History Series / Maury

* {{Malaproper}}: Happened ''all'' of the time on this show, almost always originating from the guests. Notable examples include the man who denied he was the father of a baby because he had a "receiving hairline" [[note]] "Receding hairline" [[/note]] and the baby didn't, and a woman who claimed she was stuck in the hospital with "walking limonia" [[note]] Walking pneumonia [[/note]] while her boyfriend/husband was out cheating on her. Another woman said she believed her ''five'' children belonged to the same man because they looked like "quadriplets". [[note]]quadruplets, or ''four'' babies.[[/note]] Another woman who believed her fiancée and sister were having an affair ranted about how they responded to the accusations by claiming she was "bipoland" [[note]] "Bipolar" [[/note]], even making the same mispronunciation a few times after Maury tried to correct her.

* {{Malaproper}}: Happened ''all'' of the time on this show, almost always originating from the guests. Notable examples include the man who denied he was the father of a baby because he had a "receiving hairline" [[note]] "Receding hairline" [[/note]] and the baby didn't, and a woman who claimed she was stuck in the hospital with "walking limonia" [[note]] Walking pneumonia [[/note]] while her boyfriend/husband was out cheating on her. Another woman said she believed her ''five'' children belonged to the same man because they looked like "quadriplets". [[note]]quadruplets, or ''four'' babies.[[/note]] Another woman who believed her fiancée was cheating ranted about how he responded to the accusations by claiming she was "bipoland" [[note]] "Bipolar" [[/note]], even making the same mispronunciation a few times after Maury tried to correct her.

* {{Malaproper}}: Happened ''all'' of the time on this show, almost always originating from the guests. Notable examples include the man who denied he was the father of a baby because he had a "receiving hairline" [[note]] "Receding hairline" [[/note]] and the baby didn't, and a woman who claimed she was stuck in the hospital with "walking limonia" [[note]] Walking pneumonia [[/note]] while her boyfriend/husband was out cheating on her. Another woman said she believed her ''five'' children belonged to the same man because they looked like "quadriplets". [[note]]quadruplets, or ''four'' babies.[[/note]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** A woman who was very confident that a man was s the father of her child prior to results being read immediately ran backstage in tears when she found out that he isn't.

* DumbassHasAPoint: One segment involved a teenage couple that was set to get married in two weeks, but the bride-to-be suspected that her fiancé had fathered a baby with another girl. The suspected mistress then advised the bride-to-be to just call off the wedding right then because, "[[GenreSavvy You're bringing him on the ''Maury'' show two weeks before the wedding!]]"

* DumbassHasAPoint: One segment involved a teenage couple that was set to get married in two weeks, but the bride-to-be suspected that her fiancé had fathered a baby with another girl. The suspected mistress then advised the bride-to-be to just call off the wedding right then because, "[[GenreSavvy You're bringing him on the]] '' [[GenreSavvy Maury]]'' [[GenreSavvy show two weeks before the wedding!]]"

* DumbassHasAPoint: One segment involved a teenage couple that was set to get married in two weeks, but the bride-to-be suspected that her fiance had fathered a baby with another girl. The suspected mistress then advised the bride-to-be to just call off the wedding right then because, "[[GenreSavvy You're bringing him on the ''Maury'' show two weeks before the wedding!]]"

** Even if the guy was the father of a baby, he still had to deal with an abrasive, emotional wreck for up to 18 more years, and the woman eas going to have to deal with a man who likely wanted nothing to do with her or her child. Worst of all, the child had to deal with two people who, more likely than not, wouldn't give them a very good life because of this.

* TakeThat: Throughout 2008, Fox aired ''The Moment of Truth'', a game show about contestants being given polygraph tests and needing answer increasingly personal questions truthfully. During this time, Maury would frequently imply that his show's polygraph test were somehow more legitimate by repeatedly telling guests and the audience that they weren't using "game show lie detectors."

* LowerClassLout: Many of the guests, ''especially'' the out of control teen girls, wrre walking stereotypes of lower-class people. Several of these girls admitted to having assaulted people, stolen money or items, or multiple sexual partners. To make things worse, some of them were actually ''proud'' of their trashy behavior. One girl, Rayletha, admitted to being ''drunk'' while she was on the air.

** If a man fails even one question of a lie detector test, he was a monster that was booed off the stage and the woman crucified him for lying and then left him. It didn't matter what the question was that he failed, or if he also passed much more important ones (such as not having sex with other women), the outcome was almost always the same. Women, however, seemed to be able to get away with failing their lie detector tests entirely if it turned out that the man accusing her was the father of her baby. As a result, her misdeeds were usually get glossed over.

*** The potential father claimed that the child didn't look anything like him, the mother countered that the child lookedexactly like him.

* PushoverParents: The parents of the violent teenage girls wrre usually this.

** Usually, the parents of the out of control teen girls claimed that their daughters were once sweet, loving, and innocent and they didn't know why they'd chosen to act out.

** If a man fails5 even one question of a lie detector test, he was a monster that was booed off the stage and the woman crucified him for lying and then left him. It didn't matter what the question was that he failed, or if he also passed much more important ones (such as not having sex with other women), the outcome was almost always the same. Women, however, seemed to be able to get away with failing their lie detector tests entirely if it turned out that the man accusing her was the father of her baby. As a result, her misdeeds were usually get glossed over.

* DumbassHasAPoint: One segment involved a teenage couple that was set to get married in two weeks, but the bride-to-be suspected that her fiance had fathered a baby with another girl. The suspected mistress then advised the bride-to-be to just call off the wedding right then because, "[[GenreSavvy You're bringing him on the ''Maury'' show two weeks before the wedding!"

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Frequently seen with couples where one thought the other was cheating on them (usually while the girlfriend or wife was pregnant), but the lie detector showed the accused was faithful. Cue the hugs and tears.

** Some women did this when they think a guy was the father of their child shortly before Maury revealed that the guy wasn't. One notable example of this is Telia. She was bragging that her search for her daughter's father was over and that this would be the last time we would see her on the show. Telia was incredibly confident that the guy was the father. This was despite him being the ''eleventh'' man that she tested. The guy, predictably, was not the father. While Telia was wrong about the results, she was right about one thing; [[ExactWords she never came back on the show again]].

** The show would occasionally leave out some details about a guest during an update episode in order to make them look better. One notable example is Ricktoria. During her first two appearance on the show, she found out that her boyfriend Clinton was not only cheating on her with her mom, but was trying to get the latter pregnant. On her third appearance, Ricktoria revealed that she cheated on Clinton with his best friend Juan. She then revealed to both of them that she lied about being pregnant. Ricktoria's third appearance is usually not mentioned in updates about her.

* FirstGirlWins: Averted often, in cases where women wwre fighting with men over paternity explicitly due to a presence of a new girlfriend/wife, even moreso if the man in question was not the father or if the man was the father but still refused to be in the woman's/child's life due to his new significant other's influence. This is played straight in cases where the man ended up leaving his new girlfriend for his old one after favorable paternity/other results and they ended up being a family.

** It's difficult to feel sorry for the women who go out of their way to taunt potential fathers only to be proven wrong afterward.
** It's impossible to feel sorry for men who plead and cry when they get caught cheating.

''Maury'', formerly titled ''The Maury Povich Show'', is a syndicated daytime talk show where host Maury Povich talks with guests about various problems and issues in their lives, including teenage pregnancy, medical conditions, phobias, paternity tests, domestic violence, and more.

The most common element used in the show is DNA tests, sometimes taken to the extreme if a single man is accused of making multiple kids from different women, or when a single woman brings multiple men on the show (sometimes over the span of several episodes) to find her baby's father. [[OncePerEpisode The men always say]], "That baby don't look nothing like me!"

Many episodes also feature rowdy, out of control teen girls who disrespect and abuse their mothers and/or siblings ([[OncePerEpisode they always say]] "You don't know me!" when confronted about said wild behavior); lie detector tests; men who treat their women like slaves; and crazy footage caught on tape (cheaters caught in the act, insane accidents, etc.). While not shown very often, there have been many episodes of mothers with extremely obese toddlers and young kids (usually ranging from ages 3-7) and their mothers who always are either clueless as to why their child keeps getting fatter; who know they're giving their kids too much junk, but don't know what to do; or ones that firmly believe making their child dangerously fat makes their kid special and beautiful. There have also been episodes about guests trying to overcome their phobias, missing children, and "Maury's Talented Kids", where really cute kids sing, dance, etc., sometimes for cash prizes or family vacations.

Around certain holidays, such as Valentine's Day or Christmas, the show will celebrate those holidays by having either a group of people dressed as women (but some are men or vice versa, so the guests have to figure out who is who) or have Jack Hanna bring in a bunch of exotic animals to entertain the [[LighterAndSofter children in the audience]].

In March 2022, [=NBCUniversal=] announced that show was being cancelled after 31 years, Povich intends to retire after the show finishes production. The show will go into reruns beginning in September.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Maury sometimes can't help but laugh at some of the banter between his guests.
* AllAbusersAreMale: Pretty much the sole motivation for the show to have episodes where a boyfriend/husband is mentally and physically abusing their girlfriend/wife. The show tries to avert this by showing wild and out of control teenage girls abusing their parents and/or siblings, but it then becomes just the inverted version of this, where the show makes it look like only teenage girls are capable of abusing their families, and not teenage boys.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: A lot of the guests on the DNA test episodes have a tenuous grasp on how conception and genetics work. Specific examples, many of which also overlap with ArtisticLicenseStatistics, include:

** Many, ''many'' men claim they can't be the father because, "we only had sex one time!". One time is all it takes.

* AudienceSurrogate: Maury himself for the TV audience, especially in the rare times where he calls out the studio audience.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Frequently seen with couples where one thinks their other is cheating on them (usually while the girlfriend or wife is pregnant), but the lie detector shows the accused has been faithful. Cue the hugs and tears.
* TheBabyTrap: It's pretty obvious that some of the mothers attempt to do this in order to get child support out of the supposed fathers.
* BeneathTheMask: Some of the men, and their family members or current girlfriends/wives if they are with them, who were initially happy that they weren't the father of a child, reveal that it was just an act and they are actually furious/emotional about the results.

** Do ''not'' claim that the lie detector was either rigged or malfunctioning, or Ralph Barbieri will call you out for it. Likewise, never question Ralph's integrity in general. For example, one guest insinuated that his girlfriend slept with Ralph so she could pass the lie detector test. Ralph looked like he was ready to kill the guest.
** Bickering guests get to Maury quickly.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: In this case, it's better to lie than be truthful. Some guests will not submit to lie detector tests, or always lie on them, and then still try to lie after being caught lying.

** Especially when an obvious cheater is called out by a lie detector test, and they keep insisting they're innocent.

* BrattyHalfPint: The out-of-control preteens, who can be just as bad, oftentimes even ''worse'' than their teenage counterparts, as well as some older guests who may be physically small, but have [[NoIndoorVoice mouths]] and/or [[SmallNameBigEgo egos]] more fitting of a person who is 8 feet tall. One particularly egregious example was a guest on an out of control episode who was ''nine years old''.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: The show has a whole ''genre'' of episodes dedicated to extreme versions of these, teenage children who are shamelessly disrespectful towards their parents and engage in reckless sex and violence, use drugs and alcohol, sometimes even prostituting, prostituting other girls, affiliating themselves with gangs, or selling drugs.
* CensoredForComedy: The show is randomly sprinkled with [[SoundEffectBleep bleeps]], even during (seemingly) silent moments. It becomes especially jarring when Maury is trying to say something and one of the guests, or the audience, curses, which the show has to bleep out. This creates a weird second of silence which throws everything off.

** Every once in a while, a white woman will bring a clearly mixed-race baby on the show claiming that it's their white boyfriend/husband's baby, when obviously it's not, although in one episode the white husband did believe it was his.

** One can't help but laugh at the fact that some of the women who come on the show say they're absolutely positive a man is the father of their baby seconds before a DNA test proves them wrong. One specific example of this was a woman who said she was a million percent sure that a man was the father of her baby, although she claimed she was [[ArtisticLicenseBiology pregnant for 10]] [[BlatantLies and a half months]]. After the DNA test proved that the man in question was not the father, the woman broke down in tears and ran backstage, screaming "I knew it!" over and over again.

** Examples of negative paternity results when a woman claims that the man was the ''only'' person she has ever had sex with almost always end up being this. If they end up coming back and get ''additional'' negative paternity tests, this makes things even ''more'' awkward.

* DefyingTheCensors: There are (probably) occasional unintentional censoring fails here and there, most commonly very brief [[FlippingTheBird obscene gestures]] that somehow sneak past the censors. However, in previews for episodes, the previews will often cut off just ''right'' after the obscene content pops up on the screen so that the viewer only sees it for a split second, whether it's swearing or showing the middle finger. Usually, the obscene content will not be censored in the previews (although profane language will be slightly obscured, mouths will still be moving and you can make out what they're saying). The same thing is also prone to happening in the credits, especially older episodes.
* DisappearedDad: On the out of control teen girl episodes, it is almost ''always'' only the mother present. Rarely will a father ever appear and whether or not there is a father is never mentioned, implying that many of these teen girls have single mothers. This is usually the case for teen girls who show up for DNA tests as well. Furthermore, when a father does appear, it's treated as a ''huge'' deal.

** Some men and women will celebrate when they pass the first question(s) of the lie detector test, only to fail the rest of the test. The accuser, and occasionally Maury, will tell the accused this while the results are being read.
** Some women have done this when they think a guy is the father of their child shortly before Maury reveals that the guy isn't. One notable example of this is Telia. She was bragging that her search for her daughter's father was over and that this would be the last time we would see her on the show. Telia was incredibly confident that the guy was the father. This was despite him being the ''eleventh'' man that she tested. The guy, predictably, was not the father. While Telia was wrong about the results, she was right about one thing; [[ExactWords she never came back on the show again]].

** Female guests are usually treated more sympathetically than male guests.
** The show will occasionally leave out some details about a guest during an update episode in order to make them look better. One notable example is Ricktoria. During her first two appearance on the show, she found out that her boyfriend Clinton was not only cheating on her with her mom, but was trying to get the latter pregnant. On her third appearance, Ricktoria revealed that she cheated on Clinton with his best friend Juan. She then revealed to both of them that she lied about being pregnant. Ricktoria's third appearance is usually not mentioned in updates about her.
** The out of control teen episodes almost always focus on the girls.

** Happens during the rare event where both a man and a woman are hoping that the man is the father and the DNA test proves that he isn't.
** A huge percentage of the guests on the show, especially the wild teens and preteens, end up being arrested numerous times and having multiple children after their appearances on the show. Some particularly egregious examples of this include the wild teen girl who was arrested for murdering someone, one teen girl who ended up being murdered herself, and the couple who was charged with sexually assaulting the sibling of the child they brought on the show.
** Even if the guy is the father of a baby, he is still going to have to deal with an abrasive, emotional wreck for up to 18 more years, and the woman is going to have to deal with a man who likely wants nothing to do with her or her child. Worst of all, the child will have to deal with two people who, more likely than not, won't give them a very good life because of this.
* DramaticPause: Maury will occasionally do this while he is reading the results of a DNA or lie detector test.
* DudeNotFunny: During the phobia episodes, the other guests will call out the audience members for laughing at people for having very real, flight-or-fight reactions to being confronted with their fears.

** Despite the fact that some men initially celebrated onstage when they found that they weren't the father of a child, they will help Maury comfort and encourage a sobbing mother backstage, no matter how abrasive she was beforehand.
** It seems as if, no matter how many times a person cheated, their guilt and infidelity is tossed out of the window as long as their infidelities didn't result in any questionable paternity, such as a woman getting pregnant by another man, or a man getting another woman pregnant while in a relationship. A woman will hug and kiss their man after a DNA test proves he isn't the father of another woman's baby even though he lied to her about it, and men will hug and kiss women if they are the father of their baby even if the women did, in fact, cheat on them many times. A particularly egregious example of this was the case of a woman who was being accused by her husband of cheating with another man and the husband believed that the woman's child may belong to that man. A lie detector test proved the woman had sexual contact with that man many times.[[note]]It turned out that the man in question was married to someone close to the woman.[[/note]] However, a DNA test proved he was the father of the woman's baby. The woman then made the man ''kiss her feet'', which [[ExtremeDoormat he did]].

** It's not out of the ordinary for accused guests to try to trick their loved ones by using confusing terminology, such as a guest who claims they are a virgin saying they aren't ''having'' sex, or someone saying they aren't ''cheating'' on their spouse, which suggests they may have done it many times, but for some reason, may not be currently seeing anyone their loved one doesn't know about.
** Usually, guests who cheat on their boyfriends and husbands around the time they get pregnant say that the child in question ''may'' not be their boyfriend/husband's child. One woman who cheated on her boyfriend, however, went an extra mile by explicitly telling everybody that "her five-year-old son [was] not his". When asked to explain how she was so sure, she said it was because she [[ReallyGetsAround cheated on him with about six other guys]]. [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding The child in question was not her boyfriend's.]]]]
* FaceHeelDoubleTurn: Often happens when a denying man is proven not to be the father of a child or when someone is exonerated of cheating on their significant other. The audience, [[{{Hypocrite}} who most likely booed the person beforehand]], will often clap and cheer for the accused while heckling and booing their accusers, especially in the case of paternity results.
* FidelityTest: The "sexy decoys," wherein a beautiful woman flirts with a man backstage. 99 times out of 100, the man takes the bait, then gets called out on it when he insists he would never cheat. Though the man often gets just as mad about being set up.
* FirstGirlWins: Averted often, in cases where women are fighting with men over paternity explicitly due to a presence of a new girlfriend/wife, even moreso if the man in question is not the father or if the man is the father but still refuses to be in the woman's/child's life due to his new significant other's influence. This is played straight in cases where the man ends up leaving his new girlfriend for his old one after favorable paternity/other results and they end up being a family.

** During DNA tests, if multiple men are involved, the first guy that Maury mentions when he reads the results will ''never'' be the father. For instance, suppose Bob and John were unsure if they were the father of a child; the second you hear Maury say, "When it comes to [child's name], Bob...", you can immediately conclude, regardless of what John's result is, that Bob is not the father.
** If Maury opens up the lie detector results asking if the cheater has had sexual intercourse outside of the relationship, they bombed the test. It will just get worse from there. Alternatively, if it's the last question, they're going to ace the test.
** If both a DNA test and lie detector test are involved, the order which the tests are read generally determines the outcome. If Maury reads the DNA test first, the outcome will be positive, and they're going to pass the following lie detector test. If Maury reads the lie detector test first, the outcome will be negative (with the subject failing, confessing, or having something negative revealed about them), with the following DNA test having a 50/50 chance of ending badly.
* GenreBlindness: You'd think the guests who are brought out to be ambushed with big secrets would guess ahead of time what was about to happen. This is particularly egregious on cheating episodes, when they put a suspected cheater in the green room with a sexy decoy to see if he makes a move. Naturally, the guy ''always'' takes the bait; if he'd ever seen the show, he'd know there was a camera taping his every move.

* HappyDance: Some people get [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2i0ts-uck very]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBj_Zt9c-Cw excited]] when they learn that they ''are'' / are ''not'' the father.

## A mother finds out the man she thought was her baby daddy isn't the father after all. This is usually accompanied by her running backstage in hysterics.
## A mother with two potential baby daddies finds out the man she wants to be the father isn't (and vice versa).
## A man finds out he is indeed a father when he clearly doesn't want to be.
## An accuser, when a lie detector test determines that their partner is unfaithful.
## A mother with two or more potential baby daddies finds out that ''none'' of the guys are the father.
## A father finds out his beloved child is not biologically his due to the mother's affair.
## The lie detector exonerates the accused but also finds the ''accuser'' guilty of what they were trying to pin on the other.
* HonorableMarriageProposal: A frequent topic during DNA tests. Often, the man will say that if he is the father, he'll take on fatherly responsibilities.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: There are cases where a man believes he is not the father of his mate's baby because someone else said it wasn't. This usually comes from people who don't like the man's girlfriend/wife for various reasons, such as the man's sibling, mother, or best friend. This is subverted when the accuser(s) are proven right and the man made the right choice all along.

** Some guests who accuse others of infidelity are usually guilty of this themselves. Depending on the situation, either the accused tends to pass the lie detector test while the accuser doesn't or they both will fail it.
** The wild teen girls are notorious for calling the women who bring them on the show terrible names, like whore, slut, and bitch, while bragging about how men they have slept with. Occasionally, they will also brag about how much money and gifts they have received for doing this.

** People will often talk about how they love their significant others, despite the fact that they cheat on or abuse them. One particularly egregious example was a woman who said she "can't live without (her boyfriend)", despite her cheating on him with six different men, all within the period of her conceiving her son. The child in question was not his.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Occasionally, guests who act unpleasant will make a valid point about the current situation that they're in.
* LargeHam: A lot, if not a majority, of the guests on the show react in ways that are clearly tailored to garner attention and sympathy. Predictably, this results in some [[{{Understatement}} over the top behavior]]. This often backfires, as someone who goes into hysterics after hearing unfavorable paternity or lie detector results, will usually do nothing more than attract more scorn from the home and studio audiences.
* LastOfHisKind: With the cancellation of ''Jerry Springer'' in 2018, ''Maury'' is the last surviving trashy talk show of the kind which once dominated daytime TV in TheNineties.
* LieDetector: Which are always deemed accurate, no matter how implausible the accusations actually are. Apparently, it is so good that the show can determine how many times a guest has cheated.

** The original version of the series, ''The Maury Povich Show'' which aired from 1991 to 1998, is this compared to the one we have now.
** The Christmas specials where Maury would allow children into his show where people would bring in live animals. Those specials have a more friendly and fun tone compared to the normal episodes.
* LowerClassLout: Many of the guests, ''especially'' the out of control teen girls, are walking stereotypes of lower-class people. Several of these girls admit to having assaulted people, stolen money or items, or multiple sexual partners.[[note]]To make things worse, some of them are actually ''proud'' of their trashy behavior.[[/note]] One girl, Rayletha, admitted to being ''drunk'' while she was on the air.
* {{Malaproper}}: Happens ''all'' of the time on this show, almost always originating from the guests. Notable examples include the man who denied he was the father of a baby because he had a "receiving hairline" [[note]] "Receding hairline" [[/note]] and the baby didn't, and a woman who claimed she was stuck in the hospital with "walking limonia" [[note]] Walking pneumonia [[/note]] while her boyfriend/husband was out cheating on her. Another woman said she believed her ''five'' children belonged to the same man because they looked like "quadriplets". [[note]]quadruplets, or ''four'' babies.[[/note]]
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Almost all of the DNA tests involve cheating in some way.

** Sexy decoys are probably used by the show way more often than what is shown on television due to the fact that the show likely only shows clips where the accused cheater is caught doing something questionable with the decoy, and most times, the guests are smart enough [[GenreSavvy not to take the bait]].
** Due to time constraints, especially and primarily in older episodes, a lot of content will be omitted from the final tape that is aired on television. A prime candidate for this would be favorable lie detector results when the guest failed all of the other questions, which makes some lie detector tests seem very incomplete due to allegations emphasized on earlier on the show never being explicitly confirmed or denied to the home audience or not. Newer episodes seem to improve greatly on this and they seem to show the entire lie detector results, even if a guest only failed one question.
** Some guests' prior appearances may not be mentioned in detail or even at all in updates about them. This is probably due to the fact that it may not be auspicious to the guests of the show to show the audience what happened during those appearances. For example, Simone, a woman who tested many men for her son, was incorrectly stated to have appeared on the show 10 times during one appearance, when it was really 13 times; the other times were related to her difficulties with her boyfriend, whom she cheated on 200 times. In Simone's earlier appearances, where these shows were referenced in detail, Simone was often ridiculed by the audience. A guest named Sholonda was stated to have only brought two children on the show (a daughter and a son), when in reality, she also brought a second daughter to the show. During that appearance, Sholonda and her husband were apparently quite hostile towards each other and that appearance was never mentioned again a while after it aired.
* MommasBoy: Some of the male guests are this or are perceived to be this. As a result, they are usually ridiculed by the studio audience.
* MoodWhiplash: Usually when a DNA test or the lie detector is involved. The most notable examples includes:
** The studio audience will get on a man when he says that he isn't the father of a child, only for them to cheer for said man the exact moment it is revealed that he was right.
** A man that initially interacts negatively towards the studio audience when he says that he isn't father of a child will sometimes go into the audience to celebrate with them when it's revealed that he was right. This also occasionally happens when it's revealed that a guy isn't a cheater. Furthermore, some men will immediately go back to interacting negatively towards the audience afterwards.
** A woman who is very confident that a man is the father of her child prior to results being read immediately runs backstage in tears when she finds out that he isn't.
** The studio audience will always get on a man if he is accused of cheating. If he passes the lie detector test, the audience will cheer for them.

* MyBelovedSmother: There has been several that have appeared on the show. Most are the mothers of the featured guests.

** The episode "I'm Praying My Brother Is Not My Baby's Father" has gained a significant amount of infamy for the IncestSubtext involved in it. [[spoiler:The title is in reference to a case where a woman had to get both lie detector and DNA tests after she was accused of cheating on her boyfriend with his brother, and she did not know who the father of her child was; it's supposed to be in the boyfriend's voice. In a truly shocking twist, she admitted to cheating before the results were even read. Neither the boyfriend's brother, nor the boyfriend himself, were the father. In a small bit of consolation, however, she did pass the lie detector about cheating with his brother.]]

** Shows with recurring paternity guests will have extravagant and scandalous titles like "34 Men...Is One of Them the Father?" but these titles usually are referring to the amount of men that ''every'' guest in that episode tested, not just one particular guest.

** Several guests make multiple appearances on the show; however, it is not out of the ordinary for one or more of the guest's prior appearances to not be mentioned in updates about them (i.e. a guest appears 5 times, but only appearances 1, 3, and 4 are mentioned in episode 5).
** During a different kind of noodle incident, a segment of an out-of-control teen episode ended with the audience suddenly screaming before the show abruptly cut out. Afterwards, the girl from the segment, who appeared on the show a few months prior, was escorted off of the stage by security guards while other teen girls on the stage were cheering for her and is not seen again until a bit later in the episode. It isn't clear what happened that resulted in the girl being detained by security, but the girl said she wanted to get help so "things like this never happen again". [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs There was an update on the girl, and the appearance where she is escorted off of the stage is never mentioned even once during the update]].

* OhCrap: The guests with phobias run off the stage in hysterics whenever Maury forces them to confront their fears.

** Whenever the show does a DNA test episode, expect the following to always happen at least once:
*** The mother is [insert huge number here] percent sure that the man in question is the father of their baby.
*** The accused deadbeat comes up with an excuse on why he couldn't be the father.
*** The potential father claims that the child doesn't look anything like him, the mother counters that the child looks exactly like him.
** If the man ''is'' the father:
*** The new father gets upset because now he has to deal with a woman he can't stand.
*** The mother acts very smug and gets all in the father's face on how she was right all along, and how he'll have to take care of her baby now. If someone close to the mother happens to be there, they will (usually) get all in the father's face as well.
*** The mother does an over the top HappyDance. If some close to the mother is there, they will (usually) join in.
*** The new father eventually accepts responsibility of the baby and tries to make amends with the mother. This is subverted if the father still tries to reject the baby.
** If the man is ''not'' the father:
*** The mother runs backstage in tears with Maury going after her to comfort her. Bonus points if the man goes after her to gloat.
*** The man does an over the top HappyDance.
*** The mother is glad that the former lover isn't the father because she hates his guts.
*** The mother vows to keep searching for her baby's father.
** Every lie detector test involves questions about cheating.

* PushoverParents: The parents of the violent teenage girls are usually this.
* RashomonStyle: The stories of the man and woman always contradict each other, although in a lot of cases it's obvious that one of the parties is [[SelfServingMemory lying to make themselves look better]]. Frequently, men will claim the woman is promiscuous even if she wasn't, or use some outright bizarre "science" to try and prove why they can't be the father of her baby. In the inverse, women who truly have slept around HandWave or ignore their promiscuity, or seem to believe that insisting the man is the father enough times will make it true. In any case, it's playing "he said, she said" with their stories quite a bit on a segment that involves a DNA test until the results come out to prove things one way or the other.
* ReallyGetsAround: Half the guests, but special attention goes to the mothers searching for their baby daddy and bringing upwards of a dozen men on the show. She would have to had slept with ''all'' of these guys within the span of a month.

** Whether or not a male guest is the father of a child. How the man reacts to the revelation depends on the situation.
** If a guest is a cheater or not.

* RuleOfThree: Whenever a cheating man or woman confesses their secrets to their significant other, the secrets always amount two or three, but no more.
* SassyBlackWoman: The vast majority of black female guests on the show fall under this, especially the ones who are out of control teens.
* ScareEmStraight: This is applied in full force in the out of control teen girls and abusive boyfriend/husband episodes. The offenders in question are sent to a place to show what will happen if they don't change. Bonus points if the people sent there break down in tears and promise they will change for the better. This is subverted when a follow up episode shows that the offenders learned absolutely nothing, especially if they were recorded to show remorse in their first appearance.

** Maury employs a "sexy decoy", an attractive woman claiming to be another guest, to hit on men suspected of cheating in the green room. It's shocking how much this ''always'' works.
** Some women on the show have actually gone so far as to name their son after a potential father. Flip a coin, and there's a good chance that child is ''not'' actually the potential father's son.
** Maury occasionally does this to himself concerning DNA tests. If a lie detector test is involved and the results are read beforehand, he'll always state that it is irrelevant. Sometimes though, the results of a DNA test will show that the lie detector was indeed relevant.
* SerialEscalation: Occasionally, a woman will make repeat appearances, dragging several men along each time for a DNA test. Double digits isn't uncommon.

** Complicated paternity stories that involve numerous elements such as whether or not someone cheated, or whether or not the people involved still have feelings for each other, another woman who is saying that someone's husband or boyfriend is the father of their child, a man claiming he is the father of a committed woman's child, or a new significant other who can't stand the accuser or the accused in some cases become essentially meaningless after the DNA test results are read. A general rule of thumb when it comes to ''Maury'' is that no matter ''what'' happened, no matter how lengthy, complex, emotional, or tumultuous the build up was, ''nothing'' matters as long as the paternity results are favorable for the party in question, which means someone can cheat all they want as long as they don't get anyone pregnant/they don't get pregnant by anybody else. In some cases, a person is hit with a ton of bricks when they hear that their boyfriend did indeed get someone else pregnant or their girlfriend did cheat and they did get pregnant by somebody else, only to act as if absolutely nothing happened and more often than not, still slam the person who their significant other cheated with even though they were proven right, though they may have been wrongful for sleeping with someone who they knew was in a relationship.
* SheIsAllGrownUp: Another frequent show topic is women who were nerds growing up but have evolved into beautiful young women, often with the help of breast implants and other cosmetic surgery. If their stage antics are to be believed, we have every reason to think they now work as strippers. Men are sometimes featured on this type of show, and as expected, they're ''always'' muscle-bound beefcakes.

* SlutShaming: The studio audience will do to female guests during the following:
** When a woman finds out that the guy she thinks is the father of her child isn't.[[note]]As mentioned at MoodWhiplash and TheUnfairSex: Man comes out. Crowd boos. "You are not the father." Crowd cheers. The studio audience is always on the woman's side until this happens. This is especially egregious if a female guest test multiple men for her child or children.[[/note]]
** When a woman is revealed to be a cheater.
** When one female guest is revealed to have slept with another guest's man.
** When a female guest shows no remorse when their promiscuity hurts their current or ex-boyfriend/husband.
** If they are out of control teens.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: Many of the out of control teens wear very revealing clothing.
* SuicideDare: Women who are looking for their babies' daddies sometimes say this when the possible daddy is particularly belligerent about paternity. This is subverted in that the daddies (probably) aren't suicidal.
* TeenPregnancy: Some of the mothers who comes on the show for a DNA test are teens. Infamously, the youngest mother to ''ever'' appear on the show for a DNA test wasn't even a teenager yet. She was ''twelve'', and the 13-year-old boy she tested was ''not'' the father.

** On a cheating episode, if a guy says, "After today, she has got to change [and stop accusing me]", there's at least an 80% chance he's cheating.
** The higher percent "sure" a woman is that a man is the father of her baby, the lower percent chance he actually ''is'' the father.
** If the guy being accused kisses his girlfriend/wife when he walks onstage, he's usually telling the truth.
** Guests who smile before or after a result is read, almost always gives themselves away that they are/were lying about something.
** If a home DNA test is mentioned, and subsequently disregarded for the Maury DNA test, the home DNA test is almost always [[SchmuckBait proven right]].
** If a woman brings two men on for respective DNA tests, and one of them happens to be the guy she cheated on her significant other with, or even slept with when they were on a break, there's a good chance that neither of them will be the father, which comes with the double gut punch that the woman's cheating is even more widespread than the boyfriend thought.
** If a man brings a woman on because he doubts paternity due to cheating, it will usually require both a DNA and lie detector test. If Maury reads the results of the DNA test first, not only will the man always be the father, but his girlfriend/wife will pass the lie detector test as well. Conversely, if a woman takes a lie detector test in conjunction with a DNA test to prove her innocence and Maury reads the lie detector test first, the woman will always fail or admit to questions on the lie detector test.
** If Maury says that he going to give a guest a chance to tell the truth before he reads the results of a lie detector test, the guest will almost always confess. Despite this, some guests will still attempt to downplay some of their misdeeds.
** As aforementioned, if multiple men are involved for a DNA test, the guy that is mentioned first will not be the father of a child.
** If a guest refuse to answer certain questions during a lie detector test, they will almost always give away that whatever is being asked is true.

** Many guests have absolutely no problem describing their sex lives, or lack thereof, in explicit detail. For example, one 15-year-old out of control teen girl actually took the camera crew to her hometown and pointed out all of her favorite places to have sex with men, [[MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces including her mother's couch, in her bed with handcuffs, on top of a car, and on the sidewalk]].
** Many guests like to share their problems on the show regardless of what it is.

** Usually, the parents of the out of control teen girls claim that their daughters were once sweet, loving, and innocent and they don't know why they've chosen to act out.
** In a specific, non-out of control teen related example, we have Moyisha, who was a recurring paternity guest. During her first couple of appearances, she didn't act especially off putting, despite the numerous men she tested. However, her behavior took a turn for the worse during her fourth appearance. First, she insults and curses out the potential father's sister and mother for simply stating that they didn't believe that the baby was related to them. Then, she tries to physically attack the sister and mom when they came out onstage for virtually no reason and curses the mom again after she says that the baby is not her son's. Moyisha also makes it a point [[TemptingFate to harass the mother and sister for child support before the results are read.]] After Moyisha receives a short TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from the sister, the results are read and the guy was [[RunningGag not the father]].

* TorchesAndPitchforks: The studio audience has an extremely strong mob mentality, to the point that it's so black and white that it's simply a case of "first person gets cheered, second person gets screamed/heckled at. If first person gets found to be a cheat, then heckle/scream at the first person and cheer on the second person..." and so on, and so forth.

* TranquilFury: When bickering guests piss Maury off, especially during DNA test episodes, he shows this in spades. The best indicator that he's angry is when he does not even bother to calm the guests down; he goes straight to the producer for the envelope.
* TransparentCloset: There have been a few times when guys claim that they are 100% straight even after having affairs with men or {{drag queen}}s.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Another recurring subject on the show, with out of control teens and preteens. These kids claim to drink, smoke, do drugs and even engage in prostitution.

** Cheating men are always treated as evil, while cheating women are treated as {{wounded gazelle|Gambit}}s.
** A woman can bring on upwards of a dozen men for DNA tests. The men, who have every right to be doubtful they're the father at this point, are ''always'' booed off the stage when they say this.[[note]]Although they aren't really doing themselves any favors by making a loud, obnoxious scene.[[/note]]
** Men who (allegedly) get multiple women pregnant are rightfully called out for being irresponsible. Women, however, who have sex with multiple men around the time of their pregnancy are rarely called out for their irresponsibility and are treated more sympathetically. This is especially egregious if a woman brings several men on the show to determine the paternity of one child or has multiple children by multiple men.
** This applies to teenagers; every time the show focuses on out of control teenagers, it always shows that girls are the problem.

** From time to time, men will use a home DNA test to determine if a child is his. If it comes up negative, the women will always claim that the test is wrong or corrupted. Every time the home DNA test said the man wasn't the father, the Maury DNA test has said the same thing. Maury, however, still treats the home DNA tests as insufficient evidence that the man is not the child's father. Ironically, Maury occasionally promotes home DNA tests from DNA Diagnostics Center before a commercial break.

** Men accusing women of cheating are generally booed and looked at as being monsters as well, sometimes even after the results show they were ''right''. On the inverse, the audience is always on the side of a woman accusing a man of cheating.
** If a man fails even one question of a lie detector test, he is a monster that is booed off the stage and the woman crucifies him for lying and then leaves him. It doesn't matter what the question was that he failed, or if he also passed much more important ones (such as not having sex with other women), the outcome is almost always the same. Women, however, seem to be able to get away with failing their lie detector tests entirely if it turns out that the man accusing her is the father of her baby. As a result, her misdeeds will usually get glossed over.
** Men that use women for any reason are usually called out for being selfish. Women that use men, however, are rarely called out for this unless they are very unpleasant. For example, in one segment, a female guest came on the show because she was unsure if her current boyfriend or her ex-boyfriend was the father of her child. Making matters worse, both men wanted to be the father, they didn't like each other, ''and'' all three lived in the same house. While she claimed that sleeping with her ex was a huge mistake, it was obvious that she was using both men. The DNA test revealed that her current boyfriend was the father. Her ex was completely devastated by the results.

* UnsettlingGenderReveal: The "Man or Woman?" episodes are specifically set up to cause as many of these as possible. As a general rule of thumb if you're trying to figure this out, the more tall, broad-shouldered, masculine, or homely a person looks, the greater the likelihood she's actually a real woman, and the most attractive and feminine-looking person there is ''always'' [[AttractiveBentGender a man in drag]].

** The audience was and is quite ruthless towards overweight people, women especially, and would and will often laugh and make "eww" noises towards overweight people backstage.

* WontTakeYesForAnAnswer: Sometimes, an accuser simply refuses to believe that someone is telling the truth, even when they completely pass a lie detector test.

** In 2004, a woman was on the show because her wild 16-year-old daughter was extremely desperate to have a baby and admitted that she had sex [[ReallyGetsAround thousands of times]] to get pregnant and she was desperate to get her to stop before she succeeds in getting pregnant. Her older daughter ended up changing her life, but she had another daughter who was 14 and was also very desperate to have a baby. The younger daughter was given a pregnancy test and she was [[DownerEnding proven to be pregnant, effectively rendering her mother's efforts, to stop her daughter from becoming a teen mom useless]]. This is also applies to any wannabe-teen-mom who ended up getting pregnant anyway after going through emotional jail or mother-for-a-day programs, sometimes more than once.

** One guy was brought on the show, who'd had seven paternity tests in the past, all proving he was the father. Maury even joked that the guy probably knew more about paternity tests that he did. He was on the show because a former lover, as well as his current lover, and the mother of several of his kids, were both convinced that the former lover's daughter was his eighth child. Maury pulled out the results, and got as far as "You are" before the woman looked smugly at him and said she knew it. Maury, unperturbed, continued his sentence by saying "[[NotMeThisTime NOT the father]]!"