The Loins Sleep Tonight

"The spirit was willing but the testicles were weak."

— The Wolf's Hour by Robert R. McCammon

When a character about to have sex cannot get it up. The cause is often a sexual version of Performance Anxiety, but may also sometimes be related to Unresolved Sexual Tension — for someone other than the person they're with at the moment. The "guy can't get hard for girl(s)" variation is the most common — the phrase, "It's okay, this sort of thing happens to lots of guys," is closely associated with this trope.

Usually a comedy trope, since the situation is usually temporary, and playing it for drama lasts longer. Double points if something like, "I'm sorry, I swear this has never happened to me before…" or the above-mentioned, "It's okay…" phrase shows up in the dialog.

Can be Truth in Television (and there are usually other ways to get the job done). One of the leading causes is the classic panic attack, which causes an adrenaline rush and in turn diverts blood flow away from the genitals — quite a lot of blood heads downward to facilitate sexual activity, yet much more blood is diverted back upwards when adrenaline is involved, mostly so that your essential organs can function at their best. Other common causes of erectile dysfunction include age (it's four times more common among men in their 60s than those in their 40s), poor cardiovascular health, stress, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption ("whiskey dick").

The Distaff Counterpart to this trope (in which a female character is incapable of getting properly lubricated and/or sufficiently "relaxed") is not unheard of but, as the above description suggests, the male version is infinitely more common in fiction. There's an additional Double Standard in that male examples are almost invariably played for comedy with the man being the butt of the joke: female examples either tend to attribute the character's lack of lubrication to her partner's sexual inadequacy or unattractiveness, or to deep-seated psychological issues or traumatic sexual experiences.

Named as a pun for a song ^note "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" that has absolutely nothing to do with impotence, but the Double Entendre is too good to pass up.

Contrast Anorgasmia, Raging Stiffie, Speed Sex (for when the guy goes off too quickly rather than not at all), Something Else Also Rises. Parodies of the latter are occasionally used as a visual gag — e.g. a skyscraper collapsing. Think Unsexy Thoughts is an inversion of this.

May be a result of a Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality, Incompatible Orientation, Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny, or Big Prick, Big Problems.

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Examples:

Advertising

• The Truth Initiative's "Twinkle Twinkle Little Dick" ad that suggests that cigarette smoking causes impotence, and possibly makes men go out with other men.

Anime & Manga

• The hermaphrodite protagonist of Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa once tries to have sex with a boy she likes. He can't get it up. She then does it with the local Casanova, who is apparently indifferent to her... peculiarities, but in the end, decides that she likes girls better, anyway.
• In the yaoi manga Brother, Asuka has been completely unable to get it up by masturbating ever since his stepbrother Yui caught him in the act and expressed his contemptuous disapproval. He's been trying to fix it ever since, but it isn't until Yui confesses to him that he hasn't been able to get it up either after Asuka unknowingly made him jizz in his pants and then initiates sex with him (mainly because he believes they're going to die soon) that Asuka's impotence is cured.
• In Cells at Work! CODE BLACK, the first host suffers from erectile dysfunction, having to take Sildenafil/Viagra to achieve an erection and ejaculate. Since this manga shows it from the perspective of the host's cells, it's a straight-up Existential Horror, as it means the host can't fulfill the ultimate goal of any life form — that is, reproduce.
• Happened three times in City Hunter. The first time Ryo had been stung by a killer bee, and the initial antidote to the poison had this side effect (other versions of the antidote had rather interesting side effects). The second time a Phantom Thief hypnotizes Ryo into impotence to neutralize his "Mokkori Power" (aka his will to fight and win), giving Ryo a really hard time until he got horny enough to break out of the block. The third time it happened to the Phantom Thief: he had tried to hypnotize Ryo into eternal impotence, but Ryo was carrying a mirror, and the idiot hypnotized himself.
• Girl Friends (2006): Akko's night with some random drunk guy after a party, where they didn't go all the way because he couldn't get an erection. She omits this detail when she tells the story because he begged her to keep it a secret, which results in everyone including Mari not realizing that Akko is actually still a virgin.
• Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss heads to the Red Light District after Nanami heads to a summit. However, it is implied that he does this because he is lonely while she is gone. So he merely gets drunk and falls asleep without having sex with any of the girls.
• Maison Ikkoku: Godai and Kyoko's encounter in a Love Hotel, after Kyoko says she's thinking of Soichiro (meaning the dog, but Godai interprets it as her late husband).
• In So, I Can't Play H!, Lisara has to periodically drain Ryousuke's energy to stay in the human world. He learns that every time this happens, he has to wait a while before he can get it up. This is what upsets him the most, not the pain or potentially dying.

Art

• One interpretation of the Viscount's broken sword in Marriage A-la-Mode is as a symbol of sexual impotence; while the lace nightcap being sniffed by one of the family dogs indicates that he has just returned from a brothel, it appears he was unable to perform, probably as a result of his case of syphilis. (The damp patch on the front of his wife's skirt and her contented expression suggest that her own extramarital tryst had a more satisfactory ending.)

Comic Books

• At the end of their mini-series in Convergence, Stephanie Brown and seeming perma-virgin Tim Drake very nearly consummate their relationship with some Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex... only to find both are too tired and sore from their earlier battle with Gorilla Grodd to go through with it. They settle for just falling asleep cuddling instead.
• Marvyn from Donjon angrily lists all the reasons he doesn't want the power of Immortality. One of them is that he "didn't have an erection since the planet stopped spinning."
• One two-parter in Justice Society of America Classified opens with Rex Tyler, the Golden-Age Hourman, experiencing some trouble keeping up with his wife. She suggests that maybe instead of Miraclo, he should try some "little blue pills".
• Happens in The Rise of Arsenal #3 when Roy Harper, who's strung out on drugs and grieving for his daughter, can't get it up to have hate sex with Cheshire. He then goes out to beat up some druggies with a dead cat. At least one fan has since gone on to coin the nickname The Inability To Rise Of Arsenal for the series in the wake of this incident.
• Roark Junior, the truly vile title character of the Sin City story "That Yellow Bastard", loves to hear his young victims scream. It's the only way he can get aroused, and the only way he can even get it up.
• The Spider-Man villain Overdrive becomes impotent for a while after using his powers. On the flip side, if he has sex, he has to wait a while before he can use his powers.
• In Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do, one of the things that drives Francis Klum into villainy is the fact that the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his older brother has left him with persistent impotence.
• Dan Dreiberg aka Nite Owl of Watchmen suffers from this as he's trying to romance Laurie/Silk Spectre. He overcomes this after some back-into-superhero-costume experience.
• In a What If? dual-issue where Spider-Man marries Black Cat instead of Mary Jane Watson, Felicia suffers from this on their wedding night, the implication being that she doesn't find Peter sexually attractive at all. It isn't until they return to New York City and start fighting crime again that her libido returns, leaving Peter torn about his decision to wed her in the first place. She finally accepts Peter for who he is while dying, having murdered Vulture for him in misguided revenge (Toomes had discovered Spider-Man's secret identity and immediately launched an attack on Aunt May's house).

Fan Works

• The Bolt Chronicles: Bolt is unable to perform sexually in "The Wind" after eating uncooked bread dough, which releases copious amounts of alcohol into his stomach.
• This issue is one of the central problems plaguing Shining Armor in Cadence in A Minor. Being raped by deception by a Changeling has left him with multiple symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of which impotence is just one.
• Alluded to in call it what you want, probably as an early indicator of Jin Zixuan's sexuality.

  Jiang Yanli: I only fucked [Jin Zixuan] like three times. Maybe four if you count our first time, which I don’t. There were some technical difficulties.

• In "Confessions of the Master" by amalcolm1, Watson's war wound starts to act up more as he gets into his twilight years, and he finds that staying in the same position for any amount of time tends to cause pain. Not unbearable pain, but pain. And, as he comments, pain stops him from being able to maintain an erection. He and Holmes find a workaround, however: Massaging the wound while having sex.
• The central conflict of Cup of Tea is that Phoenix can't get aroused with Edgeworth trying to deal with it. While Phoenix is still a good lover despite this, it bothers Edgeworth that he can't reciprocate. Turns out Phoenix has a pretty good reason.
• Shining Armor experiences this problem after the birth of his and Cadance's daughter in Diaries of a Madman, resulting in him seeking advice from Navarone.
• While not played completely straight, Hellsing Ultimate Abridged has Alucard and Anderson poised to kill the shit out of each other when Seras comes along with a bunch of octogenarians.

  Alucard: Hahh... welp, my boner's gone.
  Anderson: Aye. Kind of a mood killer.

• I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again!: Due to being trapped in the bodies of their prepubescent selves, Naruto and Sasuke are effectively impotent, much to the amusement and annoyance of their wives.

Films — Live-Action

• Happened to the protagonist of 40 Days and 40 Nights partway through coitus. He tried faking an orgasm, but, well...
• Implied in Aaron Loves Angela. Aaron tries to have sex with the experienced Cleo as practice before Angela. Cut to Aaron glumly getting dressed while Cleo says, "Now Aaron honey, don't be upset. It happens that way sometimes."
• Parodied in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, where Ace apologetically tells his girlfriend, "That's never happened to me before. I must be tired" — after having Destructo-Nookie with her three times. He only takes 15 seconds to be ready again.
• Airplane II: The Sequel makes fun of this by having impotence as the Berserk Button of suicidal passenger Joe Saluchi.
• Alpha Dog: Johnny Truelove can't get it up in a scene with his girlfriend near the end, because he's terrified of getting caught for Zack's murder.
• Animal House:
  "Greg, honey, is it supposed to be this soft?"
• The Assignment (2016): After his involuntary surgery, Frank tries to have sex with his girlfriend (having been made physically female). However, he isn't able to feel anything and consults a doctor who says sensation won't come back for around six months.
• In Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the titular super groovy super spy suffers this problem. While shagging it up with an enemy spy named Ivana Humpalot, Austin's mojo (literally his libido/sex drive) is drained out of his body back in 1969, causing him to immediately go limp in 1999. In order to save himself from perpetual erectile dysfunction, he, therefore, has to boogie on back to the Swingin' Sixties. While there, he gains a new encouragement to retrieve his mojo when he meets sexy CIA agent Felicity Shagwell. The groovy hippie chick's desire to compete in the bedroom Olympics with the International Man of Mystery only increases his desire to cure his impotence and retrieve his precious mojo from Dr. Evil so he can finally take Felicity to bed.
• In the film adaptation of Stephen King's Autopsy Room Four, a man finds himself on an autopsy table after being paralysed by a snake bite and presumed dead but is saved from being cut open when the doctors notice he has a Raging Stiffie. A flashback shows the protagonist feeling down because he can't perform his wife due to a war injury. When they embrace at the end of the movie, she's quite impressed with his 'response'.
• The Avengers (2012): When Loki tries to mind control Tony Stark with his staff, it fails because of the metal generator in his chest. Tony puts on a look of mock-sympathy and starts talking about "performance issues" in a way clearly meant to refer to erectile dysfunction.
• Marcus of Bad Boys II suffers this as a result of getting Shot in the Ass by Mike during the first shootout of the movie. He only gets better after accidentally ingesting some X (the drug whose traffic the two are trying to fight) during a trip to the morgue, leading to one of the most hilarious scenes in the movie.
• In Bank Shot, Ballentine explains to El that the food in prison was spiked with saltpeter, and asks her if she knows what that does. El kisses him and, when he fails to become aroused, he explains that that is what saltpeter does.
• A Beautiful Mind: Tragically so, as a very common side effect of psychopharmaceuticals. Thank goodness he gets better.
• In Being There, the President suffers from this, as a literal reflection of his corresponding "impotence" as a political leader.
• Mike in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) has a hard time getting hard outside of the stage, which Lesley brings up after nearly getting raped onstage by him for the sake of method acting. Mike also shows reluctance towards Sam's attraction to him at first and states this as the reason.
• Clyde in Bonnie and Clyde, which might be Truth in Television.
• Boy Eats Girl: Justified. Nathan's gradual zombification cuts off the flow of blood to his penis, preventing him from having an erection. When Cheryl tries to seduce him, she notices this as she's about to pull down his pants.
  Cheryl: Show me how much you want me... Don't you like girls?
  Nathan: What?
  Cheryl: Well usually guys are standing at attention about now.
• The Australian film The Boys 1998 has the Villain Protagonist get aggressive towards his girlfriend because he is unable to get erect after returning from jail.
• Played for Drama in Cast A Giant Shadow. A woman mentions that her husband suffers from impotence. It's implied to be a result of trauma from the Holocaust (he is a survivor).
• In the 1982 remake of Cat People, Paul picks up a blonde in a cemetery and experiences this problem. He's seen crying that he was always afraid "it" would happen again; she comforts him that she knows how to take care of guys like him. And then "it" turns out to be something that happens when he does get it up (namely, turning into a black leopard and eating the nearest human).
• A really horrific example happens in Citizen X, where the Serial Killer Andrei Chikatilo is impotent unless he's inflicting extreme violence on someone. He eventually kills over fifty people.^note As he did in real life.
• In Death Becomes Her Madeline accuses Ernest of this. He doesn't deny it, just tells her to shut up. Since he's a middle-aged alcoholic and she's turned into a shallow hateful woman he no longer loves, this is pretty well justified.
• Plays as a key point in The Departed as Colin's girlfriend, "Little Miss Freud," gives him the above speech, more or less. That doesn't stop her from getting some much-deserved lovin' and a bun in the oven from Billy.
• The clear implication of Dr. Strangelove is that General Ripper's descent into madness began when he became impotent, which he blamed on Communists contaminating his precious bodily fluids by putting fluoride in our water.
• The '60s British comedy The Family Way concerns a newly-married couple who are forced by economic necessity to share a flat with the husband's parents, which leads to the young man's failure to consummate the union.
• Happens to Frank in Far from Heaven when he tries to have sex with his wife Cathy — he's drunk, but there are other problems as well. She tries to comfort him by saying she doesn't care and that he's "all man", but it doesn't quite help.
• Happens in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, although with a justification:
  Peter: Maybe the problem is that you broke my heart into a million pieces and so my cock doesn't want to be around you anymore! Okay? EVER!
• Dr. Herbert Bock, George C. Scott's character in The Hospital, claims he's been "impotent for years," then goes into a rant where he declares, "Impotence is beautiful, baby!" The impotence Bock speaks of, however, goes beyond the physical. He goes on:
  "When I say impotent, I don't mean merely limp. Disagreeable as it may be for a woman, a man may lust for other things, something less transient than an erection, some sense of permanent worth. That's what medicine was to me, my reason for being. When I was 34, Miss Drummond, I presented a paper before the annual convention of the Society of Clinical Investigation that pioneered the whole goddamn field of immunology. A breakthrough! I'm in all the textbooks. I happen to be an eminent man, Miss Drummond. You know something else? I don't give a goddamn. When I say impotent I mean I've lost even my desire to work. That's a hell of a lot more primal passion than sex. I've lost my reason for being. My purpose. The only thing I ever truly loved. It is all rubbish, isn't it? Transplants, antibodies, we manufacture genes, we can produce birth ectogenetically, we can practically clone people like carrots, and half the kids in this ghetto haven't even been inoculated for polio! We have established the most enormous medical entity ever conceived and people are sicker than ever! We cure nothing! We heal nothing! The whole goddamn wretched world is strangulating in front of our eyes. That's what I mean when I say impotent."
• In Kick-Ass 2, The Motherfucker is humiliated when he attempts to rape Night Bitch but can't get it up.
  The Motherfucker: You're done banging superheroes, baby. It's time to see what evil dick feels like.
  After a few unsuccessful tries by The Motherfucker to get it up:
  Night Bitch: I guess evil dick feels limp.
• This is a major plot point in Love & Other Drugs, which is about a Viagra salesman.
• The Many Saints of Newark: Junior is incredibly frustrated because he cannot perform sexually after he takes a nasty slip and fall on the mortuary steps. Not because he can't get it up necessarily, but his back gives him too much pain and needs to heal.
• In the original movie of M*A*S*H, camp dentist Painless Pole Waldowski (known to all as the "best-equipped man" in the Army Medical Corps) becomes suicidal after he finds himself unable to rise to the occasion. He comes to Hawkeye asking for some pill that will make it quick and painless (the suicide), but instead is given a weak sleeping pill and provided with a friendly nurse who is shipping home the next day. He's back to himself by morning and the nurse is seen smiling uncontrollably as her chopper departs.
• Murder in the First: Not at all played for laughs when it happens to Henri Young (as played by Kevin Bacon).
• Odd Obsession: Kenji, who looks to be at least a quarter-century older than his thirty-ish and very attractive wife, can't get it up anymore. He takes rather extreme and ill-advised measures to change that. Measures like taking pictures of his wife in the nude while she's passed out drunk, and pushing her into an affair with much younger, handsome Dr. Kimora.
• In Partners (1982), Kerwin goes home with a gay man he hopes will have useful information on the murders. He tries to have sex with him, but can't perform.
• In The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), Torquemada attempts to rape Maria but fails because he cannot get it up. He then accuses her of having bewitched his manhood.
• Pretty Cool Too: Walter is about to have sex with his brother's girlfriend, but he needs his mind-controlling phone's help to get it up. This leads to a Raging Stiffie that he can't get rid of.
• In The Private Life of Don Juan, Don Juan is feeling his age, complaining about his aches and pains and how he can't always get it up. He confesses to his doctor that "Nowadays when I sit down to a quiet game with a lady, I'm no longer sure of holding the cards."
• Tonny in Pusher 2 hires two prostitutes for a celebratory orgy after getting out of prison, but is completely unable to perform. This is just one of an entire film's worth of indignities that he suffers.
• In The Real Blonde, a soap opera star cannot perform after seducing a coveted "real blonde." After she humiliates him, and he gets his revenge, he goes back to a fake blonde.
• Red Sparrow: Invoked. After fighting off a rape attempt, Dominika is told to service her would-be rapist in front of her SVR class, with the Arc Words "find out what he needs and give it to him". She instead strips off in a sexually dominant fashion and acts as if she expects him to service her, and as a consequence, he can't get it up. Dominika then tells the class that what he needs is to feel power over her.
• In Revenge of the Nerds, Jerk Jock Stan is shown at least twice having "problems" (even when getting a handjob from his girlfriend Betty); this eventually leads to Betty's Heel–Face Turn when the nerdy Lewis rapes her while disguised as Stan.
• In The Scavengers, Captain Harris attempts to rape Faith, but cannot perform the deed even when she does not resist. Faith mocks him for this.
• In Seven Murders for Scotland Yard, Belinda is on the verge of divorcing Winston because of his impotence.
• Shakespeare in Love: Shakespeare's been suffering from impotence in conjunction with his writer's block. After he meets Viola, both end.
• Brandon from Shame is another tragic example. Usually performing very well with casual flings, he can't get it up with the woman he's emotionally invested in.
• In Some Like It Hot, Joe tells Sugar that he's never been able to get it up no matter how many beautiful women his parents tried to set him up with. He's lying but Sugar insists on seducing him to cure his impotence, which is exactly what he was hoping for.
• Space Jam: A shrink asks Patrick Ewing if he is having this problem during the Basketball Jones segment. He angrily responds with a 'No!'
• In the 2006 Sweeney Todd film Sweeney, due to his Tragic Backstory (read: Madonna-Whore Complex resulting from the death of his mother) has, shall we say, issues with his sexuality.
• Begbie for most of T2 Trainspotting.
• Spoofed in Top Secret!. Thanks to a subverted Sexy Discretion Shot, Hillary seems to be consoling Nick for failing to get it up, but then it turns out that she's reading a romance novel out loud. Then they get serious about the lovemaking.
• In Victor/Victoria, King Marchand finds himself distracted by thoughts of "Victor" and suffers from this while trying to have sex with his girlfriend Norma.
• The Wackness: Luke can't perform when he first tries to have sex with Stephanie, due to having been drinking recently. After drinking coffee, he can.
• The titular character in You Don't Mess with the Zohan experiences this while trying to pleasure yet another elderly female client and is surprised and embarrassed. The client tells him it's fine. They really only come in to get their hair done. The screwing is just a bonus. Later, he realizes it could be because he's falling for his boss and doesn't want to be with anyone else.
• Your Friends & Neighbors:
  • Despite Jerry's optimism, his first encounter with Mary does not go according to plan. Mary seems to view him with sheer contempt afterwards.
  • At the end of the film, Barry seems to be unable to achieve an erection after splitting up with Mary.

Jokes

• A woman notices her elderly husband chatting up a young woman at a party. She goes up behind him and says "Dear, do leave the poor girl alone. Imagine her disappointment if she happened to say yes!"
• A farmer goes to the pharmacist and confesses that he's been having trouble getting it up. The pharmacist sells him a bottle of pills, and the farmer leaves. The next day, the farmer is back, looking absolutely furious.
  
  "Goddammit doc, them pills of yours are a total crock! I got back home, showed it to the wife, and nothing! I tried with one hand, then two, my wife used both hands and her mouth, my wife's sister did the same, we tried working it over from both ends with pipe wrenches for half an hour, stuck it in a door, a clamp, and keyhole, whacked it with a cleaver, the neighbor's boy tried pouring battery acid on it, even got the dog to bite down on it so we could try twisting it around, and nothing doing! We tried EVERYTHING, and we STILL!"
  
  (The farmer slams the object of his discontent on the pharmacist's counter.)
  
  "Can't get this damn bottle open!"

Literature

• In Apt Pupil, where Todd Bowden has a girlfriend, because he wants to look normal. However, by this time, he is a misogynistic, hateful monster, and he's only able to perform when he's thinking of rape and abuse; eventually not even then.
• Done without a trace of comedy in Biting the Sun, to the point of the impotent character committing (temporary) suicide over it.
• In Blood Rites, novice porno actor Bobby reacts badly to Harry's joke about being hired as a stuntman for Arturo's latest skin flick. Jake explains that it's because "stunt man" in the porn industry means an understudy penis, used in cases when this trope strikes the intended actor.
• In Cetaganda, Barrayan noble Ivan Vorpatril gets himself into a threesome with two Cetagandan ghem-ladies during a diplomatic mission, and finds out that his host had slipped him an anti-aphrodisiac in his drink earlier, resulting in great personal embarrassment until he finds a way around his little problem, involving the aforementioned "other ways to get the job done" and some bluffing about Barrayan sexual mores worthy of his craftier cousin Miles. His performance is so impressive that he ends up becoming a Sex God among the ghem-ladies in spite of his drug-induced setback.
• The Frog King: Harry Driscoll occasionally has performance anxiety when he's cheating on his girlfriend with his mistress.
• In one of Isaac Asimov's George and Azazel stories, "Galatea", Azazel brought a statue of a man to life, but apparently, George didn't explain the concept of erection to him.
• The Girl With The Louding Voice: Absolutely not Played for Laughs. Adunni's new husband Morofu can only perform in bed when he drinks something called "Fire Cracker". Adunni has no idea what "sleeping manhood" even means...because she's fourteen.
• This turns out to be a plot point in Harrys Game by Gerald Seymour. The protagonist realises an IRA suspect was involved in the assassination he's investigating because Harry hears he couldn't 'perform' with his girlfriend the night before, implying he was nervous about what was going to happen tomorrow.
• Happens to the protagonist of the Hard boiled Wonderland section of Haruki Murakami's novel Hardboiled Wonderland And The End Of The World, when he attempts to have sex with a librarian who lent him some books about unicorns.
• "Incubust", a Drabble by Terry Pratchett, has this happen to an incubus, apparently because its summoner also has this problem, and cannot summon anything with powers beyond his own.
• Played for Drama in Judge Dee, where one particularly depraved murderer was obsessed by his impotence. He was known to have eight wives, and the judge wishes he could forget what they told him about their lives with him.
• In Kanokon, Kota Oyamada had this problem at one time. His girlfriend(s?) were worked up trying to fix this. Apparently, it was a problem with pent-up youki that didn't come out from... the pipe and was instead released as sort of an aura outside. The ironic part? That aura downright seduced every female around him.
• Not entirely a comedy trope. In the oft-banned novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, one of Lady Chatterley's reasons for her affair with the gardener is because her husband is impotent due to an injury from World War I. The marriage is also lacking adequate emotional intimacy, which is at least as important. The book is a cross between straight drama and an erotic romance novel—few laughs to be had at all.
• In The Lies of Locke Lamora, Locke suffers this when his friends tell him You Need to Get Laid and he tries to hire a prostitute because he's still pining over Sabetha to the point that no other woman will do.
• Taken seriously in The Merlin Trilogy, where Uther's self-image and self-confidence are almost fatally undermined by his erectile failure.
• Miracle Creek: While Matt and Janine are trying to conceive, sex becomes such a scheduled, goal-oriented activity that one night Matt finds that he can't get it up anymore.
• In Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, Rudeus has a more extreme version of this after Eris leaves after sleeping with him. His "illness" not only means he can't perform with two separate women but also that he didn't have an erection at all for three years. He only overcomes it thanks to Sylphy, booze, and generous use of an aphrodisiac. This is not played for comedy, as it originates from an emotionally traumatic event and only compounds his feelings of inadequacy.
• My Dark Vanessa: The last time Vanessa and Strane tried to have sex, she was 27. He kept going soft because she was too old for him. Since then, all their interactions have been over the phone.
• Naked Came the Stranger: Ansel Varth is a prolific writer of bizarre pornography, much of it involving bestiality, but he finds that he can't get it up in the presence of an actual woman. Gillian solves the problem by making believe that she's a chimpanzee and he's a camel.
• In Last Watch from Night Watch (Series), an Uzbek Other named Afandi (who is over 300 years old but a very weak mage) curses Edgar to have this happen to him the next 77 times he lies with a woman. Anton notes that this is a very Eastern thing to do.
• One of Us is Lying: In the sequel, One of Us is Next, this is the secret that is revealed about Knox when Maeve ignores her Truth or Dare text, resulting in Knox being humiliated and not speaking to Maeve for a while. When it happened, they simply took it as proof they were Better as Friends. At the end, he and Phoebe kiss, resulting in an embarrassing situation that at least lets him point out that all systems are go this time.
• The eunuch Bagoas in Mary Renault's The Persian Boy reflects on how his former lover/owner King Darius reacted to this trope as opposed to how his present lover, Alexander the Great, takes occasional impotence. Darius would become upset and send for a sexual expert like Bagoas to 'make things right'. Alexander just takes it as a sign he needs a good night's sleep.
• Perhaps not coincidentally, King once confessed in a Playboy interview to suffering periodically from this in Real Life.
• In Pratt Of The Argus, the second Henry Pratt novel, the protagonist's date with Anna Matheson ends with her naked in his bed and him afflicted by this trope.
• In the novel Psycho, Norman Bates mentions feeling impotent whenever he's with a woman. It's no wonder that the knife he uses to kill Mary Crane is a substitute for his penis.
• In Rage (1977), the protagonist recalls a time when he tried to have sex with Dana Collette at her party after taking a hit from a bong, and the unease of waiting for her outside caused this to happen to him.
• Rai Kirah: Virility is so important to Prince Aleksander's Proud Warrior Race that when he's unable to perform, he panics and assumes he's been cursed. His informal magical advisor Seyonne is privately amused, but can't tell him he's just overexerted himself, so recommends a bogus "purification ritual" that will give him enough time to regain his stamina.
• The Reluctant King: In the second book, Jorian has this inconvenience when he joins the High Priestess he's supposed to have sex with in bed. Fortunately, he recovers later.
• Ruslan and Ludmila: It is emphasized that despite all his powers, Chernomor is quite incapable of taking advantage of Ludmila.
• Encolpius, the main character of The Satyricon, Nero's Arbiter of Elegance, suffers from impotence for a large part of the story. It's a punishment inflicted for disturbing the rites of Priapus, the personification of erections.
• In the Seraph of the End Light Novel The Story of Vampire Mikaela, the Templars repeatedly make jokes about this towards each other.
• In Shadow of the Conqueror, old age has rendered Daylen impotent by the time the story begins. He's especially pleased with his new, youthful body for not having this problem ... only to quickly become frustrated by the opposite extreme, instead.
• Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen:
  For the first time in their relationship—in any relationship—Chaz had heard that most hollow and dreaded of consolations: "Don't worry, it happens to everybody."... Even digitally remastered, "Bad to the Bone" could not rally Chaz's bone to its usual badness.
• Jack Ryan has this problem in The Sum of All Fears, as a combination of job stress and drinking too much.
• Jake in The Sun Also Rises, due to an injury sustained in World War I.
• Partly responsible for the death of Jack's first wife in the novel Tales Of Burning Love. It Makes Sense in Context. Sort of.
• These Words Are True and Faithful: After the Humiliation Conga, in one passage, Ernie cannot even masturbate successfully.
• The impotence of the main character of Ousmane Sembène's novel Xala is used as a metaphor to satirise the similarly impotent, inept, and corrupt élites of post-colonial Africa.

Live-Action TV

• All in the Family: Mike is studying for major college exams and is also having problems getting it up in bed with his wife Gloria. She suspects it's just because he is worrying over whether he will pass his exams but he isn't so sure. Mike's Father-in-law Archie, without telling Mike, goes to a black neighbor, Henry Jefferson, for advice on the problem as he's heard that Black Is Bigger in Bed. Henry, however, informs him that it's a stereotype and that he doesn't have any answers for Mike either. Fortunately for Mike, he does pass his exams, causing his performance in bed to return to normal and proving Gloria right.
• Similarly on Amen, Reuben suffers this shortly after marrying Thelma—the combined stress of his work as a minister, a new marriage, and living up to Thelma's expectations. After confiding in Frye and Rolly, they both vehemently deny ever having the same problem.
• Bill Henrickson struggles with this throughout Big Love, in particular at the beginning of the series, due to both the considerable mental and physical stress that he's constantly under (running two stores and preparing to open a third, running and maintaining three separate households, trying to be a good husband to all three of his wives, financial troubles, etc)
• From the Blackadder II episode "Chains":
  Prince Ludwig the Indestructible: Oh, on the contrary. We have met many times, although you knew me by another name. Do you recall a mysterious black marketeer and smuggler called Otto with whom you used to dine and plot and play the biscuit game at the Old Pizzle in Dover?
  Edmund Blackadder: My God!
  Ludwig: Yes! I was... the waitress!
  Blackadder: I don't believe it! You? Big Sally?
  Ludwig: (falsetto) 'Will you have another piece of pie, My Lord?'
  Blackadder: ...but I went to bed with you, didn't I?
  Ludwig: For my country, I am willing to make any sacrifice.
  Blackadder: Yes, but I'm not! I must have been paralytic!
  Ludwig: Indeed you were, Mr. Floppy...
  Blackadder: Yes, alright, alright. Now, would you mind—
  Ludwig: (falsetto) 'Such a disappointment for a girl...'
  Blackadder: Yes, alright, you've had your little joke.
  Ludwig: (falsetto) 'It really doesn't matter — we'll try again in a few minutes. Have a look through these naughty parchments.'
• A chronic problem with Charlie "Lucky" Luciano in Boardwalk Empire (probably because of syphilis). He gets better with Gillian, however.
• Done metaphorically with Spike's inhibitor chip in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He tries and fails to bite Willow, and the conversation they have afterward could word for word be about impotence (well, except "bite," obviously). Until she realises "What the hell, I'm talking to a guy who just tried to murder me" and knocks him out. Sure enough, in Season 6 when Spike discovers his inhibitor chip doesn't work on Buffy, his reaction is not to bite Buffy but to spend the entire night having house-crashingly rough sex with her.
• There was an episode of Charmed where this happens to Piper whenever she wants to have sex with Leo. This happened because she was afraid of the elders watching.
• During an episode of Cold Case, the detectives note that the Serial Killer they're questioning didn't rape any of his victims.
  Scotty: "So what is it? You can't pitch a tent, Johnny? Is that your problem?"
• Parodied on a Conan O'Brien sketch, when a man is lamenting this. He gets the "it happens to every guy" speech—from the three women he's in bed with, pointing out that it was inevitable after an entire day of lovemaking.
• Coupling: Patrick has this happen to him when Sally decides it's time they became more than friends, leading to much discussion about "the Melty Man," who is actually the Anthropomorphic Personification of this trope. That night the Melty Man visits Patrick, and the following exchange as a Darth Vader parody.
  You! You killed my erection!
  "No, Patrick... I am your erection!"
• Takes a much, much grimmer turn on Criminal Minds, where one serial killer was an ex-swinger who'd become impotent due to complications from prostate surgery. Quite a lot of Killers Of The Week are implied to have similar problems.
• Dead Man's Gun: In "Buryin' Sam", the eponymous Undertaker suffers a Villainous Breakdown after killing his partner and, for the first time ever, finds himself unable to 'comfort the widow'.
• Becomes a major plot point for most of season 3 on Downton Abbey. With Matthew rendered paraplegic and unable to function due to a War wound, there is no one to carry on the inheritance and the whole fiasco was set to start again. But he got better long enough to have a son by Mary, before dying in a car wreck.
• On Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, as Horace and Myra prepare to consummate their marriage, only to be disrupted by the shivaree (an 1870s custom common in the West that consisted of family and friends noisily serenading the newlyweds). The next morning, an irritated Horace snaps at Loren, Jake, and the Reverend, telling them "thanks to you, I lost the mood." We get the standard "it happens to every guy" speech from the Reverend, who assures him, "All men lose the mood sometimes", but true to form, they all — including the Reverend — vehemently deny ever doing so themselves.
• Drop the Dead Donkey. Elderly hedonist anchorman Henry confesses to Dave (in confidence) that this happened the night before. Naturally this spreads over the office like wildfire, and when his despised co-anchor Sally quips in response to Henry's computer going down "Maybe it's your floppy" Henry bursts out with "YES, ALL RIGHT, I'M IMPOTENT!" right in front of a television crew who've come to do a This-Is-Your-Life style interview with him.
• Inverted on "The Puppy Episode" of Ellen, where after the titular character literally jumps on the guy she's dating in an attempt to seduce him, the scene fades back in to find her apologizing and claiming, "This has never happened to me before". (Her lack of response is because despite genuinely liking him, she's not sexually attracted to him—she's just beginning to realize that she's a lesbian).
• ER: Mark Greene has a bout of this after being beaten up.
• The Family (2016): Hank is unable to perform when he brings a woman home and she starts to give him fellatio, because of the chemical castration meds he takes.
• Feel Good: Mae can't get an orgasm, and mentions she should go see a doctor about it, but doesn't. In the last episode of the first season, it's indicated she's finally managed to climax.
• Fellow Travelers: While living on Fire Island, Hawkins Fuller sometimes has trouble getting it up because of the copious amount of alcohol and drugs in his system; his lover Craig comments on this twice.
• A French Village: Antoine can't perform when he's seduced by Suzanne (it's also his first time). She assures him it's common, and neither really minds.
• Happens to Chandler in Friends ("In high school, I failed Biology and tonight Biology failed me."). When he goes to Joey for advice, Joey confides that it happened to him once. "What did you do?" asks Chandler. "We did it anyway." Chandler is also involved in another conversation about this phenomenon:
  Rachel (to Ross): It's not that common, it doesn't happen to every guy, and it is a big deal!
  Chandler: I KNEW IT!
  • In the first episode Monica's date claims he hasn't been able to "perform sexually" since his ex-wife left him for another man two years ago. They end up sleeping together that night but the next day Monica's co-worker reveals she'd also slept with the guy and he'd told her the exact same thing.
• General Hospital: When Bobbie attempted to seduce her husband Tony in order to solidify their reconciliation following her adultery, his impotence made it abundantly clear that despite what he was saying, he hadn't forgiven her.
• Was the problem facing Rose and her boyfriend in The Golden Girls episode "The Impotence of Being Ernest."
• Happens to Chuck in Gossip Girl (2007). Since he has feelings for Blair, he cannot get it up for any other girl.
• Gossip Girl (2021): Max can't perform with a Russian ballerina named Valeria, who is a casual sex partner of his (he gives her oral sex instead). Luna tells him that it stems from wanting emotion with sex now, as a result of his feelings for Aki.
• In the Grimm episode "Believer", Eve shapeshifts in Renard in order to investigate him and his shady campaign manager. Said campaign manager happens to also be Renard's lover and Ready for Lovemaking. Eve tries to go along with it but finds herself unable to operate the unfamiliar equipment.
• The Handmaid's Tale: Fred can't get it up for the second "ritual", possibly because he's become closer to Offred.
• Herman's Head used this with Herman somehow hooking up with a supermodel, but couldn't perform because he was intimidated by her status (he gets over it).
• House of the Dragon has a zigzagging example in Daemon. It's implied he struggles with Anorgasmia (or delayed ejaculation), but in its social framing, it's more this trope than that one. It's not that Daemon can never perform, but that his body is connected to his emotional state, particularly his Inferiority Superiority Complex. Daemon's sexuality is deeply rooted to his emotions, and if he's feeling bad or worrying about something else, he can't do it. He has to feel good about himself before he can perform.
• Happens to Simon in The Inbetweeners when he attempts to have sex with Tara. However, this was down to taking Jay's rather poor advice of having a "tactical wank" very shortly beforehand. He does manage to get it up again, but not before he has totally scared her off and is subsequently dumped.
• Happens to Roy in The IT Crowd when he finally is about to get into one of the girls from the fourth floor...'s pants. However he can't get the images of half-naked nerds and old women out of his head, it's a long story.
• Elliot and Maya had an accidental wedding in Just Shoot Me!, and when he tries to ignore it (the circumstances were weird) and sleep with a model, he can't.
• Don Draper, generally the alpha male of Mad Men, suffers a bout while on a Valentine's Day date with Betty at a hotel. She goes out of her way to flirt with an auto mechanic soon after.
• A whole episode of Mama's Family centers around Vint's temporary inability to get it up, which his wife Naomi calls in to talk to Joyce Brothers about when she's featured on a local talk show. Naturally, everyone in town sees it, and hilarity ensues. According to Dorothy Lyman, the episode was supposed to include a scene that didn't make it past the censors, wherein a limp piece of asparagus reminds Naomi of her and Vint's problem, causing her to cry.
• In the M*A*S*H episode "Some 38th Parallels," Hawkeye experiences "The Big Couldn't" with a nurse:
  Hawkeye: She looks a little like my mother. Maybe Oedipus wrecked it for me.
  BJ: Look, it's perfectly understandable. You've been going full tilt since you got here, and your nerves are brittle enough to use for kindling.
  Hawkeye: Tension.
  BJ: The war.
  Hawkeye: Happens to everyone.
  BJ: Right.
  Hawkeye: Ever happen to you?
  BJ: Never.
  Hawkeye: Fink.
  • A more dramatic example happens in "U.N., the Night and the Music" when Margaret falls for a UN observer from Sweden who was wounded down there.
• A few instances show up on Masters of Sex, which is fitting given the subject matter. One instance is Played for Laughs when Austin (who regularly Really Gets Around) can't rise to the occasion during one study.
  WHY WON'T MY DICK WORK?!
  • It gets Played for Drama in season 2 when it happens to Bill.
• The Night Agent: Dale is apparently impotent, since he can only have sex with Ellen by using his hand on her.
• Night Court had The Casanova Dan Fielding dosed with saltpeter right before a "big date," and a discussion about his inability to perform:
  Harry (sympathetically): Don't worry, it happens to everybody.
  Dan: Did it ever happen to you?
  Harry: Hell no!
  (Later repeated with Bull, then Mac, instead of Harry.)
• Ozark: This happens to Ben with Ruth as a result of his medication.
• In Peep Show, Jeremy has fallen on hard times and has resorted to sperm donation for income. However, he just can't get it up in the cold, clinical public toilets they provide for him, and he is forced to try and get it up over an image of the Queen from a fiver in his wallet.
• In the nineties Fox sitcom Roc this happens to the title character in one episode. His wife Eleanor tries to comfort him, but her ebonics accent makes it come out wrong.
  Eleanor: "Now honey, what happened last night is not that impo'tant (Roc storms out of the room) I mean imPORtant! IMPORTANT!"
• A Saturday Night Live skit had a commercial actor being subjected to relentless verbal abuse regarding this while filming an ad for an erectile dysfunction medication. Adding to his humiliation, his girlfriend is brought to the set to complain about it too. The poor guy finally breaks down in tears after the fed-up woman leaves, at which point, it's revealed that the commercial he's filming is for...Tootsie Rolls?
  Announcer: "When life's screwed up like this, reach for a Tootsie Roll!"
• Scrubs has the episode "My Monster," in which J.D. finds out on a date with The Gift Shop Girl that his "peep was on the fritz." Another episode subverts this trope. It opens with Turk and Carla about to get it on, then the camera moves to the side...then back, to see them both laying in bed looking distraught, and Turk says, "That's never happened to me before." Later, as each is talking about what went wrong to their friends, it's revealed that Turk was fine; it's Carla who couldn't have an orgasm.
• The Seinfeld episode "The Mango" has mango fruit be the cure for George and Jerry.
• Used as an ongoing plot point with Charlotte's first husband Trey in Sex and the City, one of the few cases where it is an ongoing issue rather than a one-episode gag. Also when Samantha has sex with a party guest when she sees that her boyfriend Richard won't commit to monogamy, he goes soft inside her and while he's blabbering that this has never happened before, this is the first time that she actually doesn't care that it happened.
• One of Naomi's former partners in Skins had this problem. Seventeen times.
  Naomi: I was getting tennis elbow!
  • Of course, that may be because Naomi's heart wasn't really in it — she was trying to convince herself that she wasn't in love with Emily...
• Burt has this long-term at the start of Soap because he feels guilty over murdering his wife's first husband. They eventually see a psychiatrist to help him and he confesses to the murder; the doctor says that, given the circumstances, it was actually self-defensive. This relieves Burt of his guilt and he's cured.
• In episode 5 of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Lucretia orders Crixus to have sex with her (i.e. raping him), which she has done regularly for years. However, this time he can't get it up. He says it's because he's nervous about his big gladiator match the next day, but the real reason is that he's in love with Naevia, and is therefore having trouble dissociating from his experience with Lucretia. A few minutes later, he has sex with Naevia.
• In Spin City, Mike has a brief "hydraulics problem" after Manhattan Magazine names him "the sexiest man in Manhattan" and the Mayor tells him that "once you're in the public spotlight, you can't get out".
• That '70s Show: In one episode, Kelso, having broken up with Jackie, is trying to get it on with Pam Macy. Unfortunately, in his words, "the buffer wouldn't buff". He tells this to Hyde, Eric, and Fez, but they simply mock him for his impotency. It turns out that he simply is subconsciously still pining for Jackie and can't get turned on by girls who aren't her.
  Kelso: Guys...I'm omnipotent.
• Titans (2018). Vigilante couple Hawk and Dove try to have sex after she saves his life, but Hawk can't perform which he puts down to stress (but is likely his many injuries catching up with him). His mood is not improved when Robin (Dove's ex-boyfriend) happens to turn up.
• True Blood: Jason runs into this when he has the chance for a threesome with two beautiful women; the only problem is he's still traumatized from killing someone a few days ago.
• Gaz has problems for a few episodes in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
  Gaz: My penis died, Donna. I'm important.
  Donna: You're impotent.
  Gaz: What?
  Donna: You're not important, you're impotent.
  Gaz: That's it, rub it in!
• Ugly Betty: In "The Bahamas Triangle", Daniel suffers from this when trying to sleep with a woman, due to still grieving the death of Molly. He manages to get it up for Amanda at the end of the episode and they get into a Friends with Benefits relationship for a while.
• In the short-lived spy series Under Cover, Flynn convinces a Jerkass colleague that the reason he's being constantly questioned by an agency psychiatrist is that they believe he's impotent (actually because he keeps lying to make himself appear in a good light). Hilarity Ensues with a dream sequence where he's being grilled by the Director (played by G.W. Bailey of Police Academy fame) on his poor "performance".
• Veronica Mars did this with Mac and Beaver. At the time, it was a Woobie moment for Beaver, since the scene strongly suggested that Beaver was subconsciously cockblocked by his brother, Dick (who lived up to the pun). Let's just say when we find out the real reason, it's significantly less Woobie-ish.
• In Wings, Brian starts dating one of his old teachers. Yet she was a grade school teacher (or junior high), so Brian had trouble seeing her as more than a crush, and when they were about to have sex, he had what he called, "an incomplete." In another episode, Joe and Helen go on their first date in years, but between Brian's putting a subliminal "stuttering" suggestion in Joe's head and Helen's inability to see Joe as anything other than a childhood pal, the loins sleep.
• The Witcher (2019): In "Bottled Appetites" a couple approach Yennefer for magical assistance as they're full of passion for each other but the man has "issues of a mechanical nature" which means he can't get it up. Yennefer provides them with a spell that instantly gives the man a Raging Stiffie that will last until his wife says a chosen word to make it go away again.
• On The Young and the Restless, when Olivia's husband Nathan couldn't perform (which needless to say, put a crimp into their plans to have another baby), he blamed it on stress from work, and then eventually, cruelly blamed it on her nagging and pressuring him. It turned out he was cheating on her and therefore too exhausted from having serviced his mistress all afternoon to come home and make love to his wife.

Music

• Mindless Self Indulgence (who'da thunk it?) have a song about this, named appropriately "Get It Up." In the middle is a short section of dialogue:
  "Uh, Jesus... eh, I-I never had this problem before, it's just a... hold on a second, give it a minute, alright, just give it a minute. Uh... do something sexy! I don't care, do something sexy, just... whatever you do don't talk about your fucking boyfriend while we're having sex, how 'bout that?"
• Elastica's 'Stutter' is from the point of view of a woman having to deal with her boyfriend's failure to rise to the occasion.
• Pet Shop Boys' "Casanova in Hell" deals with this, complete with a reverse Something Else Also Rises—a descending swoop of cello strings when it's revealed Casanova can no longer get it up.
• Art Brut's "Rusted Guns of Milan."
  "I know I can, I know I can, I'm fine when I am with my own hand."
• "My Pencil Won't Write No More" by '30s delta bluesman Bo Carter.
• "The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt." by Father John Misty.
  Oh my God, I swear this never happens
  Lately, I can't stop the wheels from spinning
  I feel so unconvincing
  And I fumble with your buttons
• Brazilian presenter\media mogul Silvio Santos has a Double Entendre march that can be translated as "Grandpa's Kite Doesn't Rise Anymore".
• Also from Brazil, Raimundos' "A Mais Pedida" opens with a takedown on Moral Guardians finishing with a Double Entendre implying this:
  In this show, no minors enter
  A man has censored, was in a bad mood
  Didn't sleep well because he didn't get up
• Put Down That Stubbie by Austen Tayshus is a parody of Australian band Midnight Oil's hit Put Down That Weapon, with the singer warning that Aussies will go extinct if they keep boozing, thanks to the amber fluid's notorious effect on the sex drive.
• The Hangarounds' "Losing My Erection", a parody of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion".
• Kid Creole and the Coconuts' "Mister Softee" has the man making excuses for not being able to get it up, and the woman mocking him for it.
• Elvis Costello's "Mystery Dance" is a '50s-type rock-and-roll number about a pair of virgins who want to have sex but don't know how to satisfy each other.
  Well, I remember when the lights went out
  And I was trying to make it look like it was never in doubt
  She thought that I knew, and I thought that she knew
  So both of us were willing, but we didn't know how to do it
• Ninja Sex Party's "The Mystic Crystal", Danny and Brian must pass by the Cliffs of Erectile Dysfunction on their journey to save the princess and defeat the evil necromancer (Markiplier). "Now Brian has erectile dysfunction (only Brian, though)." The words "This Really Happened" then appear on the screen.
  Danny: I know, it's weird.
• Freda Payne's 1970 hit Band Of Gold is a lament for the newlywed narrator's husband being afflicted by this trope.

Professional Wrestling

• This was the premise for the infamous "Viagra on a Pole" match between Billy Kidman and Shane Douglas on a 2000 episode of WCW Monday Nitro. Both Kidman and Douglas made sex tapes featuring Torrie Wilson; Kidman managed to have sex with Torrie, but Douglas couldn't get it up, and he was embarrassed by it.

Religion

• The Bible: In the final chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Teacher metaphorically describes what happens when people start Feeling Their Age as they get older, that losing their sexual desire is one of the things that will happen.

Theatre

• A Little Night Music "We have sinned, and it was a complete disaster!"
• This happening sets in motion the plot of the farce A Flea in Her Ear. Because a guy becomes impotent, his wife mistakenly suspects he is cheating on her.
• Older Than Steam: The Porter's scene in Macbeth is chock full of this.
• A major plot point (and indeed, the inspiration for) Me and My Dick.
• In Six: The Musical, Anne Boleyn claims that Henry VIII had this problem, although this may simply be a spiteful invention on her part. Her song implies that this insult was the last straw that led to Henry sentencing her to death.

Webcomics

• Appears in Ghastly's Ghastly Comic between Nort and Kiki, much to her dismay.
• It's revealed that Kagerou's Red had this problem before he died.
• Happened in an early story arc of Least I Could Do, before Rayne became, ahem, omnipotent. Solved with the simple and sensible expedient of Viagra.
• This is played for laughs in The Order of the Stick: Start of Darkness. By the time Xykon becomes a lich, he mentions that "a certain body part" of his hasn't moved on its own in years, so he's not concerned with losing it entirely along with the rest of his flesh.
• In one strip of Sexy Losers, Indiana Jones survive the usual shootouts and adventures, only to say, "Today I am not a man" when he's with a woman and things don't quite work. This is borderline NSFW, but safer than most strips from that series.
• Parodied in Sinfest: It can happen to anyone? NOT TO UNCLE SAM!
• Toon Hole has a trip where a man's wife tries taking on different poses to get him aroused. When that doesn't work, she breaks down crying... and that does the trick.

Web Original

• Grog of Critical Role usually has the opposite problem, but after narrowly losing a pit fight and spending a few hours drowning his sorrows, the Game Master rules that he spends the night "sloppily disappointing a woman".
  • Percy also occasionally jokes about this in regards to his misfiring guns.
• This was Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill's character in NFL Quarterbacks On Facebook; his beautiful wife, Lauren Tannehill, revealed that Ryan was impotent when she tried to have sex with him.
• From an OAFE review of an Alien with loose joints: "If Giger's Alien is based on a penis, this toy is the 'that's okay, it happens to a lot of guys' version."
• In Survival of the Fittest version 4, Dustin Royal suffers this embarrassment when attempting to have sex with Maria Graham. Comedic, but also a relief, given he was taking advantage of Maria's highly distressed state at the time to make a move on her.

Western Animation

• In the Family Guy episode "Big Man on Hippocampus," Peter gets amnesia and acts like a bachelor. Lois eventually leaves him, and almost has sex with Quagmire; however, when she says she trusts him, he gets impotent from guilt and tries to "resuscitate" himself with increasingly drastic measures.
  • This also happens to Peter in the episode "Peter Problems", after he gets fired for gross negligence. This problem goes away after he gets his job back.
• Percy Spencer, father of Kevin Spencer, frequently has this happen to him since he's been abusing alcohol and other substances for years. Not helping matters is that his wife is a total Gonk. Sometimes she'll take pity on her husband, other times she laughs at him.
• Producing Parker: in the episode "In Dee Block", Simon is grabbed by some female inmates and dragged to their cells for some (not completely unwilling) sex. As a Brick Joke near the end of the episode, we see that it ended with a naked, embarrassed Simon sitting on a bunk as the three women glare at him with impatience and disappointment.
• In the Rick and Morty episode "Something Ricked This Way Comes", one of the cursed items sold by Mr. Needful is aftershave that makes Mr. Goldenfold attract women, with the ironic twist that he also becomes impotent.
• Parodied by Robot Chicken:
  Ken: I'm sorry, this has never happened to me before.
  Barbie: Not having a penis has never happened to you before?!
• South Park:
  • This happens to Gerald and Sheila; unfortunately, Kyle overhears their argument about the issue, decides he wanted to help them make up, and things sort of snowball from there.
    "I need to give my dad a "nerection""
    "I'm getting a nerection as we speak!"
  • When Mr. Hankey's wife, Autumn, appears on the show, she frequently makes some jabs at her husband's inability to perform. Between this, and her alcoholism, their marriage is clearly not a very happy one.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie": Rutherford is able to make it to Billups in time to stop him from having sex and becoming king because Billups has a hard time rising for the occasion, having never had sex before.

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