Line #119 Main/ArtsyBeret


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9	[[quoteright:201:[[Toys/LEGOMinifigures https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/legoartist.png]]]]
10
11	->''"You've been working on some material, remember to mention it everywhere - is your basker[[note]]beret[[/note]] tilted enough?"''
12	-->-- Music/{{PMMP}}, "Taiteilia"
13
14	In fiction, any "serious" artists will be depicted wearing a beret, also known as a basker, to the point that the two are almost synonymous. The beret is usually black, and is often paired with skinny pants, a black turtleneck, a horizontally-striped shirt, or a paint-stained smock or other paint-covered clothing item. This is most ubiquitous with {{painters}} and other fine artists, but is also commonly worn by the PrimaDonnaDirector or other avant-garde creative types.
15
16	A common execution of this is to load the beret-wearer with artist stereotypes. These characters will be {{Starving Artist}}s [[TrueArtIsAngsty driven by consuming pain]], often to the [[MadArtist outskirts of sanity]]. Such characters may be [[ItsPopularNowItSucks snobby and pretentious]], or they may be [[CloudCuckoolander very eccentric]]. They'll definitely be on a quest to find TrueArt, and may claim that TrueArtIsIncomprehensible. Sometimes, a character may suddenly adopt these mannerisms upon donning a beret. The beret is also iconically associated with UsefulNotes/{{France}}, [[note]]and the Basque country, but don't expect to see that crop up in fiction [[/note]] so depictions of artists can overlap with [[FrenchJerk French stereotypes]] including GratuitousFrench, stemming from [[GayParee Paris']] reputation as an arts haven.
17
18	The beret specifically has become a visual shorthand of this cliche image, and is an easy way to mark a character as a pretentious artist, or sometimes also an intellectual or other "great individual minds". However, in many works a beret is simply a [[StockCostumeTraits stock accessory]] for an artist, just as a nerd will have his [[OpaqueNerdGlasses eye-concealing bottlebottoms]] and a nurse will wear a skirted uniform and a cap.
19
20	TruthInTelevision, though nowhere near as common as fiction would have it. A number of well-known artists, from Creator/{{Rembrandt\|VanRijn}} to Creator/OsamuTezuka, have been iconically depicted wearing berets.
21
22	This may sometimes overlap with the {{Beatnik}}, as 1950's counterculture was responsible for the mainstreaming of the beret and pretentious artist stereotypes. Beatniks are rarely found outside of TheFifties, often having evolved into [[TheSixties 1960]]s [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippies]], and can be spotted by their use of JiveTurkey. Also compare BobRossRib, the other stereotypical visual depiction of artists.
23
24	Nowadays, this trope is [[DeadHorseTrope hardly ever played seriously]].
25
26	Not to be confused with the berets worn by elite military formations, like British Paratroopers or the Green Berets.
27
28	----
29	!!Examples:
30
31	[[foldercontrol]]
32
33	[[folder:Advertising]]
34	* Advertising/TheBurgerKingKidsClubGang: Jazz is a musician who always wears a beret.
35	* ''Advertising/CharlieTheTuna'': Part of Charlie’s outfit is a red beret to reference his {{Beatnik}} design, while also used as a shorthand for his "good taste".
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
39	* One of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'''s gadgets is a special beret that makes the wearer able to draw very realistic paintings.
40	* In the ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'' episode "Cartoon Buffoon", both Escargoon and Tiff are seen wearing berets while taking turns directing the production of King Dedede's own cartoon.
41	* In one episode of ''Anime/SailorMoon'', Chibi-Usa wears a beret, fake glasses and a mustache during art class because it makes her feel more like an artist. Her teacher thinks it just makes her look silly and tells her to take them off.
42	* In one volume of ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', an extra at the end makes the (false) claim that the manga's author, Koji Kumeta, is actually a pen name for two authors, one of whom is identified as Osamu Kometa, and who is depicted wearing a beret. This is a reference to/parody of the famous manga author Creator/OsamuTezuka who was known for wearing a beret.
43	* ''Manga/ShugoChara'': Miki, the Guardian Spirit representing Amu's artistic side, wears a blue beret, which carries over into Amu's transformation using Miki's power, Amulet Spade.
44	* Aspiring mangaka [[TerribleArtist Roman]] [[NoFourthWall Saotome]] from ''Manga/SketDance'', is mainly a parody of old-school mangaka, and as such is always wearing a beret on her head.
45	* During his stint as an artist, Penguin in ''Manga/ShirokumaCafe'' wore a beret. It was green, probably as a Tezuka reference. Polar Bear and Panda don't comment on it, but it's sillier-looking than a lot of other examples.
46	* In an episode of ''Anime/SmilePrecure'', Yayoi partecipates to an amateur manga contest. She's seen wearing a red beret while working on her manga.
47	* ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'': Kuyokuyotchi, who appears in episode 6 of ''Miracle Friends'', is an unconfident artist who wears a red beret with little splotches of differently-colored paint on the front.
48	* In ''Manga/YamadaKunAndTheSevenWitches'', Noa puts on a beret when she tries to teach Ushio about the art of writing poetry.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Arts]]
52	* OlderThanTheyThink: Dutch painter and TropeMaker Creator/RembrandtVanRijn painted a number of [[https://www.wikiart.org/en/rembrandt/self-portrait-with-gorget-and-beret self-portraits wearing a beret]]. The simple hat was popular among peasants and outdoorsmen long before Rembrandt, but incorporating it into his portraits was an apparent first on his part.
53	* Creator/PabloPicasso often wore a rakish black beret, while his painting ''Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée''[[note]]''Woman with beret and check dress''[[/note]] (1937) is a Cubist portrait of his lover and longtime "golden [[TheMuse muse]]" Marie-Therese Walter wearing a bright red beret.
54	* Rembrandt's contemporary Creator/JohannesVermeer is seen wearing a beret in [[https://www.wikiart.org/en/johannes-vermeer/the-only-supposed-portrait-of-jan-vermeer his only known portrait]] (although there's still some slight uncertainty remaining as to whether the portrait is in fact Vermeer).
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
58	* The blind artist from Season 7 episode 30 of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' wears a red beret with a pencil decoration adorning the top of it.
59	* In ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf: Joys of Seasons'' episode 18, Tibbie practices her painting and is shown wearing a pink-colored beret with a sort of checkerboard pattern on it a couple of times as she is painting pictures.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
63	* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'':
64	** One strip has an artist who uses his shoe to paint pictures of squashed bugs. The artist wears a red beret and paint-stained smock.
65	** The cover of ''Wiener Dog Art'', a collection of strips, features an artist dabbing wiener dogs in paint and rubbing them on the canvas, parodying a style in midcentury abstract art. The artist wears a beret and a paint-stained smock.
66	** In another strip, an painter (signified by his beret), who is trying to paint a still life, yells at the anthropomorphic fruit in the bowl to settle down.
67	* In ''ComicStrip/{{If}}'', a recurring character used to Lampshade the pretentiousness and foibles of the art world is a French avant-garde artiste, [[note]]with a FunetikAksent that makes him call people who do not share his artistic vision ''ouanqueres!''[[/note]] who wears the classic artists' smock, and a very obviously oversized beret.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Fan Works]]
71	* ''Fanfic/AshesOfThePast'': In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7262793/183/Ashes-of-the-Past Chapter 183,]] Latias wears a beret when she's painting.
72	[[/folder]]
73
74	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
75	* ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'': The snooty PrimaDonnaDirector Flannigan always wears a red beret.
76	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'': Of the background students at Canterlot High School, one of the "Dramas" (nicknamed Watermelody) always wear a red beret and is often pictured [[AlasPoorYorick holding a skull]]. Later installments show her being skilled at painting and drawing.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
80	* The Joker wears one during the Flugelheim Gallery scene in ''Film/Batman1989''.
81	--> '''Joker''': I now do what other people only dream. I make art 'til someone dies. See? I am the world's first fully-functioning homicidal artist.
82	* Marion, the protagonist of ''Film/BiographyOfABachelorGirl'' and a female artist, wears a beret.
83	* In ''Film/{{Clueless}}'', Josh briefly has a pretentious college girlfriend, who talks condescendingly about philosophy and wears a beret. She's not quite as intellectual as she thinks she is, as she mangles a Shakespeare quote that Cher knows correctly.
84	* ''Film/DoubleWedding'': the main character is an painter and aspiring screenwriter and director who constantly paints pictures of the woman he loves. He's always wearing a beret and striped shirt.
85	* In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', Indy borrows female lead Elsa's beret and puts on a ridiculous accent to pose as an effete Scottish art collector in Castle Brunwald. The beret is the whole disguise. (It doesn't work.)
86	* ''Film/AnIrishGoodbye'': Lorcan and Turlough are doing their mother's "bucket list" after she passed away, and one of Mum's items was to model for a life studies portrait class. So naturally Lorcan has to wear a beret while painting a nude of his brother.
87	* The artsy director of photography in ''Film/LivingInOblivion'' is wearing a beret. And as if wasn't pretentious enough, he adds an EyepatchOfPower later on.
88	* David, the protagonist of ''Film/LuckyPartners'', is a Bohemian artist who lives in Greenwich Village in New York and wears a smock and beret.
89	* Tony Hancock wears a beret in ''Film/TheRebel'', which is the only thing protecting him from heavy rain after he threw away his city gent's umbrella.
90	* The ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' short "Pop Goes the Easel" has the Stooges ducking into an art school to evade a cop. They put on artist smocks and berets to disguise themselves. In fact, the entire art school is dressed similarly.
91	* Worn by ''Film/TheTrumanShow''[='s=] Christof, the auteur creator/producer/director of the eponymous ShowWithinAShow -- the RealityShow which Truman is unaware makes up his whole life. Christof views him as an odd mix between work of art and his own son.
92	* In ''Film/WhiteChristmas'', Phil wears a beret and all-black costume for his "pretentious artist" persona. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-cXP1uDFpA Watch]].
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Literature]]
96	* Creator/DanielPinkwater's ''Literature/TheArtsySmartsyClub'' features a group of kids learning to paint and draw. When they go to the art supply store for the first time, the shopkeeper gives them all "genuine artists' berets" to go with their new art supplies, and tells them the hats are just like what Vincent Van Gogh wore. They proceed to wear the berets whenever they are engaged in art-related activities.
97	* In ''Literature/LuckyJim'', various characters have distinctive hats associated with them. Professor Welch has a fishing hat, and Bertrand, a pretentious, SmallNameBigEgo painter, wears a blue beret.
98	* An Unreleased ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' book titled “The Captain Underpants Cartoon-o-Rama Book #1 Heroes, Villains and Super Creeps” depicts the titular hero [[https://captainunderpants.fandom.com/wiki/The_Captain_Underpants_Cartoon-o-Rama_Book_1_Heroes,_Villains_and_Super_Creeps wearing a beret while drawing.]]
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
102	* In the ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' episode "Captain Cook", Lieutenant George wears a beret when he is painting.
103	* In the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "The Art of Discourse", SmallNameBigEgo Pierce puts on a beret when flaunting his guitar skills in an attempt to showcase what a seriously artistic musician he is, even though he's only playing pop standards from the 60's.
104	* In the ''Series/TheCrystalMaze'', Richard O'Brien indicates a picture he is painting, and is then incandescent with rage and sorrow when his beret is missing.
105	* ''Series/ItsOkayToNotBeOkay'': In episode 3 Jo employs Sang-tae as a caricaturist at his new pizza place. He tells Sang-tae that he'll pay 10,000 won per sketch, then places an artsy beret on Sang-tae's head.
106	* In ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'', artsy Danish film director Jurgen Haabermaster wears a black beret with his all-black, skin tight pants and turtleneck.
107	* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk Paints His Masterpiece", Monk dons a beret once he becomes convinced he's an artistic genius. He [[ObsessivelyOrganized refuses to wear it tilted]], however.
108	* In an episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' (with ''Film/IAccuseMyParents''), Crow wears one while painting Tom Servo to look "naked".
109	* The TV series of ''Literature/TrainMan2004'' has a beret-wearing artist (apparently on a world tour) as one of the people talking to "Densha" on the message board.
110	* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': A Season 9 sketch has WesternAnimation/{{Gumby}} (Creator/EddieMurphy) wearing one while directing his autobiographical film.
111	* ''Series/ShadowAndBone'': Kaz briefly discusses himself as a {{sculptor\|s}} in episode 4, which involves him donning a colorful coat and a beret.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Music]]
115	* Referred to in the song ''Taiteilia'' by Finnish band ''PMMP'' that parodies the self-importance and hypocrisy of self-proclaimed artists:
116	-->"Olet työstänyt matskua, sitä muistakin mainostaa -- onhan baskeri kallellaan?" ("You've been working on some material, remember to mention it everywhere -- is your basker tilted enough?")
117	* Music/JoniMitchell sported one in many photos from the '70s, particularly on the cover of ''Music/{{Hejira}}''.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Software]]
121	* The children's drawing and animation software Kid Pix had an anthropomorphic square holding a paintbrush and wearing a beret as the desktop icon.
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:Theme Parks]]
125	* In the original version of ''Ride/JourneyIntoImagination'' at Epcot, Dreamfinder and Figment are each seen wearing a beret in the Art realm.
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Toys]]
129	* In the ''Toys/LEGOMinifigures'' series, the Artist wears a beret. In fact, LEGO berets did not exist before this figure was produced.
130	[[/folder]]
131
132	[[folder:Video Games]]
133	* ''VideoGame/BugFables'' has Jaune, Vi's painterly older sister who regularly gets art commissions from Queen Bianca and wears a blue beret. Her TrueArtIsAngsty rival Artia also wears a dark green beret.
134	* ''VideoGame/HiddenCity'' has Olivia, a famous professional {{sculpt\|ors}}ress who wears a purple beret.
135	* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'':
136	** ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand3'': Ado/Adeleine is a young artist with a red beret, but doesn't have any of the stereotypes associated with it. Attacking Kirby while possessed besides, she's actually quite friendly and even uses her artistry skills to help Kirby in ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards''.
137	** ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheRainbowCurse'': The clay sculptor Claycia always wears a beret. At first it adds to her shifty appearance, as she originally seems like a bad guy. [[spoiler:But later on, after Claycia is freed from [[DemonicPossession the evil force possessing her]]]], she keeps the beret, and it instead makes her look cute.
138	** ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'': Vividria is another young artist with a beret, who's determined to enter an art school. Kirby can inhale her to become Artist Kirby, which also comes with a red beret.
139	* The artist-style Stuff costumes in ''VideoGame/TheLegendaryStarfy'' feature berets.
140	* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'': Morty, a FriendlyGhost who works as a movie director, and takes his craft very seriously, wears a black outfit with a beret.
141	* Mario sports one in the cover art for ''VideoGame/MarioPaint''.
142	* ''VideoGame/PassepartoutTheStarvingArtist'' is a StarvingArtist SimulationGame, and the title character don a beret and striped shirt as he starts off his career in the streets of Paris.
143	* Painters in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games wear berets, and the top of painter Pokemon Smeargle's head is shaped like a beret.
144	* ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoQuest'': Undine has a variant called Painting Undine who wears an artist getup based on her normal costume, including a beret with the eyes that appear on her normal equivalent's hood.
145	* In ''VideoGame/SuperScribblenauts'', [[HelloInsertNameHere the character simply titled 'Artist']] constantly wears a red beret and scarf over black clothes. None of the other labelled characters ever change their clothes, and they're all dressed to embody the stereotypes they portray.
146	* One of the spy's hats in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is the Frenchman's Beret, complete with brushes.
147	* ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'': The Art Club members seem to be typified by their berets. Their leader wears one, and if Ayano joins them, she wears a beret to signify it.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
151	* Minor character Takashi Maeda from ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' is a beret-wearing artist.
152	* Larry "Laurice" Butz from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' always wears a beret when he is in his painter persona.
153	[[/folder]]
154
155	[[folder:Web Animation]]
156	* In the ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' "portrait", Strong Bad wears a beret in a traditional oil painting done by a "Deutsch Master", a ShoutOut to a famous portrait of Rembrandt.
157	[[/folder]]
158
159	[[folder:Web Comics]]
160	* ''Webcomic/DarwinCarmichaelIsGoingToHell'':
161	** Melete, who dreams of being a serious artist, wears a beret in an ImagineSpot where she is a real artist painting.
162	** In a comic drawn by Skittles recounting his time living with Dante Aligheri, Skittles is a Renaissance painter and wears a beret while painting a portrait of Dante.
163	* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Sarah occasionally wears a beret when practicing her drawing. It first appears when she gives Grace a makeover, at which time she also wears dark glasses and briefly adopts a stereotyped "artistic" personality.
164	* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'': One of the recurring characters is a beret-clad {{cloudcuckoolander}} (fitting the "mad artist" stereotype).
165	* In ''[[Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob,]]'' the first thing Galatea did after striking out on her own was relocate to Paris, where we see her happily scooting around on a Vespa while wearing a stereotypically French striped shirt, black skirt, and beret. She actually [[LimitedWardrobe changes clothes more often than most of the cast,]] but this has remained her default outfit, and she pretty much ''always'' has her beret -- because it contains a hologram-projector that can make her look human, if she likes.
166	* ''Webcomic/LittleNuns'': The Artist, the Spicy Nun's mother, wears a beret with a patch on its side. As her nickname implies, she's an ''amazing'' artist in multiple fields, a talent her daughter inherited.
167	[[/folder]]
168
169	[[folder:Web Videos]]
170	* When ''WebVideo/DrawWithJazza'' played ''VideoGame/{{Passpartout}}'', a StarvingArtist simulator, he also dons a beret and striped shirt to match the main character, who is an artist in Paris.
171	[[/folder]]
172
173	[[folder:Western Animation]]
174	* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'': In a show that generally follows LimitedWardrobe, Jill Pill is an avant-garde New York Theater director who wears a red beret.
175	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'': Doug's sister Judy is almost never seen without her {{Beatnik}}-inspired beret and circular shades. Her defining character trait is that she's a snobby artist who goes to a private highschool dedicated entirely to the arts and theater, so the creators made sure she looked as stereotypically "artsy" as possible.
176	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
177	** Timmy's art teacher, Mr. Bickles, is always seen wearing a red beret.
178	** In the episode "[[Recap/TheFairlyOddParentsS3E11MovieMagic Movie Magic]]", Timmy's parents wear stereotypical movie director outfits complete with red berets while filming their movie for the film festival.
179	* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "Boss Mabel", Mabel wears a black beret to complete her stereotypical director outfit (complete with director's chair and megaphone) while filming Grunkle Stan dancing in TheStinger.
180	* ''WesternAnimation/HereComesPeterCottontail'' features a gag involving the chocolate rabbit sculptors (chipping at a block of chocolate with a chisel like it was marble) Milkchocolateangelo and Leonardo de Bittersweet. The former wears a beret and the latter wears an artist's smock.
181	* Exploited by Alexander Cabot [=III=] while ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats'' are hiding from two {{mooks}} in a fashion studio by posing as the ''couturier'' (fashion designer) Charles of the Bowery. Alex's wardrobe is already eclectic, but gets pushed to absurdity with a huge bow tie and an oversized beret. The mooks are skeptical but withhold their aggression. Then the real ''couturier'' appears: a middle-aged, balding man dressed like a proper banker.
182	* Andy the frog from ''WesternAnimation/LetsGoLuna'' wears a blue beret and is an EccentricArtist who paints on the walls in one of the show's first episodes. A later episode has him painting trains since he's also a RailEnthusiast.
183	* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': Art-themed villain the Evillustrator wears a beret as part of his outfit. Averted with his civilian form, who dresses like a normal teenager.
184	* Part of ''WesternAnimation/PennyCrayon'''s outfit. Technically she is a graffiti artist, but since her drawings come magically to life we'll let her off with that.
185	* In the opening theme song for ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', Phineas wears a beret while [[MustacheVandalism painting a mustache on his sister's face]].
186	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
187	** Episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E20LittleGirlInTheBigTen Little Girl in the Big Ten]]" has Lisa posing as a college student to hang with her fellow gymnasts. Given that she is 10 years younger than the average student, she takes to wearing a black beret with hopes of fitting in with the intellectuals.
188	** When Homer and pals [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E1HomersBarbershopQuartet form a barbershop quartet]] and go on to fame and stardom in a parody of Music/TheBeatles, Barney gets a bizarre Japanese conceptual artist as a girlfriend and then [[YokoOhNo breaks up the band]]. She wears all-black and a beret; so does Barney when he's with her.%%InUniverseExample
189	* In the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' episode "Eggman the Auteur", Eggman takes to wearing one of these while making a movie, and in an argument over creative differences, makes clear he considers the attire to make the role:
190	-->'''Eggman:''' If you know everything, Mr. and Mrs. "Know Everything", where's ''your'' camera, ''your'' robots?! Neither one of you even has a beret!
191	* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Frankendoodle" has an artist at sea who wears a beret and apron, with ''only'' a pencil as his medium. The narrator gives advice on bringing a spare pencil and a sharpener when one drops a pencil.
192	* One of the new characters introduced in the [[AudienceAlienatingEra 60's-era]] ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' was Cool Cat, a beatnik tiger with a small beret that inexplicably floated an inch or two above his head.
193	[[/folder]]
194
195	[[folder:Real Life]]
196	* Writer Creator/ErnestHemingway wore a Basque beret.
197	* The "father of manga" Creator/OsamuTezuka, who is often seen wearing a beret.
198	* Another mangaka often seen wearing beret is Fujiko F. Fujio, the creator of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}''.
199	* Spanish filmmaker Creator/LuisBunuel is known for wearing a beret.
200	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ArtsyBeret