Ugly Guy Hot Wife - Television Tropes & Idioms

Everybody Loves Raymond is, of course, the shining example of this trope, as many of its imitators have copied this almost exactly. The uncharming, pasty, big-nosed Ray Romano is paired with decidedly better-looking Patricia Heaton (especially notable in later seasons, when Ray isn't aging so gracefully, and Patricia has used a bit of surgical help to maintain her appearance).
Raymond copycat The King Of Queens takes this to an even more ridiculous level, with portly and short Kevin James paired with about 135 pounds of makeup (and possibly other assistance) in Leah Remini.
- The producers have apparently caught on, as Remini's character has packed on a few more pounds in recent episodes.
  - However, Kevin James also serves as a real life example, as his wife is model Steffiana De La Cruz. Of course, in real life, James is famous, successful, and a fairly funny comedian, not a delivery man like in his show.
- One episode accentuates this into absurdity—Kevin James loses a noticeable but not an extreme amount of weight, and one of Carrie's friends seriously suggests that he's now as physically attractive as she is.
Will And Grace poke fun at this, with Jack and Karen searching for a new sitcom after the finale of Sex And The City. Whilst they are channel hopping, they spin through several "Fat guy, skinny wife" shows before hitting upon a "Ugly guy, skinny wife" show.
Karen: "Ugly guy, skinny wife? *shakes head* No, America is not ready for that just yet."
According To Jim, with Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith.
- The end of this show prompted TV Guide to do a Top 10 Fat Guys with Hot Wives list.
Still Standing, with Mark Addy and Jami Gertz. It's particularly egregious in the High School Class Reunion episode, when the wife is worried about not measuring up to The Libby. She inexplicably abandons her usual tight shirts and jeans to wear unflattering, baggy clothing and a bad hairstyle. The Libby, played by the already-pretty Beth Littleford, wears the wife's usual clothes. The next episode has the wife right back to her usual clothes and hair.
The Drew Carey Show, with Drew and just about every woman he dates, with a few exceptions like Wanda Sykes, and the much-older Shirley Jones. See also the page quote, from one of his standup routines.
Jerry Seinfeld regularly brought home supermodels on Seinfeld.
- One could at least argue a funnyman with a reasonably successful career could do well. George Costanza on the other hand...?
- Jason Alexander when asked how George could get so many attractive women put it down to persistence (indeed in one episode, George's persistence makes one woman who previously wasn't interested at all want to date him).
And of course, probably the grandfather of this trope, Ralph and Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners. Upstairs neighbors Ed and Trixie Norton probably qualify as well, especially since Trixie's backstory says she was a burlesque dancer before falling for the sewer worker.
- Note that the original sketches were an aversion, Ralph was married to a much older woman (Pert Kelton). Mr. Gleason changed it to a hot wife in the series for 1955 made-for-TV Fanservice.
- I once saw Audrey Meadows interviewed on TV (it may have been a special after Gleason died). She wanted the part of Alice but Gleason, seeing her stills, decided she was "too attractive." So she arranged for a friend to bust in with a camera at an unspecified time of night, wake her, and take her picture, no makeup, bleary eyes and all. The rest is history.
Roseanne's aversion is worthy of mention here; Dan Conner (John Goodman) isn't attractive, but neither is Roseanne herself. The idea of a family of average, normal-looking people had a lot of appeal with the public.
- ... and yet is still too shocking for the networks to make another.
The entire premise of the live-action Japanese series Densha Otoko which chronicles the attempts of a weakling, nerdy, geeky, otaku-type guy who is trying to date a beautiful woman with the assistance of a messaging board on the internet, after he saved her from a drunk guy on a train. Based on a real story.
- Also available in manga form as train_man.
Averted in Home Improvement. While Patricia Richardson is by no means a hag, she is at least believably attractive (and more cute than anything), and this male troper contends that Tim Allen was reasonably attractive as sitcoms go. On balance, they're about in the same league. Jill Taylor also started out as a homemaker but was halfway to becoming a psychologist by the end of the series, and Tim willingly gave up his show in order for her to pursue her dream.
A rare reversal of ugly wife/ hot guy in the British sitcom The Vicar Of Dibley, which sees plump Dawn French paired with tall, dark and brooding Richard Armitage—granted, she's the protagonist, and it was only in the season finale, but still. In real life, Dawn French is married to Lenny Henry.
- Depends which episodes you watch. In fact her significant weight gain and eventual loss was even made part of the storyline on the show.
Not technically this, since his actual wife isn't that attractive, but Allo Allo has the mundane Rene having an affair with the beautiful Yvette and Maria (amoung a few others)...and it's even implied that they like him more than he's attracted to them.
The George Lopez show features the plumper Lopez with a supermodel-class wife as well.
Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee, as lampshaded on the talk show Mrs. Merton: "So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"
Sex And The City: Charlotte (played by the ridiculously beautiful Kristin Davis) finds the love of her life (and the best sex of her life) the second she stops going for handsome boy's club types and lowers her standards for chubby, bald Harry. Of course, this being Sex & The City, he's still rich.
Despite Al's dreading the idea of having sex with Peggy on Married With Children, many viewers (this troper included) found Peggy very attractive. (It's especially odd because Al is a dedicated boob man, and Peggy's quite buxom.) It was eventually lampshaded by the actors themselves, who mentioned how fans repeatedly told them they didn't understand why Al hated having sex with Peggy. The actors attempted to justify it by saying that sex became more of a chore than a pleasure when it's with someone you're married to.
- A rare Gender Flip occurs with Jefferson and Marcy D'Arcy, the Bundys' neighbors. While this troper personally thought Amanda Bearse wasn't without her charms, much of the humor centered around her character played up Marcy's supposed ugliness, and Jefferson earning his keep by serving as her trophy husband.
In a line of beer commercials featuring football referees, one poor guy was penalized for "Disproportionately hot girlfriend!"
NYPD Blue's Andy Sipowicz. Twice. Wife #2 - Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence). Two decades his junior. Wife #3: Connie McDowell (Charlotte Ross) - so out of his league they might as well be different species.
This was, in fact, the central gimmick of the 1992 FOX series Flying Blind, in which Neil, a shy, repressed nebbish played by Corey Parker, somehow fell into a mutually fulfilling relationship with Alicia, an incredibly hot bohemian woman played by Tea Leoni. The series slightly bucked the trope by keeping the couple unmarried, which allowed the constant implicit tension of the possibility that Alicia would come to her senses and leave him.
My Name Is Earl features Randy and Catalina. Originally he chased her, until a green card marriage led to them sleeping together. Using advice from Joy, Catalina makes herself extremely unattractive to him, while Randy proceeds to be the best lover she ever had.
- Another one: when Earl is working in a fast-food restaurant, his Jerk Ass boss keeps abusing him. Earl then visits his house and discovers he has a hot wife that even has a mug labeled "World's Best Lover". But as luck would have it, Earl discovers he has two hot wives. By punching the boss in the face, he puts him in hospital, where both hot wives go to join him at bedside, see each other and dump him in disgust. Hilarity Ensures! Afterwards she fails to keep him interested by how bad she was.
Lampshaded and celebrated in an ad campaign for fast-food chain Del Taco: "Here's to every 4 who married a 10."
Girlfriend example: Rodney and Jennifer Keller in Stargate Atlantis. When he takes Keller to a science presentation on Earth, his colleagues initially think she's his (also attractive) sister. Then again, Rodney Mc Kay is not only a super-genius who's saved the world countless times, but also actually quite buff; it's only the plethora of higher-level beefcake that usually fills the screen that makes Mc Kay look like a schlub.
Both The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart paired Bob's character with an improbably attractive wife.
Bewitched - Successful advertising career or no, neither Darrin really struck this Troper as having any business being married to Elizabeth Montgomery's Samantha.
Steve and Regina, on The Steve Harvey Show.
A show about women's sex lives and the toys they used to enhance it featured one couple that seemed to be a middle-aged British woman who was probably rather pretty ten years ago and a Spanish or Italian male underwear model in his early to mid twenties.
That70s Show. Eric: fairly normal looking teenage boy. Donna: tall, thin, gorgeous redhead (with beautiful skin, too).
Chandler and Monica on Friends are generally an aversion - Matthew Perry is no pin up, but he isn't ugly by any standards and certainly Chandler is a match for his wife in terms of intelligence, success and so on. What makes this interesting is that Phoebe and Rachael act as if Chandler is far beneath Monica, casually mentioning that Monica 'could do better' or even at one point trying to set her up with other men. Note that they are both supposedly Chandler's friends too.

Close Live Action TV

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 wife 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.
Anime/Manga example: 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.
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 and 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.
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.
Taken to a ludicrous extreme in Naru Taru. Not only is Sato's fiance ugly & slow-witted, he is apparently afflicted with Downs Syndrome.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.

Close Anime and Manga

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.
- 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.
As do 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.
- This troper has no idea why 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.
- She said it was his ass....well, there's certainly enough of it.
- Wordof God is that Peter and Lois share a similar sense of humour. This seems evident a number of times when Peter makes a Double Entendre (or single entendre), and Lois snickers at it.
  - This Troper distinctly remembers an episode where Peter was snickering at some of his own double entendres and Lois makes a single entendre in order to make him laugh and he doesn't get it.
Not to mention The Honeymooners animated counterparts, Fred and Wilma Flintstone of The Flintstones, as mentioned earlier in the Family Guy entry.
- Speaking of which, Wilma expected this trope to hold true of their new neighbours, the Gruesomes. It didn't.
- Beta Couple Betty and Barney do uphold the trope, though, much like Wilma and Fred.
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.
- Plus, The Monarch is delicious.
- 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.
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.
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.
Maybe it's just me, but WALL-E and EVE, being a rusted trash compactor and a sleek, top-of-the-line scout droid, respectively.
- Maybe to a robot, being rusted is the equivalent of what we would call rugged handsomeness.
- Arguably Mary and John as well. While both are incredibly overweight, Mary has a relative prettiness about her, whereas John looks average at best.
  - Maybe that's because she's female and he's... not?
Inverted with Eek the cat and his love interest Annabel.

Close Western Animation

In his movies, Woody Allen has dated or been married to Téa Leoni, Goldie Hawn, Helena Bonham Carter, Elizabeth Shue, Julia Roberts and Mira Sorvino, among others. Of course, given his string of real-life wives, this could also be a case of fiction imitating reality (see also, 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.
Has there ever been a film starring Adam Sandler or Jack Black where this trope didn't apply?
Roger Rabbit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit isn't exactly ugly for a cartoon rabbit, but he is married to the insanely hot Jessica Rabbit—who isn't bad, she's just drawn that way. Lampshaded beautifully in the movie by a line from Jessica. When Eddie asks her why on Earth a girl like her married Roger, she replies in her most sultry tones, "He makes me laugh."
- Inverted for the toon characters, who still see Jessica and Roger as an example of the trope...but to a one they all wonder how Jessica managed to land someone so out of her league.
- Turned dark in the original novel, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, in which it was revealed to be not quite true love.
Played for laughs in Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle; the title characters are picked up by a disfigured man called "Freakshow" who is married to a rather beautiful girl. When Harold and Kumar ask her about this, she explains that they met in a church choir, and he has a lovely singing voice.
Any movie with Seth Rogen in it. I think voodoo is involved. (Although Knocked Up played it for laughs.) He quite recently lost weight and toned up, though, so time will tell how he looks compared to his next female costar.
Subverted in the film Hairspray and its subsequent adaptations, where plump Tracy Turnblad is jonesing for her teen idol classmate Linc Larkin.
Although not exactly 'ugly guy hot girl', the 2008 '"Get Smart'' movie has middle aged Maxwell Smart (played by Steve Carrell) and gorgeous bombshell Agent 99 (played by Anne Hathaway) hook up. It's established however, that 99 technically isn't quite as young as she looks; having recently had her face altered with plastic surgery, she took the opportunity 'to have a few years taken off', and is in fact closer to Max's age than she looks.
The John Wayne western movie War Wagon. The youngest member of the gang gets snarled at when he smiles at what he thinks is the grizzled old codger's pretty daughter. It turns out she's his wife, whom he bought off her parents in exchange for a horse. But the old codger gets killed and the kid forgoes his share of the gold to ride off with her instead.
Lampshaded all the time in the case of Austin Powers. Austin is probably one of the least attractive male characters in all of the films, but is apparently seen as highly attractive by almost all female characters.
- When his old secretary's daughter questioned her about this, she explained that in The Sixties he was cock of the walk because of attitude rather than looks. As to why he still is in the present day....
Magnolia has the elderly and rather withered movie executive dying of cancer played by Jason Robards married to a gorgeous trophy wife several decades younger than him played by Julianne Moore. The twist is that it started as a typical 'marrying him for his money' arrangement, but then she genuinely fell in love with him to the extent that out of guilt she even tried to have his will changed so that she would no longer be his heir.

Close Film

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.
- Meng Huo is also a Bad Ass Large Ham who probably has another large ham between his legs.
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."
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."
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.
A rather tragic version: Vega's parents in Street Fighter. 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 wife Sari. This time, they're very Happily Married.
  - using the power of Yoga, Dhalsim can stretch ANY part of his body. I don't think Sari will ever be dissapointed.
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.
Monkey Island: Elaine Marley is the governor of an island and so desirable that a man rises from the dead to pursue her. She allows herself to be courted by and eventually marries...Guybrush Threepwood. Less Ugly Guy Hot Wife and more like Ridiculously Bumbling Guy, Efficient and Competent Wife.
- This is somewhat justified in Escape from Monkey Island, in which Guybrush is drawn much more handsome than before (and since) and their relationship appears to be based mostly around sex.

Close Video Games

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.
- And he claimed to truly love her. It wasn't just the tits, honest.
Also, Donald Trump and any of his wives: Ivana Zelnikova, Marla Maples, and now Melania Knauss-Trump.
Find a picture of Dennis Kucinich (who can be charitably described as a gnome), and then find a picture of his third wife, Elizabeth. This troper still can't figure out how that happened. This troper notes she's from his home area.
- It's because Dennis Kucinich is Spider-man.
- While you're at it, do the same with Fred Thompson, or John McCain.
- Hey, John McCain wasn't all that bad looking back in his younger days.
  - Yeah. And after leaving his first wife, he ended up with his current beer-empire heiress spouse.
- 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." And 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.
  - Futurama says it best:
    Nixon: Accompanying you will be our top peace negotiator, Henry Kissenger.
    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!
Real life example: Not to disrespect the dead, but the Notorious B.I.G. was nowhere near the league of widow Faith Evans (or Lil' Kim, but she doesn't seem like the choosy type).
Another celebrity example would be filmmaker Kevin Smith and wife Jennifer, who is absolutely gorgeous. In fact, Smith wrote in his book that he fervently hopes their daughter Harley grows to be as tall and shapely as her mother, thus sparing her from what he goes through with his weight.
Anne Bancroft was married to Mel Brooks for 41 years.
They're not married, but...Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman.
- Or Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Affleck.
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. 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.
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.
Kevin Smith and his wife Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, who had a part in his movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as one of the sexy cat-burglars.

Close Real Life

Such an old trope that even deconstructing it is Older Than Steam. 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).
- And it had been deconstructed years before that, even, 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.
Almost anything written by Mercedes Lackey has at least some element of this. Kethry and Talia come to mind.
- To be fair, Kethry's husband is only handicapped with severe arthritis; he's actually described as distinguished/handsome in the books (even if he is half again her age).
- 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.
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.
- Later, their daughter, Fleur, doesn't reject Bill Weasley after he is scarred in battle, because the scars mean nothing except "that [her] husband is brave."
  Fleur: "I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk!"
Though Birgitte and Gaidal Cain of the 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).
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.
In the Vorkosigan novels 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.
- Of course, if levels in badass translated to inches in height, neither Miles nor Aral could fit in an Imperial Dreadnought.
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)
- There's also Smash, an ogre (ogres in Xanth take great pride in their ugliness) and his wife Tandy, a nymph.
- Well, half-nymph, and he's also half-ogre, but still.
  - It should be noted that since he primarily identifies himself as an ogre, it probably means he's effectively got a hideous beast of a wife, but loves her anyway.
- 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.
The book 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.
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.

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In the Asterix comic books, the 93-year old Geriatrix has a young and beautiful wife.
While not exactly ugly, Reed Richards certainly falls on the nerdy side, and has a very hot wife. Lampshaded in The Rise of the Silver Surfer when a general makes fun of him for being a nerd in high school, only for Reed to hit back that yes, he was a nerd, but a former jock like the general is now coming to him for help, and did he mention he's marrying an absolutely gorgeous woman? (A similar scene appears in the comic book Ultimate Extinction, where the general is Ultimate Marvel's Badass Normal, Nick Fury).
Sue Storm: "I am so hot for you right now."
Johnny Storm: "...me too."
Peter Parker, same deal. By all accounts an average-looking guy who is incredibly nerdy, he still managed to date three bombshells before marrying a supermodel.
- This hasn't gone uncommented—Pete's best friend, the Human Torch, has pointed out the sheer number of gorgeous women that Spidey has dated, including Gwen Stacy, and the Black Cat (although Black Cat is more about Spidey than Peter).
- The movie managed to avert this by casting Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane. She's no eyesore, but she's pretty well-matched with Tobey Maguire. Not to mention that Mr. Maguire is pretty cute himself.
Wolverine from the X-Men. Not the movie version—this troper would do Hugh Jackman in a heartbeat—but the comic book, where he's a short, hairy, gruff mountain man with poor hygiene who smokes. (It's implied his healing factor takes care of the health problems from his poor hygiene.) And it seems about half the beautiful powerful women in the Marvel Universe have slept with him or wanted to. Not even his former girlfriends' high mortality rates keep the ladies away. Maybe... Nah...
- Averted(?) when he makes a cameo in Runaways. Molly, who had previously been repeatedly stating that she would grow up to join the X-Men and marry Wolverine, meets him. She promptly flings him out of a church in disgust after spending all of three minutes with him.
Snake-Eyes and Scarlett, in the GI Joe comics. Though he possesses near-superhuman athletic potential and muscles like a fitness model, he's horribly scarred, at least on his face. (In one example, most of his face was cut off, and he deliberately stopped the bleeding by igniting gunpowder on his face.) Meanwhile, she's a smokin' hot redhead who arguably puts up with way too much of his weird shit than can be justified by ninja sex.
- To his defense: it is the best Ninja Sex On earth!
Mad Scientist Doctor Thaddeus Sivana, nemesis of Captain Marvel, could be charitably described as a hideous little troll of a man who makes Dennis Kucinich look like Fabio. His wife Venus Sivana, on the other hand, lives up to her name.
Deadpool and his girlfriend Vanessa, aka Copycat. (Note that she's a shapeshifter, though...) Also Deadpool and Siryn, although they never even really got past mutual attraction towards one another.
- Possibly subverted in that Deadpool, before the experimental treatment that basically turned him into a walking scab, was shown to have an appearance that was by no means ugly. Maybe a tad hardbitten, but certainly not unattractive.
  - Don't forget Deadpool and Death.

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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.

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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 Mike is hooked up with postitively 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.
This homely troper, someday (hopefully).
- I suppose dating a girl in your own league is out of the question? Or maybe improving your own looks?
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 Formal).
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 a young woman of South Asian descent in the water on a beach. In fact, they include it at any occasion where the words "Young" "Old" "Asian" "Beach" "Water" are juxtaposed.

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