Awful Wedded Life

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"Take my wife. Please!"

A species of Dom Com based on the premise that monogamous marriage is rather like a long, slow, exquisite torture by a sadistic god from whose maleficent clutches escape is impossible. Husbands are child-like buffoons who watch too much football, leave the toilet seat up, ogle hot women, and forget anniversaries. Wives are frigid, nagging, hateful shrews with zero interest in sex. Children destroy your home and what little peace of mind you have left, while waiting their turn to perpetuate the cycle. Obnoxious In-Laws serve to add to the misery. The audience may be left wondering, "Why don't they just get a divorce, if they're so miserable?"

Married... with Children was probably the first time this trope was seen on American television, but it's been a mainstay of British shows since The Fifties.

The name, for those who don't get it, is a reference to the line of the traditional wedding vows, "lawful wedded wife".

Examples of Awful Wedded Life include:

Live-Action TV

• The form reached its pinnacle of perfection in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
• The King of Queens
• Mad About You became this in the later years.
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• The husband is the frigid one, but Married... with Children fits otherwise.
• Home Improvement occasionally slipped into this.
• As did Family Matters.
• 'Til Death is somewhat of a Deconstruction in that the better you know Joy, the slobbier she seems, and the better a match for Eddie.
• My Family
• Keeping Up Appearances—Poor Richard deserves a sainthood for putting up with Hyacinth for all those years.
• Any time a married couple is seen in The Benny Hill Show, it falls square into this.

Newspaper Comics

• The Lockhorns, though thankfully the eponymous couple apparently doesn't have kids.
• For Better or For Worse since going into reprints/new-runs seems to spend a lot of time dwelling on how John is an insensitive dolt and the children have nothing better to do than make Elly's life harder. Perversely, the strip also implies that anyone who doesn't settle down and live the same kind of life is irresponsible, childish and a bad person.

Recorded and Stand Up Comedy

• Too often a source of jokes in stand-up comedy, going back at least as far as Henny Youngman's Catch Phrase "Take my wife. Please!"

Western Animation

• Done in plenty of old cartoons—examples include Porky's Romance, Donald's Diary, and His Bitter Half.