I Cannot Stand When The Proclaimed "Nice Guy" Gets The Girl In Rom-Coms...Here Are 17 Of The Worst
The Nice Guy has got to be one of my least favorite tropes...especially because it's so prevalent in real life. I don't know why some men think they're owed sex or romantic interest because they're not actively acting like an asshole (at least to start; their assholery always comes out in the end), but TBH it's really gross.
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I absolutely cannot stand this character in romantic comedies...because they always seem to end up getting the girl in the end, sending out this really damaging message to everyone that being the Nice Guy works, and women really are secretly into them! Here are 17 examples that make me want to gag.
1.Chris in Just Friends
This has got to be one of the worst Ryan Reynolds movies, and I'm including Green Lantern in that. From the start, it has super anti-fat sentiments, and the rest of the movie continues to be the epitome of problematic expectations for women. Reynolds' whole character storyline is based around feeling rejected by his best friend from high school, and he essentially comes back to town feeling like she owes him a shot. When she appears to be going for another guy, he accuses her of always leaving him in the "friend zone." God, I hate that term. I didn't realize being friends with a woman was such a punishment! If you only want to sleep with her, maybe do her a favor and stop pretending to be her friend, Chris, you manipulative bastard!!!!!
2.Ted in There's something About Mary
Ted is SUCH a creep. Just because he missed out on getting to be with Mary in high school, he feels like she still owes him something all these years later. Hiring a PI to find her is SO creepy, and then when Mary finds out about it, instead of really taking a look at his own actions, he tries to find someone to blame for sending the letter. I still, to this day, do not understand why Mary ended up with Ted and think it sends such a bad message. I actually think the movie could've been saved, at least a little, by Mary ending up with Brett, because the lesson, in the end, would be that you can't manipulate someone into loving you.
3.Mark from Love Actually
I don't know in WHAT world Mark thought it was appropriate to hit on his best friend's wife. He's a horrible friend and TBH, he puts Juliet in SUCH an uncomfortable position...except the lasting impact of this scene is not that Mark sucks, but that this is a timeless romantic gesture! It's so gross, and I still find it so unrealistic that Juliet seemed into it.
4.Tom from 100 Days of Summer
The only good part about this example is I feel like Summer serves as a foil for Tom's expectations about what he deserves from her...but I feel like the message got lost because a lot of people look at this movie and see Summer as the asshole, or at least they did back when it came out.
I get that it sucks to want to go all in with someone who doesn't feel the same way about you, but Summer was always honest with him about how she felt, and Tom kept trying to push her anyways. When he got angry after she did find love, even though it was far after their breakup, it felt like he thought that since she now believed in love, he deserved it from her. He also just acts so moody and immature about Summer's decisions, and he just felt like such a "pick me" guy.
5.Farmer Ted in Sixteen Candles
It's not like Ted was the romantic lead or anything, but I always hated that he ended up with Caroline after it's implied he basically sexually assaulted her when he was sober and she was drunk. I also thought his behavior toward Sam was super gross. I HATED that when they finally had a real conversation, Ted ruined it by going in for a kiss...because he wasn't even capable of starting a friendship without once again trying for something sexual. He doesn't understand that no means no. And then Sam doesn't mind and gives him her underwear?!? Unrealistic and undeserved.
6.Peter in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Honestly, it's mostly the energy Peter has that is giving Nice Guy (and its cousin trope, Sad Boi). Yeah, he's got a right to be upset with Sarah, but he's super immature in the way he handles it and tries to mess with her. And I feel like he continuously ignores Rachel's feelings in favor of his own, and yet we're still supposed to see him as the good, down-on-his-luck guy. He's perpetually playing the victim, and refusing to acknowledge his role in the downfall of his relationship with Sarah and just the overall state of his life.
7.Cal from Crazy Stupid Love
I'll be the first to say I love this movie, and I definitely don't hate Cal by any means. But...the guy's a little pathetic and a lot selfish. Honestly, it's pretty clear why his relationship fell apart, and it wasn't the way he looked — but Jacob was on the right track with building confidence. He's definitely avoidant, which hurts the people around him — he can't seem to have an honest conversation with Emily about their relationship, or one with Kate. He's all too happy to buy into Jacob's way of life without considering whether it's cruel to the women he's sleeping with, and then when he finally realizes Jacob is dating his daughter, his personal contempt for Jacob's lifestyle (the same one he adopted!!!) keeps him from letting his daughter be happy. I see him as the Nice Guy because I feel like he's sitting there moping that he was just too sweet and too much of a doormat and that's why his life ended up the way it did, and he refuses to take a closer look at any of his problematic behavior.
8.Wally from The Switch
This dude is such a creep, IMO. Even drunk, literally inseminating your best friend is really fucked up. Especially because it clearly comes from a place of wanting to be with her after being "friend-zoned" for years. And then when he realizes the truth so many years later, he uses the opportunity to also confess his love and just overall make excuses for what he did (and he takes forever to tell her!). Also, just the audacity for him to call Sebastian his "son" when Kassie made it really clear (even when she thought it was Roland) that the sperm donor was just a donor and not the father. And him bringing up that Sebastian comes to him for things!!! Manipulative.
9.Denis in I Love You, Beth Cooper
Denis is a classic Nice Guy — he "loves" Beth when he's never interacted with her and is set up to be the sweet alternative to the other guys she dates, when in reality, Denis is the one who outed his friend to the entire school and was a dick to a bunch of other classmates he barely knew. Denis gives the energy of that 30 Rock episode where Tina realizes she wasn't bullied in high school and actually was the bully. I don't know why Beth hangs out with him at all, or why we're supposed to believe she'd ever be into him.
10.Tim in About Time
I feel like I'm alone in this, but I always thought it was kind of gross that Tim kept going in time to try to essentially manipulate romantic situations so that they would result in him ending up with someone. I know we all have awkward situations we wish we could do over, but it felt creepy that he did this so many times and got to really present his best self or do what he knew would be successful, reducing the other person's amount of choice in the matter because he wasn't really being himself. He's definitely not the worst offender on this list, but I still got the ick from this guy.
11.Ronald from Can't Buy Me Love
Ronald is the classic Nice Guy who turns into a dick once he gets a little popularity. He becomes a huge dick to his best friend Kenneth and even Cindy — he literally steals Cindy's private poem after promising he wouldn't change. In the end, he makes this big speech about how popularity doesn't matter, and I'm, like, really dude? You spent the whole movie being a dick in pursuit of popularity, and now you're preaching about it?
12.Duckie in Pretty in Pink
Don't get me wrong, I don't like Blane either. But I feel like Duckie's come to represent this poor, "friend-zoned" Nice Guy who should have gotten the girl in years past, and I don't agree with that. He didn't "deserve" Andie by any means, and at no point does it seem like Andie is actually into him. He's also kind of a dick to Andie at multiple points — the pissy look is not cute, Duckie!!! It's such a classic Nice Guy move to try to make a woman feel like she's "not respecting herself" or "looks stupid" by dating someone else.
13.Matthew in Girl Next Door
The plot of this movie gets pretty batshit, but in the part that's comprehensible, Matthew sucks. He's bitter because he's spent all this time as the shy, nice, quiet guy and doesn't have any wild experiences to show for his high school experience...then goes ahead and spies on his naked neighbor, because that's what good guys do, right? And then he gets pissy and mean when he discovers she's an adult film actress??? He's a dick.
14.Scott from Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Scott laments being heartbroken by Envy, yet he does the same thing to Knives. It's also so creepy that he's dating a high schooler, to begin with, and yet we're supposed to see Scott as a good guy and root for him against all the "evil" people he faces, some of whom he seems to literally kill?!? He also likes Ramona, the ultimate manic pixie dream girl, for what seems like surface-level reasons...like, he barely knows her. He also seems like a dick to his bandmates, especially Roxy. He does kind of redeem himself at the end, but still. He's also racist in the above scene.
15.Cameron from 10 Things I Hate About You
Cameron is another perfect example of this trope. Yes, Bianca definitely leads him on, but still, he's the classic Nice Guy who feels he deserves her...and is willing to manipulate the entire situation, including getting involved in the messed-up scheme to trick Kat, entirely for his own purposes.
16.Dean from Overboard (the original from 1987, not the Anna Faris one)
Dean is framed as a hard worker, honest man, and single father who is essentially conned by the "rich bitch" (his words, not mine) Joanna...when really, he is SO much worse than her. Tricking her into working off the money she owes him is one thing (still pretty sketchy), but telling him she's his wife and the MOTHER of four boys??? It's downright pathological. And even after they fall for each other — presumably (I can't remember) having sex, too — he waits FOUR MONTHS and still doesn't tell her the truth!!! It's so selfish and messed up...and like all these other examples, they still end up together. Joanna might've been entitled and mean (at least at the start), but she was a wayyyyy better person than Dean ever was.
Side note: why do they keep remaking versions of this movie? It has such a problematic premise.
17.And finally, everyone from Revenge of the Nerds, but especially Lewis
The guys do a number of really creepy, predatory, and straight-up illegal things to the sorority girls in the film, and we're supposed to see it all as their "revenge" against the popular guys...but what do the girls even have to do with that? It's like they feel entitled to that attention because they've been ignored in the past — like, the frat guys don't deserve it, so they must. And then Lewis basically assaults Betty, because he wears a mask and she doesn't realize it's him until after...then she's happy about it?!? It's so violating and unrealistic, and yet Lewis is the hero of the film. He should've ended up in jail instead, along with the rest of his buddies.
