Basic Trope: A divorce over something trivial.
- Straight: Alice suddenly files for divorce from Bob because he's always leaving the toilet seat up.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice suddenly files for divorce from Bob because he left the toilet seat up once, that very morning.
- Alice and Bob have been married for 35 years, and she divorces him because she suddenly remembers that he left the toilet seat up once, 17 years ago.
- Bob forgets to say "thank you" one time, and Alice files for a legal annulment.
- Alice divorces Bob on their wedding day because of the toilet seat up.
- Alice kills Bob over the toilet seat.
- Bob threatens Alice with a switchblade, beats her silly, and drinks until he blacks out, but she just ignores it for the sake of love...until he leaves the toilet seat up.
- Alice divorces Bob for "breathing without permission".
- Former Ruling Couple Queen Alice and King Bob go to war because he keeps leaving the toilet seat up.
- Downplayed:
- Alice separates from Bob because of the toilet seat issue, but they're technically still married, and there's a possibility of reconciliation.
- Alice divorces Bob for several trivial reasons: e.g. because he leaves the toilet seat up, drinks her diet soda without permission, wears a hat at the dinner table, and watches shows that she hates.
- Alice and Bob are not married, but they are living together. Alice dumps Bob and moves out of their shared apartment because he leaves the toilet seat up.
- Justified:
- The toilet seat issue is just one issue in Alice and Bob's unhappy marriage, which they fight about constantly. The toilet seat's position on that day was the proverbial last straw.
- Alice and Bob are in an unhappy Arranged Marriage, so they need an excuse, any excuse at all, to get divorced.
- They were accidentally married, possibly while drunk.
- The story is set before no-fault divorce was a thing; as above, they need an excuse.
- Alice has OCD; Bob leaving the toilet seat up without any consideration for her condition is actually affecting her mental health. Meanwhile, her constant insistence on putting the toilet seat down to deal with her anxiety over it is causing considerable friction with Bob.
- For some reason, leaving the toilet seat up really is a good reason for Alice to want to divorce Bob.
- Inverted:
- Alice proposes to Bob because he is always careful to put the toilet seat down.
- Alice and Bob refuse to divorce despite a series of non-trivial matters: he abuses her, she cheats on him, he gambles her money away, and they both drink a lot.
- Bob murdered Alice's entire family. She responds with nothing more vengeful than filing for divorce.
- Subverted:
- Bob leaves the toilet seat up, but Alice files for divorce from Bob because they are growing apart.
- Alice isn't really divorcing Bob over the toilet seat; she's upset with (and thus divorcing) him because she's unhappy with him, for whatever reason(s). The toilet seat is only one little issue in a sea of bigger ones.
- Alice and Bob get divorced. Everyone assumes it's for a trivial reason, but it isn't.
- Double Subverted:
- And all she can see now are his annoying (but trivial) habits, like leaving the toilet seat up.
- Alice and Bob go to marriage counseling and address most of their issues, but still end up getting divorced over the toilet seat.
- Parodied:
- Alice is about to buy a house, but backs out of the deal because the toilet seat was up in the bathroom.
- A divorce lawyer offers a separate set of papers for divorces with trivial grounds.
- Alice divorces Bob over the toilet seat, and the work treats this as a fair reason.
- Zig Zagged: Alice keeps changing her story: first, she claims the divorce is because Bob left the toilet seat up, then claims it's because Bob cheated on her, then claims it's because Bob is going bald and getting fat, then claims it's because Bob has gambled away all their savings, then claims it's because Bob threw a red sock in with the whites when he did laundry yesterday, then claims it's because Bob is abusing her, then claims it's because Bob got her a tackle box for their anniversary. Her real reason turns out to be "all of the above".
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob divorce over something that isn't trivial (i.e. an affair, Domestic Abuse, an out-of-control gambling problem, etc.)
- No one divorces over anything, trivial or otherwise. (Whether Alice and Bob are actually Happily Married or not is another story.)
- None of the characters in the work are even married.
- Enforced:
- The plot relies on Bob falling for Claire, and they need a family-friendly way to ditch Alice.
- Rule of Funny, usually in a Sitcom.
- The executives want to prevent Shipping Bed Death.
- Lampshaded:
- "So, I heard Alice is leaving Bob because he left the toilet seat up this morning."
- "Who divorces someone over a toilet seat?" "As a matter of fact, that's why I'm leaving Bob."
- Invoked:
- Bob wants a divorce, but doesn't have the guts to tell Alice, so he decides to leave the toilet seat up in the hope that she will leave him for it.
- Alice goes into the bathroom and finds the toilet seat standing proudly, just the way Bob left it. She then shakes her head, and drives to the Law Offices of Cloke and Daggar to get a divorce attorney.
- Bob's mistress, Claire, wants him to leave his wife Alice for her. She knows Alice is a Tsundere neat freak, so when Bob finishes in the bathroom, she puts the seat up (or tells him to leave it up), hoping Alice will get mad and divorce Bob.
- Exploited:
- Diane places ads for her self-lowering toilet seats in the offices of local wedding planners.
- When Alice starts dating after the divorce, Charles earns brownie points by telling her that he always puts the toilet seat down.
- Defied:
- Alice doesn't divorce Bob over the toilet seat, either because it's silly, or because she doesn't believe in divorce, or both. Instead, she makes a reminder note to post over the toilet, and gets them to marriage counseling for the bigger issues like their communication problems.
- "Mrs. Tropeson, are you really attempting to divorce your husband over a toilet seat? Get out of here and quit wasting this court's time."
- Bob is careful to put the toilet seat down, so as not to anger Alice.
- Discussed: "So Alice and Bob are married. Do you think it'll last?" "Who knows? In this day and age, couples divorce over everything. Maybe somewhere down the road, Bob will leave the toilet seat up."
- Conversed: "It seems really weird that Alice would break up with Bob over something like a toilet seat — she's been so laid-back the whole series despite their other problems."
- Implied: Bob always leaves the toilet seat up. Alice is presumably upset by this, but never mentions it. The reason for their divorce is never mentioned, but other than the toilet seat, their marriage was apparently perfect.
- Deconstructed: Alice and Bob's marriage was perfect except for the toilet seat issue, so they regret divorcing.
- If Alice was so willing to divorce Bob over a petty slight, it's probably a good thing that they split up.
- Reconstructed: After three months of regretting their divorce, Alice and Bob get back together. Either Bob breaks his habit of leaving the toilet seat up, or Alice no longer cares.
- Played For Laughs: Alice and Bob have been married for 15 years, and Bob has been a heavy smoker all the while. Alice suddenly divorces Bob because he smokes.
- Played For Drama: Alice and Bob shared their bills, so after the divorce, they both end up homeless and are eventually murdered.
- Untwisted:
- At first, the reason for Alice and Bob's divorce is left unclear. Three seasons after the divorce, the writers decide to create a humorous back story about it.
- Alice announces to her female friends that she's leaving Bob. When they ask why, and wonder if there's a good reason, Alice says, "Oh, there's a very good reason indeed." Cut to an image of the toilet, with its seat in the "up" position.
Put that toilet seat back down when you're done, Buster! Or else I'm leaving!
