History Main / WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove

* On TheOddCouple, Felix breaks up Oscar's ex-wife's wedding (which would have ended Oscar's need to pay alimony) because he realized they weren't in love. Oscar calls him on it and demands to know what love is: (paraphrased a bit)

** Kaworu also does this in the manga, after ironically having Rei's love for Shinji essentially Xerox'd onto him by the 16th. He asks if Shinji if what he's feeling is love and tries to romantically advance on him after ''kissing Shinji while he was hyperventilating.'' [[AllLoveIsUnrequited It doesn't end well]].

* Because of her inability to love, [[LightNovel/{{Durarara}} Anri]] has a difficulty with understanding this concept, and therefore she cannot tell apart the feelings she feels for Mikado, Masaomi, ''and'' Mika.

* ''Main/TwelveToTheMoon''. The Moon aliens capture a courting pair of astronauts and study them to establish if they're a threat to their emotionless utopia. In the end they decide it has its good points and call off their genocide of the Earth. Well, that and a few atomic bombs dropped on them helped change their minds.

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Subverted with the non-corporeal [[UltimateEvil First Evil]] in "Touched". Several Scoobies are having a PreClimaxClimax. The First talks of its envy of these humans who can touch each other...because it would like to be able to [[NeckSnap hold someone's neck in their hands and feel it snap]].

* In ''[[MassEffect Mass Effect 2]]'', when asked about why it specifically chose a piece of Shepard's armor to repair itself with, Legion reacts with what seems to be its version of a blush and says: "[[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming No data available]]".

* ''MassEffect's'' Commander Shepard lampshades this trope and MarsNeedsWomen in a bit of optional dialogue, commenting that, according to old movies, humans have everything an alien species could want: "Oceans, beautiful women, this emotion called love..." Which is in itself a direct shout-out to an old Star Trek episode, where Kirk invokes (and pretty much epitomizes) this trope to the GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe of the week.

** She may be ''lying''. After all, [[spoiler:the backstory says that Freya shut herself down because she'd developed feelings at least equivalent to love for her father/builder]].

* Sora of ''{{Ever17}}'' asks Takeshi this very question, which he interprets as mere curiosity. [[spoiler:During her route she suffers a sort of breakdown/split personality when seeing Tsugumi and Takeshi together]] on the gondola where her emotional, irrational self and coldly efficient side start arguing.]]

It gets creepier. After running away from her creators, she drifts into prostitution. So she knows all about the mechanics of sex, it's the emotional aspects that she has no experience with. On the other hand, X-23 still shows signs of loving her aunt and cousin when she stays with them, and hugs her cousin when they leave. Laura's reaction to the death of Sarah Kinney also suggests that she ''did'' love her mother as well.

It gets creepier. After running away from her creators, she drifts into prostitution. So she knows all about the mechanics of sex, it's the emotional aspects that she has no experience with. On the other hand, X-23 still shows signs of loving her aunt and cousin when she stays with them, and hugs her cousin when they leave.

* In the BigFinishDoctorWho audio drama ''The Zygon Who Fell To Earth'', a Zygon asks "What is this 'love'?" Another Zygon, who has been disguised as a 1980s record company boss, explains it's "a money-making scam of the humans".

* Subverted in the BigFinishDoctorWho audio drama ''The Cannibalists''. Lucie asks a robot why he writes poetry:

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** ''Rebuild 2.0'' handles the heavy Shinji/Rei subtext very well: at one point, Shinji makes lunch for Rei who reacts with a blush and thanks him; later on, she wonders why did she do that when she never thanks anyone. In another instance, Asuka questions Rei about her feelings towards Shinji and she responds that she feels "warm and content" around him but doesn't know why.

* The conversation in ''SpiritedAway'' between Lin and Kamaji (two spirits) as they watched Chihiro speak to the sleeping Haku both plays it straight and inverts it.
--> '''Lin:''' What's going on?
--> '''Kamaji''': Something you wouldn't recognize. It's called "love".

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* Sora of ''{{Ever17}}'' asks Takeshi this very question, which he interprets as mere curiosity. [[spoiler:During her route she suffers a sort of breakdown/split personality when seeing Tsugumi and Takeshi together]] on the gondola where her emotional, irrational self and coldly efficient side start arguing.]]

* Played for laughs in a science fair on ''[[WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents Fairly Odd Parents]]'' where Timmy's (now genius) Dad tries to convey the emotion of love to the scientific community. Cue a robot going "WHAT IS LOVE!? DOES NOT COMPUTE!" and blow up. Only to also have all the scientists in the audience go "LOVE? Is that an emotion?" and blow up as well.

* In Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', WALL•E wordlessly ponders the gesture of hand-holding in his movie Hello Dolly (and does discover its true meaning).

* In ''[[BaldursGate Baldur's Gate 2]]'', Viconia does have a concept of what love is but, being from a race where sex is used for either only pleasure or to have power over somebody, is quite unfamiliar with the more intimate aspects, such as cuddling, and is quite confused when she starts to "feel an ache" whenever your apart.

* [[spoiler:Kuwagata Takuma]] from [[VisualNovel/SwanSong Swan Song]] fails to understand the meaning of love upon being told that someone loves him.

* ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'': Fauna points out that the few things Malificent doesn't understand are love, kindess, and the [[GoodFeelsGood joys of helping others]]. Hence why Flora points out that if they shelter the princess themselves (selflessly helping someone at their own risk), Malificent wouldn't be able to expect it so easily.

** [[TruthInTelevision That last sentence is reasonably true of this world, too.]]

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