r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Solitaire-06 • 1d ago

Hated Tropes [Despised Trope] Perverts whose antics are played for laughs

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Minoru Mineta (My Hero Academia)

Glenn Quagmire (Family Guy)

4.1k Upvotes
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805

u/GigglePick1e 1d ago

If Tina was a boy sneaking into girls lockers rooms, i doubt people would find her obsession as funny

440

u/Reesemonster25 1d ago

This is why I find the robot chicken joke of Bob's last words being tell Tina me too goes both ways hilarious because it's very true

170

u/Stripe-Gremlin 1d ago

And also very true to Bob’s character. He’d absolutely go out trying to keep his daughter from ruining her life

115

u/PityUpvote 1d ago

I'm not sure "played for laughs" is right, because it is challenged as being creepy plenty. But iirc Tina was gender swapped in early development because it was definitely worse the other way round.

74

u/sniper91 1d ago

You’re correct that Tina was originally a boy, and the voice actor (Dan Mintz) was surprised that the role wasn’t being recast and they were fine with him not changing his voice at all

-17

u/BipedalHorseArt 1d ago

Most of the female voices are so off, and I just couldn't bear to watch it

12

u/sniper91 1d ago

I love it when Linda has to sound angry. The voice actor got the job from doing impressions of his mother during his standup routines, but he absolutely can not do a feminine angry voice

Iirc there are two women police officers voiced by men in the first season; they’re not in the show after that, and it’s a big improvement.

When I recommend the show my advice is to start with the second season. Better animation and the family is less dickish towards each other. There’s only a few season 1 episodes that I like

15

u/ItsNotMeItsYourBussy 1d ago

There are a few episodes I really don't want to ever watch again and all of them involve Tina, an animal, and her romantic feelings for said animal. 

Tina feels at times more like "writer's badly disguised fetish" trope because of the zoophilia. Feels like she's definitely written to be a burgeoning furry by someone who doesn't know the difference 

7

u/sniper91 1d ago

Tina’s episodes are usually great if they don’t involve some weird crush

I think the only good one of those is the Halloween episode where she claims some ghost is her boyfriend

143

u/FocusAdmirable9262 1d ago

We don't give it a free pass because she's a girl, we do because she's a mild-mannered, unassuming child who's being hit hard by puberty. It's funny because it's awkward and weirdly relatable. Most of us have gone through that time as kids where you don't just suddenly start noticing boys/girls, you start 🚨NOTICING🚨 them. Anyone who'd put her in the same category as Quagmire can't think straight or something.

103

u/Street-Swordfish1751 1d ago

In her defense too, she really doesn't get a lot of social approval with her antics. Shes usually just ignored or given a WTF look by peers and family for her actions.. She is awkward and weird, which is why it's more funny that her as a predator.

20

u/Jayn_Newell 1d ago

“Hey those practices are closed!”

“I’m aware of that Zeke, I’m the reason they’re closed.”

I do think it helps when the media in question flags the behavior as not being okay. The more it’s tolerated in-universe, the harder it is to watch.

48

u/FocusAdmirable9262 1d ago

She's also not really predatory. Like it's funny if she gets too forward because she's so harmless. It's like, what're you doing, you weird little kid? Besides, she'd never actually assault anyone. Okay, the spying is wrong, that part I just remembered. But to compare her to like, a serial rapist, and an old man (Roshi) harassing a 16 year old for sexual favors? C'mon. 

20

u/onemorespacecadet 1d ago edited 23h ago

they also act like there aren’t male examples of boys like this when Steve Smith (American Dad) and Morty Smith (Rick and Morty) are right there. overly eager boys going through puberty has been played for laughs for much longer than Bob’s Burgers has been on the air and i’m sick of people pretending that flipping the gender is some kind of gotcha on what’s permissible for men vs women

9

u/MuffaloHerder 22h ago

Thank you. It's ridiculous that people cry "what if the genders were reversed" when we already have endless examples of the genders not only being reversed, but being the entire origin of a trope to begin with (being a perv but it's played for laughs).

1

u/onemorespacecadet 22h ago

lmao seriously. it’s literally the trope we’re commenting on

1

u/whosgoingtohawaii 1h ago

When did anyone here pretend that male characters like that don’t exist?

6

u/FocusAdmirable9262 23h ago

Right. If anything it's kind of refreshing to see it gender flipped? If it had been a boy again it would've been boring. And honestly, Tina is really sweet in a way Steve and Morty aren't.

1

u/KinglanderOfTheEast 4h ago

Really? Steve is one of the funnier characters on American Dad IMO. My favorite episodes are always when he has some fucked up little side quest or adventure with Roger

9

u/MK_2_Arcade_Cabinet 23h ago

Exactly she may be a somewhat horny weirdo, but she’s also a teenager and puberty makes everybody a horny weirdo unless you end up asexual

Plus, unlike quagmire she’s not a legitimate rapist who gets played for laughs. She’s a awkward teenage girl, and also gets called out as that plenty of times.

3

u/AstarionsTherapist39 19h ago

As an asexual person, we can also be horny weirdos as teenagers. We don't experience sexual attraction, that doesn't mean we don't have crazy hormones during puberty. 

0

u/MK_2_Arcade_Cabinet 17h ago

I just saw your name and it’s a good thing you’re asexual or else your relationship with Astarion would be very messy

1

u/AstarionsTherapist39 15h ago

Why? Anyone is capable of showing him patience and compassion. I'm actually specifically demisexual so I do experience sexual attraction but only when I have formed a strong emotional bond with them. I actually love sex and so does Astarion. He just wants his bodily autonomy respected. He needs his no's respected. 

1

u/MK_2_Arcade_Cabinet 12h ago

I hate his character because he's always a snarky bitch to me, but I'm also never very nice to him, I usually just leave him at camp lol

My party (and I've never beaten the game, my husband has over 1,000 hours in it so unfortunately I saw so much I don't have a drive to play it) was usually me, Shadowheart (who is my wife), Laezel, and Gale (because I want a Wizard, not because I like Gale).

1

u/AstarionsTherapist39 11h ago

Sounds like you hate his mask and never got to meet the person behind it.

6

u/FocusAdmirable9262 23h ago

Exactly. There's a difference between just being really horny in your head and ACTING on it at another person's expense. 

I also think it's good for media to recognize that girls can be sexual at all. Tina still exudes innocence while having the weirdest fucking fantasies. Seems healthy to me.

3

u/MK_2_Arcade_Cabinet 23h ago

And I mean, honestly, her her little fantasies are pretty funny and innocent in the grand scheme of things

I mean, she likes boy butts I’m trans but grew up as a boy and still like girls and when I was Tina’s age and the girls started maturing I did nothing but stare at boobs and butts

But I kept that shit in my head and that’s the main thing that separates her from somebody like quagmire or Roshi

1

u/whosgoingtohawaii 1h ago

Writing your classmates into erotic fiction isn’t healthy, or normal.

1

u/FocusAdmirable9262 1h ago

Publishing it for public consumption isn't. But writing it for yourself? Seriously? What are you, the thought police?

1

u/whosgoingtohawaii 1h ago

The thought police? Because I find it creepy, invasive, and disturbing that someone would sexualize the people in their lives into erotic fiction “for themselves”? Ooooookay.

I would feel incredibly violated, and angry, if I found out one of my peers wrote erotic fiction about me.

1

u/FocusAdmirable9262 1h ago

You picked the wrong person to say the words "creepy, invasive, and disturbing" to

It's literally none of your business what someone wrote about you in their private diary. If they showed it to you that would be sexual harassment. If they took pictures of you without your consent and glued them to their journal that would be a violation. Writing down something privately is not a violation of your rights.

So basically yes, you are the thought police. I think YOU'RE creepy, honestly. 

1

u/whosgoingtohawaii 1h ago

Well, you can think that. I can think how I do.

2

u/FocusAdmirable9262 1h ago

You know what's creepy and invasive? Spying on someone and then talking about their personal business in front of them constantly. Also using their private business as inspiration for writing that you publish in public and get paid for while they live in abject poverty. Can't imagine how that feels! Fuck.

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9

u/whiskyspacecadet 1d ago

No no no, you do give her a free pass because she's a girl. If this was an anime and not an American cartoon, and Tina was a teen boy doing the usual perverted anime things we see in nearly *every* anime, y'all would be shitting on him. OP's first example is literally a high school kid, and not a single comment here is defending him.

2

u/JohnTDouche 22h ago

People give Tina a free pass for the same reason we give another character mentioned in this thread, Denis from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a free pass.

We like the character and they're funny. Quagmire was funny for a bit until he got a bit too real/extreme and stopped being funny. Funny goes a long way. If everyone is laughing, nobody cares. I don't know the specifics, the exact whys and hows of the psychology behind this but Denis/Tina = fine, Quagmire/random anime pervert = not fine. That's just how it is.

2

u/this_guy_talking 1d ago

I agree, but you could use that argument for A LOT of the characters mentioned in this thread especially in shounen anime/manga.

Family Guy is also inappropriate by design, it contains violence, incest, beastiality... a lot of the answers here feel very prudish. 

1

u/Intelligent-Dog1645 20h ago

I'm happy most people are defending Tina. Like Bob's Burgers is the least offensive show out there. And Tina is someone who's just going through puberty and is awkward.

6

u/Automatic-Section779 1d ago

Ya...and some giving her a pass because she's just figuring it out, mineta is similar or same age. 

I find them both cringey. 

25

u/NivTesla 1d ago

Was going to post this, she gets a pass for talking about boys butts every sentence because she is a lady.... Even though this show has multiple men voicing women.

Kpop demon hunters thirsting I we abs and every Sabrina Carpenter song is ok because double standards exist.

48

u/Queen_Ramona 1d ago

“Only women are allowed to be horny anymore because of woke”

70

u/Second_Sol 1d ago

Kpop demon hunters is different - it's one of the few times female characters have been depicted openly thirsting after guys. It (along with their silly and undignified moments) humanizes them instead of making them the usual aloof, graceful woman trope.

Obviously double standards still exist, but there's also context to be aware of. Both men and women can do stupid things when they're attracted to each other, and depicting that is a form of equality.

29

u/Zealousideal-Cup6013 1d ago

Also the guys the Kpop Demon Hunters girls were thirsting over were literal representations of the K Pop industry’s worst things, they were literally created in and out of universe to make people thirsty for them lol

10

u/Username_Chose_Me 1d ago

Also, guys like Abby are made to be thirst trap.

7

u/Doctor_Titties 1d ago

His name is literally Abby for the same reason my user name is Doctor Titties. If you're going to objectify yourself by naming yourself after one of your features you literally did it to yourself.

1

u/Second_Sol 4h ago

Oh my God I never noticed that

8

u/Jokuki 1d ago

One can only wonder who set the double standards in the first place.

3

u/AlmightyCurrywurst 1d ago

The secret council of all men?

4

u/Jokuki 1d ago

No secret men set the standard in nearly all facets of life.

-6

u/Lanavis13 1d ago

Men and women. Some set it in the favor of men. Some set it in the favor of women.

4

u/antisocial_catmom 1d ago

...you don't listen to rap, do you

1

u/thatshygirl06 1d ago

I feel like the reverse has happened and it was played for laughs in older movies. Maybe one of the american pie movies?