I had these kind of unrealistic expectations that were fueled by romantic comedies, and it has both helped me and hurt me in many ways. It helped me because, in general, they’ve made me hopeful. I just figure things will eventually work out for me. But nobody is like any Tom Hanks character. Nobody is Hugh Grant. No one is Meg Ryan!

Kaling reflects on how pop-cultural narratives—especially the tidy emotional arcs of romantic comedies—shape real expectations about love and adulthood. She acknowledges a double effect: the genre’s optimism can be psychologically sustaining, encouraging patience and faith that life will “work out,” yet it also sets up disappointment because real people rarely match the charm, wit, or scripted decency of iconic rom‑com protagonists. By naming Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, and Meg Ryan, she points to the gap between cinematic archetypes and ordinary human complexity, suggesting that maturity involves keeping hope while relinquishing the demand that life conform to a movie’s plot.