History Main / MinorFlawMajorBreakup

* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this when Turk and Eliot stage an intervention for J.D. because of his tendency to do this (specifically, because of a problem he has with how his current girlfriend reacts to his jokes). [[spoiler: He manages to overlook her saying "that's so funny" instead of actually laughing, then realizes that her hopes/plans for the future aren't quite compatible with his, [[ShaggyDogStory so they split because of that]].]]

** Each time someone's flaw is revealed, it is [[Flanderization exaggerated excessively]], for example, Lilly manages to make loud crunching noises while eating cotton candy. The [[spoiler: overly-talkative]] Girl of the Week is revealed to have moved on and started dating [[spoiler: a deaf man.]] Which works great until Ted asks him if he ever noticed the aforementioned flaw.

* In the fifth ''Captain Underpants'' book, Ms. Ribble is briefly engaged to Mr. Krupp, but calls it off. This is not because [[UnequalPairing he's her boss]], or the fact that he's a sadistic ChildHater, but because he has a stupid-looking nose.

* In ''Girlfriends'', Joan dates a man who while fairly attractive, has girl hips. Her constant obsessing over this causes them to break up.

* In "Franchise/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/ACloseShave", the [[SeriousBusiness cheese-loving]] Wallace and a possible love interest realize that it will never work out because [[spoiler:she's allergic to cheese]].

* EddieMurphy's character in ''Boomerang'' spends most of his relationships doing this to women due to an unconscious fear of commitment. He waits until after they've had sex, then breaks up with women because they don't have tiny feet and other such jackassery. Then he finally meets a woman he can't find fault in and falls in love. And she leaves him. ''Bazinga''.

* Non-dating example - in the 2007 series of [[BigBrother Celebrity Big Brother]] (UK version), when several of the other female housemates were picking on Shilpa Shetty, they resorted to making fun of the fact that her second toes were "almost as long" as her big toes. Yes, something that was actually a joke in [[Film/ShallowHal a comedy about this very topic]] was all they could come up with. It should be noted that the ladies in question were not up to Shilpa's level looks-wise, and a close-up showed her feet to be rather yummy [[FootFocus (if you're into that)]] despite this [[SarcasmMode crippling handicap]], so they sounded pretty hypocritical from the off. [[ItGotWorse Then the racist remarks started...]]

* The recent discovery that MeganFox (yes, her!) has "toe thumbs" was apparently enough to disgust many male fans.

* In "WallaceAndGromit: A Close Shave", the [[SeriousBusiness cheese-loving]] Wallace and a possible love interest realize that it will never work out because [[spoiler:she's allergic to cheese]].

* While not being a romantic situation at all, one ''SoulEater'' episode has Hero, the one student mentally capable to have [[{{Jerkass}} Exca]][[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} libur]] as a partner (because he was the only one that didn't find Excalibur's behavior annoying). While they were perfect Meister and Weapon, the former dumped the latter because [[spoiler:he sneezed too much and in a very disgusting manner]].

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* In the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story ''[[http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/125/ The Birth-Mark]]'', the {{mad scientist}} protagonist Aylmer obsesses over a tiny [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port-wine_stain port-wine stain]] on his wife's cheek and eventually attempts to remove it with science. [[spoiler:This is by Hawthorne, so [[ScienceIsBad you can probably guess what happens]].]]

* In WoodyAllen's humorous short story "The Lunatic's Tale", the narrator breaks up with a woman because she "made the fatal mistake of defending candles shaped like {{Laurel and Hardy}}".

* ''{{Scrubs}}'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this when Turk and Eliot stage an intervention for J.D. because of his tendency to do this (specifically, because of a problem he has with how his current girlfriend reacts to his jokes). [[spoiler: He manages to overlook her saying "that's so funny" instead of actually laughing, then realizes that her hopes/plans for the future aren't quite compatible with his, [[ShaggyDogStory so they split because of that]].]]

* In ''{{iCarly}}'', there is a "horrible" fact about the bad boy in "[=iDate=] a Bad Boy" that shocks and disgusts Carly about her otherwise perfectly fine boyfriend. The horrific, awful, scream-inspiring fact is that he... collects Beanie Babies. Of course, the main character is not considered at all shallow for dumping him based on a fact that had not come up until she commented on it.

* Lampshaded in an episode of ''HowIMetYourMother''. Ted thinks his new girlfriend is perfect, but everyone else finds her hard to deal with because [[spoiler: she talks way too much]]. Barney describes it as "the oh moment": the moment you realise a person's fatal flaw and your perfect image of them is shattered. The rest of the episode revolves around everyone coming to notice each others' flaws: Lily's is that she chews loudly, Ted's is that he's always correcting people's grammar, Marshall's is singing about everything he does, Robin's is overusing the word 'literally', and Barney's is... basically his entire personality. The episode ends with them learning to live with these flaws, [[spoiler:but Ted still breaks up with his GirlOfTheWeek]].

* A two part episode of {{Good Luck Charlie}} had a fortune teller tell Teddy that she'd meet the love of her life on a ski trip. She meets two guys, the first is ignored before he even gives his name because he laughes weird. The second guy, who gets to talk long enough to tell them that he's a professional chef and model, is ignored because of the [[SarcasmMode horrible flaw]] of loving his mother(sounding more like he was humoring her than anything, she called and he said "No mom, they're not prettier than you). Her friend agrees with these boys not being good enough.

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Radio]]

* In ''{{Webcomic/No Rest For The Wicked}}'', after slashing his way through the roses that have killed many princes, Ricardo finds the Literature/SleepingBeauty. [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03i-07.html She snores]]. He turns and leaves. [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03i-08.html He has a history of this.]]

* {{Webcomic/The Adventures Of Dr McNinja}} has a girl breaking up with a boy fro being unable to grow a beard and having one ear pierced.

* Leela from ''{{Futurama}}'' has trouble keeping boyfriends because of her single large eye. (She also has large feet, but most people who get past the eye can accept that.) Not that she's any better; in one episode, she dumps a guy because of his long reptilian tongue.

* One episode of ''FreshPrinceOfBelAir'' had a similar scenario to the ''FullHouse'' example above- Hillary was dating this great guy but intended to break up with him due to the size of his Adam's Apple. Will confronted her on this, pointing out that she was still recovering from Trevor's death and just looking for excuses to not date.

** To be fair, Will convinced her to date the guy because it was one of his professors and keeping him distracted and happy was all that was keeping Will from flunking. However, this doesn't keep her reasons for breaking it off from being any less silly.

* In ''{{Webcomic/No Rest For The Wicked}}'', after slashing his way through the roses that have killed many princes, Ricardo finds the SleepingBeauty. [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03i-07.html She snores]]. He turns and leaves. [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03i-08.html He has a history of this.]]

* A somewhat popular JPG has an [=IMDB=] post of someone looking at a supermodel and saying, "Her knees are too pointy," with... well, a picture of your stereotypical nerd.

* Non-dating example - in the 2007 series of [[BigBrother Celebrity Big Brother]] (UK version), when several of the other female housemates were picking on Shilpa Shetty, they resorted to making fun of the fact that her second toes were "almost as long" as her big toes. Yes, something that was actually a joke in [[ShallowHal a comedy about this very topic]] was all they could come up with. It should be noted that the ladies in question were not up to Shilpa's level looks-wise, and a close-up showed her feet to be rather yummy [[FootFocus (if you're into that)]] despite this [[SarcasmMode crippling handicap]], so they sounded pretty hypocritical from the off. [[ItGotWorse Then the racist remarks started...]]

* In ''ShallowHal'', Hal's friend Mauricio breaks up with a woman far out of his league because her second toe is longer than her big toe. [[spoiler:At least, he claims that - but later, it's revealed that he avoids closer relationships because he has a vestigial tail that embarrasses him.]]

'''Dr. Leo Marvin:''' I see. So, what you're saying is that even though you are an almost-paralyzed, multiphobic personality who is in a constant state of panic, your wife did not leave you, you left her because she... liked Neil Diamond?

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in the ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'' story "Jeeves Takes Charge". Bertie's engaged to Florence Craye, a girl with a terrifyingly bad temper who bosses him around, treats him like garbage, and forces him to read improving literature. He stays with her because she has such a lovely profile.

'''Lowell:''' Okay, make that two annoying habits.

* WeirdAlYankovic's 2006 album ''Straight Outta Lynwood'' features the song "Close, But No Cigar," which is all about a lecherous guy who dumps otherwise perfect girlfriends for idiotic reasons (like owning ''Joe Dirt'' on DVD, or having an earlobe that's "just a little tiny bit too big"). In other words, the guy in the song makes Jerry Seinfeld look like JamesBond.

* A somewhat popular JPG has an [=IMDB=] post of someone looking at a supermodel and saying, "Her knees are too pointy," with... well, a picture of your stereotypical nerd.

** She got over that, but then started fixating on his mole (or perhaps the mole was first), leading to a [[YourMileageMayVary great]] [[IncrediblyLamePun line]]:

'''Examples:'''

* In ''BigBangTheory'' Leslie Winkle broke up with Leonard because he believed in string theory, while she believed in loop quantum gravity.

* An episode of ''Still Standing'' had Bill, Judy, and Linda attend a high school reunion. Linda hits it off with a guy she always liked in school, but then can't get over the fact that he doesn't like TheBeatles.

** And just to add to the complexity, there are entries that look like they're playing this trope straight but turn to be subversions upon further reading. To name one example: in April 18th, 2011, a user named "Taylor" decided that someone was no longer her friend because of her "bird nest hair." That makes Taylor sound like a snob who dumps friends for superficial reasons...until you read the entry further and discover that this friend's hairstyle came out of the fashion salons, and the friend declared Taylor "no longer cool" because Taylor's hairstyle wasn't like hers and Taylor supposedly didn't understand fashion. Suddenly, the FRIEND looks like the snob who insists that Taylor always copy her, and you realize Taylor had a valid reason for ending the friendship, despite the title of her entry.

* In "WallaceAndGromit: A Close Shave", the cheese-loving Wallace and a possible love interest realize that it will never work out because [[spoiler:she's allergic to cheese]].

* In "WallaceAndGromit: A Close Shave", the cheese-loving Wallace and a possible love interest realize that it will never work out because [[spoiler:she's allergic to cheese]]. [[spoiler:Cheese]] is a [[SeriousBusiness very important]] part of Wallace's life.