"Take That!" Kiss

So you've got your enemy on the ropes (literally or figuratively), and you feel the need to really rub it in that you've won. Or your enemy's got you on the ropes, and it's time for desperate measures to turn things round. What should you do? In fiction, a not uncommon move is the "Take That!" Kiss. (All The Tropes makes no guarantees for how well this works in Real Life, so Don't Try This At Home, or at least don't come crying to us if you do and it fails or backfires.)

While the "Take That!" Kiss sometimes serves to confirm previous Foe Yay vibes, it may also be the only thing in the characters' exchanges that suggests Foe Yay at all, and it will typically be more of a taunting/patronizing/desperate/tricksterish/arrogant domination display than a romantic/sexy come-on - though it's quite often played as an ironic version of a come-on, or possibly some kind of complicated double-bluff.

For related reasons, it's usually not a "Shut Up" Kiss, at least of the core variety that leads to two characters finally getting together, if only for a while, and no slapping need be involved, before or after. If there is UST or Belligerent Sexual Tension though, expect this trope to feature somewhere, at least as long as one of the parties is Genre Savvy enough to pick up on it.

The idea isn't necessarily specifically to mock or antagonize, though. It usually seems more like a non-verbal Take That, though not always aggressive or hostile, and can be more of an affectionate sending-up or one-upping.

In effect, the "message" can range from "Try anything else, and I'll pull the plug on your career as well as make fun of you in public" (the Riget example, below) through "I'm not going to let your hostility stop my aggravating exuberance" (Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker) to "So you just told a memorable fable about the problem of evil that explicitly challenges all I'm thought to stand for, and now you're expecting a counter-argument? Well, actually, I'm just going to do something ambiguous and non-verbal that will nonpluss you and everybody else" (The Brothers Karamazov).

While this is most commonly pulled by villain(ish) characters, it can also be done by a Designated Hero, or (as in the Heathers and Riget examples) by characters whose morality tends to the ambiguous. Examples of full-on good characters doing this are more rare—but see The Brothers Karamazov examples.

If that all seems a lot to read into an ambiguous and often completely non-verbal act, that hopefully just proves the point, but feel free to intone Bellisario's Maxim if desired.

A common subtype of the trope is for a character to kiss someone as a Take That to some third party.

Blowing kisses can be a way of achieving a similar, if milder, mocking effect at a safe(r) distance.

See also the more metaphorical type of Kiss of Death, which is rather stronger than just saying Take That.

Anime and Manga

 * In Mirai Nikki, Tsubaki Kasugano plants one of these on Yukiteru when she thinks she's defeated him and Yuno.
 * Later,  gives one to Yukki, partly out of love, partly to piss Yuno off. It worked.
 * In Hana Kimi, while the school doctor Umeda is lecturing the main characte Mizuki's homophobic older brother on why he's being unreasonable towards his sister, he grabs him by the neck tie and kisses him (as the author put it) "Just to piss him off".
 * In Naruto, the titular character is having a friendly fight against The (Soon to be) fifth Hokage, the Granny Tsunade. Altough Naruto managed to pulled his brand new technique, she manages to put him against the ropes. When he awaits to receive an earth-shattering punch, he instead have his efforts rewarded with a kiss in the front. Oooow...
 * Sae of Peach Girl is constantly attempting these on Toji, as a way to one up Momo.
 * Sort of played with in Dragonball Z in the aftermath of the first encounter with Androids 17 & 18. After the two wipe the floor with all the Z fighters except for Krillin, 18 goes over to the terrified Krillin and gives him a kiss on the cheek. While it was pretty much a mocking gesture (Krillin was the only one who didn't fight) it was the start of a relationship that would eventually see the two of them marry in the future.
 * In the final episode of School Days, Makoto and Kotonoha do this in order to stick it to Sekai. Needless to say, It Got Worse.
 * Done by proxy in the first part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, where Dio steals Jonathan's beloved's First Kiss to get one over on him. It backfires, as she proceeds to insult him by washing her mouth out with filthy water - the implication being he's so disgusting she doesn't want to pollute the nearby stream. He snaps, backhands her (which causes his cronies to abandon him in disgust), and ultimately this causes him far more pain than it does Jonathan.
 * In the second season of Spice and Wolf.
 * In the manga of Hellsing as well as in Ultimate, Pip spends a good bit of time trying to sneak a kiss from Seras Victoria. Usually to disastrous results. But then, during the siege of Hellsing manor, he's laying there mortally wounded, Ceras is showing the fact that she actually does care about him despite her own horrific injuries, and he's able to sneak in one first, and last, kiss before he dies... And then proceeds to bust out laughing that he finally did it, before offering his blood to her so she could heal up, become a full vampire, and avenge the Wild Geese (as well as about 1/2 of London by this point).
 * Nakago to Tamahome in Fushigi Yuugi. Yep. You read that right.
 * In Berserk,  gives   a Forceful Kiss just before brutally raping her. Normally, it would be arguable whether a kiss in the process of a rape counts as this trope, but since the only point of this horrific Kick the Dog moment was to spite   before killing them, you could read the whole ordeal as a particularly evil Take That.

Comic Books
", I need your help in one more thing. Passion is blasphemy in this holy place. [ Beat ] And I have a powerful need to blaspheme."
 * Hawkeye did this to Deathbird after defeating her. This went beyond his usual style, but she was an exceptionaly dangerous opponent, and he defeated her by himself, and he hadn't had a fight like that in quite a while, so he was riding on exhilaration.
 * In Lucifer, Mazikeen, having just saved the Council of Angels' bacon and still getting grief from them for being a) female and b) a demon, enlists a human admirer for a "Take That!" Kiss:

"Canary: It was like kissing Dracula but with less tongue."
 * Black Canary did this to Batman in Birds of Prey #90 to the amazement of her teammates.

""Like kissing your principal while on detention.""
 * She also commented that it was pretty hot.

Fan Fiction

 * In Dumbledores Army and The Year of Darkness, Neville kisses Draco to humiliate him.
 * Similarly, in another Potter fanfiction, While Draco is taunting Harry for being predictable and a wimp, Harry kisses him in a combination of a "Shut Up" Kiss and "Take That!" Kiss to, what else? Shut him up and piss him off.
 * In Arc of Sacrifices, Peridot Yaxley kisses her sister Indigena in order to humiliate her and prove she's won.
 * In the Hetalia fic Slender, Canada  kisses America on the cheek, to add an extra helping of Twincest Squick to an already creepy scene.
 * One Naruto AU fanfic in particular revolves around this. Sasuke, still Naruto's hated rival, blackmails him with information that could get him in serious trouble with their school and kicked out and possible even to lose his home. What he wants in return? The sick satisfaction of humiliating Naruto every day by forcing him to kiss someone he absolutely despises.

Film
"Veronica: "Heather, my love, there's a new sheriff in town" {smooch}"
 * Forgetting Sarah Marshall has Rachel kissing Peter in front of Sarah, who's still in love with him.
 * In Remember the Titans, Sunshine thanks Bertier for his homophobic remarks by giving him a big smooch in front of the entire team.
 * In the changing room/showers to boot. And then, when Bertier tried to plant a fist in Sunshine's face, the latter not only held his own, but managed to knock the All American on his butt.
 * The "love" scene from Blade Runner where Deckard ... forcibly seduces ... Rachael features a "Take That!" Kiss. The crew called it "The Hate Scene", according to Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner.
 * Leia kisses Luke in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back as a Take That at Han.
 * "Zat's how Austrians say goodbye." Harrison Ford is really prone to this trope, one way or another isn't he?
 * It's Harrison Ford. Even the Guys Want Him.
 * Black Widow (1987). When Alexandra gives Catharine a piece of "black widow" jewelry (letting her know that Alexandra knows she's a Black Widow), Catharine kisses her as a challenge.
 * In Heathers, Veronica plants one on Heather 3 near the end, just after divesting her of Heather 1's red hairband, which Heather 3 has taken to wearing as a sign that she's now the über Alpha Bitch.

"Queen: Mirror, mirror in my hand, who's the fairest... Snow White: I am! I am! I am the fairest!"
 * Freddy Krueger's daughter does this after stuffing a pipe bomb in his gut at the end of Freddys Dead the Final Nightmare.
 * Chase plants one on Caleb in The Covenant for a rarer male on male example. Considering the most memorable moments in the movie consist of Ho Yay, Foe Yay and boys in too small speedos, it's not really surprising.
 * Either to emphasize the Foe Yay between the two characters or the villain's depravity, Commodus plants one on Maximus  right before the big Boss Battle in the Colosseum.
 * Averted and subverted in the film of Daredevil..
 * Roger kisses Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, after which Eddie exclaims, "Don't ever kiss me again!" At the end, Eddie kisses Roger
 * Nefertiri to Rameses in The Ten Commandments. An unusual example - she did it to show how much she loves Moses and despises Rameses. "Did you think that was a promise of what you will have? No - that was to show you what you will never have..."
 * In the 2001 Snow White, we get this unforgettable exchange between Miranda Richardson and Kristin Kreuk:
 * Snow White's head comes out of the mirror and quickly kisses the stunned queen on the mouth.

"Elena: (after Zorro has slashed Elena's nightgown) Not bad (another move and now they're in each other's faces) Zorro: Not bad at all (plants a kiss on Elena's mouth)"
 * In the first X-Men movie Wolverine fights Mystique whilst she's disguised as himself, The audience knows which character is which when Mystique-as-Wolverine mockingly pursues her lips and makes a kissy noise at the real Wolverine.
 * The Mask of Zorro has a couple during Zorro and Elena's duel

Literature

 * Sam does this to Shadow in American Gods as a Take That to everyone else in the bar they've gone to (It Makes Sense in Context, or so she claims).
 * Note that, as far as we can see, Sam is a lesbian (much to Shadow's disappointment), just playing up how much of a "statement" this was.
 * As indicated above, The Brothers Karamazov has both Christ's kiss to the Great Inquisitor and the kiss Alyosha, inspired by it, plants on Ivan (who responds "That's plagiarism. But thank you.")
 * In Holes, this was the outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow's signature when she murdered people.
 * Otto Chriek in The Truth. He arrives slightly late to the party when William De Worde goes to confront his father, and takes the man down with almost no effort, all the while talking about how easy it would be to fall off the wagon (he's a member of the Uberwald Temperance League, and thus is a vampire who has sworn off blood) and cause him no end of misery in the process...then notes that William thinks of him as a good man, and he likes William too much to destroy that image, so he sets him down, gives him a gentle kiss on the forehead, and charges him to make himself scarce before Otto changes his mind.
 * In book 3 of J.R. Ward's vampiric erotica series The Black Dagger Brotherhood, there is a venomous exchange of words between Handicapped Badass, Phury, and another male vampire called the Reverend, about the titular brotherhood. The heated back-and-forth at last comes to a head when the Reverend insinuates rather blatantly (and very derogatorily) that Phury maintains his celibacy because he is actually gay. Phury responds by planting a kiss on the guy that is described as being akin to a "punch between faces." Needless to say, many readers were thrilled at his ironic rebuttal to the accusation.
 * does this to Isi in Forest-Born, "like a girl kissing her favorite doll." Squick.

Live Action TV
"Emily: Whatever. Stay here. Don't expect me to care, because I dont! Mom: It is just for a couple of days, dear, until we get ourself out of this pickle. Emily: Stay out of my way. This is my house, I live here with my girlfriend, and we are having a barberque. All right? Mom: Whatever you say, love. [Emily walks over and kisses the hell out of her girlfriend, then leaves.] Mom: [biting her tounge]: I-I'm gonna finish emtying the car."
 * The Big Bang Theory has dueling ones, both directed at third parties: as Leonard ends his date with Leslie, Penny comes back from a date with... some guy, and both of them then proceed to kiss their respective alternate partners with rather more passion than strictly necessary or actually felt.
 * In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Faith plants one of these on Buffy's forehead during one of their many showdowns (in the episode "Enemies" season 3, episode 17).
 * It was supposed to be on the lips, but the network said no.
 * Another Buffy example—Angelus kisses Buffy after his Face Heel Turn, and this time it is on the lips (he also kisses Spike on the forehead in the same episode).
 * iCarly: In the episode iSaved Your Life, Carly victoriously shuns away a girl who is hitting on Freddie by engaging him in a lengthy French Kiss right in front of the girl.
 * In Doctor Who, the (Simm!) Master blows one of these at the Doctor, just as his army of evil Maltesers Toclafane come down.
 * River Song also blows a kiss to a Smug Snake about to have her shot, right before effortlessly and stylishly thwarting him.
 * In Lars von Trier's Riget, Stig Helmer gets one of these right on the lips from his archnemesis Dr. Krogshoej, right in front of a startled morning staff assembly. (Well, okay, so Krogshoej is just one of Helmer's nemeses â€” the man has a low hostility threshold.)
 * A rather dark version appears in one season 4 episode of The Wire: Omar Little is, and a man tries to assault him with a knife. In response, he disarms the man, pushes him against a wall and kisses his ear, in a display obviously intended to make the man think he is about to be raped. Instead, Omar opts to just... give him his knife back, as it were.
 * In Alias, Sydney Bristow and her rival Anna Espinosa exchange several "Take That!" Kisses without actually kissing. Anna starts the trend in the episode "Parity," when she kisses the security glass separating her from Sydney, making a lipstick mark and setting off the alarms before leaving Sydney trapped.
 * Then there's the infamous incident on All in The Family where Sammy Davis Jr. -- the Sammy Davis Jr. -- poses for a picture with affable racist (yet avid fan) Archie Bunker, whereupon Davis kisses him on the cheek just before the camera snaps the picture, and exits while Archie is still stunned.
 * In Skins season 3 episode 5, Freddie headbutts Cook during a fight and Cook grabs him like he's going to hurt him, but instead harshly kisses him before leaving with JJ.
 * Emily manages to do a "Take That!" Kiss By Proxy in season 4. She had earlier more or less been chased out from her home by her mothers passive-agressive homophobia after she came out, but now her family is forced to live with her and her girlfriend after their house was foreclosured.


 * Sheppard pulls one of these on Teyla in Stargate Atlantis after he wins a sparring match. The fact that he didn't get his ass kicked as usual plus the kiss are clear signs that something is very, very wrong with him.
 * In her first appearance on Stargate SG-1, Vala beats up Daniel pretty badly and finishs by making out with him, partly out of victory and partly because she was attracted to him. Then she headbutts him.
 * In The Borgias, Rodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI kisses both his main enemies in the College of Cardinals with a brilliantly smug look on his face after beating them in the Papal election.

New Media

 * Ganondorf did this in There Will Be Brawl.

Professional Wrestling
"Triple H: "See ya at home-I meant your brother's a gnome!""
 * Stephanie McMahon once kissed Triple H to embarrass her father for all the...people he's slept with over the years. Triple H was chosen for several reasons: One, he was the guy who revealed her fathers misdeeds, two, Hunter and Steph are married in real life and this was an opportunity for Triple H to murder the Fourth Wall.


 * Stephanie also received this on more than one occasion from Chris Jericho.
 * Mickie James has this as one of her finishing moves, the long kiss goodnight.
 * At the 2010 Royal Rumble, Beth Phoenix used this to eliminate the Great Kali.
 * Brock Lesnar kisses Kurt Angle to piss him off considering Kurt's wide denials of being gay.
 * Lita gives one of these to Trish Stratus.
 * The Camp Straight wrestler Rico was known to do this to opponents to throw them off their game.
 * Goldust, who in kayfabe was pretty much pansexual, would do this to his opponents occasionally.

Theatre

 * In A View from the Bridge, Eddie kisses Rodolpho to show his (Eddie's) superiority.

Video Games

 * Sonic Heroes or Shadow the Hedgehog, can't remember which, does this with Rouge, who blows a kiss at her enemies when she defeats a boss. Apparently she also kissed Tails after defeating him in Sonic X, but I don't know whether that was the trope or her actual attack.
 * The Sonic X example was an attack. As Tails charged at Rouge, she kissed him on the cheek, and as the steam poured out of his ears, she casually tossed him out of the ring.
 * For a straight example, Rouge does this if Tails throws his fight against her in Sonic Battle, the game the above Sonic X Tournament Arc is based on. The game was just filled with Ship Tease between her and him.
 * In the third stage of the final battle of Metal Gear Solid 4,
 * Ash does this to Rion in Galerians once he's done wiping the floor with him.
 * Skies of Arcadia has Belleza blow a kiss at Vyse everytime she outsmarts him.

Web Original

 * A textbook example from Darwin's Soldiers: Trinity with Hailey.

Web Comics

 * In an early El Goonish Shive strip, we learn that whenever Elliot had a martial arts match with his (then) girlfriend Nanase, the winner of the match would kiss the loser. See it here.
 * In Touhou Nekokayou, Daiyousei, of all people, does this to Cirno just to drive home how weak Cirno's Icicle Fall -Easy- really was.

Western Animation
"Bad Guy: I hate you! Woody: I like you! [kiss]"
 * A favorite tactic of Bugs Bunny.
 * And of Woody Woodpecker, usually with the following exchange:

"Lucy: I oughta slug you. *Slurp* UGH! I've been kissed by a dog! Get some hot water, get some disinfectant, get some iodine!"
 * Snoopy has been known to plant one on Lucy from time to time. Like in A Charlie Brown Christmas:


 * In the Family Guy episode "Dial Meg For Murder", Meg French kisses Connie D'Amico after knocking her (and the other popular kids who bullied Meg) out with a sack of soda cans.
 * The Warner siblings from Animaniacs do this on occasion.
 * Superwoman does this to Batman in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.
 * Inque to Batman in Batman Beyond.
 * Omi pulls one off against Manipulative Bitch Syris in Xiaolin Showdown right after he beats her in their showdown.
 * A deleted scene in The Clone Wars shows Assaj Ventress running her lightsaber into Commander Colt's gut then kisses him. Either search Asajj's deadly kiss on youtube or watch here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esbI1HTzRHA&feature=related

Real Life

 * Thai kathoey ("lady-boy") boxer Nong Toom/Thoom/Tum, also known as Parinya Charoenphol/Kiatbusaba/Jaroenphon, would kiss her opponents after defeating them.