History Main / SmokingIsCool

-->-- '''Creator/RogerEbert''' on ''200 Cigarettes''

[[caption-width-right:270:Remember, kids: Smoke, and you too can\\
be this badass.]]

* ''Literature/TheGeneral'': Everybody on planet Bellevue smokes like chimneys, the rich and aristocratic using long ivory cigarette holders, probably as a tension reliever. On Bellevue, the homefront is every bit as stressful as the battlefront.

%%* Brian Kinney in ''Series/QueerAsFolk''.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Edward Bernays, commonly regarded as the father of modern public relations, conceived the highly successful "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom Torches of Freedom]]" campaign for the American Tobacco Company in the late 1920s, which encouraged women to smoke cigarettes as a display of emancipation from traditional sex roles. One of Bernays' most effective stunts involved enlisting young women to smoke while marching in the Fifth Avenue Easter Parade in New York.
* In China, Korea, and Japan, you aren't considered a man unless you smoke. While this is becoming less of a thing in the latter two countries, China remains the world's largest tobacco market, where smoking restrictions are very lax and cigarettes are commonly exchanged at social gatherings, especially in rural areas.
* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill was often seen chomping on a massive cigar. He never actually lit them up, except for special occasions, but kept them around in part because he knew it made him look badass. There's even a famous picture of Churchill looking extremely grumpy because the photographer just snatched the cigar out of his mouth. (Oddly enough, Churchill was one of the last members of Parliament who actually used the complementary snuff. Smoking has been banned from the Palace of Westminster for centuries, and the snuff was provided as a way to placate smokers.)
* Creator/BenedictCumberbatch's [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130411080255/http://www.benedictcumberbatch.co.uk/interviews/sherlock-and-star-trek-benedict-cumberbatch-lights-it-up/ photohoot]] for the ''LA Times''. On Tumblr, fans of the actor went absolutely crazy for it, some even saying things like "I don't like smoking but he makes it look sexy."
* The page image for DoNotDoThisCoolThing shows various famous people smoking.
* Music/FrankZappa, who declared cigarettes to be a food. He died at 52 of prostate cancer.
* The late comedian Creator/BillHicks was a voracious smoker and frequently invoked this trope in his act, even while admitting that smoking is terrible for you. He died at 32 of pancreatic cancer, which is not apparently smoking-related.
* [[Music/TheClash Joe Strummer]], who once said no non-smokers or ex-smokers should be allowed to listen to music made by people who smoke. He died at 50 of an unrelated heart defect.
* [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]] is often remembered with his aristocratic cigarette holder. He died at 63 of a stroke.
* Adolf Galland enjoyed his cigars so much that he had an ashtray installed in his [[CoolPlane Messerschmitt Bf-109]].
* Douglas Bader used to smoke his pipe in the cockpit of his Spitfire.
* General, later President UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant went everywhere surrounded by a cloud of cigar smoke. [[IncurableCoughOfDeath Until he died of throat cancer]]. When word got out that Grant smoked cigars, admirers and well-wishers sent him boxes of cigars by the carload. So many that he simply gave them away while having his secretary accomplish the thank-you notes. Interestingly, Grant himself often wrote that he feared smoking was having a negative effect on his health, and did his best to cut back.
* [[Series/NoReservations Anthony Bourdain]] ''adored'' his cigarettes, until he had a kid and quit smoking.
* UsefulNotes/JosephStalin's pipe became kind of his signature and a subject of some (rather somber, since he's the goddamn Stalin) jokes about him (see RussianHumour).
* Music/TomWaits. Find any image of him with a cigarette and he'll look like a badass.
* Creator/KurtVonnegut, despite being a writer, had all the badassness you need: mustache, Badass luck (he lived through the bombing of Dresden, one of the largest bomb raids during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]]) and smoked unfiltered Pall Malls all his adult life. What he said about his smoking habit? "It's a classy way to commit suicide". The irony in that he died of brain injury from the fall in his own apartment at the age of 84.
* Creator/AynRand was an avid chain smoker and considered it a desirable part of a heroic lifestyle, which is why all the heroes ([[EvenEvilHasStandards and even villains]]) are heavy smokers in her novels. If you wanted to be part of her inner circle of friends and admirers, smoking was almost a necessity. Unsurprisingly, she developed lung cancer later in her life, though she did not die from it as is sometimes claimed.
* Basically one of the two reasons candy cigarettes exist.
* [[Series/TheMortonDowneyJrShow Morton Downey Jr.]]: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Downey_Jr.#Death "My fear was that I had spawned a generation of kids to think it was cool to smoke a cigarette."]]
* Ron White, the famous comedian, shows on stage with a cigar in his mouth typically already lit, smokes it on-stage, ''and'' has a glass of whiskey nearby that he drinks from. Sometimes he'll use cigarettes instead, which often gets a positive reaction from the GenreSavvy audience when he lights one because it means a particularly good story or punchline is coming up.
* [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]]: An iconic smoker.
* Creator/GeorgeBurns. Went on smoking till he died at the age of 100.
* Music/BobDylan, as seen [[http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+Dylan/+images/13979651 here]].
* Nascar drivers David Pearson and Dick Trickle's claim to fame was smoking in their car. It was said that if you saw David Pearson smoking in the car you would be passed. Both drivers had cigarette lighters installed in their cars and made their helmets so they could get the cigarette in their mouth.
* UsefulNotes/FormulaOne drivers James Hunt and Keke Rosberg were rarely seen out of the car without a cigarette. Both became World Champions during their careers.
* Victoria Clowes, webmaster of [[{{Music/Japan}} Steve Jansen's]] photography blog, [[https://jansenphotographyblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/16/the-occurrence-of-smoke/ recounts how]] she got into smoking as a young woman in [[TheEighties '80s England]]. [[{{Deconstruction}} She also goes into how]] Music/DavidSylvian denies ever being a serious smoker [[https://jansenphotographyblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/sj-smoking.jpg (note the unlit cig)]] and the habit possibly accounting for Mick Karn and [[Music/RyuichiSakamoto Ryuichi Sakamoto's]] respective bouts with cancer.
--> "Now, I am the last person [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing to encourage anyone to smoke,]]...but when I sit here now and look back at all of these wonderful images I still can’t help but think that [[CastFullOfPrettyBoys they all look so]] ''[[CastFullOfPrettyBoys freaking cool]]''. It’s sheer madness, I know. I’m not 15 and easily manipulated, but...well, take this [[https://jansenphotographyblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/1120-e1502734069565.jpg photo of Mick, in a hotel room in Leeds,]] as an example. With the [[EightiesHair blonde shock of spikes]] and the filterless fag dangling dangerously from his jutting lips, doesn’t he just appear to be [[AgentPeacock the most exotic and intriguing person who ever bestrode the planet?"]]
* Anime singer Yukio Yamagata. An ultra growly voice given to him through chain smoking that he is very well known for.
* Japanese singer Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi took up smoking to deliberately invoke this trope. Not in terms of a cool image, but in terms of a cool voice, since he thought his natural was too high and sweet.
* Music/BobMarley. Smoked joints and is often used as a poster boy for marijuana. A large part of his fanbase enjoys his music equally because it promotes the use of weed. There are quite a number of photos that depict him smoking a joint. Bob also referenced smokin' herb and spliffs often in his music, including "Jump Nyabinghi", "Easy Skankin'"... but despite all that he was actually quite critical of people just being stoned and doing nothing to change the system. He even referenced it in songs like "Burnin' and Lootin" from ''Music/{{Burnin}}'' ("I must say: all them- all them drugs gonna make you slow/ It's not the music of the ghetto.") and "Pimper's Paradise" from ''Music/{{Uprising}}'', which is about a female drug addict.
* Creator/AgathaChristie hated smoking, but it was so cool during her age that she forced herself to smoke two cigarettes a day for six months before finally giving up.
* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in one poster with advice for teenagers, asking them to imagine a little kid with a butt in his mouth, and saying that's what they look like if they smoke. It's a decidedly unflattering image that's meant to force kids to question how cool the act of smoking really is.
* Creator/MadsMikkelsen apparently looks so cool when he smokes that Creator/HideoKojima decided to change his character in ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' from a non-smoker to a smoker, as shown [[https://twitter.com/HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN/status/1134804008256729088 here]].
* Creator/JRRTolkien was an avid pipe-smoker, and built smoking into his work even though Middle-Earth is supposedly a legendarily ancient precursor of Europe and tobacco is a New World plant. When he later removed references to New World fruit and vegetables, he left pipeweed in, and it even became a plot element in that one of the reasons Saruman takes over the Shire is that it gives him access to the stuff. (Saruman in the movies disapproves of Gandalf's smoking habit.) His favourite blend, Capstan Navy Cut Flake, is still in production.
* Creator/HunterSThompson was almost never photographed without a cigarette in arms reach, usually placed in a holder clenched in his teeth.
* Creator/MontyPython's Creator/GrahamChapman took up pipe smoking at age 15. His characters on Python were often seen pipe smoking as well.
* Creator/BetteDavis was a famous chain smoker, often up to four packs a day. She took it up in her twenties to seem more sophisticated as an actress. Vanguards and Chesterfields were her brands of choice. Even for TV interviews, she couldn't abstain from smoking. She once said, “If I did not smoke a cigarette, they would not know who I was.”
[[/folder]]

** Who's the one character seen smoking in ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' (and it's a ''[[CigarChomper cigar]]'', no less)? Why, none other than the [[EvilIsCool ultra-badass]] RatedMForManly BigBad [[spoiler: Senator Steven Armstrong]]!

* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'': As a part of his spaghetti western design motif, Malcolm Graves The Outlaw smokes cigars. And is most definitely RatedMForManly

* Asuma Sarutobi in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' is quite famous for his smoking habit. [[spoiler: His pupil Shikamaru]] started smoking as well, [[spoiler:after Asuma's death,]] even though he hated it. Not like he wasn't badass before, but to get {{revenge}} [[spoiler:on Asuma's murderer]] he [[TookALevelInBadass took another level in badass]], finally burying an [[spoiler:immortal]] opponent [[spoiler:alive and cut]] in pieces. \\
\\
[[spoiler:Asuma's death]] provoked both the smoking and the reckless badassery, which makes this a JustifiedTrope. Notably, [[spoiler:Shikamaru]] hasn't lit up again since achieving his revenge [[spoiler:on Asuma's killer, with Asuma's lighter used to strike the final blow]].

* The late comedian Creator/BillHicks was a voracious smoker and frequently invoked this trope in his act, often while admitting that smoking is terrible for you. He died at 32 of pancreatic cancer, which is not apparently smoking related.

* Music/BobMarley. Smoked joints and is often used as a poster boy for marijuana. A large part of his fanbase enjoys his music equally because it promotes the use of weed. There are quite a number of photos that depict him smoking a joint. Bob also referenced smokin' herb and spliffs often in his music, including ''Jump Nyabinghi'', ''Easy Skankin'',... but despite all that he was actually quite critical of people just being stoned and doing nothing to change the system. He even referenced it in songs like ''Burnin' And Lootin'' from ''Music/{{Burnin}}'' ("I must say: all them- all them drugs gonna make you slow/ It's not the music of the ghetto.") and "Pimper's Paradise" from ''Music/{{Uprising}}'', which is about a female drug addict.

* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill was often seen chomping on a massive cigar. He never actually lit them up, except for special occasions, but kept them around in part because he knew it made him look badass. There's even a famous picture of Churchill looking extremely grumpy because the photographer just snatched the cigar out of his mouth. Oddly enough, Churchill was one of the last members of Parliament who actually used the complementary snuff. Smoking has been banned in the main parliament building in Britain for centuries, and the snuff was a way to placate smokers.

* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill was often seen chomping on a massive cigar. He never actually lit them up, except for special occasions, but kept them around in part because he knew it made him look badass. There's even a famous picture of Churchill looking extremely grumpy because the photographer just snatched the cigar out of his mouth. Oddly enough, Churchill was one of the last members of parliament who actually used the complementary snuff. Smoking has been banned in the main parliament building in Britain for centuries, and the snuff was a way to placate smokers.

* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill was often seen chomping on a massive cigar. He never actually lit them up, except for special occasions, but kept them around because he knew it made him look badass. There's a famous picture of Churchill looking extremely grumpy because the photographer just snatched the cigar out of his mouth. Oddly enough, Churchill was one of the last members of parliament who actually used the complementary snuff. Smoking has been banned in the main parliament building in Britain for centuries, and the snuff was a way to placate smokers.

* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill was often seen chomping on a massive cigar. He never actually lit it up, except for special occasions, but kept it around because he knew it made him look badass. There's a famous picture of Churchill looking extremely grumpy because the photographer just snatched the cigar out of his mouth. Oddly enough, Churchill was one of the last members of parliament who actually used the complementary snuff. Smoking has been banned in the main parliament building in Britain for centuries, and the snuff was a way to placate smokers.

* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill was often seen chomping on a massive cigar. He never actually lit it up except for special occasions but kept it around because he knew it made him look badass. There's a famous picture of Churchill looking extremely grumpy because the photographer just snatched the cigar out of his mouth. Oddly enough, Churchill was one of the last members of parliament who actually used the complementary snuff. Smoking has been banned in the main parliament building in Britain for centuries, and the snuff was a way to placate smokers.

[[folder:Radio]]
* Parodied on ''Radio/TheNowShow'', in Olga Koch's "Guide to Dating a Crypto Bro". Having been told she's not allowed to smoke indoors, she attempts to portray ''eating'' cigarettes as cool and sexy.
-->Suddenly, another woman sits down on his opposite side. She's eating a cigar. You've got competition, and she's hardcore.
[[/folder]]

* Edward Bernays, commonly regarded as the father of modern public relations, conceived the highly successful "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom Torches of Freedom]]" campaign for the American Tobacco Company in the late 1920s, which encouraged women to smoke cigarettes as a display of emancipation from traditional sex roles. One of Bernays' most effective stunts involved enlisting young women to smoke while marching in the Fifth Avenue Easter Parade in New York in 1929.

* Creator/BenedictCumberbatch's photoshoot for the [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130411080255/http://www.benedictcumberbatch.co.uk/interviews/sherlock-and-star-trek-benedict-cumberbatch-lights-it-up/ LA Times]]. On Tumblr, fans of the actor went absolutely crazy for it- some even saying things like "I don't like smoking but he makes it look sexy."

* Edward Bernays, commonly regarded as the father of modern public relations, conceived the highly successful "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom Torches of Freedom]]" campaign for the American Tobacco Company in the late 1920s, which encouraged women to smoke cigarettes as a display of emancipation from traditional sex roles. One of Bernays' most effective stunts involved enlisting young women to smoke while marching in the ''au courant'' Fifth Avenue Easter Parade in New York in 1929.

* Edward Bernays, commonly regarded as the father of modern public relations, conceived the highly successful "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom Torches of Freedom]]" campaign for the American Tobacco Company in the late 1920s, which encouraged women to smoke cigarettes as a display of emancipation from traditional sex roles. One of Bernays' most effective stunts involved enlisting young women to smoke while marching in the 1929 Fifth Avenue Easter parade in New York City, then a benchmark event of fashionable society.

* Edward Bernays, commonly regarded as the father of modern public relations, conceived the highly successful "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torches_of_Freedom Torches of Freedom]]" campaign for the American Tobacco Company in the late 1920s, which encouraged women to smoke cigarettes as a token of emancipation from traditional sex roles. One of Bernays' most effective stunts involved enlisting young women to smoke while marching in the 1929 Fifth Avenue Easter parade in New York City, then a benchmark event of fashionable society.

[[caption-width-right:270:Remember kids: Smoke, and you too can be this badass.]]

For some reason, smoking is used as a shorthand in fiction to say that someone is a badass. It probably has its roots in [[TheFifties Fifties]] rebel flicks, or '40s FilmNoir, or maybe the somewhat deeper idea that someone who cares nothing about their health will willingly expose themselves to pain on a regular basis, or maybe the play of smoke on the screen around a character in slow-mo is just that damn cool -- but whatever it is, there's no denying that nine times out of ten a fictional smoker is a badass. No childlike or upbeat characters smoke. The smoker is the AntiHero, the BadassNormal, or the DeadpanSnarker, whereas the non-smoker is the GenkiGirl, MessianicArchetype, the KidHero.

And you can forget about the millions of ways cigarettes can kill you or make your life miserable. Fictitious smokers are hardly ever affected by so much as a smoker's cough, let alone shortness of breath, lung cancer, gum disease, or heart disease. No-one else minds, either -- the only people who complain are going to be the naggy SideKick, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat joy-killing bureaucrat]] or the irritating little brat who tags along outside the lower boundary of the CompetenceZone, and it gives the hero a good chance to sarcastically brush them off and show how cool and viciously witty they are.

* ''LightNovel/TheReunionWithTwelveFascinatingGoddesses'' has several characters who smoke, including [[CoolOldLady Tooi's grandmother]] and Gilfrain. The former was able to live to the age of 121 despite her habit.

** Jotaro Kujo from [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Part 3]]. Considering that he's a delinquent in the year 1987, his smoking isn't really out of place.
** Also averted in [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Part 2]] with the [[spoiler:death of Caesar]]. Lisa Lisa pulls out her cigarette and tries to look cool and calm... until she's told that it's in her mouth upside down, [[spoiler:showing that she was just trying to cover up how close she was to breaking down into tears]].
** In [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Part 7]], an enemy stand user makes smoking even cooler by making the smoke explosive.

* Prominent in ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'', which is set in 1930s America, so obviously, EverybodySmokes. Subverted, however, when Elmer startles Ronnie into swallowing his cigarette and he ends up hacking his lungs out for a good few minutes. Not very cool.

* Heiwajima Shizuo of ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' almost always has a cigarette in his mouth, and makes a point of throwing it to the ground and stomping on it every time he gets ready to beat the ever loving shit out of somebody.

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' has Kiritsugu Emiya, smokes, and temporarily stopped for 9 years in regard to his wife and child, but picks up the habit again during the start of the Holy Grail War.

** Jotaro Kujo from Part 3. Considering he's a delinquent in the year 1987, his smoking isn't really out of place.
** Also averts it in Part 2 with the [[spoiler: death of Caesar]]. Lisa Lisa pulls out her cigarette and tries to look cool and calm...until she's told that it's in her mouth upside down, [[spoiler: showing that she was just trying to cover up how close she was to breaking down into tears]].
** In Part 7 an enemy stand user makes smoking even cooler by making the smoke explosive.

* [[Characters/HellblazerJohnConstantine Constantine]] from ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' and [[Film/{{Constantine}} the movie of the same name]] subverts this - badass or not, he still gets lung cancer. Of course, he's still [[MagnificentBastard badass enough]] to find a way not to die of it, either. [[spoiler:However, in the movie at least, the experience is enough to get him to quit. In the comics, Constantine went back to smoking pretty much instantly and never stopped.]]

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* Ryotaro Dojima from ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' has this look in effect in his Social Link status window, and it does nicely complement his gritty badass detective look.

** Raiden himself used to smoke, though he quit prior to ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2 Sons of Liberty]]''. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential That doesn't mean the player can't make him smoke the cigarette pack that Snake gives him.]]

** Venom Snake in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidV'' smokes an E-cigar, which dispenses vapours of wormwood to him. The hallucinatory effect advances time, handy for letting you do infiltrations of bases at night after scouting it out during the day. [[spoiler:Would you have guessed it foreshadows his [[BodyDouble true nature]]?]]

** Ditto for ''{{VideoGame/Bioshock Infinite}}''. Everyone smoked in the 1910s, and Booker's no exception. Elizabeth also picked up smoking by the time at ''[[BioshockInfinite/BurialAtSea Burial at Sea]]''.

** Cass and Boone in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' don't just idle on smoking, it's their full-time job from which they break from only to kill things. These are the two most Badass and jaded [[AntiHero Anti-Heroes]].

* Kazuma Kiryu, the badass {{Yakuza}} protagonist of the ''Videogame/{{Yakuza}}'' series smokes. Depending on the game, he'll light one up when left idling for a bit or get his cigarette lit by a pretty girl in a Hostess Club. He's even got a LimitBreak attack that requires him to light up a cig in the middle of a brawl, allowing him to counter the unfortunate {{Mook|s}} who inevitably attacks him when his guard is seemingly lowered... by spitting the cigarette in the guy's face, and then using the resulting opening to launch a devastating blow.
** In ''Yakuza 4'', the tradition is proudly maintained - all four (badass) protagonists are smokers, though exactly how heavily they smoke varies. Interestingly, it even seems like the more badass of the protagonists, are also the ones that smoke the most...