Alcohol-Induced Bisexuality

"My shorts don't really say 'Grab Me' on them, okay?... Though you did, in fact, feel free to 'Grab There' while we were on stage, Miss 'Three drinks and I'm Bisexual!'"

— Ninjette, Empowered

Ah, alcohol, known from the earliest days of its creation to lower inhibitions of all sorts. Up to, including, and perhaps especially sexual inhibitions.

Our hero or heroine has a canonical Love Interest of the opposite gender, or at least have been shown to be interested in the opposite sex. However, one night after having a few too many, they suddenly start flirting with and even propositioning members of the same gender. Depending on how successful they are, it could lead to a What Did I Do Last Night? situation.

Another variation is a canonically gay character showing interest in the opposite sex, but only under the influence of alcohol.

This trope tends to be more common with female characters because Most Writers Are Male and Girl on Girl Is Hot.

It is important to note that while a character may only present as bi during bouts of inebriation, this is due to lowered inhibitions, not a suggestion that alcohol will actually change one's orientation.

Though largely a comedy trope, it can also be played for drama. It may lead to a Queer Establishing Moment if used dramatically.

A subtrope of Ambiguously Bi. May also overlap with If It's You, It's Okay. Can often involve a Bedmate Reveal and/or Clingy Sleepers. See also Alcohol-Induced Idiocy, Beer Goggles, But Liquor Is Quicker, Drowning Our Romantic Sorrows, and Hard-Drinking Party Girl. This may also lead to Closet Key or being Bi-Wildered. Also compare In Vino Veritas.

No Real Life Examples, Please!.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Ah! My Goddess: Alluded to and Defied. Sayoko wakes up after a night of heavy drinking to find someone in bed with her. It's the demon Marller. She accuses Marller of getting her drunk to take advantage of her. Marller protests that she's a woman, too, which only causes Sayoko to angrily protest that she doesn't swing that way, either. In a huff, Marller tells her not to flatter herself.
• Fairy Tail:
  • In the fourth OVA, while staying at a hot springs inn, Lucy (along with her female friends) ends up wasted from drinking. Lucy gets so drunk to the point where she attempts unsuccessfully to flirt with an equally wasted Juvia even though Lucy has only shown official interest in men.
  • In the Christmas special, a drunken Erza starts a game where the master can give out orders to the losers until a new master is chosen through sticks. According to her, this is the opportunity to let out secret fantasies. Erza ends up ordering her fellow female guild mates to do various perverted things in order to fulfill Erza's desires, which include Erza ordering Levy and Juvia to grope Lucy (after Erza gropes Lucy herself). Erza then drops hot wax on Lucy's back while the latter moans, "Oh yeah... It feels so good!" Prior to the hot wax dripping, Erza openly looks at Lucy and proclaims, "If I could just get a girl to strip then things would get interesting." In spite of this the only person Erza has shown romantic interest in is Jellal.
• I Can't Believe I Slept with You: The story opens with Koduka, who professes to be straight, having woken up after a drunken tryst with the Landlady. She also claims in the story to have "experience", though what that entails, we're never told. The story ends with her in a committed relationship with the Landlady.
• Immoral Guild: Hanabata. When she is sober she only shows interest in Kikuru, but in one of her "drunk on mana" incidents, she started molesting Hitamuki too.
• My-HiME:
  • Midori Suguira is canonically interested in an older male professor (and may have gotten her wish by the series' end). However, during a karaoke party mid-series, having imbibed a few large mugs of beer, she starts trying to strip Natsuki while leering at her like a Dirty Old Man. Interestingly, Natsuki is later revealed to be a lesbian, but most definitely not Hot for Teacher.
  • At that same karaoke party, Sister Yukariko, the group's nun, who has a canon male love interest with whom she later has a child, gets utterly hammered and starts trying to kiss Nao Yuuki.
• Wagnaria!!: Kozue Takanashi, who has a steady stream of male lovers, tells Mizuki Mishiba that intimacy between two women is just "unproductive thinking". That doesn't stop Kozue from flirting with Mizuki when she's drunk. And Kozue is often drunk.

Comic Books

• Empowered: Emp, who is officially dating Thugboy, is described by her bestie Ninjette as a "three-drink bisexual".
• Gen¹³: In an early issue, Sarah Rainmaker, already established as a lesbian, wakes up after getting drunk only to find that she and Bobby had done it the night before.
• Scott Pilgrim: In volume 4, Scott accidentally catches Knives and Kim drunkenly making out with each other. This is the only time in the comic that either character explicitly shows any interest in the same sex. Their relationship is more consistently romantic in the video game, however.

Fan Works

• Advice and Trust: In chapter 8, it's revealed that Misato was subjected to this in the past when she brought up a certain incident involving her and Ritsuko during their college days. It doesn't apply to Ritsuko on the account that she is a bisexual in this story, if not having a case of If It's You, It's Okay for Maya.
• The Discworld fanfiction of A.A. Pessimal sees the first group of Lady Assassins graduate from the Guild after the grueling Mature Students' Course. After the four celebrate together, the Noodle Incident happens between out-gay Miss Alice Band and her fellow graduate, the otherwise straight Johanna Smith-Rhodes. It only happens once and is never, ever, referred to again; but talking to a close friend some years later, Johanna blames it on having got very, very, babelaas-drunk.
• What Happens in Vegas: Of the three marriages that occurred involving Tonks, Remus, and Willow, Remus's marriage to Beast Boy is the only one that doesn't work out. Whereas Raven and Willow learn they're attracted to women, Remus and Beast Boy are apparently only interested in men when extremely drunk.

Films — Live-Action

• Bridesmaids: During the disastrous plane ride, Rita and Becca (who are both married to men) get extremely drunk and kiss while showering each other in compliments.
• Referenced in How To Be Single. Alice and Robin discuss the "drink number", the total number of drinks that forces people to have sex when drunk, leading to this exchange:
  Alice: If I had more than five drinks, I'd hook up with you.
  Robin: My drink number is 27. I wouldn't even touch myself in less than 24.
• In Kissing Jessica Stein, this is the final straw that ends Jessica's sexual relationship with Helen, who notes that Jessica never seems open to having sex with her when she's sober
• Ode To Billy Joe: The film elaborates on why Billy Joe jumps off the Tallahatchee Bridge in the Bobbie Gentry song. Despite being in love with a young woman named Bobbie Lee, Billy gets drunk at a town jamboree and ends up having sex with another male (who turns out to be his boss).
• Invoked in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, where Armored Closet Gay jock Brad keeps getting shitfaced as a cover for his relationship with Camp Gay Patrick, so that if he gets caught by one of his homophobic teammates, he can claim that Patrick took advantage of him. Eventually, Patrick gets tired of this and forces Brad to get sober, which puts a strain on their relationship.
• Sex and Death 101: Rod's one male hookup is a man named Terry, and Rod orders a whole bottle of alcohol beforehand. Otherwise, he's only attracted to women.

Literature

• In Cat Planet Cuties, Eris is more than eager to kiss Manami while high on catnip.
• In The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, regimental doctor Diana Alsever tries some moonshine cooked up by, well, the regimental cook. She gets so plastered that she has no qualms about putting moves on the unit's commander, Major Mandella. Since this is a No Heterosexual Sex Allowed future — the major is the only member of the regiment old enough to be hetero — Diana must be really drunk. She passes out completely before anything interesting can happen, but Mandella makes a mental note to buy some good booze and get her alone if they ever make it back to civilization.
• Gentleman Bastard: In Red Seas under Red Skies, one of Locke's former crew mentions having gone a few rounds with a male boatswain during a drunken celebratory party. He's unconcerned, cheerfully saying he'll try anything once — "Or five or six times, as it turns out."
• Horns: Discussed. Ig's horns compel a cop harassing Ig to admit he's attracted to his male partner. When Ig asks the partner what he'd do about it, he says he'd beat the shit out of him "unless I was drunk, then I'd probably let him blow me." Ig turns them on each other as he leaves, hoping they'll end up fighting, and is very surprised later to see they've become a couple.
• The Secret History: Charles occasionally hooks up with Francis when he's drunk, and then refuses to acknowledge it afterwards.
  Francis: As for Charles — well, basically, he likes girls. If he's drunk, I'll do.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: Penny, who has a storied history with both a number of male partners AND alcohol, asks the other girls about a story where a guy picked her up at a bar, then picked up another girl, and they all left together, wondering if, by the terms of their current discussion, it means she picked up the girl, too.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Amy Santiago has been given nicknames for how her personality changes after each drink. Four-Drink Amy is "a little bit of a perv", shown flirting with (or making innuendo at) Gina, Jake, and Rosa. This extends into Five-Drink Amy, who is also "weirdly confident", but disappears in Six-Drink Amy, who is "just sad".
• Friends: In "And The One With Phoebe's Rats", Monica, while drinking vodka, lets it slip that she thinks of Molly, the "hot nanny", in bed.
  Monica: No more vodka for me!
• Gimme, Gimme, Gimme: In "Glad To Be Gay?", the usually man-crazy Linda gets incredibly drunk while clubbing, and finds herself in bed with a female cab driver the morning after (Twice). Tom actually brings up the possibility of Linda being bi, claiming that "no-one's safe" from her.
• Glee: In "Blame It on the Alcohol," Blaine, who's gay, gets drunk at a party and makes out with Rachel. He later tells his boyfriend Kurt that he somewhat enjoyed it, and wonders if he might be bisexual. Unfortunately, Kurt comments that "bisexual" men are just gay guys pretending to be straight; Blaine calls him out on this, but a Broken Aesop occurs regardless when Kurt is proven right about Blaine being gay at the end of the episode.
• Harry Enfield and Chums: In one sketch, the Scousers go to "that London". Terry unknowingly wanders into a gay bar, with one of the patrons offering to buy him a drink. The next morning, Terry is horrified to discover said patron in bed next to him.
• The IT Crowd: Series 1 concludes with a Bedmate Reveal after a night of drunken partying. Among other unlikely pairings, Denholm and Richmond discover themselves in bed together. Both men scream in horror. This is never mentioned again.
• Saturday Night Live: In "March of the Suitors", Queen Matilda must choose her consort from a long list of potential mates. The final entrant is a woman named Tawnie, and Matilda promptly discloses that this trope is a habit with her:
  Matilda: I know I like boys, but whenever I have wine, I always end up making out with my girlfriends...so come to the royal feast tonight, and we'll see what happens, yeah?
• Scrubs: Elliot Reid has an occasional habit of flirting with women when drunk, even mentioning a time when she did so in college over jazz. Sure enough, once she gets drunk she starts flirting with a woman at the bar by asking her if she likes jazz.
• Lulu from She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is very impressed by She-Hulk's breasts when drunk, but it doesn't go any further than that.
• Spin City: Carter once mentioned that he's always been gay "except for one night in college when I was drunk".
• Implied on Succession when Kendall teases Stewy about "kissing guys on molly".
• Subverted in Waterloo Road when Steph Haydock got drunk and woke up in bed with a lesbian teacher who had previously been flirting with her. Steph can't remember the previous night and assumes this is what happened, but the other teacher confirms that they didn't actually do anything.
• One episode of Will & Grace reveals that Will had sex with a woman years ago. When he finally tells Grace about it, he remarks that it only happened because they were both "stinking drunk," and furthermore that he absolutely hated it.

Music

• Implied by the lyrics of the Katy Perry song "I Kissed a Girl".
  I got so brave, drink in hand/Lost my discretion.
• "Bad Decisions" by RedHook is ambiguous as to whether it's this or if the singer is already bisexual (she does mention kissing a girl in another song, "An Intervention", though she clearly isn't in the best state mentally in that one either):
  So why did I get drunk again,
  And get it on with all my friends?
  Did it with my best friend, and his roommate too
  And his roomate's girlfriend — hey, what's wrong with you?

Video Games

• Fallout: New Vegas: If a female Courier with the Cherchez La Femme perk flirts with Rose Cassidy, she'll tell them that she normally prefers men but when she's drunk enough she doesn't care who she shares a bed with.

Webcomics

• One story arc of Least I Could Do had Rayne getting picked up in a bar by a married woman who explained that she and her husband had an open relationship. When she brought Rayne to her place he was suddenly weirded out by finding that BOTH the husband and wife wanted to sleep with him. Initially Rayne was still unwilling to have a threesome where he was expected to have sex with the other man, however he changed his mind as soon as the wife took off her dress and Rayne asked the husband to bring him half a dozen vodka and Red Bulls.
• Questionable Content: Steve only shows interest in women while sober, but can get homoerotic when drunk, usually with an unhappy Marten as the subject of his attentions. According to Marten, someone once dared a drunk Steve to kiss him on the lips and Steve used "full tongue action."
  Steve: [drunk, sobbing on Marten's shoulder] I LOVE YOU, MAN!
  Marten: DUDE, WE HAVE TALKED ABOUT THIS.
  Author's comment: Steve only had two drinks.
  • Penelope apparently knew a few girls who were like this in College.
• User Friendly: Played for Laughs when AJ goes on a bender after blowing his chances with Miranda for the umpteenth time. After singing his woes for most of the strip, he turns to a homeless man and asks "What's your name, baby?" On the other hand, AJ is so drunk he might not have known the person he was addressing was male.

Web Original

• Played for Laughs in the Dropout sketch "Realistic Sobriety Tests". A heterosexual young woman accused of being drunk is introduced to Lisa, "a free-spirited art major with a very open attitude toward sexuality." The cops then put on "Get Low," and the woman can't resist making out with Lisa, which is taken as proof of her being boozed up.

Western Animation

• Classic Disney Shorts: In Alpine Climbers, Pluto is rescued by a St. Bernard who gives him some warm brandy. Pluto revives, but becomes so inebriated that he gets about as enamored with the (male) St. Bernard as they could get away with in 1936!
• Futurama: In "Benderama", after everyone on Earth becomes severely inebriated as a result of all water being converted to alcohol, Fry and Professor Farnsworth have this exchange:^note Keep in mind that Fry is Farnsworth's great-great-great... (for however many generations most of a millennium is) uncle and grandfather.
  Fry: No, listen. I... freakin' love you. But I don't throw that word around!
  Professor Farnsworth: Oh, I know you don't. That's why I love you!
• Harley Quinn: Subverted with both Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. While played seemingly straight in "Bachelorette", when Harley is hosting a bachelorette party for Ivy a week before Ivy marries Kite Man, as the two spend several nights getting drunk and waking the next morning having slept together, most of the second season is spent on the two trying to figure out their own feelings for one another, though Harley is much more open about her romantic feelings for Ivy, who ultimately reciprocates them in "The Runaway Bridesmaid".

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