History Main / HiredForTheirLooks

* ''Series/{{House}}'' hired Cameron because it's like having a nice piece of art in the lobby even though she she was in the top of her class (But not THE top) and did an internship at the Mayo Clinic but she insists that she worked very hard to get where she is. In a subversion, House points out that Cameron, as a beautiful woman, could have easily done well for herself in life without resorting to working her ass off to become a doctor. Since she for some reason chose a difficult path when she could have had an easy one, House knew that she would have {{Hidden Depths}}.

* In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', Holly maintains that Lily Frond was only able to get a job with the LEP for being a good-looking bimbo.

* ''Series/{{House}}'' hired Cameron because it's like having a nice piece of art in the lobby even though she she was in the top of her class (But not THE top) and did an internship at the Mayo Clinic but she insists that she worked very hard to get where she is.
** In something of a subversion, House points out that Cameron, as a beautiful woman, could have easily done well for herself in life without resorting to working her ass off to become a doctor. Since she for some reason chose a difficult path when she could have had an easy one, House knew that she would have {{Hidden Depths}}.

* ''ICarly'': When the Power Trio need to hire an assistant to help with the eponymous show-within-a-show, Sam and Carly hire a hunky and INCREDIBLY stupid guy. Freddie retaliates by hiring a really dumb girl [[spoiler: though it turns out that she was a college student using the experience as source material for a sociology class.]]

* In ''RestaurantStakeout'', Willie suspected that the general manager of a restaurant partook in this trope. He had two undercover women attempt job interviews for waitressing with this manager, and confirmed Willie's suspicions when he hired the young, inexperienced teenage girl over the older, but vastly more qualified woman. He even went so far as attempting to flirt with her.

* Inverted (or perhaps played straight in a different way) in the Creator/MercedesLackey ''Oathbound'', where a knight desires a pair of guards for his wife--and instead of hiring two handsome men, hires Tarma and Kethry instead. His wife is disappointed.

[[folder:Live-Action Film]]
* The title Representative from ''Film/CharlieWilsonsWar'' purposefully surrounded himself with [[SexySecretary Sexy Secretaries]], and hired them based on looks.
--> 'You can teach 'em to type, but you can't teach 'em to grow tits.'
* In ''[[Film/AmericanPie American Reunion]]'', [[{{Jerkass}} Stifler]] tells group of pretty women "Ladies, you'd better be working hard - you weren't hired for your looks. Actually you were." He then points to another woman and says "Not you."
[[/folder]]

* ICarly: When the Power Trio need to hire an assistant to help with the eponymous show-within-a-show, Sam and Carly hire a hunky and INCREDIBLY stupid guy. Freddie retaliates by hiring a really dumb girl [[spoiler: though it turns out that she was a college student using the experience as source material for a sociology class.]]

* Nurse Bendy on MoralOrel. She doesn't really have any medical knowledge and is at one point told to "sit there and look pretty." This is later revealed to be part of her trauma, that people only see her as a BrainlessBeauty [[spoiler: and she copes with this through her pretend family of teddy bears]].

A character is hired for a job solely because of their good looks. Whether or not (usually not) they have the skillset or experience for the job is a non-issue for their employer who just wants some eyecandy around the workplace. Often times their good looks are a form of job security as in cases where they are glaringly incompetent their employer will often ignore or bear with it for the sake of keeping them around.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', Holly maintains that Lily Frond was only able to get a job with the LEP for being a good-looking bimbo.
[[/folder]]

* Inverted (or perhaps played straight in a different way) in the MercedesLackey ''Oathbound'', where a knight desires a pair of guards for his wife--and instead of hiring two handsome men, hires Tarma and Kethry instead. His wife is disappointed.

[[quoteright:332:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/OhArchie_2541.jpg]]

* ''Series/{{House}}'' hired Cameron because it's like having a nice piece of art in the lobby even though she she was in the top of her class (But not THE top) and did an internship at the Mayo Clinic but she insists that she worked very hard to get where she is.

* In ''Series/{{House}}'' the title character bluntly tells Cameron he hired her solely because her good looks. She's a good doctor but House chooses her over even better doctors because she's attractive.

* In ArtemisFowl, Holly maintains that Lily Frond was only able to get a job with the LEP for being a good-looking bimbo.

** Another EvilLawyerJoke: A law firm is told they need to hire more women and make one partner. So, they hire three women and devise a test to decide who makes partner. On their next paychecks, all of the women get overpaid by $5,000. The first takes the money and says nothing. The second returns the money immediately. The third takes the money, but comes back later with a check for $7,500, claiming she got a good stock tip and wanted to split the difference with the firm. So who made partner? [[BuxomIsBetter The one with the biggest tits]].
* Actors: Some have the look, others have the acting skills.

* In [[AmericanPie American Reunion]] [[{{Jerkass}} Stifler]] tells group of pretty women "Ladies, you'd better be working hard - you weren't hired for your looks. Actually you were.". He then points to another woman and says "Not you."

* In ''SpinCity'', Caitlin hired a guy who probably moonlit as a Chippendale's dancer (almost immediately after she chewed out Charlie for [[HypocriticalHumor the same thing]]).
* [[FamilyTies Alex P. Keaton]] hired Karen as a housekeeper, despite her being a klutz and having no experience. Karen being played by Geena Davis.
* On ''JustShootMe'', Maya does an experiment for an article in which she sends two people to interview for the same job, one extremely qualified but homely-looking, the other a handsome but dim-witted model. The model gets the job, as Maya predicted, but she also ends up falling in love with him.
* On ''{{Friends}}'', Rachel ends up hiring an inexperienced young man (Tag) as her assistant solely because he was cute.
** Rachel herself counts as it seems that Gunther hired her only because he had a crush on her and she could have the job as long as she cared even though she was not a competent waitress.
* In ''TheOffice'', it appears that the new executive assistant, Jordan Garfield, will be this. This is certainly what some people (Pam and Dwight, for instance) think in-universe. It remains to be seen if that will prove to be the case.
* In the MarriedWithChildren episode "Rain Girl" (s4e21), Kelly Bundy becomes a TV station's "weather bunny" at a higher salary than the station's professional meteorologist, to his outrage.
* An episode of SimonAndSimon has them hiring a secretary. They look at the first one, a grandmotherly looking woman with an impressive resume, but go with a beautiful blonde who doesn't even have enough sense to answer a ringing phone.
* JT from ''StepByStep'' hires a beautiful model as a housekeeper despite the fact that she's terrible at it. She eventually quits when she realizes this fact.
* In RestaurantStakeout, Willie suspected that the general manager of a restaurant partook in this trope. He had two undercover women attempt job interviews for waitressing with this manager, and confirmed Willie's suspicions when he hired the young, inexperienced teenage girl over the older, but vastly more qualified woman. He even went so far as attempting to flirt with her.
* In Series/{{House}} the title character bluntly tells Cameron he hired her solely because her good looks. She's a good doctor but House chooses her over even better doctors because she's attractive.
* A ''KidsInTheHall'' sketch had Dave as a business man unable to fire a French pyromaniac named Monique because she's beautiful, ''even as she's igniting things in his office''.

* Played with in ''FamilyGuy'' where Stewie's nursery is cared for by an attractive but extremely neglegent and borderline abusive woman (she leaves the children unattended for several hours and at one point dislocates Stewie's arm in her careless handling of him). He fails to have her found out because [[WIthFriendsLikeThese Brian insists he keep his mouth shut until he's scored a night in bed with her]] (though calls the police himself when it turns out she has a boyfriend).

* In [[AmericanPie American Reunion]] JerkassStifler tells group of pretty women "Ladies, you'd better be working hard - you weren't hired for your looks. Actually you were.". He then points to another woman and says "Not you."

* In [[AmericanPie American Reunion]] [[Jerkass Stifler]] tells group of pretty women "Ladies, you'd better be working hard - you weren't hired for your looks. Actually you were.". He then points to another woman and says "Not you."