History Main / BlindDate

* The reality TV series ''Series/TheDatingGame'' (And it's TransatlanticEquivalent ''Blind Date'' fits this trope well; it seems, indeed, that the series deliberately mismatches people for laughs—typically at the man's expense—as in a cartoon (the "cartoon-overs" are a dead giveaway; almost like the Road Runner holding up a sign saying "{{What an idiot}}!" when Wile E. Coyote falls off a cliff, they often critique whatever the man does).

* The movie ''Blind Date'', featuring BruceWillis, rather unsurprisingly.

* In a short story, ''Jean Shepherd'' tells of his experience on a blind date in which he gradually figures out that HE is the blind date, not his date.

* ''ARG/ILoveBees'': Kamal's mother sets him up with Sophia because she's the daughter of a friend of the mother.

* ''{{Seinfeld}}'' uses this trope, having Jerry and Elaine set up George and one of Elaine's friends (who, naturally is never heard from again).

* In one episode of ''SexAndTheCity'', Carrie is set up for one of these by her married friends (of course, we haven't heard from that friend before or since said episode). Carrie and the young man hit it off, but break up amicably once it becomes clear that Carrie isn't looking for the same kind of relationship he is. She then sets ''him'' up for a blind date with Charlotte, who is — but the date quickly goes downhill when he expresses a preference for garish pottery.

* Used a few times in ''{{Frasier}}''; the one has Roz setting Frasier up with a girl, and they agree on a codeword he'll use if he wants to get out of it once he meets her. Less than a minute in, he's saying the codeword repeatedly, and she keeps looking at Roz and repeating a word as well.

* TheBigBangTheory has "The Girlfriend Pact". Basically, if Howard or Leonard has a girlfriend while the other doesn't than they must ask their girlfriend if they can set the other up on of these with one of their grilfriend's friends. When Leonard was dating Penny the pact was invoked and thus the two of them accominied Howard on a blind date with Bernadette, a waitress/microbiology student. Things were awkward at first, but they eventually bounded over their overbearing mothers. And as of the end of season five [[spoiler: they married each other]]. Things went a lot less well in season four while Leonard and Penny were "off again" and Bernadette set Leonard up with a body builder that kept [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon talking about how strong she was and that she could rip a guy's nuts off]]. For a little perspective Leonard's an asmatic geek that's constantly teased about his short stature.

* In the movie ''BurnAfterReading'', the female maincharacter Linda is desperately searching for a soulmate through the use of blind dates. With varying results.

[[quoteright:225:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5377-Jola_i_Red_beauty_225x290_4386.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:225:[[VisualPun You're taking it a bit too literally]].]]

A basic romantic set-up. Alice and Bob have never met each other, but they do have a common friend, Carol. Carol, being a total {{Shipping}} FanGirl, gives off a delighted {{Squee}} when she realizes that Alice and Bob would be totally ''perfect'' for each other, and she quickly sets them up. Carol's role in all this is, naturally, fungible.

Sometimes they hit it right off. Other times it is pretty much the [[BadDate worst date ever]]. Ironically, which of these scenarios occurs has little to do with how the characters will fare long term — rather, it depends entirely on what the work in question is trying to accomplish. Comedic works will go with the bad date simply because it makes for better and funnier slapstick. Dramatic ones will go with the good date because it does a better job of stretching WillTheyOrWontThey tension.

Obviously, this trope was popularized because of its preponderance in {{Real Life}} as the result of parental match making and people actually going on blind dates, sometimes assisted by a dating service.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* The manga ''Manga/LoveLucky'' takes this to a whole new level, since not only are Fuuta and Kirari set up on a blind date by a match-making service, but afterwards Kirari hides her appearance from Fuuta by wearing a mask during their first and subsequent dates.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* A running sub-plot in the early years of the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comic book involved Aunt May's occasional attempts to set Peter up with a blind date with the niece of one of her friends, which Peter always dodged because he assumed that any girl his aunt approved of would have something wrong with her. Eventually he gave in and agreed to meet this Mary Jane person, and the rest is history. [[Creator/JoeQuesada Except]] [[ComicBook/OneMoreDay not.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In the Blog/ReadingRainbowverse, Vinyl sets Rainbow Dash up on one... with Lightning Dust. It goes horribly.
** Amusingly, a drunken Fluttershy has much more success setting up Gilda with Galaxy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The movie ''Blind Date'', featuring BruceWillis, rather unsurprisingly.
* In the movie ''BurnAfterReading'', the female maincharacter Linda is desperately searching for a soulmate through the use of blind dates. With varying results.
* ''WhenHarryMetSally'': Double blind date turns this on its head; Harry sets Sally up with Jess and Sally sets Harry up with Marie; the four go out and in the end [[BetaCouple Jess ends up hooking up.... with Marie]] (and marrying her).
* ''SleeplessInSeattle'' has a montage of blind dates Creator/TomHanks' character endures.
* In ''Film/SomethingNew'', this is how the two leads meet. However, it does not go well at their relationship only develops further when they meet again later.
* ''Film/TheRebound'' has Sandy going on a succession of awful ones [[spoiler: while in contrast the perfect guy for her is her nanny]].
* ''AllAboutSteve'' has its plot kick off as a result of an arranged Blind Date between Mary and Steve.
* Jacob in ''Film/{{Kopps}}'' tries to find his love that way but it doesn't work very well.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In a short story, ''Jean Shepherd'' tells of his experience on a blind date in which he gradually figures out that HE is the blind date, not his date.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''{{Seinfeld}}'' uses this trope, having Jerry and Elaine set up George and one of Elaine's friends (who, naturally is never heard from again).
* In one episode of ''SexAndTheCity'', Carrie is set up for one of these by her married friends (of course, we haven't heard from that friend before or since said episode). Carrie and the young man hit it off, but break up amicably once it becomes clear that Carrie isn't looking for the same kind of relationship he is. She then sets ''him'' up for a blind date with Charlotte, who is — but the date quickly goes downhill when he expresses a preference for garish pottery.
* The reality TV series ''Series/TheDatingGame'' (And it's TransatlanticEquivalent ''Blind Date'' fits this trope well; it seems, indeed, that the series deliberately mismatches people for laughs—typically at the man's expense—as in a cartoon (the "cartoon-overs" are a dead giveaway; almost like the Road Runner holding up a sign saying "{{What an idiot}}!" when Wile E. Coyote falls off a cliff, they often critique whatever the man does).
** It really depended on the couples themselves. Some hit it off, others were disasters that had to be seen to be believed.
** One contestant refused to go on the date with the winner of her episode. Not that you could blame her as [[spoiler: the winner was Robbie Alcada, who was later discovered to be a serial killer]].
* Used a few times in ''{{Frasier}}''; the one has Roz setting Frasier up with a girl, and they agree on a codeword he'll use if he wants to get out of it once he meets her. Less than a minute in, he's saying the codeword repeatedly, and she keeps looking at Roz and repeating a word as well.
** Another time, Frasier's dad set him up with his buddy's [[HollywoodDateless dateless daughter]]: ''Teri freakin' Hatcher''.
* The reality show ''DatingInTheDark'' takes the "blind date" concept to its logical conclusion.
* The second episode of ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' revolved around Alex going on a blind date with a witty phone operator named Angela, only to discover she was considerably overweight and very sensitive about it after getting burned by various men in the past. Alex spent the episode trying to prove he wasn't that shallow and help her learn to love herself. The episode also introduced the song, "Angela", which ended up becoming the show's theme song.
* It rarely ever dawned on ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'' that trusting Lenny and Squiggy to do ''anything'' for them was a good idea, and setting them up on blind dates was no exception. (It happened more than once.)
* TheBigBangTheory has "The Girlfriend Pact". Basically, if Howard or Leonard has a girlfriend while the other doesn't than they must ask their girlfriend if they can set the other up on of these with one of their grilfriend's friends. When Leonard was dating Penny the pact was invoked and thus the two of them accominied Howard on a blind date with Bernadette, a waitress/microbiology student. Things were awkward at first, but they eventually bounded over their overbearing mothers. And as of the end of season five [[spoiler: they married each other]]. Things went a lot less well in season four while Leonard and Penny were "off again" and Bernadette set Leonard up with a body builder that kept [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon talking about how strong she was and that she could rip a guy's nuts off]]. For a little perspective Leonard's an asmatic geek that's constantly teased about his short stature.
** There was also the ArrangedMarriage candidates Raj's parents have set him up with. He was drunk out of his mind with the first one in the first season and the second one in the fifth season was a nice girl that was interested in his cooking and the date went well...except she was gay and only agreed to meeting/considering Raj because she wanted a [[TheBeard a beard]]. There was also the time Penny set him up with a DisabledLoveInterest, CuteMute. Come to think of it the Big Bang Theory does this particular plot a lot...
* In one episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Ted recounts how he and a girl named Jen went on a blind date ... twice without realizing it! The first time was in 2002 and the second time was in 2009. They realized they were repeating their disastrous first blind date when they exchanged the same dialogue as before. Frightened by the prospect of running out of people to date in New York, they decided to retrace their steps to find out the mistakes of their first blind date.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* If you play as the female character in the game ''VisualNovel/{{Sprung}}'', then you get set up on a blind date with a short, overly-aggressive nerd and have to find a way to ditch him.
* In ''VideoGame/TheSims 2'', some [=NPCs=] will randomly offer to set your sims up on a blind date. Of course, how it goes varies. If you ask the Gypsy Matchmaker to give you a blind date, how it goes depends on how much you pay her. For example the maximum amount $5000 guarantees someone who fits all the Sim's turn-ons and vice versa, meanwhile giving her $1 will get someone that probably fits the sim's turn-off.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comic]]
* An early ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' story has Sam setting Torg up on one of these. Unfortunately, Sam's intentions are highly devious and evil. How do we know this? [[NewMediaAreEvil He found her on the Internet.]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'''s Florence Ambrose had, apparently, been set up on one or more of these when she was in college, judging from a mental comment she made in [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1300/fc01285.htm strip 1285]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''ARG/ILoveBees'': Kamal's mother sets him up with Sophia because she's the daughter of a friend of the mother.
[[/folder]]

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* A running sub-plot in the early years of the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comic book involved Aunt May's occasional attempts to set Peter up with a blind date with the niece of one of her friends, which Peter always dodged because he assumed that any girl his aunt approved of would have something wrong with her. Eventually he gave in and agreed to meet this Mary Jane person, and the rest is history. [[JoeQuesada Except]] [[OneMoreDay not.]]

* The reality TV series ''Blind Date'' fits this trope well; it seems, indeed, that the series deliberately mismatches people for laughs—typically at the man's expense—as in a cartoon (the "cartoon-overs" are a dead giveaway; almost like the Road Runner holding up a sign saying "{{What an idiot}}!" when Wile E. Coyote falls off a cliff, they often critique whatever the man does).

* In one episode of ''HowIMetYourMother'', Ted recounts how he and a girl named Jen went on a blind date ... twice without realizing it! The first time was in 2002 and the second time was in 2009. They realized they were repeating their disastrous first blind date when they exchanged the same dialogue as before. Frightened by the prospect of running out of people to date in New York, they decided to retrace their steps to find out the mistakes of their first blind date.

[[folder:Alternate Reality Games]]
* ''ILoveBees'': Kamal's mother sets him up with Sophia because she's the daughter of a friend of the mother.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* The manga ''Manga/LoveLucky'' takes this to a whole new level, since not only are Fuuta and Kirari set up on a blind date by a match-making service, but afterwards Kirari hides her appearance from Fuuta by wearing a mask during their first and subsequent dates.

[[folder:Comics]]
* A running sub-plot in the early years of the ''{{Spider-Man}}'' comic book involved Aunt May's occasional attempts to set Peter up with a blind date with the niece of one of her friends, which Peter always dodged because he assumed that any girl his aunt approved of would have something wrong with her. Eventually he gave in and agreed to meet this Mary Jane person, and the rest is history. [[JoeQuesada Except]] [[OneMoreDay not.]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* In the Blog/ReadingRainbowverse, Vinyl sets Rainbow Dash up on one... with Lightning Dust. It goes horribly.
** Amusingly, a drunken Fluttershy has much more success setting up Gilda with Galaxy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Webcomic]]

* An early ''SluggyFreelance'' story has Sam setting Torg up on one of these. Unfortunately, Sam's intentions are highly devious and evil. How do we know this? [[NewMediaAreEvil He found her on the Internet.]]

* If you play as the female character in the game ''{{Sprung}}'', then you get set up on a blind date with a short, overly-aggressive nerd and have to find a way to ditch him.

* TheBigBangTheory has "The Girlfriend Pact". Basically, if Howard or Leonard has a girlfriend while the other doesn't than they must ask their girlfriend if they can set the other up on of these with one of their grilfriend's friends. When Leonard was dating Penny the pact was invoked and thus the two of them accominied Howard on a blind date with Bernadette, a waitress/microbiology student. Things were awkward at first, but they eventually bounded over their overbearing mothers. And as of the end of season five [[spoiler: they married each other]]. Things went a lot less well in season four while Leonard and Penny were "off again" and Bernadette set Leonard up with a body builder that kept [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon talking about how strong she was and that she could rip a guy's nuts off]]. For a little perspective Leonard's an asmatic geek that's constantly teased about his short stature. There was also the ArrangedMarriage candidates Raj's parents have set him up with. He was drunk out of his mind with the first one in the first season and the second one in the fifth season was a nice girl that was interested in his cooking and the date went well...except she was gay and only agreed to meeting/considering Raj because she wanted a [[TheBeard a beard]]. There was also the time Penny set him up with a DisabledLoveInterest, CuteMute. Come to think of it the Big Bang Theory does this particular plot a lot...

* ''SleeplessInSeattle'' has a montage of blind dates TomHanks' character endures.

* The second episode of ''{{Taxi}}'' revolved around Alex going on a blind date with a witty phone operator named Angela, only to discover she was considerably overweight and very sensitive about it after getting burned by various men in the past. Alex spent the episode trying to prove he wasn't that shallow and help her learn to love herself. The episode also introduced the song, "Angela", which ended up becoming the show's theme song.

Sometimes they hit it right off. Other times it is pretty much the [[BadDate worst date ever]]. Ironically, which of these scenarios occurs has little to do with how the characters will fare long term — rather, it depends entirely on what the work in question is trying to accomplish. Comedic works will go with the bad date simply because it makes for better slapstick. Dramatic ones will go with the good date because it does a better job of stretching WillTheyOrWontThey tension.

* In ''TheSims 2'', some [=NPCs=] will randomly offer to set your sims up on a blind date. Of course, how it goes varies. If you ask the Gypsy Matchmaker to give you a blind date, how it goes depends on how much you pay her. For example the maximum amount $5000 guarantees someone who fits all the Sim's turn-ons and vice versa, meanwhile giving her $1 will get someone that probably fits the sim's turn-off.

* TheBigBangTheory has "The Girlfriend Pact". Basically, if Howard or Leonard has a girlfriend while the other doesn't than they must ask their girlfriend if they can set the other up on of these with one of their grilfriend's friends. When Leonard was dating Penny the pact was invoked and thus the two of them accominied Howard on a blind date with Bernadette, a waitress/microbiology student. Things were awkward at first, but they eventually bounded over their overbearing mothers. And as of the end of season five [[spoiler: they married each other]]. Things went a lot less well in season four while Leonard and Penny were "off again" and Bernadette set Leonard up with a body builder that kept [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon talking about how strong she was and that she could rip a guy's nuts off]]. For a little perspective Leonard's an asmatic geek that's constantly teased about his short stature. There was also the ArrangedMarriage candidates Raj's parents have set him up with. He was drunk out of his mind with the first one in the first season and the second one in the fifth season was a nice girl that was interested in his cooking and the date went well...except she gay and only agreed to meeting/considering Raj because she wanted a [[TheBeard a beard]]. There was also the time Penny set him up with a DisabledLoveInterest, CuteMute. Come to think of it the Big Bang Theory does this particular plot a lot...

* If you play as the female character in the game ''{{Sprung}}'', then you get set up on a blind date with a short ginger nerd and have to find a way to ditch him.