"IT'S COLD! IT'S FROSTY! IT'S BEAUTIFUL!"
— Merve Bushwacker, Star Wars Downunder
In fiction, a good stiff drink induces instant euphoria accompanied by a loud "HELL YEAH!" or some other shout of satisfaction. It's not necessarily that the alcohol takes effect instantly, but that it's that damn good.
The reaction/gesture/sound that many characters make after having had a beer is very over the top and noticeable. Often it is preceded by shotgunning the beer, but not always. Once they're finished they take a very loud breath and give this moan/"Ahh!" of appreciation/pleasure and slam the can down on the surface in front of them like all of the problems they've ever had in life have just been swept away — they really Needed That Freakin' Drink. Sometimes they'll follow this with ordering A Round of Drinks for the House, eager to share their discovery that beer tastes nice with all the other patrons.
A variant is when a character tosses back a shot of hard liquor and exclaims "Smoooth!", either with choking, coughing, or wheezing if the booze is supposed to be very strong or very vile (compare Of Course I Smoke), or without if it's really supposed to be an indication of the high quality of the booze. This exclamation references a now long-forgotten cigarette commercial.
Of course, sometimes it's just because they're out for a good time, and starting the first drink is the symbolic beginning of the night. In such an event, the Designated "Wooo!"er is usually the Life of the Party, and a Binge Montage may not be far away.
A Hard-Drinking Party Girl is prone to this, but not always. See also Can-Crushing Cranium.
Contrast Can't Hold His Liquor. If the beer is downright awful, it might be A Tankard of Moose Urine.
Examples:
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Advertising
- The Matsuno Brothers do this in a real beer advertisement. Though Ichimatsu just goes "Aaahhhh...", the rest go "Pwaaahhhhh!"
Anime & Manga
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Misato Katsuragi. And boy, does it sound like it. It's hard to describe Misato's "beer-drinking noise" other than "Yee-haa", followed by "Kkkuuuuu", followed by "Now these are the moments I live for!"
- Directly parodied in the TV adaptation of KanColle, with Fubuki downing a gigantic mug of milk in a single chug Misato-style.
- Azumanga Daioh: Yukari-sensei does this (when Nyamo even lets her drink). Nyamo herself even gets in on this one summer night...
- xxxHolic: Yuuko does this frequently.
- Melissa Mao of Full Metal Panic! does this at least once in the anime adaptation, thanks to being a hard-drinking Ladette.
- Black Lagoon: Revy and Rock in the first episode, where they have a drinking competition.
- Fujisawa of El-Hazard: The Magnificent World qualifies, which is ironic, because he gains super strength when sober.
- Wa ga Na wa Umishi: It seems to be near-obligatory for the team to do this after every job.
- Vash of Trigun at least pretends this trope several times.
- Rurouni Kenshin: In a filler Yahiko and Sanosuke get Kaoru drunk so they can steal a ring Kenshin gave her, and she drinks like this.
- Lucky Star:
- Nanako Kuroi does this in the sixth episode of the anime, imitating Misato from Evangelion's famous beergasm almost frame-for-frame.
- Akira does this offscreen in the Lucky Channel segment of episode 16. It's not entirely clear whether she drank anything alcoholic or not, given that she's only 14 years old, but she seems slightly drunk afterwards.
- Gravion: Mizuki does this during episode 2 of Gravion Zwei.
- Haruhi Suzumiya: Haruhi does this with a can of juice in the Remote Island Syndrome episodes. In the light novels, she actually drinks alcohol, though she quits after the second night on the island.
- Parodied in a scene from Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei with what is apparently "children's beer".
- Kaiji does this in the manga for something like ten pages. Of course, it's entirely justified.
- Shuichi does this in an episode of Gravitation when he's drinking with Aizawa.
- In her introduction in episode 5 of Darker than Black, Hard-Drinking Party Girl Contractor April downs an entire can of Guinness in less than a minute and does this reaction when finished.
- Holo from Spice and Wolf does this at least once, upon downing a tankard of wine.
- Eriko from Dragon Crisis! does this in one episode.
- Ran from Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran has this with sake.
- Nichijou contains a variation; the Professor does this with milk, instead of beer.
- Bartender does it with a bit of class. Ryu's ability to make cocktails leads some people to call them the best they ever had, comparing it to "God's Glass" (nectar of the gods). It says literally in the first chapter that the job of a bartender is just as important as that of a pharmacist because a single cocktail can change a person's perception, much like medication.
- Ai Kora: Tsubame tends to get excited at the sheer mention of alcohol, regardless of actual drink.
- Bleach: Kon does this in Episode 69.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Notably in Part 7, President Funny Valentine does this in chapter 28.
- Shizuku Ninomiya from Beyond the Boundary does this in episode 5, after chugging down a whole beer in about 2 seconds.
- The standard reaction of Kogoro Mori in Case Closed when drinking beer. Wine doesn't necessarily elicit the same response.
- Kobayashi from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid occasionally does this.
- In Fate/Zero, when Rider tastes the ancient and valuable wine from Archer's treasury, he makes a ridiculous noise of appreciation. Saber, though impressed herself, is far more restrained about it.
- In Carnival Phantasm, he does this again at the final scene, alongside Gilgamesh and Taiga.
Films — Animated
- All of the animals in Fantastic Mr. Fox view Farmer Bean's hard cider as the best drink money can't buy. Apparently Bean thinks so too; he doesn't actually eat but subsists entirely on his own cider.
Films — Live-Action
- In Beerfest, the Wolfhouse family recipe is so exquisite, it produces NOT this response, but a much more humble, tear-filled exultation.
- Ice Cold in Alex ends with the cast finally getting beers in a bar in Alexandria after a long, thirsty trek through the desert.
- Film/Overboard: Late in the movie after Annie is reunited with her mother and husband she gets a bottle of beer during cocktail hour, takes a swig and just breaths out "that's the good stuff."
- Warm Bodies: R manages to find a Corona for Julie when she asks him for food and drink. She appreciates this a lot; she's a Zombie Apocalypse survivor and beer must be really hard to come by in the new world. Hell, it's still even carbonated.
Literature
- Beware of Chicken: Jin ferments some mead using the honey from his Spirit Bees, which was supernaturally delicious and packed with qi to begin with. The result is so good it prompts swearing from him and makes Washy attempt to swan-dive into the barrel, while Meiling laments being pregnant and not allowed any.
- The Stand: The Kid would PISS Coors if he could! Yeeeeehawwwww!
- The Dresden Files: Describes nicely the general reaction of most people to Mac's beer. Mac is a small-scale craft brewer and bar owner, who only serves his own brews. He has a wide variety of brews and regularly enters beer competitions. Since he serves it warm, English-style, the sequence usually goes: dubious look, sip, surprised look, chug. And that's his standard beer. There are certain beers he saves for special occasions, which are a cut above that.
- When he gives Dresden and Sargent Murphy some of it after she chases off one of the Billy Goats Gruffnote Dresden describes that particular brew as "God's beer."
- In the short story "Heorot", Mac takes place in a brewing competition where presumably all the entries qualify for this trope. Finding that a supernatural monstrosity has been stealing beer is treated as seriously as the kidnapping it also committed. The Grendlekin needs the good stuff and a virgin to procreate. Harry works with a real Valkyrie to stop the monster and save the girl.
- In the short story "Last Call" Mac's beer is again the victim of a supernatural force. It is taken by a maenad, barmaiden of Dyionysus, who wants to bring people back to worshiping the Greek Gods. Her plan is to infuse the beer and cause erotic riots. Some of her cousins work the soccer matches in Europe.
- Gotrek & Felix: Bugman's ale is almost magical. It literally speeds up the healing process too.
Live-Action TV
- Red Dwarf has Lister, Cat, and Rimmer tossing back some shots in a VR Wild West Game. Lister manages to choke out "Mighty smooth...", with Cat responding in the same strangled tone, "I was expecting something with a little more kick to it..." Rimmer just throws up after drinking his.
- Inverted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Buffy spends the night drinking with Spike after a very bad day. Every time Buffy takes a swig she has a "Bleeh!" reaction. It doesn't stop her.
- Caroline apparently has this reaction to tequila after taking shots at a bar in 2 Broke Girls. Max drily questions what her orgasm looks like.
- "Same face, no sound."
- Kasumi of Samurai Gourmet never drinks a beer without really enjoying it. Of course, Kasumi almost never ingests anything without really enjoying it, which is the point of the show. But in the case of beer, there's extra enjoyment whenever he has to overcome his doubt that drinking in the middle of the day is acceptable, even though he's retired now.
Professional Wrestling
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin often performed these, half down his shirt for the fans, half in his mouth for himself.
Video Games
- Dragon Age: Origins: Oghren reacts this way when he first discovers human beer. Subverting the normal stereotype of dwarves being master brewers, in the Dragon Age universe, dwarves brew beer with moss, fungus, dead rats, and other things that can be found underground and their brew tastes as bad as you'd expect.
- Dwarf Fortress: All dwarves are alcoholics, and you need to keep the supply of alcohol steady. Upon drinking, a dwarf will get the thought "(dwarf) feels euphoric due to inebriation."
- Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City: One of the regulars at the Butterfly Bistro is Toma, a scavenger who knows all sorts of tricks to make monsters give up rare goods. To get him to share his secrets, you have to buy him drinks and snacks, and he reacts this way to everything he ingests... including free glasses of water.
Webcomics
- Wapsi Square: Shelly gives this sort of response after being given the best martini ever
by the Aztec god of alcohol.
Western Animation
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: In "The Evil Beneath", Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen venture to the Bahama Quadrangle and meet Dr. Moist, who invites them into his lair for a seaweed dinner. When it's revealed that the food is turning them into seaweed monsters, Moist tells them that he's not changing because he eats his meal with the antidote, which he then takes a sip of and shouts "That is some GOOD antidote!".
- Castlevania (2017): Trevor Belmont has this reaction when he has a mug of ale after a long time of going without booze. After a long drink, he says "Oh my God, that is Better than Sex". Too bad for Trevor that he said this in front of Sypha after they'd become an Official Couple, because she freezes his ale after only that one drink, forcing Trevor to awkwardly backpedal.
- King of the Hill: Peggy does one of these while tossing back shots of tequila with Hank on their wedding anniversary.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Even though it's only apple cider, Rainbow Dash is a pro at this, as is everypony who gets to enjoy some Apple family apple cider on the first day of cider season, especially Pinkie Pie and Cheerilee.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Burns, Baby, Burns", Smithers suggests that Larry's odd behavior is because of his "truly heroic intake of cocktails".
- Homer, being the heavy alcoholic that he is, can down a cold can of Duff beer like nobody's business, and it's usually followed by an "mmm, beer" or a loud "woo-hoo". Listing every possible example would fill up this entire page.
