Not sure if it's at all relevant here, but this reminded me of a character for a one-shot (more like a side-story to a long-running campaign) that I made. He had a pretty serious and "edgy" backstory: his parents died when he was very young and was taken in by his grandfather. After the grandfather died, he was passed off along several relatives until he found himself in an orphanage, where he eventually became too old for it, and went on to be an adventurer.

However, the character was modeled on Pico of Boku no Pico (and its other sequels). I gave him polearm mastery (because, long and pointy things), and I wanted him to carry a "pike" but for more practical reasons, I just gave him a halberd. Continuing on with the extended joke of a character, I have him have a height of over 6 feet, and a bulky, well-built body (out of a lifetime of manual labor, ofc). And to top it all off, I played him as a sweet innocent boy, liking ice cream and being huggy and an overall bundle of joy to be around.

Not everyone in the table got the joke, but the look of the faces of those who knew, priceless! It did play quite decently though, which is a huge bonus.