# 'but, miss X – you're beautiful without your glasses' - or, Ugly Ducklings on film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854 "2004-11-15T14:15:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilHamsterOnCrack)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/61 "2004-11-17T00:23:03Z")
Well, the thing that bothers me most is those teen movies in which the “nerds” are actually probably as beautful as the hottest girls at my school. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/62 "2004-11-17T01:12:49Z")
How about Uma Thurman in _Batman and Robin_ ? ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/63 "2004-11-17T01:30:03Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Another good example is Lili Taylor in **Dogfight**. I love Lili Taylor. She has one of those remarkable faces that can transform into anything you want it to be. You can make her downright disgusting or creepy like _I Shot Andy Warhol_, boringly plain like _Dogfight_ androgynous _Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle_, “angry urban” _Girlstown_. She’s played a huge age range during the last 15 years (teen one movie, almost middle aged the next). She seems to be a director’s favourite when they need “frumpy”, or “loopy”, but I saw her in a photoshoot, done up to be “sexy” and holy crap!!! :eek: She was stunning! ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/64 "2004-11-17T03:15:03Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’m surprised no one mentioned Alison Hannigans band geek transformation between the second and third American Pie movies. I thought Alison Hanngian was cute as the dickens in all the movies. If I were ever able to date a movie/tv character, Michelle from the American Pie movies would be it. Redhairds are just…awesome 🆒. Cute voice too. ---
**Author:** ![dangergene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@dangergene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangergene)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/65 "2004-11-17T06:12:17Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > In the video for “She Blinded Me With Science,” the old professor dude says to his lovely bespectacled assistant, after she doffs her goggles: “Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto, you’re beautiful!” Part of the comedy of this line in the song (and possibly the video, which I’ve not seen in a loooong time) being that Thomas Dolby, who wrote/performed _‘Blinded by Science’_ was a long-time collaborator with Ryuchi Sakamoto, the japanese composer and general cool person of the male persuasion. (A friend of mine once described Sakamoto as being the closest thing to a living vampire he’d ever met!) Part of the comedy may then also be at R. Sakamoto’s expense. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/66 "2004-11-17T08:13:12Z")
Frankly, I thought Ms. Hepburn was _hotter_ as the bookstore clerk. And she and Fred Astere had as much chemistry as…er… …Pretend I said some cornball witticism for “no chemistry.” ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/67 "2004-11-17T09:46:08Z")
Are we allowing films that exist only as plot devices in other media? If so, who can forget the torrid film _ **"Tango de la Muerte"** _ from _The Simpsons_ episode [Last Tap Dance in Springfield](http://www.snpp.com/episodes/BABF15)? It’s the movie that Marge and Lisa go to see at the Springfield Mall that inspires Lisa to take dance lessons. > [@](#): > > _Tango de la Muerte continues. The dancer needs a beautiful partner for the dancing contest. He passes by a row of women and tests a couple of them with a pelvic thrust before finding a woman who was not intending to be in the lineup._ > > **Lisa:** _[in audience]_ Oh, he’ll never dance with her. She’ll have to settle for some Mexican Milhouse. > **Dancer:** I demand to know your name. > **Lisabella:** _[timidly]_ My name is Lisabella. > **Lisa:** _[gasp]_ That’s my name with “bella” on the end of it! Ask her! Oh, God, please, ask her to dance! > **Dancer:** I shall dance … with her. _[points to Lisabella, thrusts pelvis]_ > **Mexican Milhouse:** ¡Qué malo! Once again I must sugar my own churro. > **Lisabella:** But I am just a simple librarian. I have only read about dancing in books. > **Dancer:** _[chuckle]_ I will show you something that is in no book. _[takes the book she was holding and throws it away] > [crowd gasps] > [The dancer takes her hand and swings her around, knocking off her glasses. He dips her, letting her hair down. Then he swings her again, unbuttoning her shirt and revealing her cleavage.]_ > **Lisa:** She’s not plain; she’s beautiful! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/68 "2004-11-17T10:33:54Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > And she and Fred Astere had as much chemistry as…er… > > …Pretend I said some cornball witticism for “no chemistry.” … as an underfunded inner-city public school? There was an episode of _Arrested Development_ where George “GOB” Bluth tries to distract/seduce his father’s secretary, Kitty. GOB: Uh, okay, glasses off. [Kitty removes her glasses, immediately goes cross eyed]. Uh, glasses on. Hair down. [Kitty’s hair is stringy and ugly when released]. Uh, glasses on, hair up, lights off. [etc.] ---
**Author:** ![Coil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Coil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coil)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/69 "2004-11-17T15:21:15Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > They did a pretty good job of making Ally Sheedy look gross in the first half of Breakfast Club. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > C’mon, she was lots cuter before being turned into Miss Prom Night. I agree with you Jackmanni, Ally was a lot cuter before the transformation. I like the Breakfast Club a lot except for that part. Why couldn’t they have let her keep her looks? ---
**Author:** ![Ezekiel25\_17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@Ezekiel25\_17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezekiel25_17)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/70 "2004-11-17T16:56:43Z")
> [@Number Six](#): > > _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ introduced this as a plot thread in season one, but then had the guy actually get the gorgeous, shallow girl and never end up with the nearly as attractive, nerdy girl. [rant]Nearly as attractive? Willow (nerdy girl played by Alyson Hannigan) has it in Spades over Cordelia(shallow/rich girl played by Charisma Carpenter). I know this is, like many of the assessments in this thread, purely subjective, but I for one would have taken Eskimo Willow over anyone else ever to grace the show. [/rant] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854.md?page=3)