Looks Like Jesus - Television Tropes & Idioms

No, not Him — Charles I of England. But of course the two are easily confused...

This trope refers to a character whose hairstyle and facial hair make him resemble conventional depictions of Jesus of Nazareth: i.e., long hair worn loose and a simple full beard. His hair can be straight, wavy, or curly, but braids, dreadlocks and such are right out. It might overlap with Wild Hair but can be neater. There's some latitude in the length of the beard, but anything that covers the collarbone is probably too long to qualify, and braids or other affectations are right out. Bonus points if he winds up in sandals and a robe at any point. See also What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?.

Compare Hippie Jesus, if he not only looks the part, but also acts like then.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Toki in Fist of the North Star, to the point that his Fan Nickname is Kung-Fu Jesus.
Ulysses from Ulysses 31. But then, he IS a Messianic figure- not just a parallel to the original protagonist of the Odyssey.
Inverted in Saint Young Men: Jesus is often noted in-universe as greatly resembling Johnny Depp.

Comic Book

Wallace from Sin City has the whole look, combined with a very calm, polite, stoic demeanor. He would be a Hippie Jesus if he wasn't a One-Man Army.
"Stormwatch Team Achilles", during the brief period where they were working for the Illuminati, were tasked to kill this one guy who got godlike - nay Godlike - powers from being a descendent of Jesus. The man they find looks like this. Then, the actual descendant, who was nearby and is dressed more modernly, shows up and kicks their asses, while mocking them for falling for the oldest Memetic Outfit in the book.

Film

The Dude from The Big Lebowski. Also wears a robe and sandals in his intro scene.
- Likewise, Kevin Flynn in TRON: Legacy, played by the same actor.
A policeman calls hirsute Alan "fat Jesus" in The Hangover.
Saved!: After Mary hits her head in the pool, she is rescued by the pool cleaner, who looks like this. Due to her head injury she thinks he actually is Jesus.
Forrest Gump, when he runs across America.
Qui-Gonn Jinn.
The Thief in The Holy Mountain deliberately Looks Like Jesus.
Arguably, Silent Bob, given his tendency to be the voice of reason whenever he does actually say something (except in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back), and his overall attitude. Albeit a slightly barrel-shaped Jesus.

Literature

Puggy in Big Trouble. At one point he's even mistaken for Jesus by a disoriented maid.
In Perelandra, when the King of Venus (essentially, the Adam of the nascent Human Alien civilization of Venus) is finally revealed, Ransom immediately recognizes his features. Although it is not stated in plain text, the Queen/Eve of Venus reveals that ever since Maleldil materialized Himself as a human on Earth, the human form became the default for all new sentient species, ergo it is only logical that the default human male form always Looks Like Jesus, too.

Live-Action TV

Eli◊ on Xena: Warrior Princess.
Manny in Black Books has a beard and long hair, and one episode has him wandering about in a hospital gown and being mistaken for Jesus by the people he meets.
Jordan Collier of The 4400 after his resurrection. Word Of God says it's not symbolic.
Happened a few times on Top Gear where one of the presenters (mainly Jeremy Clarkson) would confuse someone with long hair and a beard for the son of God in a short lived gag.
A visitor to the precinct in one episode of Barney Miller.
Bookie: [whispering to detective] I'll give you 75 to 1 it ain't!
In Battlestar Galactica, Gaius Baltar looks like Jesus◊ when he wanders around the Cylon Basestar in a plain white robe, with long hair and a beard. Bonus points for being played by the actor James Callis.
In Doctor Who, the Eleventh Doctor with a beard◊ and robe◊ looks like Jesus.

Music

These guys.
They Might Be Giants, "Kiss Me, Son of God"

I look like Jesus

So they say

But Mr.Jesus is very far away.

Averted in "When You Were Young" by The Killers.
Lil B, if his song "Look Like Jesus" is to be believed.

Theater

The title song of Hair.

My hair like Jesus wore it

Hallelujah I adore it

Hallelujah Mary loved her son

Why don't my mother love me?

Video Games

This trope is the reason Takaya from Persona 3 bears the Fan Nicknames of Hippie Jesus and Revolver Jesus.
In a similar vein, one of the more popular model choices for male characters in Knights Of The Old Republic II is sometimes known in the fandom as "Jedi Jesus."

Western Animation

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Gee Whiz" focuses part of its plot on news reports of people seeing a face bearing Jesus' likeness in the butt of a rifle on a highway billboard advertisement for a pawn shop, only the face turns out to be Ted Nugent's.
From The Simpsons episode "She Of Little Faith":
Jimbo: Hey, Simpson, I hear your sister dumped Christianity.
Bart: Who cares?
Dolph: I'll tell you someone who cares. He's got long hair, works as a carpenter, has a lot of crazy ideas about love and brotherhood.
Jimbo: His name's Gunnar and he's dating my mom. Sometimes he buys us beer.
- And from "Homer the Heretic":
Kids, let me tell you about another so-called "wicked" guy. He had long hair and some wild ideas. He didn't always do what other people thought was right. And that man's name was... I forget. But the point is... I forget that, too. Marge, you know what I'm talking about. He used to drive that blue car?

Real Life

Charles I of England, whose similarity in appearance to conventional depictions of Jesus was exaggerated by Monarchist partisans in 17th century art, as in the page image.
Cesare Borgia (1476 - 1507) was a very beautiful man, probably the most beautiful son of a Pope that ever lived. There are suggestions that portraits of him from the Renaissance influenced contemporary and subsequent portrayals of Jesus of Nazareth. So now if you look at a painting of Cesare Borgia, he may look a bit like Jesus... or vice versa.
- Cesare Borgia as Jesus◊
  - Given Cesare's um... track record, that qualifies for any number of tropes ...
Johnny Damon, baseball player, back in his Boston Red Sox days.
- After he defected to the Yankees, you could buy T-shirts in Boston with his picture that said, "Looks like Jesus. Acts like Judas. Throws like Mary."
Also Leonardo Da Vinci, Some scientist even believe that the shroud of Turin was in fact painted by him and that he used his own face as the model. If that were true, this would be the most epic easter egg in history.
Alan Moore, although his wild-eyed Mad Artist shtick and the really long beard sort of push it into Looks Like Rasputin territory, which might deserve its own trope.
This self-portrait◊ by Albrecht Dürer, about which The Other Wiki says:
Dürer presents himself monumentally in a style that unmistakably recalls depictions of Christ - the implications of which have been debated among art critics. A conservative interpretation suggests that Durer is responding to the tradition of the Imitation of Christ. The more controversial view reads the painting as a proclamation of the artist's individual identity and his role as creator.
Poker player Chris Ferguson.
Christian Bale, although only when he has his beard/moustache.
- This could be said for any actor who has played Jesus. Jim Caviezel for example.
When young, the English actor Robert Powell. Hence why he was handpicked to play Jesus by the Catholic Church itself, in the Church-sponsored miniseries Jesus of Nazareth: they wanted a handsome guy who could act well and fit in the archetype, thus codifying a new Jesus-like archetype, and there he was.
This definitely applied to Robin Thicke◊ around the time his first album was released.
Nash, host of Radio Dead Air and What The Fuck Is Wrong With You? Bonus points for getting so drunk once that he stood on a bench and "proclaimed [him]self the Lord Jesus Christ."
Ironically, the real Jesus most likely would not qualify for the trope. Not only did he most likely have far more Semitic features than most art would have you believe, but long hair was not common for men at his time. He probably did have a beard, but its chances of being neatly combed or cut are pretty much nil.
Jim Henson.