History Main / GayBarReveal

* On the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E6DYikes D-Yikes!]], [[SadistTeacher Mr(s). Garrison]] (a post-op male-to-female {{Transgender}} woman who's into men) gets invited to a "girl bar." (S)He is initially freaked out to realize it's a lesbian bar, but winds up sleeping with a woman by the end of the night, leading to a ComingOutStory...again.

Manfred M. Manly has just had the Gay Bar Reveal. He has walked into a bar or club ignorant of its nature and slowly realises that it's a gay bar. It normally only happens to the character most likely to freak out about it, sometimes they'll actually be accompanied by someone who does get it quicker than them or even lead them there who provides a foil for the few moments before they catch on. Sometimes Manford will have the conspicuous homosexual elements pointed out to him but automatically imagines it to all be part of manly bonding.

* In an episode of ''Series/InPlainSight''. While helping Mary clear one of her witnesses of a murder, Marshall visits the victim's favorite bar and talks with the bartender, who mentions that the victim always stood by his people. After wondering what that means, a confused Marshall looks around and realizes that all the patrons were male and many were holding hands...

[[caption-width-right:"A very, very gay bar!"]]

'''Stiles:''' ''[surrounded by drag queens]'' Man, nothing gets past those keen werewolf senses, huh, Scott?

[[quoteright:225:[[Film/PoliceAcademy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blue_oyster_bar.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:225:And realization sets in...]]

* Creator/GabrielIglesias mentions in his special "I'm Not Fat... I'm Fluffy" how he once got drunk in El Paso and accidentally wound up at a gay club, explaining that when you're already intoxicated and you pull up to a place with music coming out the front door and a line outside you don't notice much else besides the fact that it's a club. When he finally figured out that the male patrons were checking him out he decided to go with it and even went so far as to call his girlfriend to say, "You better not mess up, because I have options."

* On the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS6E11DYikes D-Yikes!]], [[SadistTeacher Mr(s). Garrison]] (a post-op male-to-female {{Transgender}} woman who's into men) gets invited to a "girl bar." (S)He is initially freaked out to realize it's a lesbian bar, but winds up sleeping with a woman by the end of the night, leading to a ComingOutStory...again.

** A planned but scrapped joke in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E10FlamingMoes Flaming Moe's]]" had a couple of gay guys entering Flaming Moe's thinking it was a gay bar and leaving disappointedly. The censors wouldn't allow it.

* In episode 27 of the ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'' playthrough of ''Bloodborne,'' Dan recalls a time he was visiting Amsterdam and met up with his sister at a bar with an interesting sign. When his sister showed up, she told him, "This is, like, the gayest of the gay bars." Dan (who was somewhat stoned) replied that he felt "unusually attractive," but he had just assumed all the dudes smiling at him were just usually friendly.

** While Arin claimed in the ''Bloodborne'' episode that he'd never accidentally walked into ''any'' bar, much less a gay bar, a later episode of the ''Super Mario Maker 2'' playthrough, Arin recalls looking for a bar late at night with his manager Brent while they were on tour, and once they got inside, they realized it was a gay bar. Arin really liked the drinks and music there, and wonders if he should attend gay bars more often.

* Played with in [[http://thenewgay.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/curt_glee_rolling_stone.jpg this]] promotional pic for ''Series/{{Glee}}'' from ''Rolling Stone'' -- it's obviously a ManlyGay hangout, but it's more "Wrong Gay Bar Reveal" as the hapless patron is [[FlamboyantGay Kurt]]. (Saved from UnfortunateImplications by the regulars not looking [[BlackComedyRape predatory]] but equally dubious about ''him'', perhaps due to him being clearly underage and holding a martini)

* In ''Film/AStarIsBorn2018'', Jackson Maine gets lost driving in the city looking for a bar, and ends up ducking into the first establishment he finds. He's in there for a few moments before he realizes it's a drag bar, but he doesn't appear to mind. Alcohol is alcohol after all!

But wait, what's that? A series of short sudden close ups on each of the elements of the bar have revealed the truth. Those manly steel bars are for pole dancing, the bass music is {{Techno}}, the bikers and steel workers [[{{Leatherman}} seem to love their leather]], and that ain't Greco-Roman wrestling they're engaging in...

* The Music/CharlieDanielsBand song "Uneasy Rider '88" is about two Texas good-ol-boys who find themselves in a gay bar. One catches on sooner than the other. They end up freaking out and starting a fight.

* ''Film/WaynesWorld2'' features a scene where Wayne, Garth, and two of their friends disguise themselves as a construction worker, a police officer, a biker, and a sailor to spy on Wayne's girlfriend. When they are discovered they take cover in an establishment called "The Tool Box" which turns out to be a gay bar. When the DJ sees what Wayne and company are wearing, he shines the spotlight on them and cranks up the Music/VillagePeople's "YMCA" which leads to a scene where the heroes perform the dance associated with the song.

[[RatedMForManly Manfred M. Manly]] wanders the streets looking for a burly bar where he can[[DrinkBasedCharacterization order his favourite]] GargleBlaster, proposition women with crude sexual {{Double Entendre}}s and watch manly high impact sports on a 30 year old television before establishing alpha male dominance by engaging in Greco-Roman wrestling with other patrons.

[[RatedMForManly Manfred M. Manly]] wanders the streets looking for a burly bar where he can make a DrinkOrder of his favourite GargleBlaster, proposition women with crude sexual {{Double Entendre}}s and watch manly high impact sports on a 30 year old television before establishing alpha male dominance by engaging in Greco-Roman wrestling with other patrons.

[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blue_oyster_bar.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:225:And realisation sets in...]]

!! Examples:

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* In the ''Zelda'' AU fic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3105749/1/The_Weekly_Hyrule_News "The Weekly Hyrule News"]], Link, Ralph, and Kafei all go to an unfamiliar bar to engage in a little underage drinking. Link catches on pretty quickly that there’s a reason all the patrons are seemingly either “alone or with a friend,” and gets a kick out of watching the other two react once they figure it out. [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday Kafei]] wants to leave, but Ralph convinces him to stay when he points out the [[GirlOnGirlIsHot lesbians in the bar.]]
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' ''Fanfic/ThisTimeRound'' story "[[http://www.ttrarchive.com/cotc.html Checking Out the Competition]]" introduces the Steel Maiden Bar & Grill by having Adric follow Izzy there. Adric can tell there's something about the clientèle, eventually deducing that it's a ''minor character'' bar. Izzy, a former companion, is not happy.

[[folder:Film]]

* One of the more famous examples is the Blue Oyster Bar, a RunningGag from the ''Film/PoliceAcademy'' movies. JerkAss characters will oftentimes be tricked into heading there, only to end up in the tight embrace of ManlyGay bikers, who are really good at the tango.

--> '''Ned:''' What kind of bar is this?
--> '''Bouncer:''' A bar for adults.
--> '''Ned:''' ...what kind of adults?
--> '''Bouncer:''' Gay adults.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{In Plain Sight}}''. While helping Mary clear one of her witnesses of a murder, Marshall visits the victim's favorite bar and talks with the bartender, who mentions that the victim always stood by his people. After wondering what that means, a confused Marshall looks around and realizes that all the patrons were male and many were holding hands...

* ''Series/FilthyRichAndCatflap'': Richie and Eddie enter a typical British pub looking for 'working class costermongers' to kill Richie's father for him. When they are unable to interest the two men at the bar in the job, they start insulting their bravery and masculinity with homophobic slurs, concluding:

[Cut to Richie and Eddie being hurled out of the pub]

'''Coach:''' ''(awkwardly)'' Oh...uh...I'm just taking Terry home. (Realizing how that sounds) Damn!

* One ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' sketch had [[FunnyForeigner Miss Swan]] end up in a [[UnusualEuphemism "monkey in the bush"]] bar. She led them in a rendition of ''[[Music/{{ABBA}} Dancing Queen]]''.

-->'''Del''': Drink up, we're leaving.\\
'''Rodney''': Yeah? Are they a couple of ravers?\\
'''Del''': No, they're a couple of geezers!

-->'''Scott:''' "Dude! Everyone in here's a dude! I think we're in a gay club!"
-->'''Stiles (surrounded by drag queens):''' "Man, nothing gets past those keen werewolf senses, huh Scott?"

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Parodied in ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', showing a chicken alone in a bar full of cows coming to the realization that she has wandered into a hay bar. Another has a dog realizing he's in a stray bar.
* One ''Out of the Gene Pool'' story had Sam and Zoogie go to bars to find a date. Sam express disappointment that one of the bars they go to barely has any women in it, and eventually realizes why when one of the burly men hits on Zoogie.

[[folder:Stand Up Comedy]]
* Creator/GabrielIglesias mentions in his special "I'm Not Fat... I'm Fluffy" how he once got drunk in El Paso and accidentally wound up at a gay club, explaining that when you're already intoxicated and you pull up to a place with music coming out the front door and a line outside you don't notice much else besides the fact that it's a club. When he finally figured out that the male patrons were checking him out he decided to go with it and even went so far as to call his girlfriend to say, "You better not mess up, because I have options."

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Implied to happen to [[Radio/GTARadio Lazlow]] in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony''. When looking for a nightclub to go to, he's told to head to Hercules, a gay bar owned by the titular Tony Prince. Lazlow hears the name and assumes it's because it's a place for "people who are gods", and that it must be full of beautiful, slutty Greek women. When he sees that the line outside is all men, he assumes that the women must already be inside.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Inverted in ''Webcomic/MenageA3'', where Sandra and [=DiDi=] go into a bar to talk, notice that there are mostly men there and conclude that it's a gay bar. It's actually a strip club.
* In the ''Machinima/SanityNotIncluded'' comic "Bar", where Lyle is sitting at a (supposedly) obvious gay bar.
[[/folder]]

** {{Subverted}} [[PlayedForLaughs For Laughs]] in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E11FearOfFlying Fear of Flying]]". Homer, having been banned from Moe's and looking for a new watering hole, is the only man in a very obviously lesbian bar.
--->'''Homer:''' There's something bothering me about this place...I know! [[BaitAndSwitchComment This lesbian bar doesn't have a fire exit!]] Enjoy your deathtrap, ladies!\\

-->'''Moe''': Well, the handwriting's on the wall. To stay afloat, this bar's going to have to go queer.
-->'''CampGay Bargoer''': You mean it's not? Ugh. Wrong again, "Gay Guide to Springfield".

** {{Subverted}} [[PlayedForLaughs For Laughs]]. Homer, having been banned from Moe's and looking for a new watering hole, is the only man in a very obviously lesbian bar.

** In the episode "Homer's Phobia" (where Homer makes friends with a kitschy antique store owner who looks like [and is voiced by] Creator/JohnWaters, but breaks off the friendship when he finds out that John is gay and Bart may be influenced by him), Homer takes Bart to a steel mill, intending to straighten him out by showing manly straight guys at work. However it turns out to be a gay steel mill that turns into a gay dance club/bar after the work day is over.

** It gets flipped around in the episode "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses".

** A planned but scrapped joke in "Flaming Moe's" had a couple of gay guys entering Flaming Moe's thinking it was a gay bar and leaving disappointedly. The censors wouldn't allow it.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': after the Drunken Clam shuts and is replaced by a British pub, Peter and his friends start looking for a new place to hang out. They eventually come across a lesbian bar called ''The Cherry Pit'', and seem quite happy that they have good sports on TV. Upon realizing that the girls at the bar are not making out because they're lonely, they demonstrate something like the 5 stages of Grief in regards to male comprehension of Lesbianism (surprise, arousal, rejection/dejection, acceptance) then leave. Quagmire takes the time to throw in a penetration joke, of course, and gets punched all the way out the door and onto the street.

* On ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark,'' [[SadistTeacher Mr(s). Garrison]] (a post-op male-to-female {{Transgender}} woman who's into men) gets invited to a "girl bar." (S)He is initially freaked out to realize it's a lesbian bar, but winds up sleeping with a woman by the end of the night, leading to a ComingOutStory...again.

* ''Film/WaynesWorld2'' features a scene where Wayne, Garth, and two of their friends disguise themselves as a construction worker, a police officer, a biker, and a sailor to spy on Wayne's girlfriend. When they are discovered they take cover in an establishment called "The Tool Box" which turns out to be a gay bar. When the DJ sees what Wayne and company are wearing, he shines the spotlight on them and cranks up the Music/VillagePeople's "YMCA" which leads to a [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments hilarious]] scene where the heroes perform the dance associated with the song.

** In the episode "Homer's Phobia" (where Homer makes friends with a kitschy antique store owner who looks like [and is voiced by] John Waters, but breaks off the friendship when he finds out that John is gay and Bart may be influenced by him), Homer takes Bart to a steel mill, intending to straighten him out by showing manly straight guys at work. However it turns out to be a gay steel mill that turns into a gay dance club/bar after the work day is over.

* In ''Series/{{Galavant}}'' Richard says that his father warned him never to go to the Enchanted Forest and that Dad and his friend "Uncle Keith" once went there on a camping trip and Keith never came back. It turns out that the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4BTjLZlIO0 Enchanted Forest]] is a pub, with an all-male clientele. Galavant realizes what's going on immediately and cheerfully notes he's never been to one before, but Richard doesn't figure it out until after they've left.

* Done very subtly on ''Southland''. [[spoiler:John Cooper]] is seen at bars several times during the show, but only the most attentive viewer would realize that all of the patrons are male. There's not even a sudden reveal of it being a gay bar. His homosexuality is briefly alluded to in a line in one episode in season 2 and casually confirmed in a bedroom scene in the 3rd season.

The bar itself can vary in terms of its queerness. At one end of the scale it can be completely inconspicuous until someone points out that there are only male patrons and a few of them are holding hands. The bar can often at the point of the GayBarReveal suddenly become a lot more obvious, with visual cues only actually [[RuleOfPerception appearing when the director wants us to see them.]] On the other hand, the trope can be frequently parodied by so obviously being WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame that it makes the surprised patron look stupid.

* ''Connie and Carla'': The two female leads discover they're in a gay bar only after seeing two men kiss.