Talking in Bed

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A couple, wearing pyjamas (or not), discussing stuff with each other in bed.

Mainly a Sitcom trope nowadays, but serious instances have been around much longer; for example at the beginning of the medieval Irish war epic Tain Bo Cuailnge.

Examples of Talking in Bed include:


Anime and Manga

Film

  • Run Lola Run
  • Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson and Doris Day
  • Several of the Carry Ons, such as Carry On Henry, Carry On Cabby, Carry On Loving.
  • Parodied in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, where Scott sits up and we see his roommate Wallace sit up i the same bed in an attempt to comfort him. This is then followed by Wallace's boyfriend, ging further advice, then finally by a lover they had picked up for a threesome also chirping in to discuss the problem.
  • The Blind Side. It... advances...

Literature

Live Action TV

Charlie: Well maybe you should've thought of that before you started boinking a girl with the IQ of Tickle Me Elmo.

  • Medium: Alison and Joe frequently talk in bed, particularly when Alison has just woken up from a dream. Joe often gets up and starts pacing during the discussion, though.

Newspaper Comics

Theater

  • Fiddler on the Roof has two songs in bed: one where Tevya explains his dream to his wife, and the second when he asks his wife if she loves him.
    • In the film, only the dream song is in bed.

Webcomics

Western Animation

  • Family Guy. Well Lois wants to talk, but Peter sometimes is too interested in sleeping or watching TV.
  • The Simpsons did this all the time in the early episodes.
  • King of the Hill. Hank and Peggy do this when they're not reading—or when it's not a case of Peggy talking and Hank trying to sleep.

Real Life

  • There is Truth in Television here; given two working parents or one working parent and one houseparent, the moments a couple have in bed together before sleep may be the only time they have for any serious conversation.
    • Plus, bed is just a really comfy place for talking about stuff.
      • Plus it can very often lead to... other things.
      • Why not talking at the same time as "other things"? Sounds like fun.
      • ... As in: The titular illustration in the book "Sam, the ceiling needs painting"
  • A curious and mostly out of fashion variation was the custom of "bundling" in which an engaged couple will be placed in the same bed after having proper restraints(like a board placed between the two or well tied blankets or what not) put there to prevent improprieties. I don't know how well such restraints worked.
    • This bears some comparison to the Minbari "three nights" custom, in Babylon 5 in the sense that it is a way for an engaged couple to "test the waters" without going beyond convention.