History Main / PoliticiansKissBabies

** Averted by Batman who is running against him. He refuses to kiss babies because he doesn't want to spread germs.

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': In "The Baseball Game," honorary {{Mascot}} Bolt isn't sure what he should do in this role. He decides to emulate the behavior of local politicians in the recent election by doling out sloppy licking kisses to babies and old ladies, giving paw shakes to the men and boys, and similar actions. Several people say he has more charisma than the two gubernatorial candidates and make comments to that effect.

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

* In ''Film/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.".

* In VideoGame/Borderlands2, Angel tells the [[PlayerCharacter Vault Hunter]] that Jack uses [[BodyDouble body doubles]] of himself to do all his "hand-kissing and baby-shaking for him".

* In the 2012 film ''Film/TheCampaign'' the two candidates for office get into a fight over which is going to kiss a particular baby. Creator/WillFerrell's character ends up ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice punching the baby right in the face]]'' when his opponent [[DeadlyDodging ducks out of the way]].

* In the 2012 film ''Film/TheCampaign'' the two candidates for office get into a fight over which is going to kiss a particular baby. Creator/WillFerrell's character ends up ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice punching the baby]]'' when his opponent [[DeadlyDodging ducks out of the way]].

* In the 1966 ''Series/{{Batman}}'' series when the Penguin runs for Mayor of Gotham he kisses babies.

* On one episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerPuffGirls'' the mayor was running for his re-election, he mentioned that it was one of his favorite parts.

->'''Mayor Dewey:''' Another reason you should re-elect me, I love babies. Will you look at that, a baby! Gonna kiss it!
->'''Steven:''' Hmm, I like his policies on babies.
->'''Buck Dewey:''' Man, he never kisses ''me'' like that.
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', "Lars and the Cool Kids"

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; presumably if he ''was'' evil, he'd be unable to resist the urge to [[EatsBabies take a bite out of it]], or the baby would start [[EvilDetectingBaby crying loudly]].

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* ''Fanfic/ThoseWhoStandForNothingFallForAnything'': Light has got this photo op covered.

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* ''ComicStrip/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!
* ''ComicStrip/{{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.

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* ''Radio/{{Party}}'': Jared and Phoebe hatch a plan to exploit this in ''Radio.'' WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

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* In the iOS game ''VideoGame/{{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.
* Referenced in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3 - Citadel''. When asked how he'd turn Cerberus around, Joker says he'd make them popular again and launch a big P.R campaign - "shaking hands, kissing babes." Miranda tries to correct him, but he knows what he said.
* Mentioned 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".

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* A very [[DudeNotFunny unfunny]] example occurs in ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'', when Julien[[note]]Who likes to move it, move it! [[WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}} Who likes to...]][[RealSongThemeTune move it!]][[/note]] decides one of these would be a good way to boost his approval rating, which initially works well but things go awry when Mort uses his small stature to pass himself off as a baby to get a kiss.

* The children's picture book ''Duck for President''has Duck do this as part of his campaigning.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'', Julien decides one of these would be a good way to boost his approval rating, which initially works well but things go awry when Mort uses his small stature to pass himself off as a baby to get a kiss.

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

-->'''Bender's Head''': Great. First he steals my body, now he's touching my stuff.

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

* A brief shot during the Creator/{{ESPN}} "30 for 30" ''Pony Exce$$'' installment showed Bill Clements (former Governor of Texas and then chairman of the Board of Governors at Southern Methodist University[[note]]and who, unknown to voters at the time, was knee deep in the recruiting scandal involving the football program [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Methodist_University_football_scandal that led to the NCAA issuing the death penalty for the football program in early 1987]][[/note]]) during his run to return to the Governor's Mansion in 1986[[note]]Clements had been elected in 1978 but lost his bid for re-election in 1982[[/note]]; with Clements having noted a baby he just kissed was the first time he did that in his 1986 gubernatorial campaign.

* ''ComicStrip/{{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.

* Parodied in ''[[Literature/MythAdventures Myth-Quoted]]'', in which rival candidates for governor participate in a baby-kissing ''contest'' to see which one's kisses can get the most giggles and least crying out of hundreds of infants within a set time limit. When Aahz enters the race, he ducks out of having to by pointing out that [[RealityEnsues it's a great way to spread germs between infants]].