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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.
Eddie: What do you see in him?
Jessica Rabbit: He makes me laugh.
A very common Dom Com or cartoon 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, 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, especially if the leading men are "Funny fat guys".
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. In other words, you are looking at one of the most blatant examples of Double Standard.
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.)
May be a direct result of Attractiveness Isolation, where the girl in question is perceived as too hot to ever look twice at a "normal guy". Thus ugly guys — those who are so used to rejection that it holds no fear anymore — may simply be the only ones to ever as the girl out.
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, or the perception that women are more likely to look beyond looks. Another thing to consider is that women live slightly longer then men and often age less visibly. It is also common for women to marry slightly older men which becomes more apparent as they age.
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. And note that it's "UGLY" Guy, not "AVERAGE" Guy. JD from Scrubs isn't bodaciously handsome, but is hardly ugly, despite being less attractive than his usual girlfriends. It should be noted that genuinely unattractive characters are rare (see Hollywood Homely and Generic Cuteness); "ugly" usually means "fat", so it's generally a given that givin the intense selection on actresses for their looks, every male lead in Hollywood is going to be uglier than the woman he hooks up with on the merits of simple casting (unless the male is played by Estrogen Brigade Bait- and even then).
A popular subversion is when the hot wife is only beautiful on the outside, and on the inside she's manipulative, materialistic, spiteful, or just an overall bitch who doesn't deserve her Henpecked Husband's kindness since he's nothing more than a Meal Ticket to her.
Perhaps the only genuinely positive thing to say about this trope is the Truth In Television that a sense of humor, fun personality and massive paycheck can go much further than good looks alone. Still, it becomes a Broken Aesop in TV Land where such a moral almost never applies to women and we are still reminded over and over again of how gorgeous the wife is.
See also Beast And Beauty, Give Geeks A Chance, No Accounting For Taste, Hot Consort, and Attractiveness Isolation; and don't forget that Most Writers Are Male. May overlap with May December Romance, if the man is old on top of being ugly (or is ugly simply as a result of being old). This trope tends to give birth to the Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter.
Contrast Model Couple.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Lampshaded and celebrated in an ad campaign for fast-food chain Del Taco: "Here's to every 4 who married a 10."
- In a line of beer commercials featuring football referees, one poor guy was penalized for "Disproportionately hot girlfriend!"
Anime and Manga
- In Itazura na Kiss, Chris, a beautiful English lady of nobel blood, marries Kinnosuke, a not-so pretty Osakan chef. Most people wonder how a guy like Kinnosuke could have gotten a girl like Chris. The fact is that both she and her sexy American mother, Maria, have terrible taste
 ◊.
- In the manga of Air Gear, the incredibly ugly Onigiri proves a huge hit with the ladies in an air trek aerobics program, and has an incredibly attractive and borderline obsessive girlfriend. Then she dumped him... for the gigantically fat Buccha. And then she dumped him for a guy who was somehow even fatter. Little parts of Onigiri and Buccha died after the experiences.
- This example illustrates yet another potential problem with this setup. If you're a big fat guy who manages to land a hot girl with a fat fetish, you're in serious trouble when somebody bigger comes along.
- Azumanga Daioh plays this trope on the personality axis — the creepy
lolicon Ephebophile teacher Kimura-sensei is revealed, to his students' amazement, to be married... and his waifu is lovely, to boot. As the students theorize that she must be a real harpy, Yukari-sensei instead predicts — correctly, as it later turns out — that she must be a saint in order to put up with him. It also helps that she is a Cloudcuckoolander.
- While not married, worth noting is Danjuro Eiga & Miyako Miyazaki of Bamboo Blade. Miyako is a bombshell, while Danjuro has a head shaped like an acorn. To top it off, "Miya-Miya" (as Danjuro calls her) is very loyal to her man, having joined the kendo club solely to be with him, and also deathly afraid of letting the darker side of her nature become known to him.
- In Eyeshield 21, Hatsujo, who is sort of unattractive, has a very beautiful girlfriend, just like every member of his team. Whenever the Cupids lose, we all know they're the real winners there.
- In Galaxy Express & other works by Leiji Matsumoto, the impossibly beautiful Space Pirate Queen Emeraldas is hopelessly in love with the impossibly ugly Tochiro.
- In Dragonball, Bulma's mom and dad embody this trope. Ditto for Krillin and Android 18. Kami only knows what Mr. Satan's wife looked like to have a daughter like Videl. Of course, Mr. Satan and Bulma's dad were both rich and famous. Krillin however, was apparently a very persistent Dogged Nice Guy.
- Krillin and Mr. Satan (Hercule in English dub) are by no means ugly. Krillin is simply shorter than average, but is a great guy, intelligent, and fit (being a Z Fighter and all). Mr. Satan is naive and dumb, and a glory-hound, but means well and actually saved the Earth by convincing Buu to stop killing people. Though hairier than pretty much every other man on the show, he's probably a sexy body-builder type with ruggedness thrown in for good measure.
- While you may have a point with Mr. Satan (aside from being rich and famous, he seems to look like the guy who was more attractive in his youth), Krillin doesn't have a frikkin' nose. That's gotta be somewhat creepy.
- Bulma's father isn't all that ugly either. He looks fairly average himself, like a Cloudcuckoolander Albert Einstein. His wife is amazingly hot, though.
- Hilariously subverted in Hajime No Ippo, where Ippo's sempai Masaru Aoki has a penchant for ugly women. At first it's just a consequence of his beautiful ex-girlfriend Miyuki having cheated on him when in highschool, but once he does settle down with female Gonk Tomiko (Kumi Mashiba's workmate), he does get to like her for the Genki Girl she is.
- To mark on the point even more, when Aoki finally got to challenge the champion of his boxing class, it turned out that Katsukata Imae had exactly the same penchant for ugly girls. Just look at his girlfriend Sachiko.
- Played straight with the Itagaki family though, the mom's a smoking Hot Shonen Mom, the dad is, well, probably the biggest Gonk in the series. And a real Gonk, unlike Tomiko who is more realistically plain, papa Itagaki is honestly freakish. Justified in that the Itagaki's share very similar personalities and horrible senses of humor.
- In Legendz, this is not only eplicitly spelled out, but the ugly guy in question is himself concerned about the obvious disparity. "What the Hell does she see in me?" In fact, Meiko's Yandere-style obsession with the extremely fat and Gonky Jerk Ass Hosuke is all around extremely questionable; NOBODY has a clue what she likes about him.
- Even when young, Genya Nakajima, the father of Subaru and Ginga in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, is average-looking at best. Meanwhile, his wife is a female in a Moe Moe anime series.
- Taken to a ludicrous extreme in Naru Taru. Not only is Sato's fiance ugly & slow-witted, he is apparently afflicted with Downs Syndrome.
- It's revealed late in Ranma 1/2 that Genma somehow has ended up married to Hot Shounen Mom Nodoka Saotome. Lampshaded when Ranma, upon hearing this, punches his father in the face for having the gall to even suggest the possibility.
- Even the other characters find it unbelievable. When they learn that Nodoka is visiting, the Tendos greet and welcome a portly, round-faced matron... who was there to pick up the take-out trays from her restaurant. When the real Nodoka appears, everyone is awestruck by her beauty and grace.
- Justified in an interview with Rumiko Takahashi where she revealed Genma was handsome and cool as a young man. Nodoka simply aged better.
- Also, Genma Saotome isn't quite as unattractive as fanon makes him out to be. He is bald and bulky, but his features are basically plain and there are plenty of topless shots of Genma that reveal the majority of his bulk, at least, is actually muscle. Genma's ugliness primarily comes from his panda form (which is porky) and his frankly rotten personality.
- If you ship Rakane, this may be an inverted case. Akane isn't ugly, she's more average looking than anything, but Ranma is the series' Estrogen Brigade Bait (half the time, anyway).
- By the same author, Urusei Yatsura has Mr. Invader, of the Oni. While a pleasant enough fellow, he's got the build of an American Football player going to seed, a set of tusks, and is about two or three times the height of a human. It's possible he actually might be the Oni equivalent of a Gonk, as, with the exception of the "Heian Era Oni" from the New Year's Special episode (who are stated as being a different species), none of the other male Oni look like him. Admittedly, with the exception of Rei, none of them are exactly handsome, either. Rei, meanwhile, is such a Chick Magnet that he has dozens of women going gaga over him... despite the fact he's a dimwitted Big Eater who can barely say more than one word at once and turns into an ushitora (a monster that resembles a hybrid of a cow and a tiger).
- Greg and Mischa from Eureka Seven. They were divorced prior to Greg's initial appearance, apparently.
- As a Take That to the massive amounts of Estrogen Brigade Bait in most Boys Love manga, a particular one-shot features a gay man who has had a penchant for ugly men since his youth, seemingly oblivious to society's take on beauty throughout. When the story begins he is fondly reminiscing (Shoujo Sparkles and all) his first love (a towering, awkward, acne-faced sports freak of a teenager)... Not a few pages later, he runs into his said first love. Who has, amusingly, turned into a rather attractive beautician (not heartstoppingly gorgeous; he seems to have gotten over his teenage awkwardness, instead choosing to be cheerful, and as a beautician, has certainly learned about style). Soon after, the main character has a Freak Out over how gross-looking his first love has become, and Hilarity Ensues.
- Minky Momo's mother is much better-looking than her short, pudgy father.
- George's parents are Hideyoshi and Eva. Eva still looks good despite pushing 50. However, this is played with in that Eva is a Rich Bitch and Hideyoshi is a Nice Guy who married into the family. The surprising part? They actually love each other a lot. To the point where Hideyoshi is arguably Eva's Morality Pet!
- Following a timeskip, Makken is the husband of the Hot Scientist, Leite. They even have three kids together.
Comic Books
Film
Literature
- Such an old trope that even deconstructing it is Older Than Print, as shown by Geoffrey Chaucer in two of The Canterbury Tales: The Miller's Tale and The Merchant's Tale.
- In 1984, Winston Smith, a 39 year old man, somewhat over the hill by Oceanic standards, physically bent out of shape, and sporting what is apparently a highly unsightly varicose ulcer, manages to have a 4 month affair with Julia, almost ten years younger, described as being in much better physical condition, notably possessing stunning hair and breasts. Considering that both suffer crushing sexual repression and arguably have borderline nymphomaniac traits as well, they seem suited for each other.
- Also slightly subverted in the fact that it's made clear that Julia screws pretty much anyone. She's signed up for some kind of Chastity Brigade, and she sees her promiscuity as a way to stick it to The Man. In other words, she may not really be too choosy about her partners, If You Know What I Mean.
- Plus the attraction is also based on a mutual hatred of The Man. Given that chosing the wrong partner can get you denounced to the Thought Police, you can't be too choosey.
- Fiancé example: Zephaniah Cromwell and Emily Gibson in Cloud of Sparrows. Emily is strikingly beautiful (at least by American standards), while everybody in the novel considers Cromwell incredibly ugly.
- Good Magician Humphrey of Xanth and all five and a half wives (long story). Humphrey, even as a young man, has always been short, gnome-like, and grumpy, while his wives have ranged from "merely" pretty (Sofia Socksorter) to inhumanly beautiful (Dana Demoness)
- Xanth has a few examples, as some attractive women (and they're pretty much all attractive in those books) have married actual monsters. Tandy and Smash the Ogre for instance. He's half human, but still looks mostly like an ogre (who are ugly enough to curdle milk by looking at it).
- From the same author, in Incarnations Of Immortality, Thanatos (aka Zane), the incarnation of death is described as a fairly ugly man, the woman he dates, Luna, is described as one of the most beautiful women of her generation (this is stated as fact and recognized by immortal powers such as Satan, not a subjective opinion). It helps when the Incarnations of Faith & Time team up to do some match making.
- Drugs and Dominoes reveals that Keith Gandor (who, while not exactly ugly, is a very sinister-looking mafioso) is married to a gorgeous and talented pianist named Kate — who loves him despite his less-than-legal activities, no less.
- In Lois Mc Master Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, it must be noted that both Count Aral Vorkosigan (stocky, thick featured, scarred... the author once described him as Mussolini with hair) and his son Miles (under five feet, hunchbacked, and having a disproportionately large head) both managed to marry women who are quite attractive in addition to their other positive attributes.
- The first woman Lord Byron's 16-year-old Don Juan sleeps with is the 23-year-old frustrated hot wife of a 50-year-old ugly guy.
- Derk and Mara in Diana Wynne Jones' Dark Lord Of Derkholm. She's the 'glamourous enchantress', he's... middle-aged, overweight and balding.
- The Malloreon, by David Eddings, ends, among other things, with Beldin, a deformed, short hunchback with a bad temper who is always described as incredibly dirty, finally going off with Vella, a Nadrak dancer. True, they both changed into hawks, but she was still in love with the guy from day one.
- A subverstion of the trope may be Poledra and Belgarath. Though she appears little, she's described quite favourably. On the other hand her husband is an old wrinkly man whose grooming habits only seem respectable in comparison to his aforementioned associate Beldin. Then, near the very end of the series, he appears in a loincloth and every woman in the party who isn't his daughter notices just how well the 7000-year-old man has taken care of himself.
- Though Birgitte and Gaidal Cain of Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time aren't actually married, they have a generations-spanning relationship together (they usually reincarnate at the same time). Cain is, to put it lightly, not as handsome as the legends about him say, while Birgitte is described as fairly attractive. It helps that she's attracted, as Mat figures out, to dog-ugly men (whether this is a cause or an effect is unstated).
- Almost anything written by Mercedes Lackey has at least some element of this. Talia comes to mind.
- Inverted in The Obsidian Trilogy. Idalia, while certainly a beautiful human, has an elf pining for her. Then, at the end of the series, it's subverted, when she's reincarnated as an elf, though it's acceptable because this is the only way both would find long-term—by elven standards—happiness.
- Semi-inverted with Kellen and Vestakia—the fact that she looks like a Demon may repel others in-universe, but the reader is more likely to see her as a Cute Monster Girl.
- Mr. and Mrs. Delacour in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This version of the trope seems to indicate that an ugly guy will put up with anything for a hot wife, and a hot woman will want an ugly husband because he will (as mentioned) be a doormat.
- In the chapter of The Faerie Queene dealing with pure and unpure sex, Edmund Spenser attacked this trope, mercilessly showing all the problems it would, in the medieval viewpoint, lead to (paranoid jealousy from the guy and cheating by the wife).
- Extreme example of Ugly Guy Hot Girlfriend in the Discworld Novel Thud! With exotic dancer Tawneee (yes, that's Tawneee with three E's,) and Nobby Nobbs, who requires signed papers from the Patrician to certify that he's human. It's later explained that no man had ever asked her out before, all of them assuming she'd be out of their league, which led her to believe she was unnattractive. Nobby on the other hand, is so used to rejection (as EVERYONE is out of his league) that he asks her out expecting rejection she's so desperate that she accepts. Despite this, she actually likes him. And he is later implied to have dumped her.
- Nobby Nobbs is a very simple man, who might have been putting on a brave face for his friend Colon, but Tawneee simply couldn't cook.
- In Stardust, the protagonist blindly chases after a fallen shooting star for the girl he likes, who had become pregnant with an ugly old rich man's child not long before (with even her friends being aware of it).
Live Action TV
Mythology
- The Ur-Example might be Hephaestus of Greek mythology, the ugliest god—even outright deformed—who married Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty herself. Even back then, however, the Greeks weren't exactly shy about exploring the consequences - Aphrodite was constantly cuckolding her husband, who, like most immortals (except Hera), just mostly put up with it (he did ask for her) and spent as little time around her as possible. He did play several relatively harmless pranks on Aphrodite in revenge for illicit affairs, such as trapping her and Ares (her lover) in an indestructible net that he constructed.
- There are two other versions as well: one is that Hephaestus demanded Aphrodite's hand in marriage in return for getting Hera off a magic chair he stuck her on because she crippled him, and the other is that Zeus ordered her to marry because she was causing trouble among the gods and she picked Hephaestus because he's the god of jewelry (another legend has Zeus choose Hephaestus because he was the most stable of the male Olympians... which considering he once tried to rape his half-sister, says something about the rest of the immortals).
- Also Hephaestus has been said to put up with it because Aphrodite can become a virgin again by bathing in the ocean.
- Also, in Norse Mythology, there's Thor (not the Marvel Comics version, obviously) and his wife Sif. Of course, you might say he got her because he's fucking Thor, but Sif is pretty badass, too.
- This is debatable- Sif was known for her beauty, but there's nothing to really suggest that Thor isn't also quite desirable by Norse standards. A little thick at times, but he was probably a looker. He was at least good looking enough that while wearing Freya's dress, he could impersonate the pretty goddess, but still manly enough that Loki feared him alone of all the gods in the Lokasenna.
Western Animation
- Peter and Lois Griffin of Family Guy, with a little Lampshade Hanging, as the couple was once described in a news report as "a fat man inexplicably married to an attractive redhead", along with an artist's impression of what they might look like - Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Lois, of course, came from a ridiculously wealthy family and could have hired a different gigolo every night, if she were looking for a hunk.
- It's often confusing how Peter is still alive, or why Lois didn't dump him years ago for any number of perfectly valid reasons, including but not limited to his insistence in continuing behaviors that bother her, openly mocking and belittling her in both public and private, ignoring her wishes at every conceivable opportunity, wasting family funds on whatever little whim strikes him... suffice to say Peter's ugliness does not stop at his appearance.
- Brian has even questioned why they are together. Of course, Brian is jealous of Peter. Lois said it was Peter's ass... well, there's certainly enough of it.
- Word Of God is that Peter and Lois share a similar sense of humor. This seems evident a number of times when Peter makes a Double Entendre (or single entendre), and Lois snickers at it.
- The Honeymooners animated counterparts, Fred and Wilma Flintstone of The Flintstones.
- Speaking of which, Wilma expected this trope to hold true of their new neighbors, the Gruesomes. It didn't.
- Beta Couple Betty and Barney do uphold the trope, though, much like Wilma and Fred.
- Peg from Goof Troop is seen by many fans as being really hot. Same can't be said for her overweight husband Pete.
- Lucky and Dyl Piquel from Bonkers.
- George and Jane Jetson
- Jack and Maddie Fenton from Danny Phantom. The answer (to the "what does she see in that big idiot?" question) may lie in the episode which shows an alternate universe in which Maddie ended up with Vlad Masters rather than Jack Fenton. She is with Jack because they share many if not ALL the same interests.
- He's big but how's he ugly?
- Eeeer... He is big AND FAT. Furthermore, compare Jack with Vlad Masters.
- Richard "Dick" Marion Daring and Karen Jane "K" Mildred Daring from The Replacements, as Dick is a big, pudgy, hairy idiot (though not nearly as bad as many other cartoon examples), and his wife's a hot spy.
- Shelton´s mom and dad at the same show.
- Luann Platter from King Of The Hill is an attractive but mostly dumb blonde eventually married an ugly bucktoothed middle aged hillbilly known as Lucky.
- Also elderly Cotton Hill and his wife Didi. Dale and Nancy fit as well. Dale is scrawny (but "flexible" as Nancy puts it), with a gut, beady eyes, and bald ("and not in that attractive way, like Sean Connery"), and Nancy's a frequent Ms Fanservice target with her string bikinis. But it's his staggering idiocy, devotion to absurd conspiracy theories, and all around giblet-headedness that make you wonder how the two ever got together.
- Marge and Homer from The Simpsons fit this description, although Marge's attractiveness has been played up over time.
- Not only that, but Homer has managed to attract several bombshells over the course of the show. They seem to see him as hot. Or maybe it's his personality, which is odd, given the way he acts the rest of the time.
- Might be justified in that Homer and Marge first fell in love in high school, when Homer was thin, clean-shaven, and had hair.
- It also helped that he knocked her up. As grandpa said when he heard the news, "You lucky stiff! The fish jumped right into the boat, now all you've gotta do is whack 'er on the head with the oar!" Note that Marge has repeatedly confirmed that she would have married him even if he hadn't gotten her pregnant.
- Homer's ugliness also varies according to the plot. Homer's often been shown to be rather good-looking if he took better care of himself (lose some weight & gain some hair). Take his near-identical older brother for example. The only characters who consistently describe Homer as ugly are Patty & Selma, both of whom are biased and one of them is a man-hating lesbian (and that's putting it nicely), and in an earlier episode, even they got dumbfounded by Homer's looks when he got hair and dressed respectfully. Similarly, many of the women in the Simpsons family, including Homer's mom, are described as good-looking. Heck, even Bart is apparently not too bad-looking, being able to seduce Ranier Wolfcastle's daughter Greta.
- Also inverted in the form of Louanne Van Houten. Although fairly plain, not particularly wealthy, a likely philanderer, and seeming to make her ex-husband's life hell for fun and/or spite, somehow manages to date American Gladiators on a routine basis (even more than one at a time) after she divorced her dopey husband.
- Tripping The Rift has Chode, a disgusting purple alien with incredibly hot Six. Then again, Six is a sex robot that he owns, and we have no definition of Chode's relative attractiveness by the standards of his own species (as opposed to us humans, who aren't really qualified to judge). Also, an episode claimed that men and women are both held up to unreasonable standards for attracting the opposite sex, it's just that with women it's looks and men it's money.
- The Venture Brothers. subverts this, as while she may be hot, most men seem put off by Dr. Mrs. The Monarch's (or just plain old Dr. Girlfriend) 6-packs-a-day voice.
- Another example would be the scrawny balding Dr. Thaddeus Venture and the rather attractive blond Myra Brandish. While the latter had a strong Bodyguard Crush on the former, Rusty ultimately was creeped out by Myra's Stalker With A Crush tendencies and had her sent away, driving her insane.
- Rusty also manage to seduce Dr. Quymn, possibly the hottest superscientist ever.
- That may be due to UST from their childhood.
- WALL-E and EVE, being a rusted trash compactor and a sleek, top-of-the-line scout droid, respectively.
- Arguably Mary and John as well. While both are morbidly obese, Mary has a relative prettiness about her, whereas John looks average at best.
- Inverted with Eek the cat and his love interest Annabel.
- Angela and Broadway from Gargoyles could fall under this trope. Since gargoyles aren't into the whole money and power business, it had to be his sweet and charming personality that won her over.
- Or just different standards. See the Tripping the Rift examples above. Besides being a gargoyle and thus possibly having different standards of beauty than a human, Angela was raised by people from a time period where being fat meant you weren't starving to death.
- In Superman The Animated Series, Mr. Mxyzptlk (who is a tiny, bald, beady eyed imp) has a hot wife; a really hot wife; a really hot wife who would (and probably could) do anything to get a little attention from him. Oh, yes.
- Although as a Reality Warper, Mxy can probably look like whatever he wants.
- Gregor and Willow from A Kind Of Magic. He´s an ogre and she´s a fairy. Yep...
- Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable. She's an attractive athletic redhead, he's a gangly, goofy-looking guy with big ears and a catalog of phobias. From early on it's established that they work better as a team, and from So The Drama on they've been inseparable.
Tabletop Games
- In Warhammer 40000, Isha, the Eldar goddess of life is stuck in a Hades & Persephone-type relationship with Nurgle, the Chaos god of disease, who is best described as one big pustule. The other examples on here don't even come close. She isn't happy about it, but Nurgle seems to genuinely love her (in his own sick way), and Emperor knows the other alternatives were worse - Slaanesh (whom Nurgle "rescued" her from), for instance.
- Her equivalent in Warhammer is either the same... or Nurgle's daughter, who cures people so daddy can make them sick again. No one's sure.
Video Games
- In Dynasty Warriors, Meng Huo, fat king of the Nanman barbarian tribe, is married to a hot babe Zhu Rong, daughter of the god of fire.
- Seen in Grand Theft Auto 4, with the short, fat, unsuccessful Roman Bellic and his attractive longtime girlfriend (later wife), Mallorie.
- Bartre and Karla in Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken, though to be fair Bartre's not so much ugly as he is homely (especially compared to most of the handsome faces in this particular army!)
- To say nothing of anyone Ardan ends up with in Genealogy of the Holy War.
- Gen-An Shiranui of Samurai Shodown is one of the ugliest Fighting Game characters in history. His wife is a Jungle Princess. One of his win quotes is even "No one calls me a freak and lives! ...except my wife, that is."
- And inferred from Haomaru's ending in the first game, the Shiranui (hint, hint) pairing will inevitably bring to the world the foremost name in Stripperific Fanservice.
- Adell's parents in Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. Even with the extra eye and tail, Mom is hot enough to attract the attention of far younger men. Dad, on the other hand, is a zombie "but without the stench."
- Sergeant Allen O'Neil's wife◊ in Metal Slug. However considering Allen is an unkillable, manly, Badass, with an incredible physique, its Justified.
- Video game and girlfriend example: In Final Fantasy VIII, this trope is inverted with Rinoa, who is quite cute but nowhere near as attractive as Squall.
- That's HIGHLY debatable. Squall may have been off-the-charts sexy, but Rinoa was also clearly intended to be very hot, too.
- Tetsuya Nomura stated that Rinoa was supposed to be "cute, not gorgeous" so her personality would be developed properly.
- A rather tragic version: Vega's parents according his backstory in Street Fighter II. Vega saw his very ugly father murder his beautiful mother under the belief that she was cheating on him. Vega went crazy and became a Self Made Orphan by killing his dad to avenge his mom, this being his Start Of Darkness.
- Also, Dhalsim and his very Moe wife Sari, who doubles as a Hot Mom. This time, they're very Happily Married.
- Also, Rufus and Candy, though not married, probably count as well.
- Interspecies Romance example: A minor NPC in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is a Seeq married to a Viera. Seeq are hideous pig like things, Viera are beautiful bunny girls.
- The Seeq is also quite friendly and supportive of the party's quest to save the Aegyl. OTOH, his wife is as cold and aloof as most of her race and just wishes her husband would leave the ship already. Which just raises more questions about how the hell they hooked up in the first place.
Web Original
- Aphrodite and Hephaestus of O-Cast, based on the aforementioned Ur-example in Greek myth.
Real Life
- Billy Joel/Christie Brinkley.
- A Bloom County strip had Opus frustrated with practicing music and about to swear off playing music forever, when the Joel/Brinkley pairing is invoked, along with Ric Ocasek/Paulina Porizkhova and another homely musician/hot model pairing.
- Anna Nicole Smith (Playboy Centerfold) and J. Howard Marshall II (Millionaire). Despite their age differences, she claimed to truly love him. His multimillion dollar estate was purely ancillary.
- Inverted by Franklin D Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt. She was so much uglier than him that it was rumored he was secretly gay.
- See this◊. Seems he just aged better than her.
- Even when young she was considered at best mediocre by society standards. Franklin, meanwhile, was one of the most eligible bachelors in New York state, so their marrying surprised a lot of people (including Eleanor's cousin Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who was rather uncharitable about it).
- Also, Donald Trump and any of his wives: Ivana Zelnikova, Marla Maples, and now Melania Knauss-Trump.
- To her credit, Melania is at least honest about their motivations. Supposedly when asked if she would be with him if he wasn't rich, she responded with "do you think he'd be with me if I wasn't beautiful?"
- Find a picture of Dennis Kucinich (who can be charitably described as a gnome), and then find a picture of his third wife, Elizabeth.
- It's because Dennis Kucinich is Spider-man.
- While you're at it, do the same with Fred Thompson, or John McCain.
- Many would cite Nicholas Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa (President of France) and his new wife, Carla Bruni Tedeschi- an Italian supermodel.
- As former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who is still alive, surprisingly) pointed out, "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac." As Dennis Miller once remarked, if ANYone ought to know that it was Kissinger. Nobody—but nobody—in Washington, DC got more first-class skirt during the Nixon administration than Kissinger, and he looks like one of those pot-bellied troll dolls one used to hang from the rear view mirror of one's '67 VW Beetle.
- Of course Kissinger's still alive! Sex is good for you!
- Futurama says it best:
Nixon: Accompanying you will be our top peace negotiator, Henry Kissinger. Kissinger: How are you? Bender: Is he any good? Nixon: Looking like that, he talked his way into Jill St. John's bed. Nuff said!
- Anne Bancroft was married to Mel Brooks for 41 years. The marriage ended with her passing.
- Don't forget Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman.
- The Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame and the Isreali buisnessman Aviv Nevo. Age difference: 14 years.
- By far the most popular real-world example of this trope in certain circles (that is, intellectuals) is the slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek and his wife Analia Hounie. Although he's about 20 years older, they both really love Lacan :)
- Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. More or less; portraits of royalty can be... unreliable (royal portraiture in the day served as a sort of royal dating service). But the Bourbons tended to be big guys and Louis was no exception. These two also show up in Rose Of Versailles.
- This LiveScience article attempts to find some rationalization for this trope in real-life. This arguably makes this trope an example of Truth In Television, but don't consider this article the be-all and end-all. Scientifically, the jury's still out on this one.
- Janet Jackson's romance with Jermaine Dupri. Chris Rock said in a stand-up that that's like finding out BMW's were on sale for four dollars... after the sale was over.
- Wayne Rooney, who can be best described as looking like an orc version of Mr. Potato-Head, and Coleen, who is merely vaguely attractive but looks much better than she should when she stands next to him.
- Also, Ronaldo and his actual wife/girlfriend and almost all ugly football players. However, played in reverse with Robinho, who married his chubby childhood sweetheart.
- Prince Charles. Princess Diana. Discussion over.
- Ironically, Charles wasn't really that taken with her, his heart having always been with Camilla Parker Bowles who is more, er, matched with him in the looks department.
- Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed. Although not actually married, they still more than qualify. Ol' Genie isn't exactly the handsomest man in the world.
- Kevin James and and his wife Steffiana de la Cruz◊, a former model.
- Seal and Heidi Klum.
- YMMV since, if Seal's face marks/scars, he would border on Hot Shoujo Dad. And he was way better looking than Flavio Briatore (pictured)
- Kevin Smith and Jennifer Schwalbach. Often lampshaded by Smith himself in his Evening With Kevin Smith DVDs.
- Salman Rushdie dates exclusively models, despite looking like an owl.
- Tim Burton: first with model Lisa Marie, then with actress Helena Bonham Carter
- Rare gender reversal: Sarah Jane Fenton, Debralee Furness and Keely Shaye Smith, while by no means ugly, are plump, older, not supermodel gorgeous and therefore considered unlovable by Hollywood standards. They are married to, and publicly adored by, hunks Clive Owen, Hugh Jackman and Pierce Brosnan.
- Pierce Brosnan is a chubby chaser? I love this guy!
- To be fair, Keely Shaye Smith WAS a model AND drop-dead gorgeous, but kudos to Brosnan for not kicking her to the curb just because she put on a significant amount of weight.
- Rob and Sherie Moon-Zombie. While this troper finds Rob Zombie attractive she is aware she is in the minority, and Sherie Moon-Zombie is just plain gorgeous, so the trope applies.
- Paul Dini and Misty Lee. It gets even more out there when you realize that Dini is in his early fifties and Lee is in her late twenties.
- Strangely inverted with author Eiichiro Oda and model Chiaki Inaba. While she's by no means ugly, to think that the RICH MANGA ARTIST is more of a catch in looks than his fashion model wife makes this troper believe SHE'S the lucky one and not him.
- French film director Roger Vadim with his wife◊, Jane Fonda. He was also married to Brigitte Bardot and lived with Catherine Denevue.
- And don't forget, she was also married to Ted Turner.
- Michael Emerson (Ben on LOST) is married to the very attractive Carrie Preston. Slightly subverted in that they're genuinely happy together.
- Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng.
- John "Crypt-Keeper" Kassir, and Julie Benz◊. That's right◊, Julie◊ Fucking◊ Benz◊.
- Roger Federer and his wife Mirka have in the past managed to play this one both ways. Though neither have ever exactly been ugly, when they first started dating, he was very boyishly awkward while she was so attractive she'd had the attention of a Prince of Dubai in the past. Years later, he blossomed into one of the most beautiful men around, while she lost her athletic looks, got older and fatter until certain tabloids and fans made nasty comments. Her new maternity has been surprisingly good to her looks at the moment, though. Either way, he still gushes about how much he loves her in the interviews.
- Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones. Him at her age, they'd probably be on par, now though...
- Remember that guy Angelina Jolie was married to for two fucking years? That's right, fucking Sling Blade.
- Scarred Swedish icehockey legend Börje Salming◊ has married a goodlooking woman. But here, icehockey players are alpha males.
- Mick Foley and his wife [1]. So Yeah.
- In a rather sad moment, for one skit in WCW his wife wasn't even allowed to play herself because the higher-ups felt that a woman married to Cactus Jack shouldn't look so attractive.
- An amazing real-life inversion—in the African nation of Mauritania, young girls are sent to so-called "fat farms" to GAIN weight, not lose it. They are force fed fatty meals every two hours in order to attain a corpulent physique, because this is what the men of the nation find most desirable.
- Go back through this section and count all the musicians who have a hot wife, and then add Elvis Costello and his wife Diana Krrrrrrrrrall. Why didn't I pay more attention to my piano lessons?
Others
- Several examples in Newspaper Comics: Blondie, Zits (the dad is extremely round & bald, while the mom is built more-or-less like the teen females- though not especially gorgeous given the art style), the US Dennis the Menace (Hank is tall, spindly and bespectacled, but Alice is an ideal 1950s-style housewife), Luann (pudgy, cartoonish Brad is hooked up with positively gorgeous Toni the firefighter), Liz and Anthony in For Better Or For Worse.
- This almost seems to be the default setting for newspaper comics and animation. Funny male cartoon characters will be nondescript looking at best, while females by default will be drawn with eyelashes or lipstick to prettify them. Alison Bechdel noted this in The Indelible Alison Bechdel, that as in Blondie all female's sexual characteristics will be emphasized while if the men were drawn this way they'd look like the buff hunks popular in gay comics.
- A My Cage Sunday strip parodied this trope, along with Dom Coms in general. The Funny Animal motif was used to emphasize it, making the husband a slug and the wife a busty bunny girl.
- Subverted/reversed in song:
If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life
Never make a pretty woman your wife
So from my personal point of view
Get an ugly girl to marry you
[...] "Hey man, I saw your wife! She sure is uuuuuuuuuuuugly!" "Yeah, but she sure can cook!"
- Some Mexican women have a saying about the type of man they seek: He must have the three Fs: "Feo, Fuerte y Formal" (Ugly, Strong and Serious).
- A Running Gag in satirical British magazine Private Eye is that whenever anyone mentions anything in relation to an Ugly Guy Hot Wife scenario and the need for a photographic example they print a photo of journalist Andrew Neil with his sometime girlfriend Pamella Bordes in the water on a beach. In fact, they include it at any occasion where the words "Young" "Old" "Asian" "Beach" "Water" are juxtaposed.
- A large part of porn is like this. They cast a hot girl, and don't really care about what the guy looks like, as long as he has the right equipment. It can create a rather unpleasant viewing experience if you're interested in both parties. Or So I Heard...
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