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->''"My name is Moguro Fukuzou. People call me 'The Laughing Salesman'. However, I'm no ordinary salesman, because I'm in the soul business. Human souls, that is."''
-->-- '''Moguro Fukuzou''', ''Anime/TheLaughingSalesman''


A Traveling Salesman is an older character type that sometimes overlaps with the SnakeOilSalesman. Typically, the traveling salesman is well-dressed and has some aspects of the IntrepidMerchant to his character, or he may be more of an {{Honest John|sDealership}}-type of fellow.

As the numerous jokes linking his type to the FarmersDaughter suggest, he might be a somewhat lecherous character, because being always on the move isn't conducive to carrying on lasting relationships. He'll either have mistresses in several towns or he'll pay members of TheOldestProfession for company.

A British term for the profession is a "busman", and this is the origin of the term BusmansHoliday. Not to be confused with TravellingSalesmanMontage.

Not to be confused with [[Film/TravelingSalesman the 2012 film of the same name]] or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem the eponymous mathematics and computer science problem]]. Compare KnockingOnHeathensDoor for the religious variant.

TruthInTelevision if you're familiar with the concept of food trucks, door-to-door salesmen, or farmer's markets.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/LaughingSalesman'' centers around Moguro Fukuzou, a creepy and [[CheshireCatGrin ever]] [[PerpetualSmiler smiling]] salesman who gives away free items and services to clients which always have some kind of [[JackassGenie horrible consequence.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and the Great Crossing'': {{Discussed|Trope}} when the Vikings offer beads to Asterix and Obelix, [[MistakenNationality mistaking them for]] UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans. Asterix assumes they're door-to-door salesmen trying to flog their stuff to them.
* ''ComicBook/TheHauntOfFear'': In issue #15, "Death of Some Salesmen" features a rural couple who, after having been cheated by door-to-door salesmen one too many times, decided to test the wares of any future peddlers on the salesmen themselves. Unfortunately for the main character, he happens to be selling meat grinders...
* First story in ''Comicbook/NewLineCinemasTalesOfHorror'' is about a salesman specializing in chainsaws trying to sell his wares to the Hewitt family from ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'' films. Surprisingly, he isn't dead by the end of it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuller_brush_man The Fuller Brush Man]]'' (1948) is about a guy who gets a job as one of these for the eponymous Fuller Brush Company (a company closely associated with this trope in real life) to impress his LoveInterest. He isn't very good at it, but [[FromBadToWorse that's the least of his problems.]]
* ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fuller_Brush_Girl The Fuller Brush Girl]]'', a loose sequel to the above, and mostly notable for RetroactiveRecognition: It's one of the last films Creator/LucilleBall starred in before making her name as a TV star with ''Series/ILoveLucy''.
* ''Door to Door'' is a 2002 Creator/{{TNT}} MadeForTVMovie starring Creator/WilliamHMacy as a traveling salesman with cerebral palsy.
* Todd Woods in ''Film/{{Duets}}'' is a traveling salesman who gives up his current life to compete in a cross-country karaoke competition.
* In ''Film/WalkTheLine'', Johnny Cash is shown working as a door-to-door salesman before he made it big in music. He wasn't very good at it.
** In a deleted scene, he and another salesman from the same company worked the same street. Johnny got nothing but doors slammed in his face, while his friend made several sales. He gave Johnny a couple of his commissions and told him he was the worst salesman he'd ever seen.
* The Maysles brothers' 1969 documentary ''Film/{{Salesman}}'' follows a group of salesmen peddling expensive Bibles door-to-door.
* Ed Bloom of ''Film/BigFish'' spends time as one of these.
* ''Film/SecondhandLions'': The uncles who live far out in the country regularly get visited by salesmen. They've made a game out of shooting at them to scare them off. They're actually surprised when one salesman immediately ducks behind his car after pulling up, remarking "He's been here before". Eventually, Walter convinces them to actually take a look at the salesman's wares before shooting at him, and to their surprise they find he sells a lot of stuff they're interested in.
* In the Creator/AbbottAndCostello film ''Little Giant'', Lou plays a naïve country boy named Benny Miller, from Cucamonga, California, who has been taking correspondence phonograph lessons in salesmanship. Convinced of his own brilliance as a salesman, he gets a job as travelling salesman for the Hercules Vacuum Cleaner Company. He is so inept that after one day he gets [[ReassignedToAntarctica transferred to a remote regional branch where he can't do any harm]]. This becomes a ReassignmentBackfire when circumstances conspire to make him the company's Salesman of the Year.
* A particularly dramatic case occurs in ''Film/ThePursuitOfHappyness'', based on the life of self-made millionaire Chris Gardner. In the early parts of the movie, Chris (as played by Creator/WillSmith) has sunk all his life savings into overpriced medical equipment that he attempts to sell door-to-door. He struggles to sell even one machine, and he and his son end up homeless. Thankfully, [[EarnYourHappyEnding things get better for him]] after he gets a job as a broker.
* Del Griffith in ''Film/PlanesTrainsAndAutomobiles'' is a traveling shower curtain rings salesman [[spoiler:and a homeless drifter ever since his wife Marie died]].
* Doc encounters a traveling seller of barbed wire while [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] over Clara in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII''.
* 1935 comedy ''Film/TravelingSaleslady'' stars Creator/JoanBlondell as Angela, the only daughter of a toothpaste magnate. After he refuses to give her a job in the company because he's a raging sexist, she goes to work for a rival as a traveling saleslady, marketing the rival's toothpaste to department store chains and wrecking her father's business.
* Spoofed in ''Film/TaxiDriver'' with Easy Andy, who can sell you anything from unregistered handguns from his suitcase, to illegal drugs or a brand new Cadillac with certificate of ownership. The protagonist buys a small arsenal from him, and Andy throws in a handmade shoulder holster as well.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/WhatIf1952": This story takes place when travelling salesmen were a common sight. Like many of his contemporaries, Mr. What If carries a large suitcase emblazoned with his name/job. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Mr If [[TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday literally disappears when he's finished the job]].
* In ''{{Literature/Banco}}'', Papillon does a short stint selling coffee pots door to door during his time in Caracas. He abandons his wares on the ground when he's recruited by an old friend to join a TheConvenientStoreNextDoor scheme for a BankRobbery.
* ''Literature/AFantasyAttraction'' has a gargoyle going door-to-door selling insurance. And you thought insurance salesmen couldn't get any worse...
* ''Literature/TheGreatBrain'': The first book had a story about a Jewish travelling peddler who was convinced by Brain's father to settle down and open a store in Adenville; he died of starvation because business was so slow (due to the town not being large enough to support two general stores). Because he was the only Jewish person around, he didn't have anyone to look out for him or check up on him or anything.
* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheDeadZone'', politician Greg Stillson used to be one in his youth, selling Bibles and books about a Communist-Jewish conspiracy against America. And indeed, once he made it with a FarmersDaughter.
* Creator/SpiderRobinson's ''Literature/CallahansCrosstimeSaloon'': In "Did You Hear The One About...", Al Phee is a con artist posing as an "Intergalactic Travelling Salesman", until he's taken down by a FarmersDaughter. Specifically [[TimePolice time cop]] Josie Bauer, [[StealthPun the daughter]] of Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer.
* Creator/DorothyLSayers's ''Literature/MontagueEgg'': A traveling wine salesman who played detective.
* Creator/ZilphaKeatleySnyder's ''Literature/BlackAndBlueMagic'': Mr. Mazeeck is a peddler of magic goods who was cursed by his boss for selling the Pied Piper his flute.
* According to the astrology section of ''The Literature/{{Discworld}} Almanack'', the sign of Ockjock the Salesman provides good fortune to those who make their living in this way "selling to both magistrate and dairymaid alike. He swives[[note]]A very archaic word which could be replaced with "screws" for both the same meanings[[/note]] them both in their way, the one gets a ribbon for her trouble, the other a robbin'". There is no charm that works against Ockjock's influence, because he's the one who sold them to you.
* Creator/LordDunsany: The title character of the Smethers short stories is a salesman for Numnumo relish. He doesn't have much to say about the product itself or the lifestyle it affords him -- he's only noteworthy as TheWatson to his private investigator roommate -- but takes quiet pride in his ability to get into people's houses and land the sale. In "An Enemy of Scotland Yard", he even [[spoiler:talks his way into the paranoid murderer's hideout.]]
* In the short story [[https://d-infinity.net/fiction/man-who-sold-rope-gnoles "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles"]] by Margaret St. Clair, a traveling rope salesman visits the house of the gnoles; monstrous, carnivorous little creatures that everyone else avoids. His sales pitch actually goes very well, and the elder gnole places several orders. When he tries to pay with a huge emerald worth way more than the total, the protagonist looks around for something of lesser value, and grabs two gems that are the gnole's "extra set of eyes." This ends less than optimally.
-->But great are the virtues of legitimate commerce. Though they fattened Mortensen sedulously, and, later, roasted and sauced him and ate him with real appetite, the gnoles slaughtered him in quite a humane manner and never once thought of torturing him. That is unusual, for gnoles. And they ornamented the plank on which they served him with a beautiful border of fancy knotwork made out of cotton cord from his own sample case.
* The poem "[[https://www.scojec.org/news/2020/20iv_yiddish/yiddish_1.html The Trebbler's Tale]]" by David Bleiman is about the community of Jewish travelling salesmen in 1920s Scotland, written in what Bleiman imagines their lost Scots-Yiddish language might have sounded like ("trebbler", meaning "traveler", is one of the few words that's remembered, recorded in ''Two Worlds: An Edinburgh Jewish Childhood'' by David Daiches). There's a nod to the "lechreous" stereotype:
-->He shlepped his shmatte aa through Fife,\\
weel-kent by monie a lanely wife,
[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/TheDoctorBlakeMysteries'': In "Death of a Travelling Salesman", Blake investigates when a travelling salesman is murdered by having [[AnimalAssassin a venomous snake planted in his car]].
* ''Series/{{Taken}}'': In "Beyond the Sky", Sally Clarke's neglectful husband Fred is a traveling salesman. He is on one of his frequent trips around Texas selling his products when Sally finds John in her shed. She makes good use of Fred's absence and begins an affair with John.
* [[Series/PeeweesPlayhouse AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Salesman.]]
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' gives us Dunder-Miffin's traveling salesman Todd Packer, who fits the lecherous type. Michael thinks he's incredibly cool and leads a great life, but everyone else is aware Packer is stupid, rude and incredibly unhappy.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'':
** The second episode, "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E2OneForTheAngels One For The Angels]]" had Lou Bookman, who didn't travel but fit the rest of the hallmarks while also being a FriendToAllChildren in the neighborhood - but he insisted that he was a ''[[InsistentTerminology pitchman]]'', not a salesman, peddler, or huckster.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E19MrDingleTheStrong Mr. Dingle, the Strong]]", Luther Dingle is a dismally unsuccessful door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.
* In the ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "The Brush Man", the VictimOfTheWeek was a door-to-door household item salesman in 1967.
* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', Ryan's dad is one of these, as seen in "Resolution", but not a very good one. Specifically, he's trying to sell a new kind of microwave oven, which ''might'' be as good as he says it is, but his sales pitch makes it ''sound'' like a con.
* An encyclopaedia salesman makes an appearance in the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' episode "The One With the Cuffs". BookDumb Joey is initially intrigued by the idea that he could catch up with the other characters' references, but when he learns how much they cost, he says the encyclopaedia obviously doesn't tell you that someone with lawn furniture in their apartment and home in the middle of the day is unlikely to have that kind of money. He eventually buys ''one'' volume, and is later shown attempting to keep the conversation on things that start with V.
* This is Stanley's profession in ''Series/TheGoldenGirls.'' None of his business ventures ever seem to be successful, however, and at one point he uses a sales convention as a lie to have an affair with his mistress.
* Jim tries his hand at this when the Sunshine Cab Company is closed down on ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' but isn't well-suited to it. It would help if he could remember that he was selling encyclopedias and not vacuum cleaners.
* "Death of Some Salesman!" from the aforementioned ''Vault of Horror'' comic was adapted into an episode of Series/TalesFromTheCrypt. Given the show's DarkerAndEdgier tendencies even compared to the comics, it features a particularly shady, lecherous version of such.
* ''Series/LazyTown'': Robbie Rotten's first disguise, [[PunnyName Rob U. Blind]], is a traveling salesman and shoe-cleaner.
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'': In "The Merchant of Mayberry", Creator/SterlingHolloway plays Bert Miller, an unusually bashful TravelingSalesman who hates carrying his heavy case and ringing doorbells. Andy and Barney set him up with a makeshift stand in a vacant lot, partly to help him out but mainly to annoy [[TheScrooge Ben Weaver]], owner of the local department store who resents even the miniscule competition Bert's stand presents.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* "Keep the Customer Satisfied" by Music/SimonAndGarfunkel. (Although some have interpreted the song as really being about drug-dealing.)
* "Traveling Salesman" by Music/TanyaTucker tells the story of a young woman who had a fling with one... maybe two.
* The music video for "Low Key" by [[Music/{{Wilco}} Jeff Tweedy]]'s side project band, Tweedy, features Jeff and his son, Spencer, as door-to-door salesmen who try to sell people their album, ''Sukierae''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:NewspaperComics]]
* ''ComicStrip/Blondie1930'': Dagwood has had to deal with traveling salesmen as recently as the 1980s.
* A cleaning products salesman is a minor character in ''ComicStrip/AndyCapp'', inevitably getting the door slammed in his face by Flo.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In the episode "Spring Cleaning", Miss Brooks, Mrs. Davis and Mr. Conklin fall prey to the salespeople of the "Jiffy Vacuum Cleaner" company.
* Comedian Al Pearce started as a real one of these, then moved into local San Francisco radio shows, singing and doing comedy sketches parodying his job. Writer Jack Hasty created the character of "Elmer Blurt", known as "The Low-Pressure Salesman", based on him. His catch phrase was "Nobody at home, I hope, I hope, I hope." If somebody opened the door, he'd go into a bashful, stammering sales pitch. You can sometimes see a Blurt-like character in Creator/ChuckJones WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* A ''Pyramid'' [[http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=4907 article]] on merchant [=NPCs=] in different ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' settings included Quentin Quinn, a travelling salesman for a WeirdWest setting, whose Serendipity advantage means he always has ''exactly'' what the [=PCs=] need ... [[NoHeroDiscount but will never lend it to them]].
* ''The Secrets of Cats,'' a {{UsefulNotes/FATE}} supplement, has an entire guild of villains called the Traveling Salesmen. What do they sell? ''Whatever you desire most in the world.'' What does it cost? ''Just your soul.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Harold Hill of ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'' is a SnakeOilSalesman who fits the lecherous part of the trope (until he becomes a LadyKillerInLove). Other traveling salesmen (including the villain, the anvil-toting Charlie Cowell) hate Harold for giving their profession a bad name, because when they visit towns Hill has just left, the populace generally assume they are con artists as well and give them a less than welcoming reception (read: tar and feather them).
* Ali Hakim, the peddler in ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}''.
* Paris in ''Theatre/TheGoldenApple'' travels by balloon. Oddly enough, he's a [[TheVoiceless silent type]].
* Willy Loman, the eponymous character of ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman''. Willy, however is not a con artist or lecherous, he's a honest worker who takes pride in his job.
* ''Theatre/TheRoseTattoo'' has a straw-hatted salesman who pays a call to Serafina, trying to sell novelties. He's also a JerkAss to Alvaro.
* In "Women's Club Blues" from ''Love Life'', one of the [[AllWomenAreLustful lustful]] {{Straw Feminist}}s claims the right for a woman to be a traveling salesman, because:
-->To travel through the country must be lots of fun.\\
I'll bet that now and then the farmer has a son!
* ''Bloomer Girl'' (1944), by [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen]], has a song called "The FarmersDaughter" for a quintet of traveling salesmen.
-->A salesman's life is a wretched life,\\
A rolling stone away from home and wife.\\
A hero, he, of industry, who labors without glory,\\
A-blazing trails and ever seeking [[DoubleEntendre virgin territory]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the very first, non-family character you talk to is a travelling salesman. However, this is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as he is really more of a census-taker, stopping by to gather information (i.e. S.P.E.C.I.A.L. traits) for your reserved spot in Vault 111. [[spoiler:He does comes back as a ghoul, and you do have the option of added him to your ever-expanding list of colony members.]]
* The sandbox worlds of ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' and ''VideoGame/FarCry5'' has wandering salesmen who act as mobile stores. There are quite a convenient service, that is if you can get to them [[EverythingTryingToKillYou before the local wildlife do]].
* George Crotony in ''VideoGame/ArmedAndDelirious'' was a failing example until the events of the game, where the [[BigBad Great Rabbit]] offered him a deal to set up a store in his personal universe, in exchange for his house and remaining family. The game starts off with George closing the deal.
* In ''VideoGame/PinkPantherHokusPokusPink'', the Pink Panther has taken up this as his new job after quitting the spy business at the end of the previous game.
* The titular character of ''VideoGame/StubbsTheZombie'' was a traveling salesman, then he screwed a farmer's daughter and found himself in a shallow grave for 20 years.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', the Village and Pillage update introduces the Wandering Trader with two llamas in tow. The Wandering Trader spawns randomly in close proximity to the player and makes certain blocks and items easier to obtain, but at a rather hefty price at times.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' has [[StealthPun Traveling Sales-mons]] visit Post Town every so often to provide services available from Paradise facilities such as Dojo training and special stores.
* You can lure Merchants to your castle in ''[[VideoGame/{{Deception}} Tecmo's Deception]]'', and they have the sense to bring their wares with them and will do business with you if you stop to talk to them, even when it becomes readily apparent that ''[[SkewedPriorities their lives are at risk]]''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* It's highly implied that prostituting herself to a HumanoidAbomination posing as a travelling salesman turned [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP-]][[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1709 1709]] from an ordinary Peruvian woman into... [[HumanOutsideAlienInside something]] whose internal organs were replaced by [[BodyHorror hundreds of different human fetuses and embryos, up to and including what she uses to speak]].
* ''VideoGame/TheTraderOfStories'', probably not surprisingly, has a travelling saleswoman as the protagonist for the first two games.
* ''Audioplay/TalesOfAJunkTownPonyPeddler'' as the title implies.
* The Traveling Salesman is a recurring character on ''WebVideo/PhilosophyTube'', though whether or not he actually ever ''was'' a salesman [[UnreliableNarrator is as suspect as everything else he says about himself]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck played one of these in several ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts, including "WesternAnimation/AlongCameDaffy", ''WesternAnimation/TheStuporSalesman'', "Daffy Dilly", "Fool Coverage", "WesternAnimation/DesignForLeaving", and "The High and the Flighty".
* The Flim Flam Brothers from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. In their first appearance in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" they compete with the Apples for the local cider business, pitting [[ManVersusMachine their eponymous high-tech cider press against the Apple Family's old-fashioned methods]], and [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat might have won if they hadn't gone for quantity over quality]] and won the race at the cost of a product that tasted [[ATankardOfMooseUrine utterly foul.]] In "Leap of Faith", they return as [[SnakeOilSalesman snake-oil salesponies]] hawking a "curative tonic" that turns out to be [[MagicFeather a placebo made from apple juice and beet leaves]]. Oddly enough, rather than wandering from town to town they tend to stick around for as long as they can exploit the locals; they wanted to take over the cider concession permanently, and they seemed to settle down in Las Pegasus for good. While there, they actually manage to sell out an empty theater by offering half price tickets and offering them "the wonders of their imagination" at no extra cost.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' had Filler Brushbill, who was a super-duper salesman. His [[BagofHolding valise]] had items that anyone he ran across would want, or that he would need as well. He knew how to sell to others enough to be TheDreaded (Scrooge [=McDuck=] himself got sold a lot of useless junk by Filler, with the promise of a ''lifetime guarantee.'')
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''; After getting disowned by his family, Stan got his start as a travelling salesman hawking some... questionable items. Questionable enough that he was banned from multipe states, had to change identities several times, and had been to prison in three different countries by the time he ended up in Gravity Falls.
[[/folder]]

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