I'm not getting this trope: Moustache Of Failed Heterosexuality

Okay, from what I'm reading here, this seems to be two tropes. One where homosexual male characters grow a mustache to try and prove they're straight, and the other is when a character just grows a mustache because they think it's manly, regardless of orientation. And either the, the trope name implies it never has the desired effect.

I don't know, something just feels...off about the way this page is written. Maybe some incorrect examples are there.

My understanding is that this trope is essentially "Character tries to grow a mustache to appear more manly and straight, but it fails spectacularly." The character's actual orientation is irrelevant.

The wording in the trope description itself is really awkward, so there's no wonder it's confusing.

As I mentioned on the discussion page, the actual listing on the trope page seems more along the lines of, "Here's a list of guys I think look stupid in mustaches".

This looks like an obvious cut.

We should just call it Scrappy Mustache and list a bunch of scrappy mustaches.

I'd rather not have yet another variation of The Scrappy in a trope title... beyond the fact that I don't think "a list of facial hair I don't like" is all that tropeable.

On the other hand, I think that this trope is out there and does exist, but the page needs some drastic cleanup. The trope description needs to be cleaned up, and the examples need to be drastically overhauled.

The image confuses me, because as far as I've always known, the Brawny Man's mustache has always been considered a Badass Mustache, or at the very least, a Porn Stache.

This is used in-universe a fair amount. Do we have the in-universe version elsewhere? Otherwise, I might suggest retargeting this to be in-universe only instead of YMMV.

Well, we certainly don't need more YMMV articles, especially not ones that are little more than Complaining About Facial Hair You Dont Like. In-universe or nothing.

We should probably merge this with Manly Gay. Also make it a little more friendly, it currently seems slightly demeaning to homosexuals.

Or maybe just include In-Universe examples such as John Arbuckles in Garfield not making him any cooler.

I promote cutting it. Merging it with Manly Gay would probably not work, as 1. you have a requirement for examples to have to have a failed het mustache (Which is YMMV subjective unless it's an obvious fail to all) and 2. It contradicts somewhat with being Manly Gay, as it denies the wearer/bearer (the stereotypical thought of) masculinity.

edited 28th Aug '11 11:03:32 PM by MikaruKeiko

There's definitely a trope in "man grows mustache to appear masculine; fails", but I think that's an issue for YKTTW. Unless somebody completely rewrites the page, I'm voting for cutting.

Ditto. I think there's a valid trope in there somewhere for guys who grow facial hair in an attempt to be "manly", but as is the page basically boils down to "this mustache is gay!". I think we might as well cut it, because as is we probably have to rewrite the trope, as well as do a rename, so it's probably easier to start from scratch than retool this page and rename it.

Bump. Cutlisting.

Huh. No objections to cutting?

Here are the wicks that will have to be removed if we do cut.

edited 12th Dec '11 1:03:10 PM by MetaFour

Looking through the examples, there doesn't seem to be much of a trope here. Most of it is "this character has a moustache" or "I don't like this character's facial hair". Maybe there is a trope to "growing a moustache to seem more manly and failing", but it's apparently not very common.

The page contains maybe three examples now. We could cut it and send it back to YKTTW.

Cut declined. WHY?!

I just re-added it and cut it myself.

How do we deal with the inbounds?

Up above, folks mentioned some tropes that could be salvaged from the wreckage of this one. If anyone wants to ykttw one of those tropes, and make the old title a redirect, be my guest.

Are we done here?

I think so.