History Series / UglyBetty

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ugly_Betty.jpg]]

-->'''Christina:''' Look at the files Wilhelmina has! Madonna, [[AcceptableTarget Trent Lott,]] George Clooney!\\

* ButNotTooBlack: Wilhelmina Slater, averted with her daughter.

* FauxYay: Tavares is [[CampStraight a straight man who pretends to be gay]] to get ahead in his career as a FashionDesigner.

* StupidStatementDanceMix: I'm Wilhelmina Slater [[https://youtu.be/E_edtFYNWNU and I don't get wet.]]

* TraumaButton: Wilhelmina deliberately triggers her {{Yandere}} sister Renee with candles to increase her SanitySlippage so she'll be institutionalized. [[spoiler:It turns out Renee accidentally killed her old boyfriend in a fire (while [[MurderTheHypotenuse trying to kill his secretary]], who she'd [[ImaginedLoveTriangle become convinced was an obstacle]]).]]

* ShouldHaveThoughtOfThatBeforeX: In episode "A Tree Grows in Guadalajara"
-->'''Alexis''': [Hates the fact that Daniel is seeing her ex-girlfriend]\\
'''Daniel''': You're just jealous because I've got the one thing you can't have. Guess you should have thought of that before you gave away the family jewels, huh?

** In the episode "Smoking Hot", Amanda wears a long necklace with a huge letter A on it, mimicking Betty's tiny necklace, adding comedic effect to the fact that nobody can tell both girls are actually wearing the same outfit.

** After [[spoiler:Santos]] died in the first season finale, it was kept ambiguous for the first episode of season 2 whether [[spoiler:he survived or not. It was eventually revealed that Hilda's conversations with him were AllJustADream]].

* TheBurlesqueOfVenus: One of Matt's paintings is of Betty as ''Art/TheBirthOfVenus''. It isn't seen in detail, though.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Invoked by Wilhelmina in "Bananas for Betty". She gives expensive designer clothes to homeless people, sings to sick children, and makes sure TV cameras happen to be there to let everyone know what a good person she is. It turns out to be AllForNothing when later that night, she slams Creator/BettyWhite's [[{{Fingore}} finger in a car door]] and callously states "I'm Wilhelmina Slater and I don't get wet."

** Justin is this even before his ComingOtStory.

* Mark, who frequently talks about himself as a woman, flirts with men, and gets physically sick at the thought of making out with a female model.

** Justin

* AbortedArc: The death of Fey Sommers, and subsequent hints that she is actually still alive. The [[spoiler: Bandaged Woman, who was all but outright stated to be Sommers, was instead revealed to be Alexis Meade. From that point, Sommers is brought up just enough to remind us who she was. Ultimately, she never comes back, and it's left to the viewers whether or not she truly died.]]

* ButNotTooGay: Marc never got to kiss any of his love interests (and yet he did kiss both Betty and Amanda for comedic reasons.) However, they were able to show a ground breaking kiss between the 15-year-old Justin and Austin, since the show had already been canceled by that point so there wasn't much risk.

* FunnyForeigner: Christina is Scottish and her Scottish ways (and accent) are almost always PlayedForLaughs.

* ImportantHaircut: In season 4, Betty is getting ready to remove her braces, styles her hair slightly nicer, and stops wearing clothes in a rainbow of clashing colors. Throughout the season her outfits start to get more coordinated and her hair becomes more and more stylish, to the point that Wilhelmina develops a stress ulcer after complimenting her outfit. By the final episodes, Betty is a star at the office and everybody seems to be in love with her makeover.

* StrippingSnag: In "Betty's Wait Problem", Marc helps Amanda get the media's attention a red carpet event by deliberately (and somewhat apologetically) stepping on the hem of her dress, which caused her dress to be ripped off leaving her naked in front of a crowd of photographers. She's [[NakedFreakOut momentarily embarrassed]], but soon gets over it as the flashbulbs start popping and begins [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl posing and enjoying the attention]].

%%** Amanda demonstrates this upon learning her birth-mother was [[spoiler: the late Fey Sommers]].%%Context needed.

** Ignacio's immigration case worker, Constance, starts flirting with him more and more, eventually forcefully kissing him and strapping a tracking ankle bracelet on him to prevent him leaving the house. Ignacio is helpless against her, since if he tries to report her she can get him deported as an illegal immigrant. When he meets her previous boyfriend, a Haitian immigrant, he finds out she did the same exact thing with him, and only stopped because she moved on to Ignacio. And then he finds out she was fired two months ago, and has just been pretending to help his case.

* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: In one of the "Mode After Hours" extras, Marc and Amanda call the MODE UK offices, where they talk to Clark and Samantha, who have identical personalities (Michael Urie and Becki Newton in different clothes and with BritishTeeth). When they send each other photos, both pairs recoil in horror at their "hideous" counterparts.