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Ugly Cute

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"Wow! He's funny-lookin' cute!"
Chris Kratt on a baby aardvark

There's Generic Cuteness, the Ridiculously Cute Critter, and the Moe. And then there's these guys. Creatures who are different from other creatures.

OK, they look strange. Maybe they're deformed. They can even look monstrous.

However, they are also endearing, kind, and sweet. Maybe they retain a few Ridiculously Cute Critter traits, like big eyes or little awkward legs. Maybe they're The Woobie. Maybe it is simply that their lovely personality overrides any disgust at their physical appearance. Maybe they're stylized and don't look too realistic.

In short, even though they should not be cute by any sense of the word they are anyway. Indeed, many times these characters are so ugly, they're just adorable.

There are some who argue that this trope has much to do with parental instinct. Consider: very young human babies aren't conventionally cute at all; that takes a few months. They come into the world as discolored wrinkly blobs that scream like the world is ending whenever anything upsets them. There's a joke that they all look like Winston Churchill. And yet, all these traits seem to say, "Gotta love me!"

"Busukawaii" is a name in Japanese for fans of these characters.

Not to be confused with Grotesque Cute, which is generally when evil things are done by (or to) conventionally cute things.

Compare The Grotesque, Gonk, Unkempt Beauty, Freaky Is Cool, Face of a Thug, Creepy Cute, and the nicer versions of Fluffy the Terrible. But, see also What Measure Is a Non-Cute? and Beauty Equals Goodness as those tropes can probably affect these characters, whether it's direct or not. See Grotesque Gallery for what can happen when character designers try for this kind of appeal and fail. Contrast Beauty Is Bad.


Example subpages:

Other examples:

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  • This shark, who apparently likes to play fetch. A classic mixture of "Aww..." and "AHHH!!"
  • Digger the Dermatophyte from the Lamisil commercial, a physical representation of a foot fungus and an antagonistic figure, but still, his design can be seen this way.
  • Louie the Fly from the Mortein commercials can be this, when he's not being a Talking Pest and Jerkass.
  • A series of tax program ads feature a bunch of figures in the dark where the gimmick is meant to be that there's nothing to be afraid of... where sometimes you get a harmless Bedsheet Ghost or a long shot of a dancing (if somewhat lewd) teddy bear, and sometimes it's confine-defying fearfuls where the Mood Whiplash is really not as comforting as the artist apparently meant it to be.
  • While Sun Trip's mascot for Mighties Kiwi isn't as cute as its cousin for Cuties Clementine, with a creepy mouth and uncanny eyes, its perky personality and wide variety of interests make the character very charming.

    Art 
  • Patricia Piccinini. Warning: ask yourself whether you see hyper-realistic hairless human-animal hybrids as "cute" before Googling her works.
  • This drawing of an Eevee.
  • Chanchitos, little terra-cotta good luck pigs from Chile. They only have three legs, and their faces tend to be rather asymmetrical in the most bizarrely adorable ways.

    Comic Books 
  • Asterix: Obelix is a huge, morbidly obese barbarian warrior dreaded and loathed by The Glory That Was Rome, who is nonetheless adorable thanks to his sweet personality and the way the Awesome Art portrays his movements and expressions.
  • Animal Man: In the reboot, Animal Man's daughter Maxine manifests the power to animate dead animals. The sight of her playing with a half rotted skeletal kitty is oddly adorable.
  • Batman: Some of Batman's stranger foes often veer into this.Just look at Killer Croc in his elementary school years.
  • Chick Tracts: The gay demons in "The Birds and the Bees".
  • Deep Sea: In the climax of the comic, Patricia gives birth to the child she was impregnated with by the original source of the world's supply of Crudelis. The baby is A Half-Human Hybrid that looks like a cross between a human and a cephalopod with big doe eyes, a cute little bunch of tentacles where the human mouth would be, and a bunch of tentacles with an eye on each one's tip.
  • Doctor Strange: Shuma-Gorath, a Captain Ersatz of Cthulhu and one of Doctor Strange's minor foes (Minor as in he doesn't appear very often. He is, however, literally an evil god), is a huge, one-eyed squid thing that somehow manages to look huggably cute. His Marvel vs. Capcom design shrinks him down to human size and makes him look positively shy.
  • Doom Patrol: Dorothy Spinner is a sweet girl who just happens to have the face of an ape. This is balanced by her personality.
  • EC Comics: The Loathsome is about a girl who was born mutated by atomic radiation, so much so that the doctor tells her mother she was stillborn and ships her off to an orphanage where she's abused because of her appearance. But when she's finally shown near the end of the comic, she's not nearly as hideous as she was made out to be. Alex Ross used her as the basis for Maggie in Marvels.
  • Fantastic Four: The Thing. Just look at his adorable lumpy face!
  • The Flash: It definitely depends on the artist/writer, but Gorilla Grodd can appear quite cuddly for an evil homicidal gorilla. When he's drawn like a normal gorilla his boisterous speech and docile expressions almost make you forget he's supposed to be a monster.
  • Green Lantern: Pre-Crisis Tomar-Re qualifies. The Post-Crisis version has a larger beak which improves his looks much like the gargoyle Brooklyn is like.
  • Hack/Slash: Pooch the Lowbeast. He's superficially hideous with his protruding jaws and cloven hooves, but his loyalty to his masters and his desire to be petted and loved like any ordinary dog make him adorable.
  • The Inhumans: Lockjaw, the giant pug-like pet dog of the Inhuman royal family. Although the size of a hippo, he's as cute as any pug. It's also sort of weird, since at one point it was suggested he actually is an Inhuman who simply got hit with the ugly stick very hard by Terrigenesis. This was retconned later... re-creating the plothole as to just where the Inhumans got him anyway (Terrigenesis does not affect animals).
  • John Carter of Mars: Woola the calot in James Killian Spratt's (NSFW) comic adaptation of A Princess Of Mars. You're a cute little ten-legged killer space dog, yes you are!
    • Sola with her enormous Nonmammal Mammaries (though since the Red Martians, indistinguishable from humans except for skin color, are also oviparous, both species may be monotremes as opposed to true non-mammals) in that same work could qualify as well, though she may be more in the Cute Monster Girl category.
  • Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Wobbly Headed Bob. It's only obvious that between JTHM and Invader Zim that Jhonen Vasquez is a master at this trope.
    • Johnny himself applies. He is uncannily skinny and tall, moves like a bug and has all kinds of beautifully grotesque facial expressions. But the moments where his emotions genuinely shine through makes him loveable to some audiences.
  • Man-Thing: Despite being a mindless swamp monster that immolates anyone who feels fear, Man-Thing looks oddly cute.
  • The Maxx: The Iszes
  • Morbius: Morbius the Living Vampire is a scientifically-created pseudo-vampire with white skin, claws, fangs, no nose, hollow bones, a bad case of Horror Hunger... and a potential to be unbelievably adorable ugly cute.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW): Jim the Cave Troll. Sure he's a hulking brute who could easily crush a pony if he wanted to, but he's so innocent and carefree it's hard not to see him as anything other than the softie he really is. And he genuinely did love the Mane Six's company.
    • The uncorrupted moon bunny in Issue #7. Fluttershy certainly thinks so.
  • Superman: The New 52 version of Bizarro is meant to be an underdeveloped clone of Superman. His childlike nature and large puppy-dog eyes make him so endearing, even Lex Luthor grows attached to him.
  • Teen Titans: Baby Wildebeest.
  • Watchmen: Many fangirls consider the "fascinatingly ugly" Walter Kovacs, AKA Rorschach, the cutest character in the series. This may be more in North America's fandom versus Europe, as the ginger haired appearance carries a more negative connotation across the pond compared to in Canada and America where the awkward appearance is often considered to be rather sweet and endearing.
  • Werner: Werner might be The Alcoholic and a crazy driver, but he's got a certain level of appeal that gives him a level of charm.
  • X-Men:
    • Nightcrawler's demonic appearance doesn't exactly falls under the classic definition of "beautiful", yet he's one of the most appreciated Mr. Fanservice among the X-Men; he's basically the male version of a Cute Monster Girl. Classic Excalibur artist/writer Alan Davis may have something to do with this. Originally, Dave Cockrum designed Nightcrawler to look pretty scary as a contrast to his out-going personality (in fact, his very first design was some kind of bat-creature and was so spooky, Marvel nixed the idea). Alan Davis decided to turn him into a handsome swashbuckler type modeled after Errol Flynn.
    • Broo a mutant Brood that feels compassion and other emotions. Although initially in custody of S.W.O.R.D. he was allowed to join Wolverine's school after he grew older, he has a reserved, polite and nerdy intellectual type personality makes Broo endearingly adorable.

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Fiction 
  • Totodile in New World. Sure, it's a tiny blue crocodile with a massive mouth full of sharp teeth, but it's just so adorable! It's very first scene has it curl up with its new trainer and fall asleep with him. It also became best friends with a two year old girl.
    "It was cute, albeit in a reptilian sort of way."
  • Awww, baby Cthulhu!
  • Respawn of the Dead: Stumpy. Despite being dry to the bones, down three limbs and A ZOMBIE, he manages to be somewhat adorable. In the fic, you can still remember your own life before becoming a zombie. Stumpy here manages to make out a cute "bonk" after holding Scout's bat.
    “I am so sorry, Stumpy,” [Medic] said.
    Stumpy was still confused. He wasn’t sure what those words meant, exactly, but “sorry” sounded familiar. It meant…something feeling bad. And the Meaty Thing in the White Coat looked…what was that word? Sad? Like how Stumpy felt when he didn’t get meat. He didn’t have much time to ponder this, however, before there was a loud noise and then...
  • In Families and Familiars Neville describes the just-hatched Norbert as "kind of cute, in that ugly-cute way, though."
  • Queen of the Swarm has the cuddlebug which Taylor designed to boost her public image due to her appearance.
  • In Silent Trio 2: Harry and the Hufflepuff Harry describes the skeletal Thestrals as "kind of cute."
  • Harry's first meeting with a house elf in Falling on deaf ears:
    A sudden knock on the door distracted Harry from the excitement of learning magic. When Snape granted the visitor entrance, Harry was shocked to make out a tiny little, wrinkly creature. The thing had big eyes and floppy ears. It was so ugly, he found it cute.
  • More than Penpals:
    Harry: The dragon egg was still in Hagrid's fireplace until it hatched the other night. Hagrid sent us a note that it was happening and we got to watch. It was an amazing experience, though hopefully it's truly once in a lifetime. It's a Norwegian Ridgeback and the baby dragon is somehow so ugly that it's kind of cute.

    Music 
  • Radiohead's "Modified Bear" logo. Their Weeping Minotaur, too.
  • The Gorillaz artstyle has distinct tones of this. 2D is far too Uncanny Valley to be classically cute, but he has an undeniable charm.
  • That thing from Animal Collective's Peacebone video. Sure it was horrifying-looking, but there was also something disturbingly charming about seeing it go out for a romantic picnic and frolic through a field.
  • Voltaire uses this in his song "Zombie Prostitute" with the line "She was a rotten kind of cute for a zombie prostitute".

    Podcasts 
  • The animal characters in the Cool Kids Table game Homeward Bound 4 aren't traditionally cute, but they manage to come off this way to a group of human tourists.
    • Justified, as they're dinosaurs.
  • Peter Deter from Pretending to Be People has a relatively large fish head on top of a tiny body. He's also incredibly innocent, a loyal friend, and his saliva has healing properties.

    Radio 

    Sports 

    Tabletop Games 
  • BattleTech: The UrbanMech, a stubby, dome-topped "walking trash can" often compared to R2D2 with a BFG spot-welded onto it, the Urbanmech is short, graceless, unglamorous, slow as molasses in winter, and beloved by many fans for its endearingly stumpy qualities.
    Tex Talks BattleTech: You see, the Urbanmech is like a pug. Derpy, small, and full of character.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • Eyeball beholderkin have huge central eyes, magic-beam-shooting eyestalks, and fanged mouths like their larger, more dangerous relatives — and are about the size of large grapefruit.
    • Imps and quasits, the smallest of devils and demons respectively.
    • Most baby dragons don't look very much better than their adult forms, but are still able to pull this off. Especially blue dragons, for some reason. Blue dragon wyrmlings have huge eyes, faces that look like they've run face-first into a brick wall, big ears (which no other chromatic dragon has) and nubby horns. They're like spiky blue pugs the size of golden retrievers. Pseudodragons, also described as having "the personality of a common housecat". D'awww, I want one!
    • Flumphs embody this trait. Think of a pancake crossed with an octopus floating around and you've got the idea.
    • Goblins and kobolds. Two races of three-foot-tall people whose apparent racial destiny is to be killed by first-level PCs — you have to feel for them a little.
    • Otyughs may be stalked eyed dragon monsters that wallow in other monster's poop but who can stay mad at that happy grin?
    • The infamous rust monster resembles a giant mix of a cockroach and an armadillo, but according to the 5th Edition Monster Manual, they're very docile and friendly creatures that make great pets as long as one has no metal on them. Awwwww...No wonder one was chosen as the mascot for Rusty and Co..
  • * Iron Kingdoms: Pygmy trolls and troll whelps.
  • Magic: The Gathering has several. Who'd have thought that a psycho killer named Murderous Redcap could be so huggable? Or that a slimy eyeless... thing... like a mossdog looks like it would make a good pet?
  • Pathfinder: Goblins are the game's Mascot Mook for a reason. They're a race of cartoonishly stupid pyromaniac murderous chibis with a penchant for morbid little songs and wacky antics.
  • Pokéthulhu tends to aim here with its, direct quote, "adorable eldritch monsters from the icy depths of space". The game's mascot, Pikathulhu, is Pikachu as a Cthulhumanoid (within a sufficiently loose definition of "humanoid").
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • There's a race of Orks who are so exaggerated and silly, some find them oddly adorable. Everyone else finds them all kinds of awesome.
  • Chaos has Nurglings, rotund little goblinoid daemons who can often be seen clinging to their larger kin. Possibly the most adorable pustulent hellspawn you will ever meet. Now in Miniature form
  • Popular fan character Cultist-chan definitely qualifies as well. She'll cahptoor your heart.

    Toys 
  • Pretty much the modus operandi of the UglyDolls, with their strange colors and asymmetry, it's enough to make you wanna squish 'em!
  • Mutant Dolls. Basically ragdolls with huge eyes, horns, fangs, floppy, lopsided bodies, and and odd, vacant stares - and you just wanna hug 'em?
  • The legendary "Robert The Doll" would fit in this trope. Sure, he's a haunted doll rumored to curse you if you don't ask him permission before taking his picture, but he is kinda cute.
  • This aesthetic is pretty much why that frog doll... thing... (here, just look at it) is a popular icon. Commonly associated with the phrase "Get Out!", probably because it looks kind of mean.
  • The Worrible. Weird, bulgy-eyed, drooling, round, yet somehow adorable little...thing.
    • Squishables has made plush versions of all sorts of oddly adorable creatures from octopi to jellyfish to axolotl to even Cthulhu. Yes, there's a squishy Cthulhu.
  • This is pretty much the explanation for the success of Troll dolls.
  • The My Pet Monster toy line (and associated media) from the 1980s was a deliberate attempt to invoke this trope, especially with the "My Monster Pet" toys, which were more dog-like. The 2001 Toymax version retooled the Monster making him more conventionally cute, but still falling into this trope.
  • The Trash Pack is a standard gross-out series filled with disgusting creatures and rotten food. However, the characters are charming enough to have gained a good-sized female fanbase as well. They remain off-beat in the cartoon series, but still keep their gross charm. Its successor, The Grossery Gang, also has a similar gross-but-cute charm to it.
  • These ball-jointed sphynx cat dolls are bald, wrinkled, and overall alien, but strangely cute.

    Webcomics 
  • Catana Comics: The characters are all drawn in a very simplistic design that features round heads, bulging round eyes, and tiny mouths almost between their eyes. However, it somehow works quite well and gels with the incredible wholesomeness of the comic's content.
  • Chimneyspeak: Chelsea Grinn is a ravishing young woman... who's covered with scars and is utterly psychotic... and still is adorable in her own way.
  • Cloudscratcher has Toosus, which have the body structure of a spider, and the texture of a puppy.
  • Cursed Princess Club has Princess Gwendolyn of the Pastel Kingdom. She has a creepy goblin-like appearance complete with Scary Teeth, but her kind personality, girly Princess Classic clothes, and the close relationship that she and her non-creepy siblings have with each other make her quite lovable.
  • Daddy-Long-Legs: The characters are all giant insects and arachnids, but come across as incredibly cute. (With the possible exception of Scapegrace, though YMMV.)
  • Digger: This is a common theme, as well as Ursula Vernon's other work. Currently she's on a kick of making adorable phalloi — which are Greek fertility symbols that are basically penises with wings and feet.
  • Girl Genius: It's yet another horrible death trap of fun in the Ax-Crazy building Castle Heterodyne, but the Nyar spider is just so cute (it even eats its victim with a little knife and fork.)
  • Gunnerkrigg Court: Zimmy has very nearly More Teeth than the Osmond Family, greyish skin, hair like a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl, inexplicable black stuff that usually covers her eyes (which are bright red under all that), and is strange, mean, and prickly and enjoys chasing rats — but there's a certain charm to her appearance and she has her nice moments, and is therefore rather adorable. Plus, her relationship with Gamma is very, very sweet. I couldn't help but go "awww" when Zimmy and Annie arrived where Gamma was in Zimmy's dark, terrifying hallucination (which seems to come right off a Silent Hill game), and Gamma was sleeping peacefully on top of a giant pile of cute, brightly colored stuffed toys, representing just how much she means to Zimmy.
  • Homestuck:
    • All of the Trolls other than Nepeta Leijon and Tavros Nitram (who are more just plain cute) count too. Exaggerated when we see them as wrigglers. And look what would happen if they would godtier. Who knew little rainbow-colored maggot things could be so cute?
    • Some of the lusii may count too. Tinkerbull is under this category, though he's more just plain adorable. Aurthour, the weird-looking centaur-cow-man lusus of Equius, fits better. He's definitely not cute by normal standards, but his mannerisms help him to achieve a similar effect. Kanaya's lusus definitely falls under this. It's basically a truly gigantic winged bug with a skull for a face. But she's such a caring guardian to Kanaya! Look at her as a sprite comforting Kanaya. And Kanaya mentions reading stories to her on 12th Perigee's Eve. Aww.
    • This is the only way to describe how Calliope looks. One is led to believe that she is a different and more attractive-looking species right up to her reveal, making your first reaction be "What the hell is that thing!?", but then you realize that she's adorable. About half the fanbase thinks her brother Caliborn, the juvenile form of Lord English, is almost as adorable. How can you honestly take this face seriously as that of the angel of double-death?
    • Some of the members of the Midnight Crew and the Felt are rather endearing-looking in a cartoony sort of way, despite being alien gangsters. Clubs Deuce especially so.
  • The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: Molly's pet Snookums is a space monster Bob calls a "tentacle bunny". Molly herself is a pretty weird-looking creature. Roofus the Robot would not be especially cute if not for his innocent personality; well, okay, the construction-worker cap built into his head is kind of cute. And Voluptua, even in her alien butterfly form, still manages to be very attractive.
  • The Order of the Stick: Due to the art style, many normally horrific monsters can turn out this way. For example, Tsukiko apparently sleeps with a plushie version of Xykon, and the instant that comic appeared all the fans wanted one. For context, Xykon is an undead Magnificent Bastard. He's also an adorably drawn stick figure skeleton with expressive glowing eye-sockets, a cheerful-looking skeletal grin, and a little golden crown floating just above his head. In plushie form, too cute for words.
  • Planescape Survival Guide: Tchick the Beholder is a giant floating eyeball who has extra eyes on stalks around his bulbous body. And all the other beholders won't even let him play their beholder games!
  • Selkie: The titular character is an orthodontic nightmare with Hellish Pupils and a bluish skin tone more commonly associated with walking corpses. She describes herself as "a pretty one", and the fans are inclined to agree. (The tipping points seem to be that a): she has normal human hair, and b): apart from the fangs, her smile is the same as that of any other Heartwarming Orphan.)
  • Something*Positive: Choo Choo Bear has to fall under this trope. A hairless cat, over thirty years old, whose cancer treatments in his younger days reduced his bones to a gelatinous substance that let him contort into various shapes and travel through sewage pipes. He's a bit of a freak, but he's so %*!& cute that he gets forgiven for just about anything he does, up to and including suspected murder.

    Web Original 
  • Arby n the Chief: Greg is a large toy spider, but he's meek and talks through sticky notes, and is more skilled then the Arbiter or the Chief.
  • The mysterious "Bunchie" (or whatever you call it) with its beady eyes and its goofy gait and its big smile.
  • Charlie the Unicorn: There is a strange... sea-goat-seal... thing. Charlie even lampshades this. "I can't tell if you're adorable or creepy."
  • The image of a Shibu Inu called Balltze became a widespread meme under the name Cheems because of this. There's something so bizarre, ominous, awkward and adorable about how he's just sitting there "smiling".
  • Don't Hug Me I'm Scared:
    • The three puppets are: a yellow humanoid with overalls and a mullet cut, a duck with a suit, and a Cthulhumanoid with spaghetti as a face and dull eyes. For some reason, they manage to be attaching.
    • Some teachers count as well: Shrignold may have a funny face, they're also a butterfly; Colin manages to be cute despite having square features; and even the Spinach Can's dorky looks have this effect too.
    • Warren from the TV show. He is deliberately designed to be a Gonk with blemishes covering his body, bulging eyes and messy teeth and the main trio + Colin make multiple insults about his appearance. Despite that, there are some fans out there who think he is oddly endearing, thanks to his pathetic and tragic existence and a somewhat cute voice; even the aformentioned eyes and teeth are seen as more cute than anything to some. That said, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who finds his true form "cute" in any way.
  • DragonFable: The baby dracoliches. So adorable that Zorbak's attempt to turn them into an evil army and take over the world failed because the people of Amityvale adopted them as pets. Awwww.
  • DSBT InsaniT: Frog, who looks like a green gumdrop with a white circular nose and webbed limbs rather than any sort of actual frog.
  • Fluffy Pony: Fluffy ponies can be this, especially when abusers want to emphasize the oddity of the creatures.
  • Furry Fandom: Bormals are essentially oddly-colored noseless bunnies with Cute Little Fangs.
  • Gemini Home Entertainment took the alien, spider-like Eldritch Abomination that are Gardners...and made them into squishy little plushies with stubby tentacles.
  • Hampter looks like what you'd expect something called "Hampter" to look like.
  • Hellephant on Regretsy (the site has been shuttered), who inspired some adorable fan art despite still being stained and missing an ear.
  • Helluva Boss: The episode "Loo Loo Land" has many imp children and infants in the background and they manage to be rather adorable despite all being literal demons.
  • Homestar Runner: The Cheat and his old-timey cousin, The Sneak. Maybe it's just the art style — the Cheat's baffling physiology probably would make for a pretty horrific-looking creature in a more realistic style.
  • Pipi from The Legend of Pipi is a wrinkly little cat who's hairless aside from a few strands of grey hair and has large bulging eyes. He's hideous but oddly endearing, especially when we finally hear him "speak". Special mention also goes to the weird cat-steed thing he rides at the beginning of the video and to the dragon Pipi ends up falling in love with.
  • Looming Gaia: Despite being a kobold with lumpy skin and a misshapen face, Tojum looks rather cute in her dress.
  • Lucas the Spider will melt any arachnophobic's heart immediately after almost giving them a heart attack.
  • NCS_artist draws a lot of characters this way:
    • Their most prominent character, Keeshee, is either this or full-on cute based on whether or not you find snakes ugly; if you do, then you'll still probably love her even if she's a humanoid cobra: She's got a cute face, an endearing personality, her canon voice is Jester from Critical Role and she even has some Big Beautiful Woman going on.
    • Again, if you find snakes ugly, then humanoid python and local Ms. Fanservice Vranda steps right into "Ugly Sexy".
    • Keeshee in her "normal form" has nothing on "Goblin Keeshee", a small, chubby, often quadruped version of her with large eyes that produces an assortment of strange noises. She's very weird but also weirdly adorable, especially in the videos where she basically functions as "normal Keeshee"'s child, like here.
    • There's the cat Gloose: practically bald, weird-looking, huge, vacant eyes without a thought behind them and cute as any kitty.
  • Neopets: Some of the mutant, "prehistoric", Halloween-themed, and "evil" versions of the Neopets.
  • Protectors of the Plot Continuum: When a canon character's name is misspelled in badfic, a 'mini' creature appears: a small version of a monster from that canon. For Lord of the Rings, Mini-Balrogs, and for Harry Potter, there are Mini-Aragogs, etc. These are cute, but also just as ugly as their larger counterparts.
  • Rotarr, a character created by Lisa Heschl, is an anthropomorphic housefly. While she's got some Squicky aspects (including an insect tongue and a mottled, gray, hairy body), she's still much closer to a Cute Monster Girl than to Brundlefly.
  • Salad Fingers:
    • Salad Fingers himself is green, yellow-teethed, bug-eyed, misshapen and, if he really Was Once a Man, by now he's unrecognisable as one. Still, those big eyes are kinda puppy-doggish at times and he is a strangely wholesome character in personality...most of the time.
    • The bug-eyed lumpy-headed kid from episode four was strangely endearing.
  • SCP Foundation:
    • There have been times where SCP-682 could be considered "cute", such as his interaction with the benevolent Blob Monster, SCP-999 or his exposure to rage-inducing Creepy Child, SCP-053.
    • SCP-191 could also be seen in this light. Although in her case its mostly because people feel sorry for her.
    • Instances of SCP-040-1, the creations of SCP-040, could also be seen like this.
    • SCP-811's description makes her sound like a revolting predatory beast, but her interview log makes her sound like a little child with a cute speech impediment.
    • SCP-1471a is described as "cute" (in a macabre sort of way) by those affected by SCP-1471 after they get over its Nightmare Face. Keep in mind that it is a shadowy Humanoid Abomination with black hair and a dog's skull for a face that stalks you through texted-pictures and reflections. Its harmless, and is implied to be created as a companion for lonely people, but it is still unnerving to see for some.
    • SCP-1550, just look at it.
  • Shrapnel: Like the meme they are based on, the Ugandan Knuckles are these weirdly deformed bug-eyed echidna people, but their big eyes make them kind of cute in a weird way.
  • The Trimmings in Vita Carnis are made out of red, slimy flesh like all the other species of Vita Carnis and look like oversized bugs made from the body parts of dead babies, then there's the sounds they make. However, they are completely harmless and, in fact, are much more afraid of us than we are of them. They are social, docile and are even kept as pets by some. Admit it, this video does somewhat make you wish you had a pet Trimming, doesn't it?
    • Of course, Ugly Cute creature=Ugly adorable plushie.
    • Meat Snakes are also very strong on the Ugly part, not only being Exactly What It Says on the Tin, but also growing to huge sizes, eating carcasses and changing the shape of its head based on the last skull it ate (yes, these things can show up donning a humanoid face...) But the fact they are also harmless and, in fact, can be used for benefits like garbage disposal and sanitation does make them kinda cute.
    • Series creator Darían Quilloy himself uses an online avatar that basically looks like a charred corpse with googly eyes and a perpetual smile on its face.
  • The Walten Files:
    • Like all the other Showstoppers in the series, Sha the sheep and Banny the bunny are Uncanny Valley animatronics that, in the present day, are dismantled and twisted. However, they're still a sheep and a purple bunny respectively. Banny's wide-open eyes still have some of that Genki Girl energy in them, while Sha still has some of her old features as the Showstoppers' pretty girl, just ask a portion of the fans and they'll tell you she's still beautiful.
    • One cutscene from the game-within-a-show Bunnyfarm features the Nice Girl Holly, a horse with a welcoming demeanor that still has a slightly wall-eyed look and a crooked face. Despite this, Banny calls her "pretty".
    • Then there are the adorable plushies based on the gruesome Showstoppers.
  • Welcome to Night Vale: The eponymous creature from "Visitor", which Cecil initially fawns over as being straight up adorable. However, his description of it is very... odd, with it being vaguely spherical, with stubbly little nubs for limbs are large, staring 'duck eyes', until even Cecil is forced to admit it might not be cute so much as just plain weird. Of course, after what it does to the station cat, its hard to think of it as cute in any capacity.
  • Zombies a la Mode: The waiter zombie you play as is strangely adorable, especially because of the messy bangs of hair sticking out from under his hat and the permanent expression of distress upon his face throughout the game. This is lampshaded by the female zombie at the shop, who frequently mentions him being cute.
  • Endangered Ugly Things. And the San Diego Zoo's baby rhino.
  • Several memetic ImageBoard-based emotes, such as Trollface and Rageguy (aka "FFFFFFUUUUUUUUU")

Alternative Title(s): So Ugly Its Cute

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Baby Metroid

While it isn't conventionally cute, the baby Metroid is harmless and playful.

How well does it match the trope?

4.87 (31 votes)

Example of:

Main / UglyCute

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