Homoerotic Dream

"Nyeh! Nyeh! Oh, Kaiba, your dragon is so big. I'm a dog! Woof! Woof!"

—Joey Wheeler (talking in his sleep), Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series

Sometimes an Erotic Dream will involve homosexual relations, even if the dreaming character is straight.

Often if another cast member appeared in the dream, that person will find out about it, and will feel, if anything, more homosexual anxiety than the dreaming character. There will probably be some discussion of how this dream does not necessarily mean that the dreaming character really is gay - but likely this will not be reassuring for any characters involved in the dream.

Homoerotic dreams are mostly used for comedy but occasionally will be used for Ship Tease or as part of Will They or Won't They?.

This trope stems from Ho Yay as well as Erotic Dream. Also, whatever weird crap your unconscious mind can dish up. This is of course Truth in Television but people usually don't want to talk about it.

Examples of Homoerotic Dream include:

Anime and Manga

• In Yu Yu Hakusho, in order to get back to life in the first few episodes, Yusuke has to contact people he knows with spiritual awareness through dreams. One of the people is Kuwabara, who has a dream of Yusuke kissing him (since that's how Yusuke's body is supposed to come back)... and is immediately weirded out by it.
• Strike Witches had Yoshika having a dream about her best friend Lynette. Her explanation for said dream was that they were "flying in formation".
  • Apparently, the Japanese phrase is homophonous with "perverted misconduct".
• This trope is pretty much the premise of the Miyuki-chan in Wonderland series.
• In Azumanga Daioh, Kaorin has a dream with Sakaki. She is subsequently embarrassed when her parents notice that she had been drooling in her sleep.
• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's Special, titled "Viral's Sweet Dream", Viral continually has nightmares of Kamina in drag, the first time with Kamina being a bar pianist (wearing a wig and dress and everything) that Viral tries to hit on, and the second time with Viral talking to his child, only for it to be revealed that he's the "papa" and Kamina is the "mama".
• Ranma ½: Due to Ranma Saotome being a male-to-female Gender Bender, all of his Erotic Dreams technically fall under this category. As Ranma is strictly heterosexual, these invariably cause him considerable distress upon waking. The most explicit format is the anime take on his first Catapult Nightmare, which has (male) Ranma, who had just received a declaration of love from Tatewaki Kuno in the last episode, entering a room to find Tatewaki seated there, only to turn around and repeat his declaration of love. The floor promptly gave out and dumped a naked (and still male) Ranma in the bath... where he finds himself confronted by an equally nude Tatewaki, who stares at him with a love-sick expression and repeats his desire to date Ranma.
• Julia from Strawberry Shake Sweet has a lot of these about Ran.
• Tsuzuki in one volume of the manga version of Yami no Matsuei has a fairly tame but rather shiver-inducing one of these involving Muraki
• Daisuke of D.N.Angel once had a dream that featured him hugging his crush Risa but she suddenly turned into Satoshi.

Comic Books

• A recurring joke in Cable and Deadpool. When Black Mamba was using her ability to make people hallucinate their greatest fantasies in order to pacify Deadpool, he dreamed about applying sun tan lotion to Cable (and oiling his Techno-Organic arm) on a sunny beach. Deadpool's reaction was not what she expected.
  • It happened again later in the issue with Deadpool, Cable, Deadpool's friend Weasel, and Marvel's other bromantic couple Power Man & Iron Fist—when they came to, they were tangled and on top of each other in a homoerotic manner.

Film

• In Disclosure, Tom Sanders (Michael Douglas) gets sexually harassed by his boss, Meredith Johnson (Demi Moore). Later, he has a dream in which he's in an elevator with the CEO of the company (played by Donald Sutherland) and the CEO leans in for a kiss, causing Sanders to wake up in terror. It doesn't really imply that Sanders is gay, more that being sexually harassed really screws with your head.
• In Black Swan, Nina has such a dream about Lilly.

Literature

• Played with in the Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Half Life. Fitz dreams he and the Doctor are naked and back to back, and the Doctor reassures him it doesn't necessarily mean anything about his sexuality. However, any hint of eroticism is quickly lost when they start melding together. It turns out to be a sort of manifestation of the Freaky Friday thing they're about to go through. It's nonetheless the subject of much amusement and Squee in fandom.

Live-Action TV

• Miles from Murphy Brown had a homoerotic dream once.
• Lafayette from True Blood remarks on having sexual dreams about Eric after drinking his blood. He describes them as being both "nasty" and "fantastic" and laments the fact that they're so enjoyable because he "hates that motherfucker".
  • And in the season three premiere, Sam has the same experience with Bill.
  • In season four, Jason is having an Erotic Dream about Jessica when she suddenly turns into Hoyt.
  • Not to mention Jason's guilt-laden dream with Eddie.
• Psychic Andrew Gallagher from Supernatural mentions that he plants homosexual pornography in the mind of a former high school bully "24/7," therefore also as he slept.
• Fez dreams about Kelso in That '70s Show.
• Frasier dreams about Gil Chesterton, but eventually realizes his subconscious is providing a mystery for his lately-underused psychoanalytical skills.
  • Parodied immediately afterwards, when he then has the same dream, but featuring Sigmund Freud.
• The fourth season of nip/tuck: Christian is having explicitly homosexual dreams about Sean, and later goes to therapy, where his therapist believes that the dreams are expressing his repressed sexual feelings for Sean. Sean, meanwhile, doesn't think anything of the dreams, is not freaked out (which is good, considering this is Sean we're talking about), and stays friends with Christian.
• Red Dwarf: Lister, finally beginning to miss Rimmer, dreams that he returns and they start making out. Naturally we're not let on to the fact that it is a dream until Lister falls out of bed screaming. Scene.
• Drop the Dead Donkey. Gus Hedges starts having erotic dreams about office hottie Joy, so asks Handsome Lech Dave for help, promising to be "financially grateful". Realizing his boss is a stuck-up virgin Dave sets him up with a professional 'sex counselor' (actually a prostitute) and the problem is resolved. Dave turns up for his promised payrise the next day, only Gus has fallen asleep and has another erotic dream...about Dave, who he immediately throws out of his office the moment he wakes up.
• On Robin Hood Guy of Gisborne has a dream about Maid Marian massaging his shoulders, who then turns into Allan-a-Dale. The actors express their bafflement on the DVD commentary, and not even the man who wrote the scene can adequately explain what's going on.
• Ted in How I Met Your Mother lies to Barney and Marshall about having a homoerotic dream about his 'best friend.' Since which one of them is Ted's best friend is a point of contention between the two, they end up arguing about which one of them Ted would prefer to have sex with.

Marshall: ...Why do we keep trying to have sex with Ted?
Barney: I don't know, it's weird.

• • Lily had a dream about Robin that reminded her that "a woman's sexuality is a moving target".
  • Not to mention that dream Robin had...about herself.
• On Suddenly Susan, Todd has a romantic dream about his boss, Jack Richmond, which freaks him out all episode. Finally he decides it doesn't mean anything. At the end of the episode, the dream repeats... except this time it's Jack dreaming about Todd.
• Dean Pelton from Community apparently has some rather bizarre ones involving Jeff.

Dean Pelton: I have always dreamt of playing Charades with you, Jeffrey, just not like this. And not on dry land.

Music Videos

• The video for Gorillaz's "DARE". After Noodle's dance routine, Shaun Ryder wakes up in fright. Murdoc is in his bed and tells him to "Go back to sleep, honey." Cue Murdoc waking up himself, also terrified.

Theatre

• Avenue Q: Dramatic example with Rod's dream about Nicky confessing to him. Rod was already worried that he was gay, but this dream confirms that to him, as well as makes him realise that he has a crush on Nicky. The reveal that it was All Just a Dream is notable for being one of the saddest moments in the whole show.

Video Games

• In Sam and Max Season 3: The Penal Zone, there is an optional cutscene if you try to "use engagement ring on Max", which causes Sam to have a De Beers commercial-style fantasy about getting getting down on one knee and tenderly placing the ring on Max's finger...

Sam: Nah.

Web Comics

• In the webcomic YU+ME: dream, Fiona has a Homoerotic Dream about her best friend Lia. This leads to Fiona questioning her sexuality (and she hardly sleeps for awhile because of it).
  • In fact, the entire first book is a Homoerotic Dream, albeit not about anyone in particular.
• Amber from Khaos Komix had a dream of her and her best friend Nay as Sailor Senshi, which also led to her realization that she is a lesbian.
• Gabe of Penny Arcade has recurring dreams of being saved by Spider-Man. Gabe, uh, is a little more happy than you might expect.
  • A later comic gets even more intimate.
• Penny from Penny and Aggie has a dream of being in a bisexual three-way relationship with Duane and Aggie after her best friend tells her she thinks Penny's rivalry with Aggie stems from massive amounts of UST.
  • Much later, after Penny and Aggie have become friends, she dreams of flying through clouds shaped like Aggie in the nude, while her gay friends suggest stereotypical fashions for her to wear. The dream ends with Cyndi urging her to "Taste the rainbow!" (and soaking her with a rainbow-producing hose) while a naked Aggie and Lisa look on. Upon awakening she leafs uneasily through a Manmeat Monthly magazine.
• Otra from Girly shows us how it's done.
• Awkward Zombie plays with this trope in one strip. Marth has a dream in which he is putting up with Roy, until Roy suddenly lunges forward and lip-locks him to the floor. It turns out, Mewtwo was controlling Marth's dream telepathically for fun.
• Ash from Misfile has an Erotic Dream that can be called lesbian by terms of the bodies involved, but with the mind of a boy, is it really?
  • It's hard to tell, but the fact that Ash is female in the dream probably means it counts. It also freaks the hell out of Ash.

Web Original

• Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series has Joey having two homoerotic dreams about Kaiba, with Joey dressed as a dog. Also started the Running Gag about Joey being a furry.
• This actually initiates the main relationship in Ilivais X. Granted, Mille was having this dream right after Iriana saved her from being killed or becoming a sex slave, so it's relatively justified.

Western Animation

• In early episodes of The Simpsons, Smithers had this kind of dream about Mr. Burns. The original plan may not have been to make him strictly gay, but the character definitely developed in that direction.
• Undergrads features one, where tough-guy dumbass Rocco has one about his Kavorka Man friend Cal (whom he regularly despises and beats on).
  • "Keanu Reeves was in it too."