History Main / ReturningTheHandkerchief

* An old ''BugsBunny'' short has him advise his victim to start courting. He then dresses up as a woman, drops his handkerchief, and promptly freaks out (in his female persona, as if the guy had done something lewd) when the guy returns it.

* Subverted hilariously in ''ChicagoPD'' by Lt. Kelly Severide, crossing over from ''Series/ChicagoFire''. Wanting to see Lindsay again but not having a reason once his police business concludes, Severide steals a paperweight from her desk, then shows up at her apartment, claiming it fell into his pocket.

* Desiree Dubarry from ''[[CarryOn Don't Lose Your Head]]'' tried this to get close to Duke de Pommefrites, except he picks it up and throws it away. When she tells him she dropped her hankerchief he refers to it as a smelly old thing.

* Happens between Usagi and Mamoru in the manga version of ''SailorMoon''.

* Parodied in a Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist OVA, where Sig returns the bear carcass (!) that Izumi drops.

* In ''TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' the male beaver returns Lucy's hankerchief, which he got from Tumnus, to demonstrate that he can be trusted.

* ''{{Homestuck}}'': Rose's Mom loses her pink scarf in a [[ItMakesSenseInContext meteor crash]]. John's Dad picks it up. After they were both transported to the Medium along with their respective children thirteen years later, he returns it. Love ensues, [[spoiler:until they are killed by the BigBad while having an adorable tea-party]].

Today, this trope occurs mainly in {{anime}} and {{manga}}, but it also occurs in Western works - for instance, many GenreSavvy ladies in Victorian fiction provoked just this sort of behavior from gentlemen they were courting by visibly misplacing their handkerchiefs.

Western audiences might be more familiar with a similar comedy trope, in which Boy A immediately offers the handkerchief back after being done with his business, and Girl B politely rejects the sopping mess with a "keep it". The two forms likely evolved independently, however, and the classic gag is not this trope.

Western audiences might be more familiar with a common {{parody}} of this trope, in which Boy A immediately offers the handkerchief back after being done with his business, and Girl B politely rejects the sopping mess with a "keep it". The two forms likely evolved independently, however, and the classic gag is not this trope.

* Parodied and discussed in ''LoveLab'', where Maki has embroidered her contact info and a sob story about her grandmother onto a masive handkerchief in hopes of picking up boys.

* ''AceAttorney Investigations'' plays out what would be a StrictlyFormula version of the trope, if not for two exceptions: there are no romantic overtones whatsoever ([[ShipTease maybe]]), and the "handkerchief" is Edgeworth's ''cravat'', which he was still ''wearing'' when [[spoiler: young Kay]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny blew her nose into it.]].

* In ''BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', Jeremy and Ian find Liana's handkerchief after she and Alexa spurn their advances, and they use it as an excuse to follow after the girls.

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* The trope image comes from the ''{{Aneimo}}'' {{hentai}} anime, which is an example of the handkerchief-as-MacGuffin variant: it isn't seen after that last screenshot, but the encounter quite firmly cements the relationship between the two.

* In the 2005 ''PrideAndPrejudice'' film, Lydia attempts to do this with the soldiers marching through town but it fails as they don't even notice.

* Walt Whitman's ''Leaves of Grass'' collection has a poem that references the "dropping the handkerchief in hopes of Mr. Hotness noticing it" variant positing that ''Nature itself'' is the Handkerchief that {{God}} has dropped to get our attention.

* In ''Manga/HekikaiNoAiOn'', Tatsuya starts to weep when he believes he'll never be a "man of high caliber" and Seine gives him a handkerchief. Later, he tries to invoke this trope just to talk to her because she say to him to stay out of her way.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Ib}}'', if Ib has a high enough relationship with Garry, she can give Garry her handkerchief when he cuts his hand [[spoiler: after burning Mary's portrait]]. This is how you can get the good ending in the game's MultipleEndings [[spoiler: because the handkerchief plays a crucial role in curing Garry and Ib's WistfulAmnesia.]]

* In ''Ib'', if Ib has a high enough relationship with Garry, she can give Garry her handkerchief when he cuts his hand [[spoiler: after burning Mary's portrait]]. This is how you can get the good ending in the game's MultipleEndings.