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Guess Who I'm Marrying: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|"''Uh oh! Something's amiss! Or maybe even soon,'' [[Just for Pun|A Mrs.!]]"
|'''[[The Narrator]]''', ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "Mommy Fearest"}}
This is a [[Parent
The horror will probably begin with the parent introducing the paramour to the kid(s) and providing a frightful deadline for their marriage ("This is Mr. Evil and we'll be getting married next week! Isn't that wonderful, kids?"). The paramour may be a character previously established as a [[Card-Carrying Villain]], in which case the encounter will probably go somewhat like this:
{{quote|
'''Kid''': To who, Mom?
''[Villain enters]''
'''[[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Satan McEvil]]''': You can call me "daddy."
''[Kid looks horrified. Cut to commercial break.]'' }}
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Naturally, it will be up to the kid(s) to get rid of the paramour since [[Adults Are Useless]].
[[Grammar Nazi|And yes, it should be "Guess WHOM I'm Marrying".]]▼
▲[[Grammar Nazi|And yes, it should be "Guess WHOM I'm Marrying".]]
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Akuma
* In ''[[Heat Guy J]]'', Monica's mother [[Bottle Fairy|Christina]] has met a man while out partying late one night, and plans to leave Judoh with him. Monica is suspicious of him, and refuses to go with them. Christina leaves with her new boyfriend anyway, thinking Monica would join them later and they'd be a family. {{spoiler|It turns out Christina's new beau has a bunch of women he tricked onto getting on the boat so he could dump them off or sell them as sex slaves and sell their I.D. s to people hoping to enter Judoh illegally. Daisuke and J save the day, of course.}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* A [[Silver Age]] ''[[Spider
** Doc Ock was actually marrying May because she was the heir to a private nuclear reactor. He didn't even realize that Spider-Man was her nephew until after he unmasked in ''Civil War''. [[Continuity Nod|Brilliantly]], he then went into a rant about how stupid he was not to figure it out and how he should have kept up the marriage facade for far longer.
** An early continuity nod had Aunt May, shortly after learning Peter's secret identity, witness a fight between Spidey and Ock, and ''finally'' realise who Octavius was.
** It is however implied that he actually likes her.
* Played with in ''[[Ghost World]]''. Enid is talking about her ex-stepmothers, and hates one in particular. Guess who Mr. Coleslaw's remarrying? Subverted in that the woman looks quite normal (it's been a few years) and, if I recall correctly, is actually supportive of Enid {{spoiler|and is sympathetic when Enid fails to get into art school}}.
== [[Film]] ==
* Obviously, this is used in
* The "comedy" ''[[Mr Woodcock]]'' with the villain being a former [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] gym teacher.
** {{spoiler|Subverted: it turns out that rather Mr. Woodcock being the bad guy, the son is actually an asshole who has a unforgiving grudge on his teacher. Who after realizing this he forgives his teacher for 'molding him into what he is today'}}
** This Troper still wanted to see Mr. Woodcock get his ass whooped.
** Heck, it's double subverted really. Mr. Woodcock was still an asshole too, and could not have cared less if the son had forgiven him or not.
* ''[[Back to
* The movie ''[[Problem Child]] 2'' had the titular kid's dad almost get married to a child-hating millionairess.
** In this case his blindness is arguably justified. Junior had spent the earlier part of the film driving away every other date he had just because he didn't want to share his dad with anyone. Naturally, his dad is skeptical when he tries to tell him "No, this one really IS evil!"
*** Somewhat qualifies as a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]]: "When your kid drives away your other dates, you can't trust him anymore when the ''real'' evil woman comes along."
* ''[[Three Men And A Little Lady]]'' but with useful adults (the three men) who are the ones who foil the antagonists plan.
* ''[[
* Cpt. Vidal from ''[[
* The Disney Channel
* Happened in ''[[Nanny McPhee]]'': The great-aunt was willing to cough up money only if the dad married, and as the dad was almost broke, he was desperate... but he didn't quite catch the level of hate between his children and his fiancee. All the more because the kids are ridiculously ill-behaved, and so didn't quite catch the deliberately malicious undertones to their antics.
** In a bit of a subversion, the father didn't like his fiance at all either. The only reason he was marrying her was that the alternative was the family going broke and his children being sent to work houses, or who knows where in the case of the younger ones. {{spoiler|Subverted even more at the end, when he marries Evangeline, who he and the children both love.}}
* In ''[[Disturbia]]'', the protagonist's mother steps into the kitchen with the next-door neighbor... who the protagonist suspects is a serial killer. {{spoiler|He is..}}.
* Hank Azaria in ''[[Run
* ''[[
* ''[[Sling Blade]]'' features this trope prominently as a mentally challenged protagonist befriends a boy and discovers that the boy's mother is about to marry a man who will definitely destroy their lives. He even says so to the boy's face, though not in so many words.
* The Ingmar Bergman film ''[[Fanny And Alexander]]'' uses this trope, though {{spoiler|the mom fairly quickly realizes she's married a [[Sinister Minister|monster]], and the kids don't free themselves}}.
* ''[[The Sound of Music]]'' has Captain Von Trapp bring Baroness Schraeder to his home to meet his children with every intention of asking her to marry him. The Baroness isn't actually all that bad, but the trope holds true from the kids' point of view since she very clearly is only interested in marrying the Captain and his money, not his seven children, who she'd just as soon pack off to boarding school. Her few interactions with the kids are highly awkward, and not surprisingly, they prefer Maria.
* The mother in ''[[All I Want for Christmas]]'' does this, making her daughter think her wish to Santa backfired.
* A heroic variation appears in ''[[Enchanted]]'' where Robert Phillip is going to marry fashion designer Nancy Tremaine so that his daughter Morgan can have a mother. Unlike most examples of this trope, Nancy is a nice lady, but when the much nicer Princess Giselle comes into the picture, life has other plans for Robert...
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]]'', David's mother marries the nasty Mr. Murdstone.
* Any adaptation of a fairy tale with a [[Wicked Stepmother]] is likely to use this. The [[Wicked Stepmother]], however, is seldom a [[Child-Hater]]; she loves and jealously protects her own children (which is half the problem).
** Some fairy tales start off with the stepmother being kind to the stepchild as well, only for things to go south when said stepchild starts to turn out prettier and more desirable than their biological children.
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* Happens in ''[[Ella Enchanted]]'', when Ella finds out that her father intends to marry the odious Dame Olga for money. She's perfectly lovely to Ella, until she finds out that Ella and her father are broke. Then it follows ''Cinderella'' straight through.
* A variation is done in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events|The Bad Beginning]]''. {{spoiler|In this case, when Olaf says "Guess who I'm marrying", it's a lot more [[Squick]]-y for Violet.}}
* A heroic variation is done in the [[American Girls]] books. In the stories centered on Samantha Parkington, her Uncle Garth is marrying Cornelia Pitt and Samantha fears he might spend less time with her. Cornelia isn't all that bad of course.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* A version with "adult" children occurred in ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' when Bradford announced he was marrying Wilhelmina.
* Joyce Summers nearly married an evil robot in "Ted" on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.
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** Of course, the fact that he was surreptitiously drugging everybody else didn't hurt...
** She also went on a date with [[Dracula]]. Which apparently went well enough for him to be invited back to her place.
* Uther Pendragon married a troll in [[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]. Disguised as an old sweetheart and enchanting him [[Department of Redundancy Department|with magic]], but still a ''troll''.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* This is a big part of the setup for the plot of ''[[Hamlet]]''. Though Hamlet did not know his uncle was evil until after the marriage; he just thought Uncle Claudius was an incestuous jerk for marrying his mother so soon after his father died.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* A version appeared in Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', except that Jasmine's father was announcing who ''she'' was marrying.
** And he was hypnotized.
* Selma's marriage to Sideshow Bob in ''[[The Simpsons]]''.
{{quote|
'''Selma''': Then call me Mrs. Scum. }}
* In an episode of ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'', supervillainess Sedusa sidles her way into the Professor's life in the guise of "[[Punny Name|Ima Goodlady]]".
** The episode plays with the trope - the girls are perfectly happy with the Professor dating "Ima Goodlady" and even give him dating tips and encourage things as best they can. It's not until they notice that her groundings on them coincide with the nights that Sedusa robs the Mayor that they start to get ''really'' suspicious.
* Chef almost married a succubus in an episode of ''[[South Park]]''.
** At least the Loch Ness monster doesn't get tree-fitty.
{{quote|
'''Chef's Dad:''' She gave him a dollar.
'''Chef's Mom:''' I thought he'd go away if I gave him a dollar.
'''Chef's Dad:''' Well of course he's not gonna go away, Nellie! You gave him a dollar, he's gonna assume you got more! }}
* One of ''[[Winx Club]]'' season 3's subplots was this, involving Stella's dad. They even went the "You can call me mom" route (sans ad break).
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* ''[[The Iron Giant]]'' has "Guess Who's Renting Our Spare Room", with the paranoid and crazy government agent setting up shop to spy on Hogarth while the mother is rather oblivious.
** Her obliviousness can be justified by her very demanding work schedule, which she has to keep up to care for Hogarth and herself. The agent even brings this up at one point, telling Hogarth that his mother is under a lot of strain as a single mother and that it would be not hard to make it look like she was too neglectful to keep custody of him.
* Done in the ''[[My Little Pony:
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Wedding and Engagement Tropes]]
[[Category:Plots]]
[[Category:
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