Big Daddy, Williams 1963
"And I gotta get a meal ticket
To survive you need a meal ticket
To stay alive you need a meal ticket
Feel no pain, no regret
When the line's been signed
You're someone else
Do yourself a favor, the meal ticket does the rest"
To survive you need a meal ticket
To stay alive you need a meal ticket
Feel no pain, no regret
When the line's been signed
You're someone else
Do yourself a favor, the meal ticket does the rest"
— "(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket", Elton John
Basically the target of a Gold Digger. Someone the digger pretends to love for the ticket's money, power, or some other thing the digger wants. Usually, the meal ticket is wealthy, but they may simply have a dependable income that's enough that the gold digger won't have to worry about supporting themselves.
If a rich man is over 50, and the wife is under 40, this is the second most common type of fictional relationship after a May–December Romance. Shows up regularly with Ugly Guy, Hot Wife.
Modern examples usually place a man in the position of Meal Ticket, but from Elizabethan to Victorian times, it was just as likely that the Meal Ticket would be female and an heiress, with a male Gold Digger (or diggers!) in pursuit. Female examples also show up in media targeted at older women (as in the saying that older men are looking for "a nurse or a purse").
In some cases, the digger might grow to love the ticket, but it's rare. Expect fawning until the marriage, and then neglect or even abuse afterward. A happy ending is a toss-up. Male Meal Tickets have a high chance to come across the Black Widow and have their lives quickly shortened.
The trope name has slightly hazy origins; its use for an actual ticket that could be exchanged for a meal in some place goes back to the 19th century, and by the mid-20th, it was being used for someone who another person used as a source of support. "Sugar Daddy" (another bit of old slang) is an alternate term, indicating an older male Meal Ticket who supports the Gold Digger with gifts of valuable items (jewelry is always popular) or sometimes cash. Someone referred to as a Sugar Daddy isn't usually expected to marry their Gold Digger, though; the relationship is less formal than that, and may be fairly short-term.
Suffice it to say, Truth in Television, but No Real Life Examples, Please!
Compare Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor and Nobility Marries Money.
In-Universe Examples Only
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Anime & Manga
- In Berserk, Princess Charlotte is this to Griffith, and in Berserk Abridged he actually refers to her as a meal ticket once.
- In Gungrave, Harry admits he needs Sherry Walken to become the head of the Syndicate. It's not clear whether he really loves her or not, until the last episodes.
- Hayate the Combat Butler: Battle Butler Himuro sees his master as a meal ticket.
- Princess Flora is the female meal ticket of Honey Honey, and rich men from all over the world show up at her birthday party to ask for her hand in marriage. It annoys her to be treated as a prize, so she tucks her diamond ring into a cooked fish and chucks it out the window, where it is eaten by a cat (Honey's kitten Mimi) on the ground. She then says anyone who can retrieve the diamond ring will marry her, which kickstarts the plot.
- Invoked in Lady!!. Madeleine Wavebury is a VERY rich minor noblewoman who badly wants to socially ascend, and main character Lynn's father is a high-ranked Impoverished Patrician. Naturally, George's snobbish father (who never forgave him for marrying a now-deceased Japanese woman and fathering Lynn with her) encourages him to see Madeleine as this and go the Gold Digger way. It doesn't happen in the end, but at a high prize: George's Big Fancy House must be sold out to clear the family debts.
- Shimada in My Monster Secret meets love in the person of... Aizawa Ryou, an alien guy piloting a female Mobile-Suit Human who is always looking for a way to get free meals. He's the only one who doesn't notice right away what "she"'s trying to do. The problem is that Shimada's idea of a relationship with a girl is awkward at best, at worst slightly creepy, as Ryou soon discovers.
- PandoraHearts plays with the trope: Jack Vessalius befriends Arthur Barma and uses him as a Meal Ticket, but Jack's main motive for doing this is to get closer to Lacie, a noblewoman he genuinely loves.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: Kanae Ohtori is an heiress whom the Big Bad,Akio Ohtori, pretends to love to gain control of her family's namesake school. She is a deconstruction of the trope; presented as an ideal Proper Lady and young bride worthy of envy, but she is actually hobbled by her obligation to keep up appearances and aware that she is in danger, but unable and/or unwilling to assess what is actually threatening her. Late in the series it's heavily implied that Akio poisons her with help from Anthy.
- Robin Hood's Great Adventure (1990): Lady Marian, two times over - she possesses the golden cross and is the heir to the Lancaster family's old fortune, which both the Lord Alwine and Bishop of Hereford covet.
- Genderflipped in Speed Grapher, where the Meal Ticket of Chouji Suitengu is the local Evil Matriarch Shinzen Tennozou Subverted in that Shinzen knows she's this and tries to use it to her advantage. But she's horribly Out-Gambitted in the end, and dies.
- In Tokyo Ghoul, Shuu Tsukiyama attempts to make himself one to Kaneki as part of his efforts to gain his trust, using his family's wealth to finance their group. Muggle Best Friend Chie teases him about this, comparing him to a dirty old man using money to charm a Hostess.
- The titular character from Yurika's Campus Life is a Socialite whose father's debts have, by the start of the story, extinguished all of his family's money, leaving her to fend off for herself. With few useful skills to make a living, she eventually decides to live the "gigolette" life, using the inexplicably efficient charm she has over other girls to take advantage of every rich student in the women's university she enrolls in. Because of this, most of the manga's chapters have a "Meal Ticket of the Week" format.
Comic Books
- Booster Gold's unnamed (and unseen) wife in "Formerly Known as the Justice League of America". His friend Blue Beetle chastises him for marrying for money.
Fan Works
- Back to the Frollo: Frollo lavishes Danisha with luxuries she wouldn't be able to afford as a rural schoolteacher, and it's implied most of her belongings are gifts from him. At one point, he offers to buy her a massive house. In the sequel, he gives her an ancient box that once belonged to a sixth-century Byzantine empress.
- Dirty Sympathy: Kristoph is explicitly called one to Apollo; not only is he Apollo's employer, he gives Apollo his apartment.
- DragonShortZ: Nappa refers to Bulma as Vegeta's "sugar mama" in when saying that she's the one that gave the Saiyan prince both a big house to live in and a son. He's not wrong.
- The Coffee Shop AU Fake It 'Til You Make It has Starving Artist Lucifer latch onto Lilith as one, convinced that getting together with her will ensure his success. However, the stress of pinning so many of his hopes and dreams on his ability to manipulate her takes its toll, turning him into a Stepford Smiler teetering on the verge of a complete breakdown.
- Fourth Born's Conquest: Mimil's parents exploit her status as a Child Prodigy, forcing her to become a Hero at a young age and sacrificing her ability to have a normal childhood so that they can use the cash her work's bringing in to live in luxury without having to work hard themselves.
- In a Strange Land: Mr. Harrington accuses his son's friends of being a bunch of gold diggers and bad influences, preferring Steve to spend time with the kind of associates he personally picked out for him. Ironically, the kids who have his father's approval are the real gold diggers who only care about Steve's money.
- The Insightful Gun Hero: Malty and the rest of Motoyasu's party view him this way. At one point, he's forced to listen in as Malty assures the newest addition that she doesn't need to worry about how he's not quite as impressive as the legends say; all she has to do is act as one of his personal cheerleaders and she'll get to live in luxury as he does all the hard work. Oh, and she needs to pretend to enjoy his cooking, too, though Malty advises her to just secretly spit it out whenever she can.
- Karmic Epilogue: Reflecting back on her past, Lila muses that she'd thought Adrien Agreste would be the perfect meal ticket and Trophy Husband, given how wealthy his family was. When that fell apart, she moved on, eventually finding a new patsy in Felice Nesci, whom she also mentally refers to a a meal ticket right as the authorities come knocking on her door.
- In the RWBY fic Learning To Bloom, Weiss mentions this trope by name. She's always been a Dude Magnet, but all the boys just want her because she comes from a rich family. Weiss thought that Neptune was different, but he also seems to like her because she's a Schnee.
- Son of the Desert: Trisha attracts a lot of unwanted suitors due to being a batsheva, as marrying her would enable them or their son to become the head of the family.
- "Spider on a Cold Shoulder" features a teenage Spider-Man meeting an older Emma Frost when she's seemingly about to jump off a building after the death of the Hellions, with Emma's psychic probe of Peter's mind not only giving her new faith in humanity but inspiring her to offer Peter financial support to improve his education. Tags explicitly refer to Emma as Peter's "sugar mama", although Peter didn't explicitly ask her for any such help and mainly won her interest because she was impressed by him being a genuinely good person.
- Sworn to You sees Velvette becoming Vaggie's "sugar mama", providing her with a place to live and most of her belongings in Hell. Vaggie grows increasingly uncomfortable with this lopsided dynamic, feeling like she owes her everything and can never fully repay her for all she's done.
- Teenage Rebellion: Lila doesn't take Adrien growing a spine and asserting himself very well, as she'd seen the Extreme Doormat as her ticket to wealth and fame.
- Universe Falls: When Stan is asked to help with Dipper's blossoming relationship with a girl, he thinks it's the funniest thing in the world. But once he learns that the girl in question is Pacifica Northwest, daughter of the obscenely wealthy family who founded Gravity Falls, he instantly changes his tune and goes full Shipper with an Agenda.
- The Weedverse: Discussed in Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals: Winter Break: The reason why Cloudy Quartz is such a Shipper on Deck for Tarnished Teapot and Limestone Pie is because she worries about her daughter potentially being targeted by ponies who'd only want to marry into the family of one of their heroes. Tarnish and Limestone aren't interested because they're more Like Brother and Sister.
- With this Ring... (Green Lantern): Invoked. When private eye Jonny Double is hired to investigate the disappearance of Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris, his first -flawed- theory is Hal talked Carol into eloping because he wanted her money.
The case seemed simple enough. Carol Ferris had run off with her lover, this hotdog test pilot. Her for love, him for money. Carl Ferris didn't want the guy's hands in [his daughter's] wallet. Maybe. But maybe it wasn't that simple.
Film — Animated
- In Thumbelina (1994), the Vicarious Gold Digger Ms. Fieldmouse encourages Thumbelina to marry their wealthy neighbor Mr. Mole, declaring that "love won't pay the mortgage or put porridge in your bowl". Ultimately, she's the one who winds up marrying him instead.
Film — Live-Action
- Uncle Fester is this to Debbie Jellinsky, the villainess in Addams Family Values. She wants the house, the wealth, and all the grotesque treasures of the family. This being the Addams Family, though, they can respect Debbie's murderous tendencies but not her maltreatment of Fester.
- Anora: Ani jumps at the chance of being Ivan's paid girlfriend, then wife, as he's very rich. She does genuinely appear to like him too, but his wealth is also very appealing for a working girl.
- Daddy Issues has a weird variant case. Jasmine is a sugar baby to Simon, play-acting as a little girl and dressing up as one. He pays her $5,000 a month for this; Maya, her girlfriend, is unhappy to learn of it. After he discovers that Jasmine's also with Maya, his daughter, Simon is distraught and ends the arrangement, despite Jasmine begging him not to do so.
- The Easiest Way: Laura is a lingerie model in 1931. A fellow model says that she's quitting the business because she's found a "sugar daddy." Laura soon gets one her own, and becomes the kept woman of wealthy executive William Brockton.
- The father in The Parent Trap (1961) and The Parent Trap (1998). Why is she interested in him? "I can think of a million reasons, and they're all in the bank."
- Priceless: Central to the plot. Irene is a Gold Digger with a whole little black book filled with potential meal tickets. She finally gets a meal ticket named Jacques to propose to her, but an ill-advised one-night stand with a bartender named Jean leads to Jacques dumping her. She latches on to another meal ticket in the person of a second rich guy named Gilles. Meanwhile, Jean, who's in love with Irene and follows after, winds up being the boy toy of an older rich lady meal ticket named Madeline.
- Problem Child 2: Big Ben sees his son's rich fiancée LaWanda Dumore as this for himself; when his son dumps her, he is then convinced to marry her instead.
- In Robin Hood (2010), Robin is asked to act as Sir Robert Loxley, including with Lady Marion. So when he introduces Lady Marion as his wife to his Band of Brothers, they applaud his luck with a "Well-played, Robin!"
- Shiva Baby: Max is Danielle's sugar daddy while she's on a site that hooks up sugar babies with them as well. They end this arrangement later, though.
- This is how Rose's mother in Titanic (1997) sees her daughter's fiancé Caledon Hockley more for herself than for Rose.
- Thor: Ragnarok: Tom Hiddleston in this interview discloses that the Grandmaster becomes Loki's sugar daddy after the latter arrives on Sakaar.
Hiddleston: In my head, Jeff Goldblum takes Loki out to Rodeo Drive and says, 'Pick the finest fabric you can find...'
Literature
- In Almost Perfect (2014), Benny's mom keeps skipping her visits with him. But when she reads about his and Breaker's dog show successes in the paper, she sues for custody so she can get rich off him. She even suggests that he trade Breaker for a Pomeranian that would look better on TV. Benny has spent so much time wishing his mom would want him, but now that she does, he realizes that she is fundamentally self-interested and incapable of having the relationship with him that he wants.
- The Bone Maker has a female example in Zera the Bone Wizard, a Retired Badass who now lives in palatial luxury with a large and ever-rotating stable of beautiful, athletic lovers. She offhandedly reassures one that she'll set him up for life in a house of his own when she tires of him. Ironically, he's the one to reveal Hidden Depths and eventually get promoted to her second-in-command.
- The Odyssey: Being a queen with a husband missing for two decades, Penelope is sought after by over a hundred men pressuring her to remarry one of them while they forcibly move into her palace and act like they own the place. By the time Odysseus finally makes it back home, he kills each and every last one of his wife’s suitors, not only for harassing his wife and plotting to kill their son, but especially for violating Sacred Hospitality.
- Sherlock Holmes:
- The second story The Sign of the Four has Watson deny himself the possibility of courting Mary Marston because while he loves her he doesn't want her (or anyone) to think that he's only after the treasure they're chasing. Once the treasure is thrown into the Thames he immediately proposes and she gleefully accepts (to Holmes' chagrin).
- The final short story has an impoverished aristocrat mooching off his sister, the widow of a very rich man. She'd actually died shortly before a major horse race he was counting on to clear away his debts, and faked her still being alive long enough to win the race.
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- The amoral sellsword Bronn, one of the series' many Social Climbers, marries Lollys Stokeworth, younger daughter of Lady Tanda Stokeworth of Stokeworth. Lollys is considered one of the worst marriage matches among the nobility, being over 30 (in a society where highborn women are often married off shortly after flowering), and mentally disabled, along with being pregnant due to being raped by a mob. However, Bronn uses his marriage to end up becoming Lord of Stokeworth, having the men he has gathered throw Lollys' elder and childless sister Falyse out shortly after Tanda breaks her hip in a riding accident. Tanda dies soon after and Falyse dies, making Bronn one of the most powerful men in the Crownlands outside King's Landing.
- Part of the secret to Petyr Baelish's incredibly rapid rise to power from such obscure roots in the Fingers? Lady Lyssa Arryn née Tully. He's leveraged that obsession of hers like you wouldn't believe, at no small cost to himself, too. It's... messy. As in "pretty much the start of the whole plot's pile-up" levels of still-unfolding mess.
- Donella Hornwood gets pursued by a lot of suitors seeking to inherit her lands and castle right after her husband and son die. She laments how even more men sought her hand in marriage at her old age now than when she was younger. Tragically and horrifically, Ramsay Snow refuses to take no for an answer and forcibly marries her, and eventually tortures her to death.
- In a non-romantic example, in Taylor's Ark the Taylors want very badly to adopt the child Leilani, the Sole Survivor of a colony wiped out by disease and who they nursed back to health. While it seemed inevitable at the end of the first book, in the second there have been three years of delays and debates, because Lani's colony had set up a tontine and therefore she is very rich. Subsequently, all kinds of people assume the Taylors want her for the money. Since they're constantly cash-starved by that point, Lani keeps offering to pay their debts, to give them a loan if they won't take a gift, but they're conscious that doing so will confirm child services' worst impressions and refuse.
- In The Three Musketeers, Porthos has a married noblewoman as his Meal Ticket.
Live-Action TV
- Daredevil (2015): In season 3, Foggy Nelson is encouraged by his girlfriend Marci Stahl to enter the District Attorney race so he can draw public attention to Wilson Fisk's criminal activities, and interim District Attorney Blake Tower's refusal to prosecute Fisk. While Foggy is motivated by getting Fisk brought to justice, Marci is hoping to use this as a springboard to advance her own career. After Fisk is put away and Foggy drops out of the race to instead reopen Nelson & Murdock, Marci expresses mild disappointment as she was getting adjusted to the idea of being married to the district attorney.
- Frasier: "Where There's Smoke, There's Fired": Frasier's unscrupulous agent Bebe Glazer has gotten engaged to the new station owner, Big Willy. Big Willy is very rich and about four decades older than Bebe. Her relationship with Wily is lampshaded by Frasier's producer Roz when Bebe assures them it is love at first sight, with Roz commenting it was the sight of his cardiogram. The only hitch to Bebe's plan is she's a smoker and Wily will not marry a smoker. He gives Frasier the weekend to fix this or the wedding's off. Despite Bebe kicking the habit in time, only out fear of losing all that money, Wily dies walking with Bebe down the aisle. She tries to pretend he's alive, but when they get to the altar, no one is fooled and she loses out on all the money.
- Game of Thrones: Walda Bolton. Not that Roose Bolton is poor, but he still chose her because Lord Walder promised the bride's weight in silver as a dowry.
- General Hospital: After Carly miscarried Sonny's baby, her rival Liz rather cruelly suggested that losing this trope was what she was really upset about. (Sonny being the town's wealthiest and most powerful mobster.)
- The Gilded Age: In this series set in 1880s New York, financial stability is a reason several people are pursued.
- Downplayed example: Marian Brook is a newcomer to New York, coming from Doylestown, PA after her late father, Henry Brook, left her penniless. She now lives with her aunts, the widower Agnes Van Rhijn and spinster Ada Brook. She is first pursued by the young lawyer, Tom Raikes, who helped settle her father's estate, but Agnes pegs him as a Gold Digger, stating her belief the man sees her as a ticket out of their small town. True to Agnes' estimation, as Raikes wines and dines among the richer New Yorkers, his desire to marry Marian wanes and he focuses on a richer heiress.
- In her youth in Doylestown, Ada Brook was pursued by a man named Cornelius Eckhard. His pursuit was not approved of by Ada's father as the man lacked much money. They went their separate ways, and he finds her again in their later years where he wishes to pursue a romance with her once more. During tea when he comes over, Ages knows he is a Gold Digger because in his youth, he was heard saying he was "about to marry a meal ticket." She privately reveals her knowledge of this previous declaration to him and if Ada were to ever get married, she would be obliged to move out the house and lose access to the van Rhijn money. This makes Eckhard leave abruptly with Agnes feeling happy to have protected her sister.
- Because of Henry's actions sold and spent their inheritances on wine and women, Agnes needed herself to find a meal ticket. Mr. van Rhijn had proposed and she accepted, but the implications are he was abusive and Agnes suffered in the marriage until his death.
- Gladys Russell, daughter of one the richest men in New York, will receive a large dowery upon her marriage and is the target of several men who seek her out for their own financial stability.
- The Golden Girls: Stan Zbornak; he doesn't have much going for him in the way of looks or charm (or hair) but because he's generous with his credit cards, he never lacks for co-eds ready to butter his buns.
- Interview with the Vampire (2022): Despite the fact that Louis de Pointe du Lac is independently wealthy, people gossip about Lestat de Lioncourt being his sugar daddy note , presumably due to the assumption that in an interracial relationship, the white man must be the provider, plus Louis lives in Lestat's townhouse. Antoinette Brown has heard rumours at the Azalea that Lestat does everything for Louis. Alderman Fenwick insinuates that Louis is essentially a "kept man" when he says, "your pale lover, with his seemingly endless supply of capital." Grace wants the family mansion to be under her control without having to buy it from Louis at its full value because "You and your white daddy are doing fine in the Quarter. We can't pay you what it's worth, and you don't need the money." Oddly enough, Louis doesn't dispute the speculation, and Lestat has expressed more than once that he wishes to provide for his lover ("I have all the money we need," "We don't need the money [from the Azalea]").
- A non-spousal variation occurs in the Married... with Children episode where Kelly becomes the new weather girl with an annual salary of $100,000. Al refers to her as their "meal ticket" when she is about to debut on TV, but Kelly being Kelly, she misreads the teleprompter and is immediately fired.
- Rita in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, who dosed Lord Zedd with a love potion so that he'd marry her, forget about banishing her and let her get back to terrorizing Earth. A later episode has Zedd's Dragon Goldar try to reverse the potion's effect, only to find that they'd actually fallen for each other anyway.
- The Plot Against America: It's implied that Alvin is most interested in Minna because her father is successful. When first introducing her to his family, Alvin only talks about her father's businesses.
- Succession has two rather unusual examples:
- While Tom actually seems to love Shiv more than she does him, it's obvious that a big reason he's with her is that her family is fantastically wealthy and have given him an important job he's not entirely qualified for.
- Connor is paying a beautiful woman to date him, and she uses the money to try to start a career as a playwright. She obviously doesn't like him much and is conflicted about their arrangement. He falls in love with her and showers her with more and more money to intensify their relationship, and she finds herself unable to refuse.
- Veronica Mars: Kendall Casablancas, a young hot ex-professional cheerleader marries the elder Dick Casablancas, and when he flees the country to avoid prosecution for real estate fraud, she tries to make her casual sex relationship with her stepson's rich friend more of a sugar daddy thing, despite his being several years younger than herself. Doesn't work.
- Why Women Kill: Rita’s husband Carlo Castillo was simply a means to get wealth and status for her.
Music
- The Eagles' "Lyin' Eyes" is about a gold digger who regrets marrying her Meal Ticket.
A rich old man, and she won't have to worry
She'll dress up all in lace and go in style.
Late at night a big old house gets lonely —
I guess every form of refuge has its price... - The titular woman in Jonathan Coulton's Millionaire Girlfriend.
- The Thompson Twins had a very peppy but rather dark song called "Sugar Daddy" about this trope. The "daddy" in question is very aware of the GoldDigger's designs and is going to make the fortune-seeker pay for it.
- The girlfriend in Tripod's Old Money.
Podcasts
- Bleeker Trails: Milford Hardpenny is well-to-do merchant and a bit of a snobbish Sheltered Aristocrat who looks down on people he considers to be of a lower class than himself. Moni is introduced as his travelling (and bedroom) companion, and has him wrapped around her little finger... at least until she ditches him for Patience in Episode 2. This comes back to bite her when he's eaten by a swarm of rats in Episode 4, with Moni suffering a Bout of Madness over how dismissive she'd been towards him.
Professional Wrestling
- Vicki Guerrero certainly played this role with Edge being the Gold Digger foil.
Theatre
- In Boston Marriage, Anna is the mistress of a rich man who pays her an allowance and gives her jewelry and other valuable gifts.
- Chicago: Amos Hart ("Mr. Cellophane") is the meal ticket for Roxy. In this case, he's not rich or powerful, he's simply willing to support her no matter what she does.
- Portia for all of her suitors, in The Merchant of Venice. Bassanio is just the one who’s somewhat less of a jerk about it.
- Katherine, the "shrew" of The Taming of the Shrew, is the meal ticket. Petruchio, the gold digger, learns to love her, though. In Kiss Me, Kate, the musical adaptation, Petruchio's motives are made explicit by his song, "I've Come to Wive It Wealthily (in Padua)".
- The unseen husband in all versions of The Women. (In fact, he's seen in The Opposite Sex.)
Video Games
- Pretty much any unmarried dwarf in Dragon Age: Origins is either a Meal Ticket or a Gold Digger, due to the way their caste system works ("Poorly," as one dwarven nobleman states). Among the Casteless, the only way out of poverty short of leaving Orzammar altogether (which usually involves joining one of many syndicates, turning them into the meal tickets), is to have a child of the opposite gender by a higher caste partner. This is encouraged in Orzammar since it helps maintain the population in the face of Darkspawn attacks. A male Dwarf Noble PC can serve as a meal ticket: there's an Optional Sexual Encounter with a pair of noble hunters during the prologue, and when you return to Orzammar later in the game one of them is pregnant with his son. This sets up a minor quest to get them adopted into a noble house since the player character has been exiled and is no longer counted as a noble.
- Princess Ovelia to Delita in Final Fantasy Tactics. As much as he loved her, he loved what he could do with her status more. This ends in tragedy when Ovelia is driven paranoid by Delita's manipulation of everyone around him, assuming that he was also going to discard her and prompting her to stab him.
- As we find out in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Bentley is seen as a meal ticket by Penelope because he's a Gadgeteer Genius; she wants him to invent weapons to sell on the black market for billions of dollars, and then she can Take Over the World — even though they already have more than enough money to last a lifetime from the Cooper Vault, and the ability to convert said vault into a museum. It just shows that Penelope is a sociopath whose greed cannot be satisfied. When Bentley learns the truth, he dumps her out of disgust.
Visual Novels
- Rena's father in Higurashi: When They Cry is Rina's Meal Ticket. She tries to kill Rena when Rena threatens to reveal her scheme to con her dad out of his money, even trying to strangle her with her bare hands. Rena manages to get free, and then she murders Rina out of self-defense. Unfortunately, that was only the start of Rena's troubles.
- What a Legend!: Waldo obviously doesn't care for his wife Gretta, but needs her to pay his debts (and it sounds like the house they live in may be hers too). Waldo treats her badly (and she mostly makes excuses for it), but he changes his tune (at least for now) when Gretta finds out about his pursuit of Holly and threatens to kick him out.
Web Animation
- In Helluva Boss, Blitzo seduces an incredibly powerful Overlord of Hell named Stolas Ars Goetia in order to gain access to the Goetia family's Grimoire, a book that among other mysterious powers includes the ability to summon portals to the living world. Unfortunately for him, Stolas destroyed his marriage and estranged his daughter to be with him because he's so madly, madly in love, causing numerous complications for Blitzo and his company.note
Webcomics
- Sticky Dilly Buns: Amber specifically refers to Nathan as having been her "sugar daddy". (The actual affair was seen during their earlier appearances in Ménage à 3.) She definitely extracted acting jobs and eventually an apartment from him; there may have been other gifts, but they weren't shown. Nathan periodically attempts to rekindle the relationship, and uses (and may be used by) other people in a similar way.
- The "Dependapotamus", according to Terminal Lance. This is a genuine slang term in the U.S. Armed Forces, by the way, for women who seek out service members to marry specifically to take advantage of their benefits.
- For the most part, Nancy's just teasing Paul when she calls herself one, in Rhapsodies. Having said that she's the one paying in most of their dates.
- Unsounded:
- In general, marrying someone for their status is a common theme in the segregated world of Kasslyne. In Alderode, citizens are expected to marry someone in their own caste very early on, and while there is no direct punishment for refusing to marry, there is a steep punishment for trying to love someone outside of your caste; this results in a thirsty population where marrying someone of the same caste and a good job takes precedence over love. In Cresce, social mobility is surprisingly frequent, but the nobles hog all the cheddar and they will gladly push the commoners into an unwinnable situation if they don't get the trophy husbands/wives they want, meaning those who treat the nobles as meal tickets constantly win.
- A long time ago, before Duane became a lich, he almost fell in love with a woman from a lower caste. In the end, he married a nice lady from his own caste - one who is implied to be less loving than she frequently projects in his romanticized memories.
- Karl marries the noblewoman Esme Toma purely for her status. He even plans to murder her after she's done bearing him an heir. He almost wins. Noble society is so messed up that most of the nobles support this ex-peasant who basically gaslit his way to the top and gleefully promotes genocide using his wife's title. Fortunately, Karl screws himself over in a crisis, attacks the Queen, and is arrested and then murdered in prison.
- This is inverted for Esme's ex-husband, Emil. Emil hates his flippant wife, and if they didn't have a daughter he might have killed himself by seeking death in war just to make it stop; getting divorced is almost a relief, but he's saddened by how he can't use his wife as a meal ticket - the meal being the right to keep custody of his beloved daughter.
Web Videos
- One of the scams that the scambaiter Pleasant Green has explored is the "sugar daddy" scam, in which someone on the Internet claims that if you send them things like photos of your feet, they will be your "sugar daddy" and give you money, lavish vacations, etc. This invariably turns out to end up being a variation on the Four Nineteen Scam in which they ask you for money first and then cut off all contact after being given it.
Western Animation
- In the Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart episode "The Perfect Couple", Orangusnake agrees to marry Penny after she whispers her credit score to him. He even straight-up refers to her as a meal ticket! It's somewhat justified as the Sky Pirates rarely get to eat actual food.
