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"Come over here and sit on yer uncle's lap!"

A version of the Dirty Old Man with some incest thrown in—a character who has a rather excessive attachment to their niece or nephew. Oddly, the Evil Uncle is rarely one of these.

Unfortunately, Truth in Television. Most instances of child sexual abuse involve an older relative (more often than not a man) molesting a child (either a boy or a girl).

Examples of Creepy Uncle include:


Anime and Manga[]

Comics[]

  • In one Spider-Man comic, Spidey tells a kid worried about molestation about a kid who was molested by an older friend. He then ends with saying that that kid was him (Peter). The older friend looked suspiciously like Uncle Ben, and there is an Urban Legend that he was originally supposed to be Uncle Ben. Yeah.

Fan Works[]

Film[]

  • This trope is mentioned in the "name your cliché" speech from Con Air about Billy Bedlam and his motivations for the murders that sent him to prison:
Cquote1

  Garland Greene: He's a font of misplaced rage. Name your cliché; Mother held him too much or not enough, last picked at kickball, late night sneaky uncle, whatever. Now he's so angry moments of levity actually cause him pain; gives him headaches. Happiness, for that gentleman, hurts.

Cquote2
  • Frank from Hellraiser. Initially, his main target of interest was Kristy's stepmother, with whom he had an affair. However, he eventually tires of her, and is shown to later set his sights on Kristy, whom he even mentions has "gotten beautiful." He later tries to rape her, and in the sequel, tries again... and gets a bit further when she kisses him to distract him.
  • In Slumber Party Massacre III, the killer's late uncle is hinted to be one.
  • Felicia from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert describes sabotaging a creepy uncle in childhood. "Get your mum, Uncle's stuck in the plug hole!"
  • The direct-to-video horror spoof Jack Frost 1997 (not to be confused with the Michael Keaton family comedy of the same name) had the story of killer snowman Jack told by one of these characters to his niece (no incest, though). Even though the girl is American, the uncle is apparently British.

Literature[]

  • Baron Harkonnen from Dune, who wants to molest both his nephew and his grandson.
    • And when his memory-ghost or whatever-it-can-be-called takes control of his niece's mind, SHE gets pretty squicky too.
    • He's also pretty evil, but (per the trope) is not an Evil Uncle. Weird, eh?
  • In Mercedes Lackey's Brightly Burning, when Lavan bitterly remarks that his mother wouldn't believe that kids from good families - like the older kids at school - would be bullies, Lavan's fellow student Owyn shrewdly makes a few observations, culminating with a cut-off remark about "slick uncles" that act friendly to little kids.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire's Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish qualifies; his protegée Sansa Stark, whom he's made frequent advances on, is technically his niece since he married her maternal aunt, Lysa Arryn. Made even creepier by the fact that he is trying to pass her off as his daughter... while calling her by his Mother's name, no less
  • Bridget Jones has one - although he isn't actually her uncle, just a pervy family friend. He's eventually revealed to be a closet homosexual, but this doesn't stop him making advances on her.
  • Karen/Charis's uncle in The Robber Bride takes this to its most logical, horrible extreme, continually raping her when she moves into his house aged nine. The abuse only stops when she starts puberty. He's creepily affectionate around other people and during the assaults, making it even worse.
  • In The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries, Sookie's great-uncle Bartlett. When she tells Bill about this, Bill kills him.
  • There's a variant in Confessions of Georgia Nicolson with Georgia's older cousin James, who unsubtly hits on her, and even attempts to grope her while staying the night at her house.
  • One of the Teenage Worrier books has cartoons of annoying relations of Letty, including an uncle leering at her while commenting on how much she has grown since he last saw her.
  • Jeannette Walls' uncle in The Glass Castle is one of these. After he attempts to molest her, she refuses to continue going to his house to bathe, even though she has no other access to running water.
  • Pete from Alfie's Home

Live Action TV[]

  • Buck Henry's "Uncle Roy" character from the earliest seasons of Saturday Night Live.
  • Charlie's Uncle Jack from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. That guy was waaaaaaaaaay too into having Charlie "show on the doll" where his old coach supposedly touched him.
  • Sookie's great-uncle Bartlett in True Blood. Like in the book series, Bill kills him in revenge for what he did to Sookie. Sookie later learns that Bartlett had left her everything he owned in his will.
  • J.D. and Carla each seem to have had one who came to their ballet classes and said, "Keep dancing, pretty girl."
  • Merlin Shades of this pop up in one of the early Agravaine eps of season 4...he doesn't actually molest anyone, given it's a family show, but he really gives the indication of wanting to try something with Gwen. Who, of course, will be his niece one day even though she isn't yet.

Music[]

Theater[]

  • The play How I Learned to Drive is a Family-Unfriendly Aesop version, as the play and the protagonist are inclined to sympathize with the uncle that molested her (and taught her to drive).
  • Shakespeare's Richard III tried to marry his niece Elizabeth. He's primarily interested in her claim to the throne, but his plan creeps everyone else out.
  • Shakespeare arguably has one with Pandarus in Troilus and Cressida- he seems a little too interested in hooking up his niece, Cressida with sex partners.
    • And in the source material, Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Pandarus is even creepier. The morning after the eponymous characters have consummated their relationship, he gets into bed with Criseyde after Troilus's departure. What exactly happens next is ambiguous, but it's certainly unsavory at best.
      • Debatable. There is no evidence in the text that Pandarus rapes or seduces Criseyde. She is mad at him and then forgives him, but the simplest explanation is that this is because he allowed her to be seduced by Troilus.

Western Animation[]

  • Poor little Butters from South Park seems to have one of these, among his many other misfortunes.
  • The Venture Brothers episode has The Monarch, missing his family connections, trying to bond with his captives Hank and Dean with fresh baked cookies and taking their ineffectual fighting as good-natured roughhousing. The boys are overjoyed to be rescued, Hank claiming Monarch "was getting all 'creepy uncle' on us!" (Which, if you were really digging for clues, could imply Doc Venture and The Monarch are brothers?)
    • Sgt. Hatred is a variation as well. He is first mentioned by Hank in a passing reference to the guy being so creepy that Dean has repressed the memories of being his prisoner (it's not explicitly stated that he was a pedophile, or that he had actually molested the boys, but the implication was there). Later he shows up as Doctor Venture's new arch-villain, but a few legal complications about how close he's allowed to be to any "beautiful young boys" come up here and there (the look of panic on his face when he shows up and the Doctor is running a day camp for preteen boys is priceless). Part of his eventual Heel Face Turn involves taking a special serum that suppresses those impulses, so he's not an actual threat anymore, but now he LIVES IN THEIR HOUSE, and is still pretty creepy from time to time...

Web Original[]

  • At the end of her "Enchanted Christmas" review, Web Video The Nostalgia Chick revealed she had one of these when she was a kid. Played for Laughs, naturally.
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