Idiom/phrase for someone that looks completely different from everyone else

I swear, there's a phrase (a simile) I hear a lot that describes when someone just appears different from everyone else in a given crowd or location.

For example, (and I'm trying to be as sensitive as I can), something like a tall person in a midget convention or something. Or a blue bowl in a cupboard filled with red dinnerware. A person (or thing) that just utterly and completely doesn't fit in with everyone (or everything) else there.

I've been trying to look up this phrase for the past half an hour at least, and my Google searches are just not returning anything useful.

Are there any phrases or similes that come to mind?


You could say that the tall guy in the midget convention looks like a fish out of water or, by extension, that he looks like a bull in a china shop...and that the blue bowl in the cabinet filled with red dinnerware sticks out like a blot on the landscape, but you could also say that both stick out like dog's balls or like a fly on a wedding cake or like a wart on a/the nose.

stick out like dog's balls

: (Chiefly AusEng) not fit; be out of place Slang Dictionary

stick out like a fly on a wedding cake

: to be very conspicuous or obvious Green's Dictionary of Slang

be like a fish out of water

: to feel awkward because you are not familiar with a situation or because you are very different from the people around you. Cambridge Idioms Dictionary

bull in a china shop

: (Prov.) a very clumsy creature in a delicate situation. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

a blot on the landscape

: something which looks unpleasant and spoils a pleasant view Cambridge Idioms Dictionary


He sticks out like a sore thumb:

  • If someone or something ​stands/​sticks out like a sore ​thumb, everyone ​notices them because they are very different from the ​people or things around them. (Cambridge Dictionary)

There are a few others.


Stand out from the crowd:

  • to be very obvious or unusual. We try to stand out from the crowd by producing movies and TV programs that no one else would produce.

Cambridge Dictionary


The odd one out.

Something or someone in a group that is different or exceptional, that does not fit.