< Adorkable

Adorkable/Live-Action TV

  • Game Show host Bill Cullen fit the "just so darn lovable" mold to a tee, especially in his early shows such as his first seasons as a I've Got a Secret panelist.
  • Gil Grissom
  • Tim McGee
    • Also, Palmer.
  • Conner Temple from Primeval.
  • Dobby, Mark's love interest from Peep Show is a rare female example of this. Mark himself may qualify too.
  • Stargate Atlantis fans have been credited before with coining this term for Rodney McKay and the actor who plays him David Hewlett. And he's not the first in the Stargate 'verse: the term easily applies to Daniel Jackson, resident civilian Woobie, Mr. Fanservice, Cunning Linguist and ancient culture expert. He becomes more physically competent and appears far less geeky as the series goes on, however.
  • Peter Capaldi, a.k.a. Malcolm Tucker of The Thick of It. Listen to the commentaries, realize he's a huge geek with knobby knees, and your head asplode. It asplode even more when you learn that Malcolm Tucker's Girly Run isn't an act.
  • Ned from Pushing Daisies, who is possibly the most bashful, nervous hero ever seen on television.
    • As well as Randy Mann.
  • From Big Wolf on Campus there's Merton J. Dingle
  • Dave and Wesley from Degrassi the Next Generation. Clare had some shades of this in Season 8 (pre She Cleans Up Nicely). Sav and Anya did this in Season 7. J.T. and Liberty in general. Toby was all over this trope.
  • Simon from Firefly most definitely qualifies. The guy strikes out so many times you just wanna hug him.
  • Abed and a female example in Annie, both from Community.
  • Benton Fraser from Due South gets much of his charm from this. While he is conventionally handsome and quite capable of going into Action Hero mode when required, his sheer earnestness, quirkiness, and lack of familiarity with the conventions of American big-city life are important defining features of his character.
  • Lost's Daniel Faraday.
  • Many of the male characters in Undeclared. Most prominently Steven, probably because he's played by Jay Baruchel, but also Marshall and Ron. On the opposite side of things, we also have Rachel.
  • Dollhouse:
    • Topher, especially after he starts growing a conscience.
    • Bennett goes beyond this. Way, way beyond this. She's played by Summer Glau, though, so that shouldn't be a surprise.
    • And wouldn't ya know it... the two of them reach new heights of Adorkableness in a cute, funny romantic scene just about ten seconds before Bennett gets Jossed
  • Psych: Both Shawn and Gus frequently exhibit this trait.
  • Supernatural:
    • Castiel. "The voice says I'm almost out of minutes." Awww. The big baby blues don't exactly hurt.
    • Sam Winchester whenever he gets excited about something, especially in the first two seasons. "I lost my shoe."
  • Artie from Glee, and Finn (even though he's not usually dorky). This series is absolutely full of these, in part to do with its main subject matter (showtunes and high school). However, Mr. Shue deserves special mention for his love of sweater vests.
  • Henry from Ugly Betty.
  • Sage, Lance's girlfriend in Dark Oracle. She's a little odd-looking, and a total weirdo, bordering at times on Cloudcuckoolander. And she's just so cute doing it.
  • Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. A man who can somehow make wearing a plaid suit almost sexy, there's something endearingly innocent in his total inability to behave like a normal human being. But there's the heart and soul of a hero under those geeky t-shirts. (Being played by Jim Parsons doesn't hurt, either. Look at those big blue eyes.
    • More so Leonard Hofstadter. He's also too geeky for words, and not too great with social interaction, but he tries, and it's adorable.
    • Rajesh Koothrappali, who's so shy around girls, he can't talk in their presence.
    • For a female example, there is Howard's girlfriend Bernadette.
  • Douglas Fargo of Eureka - when he's not pushing the hypothetical giant red button that says DO NOT PUSH, anyway.
    • Emphasized by the introduction of Dr. Holly Marten (played by Felicia Day, personification of this trope), who even out-tropes him.
  • Cody Martin of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody qualified all the way up until the second season of The Suite Life On Deck, wherein he Took a Level in Jerkass.
  • Warehouse 13's Claudia Donovan.
  • Murdock from The A-Team falls into this, mostly when he's trying out a new persona. For instance, in a Season 2 episode where the A-Team protects a cab company from being taken over by dangerous rivals, so Murdock becomes a superhero called Captain Cab and even makes a cloth mask and cape for himself, all while talking to his sock puppet, Socky. Face is terribly embarrassed by his antics and B. A. wants to murder him (more so than usual), but the way Murdock goes about it is just so darn cute!
  • JD from Scrubs. Hell, any character played by Zach Braff. Zach Braff, himself.
  • The titular Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle.
  • Steve Urkel from Family Matters.
  • Grant Imahara and Adam Savage of the MythBusters. Tory Belleci too, more for being clumsy and kind of doofy at times, rather than nerdy or awkward.
  • Dr. Wilson from House... despite his track record.
  • Samuel "Screech" Powers of Saved by the Bell.
  • Several incarnations of the Doctor of Doctor Who, but especially Ten (he of the Brainy Specs) and Eleven ("Bow Ties Are Cool!"). Ten is both one of the most Woobie-ish Doctors and prone to going full-on Keet whenever he gets excited, while Eleven acts a bit like an eccentric English professor in the body of a baby-faced twentysomething.
    • Matt Smith has stated that he based the adorkable factor of his Doctor off of his favorite Doctor, Two. And Ten borrowed the Brainy Specs from Five.
    • Rory Williams is very much Adorkable too—especially when he tried to fight off a vampire okay, a fish-alien with a broomstick.
    • Matt Smith is especially Adorkable in real life; a lot of footage from Doctor Who Confidential is him gushing about how cool the monsters are.

Best. Monster. Ever!

    • Ten's Adorkable reaches maximum levels when he's a human schoolmaster in Human Nature/Family of Blood.
    • The Eighth Doctor has elements of this. He's quite short, often childish, probably even more of a Keet than Ten, and somewhat lacking in social skills to begin with. As if that wasn't enough, it turns out he's interested in all kinds of geeky things (Transformers, model trains, tractors, comic books, etc.), he occasionally has No Social Skills whatsoever (he asks one of his companions what makes something a date), and he's a bit of a Malaproper too, as seen here when he's rather adorably upset about his companions habitually sending him out of the TARDIS alone to make sure it's safe.

They send me out first to see what it’s like, like a sheep down a poisoned treacle well! Or whatever it is they send sheep into...

    • And his companion Fitz, who's gawky, scruffy, clumsy, and surprisingly bookish. He often lives in his own little world, and despite all his attempts to seem mysterious and dangerous is really just a Nice Guy.
  • Tosh from Torchwood.
  • Willow, Giles, Xander and Tara of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
    • Also Andrew, Jonathan, and William (human Spike), plus Fred from spin-off Angel.
  • The Geeks (Sam, Neal, and Bill) from Freaks and Geeks all qualify.
  • Hannah from Todd and the Book of Pure Evil is actually quite cute despite being socially awkward and a huge science nerd. Plus, she's a redhead.
  • Power Rangers is FULL of them. Notable examples are Billy, Kendrix, Trip, Cam, Bridge, Chip, Fran, and Dr. K.
  • Heroes's Hiro Nakamura. Full stop.
    • Gabriel Gray, pre becoming Sylar, counts too.
  • Plaid-shirt-wearing, skinny-tie-donning, sci-fi-loving former boy mayor/state auditor/current assistant city manager Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation.
  • Chuck embodies this trope - the guy is a member of the Nerd Herd for crying out loud.
  • Zack from Bones fits this completely.
    • Doctor Sweets as well. He's a cute, young genius who goes "squee" at dead bodies.
    • Dr. Brennan herself. Cute? Check. Geeky? Check. Socially awkward? ... ask Booth about this.
    • Intern Vincent Nigel-Murrey. His tendency to enthusiastically spout off interesting but useless bits of trivia is adorkable in the extreme.
  • George from Being Human (UK) is made of this trope.
    • There's also Josh from the US version.
  • Frasier's little brother Niles completely qualifies.
  • Ted and Marshall from How I Met Your Mother.
    • In fact, all Ted's friends refer to him as their resident "dorky dad".
  • Martin Freeman's John Watson, from Sherlock: a Big Damn Hero in an oatmeal-coloured woolly jumper. Being much shorter than the dramatic and intimidating Sherlock also helps.
    • The dramatic and intimidating Sherlock himself actually has a moment of Adorkability himself, after John proves his complete willingness to lay down his life for him. Probably the most adorable thing Sherlock's ever done.

Sherlock: That, uh... thing that you, uh... that you did, that you, uh... you offered to do, that was, uh... good.

  • While Sportacus from LazyTown is conventionally attractive, well-muscled and very fitness-oriented, many fans still consider him adorkable due to his constant optimism, boyish over-excitement, hopeless naiveté and awkward English. His baby-blue eyes and cheesy grin only help the matter.
  • John Simm in Sex Traffic, with his cute glasses, klutziness, stutter, and darn niceness, fits the bill perfectly.
  • Merlin and Guinevere from Merlin. Put them in a scene together and the cuteness levels are off the charts.
  • Yousef from Little Mosque on the Prairie is tall, handsome, and muscular. However, he becomes adorkable due to his gentleness and good-natured willingness to please everyone.
  • Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds. Handsome. Invoking this type of response from fangirls. Badass. Constant target of UnSubs. What else is there to say?
    • The babbling. Dear God, the babbling. The insanely awkward babbling and the jokes that are only funny if you're a nerd like him. And the magic tricks. *swoon*
  • Bret from Flight of the Conchords.
  • Going back quite a bit toThe Dick Van Dyke Show: Rob Petrie is definitely one of these. All the clumsiness and flubbing is just so endearing because of his sweet nature that it's entirely plausible for someone like Laura Petrie to fall for him.
  • On the Russian Sitcom Daddy's Daughters, Galina Sergeevna (Liza Arzamasova) is all too adorkable.
  • Mike in The Monkees playing a folk song on a TV talent show competition.
    • Peter is also equally (if not more so) “atorkable.”
  • Zeke of Wizards of Waverly Place.
  • Despite generally being rather reserved and stoic, not to mention a Badass Bookworm, Horatio Hornblower has his moments in Series One. Particularly in "The Duchess and the Devil" when he attends a high-society dinner party and appears out of his social depth, or really any time he's around the Duchess and doesn't know how to take her flirting and attempts to teach him "conversation."
  • Det. Kevin Ryan from Castle.
  • Dr. Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap.
  • Jim and Andy from The Office.
    • Pam is quite adorkable as well.
  • Joel Robinson of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a sweet-natured Genius Ditz with Cloudcuckoolander tendencies.
  • Lilly Truscott in Hannah Montana, especially in the earlier "skater girl" years.
  • Olive Doyle in A.N.T. Farm. Fletcher Quimby even more so.
  • Freddie Benson from iCarly.
  • Gale from the third season of Breaking Bad.
  • Crime-fighting mathematician Charlie Eppes of Numb3rs - a springy-haired, mild-eyed Absent-Minded Professor; perceptive, savvy, and just naive enough to be a master of Adorkable.
  • The alien, in the form of Paul Forrester, in Starman.
  • The word "Adorkable" is used verbatim in this (scroll to the last paragraph) [dead link] Rizzoli & Isles recap where the author is talking about Dr. Maura Isles. And she isn't exaggerating. Maura is socially awkward but highly intelligent and beautiful, in addition to coming with a geeky adorableness that Sasha Alexander absolutely perfects.
  • Jess, Zooey Deschanel's title character in New Girl. She's even branded as such in promotional material for the show.
  • Alan in Two and A Half Men.
  • Twist from The Fresh Beat Band.
  • Ed from SLiDE is a classic example.
  • Gary Bell of Alphas, played by Ryan Cartwright (the same actor as Vincent Nigel-Murray from Bones, above. Sweet? Check. Cute smile? Check. Nerdy? Not exactly, but he does have a computer-related superpower. Unusual mannerisms? Check. Socially awkward? MEGA check. A lot of this is explained by having Autism, though. Even the other characters consider him The Woobie of the group, though he is starting to outgrow that role and become more independent. (They still won't let him drive, though.)
  • Josh on Drake and Josh. Also, Craig and Eric.
  • Kermit the Frog and Scooter of The Muppets. Also, Beaker.
  • All the main characters, but special mention goes to Ethan and Rory from "My Babysitter's a Vampire"
  • Seinfeld: Cosmo Kramer.
  • From The Amazing Race: Dave & Lori (Season 9) and Mark & Bill (Season 13).
  • The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries: The show tried to do this to Joe Hardy in 1st season and a bit of 2nd season: nerdy plaid sweater, check. Heavily into forensics and fingerprints and likely to start expounding on fingerprints at the drop of a hat, check. Portrayed as socially awkward younger brother, check. But then the writers realized they were up against Shaun Cassidy and gave it up as a lost cause.
  • Austin and Ally is this most of the time.
  • Penelope Taynt of The Amanda Show and her little brother.
  • Sheriff Graham on "Once Upon a Time". Constant ties and vests? Check. Cute accent? Check. Complete inability to impress a girl with his jokes? Check.
  • Hawking portrays the twenty-one year old Stephen Hawking this way. Benedict Cumberbatch makes a terribly endearing nerd.
  • Shaun Murphy from The Good Doctor. Heck, adorkability is the show's reason for existence.
Back to Adorkable
    This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.