Politicians put it all on the line and the aftermath of a leadership coup or election loss can be messy.
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Once the votes are counted and the press conferences wrapped, there's not much more for an ousted prime minister to do than drink to the memory of their power.
And like a football team losing a grand final, there's a special mix of exhaustion and emotion that often leads to things getting out of control.
As details surface of Tony Abbott's wild, shirtless booze and boogie session on the night Malcolm Turnbull knifed him, here's a look back at some of the finest political wakes.
Bob Hawke
The legendary drinker, who set a world record by skoaling a yard of beer in 11 seconds at University College, Oxford, has never been shy about his fondness for a cold one.
But surprisingly, it wasn't liquor he went looking for when Paul Keating rolled him for the top job in December 1991.
"I need a bloody cup of tea," was his first order on returning to his office from the humiliating defeat, according to journalist Bernard Lagan.
Comforted with a nice cuppa, Hawke was soon his old self again and hosted an hours-long office booze-up open to all.
John Howard
It's not clear how the conservative Howard commiserated the end of his 11 years in power when Kevin Rudd defeated him at the 2007 election.
His staff is another matter.
Joe Hockey held a well-lubricated wake at his home in Hunters Hill, Sydney, a week later, during which those attending were thrown one-by-one into his swimming pool.
Having remained dry for most of the day, Tony Nutt, a senior Howard advisor and now Turnbull office boss, then strode stoically into the water.
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd and his dedicated staff descended on The Lodge for an almighty booze-up on the night Julia Gillard deposed him in 2010.
Actor and writer Rhys Muldoon recalled dancing, semi-nudity and most of the party plunging into the swimming pool in the middle of a freezing Canberra winter.
"Most of us ended up in there…. amid much cheering, Rudd landed in the clear, blue-lit water, fully clothed," Muldoon wrote in The Monthly.
Emotional speeches were delivered, with Rudd apparently already plotting his return to power.
"Kevin stood up and he said 'we'll be back'. That's how he opened his speech," Rudd's press secretary Lachlan Harris told the ABC series The Killing Season.
Julia Gillard
When Rudd reclaimed the top job in 2013, Gillard was adamant she wouldn't sabotage the Labor Party as Rudd had done.
But she'd be damned if she was leaving any grog for Kevin 07 when he moved back into The Lodge.
Ministers and more than a hundred advisers and guests partied into the early hours at the prime minister's official residence and all but drank the cellar dry.
Just hours after losing the prime ministership, Gillard told the gathered faithful that "shit happens".
Tony Abbott
Freed from the constraints of leadership, Abbott soon freed himself from his shirt during a wild party at Parliament House.
Staff and supporters danced and drank in the Prime Minister's suite on the night Malcolm Turnbull snatched Australia's top job, with Abbott reportedly going shirtless at one point.
"It came off, but it was back on pretty quickly," one witness told News Corp.
A marble coffee table was reportedly smashed, with staffers grabbing shards as mementoes of their own shattered hopes and dreams, while Treasurer Joe Hockey and MP Jamie Briggs hit the dance floor hard.
Briggs, the assistant minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, emerged in a wheelchair the next day, but told the media he hurt himself while jogging that morning.
What did we miss? email patrick.hatch@fairfaxmedia.com.au
