Bouncer

"You're Not on the List."

You want to Describe Bouncer Here? I don't see you on the list.

From TV and movies, one gets the impression that a bouncer is a large person, whose main job is to turn away the business of people who are insufficiently cool, or to escort out staggering, ornery customers. They also oversee the Wannabe Line. Overtly unsympathetic examples are usually portrayed as dimwitted, loutish assholes who needlessly harass patrons minding their own business and always seem to be looking for a fight to start or join in on or a sufficiently annoying patron to pound the shit out of.

In truth, most real-life club bouncers have far more prosaic duties; their job consists primarily of checking ID, tossing out rowdy, annoying, or overly drunk customers, calling cabs for patrons who are too drunk to drive home, watching for signs of trouble to come (be it the beginnings of a possible fight, patrons who are far too intoxicated for their own good, illegal activity being conducted, sexual predators getting ready to make their move, and other things of that sort), making sure VIPs are able to enjoy their evening without annoying paparazzi or crazed fans mobbing them (and often politely ushering the drunker celebs out when their behavior grows sufficiently unacceptable). Their job may include ancillary duties such as acting as the bar's janitor. The "not on the Guest List" part usually only comes up when the club is reserved for private functions or when people attempt to bullshit their way into VIP events for free by claiming that they were guestlisted.

If they work at a strip club, they will also be in charge of enforcing tipping rules, as most strip clubs require patrons to tip if they're sitting at the "tip rail" or "perv row" and give the dancers and bartenders the authority to report cheapskates to the bouncers, who can then either inform them of the rules or throw them out if they're rude or have already been warned; furthermore, they also have an incentive to skip the "warning" part when dealing with grabby or creepy customers, as clubs that are perceived as being "creep-friendly" will attract more bad customers, lead to high turnover among dancers, and will attract more desperate or low-quality dancers who can't get work anywhere else.

That said, some clubs in New York City do use bouncers to screen incoming patrons for subjective reasons. The practice started with Disco club Studio 54 in the 1970s, when the owner empowered his bouncers as doormen and made admission to the discotheque arbitrarily selective based on style and hipness (for non-celebrities, at least). This was an intentional ploy to build up the mystique of the club, and it worked like a charm. It was subsequently copied by clubs all over the city and beyond, and the entire practice has become rooted in pop culture as the "usual" way things are done.

Which it isn't, of course, since most night clubs can't afford to be arbitrarily picky about their patrons as a whole based on coolness, but bouncers are still required to screen for and refuse entry to prospective patrons who are underage, visibly intoxicated, rude or aggressive, openly displaying gang affiliation, known troublemakers and those who don't meet dress code standards or are wildly different from the normal clientele — for example, letting a bunch of rich preppy types into a biker bar or metal night is likely to cause issues.

In Real Life, in contrast to the fictional depiction of bouncers as rough and tumble bruisers with a Dark and Troubled Past, the bouncer field is becoming increasingly professionalized. More and more jurisdictions are requiring police checks and training on legal knowledge and security. Bar owners are realizing that well-trained, disciplined bouncers can prevent injury lawsuits and protect the reputation of the venue by keeping out drug dealers and creeps. Another development is the increasing use of female bouncers, both to patrol female bathrooms and because women bouncers are sometimes better able to de-escalate tensions with aggressive male patrons, because male patrons are less likely to try to fight with a woman staffer.

Often overlaps with a big, Scary Black Man, and he's sometimes the only person of color on the show.

Compare No Fame, No Wealth, No Service.

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Examples:

Advertising

• A&W hires one in this commercial. He does his job so well that the manager of the store himself- and the one who hired him- has to wait at the end of the line with the rest of the patrons.

Anime & Manga

• Richard Filth, from Baki the Grappler. An American bouncer who fights by letting people hit him until their hands or weapons break. Out of respect, Orochi Doppo challenges him in a suit, and rather than use his karate, stands face to face with him and trades punches in a battle of sheer toughness.
• Tiger Mask:
  • A group of bouncers from Las Vegas casinos try to intimidate wrestling promoter Big Condor into not having his Heel World Championship tournament have matches (with their bets) every day, as it would cut too much into the casinos profits. Said promoter one-upped them with his bouncers: wrestlers Freddie Blassie, Dick the Bruiser and Sky High Lee. After Blassie ate the phone when they were about to call reinforcements armed with guns, Dick showed them how to stop trouble without hitting anyone (namely he grabbed a large phone book and ripped it into pieces) and Sky High Lee No-Sold their own knives thrown at him by Blassie, the bouncers were more subdued.
  • Dick the Bruiser used to be a bouncer before being hired as a wrestler, and a magnificently efficient one to boot: wherever he was bouncing there was no trouble, as the smarter troublemakers were intimidated by his size or the phone book-ripping trick and the stupider ones couldn't take even one of his punches.

Comic Books

• In the Avatar: The Last Airbender comic Shells, the seashell shop owner San is very particular about his customers and has Jojan throw them out if he doesn't like them.
• Sin City:
  • The bar Kadie is shown to have a bouncer. About the only thing he gets to do is to fail to realize Marv is a regular and, armed with this piece of ignorance, try to deny him entrance to the bar and insult him. It does not end well for him.
  • Interestingly, Kadie's is considered one of the safest places in Sin City because of Marv. He hangs out there, likes things nice and quiet, and is a protector for the women who work there. When he's there, the customers behave themselves. When he's not there, they behave themselves as well, because you don't want it getting back to Marv that you were being an asshole in Kadie's.
• When Superboy and the Ravers try to get into Guy Gardner's new club the bouncer (who happens to be an obscure character called Tiger-Man, who is exactly what that sounds like) turns them away at the door for being underage, though he does welcome the accompanying Rex The Wonderdog in with a warm greeting which flabbergasts the teens. When they protest, they have the even more embarassing fate of being guided to the club's kiddie lounge.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage): Casey Jones mentions having worked as a bouncer at a bar called Torchy's, when he confronts the Shredder and the Foot clan.
• The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: In Season 2, one of the Legislator mooks fought back in Season One is reprogrammed to act as a bouncer for Swerve's bar. He only says the word Ten and is named as such, having patrons give up their weapons and briefcases before entering.
• Norman the Doorman in Viz. One place he worked for went out of business after he refused to let anyone in for two years. On another, he made the mistake of fixing a mirror to his wardrobe and then spent the day refusing to allow himself to enter it.
• Wonder Woman (1942): A rather large bouncer tries to keep Wonder Woman from entering a "men's only" club where she, correctly, thinks someone is about to attempt a murder. She throws the bulky doorman aside with ease.

Fan Works

• In Blackbird (Arrow), after being freed from the League of Assassins, Laurel decides to take up a job as bouncer for Verdant, believing it to be a way to use her skills for good. Oliver is notably surprised, and instinctively thinks of Diggle as having the "look" (a tall, well-built African-American male) of the typical bouncer. He knows this is wrong to think, and Laurel's dirty look only reinforces that.
• Two (rather ineffectual) examples in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World:
  • The two outworlder bouncers at the Border Crossroads Inn. They do absolutely nothing while John and George heckle the lousy bard Terb on stage. Later, John overhears Folse, Terb's boss, explaining that they were only supposed to get involved if things got physical.
  • Which seems to be the case for the bouncer in the Serenade Club, who lets the Punk Cowboys verbally harass the disguised George and Ringo and only starts coming over when they get onstage.

Films — Animated

• Boys Night Out: A bouncer is in front of the strip club to make sure no one under the age of 21 gets in. Linberg’s stepfather gets around this by giving the man $100. The bouncer can’t refuse the offer and allows Linberg to enter the building.
• Sing has a fancy club with a gorilla bouncer at the door. At first he blocks Mike the street musician from going in, but he changes his mind later when Mike shows up with an expensive car.

Films — Live-Action

• The protagonist of After Hours faces a bouncer who accepts money from him but still won't let him in the club, which the bouncer justifies by quoting Franz Kafka.
• In Asian School Girls, the bouncer at the strip club is friendly to the girls and, as soon as Hannah tells her two of the customers touched her inappropriately, grabs the two and tosses the out. (This was actually a ploy by Hannah to get them out of the club, but he wasn't to know that.) He does make Hector and Ray pay when they come looking for info on the two guys he bounced, however.
• The Twins in The Batman (2022) work at the Iceberg Lounge, and interact with both Bruce Wayne and Batman.
• Constantine (2005) has Midnite's club, which you have to be some kind of supernatural being or at least psychic to get into. The bouncer is armed with a tarot deck, and holds up a card to each patron. You can only get in if you correctly tell him what's on the back, without seeing it. They also seem to check your state of mind. After getting in with no problem earlier in the film, Constantine is refused entry when he comes back seeking Midnite's assistance against the legions of hell.
• Cool World: Holli Would takes Jack Deebs to her favorite nightclub, which has a bouncer at the door. A literal bouncer, as instead of legs, the man has a rubber ball below the waist, upon which he bounces in place. Jack thinks he recognizes this bouncer as Chico, but the reply is "I ain't no Chico." Holli can pass on sight, but the human Jack Deebs gets nixed, despite Holli vouching for him. "Sorry, doll, no noids." Mildly miffed, Holli points to Bash of the Quirky Miniboss Squad, and states, "See him? He's with me, too." Bash seizes the bouncer, and throws him against the wall so hard that he spends the next several minutes bouncing off the various surfaces near the entrance.
• The Steven Seagal film, Exit Wounds, sees the sensei infiltrating a nightclub to investigate some shady activities, and has to fight a group of bouncers. The last one being a Scary Black Man Giant Mook - "here comes the ''sumo negro!" - that was eventually decked halfway across the lounge by Seagal.
• In Kermit's Bad Future from It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, the Muppet Theater has been turned into a nightclub, and Beaker of all Muppets is the bouncer.
• Budd from Kill Bill works as a bouncer (and apparent custodian) in a strip club.
• Of all tropes, this might've been the least likely to get deconstructed, but it is in Knocked Up. After enough persistent pestering, the black bouncer takes Debbie aside to confide that he hates his job, as he doesn't enjoy turning away everyone over a certain age, or fitting people into quotas such as "5% black".
• The main character in Road House (1989) is a legendary bouncer who works at a rowdy road house.
• In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the bouncer of The Ink & Paint Club is a toon gorilla named Bongo who unceremoniously dumps Eddie outside when he catches him peeping. (A customer who wants to get past him to get into the club has to know the password: "Walt sent me.")

Literature

• In the Blandings Castle book Summer Lightning, a fracas at Mario's restaurant is broken up by the commissionaire, McTeague.
  A man of action rather than words, he clove his way through the press in silence. Only when he reached the centre of the maelstrom did he speak. This was when Ronnie, leaping upon a chair the better to perform the operation, hit him on the nose. On receipt of this blow, he uttered the brief monosyllable 'Ho!' and then, without more delay, scooped Ronnie into an embrace of steel and bore him towards the door.
• The Circus of Doctor Lao employs a bouncer who very efficiently tosses two troublemakers out onto the street, but arguments continue as to whether said employee is a man, a bear, or a Russian.
• Rodo in Death Star is the loyal bartender to Memah, the owner of the Soft Heart cantina and its successor, the Hard Heart. Fights never get the chance to start in either. Rodo tells anyone who gets rowdy that they are "disturbing the spirit of the Heart". Smart people who leave as suggested can come back the next day, no hard feelings. People who argue or take a swing don't fare as well. Rodo is very good at his job. When he and the other main characters defect, he ultimately gives his life in a You Shall Not Pass!.
• In his earlier appearances in Discworld, Detritus the troll is a "splatter" for the Mended Drum (so called because when Detritus throws you off the premises, you don't bounce).
• In the Matador Series novel The Man Who Never Missed, Dirisha, Sleel, and Bork are the bouncers at Khadaji's Jade Flower tavern. To decide who he was going to hire, Khadaji had the tables bolted to the floor, then asked each applicant to move one. Dirisha tried to lift one and failed, stooped down and studied how it was fastened, then set herself and pulled it loose; Sleel tore the top off of his, then used it to batter the base loose; Bork simply reached out and grabbed the base, held it up and said, "Where do you want it?", apparently not even noticing that it had been bolted down at all. Needless to say, with bouncers like that on duty, very few troublemakers stick around the Jade Flower.

Live-Action TV

• 3rd Rock from the Sun: In one episode, Don Orville gets a second job as a bouncer for the coolest club in Rutherford. He happily lets Sally, Harry and Vicki Dubcek in but stops Tommy because he's underage. Tommy spends the entire episode trying to find a way around Don and eventually resorts to disguising himself as a much older man. Don immediately sees through it but lets Tommy in anyway as the club has fallen off in popularity and is completely deserted, much to Tommy's frustration.
• Though nominally a waitress, Carla is the unofficial bouncer of Cheers. When someone causes too much trouble, she is frequently the one showing them the door.
• In an early episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will goes to a rough club to find a wayward houseguest. Upon coming upon two guys fighting:
  Will: Yo, man, should I get the bouncer?
  Man: [dazedly] I am the bouncer. [passes out]
• Hale And Pace has a pair of recurring characters called "The Two Rons" also known as "The Management", a pair of not overly bright bouncers.
• When the ITV network introduced all-night weekend TV in the middle 1980s, a cheap infill series broadcast around midnight on a Saturday was called The Hit-Man and Her. This was presented by the Simon Cowell of the day, pop impresario Pete Waterman, assisted by a very young and toothy Michaela Strachan. It was recorded in nightclubs around the UK, consisted of three hours' worth of chart dance tunes interspersed with daft games and interviews, and sure enough nobody ugly ended up on film, nobody got drunk, nobody had the crap beaten out of them by neanderthal bouncers, etc. It was later revealed that this idealized nightclub was usually filmed during the day with an invited and pre-selected audience consisting of models, aspirant actors and fame wannabees.
• These show up a few times in How I Met Your Mother. They're usually portrayed as pretty nice guys, actually.
• The Inbetweeners have a couple of run ins with bouncers.
  • When the lads go clubbing, Simon is turned away for wearing trainers, something Will explicitly warned him about before they left for London. Simon manages to get in anyway by swapping shoes with a homeless man.
    Will: I'm not saying it was a dodgy club or anything, but you have to question a door policy that says no to trainers, but yes to piss-soaked tramp shoes.
  • Neil's experience on the same night involves the bouncers throwing him out because he went to inspect the damage to his penis caused by cutting it while trying to urinate into a beer can and ended up being Mistaken for Masturbating.
  • When Will eats a block of cannabis resin at a gig and experiences a Freak Out that culminates him in going up on stage and using the mic to ask for an ambulance, he is gently escorted off the stage by a trio of bouncers, who he notes were surprisingly nice to him, which leads him to the conclusion that he looked proper mental.
• Mac from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is ostensibly the bouncer of Paddy's Pub, but despite his delusions of being a tough guy he consistently shows himself to be an incompetent, cowardly wimp who very rarely does any bouncing and inevitably gets crushed and humiliated whenever he gets into a fight.
• In The King of Queens, it is revealed that Doug Heffernan's main job when he first met Carrie Spooner was that of nightclub bouncer. Doug was pretty much of the non-violent fast-talking kind who would try to defuse trouble rather than invite it, but it cannot be denied that he could let the power of running the door and deciding who got in go to his head.
• Lois & Clark once go to a Gentleman's Club to investigate a robbery. The bouncer allows Clark in, but not Lois; her name is Not on the List because she's a woman.
• Max and Paddy, two northern toughs employed to do door security in Phoenix Nights. They later got their own spin-off series, Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere.
• One episode of Scrubs has a bouncer deny Turk and JD entrance to a club because they're acting uncool. They are allowed in when Carla says they're with her.
• An episode of That '70s Show involves the gang trying to get past a bouncer into a nightclub. The bouncer was played by Neil Flynn, who isn't a big guy.

Music

• "The Bouncer" by Kicks Like a Mule — the repeated refrain is simply "Your name's not down, you're not coming in".
• Arctic Monkeys have "From the Ritz to the Rubble", off of their debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, which is about a kid getting hassled by a bouncer and feeling bad the next morning that he didn't stand up to him, instead going out to drink a few.
• In "Levan Polka" (the official music video), the protagonists of the video (Rick, Dick, and Nick) go to a nightclub (in a parody of A Night at the Roxbury). At the end of the video, the bouncers toss them out because they've been acting like fools.
• "Not Tonight" by GMC starts out with the song's protagonist being turned away from a nightclub for wearing the wrong shoes, then later getting thrown out of another bar for the same offence.
• "Ode to the Bouncer" by Studio Killers is about the singer trying to get into a club that has either a very strict dress code or "face control" policies. She winds up sneaking in through the open restroom window.
• Some such takes care of the protagonist for getting a little too grabby with the belly dancer at the end of the song "Stop! Stop! Stop!" by The Hollies.
  Can't they understand that I want her? Happens every week.
  Heavy hand upon my collar throws me in the street.

Newspaper Comics

• One Bloom County series of strips has Opus as the bouncer for the Bloom County New Year's party. At first, we just see him whapping Steve Dallas on the head with a ruler, but in the next day's strip, he takes down a big burly biker (off-screen, of course), and the storyline ends with him throwing a drunken Steve out the door when he refuses to accept that the party's over and go home.

Radio

• A series of skits in The Lenny Henry Show has Nick, who says he used to work as a bouncer at some of the biggest clubs in London, being employed as airport security, a guard at a burger bar, welcoming people to the Pearly Gates, and guarding the gates of Hell, and consistently using the same judgement calls he'd have made in a nightclub: refusing men entry because they're wearing trainers, have already had a half glass of shandy, or because a random thing they said is "obviously" a drugs reference, while letting women past without question.

Tabletop Games

• In the Planescape campaign, most bars, clubs, inns, and restaurants in Sigil have bouncers (many of them not human) but practically all of them can be bribed if you need to get in. (How much you have to pay them depends on what kind of place it is, but Sigil is a place where Every Man Has His Price, literally.)
• One appears in the fluff of Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution. It serves to demonstrate how easily espers with psychokinesis can get into restricted areas.

Video Games

• 2Pac Man: The are two bouncers, one skinny and one muscular, blocking entrance to a dance club in level 6, with the skinny one saying "Ur not on da list, get out!".
• A man named Ray guards the entrance to the Golden Bowl tavern in The Adventures of Willy Beamish, looking quite mean and armed with a monkey wrench. However, examining him makes the narrator mention that he's started seeing a Granola Girl lately whose ideals have rubbed off on him, giving him a keen interest in astrology; abusing this is key to getting past him.
• ANNO: Mutationem: When attempting to enter Nocturne Maze to look for a Knowledge Broker, Ann is stopped by a bouncer who refuses to let her in until she comes back with the proper attire.
• Rare female example; King from the Art of Fighting and The King of Fighters games begins as a bouncer in the AOF games, then upgrades to both bouncer and bar owner in the KOF ones. It's best not to start trouble in her dear Illusion Bar unless the goal is to be at the end of her powerful kicks.
• Near the end of Batman: Arkham Asylum, a common Mook bars the way into the Visitor Center. However, Batman is on the list. In big, red letters, no less.
• The PS2 launch title The Bouncer by Square Enix is all about this trope... except they don't actually do a lot of bouncing in the game at all. The three main protagonists are all bouncers employed at "The Fate" bar, but then they find themselves involved in a much larger plot that starts off as a rescue mission.
• Conker's Bad Fur Day has the "Rock Solid" dance club, where everyone in it, including the bouncer at the door, is a rock monster. You can't get in without the password, luckily Conker befriends some cavemen who know it.
• Jann Lee from Dead or Alive is a bouncer in a restaurant (or hotel). Even if you're a mafia boss he will just kicks the asses of your thugs.
• Dante has a run in with one in DmC: Devil May Cry. His response to him is to punch him out, grab his pen and clipboard and write "fuck you" on it before walking inside.
• Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony has the main character perform club management as one of his duties, mostly watching certain locations for activity.
• Mass Effect:
  • In the Mass Effect, Wrex mentions that clubs frequently employ krogan bouncers as a status symbol.
  • Mass Effect 2 features a Funny Background Event in the Afterlife nightclub on Omega: an elcor doorman, an alien species whose hat amounts to "very patient, very polite gorilla-elephant fusion". Of course, Aria maintains a more traditional selection of bouncers/generic goons for actually kicking people out and/or roughing them up, but it's the thought that counts. It becomes less funny when one considers that according to the Codex, elcor can punch through the average non-military starship's hull, due to their very high-gravity homeworld. It means that he probably can't even throw anyone out (he'd splatter them with a touch), but it does ensure no one tries to pick a fight with anyone under risk of that. On the other hand, a major aspect of the elcor race is extreme patience, so anyone who manages to actually make one angry probably deserves what they get (especially since elcor vocalize their emotional state at all times,^note Elcor use basically no vocal inflection and translator technology can't properly handle their vastly more developed body and pheromone language. The statement of tone is still automated, given another funny background event where an Asari suspects the Elcor she's speaking to has hacked their translator to lie more easily. meaning you literally have no excuse).
    Angry Man: Let me in or I'll smash that smelly ass you call a face!
    Elcor Bouncer: With barely constrained menace: Try it.
  • Matriarch Aethyta also handles this role as double duty for her other role. It does help that her father was a krogan. She is sufficiently tough to drop a krogan with a headbutt. One sees where Liara gets her dangerous side.
  • In the Mass Effect 3 DLC Citadel, Grunt takes up this duty without being asked, because it's fun to tell people to go away. When Shepard asks him what he's doing, he offers to let Sheppard have a turn at bouncer duty to see how fun it is.
• Mother 3: Neckbeard and Skinhead won't let Lucas and Boney get into Club Titiboo unless they have a proper invite.
• Not Tonight has you playing as a European bouncer in a version of post-Brexit Britain.
• The Tasteful Club in PAYDAY 2 has a bouncer guarding its front entrance, and according to him, you're Not on the List. Not that it's a big problem for you; you're just here to rob the place, and can either sneak through a window on the side or just shoot the guy to get in. If you wait a few seconds without alerting him, though, he'll let you through anyway, noting that you and your crew "seem like class acts".
• PAYDAY 3: Rock The Cradle has a pair of bouncers guarding the door to the titular Neon Cradle's VIP Lounge, who you must get past to gain access to the nightclub's crypto wallet. Unlike the Tasteful Club's bouncer, they won't move unless you forge a VIP invitation or distract them in some way. Bump the difficulty to Overkill, and another pair of bouncers will guard the front entrance, forcing you to take another route inside.
• Pokémon:
  • In Pokémon Black and White a bouncer is watching the elevator that leads to a party on an upper floor of a building in Castelia City. If you're playing the male protagonist, he lets you by after frisking you; he's more trusting of the female protagonist.
  • Another bouncer appears at the Sushi High Roller in Lumiose City in Pokémon X and Y. This one is a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk who rudely kicks the player out even when said player has already become Champion and High Duke/Duchess. He's still rude even with the right qualifications to get in, and it takes the owner of the restaurant to stop him from throwing the player out again.
• Ratchet & Clank (2002) features a bouncer who bars the heroes from seeing Captain Quark unless they pay him, as he hates his boss for making a meagre amount of bolts per hour.
• Shadowrun Returns: Hong Kong has Frederick Ka Fai, doorman at Club 88. Fred's a gregarious sort who keeps a pet cat and makes polite conversation when approached. However, he is also eight feet tall and benches 700 kilograms (he's a troll), and has his personal best rowdy customer throw marked on the street outside the club with duct tape.
• The Sims
  • Each location in The Urbz: Sims in the City (except for the apartments) has a midnight party in a room guarded by a bouncer. You have to get your popularity high enough to be recognized by the bouncer and let in. You must enter the party to get a Power Social to use against a crook that steals money from people to get him to go away for good.
  • Nightclubs in The Sims 3 have VIP areas with bouncers that will let you in if you have a high Celebrity Rank. Otherwise, you can bribe, sneak by, or suck-up to them to get past. Sometimes your sim will get a Lifetime Point goal asking you to do one of these.
• Dana Zane from VA-11 HALL-A is a rare female example. She's both the boss and the bouncer for the titular bar, making sure to keep the bar safe from both rowdy guests and outside threats. It certainly helps that she is a former wrestler.

Web Animation

• In the Strong Bad Email "nightlife", Strong Mad serves as the bouncer at Club Technochocolate.
  Strong Mad: [holding up a take-out bag from Blubb-O's] YOU'RE NOT ON THE LIST!
  Strong Bad: "The list"? You're looking at a greasy bag of fast food!
  Strong Mad: DON'T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF!

Webcomics

• Paper Mario And The Ever Clear Night: Club Melody has one, and Clyde gets whupped by him.
• Questionable Content: Elliot is the bouncer at the Horrible Revelation, a bar often frequented by other cast members, as well as having a second job in a bakery. A true Gentle Giant, he is exceptionally thoughtful about both jobs and tries to employ minimum force as a bouncer. However, he is perfectly capable of providing just as much force as the work ever requires.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: In "Anne of the Year", Anne makes Polly the bouncer of the party and grants her authority over who is welcome or not.
• The Angry Beavers: When a Woodstock-esque concert is set up directly over Norbert and Daggett's beaver dam, a bouncer kicks them out. Daggett spends the episode attempting to sneak passed the bouncer with different disguises.
• The Fairly OddParents!: The popular kids attending Dimmsdale Elementary School have a bouncer to keep other kids away from them.
• Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Believing that Ami and Yumi want to spend some time away from him, Kaz has a party and doesn't invite them. A bouncer keeps them from entering.
• Chernabog plays this role in the House of Mouse special House of Villains.
• In one episode of The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, June hires a trio of demons — known for being dedicated to whatever they're hired to do — to do this at a stadium and not let any supernatural beings in who don't have a valid reason. Unfortunately, she gets more than she bargained for — they are so dedicated to their job, even she can't get in when she needs to. (She manages to do so by entering Monroe in the dog show, obtaining a valid reason.)
• Mission Hill:
  • Andy and his friends are turned away by a bouncer at the new club across the street. In retaliation, they start their own club and turn away everyone but themselves. Said "club" (the building's maintenance room) naturally becomes the hottest club in town in no time due to its refusal to admit anyone except the show's "hip" main cast and one hip baby. Eventually, after the joke has run its course, Andy and company have to stage a fire to get the crowd outside to disperse.
  • Another bouncer shows up when Andy gets a date with a famous female celebrity, at a high-profile award ceremony. For numerous reasons, Kevin has to be there in his place. The bouncers are quick to try and remove Kevin from the premises, before Kevin states that he is, indeed on the list. The bouncer apologizes for his harshness, but they have to keep the freaks out. Except for Marilyn Manson.
• Regular Show: In "Access Denied", Mordecai and Rigby get invited to a party club called 'Box'. However, they end up going to the wrong club when they assumed a similarly named club called 'The Box' was their destination and have to sneak by the bouncer when he refuses to let them enter.
• Samurai Jack: In Season 5, Scaramouche has to deal with a very stubborn one who refuses to let him onboard the boat without compliance of the dress code. Trying to pull rank on the guy doesn't help, as it seems two of Aku's other assassins have higher standing.
• In the South Park Vaccination Special, the Walgreens in town being used as a vaccination center is depicted as a hyper-exclusive nightclub, complete with a bouncer. When Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny +4 with a senior pretending to be a group of volunteers, the bouncer seems skeptical at first, but ultimately decides to commend the boys for their supposed "volunteer work" and let them in to get the senior vaccinated, when in reality, the senior already had her vaccinations and the boys later ran out with stolen vaccines, which the bouncer didn't even try to stop.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Reg from the episode "No Weenies Allowed".
    Rick: Welcome to the Salty Spittoon, how tough are ya?
  • Gary becomes the bouncer in "Shellback Shenanigans" in order to sense and expel Plankton from the Krusty Krab.
    SpongeBob: Wow, Gary's doing a great job as bouncer, huh, Mr. Krabs? Really earning his pay!
    Mr. Krabs: Well, he takes after you, boy. [surprised] Pay?!
• The one butch robot clone in the Time Squad episode "Day of the Larrys" acts as a bouncer, preventing the original Larry from entering the gay disco his clones created. He even asks him, "Are you on the list?"

Real Life

• Mr. T started as a bouncer. His habit of wearing loads of jewelry started with property he pulled off of people he was ejecting from his club - he wore any jewelry dropped by people in the fights as a walking lost-and-found. For some reason a lot of people never asked him for their necklace back...
• John Goodman of Roseanne fame had a job as a bouncer when he was younger but quit almost immediately when the management began teaching him techniques on how to beat people up.
• Garth Brooks had this job before he became famous.
• Pope Francis was a bouncer for a night club in Buenos Aires before entering the priesthood, prompting at least one commentator to say his biography should be titled 'Heaven Can Wait, And So Can You'.
• Vin Diesel did this for a while before he got his start in acting.
• Charlie Fell (vocalist/bassist for Lord Mantis, drummer for Abigail Williams) works as a bouncer at a gay bar in Boystown for his day job.
• In his biography Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo, Reggie Fils-Aimé mentions that he was often mistaken as a bouncer at Nintendo public events due to his enormous size.

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