This inquiry examines negative aspects of marriage and how it is regarded and conceived in the body of Anglo-American anti-proverbs (i.e., intentional proverb innovations (also known as alterations, parodies, transformations, variations, wisecracks, mutations, or fractured proverbs) and wellerisms (a form of folklore usually made up of three parts: 1) a statement, 2) a speaker who makes this remark, and 3) a phrase that places the utterance into an unanticipated, cunning situation. The meaning of the proverb, proverbial phrase or other statement is ordinarily perverted by being placed into notable juxtaposition with the third part of the wellerisms). Another goal of the inquiry is to represent wives and husbands, and assay their nature, qualities, attributes and behaviours as disclosed via Anglo-American anti-proverbs and wellerisms. The debate is organized in two parts. The anti-proverbs and wellerisms debated in the inquiry were taken mainly from American and British written sources. The texts of anti-proverbs were drawn from hundreds of books and articles on puns, one-liners, toasts, wisecracks, quotations, aphorisms, maxims, quips, epigrams, and graffiti gathered in two dictionaries of anti-proverbs compiled by Anna T. Litovkina and Wolfgang Mieder (see Mieder & Tóthné Litovkina 1999; T. Litovkina & Mieder 2006). The texts of wellerims are mainly cited from the dictionary of wellerisms (see Mieder & Kingsbury 1994).