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"Most bachelors in this city are only interested in an apartment that comes fully loaded with every gadget and contraption man has invented to snare a woman."
Barbara Novak, Down With Love
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Bob's bachelor pad looks pretty decent, almost like a model home. Of course that's just for when most people come over. Bob also happen to be a Gadgeteer Genius, and has rigged up his house better than Bruce Wayne ever dreamed. Yet Bob isn't Q from the James Bond stories. He's a cad, and his home is rigged with the latest mechanical ways to get a woman in the mood, from a luxurious bed from secret corners, to romantic music at the flip of a switch.

This is usually a comedy trope, and would rarely happen in a straight drama.

A Sub-Trope of Super Multi-Purpose Room.

The trope name is a Portmanteau of Feng Shui - the ancient Chinese art of decorating not letting evil spirits into your house - and "SCHWING", the sound Wayne and Garth make whenever they see an attractive woman.

Examples of Feng Schwing include:


Anime and Manga[]

Film[]

  • Rock Hudson had one or two in his movies, and it was spoofed in the movie Down With Love.
  • Austin Powers' jet in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery: revolving bed and music. "Do I make you randy, baby?"
  • The Russian assassin Olga Bariosova fixed up Inspector Clouseau's bedroom like this at the end of The Pink Panther Strikes Again: bed folding out of the wall and music. "I gave Cato the night off."
  • In the Matt Helm movie The Wrecking Crew (1969), a female character (the Gypsy Lola Medina) had a room like this (including mood lighting) which she used to try to seduce Mr. Helm.
    • The movie version of Matt Helm is a major contributor to the trope, right down to the revolving bed that can dump you into the pool for a bath.
  • Eric "Otter" Stratton in Animal House had his room this way which was humorous both for being the only non messy place in the house and for being so obviously a "bachelor pad" of this type.
  • Dudley Moore's character in Foul Play.
  • In the 1966 film The Swinger, the lecherous head of "Girl-Lure" Magazine tries to seduce Ann-Margret's character with an office much like this.
  • Frankie Avalon's character also has a bachelor pad much like this in the notorious 1968 flop comedy Skidoo.
  • Jack Lemmon's apartment in Under the Yum-Yum Tree.
  • Tony Stark's private jet in Iron Man, complete with Sexy Stewardesses and a retractable stripper pole.
  • In Mars Attacks (Film) Martin Short’s character, the sleazy spin doctor to the president takes an Alien disguised as a woman to a secret one of these in the White House, and refers to it as the 'Kennedy Room'.

Literature[]

  • Contrary to the preceding article, one of Q's assistants, Ann Reilly (aka "Q'ute") rigs up a similar room in a James Bond continuation novel, Licence Renewed. James is confused and impressed all at the same time.
  • In the Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Taint, Fitz clearly wishes his scuzzy little flat was like this. He just has a "sleazily red" lightbulb in his bedroom, which Sam (who he's on a bit of a date with at the time) makes fun of him for. He says it's his "relaxation bulb" and swaps it out for a normal one.

Live Action TV[]

  • An odd variation of this appears in The Twilight Zone TOS episode "A Nice Place to Visit". Henry Valentine's suite acts this way (including music starting automatically), but it's just for mood, because the woman concerned didn't need to be seduced.
  • There's an episode of News Radio where Matthew and Beth end up house-sitting for Bill, and his apartment is much like this, complete with mood music and rotating bed that activate once the lights are turned on. Matthew being... well, Matthew, he's quickly swept up into the "mystique" of the apartment and tries to put the mack on Beth. In the end, it turns out to be not Bill's apartment but his neighbor's.
  • In the French-Canadian television science-fiction/mystery/drama/suspense/horror (!) series L'Héritière de Grande Ourse, a character has a device for that purpose hidden in his sofa.
  • The late father's home in the pilot of the short-lived show Jenny.
  • Inverted by Barney's bachelor pad in How I Met Your Mother, which was designed to get women to leave in the morning, with everything from one pillow to a porn library to a toilet seat lid that automatically springs upward.
  • Surprisingly, showed up in the aggressively squeaky-clean (and even more aggressively obscure) Sitcom Safe at Home.
  • Less outrageous, but the apartment Latke briefly rented on Taxi had a lot of party-friendly furniture concealed in the walls.

Western Animation[]

  • Family Guy spoofed this even more with Glen Quagmire's house. He seems to have Murphy beds built into every wall item in his house. Everything popped out a bed when Cleveland was chasing him with a bat. Stereo, refrigerator, and...bed.
    • He also has a more...forceful version in his RV, where the buttons on the console clamp the girl down and force her mouth onto his private area. Stewie (and especially Brian) learn that the hard way when they steal it.
  • Zapp Brannigan of Futurama called his the Lovenasium. He needed it because he suffered from a very sexy learning disability: "Sexlexia".
  • In an episode of The Simpsons, the entire mayor's office was one of these. Complete with dancing girls descending from cages in the ceiling.
  • In King of the Hill, Hank Hill goes to get treatment from masseuse John Redcorn. Unlike most of John Redcorn's (Always Female) clients, he actually needs it. ...The room is set up to automatically activate make-out music and mood lighting. Which can't be turned off ever.