Ugly Cute - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): So Ugly Its Cute; Unconventionally Cute

"The uglier you make it, the more they'll cry at the end."

- Character designer working on King Kong

There's Generic Cuteness, the Ridiculously Cute Critter, and the Moe. And then there's these guys. Creatures who are, to put it kindly, less cute than other creatures.

OK, they're ugly. They look strange. Maybe they're deformed. They can even be monstrous.

However, they are also endearing, kind, and sweet. Maybe they retain a few Ridiculously Cute Critter traits. Maybe they're The Woobie. Maybe it is simply that their lovely personality overrides any disgust at their physical appearance.

In short, even though they should not be cute by any sense of the word they are anyway. Indeed, many times these characters are so ugly, they're cute.

"Kimoi doumei" is a name in Japanese for fans of these characters.

Not to be confused with Grotesque Cute. Compare The Grotesque, Cute Monster Girl, Freaky Is Cool, and the nicer versions of Fluffy The Terrible. But see also What Measure Is A Non Cute and Beauty Equals Goodness as those tropes will probably, unfortunately, directly affect these characters. See Grotesque Gallery for when character designers try for this kind of appeal and fail. Badly.

NOTE: Since there are so many Truth In Television examples of Ugly-Cute, we're going to focus on fictional characters only on this page. To confess your love for Pugs, Batfish, Mudpuppies, Baboons, Frogmouths, baby Aardvarks, and so on, head on over to the Troper Tales page.

Examples

Anime

In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, Envy's true form, when stripped of all the different souls that make up his body, is a creepy little slug-like creature with multiple legs and large eyes... and yet you just want to pick him up and snuggle him.
- Its full-size form is like a giant puppy made of size-mismatched human corpses.
- Warning you do not want to snuggle with true-form!Envy
Am I the only one who thought Izumi's homunculus baby from the first anime was cute in a horrifying way?
Quite a few characters from One Piece would qualify, especially Usopp and Brook.
Jinenji, a gigantic, bug-eyed, Quasimodo-esque hanyou from Inuyasha who, nonetheless, manages to be incredibly endearing.
The Dark Liege of Nora (when she's not in human form)
Rico/Loli and all versions of Exedore/Exsedol from the Macross and Robotech universes, but especially the latter's first form.
Some Digimon like Gazimon qualify.
L in Death Note.

Comic Books

Shuma-Gorath, a Captain Ersatz of Cthulhu and one of Doctor Strange's minor foes is a huge, one-eyed squid thing that somehow manages to look huggably cute. His Marvel vs. Capcom design shrinks him down to human size and makes him look positively shy.
Your Milage May Vary, but many fangirls consider the "fascinatingly ugly" Walter Kovacs, AKA Rorschach, the cutest character in the book physically. This may be more in North America's fandom versus Europe, as the ginger haired appearance carries a more negative connotation across the pond compared to in Canada and America where the awkward appearance is often considered to be rather sweet and endearing.

Fan Fiction

D’aaaww baby Cthulhu!

Film

E.T.
Slimer from Ghostbusters, even in his initial appearance in the film. The producers ran with it in everything spun-off from the film.
- In the spinoff series Slimer and the real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, it appears he got hit with the adorably ugly stick a bit harder than normal...
For some, Chestbursters. Then again, everything is cute as a baby.
- Including the guck-spitting-up squidling Agent J delivers in Men In Black. Must be the big eyes and the very adorable tentacle-sucking.
King Kong was specifically designed around this.
As was Edward Scissorhands.
Say "Hi" to Baby Godzilla◊
- Sure, he's a horrible ancient monster with razor sharp fangs and horns, but those floppy ears make Baragon◊ simply adorable.
  - Well, he has been described as being like a giant puppy quite a few times on the internet.
- King Seesar◊ who is an ugly/cute Shisa (A lion-dog creature from Okinawa folklore).
Given the reaction of its keeper, the Rancor in Star Wars.
- Yoda.
- Also R2D2. Cutest sentient fire hydrant ever.
Scorponok TIME FOR HUUUGZ!!!
Fizzgig from The Dark Crystal. Heck, we could probably include a lot of Muppets on this list, especially "dark" Muppets.
The titular Gremlins turn into this when they get fed after midnight.

Literature

Where The Wild Things Are. Come to think of it, Maurice Sendak practically runs off this.
Quasimodo from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, especially in the Disney adaptation.
Gollum from Lord Of The Rings may not have a good personality, but he's just so pitiful.
Subjective Trope, but many Redwall fans think the villainous "vermin", who are supposed to be ugly and creepy, are cuter than the good "woodlanders".
Dobby and, in general, the House Elves from Harry Potter.
- This troper considers Kreacher the exception, though Your Mileage May Vary.
The Other, the sentient operating system of Otherland, steals system resources to create a private world for itself, populating it with grotesque mockeries of fairy tale creatures that are nevertheless treated like its children. This is not out of malice, but because it genuinely doesn't understand the context.
Rather unfortunately, the Phantom (Erik) of Phantom of the Opera fame is slowly becoming this.
The titular Eldritch Abominations of Where the Deep Ones Are and The Littlest Shoggoth.

Live Action TV

The nonhuman magical creatures such as Phineas the troblin from Power Rangers Mystic Force.
The baby Adiposians from Doctor Who. Basically a pound of roughly humanoid animated fat. Possibly the cutest thing the show has ever featured.

Tabletop Games

Eyeball beholderkin from Dungeons And Dragons. They have huge central eyes, magic-beam-shooting eyestalks, and fanged mouths like their larger, more dangerous relatives - and are about the size of large grapefruit.
- Also imps and quasits from the same game.
- While we're at it, most baby dragons don't look very much better than their adult forms, but are still able to pull this off. Especially blue dragons, for some reason.
Warhammer 40000 has a race of Orks who are so exaggerated and silly, some find them oddly adorable. Everyone else finds them Crazy Awesome.
- The Orks' pets, the Squigs solidly fall into this category as do Gretchin on occasion.

Toys

The Ugly Dolls!
And Living Dead Dolls.
And Pussycat Dolls!
What, no love for Domo-kun?!
Or Macku or Spinax?
- Dont forget Shadow Lechces!:
  - ZESK!!! Kotu,Kapura,Onepu.

Video Games

The minions of Overlord were created specifically to evoke this trope. They look like goblins or the gremlins, but act like Ax Crazy little children, loyal to a fault to their overlord and eager to ear his praise. Watching them run back to give you some of the loot they found is adorable. Or watching them grab an item (such as a pumpkin or a dead rat) and use it as equipment (in this case, a hat).
Oddworld pretty much runs on this trope. Poor Abe.
The Arachnotrons (and possibly the Spiderdemons) from Doom. Also, related to the beholder example: the Pain Elementals and Cacodemons. (the latter actually has had two fanmade plush dolls made, one of them being the official mascot of the DoomWiki)
Some of the baddies in Donkey Kong Country, particularly the Klaptraps with their cute little snaggle-teeth.
Baby Metroids, both the plot-significant one in Super Metroid and the bitty little things in Prime 2 and 3.
Many of the mushroom people in Mushroom Men, especially the hero, Pax. Sure, he's got beady little eyes, a raggedy-looking "lost boy" style tunic, and his mushroom cap breaks away to reveal his brain... But just watch the intro, where poor little Pax is wandering all by himself in the big scary human world, glowing eyes looking out innocently.
The creatures of Jade Cocoon 2 quickly grow on you.
Kouri in Brass Restoration finds the Ill-pin stuffed... characters adorable. They are based on viruses. Ryo, the main character, just doesn't see it.
Many Pokemon, but especially Snubull and Granbull, two bulldog-based Pokemon that are mentioned in-game as being popular with women.
Most characters from Yume Nikki are really creepy when you first see them, but when you get used to them, some of 'em are kind of...adorable. Like Uboa. Happiest-looking Eldritch Abomination-like thing ever.
- And Masada seems to be a strange sort of Estrogen Brigade Bait, judging by parts of the fandom, and is also often seen as a Woobie.
- If you search on Deviant Art, it's easy enough to find quite a few pictures of fan-made Uboa plushies. Yes, that's right, people like to cuddle with Uboa.
- This editor in particular liked the things on the way to Hell that open their mouths when you press the buttons next to them. I've heard them explicitly described as "creepy", but when I first saw them open their mouths, I couldn't stop laughing.
The good ending of Eversion. Two Eldritch Abominations, together at last!
The Mr. Saturns in Earthbound and Mother 3 are comical big-nosed creatures with massive eyebrows and a single hair on their head, tied up with a red bow.
Come on, Mr. B!
The baby forms of most aliens you can make in Spore tend to be like this. Sometimes the adult forms can be, too.
One of the non-combat pets available in World Of Warcraft is a baby version of a Beholder-like demon. It's a floating head with one huge eye and small stubby tentacles. It also drools a lot and randomly falls asleep. It's at the same time very ugly and absolutely adorable.
- The Disqusting Oozeling, a pet that's essentially a small blob of slime.
- The Oracles are a race of sort of ugly frog-like creatures that have very cute speech.
Rayman's Raving Rabbids. Brutish, vulgar, maniacal... but still bunnies.
Many of the Zerg creatures from the original Star Craft fit this trope. The little Zerglings are quite cute on the screen, and way they pounce on the Terrans like kittens at a ball of yarn only makes them cuter. All of the wild creatures also apply, being horribly proportioned beasts that look cute in spite of it.
The creators of Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus will soon be giving us The Last Guardian. The creature in this game is meant to be unbalanced and strange-looking. Who, after watching that trailer, didn't think the creature was the most adorable giant beastie ever?

Web Comics

Several examples in The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob—Molly's pet Snookums is a space monster Bob calls a "tentacle bunny." Molly herself is a pretty weird-looking creature. Roofus the Robot would not be especially cute if not for his innocent personality; well, okay, the construction-worker cap built into his head is kind of cute. And Voluptua, even in her alien butterfly form, still manages to be very attractive.
This is a common theme in Digger, as well as Ursula Vernon's other work. Currently she's on a kick of making adorable phalloi—which are Greek fertility symbols that are basically penises with wings and feet.
PON & ZI!!!
Zimmy of Gunnerkrigg Court. She has very nearly More Teeth Than The Osmond Family, greyish skin, hair like a Stringy Haired Ghost Girl, inexplicable black stuff that usually covers her eyes (which are bright red under all that), and is strange, mean, and prickly and enjoys chasing rats, but there's a certain charm to her appearance and she has her nice moments, and is therefore rather adorable.
Squidge the bogeyman in Tales Of The Questor is somewhat reminiscent of Gollum and Stitch, both mentioned elsewhere on this page.

Web Original

Many creatures in Mortasheen fall under this trope. Aww, isn't he a cute little chainsaw monster?
- Also, the Marrow and Gasjack both seem like some bastard hybrid of a Pokemon with obscure spellcasting Heartless... In fact, all the ones that aren't Nightmare Fuel probably fit into this trope, or alternatively some kinda weird modern art piece...
If you post a Jumping Spider on 4chan, no matter what forum it is, everyone on it with just go, "D'AAAAAAAAAAAAAW."

Western Animation

Nibbler from Futurama has 3 eyes, fangs, walks like a monkey and only has one nostril. Leela still goes "Awwwww" when she first meets him. The animators were deliberately working with this trope. It becomes all the funnier when he starts speaking with the voice of Frank Welker (although he had provided the noises Nibbler made up until that point anyway).
- He also adorably devours whole creatures several times his size, and poops starship fuel.
Seeing as WALL-E is a rusty, dirty, trash compactor, he certainly qualifies.
- AND his adorable little disease-harboring pet, a COCKROACH.
- Pixar is good with this trope. See also the more esoteric looking characters in "Toy Story" and "A Bugs Life".
- And Monsters Inc. (Mike, for instance.)
- All of the dangerous baby animals in Partly Cloudy. All of them. Even the Knifefish. Especially the Knifefish.
Blunk the gobliny thing in WITCH.
Lexington, Broadway, and Bronx, just to name three characters in Gargoyles.
Glen Keane absolutely had this in mind when designing Beast.
Stitch. Sometimes very cute. Sometimes very not cute, especially when he's in one of his Killer Rabbit moods.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: The entire population of Halloweentown.
Some fans of Corpse Bride consider the title character, Emily, to be rather cute for a rotting corpse in a tattered wedding dress whose eye occasionally falls out.
- Her Peter Lorre maggot has his own charm.
Rufus in Kim Possible. Look at this picture of Rufus◊ and then look at what his species ''actually'' looks like◊.
- This troper recalls a flashback episode where Ron first gets Rufus and shows Kim. Rufus is a baby; a tiny, wrinkly, shrivelled little thing. That still manages to be utterly adorable.
Tootie, Vicky's sister and Timmy's admirer on The Fairly Oddparents, can be considered an animated version of Ugly Betty.
Gretchen◊ from Invader Zim was clearly designed to look awkward, ugly and a bit creepy. Weirdly coloured and styled hair, freckles, and a need for serious corrective orthodontic gear only succeed in making her positively Moe Moe.
- Are you sure you're not thinking of Recess?
Silkie!!!
Gorgonzola from Chowder (just to name one character).
Squibby, from the series The Future Is Wild may well be the model for unconventional cuteness. "He" is the series' resident Non Human Sidekick and is essentially a land-dwelling Mimic Octopus (who in turn, is a great model for Real Life unconventional cuteness) with the personality of Curious George.
Some of the character designs in Dreamworks' Monsters Vs Aliens, like giant bug monster Insectosaurus.
Slyder, the dragon minion of Barbie And The Diamond Castle's villain has obviously been designed so that he looks evil, but not so scary that little girls would turn off the movie. This includes mismatched buck teeth and a rounded horn on his head, not to mention that he seems to be made of Cartoon Sound Effects.
The peglegged, sharp-toothed, gravel-voiced Fidget the bat from The Great Mouse Detective.

Real Life

The World's Ugliest Dog Contest.
Also certain breeds, like Boston Terriers, the most adorable little bug-eyed mutants ever. Or Shar Peis or Mexican hairless dogs.

What Measure Is A Non Cute

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