"I've got a lot of emotions going through my member."
— Bret Michaels
Rock of Love is a VH1 reality television dating game show starring Deadpan Snarker Bret Michaels (the lead singer of Poison) and his penis. The show closely resembles its sister show, Flavor of Love, which had the same premise and format.
The 3 seasons each feature (approximately) 20 women competing to be Michaels' girlfriend. Each week the women face challenges, the winner of which gets to go on a date with Michaels. Some of the challenges were based on situations they might encounter if they would actually become Michaels' girlfriend (read: alcohol, rock, sex, alcohol, porn, motorcrossing, rock and alcohol).
Like Flavor of Love, the show got its own spinoff in Charm School format. Many of the contestants also returned on I Love Money, alongside people from Flavor of Love and its other sister show I Love New York.
Unlike Flavor of Love, our eligible bachelor this time around is a sarcastic, level-headed millionaire with an active career. This gives the show its own unique atmosphere, setting it apart from most of VH1's reality shows — in a good way.
Spinoffs include:
- Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It
- Megan Wants A Millionaire
- Series/Daisy Of Love
- I Love Money
- Rock of Love: Charm School
This series provides examples of the following:
- 80sHair: Heather convinces the two date winners to tease their hair up for Brett, then makes fun of them. Joke's on Heather when Brett loves the look.
- The Swedish triplets Daisy eliminates in the first episode of Daisy Of Love, dubbed 85, 86, and 87.
- The Alcoholic: Courtney was completely smashed even before the first elimination... and later at Charm School, she did it again. She's definitely not the only heavy drinker on this show, though.
- Tiffany, Brandi M, Lacey, Brandi C, Heather, Gia, Nikki, Brittaney, Marcia, Kelsey, Farrah, Brittanya, Ashley, and Beverly also count. Marcia's particularly bad, but it becomes her major goal as of Charm School.
- Arch-Nemesis: Lacey and
DallasJeseveryone in season one; Daisy and Heather in season two. Destiney and Kristy Jo in Season 2.- To a lesser extent, Taya and Ashley in season three.
- Babies Ever After : During the Rock of Love Bus reunion episode, Ricky asked the girls if anyone got engaged/married and then pregnant after the show. One contestant put up her hand.
- After the
Genre-Killer Megan Wants A Millionaire was pulled from VH 1's rotation, Megan Hauserman's career tanked. During an episode of The E! Hollywood Story (Life After Reality TV), we find out that Megan gave birth to a son in 2014.
- After the
- Battle Butler: Big John
- Berserk Button : Don't say anything about Beverley's kids. And Daisy won't tolerate macho crap like calling women bitches.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Though Dallas' way of treating animals was disgusting, she had still more supporters than Lacey.
- Lacey touted herself as an animal rights activist, and her Charm School t-shirt had a message of universal love and compassion...yet she manipulated everyone and caused fights, to near-sociopath levels. Even when she tried to cry or show some human emotion, it was part of a game plan.
- Brainless Beauty : Many of the girls are edited to appear this way, though all of them have varying degrees of both savvy and intelligence. The winner, though, on Daisy of Love is Fox. He's frequently shown looking at the camera after Comically Missing the Point while a sexy theme plays. Daisy seems to keep him longer than she should, purely because he's so attractive.
- Catchphrase : Farrah's "What the French?"
- Clip Show: The second to last episode, consisting almost entirely of hilarious unseen footage.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Tamara:
- "I'm like, Bret... girl."
- Constandina was made out to be this.
- Brittaney in Season 3...who stole everyone's socks.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Heather pulling Daisy's hair and pounding the back of her head on the Season 2 reunion.
- Marcia choking Ashley after pouring a beer on her.
- Natasha pushing Kelsey off the stage at the reunion definitely qualifies, but very little was actually shown.
- On Daisy of Love, after a couple of fights, especially between Flex and Cage, Daisy puts all the challengers into an MMA ring. Big Rig's brutal stomping of 12Pack is excruciating to watch.
- Cute Clumsy Girl : Daisy trips and falls many times on Daisy of Love, mostly from the ridiculous shoes she wears.
- Egg Sitting : Played with when each team has to take a baby doll through a roller derby course. The team with the least battered baby at the end wins.
- Elimination Catch Phrase: "Your tour ends here." "Would you stay in the house and be my rock star?"
- Everyone Looks Sexier if French: How Angelique tries to charm Bret.
- Evil Redhead: Lacey is the "villain" of the show, and manages to piss off everyone in the house, including Brett's "superfan" guests. Double for her Charm School mates. When she appears on Rock Of Love Bus Mindy recognizes the red hair first.
- Guyliner: Several of the candidates on Daisy Of Love wear eyeliner and other types of makeup. Bret wears it, too.
- Heel Realization: Lacey realizes halfway through Charm School that her "pranks" are really, really hurting people. During the first season of Rock Of Love Lacey tries to suck up to Brett's superfans by squeezing out some crocodile tears, mocked relentlessly by Jes.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Kristia and Brandi C, the "Barbie Twins." Ashley and Farrah, continuing to their podcast over a decade later.
- Hidden Depths : During the "Bikini Daycare" episode in Season 3, Ashley, who has been a Deadpan Snarker and something of a drunken bimbo to this point, surprises everyone by being great with the kids. She reveals that she is a devoted parent to her young son.
- Jerkass:
- According to some, Michaels himself for what he's encouraging these women to do. Reviewing the show actually caused one former Poison fan so much pain that he actually registered the domain "bretmichaelsisadouchebag.com" to host his reviews on.
- Lacey can be this to the other contestants.
- Ashley in Season 3. She dumps salsa all over Mindy's clothes, claiming she wanted to "spice up her wardrobe."
- Lethal Chef : On Daisy Of Love Daisy dons a French Maid outfit and cooks a terrible breakfast for the guys, including horribly burnt pancakes loaded with sugar, chocolate and whipped cream. Averted when they cook her a fancy dinner and everyone's dishes (including french onion soup, quiche, chicken cordon bleu, and red velvet cake) turn out very well.
- Mama Bear : After watching Beverly's interview with Lacey on Talk Of Love, at least two of Beverly's outbursts happened after someone maligns her kids in some way.
- Manipulative Bitch: Lacey and Megan
- My Nayme Is: Destiney
- Jackye
- Times two for Brittaney Starr.
- One-Steve Limit: Subverted with Brandi M. and Brandi C., both in season one.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Rodeo and, to a lesser extent, Angelique aka "Frenchie" in seasons one and two, respectively.
- Daisy gives each contestant a nickname on Daisy of Love, and they are known by the name for the rest of the show. None of them like their names much.
- Only Sane Woman: Jes spent much of the time shooting WTF glances at the camera and she was much more Closer to Earth than the other women.
- Beverley and Mindy in Season 3 seemed to be much less plastic surgery enhanced and down to earth than most of the girls. Until the last couple of episodes, when Mindy and Taya's rivalry gets the better of them and Jamie takes on this role.
- Retool: Rock of Love Bus takes the show on the road...literally. In the first episode, we find out that because Bret is on the road 200+ days a year, stuffing everyone into a house is the wrong way to get to know them.
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: Daisy has since had her own dating show.
- Heather has appeared on several 51 Minds spinoffs including the next two seasons of Rock of Love.
- Brandi M was in fourth place and ended up winning Rock Of Love Charm School.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Jackye, Kristy Joe, and Kami. Subverted with Aubry and Melissa since their respective eliminations were mutual.
- Brooklyn is still in love with his girlfriend and walks away from a challenge on Daisy Of Love. After much posturing, London leaves because he doesn't want to be in a competition...Subverted when he returns in a later episode and then wins.
- Serenade Your Lover: Bret is shown at several points working on songs and playing them for the contestants. In "Duet To Me One More Time," the girls are challenged to write a song about Bret.
- On Daisy of Love the guys are challenged to upgrade Daisy's nursey rhymes. London's "Daisy, Daisy you're driving me crazy" become a theme throughout the show. In the last two episode's he's seen trying to write a song for her. Sinister attempts to write a song for Daisy as well, but keeps messing up out of nervousness.
- Servile Snarker: Big John. Riki to a lesser extent.
- Spin-Off: Rock of Love: Charm School, Daisy of Love and Megan Wants a Millionaire.
- Bret would get one of his own: Bret Michaels: Life as I Know It
- Starving Artist : Daisy has a taste for out of work musicians. We meet her ex, Charles, whom she still lives with, in Season One of Rock Of Love. On Daisy Of Love every encounter with London leaves her in tears...yet she ends up with him in the end.
- Lacey tries to pretend she's a hard-scrabble musician, but she has a trust fund.
- Too Dumb to Live: Brittanya. Fox and Flipper on Daisy Of Love.
-
Tough Act to Follow : Kami's work on the pole is really good...until Taya wows everyone. Taya's song is the best, and poor Mindy, who has the hardest time and really can't sing, has to follow her. - We Hardly Knew Ye: To the point where in the first season, four unlucky girls didn't even make it to the mansion.
- This is also probably the most frequently used reason for sending a girl home.
- Probably the most prominent example was Mia, who went entire episodes without saying anything in the confessional and whose only interesting scene was deleted.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Ashley tries to convince Bret that Natasha is one, even referring to her as "Nathaniel."
