".) Even playing her against the gorgeous Saffron Burrows doesn't quite make this work.
In Marty, Ernest Borgnine (no prize himself in the looks department, although that's admittedly acknowledged in the film) goes on a date with a "dog" played by former model Betsy Blair, and former wife of Gene Kelly.
Doubly bad in The Enchanted Cottage. The main woman is so "homely" that no guys will dance with her, young boys comment on her looks, and she generally limits her social life in despair. Later, a man breaks off with his fiancee and considers suicide over a barely visible war scar. As the two fall in love, they become beautiful in each others' eyes — represented on camera by a strange blur on their features.
Juno. Lampshaded in the lyrics of the ending musical number: "We sure are cute for two ugly people", indeed.
Averted in Monster by Charlize Theron, who looks dramatically different due to gaining 30 pounds and wearing prosthetic teeth and heavy makeup for the film; she won an Oscar for it. Of course, the fact that it is still Charlize Theron under there keeps it from being a total aversion.
Watts from Some Kind Of Wonderful. Of course, the ugly girl gets the guy.
Even Hollywood isn't usually shameless enough to pass off Sandra Bullock as "ugly." But she is that town's go-to actress when they need an approachable, plain, girl-next-door type. "Usually" is the key word there, as she is supposed to be the ugly type in Love Potion Number Nine.
Lampshaded in Last Action Hero, when Danny Maddigan tries to prove that they're in a film by pointing out that none of the women are ugly, to which Jack Slater responds:
Jack: "No, this is California."
Leelee Sobieski as the nerdy girl in Never Been Kissed, especially when she strips down that that spandex blue cat suit at the prom. Drew Barrymore in the selfsame film. She's supposed to be a bookish, nerdy girl as well...but she's Drew Frikkin' Barrymore! That said, they do manage to make Drew look pretty bad in her prom flashback. More than the majority of these examples, anyway.
This trope has pretty much defined Amanda Bynes' career.
In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn Monroe's glamorous gold-digger has a "plain" best friend. Said friend is played by Jane Russell.
Invoked in Muriel's Wedding, where the title character is played by the very attractive Toni Collette (of United States Of Tara fame.)
In the The Quiet, Camilla Belle's character is described as being unattractive by several characters. One character even goes as far to say that she is a hermaphrodite. The only thing that makes her "ugly" is the fact she has short hair, minimal make-up on and wears boys clothing. In real life, Camilla Belle◊ is as beautiful as Elisha Cuthbert.
Invoked and possibly deconstructed and subverted: Thir13en Ghosts, one of the ghosts is a beautiful woman, who in life was drop-dead gorgeous, (no pun intended), but THOUGHT she was Hollywood Ugly, and had all kinds of plastic surgery done on herself, and eventually committed suicide. Of course, by the time we see her in the movie, she's ugly, but it's "walking corpse with massive wounds and pale skin, nice tits though" ugly, not "Ugly Betty" ugly. Did I mention she killed herself in the bath and apparantly ghosts remain in the clothes they died in?
Somewhat subverted in Strictly Ballroom, in that Fran actually is pretty unattractive at the beginning of the film (nice make-up job they did there). Of course, by the end, she's quite the looker.
In The Ipcress File, Michael Caine is playing a British spy who's supposed to be a complete subversion of the James Bond-style spy - instead of being suave and gorgeous, he's supposed to be a funny-looking Cockney who seduces women by cooking for them. Unfortunately, he wasn't unattractive - he was Michael Caine, in glasses. And he even loses his glasses for the second half of the movie.
Played straight and averted in Ginger Snaps, were the main character, Bridgette, is the unattractive little sister of [1] Ginger. While it's obvious that different clothes and a little makeup will make Ginger extremely attractive (which is exactly what happens), Bridgette is, and remains, genuinly unattractive.
In Jane Campion's Portrait of a Lady, Isabel and Henrietta go on about how ugly Caspar Goodwood is. That's Viggo Mortensen. Viggo Mortensen with slightly silly hair, but still...
In the 2005 movie of Pride And Prejudice, Lizzie Bennett, described by Mr Darcy as 'tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me' is played by Keira Knightley. OK, so skinny wasn't attractive in those days, but to a modern audience...? Not to mention casting the lovely Talulah Riley as Mary!
In a teenager take on the Pygmalion story, She's All That involves a bet to try to get the "ugly" girl to win as prom queen. After scanning the whole school, they settle on the obviosly attractive Rachel Leigh Cook as the "ugliest" of them all.
- This is then parodied in Not Another Teen Movie, where they again scan the crowd and decide the conjoined twins, hippy alibino, and others are not ugly enough, but that the girl with glasses, a pony tail, and ... paint-covered overalls, is clearly the ugliest by far (played by the clearly attractive Chyler Leigh).

Bella Swan of Twilight fame. She is terribly self-deprecating, describing herself as a skinny, big-eyed, clumsy, Pale Skinned Brunette. Mind-reader Edward even lampshades this when he tells her that she should have heard what the entire male student body was thinking when she first came to school. Depending on your opinion, it's made either worse or better in the movie: Better because you don't hear as many of her thoughts and therefore don't have to hear about how "plain" she is as often, or worse because she's being played by Kristen Stewart.
- James aswell. He was described as being ugly as a vampire yet being played by Cam Gigandet makes you think that he's only ugly by Bella's standards.
- See the series' Unreliable Narrator entry. The movies may well make Bella look too homely.

Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, although it was finally inverted in the Season 3 episode "Rhoda the Beautiful."
The Brady Bunch: The fact that Peter and Jan tend to be more socially awkward than Greg and Marcia is the only way that episodes like The Not So Ugly Duckling or Cyrano de Brady (in which there is much angst about their inability to live up to their allegedly more attractive siblings) are plausible, the general consensus amongst viewers being that the middle children are the best-looking of the Brady kids.
Male example: Seth Cohen on The OC.
The title character of Ugly Betty - in Hollywood, ugliness is apparently defined by braces, bad eyesight and a complete lack of fashion sense. The show tries to justify it by having her work at a fashion magazine. She subverted it in "Real Women Have Curves". While she and her mother seem to consider her ugly, no one else has that problem. (One supposes a show called "Cutey Betty" would seem derivative.)
- David Spade did a monologue in the show on how this seems to not only make the standards of beauty unrealistic but the standards of ugly as well.
- Yo Soy Betty La Fea, the Colombian soap opera on which this is based, looks a bit more convincing◊ into characterizing Betty as ugly, even when the main actress is actually quite pretty◊. Just see this comparison◊.
- Sure, Betty was played by the gorgeous America Ferrera, but lets not forget how they had Christopher freaking Gorham as Henry. It's shocking that Betty was literally the only one at Mode to think he was attractive. And seriously, the glasses and argyle just made him hotter.
On Just Shoot Me, Maya conducts an experiment to prove beautiful people get social perks by sending both a male model and "ugly" guy to a job interview. She ends up proving herself as shallow as everyone else by rejecting the charming "ugly" guy and dating the clueless himbo. However, the actor cast as the "ugly" guy wouldn't have been out of place in GQ. Maya herself was treated like this in the first season. By season 2 they stopped trying to make any one believe that Laura San Giacomo was in any way "homely".
Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) on 30 Rock This is Lampshaded in the episode "Cleveland." Liz goes to Ohio and is offered a modeling contract and is complimented by people on the street.
Jenna: "We're all models west of the Allegheny."
Since reality shows tend to be cast mainly with astonishingly gorgeous people as well, this sometimes carries over into that genre. MTV's Next sometimes sees daters rejected on sight for falling slightly below supermodel/Abercrombie & Fitch standards. This is probably one of the side effects of Network Decay, as there was a time when MTV used to let average and even ugly looking people (who weren't borrowing their fraternity/sorority's brain cell and didn't need a script to be witty) be on The Real World and Road Rules.
Ethel on I Love Lucy was the source of constant fat jokes, despite being about the same build as Lucy. To compensate for this, the producers had her wear clothes that were several sizes too small. (The Urban Legend that she was contractually obligated to gain 20 pounds is untrue.)
Karen Ball in Green Wing.
Many male fans insist this one was (unintentionally) inverted on WKRP in Cincinnati, wherein Jan Smithers as shy, nerdy Bailey apparently came off as a whole lot hotter than 'blonde bombshell' Loni Anderson. Loni Anderson stated that the trope was being intentionally subverted and that she enjoyed playing on a show where the two attractive women were loyal co-workers and good friends.
Marvin McFadden (AKA mouth) on One Tree Hill is constantly tormented about his average looks, which are perfectly normal standing next to normal people, but in the presence of the ultra beautiful cast of OTH, are shunned. Another example from this would be Millie, his girlfriend, who in all rights appears completely and utterly gorgeous, except for a thick pair of glasses.
Ted the lawyer in Scrubs is a deliberate male example, created with makeup and an ill-fitting suit. The actor has been quoted as saying that after seeing him in the pilot episode, his mother called him up and asked if he was ill.
Accidentally underlined with an episode of The Office (US version). Andy and Michael flirt with a couple of waitresses at a restaurant and attempt to get them to come to a party. They show up at the party with two different waitresses, the joke being that the first two refused and they had to settle for supposedly less attractive ones. Unfortunately, as Co-creator Greg Daniels admitted, poor casting meant the actresses hired were too good looking and the joke fell flat.
- The Office can actually be commended for inverting this trope. In the early seasons, the makeup/hair team would spend hours making the very gorgeous Jenna Fischer◊, look quite realistic and average for Pam Beasley◊, an office receptionist in her 20's. Despite that, all of the male characters treat her as if she's gorgeous, and refer to her as "the hot one" in the office. In later seasons, she has gained more confidence and dresses up more.
Mild case (BBC Homely?) in the televised version of the Inspector Lynley mysteries; in the books, DS Barbara Havers is committedly unattractive — middle-aged, plain, overweight, and badly dressed — while the actress they found to play her is, while the right age and not supermodel-gorgeous, nevertheless quite pleasant to look at. The author of the original books reportedly objected strongly until she actually saw the performance.
When Audrey Meadows first auditioned for the part of Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners, Jackie Gleason rejected her for being "too pretty." So she had a photographer come to her house early in the morning and photograph her just after waking up, morning hair, no makeup, etc. Jackie took one look at the pictures (without knowing it was Audrey) and hired her on the spot.
On Sex And The City, the character Miranda (played by Cynthia Nixon) is apparently supposed to be the ugly one of the four lead characters.
- Arguably, Charlotte's second husband Harry. While played up as Ugly Guy Hot Wife due to him being bald and a bit chubby with bad table manners, his actor Evan Handler does have a rather cute face, and is hardly less attractive than many of the character's guys of the week over the years (of course it also helps that he's one of the nicest characters in the whole series.) In the last season, they pretty much dropped the Ugly Guy Hot Wife angle.
- Charlotte was this for exactly one episode, when she turns 36 and is freaking out about being an "old maid." She may be this most prudish of the bunch, but it is highly unlikely she would really wear a frumpy button up blouse on a trip to Atlantic City!
Arrested Development's Ann Veal. Although Ann's not really played as "ugly," more that she's incredibly boring/unmemorable.
- Kitty Sanchez would also apply, I think. Her "ugliness" is achieved by Judy Greer crossing her eyes when she's not wearing her glasses, and even Lovable Sex Maniac GOB doesn't want anything to do with her. Then again, George Sr. cheats on his wife with her, so maybe this is an in-universe example of Your Milage May Vary.
Another male example: Xander of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Despite actor Nicholas Brendon being an incredibly attractive guy, and the character rather witty, he is supposedly the bottom of the social barrel at Sunnydale High, and numerous cracks are made at his inability to get girls. He dates the cheerleader Cordelia from Season 2 onwards. Doing so sent Cordelia's social status straight from 'most popular girl in school' to 'nonexistent'. Every acquaintance she had considered her completely insane for choosing to give Xander the time of day, and she ended up entirely exiled from her former social circle. Joss actually mentions this trope in the DVD commentaries:
Joss Whedon: Of course, Nicholas Brendon is way too good-looking, but this is Hollywood, so get over it.
- Most of the above also applies to Willow Rosenberg (played by the very attractive Alyson Hannigan). But in both cases, their outcast status is explained by their social awkwardness and choice of friends - aside from one another, their social circle consists of the school librarian (Giles) and the class psycho (Buffy).
- Mind, in the original, never broadcast pilot, Willow was played by Riff Regan, a heavier woman with more average looks than Hannigan. This did not stand, though mostly due to her difficulty with her lines and disagreement over how to play the character.
Joss Whedon also makes a point of this in Dollhouse: the Girl Next Door, Mellie, played by the actress Miracle Laurie, complains that she's Hollywood Pudgy and can't get dates because she lives in LA and has to compete with all the girls that aren't. Her love interest doesn't care, and neither does the audience, because by any realistic standard, she is beautiful.
- Another example where Whedon plays with this, a case on Angel, where a rather obnoxious commercial director declared Cordelia looking like this◊ to be unattractive. A bit too Anvilicious perhaps, but the point is clear.
Lampshaded in Bones when Booth describes himself and Brennan as the "sexy FBI agent and the sexy scientist".
There was one of those commercials stations run to convince themselves they are socially responsible (as opposed to selling stuff), which featured a very attractive young girl complaining about how ugly she was while comparing herself to a made-up rock star in a poster. The poster pops to life and the stunningly attractive female "rock star" explains that it's all make-up and Hollywood, then shows how she ordinarily looks (still better than any girl I've actually met). Now that she's Hollywood ordinary, the formerly depressed "normal" girl cheers up.
Disney loves this trope - all parts of the Disney Empire. Look around for the Mitchell Musso music video 'The In Crowd' for a textbook version of this. Katelyn Tarver, who plays 'the plain girl' is so obviously beautiful that it isn't even funny - and to 'make her plain', they give her glasses, put her in jeans and a flannel shirt, tie her hair into a messy ponytail and have her act 'goofy'. Jeez, people - maybe you shouldn't have gone with any close-ups that show just how hot this girl really is! (Of course, in real life, she's a model...)
Zachary Levi as the title character on Chuck. Granted, when he's dressed in his Nerd Herd attire and placed next to uber vixen Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah, he does tend to look a little plain. For that matter Joshua Gomez (Morgan) and Vik Sahay (Lester especially, if the fan girls are anything to go by) are all reasonably attractive men. Also worthy of note, Adam Baldwin also has a certain following. Sarah Lancaster (Ellie), Ryan McPartlin (Awesome) and Julia Ling (Anna) are also much more attractive than your average doctors or retail store employees.
In Firefly the apparent path they wanted to take with Kaylee had Jewel Staite apparently gain some weight to be more appealing, becoming the kind of character Hollywood tries to make female protagonists evolve out of. Works quite well, considering Jewel Staite was pretty gorgeous even then.◊
Peggy Olson on Mad Men is supposed to be deliberately keeping herself dowdy in order to be taken seriously at work. Of course, she's played by the gorgeous Elisabeth Moss. The character was also shown gaining weight throughout Season One, presumably for the same reason. As we learn in Season Two, though, she was actually pregnant with Pete Campbell's child. It should be noted, however, that once Peggy has her "date" with Kurt in season 2 and starts dressing herself more fashionably and wearing her hair differently, the show tends to present this as her harnessing the power of "being a woman" as Bobbie had advised instead of it merely being that it's opening doors for her all on its own.
Joss Stone as Anne of Cleves in Season 3 of The Tudors. Henry VIII claims she 'looks like a horse' and is unable to consummate his marriage to her, supposedly because she is so ugly. An alternative explanation suggested by other characters is that he's turned off because Anne is a virgin who doesn't know what to do. Most likely, it's all in his head.
- This is used in Philippa Gregory's novel, The Boleyn Inheritance, where Anne of Cleves seems very frumpy at first because she is wearing incredibly modest (read: baggy) and unflattering clothing that she brought with her from Germany. After Henry VIII divorced her, however, she was free to wear English clothing and hold her own court in her own household. The next time she showed up at court, everyone thought that she looked very pretty. There are several historical accounts that support this theory.
Part of the backlash on Spinelli on General Hospital is that he's a greasy-haired, geeky nerd with Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness...on a Soap Opera, where anyone under a 9 is ugly. This was stretched even more when they brought in a similarly geeky girl...and hid her behind glasses, Girlish Pigtails, and clothing that went out in the mid-90s.
In a recent episode of Reaper, "Business Casualty," Sock is set up with a friend of Nina's. His reaction to her is that she is hideous beyond all imagining, to the point that he tries to get away from her as quickly as possible. In fact, the character is simply played by a beautiful woman wearing a minimal amount of make-up wearing average clothes with her hair in a pony-tail. There isn't even any of the usual Hollywood Homely attempts to disguise this: she doesn't wear glasses, have braces, wear hideous clothes, have bad hair, or prosthetic makeup. She just looks like someone going out to run errands.
A weird case on NCIS, where in a 6th season episode a young, hot woman's attraction to Gibbs is portrayed as odd, apparently thinking the audience doesn't notice that Gibbs is played by Mark Harmon (Who is one of the few people named EW's Sexiest Man of the Year twice, at least back in the eighties).
Quinn in Zoey 101
Very much averted on Strangers With Candy, where Amy Sedaris, who in real life is far from bad looking, took extensive pains to look as ugly as possible as Jerri Blank. This includes fat suits, yellowed teeth, hilariously awful wigs, and a wardrobe that would make anyone with a modicum of taste gouge their eyes out. The result is appropriately hideous. In an interview, she stated she was deliberately trying to avoid this trope.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia averts this trope. Margaret McPoyle is hideous. As it turns out Margaret McPoyle is actually played by the very attractive Thesy Surface under a lot (cannot stress that enough, a lot of makeup) Don't believe it? Margaret McPoyle◊ vs. Thesy Surface
In one episode of Absolutely Fabulous, there was a constant stream of fat jokes at the expense of Jennifer Saunders, even though she didn't even look fat. One point, it got absolutely ridiculous, as Jennifer Saunders was wearing tights and claimed she was actually wearing slacks. She just looked like a woman who was, at worst, average, wearing tights.
In a recent ITV adaptation of the Miss Marple story "A Pocketful of Rye", the supposedly-plain Elaine Fortescue was played by the decidedly beautiful Hattie Morahan, looking her best in fashionable clothes and an elaborate hairdo. Despite this, the other characters were at pains to point out how unattractive she was.
In Real Life you will often see "cute girls" hanging with less attractive sidekicks in order to make them look even better by comparison. Hollywood does the same thing, only their idea of the "homely sidekick" is the likes of Emily Osment, Jeanette McCurdy and Jennifer Stone. In real life these would be the "cute girl" in the pairing at the very least, if not the girl who's so hot she doesn't need anyone to make her look better.
- Ashley Tisdale was supposed to look plain and frumpy in comparison to Brenda Song on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. It doesn't work.
In Glee, Rachel Berry is supposedly less attractive than Quinn Fabray. Now, Quinn's actress, Dianna Agron, is a cute girl, but Rachel's played by Lea. Friggin'. Michele.◊
- Then there's Artie, the wheelchair bound nerd played by the rather attractive Kevin Mc Hale
Big Rhonda from That70s Show was made up to look homely, but the actress who played her wasn't actually bad looking. This is seen in the episode It's a Wonderful Life, where, in an alternate timeline she was dumped by Eric and appears at the gang's 10 year reunion without the whole Big Rhonda look.
Justin from Wizards of Waverly. In one episode his family couldn't believe that a pretty girl would consider dating him. At one point, Alex said that Justin was not cute all. And we are supposed to believe this? Especially since he is played by the ridiculously hot David Henrie.
Ted from Queer As Folk, though this is meant to Lampshade the impossible standards of beauty that gay men place on themselves. Women check him out all the time, much to his annoyance.
In one episode of Desperate Housewives, (This is either Played Straight or simply because these are Fashion people) Eva Longoria is supposedly over the hill and has to play The Mom when she tries to return to modeling. Eva Friggin Longoria is considdered a "Hag".
For an Asian drama example, television series adaptations of Jin Yong's works tend to be guilty of this. A rather noticeable example can be found in the recent 2008 version of Legend Of The Condor Heroes. The protagonist, Guo Jing, is mainly described as being rather stout and muscular, and is not known for being very handsome or refined. As a matter of fact, to go even further, there were actually several characters who make the comparison of his relationship with Huang Rong as "A beautiful flower planted in cow dung" - yes, he was even likened to cow dung. This becomes rather wince-worthy when he ends up being played by Chinese teen heart throb Hu Ge, who is pretty much a Real Life equivalent of a Bishonen. And in order to underplay his looks, he ended up having his hair tied back and slightly frizzed, along with his clothes stuffed with more material so he would look a bit bulkier◊. Needless to say, he can still look prettier than some of the female cast, and halfway through the series, they don't even bother trying to uglify him (straightening his hair◊ and giving him more flattering clothes◊).
Played for laughs in Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia. All the male members of the gang use hyperbolic criticism to describe Sweet Dee's appearance. She's said to have a "five-head," compared to a giant bird with "stork-like" legs, and even said to have eyes so far apart that she looks like a fish. However, she doesn't have much of a problem getting boyfriends, suggesting that her friends and family are just being mean. It's interesting to note that actress Kaitlin Olson says she prefers playing "the ugly Dee" over a standard Closer To Earth female character. She also eventually married the show's creator.
The character of Annie on Community was supposedly a loser in High School and was only able to lose her virginity with gay guy. Also, supposedly she's not as attractive as Britta. To be fair to the show, it does acknowledge that Annie is pretty on several occasions (Profesor Duncan rates her as an 8 ("which is a British 10")) and Britta is supposedly much older and has a much more easy-going personality.
Raj on The Big Bang Theory. The actor is stuffed in horrible clothes, has his hair done badly, and is a Hollywood Nerd... and then you see Raj's actor, Kunal Nayyar, off the show, and he's HOT.

This trope can affect audience perceptions even outside Hollywood. When the Stephen Sondheim musical Passion was in previews, the director James Lapine had great trouble settling on a make-up look for the character Fosca. Fosca is supposed to be ugly, or at least exceedingly plain — that's the entire point of her character — but whenever they used prosthetics to make the actress Donna Murphy look genuinely ugly, the audience lost all sympathy for the character. They ended up making Murphy up in pale "no make-up" make-up, giving her a mole, and dressing her in unflattering clothes; that was as much ugliness as the audience could take. Lest tropers unfamiliar with the work think poorly of those audiences, the character of Fosca isn't exactly beautiful on the inside, either—she has deep psychological scars from a disastrous first marriage, and spends most of the show pursuing a man who has clearly and calmly indicated that 1. He's not interested and 2. He's already in a relationship (with a married woman, but still...). When he finally reciprocates at the end, it's not clear if he has actually learned to love her or if she has simply broken him completely.
The musical version of Legally Blonde: The supposedly plain Vivienne is played by Miss America 1998 Kate Shindle.
In Wicked the Musical, Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, is supposed to be so hideous that her father cannot look at her upon her birth. She even describes herself as "ugly". Still, she is played by actresses such as Shoshanna Bean, Eden Espinosa and the incredibly attractive Idina Menzel, with no further pains taken in making her look unattractive than painting her green. There are some. however, who theorize that Elphaba is actually supposed to be pretty. She thinks she's ugly because people look at her funny, and her dad can't look at her because he blames her for her mother's death.

If you think about it, the song Don't Cha is essentially the Pussycat Dolls pointing this trope to the listener. "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?/Don't you wish your girlfriend was raw like me?/Don't you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?/Don't you?/Don't you?".
In the video for "You Belong With Me", they put Taylor Swift in really big glasses and a band uniform and we're supposed to believe she's The Plain Girl. Yeah, right. And then when the glasses come off... Just to drive the trope home, the 'hot cheerleader' is played by... Taylor Swift, in a brunette wig. With the same eye makeup. So the difference is...? A slutty red prom dress.
The whole point of the song "Girl Next Door" by Saving Jane.
In the video for Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend", we're supposed to believe that Avril's bratty punk-like "bad girl" character is more desirable than the nerdy girlfriend. Er... (Word Of God says it's supposed to be satirical, but if that's true, it sure has one hell of a Misaimed Fandom.)

In her time in the WWE, Nora "Molly Holly" Greenwald was booked as the ugly heel diva, mainly for not being a wafer-thin blonde with implants. One running gag was for other divas (particularly Trish Stratus) to make fun of her large butt. In truth, the only thing that really ever made Molly seem unattractive was her frequent scowling (which was part of the character).
While the WWE has loaded its diva roster with blondes since the 90s, this was averted with Amy "Lita" Dumas, a wiry redhead with tattoos who quickly built a large fan base, though just as much for her acrobatics as her looks. Still, long-time beau Matt Hardy may have summed it up in the foreword to her autobiography, calling her "the girl you can't take your eyes off of and don't know why."

Given Japanese media's issues with Generic Cuteness, it's noteworthy that the first Ace Attorney game avoids this. Will Powers, the defendant in the third case, is, while not a Gonk, genuinely rough-looking and unattractive. Maya, who has never seen him out of his Steel Samurai costume, is more than a little stunned. Your Mileage May Vary, as there are many who find Will's cragginess rather appealing, and the constant hullabaloo about how "frightening" he looks a straight invocation of this trope. The sequel has some more good times on this subject: Will, who lacks the skills or training for anything but television, has been reduced to hosting a children's exercise program in a rabbit costume that hides his face, Will's successor, Matt Engarde, usually looks about as attractively sixteen as you can get (until he pushes back his hair and reveals the rather extreme scar across his eye, which also signals his switch into his real personality as an inhuman, manipulative monster), and Matt's supposed rival, Juan Corrida, is frequently mocked for being ugly and looking so much older than Matt (ie he looks to be in his early-to-mid twenties, which he is, and he looks pretty good for it too). Straight as an arrow.
Ethan Thomas in Condemned: Criminal Origins is somewhat of an aversion as he looks believable as an average police detective. In Condemned 2: Bloodshot, however, he somehow has become built like a football player despite the fact that he's been spending the year between the two games living as an alcoholic vagabond. The only signifier of his degenerate status is his scruffy facial hair. He changed quite a bit, actually. Compare Condemned 1 Ethan◊ with Condemned 2 Ethan.◊ His personality is totally different between games, as well.
- He also turned into a white man.

Intentionally used for humor in A Very Potter Musical, when Harry, Dumbledore, and especially Ron, will deliver entire monologues about the horrid ugliness of Hermione, who is played by a very pretty actress. Draco tries this as well, but the most scathing thing he can come up with is that she's an 8 out of 10 (Maybe an 8.5...No more than a 9.8!)
RON: It was inevitable that one day Hermione would realize that no guy would ever like her, because of her obnoxious personality, and her ugly face, and her misshapen body, but I figured she'd get in at least one night of happiness before she realized she was going to be growing old alone, you know?
- Of course, a few minutes after that she enters looking so beautiful that Ron and Draco break into a Counterpoint Duet about how they're falling in love (falling in love, falling in love) with Hermione Granger (Danger...)

Subverted in the Daria episode 'Quinn the Brain': while Daria is generally described as plain or even ugly (by people who believe that All Guys Want Cheerleaders), and usually shows disdain at best for makeup and clothing, she proves that she can match her fashion-crazed sister Quinn to make a point to her. Extra points for being a Spoof Aesop, in that Daria did so in order to set Quinn back on the shallow, airheaded lifestyle Daria so loathed her for, because Quinn being seen as intelligent was a threat to Daria's self-image. Of course, no one really talks about how Daria seems to attract the really good guys on the show (Tom, Trent, Ted Dewitt-Clinton) somehow - or that Quinn willingly gave up her 'brainy act' when she saw how much better Daria carried off Quinn's look... and how Daria filled out the pink baby-T Quinn wears a LOT better than Quinn ever did. Can you say 'Hot Librarian-in-training', anyone?
Meg Griffin on Family Guy, whose ugliness really only seems to be a matter of glasses, an unflattering hat, and a modest amount of pudge. Even so, these small nitpicks must combine into astronomical ugly, considering the fact that people have committed suicide by fire upon sight and have killed family members to generate excuses to avoid her. Of course in the episode, "Don't Make Me Over" all that was easily fixed with a new hairstyle and color, fashionable clothes and make up. Interestingly both actresses who have voiced Meg (Lacey Chabert and Mila Kunis) are generally cast as babes when they do face acting (ie. Not Another Teen Movie). It's quite possible that Meg not really being that ugly is part of the joke. They just call her that as part of her role as the Butt Monkey. Although the former has experience voicing nerdy-looking cartoon characters who are actually kind of cute.
- Parodied in one episode in which the Griffins star in a reality TV show. Meg is recast and her part played by a gorgeous starlet, but her character is otherwise unchanged. The starlet complains that she'll "never have full beautiful breasts like these," as she gestures toward her generous assets.
- Meg not looking that bad might just be because she's drawn relatively simplistically - dialogue has others mentioning her copious amounts of body hair, the fact that she doesn't use deodorant, and plenty of other unattractive features.
- Played straight though when they make digs about certain actresses whom those in Quahog apparently consider hideous, like Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker (who, according to Peter, "looks like a foot!"). Hell, in the later seasons just about any time a woman appears who is not the definition of model-gorgeous it will be pointed out repeatedly how she committed the cardinal sin of not being gorgeous.
Subverted in a South Park episode where Kyle is determined to be the ugliest boy in his class by the girls and is forced to hang out with the other ugly kids. Kyle leads an impassioned speech about how they're just as good as anyone else, and what they need is a makeover. He turns to the girl of the group and starts with the time-honored Hollywood tradition of taking away her glasses... which reveals that she has small, squinty eyes. Kyle just slowly puts the glasses back on, his plans utterly destroyed. This is further subverted by the fact that Kyle really isn't the ugliest kid in the class; furthermore, an unaired clip reveals that Cartman was the ugliest kid on the list, which makes sense, because he actually does look ugliest.
Velma Dinkley from Scooby-Doo used to be decidedly plain; her hairstyle was unflattering at best, her face was nothing to get excited over, the sweater she always wore was shapeless, and her figure could generously be described as resembling a barrel on legs. Then (probably because the actress who played her in the live-action movies was pretty good looking herself), when they were making What's New Scooby-Doo?, they decided that old-school Velma was just too ugly for TV, so they redesigned her. They made tweaks to her face and hair, narrowed her waist down, added a little boob, and made her sweater form-fitting, to the net effect that the once plain-but-smart Velma is now incredibly easy on the eyes.
- In the recent (i.e. late 20th to early 21st century) Scooby-Doo series where Velma makes an appearance, she's been voiced by Mindy Cohn (best known as Natalie from The Facts Of Life) in what's probably an unintended subversion. Also hilariously lampshaded in this shampoo commercial featuring Velma before and after using the aforementioned shampoo. Let's give props to Wilma Flintstone and Jane Jetson in that commercial, too.
- While she looks plain next to Daphne, Velma has been known to have her share of fans who find certain features (her slightly stocky frame,the sweater, the glasses) quite sexy.
- A plausible in-universe explanation for Velma's redesign in What's New, Scooby-Doo? is that she's older. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the first of the current run of feature-length cartoons, establishes the characters as young adults (though Velma's appearance hadn't changed much in the first few installments of the current run of animated films). Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase even lampshaded the differences in the characters' design (which were mainly limited to Fred and Daphne's outfits at that point) by having them meet their counterparts in a video game the film was written as a tie-in with: one of them commented that the college-age friend who was the in-universe creator of the game hadn't seen them in a while. If Velma's in her mid teens in the original series and her early twenties in the current animation, it makes sense if her face is a bit leaner and her figure's filled out a bit...
Batman The Animated Series lampshades it beautifully, if a bit Anviliciously (but hey, Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped): One Villain Of The Week, Calendar Girl, was once a renowned model who was fired for getting old, unable to compete with younger models. She tried to make the transition to acting, and even managed to get the role as a mother on a sitcom, but was subsequently fired from that job when the network decided they wanted a to go in a "younger direction." Eventually, she decides to wreak bloody vengeance on the network and modelling executives who ruined her career, but she had so much plastic surgery done before turning evil that she wears a full-face mask. At the end of the episode Batman defeats her and the police unmask her, whereupon she begins to scream and writhe upon the ground. She is in her late 30s and still quite attractive, even in comparison to other models, but she is absolutely horrified the police can see her "old, ugly" face.
Batgirl: Wait, she's beautiful.
Batman: All she can see are the flaws.
Ron Stoppable from Kim Possible was supposed to appear as a nerdy type of character, but he ended up appearing cute to the viewers.

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