Laundromat Liaisons: Difference between revisions

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[[File:laundromat_liasons_5555.jpg|link=Dr. ~~Horribles~~ Sing Along Blog|right]]

[[File:laundromat_liasons_5555.jpg|link=Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|right]]

{{quote|''"She met him down at the laundromat. Three a.m."'' <br />

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Laundromats are a convenient setting when the plot requires characters to [[You All Meet in An Inn|meet and strike up a conversation]]. People don't generally like to leave their laundry unattended, so they have a couple hours of nothing to do but wait for the machines. They might as well pass the time by chatting with the person next to them on the bench. [[Romantic Comedy|Romantic comedies]] often use this to set up a [[Meet Cute]]. It can also be played for the awkward, like an [[Uncomfortable Elevator Moment]] only stretched out to several minutes (on stage). Or it can be [[Rule of Creepy|creepy]]: how is Alice to get out of this conversation without abandoning her laundry?

The audience doesn't learn anything about the characters from the fact of their being in a laundromat, but by the same token, characters who meet there could plausibly be ''anyone'', from an [[Every Man]] type to a [[Dr. ~~Horribles~~ Sing Along Blog|budding supervillain]]. Sometimes the writers play up characterization quirks in laundromat scenes, to compensate for the blandness. Or the characters might be down to their ''very last clean outfit'', making them look like a [[Rummage Sale Reject]] or even someone wearing [[Improvised Clothes]].

The audience doesn't learn anything about the characters from the fact of their being in a laundromat, but by the same token, characters who meet there could plausibly be ''anyone'', from an [[Every Man]] type to a [[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|budding supervillain]]. Sometimes the writers play up characterization quirks in laundromat scenes, to compensate for the blandness. Or the characters might be down to their ''very last clean outfit'', making them look like a [[Rummage Sale Reject]] or even someone wearing [[Improvised Clothes]].

It's not uncommon for the characters to get a peek at each others' laundry, invoking tropes such as [[Black Bra and Panties]].

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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[~~Octave (Manga)|~~Octave]]'': Yukino meets Setsuko and her brother in a laundromat. It turns out that [[Justified Trope|they own the place]].

* ''[[Octave]]'': Yukino meets Setsuko and her brother in a laundromat. It turns out that [[Justified Trope|they own the place]].

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Big Daddy]]'': The main character has his laundry done by a professional laundry service. When he finds out where the [[Love Interest]] does her laundry, he takes a bundle of clean clothes to the laundromat in hope of [[Invoked Trope|invoking]] this trope.

* ''[[Fire Birds]]'': [[Ace Pilot|Preston]] and Guthrie catch up with each other at the laundromat and discuss why their previous relationship didn't work out.

* ''[[~~Forty~~ Days and ~~Forty~~ Nights]]'': The main character meets his eventual girlfriend at the laundromat.

* ''[[40 Days and 40 Nights]]'': The main character meets his eventual girlfriend at the laundromat.

* Forms the premise of ''[[The Laundromat]]'': two lonely women regularly meet late at night in a laundromat to converse.

* ''[[When Night Is Falling]]'' has a woman who teaches at a conservative Christian college meet a performer from a traveling performance-art circus at a laundromat. A clothing mixup brings the teacher to the circus for the next step in the courtship.

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* ''[[Caroline in The City]]'': Dell and Charlie try to [[Invoked Trope|invoke]] this by going to a laundromat singles night.

* ''[[Chapelles Show]]'' spoofed this by using slow motion to turn an ordinary day at the laundromat into a sexually charged romantic encounter.

* In the ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'' episode "Love and Monsters", a character trying to learn about the Doctor sets up a 'chance' meeting with Jackie Tyler at the laundromat, or a laundrette as they are called in the UK.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Love and Monsters", a character trying to learn about the Doctor sets up a 'chance' meeting with Jackie Tyler at the laundromat, or a laundrette as they are called in the UK.

* ''[[Friends]]'': One of the first times Ross and Rachel really started to bond was when he took her on her first trip to the laundromat.

* On ''[[Happy Endings]]'', Penny meets a guy at the laundromat. She went there in ratty old sweats, which were her last piece of clean clothing, and she assumed that was why he looked like a [[Rummage Sale Reject]]. It's only when she meets him later wearing the same type of clothes that she realizes she is dating a [[Hipster]].

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== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Fahrenheit (~~Video~~ ~~Game~~)|Fahrenheit]]'' put a very dark twist on the whole "random people meeting in a laundromat" trope: two random people enter a laundromat, then one of them stabs the other to death, slits his own wrists, and bleeds to death.

* ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)|Fahrenheit]]'' put a very dark twist on the whole "random people meeting in a laundromat" trope: two random people enter a laundromat, then one of them stabs the other to death, slits his own wrists, and bleeds to death.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

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== [[Web Original]] ==

* In ''[[Dr. ~~Horribles~~ Sing Along Blog]]'', Billy aka Dr. Horrible sees Penny every week at a laundromat and further gets to know her through conversations there.

* In ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'', Billy aka Dr. Horrible sees Penny every week at a laundromat and further gets to know her through conversations there.