Hookers and Blow

The Good Shepherd sure knows how to party.

Jhonen Vasquez: I needed to find an evil way to spend it so that Nickelodeon would be contributing to something unholy in the world.
Interviewer: What'd you spend it on?
Jhonen Vasquez: Just whores. Whores over on Sunset Boulevard and Santa Monica. Whores and robots. Some of the whores were robots.

A recent[when?] stock way to show that some characters have fallen into decadence is to show them being highly promiscuous and/or doing lots of drugs. Sometimes this can even lead to a character's downfall (if the protagonist), or outright death (if a villain or supporting character).

This became an especially popular thing in The Eighties, because other displays of excessive wealth were considered a good thing (even Fur and Loathing didn't signify decadence all the time). But with awareness of AIDS, and the message of Drugs Are Bad, this trope became a great way to show characters falling from grace.

The term is a common slang for what some politicians and Corrupt Corporate Executives like to have at parties.[1] Wine, women, and song is an older, related term.

Bonus Points are awarded if the cocaine is snorted off of the hooker's arse and / or breasts.

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll is a Sub-Trope where this happens to rockers. A Binge Montage is a common way to portray a night like this.

Compare A Party - Also Known as an Orgy, Trade Your Passion for Glory, Paid Harem.

Not to be confused with hookers who blow.

No real life examples, please; this is a trope about how characters are depicted in media.

Examples of Hookers and Blow include:

Anime and Manga

  • In the 80s anime The Professional, Golgo 13's target in San Francisco, Bernart Muller, is an ex-Nazi who is partying with hookers in a penthouse sealed in bulletproof glass.

Comic Books

Films -- Live-Action

  • Goodfellas. Henry Hill is portrayed as having various mistresses and, towards the end of the film when he's become a large-scale drug dealer, as having degenerated through getting high on his own supply.
  • Casino. In his voiceover, Ace Rothstein comments that Nicky Santoro and his crew became careless and sloppy through booze, "broads" and coke. The latter is illustrated by a famous shot from inside a giant straw hoovering up a line of Bolivia's finest.
  • Scarface pretty much runs on this trope, given the nature of Tony Montana's work and...leisure activities.
  • Used in Lord of War - though, mostly, secondhand. After a particularly bad bit of business, the eponymous gun-runner's brother and business-partner runs away, and is later found in a hotel-room having made a map of Ukraine out of cocaine, while two hookers lie passed out on his bed. Yuri Orlov himself also does an occasional line of coke, but never to the point of addiction.
  • Charlie Wilson (a Member of Congress from Texas), in Charlie Wilson's War. He's indicted and later acquitted of doing cocaine with strippers and a playboy model in Vegas. In Real Life he was known for his laid-back ways and liberal social views (and lifestyle—hey, it was The Seventies!) before he latched on to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan as a worthwhile pet issue.
  • In RoboCop, an OCP executive who later gets blown up in his house does this. In the sequel, the baddies include an organization that seems to be a hybrid illegal drug manufacturer and religious cult.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean, though these are pirates we're talking about here.
  • Jimmy, the dwarf actor from In Bruges, makes good use of these in his free time. He's not rich or famous, but he's not a nice person either.
  • Part of Brian Slade's downfall in Velvet Goldmine; he even gets a shot doing the standard snorting-blow-off-a-groupie's-ass technique.
  • Suite 16 revolves around an Amsterdam hustler who, after breaking into a hotel suite occupied by a rather depraved paraplegic man, agrees to act as the other man's proxy by indulging in all the tastes the other man used to indulge in (but now no longer can) while the other man watches him on a hidden network of cameras. At one point this involves a montage of the hustler having vigorous coked-up sex with a number of oblivious attractive women.
  • American Psycho rolls in this like a pig in slop.
  • The Social Network's version of Sean Parker really enjoys partying with drugs and girls who may or may not be underage; the cops eventually catch him about to snort cocaine off a sorority girl. The rest of the Facebook team (with the possible exception of Eduardo Saverin) gets a certain amount of this too, although even Eduardo uses Christy for sex.
  • In Smokin Aces, mobster and magician (no, seriously) Buddy "Aces" Israel, is shown ankle-deep in hookers and cocaine as he hides out in a Lake Tahoe hotel waiting for his lawyer to agree a deal with the authorities for Israel to inform on other Mafiosi in exchange for his freedom. Word of God has it that the character was inspired by Frank Sinatra's dealings with the Mafia, so it may be that Israel's lifestyle was informed by Sinatra's, which featured lots of hookers (but no blow).
  • Gangs of New York, when they aren't fighting.
  • In Very Bad Things, hookers and blow (or, more specifically, a hooker and blow) at the bachelor party is what kick starts the Plethora of Mistakes that drives the plot.
  • In Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, the Dirty Cop protagonist has a Hooker with a Heart of Gold for a girlfriend, uses his position to extort sex, and spends the entire movie high on Vicodin, heroin, marijuana, crack cocaine, regular cocaine, or more than one of those at once.

Literature

  • Bret Easton Ellis and the rest of the 1980's "Brat Pack" of young authors write/wrote frequently about extremely decadent characters. Ellis in particular takes this Up to Eleven, portraying his characters(especially Patrick Bateman) as decadent to point of making Caligula look prudish.
  • In the Lorenzo Carcaterra novel Sleepers, one of the guards from the reformatory later becomes a crooked cop and it is strongly implied that womanizing and snorting coke are his primary pasttimes.
  • In Layer Cake, the protagonist, a cocaine dealer, generally restricts his use of the drug to as an "aphrodisiac" and mentions attracting female partners with the appeal of high quality cocaine. His associate Morty pretty much has this as his hobby.
    • In the Film of the Book, the protagonist don't use their product, but a group of reckless and stupid gangsters are shown coked up in Freestate Amsterdam and having sex while watching a sex show.
  • The Dark Court likes to do this. A lot.
    • Justified, though, by their very nature as the 'court of temptation'.
  • Lord Iron from "The Cambist and Lord Iron" has this reputation.

Live-Action TV

  • Charlie on Lost falls into this in flashbacks. Before that he was a good Catholic boy who just wanted to make some music.
  • Happens in Supernatural to an angel no less. Dean is flung a few years into the future to see the outcome of his choice of action. They lost. Castiel is seen arranging orgies and doing drugs like there's no tomorrow. Because there might not be. He's also been turned mortal.
  • Played with in one episode of House that featured the main patient purchasing cocaine from a drug dealer... in his sleep. His very specific form of somnambulism turns out to be one of the clues to what ails him, rather than a specific fall from grace. During that same scene, Thirteen is shown to know her blow, to the surprise of her partner in investigation.
  • Not exactly blow, but "Hey, now!" Hank Kingsley in The Larry Sanders Show has been known to sooth his troubles through boozed-up sex marathons with prostitutes when the going gets tough.
  • Following his father's death, Hank Moody of Californication goes on a bigger bender than usual, finally crossing 'snort cocaine directly off a hooker' off his to-do list.
  • Bill Maher - "Be More Cynical"

"George Bush's policy in South America was 'crop replacement': Instead of growing cocaine, they should grow bananas and chrysanthemums. I don't know if you've ever tried to lure a stripper to your hotel room with a banana and a chrysanthemum, but let me tell you folks - It's slow going."

  • In one episode of Dead Like Me, Daisy says something about Mason having snorted "blow off a dead hooker's stomach". He doesn't deny it and basically gets a look about him as if he doesn't wish to incriminate himself.
  • Battlestar Galactica Reimagined. After a year in office, President Baltar is shown surrounded by bottles of pills and attractive female "interns" dressed in lingerie, signifying the corruption and incompetence of his administration.
  • Invoked by Representative Robert Wexler on The Colbert Report at the 4:15 minute mark of this clip when asked to say something that would lose him his upcoming election (he was uncontested). This was inexplicably cited by actual journalists as an example of why politicians should be wary of going on the Report (and by extension The Daily Show), as if Wexler had been the victim of Manipulative Editing. Colbert asked him on camera, in character to say that he liked cocaine and hookers. That was the joke. In a rare example of Colbert going 'out of character' as it were, he took the time to call out the media for essentially doing exactly what they were accusing him of doing.
  • Chuck Bass after being dumped by Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl.

Music

  • "2 Hookers and an 8 ball" by Mindless Self Indulgenge the name should make it pretty clear.
  • The music video for Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" includes the main protagonist, from whose eyes we see the action of the video unfold, eventually pick up a stripper and 'party' with her in this fashion. In a rare example of a gender inversion of this trope, the protagonist is eventually revealed to be a woman.
  • The Song Wenches And Mead By Alestorm celebrates this partictuar lifestyle choice:

When I come back from a mighty quest
I have no need for sleep or rest
I head to a tavern for a drink
And get so drunk I cannot think
A wench by my side, a jug of mead
These are the things that I most need
So I sit back and sing this song
And drink and party all night long

  • In Cage's "Grand Ol' Party Crash", this is partly how we know that The Dubya (voiced by Jello Biafra) has fallen from grace.
  • The music video for the Turisas cover of Rasputin has one of the singers in such a position, dressed in full pimp gear.

Tabletop Games

  • The Green Sun Princes (who are often referred to as the rock stars of Hell) are often said to be partially kept in line by their Yozi masters with the equivalent of demon hookers and blow (the other part being by their Urge and Torment). It's been noted that this is pretty ineffective in the long run; even if a Prince is primarily motivated by Hookers and Blow, they'll eventually realize that they can easily acquire it for themselves.
  • Daemon Prince Doomrider of Slaneesh, from Warhammer 40,000 (specifically its earlier editions), was basically this trope taken to the absolute highest Grimdark levels, with an equal dose of Drives Like Crazy.

Video Games

  • Shows up in the Grand Theft Auto games.
  • When the Avatar is in the dream realm in Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle, he comes across Stefano, who is sitting on a throne surrounded by naked women (some of whom are playing tag). After discussing plot points with the Avatar, Stefano tells him/her to lighten up. If you have a ranged weapon you can kill his dream form and force him to wake up; he is not amused.

Web Comics

Brent: Yeehah! I buy my third level spells!
Francis: I buy myself matching bronze daggers.
Jade: I guess I'll just repair my bow.
Skull the Troll: Despite the fact that my weapons and armor are in desperate need of repair, I blow the entire reward on ale and whores. ...What? I'm trying my best to roleplay a non-monster.
Jade: No, no. I'm just shocked by the total accuracy of your portrayal.

Web Originals

  • Internet comedy due Bri TA Nick have a hilarious short video called "Taint Monopoly" where Nick calls Brian, asking him if there's going to be cocaine at his party. Brian response of course not, to which Nick wonders what they're going to do with the "girls" ...
  • Spoofed in The Onion article "Mac Arthur Genius Grant Goes Right Up Recipient's Nose"
  • Referenced in the Zero Punctuation review of Mafia 2, where he snarkily lays out the typical plot of a story about the Mafia.
  • This trope will sometimes come up in The Nostalgia Critic's show. In what is a nice change, though, he doesn't act like there's only female prostitutes and realizes how difficult it is to get out of that life.

Buzz The Bee: Maybe I can tempt you with the delicious taste of honey and nuts?
Nostalgia Critic: Did you say Hookers and Blow?

Western Animation

  • The Family Guy episode "The Thin White Line" has Brian accidentally becoming addicted to cocaine. Next thing you know he's introducing the family to his "girlfriend" — a bony, washed up prostitute.
    • In another episode, a commercial parody for Samuel Adams Boston Lager features three businessmen having lunch. One orders a Sam Adams, and the others remind him of his outstanding DUIs, but he insists he needs something to wash away the taste of weed and hooker-spit.
  • In Metalocalypse, the band tricks Rock N' Roll Clown Dr. Rockzo (he does cocaine) into coming to an intervention by promising him "hookers and ice ka-ka-ka-ka-ka reeeeeam!"
  1. ↑ Also the single funniest response to the job interview question "What are your weaknesses?", next to "Kryptonite", although the latter doesn't risk losing you the job.
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