Abhorrent Admirer

"My man! Come to Lena!"

—Lena Hyena, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (pictured, much to our dismay)

An ugly and/or overweight female is noticeably attracted to a male protagonist. Maybe she's even a little forward about it. The protagonist realizes this, and is profoundly uncomfortable with the whole idea, but the female character either doesn't realize he's not interested or is undeterred. Yet the character is not just uncomfortable; he's shocked, horrified, or disgusted. Even a wave and a smile from her will be treated as a fate worse than death for the recipient. Hilarity Ensues.

In some cases, the point of the joke is that the protagonist is too nice to say anything, thus allowing the situation to come up repeatedly. In others, just portraying the protagonist's reaction—which may be closer to mortal terror than awkwardness -- is considered enough of a punchline on its own.

The Abhorrent Admirer differs from more sympathetic characters in one key respect: the audience is expected to find her both unattractive and extremely unsympathetic, and is supposed to feel sorry for the protagonist because she has him in her sights and just won't take a hint or proves resistant to the clue-by-four.

These characters tend strongly to be female rather than male, as a result of a few different gender stereotypes. For one thing, No Guy Wants to Be Chased means the mere fact that a woman takes the initiative in courting a man is often portrayed as evidence that she must have something wrong with her; for another, double standard rape means that sexually aggressive women are viewed as less threatening, and therefore more comical, than men who impose their attentions on obviously unwilling women. However, in recent years the male "undesirable suitor" has become more common in comedies.

An increasingly occurring variant of this trope is when the amorous woman in question is Transsexual—typically when a male character discovers that the lovely lady he's been chatting up in the bar either isn't really a lady, or wasn't born with the standard-issue female equipment. This is typically played for laughs, tending toward mocking the hapless and naive fellow.

This trope is Older Than Print: the original might be the medieval legend of the "loathly lady", which is the basis of the Wife of Bath's Tale in that thing by Geoffrey Chaucer. Loathly ladies also figure in several Child Ballads.

May or may not overlap with Stalker with a Crush, though that one usually isn't Played for Laughs. The Old Maid, the Grande Dame, and Lady Drunk are likely candidates to act out this trope. Compare Extroverted Nerd, Hollywood Nerd, Beauty and The Beast. Contrast Ugly Guy, Hot Wife. For versions where only the personality is a problem, see No Guy Wants to Be Chased, Romantic Runner-Up and Casanova Wannabe. Kavorka Man is an inversion... and overwhelmingly male.

The whole trope usually provides a Broken Aesop in series where Be Yourself is a strong theme.

Examples of Abhorrent Admirer include:

Advertising

  • One ad for Pretzel M&M's has the pretzel trying to convince the M&M to hook up with an attractive woman across the party. The M&M protests, but the pretzel points out they exist to be eaten, "and I'd rather go with her than Hungry Eyes over here." The camera then pans back, showing a very unnerving man staring at them as "Hungry Eyes" plays.

Anime and Manga

  • The very minor Tezuka anime and manga series Don Dracula has this as a Running Gag. Dracula prefers to subsist on the blood of beautiful women, and somehow never quite manages to grab one onscreen, but a grotesque (and overweight) young woman keeps popping up, determined to offer her neck and other... charms to the foreign nobleman.
  • The "Sexy Ninja Tea Ladies", the stepfamily of the ninja Konatsu in Ranma ½. Of the three "Sexy Ninja Tea Ladies", the best-looking and most feminine one was modeled after American actor Edward G. Robinson.
  • In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, there's the "Bowling" chapter, where Longchamp invites Tsuna and Gokudera to go on a three-person blind date. Of course, Longchamp's idea of a "cute" girl has always been... unique. So the three girls he invited were absolutely hideous (one of them even being Reborn in an ugly drag). The whole chapter pretty much consists of Tsuna and all of his Bishonen guardians / male friends coming by, being horrified by how ugly these women are, and then trying to run away from them as the women aggressively pursue them.
  • In Houshin Engi, Venus, one of Chou Koumei's hideous three sisters, is head over heels in love with Anti-Hero protagonist Taikoubou. He literally spit up blood from seeing her strike a "sexy pose." Of course, being the Manipulative Bastard he is, he did fake being slightly friendly towards her just so he could immediately distract her and defeat them. His disgust and horror towards her constant aggressive advances toward him are played for laughs.
  • One Piece
    • If you're an elderly woman, you're given a license to bug Sanji.
    • And according to Luffy, Alvida. Subverted by how he still wasn't interested after she became drop dead gorgeous.
    • The most prominent example in One Piece is the warthog zombie Lola, whose entire fighting style revolves around stealing kisses from her beloved Absalom. She's also a subversion however, as she turns out to be a very sympathetic character, while Absalom is portrayed as a perverted Jerkass.
    • The real Lola is this as well, though she's not as Ax Crazy as her zombie was. Franky plays an advance from her cool, saying he's too "super" for anything to work out between them.
    • The ugly psychopath Vander Decken IX to Princess Shirahoshi.
  • Dama from Hale + Guu. Usually a nice elderly hair dresser, but whenever she sees any male with white hair, she becomes so strongly reminded of her dead husband that she moves straight past insanity levels of obsession and right into nightmare land. Later in the series, Hale ends up changing Dama's targets from white-haired males to ANY males.
  • In the Fushigi Yuugi novel Seiran Den (chronicling Nakago's history), Tomo (then known as Ragun) got himself a rather ardent female admirer, the leader of the palace girls, Ba Hinhin. She is described as having a "horse-like face," and tends to "snort fiercely through her nose" when she's making advances on him. He, of course, finds her intensely annoying, and tries to distract her away from him. Then again, the mere fact of being the object of a woman's desire would gross him out.
  • In Inuyasha, Miroku is always chasing beautiful girls, whose reactions vary from schoolgirl glee to violent backlash, but always with the same result: no-one of them is interested in him. However, he's oftenly chased by the old, the overweight or the funny-featured, much to his horror and chagrin.
  • In Naruto, Karin is a variation of this. Even though she isn't all that unattractive, except for a certain fraction of the fandom, the point still stands since her forward propositions are always met with an icy reaction from Sasuke. Not to mention the lengths to which she goes to get in his pants.
  • Miyako Miyazaki from Bamboo Blade is a cute girl with a sadistic side, but has only one major weakness: a middle school classmate by the name of Reimi Odajima who has been stalking Miya-miya ever since she beat up a boy she liked. Reimi follows her to all of her kendo tournaments snapping pictures and shooting videos of her beloved idol, often times inadvertently distracting her enough to lose her match. And yet having a psychotic for a number-one fan turns out to be quite handy later on when Miyako and Azuma look through Reimi's photo and video collection to help Miya-miya train against an American rival.
  • A variation in Axis Powers Hetalia. Belarus isn't unattractive, her object of affection even admits that she's really pretty. It's her Yandere Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies that makes her abhorrent—that and the fact that the person who she is an abhorrent admirer of is her brother.
  • In Girls Saurus, almost every girl who shows an interest in Shingo (that is to say, most of the cast and most female one-shot characters) becomes an abhorrent admirer, due to their tendency to throw themselves at him and his gynophobia that makes him visualise them as horrible ogres.
  • Shautieh Ley has four chasing after him in Bowling King, Maya (everyone who meets her mistakes her for an alien initially) and the pint-sized, overweight, fanatical, Stalker with a Crush Maruko triplets.
  • The short Junji Ito story titled The Fashion Model takes this trope to horrifying levels. Poor Souichi
  • Mimi from Digimon Adventure has her share of these, namely the slug-like Numemon and the dimwitted duo of Sukamon and Chumon.
  • Julietta of Airmaster.
  • Urusei Yatsura
    • Lum has Rei, her ex-fiancé from the Oni world, who may looks like a gorgeous bishonen in human form, but can easily turns into a bull-tiger hybrid monster whenever excited. Not to mention he's dumber than a sack of brick and, when not pursuing Lum, can only think about one thing: eating non-stop. Lum quite understandably want nothing to do with him.
    • Shinobu has one too: Soban of Busumetsu High, who besides being the boss of a deliquent gang, is Giant Mook-sized and a most extreme Gonk even by Takahashi standards. A running gag is how much he has trouble acting even like a human being and not an animal (toss him a ball, he'll play with it like a tamed seal). He does little beyond charge at Shinobu yelling: "Shinobu-saaaan! SUKI DAAAA!!!!" Thankfully, Shinobu is even stronger than Soban and usually sends him flying.

Comic Books

  • Ethel Muggs from Archie comics was originally created to facilitate this punchline. She was attracted to Jughead, who was notoriously uninterested in anything but food. She would have been unwanted anyway, so maybe they figured they'd make her unattractive just to underscore it, or perhaps they deliberately went with an ugly girl because it's one thing for him to say he's not interested in women (note how no other girl tries to so much as ask him out except under extraordinary circumstances), but if he turns down a hot one routinely he must be gay.
    • Subverted in the Live Action Adaptation Return to Riverdale. Set at and around the cast's 15th high school reunion, it reveals that Ethel was actually Beautiful All Along and is now a world-famous supermodel.
    • Archie Comics have also downplayed this aspect of Ethel in later years. While she was as ugly as they come in her first appearances and used solely to torture Jughead, Ethel has since had some of her more distorted features toned down. She's still really tall with buck teeth and a big nose, but she's drawn much more normally—even pretty—and given trendier clothing. As well, she's more of a regular character now (being good friends with Betty), instead of a one-dimensional plot device.
    • Subverted again in that Archie took her out on a casual date to a comedy club and museum and ended up preferring the fact that unlike Betty and Veronica, Ethel made no demands of him. He asked her out again after taking her home.
  • Subverted via the extended introduction of Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man. Peter assumed that anyone his aunt was trying to set him up with must be hideous, and spent years dodging MJ.
  • Mark, the protagonist of Invincible was once almost forced to marry the princess of Atlantis (in this version of Atlantis, merpeople are half-fish all over their bodies, like a Lovecraftian horror). Subverted in that the princess would rather marry one of her race and with a cunning plan, Mark escapes to the surface and she happily marries a more suitable groom.
  • The Mexican comic Simon Simonazo used this trope in a rather strange manner; the Admirer in question had a comically horrid face, her body on the other hand...
  • In issue #30 of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, during the story Sky Highway, Raphael gained one with a German mutated human called Hildagaard Rail. In a dimension where there is an actual highway in the sky, Raphael fell in the passenger side of her car. She wore sunglasses, had her hair wrapped up in a scarf tied behind her chin and a black dress that showed off her ample busom. Hildagaard had long legs and the body of a super model, but her lips were so enormous they went from ear to ear and almost from chin to forehead taking up most of the space on her face. She openly flirted with her "dollink" turtle telling him "You're the most sexy shade of green I've ever seen." When Raphael was about to leave her car he told her "It's been funfffh!" The ninja's words were cut short because Hildagaard grabbed him by the tails of his bandana and said "Shut up and kiss me, you dumkoff!" With his head tilted all the way to the side she pulled him close to her and gave him a big passionate kiss that covered his entire beak. When he finally got away from Hilda she called out, "Auf Wiedersehen, loverboy!" Raphael referred to it as the biggest indignity he ever had to face as a hero. The turtle wiped off the giant lipstick imprint off of his face which wasn't sideways, but on straight making it seem like they locked lips for a while. At least long enough for Raphael's head to tilt.

Fairy Tales

a princess with a nose which is three eels long, and she now is the one whom I must marry.

  • Allison Gross is a Child Ballad in which the eponymous witch, "the ugliest witch in the North Country" tries to coerce a man into becoming her lover.

Films -- Animation

  • Disney's Aladdin has one of these (after he encountered attractive female admirers) during his song "One Jump Ahead", the one whose line is "Still I think he's rather tasty!"
  • Disney previously used it 42 years earlier in Cinderella, with the wicked stepsisters towards the prince. The third movie makes it more prominent with Anastasia, though in a slight subversion she is actually pretty sympathetic and the Prince and King do like her (the Prince just doesn't want to marry her and it turns out she doesn't want to marry him).
  • Lena Hyena from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, natch. See above under Comic Strips for her original origins.
  • Arguably Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. However Belle's disgust with him comes from his horrible personality rather then his looks (as he is, in fact, very good-looking).
  • Although the she-squirrel who falls in love with Arthur in The Sword in the Stone is adorable and innocent, if not somewhat annoying, the fat one that pursues Merlin is rather repulsive.
  • Dragon initially qualifies as this for Donkey in the first Shrek movie, but he warms up to her.
  • In The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" segment, there is a gag involving a short, fat woman (Tilda) who wants to dance with either Ichabod or Brom Bones at the Halloween party. The underlying implication is that whichever of them fails to win the lovely Katrina van Tassel will be stuck with Tilda.
  • Mole from Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire is this to Kida during her introductory scene. She immediately punches him in the face after he whispers something to her in French.

Films -- Live-Action

  • Films with Wayans brothers in them are very likely to invoke this trope before the credits roll.
  • Used in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.
  • Ricky Smith, the obese, obnoxious neighbor in Better Off Dead who (with his equally grotesque mother) pursues in hideous fashion the gorgeous French exchange student Monique and with whom the audience is never meant to sympathize. By contrast, Hollywood Nerd Lane Meyer (John Cusack) in the same movie is treated like a loser by most of the characters, but is the hero of the film and gets Monique at the end. The film offers a subversion in that Ricky is granted a happy ending as well, meeting a girl who is a little more his speed.
  • The corrupt, obese principal in Billy Madison overlaps with the Depraved Homosexual for the sake of two gags during Billy's graduation.
  • The Hottie and The Nottie is about this trope: an unattractive woman tries to find a date, unaware that she inhabits a universe where everyone is either a self-obsessed pig, Paris Hilton, or both.
  • Virtually every woman in the Deuce Bigalow movies.
  • The eponymous Norbit (played by Eddie Murphy) is chased and lusted after by a grotesquely obese woman who looks like... Eddie Murphy.
  • The fat, acne-ridden Eleanor Skepple in Good Luck Chuck starts out as an inversion, since Chuck has to pay her for a date in order to test whether he is cursed such that any woman he sleeps with to marry the next man he meets. But once he explain he wants to "get physical," she becomes terrifyingly eager about the whole thing, and he is shown frantically scrubbing himself in the shower afterwards.
  • Inversion in, of all things, Epic Movie, where a character gets a shapeshifter played by Carmen Electra to transform into an overweight grotesque with a monobrow because he prefers her that way. Said shapeshifter, by the way, to drive home the inversion... is a mishmash parody of Mystique, who is not only exceptionally beautiful herself, but can shift into any other beautiful woman she wants.
  • Played straight in Robin Hood: Men in Tights with the witch/cook Latrine. It's also partially inverted, in that the sheriff DOES wind up marrying her... because the alternative was death. Of course, he starts questioning his own sanity afterwards, but she already has him in her clutches. Further irony is introduced when she shouts, "I always wanted to marry a cop!" despite most of what she does is in fact, outright illegal, according to period law (see: the original Costner version, or Catholic attitudes towards witches around that time).
  • The Spleen in the film version of Mystery Men comes off this way in one scene when he attempts to flirt with Janeane Garofalo's character.
  • The plump, voracious doorwoman in Mel Gibson's What Women Want. Even her thinking about Mel sexually is enough for him to flee in the opposite direction.
  • Doubly Subverted in Brazil when the, ah, orthodonture-gifted young woman Sam's mother wants him to date eventually tells him, "It's alright -- I don't like you either."
  • Theres Something About Mary does the male version with Chris Elliot's character, since he erupts into grotesque boils when he finally confronts the eponymous Mary. However, as befits the usual gendering of this trope, Chris Elliot's character already has an attractive, entirely subservient wife who does things like spontaneously bake him cookies and give him blowjobs while he watches football. ("Keep your head down, honey!")
  • In the Rudy Ray Moore film Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-in-Law, the title character dies and is given a chance to come back to life by Satan. The catch: he has to marry the Devil's daughter. Who was described by one reviewer as "having fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down". Needless to say, Petey goes out of his way to try to weasel out of his end of the bargain.
  • Played with in Shallow Hal, in which the title character has been hypnotized into seeing the "inner beauty" of an obese woman. She's so used to being treated like this that at first she thinks he's mocking her.
  • In Friday, Craig's girlfriend hooks Smokey up with a friend of hers who claims to look like Janet Jackson. She doesn't.
  • A hilarious scene in The Nutty Professor 2 shows the grandmother lusting after Buddy Love, thinking he's the stripper hired for Denise's bachelorette party. Buddy's reaction when she drops her dress, and panties with it, is priceless.
  • Porky's Revenge: Porky's daughter is a butterface (if I may say so) who jumps Meat's bones, and who then gets her father to force Meat to marry her.
  • You can bet that, Bollywood being what it is, has done this many a time. Ridiculous when the Abhorrent Admirer is Madhuri Dixit whom even the parents of the hero love, as seen in Pukar...
  • Subverted in Hairspray. Tracy Turnblad's crush on Link, the hot male lead of The Corny Collins Show, is not only reciprocated, she also quickly becomes the show's most popular dancer. Tracy is not ugly like most of the other examples present here though; she is just fatter than most of the other women in the movie.
  • The final scene of a villain in Trading Places has the villain in a gorilla disguise trapped in a cage with an actual gorilla. The gorilla is quite in lust with the villain, whom we finally see in a BSOD. Worse than that: The gorilla is male, and thinks the villain is a female gorilla. And then their clueless keepers ship them off to live in the wild together in Africa....
  • Wickedly subverted by Stockard Channing in The Girl Most Likely To (1973). Fat, frumpish Miriam Knight is viciously rejected by various fratboys, each of whom gleefully humiliate her for good measure. Following a Deus Ex Machina car accident, Miriam slims down to a svelte college beauty and murders each of her former tormentors in suitably ironic fashion.
  • East Is East has two young British Pakistani boys attempting to escape arranged marriages to the two hideous daughters of their father's friend.
  • Merry Christmas Drake and Josh gives us Drake, dressing up as Santa at the mall. He is seen kissing a girl when all the kids are gone. Not long after, a rather large girl chases him around the mall asking Santa for a kiss.

Jokes

  • Once a young man went to visit his pastor. He was very depressed because he was overweight. In particular he felt doomed to never marry, because he was so unattractive due to being overweight. The pastor listened, and then told the young man he would take care of it. The next morning, the young man awoke to a knock on the door. There was this gorgeous single woman from the congregation. She said: "I don't know what this means, but the pastor told me to tell you that if you can catch me you can keep me," and then took off running. The young man ran after her, but could not catch her. This happened every morning for several months. The young man came closer and closer each day. Boy was he motivated. Then the day came, he knew he would catch her today. But when the knock came at his door, there was Lena Hyena. "I don't know what this means," she said, "but the pastor said that if I can catch you, I get to keep you." Immediately the young man began running. Boy was he motivated.
    • Another version replaces the pastor with a gym trainer, and the woman with an attractive gym buddy and sexual favors... and also replaces Lena Hyena with a very large man, who is very intent on rape.
      • And the French version of that version makes their first name rhyme with the sex act to boot.
    • The Indian version replaces the pastor with a weight loss program. It also goes into some Adaptation Expansion: The program provides three packages: Lose weight in six months, three months, three weeks or: bonus special package: in ONE DAY. The young man orders the three month package, and a beautiful woman appears on the first week to be chased. He orders the second package right away to see what happens, and gets a really hot chick on the second week. Catching on to the pattern, he orders the third package on the third week, and gets a Memetic Sex Goddess. He trains with her for three weeks, becomes a pretty fast runner, and almost catches her. Excited, he orders the Special Package, ready and warmed up to catch the hottest chick of them all. The doorbell rings; and when he answers he finds a she-gorilla dropped off at his doorstep. There's a sign around her neck: "Meet Julie. She has been "specially" trained to recognize you by both scent and sight. If she catches you, she will rape you. Have a nice day."
  • This joke is best told to a group of close friends that are okay with a little good-natured ribbing. It helps if one of your friends tends to be the designated Butt Monkey in your circle. Let's call them Aaron, Bob, and (Butt Monkey) Charles. (Feel free to Gender Flip the roles to suit the genders/sexual preferences of your friends) You tell these beloved friends of yours that one day, Aaron, Bob, and Charles died and went to Hell. The Devil walks up to Aaron and says: "Aaron! Welcome to Hell. I'd like you to meet your new wife!". At this, a door opens and out walks the most hideous woman either of them has ever seen. She grabs the helpless Aaron and drags him away screaming to her boudoir for an eternity of violent lovemaking. Then The Devil walks up to Bob and says: "Bob! Welcome to Hell. I'd like you to meet YOUR new wife!". Another door opens and out walks an even MORE hideous woman than the first one. She grabs the helpless Bob and drags him away screaming to her boudoir for an eternity of violent lovemaking. Charlie is terrified, of course, but then a door opens up and out steps Angelina Jolie. Charlie can't believe his eyes, and she's even more gorgeous in person than on film. As Charlie is fumbling for something to say, The Devil says: "Angelina! Welcome to Hell. I'd like you to meet your new husband!".
    • There's a similar joke about 3 women going to Heaven, and being warned to step on the ducks. Of course, the first two women do so and get paired up with ugly men, while the last woman goes months without doing so, and gets a very handsome man paired up with her. When asked if he's her reward for doing well, he comments that "I have no clue - all I know is that I just stepped on a duck."
  • There is an anecdote about an event said to have happened in Poland, several centuries ago: when a man was about to be hanged, the oldest whore in town ran up to the gallows, and shouted, "he is mine!", invoking an ancient custom allowing for the man to go free on the condition that they will marry. The man looked at the whore, looked at the executioner, looked at the whore, then again looked at the executioner and said, "let's hang, master".

Literature

  • A variant in Tom Holt's H. W. Wells & Co series: Rosie Tanner, who plays this kind of role to Paul Carpenter. She's a goblin. However, she does have the ability to shapeshift into a beautiful young human woman. It's just that Paul can't forget her real form, not to mention that she's also the mother of his sadistic boss.
  • Harry Potter
    • The aging, overweight Hepzibah Smith is this to Tom Riddle, future Big Bad, in a flashback. Tom plays up to this by flirting with her just enough to stay in her good graces until he can get what he wants. Then he poisons her. Unlike most of the other examples, we aren't supposed to sympathize with Tom.
    • Along with Riddle, each of the main trio has one. Though none of them are physically unattractive; it is mainly their personalities. Harry has Romilda Vane, who stalks Harry and at one point gave him cauldron cakes laced with love potion, which Ron ate with tragic results. Ron, in a slight subversion, has an Abhorrent Admirer in his girlfriend. At first he returns her affection, but soon finds that he's becoming more and more frightened of her, and her displays of affection gets more and more crazy. Hermione has the incredibly attractive and talented, but slightly deranged and QUITE egotistical Cormac McLaggen following her. Being a nerd, she isn't really blinded by his attractiveness, and sees him as the horrible, arrogant person he is.
    • There's also Merope Gaunt. While we're meant to sympathize with her instead of the elder Tom Riddle, she otherwise fits the bill. She's a very ugly woman due to generations of incestuous in-breeding, mentally unstable, and obsessive over the attractive young man who catches her eye. She even feeds him love potions to win him, since he won't have a thing to do with her otherwise.
  • A gender-flipped version happens in Fablehaven, where Verl the satyr obsesses over (human and technically underage) Kendra. He does sort of realize the hopelessness, but that doesn't stop him from carving a marble statue of her likeness to give to her as a Christmas present.
  • Both used and subverted in Diana Wynne Jones's Castle in the Air (a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle. Abdullah is facing an arranged marriage to "two fat brides" and while he has the standard reaction, he frantically tries to justify marrying them anyway so they'll shut up and not cry. He eventually decides not to for different reasons. Subverted because the brides eventually find someone who finds them attractive though he is a half-djinn, half-demon.
  • Narcissa in Montmorency; here, it's mostly a hygiene issue.
  • Creepella Von Cacklefur is this to Geronimo Stilton, although she is actually acknowledged to be drop-dead gorgeous. What makes her so abhorrent to Geronimo, however, is that she is a Perky Goth Nightmare Fetishist who lives in a crypt, while Geronimo is a major Cowardly Lion known for fainting at least once a book.
  • A sympathetic example from The Circus of Doctor Lao; Mrs. Cassin is an older woman whose husband simply left her. Since she lost her looks and charm a long time ago, she has no luck in attracting men.
  • The Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Fall of Yquatine has Chivalrous Pervert Fitz deal with one of these as a coworker at a pub: a much older woman, who also has a "flat, predatory face" and a mouth so big as to scare him, who wears tacky, revealing clothing which wouldn't even really suit a younger woman. She has a crush on him, to the point of touching his arse on the sly and getting jealous when he chats up an attractive customer around his age. However, this trope is subverted in that he's obviously trying to make an effort to be nice to her as a coworker, and she's just "an ageing and lonely woman".
  • The Magic Kingdom of Landover book Princess of Landover has Mistaya, Ben Holiday's daughter, is proposed to by the odious Lord Laphroaig, who has been nicknamed "The Frog" for his habit of darting his tongue out of his lips when nervous and his squat body. Besides being ugly, Laphroaig's wives and children have a habit of dying from "mysterious illnesses." Correctly, Mistaya assumes Laphroaig only wishes to marry her in order to have access to Landover's throne. At the end of the book, the Big Bad forces Mistaya to marry Laphroaig through a Scarpia Ultimatum involving her current love interest.
  • In The Elenium by David Eddings, The Hero gets sympathetic passage on a ship by claiming to be fleeing a wealthy but hideous heiress whom he accidentally offered to marry. He encounters the same ship in a later book; when the Captain asks what happened with the Ugly Heiress, he points to the young and beautiful Queen of Elenia and says "I married her."
  • Xanth
    • In the novel Ogre, Ogre, the female protagonist's wish to escape such an abhorrent admirer (a rape demon, more or less) is what kicks off the plot.
    • Subverted with the Dolph/Electra/Nada Love Triangle that took up a couple of books. Prince Dolph finds himself engaged to two women, the beautiful Nada Naga, whom he loves, and the more ordinary Electra, who loves him. Nada considers Dolph to be this trope, as he is far too young and immature for her. Dolph thinks this of Electra, as while she is not unattractive, she can in no way compete with the knockout Nada. To compound matters, Dolph must marry Nada to ensure an alliance between two kingdoms, and he must marry Electra or she will die from a magical curse. Despite this, the three are friends, and eventually decide to Screw Destiny by having Dolph marry Electra, divorce her the next day, marry Nada, and fix the love triangle with the use of Love/Anti-Love potions. Then it gets double subverted when during their one night of marriage Dolph discovers he truly does love Electra, and they remain married.
  • Amelia Peabody's husband Emerson managed to attract the attentions of a loathsome woman who was convinced that she and Emerson had been lovers in Ancient Egypt. Being Emerson, he was as annoyed by the historical inaccuracies in her story of their past lives as he was by the lady herself.

Live-Action TV

  • The Big Bang Theory: Howard is this to Penny, and gets his nose broken when he tries to kiss her.
  • In the Seinfeld episode "The Strike" (a.k.a. The One with Festivus), Elaine gains the attentions of three repulsive males: Kevin McDonald's denim-vest-wearing character and two sleazoids from an OTB parlor. (Elaine herself briefly becomes one too thanks to a hairdo-ruining steam bath, and Jerry is dating a woman who flips from ugly to pretty depending on the lighting.)
  • An episode of Malcolm in the Middle had the boys getting a hot babysitter who had been a girl like this to Francis before he went to military school and back when she was overweight. Francis hadn't wanted to hurt her feelings, but towards the end of the episode, told her over the phone that he didn't find her attractive at all (not knowing that she had lost a considerable amount of weight and had gained the aforementioned hotness). It made him sound gay.
  • Full House
    • Mrs. Carruthers was like this to Joey as a Running Gag.
    • Kimmy Gibler was like this towards several of the men on the show as well. Especially Jesse.
    • The Full House team apparently loved this trope, because there was a character named Rusty that was depicted as such toward D.J. during the first half of season 4. The rub:His mom was dating Danny.
  • Married... with Children was fond of the "mortal terror" angle.
    • Bud in particular was often an Abhorrent Admirer's victim as a Running Gag of sorts.
    • One episode had Al changing his mind and going for a ride with some middle-aged overweight women who decided he was very hot.
  • This trope made up the entirety of the recurring "Wanda Wayne" and "Vera de Milo" sketches on In Living Color.
  • The IT Crowd
    • The show does this with Judy from series one, who has a thing for Roy. She has "hair on her eyes" and "three rows of teeth"
    • Roy has a tendency to attract this type of woman; there was also the woman who, upon encountering a bunch of tramps on their date, began shouting at them that they owed her money. Played with, in that since Roy himself is usually pretty desperate, he often ends up sleeping with them anyway.
    • Not to mention the girl in the 'Friendface' episode who wears too much make-up. She's not exactly hideous, but her make-up and personality are both creepy. Roy tells Jen that "It was like breaking up with the joker".
  • One episode of The Jamie Foxx Show had Jamie the victim of an Abhorrent Admirer named DAMN!!!
    • Jamie Foxx is no stranger to this trope. He played this character himself, Ugly Wanda, when he was on In Living Color. The episode might have been a Shout-Out to that.
  • In Jeeves and Wooster, it seems anyone actually interested in Bertie is off the end of one scale or another, even though none of them actually look bad.
    • Honoriah Glossop is not particularly good-looking, but more importantly, large and violent. Not exactly well-suited to Bertie.
    • Lady Florence Craye is physically attractive, but with a horrifyingly caustic personality that makes anyone watching want to push her down a well.
    • Madeline Bassett is so sickeningly sweet.
  • Deconstructed and subverted in Strangers with Candy since the protagonist Jerri Blank (being her 46-year-old ex-junky-whore self) in many ways embodies the trope. How she is treated because of that varies strongly throughout the series: sometimes her flirting (with guys and girls alike) is answered with total horror, mostly she's just treated like a normal, if rather unattractive student and occasionally she lands attractive, popular boyfriends. A subversion is the fact that off-screen Jerri is ridiculously promiscuous and quite possibly leads the most active sex-life in the whole series.
  • Family Matters
    • Male example in (who else?) Steve Urkel, whose undying devotion to Laura is not received well at all. But that has just as much (or more) to do with his outrageously weird personality than the way he looks.
    • There is also his cousin Myrtle Urkel, a Southern Belle with a crush on Eddie.
  • There was an example in the Farscape episode 'The Flax' with the character Staanz developing feelings for D'Argo. It was made all the more hilarious by the fact that Staanz is only revealed to be the female of her species towards the end (though she does admit to not being 'cut from the standard mold', so how female is debatable) and is in fact played by a very male Ryss Muldoon.
  • Friends
    • Chandler is repeatedly plagued by the unwanted advances of Janice, who (while not unattractive) sports a gaudy wardrobe, a loud and nasal voice, and an ugly honking laugh. She's not entirely unwanted, however, as Chandler does (eventually) develop feelings for her; the two are actually in a seemingly stable relationship for a few episodes before she goes back to her husband.
    • Chandler seems to be a magnet for these, as he also had to deal with the unwanted affections of overweight teenage Monica in the flashbacks. Of course, this is also a subversion, because Monica not only grew up to be quite attractive, but eventually became Chandler's wife.
    • A further subversion comes in a later "alternate universe" episode where, among other changes, Monica is still fat. In this world, she still winds up with Chandler, proving that their relationship goes much deeper than looks, and Chandler's earlier reaction to her was simple teenage idiocy.
  • The Office
    • Meredith occasionally hits on Jim. For example, when she breaks her hip she asks him to sign her pelvis cast and singles him out in particular to thank for visiting her in the hospital. Jim seems disturbed, but too polite to say anything.
    • The Office likes this—Dwight is one to Michael and Michael is one to usually Ryan and Jim but also to other members of the office.
    • In the English version, David Brent tries to encourage the camera (and whoever's watching) to sympathise with him when his date turns out to be as overweight as he is, but she's a nice person and he's rude to her so it's almost an inversion.
  • Played with on Top Gear, where Richard Hammond gets a fan letter, ostensibly from a mentally-disturbed prisoner about to be released on parole... named Stuart.
  • Subverted on Arrested Development, as the plain, average Ann is considered an Abhorrent Admirer to George Michael—by his father. George Michael himself adores her.
  • In The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, the eponymous Zack and Cody have, on separate occasions, and despite their best efforts, attracted the affections of Agnes.
  • Harper and Justin from Wizards of Waverly Place are a good example of this. In earlier episodes, she was portrayed as Alex's weird friend who was convinced she was going to marry Justin despite his complete disinterest. Although in later episodes, Harper starts acting a little more calm around him and they become friends, Justin still seems highly uncomfortable when the subject of Harper's feelings for him come up.
  • In 80's sitcom about a girl robot named Vicky and her family Small Wonder, Harriet Brindle. Is treated as such by Jamie.
  • Glee
    • April Rhodes, Mr Schuester's Abhorrent Admirer, is one of the rare examples where her abhorrence is related to her terrible personality. She's actually very pretty, if a little trashy compared to the very wholesome-looking rest of the cast.
    • Subverted somewhat in two other cases as well. Rachel has an Abhorrent Admirer in Jacob ben Israel and Kurt has one in David Karofsky. In both cases, as with April Rhodes, it's not their appearance that makes them abhorrent, but their behaviour (they're both prone to acts of blatant sexual harassment and, in one case, death threats).
    • Subverted completely in the case of Lauren Zizes—it initially looks as if she's being set up as an Abhorrent Admirer for Puck in episode 2x09, but by 2X12 he's completely fallen for her attitude and self-confidence and is desperately pursuing her.
  • Lily on The Hard Times of RJ Berger. However RJ isn't disgusted with her so much as annoyed. The real disgust actually comes from his best friend Miles.
  • In Zoey 101 there is Stacey to Logan.
  • On Saved by the Bell, Screech is one for Lisa. However, she will occasionally reciprocate.
  • In Night Court, Dan Fielding is forced to defer an evening's diversions with beautiful twin Swedish stewardesses out of concerns that he may have been bitten by a rabid dog. Grateful for his candor, one of the stewardesses decides to play straight (as it were) with Dan, admitting that the twins were at one time both men. Dan is unamused.
  • One episode of NCIS has Ducky's senile mother become attracted to Gibbs. Fortunately she didn't appear again for the rest of the episode.
  • Rose from Two and A Half Men would fall under this trope. Not because she's ugly (she's quite attractive) but because of her personality. She's a stalker, she would regularly climb over their balcony instead of visiting by using the front door and has engaged in elaborate schemes to make Charlie fall for her, including keeping him sick so she can play Florence Nightengale and, more recently, put on a fake wedding just to make him Charlie want her.
  • Henry in CSI at one point is stuck in a BBQ joint miles from anywhere, being hit on by a woman who is, let's say, past her best. This exchange follows: "I'm engaged. I'm married, actually. I have syphilis." "Perfect. So do I."
  • Star Trek
    • Lwaxana Troi to Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
    • On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Lwaxana seems to resume this role, this time with Odo as her "victim". However, this is partially a subversion, as their relationship turns into friendship and Odo genuinely starts to care for Lwaxana (albeit not in a romantical way).
  • Oleg the fry cook in Two Broke Girls to both Max and Caroline.
  • A.N.T. Farm's Angus is this to Olive.
  • Ironically the actress playing Olive is this on Jessie to Luke more of a Stalker with a Crush though.
  • Paula is this to Tim in Spy.
  • Weird Ashley to Axl on The Middle.
  • Oleg the cook to just about every female on Two Broke Girls.
  • Gail the Snail on the series Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Gail is seen as so abhorrent, the other characters will literally throw salt at her to thwart her advances.

Music Videos

Newspaper Comics

  • This was the original role of Gravel Gerty in the Dick Tracy comic strip; even grotesque villain the Brow was repulsed by Gertie's affections. She eventually met and married the equally grotesque B.O. Plenty, though B.O. was never used as an Abhorrent Admirer, just as a side villain and then a comic-relief hillbilly. Naturally B.O. and Gertie's daughter, Sparkle, is a stunner.
  • In Zits, Jeremy gets one of these in the form of Amber, a girl who obsesses about him for a week or so before she breaks up with him (via the Posse) and disappears. In a rare case, she is somewhat sympathetic and not the butt of the joke (one strip had Hector pondering why of all people she'd obsess over Jeremy).
  • FoxTrot
    • Mindy of could count, however she is kind of an odd case in that she spends all of her time crushing after Peter but he remains more or less unaware of it (meanwhile, her friend keeps telling her that it's no good). It's not so much that she's unattractive, as he already has a girlfriend. It all comes to an end after she winds up going to prom with Peter's friend Steve and both hit it off very well.
    • Morton Goldthwait is a fairly straight example. He's a short, zit-faced, coke-bottle-lenses wearing nerd who obsesses over Paige and won't be dissuaded no matter how violently she reacts to his advances. Although in one storyline he does move on and find someone who returns his advances. Paige even asks him if he forgot about her and all the times he kept hitting on her, and he replies: "The truth is, I remembered."
    • And Paige herself, along with her friend Nicole, sometimes are this, when they're stalking and shamelessly flirting with the various popular and good-looking guys.
  • Al Capp's Lil Abner features at least two examples.
    • First is Sadie Hawkins, A homely spinster at 35, she has a wealthy father who invented "Sadie Hawkins Day", on which women could propose to men. The character was so popular that the tradition caught on in real life, and outlived the strip character's fame entirely in the form of Sadie Hawkins dances.
    • Then there is former Trope Namer Lena the Hyena, who was described as "the ugliest woman in Lower Slobbovia" and initially left undepicted. Cartoonist Basil Wolverton famously won a contest to portray Lena.
  • In the newspaper strip Curtis, the title character is this to Michelle. Curtis presses his suit despite Michelle doing everything short of calling the cops on him—up to and including repeatedly straight up telling him "Go away. I don't like you."

Pro Wrestling

  • This was Goldust's gimmick, a rare male example of the trope. Goldust was basically a pan-sexual who would flirt with his opponents to gain a psychological advantage in a match by, for example, suddenly appearing to enjoy the grapple he's been put into or caressing his opponent in a hold.
  • "Exotic" Adrian Street was working this gimmick before Dustin's daddy started wrestling, and can be seen as a major influence on the Goldust character. "Gorgeous" George Wagner was doing it even earlier

Tabletop Games

  • The Nosferatu from Vampire: The Requiem can be an interesting Deconstruction of this trope. Although their appearance suggests otherwise, the Nosferatu are not as susceptible to the caprices of the Beast as the other vampires are so they can still be quite human at heart (or not!), but this does not dismiss the fact that they can still feel attracted to (or even fall in love with!) others and when this happens they become Abhorrent Admirers. To make the situation more aggravating they are supernaturally hideous it basically means that it is simply impossible to love them. The core rulebook does point out how dramatic the experience can be, for both sides (especially if you are the receiver of the affection).
  • Naturally, taken Up to Eleven in Warhammer 40,000 with Nurgle and Isha. Long story short, after the Chaos God the Eldar orgied into existence slaughtered almost their entire pantheon, Isha was saved because Nurgle decided to keep her for himself. Nurgle, being Nurgle, expresses his affection by imprisoning Isha in his throne room and testing all of his experimental diseases on her (only able to survive due to being a deity of Healing), and if it is a success he unleashes it upon the universe. But this also allows Isha to whisper the cure to the universe as well, so it's all good.

Theater

  • Gilbert and Sullivan operettas use this trope fairly often, though not quite as often as people think:
    • For instance, in Ruddigore 's Dame Hannah is loved by two different characters, and gets to have the one moment of genuine romance in the play. Admittedly, she's also accidentally abducted due to poor communication with flunkies, but the jokes are almost entirely at the kidnapper's expense, while she gets to show herself as a complete badass, completely capable of defending herself.
    • While Katisha in The Mikado is mostly a straight example of this trope, she does get the Act II song "Alone, and Yet Alive" which describes the pain of being forever thwarted in love rather nicely. Some modern productions play Katisha as the hero and Nanki-Poo as the Jerkass who jilted her. It's unlikely that Gilbert wrote with this intention, though.
  • In Shakespeare's early play The Comedy of Errors, Nell the Kitchen Wench becomes enamored of one of the Dromios. She's an offstage character, but is heavily described. "... she would have me as a beast: not that, I being a beast, she would have me; but that she, being a very beastly creature, lays claim to me." (III, ii). On the other hand, in something of a subversion, the other Dromio actually seems to like her back.
  • In The Merry Wives of Windsor, Gold Digger Sir John Falstaff writes boilerplate love letters to two local wives, who find him repulsive (but humor him long enough to subject him to a Humiliation Conga).
  • Stephen Sondheim's Passion works toward a Subversion. The soldier hero pines for his beautiful (and married) lover Clara and is repulsed by the attentions of the unattractive and sickly Fosca. Eventually he realizes Fosca's love is more, well, passionate, to put it lightly, and gives in to her. Of course Fosca suffers a very direct and literal Death by Sex afterwards, but still, victory!
  • Tanz der Vampire
    • Herbert von Krolock is a borderline example of the male homosexual variety, depending on who's playing him. He might be handsome and endearing but he's also a clingy, aggressive vampire who's very intent on getting his teeth into vampire-hunting Tenor Boy Alfred.
    • Rebecca, Chagal's wife, who presumably used to resemble her lovely daughter Sarah, has become one of these to her husband in the same show, driving him toward his beautiful scullery maid Magda. This is especially jarring in productions where she's not even played as particularly obnoxious or ugly. (However, the fact that he isn't particularly charming or attractive either renders him a genderswapped example of the same trope as far as Magda's concerned... until he bites her, at least.)
  • The Changeling. De Flores has a terrible skin disease. He might actually be a Dogged Nice Guy.

Video Games

  • Some versions of the Super Mario Bros. story world place Bowser as this to explain why you're rescuing the princess from him.
  • Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
    • During the Lance Banson boss fight, his fangirls (Banson being a famous opera singer and Sky Pirate) will rush out from time to time. Sometimes they're attractive and mildly replenish his health. If Henry screws up his singing via the Match Three Puzzle, they're rather plain and fat—Benson will freak out when they rush him, and their collision actually hurts him.
    • Also, the first boss Lady D is this for Henry. He tells her he hasn't the time and she promptly tries to destroy him with her giant Wedding Cake Battle Fortress.
  • Bit of a cutesy inversion in Fat Princess if you Fridge it.
  • Inverted with Laharl of Disgaea, who actually gets hurt by pretty, big-busted women. Though he shows no interest either way, romantically.
  • The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police
    • Inverted in "Chariots of the Dogs", where the titular lagomorph (Max) ends up being the object of obsession of the fairly attractive Momma Bosco. Of course, Max doesn't like girls (for the same reasons a 10 year old boy is disgusted by girls) and finds her advances on him to be gross. In the same game, a young version of Max tries to avoid going to the prom because there's a girl who has a crush on him who is apparently known for french kissing every boy she likes.
    • In the "Tomb of Sammun-Mak" we have the Mole-girl, Nefertiti, who is hopelessly in love with a pre-vampire Jurgen.
  • In Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp, a morbidly obese Eve chases Dirk thinking he's Adam.
  • In Persona 4, it turns out Hanako had a crush on your main character throughout the game if you talk to her in the epilogue.
  • Terk from the Tarzan world of the first Kingdom Hearts game falls in love with Donald Duck. Since her character can only speak to Tarzan and other gorillas, the rest of the cast pick up on this by the way she is lovingly gazing at the duck. It's not really known if Donald Duck is unattracted to her since he just remarks that his girlfriend Daisy would kill him if anything ever happened between himself and Terk. Although chances are Donald wasn't attracted to her since he has gained a few abhorrent admirers in recent years (see the Western Animation section below).
  • The Rip Van Fish from "The Only Water Level" in Something. If they see Mario, they immediately chase him. Also, they're dreaming about finding love since they create hearts when they're sleeping.

Visual Novels

Web Comics

  • Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic
    • There's features an interesting take on Abhorrent Admirer in one story arc. It revolves around a queen with a trio of daughters who is making arrangements with another king to have his son marry one of her daughters to cement an alliance, with intent to betray him later and become absolute ruler of both kingdoms. The prince in question, however, is in every possible way disinterested. Not because the daughters are necessarily ugly, but because they're gnolls, and he's just plain not interested in an interspecies relationship (by gnoll standards they're actually pretty hot catches). Two of the daughters are incredibly forward and eager; it's never shown onscreen but when the middle daughter tries to actually use sex to win him over, it's implied he reacts badly. When he succumbs to the fact that he's not going to get out of this, he chooses the third daughter, who's surly and completely unwilling. When his father asks why he chose her over her cheerful, willing sisters, he points out that if he has to marry one of them he might as well choose the one he agrees with and who will, more importantly, be equally as miserable with the arrangement.
    • When Gren briefly breaks up with Bob, she has Arachne set her up on a number of blind dates. All of the prospects are this in some way, either from being perverted (the kuo-toa), attractive but too sensitive (Turg), or absolutely disgusting (the otyugh and neo-otyugh). It's possible that Arachne did this on purpose, as she despises men and thinks Gren should as well.
  • Torg's blind date from Sluggy Freelance. May or may not actually be a woman.
  • Sherry from Out There finds her admirer Clayton fairly abhorrent, and while he has many flaws (surly, shiftless, dishonest, alcoholic), the other notable female characters seem to like him.
  • Scandinavia and The World
    • Sister Finland for Sweden, though it's less about her looks and more about her violent tendencies and his sexuality. That and Finland would probably try to maim/kill Sweden if the latter even touched his sister.
    • Estonia, of the Baltic girls trio, just wants to party with the cute Nordic boys. They however hide from her in fear. Except for Finland, who does accept her booze before slamming the door in her face.
  • In Dubious Company, Elly has three of them. While all of them are physically attractive, their personalities terrify him. Not to mention that Mary and Marty are also the bad guys.
  • Lowroad - a demon girl good looking enough to be mistaken for a succubus is pretty much doomed to get excess of these. And she (otherwise) likes to visit anime conventions...

Giselle: The only problem is that whenever I go to one of these things, an army of drooling teenage fanboys keep trying to hit on me, "OMGWTFBBQ! Kawaii demon girl with glasses!! MOE!!!" Fap, fap, fap...

Web Original

  • Another unconventional example is SamBakZa's There She Is, a story in five "steps" about a relationship between Doki, a rabbit, and Nabi, a cat. In their society, friendly intermingling of felis and lepus is perfectly fine, but a romance between the two is afforded about the same respect as one between a white man and a black woman circa the American Civil War. In the first step, Nabi flees Doki's attentions more because of social norms than actual disinterest (although Doki's enthusiasm probably intimidates Nabi a bit, as well). The rest of the shorts are more about Doki and Nabi's attempts to cope with society's opinion of their relationship.
  • Fangirls and fanboys in the Official Fanfiction University series are not necessarily unattractive, but tend to have no grasp at all of personal space or no meaning no. Most of them are also underage, if the OFU is in a continuum where that applies, or even if it doesn't -- milennia-old elves really do not see the appeal of thirteen-year-old girls. Plus the sheer number of them tends to get wearing. "Fangirl Stampedes" are not uncommon.
  • The Starfish loves Charlie the Unicorn and WANTS TO BE WITH HIM FOREVER!
  • The Nostalgia Chick to Todd in the Shadows. She's a pretty lady, but her personality and behaviour towards him is the reason why she's seen as abhorrent.[1]
    • Todd himself is this toward Obscurus Lupa (who seems to bring this out in most of the males on the site), almost to the point of Single-Target Sexuality. It's unclear whether he really dislikes the Chick, or if he's just too blinded with love for Lupa to even notice her feelings for him.
  • For most of Volume 1 and the first half of Volume 2 of RWBY, Jaune Arc was this to Weiss Schnee. This essentially ended the night of the dance in Volume 2, between upbraiding Neptune for turning Weiss down and discovering the deepening friendship he had with Pyrrha.

Western Animation

  • Sympathetic example from Avatar: The Last Airbender: Meng, who falls in Love At First Sight with Aang in the episode "The Fortune Teller". Also subverted in that Aang doesn't react negatively to her at all, but simply fails to notice her affection until she tells him. When she does, he's not disturbed either, in fact he's sympathetic and says he likes her, just not the way she likes him.
  • Looney Tunes
    • Arguably, the single greatest Abhorrent Admirer in the history of animation is Pepe Le Pew. Not because of his looks, as he is very handsome for a skunk (it seems the cartoon cats with the accidental white stripes seem to dig his groove after they have been rendered stinky or he had been rendered unstinky) but because of his unique, flower-wilting scent.
    • Gender Flipped with the female cat, Penelope, whenever her nose is plugged up and she loses her sense of smell, she becomes stinky herself, Pepe gets rid of his scent, or he has his white stripe covered by black paint and looks like a cat, at which point Penelope immediately goes crazy for Pepe and starts pursuing him. His reaction is pretty much the same as hers. Along with whatever scent-related issues are involved, the problem with both Pepe and her seems to be that they both just come on too strong.
    • Mama Bear turns into one of these at the end of Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears, after the rabbit's attempt at distraction-by-seduction works a little too well. ("Tell me more about my eyes!")
    • It happens to Bugs Bunny again in the cartoon Rabbit Romeo. He is pursued by a large Slobbovian rabbit named Millicent who wants to "kees" him and "make marriage". Eventually she loses interest in Bugs and falls in love with Elmer Fudd who was tricked into wearing a rabbit suit. So Millicent starts chasing after Elmer instead.
    • The Looney Tunes Show has Lola Bunny (first appearing in Space Jam) chasing Bugs. He thinks she's pretty, but she has the minor handicap of being a totally insane ditz.
    • The show also has Daffy bought at a bachelor auction by Granny, though it turns out she only wanted help cleaning her attic.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures
    • Trope continued with Pepe's female counterpart/successor Fifi La Fume. It was more poignant in the sense that Fifi was blatantly portrayed as being extremely beautiful, but admirers were quickly turned off by her particular scent. Fairly, though, aside from killer good looks, Fifi, in a way, is another sympathetic example, quite possibly due to the execution.
    • Elmyra is this to Max Montana in a couple of episodes, one in which Max reluctantly agrees to go to the prom with her, and another in which he (also reluctantly) goes on a date with her. Subverted in the end of the latter in which he gives her an Accidental Kiss at the end of their date.

Max: I think I'm in love...

  • Sierra from Total Drama World Tour definitely counts with her stalkerish obsession with Cody and his apparent fear of her.
  • The Kanker Sisters in Ed, Edd n Eddy. The fact that their affection always ends up as torture makes them fall into this category.
  • Mr. Barkin in Kim Possible spends one episode being (clumsily) hit upon by an unattractive, annoying woman and reacts with outraged disgust (admittedly, Mr. Barkin reacts with outraged disgust to almost everything, but still...). And the woman in question later turns out to be the villain of the week.
  • Tex Avery was fond of this trope.
    • The cartoon The Chump Champ has Droopy and Spike competing for the title of "King of Sports", with the prize being a kiss from the "Queen of Sports". After Spike cheats his way to victory, he goes to kiss the Queen, who appears to be a knockout... until her face is revealed. She chases the horrified Spike into the distance, as Droopy informs the audience that "cheaters never win".
    • In Red Hot Riding Hood, Red's grandmother is very forward in trying to catch the Wolf, who reacts with utter panic. Pretty much the same thing happens with the fairy godmother in Swing Shift Cinderella.
    • Subverted in Little Rural Riding Hood, though: the gawky hick Red inspires paroxysms of lust in both wolves!
  • Family Guy
    • There're one-off jokes about a few women like this (including a few moderately attractive celebrities), but the most recurring one is the Butt Monkey, Meg Griffin. Boys would rather set themselves on fire and kill their siblings than go to a dance with her. Strangely enough, Quagmire apparently thought she was at least somewhat attractive, since he kept asking when she turned 18. He's more or less alone in thinking that though.
    • She was able to attract some males in the pre-cancellation era, before her "ugliness" was played up, not to mention she has her own recurring Abhorrent Admirer in the form of Neil Goldman. This crosses into Hypocritical Humor when Meg sobs about no-one finding her attractive, yet she treats Neil like garbage. Whether Neil counts as a dogged nice guy is debatable. Some of the things he did to try and win her affection were underhanded and downright depraved.
    • Quagmire thinks pretty much everything is attractive, swinging between Abhorrent Admirer and Kavorka Man. He told Cleveland the only thing that doesn't arouse him is people who use the term "rubbish" for garbage. And he didn't find Peter's boss Angela attractive.
    • Quagmire's attraction to anyone and everything (including Meg) is also subverted in "Barely Legal". Meg has been Brian's abhorrent admirer all episode and when she is sent round to Quagmire's house so he can "take care of her", it is heavily implied he is going to seduce her. He strips, puts on music and...has a heart to heart with Meg about the pressures of growing up and gives her a copy of Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece.
  • Velda acts as one of these for Crash in the short-lived Stunt Dawgs.
  • A number of these featured in the The Beatles.
  • Woody Woodpecker
    • Used in the cartoon A Fine Feathered Frenzy with Gorgeous Gal who had a sexy voice but was an overweight and eldery anthropomorphic bird. After falling head over heals over Woody Woodpecker the second she laid eyes on him she chased after and attempted to seduce him ("How 'bout a twosome hon?") despite his reluctance. Gorgeous Gal still managed to kiss him on his cheeks and lips several times and even married Woody against his wishes.
    • The cartoon Alley to Bali features two; a light gray gorilla and a giant pink octopus with blue eyes. The octopus likes Woody and both of these girls like Buzz Buzzard. The boys in turn are chasing after a balinese woman with an hourglass figure and wind up in the clutches of these admirers by mistake. With a tentacle around his neck, the giant octopus presses her big red lips against Woody's cheek twice. Buzz, on the other hand, gets kissed right on the beak by both ladies. However, the gorilla and octopus turn brown in disgust after locking lips with the Buzzard!
    • On The Woody Woodpecker Show short "Date With Destiny", a Cupid decides to teach the Woodpecker a lesson and strikes a male black and white sharp toothed badger with a love arrow. The badger with a very raspy voice says to Woody "Hi ya buddy!" He closes his eyes and puckers his lips while pink hearts appear above his head. The horrified Woodpecker runs down the street with the badger in hot pursuit.
  • Used repeatedly in Drawn Together with Toot Braunstein. Slight irony there too: she's actually drawn somewhat nice-looking most of the time, if you like them chubby. It's her disgusting slovenly habits which are the actual deal-breaker to those of us not in the show. She receives the brunt of the Ren & Stimpy super detail gags as a result of this trope, however. (And, some characters do reciprocate, much to the horror of the rest of the cast, like Ling-Ling's dad.)
  • On Histeria!, Cleopatra is often portrayed this way (particularly when played by the World's Oldest Woman), to the point where Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony both happily go to their appointed deaths to get away from her. When Cleopatra herself dies and show up in the afterlife with the pair, all Caesar can utter is "This is heaven?"
    • Evidently Truth in Television, from a purely physical standpoint. Statues and the imprints on coins, which were designed to flatter, are at best nothing special by either our own standards nor the standards of her time. In real life she managed to win over the boys by being intelligent, funny, and engaging in conversation.
  • Hey Arnold!
    • Curly is definitely this to Rhonda. "I haven't changed my underwear in seventeen days", anyone?
    • Brainy too, to Helga.
  • An episode of The Fairly OddParents had Timmy getting a note passed to him, saying that he's cute. When he looks at Francis (who had passed him a note threatening to kill him moments earlier), he points behind him to where a beautiful girl is sitting. When he begins to flirt, the girl points behind her to where a rather large girl is sitting. Timmy freaks out, end joke.
  • Deconstructed in an episode of Alvin and The Chipmunks, Alvin having organized a contest for his admirers in which the winner would get a romantic dinner with him, is utterly dismayed when the winner turns out to be an old woman, during the episode Alvin goes through great pains trying to get rid of her, but when he thinks that he might accidentally caused her death he feels a lot of remorse and realizes that he has been a jerk. At the end of the episode the woman admits that she may not have been what he was expecting and she understands it, prompting Alvin make good on her prize.
  • In 6teen, Darth is this to Nikki.
  • The Weavil Princess to Beezy in Jimmy Two-Shoes.
  • Chowder: Hey Num-Nums.

"I'M NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND!!!"

  • Futurama
    • This describes the relationship between Zapp Brannigan and Turanga Leela. Zapp is the admirer in this case. Of course, on their first encounter Leela sleeps with him out of pity, complicating things for herself for the rest of the series. Note that Zapp is quite handsome (if a bit overweight): Leela hates him purely for his personality.
    • Fry gets one in "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love". Edna is considered highly desirable by Decapodian standards, but hideous to humans. When Fry admits it was he who coached Zoidberg in the ways of flirting, Edna falls for him because she has never experienced romance before (it being unknown to her species). When Fry is stuck with the prospect of either ending up with her or being killed by a vengeful Zoidberg, he considers both options equally horrific.
  • House of Mouse
    • Clara Cluck to Donald Duck on the short "Double Date Don". She falls for Donald Duck and spends the cartoon trying to kiss him and win him over by wearing different outfits and posing provocatively for him. Eventually while she is lying on the ground she grabs him and forcibly manages to kiss him passionately on the lips. Soon after Clara almost tricks Donald into marrying her. Daisy stops the wedding in time.
    • In "Donald's Pool", an elderly female turtle and Donald Duck initially dislike each other. Donald is also grossed out when he sees her remove her shell and appear in a one piece purple bikini. She changes her tune by the end of the short when she thinks that Donald taught her son Shelby how to swim. She thanks him and says that she will bring her son back to the pool every single day of the summer. On top of that she grabs Donald to congratulate him with a kiss on his beak! Donald fends her off but winds up falling in the pool and sinking to the bottom. Her son Shelby laughs at the duck's misfortune.
  • A large female alligator named Antoinette also falls in love with Donald in the Quack Pack episode "Gator Aid". Constantly puckering her lips in front him while crawling and swimming after Donald she tries to kiss him several times. She only succeeds on camera once by planting a kiss right on the top of his head. However she may have kissed him on the lips a few times because at one point she turns him away from the camera, kissing noises are heard and pink hearts float in the air. When we see the two both of their lips are already puckered and Antionette is getting ready for a giant smooch. This is when Donald escapes from her embrace, but Antionette never gives up trying to make out with him. During the cartoon Donald even has a nightmare that they are married with half alligator and half duck children and in that dream she gives him a peck on the cheek. Some time after he wakes up, the gator who is five times larger than Donald Duck offers him a pink heart shaped box of candy. She also offers him a wedding ring while wearing a white veil! This time around Daisy is rather indifferent to the alligator's crush on Donald.
  • Popeye: Olive Oyl becomes this to Shorty in the Popeye cartoon The Marry Go Round. Over at Olive's house Popeye is not having much luck proposing to her. So Shorty grabs Olive and kisses her on the lips to show Popeye how to seduce a woman even though he isn't really attracted to her. Unfortunately for Shorty, Olive winds up falling for him. After a quick costume change Olive puts on a dress and red shade of lipstick. She manages to kiss him two more times and chases him around the house. Popeye becomes jealous and attempts to beat Shorty up at the same time. Shorty spends the rest of the film trying to escape from both of them.
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Irwin (a rare male example) for Mandy.
  • Valerie Gray in Danny Phantom gets this in one episode with Nathan (another rare male example) who is portrayed as a stereotypically "ugly nerd" who wants to ask Valerie to the prom (despite it being three years away) while Valerie was a former popular girl.
  • In the Duck Dodgers episode "Talent Show a Go-Go", after "borrowing" Tom Jones's voice, Dodgers ends up attracting the attention of an ugly alien queen.
  • Captain N: The Game Master
    • A dress-wearing pink octopus with blonde hair and blue eyes had a crush on Simon Belmont during the episode entitled "I Wish I Was a Wombatman". This short yet shapely and well-endowed director's assistant said to him with a beautiful voice, "Ooooh! You're a dream boat!" She gave him a big hug wrapping her tentacles around him. While embracing him, the assistant gave him a giant wink and extended her enormous red lips inches away from his. Simon seemed repelled because she was of a different species. The cartoon ended with the octopus leaning forward exposing the top of her ample cleavage and asking "Uh, anyone one call for make up?" Ignoring everyone else in the room she made a beeline right to her beloved Belmont. The blonde babe had no make-up kit on hand because this was just her excuse to get Simon alone in a dressing room for some hugging and kissing. Simon ran away in terror. She slithered right after him with a big smile and open tentacles like a love-struck groupie.
    • Simon Belmont had another such admirer in the episode "Queen of the Apes". After defeating the leader of a pack of gorillas a female that had a blonde beehive complete with curlers and a pink skirt fell for Simon. The muscle bound large breasted hairy ape closed her eyes and tried to kiss him with her big pink lips but he got away. The pack of gorillas carried Simon away to end the episode so there's a chance she got around to kissing him off camera.
    • This was reversed a few times with Simon getting struck with a love arrow and falling for the hideous Mother Brain once, almost marrying her in the episode Mr. & Mrs. Mother Brain. There was also a mutual attraction between Simon and Queen Dwarfine in The Feud of Faxanadu. While she had a rather plump yet nice figure she may not have been very attractive to the audience given her blue skin, green frizzy hair and big nose. The Vampire Hunter was attracted to more classic beauties such as Lana and Princess Zelda however, throughout the series.
  • Jackie "Wacky Jackie" Wackerman on Kick Buttowski definitely fits this trope, not only is she a Stalker with a Crush, but she ain't exactly a looker either.
  • The Ice King from Adventure Time kidnaps princesses and forces them into marrying him against their will. And on a more platonic level, he wants to be friends with Finn and Jake. His loneliness makes him a Jerkass Woobie, but that he forces princesses into marriage, which to him means keeping them locked up, and is very stalkerish towards Finn and Jake pretty much seals his status as an adversary.
  • Early episodes of The Real Ghostbusters toyed with this, as Janine, the heavily-made-up spiky-haired caricature of 80s femininity, constantly flirted with Egon and was constantly rejected. He was never portrayed as immune to the charms of women other than Janine. Later in the series she was redesigned to be more attractive and less outlandish, and curiously her relationship with Egon became more sweet and less annoying on all counts.
  • In The Simpsons, it's no secret that Moe Syzlak has a long-time crush on Marge. Though he respects the sanctity of Homer and Marge's marriage too much to actively pursue her.
  • Johnny Test
    • Eugene a.k.a. Bling-Bling boy loves Susan Test but she wants nothing to do with him. Conversely Susan and her sister Mary both have a crush on Gil but he is barely aware of their existence.
    • In the short "Johnny of the Deep" Johnny Test is transformed into a shark and is approached by a top heavy female shark with long eyelashes, red hair, green eyes and big red lips who speaks with a slight southern accent. She called him a flaming haired hunk of shark and said "I think you're cute as all get out!" She ran a fin through his hair and asked, "How 'bout a little kiss sugar?" Moving in to hold him and blowing kisses while puckering her lips, the horrified Johnny swam away. She pursued smacking her lips during the chase scene. Later, a ring dubbed Suzanite that Bling-Bling Boy had that could make any female fall for him (but it was obviously intended for Susan) worked it's magic on the shark thanks to Johnny and Dukey. She gazed at Eugene with hearts in her eyes. The smitten shark declared, "Ah'm in love," and wanted "Just a little kiss!" This was despite the fact that Bling-Bling Boy was not transformed into a shark like Johnny and was still a human, but it was all due to the power of the ring. The shark lady swam after Eugene and called out to him a few times aking for her "Sugar? SUGAR?"
    • Another episode has a female Bigfoot fall in love and smother Dukey (who was transformed into a monster by a Transformation Ray gun for a time) who obviously didn't enjoy the affection.
  • The Boondocks It's Maybelliiiiiiiiine, nigga! from the episode, Wingman, when Robert Freeman is confronted by a long lost ex.
  • At the end of the episode "Cartman Finds Love" from South Park, Cartman is chased by Stacy Mullenberg, the poster child for Halitosis Kids!
  1. ↑ Ironically, the pair are a happy couple in Real Life.
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