History Main / MinorFlawMajorBreakup

* Caitlin Cooke, one of the main six on ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'', has a new boyfriend/love interest in almost every episode, but has a habit of dumping guys for incredibly shallow reasons (though she also fears that a guy might dump for her own minor flaws). To name a few instances of when Caitlin has dumped guys for shallow reasons:

** Discussing this with Chandler, Joey says he once broke up with the perfect girl because of her gigantic Adam's apple. The others explain to him that [[{{Transgender}} women don't have Adam's Apples]] - but at his confused expression quickly backtrack and pretend they were joking.

* In ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'' Nobby Nobbs manages to convince [[MyNaymeIs Tawneee]], an exotic dancer, to go out with him despite the fact he is required to carry a piece of paper to prove he is human. The girl is described as being so ridiculously beautiful that a bar was destroyed just because she gave one guy a look, but by the end of the book, he considers breaking up with her because she can't cook. However, it turns out she only went out with him because ''he's the only guy who ever asked her''; seeing as he has zero chance with other women he might as well try, but the fact that she has a body goddesses would kill for means every man she ever met thought she was was out of their league and didn't even try. As a result she's terrifyingly sheltered. Make what you will of the fact that Nobby is remarkably comfortable with being DisguisedInDrag for a considerable portion of ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', to the point of coming off as AmbiguouslyGay, or at least certain of his gender identity than previously suspected.

* 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]]. Wallace didn't seem to mind because that means [[spoiler:[[TrademarkFavoriteFood there's more cheese for him]]]].

* One episode of ''LiveActionTV/Becker'' deals with [[BlindBlackGuy Jake]] going on a date with a blind girl. The date seems to be going badly as Jake has apprehensions about being in a relationship with another blind person, but is talked out of ending the date just in time for the girl to find out that he's black and abruptly end the date herself.

* Caitlin Cooke, one of the main six on ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'', has a new boyfriend/love interest in almost every episode, but has a habit of dumping guys for incredibly shallows (though she also fears that guy might dump for her own minor flaws). To name a few instances of when Caitlin has dumped guys for shallow reasons:
** She once dated a guy named Billy, who she ended up dumping simply because he had a bunch of pimples on his back.
** In one episode, she met a guy named Callum at a costume party, but later gave him a fake phone number after seeing that he wasn't as good looking as he was at the costume party--and at the end of the episode, he ends up giving Caitlin a fake phone number, which gets her mad (never mind the fact that she had done the same thing to him).
** She once had a boyfriend named Benj, who she ended up dumping after going through this photo-booth that took pictures of couples and produced photos of what their future babies might look like, but Benj and Caitlin kept getting ugly babies.
** Talon, a guy Caitlin dated early in the series, was dumped by her in the first episode of the second season due to the fact that he "kisses like a Golden Retriever." And this was after Caitlin made him acquire enough injuries to "almost put him in the hospital" (as Jen put it), which would be an actually ''legitimate'' reason to break up with someone.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'', Caitlin often dumps guys over minor flaws. However, she is rather [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]] about this as she fears that she will be dumped for her own minor flaws.

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' had one of these just about every episode.
** This trope used to be known for the episode "The Bizarro Jerry". In it, Jerry eventually parts with a girlfriend with because she has huge, man-like hands ("...like [[Wrestling/GeorgeSteele George "The Animal" Steele!]]") which poorly complement her otherwise modelesque looks.
** Elaine breaks up with a man because of his scarce use of exclamation points. This was somewhat justified, as the specific incident that drove her over the edge was him not using one on a note about her friend giving birth: she thought he dismissed something very major as unimportant.
** In one episode, Jerry resolves to stop ending relationships over minor things. Then he finds out that his GirlOfTheWeek eats her peas one at a time. Then ''we'' find out that Jerry's real problem is with her inconsistency. She ''only'' does it with peas. With similar foods like corn niblets, she scoops them.

** Half-mocked in another episode where Jerry is angry with his current girlfriend because she wouldn't eat a piece of pie Jerry offered her.

** Most of the episodes had an example of "Major Flaw, Major Breakup." A character would seem perfect in every way but then reveal himself to have a flaw that would be taken to [[UpToEleven cartoonish extremes]], and an immediate breakup would ensue.

** Averted early in Monica and Chandler's relationship. The two have a fight over Monica obsessiveness and Chandler watching car chases prompting Chandler to thinks they're this trope. Monica reassures him they're not broken and can work through it. He's delighted.

* On ''Series/JustShootMe'' Elliot can't handle that his girlfriend is in a hemorrhoid cream commercial. Then ''she'' breaks up with ''him'' because he wiped his nose with his handkerchief.

** An episode has Helen deciding to dump her boyfriend because of his AnnoyingLaugh; however, he ends up dumping her first, because he cannot stand her Southern accent.

--->'''Lowell:''' Sometimes a person has annoying habits that you just can't overlook. Take my wife Bunny, for instance. Every morning as she read the newspaper, she would drum her fingers on the table. That's what broke up our marriage.\\

** Discussing this with Chandler, Joey says he once broke up with the perfect girl because of her gigantic Adam's apple. The others explain to him that [[{{Transsexual}} women don't have Adam's Apples]] - but at his confused expression quickly backtrack and pretend they were joking.

[[caption-width-right:302:The asymmetry, man! The asymmetry!.]]

-->-- ''Music/WeirdAlYankovic'', "Close, but No Cigar"

** Just about every girlfriend Frasier ever had fell under this trope. He eventually became GenreSavvy about this and began to force himself to ignore flaws in his love interests, leading to him dating horrible women with flaws no sane person would put up with. A good example of the latter is when he wanted to break up with a woman because he knew they were entirely different people and had no mutual interests except having sex, but decided to roll with it and just enjoy the fun of having an active sex life...which lead to him forcing himself to ignore "minor" quirks such as how she howled at the moon, liked to spontaneously cut her hair and use the trimming to stuff pillows in her apartment, and make artwork out of dead mice.

A Guy or GirlOfTheWeek who is perfect in every way, except for one glaring flaw that any normal person would probably be able to live with, but which the protagonist feels is too much for them to handle. The 'glaring' flaw is often something incredibly minor, and may be used to show that the protagonist is a pretty shallow, self-absorbed and petty character. Other times, the writers just wanted to hit the ResetButton.

A Guy or GirlOfTheWeek that is otherwise perfect in every way, but has one glaring flaw that any normal person would probably be able to live with, but the protagonist feels is too much for them to handle. The 'glaring' flaw is often something incredibly minor, and may be used to show that the protagonist is a pretty shallow, self-absorbed and petty character. Other times, the writers just wanted to hit the ResetButton.

* When the pedophile Dr. Shiouji of ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' gets the young girl Cosette in a love hotel, she unwraps her [[GagBoobs large breasts]] and declares that she is a fully consenting adult, at which point he loses interest and leaves.

* Creator/EddieMurphy's character in ''Film/{{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.

* Music/TheArrogantWorms song "She Talks During Movies" is about a case of this, although what attracts the narrator to the girl in the first place is a hilarious varient of [[ShallowLoveInterest Shallow Attraction]]:

* Creator/ReeseWitherspoon's character in ''Film/SweetHomeAlabama'' leaves Creator/PatrickDempsey's loving and caring character to return to her abusive and downright awful ex-husband...because she didn't like his mother.
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* In ''Film/SoIMarriedAnAxeMurderer'', this is something of a recurring gag for the main character, and it even foreshadows things that are to come later in the movie.

A Guy or GirlOfTheWeek that is otherwise perfect in every way, but has one glaring flaw that any normal person would probably be able to live with, but the protagonist feels is too much for him or her to handle. The 'glaring' flaw is often something incredibly minor, and may be used to show that the protagonist is a pretty shallow, self-absorbed and petty character. Other times, the writers just wanted to hit the ResetButton.

* One episode of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' had a similar scenario to the ''Series/FullHouse'' example above- Will convinces Hillary to date his professor as part of a plan to keep him from flunking the class, but she decides 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. She got over that, but then started fixating on his mole (or perhaps the mole was first), leading to a great [[IncrediblyLamePun line]]:
-->'''Will:''' You're making a mountain out of a mole, Hill!

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Belle}}'' had it to where the main character was dating a nice guy who was wealthy and successful but then found out he was an Atheist (without showing the usual HollywoodAtheist quirks and even enjoyed going to Church with her as he enjoyed the music) and dumped him. However the episode even acts as if this was a big deal, even flat out stating he is worse than a killer and a drug dealer because "they can be saved and he can't" and that dumping him was the right decision. The episode summary even referred to this as a flaw. As you can guess [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/02/25/on-black-sitcom-atheist-character-is-undateable/ Atheists were not amused]].

* In the fifth ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' 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 [[GagNose stupid-looking nose]].
** Which, as accentuated via close-up, [[HypocriticalHumor is identical to her own.]]
** Also worth noting that she ''respects'' the fact that he's a complete ChildHater. It's all just the nose.

'''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?

* Leela from ''WesternAnimation/{{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.