Gargle Blaster / Live-Action TV

Uncle Choi: I been making okolehao since Chin was in diapers.
Chin Ho Kelly: That's Hawaiian for white lightning.
Uncle Choi: Old family recipe. Very popular around the holidays. The key is in root of ti leaf.
Danno Williams: (uncertain) That, that's good. Sounds delicious.
Chin Ho: Actually, it is, but it's not for the weak of heart.

— "Kahu", Hawaii Five-0

Examples of Gargle Blasters in Live-Action TV.

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• 1000 Ways to Die has the "USSR-Dead" 'case': A Ukrainian immigrant joining the Russian Mafia accidentally drinks sulfuric acid (the same one used to burn his fingerprints so no one could link him to any crimes) while celebrating his initiation. So do his "patrons". They all die when their innards freaking dissolve. It's ultimately the fault of whoever didn't want to fire their increasingly-senile bartender, who mixed the bottles up.
• Babylon 5 has a few that are rather potent:
  • The Abbai have invented t'm'lai'na, a drink that has been known to dissolve human intestines and corrode metal;
  • Humans being humans, they have invented the Comet Tail. Comes with a recommended limit of two shots to avoid passing out;
  • The Centauri being Centauri, and Narn not wanting to lose to the Centauri, they have, respectively, hot Jala and taree, both more intoxicating than the Comet Tail.
  • The most powerful is the Bor'Kaan, a Drazi drink that Humans can't safely drink without taking an alcohol blocker first. To honour Ivanova after certain events, some Drazi made the "Bor'Kaan Volshool Ivanova", made palatable to Humans by diluting it with vodka.
• A recurring occurrence on Bar Rescue, whether it's from bar tenders with no experience, bar tenders who have just become so complacent that they don't care, or even the owner of the bar just throwing whatever into a glass and thinking that it'll be a good idea.
• Granny's "tonic" on The Beverly Hillbillies. Sugar, corn mash, flower from a Brellsbane plant, perfume (aka "skunk water"), claw of bear, hair of weasel. Toss it all in the still and ferment. But not too long.
• Black Books has "Life Cry". Fran shows it to her friends and they fall silent, awed by what is apparently the most potent drink in the Black Book universe. As Fran remarks: "You know you're in for a good night when there's a picture of a polar bear bleeding on the label".
• Bones: Several episodes feature alcohol brewed in the lab, usually by Hodgins. Highlights include 'vodka' intended to be snuck into a Christmas fundraiser, and 'tequila' made from the Succulents Of The World exhibit in the museum. It's just homebrew, you say? What makes it a Gargle Blaster, you say? Take note of the following: it's made in the same lab where the Body in a Breadbox Victim of the Week is being autopsied, using materials scrounged from museum exhibits (hopefully) and equipment normally used on rotting corpses, by a dude who once named the botfly larva growing on the back of his neck.
• Bottom
  • In one episode, Eddie, asked if he has any alcohol, produces a bottle apparently containing a mixture of Brandy, Meths, Pernod, paint stripper, Mister Sheen, brake fluid and Drambuie. ("You've got to put something in for the birds, haven't you?") Richie takes a sniff, recoils, and asks...
  Richie: How are you alive?
  Eddie: (tapping side of nose) I may very well not be.
  • In another episode, they combine Pernod, Ouzo, marmalade, and salt to create a cocktail Eddie eventually dubs "The Esther Rantzen" on the grounds that it pulls your gums back over your teeth.
  • In yet another episode, Eddie makes home-brew in a bathtub. He's not sure if it's bitter or lager, but it's taking the enamel off the tub. After sampling it (in saucepans, since it keeps dissolving the mugs) the verdict is that it is a cheeky little number with a certain robustness that demands attention — possibly medical.
  • And in one of the Bottom stage shows, Eddie accidentally ferments various bathroom chemicals with his own breath (and flatulence) to create "Weapons-grade lager", a drink so potent that a single sip gets you completely drunk. You then fall unconscious for exactly twenty-four hours and wake up at the same time the next day ready to start drinking again.
• On Cheers, Carla is known for making strong drinks with names such as "Leap into an Open Grave" and "I Know My Redeemer Liveth." The former gets Diane hammered, to which Sam comments, "Oh, Carla, you made her an Open Grave, didn't you?" The latter gets everyone hammered, resulting in Cliff and Norm getting embarrassing tattoos and Carla sleeping with Paul.
• One episode of ER has Dr. Susan Lewis ordering drinks, and when the bartender gives them to her, they're in martini glasses a foot wide with multiple paper umbrellas.
  Bartender: There you go. Two Sacrificial Virgins.
  Susan: Oh my God! How much alcohol is in those?
  Bartender: Enough to make you forget you're being thrown into a volcano.
• In The Flash (2014), Barry discovers that his enhanced metabolism prevents him from getting drunk, so Caitlin whips up a concoction that she claims is the equivalent of a 500 proof drink.^note This is impossible. In the U.S., a drink's "proof" is defined as twice the percentage of alcohol in the drink, so the maximum possible proof is 200. Even this only gets him a little buzzed, and the effect only lasts for a couple of seconds.
• Done without any laughs whatsoever in one episode of Foyle's War when a barmaid with a chemistry degree starts distilling in her pub's cellar, for illegal sale to people who are tired of the watered-down beer under World War II rationing. However, there is no way to make such industrial-grade liquor safe for consumption. One man dies because it renders him blind and he can't escape his room in a fire, an American soldier is severely sickened, and in the end her partner-in-crime strangles her because she refuses to shut down the still.
• Game of Thrones: The beverage Mance serves Jon in "The Children" is fermented milk, which makes Jon gag (though that might be from the sour-milk flavor rather than the alcoholic content).
• At the start of the punch episode of Good Eats, Alton is attending a dry wedding at some church hall, and talking about how most people today think of "punch" as a low-quality mix of cheap juice and ginger ale, with maybe some sherbet, when in actuality it can be much more than that (and that real punch utilizes alcohol.) While he's talking, a little old lady walks up to the punch bowl and pours in an entire bottle of alcohol, and starts handing out cups of her newly-made Gargle Blaster to other wedding guests, including Alton.
• The Good Life has the eponymous Good family's homemade "Peapod Burgundy", the joke being that although they're pretty good suburban farmers, they do not know how to make wine.
  Tom: It's hurting the back of my eyes!
• On Greek, the Honors Engineering students whip up a batch of "Aerosol Death Juice" for their party, and have one of the wildest parties ever to grace the Kappa Tau house. And if you consider that Kappa Tau is the Delta House of CRU's Greek Row, that's saying something.
• The Hawaii Five-0 episode "Kahu" reveals that Chin Ho's Uncle Choi is a Hillbilly Moonshiner who makes okolehao, traditional Hawaiian hooch, from the roots of the ti plant. Chin Ho says it's delicious but not for the weak of heart.
• In the Australian soap opera spoof Let the Blood Run Free one character's "friends" are trying to corrupt him before his wedding night. After all else fails they resort to a glass of PURE ALCOHOL! (which is steaming ominously). He takes a swig, immediately declares that he's going to get his rocks off with a nearby prostitute, then collapses unconscious.
• A Lost in Space episode where Doctor Smith is mistaken for a lookalike gunslinger and plays it to the hilt, ordering the gunslinger's favorite drink in a saloon on a Western Planet, inspiring awe among the crowd. IIRC, the bartender actually has to assemble the ingredients wearing heavy gloves.
• On an episode of Married... with Children, the Bundys sit around a smoking glass of yellow liquid and Peg and the kids are urging Al to drink it by telling him it's Tang. Even though Al points out that "Tang doesn't smoke."
• Midsomer Murders: In "Garden of Death", Daniel Bolt's home-brew alcohol is so potent that he genuinely fears he might have killed the boys he gave it to.
• In a Murphy Brown episode where the crew is staying in a Mexican hotel, Miller and Frank order one of these. The bartender says "Dios mio." and crosses himself before making the drink.
• In an episode The Office (US), the workers are enjoying a Christmas party and Michael creates a drink that is "equal parts Scotch, absinthe, rum, gin, vermouth, triple sec, and two packs of Splenda. Call it a One Of Everything." Naturally, the resident Lady Drunk Meredith loves it.
• Twice on Parks and Recreation:
  • In "The Fight", Tom creates a drink called Snakejuice, and describes it as a mixture of "a bunch of different alcohols... some sugar and coffee, and some other junk". And due to the caffeine and sugar it contains, those that drink it all get Unsuspectingly Soused and everyone becomes utterly and stupidly plastered, including Ron. Donna describes it as being like rat poison. When Chris gives Tom a bottle just before he leaves town, Tom wonders how he found it when all stockpiles were apparently destroyed by the FDA, and Chris explains that he got it at a place where people place bets on horse fighting. It also gives everyone except Ron (who has his own cures and can still tough it out without them) an absolutely brutal hangover the next morning.
  • In "Ron and Tammys", Ron's mother Tamara and first ex-wife Tammy One get into a drinking contest using the Swanson family's homemade mash liquor, which they use to burn warts off the mules, can melt the shell off a snail and whose only legal use is stripping paint off of speedboats. April has a big Spit Take fit after taking one sip of it and everyone is amazed that Leslie was able to drink a few glasses (although not without a great deal of struggle on her part, as she's clearly gagging in pain and describes it as "poison" while drinking it, and it quickly gets her stupidly plastered). Ron's mother and ex-wife are able to drink it without much effect and Ron ends the drinking contest by consuming over half a jug in one go.
• Red Dwarf:
  • Baxter's illegal hooch. In Rimmer's words, "That stuff is like 300% proof. A bottle of that will get the entire Greek Navy drunk!" At 300 proof, by the by, the drink is 150% alcohol. On the British scale, 300 degrees proof would be about 171% alcohol by volume. It must pull alcohol from another dimension when drunk. Or Rimmer is just an idiot... wait.
    Lister: It'll put hairs on your chest!
    Rimmer: It'll put hairs on your lips! It'll put hairs on your hairs!
  • In "The Last Day", when Kryten is about to be shut down, the Dwarfers have a farewell party where Holly mixes up something that will get him drunk, even though alcohol doesn't affect mechanoids. When he compares it to a cross between Vimto and liquid nitrogen, she comments "Have you been looking at my recipe book?" It's lethal to humans, and in fact, she isn't sure that it isn't lethal to mechanoids, she just didn't think it mattered in the circumstances...
  • In series 6, when the crew is without the Red Dwarf, Kryten brews up an opaque liqueur which might fool the unwary into believing that it looks like margaritas. It is in fact urine recyc, and leaves stains that need removing with turpentine and no happy drinkers at all.
  • In the episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", Kryten asks for "the stuff where you get your eyesight back in three days — guaranteed." Later, Lister, Rimmer, and Cat presumably try the same stuff, causing Rimmer to throw up in somebody's hat.
    Lister: [hoarsely] Very smooth.
    Cat: I was expecting something with a little more kick to it.
• Stargate SG-1: Daniel teaches Skaara to make what is apparently moonshine. It is *very* strong.
• Stargate Universe: Since they are stuck on a ship that is literally on the far side of the universe, the crew of the Destiny has no access to standard issue consumables. They take fruits and vegetables they encounter along the way and ferment them followed by a trip through a still.
  Commentary from the man running the still: "It has one redeeming quality."
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation features a just-barely Gargle Blaster in the episode "Relics", in which James "Scotty" Doohan is a guest star — it's apparently the only real alcoholic beverage on the entire ship. Data tastes it several times to try to determine its composition, is perplexed, and finally settles for describing it (accurately) as "...green". The big surprise at the end of this sequence — intended to showcase the hard-drinking Scotty's contempt for the weak, pampered, synthehol-drinking inhabitants of the 24th century — is discovering that Picard knows it as Aldebaran whiskey and, in fact, was the one responsible for stocking it on the ship.^note In the novelization of the episode, Picard states that the whiskey was produced on stardate 36455 (2359). Picard goes on to note that the whiskey came from the northern continent and the vintage was considered to be a good one due to not too much rain.
  • The above is also a nod to an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, "By Any Other Name", in which Scotty engages an Alien of the Week in a drinking contest (and eventually drinks that alien under the table), and the only description he can give of the beverage he brings out is, "It's green."^note It isn't the final drink, though; the last one is Scotty's bottle of "very, very, very old Scotch... whisky!" It's a very accurate Continuity Nod, as in the TOS episode, it is obvious that Scotty is making several attempts to say 'Aldeberan', but is so plastered by then, he cannot make his mouth work well enough to say the word.
  • The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Up the Long Ladder" features Worf ordering a syntheholic Klingon drink called Chech'tluth for a Space Irishman who is looking to get drunk. This is after the Space Irishman had tried some of the ship's whiskey and not being impressed. Despite being a champion drinker, one sip of the stuff Worf gives him makes the man tipsy and renders him unable to communicate except in desperate gasps for several seconds. The shot of his expression going from "Federation wimps and their so-called booze" to "I have just been whacked in the face with a baseball bat" is a thing of beauty. Considering that it's Worf who orders it, one wonders what is in it to provoke such an extreme reaction from the drinker. That said, he compliments the drink for being strong enough for him to feel it.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine features a bar regularly, but the mix that most evokes this trope is the (implied to be aptly named) "warp core breach".
  • Klingon Blood Wine is so stated to be much stronger than whiskey — so much so that it is used as a test of character for candidates for induction into the Order of Kahless. Essentially, anyone who can drink blood wine all night and remain standing long enough to accept the order's badge in the morning is worthy of induction. (In one episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway describes it as "twice as strong as whiskey", though it's not clear how precise that's meant to be.)
  • Romulan ale is so potent that even Klingons have trouble with it, as seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. It's mentioned several times across series and films that it's illegal in the Federation, although that also has to do with it being something of an analogue for the American ban on Cuban cigars. Unlike other examples, Romulan ale appears to have an enjoyable flavor, but it is so potent that it leaves everyone except Romulans (and presumably their Vulcan cousins) staggered. As a result of the Romulans allying with the Federation and the Klingons in the Dominion War, the Federation lifted the embargo against the Romulan Empire as a sign of good faith, allowing Romulan ale to be served as Riker and Troi's wedding in Star Trek: Nemesis, where Worf is visibly struggling against the effects of the drink.
    Worf: Romulan ale should be illegal.
    Geordi: It is.
  • In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode "Those Old Scientists", Beckett Mariner introduces Uhura and Ortegas to a drink called an "Orion hurricane". Since it was missing the main ingredient, Orion delaq, she had to use replacements, making it another drink. At the end of the episode, they get authentic delaq and Ortegas remakes the drink with it, creating a Disney Acid Sequence for the crew of the Enterprise as they become animated in the style of Lower Decks.
    M'Benga: What the hell is in these things?!
• Supergirl (2015) features Aldebaran rum, an alien liquor that its straight up lethal to humans and so strong that a couple fingers of it is enough to get a fully powered Kryptonian drunk off her ass.
• Trailer Park Boys features swish, a drink made from extracting alcohol from whiskey barrels, described by Bubbles as being an "old, dirty, shitty-tasting, homemade fuckin' liquor... ugh, you can barely get 'er into you but... my fuck, does it ever get you some drunk!" Julian becomes hooked on it after losing his trailer; it's the only time he actually gets drunk from the drink he's constantly holding.
• The "Recipe" for moonshine on The Waltons, given the respect it was given by everyone who knew what it really was (unlike the two elderly sisters who brewed it from their late father's, um, recipe). However, no-one was ever really shown getting blitzed on the stuff.
• In The Young Ones episode "Interesting", Vyvyan drinks a mysterious blue drink that removes his hair and reveals a "666" tattoo, causing the Christian to remark, "Behold the Beast," though whether it was alcoholic was not mentioned. Vyvyan is known to mix his drinks with paint stripper and bleach, resulting in a very strong hangover.

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