Cuteness Proximity: Difference between revisions

[[File:cat proximity.png|link=Xkcd|frame|[[Alt Text|Yes you are! And you're sitting there! Hi, kitty!]]]]

 

 

''The closer a character is to something cute, the more likely [[Cuteness Overload]] will happen. Get close enough and, if the character has any susceptibility to [[Cuteness Overload]] at all, it is certain to happen.''

* A woman and man do this in a McCain commercial... to a bag of baby ''peas''. Cue raspberries and the inevitable cooing. Ick.

 

* ''[[Bleach]]''

** Occurs during the Bount arc in the anime version. When a decision needs to be made about which person each of the three mod souls would be paired with, Rukia (the possessor of a long standing rabbit obsession) positively melts over the plushie (a rabbit-like purse) inhabited by Kurodo.

* Oboro Kashiwagi in ''[[Zettai Karen Children]]'' really likes baby seals.

* Kaido Kaoru of ''[[The Prince of Tennis]]''. While he doesn't quite "disintegrate into a pile of gloop", the most antisocial member of the team attempting to play with a cat while still coming off as intense and a little scary was hilarious in its own right.

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''

** Misty slips into this when a stray Teddiursa wanders into their camp and looks her in the eyes. Of course, once they find out it's been scarfing down all their food behind their backs and making Ash's Totodile take the heat for it, the little thing seems much less cute. Even better: it ''continues to try to invoke this trope'' after it evolves into the much more feral-looking [[Everything's Worse with Bears|Ursaring]].

* This is largely driving the plot in ''[[Mao-chan]]'', with 8-year-old Mao-chan and her friends the only ones not affected by the super-cute aliens trying to destroy the Earth.

* In episode 3 of Kuroshitsuji II, Ciel turns to talk to Sebastian, who's normally cold and composed...only to find him fawning over a group of cats with an awestruck expression on his face.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In an issue of ''[[She Hulk]]'', the title character visits a prison where supervillains are shrunk down before they are incarcerated. She starts cooing when she sees the tiny Wrecking Crew.

{{quote|'''She-Hulk:''' Who's the cutest little Wrecking Crew? You are! Yes you are!}}

 

== Fan Works ==

** Marik, as shown in Episode 31:

{{quote|'''Marik:''' I shall defeat you and then conquer the world! Ahahahaha, Ahaha! Oh, hey, look, a bird! Isn't it just the cutest little guy? I mean, No! I-In my new world, all birds shall be enslaved! Especially this one, and he shall be named, Mr. Tweetums! For it is very evil! Ahahahahaha! Now be gone, Mr. Tweetums! I am trying to stalk my nemesis!}}

* Played with in ''[[Turnabout Storm]]''. At first instance [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Fluttershy]] is intimidated by [[Ace Attorney|Phoenix Wright]], but later she hears his first name and thinks [[A Dog Named "Dog"|he's an actual phoenix]], making her warm up to him.

** Played straight with Apple Bloom; the Judge thinks she's the cutest thing he's ever seen and he becomes very protective of her while she's on the witness stand, much to Phoenix's disadvantage.

{{quote|"How do I resist hugging her to death?"}}

* ''[[The Tainted Grimoire]]'': Kanin and Maria when they see Auggie's pet Dreamhare.

 

* In ''[[Shrek]]'', the [[Genre Savvy]] Puss in Boots is [[Invoked Trope|fully aware of this trope]] and is [[Deliberately Cute Child|quick to use it to his advantage]]. See [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LbumSMoQK8&feature=related Shrek's reaction to Puss in Boots] in ''Shrek 2''. Keep in mind this is the guy who has admitted that the eye jelly is quite good on toast. Yeah. Puss is that good.

{{quote|'''Shrek:''' ... I mean how many cats can wear boots? Honestly?}}

* After Mittens teaches [[Bolt]] the "Dog Face", [[Deliberately Cute Child|they never go hungry]]. Mittens also tries to invoke this in the ensuing montage.

{{quote|'''Random Human:''' BEAT IT, STUPID CAT! ''(throws frying pan)''}}

* In ''[[Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs]]'', Flint uses what basically amounts to [[LOLcats]] to distract Sam. It is effective enough to keep her entranced for hours on end.

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', the current Archive is a human girl named Ivy with magical access to everything ever recorded by humanity, as well as the combined memories of all previous Archives. She is articulate, mature and scarily powerful, and when she states that if Dresden backs out of his duel she'll take it personally and kill him, Dresden realizes she ''is'' fully capable of doing so without breaking a sweat. But when Dresden's cat Mister suddenly appears, she shouts "KITTY!" and starts playing with him, making you realize she's still a 7-year-old girl. Her bodyguard (a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] [[Heroic Sociopath]] [[Combat Pragmatist]] with a thing for explosions)'s reaction to this: "Now ''that'' is scary." Mister is [[Mega Neko|the size of a small tiger]] and isn't above pushing Harry around, but he seems to quite like Ivy. Maybe a little of this goes both ways.

* ''[[Discworld]]''

** Nanny Ogg as well. She does this with babies (many of which, in Lancre at least, are her descendants) and with her evil one-eyed demon cat Greebo.

** Due to male and female dwarfs looking alike, Sam Vimes is still not sure how many of each he employs. Until his infant son is brought to the Watch House, and half of them can't help but fawn over him.

* An entry in ''Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul'' features the author (a new cat owner) fearing she's become "one of ''those people''" who use baby talk on their pets. Naturally she succumbs to it in the end.

* French writer and journalist [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Beauvais Robert Beauvais] provided a humorous study of the language used by dog-owners, which he dubbed "''le kiskose chien-chien''" ("the doggy-doggy whatchaspeak"), in ''Le Français kiskose'' (1975).

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* When [[Avril Lavigne]] appeared on Australian talk show ''Rove Live'' to promote her then-new album ''Let Go'', she was quite subdued for most of the interview... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkGfBoMsYbU until Rove brought out a koala.]

* The performers on ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'' may kid around a lot, but they are, to this day, 100% consummate professionals. And then [[Lassie]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J29ppZkgSVI shows up as the subject of a Duet], and Brad and Wayne (and ''especially'' Ryan in the back) just devolve into puddles of joy.

 

== Music ==

* French singer Richard Gotainer wrote a whole song -- "Le Youki"—in baby talk, precisely to mock this habit of dog owners. You can find [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx7vKvQ4axQ the clip there] (and you probably don't need to understand French to get the gist of it). Warning: [[Ear Worm]] (and slightly [[NSFW]] too).

 

 

== New Media ==

* And no amount of killed dignity is complete without a trip to [https://web.archive.org/web/20131101163205/http://cuteoverload.com/ Cute Overload]. Note the language (the blog owner can't possibly talk like that ''all'' the time, can she?).

 

* Lucy the Bulldog. She was the pet of Triple H, and he walks on screen, picks her up above his head, and says something along the lines of "Schnuzzywuzzywoofle". Funnier than it sounds. Woulda been even funnier if Lucy hadn't been upstaging the guy HHH was theoretically feuding with, Chris Jericho.

* Pepper. Al Snow, he who carried around a mannequin head named Head, had lost Head. He found a little chihuahua to replace him. Al brings the dog out for one of his matches and leaves him in the care of announcer Jim Ross. Ross quickly became more interested in the dog than the match, and was very displeased with how much the loud crowd scared the dog. Pepper was almost immediately thereafter retired from television -- [[Put on a Bus to Hell|by being kidnapped, cooked and fed to poor Al by the Big Bossman]].

* Happened again with Rene Dupree's poodle, Fifi. Ross would talk about how terrified the dog was (Dupree being a heel) but whenever the camera was on her, she'd be stood on her hind legs, happily being fed popcorn by fans.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* The "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130121002719/http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Cute_Things_Lover_(3.5e_Flaw) Cute Things Lover]" flaw from ''[[Dungeons & Dragons|D&D]]'' 3.5.

 

== Video Games ==

* One of the more amusing scenes in ''[[Golden Sun]]: The Lost Age'' has the dread pirate Briggs begging his [[Never Mess with Granny|terrifying grandmother]] to defend him from Felix & Co... by way of a [[Chewbacca Defense|nonsensical argument]] starring ''his own son''. Who isn't even ''there''. And she ''still'' cracks and summons a giant salamander to battle, because she just ''can't'' disappoint [[Goo-Goo Godlike|her baby]] [[Enfant Terrible|great-grandson]]...

 

* Nayuki from ''[[Kanon]]'', [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIZKNsaANU8 any time she sees a cat.]

* Rena Ryuuguu from ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' is like this to damn near anything she thinks is the least bit cute (whether it actually is or not), going so far as having a mindset that involves this phenomenon, often triggered with her [[Catch Phrase]] of "[[Memetic Mutation|I want to take it home]]!" You do not want to be Rena's target when she's in ''[[I'm Taking Her Home with Me]]'' mode -- {{spoiler|as Hanyuu can attest}}.

 

== Web Animation ==

* [[Rich Bitch|Weiss]] goes from zero to babytalk in less than 5 seconds upon meeting Yang and Ruby's dog Zwei in Volume 2 Episode 9 of ''[[RWBY]]'':

{{quote|'''Weiss:''' Are you telling me that this mangy... ''(the camera switches between Zwei and Weiss)'' drooling... ''mutt'' is gonna wiv wif us ''foweva''? Oh yes he ''is'', oh yes he ''is''! Oh, isn't he adorable!}}

 

== Web Comics ==

** Hannelore has a [[Nightmare Fuel|different]] sort of [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1585 reaction] to cute felines. Hilarious since Mieville pulled the [[Cats Are Mean]] card in the previous strip.

* The evil kittens in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' make use of this too... although it usually only works once. ([[Killer Rabbit|It doesn't need to work more than once.]])

* Princess Dewcup from ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'' is a [http://yafgc.net/?id=159 truly desperate case]. The midget direwolf breed [http://yafgc.net/?id=65 Wargi] weaponizes this.

* Hamsters appear to [http://www.shortpacked.com/blog/comic/book-10/04-hamalanche/allthecutes/ have this effect] on Amber in ''[[Shortpacked]]''.

* [[Zomg Smells]] gives us [http://www.zomgsmells.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35&products_id=75 Marmalade] [[Cute Kitten|Tabby]], which threatens to fall into this throughout, and finally does at the end.

* [[Board James]] (and his co-host, "Motherfucker Mike") had this response when he first saw the ''Doggie Doo'' dog.

 

== Western Animation ==

* The ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Meapless in Seattle" features "cutonium", a substance which renders the drinker hypnotically, irresistibly cute, inducing effects of this kind in anyone who sees them. When {{spoiler|Mitch}} drinks it, Meap warns everyone to cover their eyes. Phineas...doesn't, and he's basically incapacitated until {{spoiler|Isabella}} snaps him out of it.

{{quote|'''Phineas:''' Aww! They're blasting away at each other with really cute death rays!}}

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Rule of Cute]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]