History Main / DatingServiceDisaster

* ''Series/TheOddCouple'': before the internet -- before PC's even -- there was computer dating, [[OlderThanTheyThink believe it or not]]. In a episode which aired circa 1971, Oscar signs up with a computer dating service and embellishes his bio. He winds up matched with Felix's ex-wife.

* Someone whose profile picture shows them as very attractive, but when you meet them in person, [[{{Gonk}} they are anything but]]. The photo may be from when they were significantly [[IWasQuiteALooker younger]] and/or [[FormerlyFit thinner]][[note]]Because TechnologyMarchesOn, you can sometimes tell when a photo is older by the lower resolution[[/note]], professionally taken, or that one flattering selfie out of dozens. In some cases it's not even them in the photo, but a prettier relative, friend, or even a model gleaned off the internet.

* A [[UnsettlingGenderReveal transgender person]] (mostly [[DiscreditedTrope discredited]] now).

For a similar service but with face-to-face interaction, try SpeedDating. For a more general discussion of dating disasters, see BadDate. Whenever one of these fictional dating services matches a person with someone they already know in RealLife it is invoking the trope ItsASmallNetAfterAll. See also SocialMediaIsBad.

* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'', Johnny arranges a date with a woman he met online... who turns out to be a [[TalkingAnimal talking antelope]] named Carol. And, this being [[ButtMonkey Johnny]], they actually hit it off quite well. Too bad it turned out she was dating Johnny in an effort to make her ex (an ill-tempered talking crab) jealous.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'': The villain-of-the-week starts a phony digital dating service and sets himself up (in a variety of disguises) with every girl at Beverly Hill High so he can dump them and break their hearts like his ex did to him. Yes, it's an incredibly lame plot.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Put Your Head On My Shoulders", Bender runs such a service, which is [[ViewersAreGeniuses both discreet and discrete]]. It's eventually revealed that his "carefully selected dates" are just random people he picked up at the bus station who leave as soon as the driver (also one of the dates) is ready to go.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' - Toki is tired of the fast and loose life of a rock star and joins a couples matching service to find his soulmate - to his horror she's a frightful being who is clinically intent on mating and making children immediately.
* ''WesternAnimation/AtomicBetty'' used this plot more than once with Sparky's mother Zulia. The first time she uses a dating service, she ends up falling in love with the BigBad, Maximus. The second time she ends up with the leader of a gang of biker vandals. Sparky tells her that her dates are villains he fights and tries to save her, but she's usually smitten with them and doesn't listen to her son.
* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' had an episode revolving around a dating service during the early days of the trend. The duo watch a Geraldo special on the concept, one of the guests being interviewed is shown blacked out and talking about great the service is because all he had to do was call the service and they'd "send him another victim". Ironically, Beavis and Buttheads attempt at using the service turns out great, Butthead's video (where he just talks about being a "sex machine") ends up intriguing a very attractive woman, and Beavis somehow manages to charm the ''service provider'', also rather attractive, who mistakes his aimless rambling for deep thoughts. Unfortunately, by the time they get back home they've forgotten the whole thing and end up blowing each others' chances.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had Marge's homely sister Selma try using a video dating service while trying to get pregnant. Figuring that she's not attractive enough to actually make a man stick around, she advertised herself as a "free lunch". Unfortunately, multiplying by zero is still zero.
--> '''Groundskeeper Willie:''' Och! Back to the loch with you, Nessie!

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
** The episode "Chindred Spirits" had the Crimson Chin trying this out and he ended up nearly going on a date twice with two of his archenemies. Once he realizes this, he quickly has Timmy take his place on the date and makes a break for it.
** Another episode, "The Odd Couple", has Timmy intentionally pulling this on Vicky's new boyfriend Ricky to get him to break up with her when Timmy couldn't wish for him to disappear due to the "true love" rule preventing him from doing so. Timmy hooks Ricky up with Dolores-Day, who seems to be a rich and attractive teen beauty queen on the dating site, but in reality, she is [[DirtyOldWoman Denzel Crocker's mom]], an elderly woman who spends her money on prune juice and blood transfusions, much to Ricky's dismay.

* Rupert Holmes' "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" is about a pair of bored lovers who secretly arrange to date other people via newspaper ads; to their surprise, they discover that they're cheating on each other ''with'' each other. The various violations of conventional morality, not to mention simple logic, implied in this song were heavily deconstructed in [[http://www.mst3kinfo.com/ward_e/Bit421b.html a particularly memorable sketch]] on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. Note that this eventually [[LifeImitatesArt happened in real life]]. Unlike the song, [[RealityEnsues both spouses sued each other for infidelity]].

** ''Film/YouveGotMail'' is based on the much older film ''Film/TheShopAroundTheCorner'', which was released in 1940, in which two anonymous pen pals fall in love with each other without realizing that they hate each other in real life.

* ''Film/YouveGotMail'' is based on the much older film ''Film/TheShopAroundTheCorner'', which was released in 1940, in which two anonymous pen pals fall in love with each other without realizing that they hate each other in real life.

* Two instances in ''Series/{{Frasier}}'':

** In another episode, Niles signs up for a dating service called 'Executive Match.' Frasier decries such services as "promising heaven but delivering a buck-toothed librarian who needs help washing her mother," but Niles' date turns out to be stunningly beautiful. While this may seem like a subversion at first it ultimately turns out that Executive Match are an escort service and Niles has been running up a huge bill taking his call-girl out on "romantic" dates.

OlderThanTheyThink, with pre-Internet computer dating and video dating services, as well as newspaper "lonely hearts" sections, [[UsefulNotes/NineHundredNumber 1-900 premium rate]] dating phone lines, and old brick-and-mortar dating services providing examples for this trope. The assumption delivered by these tropes--that normal people can find dates just fine; only weirdos, creeps, lunatics, and other folks with insurmountable character derangements would need to resort to "artificial" ways of meeting people--also fed neatly with the perception that everyone on the Internet is a weirdo creep lunatic to begin with, allowing an even wider range of absurdity. Today, the stigma surrounding online dating isn't quite as strong as before, especially among LGBT people with more limited options than straights. Current stories invoking this trope are less "Beware the anonymous" and more "If it looks and sounds too good to be true, it probably is." For those who still want a dose of uninformed dating calamity to infuse into their tales, the BlindDate trope is as strong as ever.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' had the Crimson Chin trying this out and he ended up nearly going on a date twice with two of his archenemies. Once he realizes this, he quickly has Timmy take his place on the date and makes a break for it.

* Someone whose profile picture shows them as very attractive, but when you meet them in person, [[{{Gonk}} they are anything but]]. The photo may be from when they were significantly [[IWasQuiteALooker younger]] and/or [[FormerlyFit thinner]], professionally taken, or that one flattering selfie out of dozens. In some cases it's not even them in the photo, but a prettier relative, friend, or even a model gleaned off the internet.

* Your current romantic partner, who you hoped wasn't going to find out about this, though they're hardly in a position to complain.

Even though current dating services allow users to post pics and advise against chatting with anyone without at least one clear shot of their face, you may still run into other problems:

OlderThanTheyThink, with pre-Internet "computer dating" and "video dating" services, as well as newspaper "lonely hearts" sections, [[UsefulNotes/NineHundredNumber 1-900 premium rate]] dating phone lines and old brick-and-mortar "dating services" providing examples for this trope. The assumption delivered by these tropes--that normal people can find dates just fine; only weirdos, creeps, lunatics, and other folks with insurmountable character derangements would need to resort to "artificial" ways of meeting people--also fed neatly with the perception that everyone on the Internet is a weirdo creep lunatic to begin with, allowing an even wider range of absurdity. Today, the stigma surrounding online dating isn't quite as strong as before, especially among LGBT people with more limited options than straights. Current stories invoking this trope are less "Beware the anonymous" and more "If it looks and sounds too good to be true, it probably is." For those who still want a dose of uninformed dating calamity to infuse into their tales, the BlindDate trope is as strong as ever.

* ''Naked City'' in another pre-internet example, has an episode in which a woman uses a lonely hearts dating service that didn't do a good job of checking its applicants backgrounds and sets her up with a philandering married man.

* In the 1992 series ''Down the Shore'', overweight, nerdy Eddie meets a girl online, but chickens out at the last moment and has handsome-but-dumb housemate Aldo pretend to be him for their first in-person meeting. She turns out to be a knockout (played by Creator/KathyIreland) who was tired of shallow guys hitting on her for her looks and who was looking for an intelligent man attracted to her mind; she quickly sees through the switch and happily meets the real Eddie.

* This is basically the plot of ''Date Night On Union Station'', a sci-fi novel about people living on an AI-managed space station with an absolutely terrible dating service. One of the characters is first set up with a dominatrix who thinks he's there for her services, then with an alien black widow who's looking for a sacrificial husband for religious purposes, and finally with a teenage runaway who'd been sold into indentured servitude.

* ''Film/KeepTheChange2017'' has had a string of internet girlfriends who all found him so off-putting in person that they dumped him after one date. A rare example from the viewpoint of the disaster.

* A doughy and unattractive loser whom you'll discover to be either very, very nice or very, very rich, thus teaching you a valuable [[AnAesop Aesop]] about how not to judge people by their initial appearance.

* Someone who is actually [[YourCheatingHeart married, engaged, or in a long-term relationship with someone else]]. Variants include the person who says they have an [[{{Polyamory}} an open arrangement]] when they don't, or the person who says they're separated and beginning divorce proceedings but the divorce isn't final yet...when they're not getting divorced at all. Most other cheaters will hide it, but some will blatantly say they're cheating because they're unhappy or bored with their partner.

* A doughy and unattractive loser whom you'll discover to be either very, very nice or very, very rich, thus teaching you a valuable [[AnAesop Aesop]] (probably a {{Family Unfriendly| Aesop}} one in the latter case) about how not to judge people by their initial appearance.

* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel: In ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' Beast breaks up with Storm, fearing that Xavier is messing with her mind so that she loves him, and so he stays at the school. He seeks some new girlfriend in internet, and starts chatting with "Mutantchick", a mutant model wannabe. Actually, it's the Blob, from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who loves playing those pranks in his free time. But when Beast shares the secret that Xavier did not kill Magneto, that he's alive and brainwashed... it's finally the time to arrange a date.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' had an episode revolving around a dating service during the early days of the trend. The duo watch a Geraldo special on the concept, one of the guests being interviewed is shown blacked out and talking about great the service is because all he had to do was call the service and they'd "send him another victim". Ironically, Beavis and Buttheads attempt at using the service turns out great, Butthead's video (where he just talks about being a "sex machine") ends up intriguing a very attractive woman, and Beavis somehow manages to charm the ''service provider'', (also rather attractive), who mistakes his aimless rambling for deep thoughts. Unfortunately, by the time they get back home they've forgotten the whole thing and end up blowing each others' chances.

--> *a portly, slovenly man rings a doorbell and is met with an equally slovenly woman. Both speak simultaneously* "You dont look anything like the photo. Oh well, lets get this over with".

* Before the Internet, and [=PCs=] and computer dating, there were dating services. In ''GeorgeAndTheDragon'', both George and Gabriella (Dragon), while not enemies, at least opposites, use a dating service to meet someone else. When they go to meet their dates, they find out they've been matched with some nice dates. However those dates walk out with each other, leaving only George and Gabriella.