I watched Norbit last night and the scene where he gets bullied by the ginger twins got me thinking. In the UK gingers are often bullied for being ginger so the idea that they’re the bullies in school always comes as a surprise to me. We see ginger bullies in lots of Adam Sandler films as well and I’m sure there are other examples. Is it a thing in America or am I just seeing a pattern that doesn’t exist?
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I think the trope here is largely the same as the UK, that ginger kids generally get bullied. South Park even did an episode on it
Redheads are known for being angry. It’s not true, but it’s like the “dumb blonde” stereotype.
There’s an old stereotype that people with red hair have bad tempers so it makes sense why they’d get picked to be a bully if they got angry easily.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ViolentGlaswegian
When I was growing up I think maybe red hair was associated with being more wild/impulsive or having a temper in fiction. I think many beloved characters have had red hair like Pipi Longstalking, Anne of Green Gables, Strawberry Shortcake, Annie, Opie Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show, Pete from Pete’s Dragon, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Wilma Flinstone, Lucy from I Love Lucy, Daphne from Scooby Doo, Chuckie from Rugrats, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Jessie from Toy Story, Helen from The Incredibles, Kim Possible, Archie Andrews, Phillip J Fry from Futurama, Fiona from Shrek.
There are probably more blonde or black haired bullies or villians.
The South Park episode essentially imported/popularized British stereotypes about “gingers” (and the word “ginger” for that matter).
Aside from that, I don’t think it was an intentional pattern (I’m not giving the producers of *Norbit* or Adam Sandler comedies that much credit).
Cuz gingers are soulless, obviously
Because Hollywood feeds stereotypes
We’d be too powerful otherwise.