Can't Hold His Liquor: Difference between revisions

'''Bartender''': Just one.

'''Marty McFly''': ''Just one?'' Come on, Doc!

 

{{quote|''"It's sad when '''the [[Straight Edge]] guy''' makes fun of the amount of liquor you cannot hold."''|'''CM Punk''' on B-Boy, ''[[ROH]]: Straight Shootin' with [[CM Punk]] and [[Samoa Joe]]''}}

 

Of course, this is often also a case of [[Truth in Television]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Even though Dr. Hell from ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' tends a enjoy [[A Glass of Chianti]] now and then, he gets tipsy easily. In the last episodes of one of the manga continuities, he barely could stand upright after one glass. On the other hand, his minions (Baron Ashura, Count Brocken, Viscount Pygman) show a bigger tolerance to alcohol.

* England in ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' (English dub version). After one drink, he's passed out on the bar, wondering whether he's Catholic or Protestant, declaring himself "The United Bloody Kingdom" and that he can "...[[Malaproper|hild his locker]]" better than America, whining/crying over America not accepting his friendship because of their shared hatred of France, and bawling over how the friendship refusal is "total bollocks!" {{spoiler|The next day, England is under a green blanket, shivering and wondering why the light won't shut up}}.

* Sora Wakanae, from the manga ''[[Family Compo]]'', falls asleep after drinking one glass of beer.

* Tsukuyo in ''[[Gintama]]'' brutalizes Gintoki (and later Shinpachi and Kagura, but mostly Gintoki) after just a small amount of sake.

* Marron in ''[[Sorcerer Hunters]]'' in both the manga and OAV incarnations; in the former he passes out after one drink but in the latter the results are more epic.

* Fai D Fluorite from ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' is shown to be both this and [[Never Gets Drunk]] in different worlds.

* In ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', Corporal Giroro passes out from just a few drops of alcohol.

* Hibari of ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]''. He is known not to handle alcohol well.

 

* In an ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' comic book detailing the origin of movie Rogue, she gets drunk just by touching a drunk trucker.

* In ''[[Asterix]]'', Obelix gets drunk pretty fast, since he usually only drinks goats' milk. And a guy with [[Super Strength]] shouldn't do that.

* In an appearance by the [[Great Lakes Avengers]] (they were calling themselves the Great Lakes Initiative at the time), all the superheroes in the [[Marvel Universe]] have been inebriated by a Dionysus powered ray; Mr. Immortal, however, is the only person to succumb to ''alcohol poisoning''. Needless to say, he got better.

 

* Jonathan Crane (a.k.a. [[Batman|Scarecrow]]) in Lauralot's fic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4679528/1/Act_Like_We_Are_Fools Act Like We Are Fools]''. He gets falling-down, spill-all-your-secrets drunk after one glass of whiskey. Mostly because of an adverse interaction between his antipsychotics and the alcohol, but still.

 

== Film ==

* The page quote comes from ''[[Back to The Future]] Part III''. Turns out that Doc Brown really can't hold his liquor—he passes out after drinking a single shot of whiskey. And before passing out from drinking said glass of whiskey, he manages to get plastered just by ''holding it under his nose''.

* Kim Basinger's character in ''[[Blind Date]]'' had an allergy to alcohol that made her as drunk as if she'd had two six packs in mere minutes. She ate two chocolates that had alcohol injected and was literally swinging off the chandelier.

* A single sip of Scotch puts [[Woody Allen]]'s character in ''[[Play It Again Sam]]'' in a cartoonish flailing fit and a dead faint—still, he tries to impress a date that he's a suave drinker, casually telling her "I've gotta cut down, I'm up to a quart a day."

* Jeff from [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' is completely unaffected by one drink, but immediately crosses into Can't Hold His Liquor territory after two.

* In ''[[Animal Farm]]'', Squealer and Napoleon end up demonstrating exactly why animals should never drink alcohol, period, even when it isn't in excess, when they end up completely plastered from what is presumably their first drink of alcohol, as well as experiencing a heck of a hangover in the 1990s movie.

** A horrendous hangover was strongly implied in the original book, in the scene where the other animals are told that Napoleon was dying and had issued a decree that alcohol consumption was to be punished by death.

 

== Literature ==

* One of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s Azazel stories is about a woman who was too self restrained, and who could never relax because even one drink made her really sick. Well, the main character called for the titular demon and they remade her metabolism. The problem is, {{spoiler|she acquired such a taste, that the new metabolism made her really fat}}.

* Inverted in ''[[The Legend of Sun Knight]].'' [[Everybody Knows That]] the Sun Knight is a man who will turn red after the first cup, get a headache after the second, and fall unconscious after the third. In order to act this out, all Sun Knights have been trained to [[Never Gets Drunk|never get drunk.]]

* [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Zigzagged]] with Fitz, from the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]]. He usually seems to have an above-average tolerance for alcohol: he once drank a whole bottle of wine and remained capable of walking, talking, and assisting in the Doctor's [[Indy Ploy]]. However, in ''Camera Obscura'', Sabbath gives Fitz and Anji brandy, and Fitz falls asleep/passes out after one glass. Maybe he was just tired, [[The Woobie|poor dear]]. (Anji sips it slowly and suffers no appreciable effects.) But in the one [[Big Finish Doctor Who]] story Fitz is in, he seems to have more of a tolerance than Anji, and mistakenly gives her a [[Gargle Blaster]] that knocks her out for twenty-four hours (the Doctor scolds him, because he should have known that you're supposed to only put a single drop on a sugar cube), but goes around drinking it from a hip flask himself.

 

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'':

** Vir is different from most other Centauri in the fact that he doesn't handle liquor very well. In one episode he takes a sip of Londo's drink and promptly collapses. He later builds up his tolerance, [[Drowning My Sorrows|drowning his sorrows]] after he {{spoiler|killed [[The Caligula|Emperor Cartagia]] in "The Long Night."}}

* ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'': Randy is perfectly competent after four beers—but after number five...

* Ted of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' can ordinarily hold his beer just fine, but get five shots in him and he's gone. How bad is it? After a particularly bad night with several unidentified shots, he ends up {{spoiler|getting a tramp stamp}}.

 

== Radio ==

* ''[[The Navy Lark]]'s'' Sub-Lieutenant Phillips, drunk beyond belief on half a Lemonade Shandy.

 

== Theatre ==

* In [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Othello]]'', Cassio can't hold his liquor, but Iago pressures him into toasting Othello. Turns out Cassio is a violent drunk and the resulting fights with Roderigo and Montano lead to Othello firing Cassio. Readers will know that this is actually part of Iago's [[Evil Plan]].

 

== Video Games ==

* An [[New Game+|Avatar of Boris]] in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' cannot drink past five Drunkenness. Boris's alcohol tolerance was very low.

* [[Super Mario Bros]]:

** Believe it or not, Princess Peach fits too, and wine is something you should keep away from her. (No, this is not from a fan art version.) In ''[[Super Mario Kart]]'', they give the winner a bottle of champagne; they don’t drink it in the American version, but they do in the original Japanese. Bowser even gulps the entire bottle, but seeing as he’s a huge turtle-monster, he doesn’t even get tipsy. Peach, on the other hand, if she’s the winner, does the same thing, and gets seriously soused. (Champagne is about 12% alcohol content, by the way; this scene comes as a shock to any American player.)

* You have to wonder why Tiki in ''[[Dragon's Crown]]'' even tries to drink, seeing as she’s a tiny little fairy; even one goblet of wine would likely make her pass out. And it does. Every time you go to see her in the tavern, she’s passed out in the half-empty goblet of the wine she tried to drink, drunk. What's worse, it's your drink; and she's not going to give it back. Fairies make for mean drunks it seams.

 

* ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'': Nagisa Furukawa turns love-love-jealous-drunk in the ''instant'' she drinks a cup of sake. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* Both Mary and Angie in ''[[Shikkoku no Sharnoth]]'' have next to no alcohol tolerance. When Angie is described as getting drunk quicker than even Mary, who is tipsy after a single drink, you know it must be bad.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Walky from ''[[Its Walky]]'' gets ''really'' drunk after ''a sip of beer''. His sister Sal is shown to have the same problem in a following strip. As stated by Joyce, it's a family trait...

* Subverted in ''[[Questionable Content]]''. Strips [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=718 #718] - [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=719 719] has Faye (and later the rest of the cast) getting hammered from a few sips of bourbon. It is discovered almost immediately that the drink was no ordinary bourbon. Not to mention the bottle was ''glowing''. It came in it's own metal case.

* Florence from ''[[Freefall]]'' has a very low alcohol tolerance as confirmed by [[Word of God]], which makes [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1600/fc01525.htm this punchline even funnier]

* In ''[[Treading Ground]]'', Aya manages to get drunk on a single O'Douls (a "beer" with only 6 proof).

* In [[Dubious Company]], after [[The Dragon|Izor]] is ignored by his elite guard, he [[Go-Karting with Bowser|goes drinking]] with Tiren and Walter. When the guards return to pick him up, he's so plastered he [[Doomed New Clothes|vomits]] on Mary. Given how much [[Bottle Fairy|Tiren]] and [[Drunken Master|Walter]] drink, it's hard to tell whether Izor is this, or he was [[Drinking Contest|drunk into oblivion]].

 

== Web Original ==

{{quote|'''Critic''': The camera's purdy.}}

** Perhaps Doug Walker himself. On the commentary for ''It'', he says one of the very few drinking games he's tried to play in real life is the ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' drinking game. He didn't make it through a single episode before puking and passing out. EgoRaptor and Rob have also said that if he had actually been drinking as the Critic, the clothes would have come off fast.

 

== Western Animation ==

** [[Depending on the Writer]], Ned Flanders from In some episodes, he can drink beer with no problem and even has his own tap in his house. In others, he's far too pious to touch the stuff, and in one story, gets blind stinking drunk from a ''wine spritzer.''

** ''Regardless'' of the writer, however, booze is something you should ''never'' let Marge near. Period. Once she starts, she can't stop, and is even more of an embarrassment than Homer is while drunk.

 

== Real Life ==

* People that have had gastric bypass surgery absorb alcohol into their systems faster than they used to.

** Similarly, people who have lost significant amounts of weight in a short time period will often find that their alcohol tolerance has gone down, because there's simply less of them there to absorb the alcohol.

* After having an extreme case of Glandular Fever (mononucleosis, "mono", or the kissing disease to [[The Pond|Leftpondians]]) a person will find out that they have a lower tolerance to alcohol.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Unisex Tropes]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:Hard-Drinking Tropes]]