Basic Trope: Gay characters exist in the work, but never kiss or act intimately towards one another, even when the straight couples do.
- Straight: Alice and Bob are shown making out in quite a few episodes, but Charlie and Dave are together for the entire series without more than a hug.
- Exaggerated:
- There's a sex scene with Alice and Bob Once an Episode, but Charlie and Dave are never even seen holding hands.
- Charlie and Dave are only stated to be gay, despite they never appear together in the same scene.
- Downplayed:
- Charlie and Dave are shown kissing, as are Alice and Bob, but the latter couple either kiss more frequently or rather make out as compared to the former's small pecks on the lips.
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex in this show, but Alice and Bob have sex with each other more frequently than Charlie and Dave.
- Justified:
- The characters live in a homophobic society, so Charlie and Dave don't want to show their homosexuality.
- Charlie wants to take things slowly in his relationship with Dave, while Alice and Bob have no problem jumping right into things and so are seen kissing and the like more frequently.
- The show does not spend a lot of time on romance scenes in the first place, and since Charlie and Dave are background characters, it makes sense that the few romance scenes would center more around Alice and Bob.
- The character and/or the actor is a minor, which makes the creative team reluctant to have them do anything more intimate than hugging onscreen.
- Charlie and Dave are Straight Gay who believe that Real Men Hate Affection.
- Charlie and Dave are both Shrinking Violet who are too shy to confess each other's feelings.
- Charlie and Dave are respectively married to lonely women as The Beards and willing to put aside their love for each other for their wives' happiness.
- Fraternization is one of the few things Charlie and David's Pointy-Haired Boss rightfully despises. Whereas Alice and Bob from the office across's boss is a bit too tolerant on the matter.
- Inverted: Charlie and Dave are frequently seen making out, while Alice and Bob only get an occasional on-screen hug.
- Subverted: Charlie and Dave spend every single episode building their relationship and finally have a sex scene in the season finale.
- Double Subverted: And then they return to their old routine.
- Parodied: Charlie and Dave keep trying to kiss each other or even hug but find themselves interrupted by increasingly improbable and frustrating circumstances while Alice and Bob make out next to them without issue.
- Zig-Zagged:
- While the relationship is gay in nature, Charlie is asexual or simply disinterested. However, Charlie and Dave do kiss occasionally while off-screen or in the background.
- Charlie and Dave are shown kissing and even having sex regularly, but Charlie is a femboy who acts and dresses in a very feminine fashion despite explicitly identifying as a gay man so other people assume that Charlie is a girl and that his relationship with Dave is a straight one.
- Averted: Charlie and Dave kiss and hug on-screen just as often and/or in the same manner as any of the show's straight couples.
- Lampshaded: The single gay character on the show laments that all of the straight characters are getting so much sex while he hasn't so much as kissed anyone since the events of the first episode.
- Invoked: Alice is homophobic and although she's accepted that she can't stop Charlie and Dave from being gay, she makes sure that they don't kiss while she's around.
- Exploited:
- Charlie, the show's Fourth-Wall Observer, is aware that he and Dave can never kiss on-screen like the straight couples, so he makes sure the two of them are away from the main characters before they even try to get close.
- Charlie's bi and has shown attraction for a woman who definitely fancies him back. Later on, said woman tries to convince him to break up with Dave and go out with her instead because even the universe doesn't want him and Dave to get intimate.
- Defied: Charlie and Dave are so into each other that they get a sex scene Once an Episode.
- Discussed: "All of our friends are straight, Dave. I think this makes us the token gay couple. Man, I hope that doesn't mean that we never get to make out."
- Conversed: "Hey, at least we've got some progress, with more gay characters in fiction these days. Shame that they don't get shown acting romantically nearly as much as the straight characters, though."
- Played for Laughs: Charlie and Dave have never been in any romantic relationships before, so even simple romantic gestures is something extremely new and awkward for them both. The authors milk this for all the Cringe Comedy it is worth.
- Played for Drama: Other characters keep wondering if Charlie and Dave are right for each other, considering they rarely do anything romantic out in the open. It is eventually revealed that Charlie was in an abusive relationship a few years ago and still has some trauma related to physical intimacy, and Dave is actually not neglecting his boyfriend but gently trying to help him move on past his fears.
Back to But Not Too Gay.