"Peter Parker was just an attractive, intelligent, likable, athletic, well-dressed teenage loser."
Similar to Hollywood Homely, and a very frequent protagonist of High School shows, this is when a character who is smart, funny, fashionable, and good-looking is portrayed as being much less popular than they would be in real life, to the point of threatening Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Done deliberately to limit the circle of friends/cast as much as possible, thereby erasing the hassle of writing multiple, varying characterizations, while at the same time making the main character likable to the viewer. If this character is female, she is frequently a target of the Alpha Bitch. If this character is male, he is often the target of the Big Jerk on Campus, the Jerk Jock, and/or The Bully.
This often leads up to a big payoff, when the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character is briefly given a moment when they realize that more people do, in fact, like them more than they thought (usually when they are unexpectedly honored at some manner of ceremony, such as a graduation). It's not explained why those honoring didn't demonstrate this in some way earlier (the few times it is, it's often explained as the rest of the student body fearing the Alpha Bitch, Jerk Jock, or other Big Man on Campus so much, they didn't want to befriend the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character and become a target of their fury), but it often comes in the form of a sweet gesture.
A very common signal of the Unconvincingly Unpopular Character involves being a member of the school paper. This is often seen as a gray area, doesn't carry the obvious negative "nerd" connotations of the Chess Club or the Mathletes, but also isn't seen as "cool" as sports teams or cheerleading.
Often overlaps with This Loser Is You. See also Loners Are Freaks and Allegedly Dateless. An Informed Loner is basically this, except they supposedly don't even want friends. See also Wasted Beauty, where it is acknowledged that the character could be popular (because they're hot), but they have an "uncool" side that prevents them from being so. Compare Informed Flaw. Not to be confused with Unpopular Popular Character, but one may sometimes lead to the other.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Guts of Berserk is a Played With case as while it’s understandable why as the Black Swordsman he’d be unpopular with everyone save a few people distrusting the black-dressed, one-eyed dude with a huge sword — it’s harder to swallow Guts getting such dislike even from allies in the Golden Age arc when he’s clearly a Hunk easily as magnificent a warrior as Agent Peacock Griffith. It takes him Taking the Bullet for Casca and later his timely return to the Hawks after leaving, for them to start loving and idolising him. In reality, it would take far less effort for a man like Guts to be well-liked.
- Kana Ichikawa from The Dangers in My Heart is a cheerful, attractive, intelligent, social, and easygoing Nice Girl who is also the singer and guitarist of a band and studies at one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan. Despite all of that, she somehow never got a date.
- Dragon Ball Z: Gohan during the Buu Saga is somehow unpopular in high school, even though he’s an incredibly handsome and sweet guy built like a god, who makes even the jocks look like utter pushovers during a baseball game. Erasa and the anime-only Angela being instantly attracted to him is far more believable compared to Videl initially treating him like a dork (even if he is a proud bookworm).
- Hoshin Engi: Taikobo is an adorable, hilarious, good-hearted, young-looking immortal that's insanely smart and manages to come up with genius tactics to save the day. Yet absolutely no halfway decent woman has any romantic interest in him throughout the entire series... save for a hideous Gonk that disgusts everyone (including and especially him). Sure, he's a Celibate Hero that has no interest in romance... but it's not like he's always announcing it and letting everyone know, and there's no real reason why no one is interested in him.
- Maken-ki!: There's nothing wrong with Usui, other than the fact he's a pervert with a one-track mind. Otherwise, he's reasonably good-looking, fairly intelligent, and really not that bad a guy. So it's a wonder to him how Takeru, who's nearly the exact oppositenote Takeru is just as perverted as Usui, except he's average looking and Book Dumb, has better luck with girls than he does.
- Naruto:
- Rock Lee is very much treated as a loser In-Universe with many of his peers finding him ridiculous and uncool, even though he’s an athletic Nice Guy who regularly puts himself through Training from Hell to make up for the fact unlike the naturally gifted Sasuke or Neji he cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu. Tenten showing affection and admiration for his commitment and personality is supposed to be unique — when her sentiment is echoed tenfold by the readership, who love Lee precisely for the reasons why characters in the setting look down on him.
- Hinata too. Given that she has the looks and personality of a perfect Japanese wife, that she comes from one of the most powerful clans in the village, and that she has special powerful techniques, it's surprising that she wasn't on par with Sasuke in popularity at the Ninja Academy, considering that she's actually his Distaff Counterpart, but with a less brutal demeanor.
- Sailor Moon: Minako seems to be a victim of this; unlike the other girls she lacks any other obvious traits that would make her unpopular. It's likely The Artifact from working solo in her own manga to being retrofitted into the new storyline, as in that series her more tomboyish traits tended to scare away boys and gross out the other girls.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! has Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) after his Heel–Face Turn. He's fairly attractive, friendly, and a pretty badass duelist, and yet is constantly the target of bullying and mean-spirited jokes from professional duelists and arc enemies, Kaiba, and even (until his Heel–Face Turn) Honda (Tristan Taylor). This was more justified in the manga, where his father is an alcoholic deadbeat and he himself was well-known to have hung out with a legitimately criminal gang. It's implied that some part of being the target of mean-spirited jokes is his reliance on luck as part of his dueling strategy, at least to those like Kaiba.
Comic Books
- Hawkeye, especially in modern comics is treated like a joke, even though he’s an Adonis of a man with Charles Atlas Superpower with plenty of charisma and inspiring qualities. While it is true Clint lives in a universe where he has to be compared to the likes of Thor (a Physical God) and Iron Man (a genius billionaire) while he’s ultimately a man with a bow and arrow, many readers still found Clint’s perpetual bad luck when it comes to women (including a troubled marriage to Mockingbird), wealth, fame and general respect all very hard to accept at face value; given his exploits as an Avenger and caring personality should make him as beloved as Captain America.
- Monica's Gang: Despite Sunny's status as an unremarkable supporting character, he's surprisingly level-headed and shown to be pretty good at surfing, making some fans question why exactly he's a Butt-Monkey.
- Spider-Man: Peter Parker is (to the reader) a handsome, highly intelligent, funny guy who used to be Happily Married to a stunning red-haired supermodel, and now is a relatively successful freelance photographer (he was retconned to have won a Pulitzer for his photography). In real life, he'd be amazingly popular. In Marvel Universe Manhattan, though, he's all but completely ostracized from his peers because...well...he's Peter Parker. Though it's more true, to varying degrees, in adaptations like Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) and various animated series that focus on his high school life. It's only after One More Day that he became this, when it removed his marriage, his career, and his social skills and had everyone treat him like crap for no apparent reason. Then it's changed by the new Big Time era, complete with his alter ego Spider-Man beginning to become a trusted and respected hero in New York.note Among the New York public, as the hero community already considered Spidey a mainstay.
- From a Doylist perspective, this has a lot to do with how Peter Parker was depicted in the earlier stories by co-creator and first artist Steve Ditko. Spider-Man's world back then was truly a World of Jerkass where everybody was an asshole and gave Peter crap, except perhaps for Aunt May and Betty Brant, and Peter himself could be quite a repellent jerk at times too. As soon as John Romita's run started, this changed radically to Peter Parker being an Archie Andrews-like All-American Boy who was in the middle of love triangles and stuff. Most adaptations try to make Peter an unpopular loser like in the Ditko stories, but with characterization more like in the Romita stories.
- Erica from Something is Killing the Children is treated like a freak — even though she’s a beautiful blonde in a tank top. While sure her eyes have an under-shadow and her pupils a strange glow (which later gets explained), she certainly wouldn’t get so much distrust and dislike in reality.
- In the X-Men: Evolution tie in comics, written by Devin Grayson, in that twice people refer to the Xavier kids as freaks or make a deal about how 'weird' they are... despite the fact that Jean is shown to be VERY popular in the actual TV series, and Scott and Kurt, while not shown as particularly popular, are shown to be very good at making girls dig them. While it's once mentioned that Jean is considered 'Ok', and someone makes reference to having a crush on Scott, it really comes off as weird that it's made into a minor plot point despite it never coming up in the series... until The Reveal, but the comics are based before that happening.
Film — Animation
- "How to Train Your Dragon": This is Snotlout, who is always perceived as a Butt-Monkey and a Straw Loser, and he never changes, despite the fact that he is strong, handsome, and charismatic. The only thing that can really push him away is his Jerkass behavior, but let's be honest, on the island of Berk, no one has a nice disposition except Hiccup and Fishlegs, not to mention that Viking society usually encourages rude and aggressive behavior, so criticism of Snotlout's rudeness by others is quite hypocritical.
Film — Live-Action
- A Cinderella Story: Sam is bullied by all in school only because she works as a waitress at a diner, although in America it is completely normal for teenagers to have a part-time job. Otherwise, she is beautiful, smart, athletic and has a kind personality, which should be in her favor.
- In The Amazing Spider-Man Series, Andrew Garfield was criticized for making Peter Parker too cool. Even before getting his powers, he's shown to be attractive, athletic, smart, and friendly, making it hard to buy that he's a friendless loser.
- The Craft: Rochelle isn't as Goth as Nancy, who is also an outcast for being "white trash", since she's presented as middle class. Her fellow outcast Bonnie is considered one because she's covered in burn scars. Rochelle meanwhile is pretty and involved in extracurricular activities like the swim team, with her only angst being that Laura Lizzie and a couple of her Girl Posse make fun of her for being black. A deleted scene clarifies that it's an all-white neighbourhood, where Rochelle is the only black girl, and Nancy claims that no one would even talk to her.
- In The Karate Kid (1984), Daniel LaRusso is portrayed as a social outcast and viciously bullied while also being a good looking young fellow who seems to make friends easily and lacks all of the typical Loser Protagonist traits. Downplayed inasmuch as he ticked off the resident Jerk Jock by taking to his ex-girlfriend Alli and the rest simply follows from that.
- Mean Girls: Even the director thought Lizzy Caplan was far too pretty to believably play an outcast like Janis. Deeming her the best actress for the role anyway, the costume designer opted not to dress her down, and instead give her a Goth appearance to suggest that she's just a non-conformist and disliked for that reason. However, when she owns up to manipulatively destroying Regina's life, using Cady to do so, the entire crowd of students cheer her on.
- The Rage: Carrie 2: Unlike her predecessor, Carrie White, Rachel Lang has two friends in Lisa and Artie, and is confident in being a Goth and non-conformist. While she does have an abusive foster family for whom she's a meal ticket, it's odd that she's considered unpopular.
Literature
- Maburaho: Main character Kazuki Shikimori is your bog standard nice guy (often to a fault) harem protagonist. He also happens to have a noble lineage (he's connected to every major magical bloodline in Japan and Europe) and massive magical potentialnote People in this world have a set number of magic uses in their lives. Kazuki has eight. But due to his lineage, those eight are Reality Warper-level powerful. But for some reason, only the upper-upper class families know this. To everyone else in school, he's this magicless twerp who somehow has the attention of the three most-popular girls in school, even after he's used several of his uber-spells to save them from their own stupidity.
- My Lady Just Wants to Relax: According to Ronia herself, she acted like a cold, aloof workaholic in school, making it easy for her enemy to frame her for abuse and get her expelled in the first chapter. However, almost everyone else — her household staff, the court mage, royalty from every other country, the beastman mercenaries, spirit lords and legendary beasts, and a flock of cute little nature spirits — sing her praises and won't hear a word against her.
- Perry Mason. His only admirer is his secretary, Della Street. This one especially boggles the mind, considering that he's an incredibly rich, handsome, powerful, world famous lawyer that is well known for being on the side of justice. He has hundreds of attractive, young female clients, who go through life and death situations with him, where he's always there to comfort and save them in their time of need. Yet none of them ever fall for him. If they flirt with him, it's always because they're just trying to manipulate or trick him. Apparently, no woman during those days wanted to chase and marry an insanely rich, prominent lawyer. Luckily he has Paul.
- Played with in So I'm a Spider, So What?. Kumoko thinks she was at the bottom of her class's social hierarchy, but the other characters' memories seem to contradict this at various points. The reason is that her past life memories are not actually her own.
Live-Action TV
- Glee: Everyone in the Glee Club is automatically unpopular for being part of it, even though three of them are cheerleaders and several of them are on the football team. As of season two, the entire club is/has been on the cheerleading/football team or is dating somebody who is. Logically, these are the most popular people in school, but they are portrayed as social pariahs who can't walk through the hallway without having a slushie thrown at them. In one episode, the entire football team temporarily joins the Glee club, only to have the hockey team throw slushies at them.
- iCarly: Freddie Benson initially came across as an awkward uncool nerd with an unrequited crush on Carly. Ever since actor Nathan Kress started puberty, this became harder and harder to play straight. Freddie's overbearing mother does seem to contribute to this though.
- Lizzie McGuire: Reviewing the movie, Roger Ebert didn't think audiences would buy Lizzie's rival Kate being considered more popular "when Lizzie outshines the very stars in the sky." Other episodes show that Lizzie could be much cooler and popular if she weren't so insecure, as she's well liked by the guys, while Kate is a bully surrounded by a Girl Posse.
- One Piece (2023) provides an ironic example with Sanji. In the manga and anime it’s easier to understand why Sanji (especially later on) would, despite his good looks, strength and cooking skills, ward most women off with his drooling lovesick horniness and Hot-Blooded personality. In the live-action show, however, with Sanji’s highly pervy and jerkier moments pragmatically stripped away, what’s left is a handsome, jacked, charismatic super stud chef. Consequently new viewers, especially women, were just confused as to why Nami and Nojiko weren’t aroused by him.
- Seinfeld: Parodied in an episode wherein Jerry dates a woman who seems to be perfect (smart, attractive, funny, friendly), but her own friends treat her like a total loser and act like Jerry is doing her a favour by going out with her. After George and Kramer meet her, they actually stage an intervention because they can clearly see something very wrong with the woman and think Jerry must be losing it to even consider giving her the time of day. Jerry is utterly baffled at what is so unappealing about her, and in his sheer desperation for somebody to approve of his relationship with this woman, he introduces her to his parents. They end up loving her... which causes Jerry to not like her anymore.
- Stranger Things:
- Robin is a self-proclaimed band dweeb despite being attractive, witty, and intelligent. This is deconstructed in-universe when Steve attempts to use Robin's "loser" status to justify why he can't date her. Dustin rebukes this by listing off her good points and telling Steve he'd be a fool not to recognize how awesome Robin is. The real reason that he can't reveal is she's a lesbian.
- Eddie is charismatic, energetic, fun, loves rock music, and probably the least popular student in Hawkins High. To be fair, the 80s were the time of the Satanic Panic, and small towns like Hawkins tend to be conservative places. But still.
- Time After Time: Jane says she's broken up with her last boyfriend, has mostly had bad luck with men and when she'd tried online dating was dismissed as being "mediocre". She instantly attracts the romantic attention of the handsome, charming H. G. This is not surprising, since she's a gorgeous, charming woman, making the above very difficult to swallow.
Video Games
- Animal Crossing: Kapp'n is a Renaissance Man that operates both boats and buses, has a wife and child, has gone on many oceanic adventures, and has a downright beautiful singing voice. Despite having all the makings for a beloved character, he's ostracized In-Universe because of his singing voice, to the point that his wife outright exiled him from Tortimer Island because she can't stand his singing. Fans were rightfully confused by this, as they love Kapp'n's songs, and feel this untoward behavior towards him is completely unjustified.
- Dante of Devil May Cry somehow — as he puts it — has "rotten luck with women" despite being a cross between a male model and rockstar surfer. Even the fact he's a demon, which is why Lady initially spites and rejects his flirtation, isn't enough to cover it, since Dante just looks like a pretty boy 80% of the time (when not in Devil Trigger). Demon women like Nevan or Morrigan in crossovers being openly attracted to him is more believable than Lady (at least initially) finding him repulsive. Likewise, Nico gushing over him in DMC5 is supposed to be odd and reflective of her dorkiness, even though her attitude is practically commonplace for the female fans and countless fan artists. It's heavily implied that while it's easy for women to initially fall for him due to his handsome looks, his immature and slovenly behavior tends to drive them away, along with his inability to keep his business afloat and having to rely on big paydays that're covered in the games as well as loaning money from any girlfriend(s) that he hasn't managed to alienate yet to keep the lights on.
- Final Fantasy VII:
- Cloud spent much of his life as a social outcast who was Never Accepted in His Hometown, looked down upon in SOLDIER and can’t go a minute without pissing someone off in the main story. This all despite being an extremely handsome, well built badass warrior with a huge sword whom even as a rookie had enough inner strength to kick The Ace Sephiroth’s ass when push came to shove. A lot of this is intentional to reflect Cloud’s crippling insecurity given he failed to become a First Class SOLDIER like he swore he would but it still seems strange given how appealing he is to the girls in his party as well as the people who get to know him. The tie-in novel Final Fantasy VII Remake: Trace of Two Pasts however, has Tifa’s late mother Thea from the start claim Cloud will be more attractive than Sephiroth, something her daughter ultimately agrees with.
- Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Remake is ludicrously considered plain and homely by Don Corneo's thugs and other characters in Midgar, even though she's obviously stunningly beautiful and charming. While she does have stiff competition given she befriends Head-Turning Beauty Tifa, many fans still found hard to believe it takes Aerith getting a beautiful red gown for her to draw crowds when she's already gorgeous. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth quietly drops this charade with massive crowds of men and women cooing over Aerith as well as Tifa, to the point where poor Yuffie displays jealousy and frustration at being so ignored compared to them.
- Chie from Persona 4, an incredibly attractive and athletic girl with shapely legs, is for reasons that defy logic treated In-Universe as the homely unattractive and unpopular girl compared to the more overtly feminine Yukiko and Rise. While, yes, Values Dissonance is at play, with her friend Yukiko possessing the Yamato Nadeshiko qualities that Japan's society idealises, it's still telling how crazy popular Chie is to the worldwide fandom or even to native Japanese fans.
- Most of Team Star's big names in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have at least something that makes it believable they're unpopularnote Giacomo was overly strict as the Student Council President, Atticus being a Chuuni, etc, but fans find it hard to believe Eri was an outcast. She's both stated and shown to be drop dead gorgeous, a star athlete, smart, and incredibly friendly. The best the games manage is claiming she had to deal with Tall Poppy Syndrome. Not helping matters is the fact that Team Star has over 250 membersnote The post-game Star Raids require players defeat fifty trainers at each of the five base, making it larger than most previous villain teams combined.
Webcomics
- In The Iluvian Cycle, Jamis is a sweet, outgoing boy who tries to look on the bright side of things and see the best in others. He's consistently drawn with cute, boyish looks and bakes cupcakes for those he considers his friends. But he's picked on constantly at the orphanage for his clumsiness and ineptitude at being a criminal. Even Kym, who looks after him as though he were her younger brother, calls him annoying, obnoxious, and cringey for his Wide-Eyed Idealist attitude. Lampshaded in-story, as Bonam is confused at how unpopular Jamis was among his peers, as he'd be a Magnetic Hero in any setting other than a capitalist cyberpunk dystopia. Jamis didn't realize he was unpopular until this was pointed out to him because the torment he recieved was his status quo until he became a beloved Champion of Evil with a "family" of fellow evildoers.
Western Animation
- American Dad!: Outside of a few dorky interests, Steve is a talented singer and Toshi is a samurai, but they're still regarded as just as unpopular as their friends Snot and Barry.
- Danny Phantom gives us Danny Fenton who, like Peter Parker, seems to be considered a Loser Protagonist despite no obvious reason for that. Downplayed, inasmuch as it’s implied that he’s an outcast because his Amazingly Embarrassing Parents are ghost-hunters and therefore seen as insane. Although for some reason this does not harm the reputation of his older sister Jazz, who is depicted as being highly popular and sociable at their high school.
- Futurama:
- Fry is treated like a big moronic loser, even though he's easily one of the nicest and most compassionate dudes in the cast, is touchingly romantic, and when it comes down to the wire actually quite heroic. Leela eventually falls for him and concedes she was foolish for not appreciating his lovable qualities sooner.
- Leela herself, despite being obviously extremely sexy, is treated like a freak due to her being a cyclops, with her claiming people have tried to burn her in the past and she's often very jealous of how effortlessly Amy can attract men. Given the colossal amount of lust Leela attracts among the fans, her scaring off men seems nonsensical, while Fry and Zapp wanting to sleep with her is perfectly believable. For added irony, Matt Groening made Leela cyclopean to greatly subvert the cliché of perfectly attractive sci-fi heroines — this obviously backfired spectacularly.
- Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: You'd think a guy like Riff-Raff would have it made, given he's acknowledged as one of the toughest cats in Westfinster, has good looks, street savvy enough that he's the leader of his own gang, and has a hottie like Cleo as his girlfriend. Yet, despite all that he has going for him, he's still a down-and-out alley cat who lives in a junkyard and his plans fail half the time because his gang is dimwitted.
- Hey Arnold!: Sheena is considered a loser In-Universe and is in an uncool group with Eugene, Curly and Brainey, even though she is a beautiful Nice Girl from a good family who is almost as cute and studious as Lila and unlike her friends she doesn't have any negative Geek qualities.
- Lampshaded in an episode of Kim Possible when Kim is shocked by the realization that, despite being generally liked by her peers, she actually has an extremely Limited Social Circle with Ron and Monique being essentially her only friends. Later subverted in Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama wherein Alpha Bitch Bonnie believes Kim will now be considered a loser for dating Ron, only for the entire student body to loudly voice their approval.
- The Legend of Korra has the titular heroine choose the aloof Mako over his younger brother Bolin: the hunky, hilarious, charismatic, deeply supportive Nice Guy who at one point refuses to exploit even an abusive girlfriend's love for him — simply because he's that much of a good guy. As you can imagine, a lot of fans weren't too sad to see Korra's relationship with Mako deteriorate and more than happy to see Bolin find someone like Opal who snatches him up for his loveable qualities without hesitation. The showrunners affirmed they had intended Mako to be the cool attractive brother compared to Bolin and had to shift gears when Bolin proved be more popular.
- The Simpsons: Bart Simpson gets this on the occasional episode. There's no doubt he's the coolest character on the show, but his popularity in school (or even with the rest of the town) runs the gamut from adored by everyone for how awesome he is, to being a loner whose only friend is Milhouse Van Houten.
- Superbook (2011): Chris' portrayal in this show. You would think that a kid who has a Do-Anything Robot, whose father is a famous inventor and scientist, who heads his own Garage Band, and who is an avid soccer player, basketballer, skateboarder, and video-gamer (good enough to make it into local and regional tournaments, at that!) would be significantly high up on the social totem pole. Well, not so with Chris; while he's certainly shown as being a favorite among his intimate peer-group, he's not considered one of the in-kids at Valleyview Middle School, as "Noah and the Ark" has him wanting to join the supposedly-cool Skateboard Maniacs group, "Peter's Denial" has him trying to curry the favor of a couple of boys who are purportedly among the school's coolest kids, and "The Sermon on the Mount" shows that he's not immune to being a target for bullying.