Basic Trope: A character really needs to use a restroom, but is prevented by various obstacles.
- Straight: Alice needs to find a toilet, but all the ones she finds are either occupied, out-of-order, or out of her reach.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is on the verge of wetting her pants, and the nearest toilet is twelve million miles away through a labyrinth of falling water and people drinking lemonade.
- Alice declares that she needs to use the bathroom in episode 1, and is encountered four episodes later still searching for one.
- Downplayed:
- Alice leaves the scene in search of a restroom and returns some time later, her search having taken place entirely off-screen.
- Alice has to go, but it's not an emergency.
- Alice has to go. The only bathroom she finds is occupied, but her only conflict is waiting for the current occupant to be finished.
- Justified:
- Alice was recently seen drinking a Gigantic Gulp, and all the restrooms in the mall are being cleaned or renovated.
- Alice felt the need to go to the bathroom at a bad time and in a place where there aren't many restrooms.
- Alice undercooked the chicken.
- Inverted:
- Alice is locked in the bathroom and is trying to escape.
- Alice's friends think she needs to go and keep trying to take her to the bathroom, not listening to her that she doesn't need to go at the moment.
- Alice is desperate to relieve herself, but she can’t, as her bowel/bladder is blocked.
- Alice is in a desert and is desperate for a drink, but is constantly prevented from quenching her thirst.
- Alice is trying to find a place to change her clothes, but can't seem to find one.
- Subverted:
- Alice is trying to find a bathroom, but it turns out she doesn't need the toilet. She just needs to wash her hands.
- While jogging, Alice mentions that she has to go, and quickly sees a port-a-potty nearby.
- Double Subverted:
- Then she suddenly needs a toilet as well during her search.
- ...but it is immediately knocked over by a bulldozer. Cue the futile attempts to find a bathroom.
- Alternatively, she decides not to use a porta-potty, usually because she's worried it'll be dirty.
- Parodied:
- Alice is on the verge of wetting her skirt before realizing that Nobody Poops, and then skips away happily.
- Alice is actually a mushroom, or a robot, and realizes it/she does not need to pee.
- Alice is a giantess in the middle of a major city, and does not want to cause a flood.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice finds a public bathroom in a park, but discovers that the toilet is flooded. When she tries to leave, the door won't open. She attempts to use the sink, only to be interrupted by Bob the janitor, who informs her the lock is broken and suggests she climb out the window. While doing so, she gets stuck. After Charlie and Dave arrive and pull her free, she runs behind the building and relieves herself against the wall, not noticing the men's room next door.
- Averted:
- Usable toilets are in every building.
- Nobody Poops.
- Alice has a Bottomless Bladder.
- Enforced: "We need to find a new way to make The Chew Toy Alice suffer in this episode... our audience likes Toilet Humour, right?"
- Lampshaded: Alice asks the theme park's staff why it only has one bathroom.
- Invoked: Bob arranges a lemonade-drinking contest between Alice and Carol, then locks the bathroom door.
- Exploited: Carol sets up a pay toilet at Alice's outdoor rock concert.
- Defied:
- Alice always carries a porta-potty around with her.
- Bob the wizard casts a spell that makes it so Nobody Poops.
- Discussed: "Why are you having so much trouble finding a bathroom?" "I don't know, all of them seem to just explode before I can go!"
- Conversed: "You'd think these characters would be able to hunt down a bathroom more easily..."
- Implied:
- Alice laments the last time she had too much to drink or eatnote , or leaves the bathroom with a content sigh and comments on all the trouble she went through to find the restroom.
- Alice is doing a Potty Dance.
- Alice seems distracted and mentions having to "go" somewhere, but it's unknown if it's a potty emergency or she has to go somewhere else.
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played For Laughs:
- With no other option, Alice goes into the men's bathroom. The camera focuses on the guys using the urinals, who look at her uncomfortably when she walks past them on her way to the toilet.
- Alice is one of several people waiting in a ridiculously long line to use the restroom.
- Alice is trying to find the bathroom because she really has to pee, but unfortunately, she has to deal with images related to water and/or peeing the whole time.
- It seems like Alice is going to get mugged/assaulted/kidnapped, but then we find out that she has readied a Taser or can of mace before entering the alley.
- Played For Drama:
- Fed up with trying to find a bathroom, Alice enters a back alley and gets mugged, assaulted, and/or kidnapped.
- Alice gets kidnapped while looking for a bathroom. Because she's Bound and Gagged, she has no way to tell her captor that she needs to pee.
Back to the main page, hurry! Cuz I HAVE TO PEE!!!
