History Main / ProfessionalButtKisser

** Skinner tries to be this to Superintendent Chalmers oh ''so'' hard, but being a high-quality buzz-kill, ''way'' too eager to please (to the point that in trying to please Chalmers he instead ruins things ''hard'' -- ex. in one episode, Chalmers and Skinner do the classic Creator/AbbottAndCostello "WhosOnFirst" sketch for a school fundraiser... and Skinner, obviously not getting how the sketch is supposed to go, answers in a totally unambiguous fashion and kills the gag in ''[[EpicFail five seconds]]'') and with his school being such a [[SuckySchool hell-hole]] (and DependingOnTheWriter, Chalmers being in favor or against this), Chalmers utterly ''hates'' Skinner's guts (to the point that Chalmers' CatchPhrase is him yelling Skinner's name... and on some episodes, he can't even say similar words or talk to people like Mrs. Skinner without yelling them).

* There is a character exactly like this in the trope-filled novel ''Literature/StolenFromGypsies''.

* The B-movie ''Circuitry Man'' features a female {{Mook}} who is loyal to her "Boss", but cheerfully switches allegiance the instant her current employer gets killed; this happens two or three times in the course of the movie, and at the end, she survives to drive off into the sunset with Boss #4 or #5...

* James Spader plays one in ''Film/{{Mannequin}}''.

* Casper in ''The Story of Henri Tod'' (one of the ''Blackford Oakes'' series) gives the impression of this very much in the early part of the story.
* There is a character exactly like this in the trope-filled novel ''Stolen from Gypsies''.

* The main character in ''LightNovel/SagaOfTanyaTheEvil'' is a little girl with the mind of a 30-something career man who is liable to say or do anything to get ahead.

* Junko from ''WebAnimation/MangaSoprano'' plays up her cuteness on her male bosses to get out of work and Haru has to cover for her. Narita refuses to fall for her advances and is the first person to speak sternly to her.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': One of the new rookies in Emily's class at her evil WizardSchool, Brynne, spends a lot of time sucking up and pointlessly complimenting another student named Lily, who appears to be rich and claims to have extremely powerful magic on account of being descended from Legend/{{Merlin}}.

* Simmons from ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', commonly referred to by Grif as a "kiss-ass". And not just Grif: pretty much anyone who's ever met Simmons is aware of his sycophancy. On one occasion, Sarge decided to forego commanding them to do something useful and just commanded them to do what they were going to do anyway (except for Grif, who made sarcastic remarks instead). Simmons' order was "kiss ass at will," which he did, with gusto.

* In ''Manga/SazanEyes'' Mugero, a rock demon, is this to the main villain Benares. He spends his entire introduction trying to pass himself as an important servant of the great Benares and gushing about how his domain was chosen to perform the Humanization Ritual and the return of the Kaiyanwang. Becomes visibly hurt when Pai sees him as the glorified minion he actually is

* Junko from ''WebAnimation/MangaSaprano'' plays up her cuteness on her male bosses to get out of work and Haru has to cover for her. Narita refuses to fall for her advances and is the first person to speak sternly to her.

Like the name says, the Professional Butt-Kisser is a career sycophant and YesMan. They don't care who is in charge so long as they're the right hand man. If their current boss were to meet an untimely end (or just get fired/demoted) they will [[LesCollaborateurs happily offer their services]] to their replacement, even if they just saw how the new boss killed the old one! Despite their desire to be close to the reins of power, they never harbor any [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitions]] of [[TheStarscream their own boss-hood]], much less [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder betraying their current boss]], at least until the new one pushes them out of the job, anyway.

Often doubles as an ObstructiveBureaucrat and/or SmugSnake. See also PunchClockVillain, LoyalToThePosition (a more positive version) and BattleButler. Contrast ChronicBackstabbingDisorder; both have little loyalty to their allies, but the Professional Butt-Kisser never rebels. See TeachersPet for the Professional Butt-Kisser in training. See DispenseWithThePleasantries when the target isn't impressed by the attempt to butter them up.

* The main character in ''LightNovel/SagaOfTanyaTheEvil'', a little girl with the mind of a 30-something career man who is liable to say or do anything to get ahead.
* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'' Xiaxi leaps ahead in the hierarchy of the Wang Pu household servants by flattering and indirectly flirting with the Wang Pu brothers. They never really catch on to what she's doing, but the other servants and their sister Yixin certainly do: A servant Xiaxi snubbed and Yixin publicly reveal what she's been doing at one point, forcing her to have to start getting along with the other servants and be less obvious about her ass kissing.

* Chad in ''Film/InTheLoop'' takes this trope and tries to turn it into an artform. Unfortunately, he combines it with being a SmugSnake with the result that the people he tries to suck up to barely pay him any attention and everyone else just thinks he's a creep.

* ''Film/StingraySam''. Fredward has spent his entire life surrounded by sycophants praising everything he says. As a result he thinks his thoughts are [[AGodAmI divinely inspired]].

* Mr. Collins of ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' is the Regency equivalent of this; while Lady Catherine de Bourgh is not exactly his boss, he does depend on her goodwill for future advancement, and ensures this goodwill (or, given Lady Catherine's overall disagreeable character, something close to it) through shameless grovelling to the point where he's sucking up to her when she's not even in the local vicinity. [[spoiler:He even fulfills the "switching allegiances when necessary' part of the trope; when Elizabeth and Darcy are rumored to be engaged to marry, he writes Elizabeth's father a letter expressing Lady Catherine's condemnation of the engagement. Mr. Bennet writes back once the engagement becomes a reality and points out that, if he was to get in Darcy's good books, things would be even better for him. Mr. Collins' objections suddenly cease.]]

** Dolores Umbridge is an even worse example. She doesn't care who is in charge of the Ministry of Magic as long as they keep her in a position of power and authority. Her Pottermore profile reveals that this is how she managed to rise through the ranks in the Ministry in the first place (with [[StealingTheCredit taking underserved credit for herself]] thrown into the mix), rather than on real skill or merit.

* Dwight Schrute in ''Series/TheOfficeUS''. Aside from the few episodes he's fired (and [[GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity promptly rehired]]) or trying to usurp Michael's job.

* PlayedForLaughs and subverted with Evaristo Espina, from the "La Oficina ("The Office") segment in the oldschool Chilean humor show ''Jappening con Ja''. Personality-wise, he has almost all the markings of the trope... but also '''is''' [[UndyingLoyalty fiercely and genuinely loyal]] to his boss, Mr. Zañartu, and this is actually the reason why he is a buttlicker. He's such an iconic character that, in Spanish Chilean slang, the word "espinita" is actually used to define the trope itself.

--> '''Brunt:''' It's never too late to suck up to the boss!

** His father Philip's one-time assistant, one-shot character Edward Haskell from the episode "Robbing the Banks", also fits -- he's so eager to stay in Philip's good graces he does such exhausting tasks as transcribe Philip's law notes to audiotape, a process that by Haskell's own admission takes three days, but one he says is "[[BlatantLies extremely satisfying, not to mention rewarding]]." Will lampshades this in one instance:

* Two nights before his finale on ''Series/TheDailyShow'', Jon Stewart took Fox News to the woodshed accusing them of more than this when that outlet accused Stewart of sucking up to then President Obama:

* ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'': This is a more realistic, non villanous example: At Act II Scene VII, Cyrano [[DiscussedTrope discusses this trope]] with Le Bret, claiming that he will [[DefiedTrope defy it]]. It should be said that in TheCavalierYears and now, this is TruthInTelevision: An artist is always dependent of patronage.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', the third GM, Konishi, is outwardly the most polite and respectful toward Kitaniji, the Conductor, since she seems to be his assistant. [[spoiler:It's ultimately a subversion, since she's actually TheStarscream and is plotting to overthrow him.]]

** Skinner tries to be this to Superintendent Chalmers oh ''so'' hard, but being a high-quality buzz-kill, ''way'' too eager to please (to the point that in trying to please Chalmers he instead ruins things ''hard''--ex. on one episode Chalmers and Skinner do the classic Creator/AbbottAndCostello "WhosOnFirst" sketch for a school fund-raiser... and Skinner, obviously not getting how the sketch is supposed to go, answers in a totally unambiguous fashion and kills the gag in ''[[EpicFail five seconds]]'') and with his school being such a [[SuckySchool hell-hole]] (and DependingOnTheWriter, Chalmers being in favor or against this), Chalmers utterly ''hates'' Skinner's guts (to the point that Chalmers' CatchPhrase is him yelling Skinner's name... and on some episodes, he can't even say similar words or talk to people like Mrs. Skinner without yelling them).

** Lugnut too, though only for Megatron. He seems to not only ''worship'' Megatron in the most literal sense of the term, but he actually ''swears by him'' -- and he doesn't hesitate to remind Megatron of this fact in person. Even the megalomaniacal leader of the Decepticons sometimes gets tired of it, but keeps Lugnut around anyway because he's completely reliable.
* Wuya of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' happily offers to work for whatever villain happens to be on the top of the evil heap at that particular moment, only to come crawling back to work for [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Jack Spicer]] when said villain gets defeated, or in Catnappe's case is too fickle and lazy to work with. Justified by the fact that, while Wuya is ''extremely'' competent herself, when she's trapped in "spirit form", her inability to physically interact with anything leaves her no choice but to enlist a partner in crime by pretty much any means necessary.
* Holly Blue Agate of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. She's so much of one that even the Diamonds are annoyed of her. The Prosecuting Zircon is even worse.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', after Peter becomes president of El Dorado Cigarettes, he gets a robotic "company suck-up" who enthusiastically praises him and agrees with everything he says, quickly doing a 180 if Peter reveals that he has the opposite opinion. The suck-up ends up short-circuiting not long after Peter says he hates himself, since he's programmed to agree with everything he says but also to respect the president.

** Sargeant Schultz is only a little better at this, usually to pacify Klink when he accidentally annoys him.

* ''Literature/SecretSanta'': Erik quickly agrees with every little thing his boss and former high school crony Dave Crowley says to distract Crowley from Erik's many flaws.

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* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated''

** Skinner tries to be this to Superintendent Chalmers oh ''so'' hard, but being a high-quality buzz-kill, ''way'' too eager to please (to the point that in trying to please Chalmers he instead ruins things ''hard''--ex. on one episode Chalmers and Skinner do the classic Creator/AbbottAndCostello "WhosOnFirst" sketch for a school fund-raiser... and Skinner, obviously not getting how the sketch is supposed to go, answers in a totally unambiguous fashion and kills the gag in ''[[EpicFail five seconds]]'') and with his school being such a hell-hole (and DependingOnTheWriter, Chalmers being in favor or against this), Chalmers utterly ''hates'' Skinner's guts (to the point that Chalmers' CatchPhrase is him yelling Skinner's name... and on some episodes, he can't even say similar words or talk to people like Mrs. Skinner without yelling them).

* In ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', the third GM is one of these. Or Is [[TheStarscream She?]]

* ''Webcomic/LovelyPeople'': Praising the World Council on social media is a known way to get social credit points, but there is an algorithm that can pick out posts that are too obviously made just for the points. Because of that, those who are serious about using that avenue for "easy" points need to put real work into their posts.