History Main / MinorFlawMajorBreakup

Compare: DerailingLoveInterests, GirlOfTheWeek. Contrast: DifferingPrioritiesBreakup. See also ToiletSeatDivorce and SecondActBreakup.

* Played for drama in Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire given the horrible consequences it caused. Elia Martell had been visited by numerous suitors, the best of whom was Baelor Hightower. However, her brother Oberyn had a habit of making fun of them all, and when Baelor farted in their presence, Oberyn dubbed him "[[EmbarrassingNickname Baelor Breakwind]]", and after that, Elia couldn't look at him without laughing, which put the chances of them wedding at zilch. Elia ended up marrying Rhaegar Targaryen instead, with dire consequences. In the present, Tyrion idly wonders [[ForWantOfANail how many lives were snuffed out by that fart]].

** Jerry dates a girl who is absolutely flawless. The fact that she has no flaws unnerves him enough to want to break up with her.

** In "The Big Salad", George's new relationship ends when he makes a big fuss over his girlfriend "taking credit" for buying a salad for Elaine (she just handed over the bag and accepted the thank you), while Jerry's ends because he can't get over the fact that his otherwise flawless girlfriend used to date [[SitcomArchNemesis Newman]].

* ''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]].]] Curiously, this was a CompressedVice example, as it had earlier been established that J.D. finds it ''impossible'' to break up with girlfriends no matter the reason. In the same episode, it was revealed that J.D. almost broke up with Elliot back when they were dating because she had a mole on her butt.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' has one between [=McManus=] and S-464, but it turns out to be subverted. The two of them get into an argument over S-464 having "pee pee" on his belt, and while everyone ''else'' who hears this exchange takes that as being an example of this, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch realizes [=McManus=] is referring to the ''letter'' P and that S-464 [[TheMole is a spy]]. They reconcile (but later fall out again) after the Guild forces S-464 into becoming [[TheMole a mole for them]].

* In the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story ''[[http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/125/ The Birth-Mark]]'', the MadScientist 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 ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'', 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.]] There's a good reason his nickname is "Dick the Picky". Or, rather, a long string of shallow reasons, that was even [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/04i-01.html put into song]].

* "[[http://scythemantis.deviantart.com/art/Lycanthropy-264814892 Lycanthropy]]" by the infamous Scythemantis
* [[http://xkcd.com/304/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' comic.

* Non-dating example -- in the 2007 series of [[Series/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 (if you're into that) despite this [[SarcasmMode crippling handicap]], so they sounded pretty hypocritical from the off. Then the racist remarks started...

* [[spoiler:Osaragi]] from ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' broke up with her boyfriend [[spoiler:Kazeno]] after only a few weeks of dating because she found his constant working out to be gross. [[spoiler:[[RewatchBonus In hindsight]], this was probably just a cover, as it's likely that she only started dating him in the first place [[RemovingTheRival so he wouldn't be a potential obstacle in Ishigami asking out Tsubame]].]]

* Done several times on ''Series/{{Glee}}'' to facilitate the endless DatingDoSiDo-ing, but the most egregious example is arguably Jesse St. James [[FaceHeelTurn going suddenly evil again]] and breaking up with Rachel by ''egging'' her because...she secretly cast Puck and Finn as well as Jesse as her "boyfriend" in her SoBadItsGood video for "Run Joey Run." The video itself was PlayedForLaughs, and yet he took it extremely seriously.

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

** Many 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' has one between [=McManus=] and S-464, but it turns out to be subverted. The two of them get into an argument over S-464 having "pee pee" on his belt, and while everyone ''else'' who hears this exchange takes that as being an example of this, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch realizes [=McManus=] is referring to the ''letter'' P and that S-464 [[TheMole is a spy]]. They reconcile (but later fall out again) after the Guild forces S-464 into becoming a [[TheMole a mole for them]].

* ''Series/HalfAndHalf'': Played straight in one episode where Mona's date dumped her because she wasn't "black" enough. Subverted in another where [=DeeDee=] and a guy she was seeing broke up due to his foot fetish--she was fine with it at first and only wanted him to pay attention to the rest of her body as well, but when she donned a pair of knee-high boots to emphasize the point, he balked and they split.

* ''Series/HalfAndHalf'': Played straight in one episode where Mona's date dumped her because she wasn't "black" enough. Subverted in another where [=DeeDee=] and a guy she was seeing broke up due to his foot fetish--she only wanted him to pay attention to the rest of her body but when she donned a pair of knee-high boots to emphasize the point, he balked and they split.

* ''Series/HalfAndHalf'': Played straight in one episode where Mona's date dumped her because she wasn't "black" enough. Subverted in another where {{DeeDee}} and a guy she was seeing broke up due to his foot fetish--she only wanted him to pay attention to the rest of her body but when she donned a pair of knee-high boots to emphasize the point, he balked and they split.

* ''Series/Half&Half'': Played straight in one episode where Mona's DateOfTheWeek dumped her because she wasn't "black" enough. Subverted in another where DeeDee and a guy she was seeing broke up due to his foot fetish--she only wanted him to pay attention to the rest of her body but when she donned a pair of knee-high boots to emphasize the point, he balked and they split.

* In ''Series/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. And none of the other characters call her on it. Even Freddie thinks it's weird, and he's pretty nerdy/subjected to odd things via his mother. Like ''tick baths''. And ''anti-bacterial underwear''. Although, as shown in another episode, he can be extremely obsessive about the beanies. When the power in the apartment building goes out during summer and Carly and Spencer have the only air conditioning machine in the building, the Beanie guy hijacks the machine to keep his Beanie Babies at "optimal temperature".

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[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'', 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.]] There's a good reason his nickname is "Dick the Picky". Or, rather, a long string of shallow reasons, that was even [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/04i-01.html put into song]].

* [[http://xkcd.com/304/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' comic.
* This particular variant is termed [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2280 "Solar Geeklipse"]] in ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal''.

* A variant appears in [[http://www.daniellecorsetto.com/images/gws/GWS849.jpg this]] ''Webcomic/GirlsWithSlingshots'' strip where poor grammar is a deal-breaker enough to call off a sexual encounter. ''And this has happened before.''
* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' has a girl breaking up with a boy for being unable to grow a beard and having one ear pierced, which the boy blames [=McNinja=] for[[note]]The boy contracted Paul Bunyan disease, which could only be cured by using a permanent hair remover on his Paul Bunyan beard. And the ear-piercing was a wound sustained while he was a giant Paul Bunyan[[/note]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders'', Carver's new secret admirer is minor recurring character Nona, who is significantly taller than all her peers. This eats Carver up at first, but he eventually gets over it... only for Nona to suddenly realize that Carver's head looks like a pineapple, get weirded out by it (she had a [[AbsurdPhobia fear of pineapples]]), and nervously back away.

* Caitlin Cooke, one of the main six on ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'', has a new boyfriend/love interest in pretty much every episode where her love life is a plot point and calls practically every single guy she gets romantically involved with "The One" (Jonesy even once said outright that [[SerialRomeo "Caitlin's dated more guys than I've had jobs").]] However, Caitlin's notorious for dumping guys for largely superficial reasons--to name just two of the many instances of when Caitlin has dumped guys for shallow reasons:
** Early in the series, Caitlin dated a guy named Talon, one of the few boyfriends of Caitlin to last beyond more than one episode, only for Caitlin to ultimately dump him simply because she considers him to be a bad kisser (as Caitlin describes it, "[Talon kisses] like a golden retriever!"). And this was after Caitlin was worried that Talon was going to break up with her due to him acquiring enough injuries to "almost put him in the hospital," as Jen points out to her[[note]]Caitlin had explained to Jen and Nikki how she tends to get really klutzy around guys she has crush on, which was the main reason behind all the injuries that Talon was getting throughout the episode that Caitlin broke up with him in[[/note]].
** In a later episode, she forced Jen to sit through two double dates with a gross (but ultimately nice) guy named Carl while Caitlin went out with Carl's (considerably hotter) best friend, Billy. After Caitlin ditched Jen to have some alone time with Billy, Jen ultimately tells Carl that while he's a NiceGuy and all, she feels that they just don't have enough common to make a compatible couple, which Carl seems to understand. To get back at Caitlin for what she put Jen (and Carl) through, the duo ends up splurging all of Caitlin's money by going to the mall's arcade and amusement park--the next day, Jen returns Caitlin's wallet, but discover Caitlin has now dumped Billy simply because he had a bunch of pimples all over his back. Furious to learn that all the sacrifices Caitlin forced to her make were for nothing, Jen reveals what she and Carl did, and Caitlin's shocked to discover her now lighter-than-usual wallet.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Luann}}'': Bernice dumped her boyfriend Zane because he failed to immediately notice her new glasses. Keep in mind that Bernice was a ClingyJealousGirl who proposed marriage to him while she was still in high school, and also accused him of cheating on her with [[PerkyGoth Crystal]] just because she kept bringing her little brother to visit him at his work (Crystal's brother was in a wheelchair like Zane, and Zane was bonding with the boy), so Zane might have dodged a bullet there.

* In ''Film/ShallowHal'', Hal's friend Mauricio breaks up with a gorgeous 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.]] It's so upsetting that he turns her down when she invites him to a [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] reunion -- an event so exclusive that only 70 people are allowed to attend. (And which included George Harrison less than a year before he died.)
* In ''Film/SoIMarriedAnAxeMurderer'', main character Charlie has a bad history of breaking up with his girlfriends for petty and probably made up reasons (she's a klepto, she's in the Cosa Nostra, she smells like beef soup) because he has commitment issues. This makes it hard to convince his cop friend [[CryingWolf when Charlie starts to suspect his current girlfriend might be an axe murderer]].

* In ''Literature/{{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 ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'' (and a chunk of this book as well), to the point of coming off as AmbiguouslyGay, or at least more certain of his gender identity than previously suspected. In the same book, he rejects Verity Pushpram because she has "the exact opposite of a squint".
* In Creator/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 Creator/LaurelAndHardy".

* 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 (she ''respects'' that!), and it's nothing to do with the fact that the entire engagement is one of George and Harold's pranks GoneHorriblyRight. No, it's because he has a [[GagNose stupid-looking nose]]. Which, as accentuated via close-up, [[HypocriticalHumor is identical to her own.]]

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'':
** This trope used to be known as "Man Hands", 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. The specific incident that drives her over the edge is him not using one on a note about her friend giving birth: she thought he dismissed something very major as unimportant.
** In "The Engagement", 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. The episode makes a great case for the idea that Jerry and George both find these kinds of reasons to break up when there's no major problem because they actually have CommitmentIssues.
** Jerry dates a girl who is absolutely flawless. The fact that she has no flaws unnerves him enough to want to break up with her.
** Half-mocked in "The Pie" when Jerry is angry with his current girlfriend because she won't eat a piece of pie Jerry offered her, and won't tell him why.
--->'''Jerry:''' There was no reason for her not to taste that pie.\\
'''Elaine:''' Dump her.\\
'''Jerry:''' Well, I've never broken up with anyone for not tasting pie...\\
'''Elaine:''' I once broke up with a guy for not ''offering'' me pie.
** It worked both ways. In "The Ex-Girlfriend", Jerry's girlfriend dumps him because she doesn't find his comedy act funny. In "The Soup", George's date is turned off when he begins talking about manure.
** In "The Butter Shave," Elaine takes it to the next level when she breaks up with David Puddy ([[RelationshipRevolvingDoor for the second time in twelve hours]]) because he's sitting still and doing nothing. (They're on a plane and he won't read or otherwise entertain himself, but also refuses to nap.)
** In "The Big Salad", George's new relationship ends when he makes a big fuss over his girlfriend "taking credit" for buying a salad for Elaine (she just handed over the bag and accepted the thank you), while Jerry's ends because he can't get over the fact that his otherwise flawless girlfriend used to date [[SitcomArchNemesis Newman]].
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'':
** Many 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.
** Chandler in particular had a habit of breaking up over nothing: he refuses to date one girl because she "has a big head", and talks about breaking up with other women for such reasons as large nostrils and "not hating Yanni". He ''does'' end up giving the girl with the "big head" a chance, but finds that he still can't get past it. This was only mentioned once, in the episode "The One Where Heckles Dies", until "The One With Phoebe's Ex-Partner", when Chandler gets freaked out by the fact that his new girlfriend has a prosthetic leg. He gets over it, but then she discovers that he has a third nipple and breaks up with him.
** 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 women don't have Adam's Apples[[labelnote:Which is wrong because]]They can, but it's very rare. The Adam's apple is just the larynx and since men's are larger (which is what leads men to have deeper voices), they are more visible.[[/labelnote]] - but at his confused expression quickly backtrack and pretend they were joking.
** Averted early in Monica and Chandler's relationship. The two try to have a romantic getaway together, but Monica keeps making them change hotel rooms due to them not meeting her standards of cleanliness, which annoys Chandler because he's trying to watch a car chase on TV. They have a fight, which causes Chandler to thinks they've broken up. Monica reassures him they're not broken and can work through it. He's delighted.
** In "TOW Ross's Thing" Phoebe dates two guys - a kindergarten teacher and a firefighter. Eventually they find out about each other. The teacher dumps her because she had had sex with the firefighter but not with him, but then the firefighter dumps her because she had made the teacher a candlelight dinner in the park... a severe fire hazard.
** In "TOW Ross's Teeth" Hilary breaks up with Ross just because he accidentally overwhitened his teeth while trying to impress her.

* Danny Tanner from ''Series/FullHouse''. Earlobes that were different sizes. Though it turned out this and his other reasons were just excuses; he was reluctant to get close to another woman as he was still in mourning over his deceased wife.
* ''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]].]] Curiously, this was a CompressedVice example, as it had earlier been established that J.D. finds it ''impossible'' to break up with girlfriends no matter the reason. In the same episode, it was revealed that J.D. almost broke up with Elliot back when they were dating because she had a mole on her butt.
* In the ''Series/JustShootMe'' episode "In the Company of Maya", Elliott can't handle the fact that his girlfriend is in a hemorrhoid cream commercial. Then ''she'' breaks up with ''him'' because he wipes his nose with a handkerchief, which she finds disgusting.

* ''Series/WillAndGrace'' has this every so often. One episode has Karen falling for a servant and pretending to be one, worried he'd leave her if he found out she was rich. When he does find out, [[MilhollandRelationshipMoment he accepts her regardless]], and she gets excited and calls for champagne.
-->'''Servant:''' I don't drink.\\
'''Karen:''' It can't work. We're from two different worlds.
* ''Series/TheITCrowd'':
** In the third season, Jen finds herself unable to continue dating a man because he "looks like a magician". He tries to rectify this by learning magic ("would it be less weird if I actually ''was'' a magician..?"), but he's hopeless at it.
** There is the time she dumps her boyfriend Peter after finding out his last name was File. If you don't get it, say the full name out loud a few times.
--->'''Moss:''' [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage In America they say "pedophile"]], perhaps you should move there.
* In ''Series/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. And none of the other characters call her on it. Even Freddie thinks it's weird, and he's pretty nerdy/subjected to odd things via his mother. Like ''tick baths''. And ''anti-bacterial underwear''. Although, as shown in another episode, he can be extremely obsessive about the beanies. When the power in the apartment building goes out during summer and Carly and Spencer have the only air conditioning machine in the building, the Beanie guy hijacks the machine to keep his Beanie Babies at "optimal temperature".
* An episode of ''Series/StillStanding'' 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 Music/TheBeatles.
* ''Series/{{Wings}}'':
** The episode "Exit Laughing" 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.
** A subversion occurs with Lowell.
--->'''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. Drove me crazy. That's what broke up our marriage.\\
'''Helen:''' I thought it was because Bunny slept with other men.\\
'''Lowell:''' Okay, make that two annoying habits.
* In ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'', Drake dumps his girlfriends over an annoying laugh and [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon toughness]]. The laugh probably wouldn't have been so bad if she didn't laugh at ''every single little thing,'' which is closer to Drake's actual grievance.
* On ''[[Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody The Suite Life on Deck]]'', Miss Tutweiller refuses to date Mr. Moseby [[FanHater because he likes]] ''Film/TheThreeStooges''. They get back together though. [[spoiler: And get engaged in the finale.]]
* Played with in ''Series/{{Castle}}''; Martha offers some of these kinds of reasons for breaking it off with her boyfriend. Castle explicitly notes that these are "sitcom reasons" for breaking it off with someone, and it's later revealed that this is just Martha's insecurities establishing themselves.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
** Lampshaded in an episode when 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]].
** When Lily reveals that she has made a habit of sabotaging Ted's relationships when she doesn't like the girl or feels they're futile, she recalls planting a CD in a college girlfriend's dorm room:
--->'''Ted:''' Creed?! Oh my god, I have to break up with her!
* On ''Series/SexAndTheCity'', Charlotte breaks up with a seemingly compatible guy when she discovers that he has different preferences for china patterns.

* Leslie had a brief relationship with Leonard in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', but she broke it off over philosophical differences regarding their preferred model of spacetime (Leslie supports loop quantum, and often clashes over it with Sheldon, who goes in for string theory, but Leonard doesn't actually care, and would have let their hypothetical children decide for themselves).

* ''Series/ThirtyRock'': In a plot arc in the third and fourth seasons, Liz writes a sketch in which a fictional relationship expert advises women to break up with or reject advances from men based on inane criteria such as wearing an Atlanta Falcons jersey to a wedding with the CatchPhrase, "That's a dealbreaker, ladies!" The sketch is [[{{Defictionalization}} defictionalized]] in-universe as Liz starts giving out such advice in real life, culminating in a book deal and a short-lived talk show.
* ''Series/AllyMcBeal'': Ally would often dump a guy after one awkward date over a minor flaw. One guy could not eat properly and put salad on his face, or once a guy had AnnoyingLaugh.
* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' usually had fairly realistic relationships for their main characters, but it seems like side characters couldn't catch a break, specifically Rory's closest friends Lane and Paris.
** Henry, Lane's first major romantic interest is, in her own words, perfect for her. The flaw that worries her is that she's falling for a guy that her parents would approve of and she never tells them about Henry until it's too late.
** Jamie, Paris's first boyfriend on the series is likewise seemingly a perfect match for her. He's an attractive Princeton student who accepts Paris's neuroses and can even keep up with her intellectually, but she breaks up with him after having an affair with one of her professors at Yale. Even Rory calls her out for being out of character.

* Done several times on ''Series/{{Glee}}'' to facilitate the endless DatingDoSiDo-ing, but the most egregious example is arguably Jesse St. James [[FaceHeelTurn going suddenly evil again]] and breaking up with Rachel by ''egging'' her because...she secretly cast Puck and Finn as well as Jesse as her "boyfriend" in her SoBadItsGood video for "Run Joey Run." The video itself was PlayedForLaughs, and yet he took it extremely seriously.
* In one episode of ''Series/That70sShow'', Eric & Hyde compete over the affections of a girl. Hyde ultimately wins, but dumps her because she likes the Little River Band (and Eric is disgusted by that as well).
* 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. [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/02/25/on-black-sitcom-atheist-character-is-undateable/ This was considered to be this trope by atheists,]] especially as the episode somewhat clumsily states that he is worse than a killer and a drug dealer because "they can be saved and he can't". However, Christian/non-Christian marriages do tend to turn out badly, since for the Christian, their [[PalsWithJesus relationship with Jesus]] should be even more central to their life than their relationship with their spouse. Understandably, this often leads to resentment on the part of the non-Christian and over time generally result in either serious problems with the marriage, or the Christian ceasing to put her faith into practice for the sake of her spouse. For the sake of both parties, devout Christians therefore generally [[TruthInTelevision do advise against such relationships,]] and so [[ValuesDissonance wouldn't consider the episode to contain this trope.]]
* One episode of ''Series/{{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.

* Music/WeirdAlYankovic:
** His 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 ''Film/JoeDirt'' 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 Film/JamesBond.
** In "Albuquerque" the singer dumps "the girl of [his] dreams" because she asked him if he wanted to "join the Columbia Record Club" and that was too much of a commitment. This was after years of marriage and two kids. [[DontExplainTheJoke For those who don't get the joke]], [[spoiler:the Columbia Record Club was notorious for being impossible to leave. The joke is that it's much easier to walk away from a wife, two kids, and a mortgage than that.]]
* Music/PaulSimon's "You're Kind" from the album ''Still Crazy After All These Years'' (1975):
-->''So goodbye, goodbye\\
I'm gonna leave you now and here's the reason why:\\
I like to sleep with the window open, and you keep the window closed\\
So goodbye, goodbye, goodbye''

* Music/AmandaPalmer, "The Vegemite" is a downplayed example in that the singer is still at a "either it goes or I do" stage.
-->''I cannot hold a man so close who puts this cancer on his toast\\
It is the vegemite, my darling, or it's me.''

* Alex, the spineless protagonist of Stephen Bond's InteractiveFiction story ''Rameses'', goes on a double date with a girl named Claire. Toward the end, [[spoiler: he meets her by the quay and is about to kiss her but gets distracted by a mole on her face. It's enough for him to ruin the moment until, it's implied, he regrets it for quite a while after.]]

* In "TOW Ross's Teeth" Hilary breaks up with Ross just because he accidentally overwhitened his teeth while trying to impress her.

* ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'': Desperate to get married [[ChristmasCake in her prime]], Totoko ends up falling in with an ArabOilSheikh and enjoys the luxury. Said Sheikh ends up being repulsed by her fishy smell, leading her to ''kick him out of his own palace'' and hightail it back to Akatsuka Ward.

* Caitlin Cooke, one of the main six on ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'', has a new boyfriend/love interest in almost every episode where her love life is a plot point--while she calls almost every single guy she dates "The One," she has a tendency of dumping guys for ridiculously shallow reasons (but she also fears at times that a guy might dump her for shallow reasons). To name just two of the many instances of when Caitlin has dumped guys for shallow reasons:
** In one episode, she forced Jen to sit through two double dates with a gross (but ultimately nice) guy named Carl while Caitlin went out with Carl's (considerably hotter) best friend, Billy. After Caitlin ditched Jen to have some alone time with Billy, Jen ultimately tells Carl that while he's a NiceGuy and all, they just don't have enough common to make a compatible couple, which Carl seems to understand. To get back at Caitlin for what she put Jen (and Carl) through, the duo ends up splurging all of Caitlin's money by going to the mall's arcade and amusement park--the next day, Jen returns Caitlin's wallet, but discover Caitlin has now dumped Billy simply because he had a bunch of pimples all over his back. Furious to learn that all the sacrifices Caitlin forced to her make were for nothing, Jen reveals what she and Carl did, and Caitlin's shocked to discover her now lighter-than-usual wallet.
** Early in the series, Caitlin dated a guy named Talon, one of the few boyfriends of Caitlin to last beyond more than one episode, only for Caitlin to ultimately dump him simply because she considers him to be a bad kisser (as Caitlin describes it, "[Talon kisses] like a golden retriever!"). And this was after Caitlin was worried that Talon was going to break up with her due to him acquiring enough injuries to "almost put him in the hospital," as Jen points out to her (Caitlin explained to her and Nikki that she tends to get really klutzy around guys that she has a crush on, which was apparently the reason behind all the injuries that Talon was getting throughout the episode that Caitlin broke up with him in).

A Guy or GirlOfTheWeek who is practically 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.

* ''Anime/OsomatsuSan'': Desperate to get married [[ChristmasCake in her prime]], Totoko ends up falling in with an ArabOilSheikh and enjoys the luxury. The Sheikh ends up being repulsed by her fishy smell, leading her to ''kick him out of his own palace'' and hightail it back to Akatsuka Ward.

* In ''Literature/{{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 ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', to the point of coming off as AmbiguouslyGay, or at least more certain of his gender identity than previously suspected.

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' had these constantly.

** In "The Engagement", 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.
*** "The Engagement" makes a great case for the idea that Jerry and George both find these kinds of reasons to break up when there's no major problem because they actually have CommitmentIssues.

-->'''Leela:''' I could have liked Zapp Brannigan if he wasn't a pompous nitwit who threw me in prison.\\

-->"''Sixteen feet?! Go to Hell! I WAS A FOOL TO THINK YOU'D CHANGED!'''"