History Main / SmokingIsNotCool

** Johnny Sack being a chain-smoker is one if his defining traits, and even he knows it's not good. This is implied to be one if the reasons why he accepts [[MoralityPet Ginny's]] obesity, because he also has a self-destructive habit that's hard to break. But still, [[spoiler:he ends up getting terminal lung cancer in season six, and his death is ine if the saddest moments in the series]].

** [[spoiler: Shiina]] takes up smoking after [[spoiler: she and Mamiko go WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds and pretty much destroy humanity together. When Mamiko finds out, she scolds Shiina since the two of them are pregnant and the toxins could hurt Shiina's baby.]]

* ''ComicBook/IdeesNoires'': One gag has people scolding a smoker about the dangers of his habit. [[spoiler: He eventually gets so scared of what they tell them him that he finally commits suicide. The others' comment: "Another victim of tobacco."]]

* In ''ComicStrips/{{Dilbert}}'' a Tobacco lobbyist talks about wanting to spread the image of sex appeal that smoking brings while she herself is a withered husk in a suit.

* ''Series/TheNoddyShop'': In the GrandFinale "Closing Up Shop", some of the characters convince Seymour Polutski [[spoiler: not to buy out NODDY's]] by telling him that smoking is bad.

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'': Ana is dying of terminal lung cancer, and even this doesn't stop her from smoking cigarettes. [[spoiler: Ultimately, what kills her is not cancer but Trinity deciding YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and sending a sniper to shoot her.]]

* The news reporter in ''VideoGame/PerfectVermin'' is seen smoking cigarettes off-screen between levels as indicated by his ashtray. His {{Jerkass}} behavior, {{Gonk}}ish appearance, and discolored yellow and rotting teeth do not paint a cool image of him. [[spoiler: He's also dying of lung cancer as a result of his addiction.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': The entire plot of the episode "Secondhand Smoke" revolves around this. Peter takes up smoking to have an excuse to quit working, and quickly becomes addicted; the episode does not pull any punches on how much havoc Peter's wreaking on his body and health by doing so. Eventually, the episode ends [[spoiler: with Peter wondering how things will turn back to normal for him. Lois tells him the effects of smoking can't be overturned. Peter just asks for a cutaway gag, but when it returns to him, he is still in the same worse shape, causing him to say: "Oh, crap!". Cue the end credits.]]

* ''VideoGame/SamAndMax'', Sam and Max need to defeat Jurgen by destroying his reputation in front of his zombie army. One of the methods is to turn the VerySpecialEpisode of [[GermansLoveHasslehoff Midtown Cowboys]] into a [[StealthCigaretteCommercial ad for Garlic Clove Cigarettes.]] The result is Jurgen smoking a cigarette only to end up in a coughing fit.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E4LisaTheBeautyQueen Lisa the Beauty Queen]]", when Lisa feels depressed about her appearance, Homer enters her in a BeautyContest sponsored by Laramie, a cigarette multinational that bald-facedly admits [[StealthCigaretteCommercial it only sponsors events for the intent of advertising its product on TV]], which Lisa ends up winning after the first-place winner gets struck by lightning. When Lisa realizes she is being exploited by the company, she immediately rebels against them and uses her influence to provide more socially-admirable messages, such as making a stance that government money could be used for better education instead of spending it in sports (which caused a football team to be chased out by angry nerds).

* Played for laughs in ''VideoGame/DeathwishEnforcers'' with Diana, when she enters doors with rapid fire power-ups. While Larry, Chuck and Cleo live up to the SmokingIsCool ideal as per the game's 1960s setting, Diana smokes until she's green in the face, clearly showing that she has no experience with this.

* Probably the only unattractive thing about [[EvilIsSexy Dr. Girlfriend]] on ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' is her masculine, gravelly voice. After a few seasons (and [[AmbiguousGender a lot of bad jokes]]) it was revealed to be the result of chain-smoking:
-->'''Jefferson Twilight:''' "Do you smoke cigarettes or do you ''eat'' them?"

-->'''Jackie Chiles''': The man's a goblin. He's only been exposed to smoke for four days. By the time this case gets to trial, he'll be nothing more than a shrunken head.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has Quark, his brother Rom, and his nephew Nog discuss this in the episode "Little Green Men", while they are being held captive by the US government in 1947.
-->'''Quark''': What's that disgusting smell?\\
'''Nog''': I think it's called "tobacco". It's a deadly drug. When used frequently, it destroys the internal organs.\\
'''Quark''': If it's so deadly, then why do they use it?\\
'''Nog''': It's also highly addictive.\\
'''Rom''': How do they get their hands on it?\\
'''Nog''': They buy it in stores.\\
'''Quark''': They ''buy'' it? [[HumansAreMorons If they'll buy poison, they'll buy anything!]]

* Horrifically PlayedStraight with two heavy smokers, Johnny Sack and Bobby Bacala Sr.

** Johnny Sack being a chain-smoker is one if his defining traits, and even he knows it's not good. This is implied to be one if the reasons why he accepts Ginny's obesity, because he also has a self-destructive habit that's hard to break. But still, [[spoiler:he ends up getting terminal lung cancer in season six, and his death is ine if the saddest moments in the series]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'' sees mob boss Sal Valestra smoking in the time shortly before Bruce Wayne became Batman. During the present, set during ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', his health has gone down the crapper, needing an oxygen tank to breath at times and even has an IncurableCoughOfDeath. [[spoiler:That said, his death is the result of pissing off the Joker, a former hitman of hism, not his smoking.]]

See also DoNotDoThisCoolThing and GoodSmokingEvilSmoking. Sub-trope of DrugsAreBad.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has Quark, his brother Rom, and his nephew Nog discuss this in the episode "Little Green Men", while they are being held captive by the US government in the [=1950s=].

A character who doesn't smoke may be TheTeetotaler (if they also isn't an alcoholic).

* Music/TheRollingStones: Music/KeithRichards also falls into this trope as he grows older.

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': "Last Cigarette Ever" reveals that [[CompressedVice all five main characters are former smokers]], but Ted kept this from his children out of embarrassment. The episode shows how smoking negatively affects them all: Lily's throat gets so bad she sounds like Creator/HarveyFierstein, Ted struggles to climb a few flights of stairs, Barney burns a hole in his beloved tie, and Marshall's boss (with whom he started smoking to impress) has a heart attack. They all try to quit, suffering drastic withdrawal, and the episode ends with Ted explaining how they all finally quit at important periods of their life.

* PlayedForLaughs, of a very BlackComedy kind, in ''Series/ChewinTheFat''. A whole family of smokers have had to get themselves fitted with electronic voice boxes because of their throat cancer. Their postman also has a voice box!

[[folder:Advertising]]

** Their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex9VJv0_XFM "It's A Trap"]] ad, which uses live-action versions of memes from the 2000's to dissuade teens and young adults from cigarette smoking and/or vaping. The ad was released in 2016, which makes those memes dated.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]

** Peter's former wife ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson smoked as a teenager to "look cool" and quit later, but when ComicBook/{{Carnage}} first appeared, she started smoking out of stress, which only got worse when Peter's long-thought-dead parents showed up. After several arcs where she tried to "cope" using them, Peter used some "shock therapy" taking her to visit his one-time foil Nick Katzenberg, who was in the hospital with terminal lung cancer. (Having lost weight to the point of being gaunt, lost most of his hair due to chemo, coughing up blood -- very typical of a cancer patient.) It was enough for her to quit cold-turkey.
* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} could well have been the poster boy for [[SmokingIsCool the opposite Trope]] most of his career, rarely seen without a cigarette or occasionally a cigar; his mutant HealingFactor let him smoke without it hurting him. However, in one '80s story arc, he lost the healing factor for a short time, and trying to light up almost made him sick. It was enough to to convince him to quit.
* ''ComicBook/IdeesNoires'': One gag has people scolding a smoker about the dangers of his habit. [[spoiler:He eventually gets so scared of what they tell them him that he finally commits suicide. The others' comment: "Another victim of tobacco."]]
* ''ComicBook/DeKiekeboes'': In ''De come-back van Dédé'' ("The comeback of Dédé") the vicious criminal Dédé La Canaille escapes with the aid of his chain smoking friend Jim Menace who has developed a smokers' cough that causes him to cough all throughout the album. The police are eventually able to trace Dédé and Jim because they discover his cigarette butss lying around.

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', ComicBook/LoisLane takes up smoking in 1939, claiming it to be as harmless as eating breakfast in the morning. By 1969, however, Lois is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and tells her daughter Kara Kent that smoking is what also ended up killing Perry White. By 1979, Lois is in the hospital and on death's door. Thankfully, that wonderful [[SignificantAnagram Dr. Holurt]] has taken over her treatment.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', the protagonist Estermann likes to smoke, but even he admits he can only do it because he has a deathwish and because '[[DeadpanSnarker he's not pregnant]]'. Also Lyra heartstrings, despite [[ForeignCultureFetish her best efforts to like it]], doesn't.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* While the original comic book showcases GoodSmokingEvilSmoking, ExecutiveMeddling reportedly [[EnforcedTrope insisted on]] this trope in the film adaptation of ''Film/{{Watchmen}}''. Hence, Laurie's smoking is cut, but the repulsive Comedian remains a CigarChomper and Moloch is still smoking as he faces imminent grisly death from lung cancer.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/{{Blubber}}'' by Creator/JudyBlume, the main character, Jill, pressures her mother into quitting smoking by pointing out the health risks every chance she gets. In the same author's ''Literature/ThenAgainMaybeIWont'', the main character, Tony, gets his crush, Lisa, to give up smoking by relating the story of his grandmother, who had her larynx removed due to throat cancer (although he neglects to mention that his grandmother never smoked at all, and that her cancer was just one of those freak things).
* This trope is the entire premise of another young adult novel, ''Give It Up, Mom'' (1989) by Mary Robinson. Assigned a school project with the aim of making a difference in the world, middle-schooler Rayne decides her project will be to help her mother, Laura, quit smoking. Rayne is so enthusiastic about the idea that she goes so far as to hand out fliers with pictures of her mother on them to local store clerks, asking them not to sell Laura cigarettes (which naturally does not go over well with Rayne's mother). Despite the rocky ride she's in for, with her mother's constant grouchiness and and having to deal with several relapses, Rayne is determined to stay on her mother's back for as long as it takes.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Faux Pause'', a Creator/GameShowNetwork-produced ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' knockoff where the hosts ripped (mainly short-lived) game shows. One of the most infamous episode mocked ''Series/HotPotato'', hosted by Creator/BillCullen, and the steam-spewing sign, the hosts saying (more or less) the steam was the result of someone smoking a bunch of cigarettes at once and then exhaling. A DudeNotFunny moment as Cullen died of lung cancer as the result of heavy smoking almost his entire adult life.
* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'': "Where There's Smoke," where Carol is part of an anti-smoking committee at Greg's school, the same time he is seen experimenting with smoking due to peer pressure. Greg ultimately decides he doesn't like it, but when another parent sees him with a pack of cigarettes (from a buddy's coat, which he took by mistake), things look bad.

* ''Series/YouCantDoThatOnTelevision'' dealt with the topic of smoking in two episodes, which, while they focused at length on the health risks and "grossness" of the habit, did so in the show's typical satirical fashion. The first episode, made in 1981, is arguably the better-written and more intelligent of the two, and even features the show's man of many characters, Les Lye, coming out of character at the end of the episode to deliver an anti-smoking message. The second of the two smoking-themed episodes (made in 1989) posited the theory that the show's trademark green slime is actually mucus scraped from smokers' lungs.

[[folder:Music]]

[[folder:NewspaperComics]]

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]

[[folder:Video Games]]

** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zigzagged]] with Chris. He smokes in the uncut intro of [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil1 the first game]]; no mention is made of it for years afterwards, but circumstance leads to him chain smoking in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6''. Piers is quick to call him out on it.

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'': Ana is dying of terminal lung cancer, and even this doesn't stop her from smoking cigarettes. [[spoiler:Ultimately, what kills her is not the cancer, but Trinity deciding YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and sending a sniper to shoot her.]]

* The news reporter in ''VideoGame/PerfectVermin'' is seen smoking cigarettes off-screen between levels as indicated by his ashtray. His {{Jerkass}} behavior, {{Gonk}}ish appearance, and discolored yellow and rotting teeth do not paint a cool image of him. [[spoiler:He's also dying of lung cancer as a result of his addiction.]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

** Patty and Selma, who're already very ugly and downright unpleasant company, smoke heavily. In fact, a {{flashback}} in "Three Men and a Comic Book" suggested they [[UsedToBeASweetKid used to be nicer and their voices were far more feminine]] until they took up smoking.

* Probably the only unattractive thing about [[EvilIsSexy Dr. Girlfriend]] on ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' is her masculine, gravelly voice. After a few seasons (and [[AmbiguousGender a lot of bad jokes]]) it was revealed to be the result of chain smoking:

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bravestarr}}'' rams this message down your throat. BigBad Tex Hex had a toadying lickspittle named Scuzz who smokes cigars, and is always coughing and hacking up a storm. The other villains despise him, and in one KnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment even he admits that he regrets having started the habit in the first place.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': The entire plot of the episode "Secondhand Smoke" revolves around this. Peter takes up smoking to have an excuse to quit working, and quickly becomes addicted; the episode does not pull any punches on how much havoc Peter's wreaking on his body and health by doing so. Eventually the episode ends [[spoiler: with Peter wondering how things will turn back normal for him. Lois tells him the effects of smoking can't be overturned. Peter just asks for a cutaway gag, but when it returns to him he is still in the same worse shape, causing him to say: "Oh, crap!". Cue the end credits.]]

[[folder:RealLife]]
* Most smokers really start looking uglier as they get older. Apart from their veins turning their skin pale many develop an annoying smokers' cough. And the perpetual, choking stench.
* Actress Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter often plays roles where she looks pale, dresses badly and smokes a cigarette to touch it all off.

* Belgian author Herman Brusselmans has long hair, a nihilistic approach to life and a chain-smoking habit.
* Music/AmyWinehouse: As her drug addictions took a turn for the worse her personal appearance became shabbier, further emphasized by often being photographed with a cigarette between her lips.

* Dutch film director and assassination victim Theo van Gogh was also an obese chain smoker who liked to shock and offend people for the sake of doing so.
* One list of advice for young people says that if you think SmokingIsCool, you should imagine yourself as a 12 year old kid with a cigarette butt in your mouth, because that's how it makes you look.

* Konstantin Chernenko, [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], started smoking at age ''nine'' and did so until the end of his life, despite the ''heavy'' toll it took on his health. He spent his last months of life in and out of hospitals, in a wheelchair, and ultimately died at age 73 of a '''nasty''' combo of emphysema, heart damage and liver cirrhosis.

* In ''ComicStrips/{{Dilbert}}'' a Tobacco lobbyist talks about wanting to spread the image of sex appeal that smoking brings while he himself is a withered husk in a suit.