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Ho Yay / Other Media
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Compare examples of Ho Yay in other media.


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    Advertising 

  • One ad for HD TV has two guys, one of them serious, the other a Large Ham doing a William Shatner impersonation. Their sell goes like this.
    Ham: I'll be so real, it's like you could reach out and touch me! *makes reaching gesture, turns to Other Guy* Go on, try to touch me!
    Other Guy: No...
    Ham: How 'bout a hug? *as Other Guy steps back, Ham looks sad* This is awkward.
  • This Quizno's ad features the distinctly male voice of an oven saying "Put it in me, Scott," and telling Scott to say his lines for the commercial "sexier" (later bowdlerized to "with passion," though that only barely helps).
  • Kevin Butler in the PlayStation 3 commercials seems to have a bit of a thing for Jack Tretton, President of the SCEA. If you look carefully, almost every single commercial has a picture of Jack somewhere in it, he plays ModNation Racers with him and after losing, comments 'Let's not make it weird Jack.' And then there's the latest commercial, where his return to Sony is opened with him looking longingly at a picture of Jack and saying 'You are the boss of me.'
  • Orangina recently released a set of ads parodying different products. One of them was an aftershave, with a puma applying Orangina as an aftershave... which was then closed with an actual human rubbing the cougar's face in a rather affectionate fashion.
  • Another HD ad, this time for Verizon FiOS: FiOS guy says he's installed FiOS in the entire apartment, and this ensues:
    Cable Guy: Thanks, but I'll be sticking with cable. And so is Ted.
    Ted (off-screen): No, I'm not.
    Cable Guy: Ted's just kidding.
    Ted (annoyed): No, I'm not.
    Cable Guy: *sigh* Ted has betrayed me.
  • There's a Czech car ad with a salesman asking why the customer wants this car while they're in each other's personal space, and are in stances that look like they're about to make out. Featuring these lines:
    Salesman: Do you... have a family?
    Customer: [sensuously] No...
  • M&M's commercials are rather thick with this, from disturbing strip-teases to reenacting the famous scene from Titanic. There's also the commercial for Pretzel M&M's with a lot of discussion about getting a pretzel inside an M&M.
    "I've never had a pretzel inside of me before."
  • This Mercedes-Benz advert with Schumacher, Rosberg and Hakkinen is filled to the brim.
  • Confused.com has paired Cara and Bertha together more and more with each advert, finally culminating in this one where they have a duet and Bertha pulls Cara's face into her chest.
  • A famous modeling image from the late 1980s shows Stephanie Seymour, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, and Naomi Campbell. Naked. Hugging each other. Yeah, no homoerotic subtext there.
  • McDonald's Japan has made a TV ad which was promptly proclaimed 'best yuri anime of the year' by more than one person. It could just be a case of admiration, up until the last part of the montage, where the Audience Surrogate girl gives a bouquet of flowers to her sempai, while blushing, and then framing a photo of the moment inside her locker next to a picture of the two of them smiling happily and leaning into each other, with heart-shaped stickers even.
    Twitter user: Still genuinely angry that the best lesbian anime content of 2016 was made by McDonald's.
  • This Super Bowl 2018 commercial for the NFL features Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. dancing to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life"...you know, the Dirty Dancing song? And yes, they pull off the lift.
    Landon Collins: Just let them dance.
  • One of the Liberty Mutual ads starring Doug and the LiMu emu has Doug musing about The One That Got Away, and has a flashback to him talking about insurance to another guy. The guy reveals he had his headphones on and leaves the elevator, and Doug drops to his knees with a Big "NO!" that the guy couldn't hear his insurance pitch.
  • A 1970's commercial for Arm & Hammer baking soda features two female anthropomorphic cats at a party. The cat with glasses acts quite shy around Jessica, the suave cat promoting Arm & Hammer as a way to prevent a smelly litter box, and the commercial ends with her breathily exclaiming "Oh Jessica, you're so sophisticated," while looking at Jessica with admiration. Doesn't hurt that while she says this, Jessica laps up her drink with her tongue and then licks her lips with a seductive look to the camera. The replies to a repost of the commercial on Twitter are full of people shipping the cats.
  • Aleksandr and Sergei, the star meerkats of the Compare the Meerkat campaign, have gradually evolved from a Mean Boss and Beleaguered Bureaucrat dynamic to acting like a married couple. The Meerkat Movies campaign has them frequently go on movie dates — Sergei even gives up a date with Nicole Kidman so he can go with Aleksandr instead, and in a later ad, Aleksandr becomes very forlorn when Sergei is missing from the house. Another ad has them accidentally reenact a pose from Titanic (1997) with Sergei holding Aleksandr the way Jack holds Rose, with Sergei clutching Aleksandr long enough to make Aleksandr feel awkward. They even engage in Platonic Co-Parenting when they adopt the baby pup Oleg (as well as Oleg's friend Ayana later on).
  • This commercial for Expedia is about a young woman who gets aided on her travels by an Anthropomorphic Personification of the Expedia app, played by Rashida Jones, who accompanies the woman on her trips and helps her have a memorable experience, and the tagline for the commercial is "it matters who you travel with". It's very easy to read it as a love story between two women.

    Asian Animation 
  • Zhang Liang and Yan Lu from Qin's Moon, the second and third household managers of the Confucius School are often seen together having private conversations. Yan Lu is often the person Zhang Liang opens up to when he's feeling insecure about his plans of assisting the Mohist rebels. Yan Lu is also willing to devote himself in helping Zhang Liang by covering up his secrets from Fu Nian, the head household manager, to the extent of attempting to take all the blame for him when he founds out about them keeping Mohist rebels in the school. Zhang Liang was not very approval of this.

    Manhwa 
  • Shin Angyo Onshi: Won Sul seems to have strong feelings for Munsu.
  • Tower of God: Ja Wangnan and Nya Nia. Nia quickly became Ja's friend after he ran into him being beaten up by loan sharks. He gives him a free food coupon and wishes him best luck. They later meet on the testing grounds of the 20th Floor and quickly form a team and share a room, around the time Ja notices that Nia is a boy. The final clue: Ja has Nia's number under "My Beloved Nia ♥".

    Mythology & Religion 
  • In the story of Amaterasu and the Cave, the titular sun goddess runs away to sulk in a cave after her brother kills one of her female servants (whom she may or may not have been in a relationship with). Having the literal sun leave to sulk in a cave is obviously pretty bad for the rest of the world, so the other gods try to lure her out. First with a bunch of roosters (a cocktease, if you will). This did not work. The next plan involve tricking her into seeing her own reflections. The reason this was supposed to work varies, but it did not. Their final plan is to go get local fun goddess and party girl Ama-no-uzume and get her to lure out Amaterasu with a striptease. They make enough noise to get Amaterasu to stick her head out, upon which she sees the naked goddess, and comes out for real. And that is how Ama-no-uzume gets the sun to rise.
    • Some stories change this to narcissism, with the other gods telling Amaterasu that they found another sun goddess that is way hot, and when Amaterasu, curious, sticks her head out, she sees her reflection. Still makes her suspiciously interested in the female form, though.

    Newspaper Comics and Political Cartoons 
  • Beetle Bailey: While the strip has featured some of the characters getting chummy with each other for laughs, there are other strips where the homoerotic tension may not have been intended:
    • The 2009-10-20 strip where Cookie is about to ask if Sarge "do you want some..." and Sarge puts his front against Cookie's back before Cookie can clarify what he was about to offer. Sarge also claims that he knew Cookie was about to offer a cake because Cookie's voice "gets sweeter" when he talks about the subject.
    • The 2003-06-23 strip features Sarge going to the doctor due to a rash in his neck and being shown that he has been infected with a bacteria called "bacillus beetleosis" which looks exactly like Beetle's face.
  • Garfield:
    • The December 14, 2008 strip ends with Odie kissing Garfield under the mistletoe while the latter struggles.
      • There is a strip where Jon has hung up a mistletoe over his door in order to kiss the first person to ring the bell. Said person is the mailman.
    • There's also the strip from the early '90s in which Garfield sneaks up behind Odie and scratches his butt. To say that this gets Odie really excited would be an understatement. (Just look at him drool!)
  • The relationship between the butch girl-hater Dennis Mitchell and the... quite delicate Joey McDonald in Dennis the Menace has raised some eyebrows.
  • Rex Morgan, M.D. Just Rex Morgan MD.
  • The Finnish newspaper comic Nanna's main characters Nanna and Ritu are "roommates" who happen to share a bed (Nanna Sleeps in the Nude), and share random shows of affection, including Ritu sneaking behind Nanna to kiss her ears.
  • Considering the fact that Krazy Kat never establishes the titular character's gender, it's a distinct possibility that the story's pivotal love triangle is entirely male. Which would make this another trope entirely. This strip started in 1917.
  • This political cartoon from Punch! has Britannia and Colonia sharing a rather romantic dance, with each of them saying dialogue that amounts to "you're the only one I need". They're the anthropomorphic personifications of the United Kingdom and its various colonies respectively, but it still comes off as very Sapphic.

    Opera 
Yes, yes; especially with all the modern productions running around, some weird lines have been played up to scandalous levels:
  • In Rossini's "La Cenerentola" (Opera version of Cinderella), the incessant boot-licking on part of the evil stepfather don Magnifico to Dandini (the valet passing from the Prince, all too often camped up as is to be expected from his name), crowning just before Dandini reveals his true identity, when Magnifico, exasperated that the "Prince" won't tell him which of his two daughters he's going to marry, but rambles on about what a bizarre case he exclaims "Well then, do you want to marry me?"
  • Unulfo, the lyric counter-tenor in Rodelinda, is often depicted as having an unhealthy attraction to his master king Bertarido (the lines "If I save my lord, my heart wants nothing more" sung in a mezzo-soprano voice leave very little to imagination); some directors have even paired him up with the bad baritone Garibaldo.
  • Captain Corcoran and Sir Joseph Porter KCB from HMS Pinafore have actually been slashed.
  • Sgt.Belcore and Nemorino from l'Elisir d'Amore; it seems some directors find Belcore WAY too manly for his own good...
  • One Polish adaptation of "Lucrezia Borgia" made Gennaro and Orsini canon lovers, complete with making out on stage.
  • In Verdi's Don Carlo, Carlo has to give up the woman he loves (to a political marriage to his father!), so he and his devoted friend Rodrigo decide to go fight for Flemish independence from Spain, in a splendid duetnote . Rodrigo eventually dies in Carlo's arms. In former times this was perfectly aboveboard, but nowadays there is a sizable amount of slash fic depicting these two on sites such as Archive of our Own.

    Print Media 
  • Cosmopolitan is a magazine aimed at women that regularly features scantily-clad women on the cover.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Pro wrestling has an entire gimmick built on this reaction known as exotico, though the reaction is more Played for Laughs than for sexy, as plain pro wrestling itself is usually enough for the people who watch for that reason.
  • Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles, both as tag team partners and opponents for the large majority of their careers, with poor Samoa Joe having to endure it. The two have named their kids after each other.
  • The Radiant Rain and The Lovely Lacey, the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew. Lacey may have set Rain up with her husband but that didn't stop her from calling the radiant one the love of her life.
  • Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley openly refer to themselves as Hetero Sexual Life Partners, so this was sure to come.
  • Stupid strength, a perpetual grin and suspect holds are Hiroyo Matsumoto's three calling cards. The holds especially when facing off against LuFisto.
  • Claudio Castagnoli had a feud with his tag team partner Chris Hero in Pro Wrestling Guerilla involving trying to get rid of Hero's girlfriend Candice LaRae.
  • The Beautiful People were oozing with Les Yay. Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky's warmup stretches were obvious enough, though at least had some hint of ambiguity. Sky and Angelina Love actually teased the audience by leaning in to kiss only to pull away at the last second and laugh. Then there was the feud with Winter, who was basically gay for Love, with Sky acting like a jealous girlfriend. Sky was acting like a jealous girlfriend before it was revealed Winter was the gay party.
  • Tara and Tessmacher in TNA. A blatant example: They would often hold hands on the way to the ring.
  • Madison Rayne also seemed go gay for Gail Kim when the latter returned to TNA, completely out of the blue. It didn't help that the feuded with an actual couple in Eric Young and ODB over the knockout Tag Team titles.
  • The 2018 reunion of NJPW's Golden Lovers tag team (Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega) was very much framed as a reunion of former romantic partners. And that's before Cody kissed Kota on-screen to make Kenny jealous. In fact, Kenny retweeted a Twitter thread that called the storyline "a happy gay romance".
  • Taeler Hendrix used a 69 pin to win her no-DQ match with Mandy Leon in Ring of Honor.
  • Cara Noir and Ilja Dragunov in PROGRESS. Hand holding, embracing, getting very cuddly, Ilja even calling Cara "beautiful" - twice, to his face, while they gazed intensely at each other - and all while they were supposedly rivals. And that was all in the space of just a few weeks!
    • Their 2 out of 3 falls match at Chapter 99 upped the ante. It began with a handshake-turned-homoerotic-embrace, continued with Ilja willingly taking the first fall by getting down on one knee and gazing lovingly at Cara (pretty obvious what that was meant to look like), and Ilja - for the second time - kissed Cara on the forehead.

    Radio 

    Textbooks and accompanying material 
  • A Chinese textbook used in some Australian universities features a scene of example dialogue, the accompanying video of which is glorious in its Ho Yay overtones. An effeminate man walks into his roommate's room completely uninvited or unprovoked, hangs a pot plant on the ceiling, strides over to his sleeping roomate, bends over to get in close, and starts stroking his roommate's face. The roommate then wakes up and the not even vaguely related conversation in Chinese ensues, and they're still fairly close together throughout the entire thing. Somehow, the textbook itself only improves on this: it depicts the sleeping man with no shirt. Truly, this is an achievement in the realm of Textbook Humor.

    Theme Parks 
  • In the Christmas overlay of Disneyland's The Haunted Mansion, Madame Leota recites, instead of her classical incantation, a ghostly parody of "The Twelve Days of Christmas", titled "The Thirteen Days of Christmas", with various words throughout the poem being replaced by similar-sounding ones associated with ghost stories. For instance, "my true love" is replaced with "my ghoul friend". Why this crosses into this trope is because "ghoul friend" had already been used in earlier Mansion merchandise as the ghosts' punny version of girlfriend.

    Toys 
  • Barbie's massive library of direct-to-video movies have their own page, but the dolls themselves deserve a mention too:
    • Earring Magic Ken from 1993. The idea was to update Ken to make him "cooler", and so this doll came with a lavender mesh shirt, leather purple vest, and most famously, a silver necklace with a circular charm that bears a strong resemblance to a chrome cock ring. He became the accidental gay icon of 1993 and the best-selling Ken doll up to that point in the character's history, despite only being on the market for six months before heteronormative backlash led to his discontinuation.

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