Basic Trope: A couple has a child that looks very different from either parent, implying that he/she was fathered by someone else.
- Straight:
- Alice (White) is married to Bob, but has an affair with Jason (Black). Nine months later, she gives birth to a black baby.
- Sarah (Black) gives birth to a very light-skinned baby, despite being married to Jason, an also black man (presumably after an affair with Bob).
- Alice's new son is white like her and her husband Bob, but the baby doesn't look very much like Bob. He does look a lot like the mailman.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice has several children, all of whom are different races and look nothing like her or Bob.
- Bob is a racist who allows Alice sleep with anyone unless they are black, but she still sleeps with Jason anyway.
- Downplayed:
- Alice's baby is also white, however, Alice's baby has a blood type that would be impossible for the baby to have if Bob was the biological father.
- Justified:
- Alice has been cheating.
- Alice and/or Bob has black ancestry in their line, so even though Alice remained faithful, her baby may still inherit the black genes.
- Bob had unprotected sex with Charlotte, who had had unprotected sex with Jason just hours before (or they had a threesome), then Bob went and had sex with Alice, which gave her both his own sperm and that of Jason.
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob are married but have split up. Alice has moved in with Jason. When she is pregnant, everybody thinks Jason is the father. When the baby is born, it is white and looks like Bob.
- The baby is known to be heavily modified post conception which conceals any infidelity from even a paternity test.
- Bob knows full well that Alice sleeps with everyone but him, and yet somehow her child looks exactly like him anyway.
- Subverted:
- Alice and Bob used donor eggs and/or sperm to conceive, and they came from someone with very different looks.
- Alice wasn't cheating, but she was raped, and became pregnant as a result.
- Alice and Bob are both biracial; it's just the way the genes combined.
- Denise inherited the recessive genes of her grandparents that couldn't express themselves in Alice and Bob.
- The child looks like neither Alice nor Bob, but is stated to be an adopted child.
- Sarah's blue eyed baby is actually an albino.
- Alice and Jason did have an affair, but the baby is white.
- Double Subverted:
- But everyone assumes Alice cheated, and judges her (and her children) accordingly.
- Alice never revealed the assault to her husband, fearing he would blame her. He only finds out after the baby is born.
- Sarah's baby is an albino, but she gets a paternity test to assure Jason and it turns out that he actually wasn't the father.
- Parodied:
- Alice has been cheating with Jason, and gives birth to a black baby. Bob still thinks it's his child.
- The baby is a tentacle monster, because of an encounter Alice had with Naughty Tentacles nine months ago.
- The baby looks like Bob, but bears no resemblance to Alice.
- Alice gives birth to a black child, and claims that it's proof that Bob cheated on her.
- Alice gives birth to a black child, and Bob takes this as evidence that she's been having an affair... but Alice is black.
- {Related to Exaggerated Entry #2 above}: Bob is mad at Alice, not because she cheated on him and gave birth to a baby that isn't genetically his, but the person she slept with is black.
- Zig Zagged: The baby had resemblance to Bob, but its behavior is similar to Jason...
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob are faithful to one another, and their baby resembles both of them.
- None of the characters are in a relationship of any kind.
- It's already known right from the beginning that Alice and Bob adopted a black kid.
- Enforced: "Okay, we already know Alice cheats. How do we show it without her getting in trouble with Bob?" "Let's have her give birth to a black baby. Bob is Too Dumb to Live, so he'll think it's his child."
- Lampshaded: "That's our baby? He looks nothing like me!"
- Invoked:
- Alice finds herself in bed with Jason, but they have no protection.
- Alice knows that Bob is Too Dumb to Live, and cheats on him just to see if he'll notice.
- Exploited:
- Agent Charlie notices this and blackmails Alice into being an accomplice.
- Alice scores pity by telling Bob that she was raped.
- Defied:
- Alice and Jason stop, either out of guilt or lack of protection.
- Alice is on the Pill, and makes Jason use a condom.
- Jason invites Alice to his house without specifying a reason. Alice suspects that Jason wants her to cheat on Bob, and refuses to go for this reason.
- After realizing that Jason may have made her pregnant, Alice has an abortion.
- Discussed: "What if you made me pregnant? Bob will kill me if he finds out I've been cheating."
- Conversed: "Why does that white couple have a black baby?" "I suspect cheating was involved."
- Implied:
- Alice and Bob have a child who looks nothing like Bob, or even his relatives. Bob doesn't suspect a thing, but Alice always looks guilty.
- Two children with drastically different skin tones or ethnic features are explicitly stated to be non-adopted siblings. We never see their parents in person, so we never know who the odd one out is.
- Deconstructed: Bob knows that something is up. He asks Alice why their baby is black, and Alice unwittingly admits that she had sex with Jason. Both couples get divorced over this.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob forgives Alice for cheating, and doesn't tell Sarah that Jason had sex with Alice.
- Then Bob and Sarah hook up and so do Alice and Jason.
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob is more surprised than upset.
- Bob says "As long as he isn't Irish"
- Bob is The Ditz and doesn't quite catch on. He just thinks that it is possible for Alice to get pregnant suddenly, but it just makes the baby look different from him.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob leaves Alice, Jason leaves Sarah, and, because both couples shared their rent and other bills, everyone ends up homeless.
- Bob attempts to murder Alice and her child when he finds out.
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