Toilet Seat Divorce/Playing With

Basic Trope: A divorce over something trivial.

• Played 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 divorces Bob on the wedding day because of 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.
• 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.
• Inverted: Alice proposes to Bob because he leaves the toilet seat down.
  • Alice and Bob divorce, but they do so over something that isn't trivial (i.e. an affair, Domestic Abuse, an out-of-control gambling problem, etc.)
  • Alternatively, Alice and Bob refuse to divorce even with such things as affairs and gambling problems going on.
• Subverted: Alice files for divorce from Bob because they are growing apart.
• Double Subverted: And all she can see now are his annoying (but trivial) habits, like leaving the toilet seat up.
• Parodied: Alice announces to her friends that she's leaving Bob, and when the local Gossipy Hens ask why, Alice says, "Oh, there's a good reason." Cut to an image of the toilet, with its seat in the "up" position.
• Deconstructed: 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.
• Reconstructed: See "Defied"
• Zig Zagged: Alice first 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.
• Averted: Alice and Bob don't divorce over anything, trivial or otherwise. (Whether they actually are Happily Married or not is another story.)
• Lampshaded: "Who divorces someone over a toilet seat?"
• Enforced: Bob is supposed to fall for Claire, and they need an excuse to ditch Alice.
  • Rule of Funny, usually in a Sitcom.
• Exploited: Claire, who is Bob's mistress, 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.
• Invoked: Bob wants a divorce, but doesn't have the guts to tell Alice, so he decides to leave the toilet seat up.
  • 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.
• 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.
• Discussed: "So, I heard Alice is leaving Bob because he left the toilet seat up this morning."
• 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."
• Played For Laughs: Almost always is, to some extent. (Unless, of course, it isn't.)
• Played For Drama: The toilet seat isn't the only issue in their marriage, which they may (or may not) try to salvage.

Put that toilet seat back down when you're done, Buster! Or else I'm leaving!