The Bartender: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

Working in a bar is never easy. You have to deal with [[Player Characters|lowlifes, drunks, soldiers]] who will harass the female entertainment and some of the clientele with their better armed arsenal, and the average Joe who [[The Confidant|confesses his life problems to you]] as you pour him another round. This is the life of [[The Bartender]]: he pours a round and just quietly listens and observes the setting.

 

 

Many bartenders are [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|known only by their nickname]]. They also often take up the duty of a [[Quest Giver|quest givers]] in [[You All Meet in An Inn|any fantasy]] (or [[Feudal Future|science-fantasy]])-themed [[Tabletop Game]].

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* A [[Nice Guy]] bartender shows up in one story in ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'' and ends up helping Tulip's best friend with some sage advise while she's feeling down about her (lack of a) love life. And then, because this is a [[Garth Ennis]] comic, we get a hilarious (for us, not for him) story about how he ended up chemically castrated after he got mistaken for a child molester by the police.

* Kadies in ''[[Sin City]]'' usually has waitress Shellie in the role as an earpiece as evident by Dwight's background confessions seen in many stories. Her (and Kadie to a lesser extent) seem to be able to get Marv calmed down, no easy feat.

== [[Film]] ==

* Cheech Marin's character in Robert Rodriquez's ''Desperado'' didn't even have a name. He was just called "[[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|Short Bartender]]."

* Brian Flanagan (played by Tom Cruise) learns the fine art of bartending from Doug Coughlin (Brian Brown) in ''[[Cocktail]]''.

* The extremely creepy Lloyd of the extremely creepy Overlook Hotel in ''[[The Shining]]''.

* Joe in ''The Sky's the Limit'', who is addressed in the movie's [[Breakaway Pop Hit]], "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)."

* In ''[[Keeping the Faith]]'', the [[Framing Device]] is the priest (name?) "confessing" to [[The Bartender]].

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* "Mac", who runs MacAnally's in ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. MacAnally's is one of few places which is neutral ground for supernaturals, so every non-"vanilla human" in Chicago will drop by sooner or later. He doesn't talk much, though.

* [[Larry Niven]]'s Draco Tavern books are told from the perspective of the human barkeep to an alien [[City of Weirdos|Bar of Weirdos]].

** Both Woody Boyd and Ernie "Coach" Pantusso worked as bartenders at the Cheers bar as well.

* Al Swearengen from ''[[Deadwood]]'' tended the bar, when he wasn't being the town's crimelord.

* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in one episode of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]''. When Sheldon sees Penny working the bar, he expects her to act like the typical bartender, pouring drinks for him to drown his sorrows in and offering him sage advice.

* In ''[[Life On Mars]]'', Nelson is an oracle nonpareil who may just be the protagonist's subconscious. He's also a [[Fauxreigner]] in that he plays up a Jamaican accent so people don't take him too seriously ("Folks just seem happier with the other Nelson"). He turns up again in the very last episode of ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'', which reveals (MAJOR spoilers): {{spoiler|that he's more or less the British copper's equivalent of ''St Peter.''}}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Darin of ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' is the wise, almost fatherly variety. [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09262001/ Here] is his introduction.

* Bacchus, the protagonist of [[Nectar of the Gods]] is this kind of character, who tends to the bar giving characters advice and serves them a [[Impossibly Delicious Food|perfect cocktail]] to soothe their troubles, and practically every other character in the comic is a bartender as well.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The bartenders in the ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' games are usually of the rough, shady, and not very friendly variety. Probably a member of the [[Thieves' Guild]].

** Pretty much a given, since the [[Thieves' Guild]] is ''under'' the bar in game 1, in game 2 the bartender is a minion of the most prominent criminal in a corrupt city, and in game 5 the entire bar is owned by that same person; there aren't any taverns in games 3 and 4.

** Another lampshade is hung by Aethyta, the Asari bartender on Ilium, who turns out to be a Matriarch. When the character asks what she's doing tending bars, when Matriarchs are supposed to be councilors and figures of wisdom, her reply is, basically, "that's why Matriarchs make the perfect bartender."

*** The third game reveals that {{spoiler|she's Liara's father (no, not her "other mother", her father) and was keeping an eye on Liara's intel-broker activities for the other matriarchs. She moves to a bar on the Citadel once the Reaper war starts.}}