"Peter Parker was just an attractive, intelligent, likable, athletic, well-dressed teenage loser."
Similar to Hollywood Homely, and a very frequent protagonist of High School shows, this is when a character who is smart, funny, fashionable and good looking is portrayed as being much less popular than they would be in real life, to the point of threatening Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Done deliberately to limit the circle of friends/cast as much as possible, thereby erasing the hassle of writing multiple, varying characterizations, while at the same time making the main character likable to the viewer. If this character is female, she is frequently a target of the Alpha Bitch. If this character is male, he is often the target of the Big Jerk on Campus, the Jerk Jock and/or The Bully.
This often leads up to a big payoff, when the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character is briefly given a moment when they realize that more people do, in fact, like them more than they thought (usually when they are unexpectedly honoured at some manner of ceremony, such as a graduation). It's not explained why those honouring didn't demonstrate this in some way earlier (the few times it is, it's often explained as the rest of the student body fearing the Alpha Bitch, Jerk Jock, or other Big Man on Campus so much, they didn't want to befriend the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character and become a target of their fury), but it often comes in the form of a sweet gesture.
A very common signal of the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character will often involve being a member of the school paper. This is often seen as a gray area, doesn't carry the obvious negative "nerd" connotations of the Chess Club or the Mathletes, but also isn't seen as "cool" as sports teams or cheerleading.
Often overlaps with This Loser Is You. See also Loners Are Freaks. An Informed Loner is basically this, except they supposedly don't even want friends. See also Wasted Beauty, where it is acknowledged that the character could be popular (because they're hot), but they have an "uncool" side that prevents them from being so. Not to be confused with Unpopular Popular Character, but one may sometimes lead to the other.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Kana Ichikawa from The Dangers in My Heart is a cheerful, atractive, intelligent, social and easygoing Nice Girl who is also the singer and guitarist of a band and studies at one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan. Despite all of that, she somehow never gotten a date.
- Hoshin Engi: Taikobo is an adorable, hilarious, good-hearted, young-looking immortal that's insanely smart, and manages to come up with genius tactics to save the day. Yet absolutely no halfway decent woman has any romantic interest in him throughout the entire series... save for a hideous Gonk that disgusts everyone (including and especially him). Sure, he's a Celibate Hero that has no interest in romance... but it's not like he's always announcing it and letting everyone know, and there's no real reason why no one is interested in him.
- Maken-ki!: There's nothing wrong with Usui, other than the fact he's a pervert with a one-track mind. Otherwise, he's reasonably good-looking, fairly intelligent, and really not that bad a guy. So it's a wonder to him how Takeru, who's nearly the exact oppositenote , has better luck with girls than he does.
- Sailor Moon: Minako seems to be a victim of this; unlike the other girls she lacks any other obvious traits that would make her unpopular. It's likely The Artifact from working solo in her own manga to being retrofitted into the new storyline, as in that series her more tomboyish traits tended to scare away boys and gross out the other girls.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! has Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) after his Heel–Face Turn. He's fairly attractive, friendly, and a pretty badass duelist, and yet is constantly the target of bullying and mean-spirited jokes from professional duelists and arc enemies, Kaiba, and even (until his Heel–Face Turn) Honda (Tristan Taylor). This was more justified in the manga, where his father is an alcoholic deadbeat and he himself was well-known to have hung out with a legitimately criminal gang. It's implied that some part of being the target of mean-spirited jokes is his reliance on luck as part of his dueling strategy, at least to those like Kaiba.
Comic Books
- Monica's Gang: Despite Sunny's status as an unremarkable supporting character, he's surprisingly level-headed and shown to be pretty good at surfing, making some fans question why exactly he's a Butt-Monkey.
- Spider-Man: Peter Parker is (to the reader) a handsome, highly intelligent, funny guy who used to be Happily Married to a stunning red-haired supermodel, and now is a relatively successful freelance photographer (he was retconned to have won a Pulitzer for his photography). In real life, he'd be amazingly popular. In Marvel Universe Manhattan, though, he's all but completely ostracized from his peers because...well...he's Peter Parker. Though it's more true, to varying degrees, in adaptations like Ultimate Spider-Man and various animated series that focus on his high school life. It's only after One More Day that he became this, when it removed his marriage, his career, and his social skills and had everyone treat him like crap for no apparent reason. Then it's changed by the new Big Time era, complete with his alter ego Spider-Man beginning to become a trusted and respected hero in New York.note
- From a Doylist perspective, this has a lot to do with how Peter Parker was depicted in the earlier stories by co-creator and first artist Steve Ditko. Spider-Man's world back then was truly a World of Jerkass where everybody was an asshole and gave Peter crap, except perhaps for Aunt May and Betty Brant, and Peter himself could be quite a repellent jerk at times too. As soon as John Romita's run started, this changed radically to Peter Parker being an Archie Andrews-like All-American Boy who was in the middle of love triangles and stuff. Most adaptations try to make Peter an unpopular loser like in the Ditko stories, but with characterization more like in the Romita stories.
- In the X-Men: Evolution tie in comics, written by Devin Grayson, in that twice people refer to the Xavier kids as freaks or make a deal about how 'weird' they are... despite the fact that Jean is shown to be VERY popular in the actual TV series, and Scott and Kurt, while not shown as particularly popular, are shown to be very good at making girls dig them. While it's once mentioned that Jean is considered 'Ok', and someone makes reference to having a crush on Scott, it really comes off as weird that it's made into a minor plot point despite it never coming up in the series... until The Reveal, but the comics are based before that happening.
Film — Live-Action
- In The Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield was criticized for making Peter Parker too cool. Even before getting his powers, he's shown to be attractive, athletic, smart, and friendly, making it hard to buy that he's a friendless loser.
- The Craft: Rochelle isn't as Goth as Nancy, who is also an outcast for being "white trash", since she's presented as middle class. Her fellow outcast Bonnie is considered one because she's covered in burn scars. Rochelle meanwhile is pretty and involved in extracurricular activities like the swim team, with her only angst being that Laura Lizzie and a couple of her Girl Posse make fun of her for being black. A deleted scene clarifies that it's an all-white neighbourhood, where Rochelle is the only black girl, and Nancy claims that no one would even talk to her.
- In The Karate Kid (1984), Daniel LaRusso is portrayed as a social outcast and viciously bullied while also being a good looking young fellow who seems to make friends easily and lacks all of the typical Loser Protagonist traits. Downplayed inasmuch as he ticked off the resident Jerk Jock by taking to his ex-girlfriend Alli and the rest simply follows from that.
- Mean Girls: Even the director thought Lizzy Caplan was far too pretty to believably play an outcast like Janis. Deeming her the best actress for the role anyway, the costume designer opted not to dress her down, and instead give her a Goth appearance to suggest that she's just a non-conformist and disliked for that reason. However, when she owns up to manipulatively destroying Regina's life, using Cady to do so, the entire crowd of students cheer her on.
- The Rage: Carrie 2: Unlike her predecessor, Carrie White, Rachel Lang has two friends in Lisa and Artie, and is confident in being a Goth and non-conformist. While she does have an abusive foster family for whom she's a meal ticket, it's odd that she's considered unpopular.
Literature
- Maburaho: Main character Kazuki Shikimori is your bog standard nice guy (often to a fault) harem protagonist. He also happens to have a noble lineage (he's connected to every major magical bloodline in Japan and Europe) and massive magical potentialnote . But for some reason, only the upper-upper class families know this. To everyone else in school, he's this magicless twerp who somehow has the attention of the three most-popular girls in school, even after he's used several of his uber-spells to save them from their own stupidity.
- Perry Mason. His only admirer is his secretary, Della Street. This one especially boggles the mind, considering that he's an incredibly rich, handsome, powerful, world famous lawyer that is well known for being on the side of justice. He has hundreds of attractive, young female clients, who go through life and death situations with him, where he's always there to comfort and save them in their time of need. Yet none of them ever fall for him. If they flirt with him, it's always because they're just trying to manipulate or trick him. Apparently, no woman during those days wanted to chase and marry an insanely rich, prominent lawyer. Luckily he has Paul.
Live-Action TV
- Glee: Everyone in the Glee Club is automatically unpopular for being part of it, even though three of them are cheerleaders and several of them are on the football team. As of season two, the entire club is/has been on the cheerleading/football team or is dating somebody who is. Logically, these are the most popular people in school, but they are portrayed as social pariahs who can't walk through the hallway without having a slushie thrown at them. In one episode, the entire football team temporarily joins the Glee club, only to have the hockey team throw slushies at them.
- iCarly: Freddie Benson initially came across as an awkward uncool nerd with an unrequited crush on Carly. Ever since actor Nathan Kress started puberty, this became harder and harder to play straight. Freddie's overbearing mother does seem to contribute to this though.
- Lizzie McGuire: Reviewing the movie, Roger Ebert didn't think audiences would buy Lizzie's rival Kate being considered more popular "when Lizzie outshines the very stars in the sky." Other episodes show that Lizzie could be much cooler and popular if she wasn't so insecure, as she's well liked by the guys, while Kate is a bully surrounded by a Girl Posse.
- Seinfeld: Parodied in an episode wherein Jerry dates a woman who seems to be perfect (smart, attractive, funny, friendly), but her own friends treat her like a total loser and act like Jerry is doing her a favour by going out with her. After George and Kramer meet her, they actually stage an intervention because they can clearly see something very wrong with the woman and think Jerry must be losing it to even consider giving her the time of day. Jerry is utterly baffled at what is so unappealing about her, and in his sheer desperation for somebody to approve of his relationship with this woman, he introduces her to his parents. They end up loving her... which causes Jerry to not like her anymore.
- Time After Time: Jane says she's broken up with her last boyfriend, has mostly had bad luck with men and when she'd tried online dating was dismissed as being "mediocre". She instantly attracts the romantic attention of the handsome, charming H. G. This is not surprising, since she's a gorgeous, charming woman, making the above very difficult to swallow.
Video Games
- Animal Crossing: Kapp'n is a Renaissance Man that operates both boats and buses, has a wife and child, has gone on many oceanic adventures, and has a downright beautiful singing voice. Despite having all the makings for a beloved character, he's ostracized In-Universe because of his singing voice, to the point that his wife outright exiled him from Tortimer Island because she can't stand his singing. Fans were rightfully confused by this, as they love Kapp'n's songs, and feel this untoward behavior towards him is completely unjustified.
Western Animation
- Danny Phantom gives us Danny Fenton who, like Peter Parker, seems to be considered a Loser Protagonist despite no obvious reason for that. Downplayed, inasmuch as it’s implied that he’s an outcast because his Amazingly Embarrassing Parents are ghost-hunters and therefore seen as insane.
- Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: You'd think a guy like Riff-Raff would have it made, given he's acknowledged as one of the toughest cats in Westfinster, has good looks, street savvy enough that he's the leader of his own gang, and has a hottie like Cleo as his girlfriend. Yet, despite all that he has going for him, he's still a down-and-out alley cat who lives in a junkyard and his plans fail half the time because his gang is dimwitted.
- Lampshaded in Kim Possible when Kim is shocked by the realization that she actually has an extremely Limited Social Circle with Ron and Monique being essentially her only friends. Later subverted in Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama wherein Alpha Bitch Bonnie believes Kim will now be considered a loser for dating Ron but isn’t.
- The Simpsons: Bart Simpson gets this on the occasional episode. There's no doubt he's the coolest character on the show, but his popularity in school (or even with the rest of the town) runs the gamut from adored by everyone for how awesome he is, to being a loner whose only friend is Milhouse.
- Superbook (2011): Chris's portrayal in this show. You would think that a kid who has a Do-Anything Robot, whose father is a famous inventor and scientist, who heads his own Garage Band, and who is an avid soccer player, basketballer, skateboarder, and video-gamer (good enough to make it into local and regional tournaments, at that!) would be significantly high up on the social totem pole. Well, not so with Chris; while he's certainly shown as being a favorite among his intimate peer-group, he's not considered one of the in-kids at Valleyview Middle School, as "Noah and the Ark" has him wanting to join the supposedly-cool Skateboard Maniacs group, "Peter's Denial" has him trying to curry the favor of a couple of boys who are purportedly among the school's coolest kids, and "The Sermon on the Mount" shows that he's not immune to being a target for bullying.
