Basic Trope: A setting where most characters are not in steady relationships.
- Straight: Trope Co is an office of professional adults, yet none of them appear to be married. Bob has a crush on his coworker Alice, and pursues it without any concern of infidelity. Charlie has a child, yet no wife appears, and he is implied to be divorced.
- Exaggerated: All of the employees of Trope Co have never been in any romantic relationship, even the elders approaching retirement age.
- Downplayed: Some character bring dates to office parties, but rarely the same ones. These relationship are only vaguely referenced, with lines like "it didn't work out".
- Justified:
- Most characters aren't interesting in seeking a romantic relationship.
- Most characters are too concerned with their work to consider dating someone.
- Their work is too dangerous to risk dragging someone else in.
- Most/all of the characters are too young to be dating anyway.
- Everyone Is Related.
- Inverted: All of the students in Troper High are in steady relationships, showing the commitment of married couples.
- Subverted: Trope Co has numerous romantic relationships between employees. All of this is going on behind the backs of their spouses at home.
- Double Subverted: None of the office relationships last, and every married character ends up divorced by the end of the season.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: There are just as many singles as there are married/engaged/courting couples in the office.
- Enforced: The writer believes that True Love Is Boring and doesn't want the characters' wacky adventures to be bogged down by the concerns of a waiting spouse/family at home.
- Lampshaded: "So when are you guys ever going to get married?"
- Invoked: Trope Co doesn't allow its workers to be in a romantic relationship with anyone.
- Exploited: The fact that nobody is in a committed relationship allows the resident casanova to hit on everyone without worrying about infidelity.
- Defied: Alice turns down Bob's advances, pointing out they are both married.
- Discussed: "All of my friends are single, too. We're all at the age where one of us should probably be married, but none of us were ever good at commitment."
- Conversed: "Wait, aren't Alice and Bob, like, 35? Why aren't they already married yet?"
- Deconstructed: The lack of any romantic involvement between anyone causes a rapid population decline, which leads to severe social repercussions in the long run.
- Reconstructed: Some characters prefer to be single and childless and don't need to conform to society's standard to start a family, and some characters do eventually get married and have children.
- Played for Drama: Trope Co hires single people, and expects them to dedicate their entire lives to their work, with no time for dating and marriage.
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