Butter Face: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:butterface 3888.jpg|frame]]

 

 

Suppose you're a heterosexual man and you see a gorgeous woman walking down the street. [[Male Gaze|Your eyes pan up]] the [[She's Got Legs|long luscious legs]], that round bottom [[Sexy Walk|swaying oh so nicely]], that slim waist, [[Buxom Is Better|full, round breasts]]...[[Gonk|BUTTERFACE!]] ([[Don't Explain the Joke|"But her face", get it?]])

The Japanese have their own word for it, "bakku-shan" (a combination of "back" and "schön", German for "beautiful"). Hence, "beautiful only from the back". In the Philippines, this is called "hipon," which means "shrimp," because when eating shrimps, you only go for the body and not the head (A similar analogy is used in Australia, with "Prawn", and in Central America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, with "Camarona"). Meanwhile in Poland, in an inversion of [[Lie Back and Think of England]], this kind of woman is described as "flag on her face, and for the Motherland!". In Brazil, the common nickname is "Raimunda", for "feia de cara mas boa de bunda" (ugly face, but [[Skewed Priorities|a pretty ass]]).

 

{{examples}}

* The one hundred forty years ''young'' [[Battleaxe Nurse|ass-kicking medic]] Kureha in ''[[One Piece]]'' has a lovely, hourglass shaped body, but the face of a hag.

** In a flashback, Franky's adoptive mother Kokoro the mermaid. Young Kokoro was quite a looker... from the neck down. She ''did'' have a prettier face when even younger, but her life hardships attacked her face first.

** Subverted when she unleashes her [[Super Mode|resurrection]], as the bone mask disappears and her fully uncovered face is as gorgeous as you'd expect from any adult woman drawn by Tite Kubo.

 

* Sadie Hawkins from the ''[[Li'l Abner]]'' comic strips.

* Way back in the early days of the [[Justice Society of America|JSA]], Johnny Thunder was thrown back in time and was betrothed to a princess who always wore a veil. Since this example belongs to this trope, you can see where this is going...

* In ''Judge Bao and the Jade Phoenix'', there's a prostitute named "Two Moons", for [[Gag Boobs|reasons that prove themselves quite obvious]], and a very impressive figure. She also always goes around wearing a hat with a veil that hides her face. Considering the title of this trope, it should be obvious why.

 

* In ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'', Eddie Valiant sees what he thinks is the silhouette of Jessica Rabbit in the window of an apartment. But when he gets up there, she's wearing the same outfit... Butter Face!

** What actually happened is, it was really Lena Hyena, who'd somehow managed to make herself look just like Jessica (toon physics or something), excluding the face. As soon as she saw Eddie, the rest of it unraveled.

** Princess Vespa herself was an example before undergoing ''major'' rhinoplasty. The Spaceballs [[Blackmail]] her father the king by threatening to undo it (he cracks almost instantly).

*** Well, [[Big No|by her response]], she wasn't [https://web.archive.org/web/20130619094610/http://movieclips.com/yC9st-spaceballs-movie-giving-up-the-combination/ any bigger of a fan of going back] either!

* The Witches of Ar in ''[[The Beastmaster]]'' are bikini-clad centerfoldesque women... with hideously deformed faces.

{{quote|'''[[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony:]]''' Gaahah! [[Shout-Out|What's wrong]] with [[RedLetterMedia|your faaaace!?]]}}

* Parodied with the ghoul that attacks Shorty in the second ''[[Scary Movie]]''. At first he's horrified and it looks like she's strangling him, but he's actually having sex with her, solving the problem with a paper bag ("No no, no kissing!"). They're still together at the very end.

 

* Marian Halcombe in ''[[The Woman in White]]'' by [[Wilkie Collins]].

{{quote|To see such a face as this set on shoulders that a sculptor would have longed to model—to be charmed by the modest graces of action through which the symmetrical limbs betrayed their beauty when they moved, and then to be almost repelled by the masculine form and masculine look of the features in which the perfectly shaped figure ended—was to feel a sensation oddly akin to the helpless discomfort familiar to us all in sleep, when we recognise yet cannot reconcile the anomalies and contradictions of a dream.}}

* In ''[[Infinite Jest]]'' by [[David Foster Wallace]], Joelle Van Dyne is genuinely gorgeous until an accident leaves her face "hideously and improbably deformed." Her body, however, remains pristine.

 

* A complete inversion of this trope occurs in the ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' episode "The Eye of the Beholder" (aka "The Private World of Darkness"). The main character's face — [[Bandaged Face|bandaged until the reveal at the end]] — is [[Beautiful All Along|just as beautiful]] as her body...but to the standards of all other characters — who have hideous faces — ''she'' is the one with the butter face.

* On ''[[Reno 911!]]'', Deputy Trudy Weigel is said to have a decent body but she's still a triple-bagger (a bag for you, a bag for her, and a bag for anyone unfortunate enough to be watching).

* The title character of the ''[[Masters of Horror]]'' episode "Jenifer" is this. Possibly to the point of [[Exaggerated Trope|exaggeration]], in that her face looks downright monstrous while still having a model's body.

 

* Many who have watched [[Queen]]'s video for "I Want to Break Free" have admitted that, facial hair aside, Freddie Mercury makes a pretty hot chick. Then of course, there's the drummer, Roger Taylor, who borders on [[Uncanny Valley]].

* [[Aphex Twin]]'s music video for "Windowlicker". [[Nightmare Face|The end.]]

* The Strawbs' song (covered later by The Monks), "Nice Legs, Shame About the Face".

* The [[Alternative Rap]] group Black Sheep's song "Strobelite Honey" is about the rapper Dres meeting a girl in a club. He can't see her face due to the strobe lights, but he can make out her "slammin" silhouette. Then he gets her in the light. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

* [[Medusa]] always has a hideous face with snakes for hair, and usually fangs, a beard, and bulging eyes as well. But sometimes she's depicted with a beautiful, human body. Then again, in ancient Greek artwork she's usually depicted with a scaly, clawed, inhuman body below the neck. And one of the oldest images of her incongruously makes her a centaur with a leering skull for a head.

 

* Comedian Pablo Francisco has a routine called "Nice body, ugly face."

 

 

* One of the sample characters in the Nosferatu clanbook from ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'', Mary Contrary. She loves to wear [[Stripperiffic]] clothes that compliment her hot body, but her face..."looks like it's been hit with a shovel. Over and over again". Of course that being a Nosferatu, Mary takes this trope [[Up to Eleven]]. It would be bad enough just with this description, but then we actually get to see her.

* In the ''[[Scarred Lands]]'' monster book ''Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie,'' the [[Meaningful Name|Blood Maiden]], is introduced as an otherwise gorgeous shoal-dwelling siren who just so happens to have a ''lamprey-like maw instead of a face.'' Obviously, they feed on blood, and not only that, but they [[Single Gender Race|are all female]] as well. Guess how they reproduce?

 

* ''Any'' game that features orcs fits this trope. Both male ''and'' female orcs qualify in that they ''always'' have attractive bodies and horrible faces.

* The nurses in the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series apparently have [[Hospital Hottie|very nice bodies]], and ''tumors'' for heads.

* [[Chivalrous Pervert|Zevran]] of ''[[Dragon Age]]'' mentions this trope by name in a conversation with Leliana, remarking on a woman that he'd been ogling. Leliana tells him, "You are a very bad man."

 

* Luna of ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' got this sort of response from Siggy, [[Gorgeous Gorgon|even though her face is fine]], and from several supporting characters. She has orc tusks because of a curse.

* Demonstrated in [http://www.explosm.net/comics/406/ this] ''[[Cyanide & Happiness]]''.

* Thelma of ''[[Nip and Tuck]]'', in her original appearance, is implied to be this. [[She Cleans Up Nicely]], though.

 

 

** A similar switch happens in the [[Woody Woodpecker]] cartoon, ''Socko in Morocco''. Woody and an Arab vulture fight over a harem girl; in the end they lift the veil to see a horridly ugly face. (Woody finds out after the vulture gives up that the face was a mask and she's really beautiful.)

** Another Avery "Droopy" cartoon, ''The Chump Champ'', has the Queen of Sports, who looks shapely from the neck down, but is a [[Funny Animal|literal dog]] from the neck up.

** Even more to the point, in reference to late night Cinemax: "There was one on last night where the girl had a butt face but her breasts was immaculate."

** Another episode had Meg join the Baton Squad in school, after being rejected as a cheerleader. The squad contains all unattractive girls...and one perfectly acceptable looking one. Meg asks her why she's in the group, and when she opens her mouth a super-long tongue rolls out.

* Bleh from ''[[Drawn Together]]'', if only because of her eyes.

* [[Professional Killer|Curare]], a villain from ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', has a rather nice body. But apparently she wears the mask for reasons besides stealth. When Terry sees her without it, he looks rather repulsed, though we don't get to see it.

* ''[[Cars|Cars 2]]'': During the scene where Mater, Finn McMissile and Holly Shiftwell are looking for Tomber, an odd three-wheeled car running the local black market in Paris, France; Mater actually sees a car facing away from him while inside the black market, and as soon as Mater talks to her, the car immediately turns around, revealing that her eyes are actually on her headlights instead of her windshield like everyone else's! Mater than screams and drives away to find his teammates.

 

== Real Life ==