Tingle's effeminate mannerisms have caused many fans to assume the character is supposed to be gay, and so much so that in 2006, GayGamer named Tingle as gaming's #1 "gayest character". The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma would say to Kotaku in 2015: "He's not gay. He's just an odd person." The Tingle spin-off games very overtly portray Tingle as a heterosexual man, with Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love being a combination of a dating simulator and point-and-click adventure where every date is female, while in Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, part of Tingle's motivation is that he wants to be with beautiful women.

Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland contains a 100% completion bonus cutscene where Tingle rescues Pinkle, and Spoiler:she gives him an unspecified reward, portrayed as Tingle's balloon covering the two of them while Pinkle's sultry theme and voice clips of Tingle fantastically grunting are played - seemingly implying oral sex. After this point, Pinkle transforms into a fairy, and leaves a hologram of her human form in Tingle's house. If Tingle rematches the final boss Spoiler:Uncle Rupee, he will dress in pink and be able to see the true ending.