The Loins Sleep Tonight: Difference between revisions

* The [[Hermaphrodite]] protagonist of ''[[Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa]]'' once tries to have sex with a boy she likes. He can't get it up. She then does it with the local [[Casanova]], who is [[Anything That Moves|apparently indifferent to her... peculiarities]], but in the end, decides that she likes girls better, anyway.

* When Miharu is introduced in ''[[Aki Sora]]'', he says that he can only get aroused when he's watching his girlfriend having sex with another guy; in a later chapter, he yells out a window that he's impotent.

* Takezaki in [[Sensitive Pornograph]]. His girlfriend is not pleased. He gets slapped good.

 

 

* Happens in ''[[Forgetting Sarah Marshall]]'', although with a [[Justified Trope|justification:]]

{{quote| '''Peter''': Maybe the problem is that you broke my heart into a million pieces and so my cock doesn't want to be around you anymore! Okay? EVER! }}

* Spoofed in ''[[Top Secret]]''. Thanks to a subverted [[Sexy Discretion Shot]], Hillary seems to be consoling Nick for failing to get it up, but then it turns out that she's reading a romance novel out loud. ''Then'' they get serious about the lovemaking.

* The clear implication of ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' is that General Ripper's descent into madness began when he became impotent, which he blamed on Communists contaminating his precious bodily fluids by putting fluoride in our water.

* Plays as a key point in ''[[The Departed]]'' as [[Villain Protagonist|Colin's]] girlfriend, [[Freud Was Right|"Little Miss Freud"]], gives him the above speech, more or less. That doesn't stop her from getting some much deserved lovin' and a bun in the oven from [[Good People Have Good Sex|Billy]].

* In ''[[Death Becomes Her]]'' Madeline accuses Ernest of this. He doesn't deny it, just tells her to shut up. Since he's a middle-aged alcoholic and she's turned into a shallow bitch he no longer loves, this is pretty well justified.

* In ''[[Revenge of the Nerds]]'', [[Jerk Jock]] Stan is shown at least twice having "problems" (even when getting a hand job from his girlfriend Betty); this eventually leads to Betty's [[Heel Face Turn]] when the nerdy Lewis [[Good People Have Good Sex|gives her a good time]] while [[Bed Trick|disguised as Stan]].

* In ''[[Being There]]'', the President suffers from this, as a literal reflection of his corresponding "impotence" as a political leader.

* The '60s British comedy ''The Family Way'' concerns a newly-married couple who are forced by economic necessity to share a flat with the husband's parents, which leads to the young man's failure to consummate the union.

* ''[[Airplane 2 The Sequel]]'' makes fun of this by having impotence as the [[Berserk Button]] of suicidal passenger Joe Saluchi.

* In ''[[Victor Victoria]]'', King Marchand finds himself distracted by thoughts of "Victor" and suffers from this while trying to have sex with his girlfriend Norma.

* This is a major plot point in ''[[Love and Other Drugs]]'', which is about a Viagra salesman.

 

== Literature ==

* Partly responsible for the death of Jack's first wife in the novel ''Tales of Burning Love''. [[It Makes Sense in Context|It makes sense in context.]] [[Mind Screw|Sort of.]]

* ''[[The Frog King]]'': Harry Driscoll occasionally has performance anxiety when he's cheating on his girlfriend with his mistress.

* [[Stephen King]] uses this in two novels: In ''Rage'', the protagonist recalls a time when he tried to have sex with a girl at a party and this happened to him, and in ''Apt Pupil'', where Todd Bowden has a girlfriend, because he wants to [[Stepford Smiler|look normal]]. However, by this time, he is a misogynistic, hateful monster, and he's only able to perform when he's thinking of rape and abuse; eventually not even then.

** Perhaps not coincidentally, King once confessed in a ''Playboy'' interview to suffering periodically from this in [[Real Life]].

* In ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Cetaganda]]'', Barrayan noble [[Handsome Lech|Ivan Vorpatril]] gets himself into a threesome with two Cetagandan ghem-ladies during a diplomatic mission, and finds out that his host had slipped him an anti-aphrodisiac in his drink earlier, resulting in great personal embarrassment until he finds a way around his little problem, involving the aforementioned "other ways to get the job done" and some bluffing about Barrayan sexual mores worthy of his craftier cousin Miles. In a minor [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for Ivan, his performance is so impressive that he ends up becoming a [[Memetic Sex God]] among the ghem-ladies in spite of his drug-induced setback.

* A very popular trope in libertine poetry of the English Restoration.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Elliot and Maya had an accidental wedding in ''[[Just Shoot Me]]'', and when he tries to ignore it (the circumstances were weird) and sleep with a model, he can't.

* Happens to Chandler in ''[[Friends]]'' ("In high school I failed Biology and tonight Biology failed me."). When he goes to Joey for advice, Joey confides that it happened to him once. "What did you do?" asks Chandler. "We did it anyway." Chandler is also involved in another conversation about this phenomenon:

* ''[[Drop the Dead Donkey]]''. Elderly hedonist anchorman Henry confesses to Dave (in confidence) that this happened the night before. Naturally this spreads over the office like wildfire, and when his despised co-anchor Sally quips in response to Henry's computer going down "Maybe it's your floppy" Henry bursts out with "YES, ALL RIGHT, I'M IMPOTENT!" right in front of a television crew who've come to do a This-Is-Your-Life style interview with him.

* ''[[Herman's Head]]'' used this with Herman somehow hooking up with a supermodel, but couldn't perform because he was intimidated by her status (he gets over it).

{{quote| '''Hawkeye:''' She looks a little like my mother. Maybe [[Pungeon Master|Oedipus wrecked it]] for me.<br />

'''BJ:''' Look, it's perfectly understandable. You've been going full tilt since you got here, and your nerves are brittle enough to use for kindling. <br />

* Happens to Chuck in ''[[Gossip Girl]]''. Since he has feelings for Blair, he cannot get it up for any other girl.

* The ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode "The Mango" has mango fruit be the cure for George and Jerry.

{{quote| '''Gaz:''' My penis died, Donna. I'm important.<br />

'''Donna:''' You're impotent.<br />

'''Donna:''' You're not important, you're ''impotent''.<br />

'''Gaz:''' That's it, rub it in! }}

{{quote| '''[[Master of Disguise|Prince Ludwig the Indestructible]]:''' Oh, on the contrary. We have met many times, although you knew me by another name. Do you recall a mysterious black marketeer and smuggler called Otto with whom you used to dine and plot and play the biscuit game at the Old Pizzle in Dover?<br />

'''Edmund Blackadder:''' My God!<br />

{{quote| '''Naomi:''' I was getting tennis elbow!}}

** Of course, that may be because Naomi's heart wasn't really in it - she was trying to convince herself that she wasn't [[Love At First Sight|in love with Emily]]...

* A chronic problem with Charlie "Lucky" Luciano in ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'' (probably because of the syphilis). He gets better with {{spoiler|Gillian}}, however.

* Was the problem facing Rose and her boyfriend in ''[[The Golden Girls]]'' episode "[[Pun-Based Title|The Impotence of Being Ernest]]".