| abstract
| - In fictional relationships, there's a gray area between a Destructive Romance, a Friendly War and Romanticized Abuse. Sometimes the writers make it hard for the audience to figure out if the relationship is even supposed to be a good thing or not. Sometimes the writers don't even know the answer themselves, and sometimes this question isn't even meant to have an answer - the characters are there for the audience to laugh at, and that's all there is to it. Two characters are supposed to be deeply in love -- despite being blatantly unsuited for each other. They are constantly screaming at each other or worse, and yet the characters insist they like each other. Very often, the only indicator of the characters' affections for each other will be their jealousy when the other shows an interest (real or imagined) in a character outside of their tango. Basically, there are two ways this trope can be played: either the writers really don't get that the pairing isn't working out, or the writers are fully aware and it's the characters who insist that their relationship is just great. In either case, the audience tends to quickly catch on, and you can bet that the shippers are already thinking up alternatives. This is not the same as an Odd Friendship or Odd Couple, where everybody knows the relationship is strange and the characters very grudgingly learn to respect each other. In The Masochism Tango, the entire relationship hinges on the mutual hatred between the two lovebirds... for better or for worse. The partners dancing to this particular beat have already resolved the Will They or Won't They? issue (they did, and won't deny they're a couple) -- it's just the saneness of their hook-up that's in question. This is often the result of resolved Belligerent Sexual Tension. For the platonic version, see With Friends Like These... or Vitriolic Best Buds. For a milder version, see Slap Slap Kiss, Belligerent Sexual Tension, and No Accounting for Taste. If the characters aren't at each other's throats, but their relationship feels contrived and artificial nonetheless, they've been Strangled by the Red String. Compare All Take and No Give. If the sadism and the masochism part in the coupling is off balance, also compare Love Martyr. Played for Drama, it can easily become Destructive Romance. This trope is named for a song by Tom Lehrer, quoted above. As he explains it, a certain genre of love song is "the passionate or fiery variety, usually in tango tempo, in which the singer exhorts his partner to haunt him and taunt him and, if at all possible, to consume him with a kiss of fire." In his version, the singer asks for whippings, broken bones, cigarette burns... Note that this is actually Truth in Television for many people. Probably including many tropers. If you are still confused, let Worf explain. Do Not Confuse With Real Life masochism. Or, for that matter, real tango Or a combinations of the two. However, some works don't really make a distinction between masochism and being victim of abuse... Examples of The Masochism Tango include:
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