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Did You Just Have Sex?

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"When you haven't been getting any, other people notice that. Other people pick up on that. You yourself don't know that you haven't been getting any; you just think, 'oh, another week has gone by'... But on the other hand, when I haven't been getting any and then I get some, overnight I become a different person. Next day you wake up, you're Mahatma Gandhi. You're full of love. You're a visionary. You care about world peace. I have a smile for everyone. 'Why yes, I'd love a Street Sheet! In fact I'll take all that you have! Keep the spare change! Why yes, I am getting some!'"
— Marga Gomez

This is when a character not known for their active sexual life acts differently enough (usually more cheerful or mellow) for other characters to notice and question it. They (and sometimes the audience) find out that it is because said character somehow got laid.

(Alternatively, they'll go through the Did You Get a New Haircut? routine.)

Normally used on characters that are a bit grumpy or disillusioned, proving that all they needed was to get laid. It's almost Always Male in this case, as the female equivalent is more subdued.

Compare to Virgin Vision, where another person can tell a character has had sex without any clues being given off, and Virginity Flag, where there is a blatantly obvious sign of the loss of virginity. See also Sex Dressed and Sexy Shirt Switch.

Not to be confused with Did They or Didn't They?.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Bakemonogatari: Araragi is seen in what one might call an exuberant and joyful mood. It's difficult to confirm that anything really did happen the previous night, but he does seem awfully happy.
  • In Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, after David and Lucy have a Relationship Upgrade, Maine notices that David does not seems as dour as he normally is, and ribs him with this possibility.
  • Implied in Ergo Proxy. After a certain point in the plot Vincent and Re-l start acting a lot nicer to each other. This is never explained.
  • Gravitation: Played with/inverted. The night after Shuichi first has sex with Yuki, he walks around with glowing eyes and an enormous smile, asks his best friend to ask him what happened last night, and then won't specify.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya: In the tenth novel, when Kyon is acting more cheerful and upbeat than usual, Taniguchi mutters "What's with you? Don't tell me you and Suzumiya finally... no, never mind." Considering that he makes no secret of the fact that he assumes the two are dating, it's pretty clear he thought they had their first time when he wasn't paying attention. They didn't.
  • In Junjou Romantica, Miyagi teases his collegue Hiroki about this a few times, once just to watch him squirm.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
    • In Chapter 155, Iino notices that Ishigami smells more like Tsubame than he did before she went to sleep. Due to the fact that they were alone for a few hours and that it's Christmas, she counts one and one together and concludes that Ishigami slept with Tsubame, congratulating him. However, Ishigami refused to sleep with Tsubame because she didn't want a Long-Distance Relationship with him (later revealed to just be a cover for her Commitment Issues), and Ishigami didn't want a one-night stand.
    • In Chapter 39 of We Want to Talk About Kaguya, Karen comes to the conclusion that Kashiwagi and Tsubasa has Their First Time over summer break after noticing that Kashiwagi seems to be positively glowing with sex appeal. She's absolutely right to think that.
    • In Chapter 225, Kaguya and Shirogane's respective friends correctly assume that they had Their First Time the previous weekend and try to grill them for details.
  • Maison Ikkoku: After one-hundred-forty-nine chapters — containing dozens of fights and annoying misunderstandings — Yusaku and Kyoko make love for first time. The next days the remainder residents of the boarding house notice that Kyoko is in an incredibly good mood, as if she had got something that she'd spent a long time craving for. As they talk about it, they stare at Yusaku suspiciously before saying: "Nah, impossible", "He wishes."
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Chaste Hero Setsuna asks his teammate Lockon "what are Allelujah and Sumeragi doing next door?" in the drama CD.
  • In Natsu e no Tobira, Jack and Linds end up finding out about Marion losing his virginity to Sara when they go to her house to see if he's around and... find their friend only in a towel there.
  • In Ouran Highschool Host Club, the hosts walk in on Tamaki and Haruhi while Tamaki is helping her with her fear of thunderstorms. At the moment, he's putting a blindfold and headphones on her to assure that she won't hear or see anything. Needless to say, they assume that it's something else.
  • Rebuild World: When the protagonist's Squad of Private Military Contractors (known as "Hunters") take an hour of R&R from their medevac operation, the Old Soldier Shirakabe gets shoved into the back of his APC by the Heroic Seductress Carol, so she can sleep with him for information after he repairs and restocks the vehicle. Since Shirakabe is known for being early, him meeting the rest of the squad exactly on time afterwards alongside Carol, leads to an awkward exchange with everyone else staring at him because they could figure out what happened.
  • In Revolutionary Girl Utena, while they don't confront her directly, Miki and Juri converse amongst themselves about this after Utena has sex with Akio, noticing how much more girly she's been acting.
  • School Days: While never asked, Taisuke has this expression in a certain episode. This being School Days, that's because the night before, he indeed had sex, or rather, forced himself on Kotonoha while she was shocked at knowing that Makoto chose Sekai for his Folk Dance partner. She coldly dismissed him the day after and Taisuke is none the wiser that what he had done is basically rape. Did we mention this anime is a Dysfunction Junction?
  • Shimoneta: Zigzagged in chapter 10, when Ayame walks in on Tanukichi and Oboro in the girls' locker-room and sees Tanukichi has pinned Oboro on the floor. Then sees Oboro is breathing heavy and smiling with a faint blush from just having his first orgasm. Ayame doesn't say a word, but clearly thinks she's interruptingnote  so she ducks back outside and slams the door behind her.
  • Tales of Wedding Rings: In chapter 57, Krystal and Satou return to the party after spending the previous night having Their First Time. The other princesses immediately notice that something is up: Satou seems more confident than usual, Krystal is keeping an awkward distance from him, and she's started calling him Haruto, a name which none of the other princesses have ever heard before. Saphir is the first one to put all the pieces together, and she spells it out for the others:
    Saphir: To put it bluntly... they did it.

    Comic Books 

    Comic Strips 
  • In For Better or for Worse, when Elly's friend, Connie finds out her dog Sera had gotten out and had been with Elly's dog, Farley, Elly tries to be optimistic and suggest that maybe nothing happened. Connie doubts that noting that this is the first time she's ever seen a dog "smile". Sure enough, Sera ends up having puppies.

    Fan Works 
  • In chapter 8 of Advice and Trust Rei manages to piece together that Shinji and Asuka were just having sex in a supply closet based on how they smelled, their lack of tension, and the fact that they arrived back at the classroom at the same time even though they left separately. By extension, she's able to figure out that they've been in a Secret Relationship for the past few months (something that nobody else noticed) even though she had less than a month of experience with recognizing social cues.
  • Victoria, in the Dragon Age: Inquisition fanfic All This Sh*t is Twice as Weird, knows that Mahanon is setting up his Grand Romantic Gesture for Cassandra. When she wakes in the morning and finds that his bed wasn't slept in, she figures out what happened; when he comes back to the room a little while later, she proceeds to razz him as only an honorary little sister can.
    Victoria: (sing-song voice) Someone never came to be-ed...
  • Alluded to in The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan. Trixie's first appearance sees her teasing Twilight over apparently getting laid with Nova, due to the fact that she seems like she's in a lot better mood than usual that particular morning, not to mention the way she was looking at him, though it turns out it's just because it's the first proper night of sleep she's had in months.
  • In Chapter 14 of As Fate Would Have It, Rosa meets up with her two friends Nate and Yancy the morning after the two have had Their First Time. Noticing their glowing expressions and the hickey on Yancy's neck, she immediately brings this up, which the two immediately try to deny despite the evidence to the contrary. Eventually, they come clean and admit it to her.
  • As Harry is walking dazed after Tonks kisses him in The Awakening of a Magus, Remus says he can tell nothing more than a kiss happened, thanks to his improved senses. Then Sirius realizes this means he could tell whenever someone was fooling around at school...
  • In chapter three of Bait and Switch (STO) Captain Kanril Eleya strolls onto the bridge after having a one night stand while ashore at Deep Space 9. Her first officer spots it immediately and gives her a look.
    Eleya: What?
    Tess Phohl: What do you mean, ‘what,’ Eleya? You walk in here looking like a grayth that just dined on prize alicorn and expect nobody to notice?
  • In the Code Geass fanfic Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion Milly is easily able to tell that Sayoko and C.C. have been with Lelouch, though the narration doesn't mention how she knows.
  • In Crazy Little Thing Called Odd by bottoms up, the students realise that Snape is in a ridiculously good mood every time Harry has had detention with him. They just don't realise why that is. Hilarity ensues.
  • Create Your Own Fate: Eleya's conversation with K'Ragh briefly turns to discussing their respective love lives, shortly after she's started dating Reshek Gaarra. After commenting on his latest divorce, K'Ragh remarks, "You look like you've found a nice gentleman. There's that glow I haven't seen for a while." Eleya fibs, blaming the subspace connection.
  • A Crown of Stars: In chapter 44, when Daniel greets Shinji and Asuka he notes that they seem very pleased and asks if they got any sleep the last night. Shortly after Ching asks Asuka how good Shinji was. When Asuka asks if they are so obvious, Ching replies that they're practically glowing.
    Daniel: And you two seem like you passed a very pleasant night. Get any sleep?
    Asuka: (thinking) 'Oh Gott, is it written all over my face or something?'
  • Doing It Right This Time: In Chapter 3, Ritsuko is looking ridiculously cheerful and sporting a huge hickey. Misato tries to work up the nerve to ask the obvious question... And then Maya walks into the room sporting a collar, which answers questions Misato didn't want to ask.
  • In Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, Duncan McSmurf is able to tell through his sense of smell whether a fellow Smurf just had "the Smurfette dream." This pops up in a few mini-stories that take place after Empath and Smurfette marry as well as their fellow male Smurfs, when Duncan detects with his nose when they just had sex.
  • Fate/Harem Antics: When Taiga sees Shirou coming out of Sakura's room in the morning, it doesn't take her long to realize they spent the night together. She pulls out a bamboo sword and prepares to "administer punishment" for Shirou stealing Sakura's innocence. When Sakura explains that it was all her idea, Taiga pauses for a moment, then starts bawling.
    Taiga: Sakura took Shirou's innocence! A woman I let in the house stole Shirou's virginity! I'm a bad guardian!
  • Guys Being Dudes: Sierra can't tell if Spark and Arlo did, seeing as Arlo always has some degree of warranted swagger and they both tend to have Messy Hair and otherwise disheveled looks.
  • Hilariously subverted in Harry and the Shipgirls. The night after finally getting a boyfriend in Captain Sousuke Yonehara, Ashigara was extremely cheerful when greeting her sisters the next morning. They came to the conclusion that she had been drugged.
  • I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again!: Temari and Kankuro stumble across Sasuke and Sakura sitting together in an unused room of the tower at the center of the Forest of Death after they had just completed a three day sexual marathon via Tsukuyomi. Even though the two Konoha shinobis aren't mussed at all, the two Sand Siblings can clearly tell that something just happened between them based on their flushed and satisfied appearances.
  • In a Code Geass fanfic In the End, Lelouch is in a really good mood after losing his virginity to C2.
  • Athena Prime had a Knights of the Old Republic fanfic where HK-47 pulls this trope in regards to Revan and Carth.
    HK-47: Extrapolation, Master: The commander meatbag exited your bunkroom with a smile on his face, and you are presently unclothed, your body temperature is higher than normal, and your facial read-out falls in the range termed as 'flushed.' Do you require some post-coital refreshment?
  • In the Homestuck fanfic Like Lovers Do Aradia manages to not only tell that Eridan and Feferi have pailed, but also to convey her smugness about it without saying anything in particular.
    [at breakfast the morning after]
    Aradia: In a good mood, aren't we. Slept well?
    Eridan: It's just this cream. It's really good.
    Aradia: That it is.
    Narration: In the meanwhile, Aradia just finishes washing her cup and goes upstairs without any other comment. And that's pretty much it. You're sure she knows, she just doesn't give a damn about it.
  • In One Thing Leads to Another, Robin and Starfire come to the common room after their first time. Among their teammates, one is an empath, the other is a shapeshifter with an enhanced sense of smell. They are quick to do the math.
  • The Star Wars Rebels fanfic Rain/Fall: The morning after Hera and Kanan are busy having a "meeting" alone on the ship, everyone is very annoyed about how chipper the pair are. Everyone is so distracted, in fact, that it takes a while before anyone notices how strange Sabine and Ezra are acting and how their subtle not-quite flirting has turned into actual arguments laden with sexual innuendo.
  • Subverted in the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fanfic The Spiral Path. Everyone assumes this with Rossiu and Kinon, but the author notes go out of their way to point out that there wasn't any sex.
  • Tales of the Otherverse: At the end of the fifth chapter, Jennifer Walters runs into Rogue singing and fixing breakfast while Kara is acting unusually perky. Jennifer easily puts two and two together and gives congratulations to both women.
    She spun to see an equally cheery Kara bearing down on her, her arms full of printouts. Like Rogue, she was still dressed in her nightclothes. She stepped aside and watched as Kara zipped by to plop her burden on the table. Then she saw the unexpected. Kara had gone straight to the coffee pot, and stopped long enough to quickly kiss Rogue. And, despite its quickness, there was nothing chaste about the kiss. Jenny had no doubt she had just witnessed a kiss between lovers.
    "Well, I'm glad someone got laid last night!" She drawled, leaning in the doorway.
  • Luna immediately figures this out, by picking up on Celestia's good mood and the spring in her step in TD the Alicorn Princess.
  • White Sheep (RWBY): Right before the final battle, Ruby is annoyed that she can tell that her sister Yang had sex. She already knew Yang had sex, as she wasn't exactly subtle during the act, but she's annoyingly cheerful and clearly much less stressed than she should be considering the situation.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Brazilian movie A Mulher Invisivel has a line that goes like "You're too happy. Are you screwing someone?". He... kinda is.
  • Assault on a Queen: The morning after he sleeps with Rosa, the normally grumpy Mark arrives at the sub whistling merrily. No one says anything, but it does draw odd looks from the rest of the crew.
  • In Avatar, Quaritch is able to deduce that Jake Sully has been having a good time with Neytiri from his changed behavior and criticizes Jake for neglecting his diplomatic duties for his love interest. This signals the turning point for Jake Going Native and turning against the RDA, with a giant bulldozer nearly running over his Avatar and destroying a sacred site causing him to especially turn against them.
  • There's a variation in The Day of the Jackal when the police interview the staff of a hotel the Jackal was staying in. One of the maids who cleaned his room tells the detective that he had sex in the bed (the Jackal having slept with a married woman staying at the same hotel). "You can always tell."
  • In the 1987 Dragnet movie, after rescuing a would-be Virgin Sacrifice, Friday consistently refers back to it whenever he mentions her name. Until the very end:
    Streebeck: [catches Friday yawning on the way into work] Long night last night partner? I thought the Christian Science Reading Room closed at ten.
    Friday: Not that it's any of your business, Mr. National Enquirer, but I had the pleasure of spending a quiet evening in the company of Connie Swail.
    Streebeck: Wait a minute. "Connie Swail?" Don't you mean "the virgin Connie Swail"?
    [Friday merely turns his head and looks at Streebeck with a smile, accompanied with a *BUM-BA-DUM-BUM!* ]
  • Every Which Way but Loose: Slowly pieced together by the main character's sidekick. Initially, he thinks their literal Team Pet just mated.
  • (In)famously in Gone with the Wind, when Scarlett wakes up singing after a night of semi-consensual sex with Rhett.
  • A kid-friendly version in Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. After Lyle has gotten Mrs. Primm out of her overly rigid routine, she appears much happier around her husband, who hestitantly asks her if she has someone new in her life. Her reply of "sort of" doesn't exactly help until Lyle himself finally clears the air.
  • A couple times in Mallrats, other characters comment that Brodie is "glowing" shortly after he had elevator sex.
  • In Sliver: "You have been fucking your brains out!"
  • In The Specials, Deadly Girl is a bit more upbeat than usual and Minute Man is looking a little more relaxed. Ms. Indestructable takes one look at them and blurts out "Did you two sleep together?!" Deadly Girl wryly asks if oral sex counts, then cheerfully announces "Doughnuts for everyone!"
  • Played for Laughs in Super Troopers, where Thorny and Rabbit open the back of the truck where Mac and Foster were trapped for several hours by the driver. The first thing Thorny does is take a whiff and say, "Smells like sex in here."
  • In Ten Inch Hero Jen, who is a virgin, masturbates for the first time. Later:
    Priestly: Hey, Jen, did you do something different with your hair?
    Jen: No, why?
    Priestly: I don't know. You just look different.
  • In Turner and Hooch, when the normally uptight Turner tells his workmate to relax, the workmate suddenly proclaims, "You humped the vet!"
  • Wolves: Minus the part where it's a question. When John finds Cayden in the barn with Clothing Damage, straw in his hair and in a very good mood, he doesn't need Angel to appear in a similar state to know what's up.
  • Young Lady Chatterley II: After the deeply repressed Judith has liberating sex with the gardener Thomas, she walks past Cynthia and Robert. Her hair, which had been up in a Prim and Proper Bun, is now loose and tumbling past her shoulders, and she has swapped her full coverage clothes for a sexy red dress. Cynthia knowingly comments on the effects of the healthy country air.

    Literature 
  • In one of the Alien Nation books, Sykes tries to have sex with an alien, leaving him with bruises on his neck from her legs; the aliens become very "uninhibited". While humans generally don't know enough about Tenctonese physiology to figure out what happened to him, his coworker is an alien too. He rehearses lying to cover it up. The moment he enters the workplace, another alien says "did you copulate with a Tenctonese last night?" Sputtering, he tries to run off, with the alien shouting behind him "sexual ignorance is dangerous!" Meeting his coworker only leads to more awkwardness (as his coworker knows his alien girlfriend). An almost identical scene, following almost identical events the night before, occurs in the TV series.
  • Traci Harding's The Ancient Future Trilogy: "I know that walk. That's Teo's 'I just got laid' stride."
  • Implied in the novelization of Boruto: Naruto the Movie. Sarada mentions that her mother Sakura's skin shines now that Sasuke is back home. It could just mean that Sakura is happier now, but it also has a sexual interpretation.
  • Captive Prince: Prince Laurent's men see Damen and him sneak back to their quarters through a secret passage at night, with Damen looking blissed-out and tired, and draw the obvious conclusion. In a twist, Damen was having sex, just not with Laurent. Laurent reminds him to bathe before muster.
  • In Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies, Cain sees both Colonel Kasteen and Major Broklaw entertaining the attentions of local nobles at a banquet in the 597th's honor, and wryly thinks to himself that neither the CO nor XO are likely to spend the night in their own quarters. Sure enough, the next morning, Kasteen is "gulping recaff with the air of someone who was tired but still relishing the process of having got that way."
  • In Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger, the FBI director's secretary starts a relationship with a drug lord's intelligence agent and when she goes to work the next day, her coworkers notice she has "a sparkle in her eye that could not be hidden."
  • Executive Orders: President Ryan's Secret Service detail can tell that he and his wife had sex the night before by the way the two are holding hands.
  • Honor Harrington: After Honor sleeps with Paul Tankersely, her admiral notes that "dinner agreed with her".
  • Paul Robinson's Instrument of God: Supervisor 246 recounts his first time with a woman as another teenager shows up. "‘Look, I'd better go,' I said, and I tried to walk past him. Well, I guess her boyfriend could smell it on me, because he said, ‘Did you just fuck her?' I probably should have just lied, and said ‘no,' then left. ‘Yeah,' I said."
  • A more subtle example in The Lost Fleet. After the first time Victoria Rione seduces John Geary, both of them come to the Dauntless's bridge, where Captain Tanya Desjani takes one look at them and instantly figures it out, despite Geary trying to act normal, and Rione being a politician (i.e. can easily fake any expression). Desjani makes a suggestive comment and leaves the bridge. Dumbstruck, Geary mouths "How?" to Rione resulting in a "need to know" speech, which Geary interprets as Women's Mysteries.
    • This scene becomes Hilarious in Hindsight a few books later when Desjani develops feelings for Geary herself.
  • In The Pursuit Of Happyness, by Douglas Kennedy, Sara's brother Eric knows that she slept with Jack, the guy she met at Eric's party.
  • In Alex Sanchez's Rainbow Road: "You two sure are smiley today. Did you finally bone last night?"
  • Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Katie, much to her chagrin, figures out almost immediately in volume 10 that Oliver and Nanao have finally slept together (unbeknownst to her, more literally than figuratively: they did have a Relationship Upgrade but they only actually got to third base this time because the act hit a Trauma Button for Oliver). Being the hypotenuse of this Love Triangle, she tries to hold it in, and Guy has to persuade her that It's Okay to Cry while giving her a Cooldown Hug.
  • Song at Dawn: Everyone can tell that Dragonetz and Estela have had sex because their love ballads are suddenly much better.
  • The Sound and the Fury is this trope played seriously. Caddy's loss of her virginity is an obsession within the Compson family, with each of the members having a different reaction to it. Her special needs brother Benjy can even smell that something's changed about her after her first time.
  • After a night with Morelli in Four to Score, Stephanie Plum has to deal with Connie, Lula, Vinnie, and Ranger all commenting on her suddenly active sex life as soon as she's in the same room with them (and she didn't tell any of them).
  • The Tough Guide to Fantasyland tells you the signs to look for in one of your tour members and the correct etiquette for the situation.
  • In Captain Vorpatril's Alliance from the Vorkosigan Saga, Ivan and Tej thoroughly enjoy consummating their emergency marriage. The next morning, Ivan goes to work as normal. His boss (who knows about the marriage) sourly tells him to stop whistling.
  • In Starfighters of Adumar from the X-Wing Series, Wedge, the leader and responsible type of Red Flight, reconciles with his old love interest Iella Wesseri. The next morning he is exuberant, a little flighty, and joking readily, while his Wing Man, who normally is the one with all those traits but spent the night on the balcony watching for attackers, is grumpy. It's never said outright, but the scenes do imply that Wedge and Iella had sex, and Wes almost-but-doesn't-quite ask him. They marry sometime after this book.

    Live-Action TV 
  • One episode of 7th Heaven features Annie and Lucy sharing knowing glances over ice cream after they'd both gotten some.
  • After spending the whole film/web-series longing after Dr. Kelly in Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, Adama finally gets to do her after talking about her dead husband and how the war-machine lied about this death in order to boost enrollments. Shortly after he finds Coker playing on a piano and takes a swing of expensive wine with a wide smile on his face.
    Coker: Just had to frak her, didn't you?
  • Batwoman: In "Grinning From Ear To Ear", both Mary Hamilton-Kane and Luke Fox mistake the spring in Sophie Moore and Kate Kane's steps for a sign that they had sex the previous night. It was just really good kissing. Luke pours cold water on Kate's joy by pointing out that Batwoman having a relationship can only cause trouble.
  • Played Straight in Bones, Season 2, Episode 14 'The Man in the Mansion.' Bones comes into work looking 'very happy,' and Angela instantly knows she's had sex with Sulley.
  • Buffyverse:
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Xander does this to himself in the middle of a very weird night. The best part is that no one else figures it out.
    • Angel:
      • This happens a couple of times between Angel and Wesley. In a season 2 episode, Angel demonstrates his Super-Senses by remarking that Wesley had sex with a bleached blonde the night before. In season 4 during his Angelus turn, he mentions in front of the whole gang that Wesley has been having sex with Lilah.
      • Angel is on the receiving end after he has sex with fellow vampire Darla.
        Lorne: Jeez, keep your pants on! (Angel enters) Well, I see we're a little late with that advice.
  • Castle:
    • Though he really tries to hide it, Beckett can tell every time Castle has slept with Ellie Munroe.
    • In the second episode of season five, Lanie can immediately tell that something is different about Beckett on her first day back to work, and eventually works out that it's because she's having regular sex. This causes Beckett a certain amount of fluster because she's trying to keep the fact that she and Castle have started a relationship secret from everyone.
  • On Cheers, Woody Boyd and his fiancée lost their patience (and most likely their respective virginities) just one night before the wedding. Sam was the first to figure out why, of course.
    "You're smiling the way I smile after I..."
  • In The Closer, Chief Johnson gets very cheerful when she gets some.
  • Community played with this trope in the episode Modern Warfare. Jeff and Britta have sex on their study group's table during a paintball tournament, and as they both walk to their study group the next day, they remind each other "nothing's changed". Abed instantaneously picks up on the dynamic changed and makes note of it. No one notices.
  • Empty Nest. Barbara takes one look at the post-coital Carol and is able to deduce that she just had sex. Charlie tops this by figuring out every single significant characteristic about him—"you're still flushed, so he must be pretty young", "it's the middle of the day, so he probably doesn't have a job", "judging from your posture, he's about this tall" (gestures with his hand just as the man in question walks in).
  • In Frasier the incredibly uptight Niles was oddly chipper — when someone called him on this, he responded with I Have Just One Thing to Say: "I find that comment boorish and offensive and... impossible to deny!"
    • Played for laughs in another episode, when Roz and Frasier end up sleeping together after a night at his apartment. The next morning, as a panicked Frasier tries to cover up what happened, Martin enters:
      Martin: Mornin', Fras.
      Frasier: Morning, Dad.
      Martin: You see the paper yet?
      Frasier: Uh, no, I haven't.
      Martin: Big story about how Roz's purse spent the night on the coffee table.
  • Friends: In "The One With Phoebe's Husband", Ross was dancing down the street and was called out on it by an old lady: "Well, somebody got some last night". He gleefully shouts back "twice!"
    • In the pilot, Monica has just been with Paul the Wine Guy, and her co-worker calls her on why she's smiling all the time. As Rachel said earlier, "It looks like you slept with a hanger in your mouth!"
    • In "The One After Ross Says Rachel" when Phoebe sees Chandler and Monica for the first time since their trip to London, where the two hooked up, she immediately yells out "You had sex!" to which the two start sputtering and trying to deny it. Phoebe says to Chandler, "Well, obviously not YOU. I meant Monica." Monica then denies it as well. In a rare subversion, Phoebe accepts this, saying "Man, this pregnancy's throwing me all off."
  • Rather a sad example in Gilmore Girls. Lorelai comes home and sees Rory and the very married Dean stumble out of Rory's bedroom looking dishevelled and a little too happy. The anger and disppointment on Lorelai's face is heartbreaking.
  • Gen V: In "Jumanji" Jordan immediately comments on Emma's "sex hair" when she returns to the frat house with Sam in tow. Emma lies and claims she didn't.
  • In season three of Glee after Will Schuester and Emma Pillsbury finally have sex (after the New Directions finally win at Nationals) Sue sees her the next day and quips "Why do you look different?"
  • The Golden Girls:
    • Blanche likes to invoke this trope whenever she has a particularly exciting experience with a gentleman caller, often deliberately acting out of breath or sighing heavily when she comes into the room. It often leaves her open to quips from Dorothy: "Why do I suddenly feel the need to bathe?"
    • Parodied in another episode when Sophia takes offense to being compared to a pet; right afterward, she sniffs Blanche and says "You've been with a man, haven't you?"
    • A variation occurs in "Mary Has a Little Lamb," when the girls' teenage next-door neighbor Mary comes over for a visit. After Dorothy, Rose, and Blanche greet her, Sophia enters, says hello, and immediately asks "When's the baby due?" Mary confirms that her boyfriend has gotten her pregnant, and Sophia explains that she recognized the similarities to Dorothy when she came home "in trouble" as a teen.
  • In season two of House the team has gathered in the middle of the night and wonder what is taking House so long. They know he left with Stacey, but Cameron is sure that they didn't have sex (while Foreman hopes they did, since it might put House in a better mood). Enter House, singing and smiling. Played with, as House was not happy about the sex itself (he hires prostitutes from time to time, so...), but because he still had feelings for Stacy.
  • Barney does this in How I Met Your Mother. "Aww, man, you guys did it, didn't you?"
  • Just Shoot Me!:
    • Finch comes into work after sleeping with his supermodel girlfriend and somebody comments, "Wow, the only time I've seen you this happy is two years ago whe—you had sex, didn't you?"
    • In another episode, Nina claims that Maya has sex every twelve months, which is how she knows to set the clocks back for Daylight Savings Time.
  • In French series Lazy Company, Louise can tell almost instantly that formerly shy virgin Private Henry is not a virgin any more, because he is "a little taller, a little less honest".
  • Life:
    • Crews got the picture when he and Reese are on their way to the desert, and a song's playing on the radio, and Reese is humming along without realizing. Crews quips, "You were humming," Reese goes, "What? No I wasn't," and Crews goes, "When people hum without realizing, it usually means they're... happy." To which Reese replies, "I wasn't humming, and I'm not happy!"
    • What really blows her cover is when their boss calls the hotel room the two are staying in, and immediately starts talking dirty over the phone having assumed they had separate rooms and that Reese would answer.
  • The Nanny:
  • NCIS
    • "Endgame" has Tony doing this when McGee walks into the office extremely happy. Tony refers to it as "Pulling a Heston" in a reference to Planet of the Apes.
    • Ziva does it to Tony once as well — gleefully. "It's okay to admit it, we're all adults here!" Of course, Fornell is behind her: "That's a subject I'd be willing to debate, Officer David."
  • New Tricks: The boys have this reaction when Sasha enters the office with a spring in her step in "The Lottery Curse". Leads to a Side Bet about whether she had or not.
  • In Night Court, the day after Christine gets charmed by a young artist she successfully defended, she shows up smiling as usual. Resident lecher Dan takes one look at her and declares "You bopped the kid!".
  • Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation always dresses like Tiger Woods after a night of sexytimes.
  • Happens offscreen on Party of Five. Nina was immediately able to tell that Julia was no longer a virgin.
  • Scrubs
    • There's only one day of the year when Dr. Bob Kelso's in a good mood (the day after his wedding anniversary) so people only ask him for anything once a year. This actually turns out to be a subversion: his wife always spends the anniversary at "fat camp". Kelso, however, allows the myth to continue so people only ask him for things once a year.
    • Another subversion where JD has trouble getting it up and walks into work thinking everyone is doing this when they're not:
    Dr. Cox: Hey, Newbie, what's up?
    J.D.: Everything! Everything's up!
    Dr. Kelso: Rise and shine, sport!
    J.D.'s narration: What, did someone send out a flier?!
    Todd: Hey, J.D.! How's your penis?
    J.D.'s narration: All right, calm down, he says that to everyone.
    • Another example is Turk, who demonstrates an uncanny ability to always know when two people have had sex. He deduces J.D. and Elliot's hook-up solely on how they exchanged nods at work. He then points out two male orderlies who he claims have started dating, and he's quickly proven right. In J.D.'s case, explained by the sex gongs they bought each other. Except, of course, when JD moves out and Turk still hears it...
      Turk: "Yeah, buddy!"
    • A great example is when Dr Cox starts dating pharmaceutical rep Julie (played by Heather Locklear) in season two. He goes from surly Cox to carrying Julie piggyback singing "Perry's gonna get some loving!" while she smacks his ass. He even winks at J.D.
    • Turk learns about Denise's and Drew's relationship from Todd, who's apparent super-pervert skills allow him to detect any sex in the hospital, their position, and what clothes they are/aren't wearing.
      • "Why won't you let him take off his pants?"
  • Subverted in Sliders where it is actually Wade's disheveled and decidedly un-chipper appearance and demeanor that cause Quinn to say "Did you get lucky or run over?" Neither; she'd been partying with vampires who were trying to change her.
  • Spin City
    • Loser Paul walks into work singing and skipping after having sex. He struts down the hall to the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" ala Saturday Night Fever.
    • James comes in one day with a subdued smile on his face, which piques Nikki's interest.
      Nikki: That look... I know that look. You had sex last night.
  • One episode of Stargate SG-1 features Carter and O'Neil riding an elevator with Carter humming the whole way, prompting an amusing exchange.
    • It gets better: Word Of God says she was supposed to hum the MacGyver theme tune to surprise Richard Dean Anderson, but no one could remember it, and asking him would've spoiled the surprise.
    • Then there's a scene in the episode "Crossroads" involving Teal'c, of all people. An old flame has come to the SGC to get help. They are shown kissing in her room. Cut to Teal'c leaving the room grinning from ear to ear as Daniel walks up.
  • Star Trek: Voyager: In "Darkling", Kes is shown kissing a local alien, then later beams up to Voyager at three in the morning with her hair tousled and a sore back, grinning like she just got laid. The female transporter operator gives her a knowing smile.
  • In Taxi, after Latka got married to Simka, he ended up stranded in a broken down cab with a female cabbie in the freezing cold. She told him the only option was for them to have sex or freeze to death. After the ordeal, Latka went home hoping Simka wouldn't find out, but as soon as they hugged, Simka screamed, "YOU DID IT WITH ANOTHER WOMAN!"
  • In That '70s Show, the day after Eric and Donna have first made love, a weirded-out Donna appears from Jackie's point of view to have the words "I had sex" on her forehead. Eric, on the other hand, had the words "Guilty" written on his forehead when talking to Donna's father.
  • In season two of Veronica Mars, immediately after Veronica sleeps with Duncan she bumps into Logan who says she looks different and asks if she's changed her hair. At home her father makes a similar comment and she wonders whether he's really such a good detective that he can tell she's had sex.
  • In Who's the Boss?, Tony runs into Mona after he's had a "successful" date. Mona nonchalantly busts him.
    Tony: [stunned] How could you tell?
    Mona: How does a sailor know when a storm's a'brewin!
    She also knows he didn't sleep with Angela, because she wasn't singing "Climb Every Mountain".
  • Will & Grace:
    • An episode had two characters do this to Grace, with one actually able to identify the other man with this too. Both cases are a simple "You had sex!"
    • Karen is able to tell exactly what Grace has done with a man in a matter of seconds. Grace is understandably terrified of this power.

    Manhwa 
  • During the first flashback arc in Cavalier of the Abyss, Jae Hyuk is seen passionately kissing Serin on top of a bed. The next morning he's incredibly cheerful, even commenting about how great the weather is in the middle of a thunderstorm, leading to his Living Weapon‎ Diffor, who had a crush on him, to call him out on this.

    Music 
  • The Lonely Island just had sex, and the video is made of this trope. With TV broadcast and fireworks. Seriously, look at Akon's face whenever he's on-camera.
  • Madonna's "Did You Do It?" from Erotica is about this.

    Video Games 
  • Divinity: Original Sin II: Malady might be on the verge of a Heroic RRoD from Thinking Up Portals, but can still spot the afterglow from a player character's Optional Sexual Encounter:
    "What's wrong with you. You seem... happy."
  • Dragon Age II: All of the post romance banters but this one is particularly good.
    Merrill: Are you happy?
    Anders: Beg your pardon?
    Merrill: S/he seems happy. Hawke, I mean. Are you?
    Anders: Yes. I suppose I am.
    Merrill: Good. You've spent much too much time being grumpy. It's a nice change.
  • Hinted in Dragon Age: Inquisition by a pair of Orlesian courtiers hanging around in the main hall at Skyhold. After the Inquisitor and their romance partner of choice have cemented the pairing, these two can be overheard gossiping about things. Their exact commentary depends on who the Love Interest is. Outright stated if a male Inquisitor romances Dorian and has him and Cole in the party later. Cole remarks on how good it is to see Dorian smiling because of the Inquisitor.
  • Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Given that the result of getting enough light side points is a sort of healthy glow, Mira invokes this by commenting that she thought the player and whichever potential love interest he/she has a higher Influence with "hooked up a power coupling".

    Web Comics 

    Web Videos 
  • In Let's Drown Out WWF No Mercy, Gabriel Mortom has created a wrestler to imitate his friend and commentary partner, Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, and have stated that everything about Wrestler!Yahtzee, sans the face, is accurate to the real one including a rather pompous entrance dance. According to him, Yahtzee does the exact same dance after he got laid.
  • YidLife Crisis: Chaimie tells Leizer "You need to get a girlfriend" when his description of covering a bagel in cream cheese is a little too sensual.

    Western Animation 
  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Azula makes an offhand comment about how Mai has been in a "strangely good mood lately." It is subtly implied that she has been sleeping with Zuko.
  • Inside Job: Reagan's new upbeat, supportive attitude despite her father being in control of Cognito, as well as stating that she has a form of emotional release, makes it pretty clear to the rest of the department that Reagan's been getting laid, to their mutual relief.
  • In King of the Hill, Peggy remarks that Dale and Nancy's relationship is so passionless that they only have sex once a year, on Dale's birthday. However, in that particular episode the pair rediscovers their passion, and the next time Peggy sees Nancy she figures out that they did it — and panics. "Oh no, we forgot Dale's birthday!"
  • Starship Troopers: Invasion: Whistles and catcalls ensue from the other MI troopers when Bugspray and Trig turn up conspicuously last for the Mission Briefing.
  • Time Squad: In "Ex Marks the Spot," Larry suddenly acts cheerful and more accommodating around Tuddrussel. Otto even questions why Larry is so cheerful. The sudden change in mood was handwaved as Larry finally giving up being snarky and being nicer, but given the suggestive imagery in Larry preparing Tuddrussell's meal (i.e., the gravy being pumped inside a turkey to the point of near bursting and a lone cherry sinking into the turkey), it had to be something more.

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