10 onscreen himbos who paved the way for Ken
As Barbie's ridiculously good-looking doofus continues to dominate the conversation, let’s count down pop culture’s most beautiful dim-witted men
Aux Features Ken
With the colossal success of Barbie—Greta Gerwig’s spirited ode to and subversion of the iconic fashion doll brought in a whopping $162 million domestic and $356 million global in its opening weekend—comes a much-welcomed entry into himbo history: Ryan Gosling’s “Stereotypical Ken.” Playing Barbie’s ultimate accessory, Gosling giddily commits to every deliciously doofy aspect of the character: the ’80s power ballad, the insane costumes (at one point he wears cat-eye sunglasses over another pair of cat-eye sunglasses), the nonsensical job occupation (simply “Beach”), the sheer eagerness with which he approaches, well, everything.
But even when Gosling’s Ken ends up leading a patriarchal coup against the women-dominated government of Barbie Land, it’s his innate himbo wholesomeness that subdues any real sense of danger. That’s because true himbos are characterized as much by their harmlessness as they are by their abdominals. A portmanteau of “him” and “bimbo” coined by a 1988 article in The Washington Post, the himbo label has come to signify a specific genre of exceptionally handsome, charmingly good-natured but ultimately very dim-witted dudes, the kind of fellas that folks on the internet dub “cinnamon rolls” and “golden retriever boyfriends.”
Hollywood has a long himbo tradition across screens both big and small. In recognition of the latest, let’s honor the greatest: Here are 10 dumbly beautiful and beautifully dumb men that paved the way for Ken.
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Vinnie Verducci is worth a shout out here. Matt LeBlanc played him on Married With Children. One of Kelly’s boyfriends and a clear inspiration for the Joey character.
Friends characters ranked best to worst:1. Joey
2. Rachel
3 – 6. Four-way tie.
Hey dude, you better step off.
I was just going to say, how on earth did the Mimbo not make the list????
Blake Bortles!
“All they need is an offense, defense, and some rule changes.”
Coincidentally, this may be what the actual Blake Bortles(!!!) is up to these days.
Foooooooles!!!!
As always, a great post on George of the Jungle and the fact that it’s a female-gaze goldmine:
Jesus fuck, don’t ever paste a tumblr link again.
That is an absolute lot of words to say “I think Brendan Frasier is hot”
For a movie based off a series of silly shorts in Rocky and Bullwinkle it’s a lot better than it has any right to be.
Leslie Mann may not be ‘conventionally beautiful’ but I think she’s hot as hell!
It’s maybe a deeper cut, but I think Brad Pitt’s character from Burn After Reading would be a worthy inclusion on this list.
100%. One of my favorite Pitt performances.I’m not sure if his Thelma & Louise character is dim enough to count, bit I’m going to rule “close enough.”
“Brad Pitt is a character actor trapped in a leading man’s body.” Dunno who said it, but it’s bang on.
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He was hilarious in Dave, I did not expect that episode to go the way it did but man it was great.
Agree. And even thought Pitt played the character of “Death” in Meet Joe Black, his character’s beauty, vulnerability and body were front and center, as opposed to the female lead.
Definitely
Jane Campion’s The Piano deconstructs the female gaze. We all got quite the eyefull of Harvey Keitel completely nude and vulnerable. I consider it a very significant cinematic moment for women’s cinema.
I like when list like this reach back to 70s/80s tv. While its easy to talk about classic movies, I fear that classic TV may be forgotten. What do today’s latch key kids watch? do they just stream Netflix and D+ all day or do they surf local channels and leave it on whatever the local syndicated station has on that day?
Probably a lot of YouTube and Twitch, along with social media, in addition to streaming.
“What do today’s latch key kids watch?”There aren’t any latch key kids any more. They don’t let them off the school bus if there isn’t an adult there.
even simpler mental capabilities (“It’s like a cow’s opinion. It doesn’t matter. It’s moo.”),
I mean, the mental leaps it took to get there are actually impressive. I still think of this every time I hear the word “moot” and immediately think of a cow chewing its cud and talking about crypto.
Shouldn’t Spicoli be in there?
Maybe #1?
In the wake of the Friends reunion, I decided to do a re-watch of the show. It was a critical part of the pop-culture landscape when I was in high school and, growing up in suburban New Jersey where the definition of “making it” meant moving to or at least working in Manhattan, a tome for how I saw the world and envisioned my future. I didn’t get very far into my re-watch, maybe three episodes. But even in watching those three first episodes, two things popped out at me:The Joey of the first episode is not the lovable lunk I remember from the show. He’s mean, vaguely menacing, and overtly homophobic. Re: the homophobia, even as Joey’s character softened to himbo status, I don’t think he ever lost that homophobic streak.Everyone is incredibly mean to Phoebe. Almost all of the exchanges with Phoebe, especially from Chandler/Ross, are jokes about her poverty or jokes about her mental health. I knew a re-watch of Friends would be more of a hate-watch, but this wasn’t even that. It was just depressing. Maybe someday but not anytime soon. I never did move to Manhattan by the way. And nothing could convince me to today.
The homophobia, especially directed at Chandler, is one of the reason why I won’t likely watch the series ever again. While Joey becomes a lot more likeable, he also become so mind-numbingly stupid that it becomes unfunny. Case in point, the final season episode where he can’t speak French.
Manny Jacinto should have been one of the Kens, and I think if I rewatch Barbie, I will feel that absence.
Like knowing Sandler was supposed to be the Bear Jew.
Does Sam Malone count?
yes but he needs to use his fingers.
Laszlo from WWDITS
Why is sexism against men celebrated? Can we get a stupid cunt slut list next please?
no love for…
Who’s that dog?
Dennis Duffy aka Beeper King is missing from this list…dummy.
Two of my favorites are Bill Pullman in Ruthless People and Patrick Warburton in practically everything (especially The Emperor’s New Groove.)
In terms of animated characters, Kronk and possibly the Disney Hercules definitely deserve to be on this list.
Hercules isn’t so much an idiot, but he has that “nonthreatening female gaze” thing from the Tumblr link posted earlier down pat.
I love She’s the Man!!!
Magic Mike? Thor? Wolverine?
I’m right there with you for Mike and Thor. Not sure about Wolverine. Puddy from Seinfeld should at least get an honorable mention.
Ha! Puddy. Oh, that’s perfect. Did you see Patrick Warburton in Big Trouble? He starts out the movie as a cop then ends as a Male Stripper!
I didn’t much care for Sex and the City so I missed a lot of it. Were any of Carrie Bradshaw’s guys himbos?
I got a Community notification for this?
Yeah, and I’m not convinced Troy belongs on the list.
Honorable mention for Ken from Life In The Dreamhouse.
This is all making me want to rewatch “The Bubble” episode of 30 Rock. John Hamm made such a good himbo that he almost tempted Liz to drop her convictions. I’d argue that the man she ends up marrying, Criss Cross, is also a himbo. Honestly I think even Dennis counts, although he’s decidedly an evil himbo. I’m just starting to realize that Lemon had a real pattern in the men she liked…
I feel Prince Edward (James Marsden) in Enchanted should be on this list. A himbo isn’t just stupid, they also have to be pure of heart and someone who supports their friends and love-interest no matter what they are choosing to do, who is a champion in every sense. Joey… is not a himbo. He’s stupid (and gets more stupid) but he doesn’t have that purity of heart that you need.
George Peppard as Paul Varjak in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Major miss there.
Is Ken really a himbo? Even if his ineffectual nature makes him come off less threatening, he still spends the entire movie drowning in self-pity over a woman not liking him.
The role of Kevin in Ghostbusters (2016) was beyond fucking stupid.
No James Marsden in ENCHANTED? OK then.