History YMMV / MarriedWithChildren

* AccidentalAesop: Seeing how aimless and unsuccessful Al and Peg's lives (but especially his) are gives credence to the stay in school aesop.

** Al reflecting on Kelly's childhood in "One Down, Two To Go" after the latter [[StatisQuoIsGod temporarily]] moves out, set to "Daddy's Little Girl". It's mostly PlayedForLaughs, but it can still tug on the heartstrings, especially the end shot of Kelly's smiling face on top of a drawing of a heart.

** Al reflecting on Kelly's childhood in "One Down, Two To Go" after the latter [[StatisQuoIsGod (temporarily)]] moves out, set to "Daddy's Little Girl". It's mostly PlayedForLaughs, but it can still tug on the heartstrings, especially the end shot of Kelly's smiling face on top of a drawing of a heart.

** Al reflecting on Kelly's childhood in "One Down, Two To Go" after the latter [[StatisQuoIsGod(temporarily)]] moves out, set to "Daddy's Little Girl". It's mostly PlayedForLaughs, but it can still tug on the heartstrings, especially the end shot of Kelly's smiling face on top of a drawing of a heart.

** For a really hilarious sitcom, only one episode was awfully sad, and that episode was "Requiem For A Dead Briard", where Buck dies, but comes back as Lucky. Despite this, the episode did have a few funny moments, like Ben Stein in a chicken suit (and how he died after a bald man shot him), Peg's mom eating Kelly's new pet bird, Don Novello's appearance as his ''Saturday Night Live'' character Father Guido Sarducci, and Buck being reincarnated as the new dog, Lucky.
** Al reflecting on Kelly's childhood in "One Down, Two To Go" after the latter (temporarily) moves out, set to "Daddy's Little Girl". It's mostly PlayedForLaughs, but it can still tug on the heartstrings, especially the end shot of Kelly's smiling face on top of a drawing of a heart.

** "Kelly Knows Something" has Al being rejected as a contestant for a sports trivia game show due to being so unlikable, his personality is ranked somewhere between "Joe Piscopo and the fat kid on the ''Series/HeadOfTheClass''." [[Creator/DanSchneider Said fat kid]] would eventually become a powerful player at Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}, having created the hit shows ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' and ''Series/ICarly''.[[note]]Or it could be looked at as a FunnyAneurysmMoment due to all of the unseemly rumors about Schneider's business dealings and personal life.[[/note]]

* FoeYay: Al and Marcy hate each other, but in later seasons when she married Jefferson and he turned out to treat Marcy similar to how Peg treats Al, Al and Marcy got the occasional moment of understanding and sympathy for each other, even as they hated the other's guts.

** Al (as well as others) had a constant hatred of Music/MichaelBolton and [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Joe Piscopo]] for the entire run of the show.

* TearJerker: For a really hilarious sitcom, only one episode was awfully sad, and that episode was "Requiem For A Dead Briard", where Buck dies, but comes back as Lucky. Despite this, the episode did have a few funny moments, like Ben Stein in a chicken suit (and how he died after a bald man shot him), Peg's mom eating Kelly's new pet bird, Don Novello's appearance as his ''Saturday Night Live'' character Father Guido Sarducci, and Buck being reincarnated as the new dog, Lucky.

* UnpopularPopularCharacter: Al is probably the biggest loser ever in-universe, but try telling that to the studio audience. Each of the main characters were typically greeted with applause upon entering as the seasons wore on, but Al was first.

* {{Squick}}: "Fair Exchange" has a French foreign exchange student played by Creator/MillaJovovich be more popular than Kelly and was at one point groped by a group of guys. Even though her character, Yvette, is supposed to be a high school senior like Kelly, Jovovich was at the time just ''thirteen.''
** In “How to Marry a Moron, Part II”, Bud says that Kelly lost her virginity in 1979. Kelly was born in 1971. Do the math and puke. And no, Bud doesn’t sound like he’s kidding.

** The theme song (which is a real song. It's called "Love and Marriage" and it was sung by Ol' Blue-Eyes himself, Creator/FrankSinatra) is replaced with a [[SoundtrackDissonance cheery, instrumental soundalike]] song in the Hulu broadcasts and on the DVD release.

** Creator/PamelaAnderson (often appearing in Al's dreams as a nameless bimbo, as seen in "Al with Kelly" and part two of the episode "Route 666,"[[note]]the two-parter where the Bundys are stranded in a New Mexican town and discover that it may be a goldmine[[/note]] Debbe Dunning, Creator/MillaJovovich, Chip Esten, Creator/GiovanniRibisi, Creator/StephenDorff (both of whom were in the same episode playing Bud's friends), Creator/MattLeblanc, Creator/JoeyLaurenAdams, Kari Wuhrer, Creator/EricDane, Creator/BillMaher (as the host of a game show called ''You Can't Miss''), Creator/KeriRussell, Creator/DeanNorris, Dot Jones, Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan (as a security guard), Creator/JulieBenz, Creator/LisaRobinKelly, Creator/DavidBoreanaz (as one of Kelly's many boyfriends, you might remember him as the one who got beat up by Al in a movie theater), Creator/JaneLynch... all before the roles that made them famous.

** In the episode "Kelly Knows Something", one of the game show's questions is about O.J. Simpson (specifically, what the initials O.J. stood for). [[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._J._Simpson_murder_case&ved=2ahUKEwiPtJ3SzrD2AhXhYd8KHUGbBvwQFnoECD8QAQ&usg=AOvVaw2t0Qhw6LSwvDK0n19qbvpv Less than a month after this episode aired...]]

** Vinnie Verducci if for no other reason than being a prototype Joey Tribiani

*** A similar instance occurs in "Kelly Doesn't Live Here Anymore" when Peg quotes the song to show her own mourning, about her daughter getting a job. [[note]] Peg believes women should live off men rather than getting jobs themselves and men should work themselves to death to provide for women [[/note]]

* CreatorsPet:
** Peg, mainly due to her awful treatment of her family yet being a constant KarmaHoudini.
** A much purer example would be Seven, the BrattyHalfPint Wanker cousin who joined the cast in season seven. Apparently inspired by the popularity of [[Series/FullHouse Michelle Tanner]], the execs pushed forward with a kid-friendly character in a completely non-kid friendly environment. Being unable to put him in a scenario of slapstick and sadism that the rest of the cast went through, he ended up doling out much of it and was hated for it. Plus, the fact that the episode that introduced him is named "The ''Magnificent'' Seven" was a hint to how much he was to be this trope.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:

* GeniusBonus: One episode has Kelly complaining about her little brother being their parents' favorite just because he was the first to learn how to talk, how to walk, and the names of the ''twenty'' states. That's even funnier when one remembers that the series takes place in Illinois, a.k.a. the twentieth-''first'' state.
* GrowingTheBeard: The show became much, much funnier when {{Flanderization}} kicked in and the show turned into a live-action cartoon, while still keeping the main themes and jokes, though some have stated that the show grew the beard when Terry Rakolta complained about the show's crude humor and [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity more people started to tune in to see what she was talking about.]]
* HarsherInHindsight:

** Creator/PamelaAnderson (often appearing in Al's dreams as a nameless bimbo, as seen in "Al with Kelly" and part two of the episode "Route 666,"[[note]]the two-parter where the Bundys are stranded in a New Mexican town and discover that it may be a goldmine[[/note]] Debbe Dunning, Creator/MillaJovovich, Chip Esten, Creator/GiovanniRibisi, Creator/StephenDorff (both of whom were in the same episode playing Bud's friends), Creator/MattLeblanc, Creator/JoeyLaurenAdams, Kari Wuhrer, Creator/EricDane, Creator/BillMaher (as the host of a game show called ''You Can't Miss''), Creator/KeriRussell, Creator/DeanNorris, Dot Jones, Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan (as a security guard), Creator/JulieBenz, Creator/DavidBoreanaz (as one of Kelly's many boyfriends, you might remember him as the one who got beat up by Al in a movie theater), Creator/JaneLynch... all before the roles that made them famous.

** Fat women, at least in Al's view, and they hated Al right back, snarking back at him. "Hundreds of organizations are claiming credit for the bombing of the Al Bundy Scoreboard, including: The National Organization of Women, The National Organization of ''Fat'' Women..." In addition, Al had to hang out with fat women/have his plans ruined by them more times than one can count. Fat men also counted, although to a lesser extent.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: For each and every single Bundy, especially Al; were their horrible lives brought upon themselves because the're all some degree of lazy, obnoxious {{Jerkass}}, or did they become that way ''because'' of how horrible their lives are, after years of bitterness and misery have sunken in? Which caused which here?

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: For each and every single Bundy, especially Al; were their horrible lives brought upon themselves due to the fact thaty they are all some degree of lazy, obnoxious {{Jerkass}}, or did they become that way ''because'' of how horrible their lives are, after years of bitterness and misery have sunken in? Which caused which here?

** At the end of "Requiem For a Dead Barber", both Bud and Kelly begin arguing over if they are truly Al's children. Once Peg insists that they are, they react by '''crying.'''

** In the "Hi, I.Q." episode, at one point, when trying to console Kelly, Al mentions that Buck used to run around all happy and with a lot of energy, but stopped because "obviously, he didn't like [doing] that." This statement becomes pretty sad in the later seasons when you realize that the reason Buck didn't run around as much as he used to is because the Briard who played Buck, Michael, was stricken with arthritis and was physically unable to run around and climb the stairs anymore. To the point of being relegated to just sitting on the stairs. The dog actor eventually had to retire.

** One early episode had Peg insist that Al should give an equal amount of money to Bud and Kelly, saying that they can't show [[ParentalFavoritism favoritism.]] Later episodes had them both showing obvious preference to Kelly (this is namely because she is more successful than Bud and her jobs/significant others offer more money for the family than his do, but still.)

** One early episode had Peg insist that Al give an equal amount of money to Bud and Kelly, saying that they can't show [[ParentalFavoritism favoritism.]] Later episodes had them both showing obvious preference to Kelly (this is namely because she's more successful than Bud and her jobs/significant others offer more money for the family than his do, but still.)

** In the "Hi, I.Q." episode, at one point, when trying to console Kelly, Al mentions that Buck used to run around all happy and with a lot of energy, but stopped because "obviously, he didn't like [doing] that." This statement becomes pretty sad in the later seasons when you realize that the reason Buck didn't run around as much as he used to is because the Briard who played Buck, Michael, was stricken with arthritis and was physically unable to run around and climb the stairs anymore to the point being relegated to just sitting on the stairs and eventually had to retire.

* DesignatedHero: While none of the Bundys can really be called "heroes", it's shown that when push comes to shove, they do love each other, and they at least make an effort to do something with their lives and be better people. Peg is the exception -- she would rather sit on the couch all day eating candy and watching TV than doing anything productive or useful, squanders Al's money on useless things for herself, has no interest in being a good wife or a good mother, and and will put her selfish desires above the needs of her family. While the other Bundies fall under JerkassWoobie on account of being sympathetic in their bitterness, Peg never elicits any such sympathy.

*** A similar instance occurs in "Kelly Doesn't Live Here Anymore" when Peg quotes the song to show her own mourning, about her daughter getting a job. [[note]] Peg believes women should live off men rather than getting jobs themselves and en should work themselves to death to provide for women [[/note]]
** At the end of "Requiem For a Dead Barber", both Bud and Kelly begin arguing over if they're truly Al's children and once Peg insists that they are, they react by '''crying.'''