History Main / LovePotion

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* Helga tries to rekindle the love of ''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible'' twice. (They've been married for years, so this is less creepy than many examples.) Once, she puts a love potion in his soup, and he immediately shouts how he '''loves'''... the soup. Another time, she puts an amulet of love under his pillow. He falls in love with the pillow.

* In the music video for Jennifer Lopez's song "Papi," J-Lo plays a woman who eats a magic cookie that she is told will bring her absent lover back. The next day, every man in town that sees her falls madly in love with her, causing a lot of chaos throughout.

-->"Well I can tell ya, if you're looking for a love potion, [[NoJustNoReaction you came to the wrong fucking guy]]. I don't fuck with that artificial bullshit! [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil Lust shouldn't be about force]]... It's an ''art''! To be ''[[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction earned and enjoyed]]''. [[DoWrongRight It's all about that journey to Pleasure Town]]. You feel me?"

* Spanish Fly is often marketed as a love drug/aprhodesiac. While there is no indication the product works, plenty of ads market it as instantly making a woman fall head over heel in lust. Comedian Bill Cosby even used to joke about using it during some of his more adult shows in the 80s, which is even more unfortunate given the allegations of sexual assault against him.

-->"Well I can tell ya, if you're looking for a love potion, [[NoJustNoReaction you came to the wrong fucking guy]]. I don't fuck with that artificial bullshit! [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil Lust shouldn't be about force]]... It's an ''art''! To be ''[[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction earned and enjoyed]]''. It's all about that journey to Pleasure Town. You feel me?"

-->"Well I can tell ya, if you're looking for a love potion, [[NoJustNoReaction you came to the wrong fucking guy]]. I don't fuck with that artificial bullshit! [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil Lust shouldn't be about force]]... It's an ''art''! To be ''earned and enjoyed''. It's all about that journey to Pleasure Town. You feel me?"

Even on occasions where a love potion works exactly as intended (most often in the case of Love Only Person X), with the right target falling for the right person, the whole thing has a tendency to [[GoneHorriblyRight work a little too well]] and turn the love interest into an [[ClingyJealousGirl clingy obsessed stalker]] or even a full-on [[{{Yandere}} yandere]]. The user will find, to their chagrin, that being obsessed over to the point of absurdity either destroys what they found attractive about the love interest in the first place or is simply too much to handle and takes up all of their free time. Or they might come to realize that they'd rather their love remain unrequited than be ''artificially'' requited, thus learning a valuable {{Aesop}}.

* ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'' has one of these. (If you look carefully, you'll see that the bottle has "IX" written on it, a ShoutOut to the song, "Love Potion #9") However, the love potion is treated very seriously as a creepy breach of the target's free will, and becomes what ultimately leads to Harold's HeelFaceTurn as well as the motivation for the climax. Fiona's fairy godmother orders the king to pour it into Fiona's drink so that she will fall in love with Prince Charming instead of Shrek; the potion causes the drinker to fall in love with the first person who kisses them. It doesn't work, because the king decides not to give Fiona the potion-laced drink after seeing how much she loves Shrek and how truly unhappy Fiona is with Charming.

'''King Harold''': (''smugly'') Well, I guess I gave her the wrong tea.

Even on occasions where a love potion works exactly as intended (most often in the case of Love Only Person X), with the right target falling for the right person, the whole thing has a tendency to [[GoneHorriblyRight work a little too well]] and turn the love interest into an [[ClingyJealousGirl clingy obsessed stalker]] or even a full-on [[Yandere yandere]]. The user will find, to their chagrin, that being obsessed over to the point of absurdity either destroys what they found attractive about the love interest in the first place or is simply [[{{Yandere}} too much to handle]]. Or they might come to realize that they'd rather their love remain unrequited than be ''artificially'' requited, thus learning a valuable {{Aesop}}.