In a more strictly comedic sense, 3rd Rock From the Sun subverted this trope with Sally (Kristen Johnston) and Don (Wayne Knight).
UGLY DUDE PLUS
But their compatibility and attraction to each other - plus the fact that viewers see this courtship take place, rather than being thrown into the middle of a marriage - makes it believable when they wind up together. What works is the show is acutely self-aware about this mismatched pairing, as are the characters. While once finicky, Charlotte comes to realize Harry is a perfect match - and the couple has great chemistry, not to mention he’s the best sex she’s ever had. Eventually, she considers Harry (Evan Handler), her chubby and bald divorce attorney, whom the show frames as everything Charlotte wouldn’t want (messy, rude). On Sex and the City, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) spends her adult life looking for very handsome, put-together men, but none of the relationships work out.
UGLY DUDE SERIES
It bears mentioning that not all series handle the trope poorly - rather than using it for a cheap laugh, the rare show can actually deepen the characters and offer commentary on the nature of attraction. Aside from the laughs, you could argue there’s something toxic about these pairings and the unrealistic expectations they promote, most obviously for reasons Apatow has long been criticized for popularizing in his films: The male fantasy that you, too, can be a lazy zhlub with barely any redeeming qualities and still get a super-hot wife willing to put up with it. Of course, this is the point of most sitcoms: The opposites-attract, “look at that silly man fail at everything!” setup is the easiest way to get cheap laughs - especially in a multi-camera sitcom in the ’00s. Sure, it was a stretch that Remini would be with James, especially when he kept screwing up. It wasn’t just a physical mismatch but a personality mismatch as well. Much ado was made about the fact that you’d never see these couples in real life - especially because the men were often depicted as zhlubby, lazy, incapable of taking care of themselves or their family, and so on. The fat husband/hot actress matchup (which took over Fox’s Animation Domination block with The Simpsons’ Homer and Marge and Family Guy’s Peter and Lois) came to prominence with the 2000s trifecta: According to Jim (Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith), Still Standing (Mark Addy and Jami Gertz), and The King of Queens (Kevin James and Leah Remini). In later seasons, the show ramped up this mismatch by making Ray into something of a bumbling idiot, unable to do anything right and therefore constantly raising Debra’s ire.īecause Everybody Loves Raymond was so successful, the series led to multiple copycats that paired beautiful actresses with similarly bumbling actors - and also added on a little weight. With Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005), audiences were quick to point out Ray Romano’s not-exactly-leading-man looks, especially when compared to his wife, Debra (Patricia Heaton), and it became a joke within the show itself. They were slightly mismatched, a fact that was baked into the show’s premise and used for a quick chuckle. Sitcoms have featured these couples since, well, the beginning of television, though in the early days, it was often a pretty actress paired with a relatively plain actor ( The Bob Newhart Show).
You can find this in everything from The Honeymooners (1951–55) to animated kids’ show The Flintstones (1960–66) to current juggernaut hits Modern Family (2009–present) and The Big Bang Theory (2007–present) as well as The Sopranos, The George Lopez Show, Louie, That ’70s Show, Fresh Off the Boat, and all of Rob Schneider’s sitcoms. Of course, beauty is subjective (there are certainly people out there who find Paul Rust attractive I myself would not turn him down), but this trope fits into a larger attractiveness gap that’s abundant in television, especially sitcoms, where it’s sometimes acknowledged onscreen but more often not. See, Love stars Gillian Jacobs ( Community) and Paul Rust ( Super Fun Night) in the lead roles, making it the latest entrant in a long line of a popular but sometimes frustrating television trope: the “ugly guy” getting the “hot woman.” The ten-episode first season, which depicts the dueling perspectives of a man and a woman in a relationship, has picked up mostly positive reviews for its realistic portrayals of dating, addiction, and dependence. Last Friday, Netflix debuted its latest binge-ready romantic-comedy, Love, from Judd Apatow. Photo-Illustration: Maya Robinson and Photos by Netflix, HBO, ABC and Getty Images
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