'''Basic Trope''': A male character starts a romance with a mermaid and can't figure out how to go all the way.
* '''Straight''': Bob the human meets Alice the mermaid - they fall in love [[IKEAErotica but can't make love]].
* '''Exaggerated''':
** Bob will vow to never have sex due to his love for Alice.
** Alice has an octopus' arms instead of legs, and so literally lacks a genital opening.
* '''Downplayed''': Alice does have a fishy lower body, however there is still an opening for Bob to "work with".
* '''Justified''':
** Alice the mermaid lays eggs.
** Cetaceans (and presumably also mermaids) have internal genitalia inside a cloaca- the shared orifice used by the vagina, urethra, and anus- and the cloaca is difficult to find.
* '''Inverted''':
** [[{{Xenofiction}} Alice the mermaid can not figure out how to make love to Bob the human]].
** Alice is a "reverse mermaid" (fish above the waist, human below).
* '''Gender-Inverted''': Alice is a human woman and Bob is a merman.
* '''Subverted''':
** "She has a mouth."
** External fertilization, like fish. "She has a hand."
** Turn out that part of her scales, just below her waist, are concealing a cloaca.
** Her lower half resembles that of a dolphin or a whale—both mammals—and is therefore "compatible".
* '''Double Subverted''':
** Alice instinctively bites down like a shark when he tries oral.
** Alice is a human woman and Bob is a merman- and his genitals are retracted inside a cloaca when not in use.
* '''Parodied''': Bob is a "mersexual" but has no idea how to make love with mermaids. It amuses mermaids to not tell him.
* '''Zig Zagged''': Bob and Alice the mermaid can't make love. [[GiftOfTheMagiPlot Alice has herself turned into a human. Bob turns himself into a merman]]. Of course since she was a mermaid until recently, Alice knows just what to do.
* '''Averted''':
** Alice is a human woman wearing a prosthetic tail over her legs.
** Mermaids in this setting are aquatic mammals and possess a dolphin-like cloaca instead of external genitalia.
** Bob and Alice don't want to have sex.
** Alice has two tails instead of one, with female genitalia in between.
** It's a case of BarbieDollAnatomy. The ''audience'' can't see Alice's private parts, but they're there.
* '''Enforced''': "We can't have love making on screen. Make Alice a mermaid."
* '''Lampshaded''': Bob: "I have to do WHAT?"
* '''Invoked''': [[HandsomeLech Bob]] is trapped on a planet of incompatible mermaids as a form of IronicHell.
* '''Exploited''': Alice keeps Bob distracted with figuring out how her biology works while the villain makes off with the money.
* '''Defied''': Bob has no problem working out the biology of [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent her kind]].
* '''Discussed''':
--> '''Alice''': I'm ready Bob, take me now!\\
'''Bob''': How do I do that?\\
'''Alice''': Loser.
* '''Conversed''': "Oh, god, how many more times will we have to see this plot point happening in series who include mermaids? Can't they just have a series where the mermaids either aren't involved in romance or have it with their own kind?"
* '''Deconstructed''':
** Despite superficial similarities, mermaids and humans are far too biologically different for a romantic or sexual relationship to work. They have fundamental misconceptions about how such a relationship would work - Bob can't get past her lack of 'equipment', Alice doesn't understand why he sees sex as more than just reproduction. They have a short, rocky relationship and go their separate ways.
** Alice, as a mermaid, has a dolphin-like cloaca that is the shared orifice for her vagina and anus. Bob is averse to inserting his dick into the cloaca because he is neither into anal nor has a scat fetish.
* '''Reconstructed''':
** Bob has a fetish for mermaids, and Alice has a fascination with humans. They make it work.
** Alice and Bob decide that the emotional relationship between them is more important than having compatible equipment and that being a ChastityCouple is enough for them. And it doesn't necessarily stop them from going to second base if they really want to.
* '''Played For Laughs:''' "I put it where?"
* '''Played For Drama:''' Alice thinks because of this problem she and Bob were never meant to be.
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Back to the MermaidProblem - we think the answer may involve [[DoubleEntendre seamen]].
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%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
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%%* '''Implied''': ???