Talking in Bed

A couple, wearing pyjamas (or not), discussing stuff with each other in bed.

Mainly a Sitcom trope nowadays, but serious instances have been around much longer; for example at the beginning of the medieval Irish war epic Tain Bo Cuailnge.

Examples of Talking in Bed include:

Anime and Manga

• Asuka and Shinji get a fair amount of characterization in one such scene, especially discussing Shinji's relationship with his father.
• Used for Ship Tease in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, where the two main characters perform this as the viewers are introduced to their sleeping arrangement. "What do you think of the new recruits?" "Everyone is very energetic; it feels good." And lo, did the Nanoha/Fate shippers Squee.
• In Axis Powers Hetalia, in a strip series titled "Lithuania's Outsourcing" America and Lithuania do this. If that wasn't Ho Yay Ship Tease enough, they both talk about other guys they've slept with.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena: in the middle of a lot of the later episodes, Utena and Anthy would discuss the events around the duels.

Film

• Run Lola Run
• Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson and Doris Day
• Several of the Carry Ons, such as Carry On Henry, Carry On Cabby, Carry On Loving.
• Parodied in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, where Scott sits up and we see his roommate Wallace sit up i the same bed in an attempt to comfort him. This is then followed by Wallace's boyfriend, ging further advice, then finally by a lover they had picked up for a threesome also chirping in to discuss the problem.
• The Blind Side. It... advances...

Literature

• There's a Victorian book, Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures, entirely on this subject.
• Arabian Nights: The whole framework is about Storytelling in Bed.
• In the longer version of the Táin Bó Cúailnge ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley"), the entire war starts when the villainous king and queen of Connacht get into an argument doing this, making this at least Older Than Print.

Live Action TV

• Seen in Brit Coms like The Thin Blue Line and My Family.
• Happens Once an Episode with brothers Earl and Randy on My Name Is Earl
• Everybody Loves Raymond
• Joan of Arcadia
• Bob and Emily in nearly every (if not every) episode of The Bob Newhart Show, with a hilarious Shout-Out in the last episode of Newhart.
• Much earlier, Rob and Laura Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show. Now infamous for the fact that, due to Broadcast Standards of the time, the obviously loving couple slept in separate beds. No wonder they only had one kid.
• Although not a couple per se (yeah, right), Ernie and Bert do this frequently on Sesame Street.
• Dharma and Greg toyed with this. In one episode, we learn that they have an agreement not to "pollute the marriage bed" with arguments, so if one of them has a grievance, both have to stand up out of the bed while they talk about it.
• Eric and Ernie did this frequently in Morecambe and Wise. No, they weren't supposed to be gay, they just shared a bed. It made sense in the seventies.
  • They initially refused to do the original sketch, until writer Eddie Braben let Eric smoke his pipe "to emphasise his masculinity".
  • They were, in fact, continuing the "tradition" of comic duos sharing beds, such as seen with Laurel and Hardy.
• Similarly, Tony and Sid in Hancock's Half Hour.
• Simon's parents in Beautiful People do this at least once an episode. Simon and his boyfriend had a short scene like that as well.
• In Two and A Half Men Allen states that "I need to communicate after lovemaking. I need to share!" after a chat with his girlfriend Kandi proves to be rather...silly.

Charlie: Well maybe you should've thought of that before you started boinking a girl with the IQ of Tickle Me Elmo.

• Medium: Alison and Joe frequently talk in bed, particularly when Alison has just woken up from a dream. Joe often gets up and starts pacing during the discussion, though.

Newspaper Comics

• FoxTrot
• Used frequently by the titular characters of Calvin and Hobbes although they are not a couple.

Theater

• Fiddler on the Roof has two songs in bed: one where Tevya explains his dream to his wife, and the second when he asks his wife if she loves him.
  • In the film, only the dream song is in bed.

Webcomics

• Karate Bears talk to their girlfriends in bed

Western Animation

• Family Guy. Well Lois wants to talk, but Peter sometimes is too interested in sleeping or watching TV.
• The Simpsons did this all the time in the early episodes.
• King of the Hill. Hank and Peggy do this when they're not reading—or when it's not a case of Peggy talking and Hank trying to sleep.

Real Life

• There is Truth in Television here; given two working parents or one working parent and one houseparent, the moments a couple have in bed together before sleep may be the only time they have for any serious conversation.
  • Plus, bed is just a really comfy place for talking about stuff.
    • Plus it can very often lead to... other things.
    • Why not talking at the same time as "other things"? Sounds like fun.
    • ... As in: The titular illustration in the book "Sam, the ceiling needs painting"
• A curious and mostly out of fashion variation was the custom of "bundling" in which an engaged couple will be placed in the same bed after having proper restraints(like a board placed between the two or well tied blankets or what not) put there to prevent improprieties. I don't know how well such restraints worked.
  • This bears some comparison to the Minbari "three nights" custom, in Babylon 5 in the sense that it is a way for an engaged couple to "test the waters" without going beyond convention.