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Believe in miracles.

Shawn: So George, I heard you were married, but wow, huh?
George: I know, I know what you're thinking, "what's wrong with this picture?" — but where does it say that the ugly guy never gets the beautiful woman?
Shawn: ... Everywhere, man.
Psych

"I have no idea how I get such beautiful women to sleep with me. I mean, look at me. Thank God I'm funny and rich."
Drew Carey

A very common Dom Com trope, in which an ugly-to-average-looking husband (usually a comedian in real life, using the show as his star vehicle) has a much more attractive wife or significant other. CBS is particularly famous for this trope, though it's common throughout most of American television. Moreover, recurring girlfriend characters in nearly any TV show or movie will nearly always be far more attractive than plain-looking leading men.

This trope is most likely an obvious result of Hollywood-style casting for women's roles, in which "unattractive" women are almost unknown in most of television, and thus, even women who aren't supposed to be gorgeous are portrayed by model-esque women. The men, of course, are not as affected by this, especially since most of them are head writers/producers of their own shows.

This is often only occasionally mentioned, in most shows where it occurs (notably Everybody Loves Raymond, where anyone and everyone reminds Ray of how much he lucked out on that one), so most of the characters in the show don't seem to think anything unusual of the situation. (What Does She See In Him can occur, though.)

Another common element of this trope is that the wife is not only gorgeous, but she also usually has some sort of glamorous life (or at least the potential for one) that she left behind to marry the schlub—whether she was rich, or had a promising future as a writer, or used to be a showgirl, she gave it all up for him. Most of the time, as well as being more attractive the wife will also be presented as being rather more intelligent and unquestionably morally superior to her husband (at least, according to the writers, anyway). However, it's not all a good thing, as the wife has a tendency to turn into a shrill, ball-busting harpy who's obsessed with banning sex as the series progresses. In many shows, there will usually be at least one episode where another female finds the guy attractive, and the hot wife becomes extremely jealous and violent in defending her man from the rival. Arguably and controversially might be considered Truth In Television when it concerns successful rich ugly men.

This trope originated as a TV concept, but has grown to include all types of fiction, since it pops up pretty much everywhere. Sometimes the "Wife" is just a "Girlfriend". Or she can be a Hot Consort.

See also Beast And Beauty, No Accounting For Taste, and don't forget Most Writers Are Male. This trope tends to give birth to the Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter

Examples:

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     Live Action TV 

     Anime and Manga 

     Western Animation 

     Film 

     Video Games 

     Real Life 

     Literature 

     Comic Books 

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