History Main / PoliticiansKissBabies

* ''{{My Hero}}'' has Piers Crispin kissing small children during his attempt to campaign for Mayor in one episode, though it backfires when he tries to kiss Ollie and gets punched in the face (Ollie being the son of George Sunday/Thermoman, and thus a superbaby).

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=1614 Slick is up for this when running for president -- the baby is less agreeable.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{[Chowder}}'', [[TheSnarkKnight Gorgonzola]] [[InvokedTrope advises the titular character to do this]] when he runs for the president of the apprentices' club. They attempt this by [[ComicallyMissingThePoint sneaking into a hospital]], and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero accidentally inciting the babies to riot]].

* In the 2012 film ''Film/TheCampaign'' the two candidates for office get into a fight over which is going to kiss a particular baby. WillFerrell's character ends up punching the baby in the struggle.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': when [[BrainInAJar the head of]] RichardNixon runs for President of Earth wearing Bender's body, he pulls a baby out of the chest cavity and kisses it.

** Other Presidents who refused to kiss babies include UsefulNotes/BenjaminHarrison, UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland, and RichardNixon. Draw whatever conclusions you wish.
* UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush, BarackObama, and Mitt Romney have all attempted to hold or kiss babies, only for them to start crying. There are probably examples of other politicians also having this problem as well. A lot of babies don't like being held by strangers.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "WesternAnimation/BallotBoxBunny", Yosemite Sam's campaigning for mayor includes kissing babies, none of which seem to enjoy it. BugsBunny disguises himself as a baby and kisses ''him'', then cries that "the bad man bit my widdle nose!", and all the women start to [[ParasolOfPain hit Sam over the head with their umbrellas]].

* Notably, AndrewJackson was the first president to be offered a baby to kiss. He [[AvertedTrope refused]], instead complimenting the infant and then handing it over to his Secretary of War to kiss instead.
** Other Presidents who refused to kiss babies include BenjaminHarrison, GroverCleveland, and RichardNixon. Draw whatever conclusions you wish.
* GeorgeWBush, BarackObama, and Mitt Romney have all attempted to hold or kiss babies, only for them to start crying. There are probably examples of other politicians also having this problem as well. A lot of babies don't like being held by strangers.

* In ''Videogame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'', gubernatorial candidate Charles L. Charles [[spoiler:actually [[BigBad LeChuck]] in disguise]] bids the protagonists farewell because he has "hands to kiss and babies to shake".

Related to FriendToAllChildren and PhotoOpWithTheDog.

When someone - [[AlwaysMale usually a male someone]] - decides to run for public office, one of the things he is expected to do during the campaign is kiss the babies of female potential voters. Somehow this will [[EvilDetectingBaby prove]] that he's not evil and can be trusted to run the [country/state/county/city/dog pound] properly.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Ballot Box Bunny", Yosemite Sam's campaigning for mayor includes kissing babies, none of which seem to enjoy it. BugsBunny disguises himself as a baby and kisses ''him'', then cries that "the bad man bit my widdle nose!", and all the women start to [[ParasolOfPain hit Sam over the head with their umbrellas]].

** Although there was that funny YouTube [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uNoNn0KjZA video]] of ''Michelle'' Obama being given a baby to kiss, only for the child to start crying. she passed him to her husband, and the baby immediately became quiet.
* The quiz website Sporcle has a quiz with [[http://www.sporcle.com/games/Hejman/dont_get_it_backwards pictures of American presidents and presidential candidates kissing and holding babies]]; the player is asked to name the politicians in the pictures. There is also an [[http://www.sporcle.com/games/Hejman/no_eskimos_here international version]] featuring politicians and leaders from around the world.

* In ''TheHuntForRedOctober'', NSA advisor Jeffrey Pelt tells Jack Ryan "I'm a politician, which means that I'm a cheat and a liar. And if I'm not kissing babies, I'm stealing their lollipops.".

Subversions in which the baby is shaken, autographed, or otherwise mishandled by a confused candidate are common

* A ''[[TheBeano The Bash Street Kids]]'' strip has the teacher tell the class that they will be electing a head boy by democratic vote. Plug references the trope saying that politicians get votes by kissing babies, so he goes to kiss some at a nursery. But because Plug's ugly, the babies scream and gets thrown out without a kiss.

* In ''TheShaggyDA'' Wilby Daniels decides to run for District Attorney in order to clean up the corruption in the town. At one point he's talking with a female voter with a perambulator; the kid inside has a dirty, sticky face, but the woman gives him a look waiting for him to kiss her baby. He does so, leaving him with a facefull of chocolate. Just at that moment a photographer from the local paper decides to take Wilby's picture.

* Parodied in an episode of ''ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', where Mac tries to get a woman to give her baby to him so that Dennis can kiss it. Naturally, she's a little weirded out.

* Mentioned in a MADMagazine article from 1962 (also an early version of the RussianReversal): "Russian politics can best be understood by comparing them with American politics. For instance, in America, politicians have to kiss babies, and if they don't, the mothers can take their offices away from them. In Russia, the system is somewhat different. To get food, mothers have to kiss politicians and if they don't, the politicians can take their babies away from them."

* ''PearlsBeforeSwine'' made a parody of this. Rat was trying to win the election, but he couldn't come to a baseball event, so he sent Pig in his place to kiss a baby and throw a baseball out to the field. This cost Rat the election, because Pig kissed the baseball, and threw a baby out to the field!
* ''{{Bizarro}}'' (by Piraro) [[http://www.bizarrocomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/bz-panel-04-24-12.jpg comic for April 24th, 2012]]. A FunnyAnimal cat politician is shown ''licking'' a kitten held by a female supporter.

* In the iOS game ''{{Highborn}}'', when campaigning for Foozle, Monty orders his children to go out and hold a rally. Being dragons, he has to remind them to just ''kiss'' the babies, not eat them.

* In an episode of ''GarfieldAndFriends'', specifically the Orson's Farm/U.S. Acres segment, Roy Rooster kisses ''eggs'' when running for the title of "leader of the barnyard", since [[DontExplainTheJoke he is a male chicken, and chickens lay eggs.]]

* Punk rock vocalist [[DeadKennedys Jello Biafra]] ran for mayor of San Francisco in the late [[TheSeventies 1970's]] and [[InvertedTrope inverted this trope]]: he kissed hands and shook babies.

* In ''[[AnAmericanTail An American Tail: Fievel Goes West]]'', Cat R. Waul kisses Yasha to convince the mice that he's harmless.

* On ''{{Seinfeld}}'' Kramer runs for president of a retirement home's condo board; this involves treating some of the senior citizens there like the babies in this trope.

* Subverted by "[[AdolfHitler Mr Hilter]]" in ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' while canvassing for the North Minehead By-Election.

* In an episode of ''{{Sliders}}'' where Professor Arturo runs for Mayor of San Francisco, he screws this up by chasing after a woman shouting "Madam, I need to kiss your baby!"

* In ''HarkAVagrant'', [[http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=43 kissing too many babies gets in the way of Emperor Norton's duties]].

* An episode of ''{{Recess}}'' has the equivalent for kids; kissing pets. The boys tries to discredit Gretchen (who's running against Vince for [[SeriousBusiness class president]] on a platform of "Girls for Gretchen", although she genuinely wants to do a good job) by having her asked to kiss a pet lizard. She gets out of it by claiming to have a cold.
* In the ''LooneyTunes'' short "Ballot Box Bunny", Yosemite Sam's campaigning for mayor includes kissing babies, none of which seem to enjoy it. BugsBunny disguises himself as a baby and kisses ''him'', then cries that "the bad man bit my widdle nose!", and all the women start to [[ParasolOfPain hit Sam over the head with their umbrellas]].
* On one episode of ''ThePowerPuffGirls'' the mayor was running for his re-election, he mentioned that it was one of his favorite parts.
* Done in ''TheMask'' cartoon. Of course, when the Mask himself ran for the mayor, he kissed bab'''es''' instead.
* There was a nasty gag based on this in ''FamilyGuy'', involving Peter kissing two babies but refusing to kiss a particulary ugly/deformed child.

* In ''HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' episode "Guitar Control", Phil tries this during one of his Presidential Election rallies, but mixes things up a bit.

* Parodied in ''HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' in the episode . As Phil is doing this on the order and starts kissing hands and shaking babies.
* In the ''PhineasAndFerb'' episode "The Mom Attractor," Dr. Doofenschmirtz's evil scheme is to create a giant baby that cries whenever his brother (the Mayor) kisses a baby, so people won't vote for him.

* An episode of ''TheSimpsons'' has Mr. Burns running for governor, and there's a scene where he mentions that he needs to go off and do this.

* In the opening of ''TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Kuzco is presented with three babies to kiss. He simply stamps them with a kiss mark stamper.