Line #132 Main/GrotesqueGallery


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Series/SesameStreet https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gallery_3331.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Yip Yip!]]
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4	It's a secret so poorly kept, it's scarcely a secret at all: modern media doesn't like dealing in ugliness. Much of the time, even characters that are [[HollywoodHomely supposedly "ugly"]] are [[HollywoodBeautyStandards barely distinguishable from their "attractive" counterparts]]. This is why tropes like the {{Gonk}} carry such significance: in a work where nobody can really be called unattractive, a genuinely ''ugly'' character stands out so much more, to the point that they feel more like an oddity exhibit than a character.
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6	But what about instances where "genuinely ugly" describes not an isolated character or two, but an entire species or race of creatures? As far as tropes are concerned, these clusters of creatures belong in the ''Grotesque Gallery''.
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8	The Grotesque Gallery trope describes any group, species, or race of creatures that is drawn or designed to be ugly, gross, or off-puttingly ''weird''-looking. It's the concept of the {{Gonk}} writ large -- instead of one or two isolated characters being hideous for the sake of comedy or [[AnAesop a message]], an entire ''group'' of creatures are designed to be extremely unattractive.
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10	Characters belonging to the Grotesque Gallery can serve a variety of purposes. Some of the more common intentional uses include [[BeautyEqualsGoodness using the creatures' ugliness as a signifier that they're malicious or untrustworthy]], completely subverting that idea by [[TheGrotesque giving the ugly creatures hearts of gold]], showcasing [[NuclearMutant the effects of a magical or environmental catastrophe]], or simply showing that [[StarfishAliens the creatures are completely outside of what we consider the natural order]].
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12	Sister Trope of {{Gonk}}. Contrast UglyCute, in which a character is considered ''cute'' despite its conventionally "ugly" characteristics. See also UncannyValley, where a repulsive reaction is the result of a character looking "off" while being rather humanoid, and NonstandardCharacterDesign, which is a tool that may be used to create denizens of the Grotesque Gallery.
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14	----
15	!!Examples:
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17	[[foldercontrol]]
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19	[[folder:Advertising]]
20	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4kHmbZTvyI This Kinder Surprise ad from the 1980s,]] featuring a [[UncannyValley disturbingly realistic]], fleshy version of Humpty Dumpty. Horrified an entire generation of ovoid-shaped-chocolate-product-eating kids in Western Europe.
21	* The toenail fungus monsters in those [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h1O7-r7Wrw Lamisil ads!]] You know, the ones that [[{{Squick}} zealously peeled up people's toenails and dove headlong into the nail beds]]?
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24	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
25	* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': Titans are a seriously freaky-looking bunch.
26	* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' has ''lots'' of horrifyingly ugly creatures, and they're frequently shown in large gatherings.
27	** Apostles are truly terrifyingly creatures, often consisting huge masses of eyes, teeth, tentacles, faces, and genitalia randomly strewn about their vaguely animalistic bodies. Their humanoid forms aren't much better, bearing anatomical proportions that only emphasize how inhuman they really are.
28	** Astral creatures, particularly from the darker recesses of the astral world like the [[EldritchLocation Qliphoth]], are very similar, looking very much like various animals mashed together in unconventional ways.
29	** In a decidedly more mundane example, Mozgus and his group of torturers. Mozgus is a regular human with unnerving square-shaped features on his face that can turn wrinkly and leathery when he gets furious, and his minions are all people who were born with deformities that make them look all the more monstrous.
30	* ''Manga/OnePiece'' is stuffed to the rafters with exaggerated character designs that practically look like their own caricature, and ''at least'' [[WorldOfHam a third of the series' dialogue is shouted at the top of someone's lungs]] with an accompanying WildTake, which usually makes them look even uglier.
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32
33	[[folder:Arts]]
34	* A completely straight example: When Ed "Big Daddy" Roth designed the characters in ''Rat Fink'', he was aiming for the ugliest creatures in the world. He succeeded.
35	** In ''Tales Of The Ratfink'', Ed Roth (voice by John Goodman) describes Ratfink as the Anti-Mickey Mouse so it's kind of fitting.
36	* Some of Creator/HieronymusBosch's paintings might be considered this, such as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Carrying_the_Cross_(Bosch,_1515%E2%80%9316) his painting of Christ Carrying The Cross.]]
37	* Creator/PieterBruegelTheElder: Though not as grotesque as Bosch he portrayed peasants as quite crude, not always good looking people. The main difference is that his portrayals are still realistically believable and not fantasies. Thus you actually get to see these people as ''real'' peasants as they existed back then and not some romanticized vision.
38	* The infamous painting ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_Duchess#mediaviewer/File:Quentin_Matsys_-_A_Grotesque_old_woman.jpg Grotesque Old Woman]]'' by Quentin Matsys. She seems more like an orc or troll caricature than a human.
39	* Creator/FranciscoDeGoya: In his later work the faces of the people on the {{paintings}} and drawings look more sinister and grotesque, almost animalistic. This are his infamous ''Art/BlackPaintings'' and were produced when he was suffering mental health issues and going deaf.
40	* Creator/DianeArbus: A photographer renowned for her pictures of eccentric or otherwise bizarre looking people.
41	* The 18th century cartoons by James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson all portray people as grotesquely ugly, with large heads.
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44	[[folder:Comic Books]]
45	* ''ComicBook/{{Urbanus}}'': Also a staple in this comic strip where the characters will typically be drawn ugly and vulgar.
46	* ''ComicBook/HaagseHarry'': All characters are degrading foul mouthed people from The Hague, Netherlands.
47	* Creator/RobertCrumb: His creations often show our CrapsackWorld as a collection of grotesque people. Mr. Snoid is a particular example.
48	* The cartoons of Jean-Marc Reiser, Kamagurka, Creator/{{Gotlib}}, Gummbah... are all typical of this style.
49	* Creator/JackKirby used a fairly standard face for a lot of characters, but those characters where he departed from it could be pretty ugly. ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} is actually relatively handsome compared to Desaad or Dan Turpin, both of whom fell into the "kill it, kill it with fire" category.
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52	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
53	* Lena Hyena in ''ComicStrip/LilAbner'', whose face is so ugly that it drives people mad. Al Capp avoided actually depicting Lena in the strip because it was funnier to leave her features to the imagination. He eventually held a contest to see if anyone could draw someone as ugly as he'd described Lena as being. Basil Wolverton (mentioned below) [[http://www.toonopedia.com/lena.htm won it.]]
54	* Magazine/{{Mad}} Magazine:
55	** The comics by Basil Wolverton often featured grotesque people, like his [[http://graphicallyinclined.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mad-11-cover.jpg iconic parody]] of ''Life Magazine''.
56	** Similarly Tom Bunk and Bill Wray (''Monroe'')'s work is also a collection of ugly people.
57	** The magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman symbolizes everything that's uncanny and grotesque about the magazine.
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60	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
61	* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' has the unspeakably creepy flying monkeys.
62	* 1985's ''Film/ReturnToOz'' has the Wheelers and Jack Pumpkinhead, who then calls Dorothy "Mom"!
63	* Creator/FedericoFellini's later films are mostly this. He would cast people with grotesque faces, deformities, handicaps or unique bodies. His fascination probably stemmed from the fact that he used to be a caricaturist. His SpiritualSuccessor Creator/DavidLynch also thrives on this trope.
64	* Creator/JimHenson's ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}''. Goblins in a childhood bedroom plus kidnapping plus David Bowie's aggressively bubbling sexuality are bad enough, but then there's those horrible red Fiery puppets who juggled and swapped their body parts and sent their grinning, disembodied heads to chase our fleeing heroine while chanting "We just want to take off your head! Let us have your head!" Horrid.
65	* Also all of ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'' by Creator/JimHenson, since the entire world is composed of Muppets and environments that are either deliberately alien or designed off of nature's less cute critters, making the whole thing one dark fairy tale based on look alone.
66	* Most of Creator/HarmonyKorine's films, but especially ''Film/JulienDonkeyBoy'' and ''Film/TrashHumpers''.
67	* ''[[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial E.T.]]'' Particularly his weird, spine-like legs. (And especially if you're only three in 1982, there's merchandise everywhere, and nobody has explained to you that E.T. is a ''friendly'' alien.)
68	** The better to make that intro scene in the garage pants-wettingly [[JumpScare frightening with]].
69	** As such, a lot of the imitators (like ''Film/PodPeople'') that [[FollowTheLeader Followed the Leader]] make ''their'' aliens even uglier, like in ''Mac and Me'' or the Turkish ones "Badi" and "Homodi", which throw convincing special effects out for sheer horror.
70	* Many viewers find the [[LittlePeopleAreSurreal Oompa-Loompas]] in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' to be rather unsettling. Their freaky orange skin doesn't help matters, at any rate.
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73	[[folder:Literature]]
74	* The picture book ''Hair in Funny Places'' is intended to reassure kids about to go through puberty. With pictures of a young girl's insides being taken over by grotesque furry monsters representing hormones.
75	* Literature/AliceInWonderland: Half of the people Alice meets in the original book, illustrated by John Tenniel are grotesque. Especially the Queen, the Duchess and her servant.
76	** [[http://www.laurenharman.com/alice/illust/kallay.htm These examples]] of ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' illustrations by Dusan Kallay fail to show the childhood-devastating terror that were those disturbing pieces of art, best described as "Creator/SalvadorDali meets Creator/HieronymusBosch".
77	* ''The Nursery Alice,'' apparently illustrated by a morbid Impressionist having a very bad acid trip. How it came to be in the children's section is beyond comprehension.
78	* Creator/TimBurton's ''The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories'' has a whole array of weird characters who are kids with strange abilities or deformities, such as Stain Boy (whose only superpower is to leave a nasty stain), the girl who turned into a bed, the pincushion queen and Jimmy the hideous penguin boy. (It's telling that Burton showed Danny [=DeVito=] his illustration of Jimmy to give the actor an idea of how they would be approaching the character of The Penguin in ''Film/BatmanReturns''.)
79	* Gennady Spirin's illustrated edition of ''The Tale of Gentle Jack and Lord Bumblebee''. Spirin's paintings take what the text would seem to indicate is a fairly bland fairy tale involving magical beings who shift between somewhat insect-like humans and somewhat human-like insects from one moment to another, and plunge it straight into an industrial-sized tank with human faces leering in place of compound eyes and mandibles, monstrous bee-knights impaling their enemies on the lance-like stingers springing out of their faces and dying as the ants drag their dismembered bodies down into the eternal darkness under the earth to be fed to the larva...
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82	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
83	* From ''Series/SesameStreet''.
84	** Pictured above are the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTc3PsW5ghQ Martians.]] They have creeped out quite some toddlers over the decades, because their mouths move in a weird fashion, they are accompanied by weird music, appear out of nowwhere and just say "yip yip" all the time while staring at otherwise normal objects.
85	** See also Frazzle, with his largely immobile big-fanged mouth, heavy dark eyebrows, and devil horns. In his case it's harder to believe the effect isn't intentional.
86	** The same designer (Creator/JimHenson) also created the "Land of Gorch" for ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. One of the characters (Fazh) was at best UglyCute and it went downhill from there.
87	* Those (un)lucky enough to grow up in Chicagoland (and various syndication markets) in the late '70s may have been "treated" to ''Gigglesnort Hotel'', which featured a number of rather grotesquely modelled puppet characters; most notable was Blob, a literal blob of (apparently living) clay "statuary" who would regularly have his facial features remolded by the human host as he moaned and bellowed in a rather ghastly wordless voice.
88	* Most of the characters on ''Series/TheLeagueOfGentlemen'' are played by the same three actors, so they need to use various prosthetics to differentiate between roles. Some of them (Tubbs and Edward, in particular) are quite hideous.
89	* Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus:
90	** Creator/TerryGilliam's cut-and-paste animation is full of weird collages of old photographs and paintings, with body parts moving in odd ways and sometimes even falling off.
91	** The sketch "The Visitors" has some of the rudest, unlikeable and weirdest ugly people paying an unwanted visit to UsefulNotes/GrahamChapman and his wife.
92	** Ken Shabby, the filthy man played by Creator/MichaelPalin, is also grotesquely ugly, insane and lewd.
93	* ''Series/SpittingImage'': This satirical puppets series made caricatures of celebrities into puppets. Many of them look absolutely grotesque to downright ugly. Just look at the image we put on the [[NightmareFuel/SpittingImage nightmare fuel page]].
94	* Australian children in the early 90s were treated to the program ''Mulligrubs'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WW1-N9Q5KA as seen here.]] The main character/presenter was a garishly made-up, disembodied human face on a gray background, which spoke directly to the viewer in BabyTalk despite obviously being an adult woman's voice creepily distorted by AutoTune.
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97	[[folder:Music Videos]]
98	* Music/BasementJaxx's "Where's Your Head At" is an upbeat-sounding dance song, but the video has monkeys with human faces who, after playing guitars a bit, chase a man through a science lab, tearing through safety nets, before the man is captured in a {{Mad Scientist}}'s experiment, where people have their heads switched with animals.
99	* Music videos by Music/AphexTwin often feature characters with Richard D. James' warped, grinning face; others, like ''Rubber Johnny'', feature far worse things.
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101
102	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
103	* The '80s French program ''Series/{{Telechat}}''. The WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier (the French equivalent of WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd) even dedicated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tChrpzpYhKU his first Special]] to this show and how it abused this trope to no end.
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106	[[folder:Theme Parks]]
107	* There are more than a few examples of terror to be found in good old Ride/DisneyThemeParks. Simply put, there is a darn good reason why ''The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World'' has a whole ''chapter heading'' about "Disney, Kids, and Scary Stuff".
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110	[[folder:Toys]]
111	* Nutcrackers are not festive symbols of holiday cheer. They are terrible, grimacing figures of rage with toothy, lipless mouths that open into their chests. That they are generally dressed in military garb and carry weapons does not help. And since they're made to, you know, crack nuts, it's easy for a child's mind to seize onto the idea of them crushing other things, such as the bones in one's fingers. Overexposure may numb the terror, but won't remove the underlying wrongness of the malevolent, garish things. How something so ghastly became a symbol of yuletide festivities is absolutely baffling.
112	** Indeed, in Creator/ETAHoffmann's ''Literature/TheNutcrackerAndTheMouseKing'' (the basis for the famous [[Theatre/TheNutcracker ballet]]), once the young male lead is transformed into a nutcracker, he must find a woman who can love him despite his ugliness to have any hope of breaking the curse.
113	[[/folder]]
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115	[[folder:Video Games]]
116	* Any character from ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' is quirky at least (the camp kids are odd but still relatively cute) and often bizarre (characters like Loboto, Crispin, and most of the mental realms' inhabitants).
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119	[[folder:Western Animation]]
120	* Rankin-Bass' animated version of ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit'' is a notorious case of going for characters that are so ugly they're cute and... failing. Badly.
121	** The wood elves.
122	*** Most of the hobbits (with the exceptions of Frodo, Bilbo, Merry, and Pippin) especially Samwise from Creator/RalphBakshi's ''WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings'' are hideously deformed creatures with bulging eyeballs and jagged teeth.
123	* Lots of stuff in ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'', like the ''plague victims'' in the episode where Flapjack gets a pet rat, and the sea monster things from "How the West Was Fun"!
124	* A few in ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' were especially ugly. Bloaty comes to mind. There were also a lot of grotesque background characters who ranged from unpleasantly greasy to clearly disfigured.
125	* Anything in Creator/JohnKricfalusi's oeuvre -- he's particularly fond of bulging eyes and horribly contorted faces.
126	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Plays with this trope whenever scenarios take place with handicapped or mentally challenged people. Though it also subverts this by making people like Timmy and Jimmy recurring characters so that we, as viewers, get used to their bizarre looks.
127	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Some citizens, like Homer Simpson, Barney Gumble, Moe, Mr. Burns, Patty and Selma, Lunchlady Doris, and Krusty the Clown fit this trope exactly.
128	* Almost all of Creator/{{Klasky Csupo}}'s character designs can be this for a good number of viewers. ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'', ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'', and early episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' are good examples.
129	* Some viewers may feel this way about the character designs of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' due to Danny Antonucci's odd artstyle, something that he demonstrates well in his other cartoon: the infamous ''WesternAnimation/TheBrothersGrunt''.
130	* Creator of ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' and ''WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel'', David Feiss' is recognizable by the rather gross-looking designs of his human characters. His animal designs also carry some of this.
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132	[[/folder]]

Context Main / GrotesqueGallery