TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Hot-Blooded Sideburns
(aka: Super Sideburns)

Go To

Hot-Blooded Sideburns (trope)
"Now go... And never mock my sideburns again!"
Mikuni, Duel Masters

Hot Bloodedness isn't reserved just for people. It can be applied to many things — hair, for example. Large sideburns, muttonchops, or earlocks are a variation on the beard, giving a character an especially grizzled appearance.

In the East, a short, fiery pair of earlocks is typically found on passionate Super Robot pilots and Sentai team leaders. While they don't have to be huge (though they usually are), they are always spiky and noticeable. Usually, they're paired up with some equally fiery eyebrows and massive pompadours, elephant trunks (which are hairstyles that roll the bangs forward and inward so that it looks like a sort of tube) or other kinds of Shōnen Hair for added effect. In its inherent association with Super Robot shows of the 70s and 80s, this is also a form of Seventies or '80s Hair, and its appearance on female characters to show how badass they are has nearly died out (but not fully, as Hibiki Tachibana shows). Its modern appearance on male characters is often in Homage to these earlier heroes.

In the West, larger sideburns and muttonchops have been considered fashionable during various times in history, including the 19th century, early 20th century, and the 1970s. Like Manly Facial Hair, the extra hair conveys strength and masculinity, indicating that the character is hot-blooded and powerful. In the 1970s, lambchop sideburns were associated with gay men in nightclubs in San Fransisco and Sydney. In modern times, particularly large muttonchops are considered retro or "scruffy," so expect wearers to be more than a little irreverent and wild. Mutton chops and sideburns are paired with a horseshoe mustache to reflect how tough they are in a fight. If the sideburns connect via a mustache, then its Commanding Imperial Beard.


Example subpage:

Other examples

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Books 
  • Pretty much everyone in ElfQuest. This might just be the time period (the original series was published 1978-1984), or it might be Wendy Pini being unable to draw the bases of those huge elfy ears; the few characters from the original series that DON'T have these (Skywise, Winnowill) instead have some sort of accessory hiding that particular area. Elfquest's art style (especially Siege at Blue Mountain), owes a lot to The Dagger of Kamui (which was a manga and then an anime contemporary with Nagai's heyday, though not drawn by him). SABM also has some of the biggest honking 'burns in series history. Pini must like the look though; her early Law and Chaos Elric work has these on Moonglum (Elric not so much, though she did draw him with a goatee for a few scenes).
  • X-Men:
    • Though it was Depending on the Artist, Banshee was often sideburned. In the Age of Apocalypse, they were positively epic.
    • Mr. Muttonchops himself, Wolverine, is pretty hotblooded to boot.
    • Also sported by many of the male members of the Hellfire Club; an organisation dedicated to decadence (and world conquest).
  • Scrooge McDuck! Ludwig Von Drake, Donald Duck's other uncle, has a pair of nice ones too. Donald himself sports a pair in the short Crazy Over Daisy.
  • Teen Titans member Jericho sported really long sideburns.
  • Marvel Comics' Mephisto is often drawn with some epic muttonchops and is not above pointing them out.
    Mephisto: I'm unique. I have the most luxuriant sideburns in all creation.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • "Joliet" Jake Blues in The Blues Brothers.
  • Deliverance (1972): Lewis Medlock has a pair of these that are like tusks, seriously. Not surprisingly, he's the tough guy of the group.
  • Dom Hemingway: The title character is prone to vulgar outbursts and sports a pair of friendly muttonchops.
  • Horror Express: Inspector Mirov has thick sideburns that connect to his mustache and is a firm, determined man who tries to shoot the monster, won't be deterred from important courses of action, and sometimes shows exasperation with Wells and Saxon.
  • Rocky III features Clubber Lang, played by Mr. T. Lang sports a massive pair of sideburns and is easily one of the better known Scary Black Men, considering his fiery temper and shit-talking demeanor.
  • Eddie from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
  • The Smurfs (2011): Gutsy Smurf has some pretty long sideburns for a Smurf his age.
  • X-Men Film Series: Wolverine has some rather prominent muttonchops to go along with his rash personality. The Perma-Stubble brings it even further.

    Literature 
  • In all his official portraits (rumoured to be pretty accurate in appearance, if not the situation) COMMISSAR CIAPHAS CAIN, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM! always has a pair of pretty impressive 'burns. And quite fitting, him being largely an expy of Harry Flashman, a fictional Victorian officer, given that Victorian times were the peak of the 'burns popularity. On the other hand, Cain isn't in the least bit hotblooded (at least officially), being in fact a calm, calculating Guile Hero.
  • Inverted in The Stormlight Archive, where the level-headed, jovial, pacifistic chef Rock wears long sideburns. They're a distinctive style of his people, who tend to look down on combat and prefer to resolve conflict with Drinking Contests.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Fourth Doctor, one of the most hot-blooded Doctors of the lot, completes his 1970s-Victorian mashup style with a long, fluffy pair of sideburns. They're even a bright fiery red, in contrast to his dark brown hair.
    • The Third Doctor, the one who was a master of Venusian Aikido and liked to scrap, also has a pretty epic pair.
    • The Tenth Doctor, passionate about just about everything, has short hair but his sideburns jut pretty far into his face.
  • In Oz: When the mild-mannered Beecher takes a level in Badass, he indicates his newfound strength by growing a pair of friendly muttonchops, giving him a much more fierce appearance.
  • Men's hair in the Federation of Star Trek favors pointed sideburns. Not exactly hotblooded, but slightly warm.
  • The Monitor from the Arrowverse events Elseworlds and Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019) has some pretty thick sideburns, which some characters in-universe have joked about. He's not very hot-blooded, though he is very powerful.
  • The Goodies: Graeme Garden had the hair (our page on '70s Hair describes his sideburns as "two hamsters clinging to his cheeks"), but rarely had the hot-blooded personality to go with it (he usually played straight man to passionate and bearded Bill Oddie and campy and clean-shaven Tim Brooke-Taylor).

    Pinball 
  • Wolverine's trademark chops are prominent on Stern Pinball's X-Men, especially in the Wolverine Limited Edition table.

    Podcasts 

    Professional Wrestling 

    Theatre 
  • Subverted in Our American Cousin by Lord Dundreary, especially as played by the iconic Edward Sothern, who had long sideburns that he grew long and combed out to frame his lower face. The outlandish look became known in 1860s culture as "Dundrearies." Dundreary is anything but virile: he's effete, foppish, and also a dolt.

    Video Games 
  • Both good guy Katsuya Suou and one of the major villains sport these in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, and we do see that even in Innocent Sin they both had a pair of these as well.
  • Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon: Raidou Kuzunoha XIV. His sideburns are so ridiculously long and pointy that they haven't been able to escape being joked about in fanart, fanfiction, or even their own game.
    • Kazuma Kaneko seems to have some giant sideburn fetish or something. His character designs for the older Persona games and Digital Devil Saga have some pretty large ones. Including Elly and Ulala... not even the women are spared.
    • In fact, one possible conversation while recruiting demons has one personality type ask if he could pull off Raidou's awesome sideburns to impress girls.
  • The King of Fighters subverts it twice with teenage soldier Leona Heidern and Mighty Glacier Maxima. The former is an emotionally repressed Little Miss Badass. The latter is a stoic, well-mannered Cyborg, The Lancer and Foil to his Jerkass partner K'.
  • Disgaea 2's Adell has a pair large enough to obscure his ears entirely, probably to hide the fact that they're pointed.
  • Disgaea 3: Mr. Champloo, complete with the personality to match.
  • Played for humor in one Super Robot Wars Yonkoma where Shinji grows sideburns like Kouji in an attempt to make himself look tougher. (Did it work? Judge for yourself.).
  • Xaldin from Kingdom Hearts II has some rather large sideburns. Parodied to hell and back in this legendary fic.
  • Quite a few characters in Sengoku Basara have these, including Yukimura, Keiji, and Toshiie. The real winner is Hideyoshi, though: he has sideburns on top of his sideburns.
  • BlazBlue's Hot-Blooded Ninja Bang Shishigami has them, but since he's partially a Captain Ersatz of Ryoma, it's to be expected.
  • Ippongi Ryuuta and Doumeki Kai from Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan sport some magnificent, Hot-Blooded sideburns.
    • There are a lot more than that. There are at least seven who have them in the series. This includes girls and Agent J.
      • Though really, it's to be expected, considering so much of this series is a blatant, campy shoutout to the very concept of hot-bloodedness.
  • Due to a bit of Off-Model, one of Arcueid's sprites in Tsukihime has Nagaideburns and (more obviously) Nagaibrows.
  • Rival Schools has Hayato Nekketsu (yes, his last name means ''HOT BLOODED'') who sports quite an impressive pair of Nagaideburns.
  • Resident Sexist Pig Ninja Andrew of Vanguard Bandits has some pretty nice sideburns of his own. But the real master of the Go Nagai style here is the mighty Duke Logan.
  • Endou from Inazuma Eleven achieves this effect with two long locks of hair, one hanging down each side of his head in front of his ears. Each one curves forward a bit before ending in a spike. They're not exactly sideburns, though, in that they seem to only be attached to his head at around forehead height, since they flap around a lot whenever he moves. Another example is Rococo, whose locks curve around behind and under his ears, then end in a spike that somehow points up toward his eyes.
  • Team Fortress 2: The very hot-blooded Soldier has a miscellaneous drop that gives him an epic sideburns-mustache combo that also comes with a pipe. And now, with the Mutton Mann, everyone else (except Pyro and Spy, who both wear head-covering masks) can get in on the awesome sideburns action.
  • In Theme Hospital, having these (known as 3rd-Degree Sideburns) is considered an unwelcome affliction.
    Cause - Wistful longing for the 1970s.
    Symptoms - Big hair, flares, platforms and glitter make-up.
    Cure - The Psychiatry staff must, using up-to-date techniques, convince the patient that these hairy accoutrements are rubbish.
  • Papers, Please: When identity supplements come into play, the description field will sometimes say "killer sideburns" (and they are indeed very impressive looking).
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link has them in A Link to the Past (at least in the artwork) The Wind Waker (and all other games using the Toon Link design, though not as noticeable in-game due to the 2D/primitive 3D graphics), Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, and Breath of the Wild.
    • Ganondorf also sports a pair in Ocarina of Time, and the equivalent costume in Hyrule Warriors turns them into certifiable mutton chops. Averted in The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and his main outfit in Hyrule Warriors, where he has a standard Beard of Evil.
  • A Way Out has its other protagonist, Leo Caruso, sport a pair of sideburns. He's also the red oni to Vincent's blue, with his choices taking more direct action and violence. Leo grows them into a Beard of Sorrow if he kills Vincent in the end.
    • The game's Big Bad, Harvey, also sports these, and is a particularly violent Bad Boss to his subordinates. In the first half of his boss fight, he uses a grenade launcher in an insane attempt to kill both Leo and Vincent, and even before his death, he was completely Defiant to the End, willing to try and shoot Leo and Vincent even though he's armed with only a pistol in contrast to Leo and Vincent's more powerful guns, has been shot in the neck and the gut, and down the barrels of both Leo and Vincent's guns before they riddle him with lead.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Tim/Masky of Marble Hornets sports killer sideburns. So does Tim Sutton, the man who plays him.
  • Whenever Doug decides to grow his hair out some more, The Nostalgia Critic has a good set of these.

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • Elvis Presley's iconic look includes a large pair of muttonchops. Of course, Presley is remembered for his censor-defying hip-shaking and swaggering sex appeal.
  • Muttonchops are a hallmark of the wild rockabilly musical genre, as well as its many equally wild offshoots, such as psychobilly.
  • Isaac Asimov considered his defining physical traits to be his glasses, his bolo tie, and his large sideburns.
  • One of Pierre Trudeau's distinguishing traits were his sideburns.
  • Chester A. Arthur had some of the most pronounced ones of any U.S. President in history, to the point where it's quite possibly the thing he's best remembered for.
  • As a young man, Theodore Roosevelt had these.
  • Now, now, let us not forget the one and only Ambrose Burnside. BEHOLD! Indeed Burnside is where the term 'sideburns' comes from in the first place.
  • Kiyohiko Ozaki, a kayōkyoku singer who enjoyed a brief vogue in the early 70s, was known for his elaborate hairstyle and his sideburns.


Alternative Title(s): Nagaidburns, Go Nagai Sideburns, Super Sideburns, Killer Sideburns

Top