Many comic strips (most notably Andy Capp) include a token “hic” onomatopoeia to indicate a drunken state. From personal experience, I have noticed that I also tend to hiccup more when I’m drunk. But why? (This doesn’t begin until I’ve had a few drinks – I have to drink quite a bit before hiccups ensue.) What is it about alcohol that provokes episodes of hiccuping?
To be clear, I don’t think hiccuping is associated with the long term condition of being an alcoholic, but rather with individual incidents of advanced intoxication. Not everyone experiences hiccups when drunk, though.
I’ll leave it for someone with more scientific knowledge to explain the phenomenon.
Sober people, when they hiccup, tend to do it inconspicuously. Drunk people tend to make more of a production of it. That is at least one factor, I would say.
Since it is not uncommon to get the hiccups when drinking alcohol, hiccups is associated with drinking, and thus alcoholism. But since it is not a fact that alcoholics get the hiccups more often than others, the image of the drunk with the hiccup is found mainly in comic strips and such.
Cecil: “Hiccups are commonly caused by distention of the stomach, which you get if you eat too much, drink carbonated beverages, or swallow too much air. This suggests hiccup as a sequela to boozing may be more the result of fizzy mixers than alcohol itself. Or else you just slurp.” What are hiccups and why do we get them? - The Straight Dope