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* JerkassHasAPoint: Believe it or not, the out-of-control teen girls ''do'' have some good ideals, but apply them poorly. For example, one girl said she does what makes her happy and doesn't care what anyone thinks. The mindset itself is good, but she was using it as an excuse for her wrongful behavior.
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* BabyTrap: It's pretty obvious that least some of the mothers are attempting this, or at least trying to sucker child support out of the supposed fathers.
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** If the guy being accused kisses his wife/girlfriend when he walks onstage, he's usually telling the truth.
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** If the guy being accused kisses his wife/girlfriend girlfriend/wife when he walks onstage, he's usually telling the truth.
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Changed line(s) 19 (click to see context) from:
* ArgumentOfContradictions: A staple of the show.
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* ArgumentOfContradictions: [[ArgumentOfContradictions Argument of Contradictions]]: A staple of the show.
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* LongRunner: ''Maury'' is the only true competitor of ''JerrySpringer'' still on the air (''The Steve Wilkos Show'' doesn't count, since it's a more serious spin-off of ''Springer'').
** All three are owned by NBC Universal and have their studios in Stamford, Conn. Most stations air all three shows, so they're more like "compatible" shows than "competing."
** All three are owned by NBC Universal and have their studios in Stamford, Conn. Most stations air all three shows, so they're more like "compatible" shows than "competing."
to:
* LongRunner: ''Maury'' is the only true competitor of ''JerrySpringer'' still on the air (''The Steve Wilkos Show'' doesn't count, since it's a more serious spin-off of ''Springer'').
** All''Springer''). Interestingly, all three shows are owned by NBC Universal and have Universal, their studios are located in Stamford, Conn. Most Connecticut and most stations air all three shows, so they're more like "compatible" shows than "competing."of them.
** All
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** If the guy being accused kisses his wife/girlfriend when he walks onstage, he's usually telling the truth.
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* ArmouredClosetGay: There have been a few times when guys claim that they are 100% straight even after having affairs with men.
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* ArmouredClosetGay: There have been a few times when guys claim that they are 100% straight even after having affairs with men.men or drag queens.
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* ArmouredClosetGay: There have been a few times when guys claim that they are 100% straight even after having affairs with men.
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## A father finds out his beloved child is not biologically his due to the mother's affair.
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Changed line(s) 101 (click to see context) from:
* YourCheatingHeart: A staple of guests on the show. Almost all of the paternity tests involve cheating in some way, and every lie detector test involves questions about cheating.
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* YourCheatingHeart: A staple of guests on the show. Almost all of the paternity DNA tests involve cheating in some way, and every lie detector test involves questions about cheating.
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Changed line(s) 34 (click to see context) from:
* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' claim that the lie detector was either rigged, or malfunctioning, or Ralph Barberi will call you out for it.
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* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' claim that the lie detector was either rigged, rigged or malfunctioning, or Ralph Barberi will call you out for it.
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* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' claim that the lie detector was either rigged, or malfunctioning, or Ralph Barberi will call you out for it.
Deleted line(s) 35 (click to see context) :
* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' claim the lie detector was rigged, or malfunctioning, or anything other than completely accurate, or Ralph Barberi will come out and wail on you.
* HappyDance: Some people get [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2i0ts-uck very]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBj_Zt9c-Cw excited]] when they learn that they ''are'' / are ''not'' the father.
Deleted line(s) 55 (click to see context) :
* HappyDance: Some people get [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2i0ts-uck very]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBj_Zt9c-Cw excited]] when they learn they ''are'' / are ''not'' the father.
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* [[LukeIAmYourFather Anakin, You ARE the Father!]]
Deleted line(s) 61 (click to see context) :
* [[LukeIAmYourFather Anakin, You ARE the Father!]]
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Deleted line(s) 98 (click to see context) :
* ViewerGenderConfusion: The entire point behind the "Man or Woman?" episodes where there are handful of women on stage and the audience and viewers try to guess who are really men or women.
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* ViewerGenderConfusion: The entire point behind the "Man or Woman?" episodes where there are handful of women on stage and the audience and viewers try to guess who are really men or women.
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* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Almost all the clips shown on what happens next before the commercial break always spoil (mostly with the lie detector/paternity test episodes) due to showing the guests' reaction to the results without actually showing the viewer the results.
** Some episodes subvert this trope by showing an unrelated clip of the audience acting like the test said someone was not the father, when it was actually the opposite.
** Yet another episode had a cheating mother (an affair kept secret for 22 years) with a daughter whose father might not actually be her father. The trailer that came before the DNA test showed the man saying "I never want to see you again".[[spoiler:..but the DNA test revealed that the man was the father, and when he talked to the mother he said "I was thinking 'I never want to see you again', but I decided to be there for our daughter, even if she isn't mine." A classic bait-and-switch.]]
** Some episodes subvert this trope by showing an unrelated clip of the audience acting like the test said someone was not the father, when it was actually the opposite.
** Yet another episode had a cheating mother (an affair kept secret for 22 years) with a daughter whose father might not actually be her father. The trailer that came before the DNA test showed the man saying "I never want to see you again".[[spoiler:..but the DNA test revealed that the man was the father, and when he talked to the mother he said "I was thinking 'I never want to see you again', but I decided to be there for our daughter, even if she isn't mine." A classic bait-and-switch.]]
to:
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Almost all the clips shown on what happens next before the commercial break always spoil (mostly with the lie detector/paternity detector/DNA test episodes) due to showing the guests' reaction to the results without actually showing the viewer the results.
** Some episodes subvert thistrope by showing an unrelated clip of the audience acting like the test said someone was not the father, when it was actually the opposite.
** Yet another episode had a cheating mother (an affair kept secret for 22 years) with a daughter whose father might not actually be her father. The trailer that came before the DNA test showed the man saying "I never want to see you again".[[spoiler:..but [[spoiler: However, the DNA test revealed that the man was the father, and when he talked to the mother he said said, "I was thinking 'I never want to see you again', but I decided to be there for our daughter, even if she isn't mine." A classic bait-and-switch.bait and switch.]]
** Some episodes subvert this
** Yet another episode had a cheating mother (an affair kept secret for 22 years) with a daughter whose father might not actually be her father. The trailer that came before the DNA test showed the man saying "I never want to see you again".
Changed line(s) 94,96 (click to see context) from:
** A woman can bring on upwards of a dozen men for paternity 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 (although they aren't really doing themselves any favors by making a loud, obnoxious scene).
*** Oh, it gets worse; men who say that they'll take responsibility for their children, but simply want to know the child is theirs, are booed, jeered, and catcalled. Men who refuse to take any responsibility, no matter what, are cheered and clapped for.
** The trope also applies to teenagers; every time the show focuses on out of control teenagers, it always shows that girls are the problem.
*** Oh, it gets worse; men who say that they'll take responsibility for their children, but simply want to know the child is theirs, are booed, jeered, and catcalled. Men who refuse to take any responsibility, no matter what, are cheered and clapped for.
** The trope also applies to teenagers; every time the show focuses on out of control teenagers, it always shows that girls are the problem.
to:
** A woman can bring on upwards of a dozen men for paternity 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 (although they aren't really doing themselves any favors by making a loud, obnoxious scene).
*** Oh, it gets worse; men who say that they'll take responsibility for their children, but simply want to know the child is theirs, are booed, jeered, and catcalled. Men who refuse to take any responsibility, no matter what, are cheered and clapped for.
** The trope This also applies to teenagers; every time the show focuses on out of control teenagers, it always shows that girls are the problem.
Changed line(s) 101 (click to see context) from:
* YouLookFamiliar: Frequent fliers galore, especially for paternity tests. One woman, Sholonda, tested ''[[ReallyGetsAround 18 men]]'' trying to find the father of ''one child'' (among whom were a smiling TokenWhite and ''her cousin''). She never found the father. She later came back to reveal to her husband that she cheated on him ''again'' and her second child she had with him might not be his. Fortunately, it turned out he ''was'' the father.
to:
* YouLookFamiliar: Frequent fliers galore, especially for paternity DNA tests. One woman, Sholonda, tested ''[[ReallyGetsAround 18 men]]'' trying to find the father of ''one child'' (among whom were a smiling TokenWhite and ''her cousin''). She never found the father. She later came back to reveal to her husband that she cheated on him ''again'' and her second child she had with him might not be his. Fortunately, it turned out he ''was'' the father.
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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 (who almost always pee onstage) to entertain the children in the audience. Other times the show will have a "Maury's Talented Kids" episode where really cute kids sing, dance, etc., sometimes for cash prizes or family vacations.
to:
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 (who almost always pee onstage) to entertain the children in the audience. Other times times, the show will have a "Maury's Talented Kids" episode where really cute kids sing, dance, etc., sometimes for cash prizes or family vacations.
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* 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 the trope by showing wild and out of control teenage girls abusing their parents and/or siblings, but it then became just the inverted version of the trope, where the show makes it look like only teenage girls are capable of abusing their families, and not teenage boys.
to:
* 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 the trope this by showing wild and out of control teenage girls abusing their parents and/or siblings, but it then became just the inverted version of the trope, this, where the show makes it look like only teenage girls are capable of abusing their families, and not teenage boys.
Changed line(s) 19 (click to see context) from:
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Apparently the guests on the DNA shows don't know or [[TheyJustDidntCare don't care to know]] how conception and genetics work. Including, but not limited to:
to:
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Apparently the guests on the DNA shows test episodes don't know or [[TheyJustDidntCare don't care to know]] how conception and genetics work. Including, but not limited to:
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** "That baby can't be my baby because s/he has blue eyes!" [[note]]Permanent eye color (regardless of race) is usually not determined until a child is somewhere between 12-18 months. Cue stupid look on the guy's face when he's told that he ''is'' the father![[/note]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent". [[note]]While recently conducted studies have determined that babies cry with accents similar to their parents' accent, this is learned behavior, so the guy is still an idiot and he was the father.[[/note]]
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse. [[note]]"Nothing to do with nothing" is a double negative and cancels itself out; by saying that, she admitted skin color had ''everything'' to do with it, which [[HilariousInHindsight it did.]][[/note]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent". [[note]]While recently conducted studies have determined that babies cry with accents similar to their parents' accent, this is learned behavior, so the guy is still an idiot and he was the father.[[/note]]
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse. [[note]]"Nothing to do with nothing" is a double negative and cancels itself out; by saying that, she admitted skin color had ''everything'' to do with it, which [[HilariousInHindsight it did.]][[/note]]
to:
** "That baby can't be my baby because s/he has blue eyes!" [[note]]Permanent eyes!"[[note]]Permanent eye color (regardless of race) is usually not determined until a child is somewhere between 12-18 months. Cue stupid look on the guy's face when he's told that he ''is'' the father![[/note]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent". [[note]]While recently conducted studies have determined that babies cry with accents similar to their parents' accent, this is learned behavior, so the guy is still an idiot and he was the father.[[/note]]
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse. [[note]]"Nothing to do with nothing" is a double negative and cancels itself out; by saying that, she admitted skin color had ''everything'' to do with it, which [[HilariousInHindsight it did.]][[/note]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent".
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse.
Changed line(s) 29 (click to see context) from:
** Sometimes there's a mother who just had the baby about two weeks prior to the show, and the father is right away saying that it doesn't look like him. Newborns don't look like either parent for the first few weeks or months — they all kind of look the same. And most of the time, it turns out these men are the fathers.[[note]]One guest was actually right about this. However, he still stayed with his girlfriend after finding out he was right.[[/note]]
to:
** Sometimes there's a mother who just had the baby about two weeks prior to the show, and the father is right away saying that it doesn't look like him. Newborns [[note]]Newborns don't look like either parent for the first few weeks or months — they months. They all kind of look the same. And most of the time, it turns out these men are the fathers.[[note]]One One guest was actually right about this. However, he still stayed with his girlfriend after finding out he was right.[[/note]]
Changed line(s) 44,45 (click to see context) from:
** Some men caught cheating with the sexy decoy claim that they're "only playing along" because doing that is "expected" of them when they come on the show. Maybe he has a point, but nobody really buys it.
*** When one man was shown the decoy footage, he insisted that ''it wasn't him!'' While the tape is blurry, Dave Vitali, the guy who administers the decoy test and observed the entire thing, was ''sitting right there in the audience!''
*** When one man was shown the decoy footage, he insisted that ''it wasn't him!'' While the tape is blurry, Dave Vitali, the guy who administers the decoy test and observed the entire thing, was ''sitting right there in the audience!''
to:
** Some men caught cheating with the sexy decoy claim that they're "only playing along" because doing that is "expected" of them when they come on the show. Maybe he has a point, but nobody really buys it.
*** When one man was shown the decoy footage, he insisted that ''it wasn't him!'' While the tape is blurry, Dave Vitali, the guy who administers the decoy test and observed the entire thing, was ''sitting right there in theaudience!''audience''.
*** When one man was shown the decoy footage, he insisted that ''it wasn't him!'' While the tape is blurry, Dave Vitali, the guy who administers the decoy test and observed the entire thing, was ''sitting right there in the
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* PushoverParents: The parents of the violent teenage girls are usually this.
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* YouLookFamiliar: Frequent fliers galore, especially for paternity tests. One woman, Sholonda, tested ''[[ReallyGetsAround 18 men]]'' trying to find the father of ''one child'' (among whom were a smiling TokenWhite and ''her cousin''). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9lGq_oXtQc She never found the father.]] She later came back to reveal to her husband that she cheated on him ''again'' and her second child she had with him might not be his. Fortunately, it turned out he ''was'' the father.
to:
* YouLookFamiliar: Frequent fliers galore, especially for paternity tests. One woman, Sholonda, tested ''[[ReallyGetsAround 18 men]]'' trying to find the father of ''one child'' (among whom were a smiling TokenWhite and ''her cousin''). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9lGq_oXtQc She never found the father.]] father. She later came back to reveal to her husband that she cheated on him ''again'' and her second child she had with him might not be his. Fortunately, it turned out he ''was'' the father.
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Changed line(s) 61 (click to see context) from:
* [[LukeIAmYourFather Anakin, You ''are'' the Father!]]
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* [[LukeIAmYourFather Anakin, You ''are'' ARE the Father!]]
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* MilestoneCelebration: The show celebrated it 2500th episode on September 5, 2013.
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* 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.
Deleted line(s) 87 (click to see context) :
* ThisTropeIsBleep: 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.
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Changed line(s) 22 (click to see context) from:
** Another who insisted that a baby wasn't his ''''because the baby ''did not'' have six fingers.[[hottip:*:He was actually right about this.]]
to:
** Another who insisted that a baby wasn't his ''''because the baby ''did not'' have six fingers.[[hottip:*:He [[note]]He was actually right about this.]][[/note]]
Changed line(s) 24,26 (click to see context) from:
** "That baby can't be my baby because s/he has blue eyes!" [[hottip:*:Permanent eye color (regardless of race) is usually not determined until a child is somewhere between 12-18 months. Cue stupid look on the guy's face when he's told that he ''is'' the father!]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent". [[hottip:*:While recently conducted studies have determined that babies cry with accents similar to their parents' accent, this is learned behavior, so the guy is still an idiot and he was the father.]]
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse. [[hottip:*:"Nothing to do with nothing" is a double negative and cancels itself out; by saying that, she admitted skin color had ''everything'' to do with it, which [[HilariousInHindsight it did.]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent". [[hottip:*:While recently conducted studies have determined that babies cry with accents similar to their parents' accent, this is learned behavior, so the guy is still an idiot and he was the father.]]
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse. [[hottip:*:"Nothing to do with nothing" is a double negative and cancels itself out; by saying that, she admitted skin color had ''everything'' to do with it, which [[HilariousInHindsight it did.]]
to:
** "That baby can't be my baby because s/he has blue eyes!" [[hottip:*:Permanent [[note]]Permanent eye color (regardless of race) is usually not determined until a child is somewhere between 12-18 months. Cue stupid look on the guy's face when he's told that he ''is'' the father!]]
father![[/note]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent".[[hottip:*:While [[note]]While recently conducted studies have determined that babies cry with accents similar to their parents' accent, this is learned behavior, so the guy is still an idiot and he was the father.]]
[[/note]]
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse.[[hottip:*:"Nothing [[note]]"Nothing to do with nothing" is a double negative and cancels itself out; by saying that, she admitted skin color had ''everything'' to do with it, which [[HilariousInHindsight it did.]]]][[/note]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent".
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse.
Changed line(s) 29,30 (click to see context) from:
** Sometimes there's a mother who just had the baby about two weeks prior to the show, and the father is right away saying that it doesn't look like him. Newborns don't look like either parent for the first few weeks or months — they all kind of look the same. And most of the time, it turns out these men are the fathers.[[hottip:*:One guest was actually right about this. However, he still stayed with his girlfriend after finding out he was right.]]
** The father's right-handed. The mother's right-handed. The child's ''left''-handed. Ergo, the kid's not his because two right-handed people can't have a left-handed child![[hottip:*: Truth be told, "handedness" has nothing to do with the child be yours or not. It's perfectly possible for two right handed parents to have a left handed child. Supposedly it's some kind of gene, but all we know for now is that it runs in the family. Only 10% of the world's population are left handed anyway.]]
** The father's right-handed. The mother's right-handed. The child's ''left''-handed. Ergo, the kid's not his because two right-handed people can't have a left-handed child![[hottip:*: Truth be told, "handedness" has nothing to do with the child be yours or not. It's perfectly possible for two right handed parents to have a left handed child. Supposedly it's some kind of gene, but all we know for now is that it runs in the family. Only 10% of the world's population are left handed anyway.]]
to:
** Sometimes there's a mother who just had the baby about two weeks prior to the show, and the father is right away saying that it doesn't look like him. Newborns don't look like either parent for the first few weeks or months — they all kind of look the same. And most of the time, it turns out these men are the fathers.[[hottip:*:One [[note]]One guest was actually right about this. However, he still stayed with his girlfriend after finding out he was right.]]
[[/note]]
** The father's right-handed. The mother's right-handed. The child's ''left''-handed. Ergo, the kid's not his because two right-handed people can't have a left-handedchild![[hottip:*: Truth child![[note]]Truth be told, "handedness" has nothing to do with the child be yours or not. It's perfectly possible for two right handed parents to have a left handed child. Supposedly it's some kind of gene, but all we know for now is that it runs in the family. Only 10% of the world's population are left handed anyway.]][[/note]]
** The father's right-handed. The mother's right-handed. The child's ''left''-handed. Ergo, the kid's not his because two right-handed people can't have a left-handed
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Changed line(s) 70 (click to see context) from:
*** The mother runs backstage in tears with Maury going after her to comfort her. Bonus points if the guy goes after her to gloat.
to:
*** The mother runs backstage in tears with Maury going after her to comfort her. Bonus points if the guy man goes after her to gloat.
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*** The man does an over the top VictorDance.
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*** The man does an over the top VictorDance.VictoryDance.
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Originally titled '''''The Maury Povich Show''''', '''''Maury''''' is a day time talk show where Maury Povich talks with several guests that have various problems and issues, such as finding people they haven't seen in years, medical conditions, etc. As the show gained popularity and ran longer, it went for more "trash" topics, such as cheating spouses. The most common element used in the show is paternity 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. [[OnceAnEpisode The men always say,]] "That baby don't look nothing like me!"
to:
Originally titled '''''The Maury Povich Show''''', '''''Maury''''' is a day time talk show where Maury Povich talks with several guests that have various problems and issues, such as finding people they haven't seen in years, medical conditions, etc. As the show gained popularity and ran longer, it went for more "trash" topics, such as cheating spouses. The most common element used in the show is paternity 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. [[OnceAnEpisode The men always say,]] "That baby don't look nothing like me!"
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!!You ARE the father, and a user of these Tropes:
to:
!!You ARE ''are'' the father, and a user of these Tropes:
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* HappyDance: Some people get [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2i0ts-uck very]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBj_Zt9c-Cw excited]] when they learn they ARE / are NOT the father!
to:
* HappyDance: Some people get [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2i0ts-uck very]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBj_Zt9c-Cw excited]] when they learn they ARE ''are'' / are NOT ''not'' the father!father.
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* [[LukeIAmYourFather Anakin, you ARE the father!]]
* ManipulativeEditing: Nearly every preview of the next segment after the commercial break are played in a way that makes some situations look a lot worse than it is, due to edited audio or splicing clips together.
* OnceAnEpisode: Whenever the show does a paternity episode, expect the following to always happen at least once:
* ManipulativeEditing: Nearly every preview of the next segment after the commercial break are played in a way that makes some situations look a lot worse than it is, due to edited audio or splicing clips together.
* OnceAnEpisode: Whenever the show does a paternity episode, expect the following to always happen at least once:
to:
* [[LukeIAmYourFather Anakin, you ARE You ''are'' the father!]]
Father!]]
* ManipulativeEditing: Nearly every preview of the next segment after the commercial break are played in a way that makes some situations look a lot worse than it is, due to edited audioor and/or splicing clips together.
* OnceAnEpisode: Whenever the show does apaternity DNA test episode, expect the following to always happen at least once:
* ManipulativeEditing: Nearly every preview of the next segment after the commercial break are played in a way that makes some situations look a lot worse than it is, due to edited audio
* OnceAnEpisode: Whenever the show does a
*** The man does an over the top VictorDance.
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*** The man does an over-the-top VictoryDance.
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* ScareEmStraight: This trope 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. 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.
to:
* ScareEmStraight: This trope 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. 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.
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* ThisTropeIsBleep: The show is randomly sprinkled with [[SoundEffectBleep bleeps]], even during (seemingly) silent moments. It gets especially annoying 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.
to:
* ThisTropeIsBleep: The show is randomly sprinkled with [[SoundEffectBleep bleeps]], even during (seemingly) silent moments. It gets becomes especially annoying 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.
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** From time to time, men will use a home DNA test to prove if the baby is his. If it comes up negative, the women will always claim that the test is wrong or inaccurate. 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.
to:
** From time to time, men will use a home DNA test to prove determine if the baby a child is his. If it comes up negative, the women will always claim that the test is wrong or inaccurate. 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.
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* YouLookFamiliar: Frequent fliers galore, especially for paternity tests. One woman, Shalonda, tested ''[[ReallyGetsAround 18 men]]'' trying to find the father of ''one child'' (among whom were a smiling TokenWhite and ''her cousin''). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9lGq_oXtQc She never found the father.]]
** She later married [[WhatAnIdiot another man]], but revealed she cheated on him and a child she had with him might not be his. Fortunately, it turned out he ''was'' the father.
** She later married [[WhatAnIdiot another man]], but revealed she cheated on him and a child she had with him might not be his. Fortunately, it turned out he ''was'' the father.
to:
* YouLookFamiliar: Frequent fliers galore, especially for paternity tests. One woman, Shalonda, Sholonda, tested ''[[ReallyGetsAround 18 men]]'' trying to find the father of ''one child'' (among whom were a smiling TokenWhite and ''her cousin''). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9lGq_oXtQc She never found the father.]]
**]] She later married [[WhatAnIdiot another man]], but revealed came back to reveal to her husband that she cheated on him ''again'' and a her second child she had with him might not be his. Fortunately, it turned out he ''was'' the father.
**
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->"You ARE/are NOT the father!"
-->'''Maury Povich'''
-->'''Maury Povich'''
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-->'''Maury Povich'''
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* ShesAllGrownUp: 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. And 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.
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* ShesAllGrownUp: 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. And 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.
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** If the man IS the father:
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** If the man IS ''is'' the father:
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** If the man is NOT the father:
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** If the man is NOT ''not'' the father:
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maury_5010.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[HereWeGoAgain And she'll be back tomorrow to do it all over again!]] ]]
->"Maury, I am [insert huge number here] percent sure that he is the father of my baby!"
-->'''Almost every mother seeking paternity on the show from a deadbeat dad.'''
->"You ARE/are NOT the father!"
-->'''Maury Povich'''
Originally titled '''''The Maury Povich Show''''', '''''Maury''''' is a day time talk show where Maury Povich talks with several guests that have various problems and issues, such as finding people they haven't seen in years, medical conditions, etc. As the show gained popularity and ran longer, it went for more "trash" topics, such as cheating spouses. The most common element used in the show is paternity 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. [[OnceAnEpisode The men always say,]] "That baby don't look nothing like me!"
Other common episodes are: rowdy, out of control teen girls who disrespect and abuse their mothers and/or siblings ([[OnceAnEpisode 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 and missing children.
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 (who almost always pee onstage) to entertain the children in the audience. Other times the show will have a "Maury's Talented Kids" episode where really cute kids sing, dance, etc., sometimes for cash prizes or family vacations.
You can also play the [[{{DrinkingGame.Maury}} drinking game]] (at your own risk).
----
!!You ARE the father, and a user of these Tropes:
* 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 the trope by showing wild and out of control teenage girls abusing their parents and/or siblings, but it then became just the inverted version of the trope, where the show makes it look like only teenage girls are capable of abusing their families, and not teenage boys.
* ArgumentOfContradictions: A staple of the show.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Apparently the guests on the DNA shows don't know or [[TheyJustDidntCare don't care to know]] how conception and genetics work. Including, but not limited to:
** The man who said "That (girl) can't be my baby because I only make boys".
** The man who claimed that he wasn't the father because the baby had six fingers.
** Another who insisted that a baby wasn't his ''''because the baby ''did not'' have six fingers.[[hottip:*:He was actually right about this.]]
** One who somehow thought that when a woman who ''thought'' she couldn't have children had a baby anyway, this meant it couldn't be his because ''she'' was supposed to be infertile, but yet another man ''could'' get her pregnant.
** "That baby can't be my baby because s/he has blue eyes!" [[hottip:*:Permanent eye color (regardless of race) is usually not determined until a child is somewhere between 12-18 months. Cue stupid look on the guy's face when he's told that he ''is'' the father!]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent". [[hottip:*:While recently conducted studies have determined that babies cry with accents similar to their parents' accent, this is learned behavior, so the guy is still an idiot and he was the father.]]
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse. [[hottip:*:"Nothing to do with nothing" is a double negative and cancels itself out; by saying that, she admitted skin color had ''everything'' to do with it, which [[HilariousInHindsight it did.]]
*** The exact opposite happened in another episode. A white couple had a baby who was obviously half-black, but the husband was unaware of his wife's affair and was totally convinced the baby was his.
*** In another episode, a black woman brought in a baby that was clearly 100% black, and claimed that a white man was the father. Obviously, he wasn't.
** Sometimes there's a mother who just had the baby about two weeks prior to the show, and the father is right away saying that it doesn't look like him. Newborns don't look like either parent for the first few weeks or months — they all kind of look the same. And most of the time, it turns out these men are the fathers.[[hottip:*:One guest was actually right about this. However, he still stayed with his girlfriend after finding out he was right.]]
** The father's right-handed. The mother's right-handed. The child's ''left''-handed. Ergo, the kid's not his because two right-handed people can't have a left-handed child![[hottip:*: Truth be told, "handedness" has nothing to do with the child be yours or not. It's perfectly possible for two right handed parents to have a left handed child. Supposedly it's some kind of gene, but all we know for now is that it runs in the family. Only 10% of the world's population are left handed anyway.]]
** One guest stated that he couldn't be the father because he only had one testicle. He ended up being the father.
** Many, ''many'' men who claim they can't be the father because, "we only had sex one time!". One time is all it takes.
* [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled 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.
* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' claim the lie detector was rigged, or malfunctioning, or anything other than completely accurate, or Ralph Barberi will come out and wail on you.
* BlatantLies: Especially when an obvious cheater is called out by a lie detector test, and they keep insisting they're innocent.
* DaddyDNATest: Another staple of the show.
* DoubleStandard: See TheUnfairSex below.
** 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 her 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 focuses on the girls.
* FatGirl: In the plastic surgery special, many girls got liposuction due to being insecure about their weight and the bullying they received from it.
* 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.
** One GenreSavvy man [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] this when he proposed to his girlfriend, holding up a board with "Will You Marry Me?" on it towards the camera.
** Some men caught cheating with the sexy decoy claim that they're "only playing along" because doing that is "expected" of them when they come on the show. Maybe he has a point, but nobody really buys it.
*** When one man was shown the decoy footage, he insisted that ''it wasn't him!'' While the tape is blurry, Dave Vitali, the guy who administers the decoy test and observed the entire thing, was ''sitting right there in the audience!''
* GuiltyPleasure: The guiltiest.
* HeroicBSOD: Maybe not always heroic, but some examples:
## 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 [[YourCheatingHeart unfaithful]].
## A mother with two or more potential baby daddies finds out that ''none'' of the guys are the father.
## The lie detector exonerates the accused but also finds the ''accuser'' guilty of what they were trying to pin on the other.
* HappyDance: Some people get [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2i0ts-uck very]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBj_Zt9c-Cw excited]] when they learn they ARE / are NOT the father!
* 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. Subverted when the accuser(s) are proven right and the man made the right choice all along.
* HypnoFool: Some episodes are stage shows.
* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' called out ''Maury'' for the possibly exploitative nature of this in the episode "Freak Strike".
* LieDetector: Which are always deemed accurate, no matter how implausible the accusations actually are.
* LongRunner: ''Maury'' is the only true competitor of ''JerrySpringer'' still on the air (''The Steve Wilkos Show'' doesn't count, since it's a more serious spin-off of ''Springer'').
** All three are owned by NBC Universal and have their studios in Stamford, Conn. Most stations air all three shows, so they're more like "compatible" shows than "competing."
* [[LukeIAmYourFather Anakin, you ARE the father!]]
* ManipulativeEditing: Nearly every preview of the next segment after the commercial break are played in a way that makes some situations look a lot worse than it is, due to edited audio or splicing clips together.
* OnceAnEpisode: Whenever the show does a paternity 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.
** 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.
*** The new father eventually accepts responsibility of the baby and tries to make amends with the mother. 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 guy goes after her to gloat.
*** 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.
*** The man does an over-the-top VictoryDance.
* PointAndLaughShow
* RashomonStyle: The stories of the man and woman always contradict each other, although in a lot of cases, it's obvious that the man is [[SelfServingMemory lying to make himself look better]] (such as saying that the woman is promiscuous). This is also the case for women who claim that the guy(s) they think is the father isn't.
** Sometimes too the woman is just way too upset to accept anything the man says, even when he's proven not to have done anything seriously wrong.
* TheReveal
* RuleOfThree: Whenever a cheating man or woman confesses their secrets to their significant other, the secrets always amount two or three, but no more.
* ScareEmStraight: This trope 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. 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.
* SchmuckBait: 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 potential father's son.
* SerialEscalation: Occasionally, a woman will make repeat appearances, dragging several men along each time for a DNA test. Double digits isn't uncommon.
* ShesAllGrownUp: 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. And 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.
* SigningOffCatchPhrase: "Until next time, America!"
* TheTell: On a cheating show, 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.
** Inversely, 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.
* ThisTropeIsBleep: The show is randomly sprinkled with [[SoundEffectBleep bleeps]], even during (seemingly) silent moments. It gets especially annoying 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.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Almost all the clips shown on what happens next before the commercial break always spoil (mostly with the lie detector/paternity test episodes) due to showing the guests' reaction to the results without actually showing the viewer the results.
** Some episodes subvert this trope by showing an unrelated clip of the audience acting like the test said someone was not the father, when it was actually the opposite.
** Yet another episode had a cheating mother (an affair kept secret for 22 years) with a daughter whose father might not actually be her father. The trailer that came before the DNA test showed the man saying "I never want to see you again".[[spoiler:..but the DNA test revealed that the man was the father, and when he talked to the mother he said "I was thinking 'I never want to see you again', but I decided to be there for our daughter, even if she isn't mine." A classic bait-and-switch.]]
* TheUnfairSex: Cheating men are always treated as evil, while cheating women are treated as [[WoundedGazelleGambit Wounded Gazelles]].
** A woman can bring on upwards of a dozen men for paternity 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 (although they aren't really doing themselves any favors by making a loud, obnoxious scene).
*** Oh, it gets worse; men who say that they'll take responsibility for their children, but simply want to know the child is theirs, are booed, jeered, and catcalled. Men who refuse to take any responsibility, no matter what, are cheered and clapped for.
** The trope also applies to teenagers; every time the show focuses on out of control teenagers, it always shows that girls are the problem.
** A rather infuriating example happened in one of the DNA test episodes. A twenty-year-old woman was accusing a ''thirteen-year-old boy'' of being her baby daddy. Thankfully he wasn't, but the fact that she wasn't in prison makes no sense. Imagine what would have happened if the genders were reversed.
** From time to time, men will use a home DNA test to prove if the baby is his. If it comes up negative, the women will always claim that the test is wrong or inaccurate. 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.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The episodes dealing with phobias.
* WontTakeYesForAnAnswer: Sometimes an accuser simply refuses to believe that someone is telling the truth, even when they completely pass a lie detector test.
* YouLookFamiliar: Frequent fliers galore, especially for paternity tests. One woman, Shalonda, tested ''[[ReallyGetsAround 18 men]]'' trying to find the father of ''one child'' (among whom were a smiling TokenWhite and ''her cousin''). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9lGq_oXtQc She never found the father.]]
** She later married [[WhatAnIdiot another man]], but revealed she cheated on him and a child she had with him might not be his. Fortunately, it turned out he ''was'' the father.
* YourCheatingHeart: A staple of guests on the show. Almost all of the paternity tests involve cheating in some way, and every lie detector test involves questions about cheating.
----
[[caption-width-right:350:[[HereWeGoAgain And she'll be back tomorrow to do it all over again!]] ]]
->"Maury, I am [insert huge number here] percent sure that he is the father of my baby!"
-->'''Almost every mother seeking paternity on the show from a deadbeat dad.'''
->"You ARE/are NOT the father!"
-->'''Maury Povich'''
Originally titled '''''The Maury Povich Show''''', '''''Maury''''' is a day time talk show where Maury Povich talks with several guests that have various problems and issues, such as finding people they haven't seen in years, medical conditions, etc. As the show gained popularity and ran longer, it went for more "trash" topics, such as cheating spouses. The most common element used in the show is paternity 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. [[OnceAnEpisode The men always say,]] "That baby don't look nothing like me!"
Other common episodes are: rowdy, out of control teen girls who disrespect and abuse their mothers and/or siblings ([[OnceAnEpisode 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 and missing children.
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 (who almost always pee onstage) to entertain the children in the audience. Other times the show will have a "Maury's Talented Kids" episode where really cute kids sing, dance, etc., sometimes for cash prizes or family vacations.
You can also play the [[{{DrinkingGame.Maury}} drinking game]] (at your own risk).
----
!!You ARE the father, and a user of these Tropes:
* 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 the trope by showing wild and out of control teenage girls abusing their parents and/or siblings, but it then became just the inverted version of the trope, where the show makes it look like only teenage girls are capable of abusing their families, and not teenage boys.
* ArgumentOfContradictions: A staple of the show.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Apparently the guests on the DNA shows don't know or [[TheyJustDidntCare don't care to know]] how conception and genetics work. Including, but not limited to:
** The man who said "That (girl) can't be my baby because I only make boys".
** The man who claimed that he wasn't the father because the baby had six fingers.
** Another who insisted that a baby wasn't his ''''because the baby ''did not'' have six fingers.[[hottip:*:He was actually right about this.]]
** One who somehow thought that when a woman who ''thought'' she couldn't have children had a baby anyway, this meant it couldn't be his because ''she'' was supposed to be infertile, but yet another man ''could'' get her pregnant.
** "That baby can't be my baby because s/he has blue eyes!" [[hottip:*:Permanent eye color (regardless of race) is usually not determined until a child is somewhere between 12-18 months. Cue stupid look on the guy's face when he's told that he ''is'' the father!]]
** One particular (Hispanic) potential father claimed that the baby couldn't be his because [[FacePalm it didn't come out speaking Spanish]]. He later altered his statement to "it didn't cry with an accent". [[hottip:*:While recently conducted studies have determined that babies cry with accents similar to their parents' accent, this is learned behavior, so the guy is still an idiot and he was the father.]]
** A rare case of mother stupidity on this show which ''doesn't'' involve her promiscuity, or at least not directly. The potential father denied being the father because the baby was [[ChocolateBaby clearly racially mixed]], and both the mother and he were white. The mother's response? "Skin color's got nothin' to do with nothin'". Needless to say, he was not the father. For some reason, the mother actually got furious and went after the guy, and when asked why, she said something along the lines of "Because he's a (''bleep bleep bleep'')!", making her look even worse. [[hottip:*:"Nothing to do with nothing" is a double negative and cancels itself out; by saying that, she admitted skin color had ''everything'' to do with it, which [[HilariousInHindsight it did.]]
*** The exact opposite happened in another episode. A white couple had a baby who was obviously half-black, but the husband was unaware of his wife's affair and was totally convinced the baby was his.
*** In another episode, a black woman brought in a baby that was clearly 100% black, and claimed that a white man was the father. Obviously, he wasn't.
** Sometimes there's a mother who just had the baby about two weeks prior to the show, and the father is right away saying that it doesn't look like him. Newborns don't look like either parent for the first few weeks or months — they all kind of look the same. And most of the time, it turns out these men are the fathers.[[hottip:*:One guest was actually right about this. However, he still stayed with his girlfriend after finding out he was right.]]
** The father's right-handed. The mother's right-handed. The child's ''left''-handed. Ergo, the kid's not his because two right-handed people can't have a left-handed child![[hottip:*: Truth be told, "handedness" has nothing to do with the child be yours or not. It's perfectly possible for two right handed parents to have a left handed child. Supposedly it's some kind of gene, but all we know for now is that it runs in the family. Only 10% of the world's population are left handed anyway.]]
** One guest stated that he couldn't be the father because he only had one testicle. He ended up being the father.
** Many, ''many'' men who claim they can't be the father because, "we only had sex one time!". One time is all it takes.
* [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled 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.
* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' claim the lie detector was rigged, or malfunctioning, or anything other than completely accurate, or Ralph Barberi will come out and wail on you.
* BlatantLies: Especially when an obvious cheater is called out by a lie detector test, and they keep insisting they're innocent.
* DaddyDNATest: Another staple of the show.
* DoubleStandard: See TheUnfairSex below.
** 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 her 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 focuses on the girls.
* FatGirl: In the plastic surgery special, many girls got liposuction due to being insecure about their weight and the bullying they received from it.
* 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.
** One GenreSavvy man [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] this when he proposed to his girlfriend, holding up a board with "Will You Marry Me?" on it towards the camera.
** Some men caught cheating with the sexy decoy claim that they're "only playing along" because doing that is "expected" of them when they come on the show. Maybe he has a point, but nobody really buys it.
*** When one man was shown the decoy footage, he insisted that ''it wasn't him!'' While the tape is blurry, Dave Vitali, the guy who administers the decoy test and observed the entire thing, was ''sitting right there in the audience!''
* GuiltyPleasure: The guiltiest.
* HeroicBSOD: Maybe not always heroic, but some examples:
## 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 [[YourCheatingHeart unfaithful]].
## A mother with two or more potential baby daddies finds out that ''none'' of the guys are the father.
## The lie detector exonerates the accused but also finds the ''accuser'' guilty of what they were trying to pin on the other.
* HappyDance: Some people get [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2i0ts-uck very]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBj_Zt9c-Cw excited]] when they learn they ARE / are NOT the father!
* 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. Subverted when the accuser(s) are proven right and the man made the right choice all along.
* HypnoFool: Some episodes are stage shows.
* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' called out ''Maury'' for the possibly exploitative nature of this in the episode "Freak Strike".
* LieDetector: Which are always deemed accurate, no matter how implausible the accusations actually are.
* LongRunner: ''Maury'' is the only true competitor of ''JerrySpringer'' still on the air (''The Steve Wilkos Show'' doesn't count, since it's a more serious spin-off of ''Springer'').
** All three are owned by NBC Universal and have their studios in Stamford, Conn. Most stations air all three shows, so they're more like "compatible" shows than "competing."
* [[LukeIAmYourFather Anakin, you ARE the father!]]
* ManipulativeEditing: Nearly every preview of the next segment after the commercial break are played in a way that makes some situations look a lot worse than it is, due to edited audio or splicing clips together.
* OnceAnEpisode: Whenever the show does a paternity 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.
** 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.
*** The new father eventually accepts responsibility of the baby and tries to make amends with the mother. 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 guy goes after her to gloat.
*** 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.
*** The man does an over-the-top VictoryDance.
* PointAndLaughShow
* RashomonStyle: The stories of the man and woman always contradict each other, although in a lot of cases, it's obvious that the man is [[SelfServingMemory lying to make himself look better]] (such as saying that the woman is promiscuous). This is also the case for women who claim that the guy(s) they think is the father isn't.
** Sometimes too the woman is just way too upset to accept anything the man says, even when he's proven not to have done anything seriously wrong.
* TheReveal
* RuleOfThree: Whenever a cheating man or woman confesses their secrets to their significant other, the secrets always amount two or three, but no more.
* ScareEmStraight: This trope 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. 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.
* SchmuckBait: 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 potential father's son.
* SerialEscalation: Occasionally, a woman will make repeat appearances, dragging several men along each time for a DNA test. Double digits isn't uncommon.
* ShesAllGrownUp: 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. And 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.
* SigningOffCatchPhrase: "Until next time, America!"
* TheTell: On a cheating show, 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.
** Inversely, 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.
* ThisTropeIsBleep: The show is randomly sprinkled with [[SoundEffectBleep bleeps]], even during (seemingly) silent moments. It gets especially annoying 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.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Almost all the clips shown on what happens next before the commercial break always spoil (mostly with the lie detector/paternity test episodes) due to showing the guests' reaction to the results without actually showing the viewer the results.
** Some episodes subvert this trope by showing an unrelated clip of the audience acting like the test said someone was not the father, when it was actually the opposite.
** Yet another episode had a cheating mother (an affair kept secret for 22 years) with a daughter whose father might not actually be her father. The trailer that came before the DNA test showed the man saying "I never want to see you again".[[spoiler:..but the DNA test revealed that the man was the father, and when he talked to the mother he said "I was thinking 'I never want to see you again', but I decided to be there for our daughter, even if she isn't mine." A classic bait-and-switch.]]
* TheUnfairSex: Cheating men are always treated as evil, while cheating women are treated as [[WoundedGazelleGambit Wounded Gazelles]].
** A woman can bring on upwards of a dozen men for paternity 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 (although they aren't really doing themselves any favors by making a loud, obnoxious scene).
*** Oh, it gets worse; men who say that they'll take responsibility for their children, but simply want to know the child is theirs, are booed, jeered, and catcalled. Men who refuse to take any responsibility, no matter what, are cheered and clapped for.
** The trope also applies to teenagers; every time the show focuses on out of control teenagers, it always shows that girls are the problem.
** A rather infuriating example happened in one of the DNA test episodes. A twenty-year-old woman was accusing a ''thirteen-year-old boy'' of being her baby daddy. Thankfully he wasn't, but the fact that she wasn't in prison makes no sense. Imagine what would have happened if the genders were reversed.
** From time to time, men will use a home DNA test to prove if the baby is his. If it comes up negative, the women will always claim that the test is wrong or inaccurate. 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.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The episodes dealing with phobias.
* WontTakeYesForAnAnswer: Sometimes an accuser simply refuses to believe that someone is telling the truth, even when they completely pass a lie detector test.
* YouLookFamiliar: Frequent fliers galore, especially for paternity tests. One woman, Shalonda, tested ''[[ReallyGetsAround 18 men]]'' trying to find the father of ''one child'' (among whom were a smiling TokenWhite and ''her cousin''). [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9lGq_oXtQc She never found the father.]]
** She later married [[WhatAnIdiot another man]], but revealed she cheated on him and a child she had with him might not be his. Fortunately, it turned out he ''was'' the father.
* YourCheatingHeart: A staple of guests on the show. Almost all of the paternity tests involve cheating in some way, and every lie detector test involves questions about cheating.
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