History Main / PlayingDoctor

* In the Israeli song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CeUKqDfR6U Bad Boy]]", which describes a case of PuppyLove+DomesticAbuse (yes, seriously), the girl mentions, among other things "for him to be pleased, I am always the patient and he's the doctor".

* In ''Film/JerseyGirl'', Ollie walks in on his daughter and a boy from school as she's "showing him her's." Amazingly, this is a rare example of the act actually being ''shown,'' as we're [[{{Squick}} treated]] to a shot of the boy standing up with his pants down (from behind, of corse).

* A DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything example from ''Webcomic/GhastlysGhastlyComic'': [[http://www.ghastlycomic.com/d/20030302.html "Paging Dr. Tang"]] WARNING: While this particular link is safe for work, the general content of the webcomic is ''not''.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', they flashed back to Peter and Lois as children. When Peter first sees her, he says, "Wow, I'd like to play doctor with ''her''… and remove her appendix before it burst, causing sepsis."

* A really disturbing example happens in ''Webcomic/ForestHill'', when a 5 year old girl named Tabitha forces 4 year old Hunter to do this against his will, although she calls it playing house. Hunter's father is very upset when he hears about this. This becomes even more disturbing when it is revealed that [[spoiler:she has been watching her father's adult movies and that her father is one of the people that Benni's abusive father forced Benni have sex with for money.]]

'''Girl:''' I don't have insurance...

Children tend to be very curious about things, including what the opposite sex looks like under their clothes. So naturally, sometimes they try to satisfy that curiosity by negotiating with someone roughly their own age. It's called "playing doctor" since it's frequently put in the form of a game where one child is the doctor, and the other the patient, who takes off their clothes for examination like at the real doctor's office.

For legal reasons, this game is almost never played all the way in visual media, being mentioned off stage, or interrupted before too many clothes come off. A common "bit" is for a parent to catch the children doing this, and completely overreact making the kids more confused and traumatized than the game ever would have. A common [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] is for precocious or overly intellectual children to actually be roleplaying medical professionals without any intent of taking off clothing. Indeed, this subversion is much more common in media than the "straight" use, as you'll see in the examples section.

Not to be confused with "playing [[Series/DoctorWho The Doctor]]", Playing ''VideoGame/DrMario'', PlayingHouse, [[ActorAllusion Playing]] "Series/{{House}}", or ImNotADoctorButIPlayOneOnTV.

* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': In one of the {{Omake}}s, Hansel and Gretel play doctor with little Garcia, Roberta's young master. Hansel and Gretel being... you know... [[CreepyTwins Hansel and Gretel]], they decide to play the real kind of doctor with him, much to poor Garcia's distress. They were also keen on [[CrossesTheLineTwice playing doctor like the adults do]]...

* There is one example in ''ComicBook/LePetitSpirou''... only it turns out both of them are cheating. Also, the cover for Tome 3, as pictured above.

* ''Film/BladeRunner''. While talking to Rachel about her memories, Deckard reminded her about the time she and her brother played doctor. Her brother showed her his, and when it got to be her turn, she chickened and ran. The memories were actually implanted in her: they came from Tyrell's niece.

* There exists an episode of ''Series/MyWifeAndKids'' in which Michael Kyle educates Kady in self-defense, cautioning her of boys who offer to "play doctor" with her. At the end of the episode, one of Kady's classmates approaches her and requests to play doctor with her in the most innocent (and literal) sense of the term... but this doesn't stop Kady, who misinterpreted her father's warnings, [[GroinAttack from knocking the poor kid to the ground]].

-->"... and for GOD's sake put your knickers back on, this is a sterile environment."

* A really disturbing example happens in ''Webcomic/ForestHill'', when a 5 year old girl named Tabitha forces 4 year old Hunter to do this against his will, although she calls it playing house. Hunter's father is very upset when he hears about this. This becomes even more disturbing when it is revealed that [[spoiler: she has been watching her father's adult movies and that her father is one of the people that Benni's abusive father forced Benni have sex with for money.]]

* A rather surprising example came from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' between [[ToyShip Bobby and Connie.]] The two of them, after a large misunderstanding about Connie thinking Bobby doesn't like her because she hasn't developed yet, decide to take off their shirts in front of each other and see each other's bodies. While Bobby gets his shirt off, Connie is interrupted by her father entering the room. Being that Kahn doesn't like Bobby already, and hates the idea of Connie being exposed to what he assumes to be rednecks, he's pretty pissed off. This example is very strange because the two of them are clearly at that age when they're starting to notice the opposite sex, and experience sexual urges, and are at least partly playing the game ''because'' of those urges, and yet the entire affair carries a clear feeling of innocence. There is the fact that sex wasn't on Bobby's mind at all. He thought couples took their clothes off and looked at each other, nothing more.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', they flashed back to Peter and Lois as children. When Peter first sees her he says, "Wow, I'd like to play doctor with ''her''... and remove her appendix before it burst, causing sepsis."

* On ''Series/{{Mash}}'', Hawkeye would regularly use "want to play doctor?" as a pick-up line on the nurses.

* Inverted on ''TheBigBangTheory'', when Leonard and Penny come into the apartment to find Sheldon and Amy playing doctor, Star Trek style; both are fully clothed, Sheldon is lying on the couch and Amy is running a medical tricorder over him.

* There exists an episode of ''My Wife and Kids'' in which Michael Kyle educates Kady in self-defense, cautioning her of boys who offer to "play doctor" with her. At the end of the episode, one of Kady's classmates approaches her and requests to play doctor with her in the most innocent (and literal) sense of the term... but this doesn't stop Kady, who misinterpreted her father's warnings, from knocking the poor kid to the ground.

* In ''Shuffle'', Mayumi uses this to explain a situation she got in with Rin. Specifically, [[spoiler:she fell and landed with her panties in his face, and when she didn't like his reaction she decided that she'd get revenge by taking his pants off.]] Even though Mayumi was at fault, Rin wound up getting in trouble when Primula told the teacher what Mayumi'd said.

* In Shuffle, Mayumi uses this to explain a situation she got in with Rin. Specifically, [[spoiler:she fell and landed with her panties in his face, and when she didn't like his reaction she decided that she'd get revenge by taking his pants off.]] Even though Mayumi was at fault, Rin wound up getting in trouble when Primula told the teacher what Mayumi'd said.

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/OzyAndMillie'' as it's used to parody health insurance. They wonder why they're so concerned about playing doctor and conclude it's out of worry it'd make them cynical. Keep in mind that Ozy is normally a HalfDressedCartoonAnimal anyhow.

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* Inverted on ''TheBigBangTheory'', when Leonard and Penny come into the apartment to find Sheldon and Amy playing doctor, Star Trek style; both are fully clothed ('natch), Sheldon is lying on the couch and Amy is running a medical tricorder over him.

* In ''Radio/TheVeryWorldOfMiltonJones'', he takes it extremely seriously, ordering various things of his "nurse" (oh yeah, they're technically playing "doctors and nurses", behind the bike sheds, natch); his final line is:

[[quoteright:300:[[ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PlayingDoctor_1167.jpg]]]]

* There is one example in ''[[SpinoffBabies Young]] [[ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio Spirou]]''... only it turns out both of them are cheating. Also, the cover for Tome 3, as pictured above.
* ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'' has Lillandra misunderstood when she proposes Charles to play doctor. When he yells, she clarifies she's talking about actual medicine.

-->'''Hansel:''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Let's play]] [[UpToEleven Unit 731!]] [[note]]For those unfamiliar with the name, Unit 731 was Japan's equivalent of the Nazi medical experiments.[[/note]]

* A straighter example of "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" is from the movie ''The Ice Storm'', starring a young Christina Ricci. (It's consistently the most popular clip on Hulu.)

-->'''Hansel:''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Let's play]] [[UpToEleven Unit 731!]]

[[quoteright:300:[[LePetitSpirou http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PlayingDoctor_1167.jpg]]]]

* ''Anime/BlackLagoon''
** In one of the {{Omake}}s, Hansel and Gretel play doctor with little Garcia, Roberta's young master. Hansel and Gretel being... you know... [[CreepyTwins Hansel and Gretel]], they decide to play the real kind of doctor with him, much to poor Garcia's distress.
** They were also keen on [[CrossesTheLineTwice playing doctor like the adults do]]...