Pierce: Hey, I was thinkin', we might die here. Anything y'all want to get off your chest? The Boss: Come on, Pierce; don't go talking like that. Oleg: No, he's right. Were Kinzie here, I would pour out my heart. The Boss: WHAT?! Oleg: It is rare that I find an intellectual equal.
If a show features two highly intelligent characters of similar age and compatible sexual orientation, chances are they'll end up together. Works particularly well if they're Teen Geniuses. An in-universe invocation of the Geeky Turn-On.
It's common for such relationships to start cleanly and quickly, avoiding Will They or Won't They? altogether, and proceed somewhat more smoothly than whatever other characters may be in a relationship, thus often turning them into a Beta Couple. Apparently, love doesn'tmake you dumb if you're a genius.
If the writers don't do it, the shippers will.
See also Genius Breeding Act, which is where a government tries to force or motivate this.
Averted in Bakuman。; Takagi is made to choose between two girls who had been vying for his attention. He rejects Iwase (who had a one-sided academic rivalry with him and is one of the top students at their school) due to the fact she wouldn't let him continue to write manga, and instead picks Miyoshi (who doesn't get very good grades) because she promises to support him, even if it meant he'd have less time to spend with her.
There is, however, a point in which Miyoshi thinks this is happening, when she discovers a copy of Iwase's book with a letter from Iwase to Takagi (which he didn't know about). She then thinks of how Iwase is smarter and more talented in other regards than she is, and becomes very depressed until things are cleared up.
Shikamaru and Temari are commonly shipped in Naruto; Shikamaru has an IQ of 200, making him the smartest of the Rookie Nine and one of the smartest characters in the series, and Temari is noted in-story and in the databooks to be very intelligent.
In-story potential love interest Shiho (who has a crush on Shikamaru, who may or may not be oblivious to it) is a member of the Konoha cryptanalysis team.
Steins;Gate pairs eccentric would-be Mad Scientist Okabe Rintarou with Teen Genius neuroscientist Mikase Kurisu - a pair so nerdy and obsessed with science that their Big Damn Kiss was followed by a discussion of the hippocampus's role in it.
Comic Books
In Pocket God, Gadgeteer Geniuses Klik and Teela start spending a lot of time together after they rescue Teela's tribe.
Film
In Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Pairing the Smart Ones is actually the driving force behind the epiphany on how to lure two massive sea monsters into going where the humans want them to.
Tarkin does, of course, overestimate his own intelligence. And the novel Death Star reveals that virtually all of Daala's appearances have come after she suffered severe brain damage.
In Larry Niven's Known Space stories, the Earth is so overpopulated that in order to have children at all, one has to be extraordinarily talented (high intelligence, good teeth, superior eyesight, cancer resistance, etc). A very few Einstein-level geniuses get Unlimited Breeding Licenses that basically allow them to have all the kids they want.
In A Wrinkle in Time (and its sequels) Mr. and Mrs. Murray are both extremely intelligent scientists in different fields. Local gossips suggested this meant Charles Wallace was retarded before he started talking.
In It Cant Happen Here, Doremus and Lorinda have been having an ongoing affair. Lorinda is shown to be much more of an intellectual and spiritual equal for Doremus than his wife, Emma.
Live Action TV
Averted with Samantha Carter and Rodney McKay from Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. The two are Earth's smartest persons, The Smart Guy of their respective show and McKay is attracted to her, but nothing beyond that. In fact, Carter is as annoyed by McKay as most people are, while McKay gets into a relationship with Dr. Keller later.
Though Carter does visit one Alternate Universe where she learns that she had married (and divorced) McKay.
Angel: Aversion on the usual formula with Wesley and Fred as it was less than smooth and took multiple seasons and lasted exactly one episode.
Cooper Pillot and Patty Scoggins in The Naked Brothers Band. Though they still call each other by their last names, they stand as a bastion of stability amidst the show's romantic chaos.
Boy Meets World: Minkus thought this would happen during his one-season stint. However, Topanga was destined for Cory, instead.
Lampshaded and Subverted in the first post-movie episode of the Knight Rider 2008 series.
Billy: Listen! Zoe! I have advanced degrees in Applied Physics, Quantum Physics Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, as well as Discrete and Applied Mathematics. Zoe: And I speak 9 languages! We should make a baby. Billy: Really? Zoe: No.
In Doctor Who, Rattigan explains his master plan for a new world to the other Teen Geniuses he'd collected, and mentions that he's written up a breeding program. They are appropriately appalled.
Played straight with Daisy and Sweets considering one is smart enough to be one of Bones' grad students, who are all supposed to be highly intelligent and the other was already working as an FBI profiler/psychologist and has multiple doctorates, and won a fulbright and a Rhodes, all before he was 23. Still, with the number of geniuses on that show, it was fairly inevitable that this trope would have to happen at least once over the course of the show.
Subverted on an early episode. Bones' old professor comes back and they slide into their previous relationship... which ends remarkably poorly. In general, Bones is a fairly good at averting this trope, considering the number of geniuses in the lab. Between Brennan, Jack, Zach, and Cam, not to mention all the interns, there have been surprisingly few hookups between geniuses.
NCIS: Abby and McGee exhibit some elements of this. The facts that they aren't quite an official couple, that in general Abby is fairly affectionate towards all her colleagues, and that Duckie is arguably at least as smart as either of them does water the trope down a bit.
Noah's Arc: College professor Chance paired with clever, strategic businessman Eddie.
Smallville: A very humorous (but oddly cute) version appears in "Fortune", wherein two verydifferent kinds of genius wind up alone together and very drunk. The result? TessMercer and EmilHamilton making a Home Porn Movie. Both are suitably embarrassed afterwards; whether the relationship continued was undisclosed.
Babylon 5 has John Sheridan and Delenn, both of whom are incredible strategic minds with immense curiosity about and respect for other races. All through the series the two's feelings for each other are never shown to waver, in fact only growing deeper and stronger with time. There's never much doubt that They Will - it's just a matter of a) how long it will take and b) whether or not they'll ever get a chance to, considering those pesky wars they're always fighting. They Do indeed, and wind up Happily Married and team-running the galaxy by the show's end.
Almost every couple in Eureka naturally as the whole town is populated by geniuses.
Luther features a darker take on this, as Nietzsche Wannabe and Self-Made OrphanAlice Morgan is attracted to the titular detective because he is one of the few people in the world smart enough to deal with her.
One of the reasons that Rory Gilmore and Jess Mariano on Gilmore Girls were such a popular couple among the fans was that they were both incredibly intelligent and very too smart for the small town of Stars Hollow. Despite their compatibility, Jess's personal issues drove them apart.
Metal Gear Solid pairs Gadget salesman and Operator Otacon with geneticist and anti-villian Naomi Hunter. ends due to "Tear Jerker death" due to cancer.)
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World hints at the possible pairing of teacher Raine Sage and intelligent businessman Regal Bryant from the previous game. Subverted when it turns out the "love letter" from one to the other turns out to be theories about Emil's true nature.
Three of the paths in Katawa Shoujo have the Bookworm male lead, Hisao Nakai, being paired up with very booksmart girls:
Lilly Satou: She wants to be a Cool Teacher and is Class Representative for her class, meaning she has the highest scores there.
Hanako Ikezawa: She seems able to keep up with the class despite her bad attendance record, although Mutou suggests she isn't a "star student," and she and Hisao find a shared interest in their mutual love of reading.
Shizune Hakamichi: One of the criteria for being named a Class Representative in a Japanese highschool is to have the highest test scores from the year before, and there's the fact that she and Misha are usually the first people in 3-3 to finish Mutou's assignments.
Web Comics
Aradia and Sollux were this before (if that concept makes any sense in it) the events of Homestuck. Well, sort of.
Helen and Dave of Narbonic (though Dave isn't as much of a genius as Helen... he's even more brilliant).
The Agatha-Tarvek pairing; Tarvek is smart and Sparky.
Subverted with Gilgamesh Wulfenbach and Agatha Heterodyne. They looked like they were going this way, and then things got — complicated. It would have been so much simpler if Agatha hadn't been a Heterodyne. Not that Gil isn't smitten, and Agatha isn't interested, but circumstances have interfered.
That said, they're the Alpha Couple of the story, despite not being a couple. There is evidence they will be together in the future. This is frequently lampshaded by everyone (including her castle) commenting on how well they would fit together, much to their annoyance.
Freefall: Florence and Winston are easily the smartest characters, and they've shown strong attraction for each other since their first meeting, culminating so far in severalkisses.
For a while in Sluggy Freelance, Mad Scientist Riff was dating occasional-mad-tinkerer Sasha. It wasn't a huge part of her character, but she was able to build her own Dimensional Flux Agitator.
In Demon Thesis, this is the backstory of how Alain and Clady wound up together. Clady's friend Val sums up the flashback detailing how the lovers first met with this line:
And you lived nerdily ever after, I get the picture.
Western Animation
Happens near the end of Megamind between Roxanne and Megamind. The male part of the couple at one point explicitly says "I need your help because you're the smartest person I know."
Xanatos of Gargoyles gives this as one of the reasons why he wants to marry Fox.
Jeremie and Aelita from Code Lyoko. They fit the Beta Couple mold, contrasting the complicated Sissi/Ulrich/Yumi/William love square. They're also the only pairing in the show confirmed by Word Of God.
