Though they might not be great examples of the perfect relationship, these dysfunctional TV couples always bring the laughs.
Relationships are all about commitment, trust, and understanding…most of the time, anyways. While some couples maintain a healthy, romantic attachment to one another, other romantic partnerships leave you scratching your head, wondering why on earth they’re together in the first place. Like most couples in the real world, this phenomenon also directly applies to television couples, be it in the form of The Office’s Kelly Kapoor and Ryan Howard or Marge and Homer of The Simpsons.
Constantly bickering at each other from one episode to the next, these couples provide a refreshingly hilarious take on the traditional romantic duo, leaving audience members in stitches with their abnormal–often confrontational–relationships with one another.
Truthfully, most of the dysfunctional aspects of Homer and Marge Simpsons’ marriage stems from Homer’s side of the relationship. While Marge is frequently shown to be a doting pillar of support for her rambunctious family, Homer appears more concerned with shrugging away any responsibility that comes his way. Though he provides for his family through his soul-crushing job at the nuclear power plant, Homer’s immature misadventures and alcohol-fueled escapades often take a toll on his marriage with Marge, testing her patience time and time again.
While there’s no question that Al and Peg Bundy love their family, viewers have to look incredibly hard to see evidence of this fact (almost to the point of having to rely on a magnifying glass). Former high school sweethearts-turned-unhappily married spouses, Al and Peg are the type to continuously blame their problems in life on one another. Frequently mocking each other’s laziness, low income wages, and frivolous spending habits, Al and Peg never failed to criticize their partner whenever an opportunity presented itself.
Deep down, it’s safe to assume that every young couple fears they’ll one day end up like Frank and Estelle Costanza. The unhinged parents of Seinfeld’s anxiety-riddled George, Frank and Estelle’s primary means of communication involves screaming at one another in explosive bursts of anger. Endlessly annoyed by one another’s mere presence, the Costanzas seem to harbor little to any romantic feelings for each other, routinely complaining about their spouse’s antics to anyone unlucky enough to be in ear shot.
Quite possibly the most toxic couple ever featured on television, nothing about Kelly Kapoor and Ryan Howard’s relationship works well on paper. Office coworkers who regularly fight, break up, and then inevitably come back together again, Kelly and Ryan’s main issue is their abundance of similarities. With each person possessing a planet-sized ego–prioritizing their own needs at the expense of everyone else’s–Kelly and Ryan’s selfish behavior knows almost no bounds. Running amuck in Dunder Mifflin Scranton’s annex, these two self-centered narcissists have toyed with each other’s heads through a variety of manipulative mind games, from faking pregnancies to deliberately sabotaging one another’s relationships with other, better partners.
True fans might have wanted Jackie to conclude That ‘70s Show in the arms of her on-again, off-again boyfriend Hyde, but it’s no surprise that Mila Kunis’s shrill prima donna ultimately ended up with Michael Kelso. Beginning the series as a teenage couple whose relationship was built solely off of their superficial good looks, Kelso and Jackie always seemed to drift back towards each other whenever their last romance inevitably fizzled out. Between Kelso’s absent-minded immaturity and Jackie’s constant self-centeredness, it only seemed a matter of time before these two shallow love-birds reunited to start a family (something that soon came to pass with That ‘90s Show).
In some ways, Barney Stinson and Robin Scherbatsky were made for each other, as seen through their distinct view of love and skepticism at traditional relationships. But at the end of the day, their dissimilarities ultimately won out, preventing How I Met Your Mother’s most chaotic couple from ever winding up together. While they might sit comfortably back and enjoy a good cigar or aged whiskey, Barney and Robin’s eventful relationship came with far more bumpy moments than it did genuinely uplifting ones–something only further exacerbated by Barney’s constant womanizing and repeated lies to Robin.
Compared to most other couples in Parks and Recreation, Ron Swanson and Tammy II almost make April and Andy look like a fully-functional adult couple. Former spouses-turned-bitter enemies, few people have earned Ron’s ire quite like his second ex-wife, the monstrous Tammy II. A seductive, manipulative, sociopathic librarian constantly attempting to destroy Ron’s life, Tammy II has been described in a variety of colorful terms by Ron himself, including “monstrous parasite,” “conniving and ruthless,” and “sewer-dwelling gutter witch.” As unhealthy as their relationship might be, Tammy II’s repeated appearances never fail to garner a chuckle from viewers, even as she uses every nefarious trick in the book to ruin Ron’s happiness.
