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Blowing Smoke Rings

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"Brad Pitt. Catherine Zeta-Jones. They've just finished ravishing each other's bodies for the first time. They lie naked, suspended in air underneath the heavens. Pitt lights up. He starts blowing smoke rings all around Catherine’s naked, flawless body as the galaxies go whizzing by over the glass dome ceiling. Now tell me that doesn’t work for you!"
Jeff Megall, Thank You for Smoking

When it's time to relax, a smoker will take out their cigarette, pipe or cigar and enjoy some quiet contemplation. And one fun thing to do when you're puffing away is to blow smoke rings, i.e. visible vortex rings of smoke.

When this is done in the company of friends, it can often become a contest. If a Magical Being is involved, or it takes place in a world governed by Cartoon Physics, expect the smoke rings to take on more unusual and elaborate shapes than mere rings. An obvious subtrope of Smoking Is Cool. Occasionally can result in Second-Face Smoke if the smoker wishes to be rude to someone. May take place in a Smoky Gentlemen's Club.

Very much a Discredited Trope nowadays, given smoking's well-known health risks.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Sanji of One Piece will occasionally blow heart-shaped smoke rings whenever he's fawning over a lady.
  • In the four-panel manga intermission "chapter" of Yotsuba&!, Torako blows a smoke ring after Yotsuba tells her where she's from. When Yotsuba asks where Torako is from, she starts giving directions, but Yotsuba wants her to blow a smoke ring in that direction.

    Comic Books 
  • One Fantastic Four comic shows Doctor Doom blowing smoke rings. What makes it even more impressive is that he is still wearing his steel face mask at the time.
  • Gaston Lagaffe:
    • In a early book, Gaston blows a smoke ring so big he could pretend it was a hula hoop.
    • Gaston also created a machine to do this, so non-smokers wouldn't be denied the fun of blowing smoke rings.
  • Wonder Woman Vol 1 & Sensation Comics: Paula von Gunther would blow smoke rings, but she gave up smoking after her Heel–Face Turn. Shen she later pretended to have returned to villainy to infiltrate a villain organization she casually blew smoke rings and twirled her signature cigarette holder while telling the conspirators that her friendship with Wonder Woman was all a ruse to find weaknesses in the hero.

    Comic Strips 
  • The Wizard of Id: One strip had the Turnkey blowing smoke rings. When the Spook compliments him on his, he comments that he had an uncle who could triangles and squares, but that his face exploded trying to do a parallelogram.

     Fan Works 
  • Vow of Nudity: The slimy circus owner blows one in Spectra's face at the end of her second story.

    Films — Animation 
  • The caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland blows colorful smoke rings and other shapes that seem to have a life of their own and seem to be controlled by what he says, such as forming letters when he says words that sounds like letters, or creating illustrations when he recites a poem. He also gives Alice a nice faceful of Second-Face Smoke.
  • Warren T. Rat from An American Tail blows rings shaped like dollar signs and jaws with sharp teeth.
  • A pipe-smoking skeleton in Corpse Bride emits heart-shaped smoke rings from his eye sockets.
  • One of the crows blows rings a couple of times in Dumbo.
  • Elemental: When Ember and Wade visit the top of a skyscraper to admire the view, Ember impresses a group of children by blowing large smoke rings at the nearby buildings to make faces on them. Because she's an Elemental Embodiment of fire, no cigarette is needed.
  • On Peter Pan, Peter and the Indian Chief smoke a peace pipe after Peter rescues Tiger Lily. The rings they blow are triangular.
  • On Pinocchio, Honest John and Gideon are smoking cigars and drinking beer with the Pleasure Island coachman, and Gideon takes a smoke ring, dunks it in his mug and eats it.
  • The dragon in Shrek blows a heart shaped smoke ring when donkey flatters her to keep her from killing him, he then tries to get away from her by claiming that he has asthma as an excuse.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • In one of the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon books, there is a description of a party where two people are having fun one-upping each other with magical smoke designs.
  • In the fourth Discworld book, Mort, Death himself smokes an ornate pipe, and blows smoke rings with his eyeholes.
  • In The Hobbit, Bilbo, Thorin and Gandalf love to blow smoke rings. Bilbo's are plain old smoke rings, which he just puffs innocently into the air to be carried away by the wind. Thorin and Gandalf move on to magical smoke rings: Thorin can command where his rings go, and Gandalf one-ups Thorin by having his smoke rings fly through the middle of Thorin's then come back to hover over his head while changing color. When he sees this display, Bilbo feels a small amount of shame over how proud he had been over his earlier efforts.
  • The Pale Criminal: A teenaged girl from the BdM (basically, Nazi Germany's Girl Scouts), does this with one of Bernie Gunther's cigarettes in an effort to come off as adult and seductive. He throws her out of his apartment.

    Live-Action TV 
  • A sketch on the Russian sketch comedy show "Big Difference" (Большая разница) puts The Matrix in an early 1900s silent film, with a Chaplinesque Neo. When he first meets Trinity, dressed as a flapper, she blows a heart-shaped smoke ring from her cigarette holder.
  • Frasier: Martin gets hold of some contraband cigars via a friend who works in customs. Daphne reveals she can do this. When Niles compliments her talent she offers to teach him which involves her clasping his cheeks and telling him to purse his lips. Naturally, this is when Frasier walks in and assumes something else is going on.
    Niles: Niles, what are you doing?
    Niles: I'm learning how to blow smoke.
    Frasier: Where?
  • Strange Hill High: After a grizzly bear attacks the classroom in "Health & Safety", it steals Mr. Garden's pipe and starts blowing smoke rings. (It Makes Just As Much Sense In Context)
  • At the end of The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "The Chaser", Professor A. Daemon — a purveyor of love potions — is shown blowing heart-shaped smoke rings.

    Music 
  • In the music video for "Panama", Eddie Van Halen is shown blowing smoke rings while playing the piano.
  • The Mills Brothers had a hit song in 1932 called "Smoke Rings."
  • Gary Allan references it in the title to "Smoke Rings in the Dark".

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms setting. The sage Elminster has an Eversmoking Pipe that can be used to create smoke patterns (such as rings). The patterns can be of any color and brightness level.

    Video Games 
  • Cuphead: As an homage to the trope's common appearance in classic cartoons like Looney Tunes, Djimmi the Great blows a puff of smoke from his pipe — shaped like Cuphead with crossed-out eyes — as a taunt when he starts the battle.
  • God Hand: Elvis not only blows rings when he smokes, but he also blows flaming rings. Not that the "regular" rings are less dangerous - if Gene gets hit by one, the screen is covered in smoke for a short time.
  • Jazz Jackrabbit: The Psychadellic levels from the second game (a world inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) contain a caterpillar that smokes a pipe and blows smoke rings. The rings have the distinguishing feature of making anyone who touches them dizzy.

    Web Animation 
  • Hazbin Hotel: In "Addict" demon overlord Valentino blows some smoke at Angel Dust that wraps around his neck, creepily caresses his chin, shackles his upper wrists, forms a pair of hearts, then finally flows into his nostrils.

    Web Comics 

    Western Animation 
  • City Hunters communicates the Love Interest rejecting the protagonist in the first episode in several ways, including blowing a smoke "ring" of a heart, and then blowing an arrow to destroy it.
  • In The Critic episode "Sherman, Woman and Child", Doris tries to show off her smoke ring talent to Jay, which comes out as a demonic looking face that tells her, "Doris... Tick, Tock!".
    Doris: That was supposed to be a bunny.
  • In the Family Guy episode "Dead Dog Walking", Chris and Stewie do this while vaping. Sadako Yamamura ends up crawling out of one of the rings... only for Sadako to be chased by Quagmire.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • A ghost also does this in the 1939 Merry Melodies cartoon, "Jeepers Creepers".
    • In the Looney Tunes short "Wholly Smoke", a boy teaches Porky Pig how to do smoke ring tricks, but when Porky tries them they go all wrong.
  • Private Snafu: In "A Lecture on Camouflage", Snafu blows smoke rings while resting. The camouflaged Nazi stalking him blows smoke swastikas.
  • Tom and Jerry:
    • Episode "Texas Tom", Tom greets a female feline by rolling a cigarette, lighting it with his six-gun, and blowing "HOWDY" in one breath.
    • In another cartoon, Tom gives Jerry one last cigarette before his demise from a Rube Goldberg-type invention. Jerry blows out the number 8, just before the heavy object that's supposed to fall on Jerry falls on Tom instead.

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