Bar Brawl/Playing With

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Basic Trope: A fight scene, happening in a bar, where the emphasis is less on fighting skill and more on destruction of furniture.

  • Played Straight: Bob and Alice are at the bar. Charlie flirts with Alice and Bob punches him - unfortunately knocking him into Ted, who is quite angry that Bob spilled his expensive whiskey all over his new suit. Ted throws his glass at Bob, but misses and hits Carol, who throws her beer bottle back at Ted but hits Joe instead, who throws his own bottle...
  • Exaggerated:
    • The ensuing Bar Brawl erupts outside of the bar becoming a street riot... which somehow becomes an international incident and starts a war when the ambassador hanging out in the corner gets insulted/attacked/worse
    • Alternately, the ensuing Bar Brawl does not necessarily escape the bar, but it literally demolishes the place by either mundane or superhuman means. There is literally no bar left standing, just a flaming or torn-down husk of what once was a bar.
  • Inverted:
    • The fight actually began outside the bar (or is brought into it from outside) and is calmed once the parties get inside and are pulled apart, have a drink or five, or The Bartender or The Bouncer talks or beats (depending on which) some sense into them.
    • The fight began outside the bar and continues on inside.
    • Bob and Alice are at the bar. Charlie flirts with Bob, and Bob reciprocates. Alice is a Yaoi Fangirl who is quite happy to see that her best friends finally found their love for each other.
  • Justified: The Need for Mead
  • Subverted:
    • Diner Brawl and Food Fight
    • Bob and Alice are at the bar. Charlie flirts with Bob, and Bob reciprocates. Alice is a Yaoi Fangirl who is quite happy to see that her best friends finally found their love for each other - but the other bar patrons are Heteronormative Crusaders, and thus begins the fight.
    • Bob and Alice are at the bar. Charlie flirts with Alice and Bob punches him - unfortunately knocking him into Ted, who laughs it off and orders another drink as well as a couple more rounds for the entire room. Everyone realizes how silly they were, calms down, and enjoys the free drinks.
  • Double Subverted: ...Only to get even more drunk, wander over to the diner after last call, and start a Diner Brawl.
  • Deconstructed: The fight is seen as the Serious Business Real Life violence is generally seen as. Police are called, and they break up the fight and arrest everyone involved. Bob faces felony assault charges, which haunt him for the rest of his life, leaving him unable to find legitimate gainful employment or shelter. Meanwhile, Alice has broken up with him and kicked him out of her apartment for being a felon as well as an angry, Domestic Abuse prone Jerkass. Ted meanwhile is wanted because he climbed out the bar's back window and fled from the police. Joe, meanwhile, is in the hospital dying from the brain aneurysm the Grievous Bottley Harm caused him...
  • Reconstructed:
    • The police or other authorities arrive, but join the fight as well.
    • No one is seriously hurt despite all of the flying fists, feet, bottles, furniture, and everything else, possibly due to luck, possibly due to everyone being too drunk or no one really wanting to seriously harm anyone. There are either no police/authorities, or for some reason (possibly related to Unfortunate Implications) they just don't care about a bar brawl where no one was seriously injured or killed.
  • Lampshaded:
    • Bob and Alice are at the bar. Charlie flirts with Alice and Bob punches him - unfortunately knocking him into Ted, who sighs, orders another drink, and asks The Bartender to Pass the Popcorn.
    • "Does the fighting in that bar ever stop?"
  • Parodied:
    • Bob and Alice are at the bar. Charlie walks up and mentions the weather. The entire bar instantly begins to fight - apparently the one rule of Bad Guy Bar, even written in ALLCAPS on the door, is to "NEVER TALK ABOUT THE FUCKING WEATHER BECAUSE IT IS BORING!"
    • What sounds like a massive fight echoes from what seems to be a Bad Guy Bar - except it's a very peaceful sports bar where everyone's watching a fight on TV.
  • Averted:
    • Bob and Alice are at the bar. Charlie flirts with Alice and Bob punches him. The Bouncer sees this and runs over, quickly escorting both out of the bar, knowing them to be troublemakers. Meanwhile, The Bartender gets Ted a new drink and offers some soothing words.
    • Bob and Alice are at the bar. Alice sees Charlie walking in, and knowing he and Bob are enemies, finds an excuse to get them out of there.
  • Enforced: Bad Guy Bar, The Western, two competing Hair Metal or Visual Kei bands walk into a bar in 1986.
  • Invoked: Bob starts a bar brawl to have a chance to steal a drink.
  • Defied:
    • Bob and Alice are at the bar. Charlie flirts with Alice and Alice reciprocates. Bob doesn't even feel like fighting, just crying into his drink that his best friend would do such a thing.
    • Bob and Charlie are enemies rather than friends, but Bob realizes punching Charlie just wouldn't be worth it, would be below him, and/or Bob is an Actual Pacifist.
    • The regulars of the bar make sure that behavior that would lead to fights doesn't happen.
  • Discussed: "Maybe we should have everyone get into a Bar Brawl for the Fight Scene."
  • Conversed:
  • Played For Laughs:
  • Played For Drama: Police Procedural, Cop Show, Murder Mystery with the brawl being where someone dies.
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