Chic and Awe

Lois Lane: I hear he's nothing but Gotham trash: rich, spoiled, and... (Bruce Wayne steps off the plane) Lois Lane: ... absolutely gorgeous! —The Batman / Superman Movie

A character is being spoken of by another character. Suddenly, the person being talked about walks through the door and the complainer is utterly awestruck mid-sentence. This happens most often at some sort of formally arranged event (especially dress parties where everyone is in cocktail gowns and tuxedos, or something similar), with friends joking that a friend of the opposite sex would be completely out of place, only to find out that She Cleans Up Nicely.

A subtrope of Distracted by the Sexy. Related to Love At First Sight, but only when the character haven't met before. Sometimes caused by the strange energy field emanating from The Pornomancer. Often happens to the Deadpan Snarker, the cynic, a Jerkass, or someone similar; who you wouldn't expect to act that way. This also often sometimes happens between friends, especially if the two characters are long term Just Friends. Frequently accompanied by Revenge of the Nerd.

Examples of Chic and Awe include:

Anime & Manga

• Ranma ½: Ranma does this a lot.

Film

• Lonestar and Princess Vespa do this to each other in Spaceballs.
• Happens to Emily while she's snarking about Andy's lack of fashion sense in The Devil Wears Prada. Unfortunately for Emily, Andy undergoes a Makeover Montage when nobody's looking.

Literature

• This troper once read a short story—she can't remember its name—in which a middle-aged gay man moves to a new town and learns about a veteran who lives alone. He takes pity on him, imagining him to be decrepit and lonely. Then he finds out the dude is only a few years older than himself and banging hot to boot. Cue hot banging.
  • Please let us know if you remember the title.
• Harry Potter's stunned reaction to the dressed up Hermione in Goblet of Fire.

Live Action TV

• Happens in season one of Friends as well. Joey tricks Monica into going on a date with some guy; when they arrive at the bar, Monica finds out that Joey had never actually met the guy in question.

Monica: ?For chrissakes Joey, for all we know this guy could be horribly--" (handsome guy walks in) Monica: "--horribly attractive. I'll be shutting up now."

• Firefly example: in "Shindig", Inara's priceless reaction to Mal and Kaylee arriving at the ball.
• On ICarly, Carly and Sam keep making fun of Freddie's AV friend, Shane. Until they actually meet him.

Newspaper Comics

• In FoxTrot, this was pretty much Paige's reaction when, dragged along to see The Lord of the Rings, she first set eyes on Legolas.

Paige: "Don't tell me you bought all that filler stuff about a ring."

Theater

• This is the setup for the song "Granger Danger" in A Very Potter Musical.
  • This song was actually the inspiration for the entire play.

Western Animation

• The page quote comes from The Batman Superman Movie, where Lois Lane criticizes Bruce Wayne while waiting for him to arrive in Metropolis, and is lovestruck the moment she sees him.
• Happens to Cindy in Jimmy Neutron, when Jimmy shows up in a tux for a wedding. Libby has to snap her out of it.
• SpongeBob SquarePants had an episode where Squidward had his face smashed in. When healed, everyone went gaga for him with a great many variations on "So... handsome..."
• Played for Laughs in Glenn Martin DDS, where Glen develop a "man crush" mid-sentence on an environmentalist he figured would be a dirty bum.