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Gargle Blaster / Webcomics

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Florence: 'If you drink this, you will die.' Pretty clear warning label.
Helix: Uhm, that's the statement of quality. The warnings are listed further down.

Examples of Gargle Blasters in Webcomics.


  • In the modern arc of Arthur, King of Time and Space, Gawaine has a bottle of something called El Toro Guajo, made from fermented hot Mexican guavi peppers. It has no effect on Arthur.
  • Carry On: In one bar in Rackenroon the typical tropical fruity, slushy cocktail "Lava Flow" is made differently. On the next page, we get to see it being poured.
  • In Frederick the Great, Ignatius of Loyola's drink of choice is the Dirty Charlemagne, whose ingredients apparently include Chianti, rhino dust, and mercury. Adding extra opiates makes it a Dirtier Charlemagne.
  • The Whiteboard: More than one character runs afoul of this trope.
  • In Freefall, John Jones Monroevian Moonshine: Fine sipping whiskey and high explosive. According to the ingredients list on the bottle, it contains "muskrat squeezings, nitroglycerin, and other additives both natural and unnatural." This is, of course, a Shout-Out to the Kickapoo Joy Juice in Li'l Abner (made from ground up dead skunks and old shoes among other things).
  • Girl Genius
    • Theo's idea of a good home-brewed liquor can be expected to be at least 200 proof, and have other... interesting ingredients. "Hey, he's breathing again!" Note that 200 proof is pure alcohol. Also note that under normal circumstances, opening a container of pure alcohol outside of laboratory conditions will cause it to be diluted by the moisture in the air. Maybe part of Theo's talent as a Spark makes him a Mad Moonshiner who can make impossible drinks?
    • One cup of Double-Fortified (Distilled, then freeze-distilled and then aged - in stone casks, as wooden ones tend to spontaneously combust - for good measure) Lingonberry Snap will apparently give you hallucinations (probably because along with the Lingonberries, the recipe also includes hallucinogenic fungi). "Ah. I'd wondered why they were playing the music backwards."
    • The vodka made in the still owned by the engineers on Castle Wulfenbach will spontaneously ignite when exposed to direct sunlight.
    • The gargle blaster of choice of Mechanicsburg is snezek, a brew made by distilling various plants and insects that had been mutated by Dyne water. The name is derived from the sound people make after tasting it for the first time.
    • According to the novels, Moloch was the moonshiner for his military unit, which often included using scavenged parts for the stills -including parts from Spark-created machines. The effects of the moonshine ranged from making your ears pointy to turning you blue to literally breathing fire -and that's just what was specifically spelled out. The endurance built up from this means Moloch can down the worst of Gargle Blasters as though they're the cleanest of water.
  • Brog ale in The Gods of Arr-Kelaan, the fermentation process involves sulfuric acid and something like nitroglycerin and even Brogs can only drink one a day. Ronson (god of alcohol) gets a little numb for a few seconds if he drinks enough of it fast enough.
  • Life and Death has one during a drinking contest. Death wins mostly because he actually drank it (the other competitor threw the match in fear), and he later states he could feel his organs shut down one by one; he actually looped back to "sober" from how absurdly drunk he was, and needed a cup of coffee to get back to "safely tanked".
    Death: Pardon the stereotype, but you're a dwarf. I know you've got a better drink for us.
    Dwarf: Well... there is one drink... but the last time Thor had some he went blind for a fortnight.
  • Risk-taking characters in Mountain Time might be so bold as to imbibe bearshine, a drink so potent it's "only legal for dead people."
  • In Nodwick, we have "Skullwhomper Ale". The effects are rarely shown in the comic itself, but its consumption almost invariably leads to some sort of Noodle Incident. The destruction of the local tavern it is served in is a frequent component to these, and when a local Elven/Dwarven war takes over the town, the invaders end up classifying the ale as an incendiary weapon. Skullwhomper Ale was initially brewed by a dragon who did intend to use it as an incendiary weapon. When it found out that people were stealing its concoction for drinking, it was so embarrassed that it gave Nodwick the recipe and completely gave up on its plan.
  • One strip of Planescape Survival Guide has a drink made from the exploded remains of a Balor demon being handled with tongs, and the hilarious aftereffects of the drink itself.
  • Questionable Content
    • Faye's brew of choice, Midnight Hobo.
    • Another time the group asks for a liquor store's "finest whiskey" and gets it. The bottle glows and singing angels can be heard, and just one sip was enough to allow alcoholic Faye to see quantum mechanics. It also glows.
      Faye: Everything's... blueshifted... a myriad of quantum states... all of them deliciously intoxicated...
      Hannelore: (reading label) "Warning: Consumption of this bourbon whiskey may cause you to get religion, get naked, or get arrested."
      Dora: It doesn't say anything about relativistic time dilation. Maybe we should call the hospital. Or a physicist.
    • An unidentified alcohol in a later strip is just as ominous.
    • The questionably-canon Yelling Bird apparently has kerosene as its drink of choice.
    • Later on, Brun requests a beer that comes in a cask with glowing eldritch runes. The name translates to Worm-father Deathshead-birthday Dark-brew.
  • Something*Positive:
    • In an accidental occurrence, Davan takes a swig from a flask... not realizing Monette had dumped Everclear in it... and Fred had dumped moonshine in it... and PeeJee had dumped absinthe in it. He instantly started hallucinating imaginary characters from Girls with Slingshots, the comic whose characters' wedding he was attending at the time.
    • Post-wedding strips from Girls With Slingshots indicates that he shared it with Hazel.
      Hazel: ... Yeah, Sammy the one-eyed talking platypus.
      Jamie: What the hell was in that flask?!
  • Schlock from Schlock Mercenary in one storyline ends up ingesting some random items, including some bottles of "concentrated solvent". It barely affected him (with the surprise being that he was affected at all); his squadmate "Legs" wasn't so lucky....
    (Schlock burps)
    Legs: Frankly my dear, it's full of stars...
    Schlock: Medic!
    Legs: I see dead people!
    Schlock: HAZMAT!!
    • As it was, he ended up with a misdemeanor charge, and remanded to a Lieutenant's custody. "Unauthorized distribution of perfume", though, would have been a felony.
  • In S.S.D.D. a CORE bar serves "99% proof cider", it's also the only thing that can get the Super Soldiers who make up a significant proportion of their clientele drunk.
    Tessa: I thought the "Do not drink" label was just a marketing ploy!
    Lee: Yeah, legally they need to sell this stuff as paint thinner.
  • In Stick in the Mud John receives some mysterious booze from an unknown sender. It's the cause of the whole story.
  • Stickman and Cube has Una Muerte Con Mucho Dolor, which comes with several hours of warnings and disclaimers and must be served in a diamond glass. (the name translates as "A Very Painful Death")
  • The Team Fortress 2 supplemental webcomic Blood in the Water gives us whatever the hell Sniper's 'family moonshine' is. One syringe to the neck is enough to knock out the Demoman! And it has a terrible shelf-life, apparently.
    Sniper: It don't keep long. Melts through the barrels.
  • Vegfolk Fables: Old Raven Blended Bourbon. As Kit describes it, all of the pain of alcohol, none of the fun. It even burns Rory just to have it poured on his head.
  • In Wicked Awesome Adventure, one of the Big Three soda corporations fighting over the post-apocalyptic world has made Mule Kick Hallucinogenic Vision Potion. It may or may not be alcoholic, but Mule Kick freely acknowledges (and even advertises) its propensity to give its drinkers mind trips.


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