Hunk

Oooooh, Mr. Ike, OOOOOOHHHHH!!!!

The classic European and American standard of male beauty, the hunk is two things: handsome and manly.

His face tends to be squarish and sharp-featured, often with a prominent chin. He has big, well-muscled arms and a large torso with pronounced muscles. He also has fairly thick, muscular legs, though they get less attention. It is often implied that he is as well-endowed between the legs as in the arms. The hunk may or may not have body hair, depending on the time period, and facial hair is negotiable. Guaranteed, however, to adopt Perma Stubble during his choice moments as Estrogen Brigade Bait.

Clothing tends to be simple and timeless. Nowadays, a hunk's casual wardrobe will consist of tight jeans and either a tank top, tight T-shirt, or flannel shirt (if he wears one at all. Works directed at a female audience have him not in increasing numbers). For work and formal events, a smart suit is a given.

The hero of a story, if male, is frequently a hunk, particularly in an action series. If the lead character is a woman, the leading man or the heroine's Love Interest, if not both, tends to be a hunk.

It is rare for a hunk to be an outright villain. However, a nasty hunk is often used to deliver the Moral of the Story. In this case, the (usually young, often teenage) heroine will imagine him to be a perfect Knight in Shining Armor type, but he's actually a Prince Charmless, Jerkass or vain prick, thus proving that one should not judge another based on appearances.

Mr. Fanservice is usually one of these. Contrast Pretty Boy. East Asian pop-culture tends to use Bishonen as the go-to "hot guy standard" instead.

Examples of Hunk include:

Advertising

• Calvin Klein hires hunks as underwear models.
• Abercrombie and Fitch is built on this trope.
• The Old Spice Guy openly exploits and lampshades this trope.

Anime and Manga

• Gene Starwind in Outlaw Star.
• Guts of Berserk.
• Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Luffy's elder brother in One Piece. Also, Roronoa Zoro.
• Both Goku and Gohan in Dragon Ball
  • Future Trunks.
• Akira Inugami of Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest.
• Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez of Bleach
  • Main protagonist Kurosaki Ichigo has his moments.
  • What, no Yasutora "Chad" Sado?
  • Komamura's human form, too.
  • Renji Abarai may be one of the biggest examples.
• Shin Seijurou from Eyeshield 21.
• Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
• Kurogane from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
• Tyranno Hassleberry from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
• The titular Toriko.
• Koujiro Hyuuga from Captain Tsubasa grows into one. Wakabayashi, too.
• In Shin Kyojin no Hoshi, the older Hyuuma Hoshi is quite hunky.
• Many attractive men in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, starting with Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando.

Comics

• Superman is usually drawn this way. Clark Kent varies by the artist.
• Bruce Wayne aka Batman is also frequently drawn in a hunky manner.
• Most incarnations of Nightwing.
• Most male comic book heroes, really. It would probably be quicker to list the aversions of this trope.
• Bruce Banner averts it, being short and skinny. His alter-ego doesn't fare much better, as he is generally drawn as extremely muscular but troll-faced. However, during the 90s Bruce Banner and the Hulk were merged into a single persona and this new incarnation was drawn with the Hulk's body and Banner's face, creating a (green) hunk.

Film

• Gaston from Beauty and the Beast is a rare villainous example. Prince Adam/The Beast's human form is quite hunky too.
• Prince Charming in the Shrek movies. Also a villainous hunk.
  • There's also Shrek in his human form.
• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's role as the name role of The Scorpion King was parodied in Mad Magazine. Let's just say they named the parody The Scorpion Hunk.
  • The Rock is cast this way in virtually every role.
• In the film version of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Viktor Krum is portrayed as this despite being unattractive and gangly in the books.
• Hercules from Disney's 1997 movie of the same name is also very handsome and because of that one of the most popular Disney's characters.
• MANY guys from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Captain America (Chris Evans) Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Dr. Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), etc.

Literature

• Carrot Ironfoundersson in Discworld is described as being pretty hunky.

Live-Action TV

• Andromeda: Both Dylan Hunt and Tyr Anasazi. Again, Hunt and Hercules are played by the same actor.
• Angel & Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel, so much so that Even the Guys Want Him.
• Arrow: John Diggle. Oliver Queen.
• Bones: Booth, who shares an actor with Angel.
• Degrassi: Spinner, Sean, Jay and Riley fit this trope to Memetic Sex God levels.
• Due South: Fraser
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: The title character.
• Merlin: Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. They even have a pet Pretty Boy. Or Merlin has them. No one's really sure which.
• Never Have I Ever: Paxton Hall-Yoshida.
• Person of Interest gives us the very attractive Jim Caviezel.
• Riverdale: Reggie Mantle, Chuck Clayton, Munroe Moore, Archie Andrews. So many abs.
• John Crichton and Cameron Mitchell, both played by the absurdly attractive Ben Browder. You're welcome.

Professional Wrestling

• Due to varying fan opinions and the nature of the form of fiction, it would probably be quicker to mention wrestlers who do not fit this trope.

Video Games

• Chris Redfield and Billy Coen in Resident Evil.
• Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, is considered this for a reason.
• The Lords from Fire Emblem tended to be Pretty Boys, but this has changed in recent times:
  • Hector from Blazing Blade started the trend...
  • And Ike from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn codified it. Pictured above is his Vanguard incarnation (equivalent to his Radiant Dawn self), as shown in Fire Emblem: Heroes.
  • Fire Emblem Awakening has Chrom (though he also has some Pretty Boy traits) and a Male Avatar with the biggest build. Vaike and Priam (said to be a descendant of Ike) are non-Lord examples.
  • Fire Emblem Fates has both Crown Princes, Ryoma and Xander, Ryoma's retainer Saizo, Princess Elise's retainer Arthur, and Ryoma's son Shiro.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses: a Male Byleth is another blend of both Hunk and Pretty Boy (especially if reclassed into the right classes), while Caspar von Bergliez and Prince Dimitri Alexander Blaiddyd go from Pretty Boys to this after the Time Skip. Byleth's Hot Dad Jeralt Eisner, Raphael Kirsten, Balthus von Albrecht and Dedue Molinaro fit in here from the very start.
  • And from the earlier games, there's Ogma from the Akaneia continuity. His once plain-looking companion Barst is notoriously hunkier in the card games and Heroes.
• Jecht from Final Fantasy X and Dissidia is actually described as having "the body of a bronzed god," which is in stark contrast to the many, many bishies in the series.
• Riku, Sora's best friend from Kingdom Hearts, is designed like this.
• Little Mac from Punch Out can be seen as this since his Wii redesign.
• Ryu from Street Fighter.
  • Vega aka Claw (also know as Balrog in Japan).
  • Ken Masters, Ryu's best friend and rival.
  • The newest games have Cody (especially after he cleans up his act in SF V), Rashid and Luke.
• Tekken is littered with these; Kazuya Mishima, Paul Phoenix, Marshall Law, King (mask and all), Fei Weng, Miguel Caballero Rojo, etc. Others like Kazuya's son Jin, Lars Alexandersson and Steve Fox manage to blend Hunk with Pretty Boy.

Web Originals

• The Towel Boys drawn by DeviantArt user Zephleit.
• Brody Fox from the YouTube series, Yo Mama

Western Animation

• Johnny Bravo. Despite having the looks, he repulses women because he is such a preening dumbass.
• The aptly named He-Man from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
• Big Macintosh is a pony version.
• One episode of Totally Spies had a teenaged gym instructor called Raymond, who served as Alex's love interest for the episode.
• Major Glory and Valhallen from Dexter's Laboratory.
• Larry the Lobster from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Spongeguard on duty".
  • Parodied BIG TIME with Handsome Squidward.
• Hunk and Takashi "Shiro" Shirogane from Voltron: Legendary Defender. Emperor Zarkon used to be one, but aged VERY badly.