The Official Couple trying really hard to make it, well, official. With or without ridiculous costumes.
Marry Me is a sitcom that aired on NBC in the 2014-2015 season. It's something of a Spiritual Successor to Happy Endings, in that it is created by that show's creator David Caspe and stars Casey Wilson in the female lead, and is set in the same city. Fittingly enough Caspe and Wilson got married in the interim between shows, and Wilson became pregnant with their child during production. (It did not get written into the show.)
Annie (Casey Wilson) and Jake (Ken Marino) are a Chicago couple who have been dating for six years. On their return from a romantic trip to Mexico, Annie loses patience with Jake's failure to propose. Unbeknownst to her, he's in the midst of a surprise proposal. Her unloading on him causes him to retract his proposal with the promise of trying again in a few days. She tries to fix things by proposing to him at his office. Unfortunately Jake had told his boss that he was in the hospital with his dying father, not on a trip to Mexico. Needless to say, further complications ensue.
NBC cancelled the series after one season. But not before Annie and Jake got married.
Will you make these the happiest tropes on Earth?
- Big Storm Episode: In Annicurser-Me a tornado warning prompts everyone to move down to the basement, which becomes a Locked in a Room situation when the keys to the storage cage are "misplaced". Jake flings his keys under the gate because one of them opens a locked drawer of his old desk, which contains a pre-nup agreement he had drawn up when he was engaged to his Psycho Ex-Girlfriend
- Black Comedy Rape: Light example in "Friend Me" where Annie gets into a drinking game with Jake's old friends the Boyz and warns them, "I used to be in a sorority, which means we drank just as much as the fraternity but could still outrun them."
- Celebrity Paradox: A Really weird example, at the end of an episode we learn that Dennah used to date a guy has the same name, is played by the same actor and has the exact same personality and catchphrases as Derrick from Happy Endings, since the shows are placed in the same city this might imply they exist in the same 'verse, raising questions about Derrick meeting Annie and noticing the uncanny resemblance to Penny. However, several episodes later Annie claims to have voted on a poll about the best Happy Endings characters, implying they're not in the same 'verse, and raising questions about how Derrick exists in both reality and fiction.
- Chocolate Baby: Inverted. One of her dads is white and one black, but everyone acts as if they don't know whose sperm fertilized the surrogate's egg.
- Crazy in the Head, Crazy in the Bed: In "Annicurser-Me", Jake tells Annie that he used to be engaged before to a woman named Fatasia Yang, who was his Psycho Ex-Girlfriend for a while. It was an almost Fourth-Date Marriage, and he admits it was an obvious terrible idea that only happened because of how crazy hot she was. Kay reveals she also slept with her, and vouches that the girl was indeed crazy but fire in the sack. Jake expects Annie to be mad or jealous, but she's actually relieve he choose her over a "crazy hot bisexual Asian chick".
- Fat Idiot: Gil tends to come off pretty dim, although he has a certain innocent charm and occasional bits of insight.
- The Gift: Jake picks up yoga instantly, which annoys Dennah as she's used to being the best in the class.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Kay. Other than mentioning that she's gay and a token "boy, I sure do love women" comment every episode, her romantic life is rarely shown. It's not until the eighth episode that any specifics are given and she talks about an ex and apparently hooks up with her, but their interactions past eye-contact occur almost entirely off-screen. It's not until the twelfth episode that she's actually shown interacting with a romantic interest.
- Hide Your Pregnancy: In-Universe: More like Not Mention Your Pregnancy, although by the time of "Surprise Me" Casey Wilson's increased weight is pretty noticeable (especially when she dances at her wedding).
- Hypocritical Humor: Annie scolds Jake during their meet-cute for eating at a Mexican restaurant that opposes equal rights for gays, due to her having gay parents. When he throws out his dinner and apologizes, the waitress comes by with a huge order for Annie, a regular customer.
- I Ate WHAT?!: On "Thank Me", Gil brings an exotic cheese to Thanksgiving. After they taste it he says it's made from human milk, and everyone spits it out.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode ends with "Me" to match the show's title.
- Life of the Party: Annie's cousin Scooby. So much so that she and her dads compete to get him to come to their wedding.
- Limited Social Circle: The group mostly just hangs out with itself and occasionally their family. The lack of friends outside the circle is lampshaded in "Friend Me" when Jake's entire wedding party was going to be Gil... just Gil.
- Mr. Fanservice: I'll take "Jake in various states of undress" for $500, Alex.
- One-Hour Work Week: Jake got fired in the pilot, and Gil is explicitly unemployed, but Denna, Annie, and Kay seem to never be working, and whether they even have jobs isn't clear.
- One-Steve Limit:
- Averted with Annie's fathers, both named Kevin.
- Averted in a later episode, when the cast cannot remember a doctor's name. Turns out, it's Jake.
- Political Overcorrectness: Played for laughs when characters try to explain which Kevin they're referring to. They always want to say "Black Kevin" and "White Kevin," but are uncomfortable with it.
- Ponzi: The "Shake Tech" diet Gil and Dennah get suckered into, which requires them to buy the shakes in bulk and try to sell them off.
- Shout-Out:
- Annie has a... personal belonging named Dilda Radner, after founding Saturday Night Live cast member Gilda Radner.
- In "Annicurser-Me," while Annie crawls through a ceiling vent to get the gang out (long story) she grumbles "Come down to the cellar, we'll get together, have a few laughs..."
- Transplant: Stephen Guarino has made an appearance as Derrick from Happy Endings. So far he's only interacted with ex-girlfriend Dennah, not Penny lookalike Annie.
- Uptight Loves Wild: Uptight Annie and laid-back Jake.
- Urban Legend Love Life: Kay manages to be both types of the trope at various points:
- At first, other than talking of her various conquests and gay-ness, there's no real indication of her getting around that much other than her word.
- In "F Me," she's intentionally sounding like she gets around a lot even though she's been monogamous for a few months to hide the fact she's in a relationship.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: Kicks off the plot of the series. Though the initial proposal wasn't wacky until Annie's rant about how Jake hasn't proposed yet, her proposal to Jake was wacky for being a genderswapped surprise proposal in his office.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: After Gil gets his life together (for an episode), the girls want him to return to his slovenly ways so that Jake will stop hanging out with them.
