Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Difference between revisions

 

See also [[Warm Bloodbags Are Everywhere]] for the [[Horror]] version. See also [[Frequently-Broken Unbreakable Vow]] for general promises rather than abstinence. Often seen with [[We Want Our Jerk Back]]. Compare [[Going Cold Turkey]], when the addiction is broken by a single self-imposed withdrawal phase. Can lead to [[Radish Cure]] where the character learns his lesson as a result of consuming too many "cold turkeys".

{{examples}}

 

* ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]'' has an episode where Mint is told that if she continues her obsession with wearing mascot-type animal costumes, she'll die. This diagnosis conveniently coincides with the Angel Brigade's trip to a planet that is celebrating "wear an animal costume day". While on the planet, she is the millionth customer of a local supermarket, and is awarded several animal costumes. Then she attends an award ceremony where the mayor of the town awards her another one. Then she throws the animal costume people are trying to make her wear into a lake, and [[Honest Axe|gets offered silver and gold animal costumes by the water spirit in the lake]].

* The very premise of the manga ''[[My Balls]]''. Due to a series of unusual circumstances, protagonist Kohta has the Queen of Hell [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed in his cojones]]. He must not ejaculate for a month or it will be [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. Naturally, Hell itself and everything else in the universe starts tempting him like mad.

* Richard Braun from ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' has this trouble with drinking.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In one [[Donald Duck]] comic, Daisy bets Donald that he couldn't go a day without eating anything. Cue a guy handing him a fresh hot dog (he can't take it with him on the bus), Grandma Duck nominating him as a judge in the local bake-off, and a college roommate dragging him into a restaurant as a celebration of their reunion and ordering everything on the menu. In the end, Donald is undone when Daisy catches him eating a chocolate bar, but he cheats by re-adjusting his wristwatch to trick her into thinking that it's already past midnight. The next week, they go on a date at a luxurious mountain hotel known for its all-you-can-eat buffet, but Donald gets into an accident which injures his mouth, rendering him incapable of eating anything besides soup.

** Donald's not in it, but a later story had Daisy writing in her diary about being determined to stick to her diet, naturally everything she then sees or hears (or smells) is solely about delicious food. In desperation she finally locks herself in her room to avoid temptation... then gives up and bites a chunk out of her notebook in frustration.

 

== Film ==

* Played with mercilessly by the great McCloskey in ''[[Airplane!]]!'' - "Looks like I chose the wrong week to give up drinking/smoking/sniffin' glue..."

* Basically the whole point of ''[[40 Days and 40 Nights]]'' Matt Sullivan gives up sex for Lent in an effort to move past a pattern of self-destructive relationships. Of course, every person with two X chromosomes sees this as incredibly sexy, others feel it may hamper the power of [[Lysistrata Gambit|their favorite man-control means]], and others just want him to lose. This leads to girls flooding him with offers he can barely refuse, until {{spoiler|one of the girls out-and-out forces herself on him. See [[Double Standard Rape (Female on Male)]]}}. Expect this result only if you are [[Josh Hartnett]].

* In the original ''The Wicker Man'', Sgt. Howie is engaged and waiting until marriage to have sex. Once he gets to Summerisle, sex is everywhere he looks.

* At the very beginning of [[101 Dalmatians|''102 Dalmatians'']], a reformed Cruella [[Devil]] is freed from prison, only to start imagining the entire London skyline completely covered with spots like a Dalmatian's fur coat, and as a result she reverts back to the psychotic villain she once was.

 

== Literature ==

* Danny Wallace's ''Yes Man'' tells the story of what happened when he decided to say "Yes" to absolutely everything. Turns out that you give up a ''lot'' of freedom when you remove the ability to refuse an offer, and just like the trope, there are friends of his that either take advantage of this or outright plot to make him fail. {{spoiler|He fails when he refuses to sleep with someone, because he was in love with another woman. However, unlike most British comedy stories, this one has a happy ending: he flies to Australia to be with the woman he loves, something that the friend who he made the bet with in the first place was going to make him do as a "forfeit"}}.

* Ned Robbins in ''[[Jelly Belly]]'' is on a strict diet and has to put up with his family chowing down on delicious, high-calorie foods while he's stuck eating nothing but lean, broiled meats and vegetables. Even when he becomes more serious about losing weight and eating healthier, staying away from junk food is still an effort in and of itself.

 

* In ''[[All in The Family]]'' Archie & Mike ("Meathead") have a bet as to who can hold out longer: Archie without a cigar or Mike without food. Archie starts to tempt Mike by eating in front of him; Mike counters by smoking cigars in front of Archie. They finally decide to end in a draw, with Mike eating and Archie lighting up on the count of three. On "3" Mike puts food in his mouth but Archie draws the match away from his cigar, with a "Ha!"

** Also, when Mike finds several cigars Archie stashed:

* ''[[Drake and Josh]]'': Drake bets that he can go a set amount of time without ''any'' junk food, and Josh bets the same, but with video games. Megan throws together a contract. Later, Drake gets a bad skin condition caused by lack of junk food. Josh is also tempted when his grandmother sends him a brand new "game sphere". Later, Megan decides to [[Xanatos Gambit|screw them both over by tricking each brother to tempt the other]]. Josh covers the boy's bedroom with candy and Drake starts playing the game sphere with a ''fancy wireless controller''; in the end, both brothers succumb but are unable to tell who did so first. This winds up being a [[Gambit Roulette]] when Megan reveals that the contract didn't say that the person who caved in first would lose, but simply that whoever caved would lose.

* ''[[Father Ted]]'' had a whole episode dedicated to this, called [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|''Cigarettes, Alcohol and Rollerblading'']], in which the cast must give up the titular vices for Lent. In one hallucination the smoke from a guest resolves itself into the words 'lovely [[Separated by a Common Language|fags]]' to Ted's nicotine-starved eyes.

** Except for maybe a giant rollerblade going "Blah blah blah blah blah..."

* An episode of ''[[Frasier]]'' in which Frasier and his boss, Kate, have resolved they can't have a relationship, and declared that they are two adults who can resist their mutual attraction. At the same time, a romance author who lives in Frasier's building is moving out. When Frasier and Kate get in the service elevator, to avoid the press outside the main door, it stalls and the lights go out. Frasier lights some candles, then knocks a double mattress propped against a wall, dropping it on the center of the floor. The heat forces them to take off their jackets. Then Frasier accidentally sets off a music box that plays romantic music, knocks over a bottle of musk oil trying to turn it off, and when Kate grabs a sheet to soak up the oil, it turns out to be covering a huge blow-up of a bodice-ripper cover. They resist, but only just.

* ''[[Lost]]'': Charlie throws the last of his heroin stash into a fire in early season 1. Being stranded on an island might seem an excellent opportunity to kick the habit. Then in the season finale he comes across a crashed plane... full of heroin.

** And then there's Hurley, who loses the perfect opportunity to get rid of some of that pork on the island when he runs into the Dharma junk food stash in the hatch. And then later ''more food'' literally drops from the sky.

* In the ''[[Married... with Children]]'' episode "A Little of the Top" Al was accidentally circumcised and had to abstain from sex for a full month. For most of their marriage, Al had very little interest in sex with his wife. But now that it was [[Forbidden Fruit|forbidden]], she suddenly became some sort of irresistible sex goddess whose every casual action seemed to turn him on.

* A starving Lister in the ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' episode ''Marooned'' suffers from this - Rimmer's library consists of the likes of Charles Lamb, Herman Wok, Francis Bacon and Eric Van Lustbader.

{{quote|'''Rimmer:''' Eric Van Lustbader? What's he got to do with food?

* Done in ''[[Strangers with Candy]]'' when Jerri tries to give up sex to join a clique of virgin girls. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

* In the ''[[Torchwood]]'' episode "Day One", an alien who feeds off orgasmic energy has taken over the body of a young woman. The girl knows that if she doesn't feed the alien, it will kill her, but if she gives in she'll kill anyone she has sex with. As she walks down the street all she can see are suggestive advertisements and people making out.

** In another episode, Joey (again) is having to abstain from sex for a period of time for a well-paid scientific study, but then has a date with a gorgeous girl and ends up in bed. He manages to subvert the problem by following Monica's advice to "be there for her" without giving in himself.

** In yet another episode, Joey and Ross bet Chandler 50 bucks he can't keep his New Year's Resolution to not make fun of his friends. Shortly afterward, Ross starts wearing leather pants and dating a girl named Elizabeth Hornswoggle. {{spoiler|At the end of the episode he gives them the 50 bucks and lets it all out.}}

* Done in a ''very'' terrifying fashion in ''[[Kamen Rider Fourze]]'', where the [[Monsters of the Week]] become ''addicted'' to the Zodiarts Switches. So far, we've only seen one of the Switchers, Miura, who hallucinates seeing Zodiarts Switches everywhere and is too afraid to go back to school, as he can't control himself. It's done in such a way to be pure horror.

* In ''[[My Hero (TV)]]'', George attempts to go "cold porky" from pork scratchings (Which gives his [[Bizarre Alien Biology|alien brain]] super-intelligence, but turns him into a jerk).

 

== Web Comics ==

* Jacob from ''[[Shortpacked]]'' is a recovering sex addict...and unwilling [[Chick Magnet]]. This being Shortpacked, it's turned [[Up to Eleven]]: during the "Ultracar meets his creator" arc, he stumbles onto an eccentric millionaire's [[Hot Librarian]] collection and has to fend off their advances. The arc after that, he ends up being propositioned for a threesome by two beautiful women without saying a word himself. {{spoiler|And after all that, he ends up sleeping with Amber's mom, causing him to briefly retreat into his apartment out of shame.}}

{{quote|"TWO CHICKS WANT TO DO ME AT THE SAME TIME MUST FLEE!"}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* In an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'', Peter's stomach is acting up during a long road trip. Every billboard and sign remind him of it (examples include "Furniture Store; all stools must go!"; "I Love My Shi-Tzu"; "Bob's House of Feces, Next Exit" [to which Peter responds "Oh come on, that's not even real!"]).

** In another episode, Quagmire is forced to keep his perversion under control. After his friends take him to the mall to see how well he can contain himself in public, he sees a handful of attractive teenagers, turns away to see a woman breastfeeding, turns away from that to see [[Serial Escalation|a trio of cheerleaders who walk past a fountain, accidentally drop a pom-pom inside, decide to retrieve it, together, while shirtless, engage in a splash fight and start making out with each other]]. When he attempts to escape, he accidentally crashes into a pile of naked mannequins, then ducks into a surveillance room with full view of the women's dressing rooms.

* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]:'' Eduardo has fleas, and he's trying not to scratch. But everywhere he looks, there are people using scratch-and-sniff cards, monkeys scratching themselves in an inappropriate manner, etc.

* Parody: After Bender gives up drinking in ''[[Futurama]]'' (to his detriment, because robots run on alcohol), he is [[Drunken Montage|peppered with flashing neon signs]] for things like "Boring Geology Lecture" and "Church Revival".

* A few [[Looney Tunes]] featured Sylvester going through this while trying to give up eating Tweety, most memorably in "Birds Anonymous".

** For bonus points, the first thing he sees after he gets back from the BA meeting is [[Your Television Hates You|a cooking show talking about how to prepare a turkey]].

** In one episode Homer orders a gun. He has to wait an entire week before getting his gun, and all he can see during the week are targets (a truck bearing the Target logo, a row of ducks, his sisters-in-law, Ned Flanders... Ned Flanders again...).

{{quote|'''Surrender to Duff'''}}

** Lisa was addicted to the "Cory Hotline" and is forced to never call it from home. She cheats and uses the school's phone. With Marge's help she resolves to spend a whole day without calling, made incredibly difficult because of withdrawal-like symptoms and Maggie playing with a toy phone. Although it seems that she fell asleep dialing the hotline, Marge finds out she succeeded after all, and only dialed information to know the time and prove she went the whole day.

{{quote|Homer: Hmm, now which will be my one donut of the day * eats one* no * eats another* not that one (You can see where this is going).}}

** In the episode "The Last Temptation of Homer", Homer is attracted to his co-worker, Mindy, and tries to watch television to take his mind off her:

'''Woman:''' Just do it! ''(Homer runs away)'' Examine your scalp for ringworm. }}

* Seen more than once on ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''.

* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmjjHkxTItE this] [[Stealth Cigarette Commercial]], Goofy tries to give up smoking, but sees tobacco products everywhere, and people tempt him and offer him cigarettes until he actually wants one.

* ''[[Sitting Ducks]]'' takes place in a universe where ducks and alligators live in segregated districts, where there's constant tension between the hungry alligators of Swampwood and duck denizens of Ducktown. The show focuses on a duck named Bill and his relationship with Aldo, an alligator who swears off eating ducks. This often proves hard to resist for poor Aldo, who constantly must fight ostacization from his species and his own predatory instincts, especially in the episode where he hallucinates Bill and his friends as skinned floating ducks.

** And of course, there's the episode where Dexter's Mom bakes some muffins and Dexter has to prevent his dad from eating them (apparently, he's a "muffomaniac" and Mom even says that he only married her because of her muffins). Dad starts to hallucinate that's he's in a land of muffins and is crowned king. All in all, it was a very bizarre episode.

** Also, when K'nuckles wanted to stop hearing stories with happy endings, everybody was telling stories with various different kinds of happy endings.

* In ''[[Metalocalypse]]'', this is the reason Leonard Rockstein/Dr. Rockso couldn't stay clean from cocaine. He technically manages to stay clean for about half a year before finding confiscated cocaine behind the stage of a drug-free concert. He eventually gives in once the security guarding the drugs disappear to handle the concert which had gone haywire. Also note that this happened after a whole episode dedicated to his struggle to get clean early on in the same season. This was done mostly because Dr. Rockso happened to be the show's resident [[Ensemble Darkhorse]], and part of his charm was his insufferable cocaine addiction.

* ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'' featured an episode where the young aardvark decides he doesn't wish to take any more piano lessons. Naturally the TV that day features nothing but programs about guess what musical instrument.

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', as part of a [[Springtime for Hitler]], Beezy can't eat for a minute. Jimmy tells him it's a piece of cake, to which he responds "Cake?" Jimmy quickly amends his statement, saying it's easy as pie, to which he responds "Pie?" Finally, Jimmy tells him he's tough as nails...[[Extreme Omnivore|to which he responds "Nails?"]]

* Used in an episode of ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]''. The Ed's, Kevin, Rolf, and Johnny all make a cold turkey bet, each ponying up 25 cents as the bet. Ed can't have gravy, Double d can't use any big words, Eddy can't be loud, Rolf must give up meat, Johnny can't talk to plank, and Kevin (the first to lose) can't call the Ed's dorks. After Eddy spends most of the episode Invoking the trope towards everyone else, the eventual winner is {{spoiler|Ed. After falling into a barrel of gravy, Eddy LOUDLY declares his victory... until he finds out Ed fell into a barrel of butterscotch pudding, which he's allergic to. Ed gets the money and spends it on, you guessed it, gravy}}.

* On an episode of ''[[Moral Orel]]'', Orel was grounded from church for a month. He started seeing churches everywhere, thought everyone was saying the word "church", had very weird dreams and even dressed like a church.

* ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' have a 'no laughing' vow forced on them (on threat of being transferred to the school on the tough side of town), just in time for Buzzcut's starting up Sex Ed class.

* One episode of ''[[Dennis the Menace UK]]'' featured an [[Eccentric Millionaire]] who challenged Dennis' town not to watch the telly for a whole month and promised to give the town one million if they win. At the last day, Dennis and his friends convinced him to watch TV (which he claimed he never did before during his whole life). The millionaire decided to give the money anyway.

* One ''[[House of Mouse]]'' era short had Daisy getting fed up with Donald's anger issues, and betting that he couldn't go through their date without flying into rage. Goofy ends up being their waiter. You can see where this is going... {{spoiler|but it's a subversion. Daisy's the one who gets mad. Donald remains perfectly fine during the date. That is, [[Double Subversion|until he gets the bill]].}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Is Your Index On Drugs]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]