Affectionate Gesture to the Nose

Not even sharks are immune! ^note Used with permission. See original image here

Vulkan: I would like to pet this creature.

Corvus: Don't do it.

Vulkan: It will be but a single boop on its noggin!

Corvus: Do not boop that merry suicide bomber.

Vulkan: I want to boop the snoot!

Corvus: Stop wanting!

Vulkan: But—

Corvus: STOP!

Vulkan: Must—

Corvus: VULKAN.

Vulkan: But...boop!

Corvus: NO BOOPING!

—If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device

What's the best way to be affectionate with someone else? A kiss or a hug might do. You could give the person a headpat or a headbutt. Or maybe a Held Gaze. Or alternatively, you can show your affection by doing something like gently tapping their nose or kissing it.

"Boop the snoot" is a common way to describe this, especially when referring to touching animals on the nose or snout in an affectionate way. This is also Truth in Television.

This can be done in many different types of relationships. It can be between family members, friends, lovers or to an animal companion.

Of course, like with the other "affectionate" tropes, this can be done in a mocking manner, like if an antagonist does this to a protagonist.

Related to the other "affection" tropes like Affectionate Gesture to the Head and Headbutt of Love. Not to be confused with Nose Tapping.

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Examples:

Fan Works

• Past Sins: Chapter 2: Rarity does it to Nyx, as a way of being evasive with the truth:
  “Why, from making other ponies jealous. Most ponies either have wings or a horn, if they even have either at all, but you have both. Not only that, but you have such unique eyes that you’d make other ponies jealous, and you wouldn’t want to make anypony jealous, would you?”
  Rarity finished by gently tapping Nyx on the nose, making her giggle a little before she smiled up at Rarity and said, “No, I guess I don’t…”

Films — Animated

• In Harvie Krumpet, this is how Harvie greets things and people as a manifestation of his Tourette's Syndrome. Sadly, he does it to the wrong person and gets assaulted so badly that it leaves a permanent scar across his head.
• In Ice Age: Continental Drift, during "Master Of The Seas", Captain Gutt does this to Sid at the beginning of the song.
• Lilo & Stitch: Stitch breaks orphan Lilo out of the capture capsule on Captain Gantu's now-pilotless starship. Lilo, surprised that Stitch made the effort, remarks, "You came back." This is met with Stitch's Meaningful Echo, "Nobody gets left behind." For this, Lilo gives him a kiss on his large nose. Stitch is at first surprised by this gesture, but smiles at the sincerity and gratitude it conveys.
• Snoopy, Come Home: When the gang is playing Monopoly and Lucy has to pay Schroeder for landing on his square, she instead offers him a "beep on the nose", calling it a sign of great affection. Later, during Snoopy's farewell party, Lucy beeps his nose in lieu of a kiss.
• The Tale of Despereaux: Princess Pea, a human who Desperaux the mouse is in love with, gives him an affectionate tap on the nose.
• Tangled: Subverted. Mother Gothel sometimes boops Rapunzel on the nose, especially early in the film, under the guise of being a caring parent. But it's actually more condescending than caring since Gothel is actually manipulating Rapunzel so she can use her healing powers to stay young.
  Gothel: Ugh, Rapunzel! How you manage to [use your hair as a rope] every single day without fail! It looks absolutely exhausting, darling.
  Rapunzel: Oh, it's nothing.
  Gothel: (booping Rapunzel's nose) Then I don't know why it takes so long!
• In Trolls, Poppy's initial love interest Creek likes to boop Poppy on the nose. Even after he is exposed as a traitor, selling out his friends to the Bergen Chef.
• In Turning Red, Mei and Sun Yee boop noses in their giant red panda forms.

Films — Live-Action

• Batman & Robin: Played for Horror between Robin and Poison Ivy. After the two of them finally share a passionate romantic kiss together, under the guise of Ivy wishing Robin luck against Mr. Freeze, Ivy immediately reveals that it was actually for "bad luck" in a mocking sad voice while rubbing noses with him affectionately. Ivy continues to mockingly flirt with Robin for a moment by gently stoking his chin lovingly with a single finger, even as she condemns him to death. Fortunately for Robin though he survives the encounter thanks to being Crazy-Prepared.
• Beauty and the Beast (2017): In one scene, LeFou boops Gaston's nose after helping him calm down.
• In Dogma, God's only direct interaction with Bethany is to boop her nose, since actually speaking would be so awesome that it would cause any mortal to literally explode.
• In Les Misérables (2012), Jean Valjean gently taps Cosette's nose as a last affectionate gesture just before he dies.
• In Little Women (1994), when saying good night to her daughters on Christmas Eve, Marmee has a different gesture of affection for each of them; with Jo, she rubs noses. Later in the movie, Laurie greets the adult Amy (with whom he's in love) by kissing her on the nose before pulling her into an embrace.
• The Muppet Christmas Carol: In one scene, Rizzo gives Gonzo a kiss on the nose to defuse the situation when Gonzo is annoyed at him.
• The Many Saints of Newark: While Dickie is walking along the beach with Giuseppina, he notices her looking sad and reassuringly kisses her several times all over the face, the first two on the nose. Unfortunately, once she reveals that she slept with Harold, Dickie isn't so reassuring anymore.
• The Naked Gun: Jane taps Frank’s nose while nicknaming him “Funny Face”.
• Superbad: Seth boops his childhood friend Evan's nose after their Platonic Declaration of Love to each other as they are about to graduate high school.

Literature

• Animal Farm: Shortly before Mollie defected from Animal Farm, she was seen fraternizing with a human from another farm. One of the damning details Clover confronts her with is the fact that the man was stroking Mollie’s nose.
• In Warrior Cats, it's considered an affectionate gesture to touch noses, especially as a greeting to a friend or family member.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: Parodied in "The Love Spell Potential". While playing Dungeons & Dragons, Sheldon and Amy's characters have a love spell cast on them. As Sheldon and Amy privately play out the scenario, Sheldon uses his 20-sided dice to determine what his character will do to hers.
  Sheldon: I erotically caress your... (rolls dice)... nose.
  Amy: (flatly) Keep rolling.
• CSI: NY: In "Snow Day," on the morning Danny and Lindsay wake up after the first time they sleep together, he affectionately boops her nose.
• Doctor Who:
  • In one story, the Doctor taps his young companion Vicki on the nose while talking to her.
  • "Dragonfire": The Doctor taps his companion Mel on the nose as they're saying farewell before she goes her own way.
  • One of the ways the Doctor showed affection to his companion Ace was by booping her nose. One of the times he does it is in "Battlefield" while telling her he's glad she didn't get herself killed in a confrontation with Morgaine.
  • In the series 8 episode "Dark Water", Missy surprises the Doctor by making out with him and then follows up the passionate kiss with three gentle kisses to the nose.
• On one episode of Glee, Kurt lightly taps Rachel on the nose after organizing a flash mob to dissuade her from getting a nose job.
• The Good Place: Tahani boops Eleanor on the nose after first meeting her.
• Raising Hope: One Running Gag involves when Virginia is overstressed or needs to think. Regardless of where they are, Burt will lay on the floor with her head on his stomach and rub her nose with long strokes of his finger to calm her.
• Schitt's Creek: Alexis Rose is known for "booping", mostly to her brother (which annoys him), but also to guys she's dating, to Stevie, and to her mom.
• Scrubs: Discussed. Visiting physician Dr. Casey has OCD, and one of his rituals is to touch everything in his first patient's room. This includes "binking" Dr. Kelso on the nose when he comes in.
  Kelso: Okay, I guess that's how you say good morning in Cuckootown.
  Casey: Yeah, pretty much.

Video Games

• Overwatch: Katya Volskaya affectionately boops her daughter on the nose, which is darkly mirrored by Sombra as an implied threat towards her daughter should she not cooperate.
• Super Mario 64: At the end of the game, Peach kisses Mario on the nose before telling everyone present to bake a cake together.
• Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na: Tatsuya had a habit of pinching girls on the nose to show affection.

Web Animation

• If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device: In Catachan Capers, Vulkan is smitten with a Catachan Barking Toad. Problem is, they explode in a gigantic cloud of hypertoxic venom whenever they feel threatened. No points for guessing what he tries to do, much to everyone's mortal terror.
• Lucas the Spider: Lucas's favourite greeting is to "boop" animals on the nose.
• RWBY: Nora has a tendency to "Boop" Ren on the nose.

Webcomics

• El Goonish Shive: Nioi gives Ellen a magic "nose beep" in order to give her memories of a childhood separate from her brother/progenitor, Elliot. While Nioi does it out of affection to help Ellen, Ellen is too confused by what Nioi means to enjoy it.
  Elliot: Did she just "beep" your nose?
  Ellen: What am I, a beagle?
• The Greenhouse: The demon 'Red' is completely thrown for a loop when Mica boops her nose. This is, after all, the first time that anyone on Earth has been able to touch her, and the first time she's been touched by anything but hostile spells in the last 10 years. It may actually be the first affectionate touch she's ever received.
• Lore Olympus: When 8-year-old Hebe tries to understand why her mother is angry with Hades, Hera boops her nose and dismisses it as “It’s complicated. Grownup stuff.” Hebe suggests that Hera’s simply taking out her general frustration with Zeus on Hades. Hera later admits to herself, reluctantly, that her daughter may be right.
• Questionable Content: After Claire gets her septum pierced, Marten declares it cute and boops her nose. Unfortunately, Claire’s nose is still tender from being freshly pierced, so Marten pressing on it is extremely painful.

Web Videos

• Illuminated: Jane affectionately strokes Amelia's nose.
• Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye: Exaggerated in Episode 6. Married florists Ellis and Mary Jo Walker are caught in the middle of doing eskimo kisses to each other, and treat it as though they had a Caught with Your Pants Down moment.

Western Animation

• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: In "Rain of Terror", Kwame catches Gi in a Bridal Carry after she falls off the climbing wall. In return, she playfully boops his nose after getting back on her feet again.
• Care Bears (1980s): In "The Long Lost Care Bears", Polite boops Good Luck on the nose when they first meet, causing him to faint in pure bliss.
• The Dragon Prince: In Sol Regem, Rayla playfully taps Callum's nose when explaining to him how to evade the titular dragon's senses.
• Gravity Falls: Mabel Pines often pokes people she cares about when she's overexcited, including in the nose. The other party doesn't always appreciate this.
• The Looney Tunes Show: Just before their Big Damn Kiss, Bugs Bunny and Lola Bunny (no relation) rub noses near a scenic bridge in Paris, France.
• Ready Jet Go!: Nose-booping is a common way the characters show affection. The Propulsions all have Gag Noses that squeak or honk when booped. Celery does this to Carrot in "How Come the Moon Changes Shape?" and Sunspot does this to Jet in "Mindy's Mystery." Jet also boops Sydney's nose during the "That's How We Roll On Bortron 7" song in "Back to Bortron 7." In "Earth, Wind, and Flyer," Jet's saucer has a nose-booping function of all things, and it boops Sean's nose.
• Skull Island (2023): In the seventh episode, King Kong is friends with a Spanish-speaking island girl, who is mortally injured by the Kraken. As she dies in Kong's arms, she presses her hand to his nose and calls him her king. Her death leaves Kong depressed for years, up to the show's present time frame.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): Sally often kisses Tails on the nose. He calls this "the funny kiss". In "Sonic and Sally", a robotic doppelganger of Sally doesn't know how to do this kind of kiss right away, which gets Tails to suspect that this isn't the real Sally.
• In Wander over Yonder's Musical Episode "My Fair Hatey," Sylvia manages to do this to Commander Peepers even though he's a Faceless Eye.
• Work It Out Wombats!: In "Helper For the Day," Mr. E taps Zeke's nose while praising him for a job well done.

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